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Man, our lives have been stressful lately.  Not the usual good stress we have on a daily basis, but bad stress.  Sometimes, it's all John and I can do to keep our cool. I came up with the brilliant idea to get away for a weekend--who knew we could do something like that?  It took scads of arranging for our absences, but we did it. Where to go? Where else?  Ann Arbor. Sandusky, Ohio is only four hours from State College.  Cedar Point is in Sandusky.  Perfect!  We had always wanted to go to Cedar Point's HalloWeekend, and it was just calling to us. As we watched the weather forecast, we worried about the impending rain.  However, Cedar Point was still open, so we armed ourselves with rain coats and ran in. What a night!  Four haunted houses, and one very scary corn maze.  Plus some of the highest and fastest roller coasters in the world.  There's nothing like standing on the Mantis (yes, we stood), in the front row, going ...

  It's funny that my mom posted about my experience deciding where to go to college, because I've felt the itch lately to do so!  She put it so much better than I could, so I'll just talk about this past weekend, which sealed the deal on the whole thing. Cameron, me and Troy   Thursday night, I flew out to Provo to spend the next couple of days there checking out campus, and  just making sure I wanted to be there next semester.  It also helped that I was able to see all of my friends from the mission, and spend time with them.  I stayed with Troy and Cameron (formerly known as Elders Murphey and Lundin, who were in my MTC group), and we had a blast.   Friday was all about business.   went out to lunch with my future roommate's parents (he's still on a mission), and I was able to meet them.  Elder Hooker was my favorite companion, and I can see why he is such an amazing individual.   His parents were great.  I w...

No, this post isn't about me living the single life as a 40+ female :-) During his senior year of high school, Ethan spent a great deal of time deciding where he was going to college.  He drove all over for college visits and spent hours on his knees in prayer.  He finally picked American University in Washington DC.  It has a top-notch International Relations program, and he hoped to be able to get some work in the DC area which would lead to good job connections. As his mission ended, something inside of me thought that he wasn't going to return to American.  It was no surprise when he came home and told me that he was considering BYU.  That's Brigham Young University.  You know, the Mormon school in Provo? I can't stand BYU, although I try not to transmit that feeling to my kids.  They know that I hate the school, but they also know that if they choose to go there, I'm okay with it.  As I tell Ethan, I just vomit in my mouth a little when...

Last night was our annual Halloween party.  Each year, I swear that I won't do it again next year, but those big blue eyes of my girls change my mind every time, darn it! Because I'm so involved in the party, I have yet to get a picture of any of it.  Just imagine everything dripping with Halloween decorations.  Seriously, we have more Halloween decor than Christmas stuff.  And food?  Meatballs, punch, candy, severed-finger cookies, Cheetos, a jell-o brain.  Here are the highlights from last night: Knowing that Johannah will be planning activities for the rest of her life, I put her in charge.  You can't imagine the number of lists I have found around the house!  However, they were all for good reason--everything was ready to go by the time the guests arrived. Our 1/4 mile long driveway was lit with luminaries (100 paper bags, 100 pounds of sand and 100 candles).  We've never done it before, but we will definitely be doing it again. ...

For John, it was the end of "marathon season", and he always anticipates it.  One last marathon for the year, and then a break from training for a couple of months. Baltimore.  It's a great marathon, but John runs it for the shirt.  Under Armor is the sponsor, and the shirts are spectacular. For Johannah, this is the end of a very long goal.  She has been working on losing weight for the past eight months and working on living a more healthy lifestyle.  She knew she needed to start exercising, and running was the easiest thing to do.  She has been following a half marathon training plan for months now, even getting up at the crack of dawn at Interlochen to go running before a full day of rehearsals.  She knew that if she had a goal, she would keep running, and she has. She wanted to run her first half marathon and join "the wall of fame" in our home.  She wanted her picture up with the marathon pictures of John and me, and the half marathon ...

I have a couple of weaknesses:  eating out, , watching Survivor, being with my children, eating out with my children and coming home and watching Survivor, and my iPhone. One day after I broke my ankle (over two years ago), John took me to AT&T to buy my first iPhone.  I can't remember much from that time (because of the narcotics), but I remember what a lifesaver my iPhone was.  I'm not sure I could have successfully navigated some of the pain, and the sleepless nights without that sweet piece of technology. I started with a boring iPhone case that I bought right there at AT&T.  It was orange in honor of my Siedler color. When I upgraded to an iPhone 4, the girls bought me another orange case for Christmas. After a while, and after seeing other people with much cooler cases, I started looking around.  I found the coolest website (getuncommon.com) that among other things, sold "Words with Friends" cases.  I ordered the cutest cornflower blu...

While talking to Ethan on the phone yesterday, I replayed what I had done earlier in the day.  I mentioned that I had spent an hour, or so, writing a four-page letter to Mark.  Just thinking of it reminded me of how much effort it takes to write those letters, because they not only include details of our everyday lives, but my thoughts about those details are interspersed throughout. Ethan then told me that those long letters were his favorite things to receive on his mission.  He refers to them as "streams of consciousness", because they are basically my train of thought, for an hour, recorded on paper.  He said that it felt like he was having a conversation with me when he read them. I don't want to forget that phrase.  Streams of consciousness.

As I sit here at my desk, I can look out over the most delightful scene:  mountains, covered with trees in blazes of red, yellow and orange.  Today, the sky is the bluest blue with only an occasional puff of clouds.  The sun is shining too. Directly over the mountain in front of me is a glider port.  For those who did not grow up in a family of aviators, a glider port is an airport for gliders (sometimes known as sailplanes).  They are the long wing, motorless planes which must be towed into the air before they release and soar.  If the pilot is skilled enough, he can maneuver the plane underneath those puffs of clouds and catch "thermals", long rising columns of air that lift the plane higher. The glider port over the mountain is aptly named "Ridge Soaring Gliderport".  Another way to catch thermals is to ride the air that comes up the sides of mountains.  When there are long ridges like we have here in the Allegheny mountains, gliders can so...

What is your favorite season, and why? I love two seasons:  spring, and summer.  Christmas too, but that's thinking outside the box. I love spring because it signals the end of winter.  There is a brief week where everything is a kelly green color; I guess the new leaves come out that way.  Too, the flowers are always spectacular. I love summer, because I love heat.  Not sunshine per say, but heat. Picture this:  you've been outside, shoveling, moving dirt, carrying water for hours .  Your clothes have soaked up sweat, and then its dried, and you are sweating some more.  The salt is caked on your skin. Or, just run a marathon.  It's the same feeling. That's the feeling that I love.  When I'm allowed to be sweaty and hot and gross, and I AM sweaty and hot and gross. I don't get that feeling much anymore since my weak back won't allow for hard labor, nor for any more marathons. However, it's my favorite feeling. I even li...

I like attending church on Sunday for many different reasons, but I dislike the meetings for one very large reason:  discussions regarding charity. In case you don't remember your Sunday School lessons, charity is defined as the pure love of Christ.  If you were to actually look up the word in a dictionary, it would say, "See John Kennedy". That's right.  My wonderful husband is the perfect embodiment of charity. His life basically moves from one charitable act to another. Take any given Saturday.  He can found building some large structure on our property because I think we need it.  He can be found, rebuilding a pond for an old Indian woman who lives alone and needs some help.  On his way to a church picnic, he will stop to help an old woman reseal her driveway, missing one of his favorite meals in the world:  a POTLUCK! Other days?  He stops to help any person on the side of the road with car troubles. He'll drive 2.5 hours to a ...

Today, I was surprised to open the mailbox and find a small package inside.  I just about pooped my pants when I saw it was from Mark (I use that expression in complete honor of him)!  It was addressed to Johannah and John, both of whom had birthdays last month. Mark has apologized, in advance, for these gifts.  Only being able to shop at the store at the MTC leaves few possibilities for anything, except t-shirts and shampoo (or that's what he says).  What he doesn't realize is that we just don't care--we're so thrilled to hear from him, and knowing how busy he is, we appreciate anything he does to show us he even remembers us! John pulled out a t-shirt, and it was pretty cool.  A Germany t-shirt with a few handwritten words on it which loosely translate as "I am a super cool man."  John has an extensive collection of t-shirts, so it was a great gift. John was sitting across the table from me, and as he turned the front of the shirt to himself, ...

Happy Birthday, Glo! It started out with me driving Glo to school.  Because she goes to the high school for her first two classes, she rides the high school bus....to the high school.....with high school kids, most of whom are the stereotypical redneck men.  Needless to say, she's thrilled when I offer to drive her! And what would the drive be without stopping at McDonald's for the strangest breakfast I could imagine for Glo:  two hashbrowns, and a strawberry banana smoothie.  Who cares?  It's her birthday! As she was chowing down in the car, she turned to me and said, "I love you, Mommy.  You're the best."  Wait, this was starting to feel like MY birthday.  Spending time with Glo in the morning, and being told I'm loved? After school, she got a "free pass" from me:  no practicing the violin.  Strangely enough (and yes, that reeks with sarcasm), she didn't roll her eyes at, or huff, or procrastinate the "no practicing" offe...

This past Saturday was Johannah's first performance with the Nittany Valley Symphony.  I didn't even need to hear a note played to be excited to attend the performance.  I was counting down the days for at least a week! Great thing?  We all loved every minute of it, even John!  That's right--the music was of such a high caliber, and yet was completely understandable by all, that John came away from the evening happy too. It was an "Americana" concert (not unlike the Americana concert at Interlochen this summer....great conducting minds think alike, I guess).  Two pieces by Aaron Copland, one piece of John Williams, and one jazzy clarinet concerto that fused the symphony with saxophones and a drumset. The highlight of the night, however, was a beautiful piece that was written in honor of a speech given by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  It was during WWII, and Roosevelt was speaking of the four freedoms to which every person is entitled:  freedom of s...