Happy Mother's Day--2010!

Hi Everyone--

I'm slowly but surely rebounding from the trauma of last week, and I'm certainly counting my blessings, especially on Mother's Day. My girls are healthy and generally happy :) They're all bright, beautiful, smart, and funny, and we're all together. Here are some special blessings that I celebrate:

Brittany: Britti's finishing up her master's thesis on Ohio 4-H, and she's excited about her new adventure at Disney. We drive down to Florida on Sunday, and we'll arrive on Monday, hopefully in time to go to Downtown Disney. We're headed to Magic Kingdom on Tuesday with her friend, Kathleen, and Britti will move into her apartment on Wednesday. We're so thrilled with this opportunity, and I know that she'll have a terrific time. I'll be sure to post pictures from that quick trip next week!

Chelsea Meagan: Chelsea's LOVING track, especially her position as one of the two girl long jumpers on the team. She's also been busy with dance, Junior Fairboard, and 4-H camp counselor training. Chelsea has been consistently setting new personal records in long jump and the 100 yard dash throughout the season, and she's looking forward to summer, tennis camp, and 4-H camp. She just received word that she has been selected for induction into the National Spanish Honor Society as a sophomore.

Emmy: Emmy had a great day with her school's Pioneer Day today and Grandparent's Day on Friday. She's been working hard on her cello and recorder, and she's eager to start band (and percussion!) in the fall. Emmy has been very honored by two special events lately. First, she was named Talented and Gifted in Music last month, and, just this past Saturday, she was invited to try out for the softball All Star team. Only the top three or four girls on each team are invited to do so.) Even though that commitment would dramatically change our summer, we're excited that she's excited, and, of course, we'll take the ride as long as we can. Emmy has been starting as shortstop for her team, and she's also been the lead batter for the past few games.

Ellie-Kate: At 27 month old, Ellie-Kate is just charming. She has embraced complete sentences, and she's quite the little conversationalist. She has the best attitude, and she absolutely LOVES everything that the older girls do-- from track to dance to softball to texting. Her favorite sentence? "I got it," followed very closely by "Ellie do that." She can hit softballs off of a pitch, not just off of a tee, and she remains eager to do all sports-- right now! She's confident in counting from 1-10, and she has the ABC song pretty well down as well. As for potty training, well, she enjoys money. (She has the theme of "will pee for pennies.") We're hoping that she can be completely potty trained in the first month or so of summer. We are humbled and grateful that she loves us so much... In her night prayers tonight, I prompted her to thank God, and I asked what she wanted to thank Him for. She responded with each member of her family, including our two most recently deceased pets (Sunni and Nellie). May her eyes always sparkle when one of her family members enters a room!!!

Thank you, God, for the blessing of my children. I am so overjoyed that He has entrusted them to me, and I pray that I can always do right by them.

Hope that everyone had a terrific Mother's Day celebration!!

Christie