Happy Anniversary!

It is after midnight so I missed posting on our actual anniversary and I missed seeing the ticker to the right say Happy Anniversary to us-it now says seven years and one day!

We took a family trip to St. Cloud, MN (3 hours) and we had a fun day.

Lamb #1 has been asking if Ram found Ewe or Ewe found Ram. Ram has answered that God helped Ram and Ewe find each other. I plan to post about our engagement story soon in honor of our anniversary.

Prayer Vigil

Esther is organizing a prayer vigil for Stellan. What MckMama and Stellan are going through sounds so scary. I will always remember how scared I was when Lamb #1 needed his blood drawn multiple times at about Stellan's age to find out he had Milk Soy Protein Intolerance. That is nothing compared to Stellan. Please keep them in your prayers.

We know Esther from when her family lived in MN, now they have moved to WI.

Thanks Glenda, for explaining links to me! I hope these links work!

Rev. Harrison

I taught first and second grade at Zion Lutheran Academy in Fort Wayne, IN for 6 1/2 years. Pastor Harrison was senior pastor there for most of that time. He did a marvelous job getting the area revitalized in addition to being an excellent pastor.

If you haven't seen this video yet, I highly recommend watching it. It's quite long, but worth watching the whole thing.

http://mercyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/12/preaching-at-zion-ft-wayne.html

I apologize that I don't know how to add video in my blog. I hope you can "find" this video.

Disney Drops Narnia

Round Unvarnish'd Tale had an interesting post about Disney dropping Narnia. I don't have time to figure out how to link to her post or to the article, so check out her blog from under My Blog List.

Chicken liver spread

I'm still new at blogging, so I hope this link works! (Click on the title of this post!)

A few years ago we discovered this recipe from Rachael Ray. We all love it. We build it this way Keebler Club cracker, then chicken liver spread, then Dijon mustard, then bread and butter pickle. I never thought I would say that I love liver!

Ram made it today and it was delicious. Lamb #1 hasn't been feeling well and he didn't eat his. Lamb #2 copied Lamb #1 and didn't eat his either. There is plenty left over and hopefully they feel better and eat it tomorrow. We only make it once a year! If they don't then there will be more for Ram and Ewe! Last year Lamb #1 and #2 ate so much of it that they felt sick. I didn't think Lamb #3 was quite old enough for it so he'll have to wait until next Christmas.

I haven't been able to figure out how to make links to websites not doing it with the title of the post. Any of you with blogging experience are welcome to comment and help me! Otherwise I'll be looking at the Blogger help page for quite awhile and experimenting with this through trial and error. With 3 little Lambs, I don't really have time for that, so PLEASE help me!

If you're happy and you know it CLAP your hands!

Since Lamb #3 is not a firstborn, we don't always notice his new skills. Today Lamb #2 pointed out that Lamb #3 was clapping by himself. Lamb #2 also pointed out that Lamb #3 was standing on his own. After bath, I sang "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands" with Lamb #3. He loved participating!

Lamb #3 is feeling better from his ear infection with antibiotics. He enjoyed his bath and played and splashed tonight. That is the first time he has done that for a few weeks. We knew he was sick when he didn't want to play during his bath!

Lamb #3 is almost 9 months. He isn't walking yet, not even holding on to something, but I think it's coming soon. Lamb #1 and #2 get very excited when he does a new skill. Hopefully their excitement will help Lamb #3 learn new skills and also help Lamb #2 learn to talk better.

Lamb #1 had a fever and said his leg hurt last night. Today he didn't have a fever and never had any other symptoms. Hopefully we can all get healthy now.

The weather prediction sounds good for tomorrow so hopefully we can have church tomorrow- the first Sunday that Ewe and the Lambs have been able to attend in December due to the weather!

More about my dad's loss of power at home

Power went out at 07:27 Friday, 19 Dec 08 and returned at 15:42 Tuesday, 23 Dec 08 at my parent's house in Fort Wayne, IN. My mom was at my sister's apartment in SC after she had knee surgery. My dad stayed at home during the whole power outage (with the exception of short breaks to eat out and get supplies).

A gas-fired boiler heats water that an electric pump pushes through pipes in their baseboard heaters. If any water boils off or leaks somewhere in the system, more water is introduced from the main water line into the house. A valve on the inlet line automatically opens to keep the pressure up. The valve is called an auto-fill valve. That valve is in the outdoor utility closet where the water heater and boiler are. The flame under the boiler keeps the closet warm.

When the power went out a week ago Friday, the pump stopped. When the pump stopped, a safety system shut down the boiler. With no heat in the closet, the auto-fill valve froze early Tuesday morning. The pipes to the baseboard heaters go through the cement slab under the house. Water flowed over all the flooring (laminate and simulated wood) on the first floor of the house. Some water went onto carpets in the living and dining rooms. Some went under the door into the garage.

While the power was out, my dad kept the inside of the house above 50 degrees and had water flowing, but none of that helped the valve in the outside utility closet.

After he soaked up what water he could, he got a company called ProTech to come to his house in less than 3 hours. ProTech was glad to do the clean up work with power. My parents have to pay the deductible, but ProTech's bill was $3900 plus they have to pay the plumber and get replacement flooring. They ran 13 fans plus two large dehumidifiers from Tuesday evening until Saturday morning. The major reason was to dry any moisture that may have seeped into the walls.

We are glad that my dad was kept safe during all this and also glad for house insurance during something like this. Many in Fort Wayne have even worse problems than my parents do. We are keeping the people of Fort Wayne in our prayers as they have much clean up to do now.

My dad still has to contact the company to order new flooring and then he plans to finally go pick up my mom in SC. My mom is glad she wasn't there during the power outage nor during the clean up! They won't be back to "normal" until after the new flooring. That won't be until after the new year and it may take a long time with others having the same problem in Fort Wayne.

Did you guess?

We had crepes and lingonberries today after church. My husband's family started this tradition for Christmas. We also had sausage with it. We are able to buy lingonberries in the meat section of our grocery store here in MN Scandinavian country. You can also buy them in a jam jar size.

With all the church services, we have learned to snack through Christmas instead of eating a big meal. We have had olives, smoked salmon/cream cheese/crackers, brie with cranberries and walnuts on top, wine/sparkling grape juice for the boys, and shrimp with cocktail sauce. The smoked salmon and olives were gifts and the rest isn't real expensive for a once a year treat instead of fixing a big meal. Lamb #2 loves the smoked salmon and cream cheese. Everyone loves the crepes and lingonberries.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas Eve!

I have much that I want to post about our activities the last few days, but that is going to have to wait until after Christmas. We have to get dressed and get everyone and everything packed in the car to go to two church services tonight.

The good news is my dad finally has his power back and is dealing with clean up now. I'll post more about his adventure in a few days.

Lamb 3 started antiobiotics for his ear infection yesterday. Ram, Ewe, Lamb 1, and Lamb 2 are finally healthy again!

I'll leave you with a photo to try to guess what it is. We'll have this for brunch after church tomorrow morning. I'll post the answer tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

Updated Weather Report

Well, my dad called from church this morning. He went out for a short time to go to church and get take out food and then he was going back home. As of this point he is staying at his house. We tried to convince him to go to a shelter, but he has made up his mind to stay with his house as long as possible and watch the pipes etc. He has FIOS so his phone won't work either. He had a little scare when the house two doors down from him had a chimney fire last night. He said our lambs would have liked watching the fire trucks. Hopefully it reminds him to be careful. He is glad my mom isn't in Fort Wayne now to be part of this.

Two of the tri-parish churches canceled today because of wind chill. The last one was going to try because it was the late service. One member went out to plow the church yard and the wind blew the snow right back where it was. So they also canceled because they were afraid they would have to dig us all out after church.

In December the lambs and I have only been to 2 Midweek Advent services so far, no Sunday services. Ram has only led one Sunday services for the tri-parish. The lambs were really upset to miss church again today-and not just because they would miss Christmas program practice, they are tired of missing church too. Hopefully when we finally get back to church they will be well behaved after missing so many services!

I don't know what we are going to do since we haven't had ANY Christmas program practice yet. We are supposed to take Lamb 1 back to the doctor tomorrow after an ear infection. I don't know if we can travel the 1 1/2 hour to the doctor. I would also like Lamb 3 to be checked because he has been fussy and I wonder if he also has an ear infection. Lamb 3 has a little cough too but that seems to be improving. We are praying the weather improves so we can travel tomorrow to the dr. and some time have Christmas program practice.

We're going to try to have Matins with our family now to try to give the lambs a little church. Tonight we are supposed to still have the children's program at church #2-we are not part of this program tonight. We'll just have to see if they have it.

Weather Report

We had bad enough weather on 12/7 that Ram told me to stay home from church with the lambs and not risk the roads. Then on 12/14 church was canceled because of blowing wind and snow. Today library storytime was canceled because of blowing wind and snow. The prediction for tonight is more snow and -19 with wind chill of -54!

We decorated the Christmas tree today and I made food hoping for the church potluck tomorrow. The plows just started so we'll see how much wind we get tonight and how cold it gets. Thankfully we've had heat and we've even had hot water every time we've tried. Sometimes when it's cold we don't have hot water!

My dad lives in Fort Wayne, IN and he hasn't been as fortunate. Fort Wayne had an ice storm. He lost his power yesterday and as far as I know it's still not back on. He was glad he was at home to check on the pipes and watch the house. My mom is in SC with my sister after her knee surgery on 12/18. My dad doesn't know when he will get his power back and when the roads will be safe to travel. My parents will probably not be together for Christmas this year. My dad was frustrated with no power to use his computer, phone, TV, etc. He doesn't have a cell phone. The city was going to be a level 3 emergency. That means you will be arrested if caught driving without an emergency. Thousands in Fort Wayne are without power. As of 2 p.m. Saturday, in Allen County, more than 59,000 customers, or 42 percent of I&M's customers in the county, were powerless.

We are keeping my dad and all those without power in our prayers. It was a good reminder to us to thank God that our power has remained on so we are able to enjoy our family time in a warm house with all the things we rely on for electricity.

adorable diaper covers

About a month ago, I was finally ready to try cloth diapers. Here's Lamb #3 in a diaper cover made by www.averysattic.blogspot.com . Isn't he adorable? Much better than a Pampers or Huggies! I was so glad to find averysattic. Her prices are very reasonable. She is having a sale with free shipping until the end of the year. She makes blankets, slings, diaper accessories, etc. Check her out if you have a baby gift to buy!

I'll post more about our adventures with cloth diapers in future posts.

About my blog title

My blog title is based on the hymn, "I am Jesus Little Lamb".



Day by day, at home, away,
Jesus is my Staff and Stay.
When I hunger, Jesus feeds me,
Into pleasant pasture leads me:
When I thirst, He bids me go
Where the quiet waters flow.

TLH 648:2



My parents sang all 3 verses of this hymn to me as they rocked me as a baby. It was one of the first hymns I memorized. Now I sing it to my boys every night too.



My blog will be "under construction" for awhile as we finish Advent and enter Christmas. I hope to post more in 2009.