2009 May: Robertson

Hello Everyone,

Okay, so I am trying to remember what happened during the month of May. Starting at the beginning of the month, I finished my crazy, hectic semester at school. I was a bit nervous coming out of those classes, but I managed to pull everything off. So, half way through my master’s degree, I still have a 4.0. I hope that I will be able to maintain this trend. So over the summer I will be working on two different internships (neither paid) for the university. Both aimed at building my resume. I have the first assignment that I need to work on for my comprehensive tests next spring. I need to get going on studying for those tests.

After school let out, I started helping different individuals move. During the month, I moved three different individuals/families. At least I know that I’m needed. During all of this moving of furniture, we were able to get Morgan’s parents’ old wooden table. I stripped the damaged finish off of it and have spent the past few days with Morgan refinishing the table. It is looking really nice.

One weekend I took the boy scouts on a 15 mile overnight camping/hiking trip. Friday night, it rained pretty constantly all night so we didn’t do a lot of hiking. Instead we sat under a tarp and kept warm by some hot coals. Saturday we ended up taking a wrong turn and going cross country for a few miles. Cross country ended up being hiking up and down ravine after ravine and through some heavy marsh areas. We eventually found our trail again. Our final destination for our hike was an old town site that was abandoned in the 1920s. The town was flooded (according to our map) 23 times in one year by the neighboring river. I don’t blame anyone in the town who packed up and left. On our hike, we were able to stop at a really old cemetery belonging to a family of homesteaders. It was interesting to see the little cemetery (only 9? graves) tucked away in a ravine. I doubt very many people even know of its existence. It was a good trip. I surprised myself by how well I was able to do with the long hike. I guess all of the walking I have been doing during the last year or so paid off.

Other than that my church calling has been keeping me busy and mostly out of trouble. Kyla and Daria, on the other hand, find trouble to be the ideal state to be in. They are constantly creating messes or fighting or demanding something (most of the time they want fruit snacks). When they are not terrorizing each other or us, they are really sweet. They like to give hugs and kisses. They are starting to say “please” and “thank you.” And both are starting to police the other when it comes to folding arms for prayers. Prayers will usually turn into both of them scolding the other for not folding her arms. It gets rather funny at times.

This month Morgan has fully admitted to herself that she looks pregnant. She brought out her maternity clothes and “had” to go and get some more. I just got a look for putting that word in quotation marks. She enjoyed having a primary activity this month where the children planted seeds, went article of faith fishing, and figured out other puzzles and games. She seemed to like the activity – even if it was sparsely attended.

We attended two wedding receptions this month in Rochester for some of Morgan’s friends from high school and growing up. It was nice to be able to spend some not so stressful time with her family. Other than that, Morgan is getting ready for the baby. She has gone garage sale hopping once so she could get some boy clothes for the little one. She can see her stomach move now when he kicks hard. Some of his kicks have led to some interesting jerk reactions. At least no one has been too badly injured from his actions. All and all, we are happy and doing well. We hope that everyone is doing well. We miss and love you. If anyone wants a road trip to the Midwest this summer, our door is open.

Derik, Morgan, Kyla, Daria, and Captain Obvious

p.s. as you can tell, we are still looking for names. Any suggestions would be great.