Happy Birthday, Shef!

Since I made/used this last year to commemorate this guy's birthday, I'm going to take the easy road and do the same thing this year... since I haven't seen him since that last time :(

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY [30th, at that]
TO THIS GUY! 

Shef, I hope you had an incredible birthday, and that year 30 is all it can be & more. You've earned it! I hope Cali continues to treat you well, and if we're in the same small hometown at the same time this year, I hope to at least say hi :). HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Here in my little world, it was a client facility tour day, which warranted jeans for the day. That of course made office yoga that much more enticing.... and long story short, this:

itty bitty bakasana :) 

^ Those jeans were not interested in any sort of ground work today, but that just made it all the more challenging, and when you're learning to float like I am, it was kind of fun.

Anyway, we just finished up dinner at Main Street with Jess; Chad wasn't working tonight since he's apparently called off Wednesdays for volleyball and life forever thereafter, haha.. but still fun either way.

So far so good on the week! See ya tomorrow, blogbots!

xo | cmd 

Beating the Monday Bear

There's nothing like a Monday to crush some of whatever residual joy I have from the weekend. That's a little dramatic, but it's true and I needed something to kick-start my week.

This did the trick:

Watch it a few times if you need a smile like I did this morning ;)

To say that the rest of the day floated by like a cotton candy cloud is a blasphemous statement of trash, so I was more than ready to sacrifice my body for the sake of yoga when the work clock wound down.

[before] .. because the after... is just gross. 

I sweat like I've never sweat before; if I'm being honest with myself, I may have had a little more than I could handle on Saturday, and am clearly still paying for it two days later.

That little theory of mine was proved by the time I showered, got home and headed right back out with Rob to Mainstreet Cafe. Thankfully, Chad was working, and in a greatly-appreciated act of empathy, I survived dinner without the need to ask for a refill:

thaaaaaank you, chad! 

So yeah. The Monday bear has been tackled, and I think I can handle tomorrow without as much fuss or cloud as today ;)

xo | cmd

Yogis In Training

Don't be surprised:

yogi moments

Post-work = Dinner @ Main Street & a cameo appearance by none other than Chad :)

main squeeeeeze ♥

Tomorrow = ROAD TRIP to Northern Ohio to pick up the NEW BOAT Rob bought! He has been nearly beside himself over this boat, and I am pretty excited that he gets to go and get it tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

xo | cmd

Boogie Goes To The Dentist

I know some people who say they actually enjoy the dentist. I think they're all full of it. Haha. I can't say that I hate the dentist, but it's certainly not my favorite place or number one pick for a fun outing. It made me nervous for Sydni, since today was her turn to park herself in the chair for a quick cleaning; school requires it!

such a trooper!

my little girl is growing up :/

♥♥♥♥♥♥!

Back at home, it was high time the pups got a little cleaning, too. Not their teeth, but bathtime!

dun dun dunnnn... bathtime!

And dinnertime..

main street cafe ♥

I still can't believe Sydni is a] turning FIVE this year, and b] starting KINDERGARTEN this fall. My little mini isn't such a mini anymore! Ahh!

xo | cmd

VB & MSC ♥

I have no idea where the day went, but I know I was focused mainly on volleyball tonight. Paul stepped in for Beth, who was out sick tonight [feel better SOON, Beth!!]. We snagged a win for the night, and picked up our league shirts.



woot! hahana beach spring '14 (:

It's unusual for us to head out after just two or three hours at Hahana, but this time around, we found ourselves hungrier than usual, so we bid farewell to Paul and made the short trip over to Main Street, where Rob met us just as the food was being delivered to the table. Nice timing ;)  

good old msc

These two places are staple stops in our routine, and I expect plenty more nights spent at both.

Two more days til the weekend, friends. Make the rest of the week awesome!

xo | cmd


work
dropped off rent check
Vball w/ the gang.
Paul played in place of Beth.
WE WON!
Got shirts!
Main street cafe afterwards, Rob joined.

Double Headers & Desserts

Last week was a rain-out for volleyball, which was probably just as well. I was still getting over some sort of weird sinus issue, which I attributed half to my return to soccer and the weather. Either way, we took the week off while the rain poured down outside; that meant this week was a double header.

Brittany, Becky and Rob all showed up to cheer from the sidelines, and after six sets over two different games, we had wrapped things up and decided we wanted food.

= Mainstreet!

= This:

darn you, mainstreet (:

^ Don't worry, Mom, we ate actual food before this, too. ;)
Between the sand courts, ice-cold beer buckets, blaring energy music from Ryan's Crossfit gym next to Hahana and the company of awesome friends, I'd say that it's finally starting to feel like Summer.

Can't wait!!

xo | cmd

Dinner With Friends

Today flew past with flying colors. Literally. The sun was out, everything seemed... brighter, and I ventured outside to actually enjoy the fresh air at lunch. That's the first time this year. Spring is just around the corner!

it is a new day.. so smile!!

It even seemed a bit more cheery in the office. With the absence of windows in the back half of our space, we all took turns peeking around the front to soak in the sunlight of the day. The pace seemed busier and we are all excited about that.

Speaking of pace, I had to apologize to Rob tonight for getting impatient when he was late getting off work and making it to the house. He and I both put ourselves in overdrive at times when it comes to the at-work versions of ourselves, and when we get home, there are times that one - or both - of us will forget to downshift. So he changed clothes quicker than a racecar pit-crew, and we were back out the door to dinner with Becky, Catie & Andy and their neighbors Rachel & Travis.

Main Street Cafe it was. Chad of course took excellent care of us, despite our noisy, rowdy selves. Just kidding.. I don't think we were that bad. 

rachel. catie. becky. cori

^ We look super cheesy because this was taken just seconds after Andy went flying in front of us. Just.. sayin ;)

It looks like Jesse may be visiting this weekend, but we'll get all that figured out in the next day or so.

For now, good night!

xo | cmd

Wham BAM, Thank Ya, Marianne!

I was not thrilled that three of my four guests had to leave this morning. None of us really had looked forward to this part, but we made the best of it and naturally grabbed a couple of last minute pictures before they were gone.

just one more group picture (:

^ We look like a World Vision commercial. (:

coffee emporium ♥

In the bustle of everyone packing up, showering and making sure nothing was left behind, the time for church came and went. I hate missing a service, but I committed to making up that lost time with the podcast later on.

Rob decided to get caught up on some of his things while Marianne and I went off in search of some adventure to occupy us for the day. It really didn't take long.
We found ourselves at the Coffee Emporium, which kind of happened by default when I mentioned the mushroom house in Hyde Park. Once we were caffeinated, we hopped back in the car and decided the day was promising enough to include new tattoos. That's right, new ink.

[Holy crap.]

cheetah carpet.. and a blank canvas.

I have had one tattoo before today. It's a rendition of the sun from the flag of the Philippines, altered to reflect the connectivity of my identity as a Filipino-American adoptee. It took me five minutes to draw, and two years to save up the courage to actually do it. That needle came and went when I was 19. Ten years later, it took us 30 seconds to commit to the doing part, and about a half hour deciding on the what-to-get part. Go... figure.

So THIS [thank you, Pinterest] will stand to represent the following statement:
My life has been beautiful, and it has been ugly. The human side of me has created messes bigger than I could have ever deciphered on my own, while the God in whom I believe and give ALL the honor & praise, has righted my sinking ship more times than I ever would have believed possible. It's been a cycle of beauty, mediocrity, heartbreak and learning, and I don't intend that to stop anytime soon. A compass is an unchanging guide to remind me which way I'm facing when I'm completely lost, and fluid continuity of outer arrows remind me that in every stage, in every season, what has been and what will be are what make me... me.

The first tattoo I had was clearly a symbol applicable at the time only to me. I was always more of a piercings gal than a tattoo gal, which worked hugely to my benefit in the years that followed my spree of facial, ear, nape & naval rings and studs. Most of those are marked now only by the little dots or indents left behind. I think I may have gotten my nose pierced alongside a friend in high school, and I'm almost certain she's since removed hers. The obvious point here is that I've never had a matching tattoo with anyone. Not that any one person's struggles are of any less or more credit than another's, but I whole-heartedly believe that Marianne has earned the stripes of this tattoo, absolutely moreso than I have. That being said, the amount of regret I have for doing this on a whim today is next to non-existent.

So after the consequence of making Marianne wait for something... haha...

... this happened ..

that's kyle. and those are both my chins, thanks&you'rewelcome.

.. and eventually looked like this:

done. ♥♥

So uhm, yeah.. went for it, did it, and I'm not looking back. In fact, I'm looking up, down, and both ways before crossing the street.

Fun fact: Once you've started the day with an unplanned tattoo, the rest of said day's agenda really doesn't matter. Haha. So, in the spirit of continued spontaneity, we took a trip down to Park+Vine, where we made our tattoo announcement via their typewriter:

remington says......

[in case you missed it]:

... except skip was nowhere to be found :/ womp womp...

Yeeeup.
Between Park+Vine, Findlay Market, Eden Park & RRT in Milford, we collected some great memoirs for the day:

hanging gardens at park+vine

neighbors of findlay market

my getaway at eden park

me, climbing off the skyline...

.. & marianne, climbing back over it

Onward to Milford, RRT:


guatemala & new york.

Totally need:

honest-to-goodness want.

We hadn't quite exhausted our cameras, but the day was winding down and that indecisive space between lunch and dinner had approached, so we opted for food at Main Street. Kalyn wasn't working, but Chad was, so once Rob rendevouzed with us [via bike, because it was gorgeous today], we hung out for a bit and then headed home.

Now we're here, a trio of sweatpants-clad bums huddled with laptops and a movie playing on the TV. Mare leaves tomorrow to go back to VA, and the work week will commence as it has this reliable habit of doing.

that's a wrap, folks.

On that note... good night, loves (:

xo | cmd

"She Is Not Her Circumstance"

Two things for today:

 

➊

I read something absolutely beautiful today. It was simple, and I felt so compelled to share it that I wanted to do so across all fronts, including here.

If you have a spare couple of minutes, read THIS.
It's a simply-written entry by "Erika," one of many writers for the Christian-based blog, A Deeper Story. I have read a few entries there, authored by various writers, and just added them to my following list. Erika shares an encounter that could have amounted to nothing, had she ignored the opportunity to bless herself with the time spent with her new friend, Diamond. You'll have to read the whole thing for that to make sense, but I'll warn you, it's something of a tear-jerker.

I read this, over and over.. and let the words mull around in my brain for a little while. I picture Diamond, a girl whose distorted sense of direction in this world was positioned that way before she had a chance to learn up from down. I picture her as a child, gathering in the world from the vantage point of a child born to drug addicts, to whom she was likely a fleeting priority, if not a nuissance most days. I envision her crying herself to sleep on the nights when she desperately ached to have a strong, sheparding arm guiding her back to a place of hope and comfort, and I am honestly sad. My heart hurt for her as I read that. I see a teenage girl with a skewed sense of self-worth, giving herself over to lustful temptations because she's never learned how to deny them. A child raising a child, and then two, and then three. And then losing them because she is following her parents' footsteps of addiction and disappointment. I see the world meeting her for the first time at the end of a bad day; she's now an adult and the culmination of her entire life up to this point is nothing she could ever explain to someone in the few seconds it takes for them to form an opinion of her. We see Diamond every day, whether it's obvious or subtle.

Reality check.
We are NOT called to decide who does and doesn't "deserve" grace and mercy from us while we are on this earth. By what standards are we going to be measured when we're gone, anyway? The stuff we've collected while we were here? No. The amount of money left in our bank accounts? No.

Our legacy will be measured and defined
by the impact on those left to share it for us.

 

Whoa, is right. I can't look at my daughter and ever imagine her wanting for something that to me seems so ... obvious. Like a hug. Or a safe place to sleep at night. Or for me, as her mother, to keep the world at bay for her safety when I am supposed to. No, I can not imagine that. Nor can I imagine my own life being so upside-down that the idea of stability is just about foreign, something I dream about at night but have little hope of ever actually achieving. There is a very important, pretty much cardinal reminder here: Whether you exercise an open-mind because of your faith, or if you choose to do it solely out of the concept of encouraging another person rather than berate them, just... do it. When we're little, we think we'll live forever. We won't, but there's still enough time to make it count. ♥

And..

➋

I was met in real-life with the perfect illustration that she in fact is not her circumstance. This coincidentally happened on the same day that I read that blog entry up there ^^. I'm sure there's no real coincidence in it all, more of a chronological unfolding of life-application, if you will. I wasn't quite sure how to condense the situation into a brief blurb, but I did what I could:

rant... rant.

^ Now, a couple of things.
First, I was floored by the number of people who chimed in on this. I left the gym pretty ruffled over the whole ordeal, especially since I blew my chance to say something when I should've. They disappeared just a few minutes into my run, and after I was finished, I did a full lap around the place in search of neon matching yoga pants outfits, but they were nowhere to be found. Second, I am sorry. To the woman working out, I wish I would've just paused my workout to drop a line of reality to those two. I think I'm even more burned by my not doing that when I had the chance to do it. It's like one of those times when you've already had an altercation with someone and you spend the next three hours re-playing the list of I-wish-I-would've-said-THAT-comeback's. Yeah, that is exactly what I'm still doing, like, almost five hours later. GRRRRRRRRR.

Tomorrow's a new day, and if I happen to spot them again, hopefully 1] they're actually working out this time, because frankly it's annoying to be dripping sweat while wondering why the person next to you is there in the first place, and 2] I'll be able to speak a reminder of grace to them in an actual graceful way, as opposed to how I probably would've said it today. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't open my mouth; I'm not prone to merciful deliveries in a state of aggravation like that [i.e, things on which I am trying to improve, constantly]. We'll see.

///////endrant.

I'm still fueled about the whole thing. Sorry. I can't seem to let this go. Even while we were at dinner with Kalyn & Jess, they brought it up after having read my tirade on Facebook. I'm not really surprised, but still glad to know I'm not the only person who wanted to b-slap the perfectly-manicured smoky eyes off those two gals. Grarrrrrr...

BUT, I'll focus on this in the back of mind for the rest of the night and probably the rest of the week. Tonight, I did have a blast with Kalyn, Jess and Rob while we ate at Main Street. Chad of course waited us, which meant some time visiting with him and also Cameron, for the few minutes he poked his head out of the back.

"fat thursday! errr... tuesday... *autocorrect! ;)"
- jess

^ This pretty much summed up the table tonight: plates full of burgers, fries and drinks, to celebrate Fat Tuesday. I, not being Catholic, have always known that Fat Tuesday is the Tuesday after Mardi Gras, but never really understood the actual purpose of it. I know, sounds dumb... but, it's never too late to figure it out, which I did tonight... and it makes total practical sense. Sorry, Catholic friends.. I was just a little behind.

*Sigh. It's been a day. I'm ready to crash and do it all again tomorrow. Actually, we're scheduled to throw a Cyclones game into the mix tomorrow night, so that should be fun, too.

See you, then!

xo | cmd

Snow Day Saturday

Saturday morning met us with tons.. and tons.. of snow. FINALLY!
- What? How is she excited about this snow?!
Well, let me re-phrase that. I'm not particularly excited to have been hit with another knockout from Mother Nature, but, Sydni is here and today marked the first weekend that we've been able to get out and play together in the snow at our new house! We were suuuper pumped up about that.

But first.. breakfast, which ended with a last minute adventure to try and find sleds. We knew there was outdoor fun to be had today, but weren't exactly sure of what kind. When we couldn't find a sled, we settled on some plastic snow brick molds and headed home.

And the afternoon went like this: 

loved seeing her and her two helpers [not to be confused as any other way]

Sydni became a building contractor today. Who knew?


hands-on management approach
"mommy, stop taking pictures and work!"

The three adults busied ourselves with building the foundation for an igloo, only realizing halfway up the walls that we hadn't angled any of it, so putting on a roof likely wouldn't happen. Instead, we shoveld the yard up into piles around the outer base and turned it into a fort.


jesse & sydni - snow fort building!

Before long..

captain sydni! of the snow fort..
... & her "prisoners"

With our snow fort complete, we decided to build a guard for the property. Ya know, because you can never have too much home security, right?

i again appear to be doing nothing productive.. :/ haha

Rob's enthusiastic response to being drilled by Jesse with a snow block the size of a bucket...

yay, winter! ;)

We constructed our snowman using rubber tubs and buckets; today's snow was more powder than anything else and rolling a ball was just not happening. So we improvised, and then shaved them into spheres [sort of]. In the absence of the traditional carrot and coal, they entrusted me with spray paint to give our snow guy some features.

my job of decorating the snowman

Ok, so he looked a little creepy. That's what happens when you let me do things like this. Haha.

meet our 1-dimensionally-decorated snowman.. haha

Sydni agreed apparently, because within seconds of spotting him, she rubbed off all the spray paint that she could, leaving only the eyes and some grayish colored snow shavings. She named him Olaf [from Frozen]; we topped him off with a hat & scarf.. and he became our yard's new mascot.

jesse & me with syd & olaf!

We have no clue how much time we actually spent outside, but within 20 minutes of going back inside, Sydni and the dogs were both down for the count and napping away.

sweet dreams, meatball ♥

Fast forward through naptime to our second wind, which was visiting Kalyn at work down at Main Street.

main street!

Today's been one of the best Saturday's we've had in a while! It's great having Jesse in town; Sydni has a new best friend now [she's told me at least seven times now that he is her best friend and that she has more friends than me]. Jesse and Rob just left to go explore the town for the night; Syd & I are having some good old fashioned mama-Syd time with the pups.

 

This.. is.. perfect. (:

 

xo | cmd

Sunday IS a Funday (:

In usual fashion, Sunday mornings = Church!


hangin' with my love @ sonrise ♥

After church, we decided we wouldn't spend the rest of the day in the house like we did yesterday [albeit we were being productive, still......]. We decided to head to Kenwood. As it turns out, the mall-goers may in fact be more fearless in their parking endeavors than most. This, among many others, was a pretty common sight today:

look ma, no tire!

^ We captured that one just in case we returned to find my car smashed if/when they decided to pull back down off that little hill. A few rows over was a truck pulled so far up a bank that even Rob commented that it wasn't a good idea. It was a chaotic sight that surprisingly made the crowd inside the mall seem tame. Go figure.

I finally took back one of those I'll-eventually-get-around-to-returning-this-maybe-hopefully things and we spent the early afternoon perusing through the place at our leisure. We left with two pairs of jeans for Rob & a new pair of boots for me. I call that a splurge, but it probably could've been worse, too.. haha.

mission[s] accomplished!

And then.... we stopped by to visit Kalyn at work! - And, to eat, of course, because Main Street is the B-O-M-B.

perfect low-key sunday afternoon digs (:

dull moments? what are those?

I couldn't help but capture this guy on the way out, either:

#subienation, haha..

^ Here's to 2014 and our Subaru ownership, KP! Hah.

Rob and I wrapped up some more stuff around the house this evening, including the running of wires throughout the floors to hook up surround sound. Did I mention my man is a handy guy? This task in my hands would've had the whole house short circuited somehow. He's awesome, the house sounds awesome... it .. is.. awesome.

And even mooooore awesomerererrrr.. was us having a nice little nightcap with Kalyn & Co. once she was off work. She does, after all live about a whole 1.5 miles from our place, so the misery of a cold car was about the only complaint as we headed to and from.

it's a gramps growler kinda night!

Yeah. Gramps from a growler into Rhinegeist glasses & mason jars is definitely not the worst way to end a weekend. I had a feeling it would be a great couple of days; I'm not disappointed!

Work week, here we coooome....

xo | cmd