Happy New Year!

OK, well, it's only New Year's Eve at the moment, but I just wanted to be the first to say it! It's already 2008 in China!
I just felt like I needed to hurry up and blog about 2007 and tie up all my loose ends. I forgot to mention that one of my Zumba classes gave me some items from Bath and Body...one of which is a bath pillow. It's bright pink and is still in the box, at the moment, right next to my bed. Peter asked me the other day why I haven't been sleeping with my new pillow. I told him it's not for the bed, it's for the bathtub. "The bathtub?" he said. He just stared at me like I had lost my mind. I tried to explain it to him but he just could not wrap his mind around the idea of putting a pillow in the tub. I guess bathtime=playtime for him!
Also, Caleb (who says he hates reading) has been engrossed in a book I got him at the library. It's called the The Scary States of America: 50 Weird and Terrifying Stories Based on True Events. I knew I was taking a chance on this one but I figured ANYTHING to get him to read on his own. SO, it worked, he's been reading it on and off for weeks. It totally sucks him in and he'll sit and read for hours. The downside is that it also scares the bejeezus out of him. He is scared to be in the dark, scared to be anywhere by himself, scared of looking out windows, scared of the noises the hot water heater makes, scared of breathing...you get the idea. He won't even go to the bathroom and close the door. If I make him close the door then I have to stand outside the door and reassure him the whole time that he's OK and that I'm not walking away. He had a particularly hard night after reading about the 'New Jersey Devil'. We kept telling him this stuff was all fiction and that maybe we should get rid of the book but he insisted that we keep it so he could finish it. So I sat down the other night, after the kids had gone to bed, and read a few chapters for myself. It was SCARY! It gave me the creeps, too! In the middle of the night, when Caleb woke up scared for the umpteenth time, he agreed to let me take the book back to the library. The book has been gone for a few days now and he has progressed to sleeping on the floor beside our bed (in a sleeping bag) instead of crawling into bed with us. Next time maybe I should read it first...
Speaking of reading, I just finished the last Harry Potter book. I sobbed uncontrollably at times but held myself together, for the most part. The VERY DAY that I finished it, Dave read in the news that J.K. Rowling is hinting about writing an 8th book! Who knows if it will happen or not, but I'll tell you this; they are not going to be able to use those same kids for the 8th movie. They are getting way too big! Are MY kids growing that fast?