No Real News, but perhaps a little Christi sign (and scrapping)

"A BEDROOM" Shayla's art project from school where she has loved art this year and done amazing things!



Friday morning I completed my (2nd) Freshman Year at BGSU! And what a Freshman year it was! (Soooooooo much better than my one as a student back in the 80s - and I thought THAT Freshman year was grand!) I am incredibly blessed!

I am continuing to work on an article I am writing about how schools should handle the death of a student and I hope that will be ready to submit for possible journal publication very soon. I am also preparing for my upcoming trip to Italy where I will (thankfully) avoid what would have been Christi's 13th birthday on May 12th! Holidays, birthdays - they're very, very tough, I will admit.

Shayla had another great week! I can't say enough about the Tiffin City school system. Shay was selected to be a representative from her school for the "24 Math Challenge" where students from area schools competed against each other with their math minds. She was so happy to go and to see many of her friends from other schools. Like her father, she's quite the social one! I enjoyed watching her, and all of the kids, compete for a couple of hours before having lunch with a friend on Thursday morning. She's been working on memorizing her lines for the school play. This afternoon she will have a friend over so they can "work on their lines for thes school play" together (wink - I'm sure it's just an reason to have a friend over, smile). Shayla has the part of Martha Washington - oh, yes - another excuse to wear that lovely jr. bridesmaid dress from Tiffany & Chris's wedding last July.

Wednesday morning took me a school about an hour and a half away to conduct some teacher training regarding literacy. As I was waiting for the teachers to file in for their before school one hour literacy in-service, I found I was a bit nervous. Then I looked down and something caught my eye and gave me an intense sense of calm. It was Christi's colored pencil box! I had placed them at the various tables in the room for the teachers to use during one of my simulation exercises. I had been nervous, but seeing Christi's name in her precious little handwriting (complete with "hearts" for the letter i's") at the table directly in front of me was sweet, very sweet. In packing up my materials to prepare to go to their training, I just grabbed a couple boxes of colored pencils - little did I know I had a very special one with me. Thank you, God!

Friday night we enjoyed a family bike ride to one of Shayla's friend's homes in town where we scooped the gal up and all went to the Dairy Queen. Yesterday we got our Cedar Point season passes processed. (Shayla already had a friend call her and make plans to go on Opening Day. She can't wait.) And then we cheered on the horses and Calvin Boral in the Kentucky Derby! Tonight, ahhhhhhhh, tonight....we're having mom and Joe over for dinner. They just made it back home from Florida! God is good! I've missed them TERRIBLY!!!

Over recent weeks, Shayla has done a ton of scrapping for her 4H project. She's far from done, but I hope you enjoy her work:











Here's wishing you and yours a fabulous weekend! ENJOY!