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Poor Glo.  She has acquired the unenviable job of being John's "pond minion".  Because she has such an intense interest in nature, and in our pond specifically, John recruits her to not only do the fun jobs associated with the pond, but also the not-so-fun jobs. We have lost several fish this winter, due to the extreme cold.  Despite the fact that we have a floating heater in our pond, it hasn't been enough to save all of the fish.  In fact, there have been times when we have had so much snow, that we can't even SEE the heater. At one point, the pond was pretty much defrosted, but we could see what looked like fish "cubes" in the water.  Our beautiful koi, frozen in blocks of ice.  It's been so sad. The other day, the heater reappeared, and the temperature actually climbed into the 30's.  We could see the fish, sitting underneath the heater, hanging out, but we could also see the tell-tale sign of death:  fishes laying on their sides, float...

When Johannah and I visited Zingerman's, we picked John up some of his favorite food on earth:  dulce de leche.  This is like the legit stuff, straight from Argentina.  I had some reservations about bringing any home, simply because last time I did, it sat in the cupboards until I ended up sending it off to a friend of Ethan's in Poland! Well, John wasn't going to look like a fool again, so after his surgery, he was more than happy to sit down with the food, and a tortilla, and chow down. As soon as he took the cap off the jar, he called us over.  No doubt, it was a good thing that he had that specific jar of dulce de leche.  No God-fearing, Catholic Argentine would deny the smiley face, appearing on the lid!

Auditions are over, auditions are over.... This has been a well-rehearsed phrase in our house since Markie Boy created his epic parking lot video after finishing his final audition back in 2011 (at the University of Michigan, no less).  Johannah has been chomping at the bit over this past school year to reach the point where she could sing in her own rendition.  It finally came to pass. Final audition for Johannah was appropriately held at the University of Michigan.  This is no coincidence, seeing as Michigan is pretty much the holy grail of schools in our family, and all music kids want to get in as much audition experience as possible before auditioning there.  True to form, we were in Ann Arbor for less than 18 hours (no matter how hard I try, it just doesn't seem possible to stay there for any extended period of time which just KILLS me). I had a last minute MRI scheduled for the afternoon, followed up with an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon.  ...

When I take those silly Facebook surveys, or any survey in general, and am asked what quality I love the most in my spouse, I always respond in one of two ways (depending on the survey):  he makes me laugh, or he is spontaneous. When I made the list of qualities in a future husband that I thought were important as a teenager, these two ideas were NOT on the list.  In fact, I'm not sure I knew much about laughter at that point in my life.  And that, my friends, is why John is such an absolutely great husband for me. Over the past few weeks, he has unknowingly pulled out all the stops. As you know, we acquired a new stray cat in the fall.  Hoot Magoot is the best cat we could have asked for, but he tipped the scales in the cat box department.  Having four cats using a cat box?  WAY too much poop.  It was manageable in the fall when the cats were still going outside, but with the rash of storms and polar vortices during the past two months, the cats...

One of the first (and best) memories of our time in Germany involves the two elders who were assigned to our ward in Bitburg.  Elder Wendell and Elder Grimm were our first friends there, and were a huge help in encouraging us to "press on" through the culture shock of living in a new country.  Seriously, when I look back on it, I can hardly believe how completely naive we were about the whole situation.  We thought the German schools would basically be American schools...but in German.  We figured they would have Tostitos in the grocery stores.  We couldn't imagine people who aren't as friendly as Americans, and we thought they would welcome us with open arms.  It was an eye-opening experience, and in all honesty, I hope we have the opportunity again someday to move into a new country again, because I would be much more prepared the second time around. The elders would come over for dinner at least weekly.  They were so good about playing with our ki...

I have found that the parenting philosophy I use for my daughters is significantly different from the one I used with my sons.  I'm not sure if it's a gender issue, or if it stems from the fact that I'm a more mature, more experienced parent. I taught my boys to endure.  It didn't matter the bad situation--if they could just hold out long enough, the situation would either end, or they would overcome. When we moved to PA, our church congregation had a terrible Scouting program in place.  The boys knew something was wrong when they showed up the first week in their Scout uniforms and no other boy did.  Being scouters ourselves, it was painful for John and me to see how dysfunctional the program was.  However, we believed in supporting the church members who were working in the program, so our boys attended that troop..... as well as a hand-picked troop in the community.  That's right--Tuesday nights they headed to church for Scouts (and did basically not...

Oh my gosh.  I need to take a couple of deep breaths before I begin this post.  I can hardly believe that I am literally sitting here at the desk, writing this.  It would not have surprised me if I was in the bottom of a frozen lake somewhere, or flat out on an icy parking lot in Illinois.  I will never understand why colleges don't schedule music auditions in the fall or spring, because winter is the biggest nightmare EVER! Johannah had her fourth audition scheduled for Saturday, February 1 in Champaign, Illinois at the University of Illinois.  Realizing that the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic have been living and surviving in  a "polar vortex" for the past week, I was a bit worried, especially since we were planning on driving there and back. However, the viola teacher at Michigan had recommended that at some point, Johannah meet with the Dean of Admissions to beg for money.  Johannah had tried two times previously to set up an appointment, but with...