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

Something Something... Saturday

This was my view for most of this morning.


driving into the sunrise = beautiful.

It really  helped, given the circumstance and the fact that we hit the road right around 5am. This is my least favorite venture every single time I make it, not necessarily even for the distance traveled, but for what I know is waiting at the other end.

The other view I had didn't hurt much, either... and reminded me that there is a purpose behind all of this nonsense.


piggie pillow, apple juice, big smile.
.: LOVE :.

Like I said, not a fun trip to have to make, but it is what it is, and I'm embracing the simple fact that I have such a beautiful daughter to begin with. I made my way back to IL before 11am; I stopped off at the dog pound with the delusional thought that it might cheer me up some. I was clearly out of my mind, because I was two sad barks away from taking home a full wing of homeless canines. Don't do it....


chocolate consolation.
...... ooookay.....



I got home and resigned myself to a sullen state of "blah," which was promptly and thankfully interrupted by Ali and DeShawn. I forced myself out of the house and met them at Red Robin.

Good call. Chocolate cake was there. Whoever said chocolate is soothing was not kidding. It doesn't erase my wandering thoughts today, but it certainly didn't hurt my mood. 

Anyway, we finished at RR and made our way to Toys R Us [I was cheering right up by this point]. Ali needed a birthday present for her friend's little boy, so we tagged along. It wasn't long before the sugar rush from that gigantic piece of chocolate cycled out of my system and I wanted nothing more than a nap....

*insert nap*

Rob conquered the task of coercing me out of the house again [my inner emo being was insisting on a Saturday night of self-loathing indulgence on the couch], so I trekked up to his house. We hopped in the diesel and headed right back down to O'Fallon to Hot Shots for dinner with some of his friends before landing for the rest of the night at Jake's.

All in all, I must say that I'm thankful for these friends of mine; I still feel like I'm in kind of a funk, but I'm sure it'll pass. I'm still kickin', so that's one step ahead of a lot of other folk.

xo | cmd

[Backdated] Birthday Wishes!

I love birthdays! (:

Despite my hesitation from not feeling well yesterday, I woke up in amiable condition this morning and decided to tackle cleaning the bulk of my house. Go figure. Sydni even helped, in spite of her feeling just as crummy as I was just hours earlier. Hmm. That out of the way, I opted for a nap, warding off any oncoming creep of whatever bug I thought I was fighting yesterday.

Ali came over this afternoon bearing gifts, haha. She ordered this little guy for me, and I love love love it.

thank you, friend!!

I decided I did feel well enough for birthday festivities. Ali volunteered to watch Sydni for the evening, so I entrusted her wellbeing to Sydni [yes, I phrased that right], and we headed out to St. Louis to the Broadway Oyster Bar to rendezvous with Rob's friends and celebrate Kyle's birthday. We stopped at Kyle's and picked up both him and his sister, and made our way through the rain to St. Louis.


broadway oyster bar

B.O.B. = Delicious.

From there it was off to Kramden's for some more celebrating, before our final stop out at Jacobsmeyers. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KYLE! (:


♥ celebrating kyle's birthday

Ali is pretty much awesome for hanging with the monster tonight, and I was pleasantly relieved when we got back and found that Ali had in fact avoided Sydni's wrangling and was not tied and stuffed into any closets ;)


ali & monster ;)

I'll tell ya what..... I have some truly incredible people in my life...♥  Real talk.

xo | cmd

Last Minute Planners!

Well this was a Saturday! [++backdated, yessir]

I specifically waited a few days for the NYE Resolution crowd to dissipate at the gym [that's a fun crowd every year... not so much] before making my way there, and I figured today would be just as good a day as any to see if they were in it for the win or not.

...[not]. Gym was moderately busy, but it felt good to get back in there and do some damage to my body which, before today, had been on a 2-week hiatus from any sort of real work.

Good news: Mama's still got it.
Bad news: Mama apparently can't pay enough attention to the little sideweights on the machine to realize she just maxed out. On accident. Womp womp womp [in other words, I'm sore.]

I spent the rest of the day nursing my legs back into a state of function. Rob had to put in some weekend hours, and by the time he was done with that we had almost resigned ourselves to a set list of .... nothing for the night. Luckily, he tracked down some plans that included a trip over to the Old Rock House in St. Louis [never been, loved it!] to see Dirt Nasty [youtube it ++lmfao]. We rendezvoused with some of his friends beforehand and spent the rest of the evening with them... laughing most of the night. Good stuff.


old rock house | stl, mo

We finished the night off at Jacobsmeyers... and I've gotta say... spent. Great night though; needed one of these. Not too shabby for last minute planners, yeah? I didn't think so ... (: 



........ oh hey (:

Happy weekend!

xo | cmd