LD Bell is continuing their winning streak. They took first place at BOA Super Regional San Antonio, beating Marcus HS by more than one point. The band also scored a 1 at the UIL competition. Now if the streak will continue at Indianapolis on November 14. (That's also the big 40 for Matt!) The band leaves on the buses that Wednesday night about 8:30 pm and we're leaving by van about the same time. We're going to stop that night and finish the drive Thursday. Pre-lim's are Friday, semi's are Saturday morning and hopefully finals are Saturday evening. The long drive home will be Sunday. :( Not looking forward to that!

We were the host family for a German exchange student for three weeks. Lea is from the city of Bonn, and has been a tourist to the USA many times. She is 15 years old, and the equivalent of a sophomore. The high school experience was completely new for her. She was here during Homecoming, so she got the requisite mum in Bell's school colors, and went to the game. We took her with us to the home game tailgate parties, so she got a good variety of food, and some new experiences. She was very surprised by the variety of Bell shirts available, and the number of different athletic teams and extracurricular activities available to the kids. She said they have about 2 different shirts at her school. No football, band, etc. It's amazing how different the school systems are in the two countries.
Lea speaks very good English, so we had very few issues with communication. I think she did OK with the food, and she even cooked us a German dinner one night. The group also spent four days in Austin and San Antonio during the second week they were here. I think shopping was the highlight of that trip. Of course, they stopped at the outlet malls between here and there. I'm jealous!

The girls have been healthy so far. They've had their seasonal AND H1N1 flu shots, so I hope they stay that way. I've had my seasonal flu shot, and plan on getting the H1N1 when it's available for me. Of course, by this point I should be immune any way!

If any of you are interested in seeing the Bell band perform, let me know. They're doing four community performances in the next week and a half.