Monthly Archives: April 2009

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The Scavenger Hunt (after Easter)

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So, I’ve been known to be cheap.  Maybe I should rephrase that.  I’ve been known to only buy things that are on sale (and thus cheap)…and I relish in the fact that I am getting a great deal.  Now I don’t think I was born like this.  I was raised to be quite frugal, but I’ve had a couple of crucial key experiences in my life that have caused me to be as I am…  

DKAY – (Detroit Korean Adventist Youth – the original “KAY” as far as I’m concerned) was at one time filled with like-minded individuals.  We always had annual Christmas Gift Exchanges.  I think we still do in fact.  Anyway, as opposed to everyone get the gifts anytime/anywhere, on the day after Thanksgiving – aka Black Friday – we would ALL go to the Birch Run Outlets to get our gifts.  Meaning we got gifts 1)from outlets and 2)on sale.  You cannot get a better deal than that.  You can imagine just how far the $15-$20 could go with items being up to 75% off!  I think one year we actually waited until after X-mas day (to have it joint with New Years) so we got some really killer sales then too.  So, thank you, all of you DKAY “OG”s!  I wouldn’t be the way I am without you!  

GODIVA CHOCOLATIERS TWELVE OAKS was my first job when I was in high school.  It was a wonderful job…low stress, decent pay, and lots of yummy benefits.  Holidays were the busiest times – particularly Valentines, Christmas, and Easter.  The price of our chocolates back then was $31 per pound.  Now (-I just looked on their website) it is up to $40 per pound!  Anyway, people would easily spend $60+ for gift baskets on special occasions.  However, the day after, all holiday items would be marked 50% off.  That combined with my employee discount, it was an absolute steal!  Now, to me, it just doesn’t make any sense how someone could buy something paying twice the amount just to give a gift “on time”.  In fact, after the first time Israel bought me some Godiva chocolates, I told him about the day after half-off sales. So, every time after that, he always waited until the day after.  If your boyfriend did that to you, perhaps you’d think it was pretty low and ghetto.  But, I didn’t mind one bit! 

So, with all of that said, I will share my final experience (today) that may continue on as a Ramos Family Tradition.  Israel was gone for the past week for conference and GYC meetings.  He came home late last night and since today is Monday, he took the day off.  So, we thought of the perfect, fun, family activity.  Yesterday was Easter and today was the day after.  We went to Walmart and everything “Eastery” was 50-75% off.  So, we got some “Eastery” things there and planned a Scavenger Hunt for the boys.    Using about $6, we had everything that we needed – easter eggs, easter baskets, and easter goodies among other goodies.    


Green basket for Imanuel, Blue basket for Micah.  75 cents each.

I think we had around 20 decorative and sports-themed eggs that I filled and hid around the house.  Imanuel not understanding that they are supposed to look like “eggs” made this comment about their shapes:  “Mama, basketballs and baseballs aren’t like this, only footballs are like this!”

Bentley helped me hide the eggs…NOT.  More like tried to steal them and sneak off with them!  That’s why we’re still missing one now.  The game is not over yet!

What a wonderful surprise inside!!  An individually-wrapped PRUNE!  Don’t worry, they weren’t all filled with prunes.  (Although Imanuel thought they were yummy too!)  Others had fruit snacks and candies too. 

Imanuel stuffing a prune in his mouth.  He was very happy today.  And he learned how to be a good egg/ball hunter!

Daddy helped Micah find the eggs so he technically cheated.  But he had fun getting them and putting them in his little blue basket.  🙂  Eating the goodies was obviously his favorite part.

Until next time bunny basket…

Well, that was the story of today.  I hope all of you are inspired to take advantage of “day-after” sales.  Hallmark and other stores (like Walmart) make business by pressuring us into spending tons of money to celebrate a “day”.  I say, take advantage of the “after holidays”!  We could start a revolution.

“When you’re getting a great deal, things are always more fun and exciting”!  – Judy R. Ramos        

Good night, all.

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My Mouse Problem

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This morning, there was a dead mouse in the boys’ bedroom. 

First, I wanted to get the boys out of that room without them seeing it.  I got them out, then my mind began racing with different thoughts: 

Was it Chance or Aroe?  Did the murder take place during the night in the presence of the kids?  All of the bacteria/parasites that were on the mouse have probably dispersed all over the carpet/toys/clothes…that room is contaminated!  I should get the vacuum.  Bentley was lingering in the room…maybe he was the one who had transported the poor thing from wherever the cats did the deed to the bedroom.  I could see teeth marks on the body of the mouse.  How it must have suffered because of a member of my family!  I should be happy that my cats are controlling the mouse problem!  Who can be happy with death?  I was a little annoyed.  Annoyed that Israel had to be gone TODAY out of all days (-and for the week for that matter).  This isn’t the first time I had to take care of a dead mouse.  And he knows how I feel about animals and how I’d probably be in mourning for the next month thinking about the possibility that that mouse was somebody’s mother.  If he were here, he’d take care of it no problem and forget about it.  I could call Alanna…but she is in class…and why would I bother her and have her come all the way here when I can just do it?  A church member?  JUDY, GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF.  (But if we still lived in Ypsi, I could just ask Greg, our neighbor.  Wait, he’s probably at work.  I could have waited til he gets home from work…) 

I had to take care of the situation whether I liked it or not. 

I went into the room and looked by the heater.  The mouse was GONE.  I knew Bentley wasn’t in the room and so I angrily called, “AROE” and began looking under the crib.  Chance, for sure, wasn’t in the room.  I was not about to fight my cat for the disposal of a mouse.  There was no Aroe.  But the dead mouse was under Micah’s crib.  I was on my hands and knees trying to figure out how in the world the dead mouse moved from the heater to under the crib…when all of a sudden, the mouse hobbled a few steps.  I could not believe it.  The dead mouse was alive!  But badly injured.  It was hobbling around with its eyes closed.  I then could not believe that I was going to have to somehow take care of this half-dead mouse.  I was not feeling too fond of my cruel cats at this moment.  So I waited and it hobbled around some more but it was getting closer to some of the kids’ toys.  I went over there to move them and the mouse hopped into Imanuel’s house slipper (-the one he got for his birthday).  As I came closer, the mouse opened its eyes very widely.  This made me feel mixed emotions.  He appeared not as hurt as I thought.  I was glad I wouldn’t need to face the dilemna of whether or not I should take it out of its misery…or if I should let the cats finish their work.  It would survive (for now)!  But I started freaking out because how was I supposed to transport a living mouse to the outdoors?!  I emptied the boys’ trash bin quickly and came back.  The mouse was still in Imanuel’s house slipper. 

I gained courage (believe it or not) thinking of Ralph S. Mouse – one of my favorite childhood books.  He was nice.  And people have pet mice all the time!  This is just a nice animal…that one of my cats almost killed…that is wild…and may carry some horrible disease…

I managed to stick the slipper with the mouse into the trash bin and slowly took it outside.  I wasn’t sure where to let him go.  I went out the front because the cats usually hang out by the deck in the back.  But there was no shelter in the front.  And it is still cold with snow on the ground and it probably wouldn’t survive with its injuries.  So, I ended up walking around all the way to the back and finally letting him go under our deck. 

I keep going back and forth on this.  I appreciate the fact that my cats help keep the mouse population in the house down, but when I see a mouse in danger with hope of living, I can’t help but want to save it.  (This isn’t the first mouse that I have “saved” from my cats.) 

I recounted this story (without so much inner details) to Imanuel.  I explained to him for the first time that our cats kill mice.  He seemed a bit shocked.  I recalled the story, “When God Washed the World” which talks about how animals and people turned wicked after sin.  Then he exclaimed, “But tigers don’t kill turtles…they’re friends!”  I have no idea where that came from.  Anyway, he just doesn’t understand the concept of death.  But what I do want him to understand is that no matter how common and “natural” death is (-particularly in nature), that’s not how it’s supposed to be.  Namely, I shouldn’t be struggling with whether I’d like my cats to eliminate our mice problem or if I don’t want the mice to suffer and die! 

This world is so “naturally” filled with competition, aggression, indifference, fear, rotting, and death.  I trust that in this sin-sickened world, the way that the Lord allows nature to play out in the “circle of life” is the best way.  But I don’t think we should ever forget the way it is supposed to be.  I want to instill in my kids to love and appreciate nature, and to always be reminded that death (even of animals and plants) is a sad result of sin.  But that should motivate us to live faithfully to hasten His soon return. 

What an experience!  Not pleasant at all.  Just another reason why I don’t like Israel being away! 

   
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At the Kleinsters’ Place…

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 So, it was such a nice reunion at the Kleins’.

Three women, wives, mothers, & friends.  All members of Ann Arbor Seventh-day Adventist Church (at one point).  All teachers (at one point) at Ann Arbor Adventist Elementary.  All pregnant at the same time (almost twice)!!  All quit teaching to be at home with their kids.  All aspiring violin players.  All healthy-eaters (or at least wannabe).  All “Little House” fans.  All Carob-Crunchy fans.  All wishing we could start a mini-school where we could team-teach our kids.  (It’d be the absolute BEST school ever.)  All planning a LONG vacation to the U.P. so they can spend time with the Ramoses who left them almost 3 years ago, right?!     

Julie & John, Kerri & Daniel, Judy, & all the children!  (Minus Israel.  )   


Chomping on haystacks & smoothies!  It was YUMMY!

Partying for a belated birthday bash for Manu. 

Julie & Kerri posing with pretty smiles.

Playing games!  Their house is like toy-heaven.

Playing with Lincoln Logs (or maybe more like demolishing!)

Scrabbling. 

Smiling Jessica – Julie’s brown-eyed baby!

Judy reading and the rest of the kids listening.  (Judy is 6 years old and is reading “Little House” books already…she is a child genius!  And maybe a teacher in the making?!)

The kids chilling.

Thanks, Kleins, for hosting us!  Thanks Daniel (& Kerri too) for taking the pics!  The next party will be at our place this summer.  We miss you all!  

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Growing Pains

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It’s been at least a couple months now since Imanuel has been complaining about pain in his legs.  Particularly his knee.  It would always be after I put him down for bed in the evening.  He would come out and start crying and saying that he hurt his knee.  But whenever I asked him if he bumped it somewhere, he’d say “no”.  It just hurt.  The first couple weeks of this, I thought it was a ploy to get himself out of going to bed.  So, I didn’t have much mercy and would just make him go to bed.  He would cry and cry.  After it kept reoccuring (-it wouldn’t hurt for several days in between), I began to think and pray. 

Then the Lord brought to my remembrance a short conversation that we had had with our realtor, Kristen, when we first began trying to sell our house 3 years ago.  She mentioned that her son was going through growing pains.  At first I didn’t know what this meant.  I thought maybe she was saying that he was going through a rough phase emotionally in his life.  But she went on to say that she had been massaging his legs every night because they really are bothering him.  That’s when I exclaimed, “Growing pains are real?!  Like a literal, physical pain from growing?” 

I never knew that before.  Anyway, I’m glad we had that short conversation because I believe that is what Imanuel is/has been going through.  I did some research online and his symptoms from the unexplained leg/knee pain usually in the evening or at night, and the fact that he fits the age categories of 3, 5, or 8 years, all point to this.  I read that this happens to about 30% of all kids.  How lucky of Imanuel to be a part of this elite group!  From time to time, he will wake up in the middle of the night and just start crying/whimpering.  Then, it will get worse and worse until he opens the door and starts yelling for me and saying that his knees hurt.  So far the best thing that has helped ease his pain is massaging and putting a heat pack.  I’m not sure what else could work.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

So, now I know that “growing pains” is not only the name of a great TV show from back in the day, nor is it an expression used for drama during adolescence, it is a real pain that Imanuel is unfortunately going through!  Pray for us!