you want to know what happened in August?

Robert and I went to our second Cardinals game - they got creamed by the Astros...

I went to Pittsburgh for a week with work - got to see several people I hadn't seen since March, and disco bowl to end the week right.


Jessica, Sara, Beth, and I went camping which involved lots of creek-lounging, eating good food, and having multiple small-town MO boys try to figure out why the car was overheating.


Then I went to Palm Desert, CA for work...and my first stop was In N Out...don't worry, they had a veggie options - grilled cheese, animal style.


This was where I stayed...gorgeous, and 115 degrees.


Robert got to come out and visit for a few days, and we went to San Diego with new Italian friends - promptly smitten with SD and its balmy, perfect weather.

Back to Missoui, via Austin, where I finally met baby Sophia, to whom I am an honorary auntie...she is absolutely perfect.

And got to hang out with all my siblings minus Dan - requisite trip to Amy's with Kara and Josh...

And bought my first Fiestaware pieces last week, and been coveting the large display of it in Macy's over my lunch breaks.

to my fellow deal-hunters...

Yes, I know it's cool to coupon now...recessionista, anyone? Thanks to my mom, I love scouting out good deals and I love being able to pass those on to people. I've had a lot of people ask me about all the rewards programs/online surveys/points programs that I use, so I decided I might as well post referrals to all of them. If you have any questions about them or want an invitation (so I get credit too) ask me...I love to talk savings.

Gift Cards/Rewards

MyPoints - I think that over the past few years I've probably gotten a few hundred dollars worth of gift cards from them. There are surveys you can take, and emails you can click on to get points. Also, whenever you order something online, go through them, and you'll get points per dollar spent. I don't have a referral link for this one, but I've posted it to my facebook wall, or you can email me for an invitation.

Swagbucks - search engine that rewards you with gift cards or prizes when you search or do surveys through them.

Opinion Outpost - surveys that pay out in Amazon credit or cash. (significant contributor to our Wii)

Lightspeed Panel - surveys that pay out in gift cards (the other Wii-funder)

InboxDollars - you get a $5 bonus when you join this one - similar to MyPoints, but you can't cash out til you get $30.

Fashion (most of these are 1-2 sales, eg. American Apparel one day, Lacoste the next, etc)

Swirl - from the people at Daily Candy (since I love them too) super fun sample sales - found out about some new stuff through them.

Shopittome - posted this link to Facebook as well, or contact me for an invitation. love this place - you enter the brands you like, and the sizes you wear, and they email you an aggregated list once (or more if you like) per week showing you all the sales on what you like.

Hautelook - awesome fashion....awesome deals - I just ordered a couple things from them, and paid $178 less than retail price. that's a lot.

RueLaLa - more amazing clothes and deals on them

Modnique - same idea - more variety

bTrendie - this one is for baby type stuff, which is not for me right now, but since 1 million friends are having kids, it's good for buying baby gifts.

some fun

i've been running around like crazy, and here's a few pictures from the craziness....i went to Minneapolis, which is gorgeous...


and the people my team and i worked with liked us enough to draw a picture of us, which was about the sweetest thing ever...


another sweet thing was getting to see our indelible grace friends play at the ryman - fun to see them all, and such a great concert..

one per week

We have had a whirlwind past month...I'm going to try and sum it up with one picture for each big thing that happened, then give you links to my photo galleries to see EVERYTHING...We went to Florence, Italy, which involved lots of fun family time, wine, gelato, lost luggage there and back, but most importantly, playing with our awesome nephew (ok, Italy deserves more than one picture):Colton wearing Uncle Bobby's glasses...twinsies!
Walking around at an old church and checking out gravestones overlooking Florence.

Then I went to the mothership upon return from Italy.Then we had a lovely Easter, complete with a balloon launch at churchThen Eddie and I built compost bins from pallets!

To see full pictures of these and many other events, please reference my MobileMe Gallery

here we go!

We have exciting adventures ahead. On Thursday, we drive to Chicago - we get to stay with Will and Mandii, and I get to meet Ashyface! On Friday, we fly to Florence to see Mark and Connie and Ross and Lindsay and Colton...that's Florence, Italy, by the way - I'm SO excited to hang out with the fam (especially the little nephew), and getting to do that in Florence....that's alright too.

Another big change is a new program at work that I'm very excited about. I will be traveling to California straight from getting into the US, and getting a week of training, after which I'll be traveling around a bit - up to 1-2 weeks/month. It's all very secretive, but that makes me feel like ALIAS. Poor Robert and Rufus will have to be alone a bit more than now. A side benefit to this position is being able to not have to do as much freelance video work...I can take projects more as I want them, and not feel like I always have work to do even when I'm not at work.

Also, Robert's almost a server at Schlafly - he's nearly done with his training. He was able to not work his Sunday shift anymore, which is awesome because we'll actually get to have a day together. He got me "How to cook everything vegetarian", and I'm beginning to list cooking as an interest on surveys now. This is a new life-chapter for me. In fact, I just made hot chocolate from scratch because I'm a hoss like that.

i know, i know...

You've been waiting to see 3 Megapixel pictures of all the fun we've had over the past month:


Visiting Houston to see Mark and Connie (and learning to make a pillow), with a fun dinnertime rendezvous with KTBU.


Ash and Bek time - planning for a baby shower for Bekah this summer and generally enjoying her baby pooch :)


Onto Austin to see my family (two of which came with us to find a javelina in an antique shop) - lots of delicious food, a little get together with Aunt Nell and Uncle Gary, and it was so good to see my family because it had been almost a year since our last trip to Austin.


An all-too-brief coffee date with Lynnie - and the promise of a sleepover-filled return.


To Nashville for Julie's wedding, sleepover with Cassie, and cuddling with Amelia (who is almost 6!!!!!)


Super Bowl party stuffed our house with work and school and church friends

And in the biggest news of all, I just finished the Twilight series, and have to say that I just don't get it. Sorry to all the Twilight-lovers out there, but I don't understand the draw.

recent Rufus

Here's a collection of what I believe are some recent "best of" Rufus moments. When you watch the videos, you will hear our Rufus voice - it may sound like Robert or me doing the talking, but it's really Rufus communicating through us.


Rufus and Rogue (Rogue is our upstairs neighbors' dog, and we share her, and Rufus loves her)


A slightly staged picture since I wasn't actually asleep of Rufus learning how to cuddle (and no, I'm not sucking my thumb)

Helping Dad study - sorry about the immodesty



Meeting the kitty next door #1



Meeting the kitty next door #2


Rufus has really taken a liking to Schlafly since Robert started working there.

He's actually holding the bottle in his paws here - his goal is to be better than the Budweiser dalmation.



We've talked about how obnoxious he is when we have a bottle of beer out, but for those of you who have not seen this in real life, we took a video last week. He never drools otherwise, but if you look closely, you can see him drooling over the almost-empty bottle. (Important disclaimer in case you think we are being irresponsible dog owners: we only give him a couple drops at the end of the bottle, and this is not something we do frequently - and, most importantly, he LOVES it) We've thought about not giving him any more tastes of beer - but it's just too funny. It must be something about the bottle because when we have IBC root beer, he acts the same way.