[Measuring] Success

Ya know...
In the shadow of all the things I've seen, read & heard in the wake of this insane weekend in Orlando (namely the varied responses of the general public), I saw this today & thought, "Yes. This is a good summation of how I right now." 

I can't begin to imagine the hellish voids to which the families of those 50 people (& of Christina Grimmie) will wake for the next days.. weeks.. years, knowing what they know and missing those beloved who are gone. There's nothing any store sells that will restore a loss of this magnitude. The deceased shooters will never even be punished with the physical sight of the families they ripped apart.

Am I praying for Orlando? You better freakin' believe I am. Do I believe prayer alone will compensate for what happened? Of course I don't. Do I believe though in the power of American unity? Abso-150%yes-alutely. To me, that says success. A country divided so resolutely on political, religious, (etc.) issues that will put that aside immediately to pick up the pieces of a tragedy like this - TOGETHER. THAT is success. That's what I'll tell my daughter happened: when evil made a statement, people still loved, and love won.

And that's what I want her to tell her friends about the adults in her life, especially her mother. Nobody sets a flawless example, but if I can raise at least one child to be a light in this crumbling world, and to love herself and others exactly where they are, then yeah- that's success.

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Random picspiration cred: #jimmyjohns #prayfororlando#morelovelesshate #nextgeneration

Just somethin' to think about today... 

xo | cmd

Bad, Good, Good.

Bad:

We've "finished" the office expansion. It's nice having the extra inches between everyone's chairs that weren't there before, but in the grand scheme of things, we really did get a slightly lopsided deal. I'll digress to an extent and let that be that..

Here is our new digs. Notice the quite-callcenter-esque cubes. Notice they're a bit shoddy. Notice Christine and I taking up new positions where we feel we may be best suited. True story.

Now notice the other side of the office's new digs.

the white house. just kidding. sorta.

QUITE. THE. CONTRAST. Eh?

Whatev'. We act surprised, but we're not, really. Totally perplexing transition: complete. :p

****

GOOD:

Softball was tonight! We didn't walk away with victories, but we had fun either way. It was a fairly close score on both games, but for the sideline [yours truly], it was well worth it hanging with Mo & Tonya. Plus, the kiddies had plenty of time and room to run around and wear themselves ragged. Good stuff, good stuff.

jimmy takin' a swing at it | joe rounding 2nd base | sydni watchin' the fun

****

GOOD:

Jimmy John's, and its infinite, random flair: I liked it, so I'm sharing it. :) Enjoy.

get those brainwheels a-turnin'

Happy Monday! :)

xo | cmd

What Time IS It?

I'm still confused.

Basically, I left myself mental messages all day yesterday to remember to turn back the clocks 1 hour in reverence of daylight savings time. I started with the clock closest to the front door and simply stopped off at each one on my way through the rest of the house. I went to bed thinking nothing of it, except that I was proud of myself for not forgetting.

This morning rolled around and, in usual fashion, both Joe and I consulted our cell phones, out of general habit if nothing else. Both had the same time, which usually updates automatically. Ours definitely updated, but not how we'd figured. Unfortunately for us, today wasn't about to be that type of day, and we later found out that our phones wouldn't catch up to the correct time until late in the afternoon.

Long story short, we missed church altogether. While I'd set all the house clocks back one hour, our phones synchronized back two hours. So, instead of showing up to church an hour early, as I'm sure at least one person on God's green earth did today after forgetting to reset his/her clock[s], we showed up an hour late, after relying on faulty cell phones. Ehhhh-xce-llent.

We live within visual distance of Towerview.
How embarrassing, and a comical yet pathetic reason to miss church.
Only us. *sigh. ha.


matching, yes :)



Anyway, we didn't let that deter us from spending some time together as a family before Joe went in to work. We toted off to take care of a few other things on our to-do list, and stopped off for lunch at Jimmy John's.

It's about time for bed now, or so I think. For all I know, it could be midnight already. We don't have cable or internet [yeah smart phone browser!] connections at our place, still because we're not here nearly enough to warrant the bill for such services, so I can't very well refer to either of those sources. I'm guessing at this point.

Here's my hopes that I wake up and get to work on time tomorow ;)

xo | cmd

[Big Kid] Picture Day

This took me back to the yearly event that was school picture day. In my elementary years, it meant moms everywhere teasing our bangs and dressing us in corduroy dresses for those classy riser group shots. There were always a handful of us missing teeth, sporting goggle glasses, or wearing sweaters that our parents legitimately thought flattered us. In middle school, my pictures clearly reflected the sheer awkward transition from childhood to pre-teenhood. Every other yearbook square had braces, and most of us were still sporting left-over 90’s hairstyles. By high school, I remember clearly my friends and I spending an entire week discussing and preparing outfits, how we’d fix our hair, and praying fervently that we wouldn’t break out into some sort of acne disaster the night before. Even my senior pictures make me laugh.

Fast forward to today, at work, where our boss had declared it Office Picture Day. Haha.

There we were, putting last minute touches on jewelry, hair, and suit jackets [yeah, big kid work clothes…].

Totally corny, and totally going on our office’s microsite.

To top it off, the Jimmy John’s down the street from our office occasionally makes a round to all the local businesses and markets their location with free food. You don’t have to ask us twice ;)

Hard to believe this time last week we were lounging in the Smokies. Oh well :P.

Happy Wednesday!

xo | cmd

My Dear Jimmy John['s]

[[Happy Birthday to our friend back home, Tim Edwards!]]

This is really all I’ve got to say about today:

I love the Lord, my Savior.

I love my family.

And,

I still ♥ Jimmy John’s.



nom nom nom!

J  

xo | cmd