Happy Birthday, Catie! ♥

Tuesdays around here have earned the nickname Terrible Tuesdays: a pun off terrible TWO's, indicating that Tuesdays have the temperament, agitation and inconsolably fickle head of a human toddler on her worst day. 

I wasn't alone on this sentiment today; Kristin and Clarissa had their fair share of the action today, and by the time 5:00 rolled around, I think we'd had our fill of Tuesday in general. SEE YA NEXT WEEK, BUSTER..... haha.

In other - and way cooler - news, today's Catie's birthday! I had several shots to choose from for the commemorative photo, but this one is so accurate to our friendship that I couldn't pass it by: 

circa 2008

^ When you find someone with whom you can shamelessly don adult onesies [that just happened to also glow in the dark and have little grippers on the feet, don't hate..], then you know you've found one of the good ones, haha.. Also note that that picture was taken after work on a mid-week, and that we weren't under the influence of anything except spontaneity. These types of things happened more often than you'd think! 

After work, I did a quick costume change at the office, and scooted out the door to soccer practice with Becky. She'd asked me to assist in coaching a squad of U10 and U11 girls on the east side, and I happily obliged that. It was a blast!

soccer practice time! 

Not a bad ending to an otherwise tempestuous Tuesday; I'm pretty pleased with it all and feeling much better about approaching tomorrow ;). 

Adios!

xo | cmd

Happy Workaversary To Me!

Once upon a time, I started a job with this company called Express: 

my first express family : cincinnati east, oh
photo circa 2010

I'll never forget it - March 15, 2010: It was a Monday, and it was my first day on this new job I'd found on Craigslist, at a place I'd never heard of a month before that. I jumped in with both feet and remember very clearly my first full week at Express Employment Professionals: computer training [yay!]. It was an overload of information, a time I look back at and laugh at how many pages of notes I took, on things I wouldn't need to know, really. I had no idea where that job would take me, or if it would lead to anything at all that would be stable, or permanent.

When the news came down that I'd be moving to Illinois, I lost a lot of tears grasping the idea of leaving behind one of the best teams on which I'd ever been. And then, I met Marc & Diana, and became part of their team as a transfer. As part of that team, I would go on to experience almost 3 years of team restructuring, process adjustment and even an office expansion. I became a staffing consulant, and eventually grew into a sr. staffing consultant role. I met Ali, who is now one of my best friends, as a product of working together there, and still to this day have lasting communication and friendships with that team. 

my 2nd express family: glen carbon, il
photo circa 2012

The decision to move back to Ohio wasn't the easiest thing in the world, but out of that came the opportunity for me to work alongside Dave and Elisa [& some other endearing characters: Nancy, Lizzy & Nikki.. and then some other more questionable thankfully short-lived cast members, but I digress >_<...] 

my 3rd express family: cinci central [part 1]
photo circa 2014

It wouldn't become the longterm Cinci Central family unit, but the time I spent working with each of them is invaluable.

Then came the revolution; Dave sold the business to Paul, Elisa went to grad school in Chicago and the last toxic cell was cut from the team all in the span of a couple months. From there was born the new and battle-ready Cinci Central team. It's a world of difference in dynamic, but we're steadying the foundation together and it's amazing to see how far we've come!

my [technically] 4th express family: cinci central [part 2!]
+ our significant others, along with chris & deb!
photo circa 2016

It's been a crazy ride: 3 different offices, 4 franchise owners, a multitude of different co-workers, events, seminars and the like. I wouldn't trade it for anything; this place is just as much a part of me as the 8+hours we invest into it daily throughout the week. I never would've envisioned myself working for a company like this, but now that I do, I'm grateful for every chaotic minute and wouldn't have it any other way. 

Six years later, here I am - still in one piece and ready to see what's next. 

Let's go, year 7! 

xo | cmd

T H E L A S T M O V I N G D A Y

God willing, that is.

We spent the first half of today at the mercy of a 26-foot box truck:

loaded up! 

on the roaaaad again... 

I cannot express the appreciation I have today especially for good friends: Mike, Andrew & Jessica, ya'll are life savers. This would have been a very different day if the three of you hadn't made an appearance and donated your time, brute strength and encouragement. Haha.

At the new house, the boys took to unloading the big stuff, while Jessica and I committed to building furniture. This wouldn't have been a priority, except that Rob's parents were due in town in the evening and otherwise would've been shacked up on the couch... which... no. So bed-building it was! Ikea certainly doesn't operate on any shortage of screws, bolts, washers, nails and HOLES DRILLED THE WRONG SIZE.. haha. The hammer ran a marathon today, but we made it happen. 

go go ikea go!

The frame was built and the mattresses were laid. The guys showed up at the last minute before the mattress pads and bedding were added, to test it out:

exhausted movers approved.

mattress topped! 

It was nothing more than a blink it seemed between the time that Andrew, Jessica and Mike left, and Rob's parents arrived. When they did, this little blur came tumbling out of the car. Meet the newest addition to his dad's house: Duke the pomsky! 

duke

stop it, ya cutie.. 

I'm obsessed. Seriously. This dog is so freakin' adorable, it's disgusting. 

dog selfies. dogfies. 

^ I mean... c'mon. Look at this guy! I'm excited to head back to Illinois in a couple months or so to visit and see how much he's grown. 

In the meantime, we've just inhaled dinner out of styrofoam boxes with plastic utensils, because the dishers and real flatware are hiding in some unmarked box somewhere in this place still. That's all part of the adventure though, right? Hah. 

We're all spent. See ya in the mornin!

xo | cmd

Car Hoarding: Friday Edition

My life, currently.. moving:

another day, another car slammed to the ground with stuff.. haha

I promise this isn't my life, year round. It's not even my life daily.. I swear!
For now though, this is my car - stuffed to the gills with random everything; I really do feel like there's a cat or two hiding somewhere in here, likely having materialized by the amount of clutter. There's probably a quilt back there crocheting itself, too, because that's the path I feel like I'm taking when I get into my car and it looks like this.

okay, not a quilt... but a comforter. even better. 

TGIF. Moving. Tomorrow is the big move, with the big truck.
This is almost over :).
Rinse & repeat: This is almost over.

Happy Weekend! ♥

xo | cmd

Helpy Helperton...

MORE MOVING TALES! I'm ready to be moved, but again, I need to breathe and realize that this is a process. We're fortunate that we've got the entire month of March to get this place cleared out, but in the same light, it's almost hindered us because Rob and I are both creatures of execution in the midnight hour. #procrastination!

I hopped in the car this morning, having planned for at least one thing today, and realized that my poor Subie loaded to the brim with things to drop off after work.. make me look like a bonafide hoarder. Ya know, like the type of lady who probably has closets full of macromet samples and several cats that have ruined her carpets over the years. Like Maxine, but with felines.

does it not look like i do arts & crafts and general hoarding?!

This makes me nuts. My car is not generally a collection bin for everything I own. I promise. It's usually not even that disorganized, save for whatever's strewn across the backseat by the time Sydni's done with it. But for now, and for the next week or two I'm sure, it will look like this in my car for a large portion of the day.

Luckily for me, I have a super helpful sidekick [except who are we kidding, really I'm her sidekick, honestly...] who was happy to do a test run on the durability of bamboo flooring:


She's something, I'll give her that.. haha. I'm happy that she's at least a blend of interest - she's one of those kids that's either completely consumed with [and over-dramatically deprived, oooobviously without] being attached to some form of technology, or she's completely happy with random things, sans electronics all together. 
This was her approval of the living room.. haha. 
And it continues. Ya just gotta love moving. 
xo | cmd

A Life-Is-Great Wednesday

I'm a huge fan of variety, and breaking out of the monotony of what's typical every day. In the spirit of said variety, I happily obliged a client requesting me to come down on site today for a facility tour to start the day. While I knew my desk had undoubtedly been piling up over the course of the morning with memos, messages and files, it was quite a nice change of pace to be driving north into the city at a time that is very unusual for me.

hello, daytime city! 

It was only fitting to make a pitstop in for some fresh-ground encouragement before heading in to the office!

it was too beautiful a feeling not to stop and capture it

I did however realize why I'd been met with some semi-raised eyebrows between my client's facility and the office: I'd forgotten about and was still sporting earplugs. I mean.... it's not totally irrelevant, right?

these are just in case it gets too loud... or something..

The rest of the day passed without too much chaos, and I'm happy to say that there was a moderate amount activity completed after work as well, re: THE MOVE.

That's another day's worth of diatribe.. but we'll get to that later. For now, I hope ya'll were out and about today for at least part of this gorgeous day!

xo | cmd

MARCH: Sunshine, Ikea & Donkeys?

Dude. It was freakin' goooorgeous outside today! Am I the only one who nearly fell over walking outside at lunch?

yes, i did that.

Yeah. I'm going way overboard with the daily lunches this week, and with the selfies to match. Here's the thing though: I haven't taken 2 consecutive 1-hour lunch breaks in almost 10 months, so ex-ca-uuuuuuse me if I'm a little chippier than usual ;)! 

^ But really, I indulged today. Whole Foods, for one, is not the 99-cent store, as we all can attest. I'm not shaming those of us who shop there, but let's be real: it's overpriced and we all know it. Today though, I went for it, got lunch, a $5 chapstick and a kombucha [shout out to Jen & Jordan @ Fab Ferments!!], then proceeded to park myself on a painted bench directly outside of Pier 1 to eat said lunch and consume said kombucha.  Yeeeup, I went full-fledged White Girl today.

On top of that, I proceeded to punctuate today with a trip to the second most basic place on Planet Earth: Ikea. Yeah, you read that right, friends: Cori, in one day did a Whole Foods and Ikea run. Ya give a girl two days of lunch breaks and she goes rogue, right? Hah.

300 pages of yes please!?

But seriously, Ikea. The love-hate relationship I have with the place continues, as it probably will until the end of time, or until I no longer need to buy $1 aluminum flower pots, $3 clippy hooks for EVERYTHING IN MY  HOUSE THAT NEEDS HOOKING and 2-for-1 adorable throw pillows.

Wait, what? I mean... the ONE accent table, the ONE bedstand, the ONE bedframe and the ONE set of pedestal legs for the ottoman.

And silverware.

Placemats Nothing Else!

LED light strings Nothing Else!

Bamboo plant! Nothing Else!

Buckets Nothing Else!

Kids art accessories Nothing Else!

CINNAMON ROLLS! Just kidding, these are NOT crossed off. #sorrynotsorry.

Rob is beyond ready for this move to be done; I can see the terror in his eyes when I open my mouth now and the sentence begins with, "What do you think about..." He's a trooper, who is hanging in there and providing the brawn that I don't have, the truck that my Subie is not and the accountability not to go broke... that I do not on my own possess at this time. Kudos to him. 

IKEA on a Tuesday: 

US, at IKEA on a Tuesday: 

let's do this!!
[at 8:45pm... haha] 

hitching a ride

 Spoils of the adventure:

we planned on buying [tonight].... about 80% of this. 

I'm pretty pumped. The guest bedroom will be together in no time, and the rest of this place will be constructed one little bit at a time. I've already enlisted Becky and Jess to assist with the painting, when that time comes. We're almost there; I can feel it.

Oh, and an additional feature of our new neighborhood to which I wasn't savvy before tonight:
We've got.... DONKEYS! These two, named Jackson and some other president name, are little escape artist pals from the farm across the street. Tonight, as we were nearing our road, we noticed them wobbling down the side of the main road; at first glance, it was assumed they were deer, but at closer look, that agile gait of a deer was totally missing, and to be honest, these two looked like the brown versions of our dogs.... so no, they weren't deer.

donkeys. neighbor. donkeys.

I took this picture for corroboration to my claim in case nobody believed me later on. Fortunately though, we weren't hallucinating, which was confirmed by our neighbor when I tiptoed onto her front porch at 10:30 PM to ask about the donkeys. And also introduce myself for the first time. Nothing like a Hi-I'm-new-here intro that starts with, "Sorry it's so late, but I'm the new neighbor and umm.. Do you know anything about the two donkeys out here?"  

The neighbor knew, of course, and even had the number for the farm on speed dial. I'm fortunate that the neighbor didn't answer the door with a shotgun, with it being this late, but I'm super happy that they seem to be decent people with a good sense of humor, especially dealing with roving donkeys [insert witty quips here, re: donkeys].

Happy Tuesday, ya'll. Stay beautiful, like this weather! ♥

xo | cmd