it's summah-time!

We've been all busy, and aren't really slowing down now that it's summer. So here's some updates!

Robert finished his first year of seminary! Hooray! Finals are all done, and there's no more school til August. We're already getting to see each other more.

The day Robert finished finals, we went to go look at a place to live this fall...and we decided to go for it. It's on the bottom floor of a 2.5 story house. The people that own the house go to Covenant, and are going to let us share a backyard, internet, a doggie door, and most importantly....a fire pit for s'mores. We're going to be moving at the end of July and be in a cheaper place without mold on the ceiling and pee in the hallway and WITH an awesome park and a cool family to share the house with us. So yay!

Also changing for us is our job situations. As I type, Robert is at training for Schlafly (a St Louis brewery), where he will be working in addition to Starbucks - at least for now. Also, I quit the Alpine Shop because next week I start nannying 2-3 days per week for a 5 month old little girl.

We're also planning on camping and going to Nashy for a wedding, so our summer will be busy, but a lot more fun than studying...and it's so wonderful and warm!

If you have a minute to pray for our friend Ruthie, please do so. She was in a car accident in high school, and the injuries from that accident are keeping her in chronic pain. She needs surgery to help correct some of this pain, but that surgery costs $100,000 that won't be covered by insurance. Some amazing people are throwing a benefit concert for her in Nashville this week, so if you're in town and want to go, it'll be awesome. Or just pray for her and that this concert will raise a lot of money for her.

And Ross and Lindsay are leaving for Italy on June 15th, and need to raise more money to really cover their support. Pray that they'll be able to raise this money quickly, and that it doesn't get in the way of their transition to Florence.

We'll check in soon!

look at our fun weekend!

Robert's in finals, bluh. But once he's done, we're going to actually see each other - hooray!

No huge updates, but here's a few pics from our fun weekend with Nate and Cassie. We knew we missed them lots, but having them visit for a couple days made us realize we REALLY miss them, and there's no way we can go this long without seeing them again. Lots of fun, lots of laughs.





You don't quite get the full effect of the Arch here, but it's big. I also have to include my favorite quote by Cassie ever..."Sometimes, chocolate is the only good thing in a day"
That's why I like her.

Now that the Taskers left, we're diving back into work for a week, then heading to Nashville for Kristin and James' wedding.

Til next time...

hop around

This was quite the week....we had our friend Brooke Waggoner visit us with her band because she was playing a show here. Robert actually got to see them, I got off work too late (boo). We had Rufus' first training lesson with the amazing Hillary. He's almost angelic now. We considered getting another puppy, and had to pass on it because of time and money, which was sad (I was crying during church, which Robert said was good because it made me look legit). I have been working on several photo sideshows for rehearsal dinners. We both have been talking about job transitions and will be feeling out what that would look like over the next few weeks, so we'd appreciate your prayers on those things. We went to a very yummy Easter lunch with Josh and Caylee. Whew, it was busy.
Robert gets off Starbucks in about an hour, so we finally get to go to the Y together. I'm not going to be taking him to my step and sculpt class yet because I don't think he's ready for it. That, and I look awkward dancing around on a step like it's the early 90s.
We're going to Nashville in 2 weeks for Anna-Ruth's wedding, and are definitely looking forward to it. And, since we'll be missing the Taskers yet againin Nashville, they have decided to drop by St. Louis en route to tour dates. We are SO stoked to see them, because last time we saw them was right before we drove off in our moving truck.

I'm off to scan more pictures, but here's Rufus (in the front) and Belle (my parents' dog) from when we were in Texas - exhausted from running around all day. They're pretty cute.

we went to texas: a pictoral adventure

Although you can't tell from my face in this picture Robert snapped, I was really stoked to be in Texas.











Danica came with us to Amy's Ice Cream, and we hung out with the cows for a while. This poor guy had lost his ear since the last time I saw him.











Robert had not eaten it off, though that's what he'd like you to think.












We got cupcakes from "Hey Cupcake" on South Congress. This is Kara, who is now as tall as me even though she's 11 years younger.

















Rufus knows how to swim now! He was a little nervous because he couldn't remember swimming with Aunt Grace when he was a baby, but once he got in there, he loved it.












I also got to see my friends Ashley and Bekah - BFFs since 10th grade.


I sort of stopped taking pictures halfway through the trip, but it also included seeing Lynn, Shelley, Christa and little Sada, Emily, Ceci and Tim, my family and Robert's family.

I'm also very proud of how well we did on gas money - we had allotted just the right amount (thank you eBay sales), and then ended up with some extra (thanks families!) and were able to put that towards our meals on the road.

We also had some money saved to do a little outlet shopping, and we both came away with some fabulous deals - for example...$300 jeans for $5. Yeah, we're amazing bargain hunters.

It was so nice to see our families and be in Texas. Also, on a side note, Mary Beth and I bought U2 tickets today. We will be seeing them in NYC in September. I decided this was the year - that even though it would cost a little bit to go see them, I would get to see MB and U2, and would just save up and enjoy it. So anyway, we have tickets to a sold out show. It's going to be crazy!

off to texas!

Well look at that - a month since my last post. Sorry, faithful readers.
I've been editing a lot and working - you know how it goes. However, the editing is slowing down for the moment, which is nice as far as having a break, but we will be missing the income. Boo. I'm currently looking for jobs, as I have been since we moved to STL. I might keep one of the three current jobs as a part time gig even if I find something else, but I've been praying hard about what God might be calling me to do. I hope it's not standing at a cash register - I've learned a lot of patience by doing that, but I don't want to do that long term.
I have met some super interesting people in the training that I do at the job I'm prohibited from mentioning explicitly on the web. Take a guess. Anyway, just in the past week, I met the first woman to dead lift 3 times her body weight - she holds all the weightlifting records. I also met someone who was involved in the Apollo 13 and Gemini missions as support staff. Then I helped another man who is in charge of much of the liturgical institute for the Catholic church. Some of these people are so super interesting, and I wish I could ask them all to a dinner party.
We're heading to Texas on Saturday - and taking Rufus with us. We're looking forward to seeing my family, and to seeing Mark and Connie's new place in Houston. We're obviously hitting up Amy's ice cream as much as our gift cards allow. Rufus has never made more than a 5 hour drive, so we're hoping he behaves himself. When we get back in town, he's getting personal training sessions - I guess it's his early birthday present. We hope it improves the inside (and outside, for that matter) rowdiness a little.
Yee-haw, see you when we return from Austin/Houston.

culinary adventures

I just had to rave about the chili I made on Thursday night. I used to completely hate cooking, but since we've moved to Saint Louis, it's started to grow on me a little. It's definitely making me put "dishwasher" on our list of must-haves when we move out of this place. Anyway, I've been reading a recipe site called Epicurious, and made Vegetarian Black Bean Chili with Orange and Cumin. I'm a big fan of orange flavor surprising me in foods, so it was awesome. I'm posting the recipe so that you can try it and love it - because it wasn't hard, and it was yummy. The only change I made was to half the amount of onion, which I felt was a good choice as the onion remained subtle. Subtle onions are always better. p.s. I sold my aforementioned jeans on ebay for more than what I paid for them. I'm afraid that I'm about to turn into the kind of person who sells stuff on ebay for their entire income. And that I'm also going to start being all Martha Stewart posting recipes on here. Get ready!

Vegetarian Chili with Orange and Cumin (from Bon Appetit)

yield: Makes 4 servings (plus leftovers)

active time: 30 minutes

total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 oranges
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 4 garlic cloves, pressed
• 4 teaspoons chili powder
• 4 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 15.5-ounce cans seasoned black beans, drained
• 2 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes in juice
• Hot pepper sauce
• Sour cream or plain yogurt
• Chopped fresh cilantro

Preparation

Grate enough orange peel to measure 1 1/2 teaspoons. Juice oranges. Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions; sauté 5 minutes. Mix in garlic and spices. Add beans, tomatoes, and half of orange juice. Simmer over medium heat until heated through and flavors blend, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Mix in orange peel and remaining orange juice. Season to taste with hot sauce, salt, and pepper. Ladle chili into bowls. Top with sour cream and cilantro. Pass extra hot sauce alongside.

a little update

Well hello, faithful blog-readers. I promised myself that I wouldn't update this until I had a real break from wedding editing. FINALLLLLLY.
So I have a little half self-imposed, half hard drive space-imposed break. Amazing how you can fill up a Terabyte hard drive so quickly.
Not too much is new here. Robert started a new semester, we had a real live snowstorm, I'm selling jeans on eBay for at least what I paid for them, hopefully more. I'm also trying to get all these boxes of stuff I've had for years out of the way. I realized that I've moved a lot in the past 8 years. Let's count, shall we? 10 times. And I realized that I really don't want to keep moving 6 shoeboxes and tubs with me each time I move. So I got a couple scrapbooks and got vicious on the memories.
Tomorrow we're going to Nashville to spend time with baby nephew Colton and the rest of the fam - I'm so excited. I got him the cutest toy ever....get excited, Colt.
This is not a very exciting update, but I'll leave you with some very cute pictures of Rufus and Franny (Jason and Megan's dog) playing in the snow. They do look vicious, don't they?