SEMI FINALS!!!

TODAY. WAS. THE. DAY!!!!

omgaaaah.. 

and this one. 

I spent the entire day amped up over the game, and even though Becky and I didn't make it to Montreal today, I'm fortunate to have a viewing area big enough at home to [kinda] compensate for not seeing the ladies in person on the field.

Anyway,

#solo

#harris

#morgan

#krieger

#leroux

Ob.SESSED. 

It'd been raining for the greater part of the late afternoon/early evening, so when I turned into my neighborhood, I wasn't surprised to see it a bit tousled from the storm. Small bits of trees and branches were down and fresh leaves and twigs were strewn across all the lawns. My backyard has a particularly larger ticket item sitting on my shed [which appears at first glance to remain unharmed], that we will have to deal with on a night other than World Cup Semifinals:

well that's.. just.. very nice, storm. thanks. :/ 

The storm not only took its toll on my backyard, but it knocked out the already so-reliable Time Warner Cable, leaving me with a pesky, stubborn and overall aggravating sight of the white screen telling me it's more or less thinking about thinking about letting us watch anything. It's a hit or miss every.single. game with TWC, so I wasn't surprised when we had to rally together and determine our contingency plan. 

That plan was set for Goodfellas, but that was dashed as soon as I arrived to find Tim & his family standing in line by the front door, without an open table in sight. We quickly weighed our options, and took a chance on running across the street to Latitudes. GOOD. DECISION. We snagged a table for 10, and before long there were 10 of us craning our necks in the direction of the big screen, where kickoff happened just as we were being seated. 

There are few sporting events on planet earth that will ever elicit the type of emotional response comparable to that of soccer. It's safe to say really that there are no other events that could do so. I've never traditionally considered myself a feminist, but our USWNT is a collection of the most talented, charismatic and patriotic athletes out there - after tonight's game, heck yeah I'm proud to be a woman, an American, an athelete/a soccer player and a supporter of these ladies paving their own way to World Cup victory.

No, it wasn't Abby's 2012 goal against Brazil, but it was an absolutely beautiful sight nonetheless to see our team challenge Germany and come out on top. 

I snagged this from ussoccer_wnt's IG, which sums up the night in what words just can't... 

#lloyd #ohara

I. Love. This. Team. Love It. 

Congratulations, USWNT! Here's to ONE. MORE. GAME against the winner of tomorrow's matchup. Just a few more days.. YOU CAN DO IT! 

And to this group [minus 2], thanks for hanging out and hanging in there together! I couldn't have hand-selected a better group to roll with on a night like this! :) 

@ latitudes

U-S-A! U-S-A! 

Let's go get it, ladies!

xo | cmd

USAvNGA

Guys.... World Cup action is starting. I don't know if that means much to a lot of you, but I'm predicting a couple of things for this year's Women's WC: 

1. The USA will WIN! Why? Because they're freakin' AWESOME, and because, along with my American brethren and sistren (whatever), #IBELIEVE!

2. Hope Solo will get GC of the campaign

3. Becky and I will scream a lot, and many people will see a side of us that they A) didn't know existed, or B) fear, every time WWC years come around. 

4. We'll keep the cards to a minimum, and not do anything excruciatingly stupid.

5. We'll WIN, because well... #USWNT! 

8pm was slow to come around... but it did, finally, and found Becky, Mike, Rob, Brandon and I in what I'm sure just became our assigned seats for the rest of the game viewings we'll be hosting. 

here we go! 

We needed to win the group, so we can get on with it and get into elimination play. Well...

that happened.. 

... and then ABBY WAMBACH happened, and sealed the deal! 

Looks like we're on the Sweet 16, and I can't wait to see who we've got! #IBELIEVE! 

World Cup fever, folks.. I've got it... 

xo | cmd

Clone the Hiking Pack

It's heeeeeeeeeeere!

So way back in March, when my SonRise team and I headed off to the mountains of Suiche, we were equipped with borrowed hiking packs, courtesy of Chris' old church up north. It's been on my bucket list for about the past 5 years now to snag my own new pack, but I never got around to it... until now.

Out of curiousity about a week ago, I asked Professor Google about "Swiss Gear Hiking Pack," to see what the results that would ping back from the World Wide Web of Wonder.... As it turned out, the exact same bag that I carried for that trip was on Ebay, used twice by a seller who found that he had another bag that he wound up preferring.

Bottom line, I bought it.
And today, it arrived!

it's here! :) 

I let Elisa have the pleasure of opening the box, and before I knew it, this happened. Dave came out just as she was answering a call, stuck somewhere between a mountainous trek and an office:

hahahha

The arrival [& excellent condition!] of this new/used hiking bag shoved my day in the right direction; I topped it off with a client meeting in Springdale - with a fellow Pinoy!, and then with a 3-2 win over our competition at volleyball.

And now I'm home.. planning my next outing.
Any and all ideas are welcome!

xo | cmd

Food, Football, Addicting Games & Tornado Warnings

As I promised, I headed off to SonRise this morning for my second installment of the Relentless series. I'll tell ya what, when there's a message meant specifically for you, it's meant FOR you. This time it was all about maintaining relenting faith under pressure, under unfavorable odds and especially when we are called to step outside of our comfort zones.

 

I checked the church's website, but they've not yet uploaded the podcast of today's message. I did however, find the one that rocked Rob and I last week; it's never too late to share some good news. It's a little long [well, standard sermon length but timely for a blog entry], but it's good nonetheless.

 

Enjoy, and I'll try to get today's up here ASAP.

After work, I had two goals:
1. Retrieve my debit card from P.F. Chang's from last night, where I signed my bill and left my card in the little holder thing. [You can face palm that one, it's okay.]
2. Make it out to Brittany's house.

I accomplished the first, and the second greeted me with a welcoming surprise: they had cooked brunch and had it laid out pretty much in front of me when I walked in the door. It wouldn't be a complete experience without scrambled eggs, homemade hasbrowns, fresh fruit, bacon [not for this allergic kid, womp womp...] & of course, mimosas.

And then.. an afternoon cozied up watching the Bengals game.
It's about TIME...we whooped up on the Browns.

cozying up to some WHODEY action!

I noticed at one point during some replays that all four of my friends were curled around their cell phones playing CANDY CRUSH. I couldn't help but take a picture, for the sake of showing them the visible proof of their addictions. Joe even looks to be fist pumping a victory over a level. I'm not judging; honestly, I've never even thought to play it, but it's still fun watching and hearing other people do it.

candy crush-aholism.
brittany. joe [yesssss! #fistpump]. kalyn. keifer.

Keifer eventually headed out for work, and the daylight started to wear down. We started watching North Country, but were thwarted by all the tornado warnings and watches going on in the area. It was literally raining sideways across Brittany's backyard, and all over the news were pictures of damage here locally, but more seriously devastation in parts of Illinois and some other areas. My heart broke for the people caught in the path of this, and I am so thankful that, even though we ate dinner [delicious, thank you, Joe!] in the basement and had weather alerts as background music through it, that we and those all around us are safe, untouched by the storm.

little red riding pup!

^ Daisy, especially, seemed grateful for another night cozying up to everyone on the couch.. and now that her cone is gone, she's as happy as ever. So is little Maddie, creepin' there in the background.

I'm home now, glad to have the rain and wind gone.
It's another week to conquer, starting tomorrow.
I'm ready. (:

xo | cmd

Fallish Mondays

I said a few days ago that it is starting to finally feel like Fall! I'm not typically a girlish person, nor have I ever been a trendsetter of any sort, but I admit I was a little excited today to break out the autumn color pallet and boots. I love boots. It's beanie & boot season, now.

I'm pumped.

fall colors, here we come!

 Oh, and yenno what else was pretty daggone awesome today?

yeah. buddy!!

I took to the house to wrap up a few things there before heading out to Salem Gardens to meet up with Kalyn & Keifer to watch the game. I declined a couple of invitations to tailgate tonight at the stadium because 1] I wasn't going to the actual game, 2] traffic/parking down there is a heinous affair not worth the stress, and 3] I'm an old lady apparently incapable of functioning during the work week if I'm up too late. And that would have been way.. too late. The three of us barely made it to the third quarter before we opted to finish it up at home after some grub & a few drinks.

We're apparently all old folks; I don't feel so individually guilty. Haha. Either way, the good old Cats brought a WIN on home turf against the Steelers, which means my father and uncle [born/raised in Pittsburgh] will likely not speak to me for a week now... haha.

Kinda-sorta-short week this week; we're Detroit-bound Friday!

xo | cmd