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And the 2016 presidential race has begun, as has the mudslinging.  Heaven help us all for the next year and a half. I believe one of the first candidates to throw their hat in the ring was Hillary Clinton.  I must admire her courage for running again, showing that politicians are their own breed of people with skins thicker than elephants'.  I'm sure that most of us would have spent a lifetime, licking our wounds after such a public loss.  She certainly has more experience now, having served in the Senate and as Secretary of State, but winning the presidency is a completely different beast. While I can't say for certain what the future holds, I'm thinking that I will stick to my past voting record and not vote for her again.  However, I don't know that any other Democrat can beat her, so my back may be against the wall.  I would truly like to vote for her solely because she is a woman.  I have tried to show my girls that they can be and do anythi...

Last year (2014), I felt that there was just too much fun to be had at the Celebration of the Egg to keep it to just our Kennedy family, so this year we invited more family.  The best kind of family.  Family that we choose because they are our best friends.  Moran Family. In fact, it was a weekend of lots of good things.  Easter.  Celebration of the Egg.  General Conference.  Jared's birthday.  I mean, c'mon!  Thankfully, the Morans gave us a bit of time to celebrate everything by showing up on Thursday and not leaving until Monday.  And as an added bonus, Mark came for the weekend too.  WOOT! Unfortunately, I was so busy entertaining (and having too much fun myself) that I took only a picture or two here and there.  I'll do my best to describe everything in words. Thursday night (April 2) It was a guaranteed thing that John would be home this one and only day (no call at all), and he wanted to take Jared out to dinner....

Several years ago when I attended a session of stake conference, I listened to a speaker discuss her thankfulness for trials, specifically for cancer.  She was a young mother of three children, but before she was even married, she had been diagnosed with brain cancer.  It ended up being curable, but it was a long process.  While she discussed the actual cancer and its treatment for only a few brief minutes, she spent the majority of the time discussing how thankful she was that she had been given the opportunity to suffer. I was incredulous.  In fact, I felt that she must be holier-than-thou, because no one in their right mind would be thankful for such a horrible thing. Fast forward to the day I was abruptly released from my seminary calling.  In the grand scheme of things, this experience surely is nothing in comparison to cancer, but I believe in my own sphere of living, it was one of the trickiest trials the Lord has given, or could have given me.  ...

A SCUBA vacation wouldn't be complete without some freak accident happening.  Most of the incidents are quickly resolved, and we forget about them, but this week we are left with a gross reminder of one of the most basic rules of SCUBA diving: "Don't Touch Anything." This rule is taught to every beginning SCUBA diver.  It's not only for the protection of the environment, but it's also for the protection of the diver. On our second to last dive this week, Glo and I were once again the last ones in the water because we use our air so efficiently.  It's rather fun to have 10-15 minutes extra time on the ocean floor with Glo, especially when we find one last unexpected creature.  We were swimming around at about 50 feet, and I saw a huge sponge.  Imagine a potter's wheel with a lump of clay on it.  As the wheel begins to turn and the potter throws his thumbs into the center of the lump, a bowl is formed.  This sponge "bowl" was at least fou...

Ingredients: 1 awesome divemaster (Mac) who also happens to be a rock 'n roll drummer  6 days of sunshine with 85 degree weather countless palm trees 1 hotel swimming pool 1 poolside restaurant 3 beach chairs 3 Musketeers (John, Glo and me) Directions: 1.  Wake up at 7:30 each morning.  Throw on swimsuit, and head down to hotel breakfast.  Grab a quick bite to eat before meeting Mac at the dock. 2.  Board Saffron, and sail for ten minutes to one of 365 diving sites off Grand Cayman island. 3.  Dive twice, seeing the most amazing things--turtles, eels, neon-colored fish, stingrays, jellyfish.  Be reminded that a greater being (than a Big Bang) created this world, both above the water and under it. We found this unusual creature back on the boat :-) 4.  Return to the hotel, walk directly to the pool, jump in. 5.  Hop five feet out of the pool, sit down at a table, and order lunch.  While lunch ...

One of my very favorite songs from one of my very favorite musicals is "Matchmaker" from The Fiddler on the Roof: As this Valentine's Day comes and goes, I believe the matchmakers of the world need a moment of recognition from many of us. This morning, I was thinking about Ethan and Rebecca, and I was once again thinking that they are such a great couple.  If God actually chooses whom we will marry, I believe he picked both of them for each other.  And in all honesty, I don't think they would have ever met each other if it weren't for Emily, Rebecca's sister.  She was the one who approached Ethan, and told him that she should ask Rebecca out on a date.  He did, and the rest is history. My thoughts then turned to Mark and Niki.  This time, a family member didn't make the suggestion, but a very loving mission president and friend stepped in and sent Mark down the best path.  He and Niki will forever owe President Clark a bit of thanks. Lest we for...

The longer I study horn here at U of Michigan, the more I feel a lot how I expect professional athletes feel in their careers. Unlike most majors in college, where study is focused on learning everything to pass exams and deal with problems you'll face in a future job, music, like sports, requires study that trains your body to respond in a very specific physical way. Sure, there's mental things you have to do, and thing you have to think about, but the people who are successful are the ones who are able to perform physically the best in a stressful situation. Learning how to and competing on the Michigan Rowing Team gave me a really interesting perspective on this. I couldn't understand how all that practice and hours of pain really amounted to just a race that lasts under 7 minutes, where all that was required was to perform the exact same stroke less than 200 times in sync with 7 other guys. It didn't seem that hard! What I've noticed though, with that experi...

This past weekend, John and I had the opportunity to meet up with our friends, the Morans, in Washington DC.  I personally had been trying to make this trip since the middle of December, and we had changed the weekend a couple of times.  No matter, because everything finally came together. We had a wonderful time, especially in light of how lousy things have been going for John and me lately.  The whole being-released-from-seminary mess has been a heavy burden to bear, and at times it feels like it's all that John and I can think about.  So, getting away was a perfect solution. Of course, going to the temple wouldn't be a trip to the temple without some kind of drama.  The night before, we had received several inches of snow, and the driveway was dicey at best.  Thankfully, John plowed it before he left for work.  Not thankfully, his car (which I was driving) couldn't make it back UP the driveway after I had been out running errands.  No worr...