May 24, 2012 Part 2

When we got home from the preschool picnic then we got ready for our guests to arrive. My first year of teaching I taught with Heather. I taught second grade and she taught third grade. Her husband received a Call as pastor to a church in MN in 1999. When Ram received his Call to be a pastor in MN in 2003, Heather's husband, Juan, received and accepted a Call to a church in WA. Recently Heather's husband received and accepted a Call to a church in MN. On their trip to move to MN, they stopped for an afternoon and saw us. I had not seen Heather since she moved to MN in 1999. Since we saw each other last I got married and I had 3 boys and she had 4 boys. We reconnected a few years ago and have had several very long phone calls a few times a year since we reconnected. The boys played in the playroom and outside, the moms did a house tour and spent the rest of the afternoon talking, the dads did a house tour spending most of their time in our library and then stopped over at church to see that library. My sister was still here and was nice enough to help with the boys a little and to join in our conversations. Before they left we snapped a few pictures, but I was too busy talking to take more photos than this. We all agreed that we'll have to stop and visit them on our next vacation out to IN, that going by way of MN will be necessary.

Lamb 3 and E (2) playing Duplo

E (2), Lamb 3 not cooperating for photo (4), Lamb 2 (6 tomorrow),  B (6), Lamb 1 (8), C (8), A (11)
They really are in age order, not height order! Hopefully I am remembering names and ages correctly!

Ewe and Heather (doesn't she look good for such a big moving trip!)

This is what the playroom looked like after 7 boys played in it for an afternoon. Hannah said it smelled like BOYS in there. I didn't even care that it was a mess because the adults had time to talk while they played. After Hannah went home our family cleaned it up and with 5 of us working it didn't take very long to clean it up. They played Legos and board games when they were inside. Notice the nice shelves in the closet for games and puzzles. Thank you Hannah and Ram!

Ram and Juan
We wish them God's blessings at their new church and town.



After their family got on the road to head towards MN, we decided to take Hannah out to dinner at TX Roadhouse. Everyone loved the treat of going out there. Then Ram took care of the Lambs while Ewe and Hannah did some more shopping at Hobby Lobby. Then we headed home and watched a few movies after the Lambs went to bed. We watched an episode of Tintin and Hitchcock's "I Confess". We packed a lot into this day and had a lot of fun.

May 24, 2012 Part 1

This day was preschool graduation at our church. Lamb 3 did not graduate, but they had the 2 and 3 year old class participate in graduation. Lamb 3 became very shy and cried when we walked in the door and did not want to sing with his class. The teachers planned a preschool graduation, then picnic for preschool families, then play time on the playground. It was a fun morning/lunch time.

Lamb 3 with his class but not singing

Lamb 3 didn't even want to sit with his class and watch the preschool graduates even though we were in the row behind him.

Lamb 1 and Aunt Hannah

3 Lambs in their Hawaiian shirts from Aunt Hannah with Aunt Hannah

Sissy Time

Ewe, Hannah, Ram

The "beach" cupcakes Aunt Hannah made for the picnic

Lamb 1 playing on the playground after the picnic

Lamb 2

Lamb 3

Then we went home to meet our guests which I will save for another post.

May 23, 2012

We had cabinets installed for my china on this day. One arrived with a broken door so they will reorder a new door. Hannah and I unpacked some of my china and as the Lambs would say, "my pretties" and put it in the cabinets. I am not to open the one door that is broken so there are a few things left to unpack and put in that last cabinet. Hannah talked me into giving her a small teapot from my great grandmother. She wasn't there when we packed up my grandma's house so she didn't get as many treasures so I was happy to share with her. Then she had to figure out how to pack a teapot that was over 100 years old and get it back to Hawaii! Photos of the new cabinets to be posted after the new door is installed.

After lunch Hannah and the Lambs and I ran a few errands and "needed" to stop at TCBY for treats. Ram made chili for supper. After supper Ram was nice enough to put the Lambs to bed so Hannah and I could go shopping.

We went to Hobby Lobby and got a few items before they closed and decided to go back again another day as we didn't have enough time. We went to Kohl's to go clothes shopping for Ewe, especially to get jeans and ended up getting a dress and a sweater for Ewe. I don't think I was shopping for anything for myself for a year-last May was the last time I went shopping besides online shopping. It was success to find a dress! I'll have to get jeans another day. Then we browsed Ross as I had never been in there and she thought perhaps there would be another dress I would like.

Then we tried to get coffee but all the coffee shops close really early here and we laughed as we drove around town trying different coffee shops and never got coffee. We went home and got some food ready for our guests for the next day. The next day was a packed day so I will save it for another post.

May 21-22, 2012

My sister Hannah was here for the week. We spent much of these two days getting organized-unpacking what she mailed to us so she didn't have to pay the extra baggage fee when flying, wrapping Lamb 2's birthday presents, having her decide what of the things I set aside for her that she wanted (craft supplies, things from my grandma, etc. that I found when I was unpacking from moving).
On Monday Hannah and I planned to go to lunch, but the place we had planned to go was closed on Mondays. We switched our plans and decided that she would babysit while Ram and Ewe went out to lunch. We picked up a pizza for the Lambs and Aunt Hannah and then we went here. We had lobster bisque, the salad bar, and sandwiches. We each decided to save half our sandwich and have another bowl of lobster bisque for dessert. The salad bar was not the typical salad bar-instead of different lettuces and veggies as toppings, it had salads like potato salad, shrimp, blackberries, strawberries, etc. I should have saved room and had the salad bar as dessert. There were several soups to choose from but we both chose lobster bisque. We decided to get a babysitter again and go back for lunch another time. :)
While we were gone Aunt Hannah was a good aunt and did paper mache and other crafts with the Lambs.
After lunch Ram and Ewe made a trip to Home Depot for supplies to put up shelves in the playroom closet. That evening we put them up and organized the games and puzzles. The whole area of the playroom looks a lot better.
Hannah and the Lambs and Ewe walked to the park and also had snowcones there. Hannah said they weren't as good as Hawaii snowcones, but we enjoyed the treat.

Lamb 3 had his last preschool class before summer break on Tuesday. Hannah missed him while he was gone that morning! Ram took the Lambs out for pizza and Hannah and Ewe went out for lunch. Today our lunch place was open.

We had Monte Cristo appetizer, artichoke soup, shared a piece of quiche, and then shared a piece of yummy dessert that I don't know the name but was full of chocolate. Hannah couldn't even finish her dessert and that says something! If I were to go again, I would have everything again but skip the quiche. We had a great "sissy time". We were enjoying our food and neither of us remembered to take photos of inside. Afterwards we went to a few thrift stores and came home with a few treasures and did a lot of window shopping. Hannah couldn't believe I hadn't been in any thrift stores since we moved here-I needed a thrift store shopping buddy!
Hannah made us a yummy Italian soup for supper.

May 19-20, 2012

I am behind on blogging so I decided to do a few days at a time. Last Saturday our church preschool had a garage sale. Here is one load of stuff I took after moving.

We also took a bunch to Goodwill that I didn't think was nice enough for the garage sale. I saved some stuff for my sister. We cleared out a big area of our garage getting rid of all of this. We still can't fit our second car in the garage, but we made some progress on that.
I was at the garage sale for the whole sale 8-2 plus clean up. A lot of the items that I took sold. It was nice to see them go to new homes where they will be appreciated. The garage sale made about $300. There were no big priced items so that was a lot of quarter and dime priced items. I got sunburned and I got my exercise that day during clean up. We each took a little home to donate so a little ended up back in my garage to be delivered another day. The rest stayed at church for another garage sale in the fall.

Sunday we went to early church. I took the Lambs to their last Sunday School before summer break. Then I went to the airport to pick up my sister. The last time we saw her was before she went to South Korea to teach English, in September 2010. I brought her back to church and the Lambs weren't even excited to see her. We went home for lunch and to get food for Ram while he was at second service. Then we went back to church for a long Voter's meeting. I was so glad my sister was there to babysit the Lambs while they played on the playground. The meeting was a good meeting, but there was just a lot to discuss.
Then we went home and changed clothes and headed to an event in downtown Boise. As it was Museum Day, the museums all go to one site and have activities for the kids and tell what/where their museum is. Here are some pictures from the afternoon:

This was the first time Lamb 1 or 2 ever had face painting. They have had lots of opportunities while we lived in MN, but there were either long lines or they just weren't interested. The lines were not long here and they enjoyed this.
There were other activities that I didn't take photos. It was nice to have Aunt Hannah to help too. She enjoyed seeing the Basque museum.
The Lambs had a paper that each museum with a booth signed when they did an activity at that booth. At the end we turned in their papers and were allowed to choose from a wide variety of CDs, DVDs, or games. I chose this for the Lambs when they couldn't decide. We haven't listened to it yet, but I'm going to see if our library has other similar ones to this CD. The Lambs also got balloons and other treats.
Since we were downtown we decided to take Aunt Hannah to Old Spaghetti Factory. She had never been there before, not even to another location. We had a nice dinner and headed home. The Lambs went to bed and us adults stayed up late talking.

Checking in this week

Our schedule just keeps getting more busy even though I hoped things would slow down once we were in our new house.
Saturday-Mother's Day tea at church, clean and do yardwork
Sunday-church, Sunday School sang in church, packed up and went to Ram's parents overnight
Monday-had a relaxing day at Ram's parents, visited a Looper that lost her husband a few weeks ago, came home
Tuesday-tried to get caught up at home after being away, Lamb 3 had preschool, voted!, took Lambs to two libraries, Ram and I watched The Adventures of TinTin (It came up as our turn from the library.)
Wednesday-Lamb 2 needed some fillings, treated the Lambs to TCBY, still trying to catch up at home, walked Lambs to park for exercise, Ram and I watched Lars and the Real Girl while we drank BBC drinks
Thursday-Lamb 3 had preschool, still catching up at home, priced everything for the church preschool garage sale and loaded it up in the van for Ram to take (I have a lot more of my garage empty now!), helped Lambs clean up their play room which was a disaster (and threw out a lot while we were at it), did a lot of laundry, did a lot of dishes, unpacked a box and priced all the toys in it for the garage sale-if the Lambs didn't miss anything in there since October when it was packed, they don't need those toys!, waiting for Ram to come home so we can have BBC drinks again
Tomorrow night it is possible that my sister comes to visit for a week, Saturday is the garage sale at church which I will help with (and be thrilled to see so much of my stuff go to new homes!), Sunday is a very busy day with events at church almost all day including the last Sunday School before summer break, Tuesday it is possible that a friend and her family comes to visit that I have never met any of her 4 boys and I haven't seen her for about 13 years (Can you imagine 7 boys at our house?),  Wednesday my cabinets for my china will be delivered and installed, Thursday is the end of preschool party that families are invited to, Friday Ram's parents come to celebrate Lamb 2's birthday with us and my sister may be going home, Friday is the opening of the pool in our subdivision-guess where the Lambs want to be at 8am?, and Saturday there is a wedding at our church. Oh, and we need to keep our regular routines of homeschool and Ram being a pastor in there somewhere too. Whew! I'll be glad when June is here!
I don't think I'll have time to blog, but I'll keep taking photos and eventually I'll post some of what we did! Have a good week.

Happy Mother's Day!

My mom received this as an e-mail from Allen County Right to Life and I thought it was beautiful so I am posting it here.

For Mothers who are celebrating the day with children: May the Lord grant you wonderful times of making and cherishing memories.

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19

For Mothers of wayward children: DON"T GIVE UP!       

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 
Philippians 4:6&7

For women who yearn to be mothers: Be comforted to know that you are complete in the Lord just as you are.             

Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge. Psalm 62:8

For mothers with children in heaven: God's tender mercies are for you every day.                                The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18

For all who have a mother - that would be all of usJ Our mothers may be living or already with the Lord. Either way, let's take a moment to thank the Lord for the one who gave us life.      

Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her. Proverbs 31:28