Arrriba!

Gah!! Adulting is most definitely my least favorite thing this week. What I wanted to do Monday through about 3 hours ago was to crawl back into my imaginary blanket fort with a coloring book and a capri sun. MAYBE even add some One Saturday Morning to the mix, and give me a bowl of cereal while you're at it.

But noooooo.. instead, I'm doing adult things and showing up to my adult job and making adult money to pay my adult bills. Grown up life is for the birds sometimes. Haha. I'm kidding.

Kinda.

Fortunately for me, I have a small collection of friends who also do grown up things by making grown up livings from their grown up lives and who also don't avoid the real world despite the siren-esque temptations of aluminum juice pouches and Crayola. One of those friends just got back from a Habitat for Humanity trip in Trinidad & Tobago, and that meant dinner was in order to catch up on the last 17 days of her being gone.

The cards didn't work out to do dinner with Jessica last night, but at least we won't be temporarily cheated out of hangtime with two of our dearest friends. Becky's back, y'aaaaaaaallll.....

ta daaaa! 

 ^ Don't act surprised. Seventeen days isn't enough to change the fact that we're perfectly weird in each other's company.

Now if only we could get Jessica back on the calendar, and then maybe somehow get all our folks in one place at our new digs, that'd be the bees knees.

For the time being though, I, along with the rest of my pseudo-adult friends, have got to survive the rest of this week... ;).

WE CAN DO THIS.
I'll be in the kitchen getting the plastic bowl with the built-in sippy straw... ciao. 

xo | cmd 

Sunday Funday

We started off Ali's departure day with church. I was super excited to do so, since she usually has to head out suuuper early to be back for whatever role she's playing at her own church that day. It was a beautiful service, with beautiful people, and we walked out feeling that much closer to our goals of knowing our God more and more every day. 

We managed to do a second take on the selfie, that didn't really work out as planned yesterday while we were at the splash pad. #FINALLY! hahaha

love this gal! 

It was off to lunch after that, with the ever-entertaining Sydni as the main attraction while we ate. I swear, you get one quesadilla into this kid and this is what happens...

She's. hilarious.. hahah. Between the flower in her hair, kicking off her shoes, some strangely adapted version of clogging and the rest of the routine that she created in her head, I can't help but wonder what I ever did before her. My life was a stark [and boring] thing pre-Sydni; I'm sure of that much. Haha...

Finally it was time to do the "see ya soon" thing; Ali packed up her gear and jumped on the road, leaving Rob and me with the decision of what to do with the afternoon. Sydni decided for us, when she sat down for "just a second" and woke up about 2 hours later after a much-needed snooze. We followed suit with her, and after rubbing the nap sleepies out of our eyes, we took to the yard to pull some weeds, mow the lawn and examine our pumpkin plant that's flourishing through the front garden.

And NOW, we are here, noses buried 12 tabs deep in Google Chrome doing wedding research for next year... The fun continues! ;) 

I'd better get back to work.. hahaa..

xo | cmd

Haiti Peace Team Recap

Today had missions written all over it!

First, I received these in the mail, that I'd ordered a couple weeks back: 

yiieeeee! 

^ They're stickers. Yes, that's right... stickers. The 11-year-old Cori who used to go ape over Lisa Frank stickers resurfaced today in full excitement over her new stickers. At least as an adult, I'm selective about finding those with strong significance ;). 

nalgene

^^ YEP. I'm on my way to a fully-decorated Nalgene, but it will be with hand-selected stickers and in time, will become a sources of hydration as well as a reflection of much that I hold near & dear to my heart ♥

I was so happy all day, with new decorations; it primed me for a continued evening of awesomeness as we convened at SonRise to hear 5 of the 10 Haiti team members share with us their trip to and from, and how they both impacted and were impacted by all of it.

sonrise haiti team! 

What a blessing! I love, love, love that we have so many passionate people engaged in missions work here at SonRise; I'm so proud to have been one of them on the most recent trips, and am on board with many others as we pray for the opportunity to return.

Oh, and who could forget: It's Cinco De Mayo!

because why not?! 

^ Rob & I took advantage of the special occasion, and visited one of our favorite digs for a late evening dinner. ¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo, amigos!

My heart is full tonight.. what an amazing day!

xo | cmd 

Ali's Birthday & Marianne's Arrival! [& Other Things, Too!]

Guys. First things first today: It was pouring rain this morning, BUT.... that didn't deter my waking up in a stellar good mood.

Why?

WELL...

FIRST, it's ALI'S BIRTHDAY!

yiieieeee!!!! 24!!!! ♥♥♥♥♥

Downside: I am about 500 miles away from one of my best friends this year on her birthday, and won't get to see her this weekend, either. :(
Upside: Her 25th birthday is next year, and that will be a production if I've ever seen one. Also, I heard that she did in fact receive the package that I sent off to her on Monday, so kudos to the U.S. Postal service crew on delivering to that 2-day shipping promise! I am all about the silver linings.

Anyway, this girl deserves a million birthday salutes and then some. She's what I call an all-around incredible friend: She laughs with me, cries, gets real and above all, keeps me accountable when I get tangled up in life and lose my sense of footing... or just my sense in general. She's there in a heartbeat if I need her, and for the most part has a sane head on her shoulders ;) [haha, love you Ali]. She's a solid example of a woman after God's own heart, and is bold in her faith and commitments to serving Christ. She's hilarious, down to earth and just as aloof as I am sometimes.

Summary? HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALI!

And THEN... the girl who woke up to [& posted] this: 

morning sun in nyc

.. flew into CVG today for a weekend vacation with Becky, Kalyn and me! 

BE STILL MY HEART. I AM.. SO EXCITED. 

mare!! 

 ^ No, that's not the picture of her from today's arrival. Yes, that's a picture I stole off her Facebook from her recent time spent in Italy. Yes, that's a Colosseum behind her. Yes, she looks like a brunette Dianna Agron here. YES, SHE'S HERE IN CINCINNATI! [Mare, that is.. not Dianna. Just to clarify that.. ahemmm..]

Mare's flight was delayed for about an hour, which equated to Becky and I driving from Market to the airport exit, getting off said exit, and then U-Turning right back onto 275 back to Cincinnati. Becky had a work event starting mid-evening, and I had volleyball in Loveland ad 7:15. Mare landed right at 7, and my every-day-impressing-me fiance Rob was kind enough to step in and serve as an airport shuttle. They came to Grand Sands for the tail end of my set with Paul and Martin, followed by a rendezvous with Jessica at El Rancho for dinnnnnaaaa [dinner]!

I think it's safe to say that this has been a long day for everyone. Tomorrow I'll be back at work, Mare will do whatever she can find to get into for the day, and then Syd will be here for the evening before Becky, Mare and I take off for North Carolina for the weekend.

PHEW.

OH YEAH! Before I forget, Ali's present made it to her, safe, sound and in tact. I think? she liked it. Haha. ;)

for my favorite turtle-loving ginger! 

Happy, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you, Ali.

Oh, and it was Earth Day today if you missed that. Smoothie King stepped up with a BOGO on plant-based smoothies, so we clearly took advantage of that. Stay tuned for another couple days when we do a belated celebration of Earth Day with some more hiking, camping and nature-esque things for our getaway.

Good night for now!

xo | cmd

Wednesday Is Gear Day...

The best part about ordering things online is undoubtedly the day that you get them. It's even better when what you ordered is exactly what you wanted, the shippers got the order right, and even when you've guesstimated {<really? No autocorrect? Guesstimated is a word?..Huh...} the sizing of something, it turns out to be just right.

Today was a day of receiving many of the things I've recently ordered; things I've needed for a while now, but have pushed off until there was really a need to get them. That need of course: Panama.

timex :) 

So my WATCH is here! I was iffy about getting a white one, since I've traditionally always gone with black, or gray... or.... black or gray.. for those types of things.

I rendezvoused at REI [& didn't buy everything I saw!] with Becky after work for a quick browse through some of the smaller stuff I was going to need: a bowl, plastic ware and miscellaneous small things.

$15 say what? have we gone mad? 

^ Oh, and just a sidenote, NO.. I did not buy that bowl. I'm going into a mountain for like, 4 days. I don't need a $15 bowl. I found and purchased 2 non-flexy plastic bowls and two plastic sporks for under $7. There is no reason to buy one of these for what I need now. Just.. sayin'. Just because it's at REI does not mean you should pay REI prices, folks. REI, I still love you, but c'mon.... :)

We tested out  a two-person tent..

^ We vote sleeping pads if you're planning to sleep on the floor of a store.. haha :)

We finished there and headed out to the cars, where Becky surprised me with THIS!

sawyer!!

^YIIIEEE! Those little guys are lifesavers in filtration. Small & compact, easy to use and super effective when done correctly. It of course was on the list of things to get for not just Panama, but for other ventures into the woods that are starting to dot my Summer calendar already. THANK YOU, BECKY!!

After REI, we met up with Rob for dinner at El Rancho, and then parted ways before the winter storm that's been looming over us started to settle.

haha, love her.

At home, the socks I'd ordered were waiting. They're among the pricier things I've done so far, and honestly I probably didn't need to binge on them, but again, I was trying to think big picture and not have to do this later. Kinda solid logic, right? :/

I'm checking things off this Panama list like mad here lately. It's all coming together, and although my bank account is raising its eyebrow at me, I'm preparing for long-term things, too. I still need a new hammock and tent, but those are things that aren't necessary for Panama, so I suppose they'll wait. :)

I'm overwhelmed by the amount of support I [and we, my team!] have received over the last several months for this trip; Please, please, please continue to be in prayer for us! We're within a couple weeks of departure, and would greatly appreciate it!

xo | cmd

Boots & Music

Gooood Monday morning! I hope your weekends were incredible, and that you're off to a blazing start for the week like we were. My day started off alongside Carri & Dave, with a client facility tour, complete with the required on-site gear.

Oversized steel toed boots + leggings, anyone? ;)

ow ow!

Some desk-bound folks would see this as a burden in the middle of their day, but I embrace these things and probably have more fun than I should walking around warehouses and factories with my clodhopper feet and safety glasses awkwardly parked on the bridge of a nose that on my face doesn't even exist [#pinoyproblems]. Yay!

The rest of the day took something of a musical turn: I stumbled across this video by Steffany Gretzinger, an acoustic outpouring of her soul that moved me to share it with a few other people and listen to it multiple times.


^ So. Gorgeous!

Here's the part where I remind all of you that I'm heading to Panama in 2015 for the purpose of missions, and am starting NOW on the prayer part of that. There will be more details to follow on that, but for the time being, just... listen to that song and try to absorb it in the moment. Thank you, Steffany for sharing your gift with us! [#SonRisePanama2015]

Rob and I took a step into a new restaurant tonight and tried the Mexican place down the street from us [recommended!] before heading back home to let the ACC Awards carry us into the last part of the evening.

I had to share this, too, since Reba is not just an icon in country music, but truly a legend. I love the lady and realized that we're privileged to see these moments unfold; Sydni will grow up and hear stories of legends like this, but won't be able to experience them the same way we do now.

Congratulations to Reba, with love and gratitude for what you've contributed to the world of one of my favorite genres!


That's a rap here, folks. I've got Fancy stuck in my head like a broken record, so on that note, I'll call this one and pick up where we left off tomorrow!

G'Nite!

xo | cmd