12-21-08

Hi Sweetheart,

Mother loves you.

Spoke to Katie earlier. She was doing homework. I’m glad she’s continuing with this. It will be good for her and it helps occupy her mind.

She said she was reading a vampire book also, so I bought her a copy of TWILIGHT today. It’s young adult, but a lot of people like it. It’s not something I would jump on, but my reading time is limited now. The main thing is she is reading and enjoying it.

I got Logan several size 3-6 month things, but Katie said he is really growing so I went back and got some 6-9 month things also. I’ll get to the bank tomorrow one way or the other and put some money in for you. I had a friend who was going to get with me this weekend, but haven’t heard anything out of her. I can take the bus, but I haven’t figured out the bus schedule very well yet. I’ve been taking it to work and then my boss gives me a ride home. That’s not a good situation so I need to get things taken care of asap.

It’s Sunday, so I’m baking. Mint chocolate chip cookies!

Your snail died. I’m sorry. Not really sure what I did wrong, but I was cleaning out the fish tank and all that rolled out of the skull was an empty shell. I finished dumping it out and some kind of flesh came out. I had just cleaned out the lint filter in the dryer and he, I’m assuming it was the snail, fell into the lint. I kept watching it to see if he moved, but he didn’t. Not really sure how I would have got him back in his shell if he had. The first thing I thought of was just wait until Fuzzy the snail joins his little fish friends. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer just thought he had it bad.

Don’t tell Katie I killed her snail.

Your dragon eels are doing fine, though they are a bit spoiled. They think I’m supposed to feed them as soon as I get home from work. I feed them in the morning when I get up, but they keep watching me when I get home, so I feed them again. Now they start jumping around if I don’t feed them right away. I thought fish were supposed to be kind of mindless?

Well, Lisa said her son trained a Beta to jump out of his bowl and do a few other tricks. A neighbor’s little girl did whatever he did to get the fish to jump and then took him outside to let him go because he obviously wanted out of the little bowl.

I gave Dad and Brandon your address.

Talked to Grandpa and Grandma today. It’s been very cold up there. Wind chill -40. Cody isn’t impressed with the cold weather at all. I don’t think he’ll be moving north anytime soon.

Brandon got laid off. He said it really worked out for the best because he can do contract work for them now. He just doesn’t have any benefits. Laura is still working and I doubt her job is in danger. Hopefully, I can see them this week. I have some things for Samantha and I want to see my little doll anyway.

Nickel is doing better, but still very thin. It will just take a while to get the weight back on. I think I’m going to go get a Christmas tree Tuesday or Wednesday. Yeah, I know, I’m doing the Dad thing. It’s just tough to get much done without transportation.

I may just get a plant instead and buy a little pine next year.

Paladin has forty-seven chapters. Possibly forty-eight if I decide to split one chapter. It turned out better than I thought it would. Which is kind of sad that it has surprised me like that.

I still need to figure out a title for it. I would ask you and the crew to come up with one, but Sgt. Hardin is the one who named his character Tankerbelle.

I’m sending the first chapter to Barbara Rogan for edit. She has a get acquainted offer to edit the first 5,000 words for $50. That’s a good price and the first chapter is really the most important. I hope to be submitting by the end of January. The book will be done by the end of December.

Well, sweetheart, it’s going on 2:00 a.m. here and I still need to get some presents wrapped and boxed so I can get them in the mail tomorrow.

I love you so very much.

Take care of yourself. You are in my prayers nightly.

Love,

Mom