"a top performer"

I am very lucky to yet again be married to a top performer. As of today, Ted has officially qualified for the 2009 Top Performers conference and it happens to be in IRELAND! For as much as we love travel, we have never been to Europe and the way his past company trips have been, we are sure to see Ireland in an amazing way. Ted's brother Tom, who also works for Farmland is very close to qualifying as well--how fun would this be? We are also very lucky as our really good friends Erich and Carolyn currently live in Paris soooo......we are planning to start our Europe trip off for 5 days in Paris! How fun will this be? I cannot wait to shop with Carolyn-grab a latte, go to the champagne region in France for a tasting, and of course, see the Eiffel Tower!

Grandpa and Grandma will be so excited come the end of September to have Elle for 9 full days. It will be hard to leave her for that long but we will be leaving her in very good hands.

So in a time where the economy is terrible and people continue to lose their jobs, I feel very blessed/fortunate to be going on a trip such as this. So far, 2009 has been treating us very well. A healthy/beautiful child, my brother being placed in a safe place, and now Ireland............I just pray that I can now get through the month of April and that I can finally put a close next month on my parents estates. It's been a long 10 months and it's still difficult each and every time I have to yet again pull those death certificates out. I want to lock them up for good once everything is settled. I still find myself starring at their age, the words-found shot, and pronounced dead time. I'm sick of looking at it. It makes me so angry and sad.