moving on

Some of you have asked about what we're up to with all this talk of packing and apartment hunting...
Well, we're moving to the Bay Area...that's right...California.
I've been working from a distance for lark since May, and now that Robert's graduating (yay!), it's time to make the move. We're going to be living in the San Mateo area (which is between San Francisco proper and Cupertino).
We're excited and nervous...and I may post more here...but I've been blogging a little more over at my fancy lifestyle blog: mudpiemagnolia
I've included a list of FAQ on the move:

When are you moving? At the end of December. My sweet in-laws are going to help with final packing.

What's Robert going to do? Robert will be eating bonbons and watching Duck Dynasty...or helping with a start-up missional coffee shop (more details to come once it's launched - but it's awesome) 

Is it more expensive to live in SF? Um, absolutely. It is ridiculous. But there's really cool stuff to do and eat.

Will you stop and visit me on your cross-country move? Sounds great. Tell us where you are and what's for dinner.

Will you miss St. Louis? STL has definitely grown on us, and we're going to miss a lot of things about it...especially our friends :(

Can I visit? PLEASE! We love visitors! Rufus will share his bed with you.

i know...it's silly

I haven't updated our blog in almost a year, but that's what happens when you get a crazy new internship-style job for a year, and you're barely home. You forget about things like blogging. I'm not going to promise I'll be posting everyday or anything, but at least thought I should share some of what happened in the past 10 months.

I went to (in order): Cupertino, London, Atlanta, Portland, Dallas, Kansas City, LA, Anchorage, Toronto, Phoenix, Cupertino again, and Chicago. Also, throw in a couple trips to Tennessee, Texas, and New York. Robert got to hang out on some of those trips too...like Texas...and Torchy's. yum.

it's a snow day...let's go back in time

I went through a bunch of old papers and things from growing up, and it was pretty awesome:

First up, a page from my detective cases - I had a notebook that had "PRIVATE!" written across it and really wanted to be Harriet the Spy for a bit...I like that serious case #1 is a beer party...very serious. I think it was because I found some bottles thrown in our backyard.


I seemed to think of myself as quite the angel as demonstrated in the next two drawings:


This was my ideal resolution to an argument Daniel and I were having...on the previous page I had drawn all my problems from the day, and on this page I drew resolutions to them. Resolution to argument...Daniel realizing the error of his ways.

List-making from the beginning...I was cool, I liked to latch-hook.

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