Pitbull Personal Space

I titled this according to the short list of non-existent things in my life right now. 

I am not complaining, but it's still true. There is no such thing as personal space when it comes to these dogs.

I'm still kinda reeling from the Adoptathon that we attended over the weekend, and after spying on a couple of other baby bullies without permanent homes, it made me want to come home and give mine that extra inch of space (and then they take a mile, because they're pits and that's what they do, duh..). 

h....i. 

For almost an hour, this is how they both sat. Sasha eventually fell over, which is nothing new, but for that 45 minutes of dog breath into my book, it was still endearing in its weird little way.

I've managed to fly under the radar this week - no sick bugs in our home, no unusual crisis at work, and only the occasional hiccup here and there in between it all. I pray your weeks are treating you well out there also, blogbots!

Happy Hump Day!

xo | cms 

Sunday (Oy).

Fact: We were out late last night.
Fact: We were out way too late last night, according to my body....which has apparently become unaccustomed to a) being out late and b) going to places like OTR.... late.
Fact: I feel much older than I am in this precise, physical moment.

Yesterday had its highlights, followed by the unfortunate mishap last night. We came home, crash landed in our beds and let the exhaustion take the wheel. Rob and I awoke this morning to an empty guest room and a farewell note from Taryn & Kenny, who'd left sometime earlier than 10am.

Since our guests headed out before breakfast, we took liberties with any real plans for the day. Rob took to the laptop to research his phone replacement options, and I took to the recliner to watch some Olympic coverage, drink my morning lemon water and snuggle with 145 lbs of dog:

Uh-huh.

Eventually we made it out of the house, got breakfast, did some grocery shopping and retrieved the boat from storage, where we'd left it yesterday. Rob was able to identify the parts that needed repair, and spent the afternoon reconstructing the damaged pumps. As one last public service announcement to any and all of you boaters out there: USE YOUR HEADS out there! We are so indebted to each other when we're all out on the water, for trusting each other to understand and demonstrate basic common sense on the water. Gahhhhh.. haha. I'll stop ranting, but I really hope that you'll go back and read yesterday's entry... especially if you're one of us who loves the water and sharing that fun with others on a boat.

Anyway, it turned into a relaxing day, with plenty of leg room for smaller household chores and miscellaneous things we both wanted to accomplish. We'll cap it off with some more Olympic coverage and call this one a wrap. The work week resumes tomorrow and I'm sure we'll need a good boost of energy to get us both started.

Ciao, blogbots!

xo | cmd

The Mighty, Mighty Evening of NOTHING!

I was just reading a blog about 45 minutes ago that had all kinds of depth to it; it was a memoir-style thing written by a gal whose journey right now is documenting her travels across the globe for the sake of missions. It was pretty emotional, actually, and just about everything else that this entry

IS NOT.

Gotcha!

That's right, this is one of those phenomenally non-phenomenal entries, that I write for myself rather than others, in the legitimate and very probable case that I'm at a mental crossroad some odd days or years from now trying to remember if I did anything cool on 6/16/16. 

Well, not really. We did housework, which included laundry, vacuuming and some other super-fun adulty things like emptying the dishwasher and taking out the trash. Oh, and I fished a handful of magnetic doll accessories out of a vase, because in real life [at least mine, that is.. ] these are the types of things that are pretty typical around here. 

Speaking of typical: 

If you know our dogs, you'll immediately recognize that this happenstance picture is a perfectly unscripted capture though of their personalities. So. Much. Accuracy. 

And, just in case Rob starts doubting his chronological recall of boat maintenance, this happened tonight too: 

That my friends, is 2 things: 1) much needed updates to the brakes being installed on the boat trailer, and 2) just one. more. reason that I am insanely thankful for the handiness of this secret master mechanic. People pay big bucks for this type of thing, but it's happening constantly under my own nose in the driveway more times than I realize, and I'm grateful for all the headache he saves our family for things like this. Plus, I think's it's pretty awesome when my man can tackle stuff like this on his own. Just sayin' :). 

And THAT, folks, is the super short, very much un-exhilerating chapter of my week, otherwise known as Thursday. 

Stay tuned; our weeks are chock full of these riveting tales.. haha ;) 

G'Nite! 

xo | cmd

The Biggest Hearts Live in the Smallest Spaces

We woke up to this today:

We've recently remodeled Sydni's bedroom, a process which included wall-painting, furniture building, hammock hanging and the general reorganizing of everything else she owns. We'll soon be adding decorations, a desk/workspace, reading nook and whatever else we can dream up to make that space truly hers. 

The only thing we didn't really take into full account with this was that our dogs - Stella especially - can limber up the stairs of her new loft bed, but cannot make the final jump up onto the bed itself. The horizontal space on the landing platform between the wall and the bed doesn't allow for any dog-conducive ramp addition, which has left poor Stella stranded like a castaway from joining Sydni at night. 

I've caught her the past few days lying on the carpet floor directly under the loft; if I were viewing from the ceiling and had overlapping images of Sydni on the bed and Stella on the floor, I'm certain they would align exactly as if they were sleeping side by side. 

This is something I didn't realize until today, when I woke up to find Sydni in our room, having toted a pillow and blanket from hers, asleep on the dog bed, with Stella splayed out beside her. Something in my heart broke this morning, for this aging dog of ours who wants nothing more than to be with her little human 24 hours a day, and for Sydni, whose heart is made of pure gold when it comes to loving animals. It hit me also in that moment that the biggest hearts often live in the smallest spaces. 

I don't know how this managed to grab ahold of my senses in the way that it did today, but I am suddenly acutely aware of the fact that my dogs can't sleep with their smallest commander - which in itself is fine, but it's a stark note that they are in fact aging, losing agility and no longer bouncing hairballs of puppy energy [ok, well maybe Sasha's an exception on most days, but still]... 

Really, I don't know where I'm going with this, other than it looks like we'll be working out something to make the co-sleeping arrangements in Sydni's room both kid and pet-friendly, and go from there. I just.... I really wanted to pen out my thoughts for a later day, for whenever I start to feel frustrated with my pets for something they've done, that they're just hopelessly, unconditionally devoted to us and want nothing more than to have that same love returned. 

Love your pets today, bloggers. We forget often just how much they love us.
[[Yes, even cats. That's a diatribe for another day, I know; they're fickle, brooding & moody little mysteries, but they do love us just the same, in their twisted little ways.. haha. #ButIDigress]]

The rest of today wasn't so awful, either :).

after work.. happy little bits of the universe

Small group was tonight, and it goes without saying that these are often my favorite evenings.  We're working our way through the Old Testament, and tonight we processed through Ezra and all that it has to offer. Some challenging - and very much eye-opening - material! I would highly recommend reviewing Ezra if it's been a while. If you can get through the lineage of chapter 2, you'll be great! :)  

small group: ezra!

Post small group, we made a pit stop at Orange Leaf, because we pass the daggone place on the way home and WHY NOT?! Haha. Also, BOBA. That's right, BOBA.

boba for daaaays... 

I hope the rest of you've had a wonderful week so far, and that it only gets better from here. 

Happy Hump Day! 

xo | cmd

Change of Address: Home Lowkea's

Of the list of 74983269382156932 things that aren't in the You Just Bought This House Now Guess WHAT manual:

Your new secondary address will be Home Depot.
(Or Lowe's. Or Ikea)((Yes, to all the above.))

No? Am I the only one?

We moved into this place at the end of February/early March and up until a few weeks back, all things house-ish have been sidled away to the back burner, as we worked our way through family gatherings, out of town weddings & birthdays and Sydni's school/extracurricular activities. 

But NOW... after my experience yesterday painting the office, and how I felt when it was all said and done, I'm hooked. Poor Rob, if by nothing other than proxy, is too. Though really, for him I'm sure it started back when he backed the new mower off the trailer in our driveway and took Sydni on a joy ride around the yard to create crop circles. 

Today, it was church first, then a beeline to Ikea. Yes, on purpose. 

rollup mattress? yes, i'll take one thanks. 

^^ Syd's bedroom is going to come together this week if it kills me. I've committed to it, and there's no turning back now. 

As if Ikea wasn't enough for 2 hours, Home Depot came in at a close second just under another 2 hours: 

.... and other things paint, home, DIY [keyword,keyword,keyword...]

After a fruitless search for curtain tie backs at Home Depot, I finally hunted some down at Lowe's that would suffice for the master bedroom, and then it was back to the mothership to install, apply and otherwise use everything that came home in bags with us. 

Home Lowkea's is the only accurate way I can describe the secondary address that should go on all my formal documents until this house is complete - so like, at least the next 2 years. Can I do that, just temporarily? 

It's work it, though - check out the progress on mini-me's hideaway! 

loft bed, comin' up! 

Anyway, it's not a lot of excitement for a Sunday, I know, and I'm laughing that wry, sad laugh inwardly a little at the fact that my Sunday diatribes in my adult life reflect a day hunting down paint and curtain rods, instead of nursing random and mysterious after-effects of a Saturday night gone rogue. It's whatev', though. I'm pretty happy with the course I've found.

Ying & Yang here [aka S&S Pibble] are pretty pleased too, especially since their Big Barker has been upgraded from the living room to the bedroom. Spoiled.. 

Happy Sunday! 

xo | cmd 

Bit by Bit

We're still staying in the "old house," as it's now being called in light of the moving process. We've got stuff in boxes and are slowly moving piece by piece until the big truck comes and the bulk of what we have goes. We woke up earlier than expected this morning, which made for some calm quality time amidst the boxes piling up in each room.

sweet moments :)

After church, we made a trip to the "new house" to shuffle some things around and assemble some items from yesterday's auction. In addition to laying out a couple of area rugs, organizing portions of the kitchen cabinets and surveying a couple of the rooms for paint colors, I took to constructing the two Parson's chairs we snagged at the auction. To my disappointment, both chairs were missing front legs, which made these the first items we've received so far from the auction that were missing core pieces. No biggie though; they won't be hard to replace, and the chairs are otherwise new out of the box! #silverlining

in the box... 

what they'll look like with four legs.. haha

I mean hey, there are worse things in the world than missing chair legs. Heck, there are worse things in the process of this move so far, so if missing chair legs are one of the bigger headaches I have, then that is a-okay with me. 

Most of our afternoon was spent shuffling things into their tentatively permanent places at the new place and filling the garage closer and closer to full capacity with things that won't have a home for at least the next month, I'm sure. The joys of moving! 

This will be a slow but certainly sure process. It's coming together bit by bit and I'm doing what I can to control those moments of over-zealous thought strands that convince me I can and will paint the entire downstairs level in the matter of 8 hours. It's not that I truly believe it's impossible, but I've also vowed to let myself actually enjoy the process, too ;). 

Stay tuned.... 

xo | cmd

IKEA Wish List... Because... Yeah....

One of the things I constantly swear I'm never doing again is going to Ikea on a weekend.
So what'd we do today?

..... yeahhh....

This is going to get way out of control if I don't do some planning. Even then, I have this feeling that we'll still manage to walk out with some extra stuff when the time comes to actually swipe the card.

We went in today with a strict, mutual understanding that today was for idea-gathering only.

Wish list trip it was! And for the record, today's entry, much like but very much moreso than 90% of the others I scribe on here, are purposed mainly for my own convenient recall later on.

We have a designated guest bedroom that we'll need decorated.

i'll take it. thanks.

^ I'll just go ahead take one of those, if you wanna bag it on up, Ikea... you and your forever-endless pre-fabbed rooms that flow exactly the way we all want them to.... it's like ya'll do this for a living or something. Sheesh. 

There's an entry way space that's just big enough for this guy:

bench time! 

^ At least the disheveled pillows, barrage of price tags and fake foliage detract from whatever full potential this display could've had [just kidding, they don't really affect my vision of it.. dangit!]; this is literally the perfect size for the entry. 

ERMAGERSH! [NotEvenIfITried,] MY KITCHEN WILL LOOK LIKE GORDON RAMSEY'S: 

most definitely need one....hundred or so. 

^ "Because she'll literally be able to organize everything, from her kitchen utensils, hairbrushes, power tools, tennis rackets and all of her lofty and unrealistic aspirations to de-clutter north america entirely!" - The Ikea Home Team's methodology behind these $3 demons.

Nostalgia Alert! I worked at Journey's for a long time and THEY had these!:

.................. ? 

 ^ Ok, but seriously. I'm reviewing my photo roll for the first time since I took these pictures earlier today and I'm laughing at this. Cori, you would never seriously use this thing. Stop it. 

More practically, setting up the office:

matching is important

 ^ I've committed to at least matching the furniture that goes together in each room; it's not been a huge priority up to this point, but I get to play house for real now, and we need something practical, simple but still somewhat aesthetically-fit. Oh, and something that won't cost us an organ to purchase. Seems like a good idea.. right? Maybe? The jury's still out. 

We'll need lamps & carpets, right?:  

and apparently, when i'm in ikea, I forget completely how to frame an object
entirely in the camera screen. macro, much? 

^ Probably... so why not get the lamp that charges your cell phone and the carpet that will envelope you up to your ankles when you walk on it? Go big or don't go at all, I guess. 

This!: 

cinnaaaaaa..... *drool

^ Le sigh. I didn't buy one of these while we were there today, but it.... was.... close....
And I do not need this, just like I really don't need the rest of this stuff... but hey, this is the WISH LIST, right?! 

WALL. PAINTINGS.: 

♫ iiiiiiiii can show you the wooooooorld... ♪♫

^ Pshhhhyeah right.. I'm all for making that on my own; my social circle and family would smack me if I ever bought that already made like that. That's vinyl canvas [or something like it, flush, not actual individual boards, fyi]. Sorry, Ikea. No offense intended. I'm sure that's looking dapper in someone else's house, but I may just have to hack that. Thanks☺. 

Lastly, for the day's review, 

Outdoor idea!:

hrmmm... 

 ^ Kinda. Now that I'm reviewing my photo roll , I'm not sure I really like it as much as I thought I did when I was standing rightontopofittakingthispicture [again, Cori, would it have killed you to back. up?!]. We may keep shopping on this one. 

One thing I did learn today: Ikea's so much more enjoyable when you know you're not going to spend anything, wait in line or battle the sidewalk loading zone with one of those two-handled carts that you dragged in zig-zag lines for an hour through the self-service warehouse and check out lines while balancing the 257 miscellaneous items individually piled atop the big boxed items you bought... because Ikea does not provide bags, but you forget that every. single. time. 

We left empty-handed, aside from this photo roll of miscellaneous ideas for that not-so-far-off trip to actually buy the stuff. We compensated by stopping at Target for some staple items and bought those along with a couple of these: 

the bones, not the dogs, fyi.

^ Stella was appreciative, I think. ♥

Is it weird that Ikea was not a garish experience today? Probably.
Is it dangerous that Ikea was not a garish experience today? YES. 

.... Now I'm convinced to go back soon, because "It really wasn't that bad!" 

Oy. We'll see ;) 

Home establishment in progress! 

Ciao!

xo | cmd

And Home Again

It's been a loaded weekend, to say the least. We're home now, but not without a day full of activity under the belt.

We started off with breakfast at Rob's dad's house; yesterday's visit there brought us back together for the morning there with them, this time complete with a visit from Rob's younger niece Ella, who is Sydni's age. We were greeted first by the little furry reminder of joy in the face of an otherwise tense situation: Ginger!

good morning, beautiful girl! 

hi, ella! ♥

We ate breakfast and spent the morning in the company of family, which was exactly what everyone in the house needed.

kate with the pups & ginger 

We soon said our goodbyes [for now; we'll be back asap!] and headed back to Dillon's to scoop up our dogs and be on our way.

Oh, I can't forget to mention the other pitstop before we hit the highway:

ohhhhhh brother.. 

Remember this girl? Yes, she's still in operable condition and has spent the last couple of weeks shacked up in Matt's shed. We made a detour through Collinsville on our way out to say our thanks to him and load her up. The guys took to that task, while I hung back and marveled over Apollo, Matt's dane:

apollo! 

The process went a lot smoother than I'd expected, and within a matter of minutes, the bike was hauled up, strapped in and ready to go!

ready to go!

Despite the roller-coaster of emotions, we seemed to stay in decent spirits for the ride home. We know the next couple of months are going to be a bit strenuous, regardless of how the course of events fall, but we know we're stronger together and when you add God to the mix, joy in the midst of it all is an undeniable fact.

road trippin' it! ♥

We're home now, exhausted and ready to call it a night.
Happy week, loves.

xo | cmd 

Illinois, Here We Come!

We were both beyond ready for 5:00 to roll around, and when it did, we wasted no time in packing up our bags and load up with the dogs for an evening launch to Illinois for the weekend.

hittin' the road with panama jack here.. haha 

We brought the truck with us, which I'm sure will benefit us at some point over the next couple of days, but for long trips, it simply serves to prolong the adventure and force normal conversations to be held at a medium yell.

Driving...
Driving...
pee break..
and driving...

.... and dog butts.... 

... and some mooooore driving....
leg stretches...
... and then driving some more.

And finally an arrival here at Dillon's, where we're both more than happy to remain unmoved from our collapsed positions on the couch. Dillon just returned from an outing to scout a new truck. He's here now and the three of us are in a unanimous vote to do absolutely nothing for the rest of tonight.

*yawn! 
See you tomorrow, blogbots.

xo | cmd

Memorial Day 2015

I'm elated to have had today off work. I love that we were able to spend just a little extra time visiting with our friends and family in Illinois. I love that businesses around the country closed down to "celebrate" today. BUT, in the midst of all that, I want to stop and THANK.... those who are beyond my reach to physically thank. The ones who gave all, so that we could have the liberties we have.

amen. 

For the families of those who paved the way and gave their lives to do so, today is to honor the memories, courage and ultimate sacrifice of your sons and daughters, husbands, wives, siblings and friends. I salute them, and I salute you.

My day started earlier than I'd expected; the air mattress gave way at some unknown point in the night, so there wasn't much sleeping between that realization and the sun rising. I took advantage of the silence to dig into some of my own sustenance, which was a perfect way to reflect on what Memorial Day should signify for us.

perseverance, tenacity, hope. 

I was finishing up with my devo time when Jesse and Rob starting moving, and in a matter of about 40 minutes, we had breakfast ready..

not too shabby! 

We ate and relaxed while the dogs did the same..

we don't wanna get in the car! :( 

We hung out at Jesse's for a little while longer, until we finally loaded up and hit the road for the trip back to Ohio.

on the roaaaad again.... 

Fast forward about 5 hours, and we're here, home, safe & sound and ready to nestle in and do nothing for the rest of the night. We made some dinner, lounged around for a couple of hours and are ready to call this one a night :).

Gooood night!

xo | cmd

PITCH PERFECT 2!!

Yeah, so we talked about cooking breakfast at Jesse's this morning, but didn't have that conversation until we were sitting AT breakfast at Apple Tree. Which..... ok, that's fine, because the food's still good, but uhhhh.. we're definitely cooking at some juncture this weekend.

After breakfast, we made a 2ish hour stop by Geoff & Nikki's - it is sunny and beautiful outside today; we hung out there for a bit, soaking up the day and playing with little [although growing so quickly!!] Emma, before we headed back to Jesse's.

I had a few errands to run, so after a short nap [yeah, that happened, too; Jesse has these two TREES...]:

that happened. it was... awesome.
zZzZzzzzz... 

I came back to the boys giving the backyard smoker a run for its money, and the dogs playing together as though they'd known each other since day 1. That's a big deal for Stella, if you've never met her.

this thing.... #nailedit

pittie party! 

puppy smiles!
stella. sasha. zepplin.

The food came out amazing. Like, ah-mazing. Recommend, recommend.
Rob's mom and Don stopped by for a little while, which was awesome. The last bits of daylight hung around with the smell of slow-smoker chicken

The time came for me to leave the backyard shindig and head to Collinsville, where I met up with Ali and Damanji! That's right.. it was FINALLY TIME! 

pitch 2!! 

Ok guys.. I mean let's be real here. First, this movie came out LAST Friday (5/15). It is now EIGHT days later and I finally went to see it, in the company of literally the ONLY two people I would want with me to see it:

i seriously.. just... love. love. loooove them. 

Long story short, we found a movie theater in St. Louis that looked more like a Marriott than a movie theater, ordered some chicken quesadillas and a Stella Artois [because say whaaaaaaaaaat this place?!] and settled back into sectioned-off captains chair recliners to watch this.

P.S. - I'll see it again, anytime, if any of you out there need a tag-a-long :).
P.P.S. - This:

this is us, basically. 

I'll leave the night that way. I rolled back in to Jesse's closer to 1am than midnight [oh, and this is backdated], just before Rob and Jesse returned from Geoff & Nikki's. It's been an amazing day here in Illinois ♥.

Tomorrow  = Lake & Friends!
One more day here before the trip back to Ohio.

Woo!

xo | cmd 

Goodbye, April!

Before I get on social media tomorrow and see the onslaught of this in many variations tomorrow:

You're welcome, in advance. :p 

I know I'm not alone in my disbelief... and slight terror.. that it's already the end of April. Because yeah, yesterday it was January and I've apparently spent nearly the first half of the year now preparing for the year. 

Ok, so that's not entirely true. I've accomplished a lot so far this year and that's a big deal. There's still plenty of time to accomplish even more, and I have a feeling that the first year of my 30's will be a chapter stuffed to the gills with new experiences and reasons to be grateful.

At work, I marked the start of a new month with a little revamping of my office space. I was due in for some updated pictures, so by careful selection, there were changes made!

At home, I celebrated the end of April by hanging out with my two favorite people in my little world; Rob & Syd. It was game night here at our house, which meant dinner [cooked by Rob!], followed by a typical Mama+Syd+Rob+Stella+Sasha night in at our house...

my hammock girl! 

I'd made a purchase for Sydni when she was almost 2, I think, when the movie Soul Surfer made its big debut and we watched it: I'd found a Soul Surfer-themed Bible at a bookstore and decided then that I would get it for Sydni for the day when she'd be able to use it. Granted that day is still perhaps a few more years ahead of us, she realizes now that this is hers, and knows full well the gravity and value of this book.

sydni got her Bible out tonight! ♥

reading to us ♥♥♥♥

Devo time as a family is where it's at, folks. There is no denying that.

The dogs seemed bored with our devo time, but also seemed to know that it wasn't the time to interfere as they usually would with three people just sitting in the living room. They kept their distance until we were done, and managed to entertain themselves for that short time:

these two... hahaha.. 

Finally it was time to get the board games out. Sydni originally wanted to have a throne for the night:

really, syd? 

She was easily coerced from her perch when we told her that she would lose to us in all the games if she couldn't reach her player piece, so she hopped right on down and joined us at the table for a grueling duel of wits in...... Candyland. Dora Candyland.

Can I just say how amazing it is to have a night like this with my family? I'm in love. Seriously.

I sat back and just marveled at the simplicity of my day today, and for the millionth time in the last couple weeks it seems, just felt full of love, gratitude and peace. Life is good.

Good night!

xo | cmd