Okay So There Are No Pictures

We spent the week before Christmas in Hickory with Rob's folks. And I didn't take my camera. That's usually Rob's job and so I left my camera behind. Well Rob took his, but he was so busy with his new Flip camera, which he adores, he didn't take any still photos. And as you know from previous posts I am NOT ALLOWED TO TOUCH THE NIKON. Which is fine by me, but I didn't take my camera--so no photos.

The kids had a lot of fun playing with cousins, making cookies and driving Grandma crazy. It's first Christmas in about four years that no one has been sick. No colds, no strep, no stomach ickiness. Can I just say it rocked! That doesn't mean we won't get sick later--and we were sick at Thanksgiving, but not sick on Christmas was nice. Oh so nice!

The kids got fish for Christmas. Well I should say a fish tank. Santa couldn't swing the fish since we were in Hickory. So Rob is in the process (much more complicated then he realized) of cycling the tank to accept fish. If you know Rob, you know how much he wants things to go perfectly, and how much research has gone into this. I'll post a fish pic once we get fish in the tank. We are hoping for Tuesday or Wednesday.

Other wise the kids got mostly games and books. My kind of Christmas. There were a few toys. But not a ton.I of course got books. I love books, and I've read only three of the books I got. I think I got about ten. I've been trying not to let myself completely disappear over the holidays. Most of the books I got were ones I had already read, and deemed worthy of owning. I only have so much space, and so I must say I am a book snob. But Rob always goes and gets me a surprise book--and he always does a good job. This time is was Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, which was awesome. A fun and informative book about hacking and fighting back against the impositions that the government puts on us. When I say informative I mean the guy tells you how to hack things and stuff. Totally cool and geeky and I love, love, loved it. I must admit I kind of glossed over some things that were way over my head because I don't really get the technical side of hacking--though I really think I could if I wanted to. Hmmm I picture myself in a different life with different career choices.

Speaking of career. I finished my first draft of my novel on Friday. Do my little dance of glee. I finished. I really did. It ended up at about 50,000 words, but I think I need to flesh stuff out, so I'm hoping it will be closer to the 75,000 that I was hoping for. Just to give you an idea 50,000 words equates to about 178 pages. I am hoping to start querying in March, but that is going to take intense work and focus.

Rob is enjoying his break, his Christmas present, and is editing and watching Ghosthunters. He also just went downstairs to test the water in the fish tank. I told you he was way into it. ; )

Now I am feeling very random and wordy so I thought I would share that in the last two months I have won two contests on blogs. Both gave me free young adult books--which is totally my thing. But I thought I'd share the links, kind of as a thanks. I may have a contest someday, but I've got other things to focus on now.

The first contest I won was on Aprilynne Pike's blog. She wrote a book Wings which debuts in May. I want to read it. I like the cover, and I've followed her story from shortly after she sold the book to getting it published. I won Hunger Games from her (which is my favorite book of the year).

And I just won two books, and some bath salts from the Shrinking Violets Promotions blog. I read this blog to learn more about promoting myself. It works for me, because truly I am an introvert. I am not ashamed to admit this anymore. Anyway the blog is great, especially if you are an aspiring writer.

I love this time of year. I love to set goals and look back at the things I've accomplished. I'm that way and I know it drives Rob nuts. But oh well. So I'm off to set me some goals, and create a plan to achieve them. I'll post pics later in the week.

Updates!

It's been busy since Thanksgiving. The visit from my folks went well. The kids had fun and there are a few pictures at the bottom if you want to check them out. It was nice to see everyone and I thought Matt did really well with the kids this time. 

But while my folks were here Caleb got strep (the first time the kids have gotten it). Rob's had it since we've had kids four times--and I haven't tested positive since I got my tonsils out in fifth grade. I had high hopes that my kids would get my immunity but alas it is not so. (And because I said I was immune I will now get strep five times this next year.) Caleb's feeling much better now.

Beth turned seven today! She's doing great and she had a fun party yesterday. Today she said she wanted to move to be where Jesus was going to come back--and I asked where that was and she said Kansas. So I think she is missing Jane a bit. This conversation then went to Caleb saying he missed Paul, and me saying I missed Taliatha. Jacob was asleep or he would have said he misses Mallory!

Funny thing happened yesterday. I'm going to write the conversation word for word.

Beth: Mom, how does a farmer move his cows?

Me: I don't know.

Beth: In a Moooving Van

Me: Laughs appreciatively.

Caleb: Mom, how does a farmer move his pigs?

Me: How?

Caleb: In a Mooving Oink!

Me: Laughing a bit harder for sheer creativity --Good one Caleb!

Jacob: mala mooo malaa

So I cracked up. Jacob got that they were making jokes and he caught that the moo was essential and joined in. I couldn't be more proud. He also had his first two word sentence bye bye wa-er.  He's making progress slow and steady.  His tests came back normal but his growth hormone was the lowest that it can be and still be considered normal. The range is like 30-80 and he had a 30. Caleb's range was always that as well. We go back in a few months. We got him to take the vitamins. I let him pick it out of the bottle, and then cut it in half for him and then he eats it. I'm relieved this works, because he so stubborn and it is impossible to get him to take medicine without pinning him down.

Rob got a Flip camera for Christmas--yeah I know it's not Christmas yet. And he's been doing short videos. I'll post an update with a link when he gets them up. He's frustrated with software right now and lamenting the fact that nothing is as good as Final Cut Pro, but he doesn't want to use that on these short videos--he wants a good down and dirty editing program. iMovie doesn't cut it and the software that came with the Flip certainly doesn't either. 

I've been toying with the idea of making this blog private. It may be awhile before I do this, so I will post before I do to collect your email and add it to my approved list. The thing is that I can only let 100 addresses in that way. And I know I don't have that many readers. Also I like friends to be able to find me, but I worry about other people finding it to. What do you think I should do?

PS I posted pics below. Enjoy!

New Sunday Clothes

Sorry that some of these are slightly blurry. The settings on my camera were wrong, and it took forever for the pictures to take--and well I shake so the camera shakes. Rob came down for the last two (which show up as the first two) and fixed the camera and took the pictures. These new clothes are courtesy of Nana, and I think that they all look adorable.

Beth's Birthday Party

So Beth turned 7 today. Wow 7. I feel old and not old at the same time. I can't believe that seven years have gone by so quickly. I am so proud of my little girl who is growing up so fast. She's doing great, enjoying school and making friends. She had a party yesterday. She wanted it to be a Hannah Montana party. She wanted Hannah Montana to come and preform, but I had to break it to her that we just couldn't afford that.

I don't actually have pictures of the party. Rob will put them up on his site in a day or two, but I do have some of the cake and decorations. I thought the pink and purple streamers made an interesting contrast with the guitars we hung on the wall. The girls had the usually games, and the magic show. Then they ate cake and played the new Wii game Sing It. They had a lot of fun.

Beth's 7th Birthday Party from Robert Caldwell on Vimeo.

Parent's Visit

So my parents came to visit the first weekend of December--we also had a quick visit from Cameron--my sister Sarah's husband for a school interview. It was pretty crowded in are small place, but a lot of fun.  The girls went shopping--the boys hung out. My parents had a mini Christmas and the kids got to open their presents from them. Here are the pictures. Beth got an American Girl Doll--and yes, I am jealous. I ALWAYS wanted one--No Fair! Caleb got WallE and Eve and Jacob got the new Elmo toy. He was afraid at first, but overcame it by that night. He loves grooving out to it all the time now. He dances when Elmo dances and tells it stop and go.

The Endocrinologist

So today was Jacob's visit to the endo. It went well. I liked her. She talked about all the same things that Caleb's gastro talked about, but she ran the test that we wanted her to--the growth hormone factoring test. Yeah! Turns out that Jacob's iron is pretty low, so we'll work on getting that up and see if he gets more energetic. Then if the the three other tests she runs come back normal we'll see her in March. Whew! She said that most of Jacob's tests (except iron) look normal and healthy. I'm really wondering what that growth hormone test is going to say. Really, really, really. 

Thanksgiving was fun. Beth had fun hanging out with Chloe. They went skating and Beth stayed at her house more than at Grandma's. Caleb was sick most of the time, but it didn't stop him from having fun. Pap built a big fire and he just ate it up. Thanksgiving was relaxing. Gerry did most of the cooking and he did a great job. The cousins all made slime together. It was gross to look at, but cool when it was done. These activities were all accomplished camera-less. I didn't take my camera, because Rob took his, but he didn't get it out. I snuck his out for one picture of the kids peeling apples, but Rob found out and yelled at me. (I knew he would) and now I can't get the picture off the camera or I will face his wrath!

The drive home from Thanksgiving was not so great. We left earlier than normal and it took five hours to get home. It was stop and go so much of the way, and I started to worry because the car was making a funny whining noise. But it turns out that it was the feedback from the radio and iPod connection thing. Whew! I was really getting worried. I like my van. It makes me happy.

A funny little story about Caleb. He's still doing his sports classes, and it switched again to basketball this week. Now a little background--the classes are at 4:30 which is a cranky time for Caleb. So much so that we aren't going to continue. He won't do the tape of warm ups with the group--he doesn't like to run because it makes me tired, and so on. Well today he lined up to run and the instructor always has them say what fast thing they are going to be and he said a snail! She laughed (this was prompted by Rob in an attempt to get him to run). After that they got out the basketballs. Normally he's pretty good handling the ball, not today. And every time he dropped the ball and it rolled away he would go and get it by lying down and rolling to it. I wish I had the camera. It was so funny! (Rob used this moment to advocate for the flip camera that he wants-but also denies wanting--but secretly he is working his devious plan of brain washing me into it--I know what you are up to Rob!) We ended up leaving early because Caleb just decided he was done. It was that type of a day.

My parents come in this week, and we should have lots of fun stuff with them. I will have my camera so expect pictures this next week!