Yoga + Sushi = Monday

First, THIS:

clinomaniac. raise on up, cori's hand.... 

^ On. The. DAILY. Haha ;)

So.. Rob and I determined today that we have something of a tradition in the making. It's so clichè, I know, but it's becoming one of our things to do now: 

Mondays when we don't have Sydni have seemingly consisted of work, yoga... and sushi. 

1.

modo.

2.

mango tree.

And that's a fact, Jack! ;)

I'm a lucky girl to have this guy. 

Date night > Blog Night. 

xo | cmd

Aaaand We're Home

First things first, a hotel arm selfie ;)

new midi ring!! 

 ^^ This little midi leaf is my new favorite accessory. Many thanks to the Jondie Boutique in Franklin for this perfect find. Add that to the stack of bracelets and the Marianne-matching tattoo, and my I've got a happy arm and hand going for me.

We loaded up for the ride home and off we were, destination: Cincinnati.

Fast forward back out of the mountains and across the plains back to Ohio, and we were finally here:

i spy..... 

Home sweet home. Phew.
Rob was ready when I got home to stuff me back in the car for a date night at Mango Tree; aside from being back inside the confines of a vehicle, I couldn't have asked for a better evening; two days felt like a lot, and I'm content that we missed each other rather than the opposite of that.

It's back to the conventional office tomorrow.
ZzZz.

xo | cmd

Volleyball & Sushi

I can't tell whether this week is moving quickly or slowly. Yesterday, it felt as though we'd never make it to Friday, and today was just kind of like floating around in a limbo of sorts. 

Here's how I described that today, even though the title is not appropriately timed for me [right now]: 

just all kinds of feels.

Yeah. 

'ello, there! 

Oh! I did join the network of Cincinnatians with library memberships today. Apparently if you had a membership like, eight years ago but can't find your card, you just get a new one. Meh. 

Luckily, it did not rain today, although the grey clouds and breezy conditions certainly threatened to drench us.

I wish I would've taken a picture of the four of us: This is only our second session playing together as a team and I have to say today may be the best blend of our chemistry that we've had so far. 

We chalked up our first season win and that.. is... awesome. Yay, volleyball! ;) 

To  celebrate, Becky, Rob & I treated ourselves to some post-game sushi just up the street at Mango Tree before parting ways. 

On second thought, I think this week is at a pace that's just right. We'll see how tomorrow goes. 

xo | cmd

My Summer Girl

Since today was one of those [work] Mondays that I'd like to put to rest and never re-visit, I thought I'd share some of the pictures from earlier in the day yesterday, before all of the JG birthday festivities.

Rob, Sydni and I headed in to church, where the theme for the current series is Movies. It's again a very non-traditional theme, and we again decided it may be time to start putting our feelers out there for something that more closely aligns with our doctrinal position. For the time being though, we made the best of what it was; Sydni for the obvious reason wasn't complaining:

my gorgeous girl & her princess heroines!

Sydni walked out of that church with a full supply of energy:

... in the parking lot

On a whim, we decided to stop by the river trail for a quick walk. Still clad in our church clothes, we took a mini hike down to the riverbank, where Sydni entertained herself with bubbles and the tiny toads along the bank.

bubbles!

action shot

bubble whisperer

into the woods she goes ;)

♥♥ my little family! ♥♥

What an awesome little detour that was. I didn't really get a chance to even look over these pictures until today, so this is fitting in and of itself. I realized for the umpteenth time today again that this girl is quickly blossoming into a beautiful little lady.

my girl! ♥

Today was a pretty placid day; Rob and I got ourselves caught up on some things after work and had a dinner date at Mango Tree for some sushi. Rob's knee deep in negotiations over a boat [yes, the saga continues], and from the looks of it, this deal is going to happen sometime in the next 24 hours. I'm excited for him! His hope is to have one in the driveway within two weeks, and if I know my man the way I think I do, that's a deadline that won't be overshot.

Happy Monday, blogbots! Make it a great week!

xo | cmd

'Cuz Baby, You're a Fiiiiiiiirewoooooork! [Sings!]

It's no secret that we've run ourselves ragged over the past few weekends. I wouldn't trade any of that time, but with another weekend in our hands, we decided to plan on no plan, which is actually way more our style as it is. We made a resolve as we parted ways in the driveway that if we did anything for the weekend, it would be by chance.

Work was about as calm as we could expect any Friday to be; I was very much looking forward to an evening of relaxing and just hanging out with Rob. We of course spend a lot of time around each other, but sometimes we don't realize we need to just be together.

There's no better way to do that than an uplanned trip out for sushi.
And, where we live, there's no better place to go than Mango Tree.

our reaction to our resolve to "not do anything"
... haha.. love him.

He's the best man I could imagine sitting beside me in life; I'm not one for bushy bouquets of flowers every day, and I've never fully trusted anyone who thinks spending money is a viable substitution for quality time. Even with the means to approach it, he's nowhere near that danger zone. That... that is what I love.

... and i love you too!

Ok, who are we kidding. We're sick of each other. We just wanted FOOD.
[That's totally a joke, btw. Expect for the food part. That's not a joke ;) .. ]

spring rolls & crab rangoon = pre-sushi workout ;)

YUMMMMM!
The sushi, as always, was grade A and gone in no time. We paid our bill, left with full bellies and buckled up for the short drive home. As we were turning out of the restaurant, the sky in the distance exploded with fireworks. We had no idea what it was all about, and could only estimate their origin as the huge church on Newtown Road. Either way, we pulled into the drive of one of the closed businesses near Hahana and sat silently together watching what turned out to be at least a half hour's worth of fireworks. This wasn't a dinky little show!

fireworks!

I caught some of the action on camera..

There ya have it. Tonight's schedule has nothing else on it, and I am completely fine with that. We need a weekend in for a change. See ya tomorrow!

xo | cmd

My F A M I L Y

We were up early again today, and off to church with my parents. It took a bit of coaxing to get Sydni into the Sunday School class, but by the time the service was over, she'd found her place and even brought home a tiny little trophy for the morning.

haha.. look at the mischief on her face!

After church, we took a tiny little tour via Dad around some of the hotpoints of good old MTV, then headed back to the house. The camera came out, and I promise that once I get the actual edits done, I'll re-post the less-shadowy versions of these.

For now, HERE!

"... to the moon & back, mommy.. i love you!"

Here's the "bench series" haha..

my beautiful little girl

playing with her animals

hello, favorite people!

pappy & nana with syd!

We moved from the bench to the porch... 

my family.



i love them more than i'll ever be able to express.

And finally, we made our way onto the front steps!

these are my favorite moments!!

Sydni showed off two very contrasting sides today: Sweet & Something-Like-Sour?:

my sweet little plant-loving girl

... & the homegrown bumpkin who will knock your teeth out
if she catches you trespassing.. hahaha

How I love this girl. How I love my family.

It wasn't long before Rob and I were loaded up and back on the road to Cincinnati. Syd's hanging back with my parents for a mini vacation there; she's gonna come back mid-week spoiled as all get out, I'm sure. ;)

Again, we can skip the details [or lack thereof] of the commute back to Cincinnati, and hop right to the part where we were home for less than five minutes when Becky came pulling up. She'd been watching the pups over the weekend, and so the three of us decided it was a good a reason as any for some take out sushi from Mango Tree.

helloooooo from mango tree!

Nope.. there's nothing wrong with today, except that Syd didn't come back with us... but I know my parents are overjoyed to have her for a few days. Life's good. (:

xo | cmd

Weekends Are Fun

What's a good Saturday without a late start, right? Hah...

By late start, I mean we managed to completely skip breakfast. By the time we were all up and functioning, it was nearly lunch time, so we bypassed any notions of venturing down to Taste of Belgium, and instead made a beeline for Eli's, which Jesse's never had.

.. Until today. Eli's never disappoints! 

eli's!

After lunch, we scratched our brains for somewhere to take Jesse that we've not already shown him. We settled on Jungle Jim's, which became the perfect opportunity to both give Jesse a tour of the place and restock our depleted supply of mocha. Additionally, we left with a new growler, a growler koozie [I didn't know they made those...], some various exotic versions of cheese, sausages, juices and chocolate.

in honor of marianne & ali:
jumex & cameron hughes!

jj spoils!

It wasn't surprising that it took nearly an hour and a half for us to wholly navigate through Jungle Jim's with the frequent stops to browse the various sections, so by the time we got back to the house, we were all ready to relax for a couple of hours before catching up with tentative evening plans.

pretty much the afternoon.....

Fast forward a few hours to when we all woke up from power naps, it was time to rendezvous with Carolina at Mango Tree. Sushi tonight was a deeefinitely a good call!

mango tree!

Halfway through dinner, we finally started making some solid plans for the rest of the evening; Carolina figured out where Nader & Co. would be, which meant a trip downtown. I hadn't even taken Rob down to any of the venues in the actual downtown district, so we figured it wouldn't hurt to try it out.

We met with Nader, Keith, Eric and few others at one of the Irish pubs, then tried out some wannabe-ritzy place about which I'd never even heard [which was a bust beyond belief]. It wasn't long before we came to the surprising realization that we'd actually rather be in OTR. Sure, OTR is fun, but we thought it was due time to switch things up. We didn't count on wishing we were back there. Hah.

So as it happened, OTR became our final destination for the evening. We greeted the typical crowds with a little more patience than usual, realizing that the alternatives at this point were ridiculous in comparison. We landed at The Drinkery, which coincidentally proved to be a miniature reunion for several different people that represent the various different parts of my life in Cincinnati before I started moving all over the country.

I ran into Lora.... love & miss this girl!


lora & me, circa 2009

Then I turned around and bumped into Justin Jeffre, a friend of mine from years ago that has quite the history both in Cincinnati and well, internationally, but that's neither here nor there... haha..



justin & me, circa 2008?ish?

And of course, it wouldn't have been any sort of night without some double trouble [just kidding, they're not trouble]! I saw Regina & Renata for the first time in probably eight years.

& tonight, with regina & renata!

And of course, my lovely friends, awesome boyfriend and visiting guest of the weekend were there with me tonight. It was the perfectly energetic, hilarious Saturday night & I'm thankful for every single minute of it! (:

On that note, goooood night blogbots (:

xo | cmd

Progress Reports ;)

I'm on day 2 of my 2014 Lent commitment, and I have to say this is one of the best things I've ever done for Lent. I thought about this on the way to work, and consequently found myself preparing my heart for the words I wanted to speak to the person I would randomly draw from the jar. I prayed that I would find the best set of words to convey my appreciation for that person in the short space I've given myself in each little note card. These, after all, are not lengthy letters, but rather just simple notes.

jar of ♥s

^ Yes, this is my own little jar of hearts. This is only day 2 and I'm in love with the idea of doing this.
So there's that update.

Another mini progress report would be a tiny little victory shout that I have not fallen off this balance ball chair yet! Instead, I've put the daggone thing to work, and every spare second I have [which really isn't many, thankfully] is spent doing some sort of exercise. I stretched my back out for a bit today as well, and easily could've just stayed in that moment of bliss for the entire day.

this thing... is the best.

Yes, I occasionally find myself literally upside-down at work. Luckily for me, nobody can see me in my little corner without giving themselves away on the approach. Also, I'm not alone in my obsession with combatting office lethargy: Elisa is now using the other exercise ball I bought originally before I found my chair. Her desk sits lower than mine, so the height difference isn't as noticeable. Lizzy has a pedometer, and spends most of her in-office time marching in place while doing computer and phone work. Nancy does pilates every week, and Dave... well Dave is probably glad he's not a weirdo like the four of us ladies. Haha.

So far, so good.

Last update for today: I think Rob & I finally found our in-town sushi destination. We had made Se7en in Belleville our little spot when we were still living there, but we've been thus far up in the air about a decent dive here. Tonight we ventured over to Mango Tree in Mariemont, where I used to always order carry-out Pad Thai when I still lived in Fairfax. I'd never tried anything from their sushi menu, but we figured it was worth a try.

appetizers: edamame & spring rolls

 Our sushi arrived:

fried rice & top to bottom:
ultimate california roll, philly, spicy california, california

I am now a big fan of this place, and sure, here's a free plug for Mango Tree in Mariemont: GO THERE! Nom nom nom nommmmm...

Oh, and guess what. Tomorrow is FRIDAY.
THAT MEANS...

omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg.
...they're coming... tomorrow. omg... o..m...g.

I can't wait. I just can't.

I think we'll sleep well tonight (:

xo | cmd