A Life-Is-Great Wednesday

I'm a huge fan of variety, and breaking out of the monotony of what's typical every day. In the spirit of said variety, I happily obliged a client requesting me to come down on site today for a facility tour to start the day. While I knew my desk had undoubtedly been piling up over the course of the morning with memos, messages and files, it was quite a nice change of pace to be driving north into the city at a time that is very unusual for me.

hello, daytime city! 

It was only fitting to make a pitstop in for some fresh-ground encouragement before heading in to the office!

it was too beautiful a feeling not to stop and capture it

I did however realize why I'd been met with some semi-raised eyebrows between my client's facility and the office: I'd forgotten about and was still sporting earplugs. I mean.... it's not totally irrelevant, right?

these are just in case it gets too loud... or something..

The rest of the day passed without too much chaos, and I'm happy to say that there was a moderate amount activity completed after work as well, re: THE MOVE.

That's another day's worth of diatribe.. but we'll get to that later. For now, I hope ya'll were out and about today for at least part of this gorgeous day!

xo | cmd

Pajama Day! Pajama Day! Pajama Day at School!

If you're a fan of The Office, then you read that title the way I heard it when I typed it:

In the voice of Kelly Kapoor:

And if you didn't originally read it that way, I'll bet you are now.... haha.
And to the original point, it was in fact pajama day at school for the mini, in celebration of her earning all her February stickers for reading at home. I doubt we'll ever have issues with read-a-thons, given that she's a little bookworm who didn't fall far from mama's tree in the reading department.

To say she was excited about donning jammies to school is something of an understatement:

this kid... haha.. 

... Goofy gap teeth and all. She's too much. 

Take time to appreciate the small things today, folks. I hope you're out there doing the same thing! ♥

xo | cmd

One Day To Go

Marianne is HERE! She was here for the last half of the day yesterday, too, but she's been here all day today, and tomorrow we leave for the Smoky Mountains!

As I was at work, I caught glimpses of Mare's day, some of which she spent with Becky, and the rest that she improvised on her own like she usually does.

I lived the sunshine somewhat vicariously through Mare & Becky today, until they came and took Elisa and I away for lunch at Aladdin [delicious by the way].

aladdin mediterranean!

I was glad Elisa was able to join us for lunch; my friends are certainly a rare breed, but love welcoming others in and making them feel included/accepted. Plus, Elisa's awesome, so it worked out!

Mare & Becky dropped me off at work, where the day finished up and I headed to Milford to get Sydni. The original plan was to circle back to the zoo and meet them there for Tunes & Blooms; we didn't get to that part for a few different reasons... Sad face.

Fortunately, I was able to sneak away for a bit and rendezvous with them and Brandon on Ludlow for some more delicious eats.. this time at Marrakech. All I have to say about this place: TEA. I LOVE IT.

We disbanded after some incredible food and much laughing, and made it home with just enough horsepower left in us to finish packing bags for the ride out tomorrow.

Cheers!

xo | cmd

HOME for 2015

Usually our return trip from Illinois is a lot closer to the day of arrival, but not this time.
[Thank you, holiday vacations!]

They're also never quite this.... packed.

loaded up to the max! 

Hahahaha. So that's a combination of dog stuff, our stuff, and our new [Christmas] stuff. Poor Lexi didn't know what hit her until she was slammed to the ground with a full trunk and about 600 lbs of living cargo for the trip home. You're a trooper, Lexi ;)

Unfortunately for our tentative itinerary, the snow started to set in pretty early in Illinois; if there's one thing Lexi won't cooperate for, it's snow, so that rendered us with the decision to risk it or get a head start. Head start it was, which deleted the time we had alotted to stop by and see Rob's dad again this morning, but also landed us back in Cincinnati at a very reasonable hour.

These trips don't really phase us anymore, which I think is both a great thing and a small curse ;), but either way, we're home safe and sound and have even managed a full grocery run to boot. It's just now turning into evening, and I'm happy to spend it planted here and unwinding before the inevitable onset of Monday-after-holiday stuff tomorrow at work.

That being said, I couldn't have imagined a better holiday season overall: friends, family, fur-kids, lots and lots of presents, and something about an engagement to top it off. :p. This has been the best one yet. The pups think so, too!

Here's to wrapping up the holiday and making 2015 the BEST yet!

xo | cmd

In Love, I Am.....

I certainly am.. in love.. with them:

Add caption

This was my view from folding laundry off and on tonight. I joined in a little while after all the shirts and towels were folded and put away. These two make any night worth procrastinating whatever else I was supposed to get accomplished.

Which brings me to an unscripted selfie for the night:

I call this one..... "I waited until 11:30 PM to start packing for a weekend in Nashville, because I wanted to hang out with my family, but now I'm super tired".... Selfie:

late night packing.. yay! :|

I will undoubtedly regret and likely not wear 85% of what I just zipped into my suitcase over the next 3 days.

Oh. Friggin'. Well.
I'm goin' to bed.

xo | cmd

Movin' On....

I played soccer today for the third time in almost two years, at the same new place in Fairfield. My first two intros back into the Cinci indoor world have been with Justin's team; today it was Erik who recruited me to stand in for their team.

This is the part that makes me sad:
For years, I played with various teams at the Plex in Tri-County. That was our home. Becky introduced me to that place during my freshman year at UC; it was my first indoor game in Cincinnati and the place I still considered home base even as I frequented all of the other local indoor venues. There was a regular gang of Plex rats: players who always seemed to be there on Sundays for their own games and to stand-in for other teams. I don't know if there were any teams on which any of us actually didn't play at least once or twice as favors. It was there that I shattered my collarbone, and still returned after the healing to continue playing.

I was last there in 2010. And then I moved out of state, and haven't seen the place since. This is apparently what the bench areas look like now:

gross.

That makes me sad. Like, really, really sad. What happened?? It doesn't sound like much, but that place was a staple for me when I played there regularly on leagues. According to the few [now former] plex rats with whom I've recently re-connected, the place has turned into a dump, with leaky ceilings, broken A/C, torn up patches on the field and clearly broken fixtures. Sad. :(

It looks like GameTime in Fairfield is going to be the new indoor home for a lot of people.

gametime training

^ & I can't say I blame anyone. I almost don't even want to go back to Tri-C; seeing that place falling apart may just make it worse for me.. haha.

Anyway, I have an awesome boyfriend who accompanied me to the game, watched us play and didn't give me grief even though he spent the whole time with a bad headache. He's... the... best (:

This is going to be a busy... BUSY weekend. I've got some laundry finishing up while I sit here trying to remember everything we can't forget for the trip to Illinois. We've got some big plans for the weekend!

Stay tuned! ;)

xo | cmd

Christmas, CONTINUED! :)

So... Santa's rackin' up the overtime hours this week! Just as we expected, we awoke to find a front porch and countertop with nothing but crumbs remaining from reindeer food & cookies. There was an empty glass of milk to go along with it, and a Christmas tree layered with pretty wrapping paper and gift bags.

anyone in there? oh, yes... it's a Christmas monster!

I have a 4-year-old who terrorized Santa's lovely display, and when the flurry of tissue and wrapping paper subsided, we were left with an array of awesome new toys, books, electronics & of course a couple of things for the grown-ups, too.

excitement, galooooore

 

electronics from santa, for sydni and mommy.. haha

Our visit at the Drenn Lodge ended with breakfast, complete with all of our favorite things, before we loaded up the car and set our sights back south to Cincinnati.

I managed to capure this on our way down...

too. much. i can't handle them sometimes ;)

I had made plans last week with one of my favorite friends Jennica to meet up at some juncture today before she headed back to Utah. It's been nearly four years since I've seen her, and we missed out when she was home over Thanksgiving. This time around, we were adamant on making this happen. So, we picked a meeting spot at the new Cincinnati outlets in Monroe, where Rob, Sydni and I fiiiinally ran into Jen and her brother Mikey.

jennnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!! ♥♥♥

Ahhhhh! I love that girl. I promised her that once this whole moving thing is settled down, I'll start looking at a trip out to visit her in Utah for a weekend getaway, or something like that (:

Rob started feeling ill before we even got to the outlets, so after our visit, it was a beeline to the house for him to unwind and relax for the night. I took that time to pack up some more of the house and haul it into the car for dropoff tomorrow night at the new house. It's all coming together!

Tomorrow it's back to work again for a couple of days and then.......... it's 2014. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that. The age old question, where did the year go, is of course streaming on loop through my head, but at the same time I am welcoming all of the changes rolling in with the new year. I saw bring it on! (:

*Phew. Christmas is finally completed, I think. If I missed anything, I'll catch up with it later. It's bed time for us.

xo | cmd

Be MERRY! : Christmas Day 2013

** backdated, yessum....  

It's HEEEEEEEERE!

Merry, MERRY Christmas, friends, family & blogbots (: I hope today was a phenomenal day for every single one of you. I know I can't complain!

First things first: a good morning Christmas wish phone call from my beautiful little Christmas elf herself. She was back here in Ohio for actual Christmas Day stuff this year, but believe me it won't be over for her until what... like, next week sometime?? Hah. Anyway, that was the perfect Christmas gift; I would've been completely content with just that, but I fortunately am blessed with much more than I would've bargained for this year.

We found ourselves at the first half of Rob's family Christmas for breakfast: it was off to his sister's house to celebrate with his dad, Kate, and his sister's family. His youngest niece Ella is just months older than Sydni; watching her squeal over her Christmas presents was the kiddo-touch to the holiday that I needed, since my minime wasn't here today. So. Cute.

Christmas mice! (:

rob & his family!
dad, stepmom, sister, grandma

♡♡ merry Christmas to my best friend! ♡♡

A couple of hours fell between the two Christmas celebrations, so we took advantage of it to let the dogs out back at home and catch a quick catnap before we headed to his mom's house to celebrate with her, Don & co.

already stuffed full.. relaxing before round 2 of Christmas eats!!

My grandma used to tell us when we were kids, "ya'll made out like bandits in an empty bank!" << That was definitely the case today; we couldn't be more blessed with family and friends to celebrate not just the Christmas holiday, but to support us as we take on some pretty big changes for the new year.

teavana!!!

merry Christmas from solomon the mastiff!

We wrapped things up at his mom's house and the time came to load my car down with whatever we could fit in it for my haul back to Cincinnati. That included one of the furry kids; Stella and I made our little jaunt back to Ohio loaded down with boxes of Rob's things to transfer to the new house. He and Sasha will be here tomorrow after he takes care of a few last minute things in his house for this week.

road trippin' buddy

PHEW. We're home now, unpacked and ready for bed. It's back to work for me tomorrow, so I'm callin' this one a night.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

xo | cmd

... The Packing Continues......

We were cavemen today. It was still pretty bleak outside, so today was day 2 of dark-dwelling in the joy... *coughcough... of packing up a house. We definitely made some progress though; our next step is to get some of this stuff listed for sale on good old Craigslist.

I'm really not sure that a blog is a reliable means of marketplace transactions, but after it was all said and done, here's a couple of the bigger ticket items up for grabs at his place: 

china hutch [background dog not included]

matching couch set (:

And that, folks... is pretty much the epitome of what happened today: laundry, cleaning, sorting through 5 years of papers, receipts, etc [that is probably my least favorite part whenever I move; Rob shared that sentiment today] and boxing up everything from a few of the different rooms in his house.

And now, we're both in desperate need of a shower and in absolutely no shape to be seen in public, soo.... with that being said I'm gonna wrap this one up and relax for a little while.

We're gettin' there!

xo | cmd

Bluegrass in Washington Park

Today flew by. I'm not complaining, since tomorrroooooooow I'm off after work to Illinois to see Rob & Co. Today was a good day all the way around though; no complaints there (:

Sydni didn't end up at swim lessons tonight, so her and I took a little trip down to Washington Park to oblige an invite from Becky and Mike. There's bluegrass each Thursday down there, at least for a couple more weeks, and after tonight, I'm disappointed that we haven't been doing this all summer - it was fun!

some weeknight bluegrass | washington park - cincinnati, oh

We met up with Becky and Mike for a little while; Nader, Keith & Rick were there, too, so the lot of us spent a couple of hours milling around the park listening to music and watching Sydni run off some of the energy she otherwise would've used swimming.. haha.


Gosh, I love this little girl.

a few of the faces of my favorite mini!

Now we're home: Sydni's preoccupied herself stringing up some beads [no, nothing like me.. at all... ;) ] while I finish up throwing some stuff together for the weekend away.

It's almost Fah-riiiiiiiday!

xo | cmd

Splish Splash

It's all in a day's work, right?
[I don't even know what that really is supposed to mean, but I do know we gave Thursday a run for its money today]

Work was work, nothing especially memorable about the day other than it's one step closer to Friday and that means we'll see Rob tomorrow!

Traffic, as usual in greater Cincinnati, was just.. a joy to navigate all the way out to Blue Ash for Sydni's swim lessons, but once I was there I realized that I would gladly grit through gridlock every single week just to see my little girl do this.

getting ready (:

learning how to float!

.. but never forgetting to have fun ♥

On the way home, Sydni said, "I wish Mr. Rob could see me swim!"
I was reminded in that moment how thankful I am for her. For Rob. For the fact that we are making this work, and that he's made an impact on my daughter. I was reminded why we're all being patient and making this long-distance thing work. We may not always be under the same roof at the same time, but when there's enough of the right kind of love there, we can do anything. I am blessed.

Back at home, it was laundry time, some goofing around [nothin' new there], and packing for the big weekend ahead of us.

this little girl is my world.

I'm exhausted.

Sayonara, Thursday.

xo | cmd

New Move Multi-Tasking

Becky came over after work today, unannounced.

I say it that way, because when she got here, I was in the back bedroom, knee-deep in a stack of boxes and singing along very loudly to some Josh Turner as I was working. I figured it was one of the neighbors knocking, to politely ask me to cease all karaoke activity.

Nope (:

It was Becky, and she came bearing cinder blocks! I never imagined needing and not having these things; I feel like they're everywhere. There were a few abandoned ones in a burn pile behind my house, but once we dug one out, there were more critters than we cared to clear, so we'll just have to wait on the last two that we still need.

thanks, little cinder blocks (:

It took us a little while to configure things in the basement; once we'd done that we opted for some food. Our first intention was Eli's; I don't know why we thought there wouldn't be a massive line nearly out the door, with packed outdoor crowds. We would've stayed, I'm sure, save for the gray clouds and light raindrops that threatened to start pouring at any second.

So... off to Hyde Park. Sure, a contrast, but the food was good. Wild Ginger it was, with some drunken noodles for me and a firecracker for Becky. We won't get into the table next to us, with the three heinously obnoxious teenagers who will hopefully.. one... day... realize that the word, "like" is not the same thing as a space bar on a keyboard.

It was, like, distracting, like, ya know, like??

mmm. wild ginger!

Could I have spent the entire evening unpacking? Oh, definitely. Did I still manage to clear all of the remaining debris out of my room, the hallway, half the living room, and the bathroom? Yeahhhh, buddy. I call that the new move multi-task, and it's keeping me sane.

That being said, I'll get some finished pictures up here soon, but for now, I'm rather impressed that it's not 11 yet and I'm completely ready for bed (:

P.S. - 3 more days & I'll have my first round of company.
I. can't. wait to see him. ♥

xo | cmd

It's MOVING Day!

Ta-Daaaaaaaa, it's MOVING DAY!
.... again.

One of these days, I'll plant my feet somewhere long enough to start building my own furniture, like I want.... build a shed, like I want... and start a garden in my backyard, like I want....

Until then, I'll continue on my path of nomadic wonderment and stay on a status of temporarily wherever I find myself for the time being. Hopefully that means at least a 1-year lease of sorts.

That being said, I am fortunate to have some truly amazing friends here to help me with Project: Relocate Cori. Ali, her dad [aka Padre Lackey] and Jay showed up early this morning to lend their brawn in transferring everything from the house to the 16-ft boxtruck Ali and I retrieved from the ever-comical Walter over at Penske.

Ali caught me in a rare moment of being able to reach ceiling level outside the garage while standing on the truck's loading ramp. Excuse the fact that I look like I'm on stilts.. haha.

As much as this house will be a part of a closed chapter in my life, I'll still miss it (: 

house hugs!

Rob had to work this morning, and by the time he got back, we had pretty much cleared the majority of everything out of the house and into the truck. It wasn't long before he and I were situated in the cab and on the road, Ohio-bound. 

road trippin' ... in a penske... chyuuuup.

Fast forward 6ish hours to our final destination: Stronghold Storage in Eastgate. We got signed in, and with the help of my ever-faithful and life-saving [literally] friend Becky, got everything unloaded within a half hour. My old bosses were kind enough to let us park the boxtruck in front of their Express building overnight to avoid any awkward parking fiascos in Northside, and from there, we were off towards Clifton. Rob had never been to Skyline, so it was our pleasure to take him to one of the original Skyline's in the gaslight district of Ludlow. The review: awesome. (:

 ♪ ♫ it's skyline tiiiiiiiime ['nati folk, i know you know that jingle... ]

We're here at Becky's now.. and that, folks, is a wrap.

See ya in the mornin'.

xo | cmd