2008 August: Robertson

Hello everyone,

Let me see if I can get you all caught up to date on the Robertson family. The move went smooth enough. It took us two days to drive to Rochester, MN from Rexburg. My parents drove the moving van which was a complete life saver. We can never thank them enough. Morgan's family gave us dinner that night and we crashed shortly after that. The next day we drove to Winona since we had an appointment to get our apartment. But, when we showed up to the appointment, the lady wasn't ready for us. She said that she didn't expect us to actually show up and so she had scheduled another appointment over the top of ours. I couldn't believe it. She then wanted to reschedule for a week following, but we explained that we had a moving truck full of stuff that we were expecting to unload into an apartment. She had us come back in an hour. We ended up getting the apartment. It is a two bedroom, two story town house with an unfinished basement. It is a pretty nice place. And we are getting it subsidized – even nicer. The person who “lived” here was a police informant for a rather large drug bust that happened in the area here, but we haven't seen anything to do with that since living here unless you count the random notes that are slipped into our mailbox with large unmarked bills folded into them (cough).

We were able to unload the truck that day and head back to Rochester. We said good-bye to my parents the next day as they went back to Idaho. We miss them and everyone back in that part of the country. We then got back into the car and drove another four hours to Duluth,MN for Morgan's family reunion. During the reunion we drove around Duluth, went for scenic drives, and drove to a light house. Needless to say, I have been avoiding my car like death since we came back to Winona. Duluth was enjoyable and we did get to play in Lake Superior. Well, we watched Kyla and Daria play in Lake Superior while we tried to keep them from going into deep water.

A little over a week after we signed the contract for the apartment, we finally came to our apartment to stay. Unpacking wasn't that bad. We had everything basically unpacked and put away in a couple days. Winona is an interesting town. It is in a very narrow valley with green bluffs on either side. On one side of the valley next to one wall of bluffs is the Mississippi river, on the other side of the valley against the opposite side of bluffs are a few small lakes, in between all said bodies of water is Winona. It gets humid here. There are several large churches in the town and some very nice 1800's old houses. One of the older mansions is for sale. So if you are willing to cough up a couple million dollars and want to live in a house on the national registry of historic landmarks, the mansion is yours.

Morgan and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary by going out to dinner. There is no place in this town to have a nice dinner. But if you want a bar and grill or a pub and grille (yes, we have both kinds), this is your town. The place we went to (one of the bar and grill variety – it was recommended), everything of that dining experience can be summed up with this little observation. In the room we were dining in, there was a large hole in the ceiling. Instead of fixing it, the management stuck a stuffed leg with a boot on it into the hole and left it dangling down for the entire world to see. We don't think we will go back.

School started for me already. I am taking three classes (the minimum) and working in the writing center as I prepare my class to teach for the winter semester. The books for my classes ended up costing around $400. I am going through about one and a half books a week plus articles. School has very quickly eaten up all of my time. I am usually gone by 8:30 am and usually get back home at 7:30 pm. It makes for long days for both myself and Morgan. I am enjoying my classes. I have been pleased that so much philosophy has been coming up as I study different theories. My background in philosophy is serving me well.

The branch that we are in is small (60-70 people every Sunday), but everyone there is very friendly to us. So friendly that after the meetings were over on our first Sunday, I was asked to teach the Priesthood lesson for the following Sunday. I ended up teaching the lesson on my second Sunday in the branch blissfully unaware of anyone's name and calling – including the stake president who was sitting right next to me. It was finally pointed out half way through the lesson who and what he was (we were talking about Priesthood keys – someone made a good connection). Ah, ignorance. The young women are enraptured with the girls and mob Morgan and the girls every week after church. They want to babysit and have assured us on several occasions that they are old enough. I have been called as the Young Men's President and am currently trying to get a presidency together. I have three active priests and two active deacons. I am still hazy on how many inactives there are. Morgan is still without a calling, but the primary president is moving out in a couple weeks and the Branch president keeps telling her that they are “waiting for the right spot and the right time.” In the meantime, she plays piano for the Relief Society and has been told to also expect another assignment leading music. Whew! I think that I have covered everything that has happened during this crazy month. We wish you all the best and love you all. If you are every in the Twin Cities area (or Wisconsin, Iowa, or maybe Chicago) let us know and we could try to meet. Our door is always open if you want to take a road trip.

God bless,

The Robertsons


P.S. Here is the new address and phone number:

775 E Belleview St. Apt B
Winona, MN 55987
507.452.1365

P.P.S. we will try and get a blog up and going soon so you can see pictures