Hide & Seek: The Silver Lining on a Monday

I was not overly impressed by how the work day ended. It's an ongoing plight, really; I struggle more than I'd like to admit on days like this, to convince myself that I'm not operating like someone who hasn't resigned herself to the path of someone who's blinding circling around in Einstein's definition of insanity. It just.. today was not the best day I've had recently. 

But it's okay, because ya know what? It wasn't the worst, either.

There's a silver lining in everything, I'm certain of it. Plus, I'm a firm believer that where there are valleys and unfruitful seasons, that they only exist because there are mountain tops and bountiful spans to contrast [and vice versa, obviously]. But seriously. Today was a wash; I'm letting it go.

my friends.... 

Tonight was different. I'm among the lucky to have my best friend by my side through thick, thin and days like this that otherwise make me question myself. As we continued on with the project in Sydni's room, we talked. We talked, and talked, and talked. We didn't have phones out. We just... worked and talked. It was relaxing, but above that, made me realize that I owe so much more for the gift of him and the rest of my mini clan of friends & family than I could give.

amazed by this guy!

Speaking of our quality time, this guy impresses me every day with his ability to do something he's never done before - in this case, building a loft bed fit for an almost-7-year-old and an adult or two if needed. He is patient, understanding and confident that if he doesn't know something, he will figure it out and make it work. #bragmoments♥

Tomorrow, we paint! Sydni's room is nearing completion, and I can't wait. In time.. in time. We're on a roll though and I see no signs of stopping, until it's done.

See ya next time, blogbots - it's gonna be a long day tomorrow, I'm sure.

xo | cmd

Change of Address: Home Lowkea's

Of the list of 74983269382156932 things that aren't in the You Just Bought This House Now Guess WHAT manual:

Your new secondary address will be Home Depot.
(Or Lowe's. Or Ikea)((Yes, to all the above.))

No? Am I the only one?

We moved into this place at the end of February/early March and up until a few weeks back, all things house-ish have been sidled away to the back burner, as we worked our way through family gatherings, out of town weddings & birthdays and Sydni's school/extracurricular activities. 

But NOW... after my experience yesterday painting the office, and how I felt when it was all said and done, I'm hooked. Poor Rob, if by nothing other than proxy, is too. Though really, for him I'm sure it started back when he backed the new mower off the trailer in our driveway and took Sydni on a joy ride around the yard to create crop circles. 

Today, it was church first, then a beeline to Ikea. Yes, on purpose. 

rollup mattress? yes, i'll take one thanks. 

^^ Syd's bedroom is going to come together this week if it kills me. I've committed to it, and there's no turning back now. 

As if Ikea wasn't enough for 2 hours, Home Depot came in at a close second just under another 2 hours: 

.... and other things paint, home, DIY [keyword,keyword,keyword...]

After a fruitless search for curtain tie backs at Home Depot, I finally hunted some down at Lowe's that would suffice for the master bedroom, and then it was back to the mothership to install, apply and otherwise use everything that came home in bags with us. 

Home Lowkea's is the only accurate way I can describe the secondary address that should go on all my formal documents until this house is complete - so like, at least the next 2 years. Can I do that, just temporarily? 

It's work it, though - check out the progress on mini-me's hideaway! 

loft bed, comin' up! 

Anyway, it's not a lot of excitement for a Sunday, I know, and I'm laughing that wry, sad laugh inwardly a little at the fact that my Sunday diatribes in my adult life reflect a day hunting down paint and curtain rods, instead of nursing random and mysterious after-effects of a Saturday night gone rogue. It's whatev', though. I'm pretty happy with the course I've found.

Ying & Yang here [aka S&S Pibble] are pretty pleased too, especially since their Big Barker has been upgraded from the living room to the bedroom. Spoiled.. 

Happy Sunday! 

xo | cmd 

4% Complete!

I'm not sure if saying 4% is conservative or generous in this case, but let's go with it.

Here's a dark picture of the office as the first finished coat lay to dry. This gets credit for Saturday, because it was about 1am today when I finished...

1am.

pre-sleep, 1am... *yawn

And then I went to bed to let the moon do its thing and wait for the sun to rise.

When I finally did roll back out of bed, it was to the tune of brunch with Becky & Will at a place none of us had previously been: Plain Folk Cafe!

plain folk cafe! 

why have i never been here before!?

i mean..... ♥

The fact that Becky and I arrived at not only a decision, but the destination, within a humanly-reasonable space of time from the birth of the idea to go eat, is a marvel in itself. The fact that we only had to go to one place, and not a venue-hopping endeavor to get it right, is another. That the food, vibe & venue itself was awesome?! That's deserves a gold sticker, plastic trophy, honorable mention in the school newspaper... ya know, whatever's available. This is a rare one, folks.

After brunch, I parted ways with B&W, took a deep breath and steered off in the direction of West Chester - Ikea, specifically.

On purpose.

I know. Nobody needs anything from Ikea, but I've come to the juncture of home-remodeling that I've now convinced myself that I do in fact, need some select things. I'm still not sure if I'm validated or if I've just brainwashed myself as a distraction from the inevitable swarms of other Ikea-goers on a Saturday, but it makes the trip easier. On top of that, I've now memorized some of the shortcuts through the place: you know, the ones that sometimes look at first glance like they're just, I dunno.. a wall, but it's actually an Ikea door [that they sell, somewhere 2 miles away in the store] disguised as a wall, that saves you 25 minutes of meandering through the dining room section and spits you out instead right in the middle of the customizable shelving options? All.. 479392874932809 of those options? Yeah, those shortcuts. I know 'em. muahaha.

So yeah, in less than an hour inside the store, I'd retrieved everything I needed from the Marketplace section, navigated to the each of the aisle/bin locations to lumber the bigger items onto one of those wheely cart things [I'm not a slight frame by any means, but let's face it, I know I looked like a seal wrangling an oak tree on a couple of those instances; it was neither graceful, nor did I care], and had processed through the check out line. Another thumbs up sticker on my chart for the day, hey hey!

Rob arrived home late in the evening, after the outing to Detroit with Kenny & Chad to retrieve Kennys' new[ish] boat, and congratulated me on the completion of our office space. Specific congrats were welcomed for now putting the dogs on Craigslist for walking through the paint trays on more than one occasion, and for my not falling off any ladders or painting the ceiling. #FORTHEWIN!

Rob says he needs to go out of town more often, and see what else gets done while he's gone.
Well....... haha.
Jk.

xo | cmd

El Domingo Perfecto

Today was in fact.. perfect.

The morning started out with church - more specifically, the chance for my Panama team and I to finally get our group photo. I picked a great day to wear no makeup [woops], but c'mon.. I won't be wearing it while I'm in Panama, so I suppose it's fitting.

Oh, oh, oh - before I get into that, I have to thank Sydni's Mamaw Carolyn [aka, Rob's mom] for the getup she sported out for the morning:

love this girly

Folks, here are the four incredible folks with whom I'll be travelling in just a few short weeks when we embark south to Panama City, then into the Ngobe villages.

chris. cori. quinn. marissa. aaron

These four are truly incredible people, and I'm excited to partner with each of them into the mountains of Panama. I'm asking that you please, please continue praying for us as we prepare to go - this is going to be a challenge for us in all capacities, but we are willing to go where we are lead. Amen? Amen!

Inside SonRise, we tackled the next chapter of our Transformed series, and Sydni - across the building, created another masterpiece for her wall of creative fame here at the house: 

adult services | kid services! 

Love, love, love. 

After church, we took a quick stop for Rob to get his hair cut. Syd took advantage of the empty driver's seat while he was inside, on the condition that she would grow up to be a Subie girl like her mama ;) 

subie syd .. in the making ;) 

It was a toss up after some errands on lunch plans, but after we dropped by the house and changed, it was easy to get a unanimous vote of somewhere with access to the gorgeous day ahead of us. 

Welp, Eli's it was! 

beautiful day for eli's! 

in love. 

gosh... these two! xoxo

We caught a small glimpse of the damage that's been done as a result of all our snow melting. We've been lucky to be spared from most of the flash flooding here in Cincinnati, but the rivers and any low-lying areas aren't so lucky..

yes, that's an outhouse. just the top .. of an outhouse... 

As we think should be the case, our Sunday was as laid back for us as they come: Rob took to the garage to engage himself in the dis-assembly of the Harley [womp womp], I tracked down and ordered a few of the last minute things I'll need for Panama, and Sydni? Well...

she's just... amazing. 

And there was also this:

this girl.... 

We finished it up with some pizza, because it's Sunday and the rest of the week will be dedicated to working out and eating clean again [so don't judge.. haha].

What a beautiful day it was, indeed. I'm one happy mama!

xo | cmd

Open House & Painting!

So yesterday, I was too caught up in sharing my excitement over Kalyn's birthday to touch on the fact that Carri and I left the office around 2 am today, after an all-nighter preparing for our office open house. Yeah... that was today.

I have to extend a huge note of gratitude to Rob, for coming along as well to assist in the late-night set-up of our space for today. Between hanging streamer's from the ceiling, posting all necessary signage, cleaning the cabinets and ensuring that all the necessary amenities were in their rightful places, it was an effort we had underestimated, and therefore were left at the last minute to accomplish. 

So to say that Carri and I were dragging a bit today was pretty fair. I think we did pretty good up until the early afternoon, when the flow of traffic finally started to slow down, and the day showed signs of ending. There was a lag period of a couple hours between the meat of today and its end, but that wasn't all there would be to it. 

cori. carri. elisa. 

 

Whew! MANY thanks to all who attended today's open house and proved our hard work's worth! It was a huge undertaking, but it was a success in the books and we all had a great time. Thanks again!

A while back, Elisa and I had arranged a surprise for Carri's birthday. We weren't initially certain what to do, but an ad on Groupon caught my eye one day for a Paint Night, and there really wasn't a second thought to it. We signed up for it, and scheduled it for tonight [originally, our open house was scheduled for yesterday, but schedules have a way of challenging us, amiright?]

So we closed up our office and made our way just up the road to Rookwood, where the class was set up in the back room of the Rookwood Pub. 

Ummm... WHY haven't I done this with friends before?! I am no artist, at least not visually the way my mom, sister & several friends are [no, I am much more successful at expression via literary & needle-based crafts.. haha]. It didn't matter, because the class was purposed as a relaxing outlet, with plenty of room for individual interpretation. Love, love, love. 

Well, that being said, the day is actually over [entirely] now, and there is a bed calling my name.

It's more my body screaming to go to the bed, than the bed calling me, but either way, that'll do for tonight. Thank Heavens tomorrow is Friday!! 

xo | cmd

Friends & Kids & Pumpkins & Apples & OTR

Today was a full throttle day from the time we woke up. Sydni was up at 3am to remind me that, "kids are coming over today!!!," and from there on out it was non-stop until our heads hit the pillow again. 

"honey, it's 3am. we still have a few hours."
- [skeptical response...]

First things first: Why pay a gutter service when you can just do it yourself?

do it yourself.

:). I was wrapping up the gutters just as Trish and the kiddos rolled up, jackets and snacks in hand, for an early afternoon of pumpkin painting and carving.

the girls (: 

mamas & kiddos

 Sarah made it out after work, with her daughter in tow. There were then 5 kids attacking one pumpkin..

paint, paint... and more paint! 

the aftermath? beautiful! 

 

Once the pumpkins had been thoroughly - and I mean thoroughly painted, the kids migrated to the front yard for some cardio and leaf-mud sandwiches [made, not eaten.. as a sidenote ;).. ]

gosh... love them ;) 

Soon enough, the kids departed, and we took a deep breath in preparation for round two: Jessica and Andrew soon arrived with their pumpkins. Sydni was off to her dad's for her father-daughter dance, so the grown-ups were left to their own devices.

great action shot of bumper & sasha! 

caramel apples!! nomnomnom

lol.. pumpkins ;) 

Round 2 of the day complete [carved pumpkins & caramel apples], we parted ways again to rest up and prepare for the evening, which was decidedly going to be spent in the bows of OTR.

We started our venture at 1215 Wine Bar, if you count our standing in one spot for 20 minutes deciding where the rest of the night would be spent. If that doesn't qualify, then we technically started with a pitstop at The Drinkery before they somehow coerced me into going to - and staying at - Japp's for more than a half hour.

yeah, so i guess when i'm photographed mid-laugh,
i look... super asian. ^_^

this folks, is what otr had to work with tonight...
oh i'm proud of this one.. hahaha.. 

that fan. we're music video superstars.... ;) 

We soon retired from the heat of Japp's and found our final grounds for the night: The Famous Neon's Unplugged!  

oh, lovely neons! 

runnin' the town.. into the ground [laaa dee daaaa... ]

we found chad!
ps - can't even be mad at the chick who bombed this...
.... she nailed it. #thanksdoodydood

nobody knows. 

that time jessica's hand was 2 feet in front of my face
& managed to still look insanely inappropriate.

i'm a cat. rob's an angry ghost.
#notsure...

some more of this.. 

... and consequently this, too. 

And it's Neon's, so there's Jenga...

we lost.

Along with a few hundred of our closest friends, we closed down Neon's and made one last pitstop for grub at Lucy Blue's before calling it a night.

pizza. because... yes. 

PHEW.
.. yes, this is backdated.. 

G'Nite!

xo | cmd