Goodwill Outlet

So since we've moved to St. Louis there are 2 things I have become a HUGE fan of. The free section on Craig's List and the Goodwill Outlet. We have an app on our phone for Craig's List where a few times a day (if I'm being disciplined) I can glance on the free section and see if anythings been posted that we can use either in our house or our other missionary houses. Honestly I think St. Louis must be one of the cities that utilized this the best because I glanced around on Indianapolis' free section and there was only a fraction of what I find in St. Louis. If you are patient enough and a little crafty you could more then likely furnish your whole home with free stuff from Craig's List here in St. Louis.

Now, just about a month ago Goodwill opened a Goodwill Outlet here in St. Louis. Keep in mind it's an outlet which means this store has all the items that didn't sell in the greater St. Louis Goodwill stores. So you're never sure what you'll find. The truth is the majority of it is junk but there's about a quarter of it that is GREAT (if you happen to be there at the right time) with just a little cleaning once you get your items back home. Oh, and you can't possibly beet the prices. It's something close to $0.39 cents a pound for books and clothes and then $0.79 cents a pound for other items. They do have furniture that is priced individually but most of it is under $10. So yesterday Randy, Mona & I along with some other staff decided to stop by and see what they had.

We left with at least a dozen books for Mona + a few for ourselves, this Playskool; Cool Crew Vacuum (on Amazon is going for $27),

this Magna Doodle (Amazon $10),
this Fisher Price Alligator Xylophone (on Amazon is going for $13),

and a few other miscellaneous items all for $12!!!! So although the trip to the Goodwill Outlet is exhausting and leaves my hands feeling like there covered with a film of filth. It's so worth it when I get home clean everything up and realized just what a savings we made on the items. Honestly they all look like new!!! If you have a Goodwill Outlet in your city I strongly encourage you go and experience it at least once for yourself.

The Doctor.

Before we were allowed to take Mona home from the hospital she was born in we had to designate a primary pediatrician Doctor for her. Having only been in St. Louis 3 weeks I hadn't begun to start thinking about that since I wasn't sure where to start. It wasn't like we had a lot of friends in the area to give us recommendations or staff that had children yet. So what did we do? Well, Randy & I were eager to get Mona home and so we got online and started looking up Doctors that were covered by our insurance. We did our best to choose one based on what we could read about them online.

Thankfully we found a great Doctor in the Cardinal Glennon practice (Cardinal Glennon is the Riley of St. Louis). Our pediatrician is also associated with the local medical school so it was very common that have a student come in and "practice" what they had learned with Mona and then our primary Doctor would come and check everything over. I must admit there were a few people I prayed wouldn't choose pediatrics as their line of work while others blew the socks off of me with their knowledge and confidence.

With Cardinal Glennon being in a hospital they tend to address typical routine appointments with a little bit of a medical flare to it. For example, when Mona gets blood work done she doesn't get a typical band aid on her heel or hand. No they use medical tape and wrap it around so many times it ends up looking like a baby cast when we leave. They also gave me a gown at every wellness check up to put Mona in. I have done my best to take pictures of Mona at every appointment in her little gown to mark her growth. I believe I got all but her 12 month check up due to a long drawn out emotional break down of Mona's. So bellow is Mona from her first appointment to her most recent appointment last week - her 2 year check up.

Mona at her 1st appointment

Mona at her 3 month appointment

Mona at her 6 month appointment






Mona at her 9 month appointment

Mona at her 18 month appointment

(just about as difficult as her 12 month)

Mona at her 2 year appointment