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With our new house, and now living in the state we most love, there's definitely a feeling of "opening" summer.  Just like Jake's excited meow when he hears the pantry door open and the pop of the cat food can, we likewise feel a sense of excitement when summer nears.  There is no Spring in Michigan--we go straight from snow to 80 degree temps, so it's a "catch me if you can" feeling once things start to warm up.  This year, we did several things all within a week: Blocks.  I took Glo to Blocks, the giant nursery situated next to the Detroit airport. I warned her to just stay calm and be patient, and we would be okay...which she did, and we were...but holy smokes, nothing prepares you for it.  Greenhouse after greenhouse (I think there are over 25 in all), but everyone from greater Detroit is there, all with giant shopping carts to hold their plant purchases, and all attempting to navigate the skinny aisles.  We bought spikes, vines and flowers--enough f

Back in January, after Hannah had broken up with Zach, she was left with no acceptances to PA school, no man and no marriage, and no job.  John connected her with his office manager, but Beaumont has some very strange hiring practices, and because Hannah wasn't a certified MA (a nine-month course that costs $16,000), despite having a four-year college degree in microbiology, she couldn't find a job.  Even when she applied to be a phlebotomist, nobody would hire her because they said she was overqualified.  I remember walking into her room, and her breaking down in tears, saying, "Nobody wants me, Mommy.  Zach didn't want to marry me, no PA schools thought I was good enough, and nobody will give me a job."  It was a heart-breaking moment for me, seeing that God had allowed Hannah to sink to the bottom of a very empty barrel. I had scheduled an appointment for her with my ENT, Dr. Standring, because she's had a chronically runny nose for most of her life.  I fig

Never in my life would I have thought I should plan a trip to Northern California.  It's just not a place that has ever piqued my interest.  However, with COVID restrictions keeping us from the places we know and love, and with Glo insisting that a visit to her mission would be something wonderful, I figured "why not?"  I mean, it was a cheaper flight than Hawaii, and it allowed me to feel the excitement of visiting someplace new. I LOVED IT!  Everything that I had ever heard about it was completely wrong, and I now have a cache of beautiful memories that might motivate me to someday return. Aside from the myriad homeless people, and aside from the fact that I have absolutely no clue how to dress like a Californian, every part of every place we visited was delightful.  There are some pretty funny Kennedy-esque moments that I want to record because I don't believe they will stand the test of time in my memory like Alcatraz will ;-) 1.  Grocery Market Bargain Outlet.  B

 Its Mother's Day tomorrow and I wanted to post about the wonderful mother in our family, my Dear Aris. We are  just finishing a wonderful trip to California and in consistent style of being a mother of her children, she planned the trip around the kids and gave them each input into how the trip would go and what they wanted to do.  They each got to pick an activity or plan days of activities and it has been a great trip centered around things the kids would like to do together and with us as a family. We went to Yosemite National Park.  Johannah likes national parks, Ethan loves the stories of Free Solo and the Dawn Wall which both occurred in Yosemite and so we visited the park and toured the paths and scenic overlooks and explored one of the natural wonders of the world.  We saw El Capitan where Alex and Tommy climbed with and without ropes and amazed the world and us. We saw waterfalls, mountains, rivers and all sorts of other beautiful things and hiked till our legs and feet c

May 8, 2021--Oakland I can't even believe this trip is coming to an end.  It has been one of the most memorable trips I've taken in years, and I'll be reliving so many moments for the next few months at least. This morning, we packed up our bags and left Fresno.  We had three hours to get to Oakland to catch an A's game which wasn't a problem, considering we were leaving four hours early BUT Ethan decided to check if there was a promotion, and he found out there WAS! A free hat to the first fans.  How many "first" fans, we didn't know, so I literally BOOKED it on the back roads through the grasslands and vineyards of central California.  It was a side we hadn't seen yet, and it felt like a completely different state!  And once I hit the highway, I did my best Cruella de Vil impersonation and FLEW into Oakland, sometimes driving 90 mph.  John dropped us off (thankfully so I didn't need to walk far), and we walked in.  I could've cried when I

May 7, 2021--King's Canyon and Sequoia National Parks Wow.  Hannah made the distinction a while ago that we Kennedys don't go on vacation.  We go on trips.  There's nothing relaxing about our getaways, and that's exactly how we like it.  I understand it's not most people's cup of tea, but we drink herbal anyway, so *raspberry* ;-) After taking an entire day off for my plantar fasciitis, I was excited to head back out again.  We were only staying an hour or so out of the parks in Fresno.  Can I just take a moment to give some credit to Fresno? What a nice town!  I half-jokingly said to John that I could definitely retire in Fresno.  A small town feel with everything necessary, and it's all clean and upscale.  I mean, the kids even said the comic book store was amazing!  It looks totally different from anything we've seen before, sitting solidly in the grasslands of California.  We ordered pizza from Mike's Mountain Pizza, and it was some of the best I