Brennen's Blusterings re: Christmas

Technically, Brennen has declined the honor of blogging this week, since his mean mommy won't let him blog "all by [him]self," as "the other boys got to." When mommy asked him if he could spell or type, he suggested that mommy point out each and every key he should press for each letter he wanted to write. Sadly, his mother is not that cool. Or patient. Or nice.

Good thing mommy had planned for a series of pictures, anyway.

Wow! We have so many presents! And they're so big!!

This Christmas was a How to Train Your Dragon theme. Sans DVD. We saw it in 3D Imax (thanks Grandma Ambrose!), but haven't purchased the DVD yet. Maybe next Christmas....

Dragon Wars 2010. Connor isn't doing so hot.

Ah.....

Brennen says: Merry Christmas!

Connor Cogitates

This week Brennen got better and goes to school and got to learn in school. Mom got better also.  And we are all out of school for two weeks on Christmas vacation. We'll be playing video games, and cutting our hair, and we went out to play in the snow yesterday. I want to play more snowball fights out in the snow. I hope to get good presents for Christmas and I want them to be fun, too.

Mom's disclaimer: grammar and sentence structure is all Connor's. I suggested a few changes, but it's mostly all him.

Introducing: Blogging Boys

Note: since Mom is so horrible at regular blogging, the boys are taking over. The plan is to have one of us blog every Sunday. Maybe we'll let Mom blog once in a while....

David:
Brennen and mommy have been sick this week,and Brennen has to stay home from school because he has a bad ear infection and a sinus infection also. So he has to take a lot of medicines.Mommy had a big bump on the back of  her neck so she had to go to the doctor. Connor said his ear was hurting yesterday before a birthday party yesterday so he stayed instead of going, so far everybody else is fine.

Mom's notes:
The big bump is a swollen lymph node. I'm on antibiotics. Brennen has missed two full weeks of school, but is finally also on antibiotics--we have high hopes he can return to school tomorrow....

Privatizing...

Hey, all--I know I never update the family blog, but I'm going to try to get better at that and post something once a week or once a month or so. A schedule seems to be needed, here.

Meanwhile, I'm starting up a bit of a web presence on my writer's blog http://www.robinweeks.blogspot.com/, so I'll be making this blog private next week, on December 11 (or so).

If you want to be on the exclusive invite list, please leave a comment or shoot me an email. You will thereafter need a google account (or other similar account) to access the blog. They're free--if you don't have one already, repent. :)

Connorism

My boys love to plot out new levels for the game Dengerous Hunts. A recent discussion had them adding a bear. Connor remarked "That bear is really strong! Like a Daddy!" :)

My very first writer's conference (I'm so excited!)

Okay, so it's not until April, but if I blog about it now, I get all sorts of, well, entries in a contest which could lead to a cool prize... well cool for me, anyway. If I win, I get to sit at a table with really, really talented authors and editors while we enjoy a concert by Shaun Barrowes. (Yeah, I don't know him either, but he was on American Idol Season 7. One of the top 48 contestants.)

The conference I'm going to was suggested by my college roomate Susan (Hi Susan!), who is awesome enough to come all the way up from Arizona to attend with me. The first book I publish is going to be dedicated to Susan--she's that cool. (Of course, if the book is dedicated to her, it might affect the percieved validity of her A+++ book review--what other grade could she give me?--on her awesome book blog, blogginboutbooks.com, so maybe I'll have to consider what's more important to me.... :))

But I digress. The conference is LDS Story Makers (full conference info here) and will be held at the Provo Marriot  hotel on April 23-24. Susan and I have registered for the boot camp feature, which meets early each morning and is billed as... intense. I'm excited for it--mostly because it means that now I have a deadline. I've decided I love deadlines. When it's just me writing along, with the vague goal of submitting something for publication when I get it done... well, let's just say I've been working on this current book for about two years now and have comparatively little written to show for it. Deadlines are cool.

The other cool part about the conference is the talented writers who are presenting at it. Jessica Day George, David Farland, and James Dashner will all be at the winner's table for the concert, and other awesome writers, editors, agents, and other industry-types will be there to impart the secrets of their success. Or at least, I assume that's what they're doing. As noted at top, this is my first time. In particular, I want to learn the (rumored) magnificence of Bree Despain's color-coded editing system. I love, love, love color-coding. :)

For any of you who may be interested in attending with us, we're staying with my relatives (to cut costs) and we can probably find room for one or two more close friends. After you register for the conference, be sure to check out the Show Your Love for the Storymakers Contest, here. That's the contest that lets you sit next to [me and] Jessica Day George. :)

Let me know if you register!

Yeah, yeah. I know.

I am hardly what you could call a dedicated blogger. This stems back to my years in school, where anytime a teacher assigned a "log" or "journal," you could be sure I'd fail the assignment. I just don't consider myself that interesting, I guess, and, while my husband and kids are a lot more interesting, you don't see them getting their blog on! (Though maybe that's not such a bad idea....)

Quick and dirty update: we've been back from the ranch since the beginning of the school year in August, siding on our house didn't get done this summer, so we're living in what looks like an abandoned house, and it's too cold for Jerry to work on it this winter. Jerry and I are coming up on our 10 year wedding anniversary in April--the week after I attend my very first ever writer's conference, which is providing all sorts of motivation to actually write my darm book! The boys are doing great, David is in 3rd grade, Connor in 1st, and Brennen is still trying to learn to talk in pre-school. At the rate he's going, he'll still be learning when he's supposed to be starting kindergarten. Jerry has become enamored of another sport of late: ice fishing. He got all sort of ice fishing paraphernalia--including a hut--for Christmas and loves going by himself, with his brother, with his parents, with the boys, or with whoever else will go with him. He has yet to get me to go, since I've been convenienly sick since Christmas. :)


We'll see what we can do about keeping this updated more, but, alas, I can make no promises. Perhaps if I get over my envy of all the cute pictures everyone else puts on their blogs.... Those things take so long to post!