MAYWEATHER v. PACQUIAO

Filipinos everywhere have been anxiously awaiting this day for months now. The rest of the world has chimed in, too. It's been a topic of conversation for a while now and today was the DAY.

If you need to question my allegiance, you may as well just go now... I'm FILIPINO.
'Nuff said? ;)

#TEAMPAC
#TEAMPAC

#TEAMPAC

Hopefully that answers the question ;)

The day leading up to this event, for us, was pretty tame. It started off with my fiance making an incredible breakfast for us, and Sydni sharing scripture with us. She had no idea what she was reading [she was in the old testament.. haha], but it made my heart so happy to see her so determined to read from her Bible.

I spent the day catching up on some blog work, parked on my front porch soaking in the sunshine & occasionally bidding hello to neighbors passing by.

Sydni busied herself with some garden work, clad in her Queen Elsa dress, flip flops and eventually my chacara I'd brought back from Panama. She may be a Hapa, but she definitely looked pure Pinay today... we'll say in honor of Pacquiao.. haha.

little hapa gardener ;) 

Rob spent the day at work in the garage, where his bike now sits with at least some sense of semblance, versus where it was at this time yesterday. There's still quite a few hours left before it's back in running condition, but he made some solid headway today and I know that's an accomplishment for him.

The day wore on; we tidied up the house, did a few chores and managed to catch up on all of our individual projects before dinner [I'll mention here that Rob nailed dinner, too; he's been on a solid roll all week in proving his culinary prowess.. I am both impressed and grateful!]. Andrew showed up soon after dinner to watch the Pacquiao fight with us; Rob bought it and we were all anxious to watch it.

It started off rather slow...

pre-main event.. 

We watched as the openers took their places in the ring and went head to head for their honor, as the seats behind them on the screen started to fill up. The two openers finished and it was finally time for the fluff and thrill of the main event.

opening! 

And no, I'm not going to recount this to you play-by-play, or really even with highlights, because this was the fight heard 'round the world for anyone who cared to know the outcome. Filipinos and others everywhere left disappointed tonight, but I know I'm not alone in my unwavering allegiance to Manny, especially looking past his boxing into his code of ethics, values and priorities. Mayweather may have taken a title by technicality, but Manny remains a tenfold force to be reckoned with, and respected.

I think that's about we can handle for tonight, folks. It's an early one tomorrow.
G'Nite!

xo | cmd

More Family. More Food. More Fun!

We managed something of an "early" start this morning, even without rushing through breakfast or the multiple attempts at a family photo :).

it's been a long & incredible weekend ♥

cousins ♥

With promises to see each other within the next few weeks, we parted ways, with a pitstop destination in hand for Maricor's. It's been way too long since we've seen each other, so how appropriate it would be for us to swing through to celebrate some Christmas time with the James family.

Sydni took to her cousins as though no time at all had lapsed since their last visit; the girls took off at once to their own little world, leaving the adults to catch up on life and all the recent and upcoming things of life that will shape 2015.

My cousin is one of the few women in my life who knows me backwards and forwards, and past the point of where even a best friend can identify. She's been there for me through nearly every insignificant struggle I've ever faced, and without a doubt every single one of my major celebrations, let-downs, trials, mistakes and achievements. I am thankful beyond words to have the kind of connection that we do, and despite our infrequency in getting together, we, like the girls, can pick up right where we left off as seamlessly as though it was just the day before when we last saw each other.

[So Merry Christmas, Maricor! LOVE YOU!]

cousins! 

The girls of course had a mini gift exchange:

sophie. madison. sydni
cousins ♥

Major kudos points to her too; I couldn't tell you the last time I had pancit [Filipino dish], but I'm about to change that this next year, because it... is delicious.

pancit!
[masarap, masarap!!!]

We finally loaded up for our last leg of the trip back home, where we are now. I'm a little worn out but completely content with how the weekend panned out!

hi pup pups!! 

OH! I finished this tonight, too! This two-tone guy is for Maricor's sister, my cousin Caridel, and I'll be shipping it out in the next week or so. Phew! 

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

And that's a wrap, folks. I'm outta here to switch spots with the laptop & snug up to these two ♥

love 'em. 

Happy Sunday to you & yours - Go take Monday by the horns!

xo | cmd

Happy BIRTHDAY, Sophie!!

We call each other's children our "nieces," when in reality we're what, 2nd cousins?

.. Yeah, nieces is way easier.

So, TODAY is my niece Sophie's 2nd birthday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, sweet girl!!!

She's. So. Adorable.... It Hurts. 

happy birthday, sweet sophie!!

Anyway, rewind to the road trip up to Columbus - a short little jaunt, complete with pony talk and princess music. We really were there in no time at all (:

syd & her mlp's

In a few short hours, we were rounding the last corner in Easton and headed for Target, to pick up a couple last minute things. Maricor met us there, and we followed her back to the house to find Chris with the girls. The cousins are finally back together, after what has seemed like forever!

three little dresses for three little girls ♥ 

literally, princesses everywhere .. haha

Maricor and I had every intention on catching up on our own after the girls had gone to bed [Chris, you lucked out this time, haha], but that didn't quite happen as planned. Plus, the weather here in Ohio has again decided that it's not done with its winter crap, so after a spout of rain, this happened for a few hours and completely derailed any desire to venture anywhere:


seriously?
.... enough!!!

So instead of dinner & a movie out, we saved ourselves some of the hassle and added some awesome to the mix with homemade Adobo and multiple rounds of Frozen.

mission: convert adobo into an air freshener.

^^ It's been way too long since I've had adobo. Especially straight from the pot. This, my friends, is called a Filipino problem, if there ever was one. I was drooling from the second the house started smelling like sabaw (broth) to the second we were eating it as though we hadn't actually downed Chipotle less than four hours prior to that. Whatev'. (:

Anyway, we're here curled up on the couch perusing NoMoreRack, with our girls dancing and singing to Anna and Elsa a few feet away. This is just about perfect, if I must say so.

Tomorrow's a birthday party for the birthday baby.. and I can't wait!

xo | cmd

Visit With Kuya RJ!

I'm back!
Wow. So I was useless to the world yesterday, at nobody's fault but my own. Today was a slight improvement, although I'm still a little lagged from the weekend. The good news was, there were a few things on the agenda for today that made the day well worth it!

First off, I finally had a phone graduation from my trusted little Evo to a Galaxy. I now tote two of these suckers around: one for work and now my personal one. Yay for bricks (:

becoming an sgsIII family! :p

And more importantly.... my long lost kuya RJ made a pitstop through Cincinnati tonight! He's en route to Nashville for work, but made some time for dinner and an accelerated version of catching up on the last... eight years almost.

To reiterate just how far we've come... here's a 3-shot flash of kuya [which, for all of you non-Tagalog speakers out there, means "big brother"] & me. There are more, probably from 2004-2007ish, but who knows where those are now [probably a good thing, heh...] I'll say one thing about my time in the rice paddy [endearing term given to the group of us that lived together for a short while]: This guy was more of a big brother to me than anyone before that had ever been. I owe him a lot, specifically for keeping me out of some hairy situations and  Here's a rare glimpse, also, of a phase through which I went that included hoards of facial piercings and multi-colored hair. I think we are all happy that is over.

kuya rj!

We did dinner at Max & Erma's in Rookwood, joined by Nader & Keith, and Carolina as well at the tail end of it all. When that was all finished, RJ headed out to finish the last leg of his trip to Nashville, and the rest of us headed back to Nader's for a couple hours of YouTube videos, SNL skits & Family Guy re-runs. Nope, not mad at that (: I'm home now and it's past my bed time!
G'Nite!

xo | cmd

5 More Important Things Than Miley Cyrus @ The VMA's

There will always be two sides to every argument; I know that I personally have some friends who are defending the VMA performance from last night [which I didn't watch last night... but unfortunately made the horrible decision to investigate the hype today via YouTube. Dumb call]. Call it what you want, whether you think she's being a boundary-pushing pioneer of the entertainment industry, or if you think, like me, that she's a renegade tween star, gone completely rogue and in need of some very simple, very real downhome reality. Whatever you call it, I call it absolutely insane that literally the only thing I could find for pages this morning when I checked in on FB [& apparently every other online outlet] was post after post about her performance.

+ 100 points for her pulling off a successful publicity stunt.
- 479324082 points for us caring as much as we do.

In lieu of all the MC hype, I thought I'd enlighten us on some things that are happening outside the world of MTV... ya know, things that may actually impact us in a way that's healthy for our brain cells.

Here we go.

unicef, for syrian relief

1. Syria. The country is facing political warfare that has produced a still-climbing death toll now of over 100k people. Many of these people are children, who have been caught defenseless in the midst of something they didn't understand, and lost their lives by simply existing in the wrong place. That breaks my heart. I realized today that if I were to name a family or friend for every one MC post I saw today, that I would soon run out of names but wouldn't even scratch the surface of what too many people in Syria have lost. This has been going on for more than two years now, with no tangible end in sight, still. Children and families continue to die daily for this.  Unicef, one of the world's leading relief agencies, is reaching their available limits and dangerously close to being forced to withdraw support. It reminds me how blessed we are not to face this kind of horror, but saddens me that others do. I'm not sorry that I believe this is more legitimate than dear Miley.

my kony2012 shirt

2. KONY. Many people thought that was just a publicity stunt, a big bandwagon on which the flavor-of-the-week philanthropists could ride for a little while. Welp, hate to burst that bubble, but it's real. As a parent, I don't want to sit in fear of something like this happening to my child, but I look at the faces of stolen youth, the victims of this, and my heart breaks for them. The bright side of it? Sevenly has partnered now with InvisibleChildren to counsel and provide support to child-soldiers and their families traumatized by the war. These types of things sadly are becoming a fad to follow and then drop when something else starts trending, but that's far from meaning it's gone. This is real, and there IS hope.

christopher lane

3. Christopher Lane is dead. Don't know who that is? He was an Australian baseball player living in Oklahoma, who was gunned down by 3 kids who had nothing better to do than wait around for someone to kill. This begs the question... REALLY?! What are we doing as a collective group of people to engage our youth in things that will enhance them? Where are sports, or volunteer opportunities... or a community entertainment event... something.. anything... that we could encourage our kids to do? That makes me sad. I typically don't involve myself on a public level in voicing my political stances, but it is in fact disappointing to me that our national leadership [we'll leave it at that] has been far less showy about making appearances over this young man... but when it was Trayvon Martin....... I'm just saying. A life is a life, regardless of who it is; I can't help but wonder where our motives really lie though, when things like this happen so similarly but the coverage is so very different.

love!

4. Good news? Okay. [For you anti-Walmart folks, you'll doubly enjoy this] An abandoned Wal-Mart in Texas was recently renovated with the help of a grant [read it HERE!], and transformed into a library. A LIBRARY! I love that. I hate to think that places like this are slowly becoming an obsolete pasttime for the world; I know I loved going to the library as a kid and will take my children there, so this warmed my heart a little bit knowing that when one monopoly falls, there is something beautiful that can grow in its place. [C'mon, who doesn't remember those awesome, old school library cards with all the stamps?!] (:

hannah taylor

5. Good news, take 2! There is plenty of negative headline reel to last us for the rest of our lives, with more and more popping up every day. What keeps me going is the reminder that humanity does still exist, along with chivalry, compassion and the general ability for us as a species to not only amicably coexist, but to extend ourselves to help someone we don't know. For me, it's even better to hear about it from the least of these, meaning the youngest hearts around the world. I think it's fabulous when movie stars and famous athletes give their resources to charitable causes, but the real magic for me is when it's an average, every day person like you and me, paving the way as a pioneer of another kind to leave a mark on this world bigger than themselves. Remember Hannah Taylor? Probably not.. but when I was in 6th grade, she was in 1st grade in Manitoba. I don't know her; I've never met her, but she is the founder of the Ladybug Foundation, an organization built to aid the homeless and provide networks to get them back on their feet. She saw a homeless man digging in the trash for food, and just couldn't accept that being okay. She was 5. Hannah is 17 now and has taken her mission across the world to the eyes of over thousands of people. She's written books, and continues to fight against homelessness and for those who fall victim to it. Could you imagine this world if every nubile spirit with a human conviction had this type of determination?? I'm amazed.

 So yeah. Sorry for the rants, but honestly, I've had such a hard time wrapping my head around the insane amount of hype over Miley.. freaking.. Cyrus since last night. I think this post was more for myself than for any of you [no offense]; I need sometimes to be reminded that this life I live can be so much more than just myself and those close to me. I can make a difference if I put my mind to it, and I can teach Sydni and any future children I have to do the same. I may be standing alone in my opinion on how ridiculous this is, but at the same time, I'm a firm believer that standing firm for your beliefs, even if you are standing alone, is always the best road to take anyway.

In other, less-important news, I donated blood today at the Queen City Blood drive, and was pleased to notice that Filipinos have officially made the checklist of available options on the paperwork. I proudly checked it. Haha.

yep! that's me! (:

Unfortunately, I apparently didn't eat enough today, because I had to stop at 333 [halfway] while I was in the chair. Becky was originally scheduled to go with me, but her iron levels were too low and so it'll be a few weeks before she can go again. All around, just an off day for both of us.. haha. The silver lining though? My friend Eric from Hoxworth expressed to me that he'd like to do a blood drive at Findlay Market, so I'm setting him up with Becky to coordinate that, and to celebrate our double failures, Becky & I headed straight to Eli's BBQ afterwards before heading our separate ways.

not mad at eli's ... nope, not mad (:

*Phew. I'm whooped.
Skype date with the boyfriend and then an early night for this critter.

Mission for Tomorrow: Love someone you don't know, even if it's with just a smile in passing. (:

xo | cmd

Killer Yardwork & Asian Volleyball

First things first, let's talk about yardwork.
... Let's talk about that time I completely forgot I had a backyard in the capacity of the jungle that had taken it over. I haven't bothered going back there in quite a few weeks due to the massive camps of mosquitos who I'm convinced are just patiently staking out until I'm in striking range, so honestly, it didn't occur to me that the yard might look more like a forest than an occupied property. Embarrassing blunder.. definitely won't happen again.

Good news, I took care of it, with minimal damage [only TWO mosquito bites.. take that, suckers..]. Note to self? - This sucked today. Don't forget about this again, self, don't... forget. Yeesh. 

massive overhaul. whoa.

Moving on to the rest of the night... it has been.... a while since the last time I was surrounded by this many of my Asian friends. Let's take a second to give a flashback just for the sake of a flashback...

uc dpsa 2004 (discover philippines student association)

Ohhhh yeah. That's a bomb right there, haha. Look at all those old faces.. and that's barely the half of it. There were definitely some great times with these guys and gals, and though I'm happy where I am now, I had some incredible experiences, road trips, conferences and performances with this group.

So tonight, for a miniature reprise, I opted in for some volleyball at Hahana Beach after B found out I played there. He and a crew of Asians catapulted me back in time to my college years when we stormed three full courts for a few hours tonight to play.

nothin' like late night sand volleyball (:

This was my favorite part... because I've become so used to now taking pictures and having no way of mistaking which one is me. I'd also like to say that yes, the obsession with taking pictures is absolutely an Asian thing, and I will embrace that to the bitter end ;)

asian overload!

Hilarious. Thanks again, B, for the invite! I'll be back here in the same spot tomorrow night for league with Kalyn, Keifer & Beth. I'm certainly getting my fix if nothing else!

On an unrelated note, I finally made it home after some debachle finding my keys post-game [it could be worse... I'm just glad I got back], and for what it's worth from the situation I must note that once again, I've been reminded that I am dating an incredible guy and even from 500ish miles away, he's there for me whenever I need him. I don't deserve it, and count myself one of an elite handful to have someone on whom I can rely and trust. //endrant (:

And that's the day, folks! Let's meet here same time tomorrow? ;)

xo | cmd

[SUPER] #TBT

This entire entry? Odes to Throwback Thursdays. Haha.

Here we go. I narrowed it down to the top 8 [like the original myspace, pahaha super throwback reference...].
I'll do my best to keep them chronologically listed.

1 | Hellooooo, baby Cori! This dusted-off jewel comes from the archives of Boulder, Colorado. What my mom didn't know, was that in just a few years, I wouldn't need those curlers. I would however, need pants. I don't think there was any confusion later on, but still. Hello, scared Cori with old lady curlers in her hair. You're.... a miniature granny. Thanks, mom ;)

1986 | meet 2-yr-old me.

2 | Fast forward a few years. This is vacation with Mom & Dad. This picture is awesome. Dad, along with his decade-appropriate short shorts, and me sporting what I am fairly certain to be a Paul Bunyon "Reading is Power" [or something] shirt from PSES. And we're on a boat. They started me early. :)

1994 | fourth grade me & dad

3 | I've gotta dedicate this one to Chelsea & Brandon, back in my hometown of Mt. Vernon. It's throwback Thursday, and I couldn't help but get this one posted. This is from our childhood in the sticks, aka MV, being kids and enjoying every bit of it. Love these two. Talk about neighborhood kids!

1998 | 8th grade me, probably 1st & 3rd grade brandon & chelsea?

4 | High School! I remember this pretty clearly, but I still think it's hilarious to look back and see how much we've changed. This was forum show, I think junior year. This was in the green room with the youngest of the Culbertson clan, Hilari [she's grown up now, and just as beautiful as her sisters!]. Yes, I had cornrows. Yes, I sang Killing Me Softly that night, and YES, I had cornrows. Hahah. Ohhhh... yeah... 

mvhs forum show 2000 | with hilari

5 | College. "Ohhhh, Ohhhhh.. OHHHHH... *clap clap clap,* U-C!" yeah. I went there. I loved it, and I'm glad I was able to have that experience. Among the many things I did there, one of the first things I found myself roped into was DPSA [Discover Philippines Student Association]. By the time I graduated, I was voted in as president for a year and a half, and had the opportunity as part of that group to travel across the midwest to a series of different colleges, conferences and shows. Naturally that meant delving into hip hop, cultural dance and more importantly tribal stuff. That's where Kawayanero came into play, and I have to include that I will always have a soft spot in my heart for being voted in as the first female kawayanero in what was previously an all-guy project. We brought on two more gals to complete the tribe and had a blast for a few years performing at whatever conference we were. The archives are limited for this one, but I found a half-decent shot of the clan at U of I in Urbana Champagne, this one from the FACT [Filipino Americans Coming Together] conference. Here ya go,  kaibigan! ;) 

kawayaneros 2003 | univ. of illinois @ urbana champagne | fact conference '03
back: loc, david, ronnie, brandon, alex | front: paris, cori, maika

6 | Post-College Cincinnati life. This was right after I finished up at UC. I'd supported myself with a retail job [senior assistant manager at Journey's... c'mon, shoe obsession!] through the tail end of college, and before the grueling tenure I had at Clearchannel, I nailed down a store manager position at PacSun. This is probably still one of my favorite random shoots. Whitney and I met each other here and have been friends ever since. Like I said, this is still one of my favorite moments with her at the store. This is what you get for leaving us to close together on a dead weekday night! 

2007 | pac sun
whitney, manny the mannequin & myself ;)

7 | Finding my adult life... haha. Kalyn and I quickly became best friends after meeting through... well, it doesn't really matter how we met. All that matters is that this girl is, to this day, one of my best friends, and I would move just about anything to be there for her the way she's been there for me. A few summers back [this one... is from..... 2010?], we jumped on the bikes for pretty much the entire summer and that's really all I remember from it. There was a lot of swimming involved, lots of river time, sand volleyball, soccer, cooking, and a lot of laughing. This was probably one of my favorite summers, with one of my favorite friends. Love this girl. 

2010 | river gear... with helmets. mehhhh.

8 | I figured I'd close this post by bringing it full circle with another baby pic... but not of me. This one's a throwback to early 2011, from my one.. and only... little love of my life. I can look at this picture a million times and still be in disbelief of how quickly the time has passed. She is getting so big now and it's still hard to believe she's almost FOUR. These baby pictures will never get old. I remember this one like it was this morning. These are the moments that make me realize how blessed I am to be a mama to such an incredible little girl. It may not be a perfect world that her and I are in, but she is perfect for me. ♥.

2011 | baby sydni | love of my life!!

So yeah, how's that for a story-esque TBT?
Haha. It's almost the weekend! I can't wait!

xo | cmd

Pumpkin Chuckin'. OWLS!. Bluegrass | Asian x2!

Today was something of a random day. I know that's surprising. Haha.

It started off with my trekking down to Catie's place and heading out together to one of Cincinnati's park areas for a Pumpkin Chucking festival. It wasn't a huge production, but everything you could possibly need on a chilly Saturday was all in one spot: Hot chocolate, apple cider, grilled cheese, burgers, midieval trebuchets for pumpkin launching, an owl, a falcon, a goat & a sheep, and most importantly, one of my best friends playing some mean fiddle for a live bluegrass rundown.

+ I hugged the sheep. Let's be real, he looked warm.
Like I said, slightly random. But awesome.


owl! i almost stole him. | cincinnati

catie & her band! loved loved loved it | cincinnati

trebuchet for pumpkin launching | cincinnati


Once we were cleaned up from the perpetual dew that still hadn't burned off by the time the morning was over, we tailed it to Eli's BBQ [recommend!!] for some true pit BBQ, before we all split off on our separate ways for a bit. 

not even a hard decision. this place is amazing. | eli's bbq | cincinnati

>> Insert Nap. 
+ in a hammock. (:

Becky and I decided it would be a good idea once she was off work to head up to Kenwood to grab some coffee and then to Norwood for a window-shopping visit to REI [who does that?! Oh wait, we do..]. It was a successful mission until we started digging in to our personal lives and spilling onto each other all of the things that move us to the core. As Becky happens to be one of my closest friends, it wasn't hard to give her the raw, unaltered version of my life in real time, but not without the consequence of a few tears. We drove all over Hyde Park, O'Bryonville, Madisonville, Norwood and Kenwood in search of food that sounded good, but landed ultimately right back at The Comet in Northside. Go fig. We managed to pull ourselves together, grab some food, and head back to her apartment. She left to go have a slumber party with her aunt and uncle's dogs [sitting, yeah!] while they're out of town, and I managed somehow to put myself into a presentable shape for dinner at Sung Korean [another recommendation] with Catie & Jen.

jen & me! | otr.cincinnati

^^ Would you look at that? There's another Asian girl around these parts! Haha. I joke, I joke. I only say that because of the circle in which I typically ran the last time I lived here, it was myself and my two dingo brother bears and that was the extent of the Asian presence. I always thought it would be nice to have some mocha estrogen around, so as it stands now I'm pretty stoked to have JEN, who, in a streak of awesome coincidence, is Pinay, too. Bah-riiiiing it. Haha. I'm joking. (:

I love these folks.
Blessed, yeah.

xo | cmd

Filipino Flashbacks

Yeah, so I'm Filipino.
What a lot of people don't know about me is that, for a large portion of my life in college and shortly thereafter, I had immersed myself completely in the [re-]recognition of everything that is a part of that beautiful culture.

During my tenure at UC, I held the position as president of the university's Filipino-Am (Fil-Am) student association. It was a terrific experience that created multiple opportunities for me to visit other colleges/universities for conferences, explore the history of the population as a whole, learn new cultural dances, and cook cultural food. I wouldn't trade that time for the world: while I am adopted, and an American through and through in my heart, I am still Filipina, and that culture is a part of who I am.

That being said, there is a Fil-Am association here, which I have yet to investigate, simply because I keep running out of time to get over there. I drove by it once again on my way out of the base the other day, and for the next 20 minutes kept reminiscing back to the times when I did my part in cultural performances and planning for the different conferences and hosted events.


binisuan | dpsa

 That girl on the left? Yeah, that's me, sometime back in the mid 2000's. That particular performance was for a cultural day at one of the local high school's in our area, at which the daughter of one of Cincinnati's elder Filipina women attended. It was a guest performance, and a ton of fun.
The other picture [in which we kind of resemble confused bartenders, I know] was at [THE] Ohio State University's Barrio Fiesta, an annual Fil-Am event hosted by OSU's PSA [Philippines' Student Assoc.] The dance portrayed in both of these is called, Binisuan, which entails balancing a cup of water on your head, and one in each hand as you're dancing. It's not easy.

When I think about all the dances in which I had the liberty of participating, I would have to say Singkil was my absolute favorite. It's a beautiful love story played out with a huge ensemble of dancers, bamboo poles, and stunning costumes. A less intricate, but equally beautiful cousin of Singkil is the dance that became my favorite to perform. Tinikling is one of the most popular Filipino dances, and one of [in my opinion] the most fun to learn and perform. It certainly requires a fair amount of agile footwork; otherwise there is a likely guarantee that you will get your ankles smashed by two heavy bamboo poles.

Long story short, I spent a lot of time over the past few days thinking back to my days of Fil-Am costumes, tours, dances, conferences, and shows. It was a ton of fun, and the more I think about it now, the more inclined I am to find another avenue here, in America's dream of Belleville, IL, to again dig into that culture in a more hands-on capacity. I would also love for my daughter to develop a solid knowledge of what is a part of her, as well.

And so my search is on.....

xo | cmd