Hello, 2014!

First orders of business for 2014? Lunch with JAY!
I ran down to pick Sydni up from Dawne's, and then it was off to Applebees to catch up with Jay. We had much to catch up on, and I'm so glad we got to sit down over lunch to spill the updates.

not a bad start to 2014!

Of course, with it being the new year, there's a million "resolutions" I could be making... I think it was last year though that I decided to start refining the definition of resolution, or at least steer away from those annoyingly cliché ones like "go to the gymmmmmm," etc.

This year, I decided I would do some reflecting on where I stood this time last year versus where I am today. I thought that'd be more at least a more realistic metric on which I can base some goals for '14.

So, here we go:

2013

Age: 28
Kid(s): Sydni
Pet(s): Stella
Better Half: Rob... "official" Jan 1!! (:
Where I lived: Belleville, IL
Where I worked: Glen Carbon, IL
What I drove: Nissan Altima
Book I was reading: Hunger Games, Catching Fire
Favorite Song: Rye Whiskey, by the Punch Brothers

What I did NYE 2012/2013: Dinner at Red Lobster with Rob, Tawny & Ryan, Taryn & Kenny, Mike & Kelly and Gary, followed by a relaxing night at Ryan & Tawny's to ring in the new year!

{My} Top 3 Monumental Milestones of 2012:
1. Relationships: The controversial decision to step back from the one and at the time biggest relationship in my life and liberate myself from its crippling effects on both people involved. In 2013, I committed myself to a new, healthy relationship with the man who is now moving to Ohio for me.. for us.
2. Transitions at work, including everything from internal restructuring, a promotion & raise, physical building expansion and redefinition of our goals as a team.
3. My self-collapse. I'm not proud of it, but it happened in 2012 and I spent most of 2013 rebuilding and healing from the implosion that finally overcame me as a result of the things I postponed, the denial I had and the debilitating pride that kept me from asking for the help I needed, when I needed it.

Pop Culture Things I loved about 2012: The Hunger Games theater release, Instagram, Felix Baumgartner's Space Jump, The Fierce Five USA Women's Olympic Gymnastics team, "The Walking Dead,"
Pop Culture Things I'd rather FORGET about 2012: Honey Boo Boo, "YOLO", Gangnam Style and of course that whole Mayan apocolypse that was scheduled for 12/31/12.

{My} Best Accomplishment of 2012: Liberation. It came at a steep cost, a lot of social backlash and an overwhelming amount of stress throughout, but it was entirely. worth. the fight.
Worst Regret of 2012: There were a few select individuals that, during my personal struggles in 2012, I neglected, pushed away and essentially cut out of my life in what I believed at the time to be in their best interest. We are still in the repair process now...
Strongest Resolve for 2013: M E N D. At the end of 2012, I was hanging on by a very thin string to the me that I knew was still in there somewhere. I laid out an action plan that was more general than it was a detailed step-by-step: get back to happy. And I did. BAM.  
Biggest Anticipations of 2013: I had no idea how I'd let my life get so out of control, but I made a resolve to upright my sailboat and get back on the right course. I then had no idea how I would accomplish that, but I decided I would take it day by day, prayer by prayer in faith, and I would somehow make it. I was relocating back to Ohio, switching jobs, and residing within 20 minutes of the one person I wanted to avoid the most at that point. One thing at a time.....

2014

Age: 29
Kid(s): Sydni
Pet(s): Stella & Sasha
Better Half: Rob♥
Where I live: Cincinnati, OH
Where I work: Norwood, OH
What I drive: Subaru Impreza
Book I was reading: Allegiant
Favorite Song: Let Them See You, by the JJ Weeks Band

What I did NYE 2013/2014: Dinner at River's Edge with Rob, Mike & Kelly, Jesse & Anna, then off to STL to the Lumiere to celebrate the final minutes of 2013.

{My} Top 3 Monumental Milestones of 2013:
1. I moved back to Ohio. It wasn't easy, but it served not only to strengthen me in areas I never imagined I could brave, and reminded me that the people in my life are nothing short of extraordinary.
2. Work: I transferred Express offices as part of relocating back to Ohio. With a gap of only the two weekend days, I moved from Edwardsville to Norwood almost seamlessly.
3. My daughter turned 4; now that both her parents are within 20 minutes each other, I know there is now the stability she deserves and the balance of time she deserves is hers. I grew closer once again with my parents and sister, and started healing some of the other relationships that had been damaged in 2012.

Pop Culture Things I loved about 2013: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire theater release,
Pop Culture Things I'd rather FORGET about 2013: Twerking [& Miley Cyrus in general], The Harlem Shake

{My} Best Accomplishment of 2013: Transitioning back to Ohio and all the surviving all that came with it.
Worst Regret of 2013: Not having the facetime I wish I could've consistently throughout the year to see my friends back in Illinois, and to be there to help mend some of the relationships I'd damaged during my self-collapse of 2012.
Strongest Resolve for 2014: Realize my true potential as a mother, a coworker, a Christian and a contributor to the various walks of my life, knowing now that I am strong, confident and always... always learning.
Biggest Anticipations of 2014: Moving [again], this time with the best thing Illinois had to offer - I can't begin to explain how excited I am for my little blended family to be together and start building some stability again! ♥♥♥

*****************************************

^^ That's a small scratch of the surface to the list of ways I've "evolved" in just a year's time. I sometimes like to see that stuff in writing, side by side, because it makes me realize that while it all seemed to blur together for a period of time, it's actually a collection of pretty drastic changes that have catalyzed me from the inside out over the past 12 months. I have regrets, of course, but I'm pleased and proud that they do not outweigh the blessings.

Since I'm not setting fire to the 2014 me with a list of tasks to complete by the time the calendar changes again, I'm content to dedicate this year to improving the quality of the elements I already have. By proxy, I'm hoping that will introduce some new things, people, places and experiences into the mix, but I think I've got it made pretty good right now, and if I can add layers of beauty to what is already present, I'd call that a successful year.

Here's to you, yours and your 2014.
Happy New Year!!

xo | cmd

Trading '13 for '14

*backdated, durr!*
First things first : HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!!!
Today of course was the last day of 2013; I'm once again floored by how quickly it went, and again I'm looking very much forward to what 2014 is going to bring us.

The daylight of December 31st really wasn't anything super magical; I made us all breakfast before we continued our mission of packing and cleaning Rob's house. Sydni was here this time, so of course she did her due diligence of unpacking every other box and playing with whatever was in it, but in spite of it all, we still made some pretty massive progress.

As the evening rolled around, we made our way down to Fairview to Dawne's....

coco playtime

2013 has been a rocky road [nothing like 2012, I'll say that much... but still.... ], but I'm looking back at it and making sure to identify some key individuals who made life a little better for us during our various transitions. Dawne is one of them, and tonight I was so grateful to spend a little time with her before the year ended. I probably would've collapsed into myself early on in '13 if it hadn't been for her helping hand and generosity to Syd & me. We sure do love her!

dawne: love. her.

From Dawne's, we headed back to Granite to Mike & Kelly's, where we started our New Year's Eve journey. Soon enough we had Jesse & Anna in tow, and the six of us rustled up some dinner plans. Before we left Jesse's, I made sure to capture Zepplin's New Years salutes; he. is. adorable.

zepplin says happy new year, too!

After dinner, it was off in search of a New Year's crowd. Nobody put an ounce of planning into the night, so it was essentially us flying by the seats of our pants for the evening. That meant a pit stop [a bust, really] at a local dive downtown STL before we pretty much crash landed at Lumiere a half hour before midnight.


None of us are prolific gamblers [which is probably a good thing], so we had to laugh at our BIG WINNINGS after feeding $5 to a slot machine and pocketing a buck-46 [which went right back in, haha].

yeah.. we party hard, ya dig... hahaha

Most importantly, we managed to get out of the car & the parking garage before the ball dropped, and in the company of some great friends, we welcomed the new year. I'm feeling pretty good about this one, and I certainly didn't mind bidding '13 a farewell in the midst of some pretty awesome people.

hello, 2014!!
♥ kelly. mike. cori. rob. jesse. anna ♥

last couple selfie of '13..
.. with the best thing this place has to offer ♥

Happy 2014, to you & yours!
Let's make this a great one!

xo | cmd

Back Again

After we slept in waaay too long this morning [though much needed], we were off in search of food, landing us at Jake's.

bbq grilled chicken tips. i'm not complaining!
jacobsmeyers | granite city, il

We had plenty of leftovers, since both of us were still halfway full from dinner last night. Go figure. Hah. We left lunch and made our way down to Fairview to pick up Sydni, then headed back to Rob's house for a little bit before Syd and I left for Ohio.

Fast forward through all the driving. I'm again swallowing that sorta-sad feeling I get whenever something's over - even if it is just a great weekend. I had a blast, and so did Sydni. We're back now, and it's time for bed. We've both got early mornings.

My thoughts & prayers go out to all of those hit by the tornadoes this weekend. It was scary enough just driving through the outskirts of the storm; I can't imagine being in its direct path. Praying for peace, for safety and for the means to put everything back together from the damage.

We have so much more than we realize.... I am blessed.

With Love...
xo | cmd

& A Few [More] of My Favorite People (:

Today was definitely an improvement from yesterday (;

1 | Breakfast with two great friends from here [Ali & DeShawn] at Crackerbarrel. We met them mid-morning for a table full of food like we usually do, and some little gifts for Ali since she's switching jobs here within the next couple of weeks:


except for the wooden carved turtle, this was our gift...
... sydni did most of the picking.. pretty good job! ;)

Oh, and DeShawn [Damanji] got a small taste of Sydni's favorite pasttime... and no, it's not checkers. It's the "I WIN" game, and today she granted herself 12 trophies and Damanji got... a sticker. Womp womp womp...

"i win!" - sydni

We finished breakfast and decided that with all of the rain and storming from late yesterday, we'd bypass the zoo. Instead, we headed off to the Magic House in St. Louis, a place where Sydni has always had fun, and definitely did again today. It was a little chilly when we arrived, but it worked out to be a beautiful day by the time we were back outside to play in the sand pit.

Something funny Rob pointed out:


this is true. this is so true.

Some other documentation for the day...


fun @ the magic house! | st. louis, mo

& of course, she just had to have Mr. Rob help her with everything. Well, correction, she insisted on helping him... with everything.


who's helping who? who knows...

Oh, and sand sculptor Dan Belcher was here, too! Check it out...

amazing!

We had a great time. Sydni played herself out so thoroughly that she was out before we even left the parking lot. Before she did that though, she found a piece of 3M tape and was toying with that. I didn't notice until she'd gone quiet that she'd taped it over her face and then passed out [not because of the tape... haha]. It was pretty funny though.


hahahahahaha. she'll love seeing this one day....

Hilarious. She's somethin' else.

From there, we headed to Shiloh again to meet up with Dawne and pass off a very groggy Sydni. I'd promised Dawne she would get to see her some while we were visiting; I'm not sure who was more excited about it: Sydni or Dawne. Either way, we dropped her off, then made our way back to Granite to go to Rob's parents' for a minute. We took the meatballs, aka Stella & Sasha with us, which may have been more of an adventure than we'd thought... they did well, all things considered. Haha.

Once we were wrapped up with some things at his parents, we opted for some sushi and (shhhhh,) a date over in St. Louis at the Drunken Fish [Rob's decision - gooood call!]. Neither of us had been, but heard it was great so we tried it out. Delicious.


suuuuuushiiiiiiiiiii. win.

You can rarely go wrong with good sushi. Add the perfect company and you've just built the perfect night. All around, today was a great day and I'm left again feeling that overwhelming sense of gratitude for these people in my life.

Amen? Amen.
G'Nite (:

xo | cmd

& A Wednesday to You!

One thing I did appreciate about my commute to and from work in Illinois was that even on the major highways, there really wasn't that much congestion. Maybe there was, but I definitely didn't notice it. Today I realized that's because I'd been accustomed to driving around CINCINNATI, where the highways are always bogged down during prime drive times and it's brakelights for miles. I noticed today that it was more stuffy than usual; I know they're doing a bypass expansion project on part of 75, but the real reason for the empty southbound lanes and flashing police lights was this:


yikes.

... & in a weird way, assuming nobody was injured, you have to admit that's kind of funny. Certainly not the way I'm sure that driver had anticipated his morning going, but I haven't heard of any serious injuries from it, so that's a good thing.

Work today went at about the same lightspeed pace that it has for the past few days; we're doing our initial ramp-up and it's pretty much been a blur this week. Between a full schedule of interviews and payroll, it was certainly a burst of a day.

I was so excited when I got theeeeeese finally [not that I waited long, at all..] in the mail. I'm pretty excited - THANK YOU to Danny & the team at BeOhioProud for being so quick to send these. I'll send ya'll a picture per your request as soon as possible!


Ohio (:

I decided today also that with everything that's going on and a small hiccup with the move I was scheduled to make this weekend into the new digs, that Syd and I will be taking a road trip out to IL/STL this weekend. That means.... DAWN....... ALI...... ROB....... THE [#amazingandalsofree]STL ZOOOOOO.... can we say EXCITED??!

Countdown's on.


= dawne. = ali. = rob. = stl zoo.
'nuff said....

I just got back from Milford, it's super late, and I'm going to bed.
..........So there. (:

xo | cmd

Hey Friday - I Love You (:

It's that time again! HELLO, WEEKEND!!!

Sheesh. Today was definitely not a bad day, by any means. It'll be easier for me to just itemize this one (:

1 | OFFICE POTLUCK! [I told you today was good.. haha]


mushroom. ehhh... : /

I decided to be a butthead and send this picture to Rob mid-way through the lunch festivities; he loves mushrooms about as much as slugs love salt.... so I figured it would only be right to flash this thing his way.  I for one don't care much for mushrooms, so I didn't eat it when I was finished, but I was feeling particularly rambunctious, so yeah.... ;)

2 | RENTAL CAR? YES!

'ello, rental!

Rob and I quickly decided a few days back that my car with its current tire conundrum would not suffice for a 5-hour jaunt to Cincinnati and back again, so he used his work ties and landed us a nice little rental for the weekend. It's currently sitting with 178 miles on it; we'll just see what that's like when we get back..... it's a spiffy little thing though; guess we'll see tomorrow how it does on the road!

3 | CHALK CHALK CHALK.. aaaaaaaand CHALK

chalk chalk & chalk!

Dawne gave Sydni an Easter basket again this year [love. her.], this time equipped with a slew of Tinkerbell gear. There was chalk included, so of course the most urgent imperative step of action upon arriving at the house was opening said chalk and taking to the driveway. Well, it was more like the cul-de-sac, which proved to be a much larger canvas, and perfect for my mini Matisse. She covered patches of concrete all over that thing with her beautiful little art. Love love love.

4 | NOMORERACK.COM = AWESOMETHINGSFORCORI&ROB


nomorerack.com | obsessed....

A few weeks back, I introduced Rob [on accident, actually] to nomorerack.com. It's a website that retails various products well under the MSRP, and ships them to you in quite the timely manner. Since he's found it, the boyfriend has obtained a small collection of things just as random as the site itself. First it was a couple of down pillows [love them], then some laser pointer / LED light ink pens [entertaining], a few other things, and then today a back up camera for his truck. He went into tinker mode outside tonight wiring it up, while Sydni decorated the streets & I sat by with my Canon in full swing.

....... Speaking of camera.... the whole obsession with nomorerack came from some arbitrary Facebook newsfeed post I'd seen almost 2 months ago for a coffee mug that was shaped like a Canon camera lens. It immediately demanded my attention, both by its creative design and more importantly its price tag... or lack thereof : $12. DUH. I almost bought it on the spot, but for some reason didn't, and then definitely didn't after he carefully instructed me not to.



cameraholic..... caffeinaholic...

Long story short, that arrived at the house today, too, and I am in love with it. Thank you boyfriend, for being your amazing self and for snagging me this totally me mug. Love it... love YOU.

Like I said... today's been a great day. We opted not to head out tonight for Cincy; we'll be headed that way at some super early juncture tomorrow morning. Time to call it an early night (:

xo | cmd

Hodge Podge Day

Ohio Roots. This is a grass roots initiative local to [duh] Ohio. This is one of their newest decal stickers; I saw it today, and while I didn't get one [yet], I did like it and thought I'd share. As much as that crazy state makes me even crazier, it is my root state and I am a proud Buckeye.

o-h.... i-o!!

Secondly: I'm taking a big ole' chunk of blog to acknowledge my awesome co-workers. They are fully aware of my affinity for owls, and they go out of their way to make sure they appease it. I love 'em! Here's a BIG round of applause to Ali, Andi, Linda & Tonya for all of the various owl accessories that adorn my little corner of the office. Andi added a new touch to the collection to day with the little pink lip balm [prolly won't even use the contents... but dang, it's still cute!], which has made a new home with the other pretty hoots. Love!

whooooooooo ... feels loved??! [me!!] 

Dawne had family in town just for the night; two members of which were little girls about Syd's age. I agreed for Sydni to have a sleepover with them tonight, which I'm sure she is enjoying to no end. Rob and I made a quick break up to Granite to see what the deal was with my now wobbly car [= needs new tires, x2. I have such a helpful boyfriend!], then off for some dinner at Bindy's before heading home to call it an early night. 

I'm not too thrilled about the car, but it's okay; there are worse things, and we will take care of that mess next week when we're back from Ohio. 

*Yawn.... I'm spent.... 

xo | cmd

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CEGG!!!

Happy Friday!
I just wanna say ....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CATIE!!

♥ you cegg!! | happy birthday!!

Oh, how I love that girl! I'll be back in Cincy next weekend to help celebrate; it's gonna be a wild one but I'm excited. Happy birthday to a friend who's always been there, has always been honest and has kept me grounded when I felt like I was falling apart. Love you woman - have a GREAT birthday!

Found another fun one from a few years back [Rock the Runway event!]:

circa 2008

aaaaand... sold.

Yay, friends! 

Speaking of friends, Jay came up to GC to do some work, and so we had lunch over at Applebee's. More importantly, we had a triple chocolate meltdown ... at Applebee's.

With Friday out of the way [halleLUJAH], it was time to veg and enjoy the evening. Dawne had asked for Sydni to stay over with Luke & Olivia for a sleepover, so she was there for the night. Rob and I made ourselves at home over at Hot Shots with some people from his work for dinner, and Marianne eventually joined. By the end of our time there, we'd resorted to spitting ice cubes into various buckets, trays and glasses left on the table.

Somewhere in the midst of dinner conversation, Marianne and I ended up on Pinterest and Facebook, and I found.... another foodie item.

Long story short, Marianne and I cut the trip to Hot Shots short, made a bee-line to Wal-Mart and made it back to the house for the creation of a chocolate chip butter sugar masterpiece.

Yeah, it happened.

pie. chocolate.. butter.. sugar... awesome.... pie.

Happy Friday...here we go weekend!!

xo | cmd

You Gotta Love Lumberjacks

lumberjack love

It's funny to think that just four or five years ago, nobody I knew had a beard. Mustaches weren't a thing then - at least not the way they are now, and hipsters were juuuuust starting to make a stand in the mainstream sorta way they are now.
Oh, that, and we were still going out dressed like barbie dolls, whether we wanted to admit that or not. The homeless-esque gear that Catie and I sported every spare second we could was considered socially-unacceptable for any real outing; joke's on them now though... ;)

Back on track: I have realized my true affinity for lumberjack-ish things. I was raised country, in the country, so I really shouldn't be surprised to find myself coming full circle in what actually seems pretty normal for me.

ALL OF THAT BEING SAID, I have found myself probably one of the most amazing modern day lumberjacks ever. I'm pretty partial, but hey, he's mine now so I can be. haha. Like I said, I'm a country girl at heart, and he's doin a great job of winning that little country heart over.


cornrows, anyone? ;)



He's hilarious.

At Dawne's bidding, Sydni stayed over one more night for a last sleepover hoo-rah before she heads back to Ohio. We took advantage of the moment to get out of the house for an evening. We headed up to Bindy's to grab dinner, and ended up sitting around goofing off for a few hours. It came to the topic of his beard and my offer to braid it up. He fluffs that sucker out [it looks pretty funny] and ended up with this. Well, it's not quite Duck Dynasty ... yet ... but it's still pretty thick. I told him he'd be wise to start sleeping with one eye open lest he awake with cornrows in his beard... Haha. I wouldn't...... or would I? :p

Oh, and let's not forget, he finally got his truck out of the shop tonight, after it went in for some serious doctoring and upgrades. I must admit, it's beautiful.

beautiful... beast... both.... ♥

*Sigh. Too much. We made our way back from Granite and he decided he wanted to snag his Honda from his work, since he'd driven that while his truck was out of commission. Funny enough, I've never been in that thing, but it would happen that the first I am, I'm driving it. [Insert Asian joke here]. Yes, it's a Honda. Yes, it's a hatchback. Yes, it has a modified exhaust. [Insert Fast&Furious joke here.] Hush, ya'll. ;)

It's supposed to snow tomorrow. It's the first real snow projected for this year; I'm interested to see what kind of panicked state it is in which we'll find ourselves. Maybe it'll give me a good reason to get the board out?? Yes? Hmmm...

xo | cmd

Enjoying Life's Funny

[backdated, primarily due to lag in photo editing ;)]

So a few days back, Dawne propitioned me with having Syd over today for a sleepover with Luke, Olivia and Max. No brainer. I love that she gets the kiddos together on the weekends just to hang out and have fun together; I'm so fortunate to have someone like her that genuinely cares so much for the kids she watches.

Before we got to going over there, though, Sydni insisted on showing me what she would look like dressed up in mama's gear. If there was ever a time I would call MINI-ME, this would definitely have been one of those pinnacle moments, to date.

itty bitty hipster

I didn't realize I'd have a little neffhead so early on. Haha. It was adorable, and even though there maaaay have been some tickling involved to coax a camera smile out, we managed to capture the moment, and I love it.

Speaking of mama/daughter things, we did some experimenting with braids today. I did one on myself [5-strand], and Sydni got her very first french braid.

Hold on. Let's rewind to SYDNI ... got her VERY FIRST... french BRAID.
... Someone call Guinness! Haha. Kidding, but see for yourself!:

hold. the. phone.... we have hair now!!!

And for the 5-strander....

it took a little while, but i think we've got it now!

I dropped Sydni off at Dawne's early in the afternoon; the other little ones were already there, anxiously awaiting Sydni to come and complete the squad of mini's for their big slumber party. I met back up with Rob and we headed out to South County to pick up something for his truck [boys and their toys ;) ]. It was then lunch at 54th Street and a cruise through the South County Mall. It ended with no purchases [kudos to both of us, but moreso to me.. on that one], and we made our way back to his place. He took care of some random stuff around his house while Sasha kept me company.

some good old pibble love ;) 

In the typical fashion of most weekends with Rob and me, we didn't have much - okay, nothing - set in stone as far as plans went, but it worked itself out with us playing it by ear. We wound up stopping by to visit the newly-renovated house of one of his friends/former roommates, then the lot of us opted for pool and food. Low key. Good call.

That turned into us hopping around to a few different places before we finally landed at Bindy's for the night. Not a bad way to end an evening. And of course, if you can manage some funny pictures from it all, then that's all you really need ;) 

edited... just for fun (:  

oh my. hahaha...
.. one stole my beanie & the other one's [still]
waiting on chinese takeout.... goooo figure ;)

That's a wrap, folks. (:

xo | cmd

Valentine's Day 2013

Yeah, so as a reminder:

I am not a true advocate of all things Valentines Day. I don't necessarily hate it, as I know some do, but I don't proactively pursue any specific path of celebraton.

HOWEVER, even with all of that being said, it is admittedly fun to do a little something for that handful of people who deserve a little something extra.

For starters, my boss Diana went out on client visits dressed as the Queen of Hearts. She's an outta-the-box thinker like that ;)

my boss... lol

Sydni and I did some little trinkets for a few people, based off another crafty blog [2littlehooligans]. The pictures of ours didn't come out nearly as well as these, but for the sake of repetition, just imagine these, but with yarn hanging loops and a bit more orange in the variegated yard. ;)


easy diy projects? yes, and yes.

Sydni and I finished up our Valentines early last night, so she went on to kiddie movie [& sing-a-long... lovelovelove that!] mode, and I went on to one last DIY for the night... because I love owls, neutral colors, mason jars and Rob .. just that much. Incorporating those 4 elements into one simple little project was well worth it, even if it is for the ominous Valentines Daaaaaaaaay [muahaha...].

DIY window/shaker card? Sure!
[♥ rob!]

Back at the office this morning, I was greeted by this on my desk:

q: "hoooooooo loves you?"
a: "OWLi does!"
.... adore.

Don't you think for a second that I forgot them, either! It was little tiny mailbox time for me; I made sure each of them had a personalized mailbox with some Valentines Day love, too.

you've... got... [cori]mail!!!

Work ended late today, but we made it home and eventually ended up on the computer doing a mini shoot... I have the best Valentine ever ♥

my mini valentine....

Not a bad day, folks. Not bad at all (:
Happy Hallmark Holiday to you and yours!!

xo | cmd

VOLLEYBALL! [SportsMonsterMode]

Today was absolutely beautiful!

I spent the church service downstairs in the nursery; I would've typically preferred to be in the audience to our pastor's lessons, but conveniently enough I found myself scheduled into the nursery rotation this week. It was my pleasure hanging out in the infant room with little Evan.

aubrey. logan. sydni. loralye | vbs plane!

Once church was out, Sydni and I took to our own to get a few things done before I dropped her off at Dawne's for a little slumber party sleepover. I made my way over to Clayton for some sand volleyball that ran right into a trip to BW3 before we all headed home. Thanks, SM St.Louis!

that sand... was hot

cori. andrea. that chick is hilarious. (:

I've gotta somehow get my butt up and to work in the morning. Time to try and grab some shut eye. ZzZ.

xo | cmd

Towerview at the Ballpark!!

Due to the continuous construction that comes inevitably as part of our office build-out, we were granted two consecutive casual days; we all took full advantage of it and geared up in our jeans and t-shirts for the day. Mine was almost thwarted by an early morning client visit; luckily for me, this particular client happens to be within earshot of my house, so if you think I went home after my client meeting to ditch the business garb, you would be totally correct. Haha. Perfect timing on the casual day, too; I was headed straight from work to the Cards game.

baseball time!

Before I get into this one, let me first clarify that in my heart, I'm still Cincinnati, through and through. That being said, I also believe that if you're gonna live somewhere, be there. I'm leading up to the fact that I was pretty excited to get down to Busch Stadium tonight for what was my first Cardinals game this season.

* I never thought I'd hear myself say that. What can I say, I love baseball games. Period. :)

with dawne! :)

Anyway, what made tonight's game that much cooler was the fact that each seat purchased by a Towerview member was from a fundraiser we'd done a few months back as one of our Relay for Life fundraisers. Originally, it was planned that Joe would be accompanying me to this one, but with him in Atlanta this week, that clearly wasn't going to happen. I contemplated just passing our tickets off to someone, but then I remembered that I do in fact know people outside of our church [because everyone there was already going, hah]. I asked Dawne is she wanted to come along, and long story short, we partnered up and made a night of it. I saw some other familiar faces tonight; I'll tell ya what, this St. Louis place sure is starting to grow on me. Yeah, baseball :)

Dawne and I linked up and took the metrolink with Syd [who ended up overnight back at Dawne's because she is just that awesome] into St. Louis and rendezvoused there with the rest of the Towerviewers to enjoy the night. I definitely had no complaints for my first season run at the park. Speaking of which, Courtney from work was down there somewhere too, we just never found each other. Oh well. Next time.

cori. mo. lara

*Note to self, also. The MetroLink is not a force with which you should reckon if you're not entirely prepared. Haha. That is all I have to say about that. Be careful where you stop, and pay attention to where you load, otherwise you could very well find yourself traversing back and forth on that sucker for hours. I'm just sayin'. :p

Anywho, it has been some sort of night.. baseball and all. I loved every second of it, but I think it's about time I grab some sleep before I try to tackle Friday. TGI[backdatedthursdayentrymadesuperearly]F!

xo | cmd