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.

Third Week of January 2018

Last week was a fun, but busy week. On Sunday we went to church and Sunday School and I streamed the Seminary Epiphany service instead of going to it. That is always a beautiful service.
On Monday our church hosted a one day conference. The Lambs helped acolyte at 2 church services that day. There were sessions for adults during the day and supper and fellowship in the evening. I helped serve soup during lunch and nachos with cheese during our taco supper. We didn't know very many of the visiting attendees this year, but had a good time with our friends from church. Many schools in the area were canceled for MLK Jr. Day so the Lambs had friends to play with during the sessions. It's great to take a day with church friends.
On Tuesday the Lambs had their first piano lessons after Christmas break. Then we planned to go out to the Seminary and see if any friends were attending Symposium this year. But when we went to start the car, it wouldn't start. Ram had a doctor's appointment, his annual physical, so he called AAA and then took the minivan to the doctor. While he was gone they came and jumped the car and I let it run 25 minutes. Ram wasn't home so I turned it off to gather up my stuff and the Lambs to go to the car place. 5 minutes later it wouldn't start again.
On Wednesday a tow truck came and picked up the car. There was no charge thanks to AAA combining it with the call the day before. It was a long day of chauffeuring for me due to one car. When I picked up Ram after his class, we went over to the Seminary for a reception. Last year there were more children at this reception, this year our Lambs were the only ones. They behaved partly because there was food for them. Ram and I visited with one of my college friends and a few other people we knew. It was a nice end to a crazy day.
On Thursday we picked up the car from the shop with a new battery now. We went to a couple of library book sales and had a couple of good finds. On Thursday night our boys acolyted at our church weekly midweek service. I don't often attend that service and it was nice.
On Friday I woke up with a headache, I think sinus trouble from the weather. I was pretty worthless all day. I watched some of the March for Life coverage from D.C. online. I really want to go some year. Ram had an eye doctor appointment. He needs a slight change in prescription.
On Saturday the Lambs had confirmation class and then the church youth group went ice skating. The Lambs were not too excited about ice skating but after about an hour both Lamb 1 and 3 were pretty good at it. Lamb 2 declared that he liked roller skating better than ice skating. It was low 30s and I wonder if he would have liked it better if it was a little warmer. Maybe we'll try to go again as a family before the end of the season. Ram and Lamb 1 went to darts at church. When they got home I went over to my mom's. I am keeping some of our food in her chest freezer. I reorganized her freezer and brought some meat home for us. I had a nice visit with my parents after the freezer project.
Yesterday we went to church and Sunday School. CLHS had an open house so we went for a little bit. Lamb 1 has been accepted so we didn't have too many questions. Lamb 2 and 3 were glad for the chance to practice shooting rifles. We went to an open house for a possible house. It was nice, but not perfect for us, so we are still waiting and looking. We stopped by Barnes and Noble for a treat from the cafe while it was educator discount day. Then the Lambs were anxious to get home to watch football so we came home.
In the middle of all those activities last week, we got some homeschooling done too. This week I hope to be back to full homeschool schedule and Ram is back to full time schooling. I am glad to get back to a routine and hope for no more excitement like car problems this week!

January update

Here is a glimpse into our life right now. Hopefully I can blog about these in more detail soon.

*Ram will begin classes for his degree next week. Our family really needed the down time for the last few months to get ready for this next chapter of our lives. We are all excited that he will now begin classes.
*Ram preached at our new church once in December and did pulpit supply (substitute preach) at a church a little south of us on New Year's Day. It was strange to be the pastor's family again for these. I am so glad he had a chance to use his talent for these before he begins classes.
*Our health insurance ended at the end of the year and we are trying Samaritan Ministries this year. I will blog about this as we get more experienced with our new "insurance".
*I was determined to return to more homeschool subjects and accomplish more in homeschooling than we did last fall after moving. I did some serious planning over Christmas vacation with the goal of getting Lamb 1 ready for high school whether we put him in high school or continue to homeschool. I plan to blog more about what we are doing in homeschool this semester.
*We are getting settled into activities at our new church and continuing to meet people there. We are going to have all the Lambs sit in on confirmation class this spring with the goal of confirmation for Lamb 1 and first communion for Lamb 2 and Lamb 3 in May.
*The Lambs are continuing piano lessons. I love that their piano teacher assigns Lamb 1 LSB hymns to practice. They also enjoy going to a weekly program at the library. They want to do more activities, especially sports, and we are still working on what will be a good fit for the Lambs and will work with our schedule (working around church activities and Ram's classes).
*The Seminary Symposia is next week. We are looking forward to seeing many friends, some of whom we have not seen for several years. Ram begins classes for his program next week so he is unable to attend Symposia, but we will still see friends. Our rental house does not have room for visitors so I look forward to getting our own place when Ram graduates so we can host for times like this.
*Recently I spent some time reading some of my old blog posts. I am determined to blog more often in 2017. It is interesting to go back 6 months or a year and reminisce both the good and bad times. So much that happened in 2016 was not recorded due to our move. I also hope to go back and blog about some more of 2016.
*We are still getting settled in our rental home. This is a slow progress, but it is progress. We are waiting for a few more repairs to be done by our landlord.
*We took the Christmas tree down the day after Epiphany, but there are still Christmas decorations to organize and pack away.
*We have had some car repairs recently. I am thankful for a husband that takes care of scheduling all that so that all I have to do is drop him off or pick him up if it is going to take more than a day.
*I am getting used to grocery shopping here. Today I was pleased that a raincheck and a digital coupon worked together. I am learning how to use my smartphone at the grocery. Our pantry is gradually getting stocked when items we use frequently are on sale. This makes life so much easier.

Trip home from IN continued

June 19: My cousin's family was in bed by the time we arrived the night before except he stayed up to greet us. In the morning we stayed and visited for a little while. My cousin is Lamb 2's godfather. The Lambs were getting a little wild so they went over to the school playground and for a walk. We were so glad to meet their two year old daughter, Alice. She is named after my grandma's youngest sister, her great-grandma. We had a short visit but we were glad we got to see them. We brought her some play food for her play kitchen that the Lambs had outgrown. In this picture she is holding play food oatmeal.

We stopped at Menards and stocked up on Sprecher root beer since we couldn't get the Lakefront Brewery root beer. We can get Sprecher here but it costs twice as much as Menards. We don't have Menards here. We ate at Cracker Barrel. As we were driving that afternoon a car maintenance light came on. We expected that it was because we had gone over 5000 miles since the last service, but we thought we better have it checked out in case it was more serious. I was using Ram's phone to try to figure out if we could arrive in Cheyenne with the time change before the Toyota there would close on a Friday evening. While I was doing that Ram noticed a Toyota right off the interstate in North Platte, NE. We decided to go to the next exit and turn around and go back to that Toyota. The problem was that the next exit was 40 miles away! U-turns on the interstate are not allowed. So 80 miles later we arrived back at the North Platte Toyota. Sure enough, the problem was just that we needed an oil change when we arrived home. But we felt much better after hearing  there was nothing more serious. While there we decided the 80 miles out of the way was worthy of a Dunkin Donuts trip. It was actually the first Dunkin Donut that Ram had ever eaten. We had planned to not eat until we got to Cheyenne, but we decided to get food from Qdoba while we were there.

The whole North Platte stop took a long time and was totally unplanned. That meant that it was too late to see our friends in Cheyenne. We had planned a stop to see them and let the kids play for an hour and then going to a hotel in Cheyenne.

Since we weren't stopping to see our friends, we decided to drive to Laramie instead of Cheyenne to make the next day less of a drive. We didn't have hotel reservations and the first couple we tried were full. We did find one but it was more expensive than we are used to. It was late and by that point we all just wanted to go to sleep and I didn't mind paying a little extra for a hotel room.

June 20: The Lambs were shocked that this more expensive hotel didn't serve free breakfast, you had to pay for breakfast in their restaurant. We decided to pick up breakfast on our own. We stopped at a Mexican restaurant and got huge breakfast burritos. Some of the Lambs loved that breakfast, others wished we would have stayed at a different hotel.

The rest of the day was spent driving and stopping when necessary. We were hoping that by staying in Laramie we wouldn't get home too late. In the morning I predicted we wouldn't be home until 10pm. Ram was hoping I would not be correct but I was. There was construction and that trip just takes a long time. The late nights before meant we didn't get up super early and get on the road. When we got home we completely unloaded the car and everyone was in bed by midnight. Yes, we all got up and made it to 10am church the next morning! And VBS began on Monday after that and we all made it on time to that too.

This completes my blog posts about our trip to IN. I just barely completed the blog posts before a month after our trip! Next week I'll begin to blog about what has happened since our trip.

March activities

March 1: This week track practice began and Ram's parents visited for three days for Lamb 1's birthday.
March 8: This was a normal week with activities and homeschool until Lamb 3 got sick at the end of the week.
March 15: This week Lamb 2 and 3 were sick and Lamb 1 took his first standardized test. We had our minivan serviced for the first time since we bought it. One great benefit of buying a new car is free service for the first couple of years. Our youth group had "Stump the Pastor" night which Ram really enjoyed. We had library book club for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
March 22: This week the Lambs had their first track meet. It was cold and windy. Lamb 1 ran the 3000 2 seconds faster than last year's placing. We are encouraging him to get a few more seconds faster before the end of the season and do it in under 15 minutes. Lamb 3 was in his first track meet. Ram's parents visited for 3 days to celebrate Lamb 3's birthday early since it is on Maundy Thursday this year. Ram also got a few birthday gifts early because they won't be back to visit us until May. We had beautiful weather and one day we went to the "beach".
Lamb 1 finally had his birthday party. It ended up being 6 boys because one was sick and one recently had surgery. It was rainy weather and the boys made the best of it, but it was not what Lamb 1 had planned. I was glad it finally worked out to have his party.
March 29: This week we had our last boys club/girls club because one of the families is moving away. The boys came to our house. We had beautiful weather and they enjoyed a walk to the park and played outside the rest of the time. I hope to get together with this family again before they move away. And I hope we can find another family to replace this family and have boys club/girls club next school year.
The rest of the week is back to normal activities plus extra church services for Holy Week. We'll also fit in celebrating Lamb 3's birthday and Lamb 1's baptism anniversary with our family.
I did go over my grocery budget in March, but it didn't surprise me with all the visits from Ram's parents, birthday party and family birthday celebrations, grocery store sales, and serving food at church for several suppers and some Sunday mornings. I am going to try to make it up in April, but my average for the first three months has not gone over my total budget.
The Sunday School children processed in with palms on Palm Sunday. Our Sunday School has really grown since we moved here. It made me so happy when Pastor asked the children what Sunday it was and they all had no trouble answering that it was Palm Sunday. They also knew the words to a hymn that we practiced in Sunday School the past few weeks. They didn't sing as a group, but you could hear them singing joyously with their families.
April 5: This week will finally be back to complete regular schedule for activities and homeschool. I am hoping to fit in lots of school and spring cleaning and decluttering in the next couple of months before our summer vacation. I finally have dates and am so excited to plan a trip back "home" after not going since summer 2012. Hopefully I can blog in more detail and post pictures for the above activities after Holy Week. Have a blessed Holy Week.

A married couple buying a car

In MN we bought a new car for Ram. We traveled 4 hours to get the best price which meant a very long day of traveling to, buying the car, and driving two cars home with three little Lambs. There were tons of papers for both Ram and I to sign in order to purchase the car.

When we bought the minivan a month ago, I was prepared for the process to take awhile even though we knew which minivan we wanted. I sent Ram to talk to the car salesman and told him to call me when it was time to sign papers and I would bring the Lambs over. We live about 1/2 hour away from the car dealer. That is what we did, Ram ended up being there about an hour before he called me. When we went in to talk to the finance man, he asked to see my driver's license. Then he asked Ram to sign everything and I didn't have to sign one single paper.

Both cars were brand new, both cars were financed the same way, and both cars are titled in both of our names. The only difference was they were purchased in different states.

I was a little disgusted that I drug the Lambs over there and made them wait for us to sign all the papers when all they needed was my driver's license. I was complaining to Ram and the Lambs overheard and started asking questions. Ram explained to the Lambs that ID actually still has it right, that the husband should be trusted to make financial decisions for the family. Looking at it that way makes me glad to live in ID!

Finally!

We bought gas on Friday and it was under $3 a gallon. I get so disgusted hearing the news that prices are going down and it seems to take forever here in ID to catch up to the rest of the country. Ram and I told each other one of the best benefits of buying a new minivan was a full gas tank!

Wordless Wednesday

Old

New

More info about our new van next week after our church bazaar.

Real Life Monopoly Again

*Pay day!
*Mortgage payment increase because escrow shortage because property taxes increased in the last year. Write a big check to cover that escrow shortage and also pay a bigger mortgage payment.
*Ram's self employment taxes due.
*Receive another bill that insurance would not cover for a Dr. appointment Lamb 2 had last October while trying to figure out that he needed vision therapy.
*Regular bills due.
*We prepaid for 9 months of vision therapy for Lamb 2. He can attend 2 more times before that money runs out. We now need to pay by the month until he completes VT. Insurance will not pay for any of this.
*On Saturday my key got stuck in the ignition of our minivan. I worked with it and got it out. Our mail on Saturday had a recall for our minivan involving the ignition but they currently do not have a fix for it.
*On Monday my key got stuck in the ignition of the minivan. I could not get it out. Ram could not get it out. He drove it to the dealer and it came out. They said it had nothing to do with the recall and we needed to pay $500 to fix it. They warned us that this would get worse if we continued to drive it and it would be unsafe to drive. So we paid the $500 to fix it.
*I really do not think the minivan is safe to drive both because of the recall and because I'm not positive the $500 really fixed the problem. So our plan is to do some necessary repairs on the minivan, go car shopping, and either trade in or sell the minivan. In the meantime Ram is going to drive the minivan and I'm going to drive the car. This means 3 cramped boys fighting in the back seat as I drive them around town.
*This is our second minivan in Lamb 2's lifetime that ends up with major electrical repairs after our only owning it for 4 years and the minivans being about 5 years old. I don't think that either of them were safe to drive at this point. After we sell this we are done with Dodge and Chrysler. Any advice what we should get instead?
*We are extremely busy now that school is back in session. Ram is back to all his regular duties during the school year plus we have several visitors interested in joining our church. That is great news but keeps him very busy. Lamb 1 has cross country and Cub Scouts and piano lessons. Lamb 2 has piano lessons and therapy 3 times a week. Sunday School is back in swing and we have several new members with children to get info about Sunday School to and order materials for. We don't have time to deal with car repairs and go car shopping right now.
*Needless to say, I had to dip into our savings to pay all this yesterday. That is why we have savings, but I don't like to have to dip into savings as much as I did.
*Keep praying and see how God provides for all this in the next few months. We don't play the lottery so it will be interesting.

Doxology Trip Day 1

Ram and I left about 6:30am on August 4. It was so nice to travel and be able to talk without interruptions for a whole day. We stopped near Albert Lea and had Mexican food for lunch. We stopped in Iowa City to get gas, go to the bathroom, and get coffee. After gas and Ram's bathroom break, we were going to drive to get coffee and Ewe's bathroom break. On the way to the coffee shop we were sideswiped by this...

We were by a train overpass and there were two lanes and the cement mixer tried to change lanes and got a little close. The cement mixer driver got out of the truck and said, "I'm so sorry! I've been driving truck for 16 years and never had an accident before. In fact, I don't even know what to do when I have an accident! I double checked before I changed lanes and you were just in the wrong spot. I really did look!" He had his wad of insurance papers in his hand and called his company and the police.

The police arrived and took a look at Ram's license.
Police: "So Ram, what are you doing in Iowa City if you live in MN?"
Ram: "We are going to get coffee and then going to Saint Louis."
Police: "Oh, welcome to Iowa City!"
(Police walks around and see the damage on the car.)
Police: "Oh, Wow!"
Police: "The cement mixer has a full load and I'm sure his boss is already going to be mad at him so I'm going to let him go to his site and dump his load. His truck is new and   we don't want him to lose his load or truck."
Ewe: (says to Ram after policeman walks away) "That's not fair that the one that causes the accident gets to leave the scene of the accident and we have to wait when we want to get back on the road."
The police did the necessary paperwork and said we shouldn't have any problem since both the cement mixer and our stories were exactly alike.
Police: "So you still know how to get to Starbucks?"
Ram: "Yes, but you better remind me after all this!"
One hour after we got off the highway we were back on the road again. We drove pretty much straight through from Iowa City to Saint Louis with the exception of a break to talk to insurance about the accident and go to the bathroom.
We were blessed that the driver realized right away that he hit us and backed off right away. The accident could have been much worse. It damaged both driver side doors and the panel above the wheel. We were still able to drive the car, we were not hurt, and both doors could open and close.

We made it here before closing time. It was nice to go to dinner together in the city, but there were other kids in the restaurant and I missed the Lambs. I had asked Loopers that were current and former residents of Saint Louis where we should go. Old Spaghetti Factory had the most votes, but there were some other good suggestions too.

I had clam sauce spaghetti. Ram makes Susan's recipe often and he uses lots of garlic in his. We also top it with freshly grated parmesan cheese. Old Spaghetti Factory's clam sauce spaghetti was good, but Ram's with Susan's recipe is better. The prices were excellent for a complete meal. I would like to take the Lambs there and they would really like it. But if we go back to Saint Louis again by ourselves, we'll try a new place.

We got to our hotel about 11pm and were tired from a full day of driving.

My blessing

I had a little time to people watch on Monday. A family of 5 drove up in a 2 door car and they all got out, went into the store for a few minutes, and came back to the car. It took quite awhile for all of them to get back in the car, especially to get the baby in the car seat.
After ECFE this week, I used my keychain remote to open the doors to the van and the Lambs ran out and started to get in their seats. A dad with a 4 door car was jealous of that. He had gone out to the car earlier than we did, but his kids still did not have their seatbelts on and they hadn't left yet when we came out.
It made me think how spoiled I am to have minivan that the doors open automatically. We had an old SUV when Lamb 1 was a baby. When I was pregnant with Lamb 2 we bought our first minivan. Last fall we replaced that first minivan with a used minivan. Our new minivan even has automatic trunk opening. I could live without automatic trunk opening if I had to. We did not have this on our first minivan and it has been a very nice feature.
There is no way that we could have gotten all 3 car seats in our old SUV when Lamb 3 was born. With the minivan we are not worried about where we are going to put Lamb 4 when he/she is born. The minivan gets better gas mileage than our old SUV. I was never one to dread joining the parents club and have to get a minivan. Ours is not fancy-we do not have a DVD player or extra features.
Since we have had a minivan for 5 years, I had taken this blessing for granted. Could we get by with a car instead of a minivan? If we could figure out car seats then we could for now, until Lamb 4 comes. But it would be very inconvient, especially on our long shopping days and long trips like taking the boys to the dentist on Monday.
Thank you God, for providing us with the blessing of a minivan. Thank you for providing a few reminders this week to remind me that I am blessed with a minivan.

Being a rural pastor's wife post #5

I'm on a roll with practical tips! We are going to talk about your car/cars today.
When we moved here we had one SUV and no children and no second car. I wasn't planning on working and I was ok with one car. When I was pregnant with Lamb 1 we decided to purchase a second SUV. This worked well until I was pregnant with Lamb 2 and we decided to trade in one SUV and get one minivan. A couple of years ago we traded in the second SUV and got a car.
1. Reasons why have 2 cars-The biggest reason that we have two cars is so I can take the Lambs to Sunday School at one church while Ram is doing the other two church services. If your house is close to the church this wouldn't be necessary. We chose to take the Lambs to the church in our tri-parish that had children close in age to ours.
I also was concerned that sometime we would have an emergency or someone would be sick when Ram had another commitment or possibly was out of town. Since we live 7 miles from the hospital unless it was life threatening to move them it would be faster to take someone to the emergency room ourselves than to wait for the ambulance. When I was little we just had one car, but it would have been possible to walk to the doctor if we would have had to or to get a ride from a friend. I know this was one of my mom's biggest worries about only having one car-what if we got sick while my dad had the car?
I occasionally do take the minivan with the Lambs to the grocery store 7 miles away or to the school for an event while Ram is doing something else where he drives his car. But that is not very often and I could get by with one car if I needed to for this reason.
2. Reasons why we have a minivan and a car-When the whole family goes we take the minivan, when just Ram or Ewe go with one child we take the car. We are trying to be as economical with gas as possible since we drive over 30,000 miles per year.
3. Winter/summer cars-I know some people that have a car that they mainly use in the summer and an SUV or similar car that they mainly use in the winter. Perhaps this would be an option for your family if you live where there is a rough winter in order to use the car more economically.
4. Replacing the car-We drive so much that we wear out cars quickly. I would estimate Ram drives 12,000 miles a year for the church and we drive over 2,000 miles a year to go to the doctor. Add in 14 miles round trip to go to the bank or small grocery or get gas and the miles add up quickly. We have one credit card for gas. When Ram gets his check for mileage each month from the church, I try to use it to pay off that credit card for gas. If there is any left I try to put it in savings. I had the idea to directly put all the checks we got for mileage into savings but that hasn't always worked. But somehow you need to be prepared to buy a car because yours is going to wear out fast if you live in a rural area. Plus it is really expensive to tow the car to the town with a car repair shop because it is way farther than the AAA allowed amount. You need a dependable car.
I know that you probably can't afford to get the car/cars that would be ideal for your situation right now. But when the time comes to replace one of your cars, I hope you think about some of what I posted here. What would be the ideal car/cars for where you live? Think of your family size. Think of when you need or use two cars. Can you get by with just one car? What is the most economical for gas that would work in your situation (car, minivan, etc.)? Realize that you are going to put a lot of miles on your car if you live rural. Where I live it is not possible to walk anywhere besides the local cafe or the post office! There is no "city" bus either.
Please leave a comment if you have something to add about cars and rural living.
Come back tomorrow for another practical tip about being a rural pastor's wife.

Buying a new car

I really do plan to post about our new car that we bought in February soon-I just keep getting other ideas for blog posts AND I haven't taken a photo of Ram with the car yet either!

We found it was cheaper to buy a new car with the deals than to buy a used car. Ram also read in the April 5 Sunday paper that you can deduct the state and local and excise sales tax off of 2009 returns. You can take this deduction whether or not you itemize deductions. The deduction applies to vehicles manufactured both here and abroad. This deduction is limited for taxes paid on up to $49,500 of the purchase price (no problem, we didn't even pay 1/2 that). Plus the amount of the deduction has to do with your income (again, no problem, Ram doesn't even make close to the limit). The vehicle must be purchased after February 16 and before December 31, 2009. Guess when we bought our car? February 20! Ram's dad also purchased a new car in March. These qualifications may rule out many buyers, but it will help us and be a significant savings.

We are thankful to Ram's parents for helping us to buy a new car. We are also thankful that we bought it at just the right time to take this deduction!

Goodbye Brutus-Part 2

Background Story: Ram named his old Blazer, Brutus. In 1998 Ram had gone home from Seminary on Christmas break and got stuck in WY in a ground blizzard with his old truck. His old truck died and he had quite an adventure getting home. So after Christmas break, his parents gave him their 1996 Blazer to take back to the Seminary to have a dependable car.

I am being very sentimental about selling Brutus. Ram is glad to be done with car repairs on an old car with 167,000 miles. Here's some of my sentimental memories...
Brutus took a group of us out the first time I met Ram.
Brutus held the cookies (and my phone number) that I baked for Ram when he went home for summer break from the Seminary and when he got home he called me. (He forgot to take them with him).
Brutus picked me up for our first date.
One of our mutual friends said to me after we were engaged, "Ram is a great guy and he has a nice car too!"
Brutus drove Ram to his vicarage in Metairie, LA (and Ram even spent the night on the side of the road when Brutus broke down on the way there).
Brutus hauled many loads around town, especially when we were cleaning out my grandma's house.
Brutus drove us for our trip out West the summer after we got married.
Brutus drove us to our home here in MN-(with a full load of stuff that wasn't on the moving truck).

Ram reminded me that HE drove me, not Brutus, and there's not so much to be sentimental about. I still have good memories. I hope that our new car has some good memories too.

Goodbye Brutus-Part 1

Ram bought a new car in February-(another post on that later)-and we were too busy to try to advertise to sell Ram's old Blazer. We had it parked out front of the house and a lady in town talked to us about buying it for her grandson. The problem was that the car didn't start a few weeks ago. So we spent $850 to get the car repaired and then sold it for $1800. At least we didn't give the car away! We feel good that we sold it to her in good condition. Her grandson is 17 and he will have to work at a summer job to pay his grandma back. I can't imagine having a car at age 17, nor the responsibility of paying car insurance, gas, etc.
So on Thursday, we had to hurry to clean the car out of junk that accumulated in there since Ram got the car from his parents in 1998. We should have done it after we got the new car, but we've been so busy that our first chance was then. Ram cleaned it all out and vacuumed it and the buyer came over and took it for a test drive and paid us for it. On Friday we went to the license branch to do that paperwork and dropped the car insurance. We are glad to check those duties off of our to do list. We are glad to not have to pour any more money into the Blazer for repairs too.