♥ Happy Birthday, Boyfriend!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TO YOU ♥
[my best friend turns 27 today!]

♥.

Today's his birthday (: He's currently en route back from FL / LA with one of his friends, and if I'm right, I'll see him halfway through this week on Wednesday. To say I'm excited is an understatement.

Since I love posting photos and all that jazz, here are some of my favorites with this incredible guy of mine... Sure, it's not been that long so far, but we've been friends for far longer than photo history cares to document. The funny part is, that as obsessed as I am with pictures, we're usually having too good a time together to stop and take any. I'm thinking that's not a bad problem to have... but of the rare few we do have, they are ours, and I think that's pretty cool ღ

⑩ | Our first picture together, after what... 1+years of being friends? May sound dumb to most, but I usually have pictures of all my friends right away, in some fashion. This one was at The Old Rock House in St. Louis, for a concert we went to with some of his friends. Yes, I look scraggly. No, I didn't care....

old rock house | st. louis, mo

⑨ | Bindy's. You can't see any of that place behind us, but Rob introduced me to this place and now I make it a point to visit whenever I'm back. It's one of those local dives that everyone in town knows, and you always run into someone you know there, if you're a local yourself. In a weird way, it kinda makes me miss Mt. Vernon. In a weirder way, I just said ... that I miss Mt. Vernon. Whoa.

bindy's | granite city, il

⑧ | Rob finds Cincinnati! I finally persuaded Rob to come back to my stomping grounds with me for a weekend. This is the first time he accompanied me back; we found Catie and some others and made a night of it. Who really knows where we were here or what we were doing, but I know myself well enough to know that's a real smile on my face and it was there because of this guy.

rob in the 'nati.. uh oh.. haha

⑦ | Kyle's 30th birthday! In the spirit of birthdays, I thought I'd post this one, because 1) I love birthdays, and 2) I love this picture. Simple as that.


at kramden's for kyle's 30th

⑥ | Supercross in Indianapolis. This was back in March this year, St. Patrick's Day weekend to be exact. This night did not turn out the way we'd expected, but this is still a good picture. The weekend? Not so much, but hey... life happens, we all survived, and downtown Indy can bite it. Hrmmph!

lucas oil stadium | indianapolis, in

⑤ | Just us. We were lazing around one night and one of us pulled out a cell phone. There's nothing particularly special about this one other than it's just us, not being fancy [not that either of us really are in the first place, but still..]... but really just hanging out and being simple. Probably some of my favorite time.

couch potatoes. completely ok with that.

④ | Mudbash 2013. This was pretty much awesome... mainly because I was surrounded for an entire day with other people who enjoy sloppy mud, huge trucks and tailgating just as much I do. I'm not sure how I managed to get clean within 24 hours after this, but it was totally worth it.


mudbash 2013 | buchanan's mudpark, mo

③ | My going-away party. So this whole process still stings a little, but Rob made sure he came to the tiny shindig we had for my farewell back to Ohio. My office team set up a dinner at Edison's in Edwardsville and we spent the entire evening goofing off and telling some of our favorite stories about the people and events we encounter at work. As small as it all was, I was so thankful for my friends from work and for Rob coming to be a part of that.

edison's | edwardsville, il

② | Styx. Ted Nugent. REO Speedwagon. This was from just a couple of months back, at the VZW Amphitheater in STL. Rob's mom bought tickets for us for this show back in February, and held onto them all the way up until this show. We went with his mom and stepdad, and had an amazing night. I went back to IL for the weekend just for this, and I'm glad I did.


vzw amphitheater | st. louis, mo

① | And duh. Ya'll are probably sick of this picture, but I don't think I'll ever be tired of it. This is the most recent, from Rob's last visit here and our day trip down to Findlay Market & Washington Park. There's nothing to say about this that I haven't already said... other than, "girls it's okay if you're jealous... he's pretty awesome." - I'm joking, not about him being awesome, but about being catty over it. I just love the guy, and I can't... freakin'.. help it.

♥♥♥♥♥. | findlay market | cincinnati, oh

So happy birthday, lumberjack.
Love you, & can't wait to see you this week.

xo | cmd

Sunday Crash

I would really like to say that I accomplished a lot today. I guess in the big picture of it, I did a little, but not nearly as much as I'd planned. I know my body well enough to know when it just needs to completely shut down and reboot; today was that day. In the midst of some unpacking and arranging, I found myself in napping increments, interrupted by my own mind fighting against the body to get up and get things done.

My body ultimately won. Here's a blurry picture to in essence sum up what the day looked like. I may've taken this picture originally just to send to Ali, proving that the priorities are always clear: Pitch Perfect initiation in the new house? Check.


buried. watching pitch perfect, of course.

Yes, I realize this freakishly resembles an episode of Hoarders. In my defense, both Sydni's room and my own room are entirely assembled, save for the clothes being hung and a few miscellaneous details like decorations and pictures. Oh, and all of the thumb-sized pegs required to attach the shelves to the bookcase, tv stands and small bookcases... are still hiding away in the mass of unpacked wonder, so until those are uncovered, the books, decorations, dvd's, electronics, and other shelved things will sit idle in their boxes. Being the type of person who just wants it done, I'm fighting back the urge to just go and buy new pegs to get this crap off the floor.... but I know as soon as I do that, I'll all but trip over the whole set of those I already had. Patience, grasshopper.....

So yeah. Miniature spurts of unpacking amongst long runs of sleeping. I've just woken up for the, I dunno, fourth? time today, and I already feel much better. It's dark out though, and that being said I'm making a U-Turn and going right back to sleep. I'll tackle this mess this week.

P.S. - FIVE. DAYS... and Rob's here to visit. It's safe to say I'm just a little excited. Oh, and he sent me these today, from when we were at the Styx/REO/Nugent concert. I'd forgotten about them, but it's never too late to share (: That was a good day.


with KSHE95 pig & rob's mom | photobombing my own pic [high five]
maryland heights, mo

Ahh. Good night, friends (:
xo | cmd

REO Speedwagon | Styx | Ted Nugent

breakfast with ali...
i already miss her... always ♥ her!!!! 

I made it to Illinois in one piece yesterday, with some time to spare. I know this is no longer my home, but since I've only been back in Cincinnati for a week now, after two solid years of being gone, it really did feel like home when I drove in yesterday. Call me crazy, I know.

Anyway, first thing on the agenda today was breakfast at The Egg & I with Ali. She'd never been, I hadn't been in a while, we both wanted breakfast, and the wait wasn't that long at all. Sooooo, yeah. Everybody wins!

We followed breakfast with some light retail therapy, and spent that time catching up on all things of the last week: work, social lives, deep-seeded things, and of course, laughing. There was much laughing done in the first few hours of my day, and reminded me how grateful I should be [& am] to have a friend like her. Love you, Ali!

Oh, and speaking of Ali, she's got a blog, too. She updated it in the past day or so, to include a few others and myself, individually. I cried a little reading it. I'm blessed with incredible friends, even states away. :)

Back in Granite, Rob came back from work and we started out our weekend hang-out with a nap. You call that a waste of time spent together, we call it.... catching up right where we should be with Saturday tradition ;). Haha. Just kidding; we're not lazy, but it's been one heck of a week for both of us, and we wanted to be of the right energy for the evening.

yeahhhhhh buddy...

... And when that came around, Rob's mom & stepdad came by the house and we all piled into the truck for the short jaunt over to STL. It's concert season! This was my first of the season, originally a Valentines Day present from his mom & stepdad to us. It was a blast (:

As is usually the case, we'll go with pictures instead of me trying to tell you how much fun it was.....

beautiful day out! 

rob & his pretty madre!

we had... a blast (: (: 

[[ I've got the full set from the evening on fb... go find them there if you really want to :) .. ]]

...... and yes, this is lightly backdated. I was certainly in no condition to sit down and start blogging when we got back to the house. It was a great time, though, and deeeeefinitely worth the trip out. Thanks again to Rob's amazing parents for the tickets and for showing us a great time!

love. you.

First run of concerts for the season? Success (:

xo | cmd