Ma came to visit this past weekend. I hope she enjoyed herself -- Brigid and I had a great time with her here. I did have a race this weekend, so Ma got to see a triathlon close up, and got to see me race. I think she was impressed with everyone doing the race, but didn't understand why anyone would do that to themselves. Now that she has gone home, Brigid and I are dealing with the usual depression...

The race went very well for me this time -- no flats, no crashes, and not a bad time! I was in a lane with a guy that was exactly the same speed I am. At first, he was beating me by a hand length, but with Ma watching, I certainly couldn't let that happen! By the end of the 825 yards, I was beating him by a half a body length. Unfortunately, that wasn't quite enough since I then had to get help getting out of the water. This is the worst part of this pool -- the top of the water to the deck is about 15 inches and the pool is so deep that you cannot push off the bottom to get out. You have to rely on your arm strength, and at the end of the 825 yards, there isn't much arm strength left! So, he beat me into transition by about 10 seconds. However, I beat his time in the swim and the bike. He passed me on the run... So, overall he beat my time because he actually ran. As you know, I don't do that.

Yesterday, Ron and I went to our parent/teacher conferences -- starting at 7:10am. We met with all of the teachers and got all of the report cards as well. Elias is doing very well. His grades are excellent and his teacher was happy to have him in her class. She did mention that he could be very social at times and that she sometimes had to move his seat because there was a little too much talking going on. She also said that his reading was very good, but that he had to work on his sight words a little bit more so that he could get fluent in them. In other news about Elias, the speech therapist did her quarterly evaluation of Elias's speech and has decided that he needs additional therapy since his lisps are getting worse. He will start regular speech therapy next week. Maybe this time it will stick!

Benjamin's teacher described him as "a little intellectual" and she is very happy with his academic progress. He is in the highest reading group with only one other person, so he visits another teacher for reading. He seems to enjoy reading, she said, and as soon as he finishes his work in the classroom, he gets out his book and reads until everyone else is done. He may do that at school, but Benjamin never picks up a book at home -- never! Benjamin got very good grades this quarter but his teacher wants him to try to be a little less sloppy in his writing. She showed us a couple of things and Benjamin seems to think that the spaces between words are optional. The only other thing that is going on is that I had Benjamin evaluated by the speech therapist at the school because he has a lisp that hasn't gone away. She agreed that he needed some work to get rid of the lisp and Benjamin will be starting speech therapy next week.

Andy's teacher is also very happy with him -- she said he always participates in class discussions and is a great kid to have in class. His grades are excellent, with the exception of spelling. This teacher is making the kids do 5 paragraph essays, complete with a rough draft. Andy seems to be getting the process and is doing well with his content, but his spelling remains dismal. Because he is being tested for learning disabilities right now, his teacher is not taking off for spelling at this time, but is waiting to see what the testing says. We will be meeting with the school psychologist soon to find out what is going on in Andy's brain.

Now that Ma has gone home, I am having a hard time getting back into my workout schedule, which, besides my race, was completely stopped when Ma was here. I don't feel like going out on my bike... and I don't feel like swimming either -- it is COLD! In Tucson, that means that it is under 80 degrees. I know, I am a wuss. I had planned on going to the pool this morning... and I will, but I am still taking every single option to put it off. Ah well, I have finished everything I had to get done this morning.. the only thing left is the pool.