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Johannah was invited to her high school's winter dance a couple of weeks ago.  By a boy. Yes, it's finally happened, and I can't deny that John is very, very worried, seeing as he had a strict rule that Johannah wasn't allowed to date until she was 33.7 years old. This wasn't a date, seeing as Johannah is still 15.  Just an invitation, but you better believe she took it.  And she couldn't have been happier. It's cute to see the other side of the coin.  For the past few years, I've been living with the anxiety of the boys, wondering IF they should ask a girl to a dance, and WHOM they should ask to a dance.  Once they conquered that hurdle, it was just about the girl's dress color (for a matching tie) and a corsage.  The boys took care of the rest, and as I heard over and over, they are great dates.  They open doors, they carry conversation, they actually dance the night away, and basically treat the girls like the princesses they are. So, havi...

Three weeks ago, we saw our last pup off to her new home.  Alice was Glo's favorite. Well, this weekend we got a call that the owner had developed some extreme health issues, and she couldn't take care of Alice anymore.  And she's back. We love this puppy.  If we didn't already have our five dogs, we would keep her in a heartbeat.  I know that we brag about Aussies in general, but she's a real winner. She's fast (and can keep up with our big dogs). She's smart (Glo taught her to sit within minutes). She's house-broken (and she's only 11 weeks old). She shows so much potential. As always, I'm stressed about finding her a home.  We turned away a number of good prospects, but now we have to start looking again.  My worry is that she's going to work her way into our lives, and we aren't going to want to find her a new home. Glo, our dogs' best friend There's nothing like string cheese to teach a pup how to "si...

Yesterday morning, I was dreading the weekly drive to Philadelphia.  I am looking for yet another viola teacher for Johannah, and we had an appointment to meet with a good possibility.  However, this meant that I would need to park.  In Philadelphia. Normally, I drive into the city (3 1/2 hours one way), drop off Glo at her lesson, drive further into the city, drop off Johannah at hers, drive back to Glo's and pick her up, drive back to Johannah's to pick her up, and drive out.  I might get out to walk one of the girls up to the door, but that's it.  There's no parking for less than $15/hour, so I'm stuck in the car. I drove in last night, figuring that I would hope for the best, but if needs be, I would just drop off Johannah and let her evaluate the teacher. What to my wondering eyes would appear, but... A parking place!  The truck loading zones all become public parking at 4 p.m.  We arrived at 3:47, sat in the lane for 13 minutes, paid $2.5...

Every month, Anna posts a countdown tribute to Ethan.  She looks through her life and finds something that corresponds to the number of months he has left on his mission.  I anxiously await this anniversary each month so that I can read what she posts! One of my favorite posts so far comes from last August.  For those of you who don't know, Anna is studying viola at Juilliard.  Besides being an incredible person, she's an extremely talented musician.  Here was her post from that month: Ten Fingers Today, I'm grateful to have ten fingers, five on each hand.  What a blessing! Without my ten fingers, I wouldn't be able to play my viola, or go about doing the daily life routine of things in an easy manner.  Simple tasks would become much more difficult, but I'm sure I could make it work.  The blessing of having all ten fingers is remarkable! I'm also grateful that Ethan has faithfully, obediently served 14 months in Poland.  I know it mos...

There have been a couple of things that I have bought over the last few weeks that I love. Boots.  I have never been a "boots" girl, but I've been thinking about going to Europe next winter.  I know that my clogs always let in snow and are slick on the bottom, and I don't want to have tired feet at the end of the day.  However, I didn't want "old lady" boots.  The warm ones never seem to be very cute.  I also didn't want tall boots because I don't like having to tuck in my pants.  So, I needed warm, low and comfortable.  Hmmm...not exactly the recipe for a cute pair of boots.  Low and behold, paging through catalogs, I found these: They are Kalso Earth Shoes.  They are made from 100% recycled materials, they are super warm, and honestly, they feel like I am wearing slippers.  They actually are made to be "toning" and are built at a certain angle to exercise the muscles in your legs, but none of that mattered to me.  They look gr...

There are a couple of Christmas gifts from years past from members of the Kennedy family that stand out in my mind, because they were so meaningful to me.  Seriously, I love gifts where I can tell that people have personally thought about the family and me. The wooden wall hanging that Bud and Melanie sent to us several years ago with the words "Kennedy, est. 1989) still hangs in our front hall.  I LOVE that thing (and it frequently ends up in photos we take because we take our photos in the front hall). The copper measuring spoons that Beth sent me after living with us for a couple of months.  I had stolen a copper teaspoon from my mother's set years earlier, and I loved it so much that I used it for any measurements, teaspoon or not (sorry about that, Mom, if you're reading this--I was young and wild and free when I did it).  Beth remedied that situation by sending me my own set.  I still have it. So, Katrina has been promising me a Christmas gift from t...

Yes, check that title again.  It's not Goldrush, but Coldrush. Anyone seen the TV show "Goldrush"?  It's about a group of guys, trying to find gold in Alaska.  You would think that they could just do what they need to do and find the gold, but amazingly enough, that doesn't happen.  Our family finds it deeply fascinating to watch these men struggle with equipment failure after equipment failure throughout each hour-long episode.  It seems that as soon as they get one piece of equipment working, another one breaks down.  They want to run the dirt for 24 hours straight, but the water filter backs up after 20 hours.  We sometimes feel like we are hitting our own heads against a wall watching them. This morning, we got a few inches of snow.  School was delayed until the roads were clear.  After I took the girls to school, I headed home, anticipating the opportunity to plow the driveway for the first time this year. I love running the tracto...

I don't know what's happened to John's metabolism, but for the past few weeks, he's been cold inside our home.  In the 22 years we've been married, this has never been an issue.  While he's stretched out on the couch in thin pajama pants and a t-shirt watching Survivor, I have on multiple layers of clothing, and a heavy, triple-folded blanket is pulled up to my chin.  In both the summer and winter, we keep the thermostat at 70 degrees. Some of you may gasp at that thought.  70 degrees?  The beautiful this is that we have geothermal heating and cooling, and believe me, it has almost paid for itself (it was supposed to take 10 years to do so).  Our neighbors pay around $450/month for utilities (heating/cooling, electricity, gas).  We pay around $200, so keeping it at 70 degrees isn't really an issue. Through the years, I have developed a strategy to keep myself warmer.  Lots and lots of clothes.  In fact, I think I have more items of "loun...

I have resigned myself to the fact that I will struggle with my weight for the rest of my life.  It has always been a thorn in my side, and I don't see it going away as I age. Since Ethan left on his mission, I have gained 40 pounds.  Yes, 40.  In my defense, I'm not angry with myself.  It's been a crazy (almost) two years, and I have had more health problems in that time than I have probably had in my entire life. Wouldn't it figure that after I had done my weight loss study, and gotten my weight just where I wanted it, I would break my ankle?  I literally had three weeks to enjoy feelin' fine, and then BAM! Ankle broken, and sedentary life began. It took almost a full year to recover from that.  I couldn't move, couldn't exercise.  Then, as soon as I recovered from that, my sinus problems returned.  Multiple courses of steroids led to 5 pounds here, and 10 pounds there. I knew I had a problem when I actually had to go UP a size in clothi...

I know Hannah will be completely mortified that I'm posting this, but like I tell my kids, they'll be happy that I recorded everything 20 years from now.  Really, it's all about family history.  But I digress. Hannah texted me today, and she was asked, BY A BOY, to go to the winter dance at the high school.  Here are her exact words (which I personally find cute/hilarious/tenderrrrr....): So ummm.... Ryan just asked me to the winter dance. I was so not expecting that. Oh wow. Me:  What did you say to him? Um, I said yes. But I felt like a deer in the headlights. And my hands are shaking. I really wasn't expecting that. Within an hour, she had had time to think about it, and I received these texts: Ok.  I'm still a little shocked. I'm very excited though.  What am I going to wear?????  Ahh! I would like to point out that I was the first one to point out that she had an admirer.  As I watched Ryan following (my kids would s...

New Missionaries meet Trainers...and travel to their areas! While the Trainees were off with the Office Elders, the Trainers were with President being instructed on the In-Field Training for New Missionaries. This new 12-week course is for Trainees. This requires much planning and 2 hours dedicated each day (instead of 1 hour) to companionship study. These companionships will now have personal study from 8:00-9:00am, 9:00-11:00am, out proselyting until 2:00pm. At that time they have Language Study until 3:00pm. Then proselyte from 3:00pm on... Now let's see which Trainees go with which Trainers... Elder Kennedy meet Elder Mikolyski. We have started calling Elder Kennedy 'the miracle worker', and we know he and Elder Mikolyski will do the same in .... Elders Mikolyski and Kennedy will be heading to Lublin. They will see much success there as the previous missionaries have done a good job of getting many great things going. After the training and assignments, we sat d...

When I was "talking" to Ethan online this morning, it hit me.  He just might be home in four months.  Yes, four months.  He's not sure yet if he'll be assigned to come home in May, or July, but I'm hoping it will be May.  If it's July, six months doesn't seem that far away either. Of course, listening to him "talk" about his new city, Lublin, I would never guess that he has any thought of coming home.  He's ready to start working in a new city, and he can't wait to see exactly what happens there.  He'll be training a new missionary, fresh from the MTC, and he's looking forward to being with him for several months. I'm sure Ethan would admit that time has flown for him on his mission.  He has done exactly what he is supposed to do:  work hard. For me, time has moved ever so slowly.  I honestly never thought the six month mark would arrive.  And I'm so happy that it has.  I can handle six more months.

...but they wouldn't cooperate!

Today, while driving in the car, Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 came on the radio, and listening to it, I realized that music is a powerful force in more ways than one. Actually, I've always known this, but I've always seen music as a positive force.  It can get us to move, and dance, it can bring tears to our eyes (Taps comes to mind), it can spark romance.  But for me today, it acted as a very negative force. In my junior year of high school, I studied the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2.  It's a fantastic piece of music, and the first movement was later chosen by Disney to be the backdrop for their Fantasia segment of "The Tin Soldier".  I actually competed in a concerto competition with it, and ended up losing (but I lost to my violinist boyfriend at the time, so I didn't mind so much, and I won the next year with a concerto by Saint-Saens). It's short and rather fun to listen to (especially since Shostakovich himself is playing it):   Shostakovi...

For several weeks now, Glo has been begging me to get out my typewriter.  Yes, I still have my good old Royal Alpha 600p from college.  It's from back in the day when word processors were just starting to be used, but every college student had a typewriter.  In fact, every college had a large lounge area where those of us who were pulling all nighters would stay up typing (so that we didn't wake our roommates with the clack, clack, clack of the typewriter keys hitting the paper).  John went down and found it within minutes. At first, the thing didn't work.  The ribbon IS 20 years old, afterall, and the wheel which types the letters was misaligned.  However, after some maneuvering (and recalling things from 20+ years ago), I got it working.  It proved endlessly fascinating to the family, until 3 days later the ribbon ran out. I thought for sure that I would need to order the ribbon and pay an arm and a leg for it (if it even existed).  However,...