Meet the Teacher!

I found this little guy off Chibird, and had to share it, because ya'll...

June and July were literally 5 seconds long, I'm sure of it. What happened?!

*Le sigh... No sense obviously in wondering where it all went, although I'm not really complaining because that just stands to reason that the summer was packed full enough to make time seem fleeting. We were fortunate to travel most of this summer, catch up with the regular faces, reconnect with some old familiar ones, and even meet some new ones. Birthdays, weddings, baby showers, bridal showers and following Sydni around for whatever it is she's doing = my summer.

Speaking of Sydni.. and speaking of Summer..

The latter is coming to a close, and the former just went to check out her third grade classroom tonight. And guys, lemme tell you what.. unless her teacher turns out to be some heinously bipolar train wreck, I can tell you right now that I already love her. I've heard nothing but positive things from other parent friends whose kids went through her class, and meeting her tonight was pretty much all the confirmation I needed to feel confident that Sydni's going to have a great year.

I walked into a room filled with THESE CHAIRS.

gaiams!!!!

Literally, I geeked. I guessed Sydni's reaction before she came through the door, and I wasn't wrong. She's on cloud 9 right now - she got the homeroom teacher she wanted, and she gets to be just like mom while she's "working."

like mama like mini! 

I don't know who's more excited about her 3rd grade experience - me, or her. Whew..

Seriously though. This kid hit the jackpot.

And I did, too! I came home to find this waiting on the front porch for me:

botm! 

The August Book of the Month is HERE! I had a friend randomly pick this out of the August lineup, and read the overview later. It looks legit, so once I find the spare time [hahahahhhahahahahahaha] to read it, maybe I'll post a book review. We'll see. Don't hold your breath ;).

Monday.. check.
This week is stacked already.. time for some rest!

xo | cms

Sunday @ SonRise

Ohhhh, Ohio.... your weatherrrrr.....

raaaaaaiiiiin..... *sigh

There wasn't a cloud in the sky yesterday, so naturally today, it poured.

All day. :|

It didn't deter us from our usual Sunday routine of heading in to church. I was surprised when Trish and the kiddos joined in for the morning service, which in itself was one of those messages that pulls at some of those uncomfortable corners of our hearts.

photo cred: sonrise church! 

It's messages like these that challenge me to put my own feet to the fire and pursue what's right over what I oftentimes want to do and follow based on my emotions [because honestly, there's a running list of ways my emotions have misled me... well... a lot over the course of my existence]. I am so thankful for a pastor and staff who can incorporate grace and love into a message that otherwise may easily offend the prideful nature we all naturally have.

After church, we took a quick lunch break down the street at Frisch's before making a pitstop and home and then a U-turn riiiight back to SonRise for the membership initiation class, also known as Class 101.

c.l.a.s.s.:
christian life and service seminars

The class was fairly intense: a 3-hour session chock-full of background on our church, its mission and purpose and operating principles. It's the first time I've been involved with a church to this degree: learning the internal structure, doctrinal beliefs exercised and leadership structure up front, before committing myself as a member. This is the first truly non-denominational church I've ever felt compelled to explore, and the more I learn about it, the more I find I'm embracing the approach. SonRise functions on the mission of loving all people, reaching them for God, and training them with the knowledge and tools to go and share the word with the world around them.

these two :) 

Syd challenged Rob to a game of ping pong, and while I would typically question her version of the game rules, she apparently won, and that was settled ;)

Speaking of simply loving God, Sydni created this yesterday and I forgot to share:

"sydni art"

^^ Oh, be STILL .. my heart. I can barely handle this. Syd, you are such a light in this little life of ours, and I hope you never ever question just how beautiful you are. I love you, mini me!

It's been a long day, but spending it at SonRise was one of the best I could've envisioned for an otherwise drab day. I am one lucky mama.

CHEERS to a wonderful week!

xo | cmd

Company Cooking Class

Here in Illinois, there is no Kroger [love you, Ohio].

However, we have a marvelous store here: Dierberg's. All you Illini and Missourians [?], too, know exactly what that is. It's a grocery store of the tremendous sort, full of fresh, local produce, hard-to-find spices and novelty foods, and at least 6 designs of their own reusable shopping bags. Sure, it airs on the slightly more pricey side, but it's close to our house, and I happen to dig it, completely.

Well, when it came time for my office to brainstorm an idea for a company Christmas gift/celebration, we came up with everything from a plain ole' group dinner out to bowling, ice skating, white elephant gifting, and a few other ideas that just couldn't stick. It was Diana that finally suggested we reserve a couple spots on the roster for one of the cooking classes offered at the Dierberg's cooking school. We went with that.

Tonight was that night. We found out from Marc, Diana, and Nancy that this wasn't actually a class in which we would do any cooking, rather just sampling from examples whipped up by the instructors. That being the case, Joe met me after work, and we joined Meagan & Rob for an appetizer at Applebees, then the four of us joined the rest of our group at the Dierberg's down the street from our office. Nancy surprised us all; we thought her guest would be one of her daughters, but it turned out she brought Karen, the most recent Express veteran.

I'm glad we experienced that. I have to admit, it's going to be a very rare occasion that would motivate me enough to actually re-create anything I saw tonight, but it was interesting to watch the process as a third party from start to finish. We joked later that it would be no big deal, at all, to fashion the recipes at home if each of us did in fact have the 4 ovens, 3 sinks, 2 stovetop ranges, 2 microwaves, 1 walk-in fridge, and 1 assistant solely dedicated to following after and doing instant cleanup of dishes and other cookware. Sure, then, it would be a cinch. Haha. All in all though, glad we went. :)

Tomorrow is Friday, and that means we are one day closer to 2012. Woot!

xo | cmd