Picture Update

Since I spent the vast majority of the day in tears, I figure I'd just better add a few pics instead of writing. Oh, what a day!

12 weeks till death - doing what she loved, dance, ballerina, dance
One short year ago. What I wouldn't do to turn back time and watch her dance just one more time!
Dressed in gorgeous white and flowing costumes, I thought Christi's instructors and assistants looked like angels on stage. With slides (and much to my surprise and delight) video clips of Christi playing in the background I wept from my front row seat tonight, a role I typically reserve for the privacy of our home and not in public. I couldn't help myself. I just thought it was so lovely and it is so hard not having her dance this year, since she loved it so. Our sweet "Dance Unlimited Family" will never know how much their love and support has meant to us. It will be our pleasure tomorrow to be presenting the $1,000 Christi Thomas Memorial Scholarship. Thank you, Bob & Mary Jo Murray and all of the Dance Unlimited family.
"To Where You Are" by Josh Groban. (The very same song Tiffany Grine sang at Christi's funeral.)
I was shaking so much I could hardly snap any pictures while they danced today.
Lovely and beautiful! Thank you dear Heather, Hannah, Lindsay and Megan!As I entered the Ritz this afternoon for dress rehearsal I told myself to be brave when I saw Christi's class. (She just loved those girls. They come from fabulous families and were so sweet to her. I just wish she could be with them again this year.) Well, I wasn't so brave. They dance immediately after the teachers' tribute to Christi and before Shayla's class. I sobbed their entire dance. I thought they had the prettiest costumes I'd ever seen and I kept imagining what Christi would have looked like dancing with them on stage.
Shayla was excited about tonight's dress rehearsal. I think they're ready for their big weekend.
This weekend Shayla will dance with her "Jazz Friends" to "Born to be Wild". (Fitting, eh?! hee hee)
Grandma Nee Nee bought a bunch of lovely (and huge) pinwheels for us to mark Christi's grave so that those in the Christi Thomas Memorial Poker Run tomorrow will know where her body rests. With no funerals scheduled for tomorrow, the bikers will drive the "U" - just like 70 motorcycles did on the day of her funeral, before heading out for their day. Shayne and I will wait for them out at the cemetery.
While I couldn't do anything except snap a few pictures and try to rid myself of a huge lump in my throat, Shayla did a fabulous job of tidying up Christi's grave. As soon as I saw some new items that had been placed at her resting place, that weren't there before, tears started pouring down my face. God's people are good and we'll forever be grateful to those sweet mysterious people for loving and caring about Christi. It gives me tremendous comfort.



After a downer kind of day, I'd better end with something funny! As we left the theatre after the recital last year, another lady and I noticed we were wearing the same outfit. Jason just had to take our picture. What a hoot!!