Christmas Is... Surprising!

To fully convey this morning's [awesome] message from SonRise, I figured I would do it the easiest way possible!

YES, YES & YES :)

Today was [hopefully] our final excursion into the mayhem entitled Christmas Shopping. We wrapped everything up within a very reasonable time frame, and even managed a pitstop for lunch afterwards:

sometimes these things happen..... 

Fast forward about 6 hours to now; house is cleaned, laundry's done, gifts are wrapped & I... feel... blessed :)

See ya on the flipside!

xo | cmd

Shark Week!

We had tentative plans to head north to King's Island today, but those were dashed when Shayne and Cassie opted out.

Instead, we parked ourselves on the couch for a couple hours and soaked in some good old fashioned SHARK WEEK!

I love... shark week.
So does Sydni.

Appropriately so, we decided to take a trip south to Newport, to the aquarium, to see some of this week's celebrities up close and personal.

but first... a turtle shell! 

creature of the hour
[sorry about the photo quality; the real camera stayed @ home]

shark ray

my little half shark ♥

For the most part, there can only be so many different pictures from the same aquarium, so we didn't spend an exorbitant amount of time today hovering around each exhibit... just some of our favorites.

jellies' tank

sydni named this one "brain jelly" 

My personal favorite from the afternoon:

a puffer and my favorite hands? yes, please! 

syd's favorite

And lastly, on to the baddest boy in the wetlands: Mighty Mike! 

awh. jussa wittle guyyyy... 

or maybe a bit bigger than that. 

ok, maybe a lot bigger.
.. sizing up to mighty mike! 

albino alligator on the way out ;) 

We followed the aquarium with dinner [& of course breadsticks] at the Olive Garden before coming back home. These no-agenda Sundays are my favorites, and to spend them with my favorites -- including Shark Week -- is more than I could ask for.

See ya on the work side tomorrow!

xo | cmd

Nana & Pappy's Day Trip

One of the perks I'm absolutely excited to get when I'm in my retired years: Taking the whenever-I-feel-like-it day trip.

My parents, being the retired two that they are, did just that today. They stopped down and picked up Sydni from Mindi's, and proceeded to spend the entire day out with her playing. By the time I got home, she was spent, but one clearly happy little chicky.

Rob met us in the middle on Beechmont for dinner before Nana & Pappy had to head back. There was enough laughing and stray food to go around, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

syd with her guys

the amazing two men in my life: rob & dad

girls!

As a bonus, this was in our back yard when we got home:  

hi there!

 

It's going to be a busy couple of days coming up, but I'd say that's not a bad way to start the weekend!

xo | cmd

Illinois Easter, Part II

The first part of Easter was yesterday, when we met with Rob's mom & Don for lunch, and hung out with them for a little while. Today, we bid farewell to Jesse and made our way to his dad's house, where we met with him and Kate, and continued on to his sister's house.

Rob's sister has a 5-year-old who made me miss Sydni even more than I already have so far this weekend, but it was still fun to watch her enjoy an egg hunt and the festivities of Easter. Sydni gets hers next weekend at Nana & Pappy's house (:

Anyway, here's the highlight reel from today's outing!

rob with his dad and stepmom kate (:

ella on her egg hunt

eggs!

yes. i think she and sydni would get along just fine!

We spent the better half of the late morning and early afternoon at Rob's sister's house; from there, we made a quick stop back at his dad's to help them move part of a backyard project. I took that opportunity to photograph one of their dogs, Travis, and a cozy nest of robin eggs.

awwww ♥

peek-a-boo!

perfectly colored.

^ I loved that the egs perfectly complimented the mosaic onthe birdbath right above their nest. It made me think of it as a tiny little nursery, ready for five chirpy little babes. Ahhh, SPRING! Love, love, love.

Onward we went after our goodbyes; we set a course for home but not before we swung back by Rob's mom's house to see her one more time. This meant more pictures.

rob & his mom

yay, self timers! :p

And of course, pictures of the dog. There have been a lot of dogs this weekend; we have a lot of explaining to do when we see our own two pups tonight.. haha..

soliman!

It was a long trip home, mainly because yesterday while I was out and about readying up for Ali's birthday, I caught a rock from a truck in front of me. I didn't see it at first, but that sucker nailed me, and I've now endured a full road trip staring glaring at this feather line in my windshield. Luckily, I have a boyfriend with resources to get this fixed professionally and honestly, and hey, it was bound to happen sooner or later.

ya jerk.

On our way home, we stopped off at Olive Garden... for two reasons:
1. We were hungy [the most obvious reason]
2. We needed to take this picture. Ali specifically requested a picture of me at Olive Garden, for when she goes there this Tuesday on her actual birthday. I obviously won't be present; she asked Marianne and I for pictures like this to stand in for us. Haha. So here ya go!

olive garden! nom nom nom.

And with that, we're home, safe & sound.
It's been a long weekend. Sydni will be here tomorrow and I... cannot... wait.

G'Nite!

xo | cmd

UNPACKING! ... Orrrrr... Mini Golf

"I will make giant strides today and unpack at least half of these boxes!"

- said me, earlier today.

And then I get this [as I'm driving home, thinking about how much I don't feel like moving a single thing around my house]:


*sigh.... fiiiine.... haha

Dangit! So I stopped off at my place, traded work clothes for normal clothes and was off to Northside, where Becky and Mike were waiting. We were off to Fairfield to the golf center [wow, it's been a while...] and managed to finish up seconds before the rain started pouring down. We made a pitstop at Olive Garden [whaaaat?! dinner before 10:30??] and made it back to Northside before 10pm.


mini golf? way better than unpacking... any. day.

*Sigh. Thanks again to my incredible, generous friends for saving me from my the daunting task of unpacking. I think I needed a breather between the move and the mess of stuff; I feel much better already, even now in this explosion of picture frames, books, electronics, and a stray tennis racket[?]. I'll be fresh into the game tomorrow and knuckle through it all.

Seee ya later, Monday.

xo | cmd

The Express Circus



training mode! ;)

Today I made the announcement to my office that I’ll be leaving.

I hate these kinds of things. I want to be sure to recognize the silver lining in spite of my leaving; the fact that Linda and Ali were both crying reminded me of just how much it means to me , to have them as coworkers and friends. We’ve been through a lot at this office, and I’ll never forget the ways we leaned on each other.

That being said, WELCOME KYLE! The newest addition to the team, and the first male staffing consultant in quite some time to be added to this staff. Kyle’s great, and I have absolutely no doubt even after just a few days of working with him that he’ll become a great mesh to this place and will become a force to be reckoned with on the job. I can safely say I feel confident in leaving behind some of my favorite, valued clients in his care.

Andi made this, in his honor … haha..

Meanwhile, there were other sweet perks involved in the day:
Diana made cupcakes, for starters. Nobody hates cupcakes. (:



sweet treat from a sweet boss!

Rob & I finished off the day with a late dinner at Olive Garden. We've been on a good stretch of balancing eating in and eating out; tomorrow it's stuffed peppers at the house [I promised Rob], so stay tuned to see if those actually turn out the way they were supposed to... haha..

For tonight though, it was SALAD.. and some pasta. (:

Not a bad day.. not a bad day.

xo | cmd

Cute Little Boys & Chocolate Teeth

I am surrounded by some seriously funny people (:

Work was work; I so rarely want to talk about it after work, so I'll leave that beast alone.

Ali and I made plans tonight with her friend Marianne; our original intention was to help Ali shop for a dress for an upcoming wedding she'll be attending.
..... We didn't get that far.

The three of us rendezvoused at my house and headed over to Olive Garden for dinner. We planned to eat and then continue on to the mall in search of a new dress for Ali. The only problem: we got hung up at OG being goofy instead. (:

It all started because Marianne transformed her hair today by getting a pixie cut, and she was a little at war with the styling on day 1. She ordered a piece of chocolate cake, and ended up with a little in her teeth. That spurred a photo session with all of us, which ended hilariously.

And by hilariously, I mean with Ali and I and some chocolate in our teeth, but more importantly Marianne looking like a scared little boy with detestable dental hygiene on picture day. Haha. ;) I haven't laughed that hard in a whiiiiile.



little boys with chocolate teeth?
.... hahahaha..., sure. :F

.... Killin' me. Hahahaha. 

We did make it to the mall, but only for about 30 minutes. It wasn't enough time to get much done, but well worth the antics earlier.

*sigh... Happy Tuesday, friends (: I hope you've had your laughs today like we have.

Have a great week!

xo | cmd

Hair Gone Wild

Hi, guys. :)
It's me, Cori.

p.s. - oktoberfest.. best known for:
feeding people ginormous pretzels since the beginning of time :)

This will be fun [for you moreso than me]. I'm fairly certain I'll take some heat for it, but history is history, and I can't change it; why then deny it, right? Haha.

ANYWHO:

yes, please.

While we were all sitting at lunch yesterday [after the moments of food-induced {in this case, Olive Garden breadsticks} silence that blankets a table of Baptists at the exact moment the food lands on it {don't act like you don't know}], we somehow brushed across the topic of our individual styles way back in the day. I love these conversations mostly because my imagination is excellent at fabricating the what-if from it, which is probably just as hilarious as what it actually was. For me, my hair is certainly one of those markers that I consider accurately indicative of what stage of life I was experiencing.

Here's the Hair Tale:



curly kiddie locks :)

I'm a hybrid Spanish and Filipino, so I had naturally curly hair when I was a youngster. It was usually tamed out with simple blowdrying, but yeah. Couple that up with a perm, and a haircut that landed right below my ears, and you had me, lanky, brace-face with poodle hair. Holler. Sorry folks, I don't have photo-documentation of that part, for many reasons. Just imagine it :). 

oh, junior miss pageant days.



cori & emily.
a stellar picture, altogether. haaa.

I grew out the curly mess eventually, and by the time I graduated high school, it was manageable. However, over the course of the four years of high school sports: track and soccer primarily, I tapped into trying different methods to keep the mess out of my face. The most conducive fix had to go far beyond the standard ponytail, so I wound up giving myself cornrows here and there for various sporting events. Yeah, it happened.



goin' brown!



short brown

Once high school was behind me, I ventured out on my own into the world of college. My poor hair didn't know what it was in for, but Not only did I chop it, but started in with color alteration. I didn't go overboard [at least not at first], but I certainly went a few shades lighter. I don't know why I didn't just stop there while I was ahead, but I didn't, and wound up chopping it all off again. *sigh.



a catastrophe.



Move forward a year or so, and you would've found me in the early portion of some sort of revolutionary phase and decided that my hair should be different colors. As you see, I started off with subtle caramel highlights - nothing too extreme there. Again, I should've stopped there. Here's the thing though: A lot of gals [and hey, guys, too] probably don't think dying hair is that big of a deal, but let me remind you of something: I have black hair. For girls with black hair, obtaining blonde hair is not a good idea. I never got that memo, at least not on time. Somewhere along the line I also got some facial piercings to add to the disaster. Here's how well that worked out for me.

Riiiiight.



short, again.
[p.s. - sister, love!]

Luckily, the downward spiral that was my hair eventually picked up some positive momentum, and I returned back to something much closer to natural state. I will say this, though: if you ever go from black hair to blonde hair, it will take a .:long:. time to heal itself. *sigh. The good news is, I grew it all back out and left it alone for a good 4ish years, got married, had a baby, and then decided to donate it. Wouldn't you know I'd be the one to chop 14 inches off two days before shattering my collarbone into 10 little pieces. Anyone with short hair can tell you that maintenance of short hair is no fun with one arm.



present day



Wellllll..

I'm sorry to disappoint you that the story pretty much ends there. I haven't done anything ridiculous since my last donation, and I'm not sure that I will again, for a very long time. As it stands now, I'm back to normal, and for the time being, I'm completely cool with that. :)

What's your story? ;)

xo | cmd