One Down, Three to Go

Dear friends and family,

Normally, we write our blog posts on a busy weekend, crammed between all the errands we have to do before our crazy week starts up again. This blog post, however, is coming to you from two very relaxed people! We are both officially on our summer break!

This month has been quite the adventure, with all those last-minute and end-of-the-year things to do. We’ve also been experiencing the crazy weather of St. Louis in the spring. (Thankfully, we’ve had no tornado warnings in our area yet! Just lots of torrential downpours followed by beautiful sunny days)

My last month at school started with Field Day – a fun day where all the kids spend the day outside playing games. We were blessed with perfect weather for the day! The next week, however, was our long-awaited field trip to the zoo. We had been learning about animals for weeks to lead up to the trip, and the kids were all so excited! Unfortunately, the weather forecast listed an 80% chance of rain and thunderstorms…and stayed unchanged (which is uncommon for St. Louis – usually the weather forecast changes frequently!). We hoped and hoped the rain would stay away, but it hit pretty early in the day, and so most of the kids and their parents opted to head home early. That’s the problem with planning an outdoor field trip! But it was a fun experience, and my first time at the St. Louis Zoo, so I had a lot of fun too! Last Thursday was our Kindergarten graduation service. All my kids got dressed up in adorable little caps and gowns and sang and recited all the Bible verses they had learned, and then I got to pass out diplomas. It was so much fun, and they were adorable. The most rewarding experience that evening though, was to have the parents and grandparents come to me and say how much their children or grandchildren loved school and how much they grew and learned this year. I treasured all those words so much! But I was also excited to declare myself “Not in Charge of Children” for the rest of the summer. I have spent the past week in faculty meetings and cleaning up my classroom, getting it ready for July when I go back and start putting it all back together for next year!

Nick’s last few weeks of the quarter were, as you can expect, full of homework. Thankfully, though, it was not a quarter with too many papers to write, so he was actually more relaxed than usual! He delivered a sermon in Homiletics, and got very good feedback! Now that he has passed Homiletics, he is looking forward to preaching at Our Savior a few times this summer! He also finished an exegetical paper for Exodus and the Torah, and then spent an entire weekend completing take home tests. After that, though, he was done! He is very happy to be done with school until the fall, and has taken to filling his time reading comics instead of textbooks! However, summer does not mean that he isn’t busy. He’s been filling his time this week with work, spending time at two or three of his jobs each day – working in the mail room on campus, working with general labor on campus, and working with a landscaping company. He enjoys the work though and is excited to get more hours now that he isn’t in classes!

We also had the pleasure of having two visits from family this month! Let’s be honest, that doesn’t happen often, being so far from home, so it was really fun! First, we had a visit from my great aunt, aunt, and cousin (okay, they’re really like second cousins or something but it’s just simpler to say it this way), as they were in Missouri for my cousin’s graduation. I hadn’t seen them in years, so it was really fun to chat with them and catch up! They took us out to dinner and we had such a fun evening with them! Later that week, my uncle, aunt, and cousin were also passing through St. Louis, so we got to show them around the seminary and then go out to dinner with them as well (at a DELICIOUS authentic Italian restaurant on The Hill – I don’t think I can go back to ordinary lasagna again!). Again, it was so nice to catch up, and tell my cousin a little about St. Louis, as he is considering attending the seminary when he graduates college! It was so nice to get a taste of home and see some familiar faces…we ate really well that week too!

One thing we did this month was to sit down and write a list of things we want to do this summer. This is the first summer that we really get to be together all summer (as college summers were spent at our respective homes, an hour and a half away from each other, working different jobs). Also, St. Louis is known for its arts and museums – most of which are free! Since we’ve been so busy since we arrived, we haven’t gotten much of a chance to experience these things. This month, we already went to a street fair in Maplewood, the community where we live, a few weeks ago, where we got to taste some unique foods and see what the shops in this community sell. We also went to a Sinatra Tribute Concert on Tuesday night, which was on the lawn of the History Museum in Forest Park – completely free and we couldn’t have asked for more beautiful weather! We are looking forward to the events offered here – free musical performances at the Muny, Shakespeare in the Park, the museums, Cardinals games, and more! We are looking forward to a fun summer!

God’s blessings on your summer plans and travels as well! We look forward to seeing some of you very soon in California!

In the name of Christ our Savior,

Nick and Mikaela Duerr

Maplewood Street Fair - a Gooey Butter Cake Donut!

Sinatra Tribute Concert at the History Museum

Keeping Busy...Counting our Blessings

Greetings friends and family!

What a full month April was! Even outside of the usual work-school-church craziness, we had a LOT going on!

April began with Holy Week in full swing, which, even giving us time off of our normal work and school days, was a hectic weekend! Nick assisted at the Maundy Thursday service, and I was recruited into singing in the choir, so we were at church Thursday evening. The next day, there was no church service for Good Friday, but rather a Passion Play that Our Savior holds each year. So we were back at church on Good Friday for a supper and the play. On Saturday, we had a break (yay!) and took that time to embrace our inner child and dye some eggs! Sunday morning, we were up at 4:00 a.m. in order to be at church at 5:30, as Nick would be assisting with all three services, beginning with the sunrise service at 6:00 a.m. That was the first sunrise service I’ve ever attended, and let me say that I was really glad that I had a spare blanket in my classroom! It was a lot colder outside than I expected! Thankfully, a warm, delicious breakfast was served in between services, and so we warmed up in time for the 8:00 service, in which I was also singing in the choir. After the last service, we were more than happy to go home and take a nice, long nap! We were blessed to spend the evening having a barbeque dinner with friends, celebrating Christ’s resurrection all together and making up for the fact that we couldn’t be with our families that day.

Dying eggs! Nick is pretty much a pro. 

Easter Sunday

On Maundy Thursday, our first niece was born! My sister, Adrionna, gave birth to a little girl named Teagann, and we are definitely very happy to be uncle and aunt to this sweet little bundle of joy! We obsess over every picture of her that we receive, and we cannot wait to meet her when we visit California in June! (That may be our first stop when we arrive…after In-N-Out of course!)

Starting that weekend, April seemed to just kick into high gear and never really slowed down! The following weekend, we attended a fundraiser at Our Savior called the Mouse Races. And yes, they are actually racing mice. It’s a huge event in which a company brings in mice, and puts them on a track, and you are able to bet on mice to see who wins. It was an amazing event, despite its…unique nature! We brought a group of our friends from the seminary, and to top it all off, one of our friends won the grand prize, which was a trip to Reno! It was such a fun night, and we’re really looking forward to going next year!

Friends at the Mouse Races

Another big event this month was when I cut my hair! I decided with the warmer weather, a good haircut was a long time coming. I traded my long locks for a shorter cut, and I love it! I cut off about 12 inches of hair and donated it to Beautiful Lengths, which is a charity that donates wigs to women with cancer!

We are continually blessed at the seminary by so many people who support those of us going into the ministry, and it is not only a financial blessing to us, but it is so encouraging to see how many people out there really invest in training up the future leaders of the church. This month, the pastors of many large LCMS churches around the country came to the seminary and put on a free dinner for all seminary students called We Love the Sem. When I say dinner, I really mean a huge social event. Not only was there a huge, delicious barbeque dinner including Ted Drewes frozen custard for dessert, but also many pastors running around chatting with people and offering entertainment. One pastor wearing a gorilla suit even climbed up Luther tower in his own personal rendition of King Kong.

As busy as life has been since arriving in St. Louis, this past week has to be one of the busiest on record so far. On Tuesday night, we had the opportunity to go to a Cardinals game! It was the perfect weather, and the Cardinals were playing really well and hitting a lot, making it an exciting game to watch. However, it made for a late night that night. Wednesday was Call Day, which is probably the biggest day of the year at the seminary. Although we were not receiving a placement or call, we have a lot of friends who were! Nick was asked to work for the services (one at 3:00 and one at 7:00), doing ushering, set up, clean up, and any other odd jobs that needed to be done, so it was a really long day for him! I was able to leave work a little early in order to be there for the vicarage service, and it was really an exciting service to watch, with many of our friends hearing for the first time where they will be going for the next year! (Although I hate to think about how nervous I’m going to be for that service next year!) While Nick stayed and worked, I went to a friend’s apartment, and we watched the Call Service on the live stream together. The next day, Thursday, was the performance of our school musical at Our Savior, of which I was partially in charge. For the last month, my class, along with the 1^st through 4^th graders, had been practicing songs and lines daily. I was in charge of teaching the songs and the choreography, so I was right in my element! It was a huge success, and so much fun, but a lot of work! Nick was a supportive husband, and came to the performance with flowers for me and his camera to take video of the performance. It was a fun night, but we definitely slept in a little on Friday morning! The week finished off with Field Day at school for me, which is another really fun, but really exhausting event! After spending the whole day with my class walking around to lots of different events and games, we had an early dismissal (thank goodness!) and I went home and took a nap!  

 In the midst of all this, I have also started a small card business. I wanted a hobby that I could come home to, so that I could get a break from work, rather than just coming home with a lot of work every day, but is still productive, so I don’t feel guilty about taking a break from work! So I started making greeting cards, and it’s been pretty successful so far! This is mostly thanks to Nick, as he has been incredibly supportive, and even advertises for the business a lot at the seminary! It’s also thanks to everyone who has been supportive and bought cards! It definitely keeps me busy, but it is a fun and relaxing break from work life, and I’ve found I’m a lot more productive during the school day because I don’t bring work home as often! (If you’re interested in taking a peek at my cards, you can find them at www.etsy.com/shop/CardsbyMikaela or at my Facebook page – Cards by Mikaela).

We are now in May (still wondering where the time has gone!) and in the home stretch! We are both down to three weeks left in the school year, and we are definitely looking forward to a break! It’s nice to see the to do lists for school get shorter while the to do lists for summer get longer. We thank you all for your amazing support and prayers. We have (almost) survived our first year here, and through God’s grace we are coming out of this year feeling very loved and blessed!

In the name of Christ our savior,

Nick and Mikaela