Mega.. Monday.. Meltdown.

Monday doesn't have a track record of being my favorite day of the week. That being said, today was like the highlighted version of chaos in motion.

reasons i miss her.. already.. lol.

We lost another one today. I mean that to say that the Express crew is yet another man short after Christine tendered her resignation today. It's been a long time coming, and honestly, I admire her for sticking in there as long as she did. Major kudos for all her hard work. It was bittersweet to watch her go, but we're all in agreement that there are bigger, brighter opportunities awaiting her gracing, and I definitely hope they're ready. Best of luck in your next move, Christine.. I definitely hope to see you very very soon [as in.. we're scheduling a shoot, soon soon soon, yeah? Yeah :)..].

Now, I called it mega Monday meltdown because the early morning resignation business boiled quickly into an honest rant session during which myself and a coworker let loose, upon managements' beckoning, on the list of reasons life as we know it between 8am and 5pm has morphed into something more closely resembling a chore than the realization of anyone's real passion. *sigh. It might be a stretch to think we made a dent in the bubble, but I'm goin' that way..... anyway. Chyeah. Keep ya posted.

meltdown .. kiiiiiinda what i felt like today.

Phewwwwwwww.

Softball tonight was a chillier experience than Sydni and I had anticipated, spotted by poor little Easton taking a spill and taking a bleacher corner through the front of his gums. Ouchy... He's a little trooper though! I was reminded of those moments as a mom during which panic must be traded for the cool, calm and collected fixer-of-boo-boos. Thanks for the reminder, Robin :)

Well it has beeeeeen a day. I rounded it off with the first day of week 2 of INSANITY. Nothin' like rounding out one of those Mondays with some cardio resistance. Yep...

G'Nite :)

xo | cmd

[This is] INSANITY.

INSANITY, meet Cori.

INSANITY

Day 1: Done.

Holy cow.

I'll keep you posted.

xo | cmd

Kat | Changing Light Bulbs | Softball

I have to acknowledge first and foremost that today is Kat's birthday. Happy birthday, Kat. Words cannot express how much you are still missed. The pain of your passing has dulled in intensity over the last 7 years, but in no way have I forgotten you, forgotten our friendship, or forgotten how much you meant to me when we were friends and roommates.

kat & cori [& patricia, too! :)]
circa june 2005...

Happy 25th birthday, little K.
7.16.87 - 7.28.05.

Now, because I know that Kat would not have wanted any of us to waste any part of our day being sad, I will say that in every other sense of today, it's been another blessing :).

So Happy Monday!

In the spirit of mentioned transitioning, I thought I would start this week off with a little long-forgotten humor. This joke surfaced yesterday in a discussion between my sister and me.

This is all in good fun. My friend Brittany had posted this a few years back and I thought it was funny then [I’m Baptist, and must admit that the Baptist one is pretty stinkin’ accurate]. Either way, it’s cute, so I figured I would share ;) 

HOW MANY CHRISTIANS DOES IT TAKE TO CHANGE A LIGHT BULB??

i'm baptist.. so there are at least 14 more of me
ready to go on this ;)

Charismatic: Only one. Hands already in the air.

Pentecostals: Ten. One to change the bulb and nine to pray against the spirit of darkeness.

Presbyterians: None. Lights will go off and on at predestined times.

Roman Catholic: None. Candles only.

Baptists: At least 15. One to change the light bulb and three committees to approve the change and decide who brings the potato salad.

Episcopaleans: Three. One to call the electrician, one to mix the drinks, and one to talk about how much better the old bulb was.

Mormons: Five. One man to change the bulb and four wives to tell him how to do it.

Unitarians: We choose not to make a statement either in favor of or against the need for a light bulb. However, if in your own journey you have found that light bulbs work for you, that is fine. You are invited to write a poem or compose a modern dance about your light bulb for the next Sunday service, in which we will explore a number of light bulb traditions including incandescent, fluorescent, three-way, long-life and tinted, all of which are equally valid paths to luminescence.

Methodists: Undetermined. Whether your light bulb is bright, dull, or completely out, you are loved. You can be a light bulb, turnip bulb or tulip bulb. A church-wide lighting service is planned for Sunday. Bring a bulb of your choice and a covered dish.

Nazarene: Six. One woman to replace the bulb while five men review the church lighting policy.

Lutherans: None. Lutherans don’t believe in change.

Amish: What’s a light bulb?

*********

If you're a Baptist like I am, you laughed because you know it's exactly true. ;)

Anyway.... Happy Monday! I started my week off with something little to appease a craving I'd had over the weekend: Sounds silly, but these things make a world of difference when you're sitting at your desk looking to appease the munchies.

<< That's for Mo, specifically, since I had been on the hunt for these things on Saturday before the drive-in movie, to no avail. See? They do exist! Haha..

The rest of today passed by in the familiar fashion of Monday [you ragged thing, you], and I'm glad to see it go. I was reminded via sermon from our beloved Pastor Ron on Sunday to count my blessings and not the little things that seem to pickle my day instead of enhance it. In the spirit of doing that, I am blessed to have a job, the means to get there, and all of the other small and large things in my life that I love.

*********
Summer Mondays = Softball!

softball fun with the little ones!
seth. christopher. easton.

Softball was h-o-t. Yeesh. I know the boys were roasting out there, because sitting on the side watching alone was something like baking slowly in a wide open oven. Oh well. Dust and all, we had ourselves a good old time on the side playing with the kiddos, munching through a 2 lb bag of Twizzlers & a gallon box of Goldfish, and speculating on the game. I took some time to snap a few pictures, too, primarily because moving around a bit was a welcomed reprieve from the still heat.


softball :)

Jimmy and Mo just left the house; they stopped by after the game for some quesadillas and unwinding. Such great friends.. We sure do love 'em!
Early start tomorrow, folks.. I'm outta here.

xo | cmd

VBS Day #2 | Softball

I wanna walk, I wanna talk, I wanna live in your power! I wanna pray, I wanna stay, I wanna move in your power! I wanna walk, I wannt talk, I wanna live in your power! I wanna pray, I wanna stay, I wanna move.. IN YOUR POWER!

^ Day 2, complete.
*Whew.

Conveniently enough, Dawne had asked early last week if Sydni could spend the night at her place tonight with Olivia and Lu, the two other little ones that she watches, for a slumber party. That left me free to really gauge how much time I would need to get from work down to church. I found I was good to go with enough time to stop at the house and let the dog out before heading over. With fifteen minutes to spare, I snagged some food with the rest of the VBS staff downstairs [many thanks to Miss Margaret, Miss Shirley, & the volunteers preparing this all week!]. Then it was upstairs for three hours of cardio ;)



we stole a vbs'er! ;)
cori. lyla. mo | softball



It seems to go by much quicker once the end approaches, but we're having a blast and doing our part to exhaust the little ones before we send 'em back home to their parents. Haha.

Tonight was extended by the weekly softball game to which us VBS workers slowly trickled once we were finished with our festivities at the church.

We didn't walk away with wins this week, either, but us bystanders had some fun of our own.

That being said, it's late, folks.

I'll be up and at it again in a few short hours!

xo | cmd

Bad, Good, Good.

Bad:

We've "finished" the office expansion. It's nice having the extra inches between everyone's chairs that weren't there before, but in the grand scheme of things, we really did get a slightly lopsided deal. I'll digress to an extent and let that be that..

Here is our new digs. Notice the quite-callcenter-esque cubes. Notice they're a bit shoddy. Notice Christine and I taking up new positions where we feel we may be best suited. True story.

Now notice the other side of the office's new digs.

the white house. just kidding. sorta.

QUITE. THE. CONTRAST. Eh?

Whatev'. We act surprised, but we're not, really. Totally perplexing transition: complete. :p

****

GOOD:

Softball was tonight! We didn't walk away with victories, but we had fun either way. It was a fairly close score on both games, but for the sideline [yours truly], it was well worth it hanging with Mo & Tonya. Plus, the kiddies had plenty of time and room to run around and wear themselves ragged. Good stuff, good stuff.

jimmy takin' a swing at it | joe rounding 2nd base | sydni watchin' the fun

****

GOOD:

Jimmy John's, and its infinite, random flair: I liked it, so I'm sharing it. :) Enjoy.

get those brainwheels a-turnin'

Happy Monday! :)

xo | cmd

Swell Day for Some Softball

I L O V E H E R

^ That's what I live for.
Softball tonight - fun as always.
Lara's gettin' ready to have this little baby girl of hers aaaaanytime now, and we sat and speculated over whether or not little Emilia is gonna have red hair. I think I would swoon uncontrollably over her if she comes out a ginger. Little red head girlies are so.stinkin'.cute.

It's been a long day. Maybe tomorrow will be just as good (:

xo | cmd

Softball: Belleville West

Softball Time! 

team towerview

This always makes my Mondays a little better during the summer. Tonight was a great night for the games, even if we didn't win both of them. 

carlee & syd

Mo met me at the house and we rode over together; Kylie & Tanya were both there so we sat and chatted our way through the double headers while Sydni ran around with Landon, Carlee & Loralye. It's almost Summer, and it's beautiful :)

bubbles!

Amen? Amen. 

See ya tomorrow! 

xo | cmd

Softball!

IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN! :)


little spectator in her little chair ;)



-- Towerview softball season opened today with a double header over at Althoff. It wasn't the most dashing opener [double losses], but it was definitely softball, and it was the start of a summer filled with a social gathering each Monday while we watch the guys battle it out. It had rained earlier today, so I wasn't sure how the fields would be, but it ended up being just fine - even Sydni found herself relaxing, which for her by definition means sitting still. :) Yay, softball!



cheering for daddy!



Once the games were over, we headed home and were joined by Mo & Jimmy a bit later for a quick dinner and a wind down on the evening. I've become so appreciative of the both of them as friends; I was reminded tonight that it's the people in life that make it what it is while we're here to live it. In large part, we owe that to Towerview, even though I wouldn't dare do so without acknowledging that it's an absolute God thing that we are where we are when we are; the people are just the stellar bonus He threw in there. We are blessed!



mo & marlene | ummm... LOVE! haha ;)

I can already tell it's going to be a great summer! ♥
xo | cmd

M-M-Monday



is this a trick?

There are a lot of things that I see that I wish I had stopped to capture either on film or on paper. Some of those things [i.e. - herd of gigantic bull elk grazing alongside the highway in Phoenix...grrrrrr] are pretty intense, while others, like today's, are more comical and softly intriguing than anything else. It makes me wonder if the people behind certain poorly-worded phrases, well-intentioned visual flops, and other unintended goofs ever quite realize they're turning heads.

This one today, a carwash next to my work, had me questioning who in their right senses would finish the task of setting these letters, step back, and say, "Yes, that's exactly what we mean."



softball snacks

Weird. It made me smile, though, so it wasn't all bad.

Oh, and one more thing - today was awesome outside, weather-wise. The mass audience at the Towerview game tonight was testimony of the more tolerant temperature today. Even Sydni made it out, if to do nothing other than hoard all the toys and tell all the other little kids off. *sigh. I guess we all have our days.

xx Fingers crosed for decent weather for the rest of this week! xx

xo | cmd

My Poor D90 :(

sad broken d90

So remember when I, like the mindless fool I so often am, left my camera in Phoenix?

Well, Kalyn shipped it back to me, and I got it today.

Good news: I got it.

Bad news: It's looked better. Much better.

Good news: My lense is completely fine.
Bad news: The LCD screen on the body is shattered, and the card door is broken off.

Good news: Kalyn put insurance on it.

Bad news: The shipping crew that handles USPS is apparently shady as all get out. Lame.

Basically, I got the camera back, with body and lense wrapped and taped separately in the same box. The little card door was wrapped up with the lense, and, when talking with Kalyn, I learned that she hadn't taped anything. Such shadiness. Sad, sad, sad. Thank goodness for insurance; it's a waiting game, now.

In an act of divine consolation, it was my luck that weather was just a bit too extreme to take a toddler to sit outside at a softball game. Sydni and I laid low at home for the evening while daddy went off to play, and I quickly found that those few hours with her cheered me up and made my broken camera seem like such a small issue.



couch potato

Now, taking it one step further, I'll say now that it's a rare occasion that Sydni will ever sit still with me, let alone remain there long enough to fall asleep. Tonight I was treated with not only a good half hour of conscious cuddling, but my little bean fell asleep in my lap, wearing her socks and shoes out of which she refused to get, and holding tight to the beloved blankie. I don't care how bad my day is; I've got my family, and that's all it takes sometimes.

Shhhh ;)

Night night, world....

xo | cmd

Week 3. Here We Go.

Yeahhhh, Monday.

And yeah, it’s freakin’ HOT outside. I’m not usually one to be discontented with warm weather, but this is a little out of hand for the Midwest. So yeah, *sweating*….

Today was one of those days during which I was so entirely consumed in my work that I skipped lunch altogether and was consequently faced with leaving an hour early. Welcome to the perks of hourly wages. J  Ha. So, that gave me plenty of time to do some light exploring of Belleville, which meant stopping by Peace by Piece, a local shop that carries only American-made products and caters to the sale of local artisans. My kind of shop… 



peace by piece | belleville, il



I had planned on stopping there for one reason only, and found exactly what I needed within the first minute I entered. It’s certainly not Park & Vine, but it’s mildly comparable. I’d definitely go back. Now if only I can hunt down a local dig that carries all natural products and all the hippy stuff I love: Moby’s, cloth diapers, beeswax soap, household items made from recycled bike parts… ya know, that sort of place. Any suggestions?

Towerview’s softball game was scheduled for 6:00 PM, but I craftily used both Sydni and the well-overdue grocery trip to escape sitting in the blazing sun for 3-4 hours straight. Joe headed to the game; Sydni and I headed to Dierberg’s. We managed to shop, return home, and shelve everything within the hour, which left us plenty of time to catch the second game. By the time Syd and I made it to the field, the heat had partially retreated, so the evening was tolerable. We didn’t pick up any wins tonight, but the guys played well and we had fun watching. Plus, Jarod rode his motorcyle and had forgotten shorts, so he opted to simply chop off the lower half of his jeans. Yeah for softball fashion statements. :)

before: jeans | after: jean shorts

It’s still hot, even inside, and I’m pretty sure I’ll end up falling asleep as close to ground level as I can….again, tonight. We’ll see.

xo | cmd

St. Louis Bread Company

Yeah yeah yeah, Monday. I’m thankful we survived each other, again. See ya next week.



panera? or st. louis bread company?



So, back home in Cincinnati – well, Ohio in general, really – there is a place called Panera Bread. I’ve seen them all over the place, even when we lived in Alabama. What I didn’t realize though, is that Panera’s parent company is the St. Louis Bread Company, and that, aptly named, it’s centered out of St. Louis. That means that in the are of Illinois in which I live, there are all kinds of St. Louis Bread Company locations. We ate there tonight, because the novelty of the name made us feel like it was actually something new. 



I’m such a tourist.

After Panera, it was off to church softball, where the boys secured a well-deserved win and the crowd cheered them right along. I love these outings.

I feel like this will be a good week. I guess that’s mostly up to me, huh. J

xo | cmd

Softball! Nope, Just Kidding.

Nah, I don’t wanna talk about work. I’m not on speaking terms with the quality of my job right now. *Hissssss.

In other news…

The good thing about not living on base is that we have that separation of work life and home life. Granted, there are many benefits of residing on SAFB grounds, but we opted to settle off base. The most noticeable downside of not having all of our Air Force friends as neighbors is that we don’t see them as often outside of work hours as we might if we were just a few doors down. That being said, it was nice to have Lorne over for a few hours to hang out, even if it was coincidentally because softball was cancelled due to soggy fields. Ha. We’ll take it. 

addicted.

Yep. That + pizza = entertainment for about the same duration as two church softball games. I’d say that it was a pretty good substitute for stomping around a muddy diamond for four hours J.

Tomorrow’s Tuesday, again.

See ya next week, Monday!

xo | cmd

Bubble Tea Fail

Joe really appreciated not having to wake up and dress in blues today. Instead, we took our sweet time getting moving and eventually meandered across the state lines to drop Eric off at the airport. I have to admit, I do like having houseguests, especially when they’re good friends from home.

Once we were back in the car, we decided to try and hunt down a bubble tea place that was within reasonable distance from the airport. That in itself proved to be an easy task, but we [meaning I, really] were disappointed to find that it first of all didn’t open until 11:00am, and it was open every day except Monday. So there we were, on Monday, and it was barely 10:00am. Double fail.

boba / bubble tea

SO, home it was. I had a few errands to run and then it was back in the car for the 40ish minute drive back through St. Louis to the opposite outskirts for another Express meeting. It certainly went well, and I left again feeling positive about the experience, even if the drive ends up being out of range for what we feel is conducive for right now. We’ll label this a networking call if all else fails.

Good news: On the way home, I talked to Kalyn for the first time in a few days’ time. She and Sam will be stopping through here this next weekend for an overnight and then the D90 and I will be joining them on the road through Colorado, New Mexico, and their final destination of Arizona. I can’t wait. As we decided before when we checked out the wall map, we’re only a hug away, right? Haha. I’m excited!!

measuring ohio to arizona :(



Back at home, we had a few hours to kill before church softball. Since each game is a double-header, there was plenty of time to sit and chat with some of the other bystanders. Towerview won both of their games, so that meant a quick post-celebratory bite with Lorne at Panda Express…. C’mon, who doesn’t love Panda? We’ll work it off this week.

church softball | joe & lorne discussing game tactic :)

Joe finally goes back to work tomorrow, so Sydni and I have free reign over the household chores and errands. Guess we should get some rest.

xo | cmd

Oy, Allergies!

This is a joke, right??

Remember those bad sinus issues I had for what seemed like forever back a few weeks before I moved to IL? They’re back. It’s irritating, but it doesn’t feel as serious as it was before. Last night before we left the Kobularcik’s, my nose was doing that congested-but-drippy thing, which is totally hot, I know….. [gross].

Neti time. It helped, sorta.

Anyway, due to the weather kids being off today, we had planned some sort of out-and-about to go to the science center, the zoo, or something somewhere in St. Louis. However, after waking up feeling as though I had a golf ball lodged between my nose and my eyeballs, we decided we’d just lay low until the church softball game.

The church we visited yesterday has its own softball team with a roster, schedule, etc., and Joe and Lorne wasted no time joining. Their first game of the season was today; the three of us drove out separately to watch the boys play. Laura, the wife of one of the other softball teammates, invited Sydni to play with her little boy and the two girls she was sitting that day. It was great to sit down and get some perspective on what she thought of the church. She had nothing but praises.

Unfortunately, Towerview lost both games [double-header], but Joe managed to make a monster catch just off the first baseline. He saved the ball, but also acquired a rotten looking scrape that’s about the size of my hand.

battle wounds

Post-game, we headed home to nurse the battle wound and call it a day. He’s off again tomorrow; this is our last lazy week for a while, so we’re enjoying it!

xo | cmd