January 2018

Finally everyone was healthy so my parents watched the Lambs so Ram and Ewe could go out for their anniversary (a couple of weeks late). We went during Savor Fort Wayne to a fancy restaurant after asking friends for a recommendation. We went on a Thursday so we got all our stamps for our 2 dinners so we could get entered into the drawing. It was a great meal and worth the bargain price of Savor Fort Wayne. 

Photo Credit: Steve Blakey
It was rainy and cold for March for Life, drastically different than last year in t-shirts. We marched with several friends from church and then went to my parents church for cookies and hot cocoa. We had a chance to wear our new hats. Our deaconess student is on the right in her hat from the Washington D.C. March for Life.

One day I worked on cleaning out the basement. I asked a Lamb to bring me my slippers while I was working. I kept noticing pieces of plastic on the basement floor and couldn't figure out where that was coming from. Finally I realized my slipper was breaking! These were a Christmas present about 8 years old. Both slippers went in the trash because what would I do with one slipper and how long would it be until the other one broke too?

We took the Lambs to Debrand chocolate for their Savor Fort Wayne deal for a big treat one day before Ram  returned to classes. It was so good and enough to share with 5 people-I can't imagine 2 sharing it although Ram and Ewe got the drinks and we all shared the chocolate. There were other SAHM doing the same thing with their kids that afternoon.

When Ram was on school vacation we didn't use both of our vehicles very much, but Ram did make sure to go out and run the car that was in the garage a couple of times during his vacation. It wasn't enough and the battery on our Camry died. After trying to get it to go for a day, we were happy when AAA came and towed it and we were back to having both vehicles available shortly after Ram began classes again.

I used some credit to get some Snipp, Snapp, Snurr books from Hyde Brothers before Christmas at about $8 each, but they didn't have very many Flicka, Ricka, Dicka books in stock. I was so excited when this book was on the 20 cent shelf at the public library. I am keeping it for my collection. Since then I keep looking for more Lindman books, but this is the only one I have found. The cover wasn't in the greatest shape, but the pages are clean.

Our church youth group went outdoor ice skating one day. Last year I really wanted to take the Lambs, but we never found time in our schedule. None of the Lambs were very excited about going, but they tolerated it for a couple of hours. I promised Lamb 1 I wouldn't post pictures of him ice skating, but here are the other Lambs. It was cooler, but not freezing the day that we went. I took pictures this time, but next time I want to join them. Lamb 1 took off his coat and when we got home he asked where his coat was? I went back and it was right where he left it! By then it was much more crowded and I was glad we had gone when we did.

I really wanted to see Goodbye Christopher Robin in the theater, but they never came to Fort Wayne theaters. I was #3 on the library hold list and the library ordered 19 copies, so I picked it up the day after it was released on DVD. I have read a lot about A.A. Milne, so I was looking forward to this movie. My dad borrowed it before it was due, I watched it, and the Lambs watched it. Ram didn't have any interest in watching it! Even after reading several reviews, it was different than I expected. If you are going to watch it, read his poem Vespers first and you might want to have tissues handy, but you might not need those tissues depending on your stage of life. I won't give any more spoilers nor any more recommendations. Personally I'm glad I have both read his autobiography and that I saw this movie.

5 year update of 2011 post

December 29, 2001
1 Ram + 1 Ewe 

+ Ram changing from student to pastor
and back to student
+Ram 2 Calls to 4 different churches
+1 major surgery
+First laptop

+Ewe changing from classroom teacher
to Mama to homeschool teacher
+Ewe thyroid removed
+Ewe's first cell phone
+Ewe's first smartphone
+First iPad

 

+ 3 Boy Lambs (2004, 2006, 2008)
+ Surviving MSPI with Lamb 1 as a baby
+ Completing a year of vision therapy with Lamb 2
+1 Minor surgery for Lamb 2
+ Lamb 2 and 3 graduating from speech therapy
+ 3 Lambs getting involved in many different kinds of activities

+Several vacations to IN, ID, CA, SC, AL, MO, etc.

+ Making many new friends from many different parts 

of the country and a few that live overseas

+1 Brother-in-law
+ 5 year anniversary for Eric and Hannah

- 11 miscarried Lambs,
- 1 brother (Tim), 
- 3 Grandmas, -2 Grandpas, 
-7 Great Aunts and Great Uncles, 
and -several family friends going to join the saints in the Church Triumphant

+ 1 Saturn - 2 Saturns
+ 1 Blazer - 2 Blazers
+ 1 Toyota Camry
+ 2 Minivans -2 Minivans
+ 1 Toyota Sienna

+Living in 5 houses in 3 different parts of the country
+ Bought 1 house
- Sold 2 houses
+renting for our first time
+ plus being crazy enough to rent a second time
+3 major moves to live in 3 different states
+Moving from living in the same city as Ewe's parents to live in the same state as Ram's parents and then coming back to live in the same city as Ewe's parents again
+living in a big city
+living in a town of 113,
+living in a growing city of a suburb of the state capital
+back to living in a big city again

= 15 years of holy matrimony for Ram and Ewe!

We thank Christ for being the center of our marriage and being with us through all these changes. We know He will continue to be with us in future years and future changes.

*Baker family, you continue to be in our thoughts and prayers. This is a bittersweet day on the calendar. May we all continue to look forward to the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

Our 13th anniversary

We were at Ram's parents celebrating Christmas with them on our anniversary. We received some nice presents from them on our anniversary.

Vitamix!

We received a framed collage of some of the photos we had taken in August. 

The day after our anniversary we got a babysitter and went out to eat at a really nice restaurant. At dinner we discussed our honeymoon-where we ate, our carriage ride, and going to the symphony. Talking about memories is fun. We had a great anniversary!

13 Years Blessed!

Christmas Vacation Report

Christmas Eve-Attended church, came home for eggnog and treats, attended church again. Great that the services were at 7pm and 10pm so we were able to come home and relax in between services instead of rush from service to service like we did in MN. We did miss having the children's Christmas program on Christmas Eve like we did in MN. Some were surprised that we took our Lambs to both services, but it was just like MN to have two services. Lambs were awake for both services and kept me on my toes, but I was able to hear most of both services. This was the first year I let the Lambs have real candles for the candlelight portion of the service and they did great. Many people commented how beautiful the candlelight service is and also how glad they are that Ram is their new pastor.
Christmas Day-Attended church, made crepes, welcomed Ram's parents and helped them unload their car with presents and food, ate crepes and lingonberries, opened presents, ate "snacks" for supper-that will need to be another post.
Dec. 26-Rested and let Lambs play with their new toys (aka they built all their new Lego sets) most of the day. Went to Food Coop so Ram's mom could show me where it was located and what products they carry there. Very helpful to know that if I can't find my favorite products/brands anywhere else then we can go there. Ate out at a distillery pub, good food. Went to Winter Garden Aglow until we were just too cold. Ram's parents headed back to go to bed, Ram and the Lambs and I went shopping at Target and Walmart because I had nothing to put in their stockings. Found some good after Christmas sales.
Dec. 27-Met our realtor for some house shopping. First house we had not seen, it was a foreclosure, none of us liked it. Second house was a repeat visit. Ram's parents approved, which makes me glad that we're not just two young people that like this house. We have not put an offer on this house yet, but we are seriously considering it. So far this house has beat out all other houses we have looked at both in what we want in a house and price.
Ram and his dad head off for some shopping and Ram's mom and I took the Lambs to McDonald's playplace to play. We all met up and went out to eat. Put the tired Lambs to bed and had a brief visit with Ram's parents without Lambs before they headed home the next morning.
It was a short visit, but it was nice to have family for Christmas- the first time in our marriage to have family come to our house.
Dec. 28-Ram had taken this week off at church, so we finally had a day to rest and relax. We have been going nonstop since August and this was a much needed break for all of us. We popped popcorn and watched the new Pooh movie as a family-we haven't watched a movie together for a long time.
Dec. 29-I needed some lab work done so we all headed downtown to get that done so I didn't have to go by myself. It only took a few minutes but it was nice to get out of the house. We had a babysitter and went out-a first for us to go out on our anniversary day without the Lambs since 2003. I'll have another post about our anniversary date soon.
Dec. 30-Ram had to go to work today even though it was his vacation because he needed to prepare for Sunday. I called my parents house and talked to them and also my sister to hear how her wedding reception in IN went the night before. We were sorry we were unable to attend. They had a great reception with their closest friends and relatives, some traveling quite a distance, but it was closer than going to Hawaii.
I made gingerbread cupcakes and we headed over to my college friend Joelle's house for dinner and the Lambs to play with her kids. This was the first chance we had to get together for more than a few minutes chat since we moved here. I hope that this is the first get together of many for our families.
Dec. 31-Ram conducted a wedding at church. It was a small family affair with just cake afterwards at church. The Lambs were a little disappointed that they weren't invited. While he was there Ewe was busy making cookies. I made star shaped-dipped in chocolate for the adults, frosted with yellow frosting for the Sunday School kids. Then we went out to eat at the Ram restaurant, it was crowded on New Year's Eve, but kids were $1 with adult meal purchase. Then we went to church at Good Shepherd LCMS. They had services last night but we did not. It was a nice service and a nice way to end 2011. After services we met an old family friend of Ram's parents. She googled, "Boise New Year's Eve service" and Good Shepherd came up. She isn't LCMS but she loved the service and ending a rough year for her in church. She took photos of the Lambs because she was so excited to meet us after hearing about us from Ram's parents. Who would think we would run into a family friend when it wasn't our church?
Jan. 1-I let the Lambs sleep through first service after many late nights this week. We had a combined Sunday School with just kids from 4 families-including Joelle's children because they didn't have Sunday School this morning so I invited her to ours. They read a story, did a craft, ate the star cookies I made, and began to watch a movie before time ran out. At late service the Lambs were invited to join the choir to sing "I am Jesus Little Lamb". They all joined the choir but after many late nights this week only one of the Lambs really sang with the choir. Maybe next time.
For supper tonight Ram made chicken liver spread and all the Lambs gobbled that up even though they weren't as excited about the snacks that Ram's parents brought. My Lambs like butter, onions, and chicken livers better!
Ram will return to work tomorrow and we will attempt to get back into a routine here before Lamb 3 begins preschool on Thursday. I'm going to attempt homeschool Christmas break until then but I may not be able to handle the Lambs with no routine and we may have to start back earlier. I wish that they would just play with their new Legos and let me get some things done around here, but it doesn't work that way. They do much better with the routine of school and knowing when play time is during the day instead of a whole unstructured day.

December 29

1 Ewe+1 Ram+3 boy Lambs
-5 miscarried Lambs, 1 brother (Tim), 3 Grandmas, 2 Grandpas, 4 Great Aunts, 2 Great Uncles, and several family friends going to join the saints in the Church Triumphant
+1 Brother-in-law (Eric)
+ 1 Saturn- 2 Saturns + 1 Blazer- 2 Blazers
+1 Toyota Camry + 2 Minivans-1 Minivan
+ 3 Digital Cameras- 2 Digital Cameras
+1 Laptop+ 2 Computers
+ Several vacations to IN, ID, CA, SC, AL, MO, WY, NE, etc.
+ Ewe's first cell phone
+ Living in 3 houses in 3 different parts of the country
- 1 house (sold)
+ 2 Major moves to different states
+ Ewe changing from classroom teacher to Mama to homeschool teacher
+ Ram changing from student to pastor
+ 1 major surgery for Ram
+ Ram two Calls to 4 different churches
+ Plus making many new friends from many different parts of the country and a few from overseas
+ Moving from living in the same city as one set of parents to the same state as the other set of parents
+Living in a big city, in a town of 113, and in a suburb of a big city

=10 years of holy matrimony for Ram and Ewe!

We thank Christ for being the center of our marriage and being with us through all these changes. We know he will continue to be with us in future years and future changes too.

*Sorry I can't post a photo, but the wedding photos are still packed!

**Baker family, you are in our thoughts and prayers today. We know while this is a joyous day on the calendar for us it is a difficult anniversary day for you which makes it a bittersweet day for us. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May we continue to look forward to the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

Fourth Day of Christmas

If you have not read my post from the First Day of Christmas, please go back and read that post first.


Christmas Quiz part 2 ANSWERS-How well do you know the Biblical Christmas story?
Which of the following are mentioned in the Biblical Christmas story?
donkey
camels
inn (Luke 2:7)
manger (Luke 2:7)
cave
house where Jesus lived (Matthew 2:9)
elephants
candle(s)
census (Luke 2:1-2)
ritual law (Luke 2:22 and 2:39)
prophetess (Luke 2:36)
dream(s) (Matthew 1:20, 2:13)

What was the financial condition of Mary and Joseph before the Magi came? (Poor, but not dirt poor-middle/lower class. At the Presentation they gave 2 doves. If they would have had more money they would have given a lamb. If they would have been more poor they would have given grain. See Luke 2:24, Exodus 13:2, and Leviticus 12:1-8 and 5:11.)

What is the significance of the name Mary? (Girls names reflected the situation of Jewish people. Miriam means bitter. Mary comes from Miriam. See Exodus 15:23.)

What references to Jesus' death are in the Christmas story? (Simeon's warning to Mary at the Presentation in Luke 2:35. Myrrh was royal funeral perfume in Matthew 2:11.)

Our Christmas Ornaments part 4
Today is our anniversary so I thought I would feature some ornaments given to us at our wedding.

The angel tree topper was given by one of the teachers at Zion as a wedding present. The Indianapolis ornament was purchased on our honeymoon to Indianapolis. The cake ornament was given by one of the pastors that helped with our wedding. The bear ornament was given by Ewe's sister, Hannah, for our first anniversary. Happy 9th Anniversary to Ram and Ewe!

T. Baker family, I want to add that you have been in our prayers daily for the last year, and even more this week and today. This is a bittersweet anniversary for us. "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." (Psalm 46:1)

Our new camera

Last week when I was visiting with a friend, she reminded me that I never blogged about our new camera. Our computer was down when we received it and I never got back to blogging about it.
Ram's parents had some money from when Ram's mom's parents died and from when Ram's younger brother died. They wanted to do something for us that would be a nice memory with some of this money.
When Ram's parents were here at Thanksgiving, I asked if I could practice taking photos with Ram's dad's camera to see if I liked it for us to purchase a similar one. Ram's dad joked that maybe he needed to upgrade and give us his camera. After thinking about it some more, he decided he didn't want to upgrade, he liked his camera. Oh well, we just had to shop some more for a camera. We were still at the thinking about buying a camera stage, not actually at the shopping stage.
Ram's dad is extremely busy at work and travels a lot. He worked a long time online shopping for a camera for us using some of the money I mentioned. He did this all between Thanksgiving and Christmas. As you can see from the photo, he thought of everything that we could need! He bought us a huge camera bag. Our anniversary is December 29 and the camera arrived on our anniversary day. He bought us a camera that was perfect for us a new photographers-can take great photos but not so complicated that we can't figure it out!
He bought us a Canon EOS Rebel T1i. He bought a nice book to go with it. I have tried to read a few pages a day with the camera around my neck and try out different settings as I read about it. I did really well when we first got the camera, but recently I haven't made time to play with my camera.
We had a terrible time getting the CD that came with the camera to load onto our computer. We gave up for several weeks. I had taken a lot of photos, but we couldn't download them onto our computer. I gave up taking photos with the new camera for a few weeks when we couldn't download them. Finally we tried again and it worked!
I have a lot to learn as I never had a nice camera in my life. Before Lamb 1 was born, I think the most I ever paid for a camera was $25! I am looking forward to summer and being able to take the Lambs to a local park and taking lots of photos.
Of course, Ram's parents only requirement to give us this camera was to make sure we share photos with them! I'm a few months behind on going through photos, deleting the awful ones, getting rid of red eye on the ones that need it, and sending the good ones to Snapfish. That project will have to wait until I'm done getting our tax information ready for our tax preparer.
We are so thankful to Ram's parents for this anniversary gift. It meant even more to me (as someone who knows nothing about buying cameras) that Ram's dad took time out of his very busy schedule at work to order everything we need for this camera (bag, cleaning supplies, nice manual, and the camera and lens).
Next, I think I'm going to ask for this for my birthday!
We have been keeping the camera in Ram's office. A few weeks ago, Lamb 3 came to me and brought me the new camera. I just about had a heart attack and carefully put it away. I guess we need to look for a new place for the camera now that Lamb 3 knows how to open the sliding door in the living room to get to Ram's office!

I'm back...after 18 days, but who's counting?

*Warning: Long post after no computer!
I was making a comment on Angie's blog on December 19 when the phone rang. After I answered the phone and relayed the message to Ram, the computer was dead. I yelled at the boys for "pushing buttons" but they responded they did not do it and if anyone did it was Lamb 3. Lamb 3 wasn't even in the same room. When I tried to restart the computer it acted like it would fire up and then said "going to sleep". Viruses have been nasty in this area so I assumed it was a virus. We had been recommended a man 15 miles away to fix computers. 12/19 we couldn't reach this man. 12/20 was a really busy day at our churches, but Ram found time to drop off the computer. The man realized it was important to us to have a computer because Ram is a pastor. After a few days he reported that it wasn't a virus and everything was still there. We had backed everything up at Thanksgiving so we weren't extremely worried about losing anything valuable, but after crashing a computer a few years ago we know that it is a pain to reenter info in. So this was a relief that it wasn't a virus. The fix it man asked for a few more days to figure out what was wrong. We were hoping to have the computer back by Christmas. Then we had a blizzard and there was no way to pick up the computer even if it was repaired. After Christmas we found out he needed to order a part that had broken and he was waiting on the shipping company which was being slow because of the holidays. A part had broken that caused the fan to not work that caused the computer to shut down instead of overheating. I still can't understand how a part can break inside your computer when you don't move the computer. We started our daily phone calls to check if the part was here yet. Finally the man had the idea on 1/5 that he could temporarily fix the computer and when the part came in (he had to reorder the part because it never arrived) we'll take the computer back to him to be fixed permanently. I don't know why he didn't do that from the beginning but none of us expected it to take so long. While he waited on the part he cleaned up our computer and defraged it and everything because computers DO NOT like to be shut down the way ours was. So we are in good shape on our computer again.
Ram was nice enough to go pick up the computer last night for me before he left for a trip (more on that later). I spent last night skimming our 350 e-mails and responding to a few of them. On tonight's agenda after the Lambs go to bed is to read some of the many blog posts I missed.

It is an understatement to say it was terrible to be without a computer or internet. If you don't live as rural as we do, there is no way you could understand. It wasn't just the "fun" part of not reading blogs. We gave up TV and had no internet and when the weather is bad we can't get local radio stations inside the house. Over Christmas we had a blizzard and we had no way to get weather info. We live 7 miles from the library and they are open very little hours because of budget and open even less over the holidays. We don't know anyone in our town of 113 that has internet that we know well enough to let us borrow. Ram has an ancient computer to write his sermons on but it hasn't had internet for over 7 years on it and it wasn't worth the slow connection or chance of virus or downloading all the updates. Being without computer didn't bother Ram that much. He just read more books. When I said I was going crazy, he reminded me of all the women in this area that raised more children than I am without a computer. But I think when you don't have something (or even know it exists) that you don't miss something as much as someone that has it and loses it.
I had read e-mail and blogs and made a few comments and even pre-posted one more blog post the night before our computer broke. So I wasn't behind on that before this all started. But my problems already began on 12/19. My mom had e-mailed me a few recipes for the potluck the next day and I hadn't printed them out so I had to make something else for the potluck. Ram gets his prayers for church by e-mail and he hadn't printed any of those out in advance. Thankfully Ram had already e-mailed all the Christmas bulletins to the secretaries. Thankfully my dad is a pastor and he printed the prayers out and snail mailed them to Ram. There were a few church members that didn't realize our e-mail was down and e-mailed us questions or announcements instead of calling us. I had to answer them last night that we never received those e-mails. I had mailed a lot of Christmas presents and other items before our computer broke and I had no idea if people had received them and some of those people I didn't even have phone numbers for. I'm sure everyone with computer problems says this, but I regretted not doing some things before our computer broke and the whole time the computer was down I said to myself, "If I only would have known the computer was going to break I would have done....before it broke." We haven't started our Christmas letter or sent any Christmas cards without a computer. I had planned to order a few things online and get some sales and I missed all that. Oh well, there will be sales again. My parents were nice enough to keep a watch on a few blogs to find out that Kristy is having a boy and Pam didn't have her twin girls yet. I called them almost daily to get updates. Thanks mom and dad for doing this.

Much happened while our computer was down. I list a few of the highlights here and hopefully I can still post more about some of these in later posts.
*We had a blizzard and all church services were canceled on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I remember being sick on Christmas Eve once but I still went to church even though I didn't feel well. So this was the first time in my life that I didn't attend several services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Remember my post complaining about dreading Christmas Eve at our tri-parish? It ended up not mattering because none of that happened. It was so strange to stay home from church and all our presents were opened before 8am on Christmas Day. It was a very relaxing Christmas as a family. I even had time to start reading many of the books I got for Christmas! Even though it was relaxing, I hope I never have to go another Christmas in my life without going to church.
*Our one church rescheduled the Christmas Eve program to New Year's Eve. So we still had a rushed New Year's Eve to have the Lambs in the Christmas Eve program at one church and then make it to church at the second church for New Year's Eve service. The Lambs did well and said their lines loudly and sang well too. I'm so proud of them, especially shy Lamb 1!
*Because of weather one church canceled on Dec. 27, but the other two churches had church. Even with the cold wind chill, all 3 churches had church on Jan. 3.
*We celebrated our 8th anniversary on December 29. The roads were clear so we took a family trip to Sioux Falls to eat out and shop. We did it all in one day and got home very late. We were tired after that, but had a good day as a family.
*Ram's parents gave us a new camera for an anniversary present. I have been trying to read a little of the book with my camera in hands and trying out some features daily. Ram could care less about cameras, but I am very excited. I'll do a whole post about my new camera.
*My parents had furnace troubles and their house could have burned down on Christmas Eve. Thankfully my sister was home and insisted that my dad call the repair man when she heard a strange sound. That sound wasn't a big deal, but the repair man found something else that was. My dad didn't want to pay a repair bill until he heard how serious it was. Then he gladly paid the bill and was even glad that he had stayed home from church to meet the repair man.
*A family friend of Ram's family died and we heard the news on New Years Eve. Ram flew home today, will attend the funeral tomorrow, and will fly home on Friday. Please keep the Baker family (leaves behind a wife, 6 kids and their spouses, several grandkids) in your prayers. Please keep Ram's safety and the weather for flying in your prayers. Please keep me in your prayers as I am here in MN with 3 boys during another blizzard. The man that died was a second father to Ram as he spent much of high school at their house with his best friend. I will post more about this on another post.

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.