Bible Bowl

LTC was fantastic!  This boy...

Yep, this one...

This ball of craziness...

Completely rocked Bible Bowl!

I mean he was just shy of a perfect score.  

He missed two in the first round.  One of those, however, was incorrect.  I approached them between the first and second round and showed them that it was incorrect.  They then decided to give everyone credit for that question.  So, just one there.  

In the second round, they asked that same question in a different way.  It is the only question he missed in that round.  Since I had rocked the boat so much on the first round, I just let that one slide.  Shouldn't have, but I did.  I didn't want to start out as a crazy coordinator in my first event ever at this LTC convention.    

He missed none in the third round.  

So the boy missed two.  And really only one.  

One.

He rocked it!

Amazing!

The other fella on our team did not get an individual medal.  However, Eric's score was high enough to pull their team up to GOLD!   

New soccer

So, soccer has been an ordeal for the past three seasons.  Each season we have been scheduled to practice on Wednesday.  While I am not saying it is sin to not walk in the doorway of the church on Wednesday night, it is sin to put things above the Lord.  So, we have chosen not to put this sport above the Lord.  After much discussion and attempting to remedy the situation, we withdrew E from the Y soccer.  He is now playing for a homeschool soccer team.  It is a non competitive team, but I was surprised at how organized it is.

E had his first game yesterday afternoon.  In the blazing sun (yes, Arkansas, I know.  I'm sorry.  Not trying to rub it in).  We had to wear sunscreen.  They practice for 1 hour and then divide into teams for a game.  Reminds me of the winter league he did.

E put on his own sunscreen and missed the area near his goggles.  I missed the back of one of my arms.  So, we are each sporting a nice small sunburn today.  

Friends

Eric has started to develop friendships here that he would be sad if we had to leave someday.  I am glad.  It is taking me a bit longer.  I do have some swim friends though.  Thankful for those.

We went to eat last night after practice with one of  Eric's swim buddies and his family.

He also has a fun lunch group.  

They sit across the room from me, so I don't interact with them much.  But they have started playing a modified version of Pokemon.  Eric is their referee.  

There is a family that we enjoy getting together with.  Their youngest turned 2 on Monday, so we met up with them to celebrate.  

Swim Meet

We had a swim meet this Saturday.  Eric did a great job.  

I love the above picture because Eric still looks tiny.  He isn't.  By any means.  But the angle of this picture tricks my mommy eye, and therefore makes me happy.  

We enjoyed being all together at the meet.  

His first event was the 50 yard backstroke.  He had a slow start, his foot slipped on the wall.  He usually starts very well.  But even with that, he STILL took time off.  Awesomeness!  He took .35 seconds off with a new best time of 38.74.

So very proud of that kiddo.  He works so hard at this sport.  

He then did a 100 yard backstroke.  He did well in that.  He didn't get his best time.  He added 0.63 to his time to finish with 1:22.30.  

Next was 50 yard breaststroke.  Swam this one quite a bit slower than his previous best, but still swam very hard.  He added 2.96 to this for a time of 51.21.  

Then he did a 200 yard IM.  This is where you do each stroke.  This is his very first time competing in this event.  In fact, he had to swim with 15-18 year olds because it wasn't offered for his age.  He wanted to try this event, and I am so proud of him!  He did great.  He executed each stroke and turn properly and finished with a time of 3:19.25.  

See the fellas around Eric.  Yep.  These are the boys he was racing.  Some of the boys on the blocks (in the next heat) clapped for Eric when he finished.  I think they were impressed with this little guy hanging with all the big ones.  So, so proud of him.  Last year at this same meet, he did a 200  Free.  It just about took him down.  He struggled so much with that.  This 200 IM didn't seem to bother him at all.  He rocked it!  He didn't even seem that tired when he got finished.  

We went to Shoney's after the meet and got some dinner and hot fudge cake for our hard working guy.  

Sound Booth

Recently a man who serves at Extension with us approached Eric about helping in the sound booth at church.  He said he noticed that Eric pays attention well and thought he would do a good job.  Eric LOVES this!  He thinks it is the neatest thing ever.  He currently has helped 3 times.  It is just him and the other man, and he pretty much does the sound board on his own.  He will be ready to serve whatever church the Lord places him in.  

LTC practice

So, LTC is quickly approaching.  Since it is a new program here, I am having to do pretty much everything.  It is keeping me a tad busy.

E had Bible Bowl practice last night, and then they practiced their puppets for our class.