2008 Big Ten Champions

Thanks tons for the lovely birthday messages! Too sweet! I had a great day and was especially touched by an after school phone call I received from the Grants of Philadelphia when we stopped by home to change Shayla into her dance outfit for lessons. All four of the Grants were on the phone singing Happy Birthday! I absolutely couldn't believe it. When we met up with Shayne that night so that he could go along to watch Shayla's ice skating lesson and to take me out for pizza for my birthday, he just smiled and shook his head. They are too kind! The next day I received their package for my 29th again, birthday - three huge boxes of "Tasty Cakes" - only available in the Philly area. (PIC: One of the many times Mrs. Grant brought her two girls to the hospital to play with Christi. In this instance, Mrs. Turco was there and Shayla too. May 2006 at CHOP. I just thought their little butts (Shayla, Celie & Christi) playing "Twister" were so cute!)
On my birthday, 2004, I had parent/teacher conferences until 8PM. Shayne was home with them and when I came home I had quite the treat! Christi (age 7) made this amazing gift of pottery for me.
What sweeties!

I think Christi may have given me a very special birthday present this year too! As we drove out of our driveway on our way to school, Shayla and I noticed a lovely sunrise - orange and yellow. When we turned on the next road (about 2 minutes later) the sunrise colors had completely changed! They were pink and purple! I don't believe I ever noticed a sunrise with colors changing so rapidly before. We decided Christi must have been up early working on that great present for my birthday present. Thank you, Christi!
(Check out Christi's binoculars and Shayla's "binky". What a hoot!) Mom and Joe are now home from their trip to Sedona, Arizona and my mom had a wonderful birthday. Sedona is an absolutely beautiful area we've been blessed to visit a few times. On our last trip there, the girls were 1 and 3 and I said, "If we ever have another baby girl, we are naming her Sedona in honor of this gorgeous area." Well, unfortunately, another baby never came along as when we were deciding if we should have a third child or not, Christi was diagnosed with cancer and we knew we couldn't possibly take care of another child when we felt we needed to put everything into taking care of Christi instead. Do I have regrets? Certainly. I continue to think the most horrific part of Christi's death for Shayla is that she no longer has a sibling here on earth. I can't imagine how terrible that must be. I find myself no longer calling Tina, "my sister", in front of Shayla and only saying, "Aunt Tina" instead of "my sister" as not to hurt Shayla's feelings realizing she'll not grow up and get invited to her sister's home, nor have nieces and nephews to spoil.

Shayla received PLENTY of spoiling herself yesterday at Aunt Marty and Uncle Jeff's home. We dropped her off at 9AM on our way to Columbus for the big rival game between Ohio State & the University of Michigan. Again Shayne reminded me that we could sell our tickets and find a nice warm restaurant to watch the game, but I would hear non of that (except when we got to our seats and learned the people next to us paid $370 a ticket for their tickets they bought on Ebay and thoughts of $700 and a warm hamburger were floating in my head, hee hee). Seriously, I knew that I would most likely never have the opportunity to attend a OSU/Michigan game in the shoe ever again so I had to be there, despite the fact it never even reached 30 degrees. Brrrrrrrr!

Because one of the last DVDs Christi watched (and loved so much) was "High School Musical" Shayne and I get pretty emotionally when we hear songs from that movie. Shayla, of course at this age, loves it. Therefore, we asked Marty to take her to see "High School Musical III" at the movie theatre yesterday and she did. Whew, for us, we dodged that bullet! Last night, upon arriving back at their home, she put in an old video I found in her basement when we were pulling out Christmas decorations (so Shayla could set up her Dickens Village home, see what I mean about spoiled?!) The video showed the first ten days of Baby Christi's life. We did ok! I think perhaps because that was SOOOOOOOO long ago, we were "ok" emotionally. I have no desire to watch the last six months of her life - as that was horrific - but seeing newborn Christi was very interesting. Shayla said, "It's neat to see what people looked like before I was born!" Check out Shayne's glasses as that was before he had the lasix surgery shortly before Christi was diagnosed.


Well, we WERE the 2008 Big Ten Champions for about six hours, before Ohio State had to share the title with Penn State to become Co-Champions of the Big Ten! Shayne thought I ought to take a picture of the "2008 Big Ten Champs" sign quickly as the fans stormed the field and as he thought Penn State would stomp Michigan State, and they did. Goodluck at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California Penn State! That's a game I'm looking forward to watching already! If it can't be the Buckeyes, gooooooo, PSU!

I thought of Shane Rezmer constantly during the game. He fought the beast of neuroblastoma, IV for ten years. He was a huge Michigan fan. I had these photos taken in his honor, with the Michigan band section and with the big "M" the Michigan band performed at halftime.
If I could have traded placed with Shane I would have done so without any hesitation! (I doubt it's freezing in Heaven!) You are terribly missed by all, dear Shane! http://www.caringbridge.org/mi/shanerezmer/

Mrs. Smith (Now Mrs. Turco - Shayla's teacher) took this picture of Theresa, Christi and Kaylyn when they were in her 4th grade class. Now two of the three are in two of my classes. How I wish they could all three still be together at school. Those were great times!)