There Ya Go, Cairn

I've had this Cairn box subscription for what seems like forever [it's only been six months at most, I'm pretty sure. I have a mixed-emotion relationship with my monthly boxes, for the same reasons I've read them having: an inevitable surplus of sticks [chapstick, sunblock stick, wax stick, bugspraystick.. stick stick stick...]. There's also a rapidly-amassing collection of LED lights - strands, blocks, charger blocks, headlamps, twisty wires, you name it. And then there's the varied samples of edibles: energy bars, blocks & bites, freeze-dried things, all sorts of travel-sized snacks and coffee. Every so often, there's a box like this month's, that is really, really nice. :)

Yes, please - coffee mugs, portable coffee drop [uhhh.. YEAH] & pour over coffee.
Baaaasically, I've decided that if Cairn wants to send me coffee-based things every month for the rest of the time I have this subscription, I'd be juuust fine with that.

yeeeeeuuuup.

Thanks, Cairn!!
Today was a mighty, mighty-crazy day, and I can't say I'm sad to bid goodbye to it this week. Monday, we'll try this again next week.
Cheers!

xo | cmd

Attack of the Loom Bands

So, over the weekend while we were visiting with the Costanzas, I realized that these little rubber bands [I'm sorry, Loom Bands] that Sydni frequently brings home as a result of a day at Mindi's... are a big thing. I think subconsciously, I already knew that, but I also know that there have been plenty of times that we've given in to one of Syd's crafty cravings, only to find that she becomes bored with it within a couple of weeks.

This is probably going to be the same scenario, but in any case, I want to do what I can to foster her creativity, so naturally what did I do?

I followed Betsy's advice/lead and ordered some from Amazon.

she's one happy girl! 

Let me clarify. By SOME, you will receive about... 8,000 of these little rubber bands. That's the biggest some I've ever seen, but it makes sense. So we have some loom bands now, and after about 2 hours of separating colors, they are individualized [again per the Costanza model; thanks, guys!] for easy access and design.

I have a feeling our house will need a shakedown when we eventually move; we've been at it for just under 2 hours now and I'm pretty sure there are bands in places already from which they'll never return. Sigh...

bands on bands ... on bands. 

Here's to the next phase of crafting in our house!

xo | cmd

Yogis & Schtuff. (Repeat).

It's Monday.
It was beautiful out there today.

Elisa agreed:

office breaks & sunshiiiiiiiiine! 

I got back to the office & found that I'd been delivered my first of perhaps many Yogi Surprise boxes!

This is absolutely their marketing taking effect, but I'd always wanted to check it out.. so, even if I only do this for a short time, it's better than never trying it out. I've already used the Rad Roller & would definitely recommend.

Pretty boring stuff for a Monday, but hey... there's the rest of the week to catch up ;).

Enjoy with gusto, blogbots!

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

Birthday Surprises, Part 2 : NASHVILLE!!

My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to Nashville. My friends brought me to
Nashville.
[& this entry is backdated..]

Have I mentioned lately how much these people ROCK?!

I woke up this morning, obediently packed a bag of stuff that I hoped would suffice whatever excursion was planned for the rest of the weekend, and loaded up for the drive to an undisclosed point B.

Well, undisclosed until the signs started adding up and eventually flat-out stated NASHVILLE, EXIT HERE.

My friends brought me to Nashville.

My friends brought me to Nashville.
My friends brought me to Nashville.
My friends brought me to Nashville!

It's photo overload time. I'll try to group this together as concisely as possible:

First things first: We landed in Nashville and voted for food before hotel check-in:
Hog Heaven was our stop: an off-the-path, dive BBQ place that I will see again.

this place. yesssssss!

After lunch, we started off again, en route to our hotel, which I didn't realize was THE Opryland Hotel, until we passed through the gates:

opryland! 

beautiful opryland!! ♥

We toured the inside of Opryland for almost 2 hours, and we still didn't see the entire thing; this place reminds me of The Alamo in Texas, with the cute water and restaurants. We've decided already that we'll be back:

best! ♥

favorites, in nashville!

We wouldn't have been taking full advantage of our tourist status without a trip to Opry Mills, so once we'd toured what we could of Opryland, we set off on a course for the mall:

opry mills!
rainforest cafe | aquarium restaurant

 We ate dinner at the Aquarium Restaurant to round out our shopping excursion [of which we all took full advantage, fyi ;).. ] and headed back to the hotel to ready up for the night, and take one last tour of the Christmas set up inside Opryland:

merry christmas, here at opryland!! 

The time finally came for us to hit the main drag in Nashville, and I felt privileged to be taking 3 of my closest friends, all of whom have never been to Nashville.

broadway! 

If you've never been to Nashville, I would highly recommend that it goes on your bucket list. Anywhere on your list will do, but if you live in the continental U.S., put it close to the top. The place is a blast. :D

a synopsis of my night with these incredible people!!
rob, ali, damanji: i love you guys. ♥

Here's a hilarious kicker for the night:

there is... no way.. hahaha... 

^ That guy? His name is Zach, and I haven't seen him in 11 years. I come to Nashville for ONE weekend, and run into him, 7 hours away from our small hometown and totally without warning. Chalk this up for MVHS, and our graduating class of 2003 - Zach it was GREAT seeing you - what a small frikkin' world, and an incredibly pleasant surprise!!

[I'm still not over running into a high school alum down here!]

It finally came time for us to bid adieu to downtown Nashville, #hashtagthepanda included:

hilarious :p 

Rob managed to get the four of us, achy feet and all, back to Opryland, where the gorgeous lights met us and reminded us one last time for the night that this place is just... perfect.

♥ opryland | nashville, tn

Goodnight, Nashville!

xo | cmd 

BIRTHDAY SURPRISES, PART I

say whaaaaaaat!?

You see THAT?
I'm still at something of a COMPLETE loss of words over what's unfolding so far this weekend.

My guess is that everyone except me was savvy to the underlying plans for tonight, but as keen as I usually am to people being sneaky [the good way & the bad way... :| .. ], I was not expecting nor prepared for my friends to walk through the door.

My friends FROM ILLINOIS.

Before I had any idea what was happening, this was already happening:

... to ohio they were going.... 

Rob had managed to coordinate a birthday weekend for me that included two of my best friends of Illinois, Becky, Brandon.. AND.... 

ahhhh!!!

I'm FLOORED.
My friends are here. I'm apparently supposed to pack a bag for tomorrow, because we're heading somewhere.. that they won't disclose.

THESE. SNEAKY. PEOPLE.
[how I love them SO!]

♥♥♥♥♥

xo | cmd 

Disney Princesses On Ice!

Today was the day we've been planning for nearly the past month: Surprising Sydni with a trip to see Disney's Princesses on Ice. I have no idea how I managed to go for weeks without spoiling the surpise; I'm absolutely the worst when it comes to harboring secrets like that. I pulled it off though, and we were dressed and on our way to The Nutter Center in Dayton.

she was trying to guess where she was headed

OH. Before I forget, I must take a moment to recognize the absolutely incredible talent of Allison, owner, baker and master magic-maker of Tu-Tu Sweet. [<< That's the Facebook link for you to go like her page, look at her pictures and ORDER. COOKIES. You're welcome.]

cookies, galore! 

^ Those volleyballs on the right were a special order for our team a few weeks back, and the Disney Frozen-themed crowns and snowflakes on the right were made especially for Sydni's big surprise today. This girl is good. I'll say it again: Friends & family, if you love cookies, call this gal. She's awesome. Thank you, Allison!!!

Anyway, we made it to Dayton and found our seats. There wasn't much happening yet, but with the giant, empty ice rink in front of us, we told Sydni what was about to commence. This, just before the squealing and tripping over all the names of princesses, was her reaction:

this is definitely an "icanteven" moment. ♥

So we settled in for the show!

the official "emcees"

beloved disney characters!
genie. lumiere. olaf. the fairy godmothers.

snow white's seven dwarves

lumiere & the dinnerware, in the
"be our guest" number 

fire-breathing dragon from sleeping beauty

Princesses!

the princes with the lovely ladies:
jasmine. belle. rapunzel. anna. 

more princesses!
tiana. aurora. snow white. cinderella. 

cinderella arriving in her chariot

A brief intermission... Did it look like she was having any fun? ;)

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!!!

And of course, the story - and sisters - that 90% of the audience came to see today:

anna & elsa! 

prince hans. olaf. kristoff. anna.
disney's frozen! :) 

finale number: all the princesses! 

WHEW.
A very special tribute to the man in our house, for driving us all there, but more importantly for driving our zonked-out tails back home. Just another reason in the book that he is the best.

sleepy candids... 

We're home now and ready to finally relax, after Disney and an incredible weekend all the way around.

What a happy little Sunday!

xo | cmd

Kolokithopi.....ta?

It was a pretty gloomy looking day around these parts, but that didn't stop us from maximizing the time we had during the day. I took Elisa out to drop in on a few of the regular clients we have, which ended in a semi-unscripted lunch drop-in at Findlay Market [because DUH..].

Becky found us while we were eating; we got a chance to catch up with her as we finished our lunches. We set out on a path back through the indoor market and were stopped short at the Greek pastry vendor, because... well... pastry. Greek pastry. That's why.

With being Fall season, we jokingly must ask:

^^ "Does this make one technically a 'Basic Greek Girl'?" 

Heheh. [If you missed that allusion there, just Google "Basic White Girl Fall," or whichever variation of that suits your search criteria. Also, it's a joke... don't take it seriously.]

Anyway, there was also this charming little baklava:

yummmm

All is well whenever there's a trip to Findlay involved!

Work concluded as it does every day, and I headed home to find two shipped boxes sitting on the front porch. They were addressed to Rob, so I brought them in and left them alone until his arrival. What I didn't realize was that they were actually early birthday presents to me!

surprise! 

^ Ok no, Sydni didn't get shipped in a box, buuuuut the stuff that did will be put to use as soon as possible!

It's almost the weeeeekend (:

xo | cmd

Journey | Steve Miller Band

On Sunday, Rob told me to check my email. I'd assumed it was information for our upcoming vaca, but I was wrong.

It's been a while since I've been so happy... to be wrong.
Instead of itinerary notes, it was a ticket confirmation to see these guys:

journey

steve miller band

STAAAHHHP.... My poor heart!
I LOVE the SMB, and Journey is, well.. they're Journey! C'Mon!
I have the best boyfriend imaginable. While the fastest and most direct route to my heart is through my stomach [aka, food], a very closely-contending route would be through live concerts for some of the bands I adore.

So I spent the entire day with SMB & Journey on my Pandora, singing "wheel in the sky keeps on tuuuuurnin'... don't know where I'll be tomoooorrooow...." over and over in my head in anticipation that they'd play that song [*spoiler alert: they did.].

Work passed quickly enough and it was home-bound to get ready. The sky threatened rain for a mere 20 minutes until it passed through and we voted on taking the bike down to Riverbend. Good call, too, since there's a Harley Row literally just outside of the entrance to Riverbend [tiny things = big wins!]

harley parking!

Kalyn, Brittany and their dad Papa Todd were on a separate trip to the concert, but we rendezvoused with them and parked ourselves on the lawn for a good night.

rob. me. brittany. todd. kalyn

And that's exactly what it was.

brittany! [& rob filming the concert.. haha]

love. this. guy.

and someone brought.. watermelon?

because sharing.. is caring... ;)

he loves me ♥

some smb!

A little [shaky, sorry] video footage of us and a thousand of our fellow folk enjoying perfect weather for the show!


happy people!

Last one for the night before the sun went down...


& so i love these people.

What an awesome night.
I told Rob next time, I'll drive, too ;)

whatcha think?? ;)

We're all home safe & sound. That's a wrap here, folks!
Good night!

xo | cmd