Monday Lunch Break!!

An excerpt from the list of things I love:

* Jesus
* Sushi
* Lunch breaks
* Sunshine
* Friends
* 70° weather in the 1st week of March
* A stellar deal off Craigslist
* Rob & Sydni

It's clearly not the entire list, but it felt appropriate today to highlight those specific things. 

First, and I cannot emphasize to all maybe-two of you readers out there just how liberating it was today to TAKE A FULL, 1-HOUR LUNCH BREAK. You call it dramatic... I call it... rare. 

I'd forgotten over the past 9 or 10 months just how fantastic it is to step away from the desk and everything that comes with it, and just.... exist in a space free of work, errands and anything else that qualifies as an obligation. 

[insert über happy emoji face here]

For starters, I donned a dress to work for the first time in months today. It just... felt right - the air felt promising this morning when I let the dogs out, so I went for it. My favorite boots went with it, and out the door I went to start the week. 

This was not a typical Monday, at all. From the time I woke up to now, it's been nothing but fun. Seriously! I'm going to blame this on Kristin, the new girl at work - she's just now starting her 2nd week, but even so, I'm already feeling layers of stress and pressure peeling off. The girl is seriously a God-send, I'll say that much. Now that she's here, the daily workload will be more evenly-distributed, and with that comes lunch breaks!

Monday lunch break = SUSHI! Extra ginger, pwede ba! [<that's 'please' in Tagalog]

People, listen. If you're going to pursue my heart, you have to start with my stomach. In fact, you really only need my stomach, if the timing is right. I wanted nothing more today than a seaweed roll, and once I got it, the rest of the day was a cakewalk. 

And then the work day ended, and it was on to the next thing: Retrieving an armoire I'd hunted down on Craigslist. The guy who posted it months ago has been experiencing relay issues with emails, and I just happened to swoop in at the right time, as he was near giving up on hearing back again from any of the previous inquiries. Cori, would you pay an 8th of the full price for an armoire in near perfect condition? 

hello, lovely! 

Yes. Yes I would. And I did. And I'm PUMPED. #newhousefurnituuuuuuure

We came, we retrieved, and somehow we [Rob & I, but mostly Rob] finagled that sucker up and over the banister and landing to the 2nd floor of the new house. He probably needs a chiropractor after it all, but hey, it's there, it's ready and as soon as the walls are painted, it'll be a functional fixture in the digs of yours truly.

And with that, folks.. we're good here. The week is young, but God's been good to us for a Monday. We're feeling inspired to get this place under wraps!

Have a beautiful week, blogbots!

xo | cmd

Weekend Wrap Up

There were four girls total in my bed this morning, and we all seemed to wake up right around the same time. I wanted to capture the moments, since we had plenty of time before church. Technically, we even got Mr. Rob in the picture too, since he's in that picture there in the background [Sydni pointed that out!] I wouldn't mind waking up to these faces, this way, every single day (:


waking up happy [minus one, but soon]

my favorite snuggle buddy♥

she's got them wrapped around her finger.. haha

I finally convinced all of us off the bed to get the day rolling; at church, the lesson of NEW was starting, and let me tell you, it was a home-run sermon. If you have time & want to hear it, by all means, LISTEN HERE (:!! I was hooked for the entire message, and I am thankful that I've found a church family on which I may be landing, permanently.

"new"

After church, it was off again to the new house to drop off more stuff, followed by one more run of items before the weather again began to decline. It's supposed to hit a low of -8 or so tomorrow, and by the end of today, we could tell it was already well on its way.

That didn't stop a determined Craigslister from coming out to our place to buy and pick-up Sydni's bed that we were selling. It was a great bed for her, but we're upgrading her to another one, and from what I understand, we just sold this to a family who truly needs it way more than we do. And that makes me feel good.

Sydni and I cleaned up some more before settling in for a weekend-ending movie night with Despicable Me. I promised her we'd watch the second one again whenever we have the chance, but tonight we had some good laughs with the first one.

movie night fun!

And tomorrow is again Monday..... that thing that keeps happening every week ;)

Good night, for now!

xo | cmd

Box Trucks are Great For IKEA

Curse you, IKEA!

Just kidding. I actually love Ikea. The part I hate is that I, like everyone else who shops there, always over-buy.. and it's always a bunch of "cool stuff" I don't really need.

What I realized today is that it's waaaay more fun to go there and shop for stuff someone else needs. Rob and I decided that since we had the box truck already, it would be a pity to drive it back to Illinois completely empty. Since he'd had his eye on a few things the last time we came to Ikea, it only made sense to collect everything he needed in one trip, while we were guaranteed the space to transport it.

☑ king sized bed frame
☑ glass topped dresser

☑ tv stand

warehouse pickin'!! (:

It really didn't take us long at all to go through and identify everything we would need to pull out in the warehouse. We wound up with a cart full of boxes, which we'll surely get to assembly sometime in the next two weeks. I owe Rob bigtime for all his help in getting me moved, so I figured lending some of my super-awesome ninja skills in assembling furniture is the very least I can do ;) 

new furniture? = succes at ikea.

It's funny how the ratio of available space versus what you need to carry shifts when you have a BOX TRUCK to work with, as opposed to my car. Obviously we wouldn't have dreamed of stuffing all of that into my car, but with the truck, it looked like a tiny pile of toothpicks scattered on a table top. It's really not that funny, but just sort of struck me as quirky, especially given the fact that the whole thing was packed to the brim on the way up.

Fast forward again, to our road trip back to Illinois. Our first stop was at my house to clear out some of the things to donate [yeah, we're putting this box truck to WORK]. From there, it was a drop at Goodwill and then the road to Granite. We unloaded everything from the truck, chatted with Kelly and Mike for a bit, and then turned tail right back to Fairview to drop off the rental truck for good.

That brings us to now, sleeping at the house for the last time tonight... on the floor, no less... haha.. Oh well, I don't hate it.

This move is slowly coming along... we'll get there!

xo | cmd

Date Night.... With Ali!

What's the best way to spend a Friday night when you have no other plans?

Well, after you've had a Friday like we did.....

t....g.....i....... f. amen. 

Hang out with one of your best friends and make your own plans. That's exactly what Ali and I did tonight, and it was definitely an outing of which you should be jealous. Haha. 

kid-sized chair? mmmkay. 

It started with dinner. We've not had any success yet with going to Olive Garden unplanned on a Friday. For starters, I always happen to look like the vagabond between the two of us, which could had likely has misled at least one or two bystanders into thinking Ali and I are a couple or something. Haha. OH WELL! Anyway, we had no success with an attempted OG stop tonight; we opted not to wait over an hour, so we journied across the street to Houlihan's. Much better. We wined, we dined, and we were in and out before we knew it. Good stuff.

From there, it was off to start the preliminary shopping for the decor that will be comprise Ali's new room at her new house. I'm pretty excited to help her out. We started at Hobby Lobby & Big Lots checking out pieces of furniture and wall art.

From there it was off to a few other stops to check out some different aesthetic options. She's going with a travel theme, so we managed to pick out a clock and take some other pictures of "ideas" to be considered for final use.

And yeah, I just realized we took pictures of everything we did [and ate], but not with each other to document this evening. Oh, fail. We'll have to fix that the next time we get together. Haha.

Happy weekend, blogbots!

xo | cmd

Dumpster Diving with Diana

I have absolutely no problem openly discussing my indubitable obsession with thrift shopping. There's a certain subtle thrill that, though unspoken, is very alive whenever I acquire something fun for a fraction of what it would retail. In terms of consumerism, I pride myself on exercising discretionary spending without sacrificing in any one-or-the-other ultimatum. I am all about resale shops, yard sales, and hand-me-downs. When it boils down to it, really, I apparently am open to any form of transferring noteworthy items into my life.

Case & Point:

BEHOLD : The dumpster that resides in the corner of our parking lot at work. It's responsible for all discards from the 7-8 small businesses that share with us in our little plaza. I've made numerous trips across the lot to toss our trash and never stopped to think twice...

... until today.

My work day begins at 8am, so there I am getting settled in for the day when our co-owner breezes through the door telling me to grab my coat and follow. [Ooookay?] Well, as it turned out, Diana had taken our trash out and spotted a cabinet of some sort, disassembled and left for disposal. If you're wondering if we retrieved it, the answer is YES, OF COURSE WE DID.

I should start a bucket list. On that list I should scribe and check off :

√ Dumpster dive with employer

Fast forward to after we'd loaded this sucker, in pieces, into the back of my Murano and I ended up with it now sitting out, ready for me to attempt re-assembly. I have no screws or nails, and even less of an idea of what or how this thing goes together. This should be interesting. If all else fails, I'm scrapping parts and recycling them somehow. I'll keep you posted on my success [or potential lack thereof].

At any rate, I dedicate today to my boss, the wonderful up-and-coming dumpster diver. She thoroughly impressed me today with her instant initiative and quick response time in spotting and hauling out what we both hope to be a nicely-revived piece of furniture.

Welp, that's about all the excitement I could handle for one day. :)

Short work week, here we come!

xo | cmd