Saturdays Are For Catching Up

Sleeping in this morning was the most anticipated hour of my weekend. I say hour, because well... my body no longer recognizes the golden opportunity to not wake up and go to work, so it tries to do it anyway... every day. Funny how that works.

Anyway, I somehow willed my body to stay as still as I could convince it to be, and somehow managed to open my eyes again about 2 hours later. Sleeping in has never been so much work, but YAY! Haha.

The day consisted of clean-up around the house, and catching up on things I hadn't had the chance to cover while I was gone all of last week. It wasn't much to document for the purposes of this blog, but it was a healthy sense of feeling caught up with myself and my house.. at least a little bit.

Mid-day, Rob passed out for a nap, which has been happening as a result of the pain meds he's been on since the accident. I took advantage of the downtime and decided to ride in to work for a few hours. I'm glad I did; those brief 3-4 hours were exactly what I needed to avoid feeling as though I've completely drowned in my work after missing 3 days unexpectedly.

I left work and headed straight for Jessica's; I'd promised to let Bumper out for a potty break while she was at the Luke Bryan concert. Bump and I had a great time cruising around the apartment complex, before I packed up the contents of the crockpot for fridge storage and headed on my way home.

See ya soon, Bump!

cutie! 

Oh, and we committed ourselves to a night of absolutely nothing, which turned out to be the best idea we've had all week. Despite the yucky feeling of declining friends' offers to go out and about doing things, I think the excitement of last weekend should hold us over for at least 5 more days until the next weekend.

All's well in this little casa. G'Night!

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

Hammock Epidemic | USWNT USAvMEX

It was a late night for Rob & Dillon last night, so I headed off for the early SonRise service solo to start the day. I missed last week, and so found myself in week 2 of a new series: Prayfull [yes, spelling intended].

Chad did an excellent job standing in for our senior pastor in his absence today, and I left re-set for this upcoming week. 

The boys were barely stirring when I returned back, so I strung up the hammock for a bit while I waited. It wasn't long before they both appeared at the front door; Dillon was packed up and ready to hit the road for the 5-hour trip back to Illinois. We sent him off with safe travel wishes; we'll be heading that way this upcoming weekend for our monthly IL visit, so it won't be long until we see him again.

I lapsed back into the hammock for just shy of another hour, before the natural urge to do something productive got the best of me. I dragged Rob with me for a trip to the hardware store and grocery shopping - quick errands out before circling back home. 

new ropes! you know what that means.... 

After lunch, we decided to put Rob's new ENO up for a trial run in my newly-claimed hammock spot. He... loved it. I'm spreading the hammock epidemic into the few unreached corners of my network, and it's pretty awesome to see the reactions ;). 

#perfect! 

To counterbalance such a relaxing day, I tuned in for the night to the USWNT USA v MEX game, to of course cheer on my favs. I thought this would be something of a routine action, except I forgot that I have Time Warner Cable. TWC is the worst service provider I've ever had, and not only did I miss the game itself as it was airing, I explicitly set my DVR to record it, only to later find that that didn't work, either.

Thank goodness for YouTube... & thanks A-HOLE bunch, TWC. >:[ 

*Sigh. There are worse things, I know.. But c'mon. Messing with soccer? Are you crazy?


At least the game was visible somehow :)

That's all I've got folks. It's back to the grind tomorrow.

Ciao!

xo | cmd

In My Sleeeeeeeeping... Bag!

GUYS. IT'S HERE.

yiiiieeee!!! :D

I desperately needed a new compression mummy bag, and today it arrived. I had planned on purchasing this on my own, but Lord knows they're a pretty penny. With this trip fast approaching, I knew I needed to revamp my gear, and this was one of the bigger ticket items on the list.

ROB, thank you to the moon & back for surprising me with this. It's amazing, and I hope you know how much I appreciate this gift! ♥

we're about to be pretty good friends..... 

I am one step closer to Panama... and might just sleep inside this thing tonight.. haha ;)

xo | cmd

BRAKE For Tuesday ♥

Today was one of those days that flew by at mach speed, but when it ended, I could barely put its contents in the right order.

And it hit me like a brick:

[Thank you, stock photos... haha]

But seriously. Today was the blur of a blur, and my head started spinning without my consent. It was a bad day by any stretch, but I found myself leaning into that natural tendency to feel as though I should start planning and preparing for tomorrow, before today even ended. In some cases, that's needed, but today, no. Today I needed to step back for a moment and recognize the fact that I've got it pretty good. My life's a far cry from perfect, but it's not lacking anything that debilitates me by its absence. I have less than many, yet more than most. There are things I still want, places I want to go, people I long to meet and experiences I dream to have, but if I just..

.... slow...
.... down...
... & just...
........ BE... for a moment or two, I realize that those things are dreams, yes, but the reality is just as beautiful and not worth missing out on.

I can only assume that this is God's way of tugging on my soul to put the brakes on my mind for a moment so that I can realign with every big and small blessing that sits right in my lap as we speak.

So it's Tuesday and I'm... happy. Relaxed, confident and able. :)
I hope you are, too.

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

Rained In ...

First, here's the obligatory #TBT, to the time when I wore a pastel onesie and made scrambled eggs for the fam: 

... and i bet it was delicious ;) hahh..

We had plans to take Sydni down to Bluegrass in the Park tonight, but it of course is raining. Welcome to the Midwest, folks.

Instead of heading out and taking the gamble, we defaulted to our regular fail-safe plan: hanging out together as a family!

or pre-bedtime mini napping.. whatev..

There really isn't much to report today, so I'll leave it at that. It's a dreary day out there, but I'm a happy camper, no less. I love this little family of mine... to the moon and back!


xo | cmd

Night Owlin'

We're doing pretty well on the whole laying low thing so far.

Today was a day of rolling out of bed when we darn well felt like, staying in PJ's until the early afternoon, and taking our sweet time on everything else after that.

I took to running some errands, which were done at such a leisurely pace that I was almost convinced that they were fun instead of being done out of necessity. Rob lazed around a bit until I got home, at which point he did his deeds for the day by mowing the lawn and weed eating.

Like I said, not too much to report from the bulk of the day.

We decided to get out of the house for the evening. It's funny that we can't seem to sit still even when we try, but I will admit there is an entirely different vibe in the air whenever our missions are crafted out of sponenaeity, rather than extensive orchestration involving like, 15 people.

Ironically enough, we did wind up running with a crowd just shy of 15 people, at least that's how it felt. We hadn't been to OTR in a while, so we opted for that.

out on the town with this guy ;)
love.. love.. love him.

Naturally, that means I'm usually on my own in a mass of derpy dudes; Carolina wasn't available tonight so I was left on a solo mission to keep up with the rowdies. It wasn't hard. These goonies aren't strangers. (:

carolina... where are you.. haha..

take 2.

[*sings the rembrandt's song from friends*]

Oy. Haha.

love you, aweesome nerd ♥

l-o-v-e. y-o-u.

That's a wrap on our sponetaneous little Saturday!
These night owls need to rise n' shine tomorrow for church.
G'Nite!

xo | cmd

MANIAC. MONDAY

This was probably one of the most taxing Mondays I've had in a while. Yes, today I had a Case of the Mondays.

My job requires me to sometimes act not only as what I'm titled, but also as a babysitter to people who neglect to show up to work. I will never for the life of me understand the dynamic behind being in desperate need of work, as so many claim to be, yet refusing to fulfill a commitment to work when it's offered. Either way, it proved to be a cardiac kick-start to a Monday that would quickly turn into a whirlwind.

Granted, I kind of like the whirlwind of activity. It's indicative of the ramp-up we've long been awaiting, and after this brutal winter, I think we're all ready for the change of pace. I'm not complaining.

I was a little bummed that Sydni didn't have gymnastics tonight, due to it being Spring Break week, but that just meant she got to come home and help make spaghetti for all of us and cuddle up with the brand new blanket that was shipped to her & me from nomorerack, compliments of Mr. Rob (:

nomorerack = j o y in this house! ♥

^ Nope, no real reasons to complain. I'm exhausted from trying to keep up with the day, but the influx of business [albeit rather sudden, all in one day, haha.. ] is a much-needed break in the lull of wintery inactivity.

I think this will be a good week!

xo | cmd

DIVERGENT.

It seems like a developing tradition now that whenever Jesse comes to visit, it's always a Sunday breakfast [or in this case, brunch] outing before he leaves town. That being said, we were off to do that before he loaded up and headed back to Illinois.

After Jesse was on his way, Rob and I picked our recuperation spots on the couch and decided not to feel guilty about a day of relaxation. After all the activity and bustle of the weekend, it was nice to have nothing on either of our plates for a few hours.

And then, I somehow talked Rob into going with me to see Divergent!!

At work, Elisa and I have been counting down the days to the release of this thing, which actually happened on Friday. She was heading out of town for this weekend, and we had Jesse coming in, so neither of us went to see it on the Friday premier the way we'd planned for the past couple months. Sydni will be here all week, starting tomorrow, so by default that kiiiiind of boiled our options down to tonight... sooo yeah... hah.

It definitely wasn't the explosive release I was expecting, but it was definitely worth the trip & I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't go see it again in a theater before it's out to own. (: I didn't think I'd enjoy Shailene Woodley as much as I did in her role as Tris, but I have to admit she grew on me by the end and I'm a bit curious to see what the next movie in the series will give. I think my miniature lack of excitement comes from the fact that I've read all the books in the series and I know I'm not alone in my disappointment in how the series ended. The Hunger Games was, for the most part, and entirely different sentiment. Ehhhh...

I call that a perfect way to end a nonstop weekend (:

Time to unwind for tonight before we gear up for the whole next week.
Sydni's back tomorrow!!

xo | cmd

Much Better (:

Signs boogie is feeling better today:

silly straws

^ & Yes, she's wearing the same, albeit freshly laundered outfit that she had on yesterday. Per her request, she wanted to wear it to church today since she only got to wear it for a little while yesterday before the belly fiasco happened. We made it through church and lunch afterwards with no issues, and since it was something of a drab day here, we resigned ourselves to housework, cleaning and of course, silly games.

she looks serious, yeah?

My favorite thing about this is that we have an entire sectional, yet she chooses to sit on just the arm of the couch. Perhaps it's because it's exactly the right size? (:

There's been a lot of quality family time today.
And laughing. That didn't happen a whole lot yesterday, but now we're back to giggles and smiles, and that makes me one happy mama.

Life's GOOD.

xo | cmd

Farewell, Weekend

Church this morning was a cold little jaunt, but as always, totally worth it. We are still in the process of exploring churches in the area. We're praying for some solid direction in making a choice, but I think we're off to a good start.

speak to me!

After church, we said our farewells to Jesse; he took off early afternoon back to Illinois and we took to cleaning up a little from the weekend. Rob, Syd & I spent the afternoon relaxing, eating lunch and finally tackling our weekly grocery shopping. It was nice having both of them with me tonight, since grocery shopping is usually a solo mission of mine.

Sasha didn't mind the evening of relaxation. She parked herself in Sydni's chair [after beeing shooed off the couch] for the night and enjoyed the rest of Sunday with us.

regal beagle! ;)
.. or pittie.

What an awesome weekend. I needed this reminder to step back from the little hiccups in life  and just.. enjoy everything I've been given and the people put here to experience it with me. I'm blessed in ways I don't deserve, but I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Hopefully I can carry some of this love into this next week.

xo | cmd

Christmas is... TOMORROW!

We were pretty unceremonious about Christmas Eve this year.... but given everything going on, I think we're okay. Aaaaand, Christmas is tomorrow, so really there's nothing to complain about.

Ya know what, I take part of that back. What we did today - cleaning, packing, relaxing in between - was actually a nice change of pace from the usual hustle and bustle of last minute holiday preparations......... and, I got to stay in sweats all day long. I am not complaining about that.

Plus, the pups got some well-deserved quality time hanging with Mom & Dad today. 

sasha & stella ♥♥

For dinner, we met up with Rob's mom & stepdad for a bit before we all headed back home [we'll see them again, tomorrow]. We got right back into pajama mode for a movie night on the couch. The only thing we're missing tonight is my minime, but I know she'll wake up to a Santa-filled Christmas tree tomorrow at her dad's, so I suppose it's okay. Plus, we'll do Christmas and see what Santa brings [again, haha] this weekend at my parents'.

my favorite snugglers!

See you... on CHRISTMAS!

xo | cmd

Dinner & A Movie

It's a good thing our fall volleyball league ended last week.. frankly I was in no mood to play tonight and apparently neither was the weather:

rainy day... mehhh..

My schedule today didn't allow me time to get away for lunch, but we had a nice surprise at work anyway, when the folks from the newly-opened Naked Pizza in Rookwood showed up bringing free food. It was delicious, and for an office of foodies, they struck the perfect chord because I'm pretty sure we'll all be going back. 

naked pizza!

Since Rob had been holed up with Sydni and the dogs for the day, I decided to stick with the routine schedule of our Wednesdays lately, which meant dropping Sydni off with her dad for the evening. Rob and I made our way over to Texas Roadhouse [yummmmmmmmm] for dinner before hitting the movie theater. We saw Bad Grandpa, which really wasn't as hilarious as we'd heard, but hey, ya never know until you check it out for yourself.

texas roadhouse .. undeniably grand on a rainy day (:

It was definitely a tame evening, not that I really expected anything different. We're back home now, unwinding and enjoying the company of two oversized snuggle bugs before we all call it a night.

sorry for the grainy quality.. no flash on the original cell phone shot :/

Sydni will be back here tomorrow night and the five of us will just have to see what we can all get into. (: For now? Look at those two sleepy pups.. I think it's a good hint for us to hit they hay.

Oh, and Mike Mike Mike Miiiiiiike....
.... Happy hump day ;)

xo | cmd

Oh, Beautiful FRIDAY [International Women's Day!]

First things first: Happy International Women's Day! [&yayyy, sort-of-obsolete-holidays! haha]

... found this on my fb earlier; thanks km!!

So.... It's been a long time since I've been so excited for a Friday that didn't serve as an introduction to anything specific for the weekend. Today really was just another Friday, but I've been stoked about it all week.

Oh! Before I get to Friday, let me share with you something I forgot to yesterday because I was so busy ranting about degenerate behavior...... I tackled a recipe given to me and can't say that I hated it. I did think of a few ways to doctor this up for the next time around, but for the first attempt, not too shabby.

pull-apart pizza bread!

[Yumm.]

Anyway, back to today - I think it was because this week has been pretty brutal as far as work's concerned. We've been over-the-top busy for the first time this year, and with an essentially new staff blending together over all of the ramp-up projects, it's been both a challenge and a truly incredible thing. [Yeah, teamwork!]

That, and I took an actual lunch break today for the first time in over 3 weeks. It may seem like a small victory, but when you're in an office from 7:30am to 5pm every day and the only time you use the front door is only at those two times, stepping outside midday for an hour almost seems like a foreign affair of some sort. I almost didn't know what to do with myself, even though it's just Glen Carbon and I've been spending 40+ hours each week here for the last two years. Still pretty funny. There was a different energy in the office today, which was a refreshing contrast to earlier in the week when I wasn't sure if we'd all make it with our sanity in tact to today. I've got a killer team, that's for sure. (:

rompers!

With it being Friday, it would've seemed natural for Rob and I to make some impromptu plans of some sort and end up out for the entire night somewhere. We stayed true to the last-minute nature we do so well and ended up at his friends' house, where we all spent the night relaxing, as opposed to the noise and crowd of being out somewhere. Definitely needed sometimes (:

There were some playful pups there, and I think they had enough energy and play to make up for double what we weren't doing just lounging back. Didn't mind it one bit...

Speaking of four-leggers, my poor meatball Stella spent the majority of today and obviously this evening locked up in her room, so we made it back here to let her out and stretch the legs some, while we sat and tuned up the guitars for a bit on the couch before calling it a night.....

..... which is where we are now. This may or may not be backdated, but hey, that's not important ;)

WEEKEND, here we are. I missed you....

xo | cmd