Painting

The big home improvement project for us this visit was Sheela's room. We painted it (the easy part of the project) and Karin and Sheela are doing a mosaic frame for her full lengthmirror. Sid made a trophy shelf for her, too, and they are mosaic-ing the front of it as well. Looking grand in there now!

Sunil's Bubbles

Sunil enjoyed blowing bubbles in his backyard and a few of them stuck to the glass of the kitchen door.

Mountain Laurel

Another flashback ... before we came to Texas I took a spur-of-the-moment hike in the Smokies. After a hot, dry two miles all uphill (in the shade, but no babbling brooks on this hike) I was rewarded with outstanding laurel groves in full bloom. Wow. A surprise, too. I did not expect the blooms there or even in May at all. Such a treat!

San Antonio

We took a side trip from Karin's to go to San Antonio (about a 5 hour drive south) to visit our friends the Kollers, whom we met in Hiroshima years ago. It is always a treat to spend time with them. Not to mention, she is a great cook and a very high energy person ... a lot of "eat, eat, eat!" was going on. Mostly fresh fruits and veggies and such, so no guilt.

Their home is filled (literally) with Nihon-no Omiyagi , so that makes it even more interesting.

We are back now in Allen and ready to go watch Sunil play a Tee-Ball game (the first one we will have seen with him) while Sheela plays soccer.