CHICAGO - Members of ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich's family are thousands of miles apart, but that hasn't prevented them from a brief reunion via the Internet.

Patti Blagojevich, in the Costa Rican jungle for NBC's "I'm a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!" spoke with her husband and two daughters through video conferencing on an episode of that aired Thursday.

"I love you guys! I miss you so much," Illinois' former first lady said to her smiling husband and daughters, 12-year-old Amy and 6-year-old Annie.

Amy asked her mother, "Did you like your tarantula?" and "Mommy, did you make new friends?" and showed her a drawing that she'd made for her. Patti Blagojevich ate a tarantula in a challenge on a previous episode.

Patti Blagojevich asked her daughters if their father was doing a good job in her two-week absence, and they said yes.

"They're doing great. They're clean, they're eating, they're doing great, we love you and we miss you," Rod Blagojevich said.

Patti Blagojevich later said her family seemed happy and her husband looked "a little tired," but the conversation made her feel better about being away from their Chicago home.

"It's a big relief to me, you know, that everything is going along the way it should at home, it takes away those guilty pangs that I have that I'm away from home," she said.

Blagojevich has pleaded not guilty to charges that he schemed to sell or trade President Barack Obama's former U.S. Senate seat and used the muscle of the governor's office to get campaign donations. He was impeached and ousted from office in January.

On the Web:

NBC's "I'm a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!":

http://www.nbc.com/im-a-celebrity