Swimming, here we come!

Let the chaos begin...Swim team starts tonight and will continue every school night for the next month. Once school is out, it will move to mornings. Alex can hardly wait to get back in the pool and to see his swim friends. Emma seems excited also. I think it will be a fun year, but it requires lots of scheduling and rescheduling.

The kids have been busy with soccer over the last few weeks. In fact, Alex scored his first goal ever! He chest bumped a ball in on a corner kick. He is really enjoying himself on the soccer team lately. It took a while for the team to accept him, but he's one of the guys now. The last couple games he has played goalie which adds a little stress while watching the game. Actually, he's done well. Emma's team finally won a game this weekend, so that was nice for her. Soccer is done just in time considering the temperatures are heating up around here. We felt like we were broiling at yesterday's game even though the weather station claimed it was only 83 degrees. Maybe it was the humidity, I don't know. It was hot!

Last weekend, Emma went on a big 2 night camping trip with her Brownie troop. They cooked their own meals, had a campfire, went swimming, learned how to cast, and played lots of games. The leaders did a great job managing 11 girls and one stray scorpion. (Apparently, there was a scorpion in the cabin on the first night so that room was vacated and girls doubled up in single beds.) We weren't sure how Emma would manage on this trip since she got sick and did not enjoy herself at overnight camp last summer. This time around, she did great. I think being there with her troop helped a lot. Lots of fun memories for her!

Sean's big news is that his first PhD student will be graduating this spring. His student, Vikas, passed his dissertation defense and is now making some final tweaks to his dissertation before turning it in to the university. What a big accomplishment for both of them! Now, on onto the next PhD student who hopes to graduate this summer.

The boys and I went to a nearby duck pond and enjoyed feeding the ducks lots of tortillas. (Hey, that's what they get if they live in Texas!) Alex had a ball taking lots of pictures since he recently did a digital photo unit in art class. Here are a few of his shots...The first shot is of the "Aflacs" as Alex referred to the white ducks. The next is a close-up of a leaf (I think it's a neat picture, but he doesn't like it.) Third is a picture of some interesting tree roots. The last 2 shots are of us, one very goofy and one quite nice.