Long Overdue Update

Of course, since it's been four months, this will only be an overview, and pretty much just cover the most recent important things.

Jessie: She has continued with her bowling, and is still doing well. Recently she's had a string of games where she has regularly been over 100. We are happy to see her learning and having fun. The 13th of March she qualified for a tournament in Austin. We left Friday afternoon for Austin. After taking well over an hour to make it through Houston (it's never a good sign when just after seeing warnings saying "Freeway closed ahead, major accident" you see helicopters circling the area), the rest of the trip was uneventful, though it was still late when we got to Curtis' house, and even later when everyone went to bed. Jessie struggled a bit the first two games in the tournament, but when Julia, David, Jonathan and Andrew arrived to watch that helped her get encouraged and she finished much better the last two games. We enjoyed the tournament and the chance to visit with Curtis and family.

Fourth grade went on a field trip to the San Jacinto monument and Battleship Texas, and she had a lot of fun and learned a lot. The field trip was on Dee's birthday, and Dee got to go as a chaperon, so that was great for them to be together.

Jessie's other big news is that the school GT Teacher, Mrs. Pulse, got special permission to test Jessie a few weeks ago (normally they only test in the fall). She easily passed the test. Although it was funny because it was just before the tournament in Austin started that she told Dee, "Oh, I forgot. Mrs. Pulse game me a letter for you yesterday. I think it's the test results." Of course, at this point the letter was sitting in her backpack in Houston... So we were very anxious to see the results the rest of that day.

Anyway, this is a great opportunity for her. In the fall she will get to go one day a week to the University of Houston-Clear Lake to take a miniclass. She's very excited about this, although it will be hard to decide which subject to take. Then, in sixth grade we have a few options we have to choose from, including a GT Magnet school that is supposed to be very good or a special combined program at the regular intermediate school. So we're excited for the opportunities this gives us. Brennan will be tested in the fall, as well.

Brennan: Baseball, Birthday, Baptism: Brennan had a great tryout for baseball this season. He is now on the Phillies. It's a little different, because this is the first year he hasn't been one of the youngest in the league. It's been exciting to see how much he has improved over last season. It's been a struggle because over half the practices have been rained out. I am one of the assistant coaches, and Dee is the Team Mom. So she has been very busy as well. Brennan's first game was supposed to be Wednesday (right after Pack meeting...), but it was raining all that day--not too bad. In fact, the early game that night was played, but by the end of it the balls were curving too much coming out of the machine, and they decided it wasn't safe to play the next game. That meant the first game became Saturday's game--our only Saturday game scheduled this season, which happened to be Brennan's birthday. He was very happy with all his presents, and excited to finally get to play a game.

In the game, Brennan played third and second. I think he's going to play a lot of third. He made some good plays when he was at second. He was also the lead-off hitter for the Phillies (a big change from last year, when he usually hit as one of the last couple of batters). In the first inning he got a hard hit, but unfortunately it went straight to the second baseman. Still, it was a close play. His next time up, he was asked to bunt, and put a beautiful bunt right down the third baseline, and beat out the throw without too much difficulty. He later came around and scored. Going into the bottom of the last inning, it was 9 - 6 for the other team. Brennan was again leading off. He fouled off several pitches, and then hit a ball over the first baseman's head into right field for an easy base hit. He then stole second, and when the throw went into the outfield he was able to score. The next batter got a hit and made it to second, but then was stealing when the third batter popped to the first baseman, so that became a double play. They weren't able to score again, and lost, 9 - 7.

Yesterday was the biggest day of all, as Brennan was baptized. We were very happy that Curtis and his family were able to come. Brennan asked David to give the talk on the Holy Ghost, and Craig Reeves (Weldon's son) to give the talk on baptism. Both talks were very well done. Dee and Jessie said the prayers. We were also happy that Sam was ordained that day as an Elder, so that he was able to participate (along with Curtis and Chris) in the confirmation. And we had another good visit with Curtis' family after. We're very proud of Brennan and his decision to be baptized.