What a BLUR!!!!!

Dear Friends,


The past six weeks have been an absolute, non-stop BLUR!!! Of course, the end of the school year is always crazy, but this year seems to have been even more intense. In the past six weeks, we've had our annual dance concert (Emmy and Chelsea), many softball games (Emmy), soccer traveling team try-outs (Emmy), final exams (Chelsea), end of school "stuff" (Emmy and Chelsea), college visit trips to Butler and Miami (Chelsea and Christie), trips to Florida for a wedding and Philadelphia for research (Roger), trip to Florida to move Britti home (Christie), state beauty pageant (Ellie-Kate), and VBS (Ellie-Kate, Emmy, Chelsea, and Christie)-- WOW!!!!! Between travel, work, family, and sports stuff, we have really struggled to keep our schedules straight, but, blessedly, God has provided us with safe and uneventful travel and much fun during our various activities. However, we are all yearning for time at home to catch our breath... This summer will provide us with at least a bit of that time to re-group :)


For now, I'm just happy for an evening to update the blog... Ellie-Kate loved VBS and continues to grow like a weed!! She had fun at the pageant (but not as much fun as Chelsea-- who is now addicted to TLC's Toddlers and Tiaras!). I think that Ellie-Kate would much rather be playing a sport than modeling on stage, but we'll see. We're just amazed that Ellie-Kate can hit a ball off of a pitch, not just a tee, and dribble a basketball with incredible ease. She's only three, and she's already lobbying to go to sports camps with Emmy! Emmy continues to adore sports... Even though softball season didn't quite go as well as she would have liked, she's very talented at basketball, and she just made a traveling soccer team.


Chelsea is looking at colleges... She has three rules-- (1) The college has to be pretty; (2) it can't be OU, and (3) it has to have pre-optometry b/c she wants to be a pediatric opthamologist. She really liked Butler, but she wasn't at all impressed with Miami. She also wants to check out University of Virginia and University of Oklahoma and perhaps a few others before making a decision. She's excited about her senior year, and she's currently working on her tennis game and having fun with 4-H stuff over the summer.


Britti just moved home from Orlando where she finished up her Professional Internship with the Youth Education Series at Disney. She loved it, but Disney doesn't have full-time jobs available, and she wants to begin her career as a teacher. She has finished all of the requirements for her alternative teaching license in Texas, with the exception of working as a teacher for one year. She's hoping to get a teaching job in Texas, but, well, given the economy, she's open to the idea of living in Athens, subbing, and working on her alternative teaching license in Ohio. (Apparently, Texas requirements for the alternative teaching license are much clearer than Ohio.) We're praying that things work out as God wants for them to (and Britti is especially praying that things can work out such that she and her boyfriend can be in the same place for next year).


Roger and I are teaching summer classes, but they're online so, blessedly, it's a flexible way to earn money. In addition to sports camps and 4-H, we're headed out west this summer for a week-long vacation. We'll fly into Denver, visit Rocky Mountain National Park, and then travel to Scottsbluff, NE to visit Roger's mom. It should be fun, and Emmy's counting on using the pictures for her 4-H scrapbooking project :)


Thank you for continuing to care about our family!! We hope that all of you are ready for a terrific summer as well :)


Christie