Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Oh, THERE You Are, Winter..... :/

Here's the only thought I had pretty consistently as today started, wore on... and ended: 

WHY, you ask?

And just in case you forgot whose daughter I am:

I think that should about do it. Folks, it's finally starting to feel like a bitter Winter out there - please be safe - & DRIVE SAFELY - wherever you go, stay warm and don't forget about your furry kids, either! ♥

Brrrr!

xo | cmd

Monday, October 20, 2014

There & Back Again.

We're getting good at keeping to a general outline of a routine whenever we make these trips to Illinois now. It usually starts with visiting Rob's mom and stepdad in some fashion, and ends with us visiting his dad and stepmom. In between is the time we spend with friends, usually maximizing the weekend for all it's worth and then some by the time we've gone.

Today found perfect cadence with that routine, when we packed up our time at Dillon's and headed over to Rob's dad for a few hours before we jumped on the road back home.
travis! :) 
It was some time very well spent; I got to help Kate out on a project that otherwise may have taken a few days to complete, and Rob got a special hand-me-down heirloom from his dad:
vintage blues gear! 
The Halloween spirit is striking early this year, I've noticed; even Kate's little kitten was in a test run of one of her little outfits. She's the cutest pumpkin I've seen so far:
darlins! 
Soon enough, we picked up once again and talked ourselves into the drive home. Both the pups were content this time around being in the backseat, after a weekend of confusion in unfamiliar territory. Stella eventually took advantage of the road trip and resigned herself to a 4-hour nap, while Sasha kept on as the ever-watchful [and pesky] backseat sentinel.
and a very intimidating one, clearly... ♥
We made it home in four separate but whole pieces, and that's about all that's left to report.

Monday'll be here before I'm ready to greet it, so for now... good night!

xo | cmd

Monday, September 22, 2014

Love @ Whole Foods

It's Monday. It was a bit overwhelming today, a bit more than usual.
Elisa and I took advantage of a lull around lunchtime to make our way up the street to Whole Foods, and I realized it was the exact refresher I needed to get my week back on track.

Lunch:
now this is my definition of fast food ♥
We perused some inventory, and as a PSA to all of you local readers [all 3 of you, I'm sure, haha..], please take note!!


Whole Foods | September 27 | 11am - 3pm 
ADOPT-A-THON!
http://lfaw.org/

Yay, furry friends! If you're in or around the Cincinnati area in a week like I will be, try to stop by and visit the LFAW [League For Animal Welfare] setup! Anyone who knows me knows I'm the spawn of a humane society leader, by default inheriting a passion for animal welfare. 

If I'm free that day, I'm definitely stopping by! 

For now, it's a gorgeous day, work is done, and I'm going outside. 

Adios! 

xo | cmd

Monday, January 6, 2014

Sub-Zero Weather :/

Bro, it's COLD.

It started snowing last night, and I was totally prepared to awake this morning to huge drifts and an excessively-lengthy commute. Fortunately, the snow must've changed course; all that was to be seen this morning was a dusting across the ground. Unfortunately, we traded snow banks today for sub-zero temperatures.
.... and did they ever. Instagram for hours, folks.... haha..
I made it work just as my own car's dashboard settled on -3 degrees. The weather forecasters predicted drops throughout the day to about -6 or so. Yeah, it's cold. At work today, Elisa informed me that in Indianapolis, it was near -35. Sheesh... :/

Sydni was at her dad's tonight, so I took the opportunity to make one run to the new house with the things I'd loaded up last night. It was a short-lived visit; this is the kind of weather that makes your nose hairs freeze the instant you step outside and take a breath. I was ready to be home, make dinner and cozy up with my dogs.
diiiiiinnnnnner! (: (:
Things I didn't really plan thoroughly when I  moved all my kitchen stuff to the new house: I am still living here, but had nothing on or with which to eat. So, in the classy fashion that is, I found a stray fork that had been in the sink, washed it and paired it up with the paper plate china. Fortunately, I forgot about the pots and pans in the drawer beneath my stove when I was moving, so I still had all of those. Add some chicken, green beans and pierogies, and I had myself a dinner that would've been delicious right from the pan. I just had to laugh at my present first-world-issues of no real plates.

Tomorrow it's projected to be even colder than today. I'm not motivated to move any more stuff for a day or two, if I'm being honest. I think tomorrow it's going to be a gym day. I need some motivation, and I know some indoor cardio [because let's be real, I'm not a diehard runner who likes lung expansion exercises in sub-zero weather] and circuit training will do the trick.

For now, STAY WARM and STAY SAFE, friends.
P.S. - If you have elderly relatives or neighbors, it might be a good time to check in on them, ya know, just to make sure they're ok! Also, if you have ANIMALS outside in this crap........ don't get me started. Just bring them inside. This is dangerously cold....

Good night!

xo | cmd

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Marvels for Monday

Today itself was something of an ugly thing: Elisa was gone at a funeral, Dave was out sick, Nikki left mid-morning after she got sick, and I have just about tapped out my supply of self control not itching this mini sumac [or whatever it is] outbreak I've gotten. *Grahhh.

Anyway, I did come across a few things today that excited me because 1, I'm a sucker for exotic creatures, and 2, because I've never before seen half of them. So I thought I'd share.

^In case you can't see that video, or for some reason can't make out what it is, it's this: A transparent-headed fish.

Another fish, less anatomically-defying but equally beautiful: Mandarin Fish
And a picture, of course:
 
More colors? Okay, how about the fruit dove? 

The Blue Dragon Nudibranch:
And a still shot, since that video's kind of hard to read, haha..

Out of the water, but still pretty small... the Honey Pot Ant:

For you snake fans, the piebald python & the albino piebald:


Ali, this one's for you.. Bailey is awesome, too.. just thought this guy was mega cool.. the Matamata turtle:
 
And a drum rolllll... for possibly the scariest, absolutely non-mythical, marvelous monster out there.. I give you the rare, ridiculous, Rapunzel-loving..... Sydni.  
 
Since I'm not planning to hang out with the other creatures anytime in the near future, I figure I'll settle for what I've got here with me tonight. (: Syd and I have already made a trip to the store in preparation for Madison's birthday party this upcoming weekend.. this is gonna be a good week!
 
xo | cmd

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Albino Animals

Happy birthday, first and foremost, to my good friend Yong! *Shout out (:

rupert! 
Becky's in town for a few days, over in St. Louis. I don't think I'm gonna see her this visit; she's a little far and this day has somehow managed to get away from us.

On an unrelated note, a friend of mine posted a picture of an albino zebra. Yeah, I told you it was unrelated. Anyway, as random as that was, it reminded me of little Rupert, the albino corn I had years back, and that.... naturally launched me into a search for other albino animals. C'mon, it's me. What'd you really expect?

Anyway, with Google as my trusted aide & Instagram as my trusted montage creator, here's what I came up with...




Anyway, Rob and I headed out into Fairview tonight to check out a house; it's a preliminary hunt for somewhere for him to relocate closer to his work. It wasn't a bad little outing, and made for a good start to the evening. I threw together the buffalo chicken casserole off AITK for dinner afterwards and made our way back to do a whole lot of nothing for the rest of the night.

Yeah, we're partyrockers. I know.

(: It's all good. So far this week's shaping up just fine & I'm okay with that.

xo | cmd

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Hands Down... Or Up... or PAINTED

Rob sent this to me today (: 
hand art!
He knows how big of a sucker I am for weird artsy things, so in fitting fashion, I found this on my phone today. I think I might try to replicate one of these sometime. Haha.

Here's some more I found consequently after seeing this and wondering who else had cool hands ;) Enjoy!






.... and of course... my favorite ;) ----


Pretty cool if you ask me (: 

xo | cmd

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Clydesdales, Bald Eagles & Camels, Oh My!

It was an early start today. Well, early as could be for it being the Saturday morning after my finishing VBS and my family driving almost 8 hours the day before. Mom had it decided before we were even out of bed this morning that we were doing something, likely in St. Louis. After some review, we settled on Grant's Farm.

joe. sydni. cori | dills
Heidi & Paul had some plans to do some hiking over on the Cahokia Mounds, so Jonathan loaded up with us and we started on our exhibition to St. Louis. We didn't take off before stopping by to see our good friend Bulent in Belleville [gelato stop, duhhhh] and of course taking Mom by Peace by Piece. Oh, and remember a week or so back when I stopped in and nabbed my TOMS ballet flats.. and I'd ordered something else? At the time, I was holding out because I didn't wanna ruin the surprise.. Well....

I ordered a necklace. Sounds a little goofy, but here in Belleville, there are a plethora of locally-based artisans who I would love to see be successful. Heather, the crafty hand behind this piece, took my order herself and did the work of putting the Dills on a chain in something of a non-traditional way. I'm not big on the typical mother jewelry, but I was attracted to the simplicity of this one, along with the fact that it's the entire family. Like I said, I could've easily done this myself, but I'm happy & I love it.

Grant's Farm was the place to be today!

grant's farm!
It took us no time at all to cover the horse stables and see the beauty of the famous Budweiser clydesdales. It also afforded us some great opportunities to update some long-overdue family photos...

family :) 
daddy & syd
joe. jonathan. dad | joe. syd. mom&dad | me & jonathan!
mama & syd
There was of course the tram ride that traverses over the grounds of the farm: Naturally I wound up with three times as many pictures as necessary, but Sydni kept demanding that I capture every single animal, be it sleeping or flying. We tried. Haha. 

animals everywhere!
My favorite collaboration from the day: 

she. is. adorable. call be biased ;)
Oh yeah, and of course Nana & Pappy insisted on buying a "little something" for Sydni, so we stopped off at the gift shop and spent a good while churning through a bin of colorful rocks. Sydni picked out as many as she could fit into the little leather bag provided, and shared with us her brazen pride with her selections all the way to the car. So... stinkin' ... cute. 
pickin' out rocks with mama
Whew. We are... spent! It's time to get to grillin' - Heidi and Paul are back from their day trip and we're about to do some business with the grill :).

I LOVE.. MY FAMILY!

xo | cmd

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Kittens?!

[[[[[baaaaaaack....dated. Pshyeahhh.]]]]]

sydni:
glasses | snoozin' in target | oil change
I took advantage of Saturday being that day on which any agenda gets a full fledged dismissal from duty. I didn't roll out of bed until well nearly 10am, which really doesn't seem late at all until you stick it in line after my typical rise time of 5:15am every other work day. Sydni is on board with this process, and synced her schedule up with the extended sleep times. The two of us took our sweet time putting motion to the day, and I can guarantee neither of us felt all that badly about it. 

Since Mo had originally volunteered to watch Syd in the event that Marlene and I happened to coordinate hitting up a yard sale at one of the local high schools, but since that didn't happen, Mo joined Syd and I for our round of errands. Good thing, too, since I happened to accidentally leave my wallet behind when we'd left for the store. Wooops. Mo was kind enough to pick up that tab, which I immediately reimbursed as soon as we got back to my house and I was able to retrieve my wallet. Embarrassing, still. Since Bonnie had called inviting us both to dinner at their house later on, we decided to get some other things done before that. We headed off to hunt down an open venue for an oil change on my car. It only took three different stops to accomplish that, and we even made a pitstop at Target. Sydni accomplished a new feat for her: sleeping upright in a Target shopping cart. It was impressive actually.

Before making our way to the Prescotts', we dropped Sydni off with Dawne to spend the night; tomorrow Dawne's nephew is having a birthday party, and she'd asked if Sydni could go along. I was completely obliged, finding it endearing that we're able to have such a solid relationship with our in-home daycare gal [who by the way is AWESOME].

At the Prescotts, we were greeted at the porch by a symphony of tiny little kitten mews, coming from under their porch. Bonnie informed us that the mother cat hadn't been around nearly all day; it made us all frown, but we figured she'd return at some point during the evening.... I'll get back to that. 
paella! thanks to the prescotts!!
 Bonnie was in the midst of making Paella while Jimmy, Mo & I took a walk a few blocks over to check out two cruisers marked for sale in the front yard of someone's house. We found a crimson Harley Davidson soft tail as one of the two, and I contemplated for a moment how Joe would react if one day he came home to find one parked in the garage. Hah. I didn't go through with it.

Back at the Prescotts, we dined on paella [amazingamazingamazingamazinnnggggg] and settled into some episodes of NCIS before we finally started to tire. I offered to drive Mo home while Jimmy stayed behind for a bit with his parents; we were out to my car when those little kitty cries from earlier forced me to stop.

If you know anything about my upbringing, then you know two things for certain: As a kid, I ate healthier than a Chinese gardner, and an ultra sense of compassion for animals was hardwired into my soul. Both of those are a direct result of my mother instilling into us an abnormal awareness of eating healthy [1 spoonful of raw flaxseed oil each morning, thankssss], and that every animal is essentially a defenseless creature in need of our intervention in a world littered with people abusing them. The latter of those two theories is what drove me into what began the series of events for the rest of the night....

four fuzzies. so. stinkin'. cute.
We set things in motion by prying apart the lattice that borders the bottom half of the Prescotts' porch, followed by me army-crawling my way under it to the back corner, retrieving the four little fuzzies, and handing them out to Mo and Jimmy. We patched the porch back together, padded up the kittens in a blanketed box. Mo and I made a pitstop to grab some necessities: kitten formula [it's a real thing, folks], a cat carrier that would act as their overnight dwelling, some droppers, and some claw trimmers. We toted the whole lot back to my house, got the heating pad and some blankets arranged in the cat carrier, and crafted a makeshift home for the four little fuzzies.

2am flea baths and mealtime..
Fast forward to after Jimmy had arrived, when he crashed on the loveseat as Mo and I both passed out momentarily on opposite ends of the large couch, and all three of us waking up just hours later to mix formula, feed, and ultimately flea bathe... at 2 am.

It was quite the interesting evening; here's what's currently living in my kitchen. Don't get too attached, mmkay? :)

runt!
so daggone cute.

that's right.

cell phone kitty cats

hangin' with jimmy

mo feeding an itty bitty
So yeah. It's been that sort of Saturday. Meeeeeow.

xo | cmd

Friday, March 9, 2012

An Eagletriever?

wait, what? :)
I am more than happy to report that I spotted a small spec of reprieve today from this ridiculous bout of whatever it is that's been plaguing me for the majority of the week. I had more energy today than I've had over the last three days combined, and I made it all evening without a nap. Wa-hoo! For the first time all week, I actually felt better at the end of the day, as opposed to the beginning. Go figure. :)

In the meantime, I had someone pass along these silly little hybrids to me. I give due credit to the creative wanderings that led to these being created. I'll leave these for your meanderings. Meanwhile, I'm kinda glad that these original creatures were designed by God, and in the fashion He desired. Hah. Just sayin'. These are definitely fun to oogle at, though. Hah..

Tomorrow = FRIDAY!
Friday = Small Group!
Small Group = Amazing, always :)

 xo | cmd

Monday, February 27, 2012

Hoo Hoo HOO [Loves Surprises?]

It's Monday, ya'll.
It's been a surprisingly pleasant Monday, at that!
tom hanks :)

A bashmillion [yup] people all around the U.S. went back to work today after what was hopefully a thoroughly-enjoyed, likely short-lived weekend. I was part of that number. Woot.
 Monday was Monday, except for the delivery of two very lovely things very early on in the day. One of those, The Man with One Red Shoe, a Tom Hanks movie from the mid-80's, arrived in the mail over the weekend and was waiting for my pick up when I got to work this morning. I am one small step closer to completing my husband's collection of every movie in which good old Tom was cast.

from the bosses!


The second gem came mid-morning, when this beautiful arrangement from Lee Russo Designs was delivered [one for each of us gals here in the office], compliments of Marc & Diana as thanks to us for holding down the fort here while they were gone all of last week at ILC. They smell incredible, and are making quite the stand atop my overhead cabinet. I love 'em. 

hoo hoo hoo.. is adorable?
... youuuuuu ....

Thirdly [I'm on a streak inventing words today; leave it alone.....], I found a slew of adorable baby animal photogs in my email from Meagan [I'm claiming the owl; I've named him Oliver and he is officially adorable]. That was minutes before she sprung the news on us that she's headed off for a Caribbean cruise all of next week, a surprise from Rob. Mega kudos there, Rob! I am so excited for her - it definitely springs memories of the lovely little Carnival trip that Joe and I took to the Grand Cayman Islands with Lynn & Co. a few years back. *Sigh. I think I'm going to live next week vicariously through the Greers. Hah.

tiny toms = purple glitters.
sydni's going to lose her mind.
:)


Last but certainly and never ever least, I made the trip on my lunch break today over to Glik's in Edwardsville, with the specific purpose of snagging Sydni a new pair of TOMS. It seems that Spring is starting to waft about in the air, I figured I'd splurge just a bit on her and treat her with a little something. Hey, let's face it; she's only little once, and I'll only have so many opportunities to spoil her now without catastrophic result or expectation of it on an ongoing basis. haha. Here's that went:

Anywho - it's about time for The Voice, so whatever else is important is simply going to have to wait.... :)

xo | cmd