Grown-Up Calamity Days? Nope. :/

Guess who got all dressed up today, and then had nowhere to go?

rub it in.. just ruuuub it in, kiddo.. haha

It was a cold one today. When it's this cold, the kiddos don't go to school. I'm know I'm not the only one who remembers this happening in my childhood just about ... NEVER.

Guess who got to spend a large part of her afternoon traipsing through the remnants of this beautiful weather? [Although said she didn't actually mind it.... ]

i love my job! ♥  

With the snow overflowing out of my wheel wells [& just about everywhere else in the city], I voted for a change of pace for the evening; instead of bundling up, I went a few layers lighter for a quick circuit at the gym with Rob beforewe decided on dinner. The snow had set in heavy by the time we wrapped up at the gym, so at the last minute it was decided that we'd stop somewhere on the way home:

nom nom nom

Phew.
It's still snowing! I imagine this will be fun in the morning, so I'm calling it a night for now.. Be SAFE out there, blogbots!!

xo | cmd

Happy Birthday, Elisa!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELISA!!!!

[borrowed fb photo, mandy paige photography] 

Happy, HAPPY Birthday to my fabulous co-worker! [I freakin' love birthdays..]

In true my-Express-office fashion, Carri and I collaborated our efforts to celebrate Elisa today:

our little birthday spread!  

A few things about Elisa that I've learned in our two years now working together:
1. She loves cats [yay!]
2. She loves yoga [double yay!]
3. She loves coffee [need I continue, really?]
4. She loves local shopping AND eating as much as I do [& emphasis on eating, because yes.]
5. She loves artsy fartsy things, too [quintuple yyyyay!]

So all of those things [& then some] being said, we did what we could to offset the fact that she had to spend her actual birthday mostly at work. :)

First things first, her cards:

Mine:

meow!

Carri's:

namaste... 

Next on the list back when we were planning: CAT THINGS! Better than that, EDIBLE Cat Things:

^^ Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU again to Allie @ Tu-Tu Sweet for creating exactly what I envisioned for these fun little guys! They [as they always are with Allie] were PERFECT PURRRFECT!

Cats. Yoga. CHECK. 

To knock out the Coffee AND Local Shopping part, I went with this:

french press + local shopping = win!
coffee emporium | cincinnati, oh

Yiiieee!!! ♥

What else did I say she liked? Oh, yeahyeah - artsy fartsy things! Carri knocked this one out of the park with her gift:

is a-w-e-s-o-m-e!

I weighed in with what I could on the note of artsy fartsy things, because also [not on the above-mentioned list] I know she also shares my affinity for quirky socks. So artsy deco on socks is pretty much a given.

cozy toes!!! 

The birthday girl herself!!

haha yeahhh! 

Overall, I think we did pretty good ;)

happy birthdayyyyyyy!!! meow!

Happy, HAPPY birthday to one of my favorite working girls [+ extra birthday shout-out to her real life twin brother, Eric!], a kindred spirit in many ways and an all around amazingly down-to-earth person. Cheers to you for the next year & everything in it!

"work yoga twins" 

OH, and there's a follow up to this that will be taking place next weekend.. so stay tuned for that :)

YAY, BIRTHDAYS!!!! 

xo | cmd

Boots & Music

Gooood Monday morning! I hope your weekends were incredible, and that you're off to a blazing start for the week like we were. My day started off alongside Carri & Dave, with a client facility tour, complete with the required on-site gear.

Oversized steel toed boots + leggings, anyone? ;)

ow ow!

Some desk-bound folks would see this as a burden in the middle of their day, but I embrace these things and probably have more fun than I should walking around warehouses and factories with my clodhopper feet and safety glasses awkwardly parked on the bridge of a nose that on my face doesn't even exist [#pinoyproblems]. Yay!

The rest of the day took something of a musical turn: I stumbled across this video by Steffany Gretzinger, an acoustic outpouring of her soul that moved me to share it with a few other people and listen to it multiple times.


^ So. Gorgeous!

Here's the part where I remind all of you that I'm heading to Panama in 2015 for the purpose of missions, and am starting NOW on the prayer part of that. There will be more details to follow on that, but for the time being, just... listen to that song and try to absorb it in the moment. Thank you, Steffany for sharing your gift with us! [#SonRisePanama2015]

Rob and I took a step into a new restaurant tonight and tried the Mexican place down the street from us [recommended!] before heading back home to let the ACC Awards carry us into the last part of the evening.

I had to share this, too, since Reba is not just an icon in country music, but truly a legend. I love the lady and realized that we're privileged to see these moments unfold; Sydni will grow up and hear stories of legends like this, but won't be able to experience them the same way we do now.

Congratulations to Reba, with love and gratitude for what you've contributed to the world of one of my favorite genres!


That's a rap here, folks. I've got Fancy stuck in my head like a broken record, so on that note, I'll call this one and pick up where we left off tomorrow!

G'Nite!

xo | cmd

Road Trip Warrior: IL [Again]

Guessss what day it was!
... and no, not Hump Day.

Correct Answer: ROAD TRIP DAY! -- I know that sounds ridiculous to most people, but it's not the 5 hours of driving that excite me [duh], but what's at the other end of it that makes all that solo karaoke time entirely worth it.


road trip warrior face! beautiful day for a drive (:

hey, marc!

I wish I would've snapped a shot of what I walked into when I rolled into Rob's house at 9pm [CST; and yes, I made record time]. He & Jesse had wrapped up their days early and taken the boat out for a spin, so by the time I got there, he was dreamin' away on the couch. I absolutely would've left him to nap if it weren't for the fact that I was on a mission tonight for some fried green beans at Bindy's. Rob told me earlier that Alicia wasn't working tonight, but to the disappointment of my disappointment, she was, and so I got just about everything I could've wanted out of that place. Haha (:

Oh, and what's a trip to this place if I'm not running into my old boss while I'm out and about?

We were there for a whiiile... which obviously means pictures at some point. He didn't realize I was on rapid fire mode, but I wound up with a slew of Rob faces, so heck.. I figured I'd just put them all together! (:

forever goofy... [among the many] reasons i love him. ♥

fools together.. it's why we work ;)

So here I am... in Illinois again! Tomorrow is Mike & Kelly's wedding reception; it'll be great to see them, baby Elaina, and some other familiar faces. I'm sure it'll be a good time. For now, it's lights out!

xo | cmd

NO Transformers In The House! ;)

Ya see that?  That, my dear blogbots, is nothing more than a simple chai latte from Bread Co, but it was delivered by one of our clients. He toted in three little lattes and three little bagels for three gals who didn't realize how delicious they both would be this morning. How thoughtful, right? [Thanks, Warren!]

So I can't complain about how the morning started once we got going; M&D are out this week at Summit, so we're left again to our own devices. The day passed by without too much fuss and that was that. I made a pitstop at St. Clair Sq. at yet another attempt to nail down a dress option for Michelle's wedding next weekend. Update on that? SUCCESS. As Nancy would've said, "Cha cha CHAAAA...."

At home, I found Mo already there, with Jimmy following about 15 minutes later, and lastly, Joe. Since he's slated to do some travelling for work that does not warrant flight time, he rented a car for the journey.

Well.. let me re-phrase that.

He rented a Transformer. I'm pretty sure Bumblebee is in my garage. It's pretty wicked cool, the ONLY exception being that this is in fact real life, Cori, and the autobots don't really exist.

Well boo hiss. [It still looks like a Transformer. Hmph!]

Anyway, we thought it would be fun to take it for a spin out to dinner; as funny as it was, the short jaunt to Texas Roadhouse was quite the episode as it was the four of us plus Syd in her carseat.

*Note: This car is not really meant to have backseat passengers. Haha.

Oh well. We're back here now, at home; the boys are downstairs disassembling the tent - pardon me, the castle, and Mo and I are about to zonk out to some CSI. I love our dear friends. That's a good Thursday, yeah?

I think so :)

xo | cmd