Moving and mail

Recently I have been trying to make sure that important information for our taxes is forwarded to our new address. You don't think about any of that until you need something that didn't show up.

Today my mom gave me a catalog for teaching supplies. It had my maiden name and my parents new address. As far as I know I never ordered anything from that company. How could I stay on that mailing list as I lived in several states and my parents moved once? I was on that mailing list 20 years ago.

I bet that some important mail will not follow us even though this junk mail did!

September Update

We are settled in that all of our belongings are either in the garage or our house. We are planning on getting a storage area, especially for our books, but we are still unpacking and trying to figure out how to best organize what is staying at the house to have the smallest storage area possible. Every day I get a little more settled, but no areas of my house are completely like I want them. I think in October I will concentrate on one room at a time instead of working all over the house each day. On Sunday afternoon we organized the garage so we can fit one car in there. We took out a lot of trash from both our landlord and us (bookshelves that didn't survive the move, boxes that were unpacked). The trash man took all of that today.

We took my grandma's cedar chest to a furniture repair man after a DIY repair 15 years ago didn't survive the last move. All the legs are on strong now and he also polished it so it looks almost new. It was so worth the money to get it repaired and I couldn't believe how fast he was. One more area for storage is available now. He was shocked that we not only had the cedar chest, but we also had the key and the lock worked. I estimate it is from 1925 as it was a high school graduation present.

I took part in the Reformation swap this year and I notified the lady that will receive my mug that with moving it will be late, but it will be coming. It was fun to "meet" another Lutheran and I am having fun getting her package together. I look forward to receiving my package.

We had two trips to the doctor since we arrived here. 1. To ER because Ram cut himself. 2. Lamb 2 had the worst case of chigger bites the Dr. had ever seen. That was a big mom fail-my boys that don't remember playing outside before we moved to ID had no idea that you needed to wear bug spray to play football outside in the backyard. I was busy unpacking and didn't remind them to wear bug spray. We have learned our lesson and are extra cautious about going outside now. Lamb 2 is surviving on Claritin, Benadryl, and a prescription cream. The other Lambs have more mild cases.

Ram needed new glasses and he had not bought glasses at his checkup this spring so insurance paid for about half of his new glasses.

We bought a mattress online and there was some delay getting it shipped to our unknown to the credit card company new address, but we have slept on it for a couple of weeks now and Ram and I like it.

House closing was more complicated than I would have liked due to us just getting internet installed, not setting up a printer/scanner yet, and having no idea where the printer paper was packed, but the money from the house sale was direct deposited into our account the day after closing. It is wild to me that you can sell a house by doing almost everything online, getting a direct deposit instead of a check, and not going to a title company nor handing over the keys on the day of closing. We left the keys and garage door openers in the kitchen drawer. Then it was time to notify all the companies to get our final utility bills and house insurance refund. It is so good to be completely done with that house less than two weeks after we arrived here.

We are still church shopping and have one more church to attend before choosing which ones to attend a second time. It has been fun to connect with friends at these churches, but I am getting anxious to get involved in one church.

Homeschooling has resumed. This year I plan to be more academic since Lamb 1 is in middle school and Lamb 2 has some catching up to do. We are off to a good start. Today I gave the Lambs and Ram haircuts, the first ones they had since we left ID.

My parents are retired, but they have invited us/asked us to help them attend several events in the past few weeks. They told us October is even more busy than September. This weekend we went with my dad to the airport to meet the Honor Flight, took my mom out to lunch for her birthday, attended a high school football game, helped my dad shop for and set up a new TV, and attended a high school band contest. We are enjoying being able to attend all this, but hope to get involved in our own activities soon.

When you move to a new area learning how to grocery shop in the new area is difficult. I had quite the time getting my Fred Meyer card transferred to a Kroger card, but I went shopping on Friday and it worked so I could get my Friday Freebies. I also had a difficult time finding a store that sells bulk spices (I miss Winco!), but I accomplished that on Saturday. All of our spices are replaced now. I have enjoyed starting over on my pantry/freezer with fresh food and hopefully purchase more healthy foods too.

The Lambs attended their first choir practice last week and the director and I decided they need voice lessons before they are ready to be part of this special choir. We are working towards getting settled enough to bring a piano in our house so they can resume piano lessons and their voice lessons will begin in October. In the future I hope they can participate in homeschool choir, but for now we will concentrate on the academic part of homeschooling and try voice lessons. Lamb 1 and 2 are signed up for a basketball camp in October. We will look for other activities for them to get involved in here too.

My days are kept busy trying to update our address everywhere. It seems like we get less snail mail than we used to, but it is still a lot of places to contact!

I don't know if anyone still reads my blog after it was so neglected this summer. I am going to try to get back to more posting in October whether I feel settled yet or not.

Big August update

Surgery went well and I am past the 2 weeks recovery time. My thyroid was double normal size but all benign. I am so glad I had the surgery.

I followed Dr. orders to not lift more than gallon of milk for two weeks and we still finished for our target date to list our house on August 16. After discussing price with our realtor it was listed a few thousand above what our realtor recommended at 11:30am. We figured we would try a little higher and we could always lower the price. It was shown at 1:30pm and our realtor called us with an offer at 6:30pm. The offer was slightly above asking price with buyers that have already sold their house and are anxious to have closing and get in soon. We praise God it sold in 7 hours! The few thousand above what our realtor thought pays for the repairs we made this summer before we listed it. The realtor never finished making flyers and never had the scheduled open house. Our neighbor was upset that he never saw our house online before the listing was pulled for "sale pending". God had all the details worked out for us-even with several other houses in our neighborhood for sale and the sale so close to school starting. We are so thankful for this house profit.

We are currently resting at Ram's parents and then will go "home" to pack up the moving truck from the storage area. Then we will drive to IN to begin the new chapter of our lives. We are getting excited about this new chapter!

Home Again

We just spent almost a month in Indiana helping my parents downsize from a 4 bedroom, two level, huge yard home. They don't know when or where they are moving, but we helped them pack up what they want to keep and get rid of what they don't. I am excited for them having less stuff in an easier to care for home.

While we were there Lamb 1 and 2 attended a basketball camp-it doesn't get much better than going to basketball camp in Indiana. We were able to see several friends on the drive out there and the drive back. A few friends and family came to visit us while we were there too.

We arrived home just in time for VBS this week at our church. When I get control of the laundry and unpacking all the treasures we brought home from my parents, I have lots of pictures and things to blog about that happened during last month.

We feel as if we are just beginning our summer vacation-we haven't signed up for swim lessons or summer reading program at the library yet.

Emotional Week

This past week has been one of my most emotional weeks in my life. I know I had emotional weeks when Ram received his first Call, when I got engaged and married, when we moved here, at the birth of my children, etc. But all those times I was too busy to dwell on what all was happening. This past week I had time to think about what was happening.

Our family doctor is leaving for another job. We were able to fit the boys annual checkups in before she leaves. We were scheduled for today, but when we went they had us down on the schedule for next Friday. So we were not able to see her today and will go next week. I had the Lambs make thank you notes for her this morning and tucked them in a card with my appreciation for all the referrals she gave us for Lamb 2 the past few years when we were trying to figure out that he needed Vision Therapy. She also did a few minor referrals for Ram, Lamb 1, and Lamb 3. We really appreciated those referrals because they ultimately got a diagnosis for Lamb 2. On the way to the doctor I bought her flowers and we left the cards and flowers at the desk for her since we were unable to have appointments today.

Later this afternoon she called Ram's phone and was practically in tears over our cards. I think she was shocked that we did that. Not only did it mean a lot that we did that for her, but she really appreciated how far our boys have come in the past few years. She made a point of saying Lamb 1 had beautiful cursive and she knew that Lamb 2 could not have printed so nicely before VT and even Lamb 3 at age 7 wrote nicely. It almost brings me to tears too to think of the journey we traveled and how far our Lambs have come the last 3 years. We will miss her, but her replacement is a female doctor from Indiana with three boys! We can't wait to meet the new doctor, but hope it is at our annual checkups and not because of an emergency visit.

Last Friday morning I helped my friend pack for moving in a few weeks. We cried some of the time we packed. We have known each other less than a year, but we will really miss each other. There are so many similarities to our lives, even down to we do laundry the exact same way. Helping her pack brought back a lot of memories of us moving here 3 years ago. We packed and moved in less than a month, she is doing it over a few months. It was a crazy month, but looking back I'm glad we did it and got it over.

Then that night I attended a ladies only farewell party for her. At the end of the evening we asked her for prayer requests and then each spent time praying for her and her family. I knew better how to pray for her this week and spent much time in prayer for her.

I've already blogged about having her children over to my house on Wednesday night. I had such sympathy for those children and their crazy life right now. My prayers for the children increased over the past few days. I've held it together through several conversations with my Lambs about their family moving. They need help through this too.

Tonight I stopped by her house to drop something off and found out that due to circumstances they almost didn't move. They would have had to move houses because they have sold their house here. But they almost didn't move to a new state. But ultimately her husband decided that moving would be best for the family. I spent some time talking to her about her husband is the head of the household. That conversation reaffirmed for both of us the reason why they are moving. We can see God's hand over them better than we ever would have asked for in this move. Neither one of us can see yet the reason for them moving, but we both trust that God has a purpose. Look out TX, my friend is coming and great things are going to happen for her family there!

We have a very busy week next week and I don't know how much more I will be able to help her. But my prayers for her will continue. I'm so thankful for Ram to help me through this week. He has been awesome both in helping me at home while I helped her and listening to me talk about all this.

7 Children

Last night our church had a fundraiser at the make your own frozen yogurt creation place. I decided to give my friend that is moving a short break and take her kids for yogurt. By borrowing her 4 kids plus my 3 Lambs, there were 7 children ages 6-13. One was old enough to sit in the front seat and we have 6 seatbelts in the back of our new minivan, so all 8 of us fit. Unfortunately Ram had to drive himself because we didn't have room for him. (When we were car shopping the salesman suggested that a minivan that seats 8 was good for carpooling for sports. I replied that we didn't need it for that, we needed it for when we get together with this other family!)

I stopped and loaded everyone up at their house and then we drove to the yogurt place. Ram drove separately and arrived first. When he told some of our church members what I was doing, they replied that it was crazy to take 7 kids to the yogurt place.

It wasn't bad at all. All 7 kids were well behaved. I told them the "rules" when we got there-only take ice cream that you will eat, please don't waste what we purchase. I allowed each of them to get two kinds of ice cream and 3 toppings. Ram had an Amazon Local Deal which brought the cost down some. Everyone ate their all their ice cream except the little girls which couldn't finish gave theirs to their big sister and she finished it. Lamb 2 was the one that got the most out of all of us and he ate all of it.

Unfortunately their boy had a headache when we picked him up. I'm not sure if ice cream was the best thing for that, but we still went. When I saw he didn't feel well we ate and left. I had brought some card games and had first planned to be at the frozen yogurt place for awhile. I wonder what the church members would have thought of me staying there for awhile with 7 kids?

I changed plans and drove everyone back to my house in order to give their mom a longer break. When we first got home it was crazy. Ram stayed to mingle with our church members. I tried to get one of my Lambs to help their boy find a place to go lay down and rest. 5 kids ran out to the back yard and were literally climbing the fence, completely crazy. Only the oldest girl acted calm. Lamb 1 was really disappointed that here was his last play date with his best friend before he moves away and his best friend wasn't able to play. My boys wanted to go play with the neighbors when they found out only girls were able to play. It took me a few minutes to calm everyone down, settle their boy down, and suggest ideas of what they could do.

It ended up that their boy rested for a little while, their oldest girl checked my store Monopoly tickets for me and confirmed that we didn't win anything, and my Lambs and their two girls played in the front yard with neighbors. After that everyone was able to find something to do to entertain themselves. Lamb 3 had used pattern blocks during math in the morning and they were still out so all the girls used pattern blocks to make designs for a little while. After a little while their boy felt better and was able to play. Ram was home by then and he played basketball with some kids. Some stayed inside and played Skipbo with me.

The one part I messed up on last night was we went for the yogurt first and after we ate yogurt they told me they had eaten supper, but not much. They were hungry for more than sugar. We had eaten most of our leftovers and I never have bread in the house to make peanut butter sandwiches or something like that. I had not planned this part well, partly because I expected to be at the yogurt place much longer than we were. We ended up raiding our snack supplies that are really supposed to be for track practice. Their boy asked nicely if he could have some fresh fruit, and I honestly didn't have any to serve him. If I were to do last night over I would have planned some real food and healthier snacks in addition to the yogurt. Today I thought of food I could have served them, but I didn't remember last night.

It did get to be a much later night than I had planned because I did want to give my Lambs a chance to play with their friend after he rested. They were right that this was their last chance to play, they will be busy with moving. On the way home their youngest completely melted down. It's not a far drive but it is when one cries all the way home and the others are trying to help, but it doesn't help. Then their boy didn't want to go home (I wouldn't either with a crying little sister!) and tried to hide in my minivan and go home with us. I finally got all 4 of their kids in their house and drove home and put my Lambs to bed.

I had such sympathy on these friends. Their life has been crazy for the past few months getting their house ready to put on the market, packing, and preparing to move. They are currently homeschooled and they will go to school when they move. Dad currently works from home but will work outside of the home. It seems as if every part of their life will be different from what it is now. It brought back memories of our life changes with moving here 3 years ago.

It's all your perspective. The church members that made the comment that it was crazy to have 7 kids- one mom has 2 kids and one mom has 3 kids. The mom that has 3 kids spent about the same amount on ice cream for her family as we did for all 9 of us. We told the kids with us the "rules", but I don't know if we would have needed to, they were polite and well behaved.

Last night didn't go completely smoothly, but it really wasn't that bad. I have several friends with 5 or more kids so it didn't seem that abnormal to me. Everyone was potty trained and pretty independent or could ask an older sibling for help if they needed it. Everyone fit in my minivan. It was only for a few hours. We would have gladly had more than 3 Lambs if God would have granted them to us.

Writing thank you notes

The boxes are unpacked so earlier this week I sat down and made a list of all our friends both there and here that helped us at our time of farewell and moving. I realized how long the list was and decided it would be best to go stock up on thank you notes before beginning. When I sat down to write those notes, I could only write a few before too many tears flowed to continue.
This is the 17th time that I've moved. I knew it would be more difficult because this is the first time I moved with children. There are so many things that were right about moving here-they were exactly what we prayed for before Ram received a Call to be  pastor here. But we have to find all new doctors here after becoming close to several of our doctors in MN. ID has the best homeschooling law in the country but I found out that they are unfriendly to homeschoolers that need services from them like speech therapy. After student teaching in WI, teaching in a school in IN, and sending the Lambs to the public school in MN for speech, this has been surprising to me that all students do not have a "right" to speech. I was so happy to move to a city with stores just down the road instead of a big mall 3 hours away. But the stores here carry different brands and products than they did in MN. I was used to buying specific items in specific stores in specific towns-even if that meant stocking up when we were at that store and only buying some items a few times a year. Even if the stores carry what I'm looking for, I'm not used to where on the shelf it is like it was in MN. Ram is busy at church so I'm navigating my way through traffic in a strange city with 3 Lambs along. (I must say they have been quite the troopers for the shopping that we have done and I've bought them a few McDonald's ice cream cones to say thank you to them.)
When we were in MN I thought this was the perfect time of year to move-our garden was done, etc. Now that we are here, I realize it was a really difficult time to move. In MN I was really busy this time of year-getting ready to go to all the Ladies Aid Christmas parties, Christmas program practice, Christmas caroling, etc. I brought food to almost all those events so I was busy cooking and baking the whole month. Since this is a bigger church there are more people to help. Here others cover almost everything so as pastor's wife I'm not expected to do those things.
Oh, how generous our former members and friends in MN were when we moved. Here they were losing their pastor and his family and unsure what the future held for them as a tri-parish. They helped us pack, brought us food, gave us gifts, and made sure the parsonage was painted/cleaned/repairs made.
So this post was just to say that I miss MN and our friends and church members there. I know that I will get used to ID. I know there are a lot of great things about our new town and our new church and I will get used to it. I know there are a lot of other wives of pastors that have been at this point. I know I will get the thank you notes written. I know I will get used to my new role as wife of the pastor here. But I will be thinking of what our churches in MN would traditionally do on each of the days this month.
On the positive side, a couple from church invited our family over for dinner this week. If I'm not so busy with church activities, this will mean more time to do Christmas activities and baking with the Lambs.

Moving trip part 3

The final day of our moving trip was on Sunday. Before the delay of the moving truck getting to MN one day late, we had planned to arrive on Saturday and then go to church at our new church on Sunday. But with that delay there was no way we could make it there in time for church. So we went swimming at the hotel on Sunday morning, took it easy getting ready and left Pocatello, ID late in the morning. We stopped and got take out at Cracker Barrel in Boise for a late lunch, especially for the Lambs. Then we went to the hotel and changed into church clothes. Then we went to Nampa, ID for a joint Reformation service. It was nice to go to church on Reformation since we couldn't make it there for church in the morning. We could have stayed and ate there, but the Lambs were tired from traveling so we thought it would be better to go.
So we found this restaurant, how perfect for our family!

Our whole family really liked this restaurant and we later discovered there are a couple of locations near us. The Lambs enjoyed ice cream after they were finished eating their meals.
I had planned to call my college friend, Joelle, and tell her that we had arrived, but I couldn't find her phone number. So we drove out to her house and surprised her. It was near bedtime and we got her kids all wound up by playing outside in their backyard. After a little visiting we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the moving truck to arrive the next day.

Lambs shopping trip

When the Lambs receive birthday money or money as gifts other times of the year, we have tried to teach them to manage their money. We have tried to have them put 10% in the Sunday School offering, 50% in savings at the bank, and Ewe kept the other 40% for their spending. Vacations are usually to grandma's house, not to a place where they could go shopping. We lived so far from shopping that they rarely had a chance to go spend their money. Lamb 1 spent about $20 on Legos after his birthday last March. So each Lamb had between $30-$50 of spending money. Recently they were complaining that Ewe kept the $ and said they were for spending but they never had a chance to spend them. They also had $ from their art store to spend.
So after we arrived at the Old Faithful visitor center and found out we had about an hour before the next eruption, we took the Lambs to the gift shop. We told them they could spend as much money as was in their envelope or save all of it. Lamb 1 chose a stamper with a buffalo footprint, a small sticker book, a plastic buffalo, and a bookmark. Lamb 2 and 3 each chose a set of small plastic animals and a few bigger plastic animals. One was trying to convince his brothers if they each got a plastic buffalo then they could have a buffalo jam, but one brother didn't want that, he wanted a bear.
When we got up to the register the cashier could see they were spending their own money and she was very patient as they each counted out their money and paid. She gave them several free bookmarks, some were quite fancy. She gave them change with shiny new 2011 coins.
I was quite proud of their first shopping experience. They each chose reasonably priced items and got what they wanted but saved much of their spending money for their next chance to go shopping. After our shopping then we went to sit and wait for Old Faithful to erupt.

Moving trip part 2

We drove from Billings to Pocatello, ID on the second day of our trip. We stopped at Yellowstone on the way. We explained to the Lambs that you could spend much longer at Yellowstone but we just didn't have time. We drove in, waited for Old Faithful to go off, and drove out. I felt like we were cheating the Lambs to just go to Old Faithful when there is so much else to see. But it was cold and we didn't really have the time. I won't bore you with photos of Old Faithful or buffalo like everyone else takes. We also stopped to see buffalo and elk and the Lambs were watching for wildlife the whole time we drove through. So we did do a little more than Old Faithful. Then we ate at a pizza place in West Yellowstone that Ram and I ate at 9 years ago. The Lambs loved Yellowstone and hope that we can go back soon. It was strange to go when Yellowstone was still open but not at peak season, if we would have been a few weeks later then it would have been closed. Because it was a Saturday there were still plenty of people there even late in the afternoon. Then we drove to Pocatello for another night in a hotel.

Our moving trip part 1

The moving truck left our house in MN about 8pm on October 27. We did some last minute packing of the car and cleaning of the house and left about 9:30pm. That last 1 1/2 hours was a mad dash to finish everything. But we knew getting a hotel locally would be almost impossible during hunting season. We would have been welcome to stay with friends or church members but we were so unsure of our plans after the delay of the moving truck by one day that we had not made any arrangements. One benefit to this that I had not expected was it was not as sad or emotional to leave our house when it was dark. Plus at that time we couldn't stop and say goodbye to anyone else, we just got directly on the road. We arrived in Fargo a little after midnight and easily got a hotel although it was a little expensive during hunting season. We should have reserved something in advance, but we weren't sure if we would get all the way to Fargo or stop along the way.
We slept in a little and took it easy the next morning. We arrived in Bismarck and called DakotaPam. She brought her darling girls over to the McDonald's play place and in between wrangling helping her girls we were able to have a nice chat. The Rev. eventually came over to chat with Ram. It was a short visit but we were able to catch up for a few minutes and also the Lambs were able get out of the car and run around the play place. We hadn't seen Dakota Pam since January so it was a treat to see how much the girls had grown.
When we pulled in to McDonalds it was past lunch time but we had had a late breakfast so we had not eaten yet. I offered to let the Lambs get a snack at McDonalds and then after we were done visiting and playing on the play place then we would go out to eat for a late lunch/early supper at Cracker Barrel. Being completely serious, Lamb 1 asked what kind of food McDonald's had, what he could order at McDonald's. I expected Lamb 2 to respond with an answer to Lamb 1, but he also asked what kind of food McDonald's served. That shows how rural we lived before we moved here that the Lambs didn't even know what kind of food McDonald's had! We used to live 45 minutes from McDonalds but 1 1/2 hours from a town with McDonald's that we regularly went to. Now after you get out of our subdivision McDonald's is less than 4 blocks away.
The Lambs chose to just play and wait until we got to Cracker Barrel to eat. Then we headed down the road some more. We stopped at Theodore Roosevelt National Park for a bathroom break. The boys enjoyed watching the buffalo there. We finally made it to Billings and stayed in another hotel. This day was a lot of driving but made more fun with the stop in Bismarck.

Dakota Pam's boys were at school so it was just the twins and the Lambs