!! THANKSGIVING !!

🍗 + 👪 + 🏈
{{IT'S HERE!!!}}

There is so much signified by this holiday, and for ALL of it I am wholly grateful.
The first thing on my agenda today: Bake a pie. Ya know, because food is like, 90% of why we all gather together at 2 in the afternoon on Thanksgiving as opposed to normal-people dinner times of like, 5 or 6....

>> 🍛 <<

And then, we loaded up the pups for the mini road trip to Mt. Vernon [Sydni's with dad this year for Thanksgiving.. she'll join in on the travelling extravaganza for Christmas!] to my parents' house.

💑 + 🐶🐶 ➡🚕➡ 🏠

Once we were there, it was only a few short hours before we all loaded up again for the short trip out to my cousins' house in Fredericktown, where the real festivities for the day would be taking place. We probably would've opted for a later dinner, but since my cousin's wife is in retail, and the world has disappointingly digressed to a place where we just... must... shop ON Thanksgiving, she had to leave earlier than originally planned.. to go to work.

Let me just take one second to say, on behalf of my family & every other family who has been interrupted by this STUPID new phenomenom of "pre-Black Friday" shopping:

 

{{NO. YOU REALLY SHOULD BE ASHAMED if SHOPPING on THANKSGIVING is a higher priority to you than spending time with your family. SURE, I get it: some of us don't have the opportunity to be with our families today, or even more unfortunately don't have families we want to be around, but really? We're diluted, admit it.
I REFUSE to shop on THANKSGIVING... because MY PRIORITIES are PEOPLE, not THINGS. }} //end rant

 

Aaaaanyway, we made the best of the day and wasted very little time digging into the meal collaboratively constructed by my family. It of course, wouldn't have been complete without a little company. Mine happened to be my cousins' 15-year old parrot, Joey. He, like a typical teenage boy, seemed fascinated with the simple fact that I was a female, and refused to perch on anyone else's shoulder for a few hours. Oh, teenagers... ;)  

🐦 💘

😏🐥

It was so nice to spend the evening with my cousins; the "younger" ones, both now in their twenties, are 6 feet tall with beards. With my birthday being tomorrow, I feel exponentially older combining that with the fact that I remember them both when they were babies. Good grief. I love my family (:

Oh, and I almost forgot... [sorry!!] our family's annual, sometimes grueling tradition of watching THIS... literally every..... year on Thanksgiving. I somehow skipped last year, so by default I was way overdue.

🎄 griswalds! 🎄

That's a wrap here, blogbots.
Happy Thanksgiving, to you and yours!

xo | cmd

& 'Twas a GOOD Day (:

This is probably the second time in a while that I can remember Rob being up and moving on a weekend before I am. He was up at and at it by 7; he and his friends were off to Taylorville for a day long trip 4wheeling & dirtbiking. I'm pretty sure they made it all the way out there before I was even out of bed. ;)


early morning chores (:

 Just kidding. Once I'm awake in the morning, there's no turning back, and after tossing and turning for twenty minutes in a failed attempt to re-enter dreamland, I gave in and got up.

And cleaned my house.

???? Yeah. I dunno.

First it was laundry; I got some of that started. Then I cleaned both the bathrooms, Syd's room and the kitchen.

And then.... I got ready for church and made it there with ten minutes to spare. I was pretty proud of myself. Haha.

Ali brought her friend Alicia, and afterwards, the three of us along with Joey, Tim & DeShawn made a lunch date at CBW before heading our separate ways for the day. The weather is starting to make a consistent upswing into that true Spring feel, and I was determined to make the best of every second. I headed home, grabbed up the first three bins of stuff I no longer wanted/needed, and loaded it along with Stella into the car. 

my errand buddy | stellapittie gone mobile ;)

colorsplash!

She and I made a full afternoon of errands: Plato's & Once Upon a Child [go sell your stuff!!], Goodwill [& go donate the rest!!], oil change and a few other miscellaneous things before heading back to the house for some more cleaning.

I ended up vacuuming, dusting and windexing [it's a verb, c'mon!] all the windows free of Sydni and Stella paw-smudges before Ali, Alicia and Marianne showed up at the door. They weren't there long, but it was nice to have some afternoon company to distract me from my cleaning fury.

Midway through the afternoon, I got the notification that Rob & Co. were finished with their outing; I couldn't help but laugh looking back on it, realizing once again that he and I are on the same level and I need to continue counting my blessings every. single. day. to have him... we're definitely one & the same, and I love it.

we're a silly couple of birds ... ;)

Rob made it home eventually: sunbeat, exhausted and covered with mud. He went straight to the shower. Marianne made her way over; we decided to brave what we thought was a nasty storm brewing. It ended up passing us by, which was probably a good thing since we came out of Walmart an hour later having spent a combined total of just over $700. Haha. Reason being? 



canon rebel!

Marianne just graduated into the big leagues of photo nuts. She had her eye on a DSLR, so after some research and price comparing, she took the plunge and brought home a new Rebel! [Congrats!] We had a good laugh, too, since she banks with USAA & after her initial card swipe for the camera, she was denied a second swipe for a $10 memory card. FRAUD!!! Just kidding.

 

She just left; Rob is fighting 2000-lb sleepy eyelids, Stella's well into some doggy dream, and I'm fading pretty quick, too. I guess it's time to call this one.

 

What an amazing weekend. Love love love.

 

xo | cmd

Pittie | Parking Job | Play!

I've been back and forth over the last four months now on whether or not to get a dog.

Welp... 

... Got a dog. 

Meet Stella. (:

'ello, pretty girl! 

Not only have I been back and forth about whether or not to get a pup, but I definitely grew up knowing better than to set foot within touchable range of a puppy mill. [Dear Mom, I was listening.] I found this little girl through a random string of connection, and met up with her owners this afternoon to see the little porkchop. I fell in love. Long story short, I now have a beautiful little snow & caramel pittie, and I am excited for us to get to know each other. Sydni's gonna love her....

Rob went to Supercross over in St. Louis today, which looked like an amazing time. In the interest of sparing everyone from the bajillion pictures of actual supercross action [though I'm definitely not discounting any of them!], I'll give you one most of ya'll probably didn't see unless you happened across the parking lot today. Hahaha. 

parking job by the boyfriend.... haha...

Meanwhile, back here at the house, we were full swing in getting miss Stella acclimated. I think we're doing great so far; the only thing we need to conquer in the immediate future would be a bath [tomorrow]. Otherwise, we're off to a great start! Thanks to the Radcliff family for making the trek out here with her.

Ali made her way over early evening, with DeShawn not far behind - we made dinner and tidied up before heading out to McKendree University to see one of Ali's childhood friends in a theater production. We stopped to grab their friend Joey and made our way down to Lebanon to The Hett Center for the Arts, where we settled in for "Somewhere In Between."

"somewhere in between" @ the hett | lebanon, il 
deshawn. joey. cori. ali

It's been a while since I last went to an actual stage play; it catapulted me back to my short tenure in the world of theater. I won't venture to say that I was a theater pro by any means, but it was definitely a blast, all the way from the rigorous practices, dry runs, dress rehearsals and shows. Here's just one flashback, circa 199.....9?

"south pacific" | 1999 | mt. vernon players, mt. vernon ohio
mrs. kahrl & yours truly... backstage in full gear for bali hai ;) 

*Sigh... hilarious.

Anyway, after the play, the four of us made a pitstop at good old DQ before we rolled back to my house. We made several attempts to get my NES [if ya don't know, take video gaming back to the original NINTENDO, my friend.. haha] working so we could do some Duck Hunt damage, but to no avail. It looks like I need to do a cleaning on that system and try it again. We were so close a couple of times, but still needs a little work. Not bad for a gaming system that's older than I am. ;) 

The fellas have gone and Ali and I are calling it a night. We've got church in the morning, so we'll see ya then! 

xo | cmd