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This weekend, the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra of St. Petersburg came to Ann Arbor, and I could have NOT been MORE EXCITED!!! I went to Saturday night concert, which featured Shotakovich's Fourth Symphony and Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto, with Valery Gergiev conducting. It's kind of ironic that despite the 2 years I spent in St. Petersburg, I'm only NOW seeing them when they come to America, but whatever. After walking around that theater, talking with people on the street for hours and longing to be in their concert hall, God decided to send them to me(: The blessings keep raining on my head! In a way, the thing I was most excited about was to indirectly be reconnected with a culture and a people I miss SO much. Not a day goes by when I don't think of a member of the Church, or a person we talked with on the street, or some nice person in Russia that happened to make our day. My Russian classes have really helped me to feel that connection while here at school, ...

Oh my goodness, say it isn't SO!  Glo is now old enough to compete at the Pennsylvania Music Educators' Association Festivals!  There has been a Kennedy competing since 2008, and Glo wasn't going to drop the ball.  Being the amazing girl that she is, she decided to compete in Chorus and Orchestra.  This past weekend was the first festival:  PMEA District Chorus. Even though she was chosen to compete back in September, and even though she was given the music in October, she didn't really start working on the music until a month before the festival.  She insisted that she knew most of the music, but knowing exactly what is expected during the auditions, I decided to test her.  I know, that as I type this, all of the previous Kennedy attendees are feeling their palms sweat, and their hearts race. We sat down with a piece of music, and I gave her the starting note for the alto line.  I told her to sing it...unaccompanied, with no help. Yep, it ...

I grew up on the Superman movies.  In fact, I can remember as an eight- or nine-year-old girl, going to an actual theatre to see Christopher Reeve sport the iconic "S" for the first time.  In my mind, he (Mr. Reeve or Superman--take your pick) was the perfect man. When I had my own children (boys especially), I was introduced to an entirely new world of superheroes.  The most popular in our home was Batman.  Baby Markio gave his complete and undivided attention to an animated TV series featuring the Caped Crusader.  I found, however, that I was at a loss, trying to understand exactly who Batman was.  Unlike my childhood idol, Batman had no inherent strength, but instead relied on gadgets.  He wasn't motivated by grounded morals, but instead was moved to help others because he was trying to erase violent memories from his childhood.  He didn't stand for all to see, but kept to the shadows.  I didn't understand how Batman, or Spiderman, or ...

Eight years ago, when John was at a meeting for scouting at Seven Mountains Scout Camp, he first laid eyes on Scout.  At the time, Scout was a half-starved kitten who kept jumping through the cabin window to eat the Subway sandwiches that were being served.  When the people got tired of his antics (and got tired of putting him back outside), they closed the bottom half of the window, and he crashed into it when he tried to once again jump through.  John took sympathy on him and brought him home.  I could hardly believe it when I walked in the door, and he told me that he had a "surprise" for me.  I'll never forget seeing Scout, all wet and clean after a bath, sitting on the tile floor, looking rather pathetic.  How could I say no?  It didn't take long for Scout to grow into a HUGE tomcat.  He was all about the food, both in the cat bowl and in the fields. When I came home from Interlochen last August, I noticed that Scout didn't look quite right...

(I know that I have over four months of blogging to catch up on, which I will do at some point, but for the day, this will be it.) The best thing I have ever done, and will ever do, is have a family.  Because of the income John brings home, we do a lot of very cool, awesome activities, so I don't make that statement with tongue in cheek. I feel extremely honored when women tell me that they think of me at times when they have a parenting conundrum.  I have been told that they ask themselves, "What would Larisa do?"  I always laugh it off when they say this, but in all honesty, it means a great deal.  The problem comes when I'm asked what I would do in a specific situation.  I'm never quite sure how to respond, either because I'm not sure what I would do, or because I don't know how to present the solution in a teeny tiny package of sage advice. Another form of this compliment is when mothers and fathers tell John and me that they hope their boys can...