It's NOT Too Soon...

So this is what our 4:45-5:00pm window looked like today. 

I'm just gonna leave this here..... 

ideas! 

It is never too early to start brainstorming group Halloween costume ideas.
Feel free to leave your favorites. :)

xo | cms

PENTATONIX & US THE DUO!!!

This is definitely back dated, and I am definitely still geeked out. #notsorry

& 

When I found out that PTX was coming to Cincinnati, I lost all impulse control and immediately knew I was going to this show. I didn't care if I went alone; I WAS GOING. Fortunately, I didn't have to go alone, because Rob is awesome and knows full-well that they've been on my bucket list for years now. 

And then I found out that Us the Duo was opening for them... and if there'd been any doubt before [let's be clear, there wasn't], this was the surefire confirmation that I would be in that crowd. 

And so we bought tickets. And so we went... and this is the totally amateur photo+video [because no I will not be that person out there with an L lens resting on your-head-in-the-row-in-front-of-me's head to get the picture. 

I wrote an instructional, if you need it. Lalallaalalala, GO: 

First things first, you obviously go out and buy an item of clothing that you didn't see yourself ever wearing before. You do that impulsively, because you're impulsive, but in your defense just staying consistent. ;) And then, you take a bathroom selfie because you've also curled your hair, donned the fancy septum ring and in your head you've absofreakinlutely nailed the cut-in on that smirky right eyebrow [but did you? nobody knows, or cares]: 

ready! :) 

^ For the record, it's the floral jacket that I never thought I'd like, let alone own. But hey.. when in Rome Cincinnati... sure, whatever.

STEP TWO:
Get there, and get a head-to-toe capture of this outfit that still has you questioning which VH1 commercial dropped you off into it. You don't care, because you're at the PTX show. 

and the empty corbett pavilion.. whoa! 

♥ embrace that front facing camera... embrace it ♥

Drink boxed wine. You've never done that before, so do it at the show you've waited 9 years to see.
And eat the weird chip things, too. They're actually.. not bad? 

try. the. new. things.

See how long it takes you to run into someone you know. It didn't take me long at all this time around; Tim & Chris were just a couple rows behind us! 

hey guys! ♥

Next: After you're done with the preliminary formalities of concert-going [see aforementioned 'boxed wine' & 'friends,' also merch table perusing and consumption of overpriced event food], you get to take a bajillion photos and videos of the actual show. It'll look like you're having legitimate seizures through all the shaky video footage, because maybe you are or are not happy crying and barely keeping that phone focused. It's a steep price to both enjoy the show and capture your own footage to review later. 

PICTURES: 

us the duo!
michael & carissa 

ptx!
avi. kirstin. scott. mitch. kevin

♥♥♥♥♥

I realized mid-way through PTX opening that my regular camera has a lighting adjustment that worked far better than the IG camera.. womp womp. Better late than never, yeah?

pentatonix & us the duo | jolene

avi is leaving ptx and we literally all hate it. 

Recap: It's been a long, awesome day. 

a thorough progression of this day:
am, pre-show, showtime, post-show

Back to work tomorrow! I hope it's a wonderful week for all of you! 

xo | cms

Girls.. Just Wanna BIKE, EAT & REDBOX

I really thought it was 1pm and that we still had to stain a deck when I woke up today. 

nope. 

And don't get me wrong, I was all the way down and ready to do some staining, but the sun was so bright at 9am that I thought it was well into early afternoon. Fortunately, it was early, and with the rain yesterday, there was no way we'd be doing any type of stain work today. 

INSTEAD, we opted to go for a bike ride! 

I didn't bring my bike, but fortunately, Jenn's parents have a few spares, so Nikki and I took up the offer and we were on our way in no time. I did end up with the taller bike, but major kudos to Nikki for wanting to try it! 

^ Nik, we weren't laughing at you... I mean.... ok, yeah, we were, but it was hilarious and you are a trooper for even wanting to do that! 

The ride in was beautiful, and although it was 16 miles each way, the ride itself was mild.

covered bridges :) 

We arrived in Yellow Springs, in the middle of a street vendor Saturday - these are my favorite, and I had to admit I didn't know YS had weekends & shoppes like it does! 

yellow springs, oh

merch & shoppes... & nikki! 

We ordered food, stopped at the brewery and then got ice cream.

And we justified each of these things with having ridden the 16 miles to get there, and the fact that each of us had done some version of a workout circuit in the past 24 hours. Haha..

pizza. brew. ice cream. #saturdaynotsorry

And Yellow Springs is especially dog-filled.

... and obviously i will. pet. all. the dogs. 

We finished up in YS and made our way back to Beavercreek - a slightly different but still beautiful little ride.

Jenn and I met up with Mikey for dinner and then decided that we were absolutely not doing a daggone thing after that. 

yes.

Well, maybe something, if an impulse trip to the store to buy snacks immediately following dinner.. counts. It counts. It totally counts. 

snacks, wine, redbox.
.... i mean.... 

Because we thought it'd be a good idea to sob ourselves into Saturday night... 

the shack

^ Holy crap, Sam Worthington... so many feels. 

Whew. Happy Saturday, loves!

xo | cms

Fancy Fridays

TGIF! 

Another week in the books, and another Friday to usher in the weekend!

I hit the road after work and made a beeline north for an hour to Beavercreek, which has happened more this year than it has in the last five.. but who's counting? Jennica's back in Dayton, and that's all that matters.

friday morning... vs. friday afternoon :) 

So let the twintastrophy begin.
Or something like that.

We made tentative plans to go canoeing tomorrow, so we decided I'd come up tonight and we'd kick off the weekend 12 hours early :). We started with dinner by the river, inside because it was raining outside... a fact we were fine with because it now freed us from having to get up early and stain her deck in the morning.. shhh..

dinner date! ♥

From dinner, we hit a row of nightcaps.. forgive me if I forget all their names; all I know is that this wonderful friend that I've known for almost 15 years is back in Ohio and barely an hour away. We'll have lots more nights like this and that makes my heart so, so happy.

[selfie station..]

Man.. this girl. I'm a firm believer in surrounding yourself with a tribe equally as - if not more - weird than yourself. They're the ones that push you to be your most authentic self; JS, you are definitely one of those and I couldn't be more thankful for our friendship... allllll 15ish long friggin' years of it. ;) 

Cheers to the weekend!

xo | cms 

Watch Your Words

Ok, I get it. Share it. 

I read through this this morning, and then hopped on Instagram and saw that one of my friends had read through the exact same thing and posted a picture of this same page to IG. And so I went and re-read it, because I felt like I maybe needed an extra application of it today. 

It's an excerpt from Jesus Calling for Graduates, by Sarah Young.

.. And today's entry reads [exactly] like this:

Jesus Calling for Graduates, by Sarah Young 

The first line of the second paragraph hit me like a brick:

Though the world applauds quick-witted retorts,....

Quick-witted retorts are the bread and butter in my arsenal of defense-driven responses. I'm naturally sarcastic, and though the witty part may be debatable [<P.S., that word has caused me so much irritation trying to spell it correctly...... ], I know that I am prone to wittyish responses as a reflex.

Something that I've learned and re-learned over the years is that when I am intentional not just about what I don't say, but also what I make a point to say, the results have a way of coming back and blowing my mind. It's not a complex theory, but it gets me every time. When I just... slow down.. and take the time to really download something, whether it's in conversation, situation or inside my own head, that's when things start to make sense in ways I don't consider when I'm going 110 mph.

I don't know if any of you needed that as much as I did today, but it couldn't have been a better day to remind me of where my words should originate, and what the motives behind them should reflect.

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
- Prov 12:18

Ooof. True, yeah?

I hope Thursday's been good to you all. I just got home from our weekly small group, which as always, comes at just the right time, every Thursday.

It's almost the weekend!

xo | cms

[Baby] A-aron!

Halfway through the week... made it!

Today was a blur at the desk, but well worth it, and end of the day showed up to move us from the work day to the dinner hour.

And I guarantee my dinner date was cooler than yours! ;)

gaahhh!

Seriously... he's the cutest new kid on the block, and ooookay, his parents are decent, too ;)

he literally is a tiny clone of his parents 

We set dinner at a central location, which also happens to be one of our favorites.... and should also happen to be where you go if you're ever over on Beechmont Ave around the dinner hour.

the stokes & the doeblers!

I have to brag on my dear friend Catie, because she's a stellar mom already and because although we haven't really had the time around life to get together as much as I'd like, we still pick up right where we left off.

a *quick* peek at the last decade... haha

And then today, when we tried to take a picture but kept remembering some likely 9-year-old memory that was way too funny and very likely just as, if not more.. ridiculous.

love you, beautiful friend! 

Happy Wednesday, blogbots! We made it halfway to the weekend! ;)

xo | cms

Hello, August!

Where did this summer go? I saw a quote earlier today or yesterday somewhere on Instagram: 

June & July lasted 4 seconds.

(They're not wrong).

I feel like this Summer has flown straight past me; I gathered that much when June hit and I was in Panama, and then proceeded to spend the rest of June out of state on the weekends. July wasn't much different. Now we're here, it's August 1st, and today was a GOOD DAY to slow down and enjoy it.

I got drafted to head northward for my office's weekly interview round-up in Warren County. Ashley's on vacation this week, and I'm the next closest geographically, so off I went this morning to Lebanon. It was a standard morning of interviews, new employee orientations... all the fun stuff that comprises my day-in-day-out. 

AND THENNNN.. 

helloooooooo, gorgeous!

I'd never been to the heart of Lebanon, so I typed in 'coffee' and waited to see what happened. As it turns out, there are at least four coffee shops/houses in cute little Lebanon, so I picked the first one and saved the rest to explore another day. 

I picked right. 

This is exactly what I picture when I think of quirky little cafe/coffee joints: It was tucked into a row of street-side businesses, decorated like a parlour, and covered with chalkboards and coffee-themed things. The board inside the doorway reads, 'FUN FACT: We have a different flavored coffee EVERY DAY!' And obviously this was where I was supposed to come, because I have an irrational desire for this stuff. 

^^ lampshade ceiling ^^ 

Approaching the counter to order food is a serious affair for me, although not as serious as trying to find a place to order the food in the first place. So I asked what the most popular dishes were on the menu, and was told that both the chicken salad sandwich and cornbread salad were award-winning (literally) items. Let's DO IT, because I am in no way a fan of making my own decisions at a food counter. 

how your food is delivered at royce cafe & coffeehouse:
ADORABLY.

I've never had so much non-salady salad on one plate. Frankly, I never even knew that was an option.

And then I saw this, which will be promptly displayed in my office when I get back to the homefront. I made it a point to thank the owner after this entire lunch experience for doing this, because not only is it a step and statement of faith to add scripture to a lunch order, but it told me that they'd thought well enough about how to encourage people, even if just for a second.

love, love, love.

On my way out, I ordered a Red Velvet Mocha, after again having asked for the most popular vote. Sure, let's do it... and omg this was the right choice kthanksi'llbebackbye. 

wifi password, also my life motto. 

SO FOLKS, if you're ever in or around Lebanon (OH), GO HERE. :)

And if you're ever in or around Eastgate (or Fairfield, don't forget!), go to Jungle Jim's and definitely buy escargot shells five-foot long dog ropes and mochi and most definitely 3 giant buckets of pop boba.

the filipino food aisle... 

Say yes to dog toys. Especially those that are taller than you and can withstand the force of two 70 pound dingos at home.

Today was a beautiful day, and August is here.
Let's do it!

xo | cms