The Busiest Non-Busy Saturday...

Well, I'd say that over 75% of the day today was spent at the house, but looking back at the past 12 hours, it was anything but lame.

First things first, breakfast - the timeless classic that  my mom made for us growing up: Cream of Buckwheat. Sounds weird, but don't knock it til you try it. :) 

nommmmmm.... :) 

Once breakfast was off the list, we made an attempt to gather our thoughts for how we'd take advantage of the day [which was beautiful, btw]. We settled on some necessity things, which turned out to be a perfect way to spend it.

Sydni was ready to go: 

i just... i can't. i love this so much. 

Item 1: Poor Subie. She's been singing the infirmary song of her people for a couple weeks now: her rear brakes are going bad and a couple weeks back, we drilled a pothole in the never-ending field of them en route to Milford. My fiance, being the stand up guy that he is, ushered in the assistance of his contacts at the tire repair shop, where we left Subie for the better half of the morning.

In the interim, we made our way to Oakley: Michael's and lunch. I can't spill all the beans now [since I know this page is frequented by a certain someone whose birthday may or may not, but in this case may be approaching in like... 4 days or so], but the Michael's mission was a success!

Lunch at Which Wich afterwards wasn't a shabby experience, either: I always enjoy showing new dives to Rob & Syd. 

love at which wich!

Back at home, Rob set out on the second half of his quest to fix my car, while I set to work on my.... "project(s)." I suppose I'll leave you with one small spoiler for now, but that's it!

that's all you get [for now!]

The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging out together as a family, doing our own separate tasks, but there together. Sydni made a little flower garden and some mud pies, Rob changed my brakes and fixed Subie's squeaky hubcap, and I was able to finish the craft tasks on my list. We all had our hands busy, but were all within earshot of each other and free from the distractions of technology for the afternoon. It was beautiful! 

Evening eventually found us, which meant dinner... which I was bound and determined to make healthy for us: 

salad salad salaaaaad

And yes, I count it as a monumental life victory that my kid will eat salad without protest. I don't have this whole parenting thing down to a science yet, but it's small things like this that remind me we're doing something right :) 

Goodnight, blogbots! 

xo | cmd

Owing Some Odes. Chyeah.

Good Tuesday evening, blogbots :)

Wellll... today was the first work day of a now four-day week, thanks to the holiday. I took a deep breath before walking in the door this morning, and good thing, since it was over in a blinding flash of call-offs, fires to be extinguished, and of course the ever-looming task of weekly payroll. Sidenote: Shortened work weeks are good for many things; payroll is not one of those.

Anywho - towards the end of the day, Joe texted me to see if I'd be up for dinner with our pastor and his wife. Duh. Since we're officially "staff" now, I suppose it would've been rude to decline..... Hah....

JOKE! I was super excited - One, it's our pastor and his wife. The two of them are among the coolest of the cool people we know, and in the realm of admirable humanoids, they are at the top of a very sparse list. Two, whether or not we're dining at their house or out somewhere, they always know how to pick cuisine. As we're still quite the novice pair at navigating around the local dining scene, it's always helpful when the places recommended by other people turn out to be awesome.


pretty lil' macro compliment of google...
[because i know some of you would
call me out on the bacon.. haha]

 Word to the residents of, in, and around Fairview Heights: Olga's Kitchen is a gem. I found it quite endearing based solely on face value because my maternal grandmother's name was Olga. [Remember, I'm adopted, erego only Italian by purchase order ;) ........... some of you will get that later] So we rendezvoused with the Woods at St. Clair Square and quickly found ourselves taking quite the liking to this place. It was one of those clear face-palm moments because I've passed by the place surely a handful of times while at the mall, but never had a reason to stop.

Yeahhhh.. so once we had our fill of snackers and Olga's [menu item.. I'm tellin' you, just get there], we went on mall-walker mode and did some light traversing back and forth across the grounds before we did two trips up/down the glass elevator for Syd, egged on especially by Pastor Ron & Debbie [so clearly grandparents ;)]. All in all a great night, impromptu as it was!

Oh, and speaking of Pastor Ron - we are prolific followers of each others' blogs, and tonight he shared with me the journey of one of his former youth group-ers, a gal just a couple years younger than me, who is in the midst of a repeated bout with cancer. [[While I don't have cancer, I've seen the havoc it can rain on any one person and their families. After heading up the Towerview team for the 2012 Relay for Life, I've gained a deep, earnest appreciation for the ongoing effort of the American Cancer Society, and moreso for the courage behind every individual person who has had to stare cancer in the face. MAJOR kudos doesn't even begin to describe the level of admiration I have for the conquerers :) ]] Soooo.. this girl, from what Pastor Ron told me, recently started a blog, and since that seems to be a thread that we both understand, he recommended I check it out. He seemed to think her candor and style of scribing were similiar to mine, too, which naturally peaked my interest.



remember this? :) | relay for life belleville 2012
the towerview fundraising tire

 So I checked it out.
And I loved it.
Blunt. Honest. Funny.
Don't believe me? -- Check it out for yourself :)
I'll be following these chronicles, for sure.

So...

Today turned out to have some unexpected turns:
Thank you to Pastor Ron & Debbie for the dinner invite, excellent company, and new reading material! ;)

Thanks to Olga's Kitchen for being so fabulously delicious... I'm on to you now..
Thanks to Ashley Brown, the girl with cancer who has decided to laugh in its face rather than succumb to it. I think that's the absolute spirit with which we should approach anything threatening to overcome. That, and pray, of course. :) Fresh perspective? Check.

Over and out, folks.

xo | cmd

RELAY FOR LIFE 2012! [& Office Mini Golf?]

It is finally upon us!
This is definitely post-dated! :)

Hello, Relay for Life!

It was an extended day to start with; I showed up to work a full hour early in hopes of leaving 9 hours later. Today marked our office's 6th birthday, so the bosses decided to celebrate by buying us all lunch. No argument there. We feasted on Applebee's for an hour, until we were challenged by one of our owner's to choose our own pecking order and proceed to follow him out into our office. We were greeted by a homemade, indoor mini golf course, complete with star-shaped post-it tee-offs and Express logo cups serving as the destination holes. Seven holes in all. We weren't sure what to think of it all, but I will say it's been a long time since I've laughed like that.

Here's a taste of what it looked like in the office for about an hour's time:

christine. cori. nancy. courtney.
that's right... office golf, ya'll...

When 4:00 hit, I was out the door in a flurry, headed straight down to Belleville West. The Warrens were already there, with their tent and table set up; I caught them just as they were headed off to the survivor dinner. I was left to my own devices to decorate our space from top to bottom in Italy, for lack of a better term. It wasn't long before the rest of our team came trickling in to lend a hand. Even sooner it seemed from there, we were all rallied together on the track for the opening ceremonies, survivor lap, and then full swing into Relay 2012! 

team towerview!
[thanks, jackie for the awesome painting!]

We had this posted up outside our campsite. Many thanks to Jackie for painting this for the team, and for all the helping hands who came and contributed tents, tables, chairs, and decorations for our site!!

cheerleaders - reminding us how to fight back against cancer

^ Opening ceremonies. It probably doesn't make the most sense just looking at it, having not been there to hear the accompanying narration, so I'll try to paraphrase...

The center shot - encouragement to continue in the FIGHT BACK against cancer. They proceeded to highlight words found within the phrase as elements of available methods to fight back against cancer. 

Cig: Don't smoke. Fat: Eat healthy! Fit: Exercise. Gab: Spread the word! Hat: Protect yourself from sun. Act: DO something today to make a difference for tomorrow! :) 

[just part of ] team towerview!
shirley. jimmy. john. greg. betty. ron. diana. cori. mo. ron.

Our team this year was absolutely incredible. There were many people who were unable to make the actual event, but I wouldn't dare for a split second discount their efforts, contributions, and support. This picture was taken early in the evening and is still just a small taste of everyone that did make an appearance at some point for the night. I am so impressed by the support and action that everyone put into this :) I'm so proud!!

sleepin' in the infamous tire!
becky. cori. mo

Haha. There are so many memorable pictures from this event, but none quite like that of us pretending to sleep in the famous traveling tire. If you were there, you would've heard that strangely enough, none of us hated sitting inside this thing. It's actually pretty comfortable. Is that weird? Haha.. Probably, but either way, if I ever find myself deserted in the midst of abandoned farming equipment, my first choice of refuge is gonna be one of these things. Chyeahh.

This is backdated, durrrrr.. and I'm still exhausted. What an incredible event!! [There will be plenty of pictures to come. Stay posted, darlins...]

xo | cmd 

Nice to Meet You, Miata

seminars. woot :|

Hello and goodbye to the midweek!  Three down, two to go, but not without some light resistance. Poor Christine drew the short straw on fortune today was was whisked off to a webinar-gone-awry over in STL. She captured a brief moment of her morning and passed it along to us, making me grateful for a day spent here rather than there. Way to take one for the team, Christine! :)

I've got the necessary commute times down to a science as it pertains to the home>work>Dawne's>home>whereverelsewe'resupposedtobe routine of things. Being Wednesday, that meant I would have to pick up the pace and exercise some urgency to get Sydni, stop at home, and be inside the church by 6:30 for Wednesday night. *knock on wood,* I've not had a problem yet, even if we are flying by the seat of our pants right at 6:30. Whatev'.



little thing, isn't it?



I caught sight of Joe in the foyer right at the end of the service; between late work hours and bumper-to-bumper traffic on the highway, he was limited in his ability to make the actual lesson. No big deal :). We headed out to the parking lot, where I commented on some poor sap's bright red Mazda Miata that saparked next to us speckled with hail pockmarks. It wasn't until I had strapped Sydni into her carseat that I realized Joe was standing with the miata's door open, keys in hand. 

 A flash of red crossed my mind as I attempted to dismiss the onset of believing he'd bought the thing; I think he must've noticed, because he was quick to explain that it was just one of the many damaged vehicles his shop was repairing, and the dealership guy had told him to just bring it home for a couple days to try it out. Interesting. It's a cute little thing, but for some reason I can't ward off thinking that it should ideally belong to some retiree cruising his or her way through golf-course neighborhoods in Florida. My imagination's a wild thing, I'll tell ya.......

yes, playing pretend can be adorable!

Anyway, so we have this loaner thing, so-to-speak, out in the garage, and it wouldn't be fair to let it sit without being explored by the true head of the household: Sydni. She thought it quite peculiar up front and asked, "Mommy, where car roof go?" < Love. As weird as it was to see a convertible up close, it didn't stop her from pretending it was her new ride. Hope she enjoyed that little moment, because .... Fat chance, kid. Haha.
Oh, and in case you were wondering how Relay for Life fundraising is coming along, enjoy this little moment of action at the home of the Towerview Tire's latest pitstop, John & Ellen Best. They've been officially made TIRED OF CANCER!! :) 

nothing gets people goin' like a 400lb purple tire :)
ellen & john best host the traveling towerview tire,
our latest fundraising tool for the 2012 acs relay for life!

The night ended with some chicken and veggies, and some relaxtion, which winds down to this, right now, and me waving an e-goodbye to all my lovely blogbots. See you tomorrow :).


eat your veggies :)

xo | cmd

*TIRED OF CANCER!* [Towerview Style]

As we dig deeper and deeper into our fundraising efforts as a church whole, I have to say that I'm quite proud of my Towerview family.

* I am this year's appointed team captain for the First [hopefully annual!] Towerview Baptist organized team for the American Cancer Society's trademark event: Relay for Life 2012. I feel almost sheepish sometimes holding such a prestigious sounding title, since the team Co-Captain, Lara, is really the superstar here; she drives so much of this that it kinda makes my head spin. I would be at a loss without everything she's contributed and the time she's invested into tracking down the right people, creating fliers, and just overall proliferation of response and enthusiasm from everyone we need, when we need it. Thanksxmillions, LB :).

Anyway, last night at the church, a small group of us rallied together to discuss current progression of our team in all areas: fundraising, fundraising ideas, event decorations, even utilization of the ACS-provided web tools. During that time, we decided and set in motion two of the handful of fundraising opportunities we dreamt up in the earlier stages of planning:

1. Sunday morning breakfast at the church, pre-Sunday School. [May 20th!!!, fellowship hall.. free plug yeah!]
2. The 400-lb tire that Alex, Joe, and now Jason play with like it's a toy, flipping it around the track on base like it's no big deal. Our thought was to paint that puppy up and drop it off in someone's yard. That person or those people then donate $25 to get it removed asap and sent off to another yard of their bidding.

We brought that idea to fruition with mad quickness after the meeting; the Babots went home and Alex proceeded to paint it up in the token RFL [Relay for Lif--c'mon, you know...] purple, with huge white letters exclaiming the ironic phase: TIRED OF CANCER.

Can't visualize that? Let me help you:

team towerview: the tire....
- makin' a pitstop at the woods' :) 

A W E S O M E . I love everything about it, and I'm almost a little excited about this puppy making its way to our house for a day or two. Should be fun. Team Towerview is an absolute blast. These are the things we love :)

-----------------

So the rest of today was pretty tame; it marked the end of our first full week sans Meagan; I realized I need to do some serious adjustment on something: time management, shortened lunches, ruthless increase of speed.. something to balance out the work. Hah. It's a good thing with the burst of business we're seeing, but man alive, we are swamped. I love it.

joe & josh: windshield maniacs

Joe's store manager from Atlanta is in town for the insane influx of business they've had in St. Louis post-hail storm; since he's out of his element here, we were more than willing to open up the Dills' hotel once again for an out of town visitor :). He's staying for a couple nights before he heads back to GA. It wouldn't be a real party with the glass boys unless we got to observe them in their natural habitat: They transformed our garage into a temporary bay for Mo & Jimmy's car; it was a seamless operation that ended just about as quickly as it started.

Cooooool. That's a wrap on Friday, folks....

Heeeeeey, it's the freakin' weekend.....

xo | cmd