Happy Birthday, 'Merica!

We really don't know how good we've got it. I know I certainly take for granted the freedoms and amenities that come so easily and immediately to all of us. I am a PROUD American, and am proud to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beloved country!!

To celebrate, Rob and I loaded up the boat, finishing just as Jessica pulled up to the house to add her gear to the inventory. We hopped in the truck and were off to find Cave Run; it had been recommended to us by a few different people, so we opted to check it out.

We came to the realization about an hour and some change into the trip that there were a number of boats traveling the opposite way on the highway, and that eventually got the best of our curiosity. After some Googling, phone calls and research, we ended up abandoning our original plans of Cave Run, and in turn found ourselves on a direct route to Taylorsville Lake Marina somewhere in Kentucky....

love these two! 

Taylorsville Lake was a blast! I totally dig the fact that my tribe is a pack of spontaneous adventure-seekers, and can roll with just about any situation. We didn't land at our intended destination today, but had an awesome day anyway!

The evening started creeping in, so we packed back up and trekked back to Cincinnati, where it was a quick shower and turnaround, and back out the door we went, to spend the rest of the evening and watch fireworks with Andrew, Jessica and a collection of their friends on the west end of Cinci.

love this guy! 

Fireworks, new [& existing] friends, food and fun! From what I've seen, birthday parties are full of those things, so I'm pretty certain we did it up just right.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY!
U-S-A!!!

xo | cmd

Eve of America's Birthday

Today had something of a late start; we had no work today and planned to take full advantage of it! 

these two... 

I couldn't help it; check out this little sassy-pants... 

hahaha.. love you, grumpo.. 

After breakfast, Syd headed off to her dad's, and the day took a turn into a list of miniature errands, chores and some shopping, while Rob spent the bulk of the day off working on his bike. My first order of business was to take on a small section of the backyard. 

just a little bit of the work.. 

PHEW! If there's one thing I was reminded of today, it's that vine doesn't go down without a fight, and that stuff back there is stubborn! PLUS, we accidentally unearthed a patch of brand new little cottontails, which I'll be guarding for the next several days from our dogs' romping and whatever else I can, until Mama Bunny returns or they reach the point where they can scamper along on their own..

itty bitty buns!! 

I'd told Jessica earlier in the week that I was ready to hit OTR for a night back on the scene; I don't know the last time I was actually down there, so it was high time for us to have a rompus! 

We even ran into Chad's sister Paige at Neon's, after we joked that it'd be funny if we saw either her or Chad on the one night we decide to venture on down to OTR. We wound up at Japp's, dancing the night away and hanging out with a few of Jessica's friends.

As of this afternoon, our confirmed game plan for tomorrow includes some version of us on the boat on water.. somewhere. That being said, I'm OUT!

Happy weekend, loves!

xo | cmd

Rain. Rain. And Some Rain.

Today:

And in case you missed it: 

Yeah, that's about it. 

Good night, rainy world. 

xo | cmd

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

Short Work Week, WOO!

This happens tomorrow: 

As an update, Becky is not going to Montreal, which is probably a greater earfull for me than for her, given that I can't go [work, work, work... this grown up game is for the birds, I'm tellin' ya! ;).. ]. Instead, we'll be clad in gear in my living room, hopefully breathing and not screaming through the entire 90+ minutes of tomorrows match-up. 

In other news, I bought this today:

hellooo, new sleeping pad!

The first to use it? Probably Mike's daughter, this weekend for a family camping trip. No worries.. at least I'll know at that point whether it's worth keeping or not ;). My best guess is that it'll be fine. I'm pretty pumped!

I'm not kidding when I say that tomorrow will literally be consumed by daydreams of the US taking on Germany and bringing a win. I'll wear my Lloyd shirt either way and pretend like I know she's going to score a goal :).

Cheers, Monday!

xo | cmd

Family Fun Day!

Nana and Pappy are heeeeere!!
And Sydni's here, too! After her mini getaway with my parents, the three of them returned to our house today.

Before that, Rob and I were busy bees, running errands and cramming in some last minute tasks.

i got arrested.... [just kidding!!!] 

 ^ Meanwhile, at Wal-Mart [I mean, are any of us that surprised?] The poor couple of elderly ladies parked next to me had something or someone scrape the back corner of their car, damaging both the paint and the body work. :(

I wish I could've referred them to my next destination, where I met up with Rob and his boss Chip, where they were transferring a motor for Chip's boat.

boat motor! 

It wasn't long before all the errands were wrapped up and we were home, cleaned up and awaiting the arrival of Syd and my parents.

And then.. they were here!!

look at this little gardener!

Sydni was super excited to show Pappy her pumpkin plant, birthed after she and the kiddos "planted" pumpkin seeds last year. We thought it was just something fun for them to do while they were painting pumpkins at Halloween, but now we have an actual pumpkin and that's that. Oh well! :)

our pumpkin plant! :) 

syd & pappy ♥

It was past the halfway point of the day when the party started, so we did dinner at the house and then headed out to see the new Pixar movie, Inside Out. We all know that Pixar is notorious for making us all feel things, so when I saw this online, I couldn't help but share.. haha: 

truth! 

Ya'll.. this movie was a cute one. Not my favorite of the Pixar family, but still super cute! 

Sydni and Nana's favorite character [because would it be any other way?!]: 

joy!

It's been such a fun little family night, and tomorrow we'll have some more adventure time before Nana & Pappy return home. 

We are a happy little bunch tonight! ♥

xo | cmd

USAvCHN

It's FRIIIIIIDAY!!!

This was the first thing I wanted to see when I woke up today.

Throughout the day:

krieger

And...

leroux

And...

lloyd

Basically, I spent my entire day awaiting the 7:30 EST kick-off of this [and, my apologies if I've offended anyone with my lack of input/care/interest for the marriage equality bill...], but this just, for me, took insane leaps of precedence over that.

I wasn't entirely sold after the first 45 minutes as the teams marched off tied at nil..

The second half started with Abby giving one of her signature speeches [haha], and the team hit the field to see what they could do in the next 45 & change.

Finally.. 

captain lloyd! 

YEAHHHHH!!!!

Congrats, ladies!!!!!
This World Cup has got me completely engaged. I. Love. It.
See ya back on the 26th!

xo | cmd