Churchaversary & Some Pibble Love

Happy 15th birthday, SonRise!

Say hello to the digs I've recently been making my weekly pitstop to fuel up for the rest of the week. It's been both challenging and fun exploring the various churches in the area, but the search has been narrowed and I think we may have a finalist.

sonrise | cincinnati, oh

The lesson this morning?
>>> Also a huge dose of medicine that I needed more than I realized. I don't need to tell anyone [again] that I am a dire mess in progress on the way to becoming what I know I am meant to be, what I can be and ultimately what I want to be. I am transforming, one day at a time, and I know when I am finally in a place to look back without falling over myself, I will have places like this and the people inside them to thank for that.

Speaking of transformations, I spent the day tasking around my house, and for some odd reason I missed my dogs today. I mean.. a lot. I have two of the most loving, ornery meatballs I've ever met, but I love them and today was one of the first times recently that I just craved having them mulling around my feet and leaving slobbery kisses everywhere.

And yes, my dogs are pitbulls.
And no, they are not violent.
And yes, I am proud of them.
And yes, so are other people.

... And yes, I chanced across two transformation stories today that brought me to tears.

PATRICK'S STORY, one that unfortunately is not confined to any certain type of breed, makes me both furious at the human ability to be cruel. Adversely, I am so glad there are other people in this world put here to counter this type of evil and save a life. Look at this beautiful boy!!

And then there's MAMA JADE. I found this story in a FB newsfeed [thanks, Melissa!]. I don't know why I felt so compelled to share both of those today, but I honestly just... miss.. my dogs.

Hmm. So yeah. It's raining again and my house isn't quite clean yet.
I'm off to finish that and rest up for the week (:

xo | cmd

A Little Trip Around Town

My friends have never been to Taste of Belgium.
Yes, I was apalled.... but, never fear, I made sure to cross that off their lists.
+ I got my waffle fix.
+ We took some super-hipsteresque photos outside, at Nader's bidding, while we were waiting on breakfast.

"oh that's deep. is this the hipster world?"

YES.

Once we'd had our breakfast fix, we opted to take a random mini tour of the city, stopping first at the cigar shop in which Keith works. Directly above that is Cincinnati's Mercantile Museum; if you've not been through there, I would definitely recommend swinging through!

Some highlights from the afternoon...

cigar shop. [+ i now own a corncob as a souvenier!]

statue staredowns

shhh.

one of my idols... i'm certainly no comparison, but here's a tribute..
.. [to] the one & only ray charles

♥libraries. ♥ohio.

bro looking rather pensive..

the mushroom house. all 'natians know where this is...

Since we were all lacking sleep from last night, we soon were off to our separate ways: Nader went to work and I went home to get a nap and take care of some things around the house. The late afternoon passed without much fuss, and soon enough we were back for round II, this time with Carolina.

Too much fun, I tell you.

i have been concisely mandated by the masses to watch
breaking bad. i will eventually get around to this, i will...

making the most of a rainy night with some great people
keith. nader. todd. carolina. me.

It wasn't as long a night as last night; we found ourselves back at Nader's rather early, and decided we'd take a stab at watching Finding Nemo, 3D just for kicks. 1: Nader had never before seen the movie. 2: It's 3D. An all around win (:

"you go home & put your 3D glasses on!"

And that's a little trip around this little town of ours. There's much more to be seen, but we'll venture that on another day (:

xo | cmd

Mav's Birthday | New Haircut | Pups in OTR!

So.. first,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMY!!! 

happy birthday, mav!! [even though you're not really mav anymore.. still!]

As a way to ease into a flashback Friday, here's some fond memories I had handy of Amy [& girl we're both LUCKY I couldn't get into the hard-copy collection haha]

Just a few, to celebrate this awesome girl!

one of my favorites.. mvhs circa 2003, senior year!
me. allison. amy. jena [r.i.p]

of course.. some high school dances.. whhhoa... haha

keepin' it classy for britt's bachelorette party (:

columbus runs with hilary & kylie

arley's wedding reception!

amy's wedding!!
dani. steph. amy. britt. shanda. me. nikki. arley

So... HAPPY BIIIIIIRTHDAY, MAV!!!


hope it's the best one, yet!

Oh....
... aaaaaaaaaand...
I finally cut my hair last night. I meant to mention it yesterday, but honestly I just forgot. So yeah..

before .. right before .. and after! 8" gone..

^ I think I'm still going to venture a little shorter, but I'll be consulting a professional when that time comes.. and really I'm okay taking it a little slow, too. (:

To round off the night, I ventured out with Nader & Keith into our usual stomping ground of OTR; I'm glad we did - It must've been dog night down there!

late night dogs of otr! (:

I have more pictures of the dogs than I do of my friends, but we did manage to take one or two.. haha. But hey, it's never too late to celebrate a way-belated birthday for Keith, either [which, btw, happy wayyy-belated!].

we wish we were hipsters... haha... :|
w/ keith & nader | otr, cincinnati, oh

It was one of those nights, that warranted a post-festivities stop off at Shanghai Mama's before heading home.. really though, it wasn't bad at all.

To say I'm spent is an understatement.
To say this is backdated isn't... (:

xo | cmd

Office Workouts | Solo Floating

Well this one was inspired by the fact that it rained off and on for a large part of today.

tried this today.. loved it

So here's the thing about me: I'm not naturally a sedentary person. I just happen to have what can, on some days be clearly defined as a sedentary job. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my work, but it does have an undeniable habit of parking my tail in a chair more often than not.

And so, it rained a lot today. If I hadn't been working, I'm not entirely sure that I would have been outside, or really doing anything other than meddling around the house. That being said, I decided to put together a little in-office workout to serve a few different functions:

➊ Every little bit helps. LL = Leg Lifts, PU = Push Ups, and SQ = Squats. Increments don't mean much alone, but if you add them together, it's not an ugly number by the time Friday's finished.
➋ Supplement! I have my regular routine outside of work, but if I'm being honest, there isn't such a thing as too much exercise, as long as you're healthy about it.
➌ Guilt trips! There will always be exceptions to this, but honestly if I've just spent tiny increments of time here and there doing 120 squats, 90 push ups and 60 leg lifts, there's no way I'm gonna go out and purge on something gross that I shouldn't be eating anyway. Like I said, that won't be the case every single day, but I've done these reps a few times already today and I can definitely say it's helped steer me clear of the body-debilitating food. WOO!
➍ This gives me an often-WELCOME break from something frustrating or adversely menial work.
➎ I'm competitive. Seeing this on paper tells me I can't make time to do it all in one day. It also challenges me to prove that I can.. and will do this every day.

So uhhh yeah! Day 1 [excuse the beautifully flabby way my shirt's hanging? Whoa.].. Yes, this is how we do it here on our lunch breaks nowadays. We're gettin' it.. gettin' it.. hahaha.

5x each arm.. it isn't much but it's a start!

And in the spirit of physical activity... last but not least, the best part of my day:

^ I am one PROUD mama!

my proud little swimmer!

I took one of the big cameras to her practice tonight, so once I get those pictures loaded and tweaked, I'll get some of those posted, too (:

For now.. goooood night ;)

xo | cmd

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