Merry Christmas from the BAP
Family!
December 16, 2013
Cheerful
Greetings from Snowy Ohio!
As
we finally carve time to craft this letter, we have just pulled our traditional
snow day cinnamon rolls out of the oven, and we’re coming up with a plan for
another day out of school and praying that the snow lingers for a white Christmas.
We hope that this letter finds you happy, healthy, and ready for a wonderful
Christmas J This past year has been
incredibly eventful for our family, with a blend of blessings, opportunities,
and challenges, and we praise God for all of His provision. Here’s a quick
summary of life in the BAP family during 2013:
Brittany Nicole (27): Brittany and her fiancé, Ramon,
are chin-high in plans for their May 2, 2014 wedding in Marietta. Blessedly,
their relatively long engagement has enabled them to take their time with
wedding details, and they have booked a great team of individuals to help them
with the traditional Catholic ceremony and “Vintage Hollywood” themed
reception. They expect an exciting week-end because they will wed on Friday,
and Ramon will graduate from OU on Saturday (with his birthday on Sunday)—wow! God
willing, our newsletter next year will feature the highlights of this special
week-end J In addition to wedding planning,
Britti continues to enjoy her job as the Athens County 4-H Educator. She has
made several presentations at the state level and improved county-level
programming. Britti has earned two promotions in the past year, including her
recent appointment to Office Manager for Athens County. Finally, perhaps the
most life-changing event of the year for Britti (and Ramon) was their adoption
of “Buddy,” a loving kitty that Roger and Christie discovered while walking on
the bike trail. Actually, Buddy found us, following us and meowing loudly until
we stopped to rescue him. (We think that he had been dropped by college
students who couldn’t keep him, given his demeanor, coat, and the timing of our
find.) Buddy is now the most spoiled cat in Athens County, and, yes, Britti
wants a “Crazy Cat Lady” bumper sticker for Christmas J
Chelsea Meagan (19): Chelsea Meagan is a sophomore at
Baylor University, and we have decided that she must have the sharpest elbows
of anyone on campus. Throughout the entire football season, we were delighted
to catch glimpses of Chelsea on television because she always landed a prime
seat right in the front row on the 50 yard line to cheer on her beloved Baylor
Bears! She was especially thrilled to be in the stands for the very last game
at Floyd Casey Stadium—that turned out also to be the Big 12 Championship game
(with Oklahoma State’s loss to Oklahoma just a tad earlier in the afternoon). Other
than going to football games and taking her business and honors classes,
Chelsea has been an active member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority since last January,
competing on several intramural teams and, of course, going to social events
with her new “sisters.” Given her good grades, Chelsea was also inducted into
three academic honor societies in 2013. In non-Baylor news, Chelsea
participated in her last year of 4-H, serving as club president and camp
counselor. For the second year in a row, Chelsea won “Pro Showmanship” for
rabbits, with her old bunny, Charlie. As the top rabbit showman, she competed
in “Ultimate Showmanship,” exhibiting all of the species on the grounds, and won
3rd place overall! Chelsea’s most interesting adventure, though, had
to be with her ducks. Chelsea begged us for the chance to raise ducks in our
garage, and, reluctantly, we finally said yes. Although we lost one of them due
to a birth defect, the other three thrived, and she actually won Senior Novice
Showmanship (and 5th place in Pro Showmanship for Poultry) as well
as first place in both of her breed classes and Reserve Champion for Class 6! At
the county awards ceremony, Chelsea was recognized with the 4-H Legacy Award
for her achievements in 4-H. What a way to end an amazing career in 4-H J
Emmy Grace (12): Emmy is in the eighth grade, and
she’s been working hard to balance all of her many interests. She is currently
the point guard for the 8th grade basketball team, and she
fluctuated between forward and midfielder in the fall on the AMS girls’ soccer
team. She continues to play her cello in the community youth orchestra and French
horn in the band, and she just finished up Model United Nations, earning an
“Outstanding Nation” award with her team. After taking a year off, she competed
in Science Fair again a few weeks ago, achieving a Superior ranking at the
school level, and she plans to compete at the district level in the spring. Emmy
also enjoys sleepovers with her Girl Scout friends (and, especially, crazy
games of “violent ping pong” in our basement rec room). Her troop has also been
busy with its Silver Award project of collecting books for the Athens City
Schools preschool and helping with Ellie-Kate’s Daisy troop meetings. Emmy also
had a banner 4-H year. Highlights included earning her first Championship Title
at the Ohio State Fair with her dog, Coco, as well as 2nd place in the
state in “You and Your Dog” and a state Silver Medal in Pet Pals. Emmy also
showed market rabbits at the county fair this year, and she had the highest
placing that any of the girls have had in a final drive yet—6th
place (out of 122 pens at the fair)! Emmy also won Intermediate Showmanship in
rabbits, Outstanding Intermediate Exhibitor for rabbits, and Outstanding
Intermediate Exhibitor for dogs. All of that studying and hard work over the
summer really paid off at the county and state fairs!
Ellie-Kate (5): We were so blessed that
Ellie-Kate had such an amazing pre-school experience at First Friends, and it
was tough to say good-bye at pre-school graduation in May! She loved Miss Tammy
and all of her special friends—Jack, Carter, Macie, Shane, Aiden, and Corbin!!
We are so grateful that we continue to see them around town and during
Alexander Soccer Club or Upward Basketball games. Ellie-Kate is now in Mrs.
Watson’s kindergarten class and loves it too! Her favorite classes are music
and gym (just like big sister, Emmy!), and she’s already lobbying for her very
own “baby cello.” Ellie-Kate earned her first book award in AWANA and performed
in her first dance recital last spring, and she has a great time with her
friends at Daisy Girl Scouts this fall. Ellie-Kate loves sports, and she has
amazing hand-eye coordination. She played soccer in the spring and fall, but
she got a little bored until she started to fancy herself as a defensive
specialist. When she’s playing “sweeper,” no one scores! Ellie-Kate played
t-ball in the summer, and she’s now taking tennis lessons (following in the
footsteps of big sisters Britti and Chelsea!). Her favorite sport, though, is
basketball, and she has impressive upper body strength already. She can make
shots on the regulation-height basket, and she dribbles better than most of the
girls on Emmy’s basketball team (including switching from right to left hand). Ellie-Kate
would sleep in basketball shorts and socks, if we would let her, and she’s
rarely happier than when she’s got a ball on a basketball court J Chelsea encouraged Ellie-Kate to
push her boundaries a bit when she convinced her to try out for the
Chauncey-Dover Spring Festival Court. Motivated by the idea of a trophy and a
tiara, Ellie-Kate smiled for the interview and charmed her way on to the court,
and she has now represented the festival at 12 events in our part of the state.
Through this experience, we have discovered two things. First, Ellie-Kate might
be a diva like Chelsea, but she isn’t such a fan of being in parades. Second,
we have been so proud of Ellie-Kate because she is committed to finishing what
she started and honoring her one year commitment to the festival. Even if we
know that she would much prefer to be on a basketball court than a festival
court (and in shorts than a dress!), spectators are none the wiser, and
Ellie-Kate’s smiling photos on Facebook serve as testament to our classy little
girl J
Charlie: Throughout her time in 4-H,
Chelsea had two special bunnies—Sparky when she was younger and Charlie as she
finished out her career. Christie always goes to the annual 4-H livestock auction
on Friday night of the fair, and, five years ago, she felt sorry for one of the
last-year 4-Hers (Caitlyn) who was having trouble with getting bids for her pen
of rabbits. Caitlyn had the challenging position of selling her rabbits in
third position. (After everyone bids high for the grand and reserve, no one
ever wants to spend money on the third place finisher.) Christie bid; no one else
did, and we ended up with Caitlyn’s bunnies. Chelsea got to choose one to keep,
and she chose Charlie. Over the years, Charlie was an amazing rabbit in both
breed and showmanship competitions. Chelsea never lost showmanship when using
Charlie, and, two years ago, he even won Reserve Grand Champion, Best of Breed
Show. (At this year’s show, the judge demonstrated showmanship with Charlie,
and he complemented our “good old bunny.) We were excited about our plan for
Charlie’s retirement—he was going to be a classroom pet in the fall and winter
and, hopefully, sire some new champion baby bunnies in the spring. Alas,
Charlie didn’t get a chance to realize that fantasy retirement, passing away
within a month after the fair. Chelsea was grateful that he lived through the
fair, but, of course, she’s sad that such an important part of her time in 4-H
is no longer with us.
Izzy: Somehow, we always envisioned
our cat, Izzy, as just a baby, but we realized in February that he’s getting
older along with the rest of us! We were in the living room on a Saturday
evening, watching a basketball game, when we heard a thump. We thought that
Izzy had fallen down the stairs because of the thump and his limp. We called
the vet, and he told us to keep an eye on him and to come in on Monday. By Sunday
evening, Izzy was pretty non-responsive, and we called Britti to watch the
little girls, and we drove Izzy to an urgent pet care facility in Parkersburg.
The vet there could tell us little, other than Izzy’s x-ray was normal. She
told us that, “if it were my cat, I’d go to Medvet in Columbus.” On the way
back to Athens, we talked and then called Chelsea at college with the update.
Chelsea wanted to fly home and begged us to try and save him. At this point, we
had no idea what to expect, but we decided to go ahead and drive for another
hour and a half to Columbus. We are beyond grateful that we did!! From the
emergency vet to our team of specialists, we knew that we were in incredibly
competent hands. We were ultimately told that Izzy had had a stroke. Over the
course of the following weeks, Izzy went from being non-responsive in an
intensive care incubator to evaluation from a neurologist to an MRI (at
Nationwide Children’s Hospital!) to physical therapy to being featured on
Medvet’s Facebook page in a Youtube video of his rehab session. Izzy went from
not able to move to jumping out of his restricted play area in our house within
six weeks and, eventually, to going up and down stairs and jumping up and down
off of furniture. We praise God for the staff at Medvet for all of their help
in a terrifying situation. Izzy is truly our miracle kitty (and, yes, one of
the reasons that we didn’t go to Disney this year!) J
Roger: Caring for Izzy (and the other
critters in our house) as well as carting kids to various activities required
lots of time, but Roger always manages to make time for doing such a great job
with his students and his writing. Roger finished his book manuscript about the
President’s House in Philadelphia, and he’s currently trying to find a publisher.
Roger’s most exciting moment of the year was winning his battle with the U.S.
Government! Over a year ago, Roger filed a Freedom of Information Act to secure
documents related to his President’s House research. Unfortunately, the
National Park Service refused to grant access to part of those documents. Wondering
what they were hiding and irritated about their lack of cooperation, Roger
decided to appeal the decision to the Department of Interior. After more than
14 months (and countless e-mails and phone calls to various legislators and
contacts), he received a letter indicating that he had won his appeal and
ordering the National Park Service to not only provide the documents but also
to refund the money that he had originally paid for copying those materials!
Although not quite as exciting as winning a federal appeal, Roger also had fun
with coaching Ellie-Kate’s soccer team in the spring and fall and serving as an
assistant coach for her t-ball team this past summer.
Christie: Christie continues to lead the
Lucky Fours 4-H Club and participate in drama activities (during VBS and
Christmas) at Albany Baptist Church. She’s back to leading two Girl Scout
troops, with the addition of Ellie-Kate’s new Daisy Girl Scout Troop this fall.
Christie is very proud of Emmy’s troop’s hard work on its Silver Award project
and grateful to many of the girls in that troop for volunteering during
Ellie-Kate’s troop’s meetings. She’s having a blast with helping to plan
Britti’s wedding, and she enjoys visiting Chelsea at Baylor (and watching for
her on tv during football games). On the work front, she spent spring semester
on sabbatical, working on her book about soap operas and getting a contract
(with four co-authors) for a book about celebrity health narratives. In terms
of biggest moments of the year, Christie was beyond thrilled to receive two
pieces of incredible news within 10 minutes on February 13, 2013. We were
visiting Izzy at Medvet, and the neurologist had literally just told us that
Izzy was going to recover from his stroke when her cell phone rang. She stepped
into the hallway, and she received the fantastic news that she had been elected
to serve as Second Vice President of the National Communication Association!
She will serve as Second VP in 2014, First VP (and primary program planner for
our national conference in Las Vegas) in 2015, and President of the association
in 2016. Christie is grateful for this honor and excited about the rich
opportunity to serve!
In closing… We praise God for all of His provision
and blessings! Life has been incredibly busy, but it’s been good, and we give
Him the glory for all that He continues to do in our lives. We pray that your
family enjoys a blessed Christmas and a joyous New Year!
