♥i♥love♥my♥kids♥

Tomorrow morning, Tessa leaves for Chicago!

The Stephenson High School BPA (Business Professionals of America) students will be attending the NATIONAL CONVENTION!

(the ONE year I went to Nationals, it was also in Chicago!)

She is on the Parli Pro (Parliamentary Procedure) team.

They are given a meeting agenda with certain "points" of parliamentary procedure (Robert's Rules of Order, anyone?) that they must complete.  They have 15 minutes to prepare their presentation and then the "perform" live for the judges (so kind of like "impromptu" speech coordinated among 7 people!)  They also have to take a written test - individually and those scores are weighed into their final score.

This year's team is going for win #13 in a row (obviously not the same kids, but same advisor - she was my Parli Pro advisor and I graduated in 1984!)  They are also going to see a live play, I'm sure they will do some shopping and Navy Pier is on the agenda!   They will be staying right down town on the River Walk - at the same hotel we stayed in when we went down at Christmas time! And after that, I think she has something like 13 days left of school!!  

I can't BELIEVE how fast it's coming and it's SO EXCITING to see where God is leading her!  I KNOW that we will have many bittersweet moments during the upcoming weeks, but, I also KNOW that her DADDY is so VERY PROUD of her (as well as her big brother who will graduate from college just 2 weeks before she graduates from High School - he on May 5, she on May 20!)  Along with all this excitement, Taya is on the track team and Kajsa is wrapping up her final projects of the school year.  Ashley has Ty enrolled in soccer and swimming lessons (Papu would just LOVE to see Ty playing soccer!)  Daila & Maddie have their dance recital and Lila will be turning ONE!  We will face all of these upcoming events missing Rick/Daddy/Papa being with us, but knowing that his LOVE will never leave us!  I also know that the kids will always strive to still make him proud of them - as he ALWAYS was!  I'm glad that despite the sadness that is sure to come, we are all blessed with the knowledge of Rick's love for us, and our assurance of being reunited some day in Heaven!

I wasn't going to post much tonight, but, just wanted to share about these AWESOME kids who God has blessed me with!! I want to thank HIM for the blessing of them!  My life truly is RICH!

And, I wanted to share a little funny that made me smile tonight . . .