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

[BIG] Unpacking!

I've said it before and I'll probably continue saying it until I actually start doing it:

I need to follow weather forecasts.
Today we woke up to nearly 6", if not more, of snow covering everything around our house. Neither Rob nor I had anticipated such heavy snowfall overnight. We emerged from the house to find his poor Harley, still strapped up in the back of his truck, covered top to bottom in a blanket of fluffy snow. Poor Harley. :(

hello, powder!

It's days like this that I sometimes wonder why I don't live on the top of a mountain with my snowboard and personal ski-lift. Oh, wait, that's right, I'm not a bajillionaire. Well, maybe one day. (:

Our mission - well, Rob's mission rather - was to find a viable spot to park and unload the Harley. The parameters consisted of a bank or wall about level with the truck, not sloping too far uphill [or downhill] and no drop off on the other side.

Easy enough, right?

Well..... by the sheer grace of God, we eventually drove around in enough circles to earn the pot-o'-gold, aka a bank between parking lots of a nearby church and apartment complex. It looked to be the perfect launch spot for the bike.

I ... wish I could've taken pictures of us shoving his 800+ lb bike from the bed of his truck, across loading tracks and onto a snow-covered landing. Had I tried, though, I'm sure one of us would be in a cast of some sort. That was no easy feat.

Fast forward to Rob not dropping the bike on the mile-or-so ride back to the house, and we're all home, safe, with Harley cozied up in the garage next to the 4-wheeler.

All in a day's work, that's for sure. Now, we relax. This weather is junk for driving, so it looks like we're staying in tonight. I am.. just fine with that. (:

xo | cmd