July 4

We went to the parade in Ram's hometown. 

The Grand Marshall was Bowe Bergdahl, POW, not at the parade. Bowe's father walked behind the car. It was very moving. Bowe and his family are in our prayers each Sunday at church. We pray that negotiations work out for Bowe to come home soon.

That night we went to the fireworks. It was the first fireworks we took the Lambs to.

We had a great day relaxing with Ram's parents. It is so great to live near enough to family to be able to spend holidays together. God bless America!

July 3

When Lamb 2's stomach finally settled down and he fell asleep, then he slept through the night. This morning he woke up feeling much better and his fever was gone. Now my prayers are that the other Lambs don't get this.
My blog wasn't totally neglected this summer, but I didn't post very many pictures. I will attempt to catch up on photos of what we did this summer and our vacation.

Lamb 2 and 3

On July 3 the fire truck came to our library. Since we lived so rural before this was very exciting for my Lambs. The firemen were very patient with the children there. We were warned that July 4 is the busiest day of the year for them so they could be called while they were at the library. Thankfully they were able to stay the whole time. I was a good Mama and took lots of photos, here's a few that we took that day.

My weekend

On Friday Ram had a funeral in the late afternoon so he couldn't come home early to help me. I hurried to feed the Lambs supper because we had guests arriving at 6:30pm. We had a church member family over to play for a little while with the Lambs and then we served homemade ice cream. Their children are younger than the Lambs so they left pretty early. It was nice to get to know another family a little better.
Saturday Ram had a circuit forum at our church and he found out that he is not going to the 2013 Synodical convention as either pastoral delegate or alternate. I would have liked a trip to Saint Louis! Now we can begin 2013 vacation plans knowing that this is not a possibility to plan with or around.
Then we invited some of the nearby pastors and their families over to our house for a late BBB (Beer, Brats, Princess Bride Movie). We watched the first half of the movie, ate, and then most of the pastors had to go-for some reason pastors don't like to be out late on Saturday night. We plan to watch the second half of the movie next year. It was nice to get to know a few pastors and their wives.
I was glad they left relatively early so we could give baths and get the Lambs to bed on time. Lamb 1 has been especially grouchy the last week and needed the sleep. Then about 4 am Lamb 2 began throwing up. Between 4-6 am he was either throwing up or coming to my room panicking about being sick. I finally woke Ram about 6:15 and sent him for some 7-Up for Lamb 2. About 5am Lamb 1 woke up and begged to leave the room where the sick Lamb was. So he went to the guest room. Lamb 3 and Ram slept through all of that!
Ram had a busy morning of 2 services, Bible class, and Voter's Meeting. I slept as much as I could while Lamb 2 laid on the couch and watched his brothers play. Lamb 1 was very upset that I told him he couldn't play with his neighborhood friends-I didn't want to pass germs to them. Lamb 1 was upset about missing Sunday School and finding out where our offerings are going to go this year. Lamb 1 voted to send money for mosquito nets for children in Africa with malaria. Lamb 2 and 3 voted to send money to buy ducks and geese for families in Africa. Lamb 1 wants his to win because he knows how bad mosquitoes are in MN. We still don't know which one the Sunday School voted for and won. Since I wasn't at church, no one took a photo of the quilts and backpacks filled with school supplies that the church collected to donate.
The day was spent with Lamb 1 and 3 inside because they weren't allowed to play with their friends, Ewe and Lamb 2 laid around pretty miserable and when Ram got home from church then he tried to help everyone-tried to make Lamb 1 and 3 play quietly. Ewe doesn't feel sick like the flu-just tired from helping Lamb 2 in the middle of the night and a sore throat.
I decided after supper that the Lambs should watch some classic Disney movies before our trip to Disneyland. I don't think this has anything to do with Disneyland but the Lambs chose Bambi. It was a good activity to get Lamb 2's mind off of being sick, but the movie was a little scary for Lamb 2 and 3. This is why we haven't watched very many Disney movies. I have a few more on my list that they should see before we go to Disneyland-Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Dumbo. They have already seen Winnie the Pooh and Finding Nemo. After all that perhaps we will watch a few more.
After the movie Ram and Lamb 1 went to Walmart to get some children's Tylenol for Lamb 2's fever. After moving and no one being sick in our house for so long, all we had left was some expired children's Motrin. When they got back Lamb 2 began throwing up again.
Our Lambs rarely get sick so this is quite an experience for all of us. Lamb 1 began crying when Lamb 2 began throwing up again tonight because he knows it means another day that he can't play with his friends. Lamb 2 is miserable. Lamb 3 doesn't understand. Ram is running around trying to help all of us and Ewe is trying to keep up with all the laundry.
As I wrote this blog post I had to go help Lamb 2. I pray that the rest of us are spared from this round of the flu. It may be a long night...

20 years

In 1992 a gallon of gas was $1.05. The Mall of America was built in MN. Ewe graduated from high school.

I am not attending my high school reunion this weekend, but I did find it interesting to look online at my classmates that responded, of where they ended up twenty years later. I did go to my 5 year high school reunion and was shocked that so many of my classmates were parenting toddlers at that time. I know they just give a few sentences describing their lives now, but it is good to see so many of them married and with children. I have not kept in contact with any of my classmates, most of my high school friends were either a few years ahead or behind me in school, not the ones that graduated with me.

It is amazing to me what has happened to me the last 20 years. I'm sure each classmate has a lot that happened to them too. Wow, where did those 20 years go though? Add the thought that in just 10 more years Lamb 1 will be graduating from high school. Yikes!

Ewe's doctor visit

3 miscarriages meant being sent to an OB/GYN for a whole bunch of tests. 6 miscarriages meant being sent to a Reproductive Endocrinologist. I didn't expect the RE to do a whole lot because I already had a whole bunch of tests done a few years ago when they discovered I had Factor II.
My appointment began with sitting down with a nurse practitioner and going through my whole history. I had a headache after talking about the details of 9 pregnancies. (Note to others: EVERY time you are pregnant whether a birth or miscarriage-make notes to yourself of length of pregnancy, any complications, if a miscarriage then how long the pregnancy, if you ever saw a heartbeat, if you had bleeding was it before or after ultrasound, etc. You never know when this will be helpful. It is much easier to write down right after the birth/miscarriage than try to remember a few years later.) I did the best I could do to remember. Between my memory and my records that I had sent from several doctors I think we pieced the history together pretty accurately.
Then I met with the RE and she gave a little lesson explaining pregnancy and tests they can do, I didn't learn anything new. Because I won't do procedures like IVF for moral reasons and they already know I have Factor II so I would do heparin injections if I get pregnant again, there wasn't a whole lot else that they can do.
There are about 5 days a month in your cycle where they will do a special ultrasound to check for abnormalities like polyps or fibroids. I praised God that it was one of those days in my cycle so I was able to have this done today. When I went to check out the billing lady said it saved me $450 to do that today instead of making another appointment. Plus I was able to get it done today and not have to make time to go back again. I praised God that nothing abnormal showed up so no surgery is required.
I did have one blood test done to check for one more thing and I have to wait for those results. So we are back where I started-continue taking baby aspirin daily, if I have a positive pregnancy test then begin heparin injections and take progesterone.
The bill today was almost $400 and I don't know if insurance will cover it. It was worth every penny and the two hours at the doctor's office for the peace of mind to know that I have done what I could do. I don't know what the future holds for our family size, but I do know that God is the one holding our family in His hands. It gives me great peace to know that God determined our family size, not something that Ram and I did. I haven't gone through menopause yet nor have we ruled out adoption, so we may end up with more than 3 Lambs. No matter what, I have a lot to be thankful for-Ram and 3 healthy Lambs.

I thought about this post all day and wondered if it was TMI to post this on my blog. I finally decided to post it because something I say may be helpful to others with recurrent miscarriages or Factor II. Plus I have several friends that knew about my appointment and it is easier to post here to update them.

Sunday Supper

My friend, Joelle, gave me some collard greens because she couldn't find anyone else that was willing to prepare and eat them. Our supper was homemade mac and cheese, collard greens with bacon, and watermelon. Lamb 1 doesn't like dairy so he tried the mac and cheese and actually ate a little without the top layer of cheese. He ate lots of collard greens and watermelon too. Lamb 2 ate everything. Lamb 3 had a few spoonfuls of mac and cheese and lots of watermelon. Of course Ram and Ewe had everything and seconds too. Our family ate all the collard greens, all the watermelon, and had one helping of mac and cheese leftover. Only my family would finish the collard greens but have leftover mac and cheese!

Weekly Update

1. I ordered a new math book for Lamb 2 and some other "treats" for school from Rainbow Resource and spent some of our Amazon money from the Be Well Serve Well program. It has been fun watching them come in a few at a time. These are not what I would consider required for homeschooling a first and third grader, but they will be fun extras this year.
2. I have been hard at work unpacking boxes from the garage. I am determined to find a place for what I unpack or give it away. These boxes contain nothing important for daily living, just things Ram and I collected, lots of it was from one of our grandparents. The recycling and trash were full and we'll have a big load to take to Goodwill again. We are especially dealing with all the old computer parts and programs-we only have Macs now, we don't need a lot of that. Also we have so much kitchen stuff-I have a pretty big kitchen and pantry so if it doesn't fit in there I don't need it.
3. We have nothing on the calendar for this whole weekend except for church and Sunday School! Next week is very busy with doctor appointments, piano tuning, Lamb 1 begins piano lessons, and a field trip to the zoo so it will be good to have a break this weekend. I hope to invite some friends over for Sunday afternoon.
4. Lamb 1 finished the first half of his math book so he is looking forward to going with Ram to the hardware store to pick out a wrench for his toolbox. The last few months were a struggle to get him to just DO his math-I wonder if it is too easy for him. The past few days he did several lessons each day in order to finish so he could go get a wrench. I figure he has a whole school year to finish the other half now. So much for being so far ahead! I don't know when he finishes Saxon math 3 what I am going to have him do for fourth grade. I plan on having him complete Saxon math 3 and then just take a break from a math book until fourth grade-just work on math facts etc. We'll see how long it takes him to complete Saxon 3 though.
5. We were back to a regular school day this week. For all-Poem, Bible story, hymn, catechism, Latin, Geography Songs, math fact song, then math for Lamb 1 and 2, and handwriting for Lamb 2 and Lamb 3 when he doesn't have preschool. I still have a little more to add in for Lamb 1 and 2. It has been good to get back into this routine and they won't admit it, but I think the Lambs missed some of the school subjects we didn't do last year. It has been difficult for me to get school done and get lunch prepared before Ram gets home for his lunch break. I must work on that next week-either prepare lunch the night before or begin school a little earlier. Adjustments like that are difficult after moving. Before we moved I didn't have to work school around a preschool schedule, Ram was home almost every day until after lunch, and Lamb 2 was just in preschool so I really only had Lamb 1 to homeschool. I also need to do a little more organizing in the schoolroom to make the school day easier. But overall I'm pleased with how homeschool is going now.