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

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.

things we have done in 2009

I made a list like this once on a birthday - I think 22, and it made me feel very accomplished and exciting...of course that year included my first job out of college, getting engaged and moving to nashville. This one might not live up to that, but I think it's still going to be pretty cool.

we joined South City Church (where Robert will do his intenship in 2011)
made the longest ever roadtrip to Texas with Rufus, who did quite well
the Taskers paid us a visit, which I think was the beginning of starting to like St. Louis
year one of seminary finished!
Robert got a new job at Schlafly and quit Starbucks
more Nashville friends, Chris, Dustin, Ben & Erin, moved here, making us SO happy
I nannied for the summer and fall, quit Alpine shop, and got a full-time position at the fruitstand
our third anniversary!
Robert had a reunion with all his BFFs from college and got to meet this little muffin
(along those lines, about a million friends had babies)
I have learned to like cooking (miraculous, really)
moved to a new house that gave Rufus a playmate and gave us some amazing neighbors
weddings for Kristin & John, Brooke & Brad, Chris & Lindsey, Kristin & James, Simon & Katie
went on my first real life business trip
saw U2 FINALLY! (as well as new york friends)
had a sweet (though brief) Christmas with Robert's family + the Taskers in Nashville, and then a fun surprise to see the Shays the next day back in STL.


we are so grateful for this year - it's definitely been hard at points, but as far as being able to see God growing us closer together, closer to our comunity, and closer to Him - it's been wonderful.
we already have new adventures planned for 2010 - and I will try to get back to my blogging ways so that I can let you know about them.

we took a trip

It had been fated since I met Mary Beth in RUF/Chemistry & Society that we would go see U2 together someday, so we did. We had been planning this trip since this past winter, so it was awesome to finally go. And Robert and I have spent a collective total of 2 minutes together this whole summer and fall, so he came along for NY, but not for U2. We had loads of fun and together time, and got to meet up with Steven and Hannah (our gracious hosts) and Sharee and Syndi and Jamison and Kat. It was so much fun, and only made us want to live there more! Here's some photo highlights:Right before U2 came out - Giant stadium was crazy looking!
Pausing in Central Park...
We went to Brooklyn Brewery, and Robert was a happy hippo.
This is halfway through a guava booty bun. So good. I miss these delicious treats already!

house tour

We finally got the house in fairly good shape. Most of our boxes have gotten unpacked, and there's only a few random boxes and things we had to stash in the closet/basement before we had our first little get-together over at the new place. I can't express enough how happy we are to have such fun landlords and such a wonderful place to live. Here goes the long-awaited (at least by our parents) house tour:

Front Door...yes, I did in fact letterpress that little nameplate for us - though I almost ruined the press in the process.


Entryway...our landlord, Mike, laid all that slate the week before we moved in.

This is Rufus' room - it's a little closet-room underneath the stairs where he sleeps at night and stays when we're gone. (Think Harry Potter at the Dursleys' house)


Bathroom with awesome blue tile


Living room, it's all one color (grey), even though it looks different with lighting.



Office/Dining Room/Middle Room-still kind of a work in progress


Kitchen - as suggested by Katie Rhea, we are calling this color "Love, Love" due to its tennis ball hue.


Bedroom....and


Rufus with his new friend and roommate, Rogue, who shares a backyard, hallway, and sometimes the house with us.