Towerview Relay Update!

In case you were wondering, Towerview Baptist is kickin' tail and takin' names in the fundraising battle against cancer. I took a gander at our progress today, and according to what's been entered on the ACS website, this is us:

oh hey towerview! look at us go! :) :)

TAKE THAT, CANCER.
*We're not done yet, either - not even close! I am so proud of my church family and that I'm a part of that family. We are flying right along, and the best part of it all [well, one of the best parts] is that our original fundraising goal as a team was set at $1500. Clearly, we're past that and not looking back - time to up the anty!

I'm floored.
- Had to share :)

Happy midweek!

xo | cmd

[Simple].

I'm taking this opportunity to not write about ANYTHING :). It's been a whirlwind few days, and I'm ready to slow it down and enjoy something simple.

How about this from earlier:


love. love. love. love.

See? That was simple enough. :)
See ya tomorrow....

xo | cmd 

I Am Loved [& Blessed!!!]

I went into today thinking that it was going to be another one of those maniacal Mondays, filled from top to bottom with the commonplace chaos that so effectively defines Monday. I was on point as it pertained to work, but that's a standard there and I would almost be more concerned if I ever found myself wading through the work week's opening day in slow motion. I barely made it past the day's finish line before 5:00 rolled around, but I was on the road and en route back home. Little did I know that I had some fun stuff waiting back at the house.

I rolled into the driveway beside Mo's car; she'd been there getting some laundry done, but I didn't realize she'd done some light cleaning around the house, Sydni's room especially. She. Is. Awesome :). [[thanks, Mo!!]]

What caught me the most off guard was the box neatly taped and addressed to me.... from Gazelle.

I found the most recent picture of us, circa 2011 from Monica & Edlin's wedding:

me with my beautiful ate's:
gazelle. cori. grace. melissa

I hate to admit that my Ate [btw, Ate, pronounced 'AH-tay,' means big sister in Tagalog] G and I haven't been in close contact much at all over the course of the last year, but what precedes that without a shred of doubt trumps it. Ate G and I were nearly inseparable during one of those truly trying times in both of our lives; there's a good chance I would've unraveled at some point had it not been for her big-sister-esque hand in helping me along. For that, I owe her more than gratitude, and I'm pretty sure that even if we don't talk for years on end, we'll always be close :). That's just how it's been, and how it's probably going to stay until time runs out. I love her ♥.

So anyway, inside the box addressed from her was a card [that about made me cry, thanksabunch,G....] and the rest of this:

jumper, 2 dresses, shorts for syd
diamond necklace for mama
i ♥ my ate g!!

I still can't believe how thoughtful this was, and how I won't ever forget it. :)

****
Mo & I hung out for the early part of the evening before Joe and eventually Jimmy made their ways to the house for a little grill out and dinner. We're all settled in now and watching Kobe battle WorldPeace. Meta WorldPeace, that is.

I was reminded today [again] that I am so blessed to have the people in my life that I do. I think this is gonna be a good week; I can feel it :)

xo | cmd 

Towerview Fundraising Breakfast: Relay2012

Hey Sunday! Thanks for stopping by :)

Today started off a couple hours earlier than the average Sunday; I was out of the house with little monster and en route to the Tower an hour or so before the usual departure time. With two cases of homemade muffins in hand, I unloaded toddler, Bible, camera, and eventually muffins into the most appropriate resting spots downstairs in the fellowship hall [well, aside from the toddler; those things don't ever rest...]. I spent a few moments snapping pictures of the helping hands and attendees of what was purposed to be a fundraising breakfast for the church's Relay for Life.

greg. ron. margaret
our trusted cooks! :)

my mini muffin monster!

breakfast

It was a huge success! Not only did we have a sturdy set of helping hands on board to flip pancakes, serve drinks and clean up, but the crowd elicited so easily by food didn't disappoint! I'm not one to regularly emphasize the strengths of individual denominations, but for what it's worth as it's relevent here: Southern Baptists have absolutely no qualms with cooking up good food, and we'll show that same lack of dissent when it comes to eating it. We love food, we love hanging out with each other, and we love coming together for a common and important cause. That being said, hosting a pre-Sunday school breakfast was guaranteed to be the hit it was.

When it was all said and done, we had $230 to put towards our [revised!!] team goal of $3,000. Our original goal was set at $1,500, but after just a month or so of We are getting closer!!! :)

pancake patrollers | lara & cori

on our way home.. cakehead ;)

After another home run sermon from our pastor [sorry for the inside joke; you'll understand if you were there], our 40 Days in the Word group [remember us? Yardsale?] rallied together at Lonestar to discuss the allocation of our yardsale proceeds.... and of course eat... again :). We nailed down some details on our next step in our plan to service our community, and did it with the usual flair of hilarious moments and musical-chair children.

I don't remember the next three hours following lunch at Lonestar; I'm going to attribute that to the fact that I spent that time napping :). I rolled back out of bed just in time to make it back to church for choir practice before coming back home again and wrapping up the day.

Oh, and I almost forgot about the grill Joe brought home yesterday. He spent a large part of the afternoon cleaning and configuring his new toy, and we wasted very little time giving it some exercise. Jarod, Jason, Alex, Jimmy & Mo stopped by after choir practice for some late evening grilling: burgers and chicken. I'm pretty proud of Joe: He didn't do half bad! :)

*Yawn.. Something about today indicated to me that this is going to be a great week. If the week's got other plans, too bad; I'm bent on making this a good one - and I've got God on my side :).

G'Nite!

xo | cmd

Lara & Emilia's Baby Shower

Today started off a little more on the sluggish side that I'd originally expected. Sydni and I both took a leisurely approach to the morning and were barely ready to roll when Mo showed up at noon. The three of us headed over to Babies 'R Us and then Once Upon a Child to do some gear shopping for Lara's baby shower before we raced back home to put the final touches on everything. By the time Jackie made her way over, we were all ready to get going.

lara! the beautiful mama :)

tea party time for little miss emilia!

Lara's shower for little Emilia was aaaaa-mazing! The lady who hosted it had transformed her entire basement from her kids' playroom into a tea party, decked from top to bottom in simple yet elegant decorations highlighting baby girl, complete with everything from little baby cupcakes to a banner with Emilia's name. We had a blast. 

adorable baby cupcakes!

presents :) [i love baby showers]





Oh, and it wouldn't have been a baby shower with these creative ladies without a craft session: Lara had it arranged for all of us to design little headbands for Emilia. Each of us picked out our own colors and patterns and put together an array of little elasticized bows, which I must say were all adorable. In the event I have another girl down the road, I may or may not - but probably may - borrow this fun idea. In hindsight, it might've helped out a lot when Syd was a munchkin, since she lacked hair off the bat and on more than 20 occasions was declared an adorable little boy by passersby. Hrm. Anyway, here's how those turned out:


bows [arrangement by yours truly :) ]



blueberry struesel muffins



Once we retired ourselves from the baby shower festivities, Mo headed off to do some babysitting on base for the Werners, otherwise I would've enlisted her services for the muffin-baking that consumed the rest of my evening :). We've got the Towerview fundraising breakfast tomorrow morning before Sunday school that's purposed as a fundraiser for our Relay for Life team. I'm excited for it! - Oh, and the muffins look stellar [thanks, Nancy, for the recipe!].

I made some pierogies & peppers for us while the muffins were baking, too. Yay for my [adoptive] Polish roots shining through! :)

It's gonna be a long day tomorrow; time to get some Z's!

xo | cmd

Small Group Goodies

just a taste of what our friends are like :)
i love 'em.

It was a small group night. You know how these go.

* We were a few men short tonight; Julie & her boys, the Sandvens, and the Sleemans were all MIA, but we picked up Jarod for the night, along with both Becky's mom and Lara's friend Kim, both of whom were visiting from out of town.

It should go without saying that I beyond love our small group nights; I'm gonna say it anyway though, and with gusto at that:

I:: LOVE ::OUR SMALL GROUP.
♥

Truth. See for yourself :). 

Oh, and the picture there is a depiction of inevitable social time after small group lessons, juuuuuus-so-yenno. We actually did have a fairly cored discussion tonight over Matthew 9, which ultimately resulted in adding a few more points to the already flowering list of reasons that I admire, adore, and cherish my small group. 

.. But I'm still spent. Night, folks. 

xo | cmd  

Date Night!

Definition [according to the gospel by Cori] of a married couples' date night:
n. An occurrence during which the husband and wife find themselves venturing out on their own sans child[ren] for an evening, free to allocate said evening entirely as they please, with only the stipulation that they will in fact return at some juncture to pick up earlier mentioned child[ren].
n. Rare.



our little toy car for the evening - the miata

When was the last time Joe and I had a real date night? Your guess is as good as mine, so it made perfect sense that we would just refresh the recent history in that department and do it up date style.

Before I get too far into the wicked wild tales of our kid-free evening [pshhhh], let me first and foremost T H A N K Dawne, our trusted in-home daycare provider and babysitter. She had offered, unsolicited, earlier last week to keep Sydni overnight one night so that Joe and I could have one of these date nights. It was funny how the natural tendencies of married folk still factor into even the getting-ready phase of the traditional date:

"Cori, really? There's a long black hair in my sink. Did you put that there on purpose?"

"Joe, put the cap back on the toothpaste..."

^ True story. Haha. Anyway, we managed to bypass the formalities of the standard pre-date process and head out the door to dinner without much fuss. Joe had the little retiree vehicle [Miata], so we bee-bopped ourselves in that dinky thing on over to dinner before making our way to the theater for a movie.


yay, marvel! :) | the avengers

Fast forward to now, when we're back home, and I can tell you that The Avengers was all I had hoped it would be :). It's been I-don't-know-how-long since Joe and I went to see a movie in a theater bigger than our living room, so it was a welcome change in routine altogether. That the movie wasn't awful definitely helped enhance the overall experience, and when it was all said and done, I felt like we'd done a dandy little job of taking advantage of a night to ourselves :). Yay, us!
Since we don't want to incorporate too much wild into the night, we're both going to sleep in a few minutes. It's early, yeah, I know, but some things just won't change nowadays. Haha.

G'Nite.

xo | cmd