Happy New Year

(PIC: Jan 1st 2004 in Philly at the Mummer's Parade. We put the girls in strollers and walked from the Ronald McDonald House to the parade because the weather wasn't too bad. Chrsiti wasn't feeling fabulous, but they had fun watching the mummer's parade. It was all very interesting.)

We learned from Christi about the brevity of life; therefore, we try to live life to the fullest. Keeping that in mind, we had an incredible new years! I'll now share here:

When I passed my dissertation defense in late September, I hosted a small party for our family saying it was "the first of many celebrations". Well, I had NO IDEA at that time, but we are now home from "my final" celebration.

Back in September, I had not even thought of the Buckeyes making it to the Rose Bowl and when they did I did not realize I would be able to put in for tickets through a student lottery system. Imagine my shock in December, just before graduation, to learn my bid was successful and I had two tickets to the Rose Bowl game waiting for me to pick up on campus - yahoo!

I told Shayne it was too expensive we could not go, but he said, "Angela, you've worked so hard. I can't think of a better way to end your academic career than to go cheer for the Buckeyes." (Now keep in mind Shayne is NOT a big OSU fan - he finds it cult-like and thinks many of the fans are terribly rude - but being a season ticket holder the past three years, I'VE LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT OSU FOOTBALL!) To prepare for the trip I read Coach Tressel's book about life, "The Winners Manual: For the Game of Life". I did not know how very spirtual Jim Tressel is. I enjoyed his words!

Well, it wasn't that easy. Flights to LA out of our usual airports were incredibly expensive and quite frankly since we spent last year in Pasadena for the new year, taking in the Rose Bowl festivities, we weren't really interested in going back to LA. Then a client of Shayne's from California suggested we drive to South Bend, Indiana and fly on an inexpensive airlines into Vegas, enjoy Vegas and just drive to Pasadena for the game - so we did! Other than having Christi back in our arms, I cannot think of a better (or more romantic) new years celebration.



(Pictures: Las Vegas Jan 2nd and Dec. 31st)







P.S. If any of my fall BGSU students are reading this, thank you for your suggestions! As I shared adolescent literature about the Holocaust, I learned about two great books from my students: "The Devil's Arithmetic" by Jane Yolen and "Milkweed" by Jerry Spinelli. I owned both books, but had never read them. I told the students I would. Therefore, I read both of them recently and they were fascinating, heartbreaking, but very informative. MANY MANY THANKS! I hope you're having a wonderful break. Stop by my office spring semester; I'd love to see you again! (And yes, my candy jar is filled back up! You know my saying, "Better on your lips than my hips!" Stop by if you can. Tell me what you're reading. Give me some more good suggestions.)

Since we only had two tickets, we left Shayla in great care. She spent four days and nights with her great Aunt Marty and Uncle Jeff. We kept getting these awesome pictures on our cell phones. It was wonderful knowing she was in the best of hands, having the time of her life.




I hope 2010 brings you and yours the very best of health, peace and joy