DOLLA STOOOORE [Ft. Liza Koshy]

Ya'll, I'm overwhelmed, kindasortalotta.

Here we are moving, and all I can think about is all the stuff we need/want/will probably acquire for the new house, and not one speck of interest in packing anything in our current house. It's daunting, really. I've moved my fair share of times, but every single stinkin' time I get distracted by all those little items that eventually get thrown in a box at the last minute because by that point I'm just with packing and I don't care how it moves as long as it moves. *inhale; I know that was a horribly-extended sentence... *exhale.

Let me pause for a second here, to ask a very random, poll-esque question:

How many of you know or have watched the videos by Liza Koshy?
No? Well, that's the wrong answer. Yes, is what you should've said. If you haven't, here she is, outlining my life at the moment, as it relates to the Dollar Store.

^Oh, and because somewhere out there is someone who's going to say something or other about me claiming this as intellectual material, something sermthern sermtherrrrn.... let's just not. I didn't make these videos nor do I own them, or Liza, or anything in between. Mmmkay? 

Just enjoy, for a moment:

"A DOLLA?!"

^ That was me, this afternoon as I traipsed through the dollar store today.

Note the sign: EVERYTHING'S $1. These little glass jars are barn wedding material... just sayin'.... 

Believe it or not, I came here looking for pool noodles. You thank Pinterest for this one, and for all of the pictures that look like THIS: 

these aren't mine, but look how tall and organized! 

Organizational hacks are phenomenal. Stay tuned for the day I pull this off; I'll be back with photographic evidence and hopefully without any slice marks from cutting up pool noodles :). 

But I digress. The dollar store didn't have pool noodles [sad face], but they had just about everything else under the sun, and just like Liza says, enough squeaky-wheeled carts and Chinese plastic to go around.... BUT, it's all $1 so who cares?!

Rob will be the first to tell you that I need to slow my roll and get the stuff we already have... packed. I will admit this is a generally overwhelming process, this whole moving thing. If there's an appropriate time to reiterate one of the points Pastor Jeff made this morning, it's now: 

slow down, cori.. there's a bigger picture. 

Phew. 

The new week starts tomorrow, and all that inevitably will come with it. Moving is underway, folks! 

xo | cmd

IKEA Wish List... Because... Yeah....

One of the things I constantly swear I'm never doing again is going to Ikea on a weekend.
So what'd we do today?

..... yeahhh....

This is going to get way out of control if I don't do some planning. Even then, I have this feeling that we'll still manage to walk out with some extra stuff when the time comes to actually swipe the card.

We went in today with a strict, mutual understanding that today was for idea-gathering only.

Wish list trip it was! And for the record, today's entry, much like but very much moreso than 90% of the others I scribe on here, are purposed mainly for my own convenient recall later on.

We have a designated guest bedroom that we'll need decorated.

i'll take it. thanks.

^ I'll just go ahead take one of those, if you wanna bag it on up, Ikea... you and your forever-endless pre-fabbed rooms that flow exactly the way we all want them to.... it's like ya'll do this for a living or something. Sheesh. 

There's an entry way space that's just big enough for this guy:

bench time! 

^ At least the disheveled pillows, barrage of price tags and fake foliage detract from whatever full potential this display could've had [just kidding, they don't really affect my vision of it.. dangit!]; this is literally the perfect size for the entry. 

ERMAGERSH! [NotEvenIfITried,] MY KITCHEN WILL LOOK LIKE GORDON RAMSEY'S: 

most definitely need one....hundred or so. 

^ "Because she'll literally be able to organize everything, from her kitchen utensils, hairbrushes, power tools, tennis rackets and all of her lofty and unrealistic aspirations to de-clutter north america entirely!" - The Ikea Home Team's methodology behind these $3 demons.

Nostalgia Alert! I worked at Journey's for a long time and THEY had these!:

.................. ? 

 ^ Ok, but seriously. I'm reviewing my photo roll for the first time since I took these pictures earlier today and I'm laughing at this. Cori, you would never seriously use this thing. Stop it. 

More practically, setting up the office:

matching is important

 ^ I've committed to at least matching the furniture that goes together in each room; it's not been a huge priority up to this point, but I get to play house for real now, and we need something practical, simple but still somewhat aesthetically-fit. Oh, and something that won't cost us an organ to purchase. Seems like a good idea.. right? Maybe? The jury's still out. 

We'll need lamps & carpets, right?:  

and apparently, when i'm in ikea, I forget completely how to frame an object
entirely in the camera screen. macro, much? 

^ Probably... so why not get the lamp that charges your cell phone and the carpet that will envelope you up to your ankles when you walk on it? Go big or don't go at all, I guess. 

This!: 

cinnaaaaaa..... *drool

^ Le sigh. I didn't buy one of these while we were there today, but it.... was.... close....
And I do not need this, just like I really don't need the rest of this stuff... but hey, this is the WISH LIST, right?! 

WALL. PAINTINGS.: 

♫ iiiiiiiii can show you the wooooooorld... ♪♫

^ Pshhhhyeah right.. I'm all for making that on my own; my social circle and family would smack me if I ever bought that already made like that. That's vinyl canvas [or something like it, flush, not actual individual boards, fyi]. Sorry, Ikea. No offense intended. I'm sure that's looking dapper in someone else's house, but I may just have to hack that. Thanks☺. 

Lastly, for the day's review, 

Outdoor idea!:

hrmmm... 

 ^ Kinda. Now that I'm reviewing my photo roll , I'm not sure I really like it as much as I thought I did when I was standing rightontopofittakingthispicture [again, Cori, would it have killed you to back. up?!]. We may keep shopping on this one. 

One thing I did learn today: Ikea's so much more enjoyable when you know you're not going to spend anything, wait in line or battle the sidewalk loading zone with one of those two-handled carts that you dragged in zig-zag lines for an hour through the self-service warehouse and check out lines while balancing the 257 miscellaneous items individually piled atop the big boxed items you bought... because Ikea does not provide bags, but you forget that every. single. time. 

We left empty-handed, aside from this photo roll of miscellaneous ideas for that not-so-far-off trip to actually buy the stuff. We compensated by stopping at Target for some staple items and bought those along with a couple of these: 

the bones, not the dogs, fyi.

^ Stella was appreciative, I think. ♥

Is it weird that Ikea was not a garish experience today? Probably.
Is it dangerous that Ikea was not a garish experience today? YES. 

.... Now I'm convinced to go back soon, because "It really wasn't that bad!" 

Oy. We'll see ;) 

Home establishment in progress! 

Ciao!

xo | cmd

Pajama Day! Pajama Day! Pajama Day at School!

If you're a fan of The Office, then you read that title the way I heard it when I typed it:

In the voice of Kelly Kapoor:

And if you didn't originally read it that way, I'll bet you are now.... haha.
And to the original point, it was in fact pajama day at school for the mini, in celebration of her earning all her February stickers for reading at home. I doubt we'll ever have issues with read-a-thons, given that she's a little bookworm who didn't fall far from mama's tree in the reading department.

To say she was excited about donning jammies to school is something of an understatement:

this kid... haha.. 

... Goofy gap teeth and all. She's too much. 

Take time to appreciate the small things today, folks. I hope you're out there doing the same thing! ♥

xo | cmd

Happy Birthday, Kalyn!

I feel sometimes like my closest friends and I are more like a collection of puzzle pieces that happen to be settled all over... everywhere. From Illinois to Pennsylvania, South Carolina to Michigan, New York, California... seriously.  I love and hate how spread out we are, but that just means we're all pursuing what our hearts are telling us to do, and finding happiness that way. Plus, it just makes the reunions - sporadic as they may be - just that much better.

Today's Kalyn's birthday. This girl's one of those scattered pieces that comprises my core circle. We definitely don't see each other nearly as often as we should, but when it happens, it's like no time has lapsed at all. Happy birthday, lady... love you to the mountain and back, ya weirdo!

happy biiiiirthday! 

And for the sake of nostalgia, some of my other favorite memories that didn't fit into a pre-sized photo collage: 

antics in phoenix, az

the day we wore the same shorts and went the grand canyon

the time we thought the camera was way lower than it was.
there were probably 3 feet of dead space that i cropped off the top of this.. haha

kalyn's mom's wedding.. we sang that time, too.. haha

Kalyn, thanks for being a stone-cold odd bird; if you were any different, I just don't know how we'd swing being friends.. haha. Seriously, love you dear friend, and I am so thankful for all the times you were there and the memories that were made. Cheers to the next year of adventures! 

And cheers to the rest of ya'll - have a beautiful week! 

xo | cmd

Homeownership: The Crash Course

There are a couple things for which nobody really prepares you. The most obvious of those is becoming a parent for the first time [an entirely separate diatribe; you parents out there know what I'm sayin'.... ]. Driving on the major Cincinnati highways would be the second thing [71, 75, 74, Beechmont Ave., etc.].

Okay, there are a few other things that are hard to gauge until they're in your lap. My point is... we've just opened the chapter of Homeownership, which 1) I'm told is not one word [don't care], and 2) introduced itself as everything except subtle.

We signed the closing paperwork yesterday, but ran short on time in the evening to journey across town to get the keys. We put it off to tonight, and had Becky & Mike joining us as we set foot inside for the first time without our realtor.

We showed them the upstairs; Becky claimed her bedroom ;).. haha. We toured the dining room, the other dining room [I'm still uncertain I'm grown-up enough for that kind of spacial awareness], and peered out into the darkness at the backyard that ends at the golf course.

And then we ventured into the basement, aka future mancave. It was going just fine until our solid footsteps were offset by the sounds of splashes.

Splashes = water.
Water inside = no good.

something... isn't quite right. 

It took a moment to register, but we quickly realized [oh, and it was raining all evening], that the sump pump had broken and the water was flowing freely into the basement through several ruptures in the pump and pipe.

I know. Awesome.

This is a first world problem, for sure. Yeah, it's a pretty big deal, and it wasn't what we'd hoped to find in our new house that didn't hold even a towel of our own possession [which would've been immeasurably useful at this particular moment]. BUT - the silver lining is deeper than the puddle.

We 1) have a warranty from the sellers, thankfully, that will cover all of these damages. That's the operative reassurance that made this nothing more than a minor inconvenience and I'm sure a good story five years from now.

2) We brought Mike & Becky, probably the best two individuals to have on deck at a time like this. There was no griping, but instead almost cheerful engagement in the cleanup.

3) I'm taking up curling.

Which of those 3 things is false?
Haha.

This was Rob's and my first time setting foot in our new home together without Tiffany [realtor].
This will be forever how I remember this moment:

hahah.. that's about it! 

new basement, coming right up!

I guess now, we get to update on the basement renovations. Everything happens for a reason!
Good times [kinda], good friends [definitely], good night [phew]!

xo | cmd

CLOSING DAY!!!

When I was 5, I wanted to live in a tree.
When I was 17, I think I still wanted to live in a tree.
When I was 25, I wanted to live in a house built out of trees.
When I was sitting at home yesterday, I realized that while it's not a tree, I'm about to co-own [ok, technically co-babysit for the bank] a house of my own for the first time.

And it's closer to trees than swarms of other people, which sounds brash, but we've all got our things, right?

doing grown-up things!! 

I don't think I've still fully downloaded the gravity of what those 843028 signatures we did today mean. A lot of you out there have been at this home-owning thing for years now, so I'm sure the carpal tunnel has worn off and you've since become seasoned veterans at being homeowners for the first, second, third [or more] time.

I'm welcoming myself [us] to the club. I've always known that I'd own my own home one day, but to be honest, I wasn't fully convinced that it would become reality.. until today. Haha.

tiffany, our realtor - she. is. awesome!! 

More pictures later. I'm still high off this closing. Ya'll, we just bought a house!

xo | cmd

The Worst.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII feel like I was hit by a MEGABUS today.
Let me lay this out for you in a super scientific visual:

See that sliver of hope in there, the yes part? That's the part that was in charge of getting me out of bed, dressed to a standard just a thread above vagabond and into work. That tiny yes line died of over-exertion at promptly 8:00 am, and the rest of the day was.. well... Monday.

I texted Kalyn something to the effect of, I'm dead.
She replied similarly, My throat and entire body, probably my soul too.. hurt.
I agreed with an emoji, the one that looks like it's seasick.
She replied,

rough monday. 

I replied,

double rough monday.

She responded, "I'm so sorry."
And that was Monday.

It's 7pm and I feel like I've been awake for the duration of history. I'm passed the yawning phase; right now I feel like I'm just observing myself somehow meditating, except instead of actual meditation, my body is shrugging and resigning itself from existence all together. Meh. 

How's that for melodramatic?
I'm tired. Bye.♥

xo | cmd