Motherhood is a choice you make everyday to put someone else’s happiness and well being ahead of your own. To teach the hard lessons, to do the right thing even when you’re not sure what the right thing is…and to forgive yourself, over and over again, for doing everything wrong. (Donna Ball)

Sports-loving moms like yours truly are easy to locate in the stands. You see, I am “gifted” with volume. In good news, you don’t even need to know where I am sitting to find me…? I don’t even realize how loud I am, until my husband gives me the death glare and scolding tone. I usually deserve both, but certainly I do not receive them gracefully. My much more tactful friend, Lisa Oberndorfer, used to hand me a sucker at such moments. She called them “hushers” and I find her strategy both brilliant and effective!! I bring this up today because I really thought I might be the loudest, most passionate mom around…but then I met Kelly Panzer.

A wife to Matt and the mother of Brien and Caelan, Kelly is an Indianapolis native who I think attended St. Mary’s College. She’s incredibly beautiful too, as you can clearly see from her photo above. Her smile is infectious! I first met her when we did hot lunch duty together at St. Louis de Montfort Catholic School. We have a truly phenomenal mutual friend, Lisa Houze, who introduced us to one another. Those lunches full of chaos and cute kids sealed the deal for me on Kelly. She never lost her cool and she is a hard worker.

Quick-witted, sarcastic, and just plain fun, Kelly is the center of the action. She’s involved in the everyday lives of her children, and those two sweeties are incredibly blessed to have such a loving mama! She values her friends and is filled to the brim with generosity of spirit. This quality was called to my attention when I watched her help to organize an impressive 50th birthday celebration this summer for our mutual friend. The thoughtfulness and gracious spirit of this woman was impressive and inspiring. Also? This woman can tell a story. She makes me laugh until I am doubled over!

I turned to Kelly once looking to tap into her professional expertise for a friend in need of health care guidance for her very ill father. Her compassion and willingness to do absolutely anything she could to assist made clear to me the quality of her character. She’s a passionate, high-volume, integrity filled PISTOL. If you attend an SLDM CYO contest in which she has a child participating, you’ll know exactly how to find her, ha? Sometimes she’s coaching and sometimes she’s in the stands, but I promise you she’s there, so just listen for the sound of passion. She’s a little fierce on the outside, but interiorly, she’s as warm as folks come. Today is her birthday! Please join me in wishing Kelly a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Thanks, Kelly, for making the world a more positive and exciting place to inhabit by the way you live your life. You are a rock star, my friend!