(PIC: Shayla with her new AG outfit made by Christi's sweet "Chemo Angel" Chris. She's so talented!) All is well here! Busy, but that is a wonderful thing as far as I’m concerned. Also, having a student teacher from Heidelberg (who is wonderful) right now has given me more time as I’m not grading papers and planning lessons as much. It's nice to be a guide on the side and to assist him. Therefore, now that I have more time, I’ve vowed to myself that I will get Christi’s cemetery plaque ordered soon, very soon. I owe it to her and I'm sorry it's taken me over two years to do it. I'm still not "ready" but hey - who would ever be ready to do such a ridiculous thing?!

Shayla is having a great week. She is such a delight! I’ve been enjoying the interviews I’ve been conducting in the evenings with national board teachers from around the country. Writing the analytic memos and beginning to do data analysis is time consuming, but I'm still at the point where I'm absolutely loving it all! (All of my doc friends have told me that will soon subside.)

Shayne was out of town for a few days this week for work. It always makes me very appreciative to be married to such a wonderful husband. It also makes my heart go out to single parents as I can only imagine how difficult that must be. I will never forget the many single parents trying to make ends meet and also take care of their very ill child. Unfortunately, we met way too many of them during our years of caring for Christi.

Shayla received this incredible ballet barre at Christmas. Shayne had been working very hard to turn half of our little basement into a "dance studio" for her.
I love the floor and the mirrors. Shayne finished it to this point about a month ago. Shayla has been spending hours dancing (and jump roping) in the basement each week since then. She is one loved little gal!

We really enjoyed our time with Christi's Webby (sweet Eric) and his beautiful wife on Sunday. Eric challenged Shayla to some wii games which she loved!

Wednesdays are Shayla's favorite school day because she gets to spend the day with her gifted class. She has an AWESOME teacher
Today, Shayla was able to share her knowledge of the Mayan culture with her class. She spent a lot of time with her sweet daddy getting her presentation ready and her teacher took a bunch of pictures for me and told me in was incredible. Shayla said it was so much fun sharing all she learned about the Mayans with her school friends.