Ellen: 2007 saw Ellen transition from 4th to 5th grade. She still at Oak Hill Academy, which seems to suit her needs pretty well. She has a lot of difficulties, but seems to find solace in concentrating on art. Despite her need for structure and a consistent schedule, she manages to deal with the crazy Drummond family schedule. This fall, she took a big step by going on a retreat with her Oak Hill classmates to Mo Ranch in the Texas Hill Country. She faces a lot of challenges, but she's working her way through them.

Here's a little shot of her before her first day of 5th grade:

Gina: Like I said above, Gina left St. Patrick for Ursuline Academy this year. She took her high school choice very seriously, since she had to choose between the local public school (Lake Highlands), the co-ed Catholic high school (Bishop Lynch), and Ursuline. Ultimately, even though I told her she could probably make her mother buy her a car if she went to the public school, she picked Ursuline, and has been very happy with the all-girl environment. The workload at Ursuline is killer, but she slugs through it. Here she is in her Ursuline uniform

She also tried our for and made the volleyball team. At St. Patrick, she could play volleyball in the fall, basketball in the winter, and softball in the spring, along with club volleyball. (Did I mention that I put a lot of videos together? Here's a music video I made for Gina's St. Patrick basketball team, and here's one I made for her volleyball team.) But at Ursuline, she had to pick one sport, and volleyball is it. Volleyball at Ursuline is very competitive, as the freshman team's undefeated regular season record proved. The team did lose one match at a freshman tournament and a couple at a JV tournament, but they won the other freshman tournament they played in, primarily playing against the big public schools.

Here's a picture of the Ursuline freshman team after winning the Garland tournament (Gina is #10):

And here's a video of the other freshman tournament (they lost the championship game to a public school team they had beaten during the regular season):