2008 October: Robertson

Greetings all,

Derik had a birthday, shout hooray! We sang to him earlier this month. One year older and wiser too... Happy birthday, Derik, to you! Yes, we started out the month celebrating Derik's birthday. We went to my parent's and celebrated Derik's birthday and my little brother's 16th birthday too. Derik did homework with most all of his “free time” except during key moments, like conference. We really enjoyed listening to what the prophet, apostles, and other leaders had to teach. Derik got a dutch oven for his birthday-he is excited to get to try it out although I'm not sure when that will be. Derik also wants me say thank you for his many warm birthday wishes and birthday gifts. They were all wonderful!

Derik also went to a graduate appreciation dinner and speaker. He felt it a rather pointless event unless “what 15th century students wrote in the margins of their textbook has significance to you.” That and the thought of giving overworked/stressed graduate students a “thank you” by having them listen to a lecture has some serious problems with it as well. But he still thought the dinner itself was nice. Who doesn't like a free dinner?

Morgan was released from her 2 week old calling of a primary presidency 2nd councilor and called to be the Primary president instead. That has kept me pretty busy trying to figure out everything, especially since I am still learning names and faces of people in the branch. It's been a new experience for me, but a good one. I am also giving a talk in church in a week We have also begun feeding the missionaries dinner every other week and we are endeavoring for the “wow” factor with these meals so the missionaries (and us) have a nice, fun dinner to look forward too. This has been fun to do, but also a lot of work. Our last meal was homemade butternut squash tortellini in a brown butter, cranberry-sage sauce (YUMMY!) and cornish game hen. Then there was bread, salad, and a chocolate hazelnut pudding cake for dessert. So, if any of you have any good ideas or recipes, we are always looking and would appreciate any ideas you have to offer!

Kyla and Daria have grown a bit of an attachment to the Muppets this past month. If the TV is off, or if we are watching something different, they will holler and scream and just plain be noisy until we give in and turn the Muppets on for them. I'm trying to break them of this “habit.” I think it might take a while.

Halloween has been a bit strenuous on the girls. There was a church Halloween carnival a few days before Halloween. I went without Derik but with the girls and when we go to church, a few girls in their costumes rushed up to say how cute they looked and spooked the girls pretty badly. They proceeded to scream as soon as anyone came anywhere near them for the next 2 hours. I had a headache that night.

Thankfully, they got over their fears enough for the real Halloween. Kyla decided to be especially festive and choose Halloween morning to trip over a pillow and hit her head on the corner of our coffee table. What's Halloween with out a little blood and gore and a trip to the ER? Derik was out with the car so we walked to the ER...only a block away thankfully, and they glued her cut shut...the perfect Halloween accessory...unless you are Alice in Wonderland-like Kyla and Daria were. Poor Kyla. Later that night, we went to my parents for Trick-or-Treating. Kyla and Daria loved running between houses and up to the doors. As soon as we got to the doors the girls wanted held until they got their candy and could run to the next house. They had a lot of fun and so did mom and dad watching them in their cute outfits having so much fun.

I think that does it for us this month. We look forward to hearing from all of you.


Derik, Morgan, Kyla, and Daria Robertson

P.s. in order to see Halloween pictures and others travel to idiosyncraticparade.blogspot.com