Shopping Carts. All Day.

First things first:

aaaaaaaamen! 

Contrary to what most employees would say, I like when my business owners are here and engaged with the day-to-day activity of our business. We're a small, hands-on mission here, and we are fortunate enough to all work well together.

When the owners aren't here though, it creates a gap that obviously must be filled, and in some cases requires stepping away from the office. What I don't really mind, is when that mini trip away is straight to Sam's Club for an office supply run.

boom. we're good! 

We won. Elisa & I knocked out the entire office supply list, along with the snack list for the team, and walked away loaded up with everything we needed, and spare time to boot. Winnnn.

After work, I headed out to get Sydni, then back home for a night of relaxing, Disney princesses [she still had no idea what's happening on Sunday] and of course, preparing for tomorrow:

she's reaaaaady! 

we're all set & ready to go, kiddos!
... seeee you tomorrow! 

TGIF!

xo | cmd 

Little Sunday Things

First things first:

sonrise!

Sydni and I started Sunday off right with another well-delivered message from the pastoral staff at SonRise. This whole feeling-like-everything-is-applicable-to-my-life thing is a both refreshing and intimidating. It's as if the material being shared is realistic for the every day paths we follow, yet gritty enough to force some solid introspection on motives, habits, beliefs and behavior. Top it off with the side of grace with which it's given, and the perfect morning message is created. No complaints here (:

Today was sunny enough to keep us out of the house for a little while; Sydni reminded me that I needed to get "new oil" for the car, so we did that. The staff at Valvoline and I spent twenty minutes laughing at Sydni's collection of goofy faces as we sat in the bay while the work was being completed...

silly little spirit. i love that about her.

Oil change complete, we debated playing in what light snow was left around the yard, but opted instead to continue plugging away at straightening up the house. At this point, we've made major headway, but without staple living room furniture [aka, the couch, end tables, tv, tv stand, etc.], it reminds me a lot of a dinner plate with all the food shoved out to the edges.

..... stiiiiiiillllll workin' (:

I'm content though, with the progress. We've sorted through a lot of stuff in the past week, and the majority of it all has found its proper home. It's not bad for just us girls here ;)

We successfully enjoyed another weekend, and now Sydni The Emperor [not to be confused with an Empress, because apparently that's NOT A REAL THING, MOMMY....] and I, along with the pups Castle Horses are relaxing a little before we have to face that 5am Monday wake-up call again. ;) 

the emperor and her steeds.. haha

"add caption."
- no. ♥

Let's see if we can escape Monday. Ya think so?

...... yeah, neither do I.
G'Nite ♥

xo | cmd

Operation Pack Up & Eat Fried Green Beans ;)

Hello, rainy day in Illinois... Here we were hoping for half decent weather to get the bike out for a sping, but of course it had to be a dreary day. On the flip side of that, I realized by the end of today that we were meant to be confined to the house; Rob and I made some major headway in getting things packed up and sorted through at his place in preparation for the move.

But first things first, it was time for a haircut for Rob today, so before breakfast we stopped by and got that all taken care of...


holiday haircut lineup (:

From there, it was out to breakfast and then back to the house for what became a day of digging through boxes, furniture and all that other miscellaneous stuffffff that seems to materialize only when you're trying to pack up and move somewhere. We wound up with a giant truckload of drop off for Goodwill, and braved the steady rain to do it.

dreary drop offs at goodwill

I orchestrated my visit this weekend in sync of course with when my favorite staffmember of Bindy's would be working; my sweet Santa friend Alicia and basically the entire cast of Bindy's was on hand tonight for their Christmas party, and there really weren't any dull moments (:

alicia!!! ♥

we'll call it... Christmas spirt... vegas bomb style...

best friend.... && i love him so.

And that's that! I'm here through Christmas Day, so until then, we are tackling the oh-so-enjoyable task of staging Rob's belongings for their big road trip to Ohio. I'm happy to say that tomorrow morning I'll finish the last load of laundry here; at that point every single thing he owns will be clean. At the same time. Holy... record first. Hehe.

But for now, lights out. G'Nite!

xo | cmd

2013 is Halfway Over?!

Firssssssssssst....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HILARY!!!

♥ you hillsy!

This girl.... haha. I love her and I hope she has a fantastic birthday. Hills, you've earned nothing but the best for your birthday and I hope you and little Julian [okay, so maybe he's not so little anymore] had an amazing time today. Say hello to another girl I've known since middle school, fought with like sisters in high school, and made up after that to get back to being friends (:


ouch. ouch. ouch. :(

And now we're all grown up. Happy birthday, beautiful friend! I promise I'll make it back to Mt.V and see you, soon soon soon.

As for me, well, this has been another day of rest and relaxation, and a few chores... and a bajillion mosquito bites. If I've learned anything around here, it's that this is a safe haven for those little critters and in the process of line-drying my laundry, they pulled a sneak ambush and got the best of me.

Mosquitos - 1. My poor legs - Zilch.

So.... that was fun...

I spent the rest of today tidying up the house, installing the rest of the shelves to the units in the living room, arranging all of my arts/crafts stuff into a manageable, searchable system, and just reveling in the beauty of the day. There was even a little visitor on my mailbox that I paused to photograph, since I don't see many of him around these days... 

hi!

Yep. A paced and relaxing yet productive Sunday. I even managed to squeeze in a short jog before the weather reared its mane for a thunderstorm. I'm settling in now on the couch with every intention on not lifting a finger for what's left of today. It's going to be a short week with a hectic weekend, so I'm absorbing this downtime while I can (:

See you tomorrow for the week!

xo | cmd

& I Did NOTHING Today

and it was amazing.

Okay, I might be lying a little. I didn't compleeeetely waste the day; I got some cleaning done and started scouting for a pub-style kitchen table. I didn't have much success in that regard today, but I've got some ideas.

In the interest of continuing the transformation of my little home, I made a trip to Marshall's and picked up two storage bins for a decorative yet functional project I've been doing at the house.

my mission for the day.... haha

I succeeded in getting everything done that I'd planned for the day, what little there really was, at my own leisure. It was fantastic. I had so much extra time at my disposal that I got myself wrapped up into laughing over some first world problems with practical solutions that a friend shared via the fabuloso world-a wide-a webbbbb....

What do you think about those? I don't know that I'd go so far as to line my toilet seat with tube socks, but hey, to each his own.. haha. I do think some of the other ideas are pretty practical, and might even try them one of these days. [Sure... reality says I'll probably add that to a wish-list of actions along withy my bajillion Pinterest ideas, but whatev...]

Anywho, I'm not doin' a single thing tonight and uhhh, that's the way, UH HUH, UH HUH... I liiiike it!

Who says these weekends always have to be chaotic?? ;)

xo | cmd

New Office, Here. We. GO!

Today was day one in the brand new office space that will I'll call home for the next [hopefully] several years!

They advised me to be there between 8am and 9am, not necessarily right at 8am since I'd had somewhat of a long weekend. I was grateful for the extra half hour or so, and was excited when I got there to find things in their final stages.

Oh, and it's casual WEEK, this week, since we're not officially open until the 20th and this week will be spent digging into boxes and doing all things set-up. I'm not complaining. The only pitfall was that we couldn't really get too much accomplished until the boxes arrived, and that didn't happen until late afternoon. That being said, they cut us loose to go take care of anything we needed to do, which for me was perfectly timed to get everything done.

1 || BMV = driver's license with my correct last name! [The Dren is back, ya'll... you've been warned... haha.. jk.]
2 || Bank = change over acct information and order new card.
3 || Stop by post office and change mailing address information.
4 || Visit storage unit.
4.5 || Visit old Express office and say hi!
5 || Visit a potential place to live [... and pass on it...]

*whew. I got back to the office close to 2:30, where I spent the rest of the day with Elisa, the FOC, sorting through boxes and making sure the packing lists were accurate. They put up our sign today, too! No longer are we just the old Adecco space; we are NOW.. Express!


... express yourself.... today!

Back at Becky's, Mike came by and they put dinner together for TJ and me [thank you!!]. It was delicious, and so nice to have "real" food after a few days of being on the go constantly and eating like it too.


fish!

So uhh, yeah? That's really all I've got for day one. I'm so excited about this new office and everything that comes with it - our FOC is a fully-trained gal from another local office here, and the owners are as sweet as can be. It's going to be an interesting week all together, but I'll take it. Here's to a new direction!

xo | cmd

Tag-Along Cori

Hey, weekend (:



gateway powder coating

Rob and I set out early to go check out a property he'd found. Needless to say, it was beyond being a bust. This was more like a train wreck on top of another train wreck, complete with a janky video surveillance camera on the back deck secured to its stand with duct tape. Winning............ 

Anyway, once that was done, we headed off into Granite to Dillon's. Then it was to Kyle's to get his trailer, and then...... The rest of the day was spent helping [well, not so much helping on my part as much as just tagging along and being the way..lol :p] Dillon get the tower for his boat from the powder coating place over in Missouri, tote it back to IL, and start the process of readying his boat for the season.  


So yeah, I felt a little guilty for my complete lack of participation for most of the day, outside of just riding along and making sure nobody stole the trailer, the truck, or me lounging in the backseat of the truck parked in a private parking lot...while the boys were inside and I hung back in the cab. I know, I had a hard task. I may or may not have taken a 5-minute power nap. I don't think I'll really even ever know. Haha. 

kick back in the lifted chevy on a sunny day? sold.

Here's a prime example of how much help I was today:  

as you can see, i'm doing the bulk of the work here... : / [joking]

Anyway..... lol. Once things were wrapped up with the tower, and we [long story truncated] came to the collective decision that Steak & Shake is not meant to be eaten sober, we headed back to Granite and the boys dropped me at my car. I headed home and packed my afternoon full of Goodwill donation runs, errands, and cleaning. Yeah, Saturday. I did hear the boat got some work done for the day, though...

nicely done, boys

Eventually, Rob finished up, so I headed back out to get him; we came back home and before long he was back out the door for a night with his friends. I resigned myself to some overdue laundry and hanging out with the lady of the house [not Sydni, but only because she's not here], Stella. We partied, clearly.

sorry for partyrockin..... ;)

Not a bad start to the weekend!

xo | cmd

& 'Twas a GOOD Day (:

This is probably the second time in a while that I can remember Rob being up and moving on a weekend before I am. He was up at and at it by 7; he and his friends were off to Taylorville for a day long trip 4wheeling & dirtbiking. I'm pretty sure they made it all the way out there before I was even out of bed. ;)


early morning chores (:

 Just kidding. Once I'm awake in the morning, there's no turning back, and after tossing and turning for twenty minutes in a failed attempt to re-enter dreamland, I gave in and got up.

And cleaned my house.

???? Yeah. I dunno.

First it was laundry; I got some of that started. Then I cleaned both the bathrooms, Syd's room and the kitchen.

And then.... I got ready for church and made it there with ten minutes to spare. I was pretty proud of myself. Haha.

Ali brought her friend Alicia, and afterwards, the three of us along with Joey, Tim & DeShawn made a lunch date at CBW before heading our separate ways for the day. The weather is starting to make a consistent upswing into that true Spring feel, and I was determined to make the best of every second. I headed home, grabbed up the first three bins of stuff I no longer wanted/needed, and loaded it along with Stella into the car. 

my errand buddy | stellapittie gone mobile ;)

colorsplash!

She and I made a full afternoon of errands: Plato's & Once Upon a Child [go sell your stuff!!], Goodwill [& go donate the rest!!], oil change and a few other miscellaneous things before heading back to the house for some more cleaning.

I ended up vacuuming, dusting and windexing [it's a verb, c'mon!] all the windows free of Sydni and Stella paw-smudges before Ali, Alicia and Marianne showed up at the door. They weren't there long, but it was nice to have some afternoon company to distract me from my cleaning fury.

Midway through the afternoon, I got the notification that Rob & Co. were finished with their outing; I couldn't help but laugh looking back on it, realizing once again that he and I are on the same level and I need to continue counting my blessings every. single. day. to have him... we're definitely one & the same, and I love it.

we're a silly couple of birds ... ;)

Rob made it home eventually: sunbeat, exhausted and covered with mud. He went straight to the shower. Marianne made her way over; we decided to brave what we thought was a nasty storm brewing. It ended up passing us by, which was probably a good thing since we came out of Walmart an hour later having spent a combined total of just over $700. Haha. Reason being? 



canon rebel!

Marianne just graduated into the big leagues of photo nuts. She had her eye on a DSLR, so after some research and price comparing, she took the plunge and brought home a new Rebel! [Congrats!] We had a good laugh, too, since she banks with USAA & after her initial card swipe for the camera, she was denied a second swipe for a $10 memory card. FRAUD!!! Just kidding.

 

She just left; Rob is fighting 2000-lb sleepy eyelids, Stella's well into some doggy dream, and I'm fading pretty quick, too. I guess it's time to call this one.

 

What an amazing weekend. Love love love.

 

xo | cmd