The first couple of weeks of June were some of the most dramatic in my life. My board exam was scheduled for Tuesday the 7th. Just to remind you, this test covers 2 years worth of material. It is an 8 hour test and costs $500 to take. I think I’ve said that before, I only mention it to emphasize that it is a big deal; if I didn’t pass it I would not be allowed to continue with my rotations. On Saturday (T minus 3 days) I got very sick and had to go back to the ER! When I went to the ER back in April I ended up staying in the hospital for 4 days; well I didn’t have 4 days this time, I needed to be able to sit for that exam. Needless to say, many prayers were said. In the ER they said that it was probably my Crohn’s acting up. They gave me some medications to help me get through the attack and sent me back home. I felt well enough to go to church on Sunday, and do some studying on Monday. I drove with a friend to Charleston Monday. Tuesday morning I was feeling about like normal and was able to sit for the exam. During the last couple of hours of the exam my stomach started acting up again. When we finally reached home I was feeling pretty bad again. Well, my stomach was feeling bad, but the rest of me was so happy and relieved to have that test out of the way.
Wednesday through Thursday we spent packing our belongings and tying up the loose ends. On Saturday we loaded the moving truck and moved an hour West to Beckley, WV. My health held up enough to get the job done. We spent the rest of the month of June unpacking and getting situated. We are living in a house now. This is the first time in our marriage that we live in a structure without other families. We absolutely love our house. It’s a little bit old, but it is such a big step up from where we were living before. We have a big yard, a garden, a grape vein (I don’t know the first thing about juicing or preserving grapes, but I think we’ve found someone to teach us), a large basement, a deck, and even a golf cart so we can go for rides around the yard. We are very happy. Becky posted pictures of our house on our blog, swing over some time and check it out.
I started my rotations the first week of July. I’m rotating in a small family practice office. The doctor I’m with does family practice and his wife does pediatrics in the same building. He takes time everyday to teach me and go over things we’ve seen that day. I’m learning a lot and enjoying it much more than classroom instruction. 2 weeks into July we got the happy news that I passed my board exam. O happy day! We went out for ice cream to celebrate. My score wasn’t as high as I would have liked, but considering the circumstances I was happy just to pass.
I’m now a month into my rotations and loving it. My health problems have not entirely gone away, but I’ve only had to miss one day of work. Becky and Sophie are doing very well. A couple of weeks ago we went and picked blueberries and Becky made a bunch of pie filling and syrup. Last week she started harvesting our green bean crop. For some reason our green beans have done really really well. We have 8 or 9 freezer bags full of them. If any of you were nearby I’d invite you to come and get some. Sophie has started crawling now. She still prefers to stay close to us, but sometimes she’ll get adventurous and explore around the house on her own.
We hope things are going well for you all.
Stewart, Becky, and Sophie
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
2011 April- Bates
I'm sorry, I don't have a lot of time to write (May will be better).
But, I've been at Adobe now since March 21st, and things are going great still. I have already made 2 internal apps, and everyone seems to really like them. I have been working like mad to make sure everyone is delighted with what I produce.
Fintan is getting braver about standing, but never does it for more than 5-10 seconds before finding something to grab onto.
Orianna is potty trained!!! Tamara and I talked about how to do it, and decided that I had no idea how to do it (I proffered that advice pretty early, but it took a while to convince Tamara). Tamara thought about it, and devised an ingenious plan... just have Orianna be naked for a day, watch her closely, and throw her on the potty any time she started going to the bathroom. I thought it was ludicrous, but had no idea what would be better. I got home late that evening... and she was potty trained. I was both shocked and amazed.
Orianna is getting excited to do things outside the home. She really yearns to learn. So we told her if she keeps doing good with the potty, she can go to school (either a dance class, or a pre-school... we haven't decided yet).
Hope everyone is great!
-The Bates Fam
But, I've been at Adobe now since March 21st, and things are going great still. I have already made 2 internal apps, and everyone seems to really like them. I have been working like mad to make sure everyone is delighted with what I produce.
Fintan is getting braver about standing, but never does it for more than 5-10 seconds before finding something to grab onto.
Orianna is potty trained!!! Tamara and I talked about how to do it, and decided that I had no idea how to do it (I proffered that advice pretty early, but it took a while to convince Tamara). Tamara thought about it, and devised an ingenious plan... just have Orianna be naked for a day, watch her closely, and throw her on the potty any time she started going to the bathroom. I thought it was ludicrous, but had no idea what would be better. I got home late that evening... and she was potty trained. I was both shocked and amazed.
Orianna is getting excited to do things outside the home. She really yearns to learn. So we told her if she keeps doing good with the potty, she can go to school (either a dance class, or a pre-school... we haven't decided yet).
Hope everyone is great!
-The Bates Fam
2011 April- North
April was a challenging month for us. It started off well with General Conference, but shortly thereafter it took a turn for the worse. At first I noticed that my stomach was making a lot of noise. This continued for a few days; I thought it would go away and I would be fine. Then on a Friday evening after celebrating the end of one of my classes I started feeling bloated and nauseous. I went to bed but couldn’t sleep because I was so uncomfortable. I threw up at around 2 and decided to go to the ER by 2:30. That was the longest, most painful night of my life thus far. They couldn’t give me morphine for a couple of hours because they had some tests they needed to run. By 7 am they were thinking Crohn’s disease and had me admitted to the hospital. They ran several tests, including a colonoscopy and EGD (a camera down the throat) and decided that the cause was probably Crohn’s. Crohn’s is an autoimmune disease where the body attacks the digestive system. They don’t know the cause, but it has some genetic component; my brother Alex was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease a few years ago. They did a retest for celiac disease (gluten allergy) and it came back negative, so we’re thinking that I’ve had Crohn’s the whole time and not celiac disease. When they released me I was feeling pretty good and I thought I was on the way up; I thought the medication would keep my symptoms under control. That proved to be incorrect. In the month since then I have continued to have brief attacks, some worse than others. Some are exceedingly painful, others just make me feel achy. This sickness has really cut into my study time here at the end of the school year. I try to make every minute count. So far I’m keeping up, but it’s been a challenge. I’m now on 2 medications and it looks like things are improving. Through it all Becky has been a trooper. I couldn’t have made it without her. She has kept me going and has shouldered the extra burden very well. I’m lucky to have her as my wife. We look to the Lord to support us through this trial. We know that we are in His hands and that all will work out in the end.
We hope that you have had a better month than us, and we look to better days ahead. Life happens to everyone, it’s just not what you ever expect.
Stewart, Becky, and Sophie
We hope that you have had a better month than us, and we look to better days ahead. Life happens to everyone, it’s just not what you ever expect.
Stewart, Becky, and Sophie
2011 April- Robertson
Hey Everyone,
I missed last month's letter and I looked at the calendar and saw that this month is half way over. I need to amend my slovenly ways. Here is my excuse for what it is worth. April saw the finals at BYU-I and the start of a new semester and the finals at ISU. Between all three, the paper work was immense and I barely made it through alive. Last semester at BYU-I ended on a positive note, I think. I only had one student plagiarize one paper last semester and that was on the final paper. When I flunked the paper, the student email me and asked me why I had given the paper a 0. I had to point out that she tried to pass off someone else's work off as her own and that was a bad thing. Other students said that they really needed an A in the class and was there anything they could do to get that. Yes. They could have turned in all of the assignments instead of skipping them and class. I don't know. It seems pretty commonsensical to me that if you don't turn something in you should expect a 0 for the assignment and that zeroes will hurt the overall grade. However, that could simply be my advanced degree in teaching speaking, and I might just be out of touch with today's students.
ISU finished and what a finish it was. There wasn't a whole lot of sleeping going on with me during the last two weeks of the semester. I had a 50 page portfolio due, a 20 page paper, and a 10 page paper. Got them done and was somewhat proud of my work. I've decided to try and take my little 10 pager to a conference somewhere. I wrote about teaching visual literacy in the university level by using comics and graphic novels. I used Moore's Watchmen as examples. If you haven't read it, it is one that I suggest trying to get through. I say try because the violence can be rather graphic at times (pun intended) and is meant to be disturbing (the author gets his wish). However, the play with image and language is utter genius and the moral dilemma at the end is mind-blowingly delicious. Anyway since then, I have been on a graphic novel/comics kick. If you want an easy "in" to graphic novels - pick up the Bone series of novels (there are 9 in total). It is a Lord of the Rings-esque adventure with much lighter humor.
We are slowly getting out house put back together after the winter water adventures. We have everything bought. I just need to get around to cutting, painting, and installing all of them. I have a deadline now of July 4th when Morgan's family is staying with us for a few days for their family vacation. Which reminds me - is anyone going to the high school reunion? I'm trying to decide if I am going to go. I can't go to the afternoon lunch get together because I am in class at that time and it happens to be conference days - can't back out, and we are leaving to Morgan's family reunion early the following morning, so i am trying to decide if it would all be worth it. Any who - I think that is all I have to report without starting to get into what has happened during May.
Look forward to hearing how everyone is doing,
Derik
I missed last month's letter and I looked at the calendar and saw that this month is half way over. I need to amend my slovenly ways. Here is my excuse for what it is worth. April saw the finals at BYU-I and the start of a new semester and the finals at ISU. Between all three, the paper work was immense and I barely made it through alive. Last semester at BYU-I ended on a positive note, I think. I only had one student plagiarize one paper last semester and that was on the final paper. When I flunked the paper, the student email me and asked me why I had given the paper a 0. I had to point out that she tried to pass off someone else's work off as her own and that was a bad thing. Other students said that they really needed an A in the class and was there anything they could do to get that. Yes. They could have turned in all of the assignments instead of skipping them and class. I don't know. It seems pretty commonsensical to me that if you don't turn something in you should expect a 0 for the assignment and that zeroes will hurt the overall grade. However, that could simply be my advanced degree in teaching speaking, and I might just be out of touch with today's students.
ISU finished and what a finish it was. There wasn't a whole lot of sleeping going on with me during the last two weeks of the semester. I had a 50 page portfolio due, a 20 page paper, and a 10 page paper. Got them done and was somewhat proud of my work. I've decided to try and take my little 10 pager to a conference somewhere. I wrote about teaching visual literacy in the university level by using comics and graphic novels. I used Moore's Watchmen as examples. If you haven't read it, it is one that I suggest trying to get through. I say try because the violence can be rather graphic at times (pun intended) and is meant to be disturbing (the author gets his wish). However, the play with image and language is utter genius and the moral dilemma at the end is mind-blowingly delicious. Anyway since then, I have been on a graphic novel/comics kick. If you want an easy "in" to graphic novels - pick up the Bone series of novels (there are 9 in total). It is a Lord of the Rings-esque adventure with much lighter humor.
We are slowly getting out house put back together after the winter water adventures. We have everything bought. I just need to get around to cutting, painting, and installing all of them. I have a deadline now of July 4th when Morgan's family is staying with us for a few days for their family vacation. Which reminds me - is anyone going to the high school reunion? I'm trying to decide if I am going to go. I can't go to the afternoon lunch get together because I am in class at that time and it happens to be conference days - can't back out, and we are leaving to Morgan's family reunion early the following morning, so i am trying to decide if it would all be worth it. Any who - I think that is all I have to report without starting to get into what has happened during May.
Look forward to hearing how everyone is doing,
Derik
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
2011 March- Hope
Well this month of March was a fun one, first all my family is doing great we found out that Scott can go to the 1st grade, it was a bit iffy for a bit to see if he needed to be in kindergarten again. Kyle really loves his class and school and we got some Gerbils from his school and the boys love them. Michelle is still doing her online job and working with the kids. We had our best parade for St Patrick's Day Parade ever there is a clip on my FB. And I just got my music for pipe competition the tunes are The Skye Boat Song and The Canadian Scottish so I hope I am ready by June. Other than that we are all doing great and cant wait to it be warm outside. Hope all is going great for you all.
The Hopes
The Hopes
2011 March- Bates
Sorry for the lateness of these posts. I was waiting to try and get everyone's, and I started a new job at Adobe on March 21st... so I have been somewhat overwhelmed.
But, it felt great to finally leave MasterControl, and even better to start with a prestigious company like Adobe. My job is "Internal Tools Developer" so basically I get to satisfy my ADD by working on anything and everything. It is a lot of fun, and a position where everything I do directly affects the happiness of the other developers. So if I do a good job I will be really popular ;)
Hope everyone is doing great, and I will write more for April's newsletter in just a few days.
-Rob
But, it felt great to finally leave MasterControl, and even better to start with a prestigious company like Adobe. My job is "Internal Tools Developer" so basically I get to satisfy my ADD by working on anything and everything. It is a lot of fun, and a position where everything I do directly affects the happiness of the other developers. So if I do a good job I will be really popular ;)
Hope everyone is doing great, and I will write more for April's newsletter in just a few days.
-Rob
2011 March- North
The highlight of the month of March was spring break. We got one week off near the end of March. Becky and I chose to stay close to home this time. We looked on the internet for a hotel with an indoor pool in Roanoke, VA. Roanoke is about 2 hours from here and it is the nearest ‘big city.’ Roanoke has an actual mall, a big movie theater, and lots of stores. We left here in the afternoon and got to Roanoke at around dinner time. We checked in to the hotel and then went to a nearby Ristorante Mexicano. The music playing over the sound system was like a cross between Mexican opera and mariachi music. At first I thought I would be annoyed, but it grew on me quickly. After dinner we went and swam in the hotel pool. It was Sophie’s first time to go swimming. She didn’t love it, but she didn’t hate it either. She just seemed content. She did enjoy kicking her feet and lapping up the water with her tongue. It was fun to play with her in the pool. Becky and I both took time to swim some laps. The next morning Becky had some stores that she wanted to go visit, so we went shopping. We ended up at the mall and spent most of the morning walking around the mall. My favorite store was Barnes and Noble. It’s probably good that we don’t have a bookstore nearby, I might be tempted to spend too much time there. We were back home in time for dinner. It was a great little trip and I will treasure the memories for a long time. Family time is wonderful!
A week ago we had stake conference. Our stake center is over an hour away, but I didn’t have homework over the weekend, and we both wanted to go to all the meetings. It was a good experience. Our leaders are inspiring men. Our stake president conveys a lot of power when he speaks. I’m happy to be led by men who are called of God. I’m happy to be a member of the Church.
School has started up again, the routine is settling back on our shoulders. Most of my time now is focused on preparing for boards. We took a practice board test a few weeks ago and I did pretty well; it was comforting.
We hope that you are all doing well.
Stewart, Becky, and Sophie.
A week ago we had stake conference. Our stake center is over an hour away, but I didn’t have homework over the weekend, and we both wanted to go to all the meetings. It was a good experience. Our leaders are inspiring men. Our stake president conveys a lot of power when he speaks. I’m happy to be led by men who are called of God. I’m happy to be a member of the Church.
School has started up again, the routine is settling back on our shoulders. Most of my time now is focused on preparing for boards. We took a practice board test a few weeks ago and I did pretty well; it was comforting.
We hope that you are all doing well.
Stewart, Becky, and Sophie.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
2011 Feb: Robertson
Hello Everyone,
February was even more adventures with water for us. We had a pipe burst on us under the floor of the newer addition on our house. Because of the nature of the house, it ended up building up and then sweeping the ground out of shallow foundation to an older expansion. The end result was a basement full of mud. The girls woke up to find that their beds had turned into islands in a sea of muck. We called insurance and they called a restoration company to help us out. The restoration company ended up tearing up all of the flooring in the basement. They also took out all of the baseboards and most of casing for the doors. Several of the girls’ stuffed animals and books that were on the floor were also ruined and had to be thrown away.
Long story short – we feel a bit blessed with the entire situation. The night the pipe burst really wasn’t that cold. It had survived more of the colder nights we have been having. We looked at the pipe, it had a foot long crack in it. It was a galvanized pipe and the interior of it was pretty corroded. It was only a matter of time before the pipe cracked by itself. However, if it had cracked from corrosion, our insurance wouldn’t cover it replacement. But a pipe burst from freezing is covered. The plumber said that the pipe did freeze and it was the freezing that cracked the pipe (even though the pipe was already pretty weak). He felt that insurance should cover the replacement of the pipe. And they did. The restoration company that was brought in did a really nice job and wrangled the insurance company for us. They made sure that insurance didn’t ding us too hard for depreciation for our carpet and flooring since they were new when we moved in. Because of the work of the plumber and restoration company, we were given a very generous compensation check. With it we have put in all new flooring, we have the baseboards, and casing bought and ready to install. We even had enough left over from insurance to purchase a mini-van (Morgan’s idea) since the Buick also died this month and we had to sell it for parts. So, all in all we are coming out of this month a bit ahead even with all of the hassle.
Everyone here is doing well enough. Jamis has developed a spreading rash, but it doesn’t seem to bother him. We took him to the pediatricians and were told just to watch it. We were given some prescription hydrocortisone cream to see if that will help. Who knows. Other than that, the girls love preschool, I’m trying to stay afloat in all of my various school responsibilities and church callings, and Morgan has been kept very busy with all of our house and car problems. And with that, we are bracing and getting ready for the next month and just hope that March gives us some sort of a break.
The Robertsons
February was even more adventures with water for us. We had a pipe burst on us under the floor of the newer addition on our house. Because of the nature of the house, it ended up building up and then sweeping the ground out of shallow foundation to an older expansion. The end result was a basement full of mud. The girls woke up to find that their beds had turned into islands in a sea of muck. We called insurance and they called a restoration company to help us out. The restoration company ended up tearing up all of the flooring in the basement. They also took out all of the baseboards and most of casing for the doors. Several of the girls’ stuffed animals and books that were on the floor were also ruined and had to be thrown away.
Long story short – we feel a bit blessed with the entire situation. The night the pipe burst really wasn’t that cold. It had survived more of the colder nights we have been having. We looked at the pipe, it had a foot long crack in it. It was a galvanized pipe and the interior of it was pretty corroded. It was only a matter of time before the pipe cracked by itself. However, if it had cracked from corrosion, our insurance wouldn’t cover it replacement. But a pipe burst from freezing is covered. The plumber said that the pipe did freeze and it was the freezing that cracked the pipe (even though the pipe was already pretty weak). He felt that insurance should cover the replacement of the pipe. And they did. The restoration company that was brought in did a really nice job and wrangled the insurance company for us. They made sure that insurance didn’t ding us too hard for depreciation for our carpet and flooring since they were new when we moved in. Because of the work of the plumber and restoration company, we were given a very generous compensation check. With it we have put in all new flooring, we have the baseboards, and casing bought and ready to install. We even had enough left over from insurance to purchase a mini-van (Morgan’s idea) since the Buick also died this month and we had to sell it for parts. So, all in all we are coming out of this month a bit ahead even with all of the hassle.
Everyone here is doing well enough. Jamis has developed a spreading rash, but it doesn’t seem to bother him. We took him to the pediatricians and were told just to watch it. We were given some prescription hydrocortisone cream to see if that will help. Who knows. Other than that, the girls love preschool, I’m trying to stay afloat in all of my various school responsibilities and church callings, and Morgan has been kept very busy with all of our house and car problems. And with that, we are bracing and getting ready for the next month and just hope that March gives us some sort of a break.
The Robertsons
Thursday, March 10, 2011
2011 Feb: Hope
Well all Feb was a slow month first Scott turned 6 years old which I can not believe. Then just working, playing the pipes, and learning new songs. Scott passed off his ABC's now and then he got Bronchitis then Kyle got Strep throat on Sunday then on Monday he was trying to get some pants to get ready in the morning he fell and broke his nose so the pics are on my FB page was the aftermath of it when you see the pic just think of lots of blood on his face but other than that just a slow month hope everything is going well with you all
The Hope's
The Hope's
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
2011 Feb: Bates
Well, I am pretty sure the "F" in "February" stands for "flu".
We were very ill all month long. We each took turns, and then tried pairs, and then all decided to be sick. I am fairly confident we hit every possible combination of sickness in this family.
So, Valentines day was a retch fest. We rescheduled for the next week... which ended up being a snot-fest.
Eventually we went out to eat at Deny's with the kids for our belated Valentines celebration.
I did buy Tamara a Nook for V-Day, and she likes it a lot. She has been reading a ton on it. I really like the display screen, but the touch screen is slow and frustrates me (I've been assimilated into the iPhone world of decent performing hardware).
Other than that, February was pretty boring. With at least 1 sick person in the house at all times, our most exciting activities involved watching TV and playing Wii.
Hope the rest of your Februaries were Flu-less,
The Recently-Released-From-Quarantine Bateses
We were very ill all month long. We each took turns, and then tried pairs, and then all decided to be sick. I am fairly confident we hit every possible combination of sickness in this family.
So, Valentines day was a retch fest. We rescheduled for the next week... which ended up being a snot-fest.
Eventually we went out to eat at Deny's with the kids for our belated Valentines celebration.
I did buy Tamara a Nook for V-Day, and she likes it a lot. She has been reading a ton on it. I really like the display screen, but the touch screen is slow and frustrates me (I've been assimilated into the iPhone world of decent performing hardware).
Other than that, February was pretty boring. With at least 1 sick person in the house at all times, our most exciting activities involved watching TV and playing Wii.
Hope the rest of your Februaries were Flu-less,
The Recently-Released-From-Quarantine Bateses
2011 Feb: North
Well this is a good year for me to be involved in a ‘Most Romantic Husband’ contest; I’m kind of proud of my Valentine’s Day gift this year. Here’s the story: In early January Becky commented to me that she likes getting flowers, except that they are so expensive and they die soon. Well that got me thinking about a substitute that doesn’t die so quickly. At school the next afternoon I commented to a friend that I want to make origami roses for Becky and he helped me find a website with a good tutorial and hooked me up with the origami paper. Origami is one of his hobbies. In case anyone is interested, here is the rose I made: http://www.origami-fun.com/origami-rose.html. I’m glad I started early because it took me a couple of weeks before I could even fold it. My first 10 roses looked more like roses that had been picked, chewed up by a dog, and spit back out, than anything you would want to give to your wife. Eventually I got something that resembled an actual rose. Every day for a couple of weeks I made one rose, twelve in all. It was actually a nice break from my studies. I found that I enjoy origami. I made the stems out of craft paper and shish-ka- bob sticks. I made some leaves to glue to the stems, and then I glued the flowers on top of that. I’ll attach a couple of photos of my bouquet.
Becky and I think we have found a house for my 3rd and 4th year of med school. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are moving 50 miles West of our current location to a city called Beckley. I will be stationed at a hospital there for much of my next 2 years. We chose to move to Beckley rather than commute as many of our friends are doing. About a month ago I was sitting up in my room at school studying when I got a phone call from someone I did not know. She said that she knew my wife from some service that Becky did over a year ago and that she learned we are looking for a house in Beckley. She said that she and her husband have a house in Beckley that they want to rent out. We went and looked at it yesterday and are happy to say that it looks like it will meet our needs, at a price we can afford. The location isn’t ideal, it’s near a main road, but it will meet our needs. It sits on a double lot too, so we’ll have plenty of room for a garden, and room to be outside. We feel that Heavenly Father has watched over us and helped us find this house. We are still looking for an additional car though. This moving and expanding is expensive stuff.
We wish each of you the best of success this month.
Stewart, Becky, and Sophie
Saturday, February 5, 2011
2011 January: Robertson
Hello Everyone,
Happy 2011. January has been a very busy month for us – at least for me. School started and I had to hit the ground running. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite have my feet under me when I hit the ground, but I think that I am mostly recovered now. I have been trying a new format to teach my beginning writing students. I meet in a large group once during the week and then I am meeting in small groups with the students go over their writing at different times during the week. It has been an interesting experience so far and I am figuring out ways to make it even better and more efficient, but I think students are getting some good experience out of it – at least I am. The other big news from the school front is the little present I received from work. I was in my office one day when the department chair came in and handed me a 4th generation Ipod touch. He told me it was either to make me more productive or bring a smile to my face. I don’t know about the productive part, but it did put a grin on my face. I also started classes at ISU again. Last semester was pretty peaceful. This semester has me working pretty hard to do everything. I’m reading 2 ½ books a week just for my ISU classes. I guess that is what happens when one of the classes is History of the Novel and the other is Teaching Literature. Oh Well.
Morgan’s co-teacher in primary was released this month, so Morgan is flying solo teaching the 7-8 year olds in primary for a while until the primary can get another teacher called (probably won’t happen for a while). She is friends with most of the parents of the kids in her class and has been given permission to be strict with a few of them. If it is possible, Morgan is learning to become strict with children. Being a mom will do that to a person, I guess. But she seems to enjoy her time in the primary. She also sang a solo for sacrament meeting last week which was very beautiful. She was then surrounded for the rest of church by people thanking her and complimenting her for her singing. I don’t think the ward has had anyone with her level of training sing in church for a while. One brother went so far as to offer her a singing position in his band. Upon further reflection, he softened the offer by saying that she might not like the type of music he does – citing Janice Joplin as one of his favorites.
Kyla and Daria had a great month. They turned 4 this month and now will tell everyone about it. For their birthday, the received a bunch of clothes and books from grandparents and great grandparents. Morgan and I gave them Disney princess bikes which I think might possibly qualify us as the best parents ever category. The girls love their bikes and can’t wait for the snow and ice to go away so they can ride their bikes outside. Jamis likes the bikes as well and does his best to claim them as his.
Jamis continues to be a very good natured kid (as long as he isn’t tired). He can say a few words now and is almost constantly smiling.
We had a few adventures with water and our house this month. It started mid month when we went into the girls’ room in the basement and found the carpet was all wet. After investigating, we figured that water was coming in through some small cracks in the foundation. So we took out a sheetrock wall in the girls’ bedroom so we could waterproof the wall. That seems to have done the trick because we haven’t had any other problems, but we probably won’t completely patch the wall back up until after the spring thaw just to be safe. The other adventure was the freezing of our pipes last week during a cold snap; there was no way to get to the part of the pipe that froze without tearing up a floor or a ceiling, so we turned Morgan’s hairdryer on the pipe in an effort to heat the entire pipe up to get to the frozen section. After a few hours of that, the water in the pipe thawed and we had water again. Luckily, no pipe burst (as far as we know). Anyway I think that sums up our hum-drum lives. We hope that all things are going well for everyone else.
Bless you all,
The Robertsons
Happy 2011. January has been a very busy month for us – at least for me. School started and I had to hit the ground running. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite have my feet under me when I hit the ground, but I think that I am mostly recovered now. I have been trying a new format to teach my beginning writing students. I meet in a large group once during the week and then I am meeting in small groups with the students go over their writing at different times during the week. It has been an interesting experience so far and I am figuring out ways to make it even better and more efficient, but I think students are getting some good experience out of it – at least I am. The other big news from the school front is the little present I received from work. I was in my office one day when the department chair came in and handed me a 4th generation Ipod touch. He told me it was either to make me more productive or bring a smile to my face. I don’t know about the productive part, but it did put a grin on my face. I also started classes at ISU again. Last semester was pretty peaceful. This semester has me working pretty hard to do everything. I’m reading 2 ½ books a week just for my ISU classes. I guess that is what happens when one of the classes is History of the Novel and the other is Teaching Literature. Oh Well.
Morgan’s co-teacher in primary was released this month, so Morgan is flying solo teaching the 7-8 year olds in primary for a while until the primary can get another teacher called (probably won’t happen for a while). She is friends with most of the parents of the kids in her class and has been given permission to be strict with a few of them. If it is possible, Morgan is learning to become strict with children. Being a mom will do that to a person, I guess. But she seems to enjoy her time in the primary. She also sang a solo for sacrament meeting last week which was very beautiful. She was then surrounded for the rest of church by people thanking her and complimenting her for her singing. I don’t think the ward has had anyone with her level of training sing in church for a while. One brother went so far as to offer her a singing position in his band. Upon further reflection, he softened the offer by saying that she might not like the type of music he does – citing Janice Joplin as one of his favorites.
Kyla and Daria had a great month. They turned 4 this month and now will tell everyone about it. For their birthday, the received a bunch of clothes and books from grandparents and great grandparents. Morgan and I gave them Disney princess bikes which I think might possibly qualify us as the best parents ever category. The girls love their bikes and can’t wait for the snow and ice to go away so they can ride their bikes outside. Jamis likes the bikes as well and does his best to claim them as his.
Jamis continues to be a very good natured kid (as long as he isn’t tired). He can say a few words now and is almost constantly smiling.
We had a few adventures with water and our house this month. It started mid month when we went into the girls’ room in the basement and found the carpet was all wet. After investigating, we figured that water was coming in through some small cracks in the foundation. So we took out a sheetrock wall in the girls’ bedroom so we could waterproof the wall. That seems to have done the trick because we haven’t had any other problems, but we probably won’t completely patch the wall back up until after the spring thaw just to be safe. The other adventure was the freezing of our pipes last week during a cold snap; there was no way to get to the part of the pipe that froze without tearing up a floor or a ceiling, so we turned Morgan’s hairdryer on the pipe in an effort to heat the entire pipe up to get to the frozen section. After a few hours of that, the water in the pipe thawed and we had water again. Luckily, no pipe burst (as far as we know). Anyway I think that sums up our hum-drum lives. We hope that all things are going well for everyone else.
Bless you all,
The Robertsons
2011 January: North
To write this post I’m trying to think back to the beginning of the year; it seems like it was so long ago. School started on January 3rd for me. Yeah, they’re not really good about giving us breaks in med school, shorter summers and shorter Christmas breaks. You’d think they were trying to phase us out of the whole ‘vacation’ idea.
In the middle of January I signed up for my first boards test. I’ll take it in June. It costs $500! Whatever happened to the free tests back in high school? I remember back when we took tests because the school wanted us to, and now I have to pay to take a test. It just seems backwards. Well signing up for the test was kind of scary, because it made it seem more real. Up until now boards have been some big ominous thing off on the horizon, now they are getting close.
Becky and I went to Beckley on President’s Day to look for a new apartment. We found lots of options, there are lots of town home-style apartments in the area. We found one apartment complex that was super nice. They have a tennis court, a Jacuzzi and swimming pool, and they even have a fishing pond that they keep stalked with fish. It’s not that much more than we’re paying now, but I think we’re going to look for something a little bit more modest. We weren’t crazy about anything we saw that day, so we’re going to go back and look for houses another time. I like the idea of having a yard and a little space between me and the neighbors. Someday we’ll own our own house.
I went on my first campout with the Boy Scouts in our ward this month. They called a new scoutmaster (I’m still the Young Men’s President) who has more time and resources than me, so the new guy planned the campout. We drove about 15 miles to a cave. We slept about ¼ mile underground. It was a lot of fun. The temperature in the cave was probably between 40-50 degrees, which was a little chilly, but it sure beat the temperature outside the cave (10-20 degrees). We saw bats and cave spiders. There is a little stream running through the cave that we had to cross several times. Before dinner Friday night we went exploring deep under the mountain. All but one of the boys enjoyed it. The one who didn’t enjoy it doesn’t like to get dirty or wet, and unfortunately in that cave there is little else besides dirt, water, and dirty rocks. Oh well. It was a neat experience for us. This month the youth are challenging the elders and high priests to a pinewood derby contest. It’s been years since I made one, but it will be fun.
We hope things are going well for you all.
Stewart, Becky, and Sophie.
In the middle of January I signed up for my first boards test. I’ll take it in June. It costs $500! Whatever happened to the free tests back in high school? I remember back when we took tests because the school wanted us to, and now I have to pay to take a test. It just seems backwards. Well signing up for the test was kind of scary, because it made it seem more real. Up until now boards have been some big ominous thing off on the horizon, now they are getting close.
Becky and I went to Beckley on President’s Day to look for a new apartment. We found lots of options, there are lots of town home-style apartments in the area. We found one apartment complex that was super nice. They have a tennis court, a Jacuzzi and swimming pool, and they even have a fishing pond that they keep stalked with fish. It’s not that much more than we’re paying now, but I think we’re going to look for something a little bit more modest. We weren’t crazy about anything we saw that day, so we’re going to go back and look for houses another time. I like the idea of having a yard and a little space between me and the neighbors. Someday we’ll own our own house.
I went on my first campout with the Boy Scouts in our ward this month. They called a new scoutmaster (I’m still the Young Men’s President) who has more time and resources than me, so the new guy planned the campout. We drove about 15 miles to a cave. We slept about ¼ mile underground. It was a lot of fun. The temperature in the cave was probably between 40-50 degrees, which was a little chilly, but it sure beat the temperature outside the cave (10-20 degrees). We saw bats and cave spiders. There is a little stream running through the cave that we had to cross several times. Before dinner Friday night we went exploring deep under the mountain. All but one of the boys enjoyed it. The one who didn’t enjoy it doesn’t like to get dirty or wet, and unfortunately in that cave there is little else besides dirt, water, and dirty rocks. Oh well. It was a neat experience for us. This month the youth are challenging the elders and high priests to a pinewood derby contest. It’s been years since I made one, but it will be fun.
We hope things are going well for you all.
Stewart, Becky, and Sophie.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
2011 January: Bates
January is over? Wow, life gets blurry in the fast lane.
So this month we finalized ZebraStrut LLC, set up a website (not much content yet, and our designer is still too busy, so it's 100% me).
We released 2 Apps: A Band Name Generator (silly app with ads at the bottom), and an iPad app called Procrastination Presentations (a last minute powerpoint for someone good at BS-ing).
We are about to release a Fortune Cookie app (with the ability to specify your own text for 1 of the cookies and what cookie you want to have that message [for pranks, or proposals, or whatever]).
I also did my final interviews with Adobe/Omniture in Orem (who will be building a campus in Lehi soon). I did really well in the interviews, so hopefully I got the job (knock on wood). I should find out today or tomorrow.
If I don't though, I will definitely be searching for jobs, as I am done with MasterControl (I don't think I can last another month without quitting).
Fintan is now crawling perfectly, so we are slowly re-baby-proofing our house.
Orianna is as talkative as ever, and still dancing like crazy.
Tamara has finally mastered the art of having 2 kids, and is re-integrating herself socially and starting to do fun things and hobbies again.
And I hopefully will make enough money with ZebraStrut that I can slow down and stop being such a workaholic, and maybe have something interesting to write in a newsletter that doesn't revolve around side projects :P
Hope everything is going great for each of you,
-the Bates Fam
So this month we finalized ZebraStrut LLC, set up a website (not much content yet, and our designer is still too busy, so it's 100% me).
We released 2 Apps: A Band Name Generator (silly app with ads at the bottom), and an iPad app called Procrastination Presentations (a last minute powerpoint for someone good at BS-ing).
We are about to release a Fortune Cookie app (with the ability to specify your own text for 1 of the cookies and what cookie you want to have that message [for pranks, or proposals, or whatever]).
I also did my final interviews with Adobe/Omniture in Orem (who will be building a campus in Lehi soon). I did really well in the interviews, so hopefully I got the job (knock on wood). I should find out today or tomorrow.
If I don't though, I will definitely be searching for jobs, as I am done with MasterControl (I don't think I can last another month without quitting).
Fintan is now crawling perfectly, so we are slowly re-baby-proofing our house.
Orianna is as talkative as ever, and still dancing like crazy.
Tamara has finally mastered the art of having 2 kids, and is re-integrating herself socially and starting to do fun things and hobbies again.
And I hopefully will make enough money with ZebraStrut that I can slow down and stop being such a workaholic, and maybe have something interesting to write in a newsletter that doesn't revolve around side projects :P
Hope everything is going great for each of you,
-the Bates Fam
2011 January: Hope
Hi All well in January we went to California for Michelle's brothers wedding, the boys and Michelle went for a week and I was just there for the weekend. The cool part was taking the train it took 16 hours but the boys had a blast most of the time they were looking out the windows it was a nice ride up the Donner Pass it was really nice views. They boys are doing great we have a chart for both of them Scott is school related stuff like the A B C's and numbers, and Kyle is for potty training they are both doing really good at it. Michelle and I are the same old same old just working and family. The Pipe Band I am in was in a performance a week ago a small clip is on FB on my profile the best song was Mozart on the Rampage it sounds better live on the clip it was the last song. Well hope everyone is doing great.
The Hopes
Thursday, January 6, 2011
2010 December: Robertson
Hello Everyone,
I think that it is time that I actually sit down and get this letter written. I am in limbo right now as the department is moving my office. So half of my things are here and the other half is in my new office. I am simply waiting for someone to come and move my computer and printer because according to the university, I’m not capable of moving this 10 pound contraption up a flight of stairs. Oh well. So December for us was a crazy month. The month started with our new floor being delivered. We had found a stock of laminate hard wood floor that was being liquidated, so we bought it and used it to replace the floor in our back family room and our kitchen. It has done wonders to improve how the rooms look, and to get both of the redone only set us back about 600 dollars. For that price, I can’t beat it. Especially since it probably can raise our property value a grand or so ( the flooring that was in the kitchen was rather sad). While all of that was going on, I was finishing all of my classes at ISU. End of semester projects, got to love them. I came out pretty well from the classes, and feel satisfied with the work I put into them. Now, I get to gear up for the start of the winter semester which I think will be a little more intense. I will have to be a little better about how I manage my time. Throughout the coming months I will be reading a couple hundred pages a week just to prepare for my classes at ISU (good thing I got a little ahead during the break).
My teaching classes went pretty well for the semester and ended on a positive note. I only had to flunk 5 of my 90 some odd students. Good enough. The student feedback I received was largely positive, but I am changing several things up during the coming semester. BYU-I has a space shortage. They will very quickly have more students than they can fit into classrooms on campus, so everyone is experimenting with ways to serve more students with no extra space. The popular choice so far is to do hybrid classes where one class session is face to face and the other is online. That doesn’t appeal to me, so I am trying a different hybrid class using small tutoring groups. One class will be lecture where large concepts and theory is taught and the other class will be broken up into small group discussions around campus led by either myself or my TA. It should be good if not a lot of work.
We had lots of Christmas parties throughout the month with ward and elder’s quorum parties. The twins finished their first few months of pre-school and can’t wait to go back in January. And Jamis has begun talking. He can say the “daddy”, “mama”, “hi”, and “no” No is his most frequently used word.
Our month saw a few celebrations. First, we were able to go to the airport and welcome Eljay home from his mission to India. It is fun having him back around. We also drove out to Minnesota for Christmas break. It was good seeing that side of the family again; although immediately after Christmas everyone started getting sick. We had kids throwing up and everyone got a cold. It was no good. We were able to go and visit our old branch for a Sunday. That was nice to see some old friends again. Christmas itself spoiled all of us. I got just what I wanted: books, movies, and games. The kids got clothes, movies, and some games. And Morgan received a Cricut and accessories. I understand most scrapbooking people know what that thing is and can become very jealous of those who have one. In the world of scrapbooking I guess there are the haves and have nots. The Cricut is the determining factor. Needless to say, I think I scored some major spouse points for that little gift.
Our drive back home from our Christmas break, we entered a blizzard at the Minnesota/ South Dakota boarded and drove in white out conditions until we hit the South Dakota / Wyoming border. I always said that there isn’t a whole lot to see in South Dakota; this time around, there were times through that I couldn’t even see the road. Oh the joys of winter travel. Anyway! I will be needing to bring this to a close. I am off for another round of teaching. Hope that all of you have a very good New Year!
Derik and the Robertsons
I think that it is time that I actually sit down and get this letter written. I am in limbo right now as the department is moving my office. So half of my things are here and the other half is in my new office. I am simply waiting for someone to come and move my computer and printer because according to the university, I’m not capable of moving this 10 pound contraption up a flight of stairs. Oh well. So December for us was a crazy month. The month started with our new floor being delivered. We had found a stock of laminate hard wood floor that was being liquidated, so we bought it and used it to replace the floor in our back family room and our kitchen. It has done wonders to improve how the rooms look, and to get both of the redone only set us back about 600 dollars. For that price, I can’t beat it. Especially since it probably can raise our property value a grand or so ( the flooring that was in the kitchen was rather sad). While all of that was going on, I was finishing all of my classes at ISU. End of semester projects, got to love them. I came out pretty well from the classes, and feel satisfied with the work I put into them. Now, I get to gear up for the start of the winter semester which I think will be a little more intense. I will have to be a little better about how I manage my time. Throughout the coming months I will be reading a couple hundred pages a week just to prepare for my classes at ISU (good thing I got a little ahead during the break).
My teaching classes went pretty well for the semester and ended on a positive note. I only had to flunk 5 of my 90 some odd students. Good enough. The student feedback I received was largely positive, but I am changing several things up during the coming semester. BYU-I has a space shortage. They will very quickly have more students than they can fit into classrooms on campus, so everyone is experimenting with ways to serve more students with no extra space. The popular choice so far is to do hybrid classes where one class session is face to face and the other is online. That doesn’t appeal to me, so I am trying a different hybrid class using small tutoring groups. One class will be lecture where large concepts and theory is taught and the other class will be broken up into small group discussions around campus led by either myself or my TA. It should be good if not a lot of work.
We had lots of Christmas parties throughout the month with ward and elder’s quorum parties. The twins finished their first few months of pre-school and can’t wait to go back in January. And Jamis has begun talking. He can say the “daddy”, “mama”, “hi”, and “no” No is his most frequently used word.
Our month saw a few celebrations. First, we were able to go to the airport and welcome Eljay home from his mission to India. It is fun having him back around. We also drove out to Minnesota for Christmas break. It was good seeing that side of the family again; although immediately after Christmas everyone started getting sick. We had kids throwing up and everyone got a cold. It was no good. We were able to go and visit our old branch for a Sunday. That was nice to see some old friends again. Christmas itself spoiled all of us. I got just what I wanted: books, movies, and games. The kids got clothes, movies, and some games. And Morgan received a Cricut and accessories. I understand most scrapbooking people know what that thing is and can become very jealous of those who have one. In the world of scrapbooking I guess there are the haves and have nots. The Cricut is the determining factor. Needless to say, I think I scored some major spouse points for that little gift.
Our drive back home from our Christmas break, we entered a blizzard at the Minnesota/ South Dakota boarded and drove in white out conditions until we hit the South Dakota / Wyoming border. I always said that there isn’t a whole lot to see in South Dakota; this time around, there were times through that I couldn’t even see the road. Oh the joys of winter travel. Anyway! I will be needing to bring this to a close. I am off for another round of teaching. Hope that all of you have a very good New Year!
Derik and the Robertsons
Monday, January 3, 2011
2010 December: Bates
This month was a hodge-podge of side-projects and home-improvement.
We are trying to refinance, so we did a lot of work on the house in an attempt to appraise high enough to refinance. Sadly we only have to appraise $67,000 less than what our house appraised for when we bought it to qualify. Sadder still, there is a good chance we wont appraise high enough. It would be great though, as it would reduce our payment by $200 a month. Keep your fingers crossed!
ZebraStrut is now registered for business. I still need to get content on the website, finish our first product (ExpoStrut) and have all the partners sign a contract, but things are looking good. The office in the garage is also progressing well.
Fintan is on the cusp of crawling. I think if we dressed him in less slippery pants, he would have it down.
Orianna is still loving to sing and dance. Her new favorite song is "Jump in the Line" by Harry Belafonte (you may know it from the end of Beetle Juice). It is pretty fun to dance with her. I will sing that song for her before bed, and she will shake, jump, and dance.
Tamara has been knee-deep in parenting, while helping me with all the home improvement.
I got a bunch of Wii games for Christmas, so I am depriving myself of sleep in order to get to play them ;) I got Donkey Kong Country (thanks Jason!), Goldeneye, & Super Mario Galaxy 2 (all of which are completely awesome [as long as you have a gamepad for Goldeneye. It sucks with the wii-mote]).
Hope you were all as spoiled as I was for Christmas, and that your New Year is a great one!
-The Bates Family
We are trying to refinance, so we did a lot of work on the house in an attempt to appraise high enough to refinance. Sadly we only have to appraise $67,000 less than what our house appraised for when we bought it to qualify. Sadder still, there is a good chance we wont appraise high enough. It would be great though, as it would reduce our payment by $200 a month. Keep your fingers crossed!
ZebraStrut is now registered for business. I still need to get content on the website, finish our first product (ExpoStrut) and have all the partners sign a contract, but things are looking good. The office in the garage is also progressing well.
Fintan is on the cusp of crawling. I think if we dressed him in less slippery pants, he would have it down.
Orianna is still loving to sing and dance. Her new favorite song is "Jump in the Line" by Harry Belafonte (you may know it from the end of Beetle Juice). It is pretty fun to dance with her. I will sing that song for her before bed, and she will shake, jump, and dance.
Tamara has been knee-deep in parenting, while helping me with all the home improvement.
I got a bunch of Wii games for Christmas, so I am depriving myself of sleep in order to get to play them ;) I got Donkey Kong Country (thanks Jason!), Goldeneye, & Super Mario Galaxy 2 (all of which are completely awesome [as long as you have a gamepad for Goldeneye. It sucks with the wii-mote]).
Hope you were all as spoiled as I was for Christmas, and that your New Year is a great one!
-The Bates Family
2010 December: North
We have had a wonderful Christmas vacation this year! The story of this Christmas vacation starts a few weeks before Christmas. We got an email from Becky’s sister Emily, who until two days ago was a missionary for our church, was stationed in Clarksville, TN asking us to come to Clarksville for Christmas and stay with Becky’s cousin who is stationed there at Fort Campbell and we could all visit together for a few hours. She said that she wanted to visit with us, but we all know that she really wanted to visit with her brand-new niece. We thought we’d have some fun, so we told her that we had already committed to other plans for Christmas and that we were sorry. Then we made plans with Becky’s cousin to come and visit.
Fast forward a few weeks. My last test was on Friday the 17th; it felt so nice to be done with homework for a couple of weeks. We spent the first few days just hanging around the apartment, sleeping in, watching movies, and reading books. A friend loaned me the last book in the Harry Potter series and so I spent a lot of time at the first part of the break reading it.
On Thursday the 23 we packed our bags and left for Clarksville, TN. We encountered some bad weather on the way, but arrived safely. Becky’s Aunt, Uncle, and 2 other cousins were also visiting as well, so we had a full house. We talked and played games, and drove around to look at the lights. Sophie was the center of attention for most of the time. On Christmas Eve we called to my family gathered out West and listened while my younger brother opened his mission call. He has been called to serve in the California Arcadia Mission, English speaking. We are very happy for him!
On Christmas Day Emily had scheduled a baptism for one of their investigators. She knew that her cousin’s family would be there, but she didn’t know Becky and I would be there. When we walked in the door her jaw dropped. She ran and hugged Becky and said “You lied to me!” It was a fun surprise. The baptism went well. I was even asked to give the closing prayer…in Spanish! I took a year of Spanish in college, but my Spanish has rusted a little over time. I was grateful for the chance to participate in that way. After the baptism Emily and her companions came to visit at Becky’s cousin’s house. We had a houseful! It was like a mini-family reunion in the East while the rest of our families met out West. We had a delicious meal and spent the rest of the day talking and mingling.
The next day was a Sunday, so Becky and I attended an early morning church service and then hit the road. We drove for 5 hours and stopped when Sophie had had all she could handle of driving. We spent the evening in a hotel in Sevierville, TN, which, we learned is the hometown of Dolly Parton. The next morning we went to Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies. We really loved the exhibits there. It was expensive, but worth the money. The neatest display there is a tunnel that takes you underneath the pools. It feels like you are diving in a coral reef, with fish, a giant turtle, and even sharks swimming all around you. There are lots of pictures and videos posted on our blog. We really like Gatlinburg, TN. It’s a neat little family-friendly vacation site. It kind of reminds me of Jackson Hole, WY, only bigger. After the aquarium and a delicious lunch at Corky’s BBQ we headed for home. This will be one of my most memorable Christmases ever I think. I really enjoyed the trip, and I’m so glad that I have my favorite traveling companions with me: Becky and Sophie.
Fast forward a few weeks. My last test was on Friday the 17th; it felt so nice to be done with homework for a couple of weeks. We spent the first few days just hanging around the apartment, sleeping in, watching movies, and reading books. A friend loaned me the last book in the Harry Potter series and so I spent a lot of time at the first part of the break reading it.
On Thursday the 23 we packed our bags and left for Clarksville, TN. We encountered some bad weather on the way, but arrived safely. Becky’s Aunt, Uncle, and 2 other cousins were also visiting as well, so we had a full house. We talked and played games, and drove around to look at the lights. Sophie was the center of attention for most of the time. On Christmas Eve we called to my family gathered out West and listened while my younger brother opened his mission call. He has been called to serve in the California Arcadia Mission, English speaking. We are very happy for him!
On Christmas Day Emily had scheduled a baptism for one of their investigators. She knew that her cousin’s family would be there, but she didn’t know Becky and I would be there. When we walked in the door her jaw dropped. She ran and hugged Becky and said “You lied to me!” It was a fun surprise. The baptism went well. I was even asked to give the closing prayer…in Spanish! I took a year of Spanish in college, but my Spanish has rusted a little over time. I was grateful for the chance to participate in that way. After the baptism Emily and her companions came to visit at Becky’s cousin’s house. We had a houseful! It was like a mini-family reunion in the East while the rest of our families met out West. We had a delicious meal and spent the rest of the day talking and mingling.
The next day was a Sunday, so Becky and I attended an early morning church service and then hit the road. We drove for 5 hours and stopped when Sophie had had all she could handle of driving. We spent the evening in a hotel in Sevierville, TN, which, we learned is the hometown of Dolly Parton. The next morning we went to Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies. We really loved the exhibits there. It was expensive, but worth the money. The neatest display there is a tunnel that takes you underneath the pools. It feels like you are diving in a coral reef, with fish, a giant turtle, and even sharks swimming all around you. There are lots of pictures and videos posted on our blog. We really like Gatlinburg, TN. It’s a neat little family-friendly vacation site. It kind of reminds me of Jackson Hole, WY, only bigger. After the aquarium and a delicious lunch at Corky’s BBQ we headed for home. This will be one of my most memorable Christmases ever I think. I really enjoyed the trip, and I’m so glad that I have my favorite traveling companions with me: Becky and Sophie.
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