Exploring: SonRise Community Church

I did some exploration today. I've been back in Cincinnati for a couple of months now, but have been booked back to back to back lately with different things; I've been out of town every weekend for the past seven weekends alone, if that signifies anything. Haha. So today, I made it my mission to do what I've wanted to since I set foot back in this city: start exploring churches.

 

Today I visited SonRise, which is just minutes from my house. I ran into some faces I didn't expect to see: one from New Harmony of all places, and some others I've known from various places over the years. The guest speaker was from the Cincinnati Dream Center downtown, and overall it was an experience I liked!

It's a line to walk, I know, choosing a church family and home. Honestly, NO, I do not believe a church is solely a place, a building, or even a group of people. Trust me, I'm not naiive. I know firsthand how all of those things and then some can burn and at times have burnt me into a place of retreat.. resentment.. even complete disdain.. but my belief is that I am not part of a religion, but part of a faith, that starts with me and ends with service to others. It is not a popularity contest or political platform [though they do hold appropriate times and mediums], but a set of core values that I will stand by, regardless of what I'm faced with or challenged to do. It's not easy to stand alone, but it's harder to stand among values I don't have, pretending to agree and then trying to sleep at night. My philosophy is simple: Be kind. Love God. Love Others. Edify. Serve. I'm working on all of those things....

So for now.. I search. I would ask you to pray that wherever I am meant to be, that I find it and can plug into it. Honestly, I miss singing, I miss doing design work .. and I miss volunteering in that capacity. *Sigh.

Back at home, I took full advantage of it being Sunday, and made a mission to do as little as possible. I think it's the fact that I've not been home on a weekend in nearly two months that made it so easy to laze around on a beautiful day [in hindsight, I didn't even think to do exactly this on the river in a kayak.. but there will be plenty of time for this].. I'm just thankful.

You'll have to pardon what I realize was just an entirely disconnected slew of thoughts... it's been a long week and while I feel refreshed now, I can feel the edge of weighty decisions in a few arenas creeping in on me again and my mind is all over the place. No need to worry, but we'll leave it at that for now and I'll sort it out piece by piece. (:

Tomorrow = Monday = new work week = feeling... determined.
G'Nite (:

xo | cmd

Bowling, Bring IT

Sometimes I like to pretend I'm halfway decent at bowling.

@the bottom..

I think I'm going to take up bowling as a winter endeavor [when the slopes are unavailable]. It's a good way to unwind, and easy to manage during inclement weather. Everyone wins. Except me, after the first game. I dunno what it is about bowling, but I get progressively worse the more I bowl.. not better. Go figure.

That was the scoreboard after an outing with Mo, Jimmy & Becky. Regardless of scores, it was a good time and much-needed at that.

I need to get out more. (:

xo | cmd

TOUGH MUDDER 2012!

After months of preparation, training, blood, sweat and dieting [do you hear the drums rolling in the background?  haha], TOUGH MUDDER 2012 fiiiinally graced us with its impending presence. Yay, mud!

We started the day off by agreeing beforehand that we would all rendezvous at the Tower at 5:00AM [oh.my.earlybird.]. That being said, we took all measures to have everything as ready as possible last night in efforts to get out the door as quickly as possible this morning. I woke up already dressed for the day and plugged a half-conscious Sydni into the carseat to drop her off at Jarod's. Becky couldn't make the trip out to Poplar Bluff, so she opted to stay back with Lyla & Sydni [thank you thank you!!]. All was going swimmingly until I got pulled over on the way to Jarod's. Here's kinda how that went, in a nutshell:

Cop: "Where ya headed at 4:30 in the morning with a kid in the backseat?"

Me: "Tough Mudder."

Seriously. I wanted to tell him I'd just returned from the casino and was acting as the DD for the 3-year-old in the backseat who'd had oooone too many apple juices. Oh, and thanks for giving me a warning only. I really do appreciate it :), and I was just kidding about the apple juice thing. Hah.

SO, I made it to and from Jarod's in decent time, and soon enough found myself buckled in with Joe and Jarod in the back of Jimmy & Mo's car en route out to Poplar Bluff to the offroad park that served as the grounds for Mudder.


ninja photog mode... commence.

Jason set me up with a killer getup for the day, with which I had more than enough fun throughout the day: L lense and all. I don't need to tell you I had fun with it ;)
Mudder was about as magical as it usually is: loaded up with hilarious moments, great costumes, and of course, pictures galore. There's a full set available online if you feel like perusing the entire day via photo-documentation. You'll have to excuse any gaps you see; we did spend about 2 hours lost on the course due to excellent mapping [that's a joke] by the mudder teams, but it's cool. We got the shots and we had fun doing it. Congrats to The Fighting Cocks for a day well spent!!

Fighting Cocks | Tough Mudder 2012

the ladies of mudder this year... that one front & center won't be so
clean this time next year... #participant!

To celebrate survival of the Mudder, we headed out to Lambert's, which, if you haven't visited, is absolutely amazing and now has my solid seal of endorsement. That, and the servers throw bread at you while you're eating. What more could you want? Haha.

We're exhausted, as you could guess. It's been a good day, but we're callin' it.

Tough Mudder 2012 = SUCCESS!

xo | cmd

TGIF: Office Baseball & Koinonia

TGIF!

May I take this moment to present to you....

... my co-workers and managers.

True story. 

tgif. express mode.

juggling in heels? sure. (: 

Let me explain.

Every once in a while, my office lapses into a state of uncontrollable chaos. Since there is just a handful of us, it's pretty much essential that we take these little breaks every so often. Some of you remember the last episode of Express PAUSED; it involved a course of 12 holes of mini golf through  the office. I lost, bigtime. Haha.

Today's debauchery started with a padded bat and a foam ball. SOMEhowwwww ... escalated into an all-out war, with an arsenal including an umbrella, a nerf dart gun, a soccer ball, and a wiffle ball. Don't ask why we have all of these things readily available in our office, but these things happen.. haha.

Oh, and for this bout, we went with some video footage, too.
[dun dun dunnnnn]

oh heyyy, ali! (: 

Good stuff, haha. More pictures to come.. probably on facebook. Yenno. 

Ohhhh yeah, and it's Koinonia night! These have a strong track record of being my favorite type of Fridays. Tonight was no stranger to that same vibe, it was just funny because apparently we were all on the same page - not wanting to cook. I'm fairly certain this was about the most unhealthy buffet of food I've ever had on my counter at the same time. Meh. I don't feel guilty; none of us eat this way on a regular basis and it was pretty delish anyway... so... yeah. We'll do some cooking next time ;). 

Happy weeeeeekend!

xo | cmd

Farewell for Now, 'Nati :|

[#backdated.entry]

Did I mention it's amazing to be visiting back home? Well, you should've gathered by now that it's incredible seeing familiar faces, going to old favorite hangouts, venturing into new places that didn't exist when I last lived there, and above all realizing that I am still home in Cincinnati.

We visited our old church for the service this morning, not realizing it was a baptism Sunday. Andrea Jones and one of the youth girls made their show of faith with Pastor Poe today, and it was a blessing for us to be witnesses to the event. Congratulations!


baptisms @ new harmony!
congratulations, andrea!!

Another thing I dearly miss about New Harmony is hearing Julie sing each week. There are some people who can "sing" [I sometimes fit into that category], and then there are people who can SING. Julie is the latter, among the ranks of say, Trish here at Towerview. She picked a great song, too; definitely not a shabby Sunday to be at New Harmony!


julie singing - beautiful!

After church, we made a quick stop by Mindi's, who was our full time in-home daycare gal whenever we still lived in Cincinnati. Since Sydni is scheduled to stay a week with Joe's mom, she'll be spending the weekdays at Mindi's while Sandy's working. It was incredible to see them again, to catch up, but ultimately to know that Sydni is going to in good hands all around while I'm back in Illinois. 

love love love & LOVE her.

It was then off to It's Just Crepes downtown to rendezvous with Jimmy & Mo -- WAIT A MINUTE! Aren't you in Cincinnati still?! -- << I know, right?! As it so happened, Mo's sister lives up here, and she got married yesterday, too. That put the Prescotts on our turf on the same weekend we were scheduled to be here, so of course we wanted to show them around some of our favorite spots. Oh, and I did their maternity pictures, too! I can't show you those just yet, because they've still not seen them. Nothing personal, and don't worry, I'll have them up soon. I can however, give you a glimpse of the best photographer's assistant, ever... Haha.

*sigh.
So obviously this is backdated, but the good news is, I'm back safe and sound in Illinois and getting ready to take on the week sans husband and child. Holy smokes.. I may actually get this place clean after all! ;)

And
heeeeeere

we.... GO.

xo | cmd

Daily Gratitudes

I've been pledging to myself the last few weeks to attain and maintain a higher level of overall positivity. While this is absolutely relevent to my personal life, as well, as it pertains to what I'm sharing now, this is specific to my life at work.

My job is rooted in the interaction with other people. If there was simply ONE word to describe what I do - not my job title, but rather my actual job - it would be the word people. People of just about every calibur cross my desk or my phone line in the course of just a single day, for a list of reasons I wouldn't even want to begin detailing. There are moments that drive me to what I often think to be the end of my wit, but more frequently there are floods of gratification to be had from the fruit of my labor. Correction, our labor.

I am part of a machine which, at times, has had broken pieces, mis-calibrated gears, and of course, days during which it seems to be completely out of commission all together. Like every good office, the most productive days can only be measured agains the comparative scale of menial and tedious crap through which we march day in and day out in search of success. Without divulging unecessary detail, I'll simply say that most recently, the overall functionality of my work-life has taken some dramatic leaps both down, up, down, and back up, and I'm proud to be part of what seems to be a stretch of improvement.

Again, even in the realm of  internal functioning, people have just about 98% of the determining power as to whether or not any collective endeavor will be effective in its originally intended form. [That other 2%? I'm convinced it's failed technology.] Well, as it so happens, I work with a group of people, with whom I've seen good, bad, ugly, and everything in between. I will consider them my work family, simply because we do in fact spend a third of the hours in a work-day week hanging out in the same office. That's more than enough time to experience the way a person is wired and how they can contribute to an overall effort.

ALL of that being said, we allotted a portion of today to Office Training, with Wendy- a gal who used to work on the corporate side of my company, conducting training for all the newbs [such as myself, a few years back] and consulting for the franchise owners and developers. She's pretty awesome. Her passion now is consulting, and that's probably what landed her in our hands for an hour today.

Kids, I'm a skeptical person, slightly by nature but more subliminally by experience. When it comes to anything formatted as a "formal group exercise," I'm unfortunately that person that needs to be sold on it within the first few points in order to absorb its content. Well, I already like Wendy from previous encounters, so I had no doubt walking into this that it would be worth it.

Good call, Cori! :)
Wendy wasted no time digging right in - deep, but with a goal no more zealous than to identify the exact fundamentals that drive our process. I was pleasantly surprised. I'll spare the more involved details, but I eventually wanted to share this with the world, because I'm sold.... that it's beneficial.


"daily gratitudes"

May I introduce: Daily Gratitudes.
Nothin' like starting from scratch.
The assignment is this: Moving forward, each day, take 5 minutes before and after the day passes to answer those questions, and see if it doesn't start to make a difference. Sure, it's kiiiind of "woo woo" things, as Wendy coins them, meaning they're a little cheesy in both theory and presentation, but that's not to void their effectiveness. I get it, it's a little elementary, but past face value [I took my first go at it this afternoon] it's actually kind of neat. My brain functions consciously on the most recent information to pass through it, so keeping a running and constantly-revised draft of this at the forefront of my brain has been helpful.

Example 2:
Identify any given group of people, issues, or functions in your day-to-day routine, and then list, in no particular order, any and all one-word descriptions that would encompass that person, issue, or function. For instance, we used, "associates," referring to the group of people who are either current or prospective employees of ours. There was a vast, vast range of adjectives in that regard, and rightfully so, on both spectrums. Once we'd poured out enough honesty to hold us for a while, we were instructed to review the list and cross off all the derogatory descriptors. After that, make a committment to refrain from using any/all negatives, while simultaneously focusing on only building from the positives. Reality check.

Like I said, totally basic, totally applicable, and above all, totally doable theories.
I didn't realize how much I would appreciate Wendy's visit today, but as it looks right now, I think I'll be consulting that consultant on a frequent basis.

And... I'm encouraged. I needed an extra little pick-me-up, and that was it. Thanks, Wendy :).

Welp, Mo was here earlier and will be back again after TeamKid; I suppose I'd better get to packing for the weekend before she gets back... one more day at work before it's O-H... I-O! bound!

I. Can't. Wait.

xo | cmd

Alex Babot Day

There is something to be said about the power of good friends and the impact they can have on us.
There is something even more to be said about the power of fellowship among believers; we, on so many different levels, are capable of reaching so much deeper into each others' lives than just the surface, and have that relationship echo back to us.

That being said [I know, something of an epic intro for what is actually pretty silly], today was orchestrated to be Alex Babot Day among a few of the guys at the Tower. For those of you who don't know Alex, his better half is Lara, and they are the first couple with which we really bonded when we first got to Towerview. I love them to pieces, and wish we had more opportunity to see them outside of church [ah, life]. Anyway, one of Alex's signature trademarks is his affinity with, and absolute ability to successfully sport the bowtie. I'm telling you, it might seem like a dated form of neckwear, but this guy can pull it off.

Erego, Alex Babot Day. :)

joe. pastor ron. adam. jarod.
ta-da! [this wasn't even all of them]
{missing at least jason, jimmy, kyle, and of course, alex! :( .. }

And if you think the fun stopped at the grown boys.....


cutest thing, ever. haha.. little luke!

^ I was actually on nursery rotation this week with Mo & Tanya; Tanya put Kyle's tie on Luke to see how it would look... and might I just say, he was dashing! He looked like a little sub-contractor; Tanya even managed to snag a shot of him making some important business calls. [We don't mean to interrupt, Mr. Luke! ;) ].

Now, because my husband is a married man, he is part of the larger collective group of married men who so often are found with one or both of their feet squarely planted in their own mouths. [I say that lovingly.. lol] In this case, a comment was made that Joe should buy lunch for every participant of Alex Babot day if Alex did not show up to bear witness. Welp, Alex did not make it this morning, so I'm not really sure if or when that's going to actually happen, because today was consumed with last-minute errands before Joe headed out to Cinci tonight. Haha. Good. Work. Joe. :p

Anyway, just a few more days before the next weekend, during which we'll all be in Cinci. I'm chompin' at the bits to get home.. good grief. I can't wait :) :) :)

Almost Monday!

xo | cmd

NO Transformers In The House! ;)

Ya see that?  That, my dear blogbots, is nothing more than a simple chai latte from Bread Co, but it was delivered by one of our clients. He toted in three little lattes and three little bagels for three gals who didn't realize how delicious they both would be this morning. How thoughtful, right? [Thanks, Warren!]

So I can't complain about how the morning started once we got going; M&D are out this week at Summit, so we're left again to our own devices. The day passed by without too much fuss and that was that. I made a pitstop at St. Clair Sq. at yet another attempt to nail down a dress option for Michelle's wedding next weekend. Update on that? SUCCESS. As Nancy would've said, "Cha cha CHAAAA...."

At home, I found Mo already there, with Jimmy following about 15 minutes later, and lastly, Joe. Since he's slated to do some travelling for work that does not warrant flight time, he rented a car for the journey.

Well.. let me re-phrase that.

He rented a Transformer. I'm pretty sure Bumblebee is in my garage. It's pretty wicked cool, the ONLY exception being that this is in fact real life, Cori, and the autobots don't really exist.

Well boo hiss. [It still looks like a Transformer. Hmph!]

Anyway, we thought it would be fun to take it for a spin out to dinner; as funny as it was, the short jaunt to Texas Roadhouse was quite the episode as it was the four of us plus Syd in her carseat.

*Note: This car is not really meant to have backseat passengers. Haha.

Oh well. We're back here now, at home; the boys are downstairs disassembling the tent - pardon me, the castle, and Mo and I are about to zonk out to some CSI. I love our dear friends. That's a good Thursday, yeah?

I think so :)

xo | cmd

Itty Bitty Koinonia

mo & evan

It's been a long week. Joe's still out of town and the majority of our small group had other unavoidable obligations. That left us with a small but enthusiastic gang of the Prescotts, the Gobles, Becky, myself, and the little kids. 

We had a great time, as always; it's no secret that large or small, this group is incredible and I love having this time with them on Koinonia nights. Evan had a great time too, and he and Mo and their matching shirts had a bunch of fun all night. 

We missed all of our regulars who couldn't attend tonight, but hopefully we'll see you very soon! Thanks again, Tom, for providing the lesson for us tonight. It's been a wild week and this was the perfect way to unwind: friends, fellowship, food, and funny kids :) 

See you tomorrow, folks :)

xo | cmd

Salad & A Movie

Well I just feel like quite the DIY-er today, after having finished off the fourth of four in my first round of jarred lunches. I will never know why I'd not gone this route sooner, but after catching drift of a very similiar idea from Jess, I scaled back what she had displayed as more of a gift-esque presented version of the jar salad into something I could do for lunch every day.

yum. :)

Funny enough, I set out with the final picture as my goal; I was met with my first hurdle when I realized that good old Target didn't carry the "regular sized" mason jars; the tall, slender ones I automatically think of when I think of mason jars. Instead, I found two smaller sizes and one impractically huge size in the canning section of Target kitchenwares. I picked up one set of each of the two smaller sizes: 1 pint and 1/2 pint. They come in sets of 4, and run less than $6 per set. After comparing them to some salsa jars, I quickly realized that they were the of the same capacity and would be plenty big enough for what I needed.

Correct! I toted them home and filled each with some greens, carrots, hard boiled eggs, chick peas, and parmesan cheese. My advice at this point: do NOT add dressing until you are ready to eat it. Anyhow, they turned out nice and pretty; I was still a little leary about how they'd hold up for 4-5 days in the fridge, fearful I might crack open the last one and be faced with soggy lettuce, mushy garbonzo beans, etc. Happy to report, that was not the case! :) It's Friday, and the salad I'd assembled on Sunday of this week was just as fresh as it was when I put it in the jar. Add some dressing, do a little shaking [whoa, flashback to high school caf salads in the plastic containers? haha..], and presto! Delish. Inexpensive, quick, and I would say highly-recommended. Yums :)

the campaign

Oh, and Eric's still in town! We had dinner with the Prescotts at the house last night, and tonight, since Dawne is hosting another sleepover for Sydni, we were kiddo-free for the evening. In efforts to take full advantage of that, we immediately sprung plans for dinner and a movie. Dinner was the locally-acclaimed Lotawata Creek, and movie was, by unanimous vote, The Campaign. As it so unfortunately goes sometimes with movies like this, there were definitely some funny moments, but in hindsight I could've waited to Redbox this one. Oh well. The company was great and that's all that mattered. :) Eric heads out tomorrow afternoon, and we'll wrap up the evening with some long-overdue catching up on chores and such. Can't wait.. Womp womp womp....

Happy weekend!!

xo | cmd

Happy Birthday, KIM!!

From Illinois back to Ohio.... oh dear KIMBERLY...

!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!!!!

love you darling friend!!!!!

kim's bday 2010 .. because it was 5:00 somewhere..
.. yeah, we found that somewhere :)

Ohhhhhh man, oh man. I can't even tell ya how much I adore this girl and all that she is. There were a couple summers in particular that found us more often than not having the times of our lives and throwing caution to the wind [no, not in a dangerous way, but more in that youthful sense], untethered by the responsibilities of the grown up lives we both are now pursuing. That's the generous way to put it, haha. She's definitely one of those guaranteed spur-of-the-moment good times girls, with a huge heart, even bigger personality, and somehow fitting all of that awesome into her tiny little self. Happy birthday, Kimberlyyyyy - I love you dearly, and can't wait to see you again soon, friend!
---------------
Tonight's agenda: dinner with Eric, Joe, & the Prescotts, and then some good old relaxing. (: That's my kind of night!


To the rest of you - Happy ALMOST Friday!!

xo | cmd

Happy Birthday, Dad!



my dad. ♥

She spins and she sways
To whatever song plays
Without a care in the world
And I'm sitting here wearing
The weight of the world on my shoulders

It's been a long day
And there's still work to do
She's pulling at me
Saying "Dad, I need you

There's a ball at the castle
And I've been invited
And I need to practice my dancing
Oh, please, Daddy, please?"

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don't want to miss even one song
'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone...

She says he's a nice guy and I'd be impressed
She wants to know if I approve of the dress
She says, "Dad, the prom is just one week away
And I need to practice my dancing
Oh, please, Daddy, please?"

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don't want to miss even one song
'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone, she will be gone

Well, she came home today with a ring on her hand
Just glowing and telling us all they had planned
She says, "Dad, the wedding's still six months away
But I need to practice my dancing
Oh, please, Daddy, please?"

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don't want to miss even one song
'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone
- "Cinderella" by Steven Curtis Chapman
^That was the song to which I danced with my father at my wedding. I love it because it is my dad and me, and reminds me just how quickly my childhood flew by. Moreso it reminds me of the fact that my father is a remarkable man with a heart of gold and fierce passion to love his family and his friends. I love him so dearly and hope that today is the best birthday yet. Happy birthday, dad! ♥

----
Our pastor is back from vacation, and made with it to bring us a solid message on the parallel between olympian dedication to running the race and our plight to prevail in our own race of life. Very inspiring. Following closely behind the service was lunch at Applebee's with Becky, the kids, and Becky's mom before she headed back out of town. Jimmy, Mo, Jarod, and Julie made for great company, and we had some inevitable moments of laughing fits before we parted ways and I headed home to rest up before volleyball.

Volleyball proved to be more food than play at first; we were celebrating all of the August birthdays and Irene's farewell as she returns to college in a week or so. The perk behind having a barbeque before volleyball: getting home two hours earlier than I would have on a typical vball night when we make our stop at BDubbs after play is over. The weather was beautiful, the friends were awesome, and for a break in the INSANITY routine, it wasn't bad at all.

Not too shabby for a Sunday. Let's see what Monday has in store :)

xo | cmd

Koinonia :)

Koinonia night, as always, was a huge succes. Tonight was something of a unique night, in that Joe was still gone in Reno for work. The Page family joined our group for the evening, as well, since the members of their extension had regretfully opted out for other obligations. It was awesome having them; we so rarely see the other families of the original large group if we're  not at one of those gatherings. I felt like we'd exhausted the typical food themes, so we went with a more simple menu of "finger foods."

I think this may've been the best buffet we've had yet! :) I think the highlight of the spread was the batch of whoopie pies that Cathie baked. Apparently, this is a Maine thing, because not only had I never heard of them before, I'd certainly not ever tried one. Yes, yes I will be asking her for that recipe ;)

Oh, and that little couch debacle we'd had a few weeks back? Well, leave it to Jarod and Jimmy to engineer an almost embarrassingly-quick remedy to that whole transferring of couches from room to room. Solution? Remove the door from the guest room and haul that sucker in. Really? Haha. I'm almost glad Joe wasn't here to witness this, since it was a pretty polar contrast to the hassle he and Jimmy had faced in the original attempt to store the Prescotts' couch in our basement..... or guestroom.... or the living room. Haha. This ended tonight with the loveseat in the guestroom; Jarod and Jimmy snapped a couple shots of their success. 

Pretty funny stuff. I love these people. I wish every Friday was Koinonia Friday :) 

xo | cmd

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!

Okay, so I haven't been sharing in much detail the chronicles of the Prego Prescotts. [<<catchy, eh?]


natalie marie prescott
i .. can't ... wait to meet her!

Anyway, so my dear friend Mo and her husband Jimmy, with whom we've grown very close since moving here, are expecting their first little one! It's been a grueling couple of weeks of contemplating what the gender of the next Prescott baby would be. Most had their realistic bets on a boy, since the Prescott family has a strong track record of men.

Until Now!

[It was so hard for me to refrain from blabbing about this until they made their public announcement.. so I am just beside myself excited for them.... lol]

Congratulations, my dear friends!!! I am so excited to meet little Natalie, and spoil that little girl rotten. Heaven knows we had a batallion of people who indulged Sydni months before she made her grand entrance into the world, so now it's my turn.. hehe. Plus, I LOVE babies as it is [I've been patiently waiting to get my hands on little Emilia Babot.. she's so stinkin' cute, too..]. 

Baby fever? I'm not sure. Haha. I think I'll do some more living vicariously through my other prego friends. 

Yay, babies!

Tomorrow = Koinonia. Happy  ALMOST Friday!

xo | cmd

USA Olympic Hardware

fab 5! | olympics 2012

Olympic coverage post #8953479257803478105734021...

Who cares, CONGRATULATIONS to the Fab Five!!

I'm such a junkie for gymnastics! I grew up on the stuff, from the time I was about 3 until I traded in my spandex for shin guards and went full time with soccer. It was a weighted decision, but my fond memories of spending hours at the gym, bending toes into perfect points and having blisters on the inside of bar grips will always stay. I love gymnastics, and I love watching the pros go at it the way it was meant to be done.

These 5 girls (Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, Kyla Ross & McKayla Maroney) did a stellar job holding their own in competition and keeping Russia at bay for the all-around team gold. There was mass amount of speculation from just about every website and news channel; word is that this calibur of performance hasn't been seen or achieved since the Magnificent Seven of 1996. [Pause - I just realized how the years are flying by; I remember very clearly those epic moments of Kerri Strug's vault injury, Domenique Moceanu's tenacious beam routine, and of course, Awesome Dawsome. I just realized I was only in sixth grade. Haha. Whoa.]

magnificent seven | olympics 1996

Speaking of gold medals for team USA, kudos to the swimmers, too! Jimmy & Mo came by tonight with a couch and a few tables they are going to store temporarily at our place, and once we settled for homing the couch in the living room due to its inability to fit through any of our doorways [long story....], we settled in to watch the finals of the men's 4x200m relay. We were talking tonight about how the records being set by Michael Phelps will not likely be broken for years to come, and that these historic moments are happening in our lifetime. Our kids won't know anything about this other than what they read in books or online. Crazy. 

michael phelps. conor dwyer. ryan lochte. ricky berens
2012 olympic gold medalists

And tribute to the women, too! Bronze medalists - still hardware!!

lia neal. allison schmitt. jessica hardy. missy franklin
2012 olympic bronze medalists

Yay, London Olympics! 

It's late. I'm outta here. 

xo | cmd

Koinonia Grill Out

Thaaaaaaaat's right, it was a Koinonia Friday (:

y-u-m.

We went with grilling tonight, since our group was a tad bit smaller than usual. With Becky, Jarod, Jimmy & Mo, we opted for some grill time, and it.. was... great :)

I love our friends.
And I love Fridays.
Oh, and I love sleep.....

xo | cmd

Dude, I Am... TIRED.

I am beyond the point of slap happy. I am somewhere in a new, previously undiscovered dimension of total exhaustion. Time seems elusive to me at this point, but I have to admit that in all of my sheer weariness, today was another great day.

Oh, and I'm far more descriptive at night. I learned this in college when I found myself repeatedly, at the fault of my own procrastination, left writing entire essays and term papers 5 hours before they were due in final draft. Mehhhh.

Anyway, I've sufficiently manage to distort my sleep schedule enough that my body has completely rejected any suggestion that we're doing okay. I've had a headache for most of the afternoon - the parts of it I spent awake, at least.

Let me start with this morning.

The closing ceremony for the 2012 Relay for Life happend around 7:00 AM this morning. We were a frazzled but enthusiastic lot; those of us from various teams that had braved the night hours and were still conscious at that time gathered together for the last remarks from Christine, Tracy & Steve, along with awards and the recognition signs for the top fundraising levels for each team. By the way, WAY TO GO, TOWERVIEW!!! $4878.75 [so far] earned us Silver Level this year. I'm bent on Gold for next year.. mark my words.. haha. :)

Sooo, anyhoot, while my husband did grace us with his presence for a significant portion of the event last night, he made it back home to get a decent night's sleep in the bed. After snagging at most an hour's worth of shut-eye on the ground in a sleeping bag at Relay, I was more than ready to have all noise come to a halt and do nothing but sleeeeeeeep.

Instead, I -- Well, actually, you can just see it for yourself:

welp.... 

So basically, I woke up post-nap to find my phone blinking incessantly with notifications on comments on this. I have nothing to say, other than that while it did happen, this was the dramatization, but it was worth every bit of it :)

I managed to pull myself together enough for a double date with Jimmy & Mo; I couldn't for the life of me tell you which hibachi restaurant hosted us for the evening, but I can say it's the first time I've been to one and had the table chef flip a whole egg off the table on accident. Haha. He was a good sport, and it was certainly a fluke. Silly as it was, its comical value was absolutely paled by the fact that Jimmy, Mo and I were giddy beyond control. It was our original intention to go and watch the new Batman movie after dinner, but by the time we were stuffed full of rice and ready to leave, we opted out for fear that Joe may be the only one left awake by the middle of the movie. As a substitute, we headed back to the house where Jimmy configured our Wii for Netflix, and rented Transformers instead. We're a daring bunch, I tell ya.

I must get some sleep tonight if I expect half a chance of proper functioning tomorrow.

See you at the Tower in the morning!

xo | cmd

RELAY FOR LIFE 2012! [& Office Mini Golf?]

It is finally upon us!
This is definitely post-dated! :)

Hello, Relay for Life!

It was an extended day to start with; I showed up to work a full hour early in hopes of leaving 9 hours later. Today marked our office's 6th birthday, so the bosses decided to celebrate by buying us all lunch. No argument there. We feasted on Applebee's for an hour, until we were challenged by one of our owner's to choose our own pecking order and proceed to follow him out into our office. We were greeted by a homemade, indoor mini golf course, complete with star-shaped post-it tee-offs and Express logo cups serving as the destination holes. Seven holes in all. We weren't sure what to think of it all, but I will say it's been a long time since I've laughed like that.

Here's a taste of what it looked like in the office for about an hour's time:

christine. cori. nancy. courtney.
that's right... office golf, ya'll...

When 4:00 hit, I was out the door in a flurry, headed straight down to Belleville West. The Warrens were already there, with their tent and table set up; I caught them just as they were headed off to the survivor dinner. I was left to my own devices to decorate our space from top to bottom in Italy, for lack of a better term. It wasn't long before the rest of our team came trickling in to lend a hand. Even sooner it seemed from there, we were all rallied together on the track for the opening ceremonies, survivor lap, and then full swing into Relay 2012! 

team towerview!
[thanks, jackie for the awesome painting!]

We had this posted up outside our campsite. Many thanks to Jackie for painting this for the team, and for all the helping hands who came and contributed tents, tables, chairs, and decorations for our site!!

cheerleaders - reminding us how to fight back against cancer

^ Opening ceremonies. It probably doesn't make the most sense just looking at it, having not been there to hear the accompanying narration, so I'll try to paraphrase...

The center shot - encouragement to continue in the FIGHT BACK against cancer. They proceeded to highlight words found within the phrase as elements of available methods to fight back against cancer. 

Cig: Don't smoke. Fat: Eat healthy! Fit: Exercise. Gab: Spread the word! Hat: Protect yourself from sun. Act: DO something today to make a difference for tomorrow! :) 

[just part of ] team towerview!
shirley. jimmy. john. greg. betty. ron. diana. cori. mo. ron.

Our team this year was absolutely incredible. There were many people who were unable to make the actual event, but I wouldn't dare for a split second discount their efforts, contributions, and support. This picture was taken early in the evening and is still just a small taste of everyone that did make an appearance at some point for the night. I am so impressed by the support and action that everyone put into this :) I'm so proud!!

sleepin' in the infamous tire!
becky. cori. mo

Haha. There are so many memorable pictures from this event, but none quite like that of us pretending to sleep in the famous traveling tire. If you were there, you would've heard that strangely enough, none of us hated sitting inside this thing. It's actually pretty comfortable. Is that weird? Haha.. Probably, but either way, if I ever find myself deserted in the midst of abandoned farming equipment, my first choice of refuge is gonna be one of these things. Chyeahh.

This is backdated, durrrrr.. and I'm still exhausted. What an incredible event!! [There will be plenty of pictures to come. Stay posted, darlins...]

xo | cmd 

Kat | Changing Light Bulbs | Softball

I have to acknowledge first and foremost that today is Kat's birthday. Happy birthday, Kat. Words cannot express how much you are still missed. The pain of your passing has dulled in intensity over the last 7 years, but in no way have I forgotten you, forgotten our friendship, or forgotten how much you meant to me when we were friends and roommates.

kat & cori [& patricia, too! :)]
circa june 2005...

Happy 25th birthday, little K.
7.16.87 - 7.28.05.

Now, because I know that Kat would not have wanted any of us to waste any part of our day being sad, I will say that in every other sense of today, it's been another blessing :).

So Happy Monday!

In the spirit of mentioned transitioning, I thought I would start this week off with a little long-forgotten humor. This joke surfaced yesterday in a discussion between my sister and me.

This is all in good fun. My friend Brittany had posted this a few years back and I thought it was funny then [I’m Baptist, and must admit that the Baptist one is pretty stinkin’ accurate]. Either way, it’s cute, so I figured I would share ;) 

HOW MANY CHRISTIANS DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHT BULB??

i'm baptist.. so there are at least 14 more of me
ready to go on this ;)

Charismatic: Only one. Hands already in the air.

Pentecostals: Ten. One to change the bulb and nine to pray against the spirit of darkeness.

Presbyterians: None. Lights will go off and on at predestined times.

Roman Catholic: None. Candles only.

Baptists: At least 15. One to change the light bulb and three committees to approve the change and decide who brings the potato salad.

Episcopaleans: Three. One to call the electrician, one to mix the drinks, and one to talk about how much better the old bulb was.

Mormons: Five. One man to change the bulb and four wives to tell him how to do it.

Unitarians: We choose not to make a statement either in favor of or against the need for a light bulb. However, if in your own journey you have found that light bulbs work for you, that is fine. You are invited to write a poem or compose a modern dance about your light bulb for the next Sunday service, in which we will explore a number of light bulb traditions including incandescent, fluorescent, three-way, long-life and tinted, all of which are equally valid paths to luminescence.

Methodists: Undetermined. Whether your light bulb is bright, dull, or completely out, you are loved. You can be a light bulb, turnip bulb or tulip bulb. A church-wide lighting service is planned for Sunday. Bring a bulb of your choice and a covered dish.

Nazarene: Six. One woman to replace the bulb while five men review the church lighting policy.

Lutherans: None. Lutherans don’t believe in change.

Amish: What’s a light bulb?

*********

If you're a Baptist like I am, you laughed because you know it's exactly true. ;)

Anyway.... Happy Monday! I started my week off with something little to appease a craving I'd had over the weekend: Sounds silly, but these things make a world of difference when you're sitting at your desk looking to appease the munchies.

<< That's for Mo, specifically, since I had been on the hunt for these things on Saturday before the drive-in movie, to no avail. See? They do exist! Haha..

The rest of today passed by in the familiar fashion of Monday [you ragged thing, you], and I'm glad to see it go. I was reminded via sermon from our beloved Pastor Ron on Sunday to count my blessings and not the little things that seem to pickle my day instead of enhance it. In the spirit of doing that, I am blessed to have a job, the means to get there, and all of the other small and large things in my life that I love.

*********
Summer Mondays = Softball!

softball fun with the little ones!
seth. christopher. easton.

Softball was h-o-t. Yeesh. I know the boys were roasting out there, because sitting on the side watching alone was something like baking slowly in a wide open oven. Oh well. Dust and all, we had ourselves a good old time on the side playing with the kiddos, munching through a 2 lb bag of Twizzlers & a gallon box of Goldfish, and speculating on the game. I took some time to snap a few pictures, too, primarily because moving around a bit was a welcomed reprieve from the still heat.


softball :)

Jimmy and Mo just left the house; they stopped by after the game for some quesadillas and unwinding. Such great friends.. We sure do love 'em!
Early start tomorrow, folks.. I'm outta here.

xo | cmd

VBS Kickoff: Amazing Wonders Aviation!

What's up, SUNDAY?!

I'm pretty sure one of us ran the other ragged today. It actually seems to be that we both exhausted each other. This day's on its last drop and I don't feel like a bit of it was wasted.

First: I would like to request a prayer for my neighbors. I don't know exactly who they are or whose car this is, but it seems to be the sole victim in my subdivision of the storm that plodded through here last night. Bummer.

:( 

Hm.. So yeah - Whether it was the anticipation of today's VBS kickoff, or the unrelenting heat that has settled into my AC-deprived house, I spent the bulk of last night tossing, turning, listless for the most part.I must've lapsed at some point sometime after 2:30am, brought back to by my alarm declaring it was 6:30am and time to get moving.

the runion brothers: derek & ryan | gabe [not pictured]
congratulations!!!

Grawr. < That's the sound my body and mind makes when I'm out of bed long before I should be on a weekend. *sigh. Anyway, it was just before 7 when I met up with Kirsten outside Walmart to pick up the VBS choreo DVD for practice later between church and the kickoff. I made a pitstop at the gym on the way home, since I was already up.

Church flew right on by in the usual phenomenal Towerview fashion: It started right off with not one, not two, but three baptisms. I love these kinda mornings! [congratulations to the Runion brothers Derek & Ryan, and little Gabe, who snuck up there after I'd put the camera away!]

Once church let out and lunch had been devoured by grumpy, nap-needing little fingers, I made a date with the VBS DVD and committed myself to memorizing the last of the VBS music for the week. I apparently dozed off during a little break; I awoke to Mo calling me to come and help w/ her classroom setup. Off we were, back to church to put final touches on all things VBS.

towerview vacation Bible school 2012!

And V-B-S.... BEGIN!


I'm spent. Kirsten and I did about as much jumping, waving, signing, and dancing tonight as I could manage for one night. As is customary for any good VBS week, we're gonna be ready to fist-fight this stuff by the time Friday comes around, but in an endearing way. Haha.

Many, MANY thanks to Laura for "managing" the production of this year's VBS, to all the teachers, to the nursery workers, and especially to my church family as a whole for having me participate! It's gonna be a long but totally rewarding week!

Tomorrow starts early. G'Nite :)

xo | cmd