Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

Just one kid left at home?  Noooooooo!  I can feel our limited time with trick-or-treating....at least until Annie can hold up her own head :-) Glo owned her costume this year, going as Batgirl.  She had been ignored a bit over the previous days, but she just stepped up and took care of things herself.  She and John headed out on the State College appropriated Trick-or-Treat night of October 29, 2015.  Two hours and ten pounds of candy later... The next day, Glo and I left for Ann Arbor to catch Mark played with the University Philharmonic for the Halloween concert.  It's great fun, seeing all of the performers dressed in costume.  Plus, this time I wasn't there to rescue him from having his entire life stolen, so it felt happier already. Glo went dressed up.  Between surgery and a new baby born, I kind of forgot to pack any kind of costume. Lame, I know. Glo (again) was a champ, and stayed up until 2 a.m. the night before, helping Mark craft his dinosaur head.

Oh boy!  The comedy of the Kennedy and Schriever clans is already evident in Baby Annie.  Just a day old, and she's giving us moments like these:

I'm always amazed when people can answer the question, "What was the best day of your life?"  For me, I've never had a specific answer.  The typical response of "my wedding day" doesn't work for me, because in all honesty, our wedding day was pretty sad with no family in attendance.  The second most popular answer of "the day my child was born" only conjures up feelings of pain, misery and exhaustion for me.  Really, up to this point, the best day of my life is anytime my family is together, and we are laughing, and talking, and ... being together.  I guess if I could string all of those moments into one solitary day, that would be the best day of my life. Everything changed though on Tuesday, October 27, 2015.  In fact, I feel quite relieved now, knowing that I can answer the proverbial question successfully and succinctly, for on that day, Anneliese Margaret Kennedy joined our family, and there has never been a better day in my life. Po

This past week, our good friend, Ranger, died, and as I begin to write this post, I realize that there is really no adequate way to send him off.  He was too much a part of our lives to be contained in a few words. It's funny looking back on things.  Sometimes we realize that certain things were meant to happen so that a certain amount of goodness can come into our lives.  Once, and only once, did I send Ethan to the Metzger's (the butcher's) in our local village of Preist.  I was hoping for something good for dinner.  I had never done this before, and I would never do it again.  On that one and only trip, a thin little cat followed Ethan home.  We wondered if he belonged to anyone, because he was way too friendly to be a stray.  We let him in, and he made himself right at home, falling instantly asleep on one of our couch pillows.  When he woke up, I told the kids that we would feed him and send him on his way.  Here is a picture from that moment: I can see now tha

For those who don't know, I received a Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) position at Michigan this fall in the German department.  I teach three discussion sections, once a week, that are based off of the professor's lectures and the reading that students should (heavy emphasis on SHOULD) do before they come to class.  This week is the due date for the first paper of the semester for the students.  It's a five- to seven-page paper, double spaced, which really means it's like 1400 words.  It's really not long at all.  However, a whole bunch of my students have been extremely worried.  As a result, I held extra office hours today for students to come by and talk to me about their papers.  While not everyone came, I had a good number of students there.  While helping them develop their theses and their arguments for the paper, I had one of those: "I can't believe I'm here" moments.  A year ago I was in their exact shoes.  A lot of my students are

When Rebecca found out I would be coming for Homecoming, she asked if I would take a couple of pictures of Ethan and her before Baby came.  I was happy to do it.  The weather didn't completely cooperate...or at least I didn't get to Ypsilanti in time to take them under ideal conditions, but it was fun to catch these last moments before Ethan and Rebecca's lives change forever.

A couple of weeks ago, Mark informed me that I might want to attend the homecoming football game against Northwestern for no other reason than that he would be PLAYING ON THE FOOTBALL FIELD!  Not as an athlete, but as a musician, and not as a bad musician, but as a musician with the New York Philharmonic. It was a hard decision in all honesty.  I was post-op just a couple of days, and I wasn't feeling too strong.  However, like so many other instances where I am propelled to do something because of my love for my kids, I thought to myself, "When will I ever see this again?"  I made the decision to go. It was nice.  It was just the three of us:  Ethan, Mark and myself.  I like to think of us as the three die hards.  The ones who will sit through anything to see a Michigan football game.  And blame it on the steroids, but I was in tears several times throughout the game, and so was Ethan.  But he wasn't on any steroids ;-) It was surreal, sitting in the stadium on

Ahhhhh!  Stop the insanity!  Glo is SIXTEEN?  This can't possibly be happening! Okay, fine.  It's happening, but let the record show that I'm not very happy about it.  As it turns out, it was a rather uneventful birthday.  No sweet 16 parties, or large groups of friends, or anything.  Glo was happy to just have us....and her driver's permit :-) Glo wanted Burger King breakfast.  She really just wants the french toast sticks. The skeleton Burger King crown was a bonus! Just a day after surgery, I was busy getting her favorite dinner of pork loin ready.  I even had the pumpkin pie ready to go, candles and all.  Glo's Young Women's leader came by to drop off balloons, and I went to shush the dogs.  Five minutes later, I went back in the kitchen, and Chief had taken out his stress of not being able to bark on the pie.  Yes, he jumped up to the counter and had his own birthday celebration.  Thankfully, I had made TWO pies. Johannah always comes through