Me, Adulting, 2017.

It's amazing how some of the simplest things can provide so much excitement. These days, I'm losing it over coordinated curtains and clean towels. Don't even get me started on matching furniture. All of the sudden, I actually care about that stuff, and it's weird.

So when Rob's mom bought this for me for Christmas and we saw the box there a few weeks ago, I've been patiently biding my time until we took a vehicle large enough to transport it [with us + dogs + stuff, etc] back to Cincinnati. It came back with us last night. It's here, and I love it ♥

final bedroom furniture touch! 

For any of you who see these things online, I will say to you that YES, it is a good investment.
Oh, and as a note to future me, buy this book:

... & buy it because The Sun is Also a Star made you ugly cry in the best way.

& also, I'll be adding The Bane Chronicles to this hoard later this week, along with pre-ordering Lord of Shadows. I'm tellin' ya... addicted. 

because... Shadowhunters

It seemed far more like a Monday than the Tuesday that it actually was, and I can already tell I am thankful this is a 4-day week. 

Cheers! 

xo | cms

Trains & Great Wolf Lodge

Trains, trains, TRAINS!

Anyone who knows my dad knows that his affinity for trains has been a lifelong thing. The Drenn Lodge, as I've affectionately always named their home up north, now has a train display where there once was a loft lounge, and they are launching a full scale village to go along with it.

dixie union station! 

Today we met with them at a specialty train shop, where Dad was able to gather ideas for his vision [& let's be honest, Mom too, as she'll be the real civil engineer here..].

Be it the small shop it was, it was certainly packed with all things trains, and quite a bit of history if you looked closely enough.

dixie train station | mason, oh 

dixie train station | mason, oh 

tiiiiiny little people..
... tiiiiiiny little expensive people. 

syd marvelling at the village

cute little houses!

so much detail! 

I had to include these, because I often forget just how Italian my mother really is.. until I see pictures like this. She may or may not have been speaking actual words; she's a seasoned Italian-hand signer.. haha.  

We wrapped up at the train shop once Dad and Mom were armed with material, ideas and determination to get their own village up to speed, and we were off. Sydni had done an exceptional job of being patient for the hour or so that we were in the train shop, despite our frequent instructing of DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING.

Her reward?

a day at gwl! 

Syd went bananas when we stepped foot into Great Wolf Lodge; she knew that although we weren't going to the water park itself, we were going to be there for a while, and the day was now all about Magic Quests, arcade games and ice cream.

And fun :)

welllll hi there! 

these two.... hahaha

Day outings with Nana & Pappy are the BEST. 

We bid adieu [for now] after a long day of trains and play, and headed back home, where the day for Sydni wasn't over yet. We had one more belated Christmas present for her from Nana & Pappy: 

We've read this book three times already tonight; it's super cute.

What an awesome day, amiright?! :D

Love.. love... and more love.
See ya tomorrow!

xo | cmd

Rings & Noms & Beads ♥

Mondays, more often than not trigger this reaction from me:

[thank you, natalie dee]

Seriously. It's a 50/50 on whether or not I'll crawl home from the day or bounce out like a triumphant Olympian. Today, I came out on top :)

yes, we can! 

I received a phone call early on today that my ring [over which I've been mildly stressing] was finished and returned to the jeweler, now in the correct size that will stay put on my finger :). I gathered Sydni up after work and together we went in for the pick-up. I handed off the $4 temporary ring I'd been wearing to Sydni, and immediately realized she needed one her own size.

And so we did :)

hers... & mini hers! ♥

She loves it. And I love.. that she loves it. She's too stinkin' cute for her own good.. sheesh.

At home, it was dinner: Chicken, potatoes and spinach. I seriously don't know what people do without staple foods!

it's now gone. every bit of it. ;) 

After dinner, Sydni and I went to work on one of the fun things Rob & I picked up for her at Ikea over the weekend. I had one of these as a kid, and I could bet there are still little plastic beads tucked in the nooks & crannies at my parents' house.

in progress.... 

We meticulously placed these, and when done, I broke out the iron and heat paper to create the final product: a heart medallion and one happy little goober:

syd.. that cheesy smile... i just... i love you ;) ♥

Syd, kiddo you're hilarious.
Thank you for making me smile - you have no idea how much we love you!

For the rest of my blogbots out there, happy Monday! Make it a great week!!

xo | cmd

OK, I Lied [About Being DONE]

It's true. I think I may have overstated myself yesterday when I said that we'd finished all things Christmas. This has now become a nearly 3-week affair for us, but I'm not complaining! ;)

First came the work day: The girls and I came in full force at the office today, and seemed to all have the same idea: NEW YEAR, NEW EVERYTHING. Our first order of business was cleaning and rearranging each of our spaces, something that kind of speaks for itself in ushering in the aura of new. It's refreshing to switch things up, de-clutter and in a way just re-calibrate the zen for the space we occupy for 45+ hours each week.

So there's that... and to round it off, we ordered a supply trip to Office Depot & lunch at Fresh Thyme.

fun times at fresh thyme! |  cincinnati, oh

^^ You know you're an adult when office & market itineraries can actually excite you. Hah :p.

Anyway, today was a progressive lineup of awesomeness; once work was finished, I picked up Sydni and we headed home to get started on dinner. More specifically, Sydni's mission statement for dinner:

"Mommy, I wanna surprise Mister Rob with dinner
because he is always doing stuff for us." 

Say what, little heartstring?! Of course we will.
I gave Sydni reign of the recipe book, and she decided on chili. Have I mentioned how much I love this girl?

Chili it was!

chili! ♥

Sydni's chili recipe hit the nail on the head, and with bellies full, we dialed in for the highlight of the night: MORE Christmas presents!

That's right, Santa made a stop over Christmas to Rob's mom's house, specifically for Sydni. Now that she and the presents were both here, we wanted to share that with his mom.

it continues..... 

Here are the spoils of that adventure:

skype! 

fuzzy coats!! 

the coats not being hugged ;) 

dresses

and of course, shoes! 

All presents aside, I am so grateful for Rob's family. His mom & stepdad are continuously thoughtful and have a blast thinking of things and places that Sydni would enjoy. His dad & stepmom are the same, and his step-niece Ella now has a new friend with Sydni. There are a lot of families that clash against the choices of their son or daughter, but I'm fortunate not to have that problem. My parents love Rob, and vice versa, and that alone is enough for me :)

And NOW.. I think Christmas is complete. I'll keep ya posted if I'm wrong... again. ;)

xo | cmd

Christmas & Supercross

Christmas 2014 has crossed over into 2015, continuing on with each of the family stops we're making on this trip back to Illinois. It's not going to be completely done until Syd's back and has torn into all of the gifts she'll have waiting after this trip, but we had our time today with Rob's dad and stepmom. We took the gift that Santa brought us for Ella, and had fun watching her tear into that... I wish Sydni had been here to share in the fun of it all, but we'll be coming back and those two can have their time together ;)

ella! 

We also had the chance to celebrate Kate's birthday, which was the first time up to now that I've been able to share in that with them as a family [many more years of this to come!]. I'm so grateful for her as part of his family, and from here [soon!] on out, part of my extended family as well. Happy birthday, Kate!! ♥

happy birthday, mama kate! 

After the Christmas and birthday celebrations were had, we parted ways until tomorrow morning; our next and final stop for the night was Gilliganz for the Supercross race. Dillon, Matt & Courtney were already there, so we joined in for some dinner & the 450's. Jay and Cindy even made an appearance to say hello!

snapchatting it to ali!

And that's a wrap, folks! Tomorrow, we'll head back to Ohio and wake up on Monday to the grind of work and all the other stuff that marks our lives. And really, I'm kind of looking forward to it!

For now, good night from Illinois!

xo | cmd

Friends & Family on Friday

Breakfast out of town is usually a far cry from whatever dietary regimen I'm trying to follow, but I can't say I was upset about some turkey bacon and eggs to get the day started. To top it, we stopped by my old stomping grounds to say hi to a few familiar faces, and the new ones I'd not yet met.

Man, I miss these guys!

oh, how i miss these two! [& the rest of that team!]

We didn't plan it, but it turned out we'd see Marc twice today; we ran into him several hours later at Bindy's. We were set for the afternoon to celebrate Christmas with Rob's mom and stepdad, which provided the final item on Rob's Christmas wish list. We've now got a new acoustic for the house, and I have to say, it's beautiful.

he's in love! 

A couple hours later, we wrapped everything up at Rob's mom's and headed back to Dillon's to decide how to allocate the remaining hours of the night.

Bindy's it was. The crowd started pouring in as it does every time I've seen the place, and with it came Marc, who we just saw earlier this morning, and even Taryn, who was at a birthday party just before stopping through to see us. There were plenty of other familiar faces, which made for a fun [long, but fun] night!

hi jesse, hi taryn! :) 

taryn :) 

random snapchat? 

I'm not even sure who that SnapChat ended up going to, but if I had to guess, it was probably Ali & Damanji. Either way, it's been a night with these folks and I'm happy to have spent it the way we did. I'm also happy to be home for the night.... ;)

That being said, G'Nite!

xo | cmd

The Merriest of Merriment: Christmas Day 2014!

♥♥♥♥♥♥!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! 

Yayayayayayayay! 

♥

Friends & Family: I hope today was a beautiful experience for each and every single one of you! In our house, the celebrating started bright and early, once Sydni realized Santa had delivered on his annual promises to visit and bring goodies. Lila was perched in her rightful spot, embracing the Christmas ornament Sydni made, ready to oversee the decimation of wrapping paper.

hi, lila! 

We wasted no time:

someone was a very good girl this year! 

Santa brought a pile of dolls, travel toys, markers, coloring books... and this: 

for my little artist! 

Rob and I assured her that Santa would be stopping at Nana and Pappy's this weekend, and that our Christmas presents would come then; today was all about Sydni!

Well, except for just a couple things...

merry christmas, pup pups!! ♥♥♥

^ The fur kids were definitely not forgotten, and would soon be chewing away to their hearts' content. Santa is quite the puppy lover, too!

Since we spent the majority of the day unashamedly jamming away in our PJ's, there was little photo action, so I thought I would share a glimpse of us from around this time last year when we held our post-Christmas celebration at my parents':

Christmas flashback, 2013! ♥♥♥

This year, I couldn't have hand-picked a better way to spend the day if I had the choice to do so. My little family is the greatest gift I could have under this roof, and celebrating our perfect saviour with the people I love the most is what I would trade for any thing the world could offer.

So from our family to you and yours: 

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2014!!!

xo | cmd

Aurorae Me!

Guysguysguys....

I am a LUCKY girl.

I realized yesterday that I was so wrapped up last week laughing at Sydni fitting in a box that we didn't take a picture of what actually came in that box.

yiieee!! 

 ^ As an early birthday present, Rob got me a new yoga mat, mat towel, micro towel, cross-body bag and straps, along with a mat cleaner and a few other things.

I was itching to put all of this to studio use, and my chance came today as I entered Modo with new gear in hand, ready to sweat it out and see what Aurorae's really made of. To say the least, it was a huge step out of what I'd been previously using, proving that my man is no stranger to online research before he buys. To say I'm grateful for this doesn't etch into half of what I'm really feeling; joining this new studio has been a pivotal point in strengthening my practice, and I am positively amped to look back in a few months to see how far I've come from where I am today. ♥

I arrived home a sticky, sweaty mess; somehow I managed time to run through the shower before it was back out the door, on the bike and off to a sushi dinner date with my love.

mango tree | cincinnati, oh 

YUM. Mango Tree's become our favorite local sushi dig around here, and tonight as always did not disappoint. Now that I'm stretched out, filled up and as content as I could imagine on a night like this, I'll leave it at that and bid you e-loves goodnight!

xo | cmd

MONday Funday

Mondays usually give me some amount of anxiety, just from the inherent nature of Monday itself. Today though, while it was stacked top to bottom at work, proved to be busy but manageable. That's rare, for what I do, especially on Mondays. Haha. I'm not complaining.

Post-work was a continued contradiction to what Mondays usually bring. Sydni is back this week, and our first order of business was a little yard and garden work.

Over the weekend, Rob's mom gave us a couple of plants to get started. I decided this would be the perfect project for Sydni. She seemed to agree, wholeheartedly, when we parked ourselves on the front porch tonight to work on it!

let's get started!
[& yes, that's her chalk drawing of a cross on a hill.. ♥♥]

I'm convinced this little girl can do anything.

potted plant success
look at my little gardener!!

Excited!

i'm exciiiiiiited!

With the potted plants out of the way, she was ready to move on to the big leagues:

i'm digging... and i'm diiiiigging...

And to cap it off:
Watching that clip again now, I hear the bossy little girl from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory in my head making obsurd demands. So to clarify, no, Syd's not as spoiled as this clip makes her sound. I couldn't help but trade my garden gloves for the camera though as she fought with one pesky mosquito and several gnats that kept intruding on her workspace.

Either way, if she wants to claim a garden of all things, I'm not gonna stop her ;)
She's just like her mama.. haha.
G'Nite!

xo | cmd