Ugh, Accountability

I am on the homestretch of the Whole30!
This is officially my last dedicated weekend to the program, and for the first time since I started that I woke up and reaaaally wanted actual pancakes. With blueberries and syrup. And actual butter. It was a tough sell not giving in, but I'm not about to screw this up now.

SO INSTEAD, I hauled myself out of bed and straight to the gym. And from there, out to the store to pick up the pillows I needed to finish up the guest bedroom. I mean, what's a good alternative to shoveling your face with food you can't eat? Answer: HIIT bicep & tricep circuits, followed by throwing money into the first level of domestic hell: decorating.

I managed to haul myself and eight pillows ranging from king-sized to euro, from the mall to the car, and then home, where I was greeted by the task of climbing up on the roof to take the Christmas lights down. Yes, we're those people with lights up at the end of January, shush. 

So I did the domestic thing (I'll post pics later, bc I'm over it currently). And then... I napped.
More like, I sought out the nearest coma and nose-dove face first into it, clad in sweats, a robe and freshly-showered hair that morphed into a petrified cloud as I slept. Let me also be clear here, that my pre-nap lunch of turkey hash... and the post-lunch snack of a Lara Bar did very little to satisfy the craving I had just before that for an actual chicken quesadilla, 13 donuts and a bowl of sticky rice. I am not kidding - although reticent, but meh -  when I say that the degree of food-want I experienced today could potentially have rivaled the weird collabo of stuff I demanded when I was actually pregnant.

>> I'm not pregnant, btw. <<

I woke up to Jessica on her way, which was probably the saving thread between me and the annihilation of what progress I've made this month on W30. I threw on the lowest-qualifying version of presentable and made a quick run to the store for just the essentials: cauliflower, pineapple, sweet potatoes, turmeric, ground turkey and lemons (again, I know...). I made it back, made dinner and even had some help with the golden milk at the end.


Good grief. I'm finally not hungry at this exact moment but for the first time this month, that was a close, close call.....

Stay tuned for a couple more days, and I'll have a full line of feedback for you on this Whole30 thing, AND I promise that it's not nearly as ridiculous as it sounds from this singular post. I've joked plenty in this entry, but the reality is that I most definitely endorse W30 and am quite happy with what it's done for me in just these few weeks. That'll be its own entry for another day - maybe Wednesday or Thursday next week.

Bottom line - if you're out there doing the January Whole30, HANG IN THERE! We've almost got this, and just have a few more days. We. Can. DO IT! :)

..... And with that in mind, I'm out, before I change my mind and eat more food ;)
G'Nite!

xo | cms

E C L I P S E

lololol

To Nick's sure credit, he totally nailed it with the pinhole box. AND, we officially have an unofficial Science Division. Because... science. 

"express science division"

A few of us almost went blind. 

jk. we didn't. 

It's always an adventure with this crew. Watch this through to the end! My cousin Jamie got some really sweet cell phone video of this out in South Carolina.. pretty awesome stuff! 

tis the day for filters and pinhole boxes! 

We didn't do too badly! For a crew that didn't get glasses, we made the best of it and managed to still capture some pictures of the little crescents shining down into the pinhole boxes. 

*insert bonnie tyler lyrics .... now * 

I hope that wherever you were today, that you were able to get a glimpse of this! The next one's coming around in 2024, so not quite the 38 year gap like last time, but it won't be for a little while. 

Not a bad start for Monday! 

xo | cms 

Barking Kids & Tied-Up Friendlies

I'll tell ya what.. this girl.... haha..
Kids are awesome. Seriously. Funny, weird, messy... and awesome. Mine is no exception.  Today was a pretty good day, all things considered, and hanging out with my mini first thing after work is like the icing on a cake. Seriously. She's hilarious. And although I find it inconveniencing at times whenever we're anywhere and we have to stop for a 1-minute ride atop Sandy the Meijer horse, I have to stop and remind myself that these little moments won't last forever, and the world is big enough for me to relax and allow her to have them. 

sandy the meijer horse! 

In other news, the USWNT ladies took on Japan tonight, and although I'm not sure how I stayed awake through the entire game, I did it, despite the dismay of ending with a tied 3-3 match. Ladies, we're cheering you on from Cincinnati, and you blogbots will be seeing plenty of weigh in here on their Road to Rio as we get going. Oh, and sidenote: SUPERIOR PLAY, EQUAL PAY. 'Nuff said ♥.

An uneventful Thursday, really, I know.. but hey, it was what it was and tomorrow is Friday and YAY. :) 

See you then! 

xo | cmd

DOLLA STOOOORE [Ft. Liza Koshy]

Ya'll, I'm overwhelmed, kindasortalotta.

Here we are moving, and all I can think about is all the stuff we need/want/will probably acquire for the new house, and not one speck of interest in packing anything in our current house. It's daunting, really. I've moved my fair share of times, but every single stinkin' time I get distracted by all those little items that eventually get thrown in a box at the last minute because by that point I'm just with packing and I don't care how it moves as long as it moves. *inhale; I know that was a horribly-extended sentence... *exhale.

Let me pause for a second here, to ask a very random, poll-esque question:

How many of you know or have watched the videos by Liza Koshy?
No? Well, that's the wrong answer. Yes, is what you should've said. If you haven't, here she is, outlining my life at the moment, as it relates to the Dollar Store.

^Oh, and because somewhere out there is someone who's going to say something or other about me claiming this as intellectual material, something sermthern sermtherrrrn.... let's just not. I didn't make these videos nor do I own them, or Liza, or anything in between. Mmmkay? 

Just enjoy, for a moment:

"A DOLLA?!"

^ That was me, this afternoon as I traipsed through the dollar store today.

Note the sign: EVERYTHING'S $1. These little glass jars are barn wedding material... just sayin'.... 

Believe it or not, I came here looking for pool noodles. You thank Pinterest for this one, and for all of the pictures that look like THIS: 

these aren't mine, but look how tall and organized! 

Organizational hacks are phenomenal. Stay tuned for the day I pull this off; I'll be back with photographic evidence and hopefully without any slice marks from cutting up pool noodles :). 

But I digress. The dollar store didn't have pool noodles [sad face], but they had just about everything else under the sun, and just like Liza says, enough squeaky-wheeled carts and Chinese plastic to go around.... BUT, it's all $1 so who cares?!

Rob will be the first to tell you that I need to slow my roll and get the stuff we already have... packed. I will admit this is a generally overwhelming process, this whole moving thing. If there's an appropriate time to reiterate one of the points Pastor Jeff made this morning, it's now: 

slow down, cori.. there's a bigger picture. 

Phew. 

The new week starts tomorrow, and all that inevitably will come with it. Moving is underway, folks! 

xo | cmd

Happy Birthday, Kalyn!

I feel sometimes like my closest friends and I are more like a collection of puzzle pieces that happen to be settled all over... everywhere. From Illinois to Pennsylvania, South Carolina to Michigan, New York, California... seriously.  I love and hate how spread out we are, but that just means we're all pursuing what our hearts are telling us to do, and finding happiness that way. Plus, it just makes the reunions - sporadic as they may be - just that much better.

Today's Kalyn's birthday. This girl's one of those scattered pieces that comprises my core circle. We definitely don't see each other nearly as often as we should, but when it happens, it's like no time has lapsed at all. Happy birthday, lady... love you to the mountain and back, ya weirdo!

happy biiiiirthday! 

And for the sake of nostalgia, some of my other favorite memories that didn't fit into a pre-sized photo collage: 

antics in phoenix, az

the day we wore the same shorts and went the grand canyon

the time we thought the camera was way lower than it was.
there were probably 3 feet of dead space that i cropped off the top of this.. haha

kalyn's mom's wedding.. we sang that time, too.. haha

Kalyn, thanks for being a stone-cold odd bird; if you were any different, I just don't know how we'd swing being friends.. haha. Seriously, love you dear friend, and I am so thankful for all the times you were there and the memories that were made. Cheers to the next year of adventures! 

And cheers to the rest of ya'll - have a beautiful week! 

xo | cmd

Homeownership: The Crash Course

There are a couple things for which nobody really prepares you. The most obvious of those is becoming a parent for the first time [an entirely separate diatribe; you parents out there know what I'm sayin'.... ]. Driving on the major Cincinnati highways would be the second thing [71, 75, 74, Beechmont Ave., etc.].

Okay, there are a few other things that are hard to gauge until they're in your lap. My point is... we've just opened the chapter of Homeownership, which 1) I'm told is not one word [don't care], and 2) introduced itself as everything except subtle.

We signed the closing paperwork yesterday, but ran short on time in the evening to journey across town to get the keys. We put it off to tonight, and had Becky & Mike joining us as we set foot inside for the first time without our realtor.

We showed them the upstairs; Becky claimed her bedroom ;).. haha. We toured the dining room, the other dining room [I'm still uncertain I'm grown-up enough for that kind of spacial awareness], and peered out into the darkness at the backyard that ends at the golf course.

And then we ventured into the basement, aka future mancave. It was going just fine until our solid footsteps were offset by the sounds of splashes.

Splashes = water.
Water inside = no good.

something... isn't quite right. 

It took a moment to register, but we quickly realized [oh, and it was raining all evening], that the sump pump had broken and the water was flowing freely into the basement through several ruptures in the pump and pipe.

I know. Awesome.

This is a first world problem, for sure. Yeah, it's a pretty big deal, and it wasn't what we'd hoped to find in our new house that didn't hold even a towel of our own possession [which would've been immeasurably useful at this particular moment]. BUT - the silver lining is deeper than the puddle.

We 1) have a warranty from the sellers, thankfully, that will cover all of these damages. That's the operative reassurance that made this nothing more than a minor inconvenience and I'm sure a good story five years from now.

2) We brought Mike & Becky, probably the best two individuals to have on deck at a time like this. There was no griping, but instead almost cheerful engagement in the cleanup.

3) I'm taking up curling.

Which of those 3 things is false?
Haha.

This was Rob's and my first time setting foot in our new home together without Tiffany [realtor].
This will be forever how I remember this moment:

hahah.. that's about it! 

new basement, coming right up!

I guess now, we get to update on the basement renovations. Everything happens for a reason!
Good times [kinda], good friends [definitely], good night [phew]!

xo | cmd

Arrriba!

Gah!! Adulting is most definitely my least favorite thing this week. What I wanted to do Monday through about 3 hours ago was to crawl back into my imaginary blanket fort with a coloring book and a capri sun. MAYBE even add some One Saturday Morning to the mix, and give me a bowl of cereal while you're at it.

But noooooo.. instead, I'm doing adult things and showing up to my adult job and making adult money to pay my adult bills. Grown up life is for the birds sometimes. Haha. I'm kidding.

Kinda.

Fortunately for me, I have a small collection of friends who also do grown up things by making grown up livings from their grown up lives and who also don't avoid the real world despite the siren-esque temptations of aluminum juice pouches and Crayola. One of those friends just got back from a Habitat for Humanity trip in Trinidad & Tobago, and that meant dinner was in order to catch up on the last 17 days of her being gone.

The cards didn't work out to do dinner with Jessica last night, but at least we won't be temporarily cheated out of hangtime with two of our dearest friends. Becky's back, y'aaaaaaaallll.....

ta daaaa! 

 ^ Don't act surprised. Seventeen days isn't enough to change the fact that we're perfectly weird in each other's company.

Now if only we could get Jessica back on the calendar, and then maybe somehow get all our folks in one place at our new digs, that'd be the bees knees.

For the time being though, I, along with the rest of my pseudo-adult friends, have got to survive the rest of this week... ;).

WE CAN DO THIS.
I'll be in the kitchen getting the plastic bowl with the built-in sippy straw... ciao. 

xo | cmd 

My Favorite Character

In the continued spirit of my post-dated blogs, I decided to venture into my phone for any gems that may have been sitting dormant;

These aren't "old," but they're awesome and for my own amusement, thought I would share some fun with the blog world.

This one, from probably 2 weeks ago:

what happens when your kid finds your 80's glasses ;) 

And this one, from around the same week probably. We'd taken Sydni to Build-A-Bear, which was a far less chaotic experience than we'd envisioned it to be, thankfully. Frankly though, chaotic or not, it won't be forever that we'll get to go on these silly ventures with her - making teddy bears and preparing their birth certificates with absolute, unfiltered joy. She's already growing into her own, and I'm relishing every bit of it. Most days, I don't want it to go so quickly, but I remember as I took this picture that I'd realized in that instant that she is becoming more than I ever imagined. In my heart, in my eyes, she is a little mess of wiggly teeth, bedhead, scuffed shoes and knees from playing and a heart of gold. She's hilarious, inquisitive, generous, sassy, rambunctious, bold and kind-hearted.

build-a-bear! ♥

Just another reason that I'm determined to continue in my commitment to the regular maintenance of this little e-journal of mine :). These are the things I can't afford to forget. Ever.

Happy midweek, darlins!

xo | cmd

Tuesday is Friday and Stella's a Rabbit

I found this today, which I'm going to go ahead and take as a directive... so umm... yeah. That's legitimate, right? Haha

if only... 

At home this evening, I was looking for a particular set of pictures that I thought were being housed on the memory card of my water camera, but realized quickly that they're elsewhere. I did however, find a shoot that Sydni must've done while she was cleaning her room last week. Among the near 20 pictures of Stella and Sasha, I had to share my favorite of the collection:

hahaha

^^ And that is what Stella looks like when she's mid-yawn with a set of ears on her head. She looks so mean! Hahaha... In her defense, she doesn't always look like that:

..... what?

Only Sydni gets away with costume ideas and other miscellaneous experiments with our dogs. Hilarious ;)

We're almost halfway through this week.. whew!
Cheers, midweek :)

xo | cmd

MLB All Star Color Run Cincinnati 2015!

Waking up early on a Saturday isn't typically something I look forward to doing, but today was a totally different story, and I'm not sorry at all for rolling out of bed at 7. It was color run dayyyyy! And not just any color run: Today was the MLB All Star Color Run, in honor of the All Star game that will be here in Cincinnati on Tuesday next week.

So up & at it at 7am it was; I rendezvoused with Jessica & Andrew at CYOFL at 8 for some quick warm-up, and then it was off to downtown, where the crowds were already pouring in.

We were readyyyyy..

here we go! 

What. A. BLAST! Seriously. If you're not into fun runs like this, I'm really not sure why. I couldn't have picked a better day for this to happen, nor a better group of people. We had an amazing time! :)

the cyofl team! 

We met up with the rest of the group, got our gear on, and we were off in search of the start line. Let the fun - and color - begin! 

(When the CR posts pictures from today, via bib/team ID's, I'll get those up, too!) 

It was a hilarious bout of running, powdering, music, laughter and awesome teammates among a few thousand of our closest friends. This definitely beat sleeping in today! 

yeahhh! 

The "post run" party was a giant affair right in the heart of Sawyer Point: a field of powder clouds, race day t-shirts boldly staking their claims to the course of the 3+ miles between start and finish. We gathered together in front of the main stage, where beat-dropping-powder throws (I kid you not) looked exactly like this:

Again, I can't wait to see the pictures from today's run... because my team had some of the most fun together today that I've had on any run in a long time. We were covered from head to toe in powder and thrilled about it!

colorfulllll! 

the guys, minus 1 of the andrews..

Poor Jessica wound up losing a battle with her contact lenses, so it was an early departure from downtown for us; we hopped in the backseat, thankful for Bumper's seat cover ;)

just strollin' downtown.. no biggie...

backseat post-race! :p 

I picked up my car and headed home to shower up, unsure of whether or not I'd be able to remove all the swatches of color from my body and clothes. I stripped off my shoes and whatever else I could outside, and realized there was much more than I'd bargained for, all the way to the core! 

lovin' it! 

c o v e r e d ! 

Hilarious.

So I cleaned up and switched gears into swimsuit mode and U-turned it right back to Jessica's, to join her and Andrew poolside for an hour or so. It was a short-lived little visit, before we shuttled Andrew back to his truck and took ourselves and Bumper over to Chipotle for lunch. 

Bumper, the king of the backseat :) 

cruisin' with bumper & jessica! 

The rest of the day was devoted to laundry [fyi, all the color it seems did in fact wash out of even the white tshirt and everything else, too!], clean up a little around the house, and then just... veg.. out. I did some reading, a little shopping and formulated some tentative plans for Rob's birthday.. sorry, no spoilers yet ;) 

The boys are 2 days into their bike trip now; I just spotted a FB update with some cruise pictures along the way in Gatlinburg. I'm... jealous. 

Happy Weekend, Blogbots! 

xo | cmd

Happens To All Of Us

I stumbled across a comic artist's website today, and was given a good clean helping of the laughter I didn't even know I needed. There's always some truth to funny things, and I couldn't help but share:

think about it. 

^ How TRUE that is. How often do I convince myself that, for the sake of general awareness, it's necessary that I watch the news. That's the brain talking. Then the heart steps in after a while and ends that action, just because it is often just too much to absorb at one time. My heart wants to be in about 12 different countries at the same time, weeding out the toxic, violent entities that are making those places impossible to inhabit. My heart wants to create refuge for children. It wants to exact retribution on those who hurt children. It aches when leadership fails. When fatal accidents destroy families. When natural disasters decimate homes and businesses. When animals are forgotten, abused and killed. I'm not afraid to say that my heart hurts when I watch the news. So as funny as that is, it's the absolute truth.

[Thanks, AwkwardYeti!] On a lighter note, there are some gems from that artist that really are just cute.

hahah (: 

^ That's for you, Ali. :p

Here in my little world, today proved a great day for deliveries - I'd ordered my shampoo & conditioner on Amazon [I refused to pay full price for this, especially knowing there was a cheaper option], and completed that order with a little something for the mini. Yay, free shipping over $35! Haha. Anyway, it's here, and we're both pretty happy (:

Exciting stuff, folks. :|
Hah. Have an awesome weeks, bloggers!

xo | cmd

Movie Monday

hello, you ♥

 Yeah, it's already December. Holy smokes. 

Rob and I both had today scheduled off from our jobs, as a way to complete our Thanksgiving road tripping without exhausting ourselves. After the weekend we just had, it was an excellent decision to give ourselves a few extra hours of re-charge before heading back to work.

Sydni got the raw end of the deal; she had to be back for school, and I somehow managed to appease her requests by the compromise of iPad time in the car.

Today was a rather unceremonious entrance into December for us; Rob took advantage of the extra hours to sleep in, and I made myself busy catching up on some RedBox flicks I've wanted to see [specifically The Giver, but I threw X-Men into the cart as well, just for good measure]. I won't spoil the fun for any of you out there who've yet to see either of them, but if it matters, I'm glad I just... waited for The Giver to make its way to RB. Jus' sayin'.

Anyway, I'm proud to say that the house is clean, dinner's cookin', and these two are driving the dogs crazy with that stinkin' helicopter that found its way into our family when we were in Illinois. Sydni loves it, and I'm sure within no time, she'll be hovering that thing around this house like a pro.

♥ these two!!!

^^ That's my little world, folks. ♥

Happy December!

xo | cmd

1989: Sh-Sh-SHAKE IT OFF

Really, this is all I wanted to share today.

This.. is.. great (:

And here's the original, if you need a reference:


.. and, as always, here's my disclaimer that neither of the clips above, including music, choreography, people, hightop shoes, blingy necklaces and/or tu-tu's are mine. Nothing here is mine, except for this blog and the hilarity of these two videos.. that I did not create. Mmkay? Mmkay (: 
Thank YOU, Taylor Swift, for that one. Haha.

Sh-Sh-SHAKE IT OFF!

xo | cmd

H-A-Double L-O....

I FOUND IT!!!


I am an alumni of my hometown's elementary school system, and at our school, we learned [or reviewed] this song literally every. single. year. I know I'm not the only one who remembers this number. This was part of my childhood playlist for the Halloween season, and it clearly made enough of an impression that I remembered the bulk of the chorus as I near the end of my twenties.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN to all you blogbots out there!!
[backdated stuff staaaaaaaaaarts...... now ;)]

Tonight was definitely a production; it started when I got home and took the plunge into Halloween makeup mode. In 30 minutes, I'd transformed myself from recognizable me to a masked super-villain.

Rob arrived home, changed into his getup, and out the door we were to Jessica's, where I had the task ahead of painting the rest of my entourage into their villainous characters. Jessica's friend Sarah was having a birthday party, and had chosen the villain.

We arrived at Molly Malone's in Covington to find the Sanderson Sisters [probably my favorite costumed trio of the night]:

perfect!!!!

[Oh, how I LOVE watching Hocus Pocus over... & over again during the Halloween season!!]

My entourage didn't look too shabby, either!

the boys: penguin & jigsaw

the girls: harley quinn & poison ivy

all 4 (:

couples ... villainous couples! 

It has been a long time since I went full-out on a Halloween costume for any sort of party, let alone with a group of people [unless the Run Like Hell 5k counts... which for this example, I'm gonna just say it doesn't... it doesn't ;) .. ]. Needless to say, despite the small fortune invested into each of our getups, Rob and I had a blast and the wish I made back in August of dolling up for a Halloween party somewhere came true. I'm not the girl that gets flushed when I see a few other renditions of the character I chose to be; I think it's kind of fun to see what other people thought to do for it, too. [That doesn't mean I don't think ours still totally rocked! ;)]

batman's detention squad

^ At one point or another, I counted nearly all of the villainous Batman cast in the same room at the same time; I was bummed that we weren't able to hunt down the Joker & Harvey Dent we'd seen roving the place for that shot, but 5 outta 7 isn't too bad! We even found another familiar villain:

chad! [the burglar from home alone.. yenno,
marco belinelli... post-iron-in-the-face?]

Not a bad way to have a little fun with friends.

I hope you've all been SAFE and ENJOYABLE Halloween! Here's to the start of winding down 2014. Live, love, laugh and get dressed up with your friends. (:

See you again once I've got my real face back!

xo | cmd

Trunk-Or-Treat!

I have no idea how Halloween is already here, but it is, and with that being said,

BRING ON THE ELSA ARMY! 

If there's one universal American truth this week, it's that at the very least, 1 of 3 little girls has either requested to be, or is going to be... Elsa for Halloween. Thank you Disney, for another year of rampant internet and storefront sales on everything Frozen. I still vote pity for poor Princess Anna; it seems like although that movie was mostly about her, we'll still only see a slight fraction of Anna-clad darlings hitting the 2014 candy-tours in comparison to her magically-empowered-and-simultaneously-cursed older sis. [Welcome to the inevitable and inescapable limelight of younger siblinghood, amiright?] 

Anyway, Sydni found herself in the ideal position for being in a not-so-ideal situation of living between mom & dad's houses. The ideal part is that she now has two Elsa costumes to don this year. She will be trick-or-treating twice, and will likely continue into the winter holiday season in this exact pattern: doubling everything. The only real perks [from a kid's POV, at least] of split households, I'm convinced.

Rob and I rallied together in a tornado fashion after work: change our clothes, change her clothes, and get moving on up to West Chester for one of the few Thursday night trick-or-treats that I could find. It was held at an old stomping ground that I claimed for a very brief time years and years ago: Midwest Cheer Elite. [Clarification: I was a tumbler and a contemporary dance student here, not a competitive cheerleader. I don't want any of you to think I've been withholding a secret life from you!]

It was a trunk-or-treat, which meant an added vote of confidence for all the parents, knowing their little ghosts and goblins [or in this case, their little Elsa's and Marvel superheroes] wouldn't dash away into any line of traffic or otherwise hazardous situation. Keep it contained.... ;)

Sydni had a blast.

[& i spy an olaf back there! ;) ] 

A few of the many, many fun, decorated trunks! 

fun! :) 

And an added bonus of a hayride!

my family. love love love them. 

After trunk-or-treat, we had a last minute vote for Mexican food, so we spent another hour or so in West Chester to eat. We were halfway through dinner when Sydni decided to deliver some insight far beyond her years:

Hahahah. I freakin' love that girl.

Tomorrow is finally Friday, and that being said, I'm pretty excited for the grown-up Halloween festivities that will be taking place. I'll give you one hint:

Villains. 

That's all for now. Tomorrow's the real deal ;) 

Happy [Pre-] Halloween! 

xo | cmd