Prayer Requests

Baby Stellan has been in the hospital critically ill with heart problems for the last 10 days. I have to admit that I was busy at the time he went in the hospital so I didn't post on my blog about him right away. I did start praying for him then and he has been in my prayers continually since then. It makes me cry every time I read another blog post from his Mama. I can't imagine what his family is going through-not only him being sick, but his dad is at home with the other three children and his mom is almost constantly at the hospital. The lovely hospital only has a conference room for her to sleep in that she has to be out by 6am each morning. Please keep Stellan and his family in your prayers. If you have not followed her blog and you are interested, you can click on his picture here and it will take you to the blog.

Also, please pray for the ND floods. We had two grandchildren from Fargo in church with us last Sunday. The grandparents had met the parents at a 1/2 way point and took the grandchildren for a week. The parents would be able to help with the volunteer efforts without worrying about their children. There was no school for 1/2 last week and all of this week in Fargo because of the floods. We had several inches of snow today and they had more. It is supposed to warm up later this week which will melt that snow and make it even worse. Pam posted about the flooding in Bismark on her blog and Fargo/Moorhead is even worse.

Lamb 3 on TV

Lamb 3 will be on the Showcase MN show for a few seconds. It is on KARE 11 TV out of the Twin Cities. It will be on Thursday, April 2, sometime between the 10-11am hour.

It will also be on the internet after the show, for about a month. Click here on April 2 in the afternoon to see it.

They do this for first birthdays. I sent the info in earlier this month. We can "watch" it on the internet. Since we gave up TV, I had to find someone to tape it to keep it for Lamb 3. That was almost impossible in this age of DVRs. I did finally find someone to tape it for me. Hopefully it works for them to tape it.

IA Mamapooloza 2009

I had a great time meeting the Loopers. I stopped in Brookings for lunch and shopping at Walmart. Then I drove to Sioux Falls. First I got gas. I thought about it and I don't think I have bought gas since Lamb 1 was a baby 5 years ago! Ram takes care of getting gas for our vehicles. Then I stopped at Stride Rite and had Lamb 3's feet measured and found out I did have him in the correct size shoes. I wanted to make sure he was in the right size with all the walking he does. I "had" to stop at Starbucks for a mocha and to feed Lamb 3. It was really busy and took me longer than I planned. Then I drove to Suzanne's house. She is so nice to host all of us in her big farmhouse.
I was actually one of the first ones to arrive. So we snacked on the hummus that Ram made and on Glenda's delicious homemade salsa while we waited for everyone else to come. We had a delicious supper of french onion soup and salad made by Gina and Charity. Then Suzanne had planned a few pencil and paper brain games. I didn't get to do much of them because I was chasing Lamb 3 as he walked around their house exploring. Then we sat around and talked and drank wine and mead and ate chocolate. We did devotions out of the Treasury of Daily Prayer and then went to bed about 12:30am.

Glenda (left) and Melanie (right)
Melanie (left), Tami (center-Melanie's friend), Charity (right)

Kim S. (left), Suzanne L. (right)

Rhonda (left), Gina (center), Kristi G. (right)

For breakfast on Saturday Kristi made a delicious egg casserole. Then we did some sightseeing in Sioux City. We enjoyed seeing the Lewis and Clark center.

The whole group (except Melanie took the photo) at the Lewis and Clark center.

Chick 5 and Lamb 3 were the babies to give the mamas a few chances to hold a baby. Here's Lamb 3 checking her out. This was taken at the art museum. Lamb 3 didn't want anyone besides me to hold him. He did enjoy walking around with Tami at the art museum. Chick 5 let lots of the Mamas hold her. Kristi and Gina were great at holding the babies for the photo.

Here's Chick 5 checking out Lamb 3. Will there be a Looper child romance in the future? He is 6 months older-but nearly the same size!

Melanie with Chick 5. We had a snack of cinnamon rolls and coffee at the art museum cafe and then we looked around a little.

Then we saw a wooden

life size sculpture of the Last Supper.

Then we stopped at the candy store and stocked up on chocolate and treats! I bought the Lambs and Ram a few treats since they were so nice to let me go to the Mamapooloza. Many bought treats for their children's Easter baskets.

Then it was time for me to say goodbye. They ate at a restaurant that even had a martini bar. I stopped along the way a few times to have a break and take care of Lamb 3. I was glad to be home and tired after all that driving in 2 days.

I'm really glad I went and met so many Loopers after e-mailing with them for a few years. It was great to put a face with a name. Some of them have blogs so I had seen photos and a few I had met before, but most I had no idea. It was a lot of driving for a few days, but it was worth it to me. I don't know if I will try to attend the Mamapooloza every year, but it was nice to go this year and meet everyone.

Ram did fine with the Lambs. Lamb 1 was sick with a cold the whole time I was gone. They were thrilled to get out their play grain bin and real corn. They aren't allowed that with Lamb 3 as he would eat the corn. They went to library storytime on Saturday. I left the kitchen a mess and Ram cleaned it all up. Ram made bean soup for supper last night and we ate leftovers today.

Mamapooloza here I come!

Ram was nice enough to agree to watch Lamb 1 and 2 so I'm going to take Lamb 3 and go to a Mamapooloza in IA today and tomorrow. It is a group of Lutheran homeschool moms getting together for a weekend without husbands or children (with the exception of nursing children). I am going to have to come home on Saturday night as I have to take the Lambs to church while Ram is pastor. I am really looking forward to it. I feel bad for the moms that wanted to attend but can't. Lamb 3 is still nursing quite a bit so he has to go along with me. I'm sure the other mamas will enjoy seeing a baby. I called a friend in our town to be a backup in case Ram has an emergency as pastor. Lamb 1 and 2 are looking forward to spending some time with Ram as he has been really busy during Lent. I didn't know if the weather was going to let me go, but it looks like it will be ok.

I have quite a bit to pack. This is my checklist.
clothes (and diapers) for Lamb 3 and for me
sleeping bag (I'm not sure if she has enough bedding for all of us)
Pack N Play for Lamb 3 to sleep in
stroller for when I stop for shopping on the way there and for our sightseeing on Saturday
Treasury of Daily Prayer (for devos)
biscotti (thanks Ram's mom)
surprise treat for the moms
mead (made from honey from our town)
homemade hummus (thanks Ram!), crackers (thanks Ram's mom), carrots, and celery
some misc. items I'm trying to give away like duplicate Thomas pieces as I'd rather give it to them instead of Goodwill
lots of chocolate (thanks Ram's mom!)
food for Lamb 3

The big boy bed

Lamb 2 was still sleeping in a crib last week. He will be 3 the end of May. I knew it was time to get him a bed, but we just never got around to it. I knew we had to do something soon when last week he said, "Me monkey" and tried to climb out of the crib when I was watching him. I could only imagine what he was trying when I wasn't watching him.
We decided while we still owned the SUV, Ram would go the 20 miles over to SD and pick up a mattress for Lamb 2. His dad was visiting so they were going to go get the mattress on Monday.
Unfortunately the SUV wouldn't start. So they decided to take the minivan. That meant taking 2 car seats out. That meant vacuuming the car so the seats would fold into the floor. Finally they were able to go buy the mattress.
5 years ago we bought Lamb 1 a mattress, box spring, and rails for $99. There was no special so with tax, a plain mattress was $140. There really wasn't a choice as if we bought it some where else we would have had to pay delivery.
It wasn't up in time for his nap, but he was thrilled to sleep on it on Monday night. He just has a mattress. Eventually we'll get bunk beds, but we started with a mattress. Eventually Lamb 3 will leave our room and go to the crib in the room with his brothers. Part of the excitement was getting to pick sheets as all our crib sheets are Pooh. Lamb 2 picked trucks. Here he is pretending to sleep.
On Wednesday night I was here with the boys while Ram was gone. I decided to do laundry in the basement as all 3 Lambs were in bed. Lamb 2 snuck downstairs to ask me to rub his back. I was quite firm about not getting out of bed after we had said good night. I don't want them to get in that habit.
The next step will be potty training and then Lamb 2 will really be a big boy!

Wordless Wednesday-Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling

Ties

Lamb 1 loves to wear ties to church. Most of his are clip on. He received a real tie for Christmas from Ram's parents. We asked some church members to help him tie it. They were unsuccessful. Ram wears clerical collars so he doesn't know how to tie a tie. Neither do I. Finally this past weekend Ram's dad tied it for him. Here he is in his real tie that is too big for him.

Lamb 2 wants to be just like his brother and wear ties to church now too. He had a Christmas tie but he got it dirty a few months ago. We asked Ram's mom to get him a tie. She found a cute outfit at Target. When I went to put the tie on him, it has a loop that goes around the button, it is not clip on or real. I don't think this tie will last very long for a 2 1/2 year old. Plus it is a pain to put on him and it doesn't stay straight.

Here's a photo of them thrilled to be wearing their new ties.
Those of you with boys, where do you buy ties for them? I always hit that section first at Once Upon a Child. Any other good places to shop for boys ties?

Grandparents

Ram's parents were here for a visit over the weekend. I will try to post more about their visit later. They stayed at a lodge up the road from us, right outside of our small town. They really like staying there. It has a kitchen, laundry room, living room, and of course bedrooms. Some times when we tried to book them there it was full. This time they had the whole lodge to themselves. Ram's dad travels a lot for work so he likes being out in the country in the quiet instead of a hotel. I think they like being on their own and they don't have to wake up when the Lambs do. They can spread out their stuff and not be crammed in a guest room. And they don't have to use a shower in our basement.
The lodge is an old farmhouse fixed up and taken care of well. There is another building that is fixed up as a game room with a pool table and some other game tables.
On Sunday we went over and checked out the lodge as we had never seen it. The Lambs were really too young to enjoy the game room. We did play dominoes with Lamb 1 and 2 for a little while. Maybe if they come in nicer weather we could do more outside there and even build a bonfire.
On the way over to the lodge it got me to thinking that years ago, people probably went to visit their grandparents on the farm on a Sunday afternoon. Grandparents didn't usually live so far away. One set of our parents live 2 days drive away and one set lives 3 days drive away for us. I'm thankful that all of our parents are willing to drive to see us a few times a year and we also get to go see them once or twice a year too. We enjoyed our visit with Ram's parents even though it was short.

Happy Anniversary Ram's Parents!

This photo was taken last year with Lamb 3. We should try to get a photo of just them.

39 years! Ram was blessed with a good example of marriage.

They are celebrating their anniversary with us this year. We are glad for their visit.

NOT Day by Day-More away than at home

We have been so busy that I haven't posted for a week. I really intended for this blog to have something posted every day or at least every other day. I have many blog posts running through my head but no time to write them!
Ram's parents are coming for a short visit. They should arrive late tonight and stay until Tuesday. It's a long drive for a short visit. We're glad they are coming and can see their grandboys. I'm glad they can see Lamb 3 walk. He's wobbly but confident. I'm not clear if Lamb 2 helped him, but I just caught Lamb 2 and 3 in our guest room that is up 4 steps. Guess it's time to get the baby gate out.
Lamb 3 is working on his 3rd and 4th tooth. He hasn't been sleeping well, not eating well, wants to nurse all the time, and fussy.
A church member that was only 49 died this week leaving his wife and two school age boys. It was unexpected to us, but not completely unexpected to the family. 9 years ago he was given 8-10 years to live. It's still difficult. The funeral will be on Saturday. So Ram added funeral preparation and a funeral to his schedule this week during Lent.
Baby Claire's family got the flu (but not her Mama and Claire) and they wanted to be there for the baptism in the hospital so Claire is not baptized. Plus they are still battling the flu. Claire and her Mama are home now.
Ram has been trying to work ahead to get to all his shut ins before Easter and it's always a busy time during Lent with extra services to plan for and write sermons.
I'm planning to go to IA the last weekend in March for a get together with other Loopers (homeschool Lutheran moms). I'll take Lamb 3 and Ram will watch the other two lambs. So we're also trying to get things done before that and I'm planning what to take etc.
I'm not doing spring cleaning yet (not because I don't want to, but because I haven't had time), but we are trying to clean up the clutter and vacuum and do a little cleaning before the grandparents get here. I'm sure they'll bring birthday presents for the birthdays coming up plus treats for the lambs, so we need to have a place for that. I finally finished putting away the Christmas ornaments and cleaned up the guest room. I cleaned the living room and even moved furniture to vacuum. The lambs love cleaning and loved discovering all their missing toys under the sofa. Somehow I got behind on laundry (more behind than usual) so I've done several loads trying to catch up. My dining room table has been piled up for months and I finally attempted to organize it yesterday. I still have a big pile of mail to go through, but nothing important in that pile like bills.
We went shopping last Saturday (which is a whole day deal when you live 1 1/2 hours away from a big grocery) and also got Lamb 3's photo taken for his one year. Saturday is a bad time to go and it took a long time. It took almost 2 hours to wait for the photo, take the photo, choose the photo, and pay. All the stores were crowded. I hate going on Saturday but that's just how our schedule worked. Ram was supposed to go to a conference in Brainerd, but he didn't go because he was just too exhausted from the previous week. Anyway, Lamb 3's photos turned out really cute and I'm excited to get them back in a few weeks.
On Tuesday we finally had ECFE after canceling because of weather the week before. The theme was mittens and they brought coolers of snow inside for the kids to play. The Lambs were so excited to get back to ECFE. We also had Lamb 1 and 2 get their haircut and then they stay and play with the family and we have a snack. (She has a beauty shop in her home.)
We've had nice weather, but not as nice as some of the blogs I've read recently. We've had a few days with 50s and the snow is starting to melt. The snow is not gone yet and it's muddy. Also windy days are predicted this next week. There's nothing to block the wind so it's really windy here.
That's the update. Hopefully I can post more than once a week. We should have some photos to post while Ram's parents are here.

It's a Girl!

To honor Kimberly's comment, I'm trying to be more careful with my blog titles, but I couldn't figure out a title for this blog entry!



Last night Ram was at the hospital from 9pm-1am. After we got home from church last night he returned a phone call. Then another phone call came that he should go to the hospital. This is not unusual since he has done more than 35 funerals since we moved here a little less than 6 years ago. But what was unusual was that he was asked to go to the hospital for a birth, not an ill member.



Claire Juncye was born at 10:22pm last night. This was her Mama's third c-section. They have a almost 7 year old girl and almost 5 year old boy. I won't tell the whole story, but due to some health problems they wanted more children but didn't have any after the 5 year old boy. So there is much rejoicing for their family with this baby girl. Mama was scheduled for a c-section next Tuesday, but Claire decided to come a few days early.



Claire's middle name is named after her Grandmother that Ram did the funeral for a little less than a year ago. This will be the second baptism that Ram does besides our Lambs (not counting a few grandchildren that live far away that he has baptized). Our church family is rejoicing to have Sunday School with their 3 children plus our 3 Lambs.



When Lamb 3 was born we considered having him baptized in the hospital. I was induced because he was so small and they thought something might be wrong. He was born healthy and we ended up not baptizing him in the hospital. The plan is to baptize Claire in the hospital this afternoon. She is healthy and there is no emergency to baptize her. But her parents liked the idea that she would be baptized soon. Her Mama won't have to get dressed up for the baptism when it's in the hospital. There is a lot of sickness going around (flu, whopping cough) and once they are out of the hospital, they plan to stay home as much as possible the next few weeks. When Mama is healed up and feels up to it, they will have a blessing in the church. This makes perfect sense to me and I wish more Lutherans would baptize in the hospital immediately whether there was an emergency or not. I think if we are blessed with another Lamb that we will baptize in the hospital. What is the best about this for us is we can plan our family to come for a blessing in the church when they all live so far away, but still get the baby baptized soon. I feel a little guilty that we took Lamb 3 out to eat the day after we came home from the hospital but he wasn't baptized yet. I feel even more guilty that Lamb 1 was a month old before he was baptized. So far I have had easy natural births, but we also don't know if we have more if there will be complications. I'm a little embarrassed that Ram is baptizing a member's baby in the hospital before he ever baptized one of our Lambs in the hospital. If as Lutherans we believe in infant baptism, why don't we baptize immediately whether there is an emergency or not?

We continue to keep Claire and her Mama in our prayers.

Wordless Wednesday

( Lamb 1 took the pillows off the sofa.)

Lamb 3 climbed up by himself.

Here we go again...

It is currently 10 degrees and feels like -9 at 10am here. We are predicted to get 7 inches and 40 mph winds.
The schools around here have all canceled. It takes a lot for them to cancel. They have canceled several times this year and I'm sure they will be going to school for several days after school is supposed to be out this summer.
Lamb 1 has been looking forward to ECFE. The leader had a baby in January and there has been no ECFE during her maternity leave. They did have Spanish classes for Lamb 1 for a month, but that's not the same as ECFE and Lamb 2 was too young to attend Spanish. When the schools cancel ECFE is canceled. So he has to wait another week until ECFE.
The ironic thing is the theme of ECFE was this book. I thought that was an odd choice for March, but I was wrong.

Celebration! and One Thing Leads to Another...

Yesterday I finished our taxes so we had a small party. I actually don't even do our taxes, we send them to someone else. But it is quite difficult to gather everything together and document everything with 3 little lambs. I just about went crazy when I was almost done, but not quite and I was trying to finish. Ram was gone and Lamb 1 was asking me questions about animals, Lamb 2 kept crying he was hungry (he didn't finish his breakfast), and Lamb 3 was crying and I don't know why. I finally gave up and waited for Ram to come home. Then it only took me about a 1/2 hour when Ram could watch the Lambs.
I had told the Lambs that I was busy so many times in the last week that I decided they earned a small party. We had just celebrated Lamb 1's birthday the day before. So yesterday we celebrated with pina coladas (of course no rum for the lambs!), leftovers from the birthday supper, and peach apricot cobbler for dessert (we rarely have dessert after supper).
All the Lambs were in bed before 8pm so Ram and I decided to watch Prince Caspian. I regret that we were unable to get to the theater to watch it. I'm glad we were able to see it last night.
About midnight Lamb 2 was crying. When I went to check on him he was wet all over and even his sheets. He cried as Ram and I changed everything on him and his bed. I don't know what happened as we haven't had that problem with cloth diapers before. He did have a lot to drink last night.
Today I ended up doing a lot of laundry (from Lamb 2 last night) and dishes because I watched a movie instead of doing dishes last night. I worked for a long time today in the nursery organizing the Lambs clothes and pulling out the too small clothes. I started to pack up the Christmas ornaments (I know it's March) but got interrupted when the 4-H delivered the fruit we ordered. So then I had to clean out the refrigerator to get room to put the fruit in the fridge. I threw out a bunch of old salad dressing etc. that was just taking up room in the fridge. Then I had to do dishes from the fridge clean out. Then Ram had to take the trash out from the fridge clean out. We finally were able to warm up leftovers for supper and then it was bath time and bedtime routine. I never did get back to the ornaments and the Lambs didn't get to bed until 8:30 and with the time change and needing to be up for church early tomorrow, that was not good.
Tomorrow after church our church next door to us has the annual ham dinner. So tomorrow will be Sunday School, church, and going to the ham dinner. I'm sure we'll all crash tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully I can post some photos from Lamb 1's birthday soon.

Happy Birthday Lamb 1!

Ram with Lamb 1 at the hospital when he was just a few hours old

Ewe with Lamb 1 on his due date (he was born a week early)

Lamb 1 on his first birthday

Lamb 1 vacuuming with his present he received for his second birthday

Lamb 1 shoveling on his third birthday

Lamb 1 the firefighter on his fourth birthday

We love you Lamb 1. We hope you have a great day!

5 Years Ago

In honor of his birthday tomorrow, I thought I would post Lamb 1's birth story.

I had extreme morning sickness and was even hospitalized in September. We called the midwife about 10pm on March 4. From what I described, she said it sounded like Lamb 1 would be born in a few days. I woke Ram at 5am on March 5. We left at 6:30am. Snow was bad and it took 2 hours to get to the hospital (it should have been a 1 1/2 hour drive). The first time I was checked I was dilated 9 3/4 cm! The nurse said, "Get the midwife over here fast!" Thankfully she lived in town and she made it quickly. We had to wait until the water in the tub was body temperature. I finally was able to get in the tub. Lamb 1 was born about an hour later. The nurses couldn't believe Lamb 1 was born so soon, especially since he was the first child! Lamb 1 had a knot in his cord. Nurses came from all over the hospital to check it out.

Lamb 1 was my first water birth. He was born during his last scheduled prenatal appointment. He was born exactly one week early. He was born on March 5, 2004 at 9:34am. He was 6lbs 13 oz and 20 inches. I didn't take any drugs for his birth.

Our journey with a baby that NEVER slept was just beginning. When he was two months old he was hospitalized and finally given the diagnosis of MSPI (Milk soy protein intolerance). I continued breastfeeding and changed my diet. He slowly improved and very slowly gained weight. Tomorrow he will be 5 years old and he can finally tolerate moderate amounts of dairy.

Because of his MSPI, I was exhausted and didn't feel like I was caught up until he turned 2. I feel cheated because I don't have some of the baby memories of Lamb 1 that I have with my other Lambs. I think this is unusual because usually you remember more about your firstborn before you have more children. I was definitely in survival mode his first few years of life. Thankfully he has outgrown this and we get to experience life with a five year old beginning tomorrow. There definitely aren't dull moments around the house when Lamb 1 is home!

What we'll be eating a lot of this week

These cupcakes and balloons were from his Sunday School teacher. There are only 4 children in Sunday School so she makes a big deal of their birthdays.

11 Months, Baby!