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William has had a good year. He has scored high academically and in the Texas Academic test, received awards for both reading and math, which means he scored over 95% in the exams, which is state wide. He also received first place in a poster competition. His soccer team, the Bulldogs (coaches by dad), played in the U9 summer league, where they did very well, able to win 5 of their 8 games (coming from a history of 1 win, 1 draw in six seasons, this was a great achievement for the team). William scored his first goal, taking the ball all the way from the fullback position to putting it in the goal. A more determined player I have seldom seen! He remains the best dribbler, great ball control, highly effective in the mid-field. In the summer he attended the British Soccer Camp, which he thoroughly enjoyed. In the fall season, they were now U10, which is “competitive” and there are no longer “participation” trophies. It is come first or second, or receive nothing! There were many new players to the team, who took a while to settle in. The team entered a tournament to help prepare for the season, but lost all three games – as expected. The team was then entered a tougher league so the coach had serious misgivings… However, they managed to win 4 out of 10 games and come 7th out of 11 teams. This with only 12 goals scored the whole season! William is now trying an indoor league, which he is thoroughly enjoying. He still has the same best friends, mostly from the soccer team and is very popular at school, a bit of the comedian in class but known as being a very caring child.

Jason has also had a good year. He has improved tremendously academically, went on a reading improvement program at the school and has not looked back since. This semester he has started bringing home 104% scores on his spelling tests, a great achievement. He is still the comedian and local “silly party” to use Monty Python terms. This means talking when he is not supposed to and doing things that are not always perceived as funny by the teachers! He has had a great soccer year, in the summer season the Wildcats won 6 out of 8 games as I recall, and all enjoyed themselves. He also attended the British Soccer Camp and had a great time. In the fall season, the team was now U8 and had a few experienced players join from another team that was disbanded. One look at the team, and coach knew he had a good season coming up. The new players integrated well, and we also entered a tournament to help prepare for the season. They lost to one particularly strong team, who had beaten them in the season before as well, but it was a tough game. The season progressed smoothly, with scores like 10-0 not being uncommon. They gave up 2 goals the whole (regular) season and even challenged the two U9 teams. They beat one 4-0 and lost to the other 0-6, which gives some idea of the lack of parity of the teams. Playing on the bigger field was a new experience for them, so they did really well. Jason then went indoor on William’s team, and despite playing U10 has done well, even gaining an assist!

Both boys still enjoy going out in the boat - as does the dog!- and William is the most accomplished skier to date, having stayed up for quite a long distance before falling.
Dee has had a busy year, she tried Taekwando (a form of karate) but her knees could not stand it, so she then traded in her running partner “runaway dog – Zak” for a human running partner Greg van der Walt, a South African living nearby and faithfully got up early twice a week to run (no, I am still not a morning person and happily waved goodbye – when I woke up, that is…) Work was tough, the department she was in had tremendous growth, and with it her duties. There were also some uncomfortable politics making it even less enjoyable, with the result that just before her mom’s visit in November, she took a cut in pay and moved departments. So far so good… The highlight of the year for Dee was her mom’s visit. We took her to the Grand Canyon, passing through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest on the way (see separate write-up).

Highlights of her year: Had her first spring bulb garden, ran a 5KM run in 28.01 minutes (shooting for under 28 minutes next time). Enjoyed the travel through the different States. Enjoyed doing homework with the kids. Lost 20 lbs. Had a limousine ride to the revolving restaurant in Dallas for her 40th birthday (says life improves after 40!) Enjoyed learning and playing adult soccer. Has a nice circle of friends. Has enjoyed the monthly Book Club meetings.
Brent has also had a busy year. For a run down on his 40th, read up on that web page. The first half was hectic for business, then slowed down somewhat. In June he spoke at a Conference in Denver on “Controlling your Employees” and the family used the opportunity to drive to Pagosa Springs and Estes Park in Colorado and admire the beautiful mountains. In August the family again went with when he went to a Convention in Arkansas. For more detail on the company, visit the web site of Consulting Expertise.

The soccer, as you can tell, took up a fair amount of time. He took over the portfolio of Coaches Director on the board and was instrumental in upgrading the quality of the coaches through the use of coaching clinics (which he arranged or referred players to) and ended his year with 44 “G” level coaches, 20 “F” level coaches and 2 “E” level coaches (of which he is one) from the 8 “G” level coaches that he inherited. On top of the 4 clinics that he hosted, he coordinated the British Soccer Camp (we hosted a coach in our home, which was interesting). Unfortunately, there was some unpleasantness on the board, so with the business set to grow another 50% he decided that he did not need the additional stress in his life.

Other family news: Zak is in the forefront – he has learnt to dig out and then run around herding cars, so, sadly, a new home for him is on the horizon. This despite dog training lessons, long lead lessons, shock collar lessons… when the front door opens it’s ZOOM, greased lightning…Sox remains his usual arrogant self, Brent nick-named him “Cocky Locky”, you are lucky if you get a 20 second hug – and boy, does he know when grub time is! Emily is her usual sweet self, loves to hop on the bed at night when Brent is reading for her scratch. Henry and Nicole decided to explore the world at large and no doubt became buzzard bait, Brent put them out for there daily shout at the other birds and came out a bit later to Nicole sitting on top of the cage and Henry nowhere to be found. Nicole then flew off, and neither have been seen since. The fish population took a dive somehow while we were in the Grand Canyon, but they remain in their little corner. They had a visit from a local lake inhabitant for a while, and the baby population was never in evidence. Soon after its return to the "deep" the babies began arriving again…

News from his home front is that his dad has been diagnosed with "asbestosis" from all those years working on the Railways, and ended up in hospital having one of his lungs drained. He tires easily as a result and it is hard to get a prognosis at this point, but he is managing to get around, still plays bowls which form a large part fo their life in Port Alfred. His mom is keeping well, and for someone who took to sport late in life, continues to impress with her bowls accomplishments!
Linda is still in Grahamstown, no longer teaches Maths at Kingswood, but is rather studying to become some kind of bio-chemist and does research on things like "does St. Johns Wort really work as a tranquillizer?" Nic is still professor at Rhodes Maths Department and Paul and Vicky continue to excel at whatever they put their hand to.
Well, that’s it for our year (or all we can recall at this point), so have a blessed Christmas, may the grinch of Y2K not get you and all your New Year’s resolutions become reality.
Love to all, Brent, Dee, William + Jason.