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This past week, Johannah attended the PMEA All-State Festival for Chorus.  It's been a rigorous past couple of months for her, qualifying for Districts, and then earning top honors at both Districts and Regionals.  She's had to learn a LOT of music and has done really, really well. The crazy thing?  She came down with the flu at both Regionals and All-States.  Not only is it strange that she got sick at both festivals, but it's strange that she got sick at all.  Hannie is NEVER sick (much to her chagrin for the fact that she doesn't get sick days from school).  She has some chronic health issues that she manages like a champ, but colds and flus?  Never! Glo and I drove up to Erie, PA the night before and stayed in a hotel.  It was a four hour drive, and with the concert starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning, it felt better to drive up early.  The concert was held in a historic theatre in downtown Erie. Much to our surprise, this is what we saw out the window in

I can't make yeast bread.  You know, good old white (or wheat) bread that makes the entire house smell like heaven.  Yeah, I can't make it. This is an odd thing, because I cook much like my mother, and she would win awards at the Lubbock County fair for her bread.  I can remember that she would put it out in the Volvo station wagon to rise, because being Texas, it was plenty warm in there.  It was the best bread I've ever eaten. I can make just about anything, but my baked goods are especially delicious.  I have my occasional off day, but for the most part, I make some of the best baked goods my family has ever had (and they insist their opinions are completely unbiased).  Glo will eat upwards of 15 banana muffins in a day when I make them.  John eats my chocolate chip cookies by the handful.  And baking powder biscuits?  I can make them in my sleep. But yeast bread continues to elude me.  I have had friends who have given me recipes that they insist are fool proof (m

One of the loveliest things about having our large pond in our backyard is the wildlife it attracts.  John built it mostly for aesthetic purposes, and because the waterfall brings peace to the soul, but we never thought about the critters we would see because of it. The summer brings dragonflies and bumble bees.  The cobalt blue dragonflies love to flit on the water and the water lillies in the heat of the day.  The bumble bees come by at dusk, walking up to the edge of the water on the river rocks.  Too, the gold finches are frequently seen catching a drink from the waterfall, and just yesterday we had our first pair of mourning doves. There's one creature though that makes himself very well known.  We don't see him so much, as we HEAR him.  Glo has named him "Mr. Man Frog". We first heard him last year.  He begins trilling around 8 p.m. (at dusk), and he doesn't stop until almost sunrise (usually around 4 a.m.).  He's calling for girls, and believe me,

I. Am. So. Stinking. Tired. I think I'm busy in a normal week?  Nothing compares to this last week.  I honestly don't know how the kids do it. Wednesday was Philadelphia for lessons.  No biggie there. Thursday, I headed to DC to go to the temple.  I've needed to go for a while, but with all the snow we've had, opportunities to drive there have been few and far between.  Only seven hours roundtrip (versus eight to Philly and back). Friday, I took a deep breath.  And John took me out to Texas Roadhouse (woop, woop)! Saturday.  Saturday was the day of days (at least in my life).  I had a rare moment to do something for myself, and to finally be THE ONE performing. My bell choir was invited to attend the 20th Annual Nittany Valley Handbell Festival!  There were 18 different choirs there, and we all participated in a "mass" ring.  We filled up an entire gym with all of the choirs.  There were some 3-octave choirs, some 4-octave and several 5-octave choi

We enjoyed General Conference very much this weekend, but at the end of it all, there's only one thing we all want:  to get outside and MOVE! Glo convinced both John and Johannah to head out to the trampoline with her.  It was probably the first possible day they could have jumped with all the snow we have had of late. I couldn't help but post this sequence of pictures I took.  The ultimate goal was for the three of them to be high in the air, but John found that he usually was "dead" on the trampoline while the girls were flying high in the air off his bounce. While this was the view in one direction... ...this was the view in the other direction.  Beautiful! First attempt at the picture-- I forgot to mention that John was on call, and had been home only 5 hours in three days :-( John thought it might work if they all held hands. Poor John! Kind of... John finally got some air time, and channeled his inner monkey...

*sigh* Another post about Michigan.  Michigan, as in the University of.   Monotonous I know, but I just can't help myself because I love the stinking school so much. I spent the better part of my teenage life living in Ann Arbor.  I moved there with my mom when I was 13 because she had taken a job with the university.  I didn't appreciate living so close to such a great school at all.  In fact, Michigan was my "back up" school when I was applying to colleges, and after I married John (and needed to transfer from Mt. Holyoke), it was again my back up.  What a fool I was to reject the school twice! When I headed to Mt. Holyoke, my Michigan sweatshirt was packed in my suitcase, the same sweatshirt that one of my kids currently has in their possession.  As an adult, it was the only football team I followed.  My kids had Michigan attire lining their closets. I could hardly believe it when Mark was looking at music schools, and his horn teacher suggested he look a

On more than one occasion, some car in our family has needed a jump.  Either a light has been left on overnight in the car, or the headlights were left burning all day, or the radio was hosting a dance party in a parking lot, and the engine wasn't running.  It's always amazing to me (and a bit unnerving) to hook up the jumper cables between two cars and see a car that was just moments before dead, come to life!  The battery from the dead car takes power from the live car and is ready to roll again. When you are feeling stressed, or overwhelmed, and your life fits the proverbial description "burning the candle at both ends", what do you do to recharge?  What is the source of your power? In my naivete of the human condition, I assumed everyone needed the same thing I need, but I have come to understand that is not the case.  Every person has their own way of unwinding, and if you haven't found what you can do yet to recharge your batteries, I recommend you start

You've heard of Gold's Gym in Los Angeles?  Welcome to Kennedy's Gym in Port Matilda! John and I are huge gym junkies.  I've been going to the gym far longer than he has, but since we moved to PA, John has joined his own gym (close to the hospital in Altoona) and is found there most days on his lunch break. When Johannah was training for her half-marathon, we paid for a gym membership for her also.  She is one of those people that if she has a TV in front of her, she can exercise for hours.  Otherwise, she doesn't last very long. Me?  I was having a hard time getting to the gym with all the health problems I have, and there wasn't much point to it anyways.  I can't do much anymore at the gym with my back problems--no free weights, no Nautilus machines, no aerobics classes, no running on treadmills.  This makes me very, very sad. So, John decided to take matters in his own hands.  When we sold a litter of pups back in January, we had some extra cas

Back in October, a terrible, no-good thing happened.  With the thousands of empty acres surrounding our house, a skunk decided to wander onto the four acres that we call our backyard.  The four acres where our dogs run.  The four acres where they feel they protect us from any intruders.  The four acres that they will defend with their lives. Funny thing?  As tough as our dogs are, the skunk won. Oh yes, you know what that means. We smelled the stench from inside our house (closed windows and doors) and rushed to let the dogs in. When they came in, we knew it was too late, and we threw the three stinky ones back outside. We waited three days, hoping the skench would disappear (this is John's coined phrase for the skunk stench).  No such luck. We believed the wives' tale about tomato juice.  Armed with several bottles of it, we headed out. Here's Dash, the dog who can never stop licking anything. We noticed that despite being doused with the stuff, he was

What started out as throwing raw, free-range eggs off the second story of a house back in 2009 has turned into a major celebration.  I felt that we weren't doing enough to celebrate this most glorious of holidays.  We have aptly named this occasion "Celebration of the Egg", and Easter just wouldn't be Easter in the Kennedy household without it. This year, we flew Ethan home for the weekend.  He had school through Friday, but he was willing to come home Wednesday night.  He arrived Thursday morning, a bit jet-lagged, but ready to go!  He had some housekeeping to take care of (an orthodontics appointment), but it was just good to have him home, errands or not.  I taught him how to make the most delicious beef stew on the planet (it's super easy too), and we hosted a birthday party for our friend, Katherine Kreiner.  Seeing as the Kreiners always feed us like kings, we could only joke that we were representing the other side, the peasant side , with beef stew and