Another Email to Johannah

I had so much happen this past week, and I didn't blog about any of it.  So here's a quick recap as written to Hannah in Ecuador:

Hi Hannie!  I can't even believe I'm saying this, but do you know what?  I had a GREAT week this week.  I mean honestly, I haven't felt like I could say that for over a year!  It's always been "well, I had a great week, but it wasn't perfect because the house hasn't sold".  I kid you not, having the house hanging over our heads for the past year has really been weighing on me, so it feels rather different (in a really wonderful way) to just be able to relax.

Yep, without any fanfare of any kind, the new owners signed the papers on Friday. I worried that at the last minute, they would back out, or the house would flood, or something terrible would happen, and we still wouldn't be free of the house.  But come 11:00 on Friday morning, Daddy and I got an email from Sister Williams, saying the papers were signed and she would send us a copy.  That was it.  And while nothing has really changed, it kind of feels like everything has changed.  It feels like we completely and totally live in Michigan now.  Like, there's no looking back.  La Maison is our actual house.  There won't be any confusion anymore.  And heaven help me, there will be no more MOVING TRUCKS!

So fasting yesterday, I didn't feel like I could do anything but turn over my fast to my feelings of gratitude.  I know that I took Heavenly Father out of the house-selling equation long ago, and I'm not sure if he had anything to with the house sale, but I just felt an overwhelming need to thank him for my beautiful life.  For all of us Kennedys, whatever bad may be happening in our lives, the general whole of who we are and how we live is beautiful.  The things that are important are working out.  And to go even further, I am thankful for the Lord's chastisement about our bad handling of money.  We have been taken down and out, and we are learning.  We are living more humble lives, and while they aren't as fun, they are more secure and they lead to less worry.  And eventually, we'll come out of this humbling time and feel thankful for getting that part of our lives back on track, because if I'm being honest, it's probably the ONLY part of our lives that has been derailed a bit.

Like I said, we have so much to be grateful for.

So after I flew home on Monday from Altoona, I got ready for a big accompanying gig on Tuesday.  I was following one of the junior high choirs around as they made an elementary school "tour".  They sang eight songs at four different elementary schools.  It was 92 degrees outside, and none of the schools were air conditioned....  Thankfully, Glo had been singing the music with me when I practiced at home, and she had the day off work, so she decided to come with me.  And thank goodness she did, because with no air conditioning, they had FANS blowing everywhere, taking my music with it all!  So she held my music and turned pages...and sang all of the alto lines along with the choir :-). It was relaxed, and so fun.  Plus, Glo was reminded of what it's like to be a music educator.  She had fun with the kids, she loved the music, and the choir director had a crush on her, that's for sure :-). Of course, he's married, but he was flirting with her like CRAZY, and I'm not surprised--she was funny, and smiley, and just so dang beautiful.

That's another thing for which I am grateful--I have really beautiful daughters <3

Of course, we were so busy that we didn't take any pictures!  And I felt badly sending Glo off to work afterwards, but she didn't mind.  I think she really had fun.

The next day, we headed out to see Solo, a Star Wars Story.  It was entertaining if nothing else.  I knew it would be "lite" because Ron Howard was directing it, and because he never really does "gritty", but it was refreshing to watch a movie with nothing questionable.

This week, I also went to lunch with one of my former visiting teachees.  She was the one that I took to the five hour long doctor's appointment.  I was really sad to find out that my assignment had been changed and that she was no longer on it, so we went out to lunch.  Sometimes I can't believe that I can say I have friendshere in Michigan.  People who want to talk to me and who want to go out to lunch with me.  #Gratitude

I've been working on finishing painting Glo's room, and I started painting yours.  We got the doors back on her room last night, and it's starting to come together.  She even put away a bunch of her stuff ;-). I don't know if I told you, but she wanted a saturated color on the wall.  Like thick cobalt blue, or thick kelly green.  Well, considering she won't actually be living in that room much after she leaves on her mission, I let her do the saturated part of the paint, but we went with yellow.  Along with painting the ceiling white and the trim white, it looks really nice....except for the stupid brown carpet!  Ugh...that darn carpet.  So, we'll get everything painted, and then I think we'll change all of the carpet downstairs in between Thanksgiving and Christmas (so that the family can help us move the furniture out when you leave after Thanksgiving, and move it back in when you return for Christmas) :-). I considered painting your room your signature purple, but again, it needs to be flexible for anyone staying here, so I'm actually painting it the yellow that was in Glo's old room in PA.  Yes, yellow is my favorite color :-). I'm not sure if I'll do the whole basement that color, but honestly, anything is better than the dull beige that is still on every surface area in the house!

Thursday night, I had another gig, accompanying the sixth grade choir.  I showed up, not knowing what I was going to be playing, and receiving a last-minute song that I just sight-read....#pro

Then, on Friday, Glo became a full-fledged Michigander.  We took her to the Secretary of State office (what they call the DMV, or the PennDot office here in Michigan) and got her a new Michigan driver's license.  I'm just setting us up for in-state tuition when she decides that music education IS for her, and she realizes that she doesn't need to stay at BYU (without family support) to finish out that program and wants to come finish at Michigan :-)

(As a side note, I'm sitting in the Garden Room, and Cherry has discovered that we have squirrels in some of our trees.  You should see her take off down the fairway, chasing the squirrels!)

Speaking of nature, we have had a rush of snapping turtles appear in our garden beds.  With a little bit of research, we discovered that snapping turtles live the majority of the year in an aquatic habitat (aka our pond), but they come out of the water to lay eggs.  And where do they lay them?  In a place where the eggs will stay warm for the 90 day incubation period--MULCH!  To be honest, I've been very nervous having them around because they are mean suckers, and they can break bones.  And since Roxy has taken it upon herself to find every single BOX turtle which wanders in our yard too, and she brings them back to the garage like tennis balls, and proceeds to gnaw on their shells like bones, I'm hoping she doesn't stumble upon any SNAPPING turtles!  Glad to know she'll fetch a turtle but not a ball...

Too, we have a couple of sandhill cranes which hatched an egg.  We have spotted the parents and the baby (called a COLT) walking down our road (since he can't fly yet).  We are all a bit obsessed with the little Crane family, because they are just cuteness personified in feathers!  They even made an appearance in Glo's sketch book <3

Then we had a very delightful Saturday.  We headed into Detroit to show Glo Eastern Market.  Well, stupid nature doesn't provide every single kind of fruit that I want in the beginning of June (!), so there wasn't much to buy but asparagus.  (Makes me appreciate how much of our fruit is imported.). So the market was a bit of a bust.  While leaving, we did stop for a basket of beignets from a food truck.  You know beignets--THE food to eat in New Orleans.  The same food that you can find in Utah renamed "scones", and sopapillas in New Mexico.  Let's face it folks--it's just fried bread.  And the kids took great pleasure in standing upwind of me (while I naively held the basket for them), allowing the powdered sugar to go flying into my hair, onto my face and all over my pants ;-)

However, we headed to a breakfast place, called The Dime Store, that I had read about online.  Can you believe that we waited over an HOUR for a table?  Of course, there weren't more than 30 chairs in the entire place, and it was little more than a diner, but I figured it had to be worth it.  Plus, it was in this historic building in downtown Detroit called the Dime Building, so we waited in this huge marble lobby with upholstered chairs, so it was very nice.

Hands down, best breakfast food I've ever tasted.  Like, rock my world food.  And thankfully, Glo, Mark, and Daddy and were willing to share because everyone had such delicious things.  Glo got the French toast which was served on the thick sourdough bread, covered in strawberries and bananas.  I ordered the bacon avocado omelet, and not being a huge fan of eggs, I was trying to eat well even though I would have rather ordered pancakes, but I kid you not--the omelet was one of the tastiest things I"ve ever eaten!  And with thick cut bacon on the side?  And Daddy ordered real-life eggs Benedict.  Plus, it just felt so "foodie" and cool and hip.  We all loved it.  Well, everyone except Daddy.  HE was going diarrhea the rest of the day--I hate to blame the eggs, but who knows?

The Dime Building (as known to old-timers) now renamed The Chrysler Building.
For over 50 years, it was the tallest skyscraper in Detroit.
And yes, I read all about it while waiting over an hour for our table ;-)

The view from inside the lobby

And that afternoon, we just hung out with Mark (since Allison was spending the day with friends).  We don't have big birthday plans for him, mostly because we'll be out of town, but we took him to Meijer with a bunch of coupons we got and bought him some tasty groceries :-)

And yes, Mark started his full-time job this week.  He says he's bored out of his mind, because in true Kennedy fashion, he's finishing things much faster than people expect him to.  But he's definitely in his element, being surrounded by men in Rolex watches who have these amazing get-rich stories and who take him out to lunch on their dime.  And in his free time, he's already begun doing stuff for his MBA, and he's really excited.  So it seems that he's on the right path.  Who would have ever thought this is how things would turn out when he started music school seven years ago??

And Glo got a second job, working at Busch's.  She LOVES her job at Salad's Up, and from what I can tell, she's doing a really good job.  She has friends, and she works hard.  But she wanted more hours, so she got a job at the deli at Busch's.  Her first day is today, and she was headed out the door this morning at 5:45 for her 6-2 shift....

And did you hear about Brother's hip?  That he was cleared of hip dysplasia?  Hallelujah!

And did you hear that Ethan has been offered a job at the Government Accountability Office in Washington DC, and that he interviewed for a job with the State of Michigan?  He can hardly believe that he's finally going to be able to leave Goldman Sachs.  Of course, Rebecca always brings up how much she's going to miss you and Glo and the Mechams, and their ward, but I know from personal experience that there's nothing as bad as a husband who hates his job. #militarylife. So, it will be nice to have them back closer to home, especially for holidays!  Of course, which job he will take, I don't know.  But I do know that they will be east of the Mississippi if nothing else ;-)

And finally, I was sustained as YW's leader yesterday in church.  Gosh, I am so excited for this calling.  And you should have seen the YW!  Probably 30 in the room, talking and laughing, interacting with the teacher, asking and answering questions.  It made me feel so sad that you and Glo didn't have any of that.  I asked if Glo could just come with me yesterday, and the president said yes.  We were then asked to introduce ourselves, and you should have SEEN those YW, peppering Glo with questions.  They wanted to know ALL about her, and it was very obvious that she would fit in with them perfectly!  And when we sat down, the president said to the girls, "We're so thankful to have Sister Kennedy join us, and Glo will be with us for the summer, so that's fun!"  And there you go--Glo has a "place" for the summer at church, and doesn't need to go to RS alone :-)

I'm not at all sure how I"m going to stay on top of all the lessons and activities and things to do.  I feel like I need an actual paper calendar just for youth stuff.  Honestly, I'm just excited to meet the Mia Maids in our individual classes in a week.  And I'm super excited for Youth Conference too.

And finally (is this long enough yet?), what about our new prophet?  Holy smokes Hannie, I've never worried about "following the prophet", but he is definitely stretching the members of the church, don't you think?  First it's the elders quorum (and no high priest group)--men across the world are trying to figure out how everything works.  Then it's "ministering" and not visiting teaching. And now, after the youth broadcast last night, going on a social media fast for a week?  In the past, I feel like it's been easy to follow the prophet because the prophet usually asks us to do kind of general things--read scriptures, go to the temple--but these new things are so specific and they are really changing things up.  I hope I can keep up with him!

I'm going out today shopping for your "morale" package for your trainees. It needs to be to MOTF by this Friday, so it's today or nothing.  What exactly would you like me to send?  I was trying to think of 4th of July things, but I can't exactly send sparklers to go on an airplane ;-). Tell me what you think would be fun, and I"ll try and get it today.

Wow.  This is SUPER long.  I guess it will make up for no blog posts this week :-)

I love you!

xoxo

Mommy