Volleyball & a Video

There's a song out that is apparently very popular right now.
I of course just heard about it, because I'm nowhere near being the first person to be in-the-know with new trends like this.

Anway, it's a song by an Australian teenager that has made it huge here in the states. It's catchy as all get out, but better than that, my favorite acapella group picked it up and smashed a home RUN with it. I haaaaaaave to share:

^ STOP IT, PENTATONIX... I can't even handle how incredible you are.... haha. That is a killer cover!!

Anyway, today was a good day. The cut on my finger that I sustained Monday night [forgot to mention that] does not need stitches I decided.. and it's healing on its own despite the divet I took from the edge of it. Woops.

good job, self.

Good thing.. because tonight was volleyball! Paul even made an appearance to help us out; we are apparently on a 6's league now so it's going to be the four of us sans Paul for the rest of this season. Oooh well.

hahana!

We managed to close the daggone place down, just about. FIVE hours later, we stopped playing and I was back home, and hankering for some fried rice. Don't ask why. Luckily for me, I'm Asian so this was a cinch, and in no time I was inhaling the stuff at both an alarming and embarrassing rate.

Whatev.

carb loading... haha...

So uhhh yeeeeup! Not a bad little Wednesday.. but I'm definitely spent.

Seeee ya tomorrow (:

xo | cmd

It is OCTOBER. Holy Moly!

My sister posted this on her IG this morning and I had to share...

hello, october ♥

^ This is outside my sister's house back in our hometown; I'm in love with that countryside. There's so much peace in this picture; I had to share it! Welcome, October!! (:

Some other things that I realized today:
Halloween is this month! I need to start scouting a costume.

More importantly, my birthday is 2 months away; this year it falls on Black Friday, the most notorious retail day of the year. I'll tell you where I won't be on my birthday, but other than that, who knows. For now, I'm starting to compile my birthday wish list, and I think this would be a good first addition:

peeeeeeeeeerfect.

Hmmmm.. Looks like I have some October work cut out for me, building a birthday wish list and all.... & I'm kidding... I'm not a picky person on presents, but thought that was funny nonetheless.

It's OCTOBER, ya'll. I dunno how that happened.. but it's here. Holy cow.

Time to enjoy it!

xo | cmd

And We DRIVE (:

HOOOOME.

We spent a lot of time driving and sleeping today. 

glittering along the way... haha

Sydni is such a little trooper.. even after sustaining some scrapes from running too fast across the driveway... 


my little road trip buddy!

And late into the evening.. she's still there to keep me sane.. and sing to me ;)

love her. my little car queen!

hello kitty

To unwind the day, we watched this.

I love the time we get to spend snuggling late in the evening to this.. but for the movie itself, I will not complain if I never have to watch this again. Ever. Haha. Thank you, 1990's Hello Kitty...

We also read a couple of books, sang a couple of songs.. played some hide & seek in the house, and snuggled up together to wind down the night to HK's Princess series.

Aaaaand.. I noted to myself that I will need to go through my phone more often, especially now that Sydni has figured out how to access the camera. She took this picture of Rob's truck that is actually.. a really good picture. Haha. It doesn't look like she'll need too many lessons on object focus when it comes time for her to start learning with a real camera! ;) 

gorgeous photo, actually!

^ Wow.. way to go, Syd! Hah.. Looks like that girl's gonna give me a run for my money as a photographer! And I.. am okay with that. ♥

So anyway, not too much excitement for today.. but a good day all around.
Here's to the rest of the week (:

xo | cmd

All Together ♥

First things first: BREAKFAST! [Rinse & repeat with us.. duh..]
* I think I'm losing the battle of favorites here....

"noooo mommy, i wanna sit with mr. rob!"

Well THEN. Haha. Luckily for me, I still have the meatballs [aka S&S Pups, Extraordinaire].. They never disappoint. Okay, maybe sometimes, but I love 'em all the same and was glad to have some time to play with my other two, very furry kids.


stella.. sasha.. sasha.. stella... ♥♥

Rob's mom & stepdad stopped by for a little while; I wasn't expecting it but it was great for Rob's mom to finally meet Sydni. Syd made sure to show off her superhero skill by flying laps around the yard just for them. And yeah, Rob & his stepdad rode the chopper through the grass.. don't mind the tracks ;)

Once they'd left, we realized that the pups had annihilated a stuffed animal [not Syd's, thankfully], leaving little beanbag pebbles scattered all over the floor. I'm sure this was an act of retaliation for us not letting them join the outdoor festivities. In our defense, we would've spent the rest of the afternoon chasing them around the city had they gotten out, unleashed.

You might call this chaotic, noisy or unorganized. I call this the absolute perfect way to relax, with my favorite humans and dogs, all under one roof. It's not often now that we are given these types of days, but when we get them, I celebrate that. This is [& they are] my life. I am so .. so blessed.

I finished off today with some fried rice for all of us, which I have to say paired up with the chicken Rob grilled juuuust perfectly. The littlelest of us all is the biggest food critic, and her plate was clean, so I'll call that a win (: 

easy fried rice!

What a Day.
I. Love. Them.

♥ words just don't cut it....

This didn't turn out to be a bad weekend at all...
Homeward bound now.
xo | cmd

H-A-P-P-Y Saturday!

apple tree | granite city, il

First things first:
Places we've - well, I've - never been... and breakfast.

Rob introduced Syd and I to the Appletree Family Restaurant in Granite today. It's not a spectacular venue by most standards, but my hometown has very similar places and I love them... so I wasn't opposed at all.

It turned out to be much more like a diner than anything else, and I happen to love diners. Breakfast was delicious, Sydni was happy... we were all together in the same place at the same time... life's good.

From there, we headed down to a car show in Belleville, hosted in part by a guy Rob works with. Today was the perfect day for this (: 

perfect day for a car show!

And then it was off to Dawne's! It was so good seeing her, and if I'd had my stupid phone with me, I would've taken a picture to commemorate the first time I've seen her in months. She and Sydni had some long-overdue catching up to do, so we chatted for a few minutes and then went on our way.

We stopped by the mall for a few minutes, snagged some Orange Julius and checked out the new trends at Zumiez [luckily nothing spectacular enough to take home this time], and were back at Rob's in no time.

These two got some quality play time in today (:

tug tug tug tuuuuug...

Once the pups were a little tuckered out, we geared up for an afternoon ride out on Rob's [newest] bike. It's sad, but this is the first time we've ridden together.. haha. There's a first time for everything! Ours is just usually... delayed. (:

knockout bike. knockout boyfriend.
all around win (:

We rode over to Jesse's, where I finally got to see his little Zepplin [new puppy!], who is far too cute for his own good. I didn't have my phone with me, so these are borrowed.. but trust, the next time I see this little one, I'll have some shots of my own ;)

zepplin! adorable growin' lil brute (:

The three of us took off in search of a hangout, landing us at a pool table and a drink before deciding not to risk the chances of rain on the bikes for the night. Rob and I headed back to change and trade a chopper for a diesel.

goofball. & i love everything about him.

Before long it was back to Jesse's, to pick up him and his friend Kelsey.. and off to Fast Eddie's it was. We were in the mood for some grub and chick-on-a-stick sounded just about right. Y-U-M. (:

fast eddie's bon air | alton, il

Then to Rajun Cajun piano bar, where Jesse, Kelsey & Rob all failed at convincing me to get up on the stage and play anything. I thought about it, yes, I did... but I didn't. Sorry guys.. maybe next time. Haha ;)


rajun cajun piano bar | alton, il

We dropped Jesse & Kelsey off before our final destination of the night: Bindy's. Alicia made Rob promise the last time he saw her that I'd come by when I was in town next. So... it seemed perfectly fitting, especially with it being Bindy's 24th anniversary party!

♥ alicia!! [not my best picture, but we'll deal...]

This is backdated, fo sho. We made it home, had one of those liquid-encouraged, brazenly-candid conversations on the way, and at that, called it a night.

¡Hasta Mañana!

xo | cmd 

Road Trip Ruckus

Have you ever heard it said that if something can go wrong, it will?

Well, it wasn't that bad [for us at least], but it struck me today that literally each time I've been out to Illinois to visit, some sort of obstacle materializes and challenges my determination to get there. Today it was an overturned semi lying across both lanes of the highway, just across the OH/IN state line. The good news, I heard later on, was that the driver was okay [contrary to the rumors from other bystanding OTR'ers that he'd had a heart attack, etc.]

yikes. :(

We waited, parked with vehicles off, for almost three hours. At one point, I spotted a group of people throwing a football, others doing cartwheels in the grass, and someone tailgating in the bed of a truck. We bade our time by picking flowers.

making the best of time-consuming situations!

There's nothin quite like a road-side flower patch. Haha...
They finally righted the truck and dragged it out of the way; we were fortunate to have been just 10-15 cars behind the actual accident so we skirted through in no time. From there, it was smooth sailing aside from the forever on-going road construction on the other end of Indiana... but we finally made it! 

reunited!

^ And no, Stella is not eating Sasha's head. I just realized it looked that way. Haha.

Sooooooo.. we're HERE, and we're spent.

Goooooood night!

xo | cmd

Splish Splash

It's all in a day's work, right?
[I don't even know what that really is supposed to mean, but I do know we gave Thursday a run for its money today]

Work was work, nothing especially memorable about the day other than it's one step closer to Friday and that means we'll see Rob tomorrow!

Traffic, as usual in greater Cincinnati, was just.. a joy to navigate all the way out to Blue Ash for Sydni's swim lessons, but once I was there I realized that I would gladly grit through gridlock every single week just to see my little girl do this.

getting ready (:

learning how to float!

.. but never forgetting to have fun ♥

On the way home, Sydni said, "I wish Mr. Rob could see me swim!"
I was reminded in that moment how thankful I am for her. For Rob. For the fact that we are making this work, and that he's made an impact on my daughter. I was reminded why we're all being patient and making this long-distance thing work. We may not always be under the same roof at the same time, but when there's enough of the right kind of love there, we can do anything. I am blessed.

Back at home, it was laundry time, some goofing around [nothin' new there], and packing for the big weekend ahead of us.

this little girl is my world.

I'm exhausted.

Sayonara, Thursday.

xo | cmd