Thursday evening, I discovered that our basement was filling up with water. I was on my way downstairs to put in a load or five of laundry when I noticed water at the bottom of the stairs. "Not good," thought I, and began to investigate - from the staircase. Our entire basement floor was covered in about 4 or 5 inches of water. Not too horrible, I guess, but still bad for me and my basement. It had been raining for right around 40 days and nights by this time, so I was eagerly looking for a rainbow. The rain finally stopped that night some time, and thanks to some good friends (Steve and Nathan), my wife and I were able to move all of our belongings from the basement into the living room and pump the water to the outside.

In the now three days that have followed that eventful evening, I have determined that the water backing up into my basement is, in fact, poop. Or at least water with poop in it. Along with toilet paper, etc. Not nice at all. So, methinks I must do something about this tomorrow morning. Perhaps call my congressman.

During Spring Break, Val and I went to visit my parents in the Cayman Islands, where we will be moving in August. Here is a picture of us at a little place called Eats Cafe. It was completely renovated after Hurrican Ivan a couple of years ago, and I was somewhat disappointed to revisit the new place. The atmosphere is different than it was before. Still a cool place, though, and the food was awesome! I ate enough nachos for a small tribe of toddlers. Seriously, it was good.

We took more video than pictures while we were down there, so maybe I'll be able to post video or links to video at a later date.

At our youth party on Good Friday, we had two "Pedro" shirts. We got Nathan (left) his shirt for his birthday a few weeks ago, and he claims it is his "Good Friday T-shirt." By total coincidence, Andrew wore his shirt to the party as well. A good party. One full of times. Gotta love those shirts...

Here is my favorite pic of Elliott to this point.

Another good one.

Palm Sunday weekend, my brother and his wife and son came up to visit. We had an awesome time being with them, and being with Elliott was so much fun! He has really "grown up" since we last saw him - he is now much more interactive, etc. Saturday night I taught him how to make *tthhhpppbbbbtttt* noises by sticking out his tongue and forcing air through. We had great fun doing this, perhaps much to the consternation of his parents. =) Apparently, he remembered what I taught him, for as he awoke Sunday morning he was making "the noise." Also, after Sunday morning service, as a man in the church was introducing himself and looking at Elliott, "the noise" was again exercised. I'm a successful teacher after all!

In all seroiusness, we did have a great time with the three coming up. The older we get (Aaron and I) the closer we get, it seems. Our discussions are deeper, etc. Too bad our solutions are mucky, or the world would be a sane place by the time we're done talking.
I will post more pics of Elliott soon. Perhaps even right now.

Here Elliott's giving the "Uncle Adam gives me candy and teaches me fun noises!" look.

Tonight was our School's Spring Program. We decided to have the program consist of the entries in the Regional Student Convention in which we participated last month. Above is a picture of a round-table discussion where everyone answered questions about Convention. The night was a great success - aside from my piano bumblings. Sorry, trio. The atmosphere was laid back and the kids were phenomenally open and talkative about the trip. It's awesome seeing them come out of their "shells" and express themselves openly in front of a large group of people. Everyone did great tonight - all the performances were awesome!

This year our school participated in ACE's Regional Student Convention. Our region, the Heartland Region, has their convention in Muncie, IN, on the campus of Ball State University (a very nice campus). While there, our two guys and I demonstrated some Russian folk-dancing moves we had mastered while staying in a rat-infested hotel where our room was 80 degrees. We had a great time at Convention - I will try to post some more pictures at a later date.