Omniscience.

Today made me happy. For a few reasons:

First, there was church.

Then there was barbeque.

And then soccer.

A homemade drop top guestbook.

Cleaning, laundry, wedding planning.

Snuggles & bedtime stories.

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

So I wanted to talk about this whole mini-series that our Pastor has constructed for us, based on the concept of drones. Yes, drones - those all-seeing aerial cameras that have become so popular over the last several years.

Omniscience. I sat for the morning hour today and listened to things I already know, but decidedly needed put into short, concise bullet points for the taking. See, as we plow steadily through this final phase of wedding plans, I find myself not nervous, but anxious. I'm anxious! The "end" is in sight, and in another couple of blinks, it'll be upon us, and then it'll be over, and this flutter of loose ends will become a thing of the immediate past. The result will be a wonderful party with our closest friends and family, to commemorate the changing of my last name and two people making one promise of indivisible partnership for the rest of our lives.

I can't wait.

For now though, I'm anxious.

Why is that?!

One of the opening passages for this message today was Hebrews 4:13:

Nothing is all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Okay, so let's peel that apart like an onion:

1. There's not a door in the world that's either so thick or so tightly sealed to separate me from God.

2. I'm accountable, both in and out of sight.

3. He's not surprised by anything, and there's ab.so.lutely nothing that is too large a challenge for Him.
(This is a bigger onion, but we'll save the rest for another day.)

I thought about this as I sat among my church family, and realized that (once again), He was making a clear point to me about my anxiety and stress as I plan this wedding.

He sees all. He knows all. He has conquered all. Why then, do I worry? Why do I give in to the pressures of multi-tasking, logistics and coordination? It's not bad stress! It's a good thing, that we have a wedding to plan! It's incredible that we are getting married, and whatever work must be done to create our special day is worth it, no questions asked.

And as I think about what the future post-wedding looks like (which I tend to do at more often than I realize at this phase in the planning), I start to wander off into that field of weeds where uncertainty grows like vines, over rocky ground. Today I was reminded that it's not my job to know the future. It's not my job to carry the past. It's my job only to trust in Him, and accept that whatever He has planned for me, and whatever He has led me through before, is part of the big picture of my time on this earth.

He. Is. Omniscient.
And I am not.
And that, is how I'll start this week.

xo | cmd 

Sunshine, BBQ & Boats [Well, Kinda ;)]

Perks of our centrally-located office [sometimes]:

yay, local swag & discounts! 

^ Rob will appreciate that :) :).

The downside of working in an office is that, when the weather is beautiful and beckoning, we're limited in the amount of time we can allocate in the sunshine.

i. need. [some.] sunshine! 

Elisa and I took full advantage today of the clear skies and traced a very familiar route through the outskirts of downtown to Findlay, where we of course had our free reign of lunch options.

.... I finally settled..

eli's bbq. bare feet. happy heart. 

We ran into Duy, as we often do since he works across the street, and managed a mini convo/catch-up before it was time for us to return to the Express homestead.

The day wrapped up in its usual fashion, and I made my way excitedly home to get Sydni and continue on to the house. Rob had promised Syd she could help, and made sure to follow through on that promise:

this girl 

Happy Tuesday, ya'll :) I hope the sunshine's been good to you today! 

xo | cmd

El Domingo Perfecto

Today was in fact.. perfect.

The morning started out with church - more specifically, the chance for my Panama team and I to finally get our group photo. I picked a great day to wear no makeup [woops], but c'mon.. I won't be wearing it while I'm in Panama, so I suppose it's fitting.

Oh, oh, oh - before I get into that, I have to thank Sydni's Mamaw Carolyn [aka, Rob's mom] for the getup she sported out for the morning:

love this girly

Folks, here are the four incredible folks with whom I'll be travelling in just a few short weeks when we embark south to Panama City, then into the Ngobe villages.

chris. cori. quinn. marissa. aaron

These four are truly incredible people, and I'm excited to partner with each of them into the mountains of Panama. I'm asking that you please, please continue praying for us as we prepare to go - this is going to be a challenge for us in all capacities, but we are willing to go where we are lead. Amen? Amen!

Inside SonRise, we tackled the next chapter of our Transformed series, and Sydni - across the building, created another masterpiece for her wall of creative fame here at the house: 

adult services | kid services! 

Love, love, love. 

After church, we took a quick stop for Rob to get his hair cut. Syd took advantage of the empty driver's seat while he was inside, on the condition that she would grow up to be a Subie girl like her mama ;) 

subie syd .. in the making ;) 

It was a toss up after some errands on lunch plans, but after we dropped by the house and changed, it was easy to get a unanimous vote of somewhere with access to the gorgeous day ahead of us. 

Welp, Eli's it was! 

beautiful day for eli's! 

in love. 

gosh... these two! xoxo

We caught a small glimpse of the damage that's been done as a result of all our snow melting. We've been lucky to be spared from most of the flash flooding here in Cincinnati, but the rivers and any low-lying areas aren't so lucky..

yes, that's an outhouse. just the top .. of an outhouse... 

As we think should be the case, our Sunday was as laid back for us as they come: Rob took to the garage to engage himself in the dis-assembly of the Harley [womp womp], I tracked down and ordered a few of the last minute things I'll need for Panama, and Sydni? Well...

she's just... amazing. 

And there was also this:

this girl.... 

We finished it up with some pizza, because it's Sunday and the rest of the week will be dedicated to working out and eating clean again [so don't judge.. haha].

What a beautiful day it was, indeed. I'm one happy mama!

xo | cmd

Snowback Thursday

Ok, Ohio.. We get it.

it's.... march. 

This would've been way more fun if it were a weekend. Or, if we as adults had snow days like all the kids do [ahem, Sydniiiiiiiii...]. Instead, I fired up the Subie and joined what small crowd of commuters there was between home and work. It was a slow crawl, but I made it to the office with just enough time to gather up our gear for the job fair Elisa and I were set to attend.

perfect weather for a trek through the work day... haha

We arrived at the job fair without a hitch, despite the flurries!

there's no business like snow business.... 

It was understandably slower than usual, given the inclement weather conditions. Elisa's reaction to the entire experience was equally-understandable.

i feel ya. 

To warm ourselves up after a chilly morning at OHMJ, we took a short drive a few blocks down to Findlay. where the newest installment of Eli's BBQ was up and running. SCORE.

eli's bbq! 

Back at home, it was the standard drill of activity, especially during the cold days... ;)

the pups (: 

just.. typical night.. 

hers & mini hers ;) 

Another good one in the books. G'Nite for now!

xo | cmd

Paintin' The Town

Well, I'm not quite sure exactly what the boys got into last night [they swear it was closing down Hahana Beach..], but they managed to sleep nearly half the day away before coming back to life. That meant that this guy arrived to a house full of snoozers:

furnace maintenance at 7am on a saturday.. booo :/

And the mail came; Marianne is planning a missionary trip to Italy, and the letter I received in the mail today had this drawn on it:

hahaha..

^ Anyone who knows the story of her and my matching tattoos, and of her more-than-slight geographic deficiencies, knows that that is absolutely appropriate. :)

Rob & Jesse finally arose from their beauty sleep, just in time for a lunch trip out to Eli's.

rainbows en route to lunch!

Lunch was followed by some more thoroughly relaxing time at the house, a bit of World Cup coverage and then an outing down to Mainstrasse in Covington.

lovely, awkward picture, hahh..

hangin with this guy in covington ♥

We voted to meet up with Kalyn, Brittany & Co. back in OTR to round out the night, so our final stop was Bakersfield to see them.

i wore the wrong shirt.. dangit!

Tomorrow, it's boating.
We're ready!

Brakes? What Brakes?

My morning routine typically starts with leaving for work. Yenno, something basic like that.

Well, I didn't get very far. I didn't even make it out of the neighborhood before my brakes completely gave up the ghost and stopped working for good. I somehow managed to coast back home and into the driveway. Rob came home for a bit to inspect the damage; we ordered some brake parts to be delivered to his work later on today, and he headed back. Lizzy was kind enough to come and get me, so I eventually made it to the office. 

well.... yeah.

Two hours late, but made it no less. Thanks, Lizzy!

After work, Nancy took me home. I think I needed today if for no other reason than a clear reminder to appreciate my [usual] mobility. I coordinate things daily with people reliant on public transportation, so often that I lose sight of how grateful I should be for having a car that functions. Anyway, I made it home just before Rob showed up to save the day [again].

He wasted no time digging into the back brakes on poor little Subie.
I'm glad he did, because it... was.... a mess.

poor subie

whoa!

he. is. awesome!!

Kalyn called in the midst of it all; she was looking for something to do in the gap between work and our 9:30pm volleyball game. She stopped over and we headed to Eli's, because YES. That's why ;)

It was then home, food and a little more relaxing before our journey over to Hahana, where we put up a big WIN before calling it a night.

*Yawn. What a day!

We'll see how these brakes hold up tomorrow. If I'm right, these puppies will have me stopping on a dime. My mechanic's pretty awesome ;)

See ya then!

xo | cmd

Sidenote: Whispering Beard Festival!

We obliged an invite from Mike & Becky this evening after work to join them for dinner at Eli's. Why? Because you just don't decline invites to Eli's, and also because I love those two and was pretty excited to find time in the week to hang out. Solid reasons, yeah?

all the yesses.

AND live music?

double yes.

Grateful Grahams was onsite as well, which meant s'more making.. and that's really just the perfect addition to live music, Eli's and friends.

nom nom!

To top it all off, we scored some can coozies [koozies for those of you who argue over the spelling; I really couldn't care less... ] for the quickly-approaching Whispering Beard Festival in August. I would really like to go, but we'll play that one by ear and see if it blends all right with our schedule.

looks. like. fun!!

Anyway, it was another successful night with music, food, more food, local brew and of course, this guy:

love you to the moon & back, weirdo ♥

G'Nite!

xo | cmd

Weekends Are Fun

What's a good Saturday without a late start, right? Hah...

By late start, I mean we managed to completely skip breakfast. By the time we were all up and functioning, it was nearly lunch time, so we bypassed any notions of venturing down to Taste of Belgium, and instead made a beeline for Eli's, which Jesse's never had.

.. Until today. Eli's never disappoints! 

eli's!

After lunch, we scratched our brains for somewhere to take Jesse that we've not already shown him. We settled on Jungle Jim's, which became the perfect opportunity to both give Jesse a tour of the place and restock our depleted supply of mocha. Additionally, we left with a new growler, a growler koozie [I didn't know they made those...], some various exotic versions of cheese, sausages, juices and chocolate.

in honor of marianne & ali:
jumex & cameron hughes!

jj spoils!

It wasn't surprising that it took nearly an hour and a half for us to wholly navigate through Jungle Jim's with the frequent stops to browse the various sections, so by the time we got back to the house, we were all ready to relax for a couple of hours before catching up with tentative evening plans.

pretty much the afternoon.....

Fast forward a few hours to when we all woke up from power naps, it was time to rendezvous with Carolina at Mango Tree. Sushi tonight was a deeefinitely a good call!

mango tree!

Halfway through dinner, we finally started making some solid plans for the rest of the evening; Carolina figured out where Nader & Co. would be, which meant a trip downtown. I hadn't even taken Rob down to any of the venues in the actual downtown district, so we figured it wouldn't hurt to try it out.

We met with Nader, Keith, Eric and few others at one of the Irish pubs, then tried out some wannabe-ritzy place about which I'd never even heard [which was a bust beyond belief]. It wasn't long before we came to the surprising realization that we'd actually rather be in OTR. Sure, OTR is fun, but we thought it was due time to switch things up. We didn't count on wishing we were back there. Hah.

So as it happened, OTR became our final destination for the evening. We greeted the typical crowds with a little more patience than usual, realizing that the alternatives at this point were ridiculous in comparison. We landed at The Drinkery, which coincidentally proved to be a miniature reunion for several different people that represent the various different parts of my life in Cincinnati before I started moving all over the country.

I ran into Lora.... love & miss this girl!


lora & me, circa 2009

Then I turned around and bumped into Justin Jeffre, a friend of mine from years ago that has quite the history both in Cincinnati and well, internationally, but that's neither here nor there... haha..



justin & me, circa 2008?ish?

And of course, it wouldn't have been any sort of night without some double trouble [just kidding, they're not trouble]! I saw Regina & Renata for the first time in probably eight years.

& tonight, with regina & renata!

And of course, my lovely friends, awesome boyfriend and visiting guest of the weekend were there with me tonight. It was the perfectly energetic, hilarious Saturday night & I'm thankful for every single minute of it! (:

On that note, goooood night blogbots (:

xo | cmd

10 Reasons Today Was Bigger Than Words

This [slightly backdated entry] might take a while.

I truly don't believe me telling the tale of today is going to do any sort of justice to how happy I really am right now.

My friends from Illinois & Virginia are here, and we have wasted no time since they arrived.

I suppose the best way to tackle this would just be chronologically. So, deep breath, and... go.

➊ || Breakfast. This was a null question as far as where we would go; Taste of Belgium is the only contender for breakfast whenever we have visitors, especially first-timers. I wanted to wait until tomorrow when Marianne would be with us, too, but she's on the Daniel fast for Lent right now and wouldn't have been able to enjoy it with us... so... yeah.

"i'll just take the usual, please..."

➋ || With breakfast out of the way, our next order of business was basically a blank slate. I decided that since we were already in OTR, it was the perfect opportunity for a visit at Findlay Market. We ran into Becky just briefly, and I was able to say hello to Mike, too, super-awkwardly as I was being overly self-conscious about knowing the details for his surprise birthday party later in the evening. Hah. I don't think Market will ever get old, and I love that.

[photo by marianne ;) ]

➌ || Down the street from Market: Rhinegeist. I had forgotten that Bockfest was this weekend, which meant an overabundance of extra people literally everywhere. It's not a bad thing; really it makes the place feel fully alive with families, friends and even pets. Of course Rhinegeist in and of itself is a playground worth mentioning, so we were fine spending the nearly three hours there that we did.

friendssss!

a bunch of outta-towners & some cornhole

hiya!

my soulless, naturally-ginger, acca-amazing best (:

[my] better half!

"and now the brown folks will demonstrate brand loyalty..."

yay, home brew!

 ➍ || Eden Park. The Donald A. Spencer Overlook is still my favorite place in Cincinnati; I don't know that that will ever really change. While I honestly wouldn't declare it a majestic view or breathtaking vantage point, a part of my heart will always stay on that hill. I wasn't always as level-headed and in touch with myself as I am [on my way to being] now; there were many days and evenings spent sitting on that wall, alone to regenerate and reflect on a direction that I'm just now starting to actually find. I'm more than happy to share that with the people I love.  

eden park || donald a. spencer overlook || cincy, oh

➎ || Jungle Jim's. Rob peeled off between Rhinegeist and this part of the mission, since he was on the bike and a chill was setting in. Plus, I've dragged him to JJ plenty of times, so he's plenty familiar with the labyrinth that is JJ. I of course picked up some mochi, edamame and hummus before I left, but I more enjoyed the reactions and purchases of my visiting friends.

first stop: the restroom.
& good friends don't let friends go at life alone...

ali & her cheee-eeeeeese!

in honor of the not-yet-here marianne...

➏ || Eli's BBQ. Again, this is a no-brainer for infrequent visitors. Marianne's still not here, so we took advantage again of being able to inhale the sweet barbequed loveliness of Eli's without the accompanying guilt trip.

eli's retrieval crew ;)

➐ || INSERT MARIANNE HERE. Yes, that's right, she's HERE. The four of them are here. And that makes me happy. So. Very. Freakin' Happy!

this girl.. is here!

➑ || Mike's [SURPRISE!] Birthday Party!! Becky invited us some number of weeks ago to what would be a surprise birthday celebration for Mike, held at Jenn & Jordan's farm out in the western plains of Cinci. The gap of time between Marianne walking in the door and us all walking right back out was just a matter of minutes; we were soon en route via the truck to help celebrate Mike's 50th birthday. Oh, and did I mention there were baby goats and bonfires [not... combined, though]? Because there were. And it was all... just... perfect.

baby goats.

bonfires + friends!!

Here are some ways to treat your friends at a bonfire goat birthday party: 

diversify them ;)

synchronize them

♥ them.

chop them.

laugh with them.

wonder... at them..

laugh more with them.

admire, respect & thank them.

take pictures of them.. taking pictures of you.

appreciate them, wholly

let them... go hiking?

& creep them!

 Haha. They... are the best. ♥ Happy birthday, Mike!

 ➒ || OTR. Okay, so this probably wasn't the highlight of our night, but I promise I had good intentions. My plan was to introduce my friends to the soulful goodness that is Magnolia Sons, the band from Tennessee that frequents The Drinkery on the first Saturday of each month. They are so contagiously energetic, and I knew my friends would dig it. The reason I don't often make concrete plans like this is because of unforeseen hiccups like tonight: a] MS only played for the first half of the evening; the second half was booked by some other still-fun-but-definitely-not-MS ensemble, and b] it's Bockfest. There were lines of night-owls around the block at most places, which was a nightmare once you actually got inside. Sardines in a can. No good. We passed the time by pushing through crowds and taking a couple pictures before we wised up and headed home.

these girls..♥♥

& they're the three best friends that anyone could ha--- what?

 ➓ || Family photos!! Duh... SO, almost one year ago to the date [25 April 2013], we were all gathered at Ali's house in Collinsville, and the cameras were out in full force. We captured an unplanned photo that would be coined the Awkward Family Photo for the rest of its existence. Our one goal of the entire weekend was to recreate that. Mission. Accomplished:

25 april 2013

08 march 2014

Things that make me a bit sad: Ali, Tim & Damanji are leaving in the morning, due to some obligations they have back home tomorrow evening.
Things that mildly counteract that sadness: Marianne will be here until Monday. There's nothing like a slow withdrawal.
Things that remind me it's all ok?: We're doing this again in September before Tim ships out to Korea. We'll all really cry then.

For now, gooooood night to a truly amazing day!

xo | cmd