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Today had to be one of the best days I've been given in a long time.  I am truly grateful for it. Two things.  I bore my heart and soul in a talk that I was asked to give last minute.  I can't begin to tell you the number of people who came up afterwards to tell me that they too have felt, or are feeling, what I am now.  There is such comfort in knowing that I'm not alone. Johannah finished her Personal Progress.  She's only 15 years old.  As a final project, she memorized "The Living Christ" and rehearsed it at New Beginnings last night.  There was not a dry eye in that room as we could feel her testimony borne through the words of the apostles of the church. Today was a gift.

At our house, we keep quite the menagerie of animals.  It’s not that we have multiples varieties of animals, but instead we have a LOT of animals.  The easiest animals to maintain are the pond fish.  We have close to 30. We also have three cats, two of which came with us from Germany.  They make us laugh a lot because they all have different personalities. Finally, we have five dogs.  They range in age from 6 years old down to 1 ½ years old.  They are all Australian Shepherds.  Let me tell you about their breed.  They are in the same family as Border Collies which if you know them at all, you know that they need a job to be happy.  They aren’t the kind of dogs to curl up beside you at nighttime.  They are raised to protect the flock and their territory.  In our house, we humans are the flock, and their territory is our 11 acres of land.  They have taken it upon themselves to protect all of us 24/7. When the dogs are i...

If anyone should have a soundtrack to their lives, it should be Mark.  I say this in complete seriousness.  From practicing hours and hours for rowing, to practicing hours and hours on horn, he definitely has victories (and the occasional defeat).  Too, there is an enormous comedic element to his life which did not go unnoticed this past weekend. Mark headed to the temple to receive his endowment.  This had been scheduled for several weeks, and we were all looking forward to it.   It's a Kennedy tradition to attend the Washington DC temple for the first time, so even though Detroit would have been much closer, we flew Mark into Baltimore, picked him up and headed to the DC area. Mark was supposed to have his appointment the next morning at 8:30, because the scheduler didn't think we could get from the airport to the temple by 6:30 p.m.  However, we were running early, and we figured if Mark could get in on Friday night, he could return to the te...

I have needed to get something done for almost a year now, and I have put it off. This project is ALWAYS in the back of my mind, nagging at me when I spend my free time doing anything but it. ____________ For my birthday this year, John bought me an underwater camera.  It wasn't what I wanted at all.  It was really a gift that John wanted.  I wanted an iPad.  I really wanted an iPad. However, I never look a gift horse in the mouth, and I accepted the gift graciously.  Honestly, it was a gift seeing how excited John was about the camera. Unfortunately, the camera didn't work very well. ____________ I came home from Michigan last week, and John announced that he had a surprise for me.  You guessed it--a brand new iPad! Words can't contain my excitement, but as soon as I picked up the box (sitting on the kitchen counter), I knew that I couldn't open it. I couldn't open it until I finished that darn project.  If anything would motivate m...

Well, another academic school year has passed for one of my college-aged kids.  This week, Mark is finishing up his freshman year at The University of Michigan, and we couldn't be prouder of him.  I couldn't be prouder of him. A week doesn't go for me without being reminded of how prestigious a school Mark is attending.  Just this morning, I ran across a piano professor at BYU who did his undergraduate work at Michigan.  A tribute to Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes  ended with him strolling across the campus of his alma mater.  You guessed it:  Michigan.  And I've only been awake for four hours. We joke about Mark being one of the "leaders, and best", but really, it's not a joke.  Mark has gone above and beyond what we ever expected him to do as a freshman.  Not only has he excelled at horn, and continually outranked others in his class and classes above him, but has lived a full life outside the performance hall.  He has somehow man...

Friday, I was busy uploading photos onto Facebook and posting on the blog.  As I was toggling back and forth between the two sites, a chat message popped up on Facebook from Beata Gladun.  Sister Gladun is THE missionary mom in the Poland Warsaw mission.  She lives in Lublin where Ethan is currently serving, and she is kind enough to occasionally post pictures of him.  Kinder still, she makes sure that the missionaries always have a place to eat (a first for Ethan on his mission).  I've been grateful to have contact with her. When the message popped up, I was surprised to see that it was in English.  Usually she writes in Polish and I use Google Translate for the translation.  As I started reading, I nearly fell out of my seat.  Here's the exact conversation: Beata Gładun So, just so you know, this is NOT your son writing you right now. BUT, if this WAS Your son wri9ting you, the only reason why he would be writing you right now would be beca...