Early in the year, Belinda ruptured a knee ligament during a Tae Kwon Do lesson. She had surgery in April to replace the ligament and then worked hard on rehab exercises to get back in shape. Full recovery will take a year.

Jason and Belinda were taking Tae Kwon Do lessons together, but Jason has continued even after Mom's injury. He has become slim and strong in the process and will be a formidable opponent for Belinda assuming she ever gets back to class.

Alan continues to run on a regular basis, both for fitness and also as a fundraising activity. In January 2006 he will run the Houston half marathon in aid of the Take Heart Association Project, Inc., a charity helping underprivileged children with heart disorders in East Africa.

Belinda is a much more reluctant runner, but has done some in order to get strong again after her knee surgery.

Daniel's in good shape too, although not participating in any sports at the moment. Here he's enjoying some sun and water at our local amusement park (AstroWorld, which has since closed).

The boys both reached major school milestones this year. Daniel graduated from Pershing Middle School and is now a freshman at Bellaire High School. Jason graduated from Horn Elementary and is now a 6th grader at Pin Oak Middle School. Both are doing very well in their new schools. (This is Daniel at his middle school graduation ceremony.)

We had a short summer holiday in west Texas this year, and enjoyed activities like horse riding and river tubing (next picture).

Belinda, still on crutches at the time, didn't participate in the more vigorous activities but enjoyed lots of quiet reading time.

Jason enjoys reading, too, and sometimes finds the oddest ways to do it.

Another major hobby for the boys is surfing the internet, particularly the Neopets game site. We were able to replace Jason's broken computer this year with one that Belinda won by writing a short story about peanut butter and jelly!

This year Belinda joined the Houston Choral Showcase, and has really enjoyed performing with such a talented group of people. And even the formal costume is in her favourite colour!

Every now and again, Daniel exchanges his usual jeans and t-shirt for a smooth new suit that he has...

...but not when he's climbing trees...

...or when Tex, his bichon frisé dog, is sitting on his lap helping with homework.

Tex has also found himself a nice little household job as the official dishwasher pre-rinser. He takes it very seriously.

The cats, on the other hand, are more committed to their leisure time.

Sadly, during the year our female zebra finch became sick and died. For several weeks she suffered feather loss and weakness, but there wasn't anything that we or our vet could do to save her.