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Alright, I'm sorry. This was SUPPOSED to be a Christmas letter. I got the cards done 2 weeks before Christmas!! Printed, put into envelopes and everything! But I didn't have stamps. Then when Christmas came and went, I thought "I should add a New Year's Letter" but I didn't have any paper to print it out on. Now I have both. And today is February 1^st. I guess it just takes some of us longer to get our act together. Sorry to those of you who thought you had been forgotten about! You were not forgotten. I've just been nauseated, tired, for a couple weeks legitimately sick with the flu (as if all-day Morning Sickness weren't enough!) of which I still have a lingering cough, a week or so ago I twisted my ankle, and I lost my Printmaster discs (this unfancy letter was written in Word Perfect instead), so I'm just dragging a little slower than normal, and trying to catch up.

Oh, you didn't read the card? So now you spoiled the surprise, huh? (Those of you who were lucky enough to get your card by hand delivery, already know this part.) Yes, our big news this year is that we are expecting our 4^th baby. This time however, I don't plan to leave the hospital until I have surgery to prevent this from happening again. My body is just not dealing with this well, and I have other medical problems that gives me the idea that this is enough! As of today, I am 16 weeks pregnant. The Dr. has scheduled an ultrasound for next month, so maybe we'll be able to find out if the baby is a girl or a boy when I'm closer to 20 weeks. We haven't chosen any names yet. The few I've casually thought of have all been girl names, but given our previous history, I know there's a better than 50% chance this baby will be another boy. So, we haven't written down any selections yet.

So what else happened last year? Well, let's see... Zephan turned 2 in June, Jhereg turned 7 in July, and Rivan had to wait all the way until after Christmas before he turned 5. Zephan and Rivan both still love cars, and Jhereg still loves robots and space ships. Rivan has learned how to play robot and spaceship games so that he can interact with Jhereg more. Zephan's absolutely most favorite color in the whole world is "YELLOW YELLOW YELLOW!" I don't remember the other two ever being so passionate about a particular color like Zephan is. Jhereg likes to make maps also, especially in computer games.

Back in July my book company, DKFL announced it's closure, so now the only way I can order DK books is directly through the parent company in new York. I signed up with UsBorne, Homes For Living, Books & Beyond (which sells a limited selection of DK books, as well as books, calendars, mugs and various items from other publishers also), and NEST Family Entertainment when they were offering their special offers to former DKFL representatives. I haven't really done anything significant with any of the new companies yet though. I am leaning most strongly towards UsBorne books, because their focus is on educational titles. If I can get enough energy mustered up to do a re-launch of my business, I think this is where I will put my focus.

Ron is still working at ETEC. Back in May Applied Materials bought ETEC though, and slowly they have been changing the way things are operated, and causing several ripples of upset, including a layoff back in November. Ron is now wishing he had been laid off, because he would have gotten nearly 4 months severance pay and wouldn't have had to deal with the stresses that are happening in the aftermath, including a 10%+ pay cut. He's had an interview with one company, but hasn't really put out his resume' too many places other than at Monster.com online. It's in God's hands. I don't know what will happen.

We are still homeschooling. We don't use a particular boxed curriculum or do "school at home", since many of you have asked. And since I got pregnant, things have slowed down quite a bit. I had wanted to do Konos curriculum (unit studies) this year, but the library is closed 2 of the 3 days we have a chance to go, and the 3^rd day we always seem to be out running errands. Konos is fairly dependant on frequent Library access, so that plan rather collapsed before it even really got started. People keep asking us if the state checks to see how Homeschooled children are progressing, and the answer is: yes. They have to take a standardized test the at the "benchmark" years, same as public schooled children, at the end of 3^rd, 5^th, 8^th and 10^th grades. Jhereg will take his first test the end of next year. We are not worried about what he knows, he is FAR above his peers. He can read just about anything you give him, plus he loves to read so he learns a lot that way, and he is working on Multiplication now in math. Rivan still has several years to go before we have to worry about any testing for him, so I'm not worried about him either. He is learning some of the beginning stages of reading, he can spell his name, and several other words also. Once a child can read, they can learn anything printed in a book. He can also do some simple addition. Rivan is much more inclined to science, and he LOVES to do experiments with Daddy, or on his own - especially experiments that involve water. Zephan is learning to recognize letters, and how to count. He has known the basic colors for some time now. He is still very much a climber and spends most of his time exploring his world trying to figure out new places to climb to.

We have been lucky so far not to have to deal with any broken bones. Last year we didn't even have any really scary trips to the hospital that I can remember. Lots of Dr. visits, but nothing serious. So in that respect, things have been pretty well. I pray the Lord gets us through another year unscathed!

Well, I can't think of anything else to say! I'm sure we must have done something more exciting last year, but pregnancy has a way of making me kind of forgetful. I think the baby steals the mother's brain cells. And we haven't gotten our annual Christmas pictures taken yet, so I don't have a nice family portrait to share with you this year. We dropped off 12 rolls of film (some dating back as much as 6 months I'm sure!) At Costco to be developed yesterday, so maybe in a couple weeks I'll have some more recent snapshots available for you to see on the web. In the mean time, here are some baby pictures to share with you. I was 11 weeks pregnant when this ultrasound was done, but the size of the baby indicated that I was actually 13 weeks. So the baby is due sometime between July 11^th and July 24^th. If the ultrasound is correct and the calendar is wrong, then I'm actually 18 weeks pregnant now, rather than 16 weeks. I guess the baby will come whenever it comes and there's not much I can do about it anyway, but if it comes two weeks early, we won't be surprised and I certainly won't be complaining!

Anyway, Happy New Year! Happy Valentines Day, and God bless you. Please take a few moments to send an email or write a postal note. We'd love to hear from you!

Ron, Laurene, Jhereg, Rivan, Zephan, baby

Email: tinyzoo@yahoo.com