Nashvegas Bound: Britt's Bach!

'Tis the seaaaason! 

Okay, well not yet, but we're quickly approaching the wedding season, and there's no better way we figured to kick that off than with a Nashville bachelorette weekend to celebrate Brittany's last few weeks as a single woman.

britt & wayne | 4.1.16
can't wait! 

I started the morning off by dropping Sydni at school; I won't see her again until Sunday night [sad face], so it was fitting and fun that we were able to sleep in a little and head off to school together. From there, it was rental car pick-up, luggage loading and then leaving..... right?

Well, almost: 

thank you sasha..... 

^^ My perpetually-delayed everything dog, Sasha, managed to finagle her way off her tether in the backyard today, and in the course of the 7 minutes she was out there anyway, tumbled through some sort of mud and came back in to greet me looking like this. Typical Sasha. 

So after I cleaned up the dog and the trail of chaos she dragged in with her, I departed for the first leg of the journey: Pick up Kara and meet Kalyn in Lexington. The journey begins! 

Kara and I drove to Lexington, where we rendezvoused with Kalyn and continued on to Nashville: 

hello, super photoshopped nashville picture i pulled from google..... 

[^ the picture I took as we entered the city included the AT&T Batman tower, too, but looked more like it was taken from a 2001 digi cam, sooooo.... ]

We arrived at the house we'll be inhabiting for the course of this weekend, where Britt & Co. were already assembled. The cast was complete, and we readied ourselves for a full roster of bachelorette-based activities. 

It's awesome when a group is comprised of various - and very different - walks of life, personal interests, careers, political views and whatever else there is that can vary [so basically anything goes]. I met a few of these women for the first time, and realized very quickly that we come from the same planet, but from very different worlds. 

And ya know what? I loved it :). 

To my cousin Maricor, the Sephora manager & makeup artist extraordinaire: 

These women are your tribe, seriously. I don't know how ya'll do it, but I'm flat out impressed - and a little jealous - that ya'll can draw all over your faces for hours with this makeup stuff
& still manage to not look like you got attacked by a box of crayons. Ya'll are talented, and
I..... am lost. High five, you make-up queens!

look at those artists :p 

After Dalia, Layla, Kara and Brittany came to the rescue, Kalyn and I [the two with the least amount of makeup ability] managed to put on faces for the night and did so with minimal mistake. Success!

Some highlights from the pre-trip:

i didn't do too bad on my own :) 

i hardly ever get to see this girl anymore.. jess, you're such a beaut!

the bride getting her gear!

freakin' adorable!

love you b! happy bach!!

the sisters, aka the blonde kardashians.. haha
kalyn. brittany. kara.

And then it was off to Merchant's for dinner!

cheers to this girl haha :) 

yummmmm! 

with the lovely powell sisters
brittany. kalyn. cori 

kalyn. cori. jess ♥

oh, the antics.. 

[top left] britt. maddie. jess. 
[top right] dalia. jess. layla 
[bottom] cori. kalyn. layla. kelsey. britt

Our original plans [I thought] were to get dinner and then head home for the evening, but once we'd filled up on delicious food, we thought we'd take advantage of already being in the heart of downtown Nashville. So off we set...

the tribe! 

It was an interesting evening from the time we set foot outside of Merchant's, but still a fun experience. We retired to the house via Uber with sore feet and a few fun surprises still in store.

Kalyn's birthday is Thursday [my present to her is back in Lexington in the trunk of her car.. haha], but Brittany pulled some stops to do one gift before the night was over.

the almost birthday girl :p 

Pajamas were all around, which was a great way to phase out the night, in the company of 9 other hilarious women.

the "brown girls" here to represent the philippines & mexico! ;) 

And yes, this is a backdated entry... it got late, and we got tired.

bedtime! 

See you in the morning, for our Studio Goddess dance class!

xo | cmd

Just Some Sk8er Kids ;)

We had every intention of joining our life group tonight, as we do each Thursday, but then I was reminded that Sydni's school had an event tonight at Castle Skateland. That's a skating rink, for those of you who didn't know, and it would've disrupted Sydni's entire evening - at least socially, haha.

This kid's got more friends than we do!

Yeah, we sacrificed a night with our small group, but... I wouldn't have missed the chance to hang out with this girl while she's skating! Seriously, so much fun...

getting ready! 

getting some assistance around the place! 

gosh i love this girl! 

my little family!! 

I love these two more than I could ever explain. I'm pretty proud of this little munchkin and continuously awed by this man who's become my best friend and is there for us on our worst days.

Tomorrow I'm off to Nashville for Brittany's bach party; I'm heading to bed happy that this was how we spent the night before whatever wild antics ensue this weekend. :) 

Much love to you & yours out there, too, blogbots! 

xo | cmd

My Friend Ali

It's Wednesdayyyy! For me it means that it's Thursday [or, if you were here reading yesterday, my Monday #4, haha]; I'll be outta here on Friday with Kara, en route to Lexington to meet Kalyn, and onward to Nashville to celebrate Britt's last few weeks as a single woman. It's gonna be an adventure, I'm sure of it.

In the meantime, my friend Ali messaged me earlier today asking for my weigh-in on her most recent blog post. Not for content, but for grammar, etc. We chatted over it, but I felt compelled to forward her message to the rest of whatever miniature population actually comes here to read this ol' blog of mine.

This is one of my best friends. Her name is Ali, and she's amazing:

circa nov 2015 || ali & cori

Ya'll, if you don't have a friend like Ali, don't stress. I'm pretty sure there are very few out there like her, and if you do have one like her, then count yourself among the few and understand what a blessing those die-hard friends really are in your life. Ali's the friend who is there when you're happy, when you're sad, irritated, elated, falling apart or celebrating something big, visiting town for just a few hours or having a birthday. She will drive hours to see a friend, make arrangements to be sure she has time to spend with those close to her, and is truly selfless in ways most of us can only pretend to be. She loves Jesus, her family & friends, her job, good food and laughing. I mean, what more could you ask for out of a best friend?

I'm saying all that to say that if and when you read her post, I'd love for you to see it from the lens of her friend - someone who doesn't see her as a plus size, or whatever other size she is now or ever will be. If you've ever been around someone for a while who doesn't fit whatever "normal" mold we've constructed, you'll know what I mean - it's not to say that Ali was ever in any category like that for me, but at some point, you stop seeing a physical stranger and start relating to people based on who they are and how they contribute to your life.

Back to the [her] point: It's so easy for us to get sucked into the weight debate, whether it's our own bodies, celebrity standards [photoshopped, OFTEN, keep in mind] or whatever other metric we use to graph ourselves in relation to body image.

READ THE FULL ENTRY HERE

I'll let her entry speak for itself; she's got a good point, for me and for anyone else out there who's been struggling with body image in any way, shape or form. Let me be the first to say that YOU, yes YOU out there, whoever you are, are in fact fearfully and WONDERFULLY made, so have faith in yourself.

You're enough. You're more than enough. You and I were created as complicated, imperfect and beautiful beings, put here for the purpose of bonding with each other and bringing glory to the God who put us here.

If you're the 11-year-old girl back home who's been damaging her body as an outlet to vent the hurt and emotional abuse that's being inflicted on you by your peers [you know who you are], I need and want you to hear this, especially. You might not be "plus size," so the specific argument of weight doesn't apply to you, BUT, I know you're hurting, and that much of that stems from the demonized image of your own body that's being constructed by those around you, NOT because that is what you are. 

Friends, foes, bloggers and anyone else who stumbles onto this today:

You are beautiful, and there's not other reason other than it's a perfectly good Wednesday to remind you of that. Stay true to yourself and share the love with someone else today. ♥

Ali, I love you, friend - thank you for sharing this part of yourself with me and with the world!
P.S. - Ashley Graham is gorgeous, but I'm thankful for you as my friend!!

xo | cmd 

Terrible Tuesdays

It's become something of a running joke that at my job, there is no week that actually goes, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. It's more liiiiike....

Monday

Monday #2

Monday #3

Monday #4

and... Friday. 

Am I the only one? I can't be the only one. Haha. In case you think I'm joking, here's a short story:

I left for work just shy of 30 minutes early, rattling off a list of things I'd get done at the desk before the phone attached itself to my head like it usually does for the majority of my 9-hour day. About 5 minutes into my pre-planned embarking, I ran into ..... this:

yayyyyy, beechmont!
:| 

That was only 7:10!

... And also 7:15.
......... And then 7:25.
................... And then I made it past those arrows [woop woop!]... at 7:35.

Long, brake-light story short, I rolled into work around 8:15, which was juuust about right for what's been known as Terrible Tuesday at our office. Fortunately, it didn't stay that way for the entire day. There were some bright spots during which I felt like a snowplow in Cincinnati: rarely spotted but hugely effective when left alone to conquer the weird, muddled road.

[Sorry, Cincinnati]

Anyway, at the homefront, Rob and I teamed up to get dinner rolling, do homework with the mini and settle in after her bedtime to a night relaxing on the couch. Rob's been scrolling through boats for a couple hours, which tells me that after this house deal is closed, Lil' Bit Sum might be Lil' Bit GONE and who knows what'll be parked in the garage after that.

P.S. - We close on the 23rd... say whaaaat?!
^ I'll keep ya'll posted on that one. It's definitely not the worst Terrible Tuesday I've ever had ;)

G'Nite!

xo | cmd

That's What I Said....

This was Sydni after all of..... 7 minutes probably? once we got in the car this evening: 

Forty minutes later, this was Sydni as we pulled into the driveway:

I'm gonna let all that speak for itself. Monday... at its finest.

Good night, folks.
And happy Monday :). 

xo | cmd

Valentines ♥♥

Happy Valentine's Day, ya'll! 

We started our Valentine's Day as a group of hustling church-goes, traveling in a pack to the middle school where Crosspoint currently gathers. It was a special service that the church had orchestrated, void of an actual sermon, but instead a Q&A for Talsy and David as a platform to share the Panama ministry. 

talsy & david

Talsy & David shared the vision of M.G. Panama, what's currently happening in the progression of the various projects and how we can contribute to that as sponsors here and as traveling missionaries there. I was reminded in the brief time we spent listening to them today of their heart and unconditional passion for sharing the love of Christ across the Ngobe mountains.  

thank you, vega's!

We left the church service after bidding farewell [for now] to the Vega's, and off to lunch with another family with which the Costanzas are very close from their time living in Lakewood. Lunch was quick and simple at Moe's, and a short hour or so later, we were back in the car for the journey back to Cincinnati.

We hit a weathery mess as we hit our Cleveland destination on the way here, and on the way back, we hit the weather that was now pelting Cincinnati with a layer - okay several layers of fresh, thick, slippery snow.

lovely, cincinnati

We parted ways at the Costanzas', and I made my way back through the snowy track that was supposed to be Beechmont. There was still plenty of time to spare on this Valentine's Day, and I closed out the evening curled up with my better half and our pups on the couch. Little miss Syd comes home tomorrow, which will be the perfect incentive to get through Monday. ;) 

my valentines! 

May today & everyday be a day of love living in your world, whether it's for those around you or for yourself; live in that moment & cherish it! 

Happy Valentine's Day, blogbots!

xo | cmd

Hello, Lakewood!

Rise and shine!
On a Saturday? Cori, are you okay? 

Guys, I was meeting up with the Costanza clan and heading north to Lakewood. The Vega's were waiting on the other side, and so were a cast of folks I'd not yet met, but was looking forward very much to getting to know.

Roooooad trip!

We piled into the van at the Costanza house and wasted no time finding the highway northbound. It was a smooth ride nearly the entire way, until we hit a stretch of unpaved roadway and a broken down semi that resulted in nearly an hour of lost time. Good thing there were some interesting views along the way:

What should've been 4 hours turned into 5, but the end was all that much better when we rolled into the driveway of the Constanzas' friends, and were greeted by them, their 4 awesome kiddos and of course, Talsy & David!

We settled in, exchanged introductions and cozied up with some heated blankets to talk with the Vega's about the recent happenings in the mountains of Panama. It's been just a little over a year since we've seen Talsy & David; we've all changed so much but still hardly at all [if that makes any sense at all] in just a years' time.

talsy. david. chris

OH, and I experienced Angelo's for the first time. This place alone would be enough to bring me back. Thanks for ruining pizza anywhere else for me for the rest of time, Angelo's... haha. 

this place.. yummmm...

The night wound down as David & Talsy headed back to their host home for the night, the kids all headed upstairs to bed, some of us took showers and then started to wind down until the air mattress was finally inflated, the couch was made and each of us retired to our respective spots for the night. 

Tomorrow: Church at Crosspoint, where the Vega's will share the update on the missions with us. I'm ready & excited to experience Crosspoint and see what they're all about. Plus, Todd gifted us with these super soft and super comfy shirts [thanks, guys!!!]

thank you!!

Good night, Lakewood! 

xo | cmd