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John and I like a bunch of things, but we love just a few.  The best thing is when a couple of those things that we love combine to make an unforgettable experience.  This past weekend, the planets aligned, and the Morans (our best friends) showed up to run the Air Force Marathon! I have said this before, but I'm going to say this again.  The best part about having great friends is that no matter how long you've been apart, when you get back together, it's like you've never been apart.  This makes me incredibly happy!  No sooner had they stepped foot in our house, than I fed them some banana bread, and we were off playing games.  In fact, I know that running the marathon was the excuse for them to come, but the weekend really felt more like a game weekend with a short break for a marathon ;-)  John and I couldn't have been happier.  In fact, I'm grinning ear-to-ear as I write this, but there's just no way to convey how great everything was. ...

This is not possible.  There is no way this is happening. Johannah is now SEVENTEEN years old! I know it sounds cliche, but c'mon:  where has the time gone?  Just look at this cutie! One of the most memorable trips that John and I ever took was when we were dirt poor, and John was in residency.  We drove down to Florida from Ohio, loaded with Legos, books and Beanie Babies (this was before video players in cars), and toured around Florida.  Naples had a very nice beach, although it was rather cold. Look at my beautiful baby!  She had the curliest blonde hair, and the cutest want-to-squeeze-the-heck-out-of-them cheeks.  And her eyes?  Well, they haven't changed through the years.  You can lose yourself in Hannie's baby blue eyes. I can hardly believe that she's all grown up now.  She's a senior in high school, she's driving and dating, and she's just a really amazing person.  Hannah reeks of confidence and self-esteem...

I started running as a freshman in college.  My roommate, Jane, and I would head to the gym at Mt. Holyoke College, and run a few laps each night.  We were both feeling the "freshman 15" and knew that we needed to move.  Although I was faster than Jane (she preferred speed walking), I was certainly no race horse. Five years later, I started running for real.  I joined a gym and began lifting weights.  Lots of weights.  I was in the best shape of my adult life.  For cardio, I would hop on the treadmill and run two miles a day.  It wasn't even hard. This is when I convinced John to start running.  Previous to this, he had told me that running was too boring for him, and he would never do it (that's right, cue laughter from anyone who knows him now). However, I was doing it, and so he started. And we never stopped. I can remember how good it felt to get out and just find a rhythm.  Just to lose my self in the run and to let my thoug...

As the craziness of the past month has hit me, and as the insanity of the upcoming months looms ahead, I am thankful for the few quiet moments I have.  John and I like to watch TV at night to relax, but today's TV programming leaves few moments for relaxation between bleeped-out swearing, immorality and volume. Because there is little of any quality to watch on TV during the summer, our family of late has resorted to some creativity when we sit down to watch TV.  While at Interlochen, the girls and I would watch reruns of "Gilligan's Island" over lunch.  As a child, this was probably my favorite television show.  I'm sure that I laughed much more this time, watching the show, then I did as a child.  Although the girls would watch it with me, it was definitely slow . Upon our return home, I convinced the girls that it would be worth our time to watch "Star Trek: Voyager".  Glo had already watched the first three seasons several years ago, and I didn...

Johannah's cat is Ranger.  I have posted before about him, so I won't say much more.  However, this summer, Ranger decided to spend the majority of his time across the street in the Battle Barn.  I had decided that we were going to make him an "indoor" cat, because we were seeing less and less of him, and I worried that we might eventually see none of him.  Turns out, I was right.  While we were at Interlochen, John let him out one day and he never came back.  John saw him several times over at the barn, but the rascal wouldn't come to John.  We haven't seen him since we returned home. I still hold out hope that Range is on a "walkabout" and will return in the Fall.  He's a scrappy thing, and I am a hopeful person. In the meantime, John couldn't stand the fact that Hannie didn't have a cat.  He's always believed that a girl should have a cat, and having seen Hannah with a devoted friend for so many years, his heartstrings were pul...