I have not fallen off the face of the earth

So, I know it's been a few weeks since my last post, but I thought I should let you know that I am still around. The holidays come upon me and I just get swept up with the festivities, not to mention all the projects. Why is it that the ideas don't come to me until a week or two before Christmas? Well, I've been doing some woodworking, sewing and baking, but it has really been fun.

I have also decided to start teaching piano lessons again. I've been trying to practice more to get prepared for that, and it's been really great! I love playing the piano. I'm hoping to find a few students soon. So far I have 3 of my kids and 2 nieces signed up.

Big news! Robert has a new job. He gave his resignation to PWC today and will start at Dyno Nobel in Salt Lake on January 12th. We are really pleased with how everything has worked out and know that we have been truly blessed. Robert didn't want me to put anything in our Christmas poem until he was for sure things were going through. The company is an Australian company that deals in explosives and fertilizer. He'll be doing some new things and is excited about the opportunity and challenge. The stress really melted with this news. I'm really glad his schedule will be a little more predictable.

Robert's 37th birthday was pretty amazing. He got the news about the job at about 11pm, the night before, and the next morning he was able to go on a tour of Jerusalem. He happened to be in Israel for a project for work. It was pretty exciting. I'll get him to send me some of his pictures, and post them soon.

We also celebrated Sinterklaas on December 5th. This is the Dutch version of Santa Claus. We each got books and chocolate letters from Sinterklaas. It's fun to have extra traditions even though it requires a little more work. We've also made a couple of pretty cool gingerbread houses. We made 2 this year and let the kids work on one while Robert and I worked on the other. I'll let you guess which one is which.

All the Christmas cards got sent out yesterday along with all the packages, so things have sort of eased off. Now if I can just get all the sewing projects done... Of course, there's always something more.

So, here's the update on Monkey #4. We took him to Primary Children's Hospital this week to have an endoscopy done. It was pretty involved, but he was a real champ. When we got to the hospital, they asked if he'd like to have a visit from the "Grizzlies" (the hockey team). They brought him a teddy bear and talked to him for a little bit. That was kind of cool. He wasn't really sure what was going on though. They put him under General Anesthetic, so he didn't feel much of anything. He was only a little mad at me when he woke up. I think he was more mad because he was having a nice nap and I was getting him up. The insides look pretty good. I'd post some pictures, but it might gross some of you out. They took biopsies of his small intestine, stomach and esophagus to check for what might be going on with his digestive system. We'll get the results tomorrow morning, so I'll have to post those when I get them. I think he has a gluten intolerance, but we'll find out tomorrow.

Well, if you can't tell, I'm really tired and going to bed. I'm sorry if some of this is incoherent. I'm sure most of you can understand the daze I feel I am in, as most of you are in that same Christmas Daze of little or no sleep.

Happy shopping, project-ing, and wrapping!