2010 June: Robertson

Hello Everyone,

Well, June was a very hectic month. We made some very large purchases in the month or at least initiated some large purchases. We realized since I will be doing a lot of commuting over the next several years with school and work that it was time to get a second car. Since prices and selection of vehicles are much better in and around Chicago and the twin cities area, we decided that it would be best to get a car and drive it out to Idaho instead of trying to get it after we moved. So we ended up getting a ’07 Toyota Corolla for a little under 8,000. We spent the first part of the month packing, sorting, and cleaning out our apartment.

We spent as much time as we could with Morgan’s family so they could get as much time with the kids as they could before we had to move. We ended up leaving Kyla and Daria with Morgan’s parents while we loaded truck since we knew that there would be a melt downs if the girls saw someone trying to carry away their beds, couch, etc. The day of packing the truck finally came. Several things happened. First in the morning we received a call from the place where we were renting our truck telling us that the truck that they had for us was having engine trouble and they needed to get us another truck. However, the closest truck was about 40 min away and the place couldn’t go and get it. So we ended up driving to a different town and picking up the truck and driving it to Winona for the company. At least they gave us a perk for the slight hassle and upgraded our car carrier with no extra charge.

I had one of my scouts come over to finish up a merit badge that he was working on so I could sign it off for him (cutting it close). As we were loading the truck, he was giving his report and what he learned by doing the requirements of the merit badges. For one of his requirements, he went to the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona where he saw an exhibit on the history of fishing lures and an exhibit of paintings done by some famous impressionist painters like Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh as well as several of the Hudson River School artists like JM Hart, Colman, and Whittredge. In his 14 year old mind the paintings only deserved a cursory glance; the fishing lures were the main attraction.

We had a good chunk of the branch show up and help us load and clean our place. We were able to get most everything done during the first day when we had scheduled two days to get everything done. We were able to finish everything quickly the next morning, return our keys, and drive to Rochester to stay the night with Morgan’s family. We left to come to Idaho early the next morning. I drove the moving truck and Morgan drove the Corolla with the kids in tow. Her mom drove out with her to help her. I had a plant for company. After two very long days, we arrived in Idaho. We put all of things in storage and started looking for a place to live. The cheapest place to rent in Rexburg for what we are looking for is asking $725 a month and we couldn’t find a house for under 100k that didn’t have too many problems, so our attention moved to Idaho Falls. We found a nice little house across the street from the IF Temple and put a bid in for 82,500. It was just accepted, so we will start all of the other process to see if we can close it. Other than that, we are enjoying our time staying with my parents and getting ready for school to start in Aug.

I think that is pretty much everything that has happened to us this month ignoring any scandalous details that might have popped up. We look forward to seeing many of you more often now that we are back in the West.

Derik, Morgan and Kiddos

p.s. Congrats to Rob and Tamara on the new arrival.