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Hi all,

Hard to believe that another year has come and gone - but at the same time - what an eventful year! The year started well for me, healing from the broken ribs, and finishing the coursework for my doctorate. That led into the final stages of the dissertation, which turned out to be the hardest thing accomplished to date. In March, I had double hernia surgery, and was fortunate to be out of bed in a few days. To strengthen the ailing body I signed up for the summer swim team and had we not gone overseas, could have swum in regionals and maybe state finals! Not bad considering the last time I swam was 30 years ago! Continued to instruct high speed driving for Apex Driving Academy, a nice bunch of guys - William came down and did the course and I get to drive some exotic cars - my favorite being the Lotus Exige. Still referee soccer and play on the indoor men's team, although find the heat in summer a bit too much!

In July, we joined my mom, my sister Linda and her son Paul in England and headed to Norway to research the Hide family roots (see the link on the web site). On the way back, we hit a moose-elk (all the signs over there called them elk, but Steph was convinced they were moose, so we came upon a compromise). Coming back, I finished the research on my dissertation and received approval in September from the committee to submit for the Dean's approval. In September, I finished my general manager position (a great two years working for good people in a good company). In October, the dissertation came back with minor changes requested, so I made them (more work than expected!) and resubmitted and on October 30, I was awarded my degree and officially became Dr. Brent Stephens. To celebrate, in November I had my tonsils out - all the horror stories you have heard about adults having their tonsils removed are true! I could barely swallow the pain medicine for two weeks and lost 15 pounds in the first week!

Steph has had a good year, still doing well at her job as a Renal Dietitian and enjoys attending Gateway Church activities (I call her a groupie, as she likes to attend all the courses that she can). She stepped up into leadership and ran a home group that she describes as a mixture between Martha Stewart and the Proverbs 31 Woman. When we moved into the house on the golf course, we had three cats - all outside cats, and we lost them one by one to coyotes. I was reluctant to get any more pets but after watching Sharla drag a stuffed kitten around on a lead finally relented, so Nutmeg and PeeKay joined the family. Those who know soccer will recognize the origin of the names. They were found abandoned in a parking lot and have been hand reared, so are real lap cats that get plenty of attention. Needless to say, they are inside cats… so Steph now has company when she does her favorite pastime - sleeping!

William continued to excel academically and physically. He continues to be in the top 10% academically and was one of only five athletes to letter in three sports (first team colors). He continued to play soccer for the DFW Tornados, although the team decided not to play league but instead to be a showcase tournament team, where they travel the country being exposed to college soccer coaches in the hopes of scholarships. Both coaches at Southwestern University in Georgetown (outside Austin, Texas), a small private University (contained residential campus much like Rhodes University where I did my first degrees) saw him play and selected him. Classes are small ensuring lots of attention from the professors, and the campus is contained with 90% of the students living on campus. He went and spent the night at the University, loved it, especially the fact that they will allow him to play both soccer and run cross-country. I took him down for the early decision interview and thanks to glowing letters of recommendation from his coaches and teachers, he has been fortunate to get early acceptance. They do not offer sports scholarships, so he is working feverishly to get into the top 5% academically at school (out of 650 students) which increases his chances of academic scholarships. He has decided that he wants to be a podiatrist so has a number of years of study ahead of him! He also swam in the summer swim team and made it all the way to State finals in backstroke. He did really well on the High School cross country, was the top runner this year, made it through district finals (top 10 finish), and at regional's did a personal best of under 16 minutes (phew) for 3 miles but came in 15th and only the top 10 go through to state finals.

Jason continues to grow; I believe he must be 6'1” or so, maybe more as he has passed me. He had an awesome summer when he swam his way into backstroke regionals and then state finals. I took him down to state finals and it was a very proud moment to watch him overpower the competition and take the gold - making him the fastest in his age group in Texas! He then turned 15 so of course was able to get his driver's permit. He is still a bit uncertain with the manual “stick” shift but we will get him there! He has decided to be a marine biologist, so has his work cut out for him as he starts to choose high school courses that point him in the right direction. His soccer continues to flourish as well. He excels at goalkeeping, but wants to play on the field. The compromise was reached in that he plays on the field for his select team, DFW Tornados, but plays on the high school team as goal keeper. After many years of hanging around as a group, he has had a few very nice girlfriends this year.

Andrew continues to excel academically, a bit of a math prodigy - to the extent that his math teacher has him stay after school to tutor other pupils. He really enjoys school, especially math, music, and science and thrives in the GATES program for the gifted and talented. Andrew is also quite the musician, as he sings in the school choir, having an awesome voice that is able to hit all the high notes. He also continues with keyboard and is able to learn songs quickly and accurately, and likes to improvise while playing the blues. Having been “adopted into” a soccer family, he has enjoyed soccer; last season his team won their division, but this season did not fare as well in the higher division. This past summer, Andrew swam on the Trophy Club swim team and improved his swim skills tremendously. He is especially good at the butterfly stroke and was invited to go to regionals, but was unable to do so due to a scheduling conflict. He was blessed to have a visit in summer to Aunty Mel in San Francisco where they had a great time together.

Sharla is as sweet as ever; it is cute watching her little personality develop. She already is very decisive as to what she will wear and picks out her own choices for the day. Sharla especially enjoys dressing up as “princess,” and likes to watch the entire Disney princess movies. She is very cute with her big blue eyes and curly blond hair. Her favorite thing is to socialize and considers everyone her instant friend. Of course, she enjoys church activities, her friends at daycare, and parties. She is looking forward to the time when she too, can go to school, play soccer, and take music lessons. She also likes to dance and sing.

The house has been a real treat and home to many parties. The solar heating I installed for the pool works really well and swim parties are the order of the day. We held Andrew's birthday party over until it was warm enough to swim and all had a good time. William and Jason still have either birthday parties or a whole school team over and then they connect all the TV's in the house together and play Halo on the X-Box 360. The adults at this point retreat into the bedroom… We had Martin's 40th birthday at the house as well, and I had got some old photos from his mom, scanned them, and played them on the big screen TV to everyone's amusement.

That's about all our news, would love to hear yours!

Lots of love, Brent, Steph, William, Jason, Andrew + Sharla