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You wish you worked here

Jen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:17:22 +0000

Check it out! Zappos.com ranked #15 in Fortune’s 2010 “100 Best Companies to Work For“! I’d say that’s a pretty amazing feat considering that 1) Zappos has only been around since 1999, 2) we’re still pretty small with less than 2k employees, 3) and it’s not a great economy (to put it politely).

And when you have turned back

Jen — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:21:43 +0000

Great post by Jon Acuff at Stuff Christians Like

Saturday’s Amishness

Jen — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:58:06 +0000

We had Amish Saturday this past weekend and it was great! What a wonderful time to relax and converse together and to be convicted about our reliance on modern technology and media.

Here’s what we did:
- I got up with Dinah and gave Dan another hour of sleep
- We had a quiet breakfast of cereal and waffles while watching Dinah play
- We played a lot with Dinah
- I walloped Dan in Monopoly
- Dan took a nap
- I read a substantial amount in a book
- I utilized my crock pot to make a new pot roast (sorry, Dan!) recipe that I thought was delicious!
- Like usual, he beat me in Clue
- We got to read in the book we’re reading out loud together
- I got to spend good time in the Word
- We got to go to bed early!

Birthday Boy!

Jen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:39:40 +0000

Monday, June 22 was Dan’s 28th birthday!!! He woke up to a bowl of Happy Birthday Raisin Bran, a birthday card, a living obituary (yes, I wrote him an obituary for his birthday), a gift, and a sweet baby experiencing her first birthday party (albeit a very small one). We sang and told Dan how much we love him and appreciate him and then he ate his Happy Birthday Raisin Bran. We’re so blessed to have you in our lives, Love!

Four way stops

Jen — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:03:02 +0000

This is a funny blog post about four way stops. If you’ve ever ridden with Dan or me, you know it’s a blessing that we have a year before Dinah can talk during which to teach ourselves to stop yelling at the other drivers.

HT: What’s Best Next

28 on the 28th!!!

Dan — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:49:06 +0000

A birthday poem I write for my mate
Today she has turned twenty and eight
She deserves more than candles and cakes
And since she’s pregnant raised are the stakes
I must do something that’s romantic
But that isn’t overly dramantic
Me in a costume complete with a saber
If I did that she’d begin labor
Instead I’ll list in this public sphere
Why I’ll love her her twenty-ninth year
For the wife she is and mom she’ll be
and how she helps me find my lost key
For how she care for me when I’m sick
And how she’s like a clock without tick
For how she can’t stand a dirty sink
And how she gets me out of a kink
I love her hair stuck on my pillows
I ever love her now water-filled toes
For her nose that honks like a geezer
And because she’s such a loud sneezer
Since she’ll go to eat at White Castle
And though I joke she’s not a hassle
I love that she drinks sugar with tea
I love that she chose to be with me
These fourteen reasons I enumerate
Doubling that number yields twenty-eight
Infinite reasons I could provide
To show my love for my birthday bride
Twenty-eight she is older she’ll be
No matter how old she’s loved by me

Left-handedness and 120 Tater Tots

Dan — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:42:29 +0000

It all started over three years ago not too long after Jen and I had gotten engaged. We were at a friend’s wedding in southern Missouri. Jen and a friend of our’s, Dani Kuntz, were going to get something to eat while Dave (Dani’s husband) and I hung out at the church to get ready for the wedding of another Dave (Becker). Jen told me they were going to Sonic and asked me if I wanted anything and I replied that I wanted 120 tater tots. Needless to say, Jen did not bring me back 120 tater tots (I don’t think she brought even 1). Since then, it’s been a running joke that she still owes those tater tots.

Well, as of yesterday, the debt has been paid. For those of you who don’t know (and I imagine all of you fall into this category), yesterday, August 13th, was National Left Hander’s Day. Jen had been promising me a present for it and I’m sure I might have hinted that I thought I deserved one. So Jen drove me with my eyes closed to Sonic. Here, I would like to inform the world of my excellent navigational abilities – even with my eyes closed, I knew exactly where we were. Jen had called Sonic earlier and arranged to have them prepare the abnormal amount of tater tots for us:

There’s still a lot in our fridge.

And here’s your fun left-handed fact of the day: while only approximately 7 – 10 percent of the population is left-handed, 4 of the last 6 U.S. Presidents were lefties. But we do have lots of trouble crossing paths with others.

Grandma Tour 2008

Jen — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:44:37 +0000

We recently had a wonderful opportunity to travel around the midwest visiting relatives that we pretty much never get to see. Please don’t think from my title that I’m being sarcastic or offensive: quite literally, we saw all but one of our grandmothers and it was a great time!

It all started with Dan’s great-grandmother’s 100th birthday celebration on Saturday the 19th. We drove to St. Louis on Thursday night, then caravanned with Dan’s parents to teeny-tiny Trenton, MO where both Grandma Sharon and Great-Grandma Keen live. We got together with all the family that night for dinner to celebrate Grandma Sharon’s upcoming birthday, then had the big celebration for Great-Grandma Keen the next day, complete with family luncheon and public reception. You’d have to ask Lisa, but I’d say there were over 200 people that came to visit over the course of the day (little gymnast decided mom should have a nap halfway through the celebration). Dan says the average age of those in attendance was somewhere around 72. That night, Grandma Sharon threw a little birthday party for our neice who’s 3rd birthday it was! Whew!

We left on Sunday around lunchtime and headed north to central Iowa, where my family has been farming for over 100 years. We lodged at the Hometown Inn in the teeny, teeny-tiny town of Clarion. Dan and I had wonderful chicken fried steak at The Family Table restaurant in Humboldt, Iowa with the Heftys (yes, that’s my maiden name, stop with the mockery!) on Sunday night, then had 3 days of fantastic visiting and food (and ice cream) with my parents, Grandma Hefty, Grandma Kraft, Uncle Garry and Aunt Sandy, and Aunt Marian. If you haven’t said to yourself “holy cow, you were busy,” you really have no appreciation for this trip, the people we saw, and the driving we did!

We left on Thursday morning to head back to St. Louis because there was still one birthday celebration to go! Our neice had a great time at her third birthday party and even got a big girl present that has a bell on the handle bars!

We were so glad to be able to go on this trip even though it was entirely exhausting! We had such a great time seeing everyone again. Norrin (our car) was able to let his horses run to the tune of 2000 miles and I’m not exaggerating!

She’s Quite the Little Gymnast

Jen — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:43:20 +0000

OK, I’m pretending that today is 7/11 instead of 8/5.

That’s right, SHE is quite the little gymnast. Today at our ultrasound, we learned not only that our baby is a girl, but also that she’s quite active. She was flipping all around, waving her hands, moving her legs, and poking her little behind out at us. We’re ecstatic! We really didn’t have any preference on the gender, but both thought she would be a he based on absolutely nothing at all.

Zappos on Nightline

Jen — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:59:47 +0000

If you don’t know, I’m a software developer for Zappos.com, an internet retailer of shoes, apparel, accessories, electronics, etc. Their headquarters are in Las Vegas and their warehouse is just south of Shepherdsville, KY, which is where I work. It’s my favorite job so far and that’s mainly because of the great company culture and emphasis on customer service which is so lacking in our larger culture these days. If you aren’t an online shopper, just try Zappos and you’ll never go to another brick and mortar shoe store again!

Recently, Nightline did a story on Zappos. You can watch it here. It’ll be in the box on the right side of the screen. It’s a great video to see some of what Zappos is about.