2009 June: Hope

Well this month we moved to Provo to a gov subsidized apartment. It has 3 bedrooms which is nice to have an office and more room to put stuff. It is closer to Michelle's brother and sister-in-law.

I also got a job at a place called dream dinners, it is a place were you go and make dinners and take them home a freeze them until you eat them. Everything is cut and ready all you have to do is measure out the amount and put into Ziplock bags. It is a fun place.

I am also in a Bagpipe band which preformed at some events, since I do not know the tunes I get to play the Bass Drum, it is very fun, for some of the jigs I get to dance around with it.

Scott and Kyle are growing a lot. They are liking it at the new apt, they have lots of boys around the same age that live around us, which makes it nice to have them play outside.

I have one more month left of this semester of school and then a month off, and I am looking forward to it. Well hope everyone is doing good.

Jason Hope

2009 June: Bates

Is it bad that I can hardly remember June?

Let's see... we celebrated my sister Marnee's BDay early in the month, moved her apartment into my garage during the month, and celebrated her husband Dan's BDay at the end of the month.

So, Marnee & Dan are moving to Kansas to further his education. But, they have no where to move to, so we packed up her apartment and moved everything into my garage. When they get a place to move to, we will do it all again.

For their BDay celebrations we went to Tucanos Brazillian Grille and ate inordinate amounts of meat. It was the closest thing to heaven I've experienced outside the temple (ok... well maybe not... but it was dang good).

The rest of the month was occupied with wedding preparations for Tamara's sister, Leah. She is getting married in July, so we are all running errands until then. I think it will turn out great.

Orianna can stand up without the aid of objects now. She will take a step here and there, but never more than 3. She also gets really mad when we taunt her by holding objects a few steps away and forcing her to walk for them. She will knit her brow and shake her head "no" to show her disapproval.

Well, that pretty much sums up June. Cheers,
-The Bateses

2009 June: North

We’ve had a very busy, and enjoyable month. We’ve been living with my grandparents now for about 6 weeks. We are enjoying getting to know them better. It’s nice to be able to learn from their strengths and experiences.

We had the first of three family reunions this last weekend. We went to a girl’s camp near Twin Falls. We made some PVC pipe rocket launchers. One of the uncles brought his air compressor, so we could recharge the launchers quickly and easily. I’ll bet our little paper rockets went 30 to 40 feet in the air. It was a fun, inexpensive, and all the parts are reusable. It was hard to say goodbye to family members and know that we won’t see them again before we leave for WV.

The week before that Becky went to go visit her family. She was gone for a whole week! We must still qualify as newlyweds because we really missed each other. Her younger sister had just returned from Chile so Becky wanted to get to be with her before we left. She spent most of her free time sewing and shopping. She got to be a kid at home again for the last time. On Thursday of that week I went to Rexburg to be with my family for a couple of days. I enjoyed being a kid at home again for the last time. Then on Saturday I drove over to Becky’s home and we were able to be there when her sister reported on her mission.

Today we went to a baby blessing for Blaze Hudson Pardo, Camille and Juan’s new little boy. Juan gave the blessing in Spanish, the 50% that I understood sounded very good. After church we went over to Camille and Juan’s for a family BBQ. We had a great time talking and eating together. Isn’t family wonderful! In the two weeks before we leave we have two family reunions, so we’ll be busy, but happy.

God bless,

Stewart and Becky

2009 June: Robertson

Greetings everyone,

June was a busy month - probably too busy. I will try to keep this short and just focus in the highlights. We were in Rochester a lot this month celebrating birthdays and going to stake meetings. The time for youth conference is winding down so I have been riding the youth on my committee pretty hard to get their assignments in and done. It’s hard trying to get others to accomplish a task without procrastinating when their inclination is to do just that. But I think that the youth conference will go off just fine. I finished one internship for the common book on campus and started the other internship for the film class. I had to miss a week and I have been struggling to get back into the swing of things with that class. I picked up a temporary job over the summer evaluating papers and assignments from the business department on the WSU campus. The business department is trying to get accredited with some prestigious business program. In order to do that, they need to have a certain level of performance in their students and faculty. I was asked to go over the assignments and assignment sheets to see if 1) the students are performing at an acceptable level (they aren’t) and 2) see if the faculty are creating challenging assignments and rubrics that are straightforward and clear (some are). It has been interesting. My report to the business department by the time this is over will probably go something like “Good luck – you have a loooooong way to go.” But then I will have to say something constructive.

The biggest event of the month was the week I was gone to the Aaronic Priesthood Encampment. All of Minnesota’s 8 stakes were represented at the encampment. There were over 1200 people at a little scout camp. We had a blast at the camp. The mission president talked to the young men about serving missions. President Gibson, 1^st councilor in the General Young Men’s Presidency, spent a few days with the young men and talked to them. There were Sacred Grove experiences for the youth and then typical Boy Scout activities – climbing walls, guns, canoes, service projects, etc. I spent the week getting my leader training which entailed me spending most of all day everyday inside sitting on a chair. But I am now fully trained Adult leader for Boy Scouts. Next stop is Woodbadge. The only down side to the camp (as far as I am concerned) was the ticks. In the 6 days we were there, I found about 20 crawling on me and another three that were attached to my person. I dispatched of those blood suckers promptly with my pocket knife. There was a tick battlefield full of tick carnage on the inside of my tent. Other than that, it was great.

While I was at camp, Morgan and the girls spent the week at her parents’ place. They went swimming about everyday and the girls loved it. They started to actually jump into the pool. Morgan was also able to spend some time with some of her old friends who moved back to Rochester. Morgan’s favorite part of the week was all of the extra help that she received in watching the girls. She was able to relax a bit more than normal.

After I came back from camp, I took Morgan on a date. We went to see The Tempest put on by the Great River Shakespeare festival here in Winona. It was a very good play. I hadn’t seen it in a while and got a lot out of it as I watched it that I don’t remember from the last time I read/watched it. It was nice to be able and go out and enjoy each other’s company. Between the pregnancy, the girls, and school, it doesn’t happen as often as either of us would like it to.

I think that does it for us. We think about all of you often. Wishing you the best,

Derik and family