Day 43-My Wisdom is Gone!

About 4 years ago my brother had to get his wisdom teeth taken out. He had gotten his teeth out toward the beginning of that week, and around the end of the week my mom had a prior commitment for work where she would be out of town. So, I was there to take care of little Keithie. I've never seen him in so much pain then I did at this time. He was swollen, immobile, and miserable. I was so glad at this point that I had been told my wisdom teeth came in perfectly straight and I would not need to have them removed. Yippee!!!

And then the day came when I was told, "Hannah, it is time to get your wisdom teeth removed." what?!! No! I was told I didn't have to! "Well, Hannah if you don't get them removed the cavities that are already developing will be filled and then eventually they will start to decay, and we don't do root canals on wisdom teeth." Uh...I'm sorry root canal? Yah, I'm not all about that! This conversation happened about 3 years ago with my dentist and I've been pushing it further and further off of my list of things to do, because quite frankly I didn't want to be in that much pain!

Well, my last dentist appointment was in March and they basically told me I needed to get it done this summer. So, I scheduled the appointment and started getting myself all worked up on how this day would look.

July 16, slowly but surely came upon us and there I was in the chair waiting to be seen. Making sure all of the people that came into the room knew I was nervous! The anesthesiologist came in and talked with me, he wanted to give my I.V. in my hand. Here's the thing, my hand veins are extremely difficult to find! So not only did he have to stick me once, but he had to stick me twice! By the time he was removing the first I.V. he told me that the pain medicine was already working through my veins...and oh was he right! I essentially sat in the room feeling amazing, and just cracking jokes with the two nurses and anesthesiologist while we were waiting for the surgeon. I say jokes, but I have no clue if I was actually being funny.

Then, the surgeon came in, a mask was put on me and I was told to take two breaths. The next thing I knew I was being told to wake up and come sit with my mom. So, I did, feeling amazing!

Now I'm sitting on the couch with gauze in my mouth. The pain? Yes it's there but not to the point that I can't blog! More to come tomorrow. By the way if you would like a good laugh, check out the picture below.

Day 42-A Cousin's Birthday

My wonderful little cousin Katie turned 17 yesterday. Our entire family went to Hacienda to celebrate.

Katie is someone who when growing up people would stop us and say that we were sisters. We are just cousins and I can't believe she is now 17! She has turned into such a beautiful young lady both inside and out. It was a great afternoon.

Day 41- A Reflective Walk on the Beach

Yes, I'm late blogging about my last day on the beach.

On our last morning we had some time before our flight. We decided to go on a walk toward Bean Point which is the tip or end of Anna Maria Island. It was such a tranquil, calm beach. As my mom, Michael, and Uncle Mark were walking I somehow broke away from the group and found myself walking alone. It was a great reflective time to just think about me, and my life. I know it's weird to say, but I essentially had a talk with myself and was just in deep thought about life. It was such an amazing moment that I realized how I need to embrace and incorporate many more of those reflective walks into my life.

After the walk, we went exploring and found ourselves leaving Anna Marie Island. I had a terrific time and hope to go back!

Day 40-"A Midnight Swim"

You know the Incubus song...well I basically in a round about way swam in the ocean at midnight, but instead of it being midnight it was at sunset.

We had our last night beach party where we played music and watched people walk by. We were still in our swim suits, not wanting to take them off because then it would be official that our vacation had come to an end.

As the sun was setting, I decided it would be a good time to take my firs sunset swim. It was a very quiet moment. The sun was sinking into the ocean and I was in the water to see it! Goodbye wonderful vacation, I will see you again!

Day 39-Peacocks

Tonight we decided to go down the island to the little town of Longboat Key. This is a more residential, quaint place where mom, Mark, and Michael stayed two summers ago.

Last summer when my dad was here the whole clan went to Mar Vista a little restaurant with an outdoor area and a view of the ocean. So, per my dad's request we went there again tonight. We had a feast fit for two kings, took some great photos, and had a splendid visit.

After we devoured our food we got in the car, but while walking to the car a strange sound was resounding in the distance. My mom stated it was a peacock. Now-let me stop here and say that earlier in the week my mom was telling me that peacocks are native to this area and have the right away on the streets. Of course I took this information with a grain of salt because there's no way a peacock can be just galavanting down the street.

So-we got in the car and my mom said, "Hannah drive toward that tree, there's a peacock in it!" I still wasn't a believer but decided to proceed forward to look into a tree for a peacock-as strange as it may seem.
As I'm driving I do see something moving in the tree, and I can make out an outline of what looks like a turkey. No! There is not a peacock in that tree!!! We get closer and sure enough there is a peacock in the tree. Let me take this time to apologize to my mon for being a doubter.
We continued to drive through the streets of Longboat Key and I spotted another one! This time on a person's roof! Just chillin, looking around, and making the obnoxious sound. Then we look in this house's backyard and spot about 5 in a tree, also making the horrible, bizarre sound. Those home owners must hate their life.

The sound the peacocks make is like a turkey gobble mixed with a cat's meow. No joke.

It was a wonderful experience seeing something so unique out in its element. The only time I had ever seen peacocks was at the zoo. I'm glad I got to see their natural habitat.

Day 38-Sunset on the beach

Here's the thing, I've been to the beach a lot. I love coming to the beach and getting away from all of life's troubles and just letting go. Releasing all of your botteled up stresses into the ocean or sand. However, I have to say all of the years coming to the beach I've never sat on the beach, in my swimsuit and watched the sun sink into the ocean and set.Yes, I've taken pictures at sunset and pretended that I was indeed going to watch the entire process of the sun setting, but never had the patience or "time" for it. We were always going to dinner or had other plans for the evening. Tonight the plan was to stay on the beach all day, in order to watch the sunset. The four of us, my mom, Uncle Mark, Michael, and myself did just that. We laid on our chairs, talked, took pictures and watched the sun sink into the ocean. I then started thinking about how "our" sun is setting while it is rising in other parts of the world. I began looking up countries to see where the sun was rising, the winner....India. Crazy to think that our day is ending when there's and others are just beginning. I had a slight taste of this while in Italy. We would be getting up for the day and people in Missouri were still snoozing. After the sunset, we still sat on the beach. We just sat and listened to the waves crash into the beach. It was a tranquil moment. As we were laying in post sunset darkness we began seeing people down the beach releasing paper lanterns. I've heard these are released in memory of someone or to ignite a wish. I know it is a Chinese tradition that I've now taken an interest in. Someday I will release a lantern... Maybe in the 365 day blog challenge and you will be lucky enough to hear it. Uncle Mark soon busted out his sweet sound machine and then we were listening to a wide variety of music. At one point we were listening to "Endless Love" and the next minute we were all dancing the "Cupid Shuffle" in the dark on the beach. It was a wonderful memory I will never forget, and because of this I will always make the time to watch the sunset on the beach!

Day 37-Would You Rather?

Tonight after an amazing dinner, we headed back to the condo. Our plan was to go on a night, beach walk, but because of a rainy evening we ended up hanging out in the living room talking.
I decided to propose a couple of random scenarios to Uncle Mark to see what or how he would react and get himself out of the hypothetical situation. It turned into a fun game and then we decided to play "Would You Rather?" Uncle Mark googled "would you rather in the search engine and a site popped up with many questions. We soon found ourselves laughing uncontrollably at one another's responses and had an evening filled with random questions that really do make you think! You should try too!

Day 36-An Itsa

On Saturday while we were getting all settled into our rooms and unpacking. Michael came in our room bearing gifts! He had two bags, one orange and one pink. My mom and I anxiously opened them up and found the coolest towel EVER! We were ecstatic to try them out.

Today we took the towels out, and laid them on our beach chairs. The Itsa drapes over the back of your chair and along the chair hanging down to the side are these pockets that you can put your personal belongings in. Then, at the end of the day and you are packing to go inside, your Itsa folds into itself and there is a handle so you can carry it like a bag. The Itsa is a pretty awesome invention and great to have at the beach! I would highly recommend it and I give a giant shout out to Michael for buying my mom and I one-you rock!!!!
If you are interested in what the Itsa looks like, just google "orange Itsa" and a replicate of mine will show up!

Day 35-Columbia Restaurant

After a fabulous day at the beach we decided we were going out to dinner. Uncle Markie said we were going to go to a restaurant in Longboat Key which is about 15-20 minutes south of Holmes Beach. We lugged all of our belongings from the beach, showered, got snazzy, and loaded in the car.

We arrived in Longboat Key and what a quaint, residential area it is! I think Florida and the residence of this area are trying to keep it a best kept secret. Along with this entire island! One of the things I like most about Anna Maria Island is the fact that there is a height restriction. So there's not a ton of sky scraper hotels which means there aren't a ton of tourists which means there aren't planes flying by with advertisements while on the beach, and it means that Alvin's Souvenir shops are a rare commodity! What I'm trying to say here is there aren't a ton of tourists, which is great!

We continued to drive through Longboat Key and we came upon St. Armand's Circle which is a circle full of cute shops and cozy restaurants. We parked the car and made our way to the Columbia Restaurant. This place has a great ambiance and looks ad smells heavenly! The doors along the side of the restaurant open up and allow for balcony seating which puts you right on the circle! Upon entering this place I realize I've never had Columbian food before! Is this going to be like Mexican? I'm done for whatever at this point because everything was smelling so yummy!

We all looked over the menu and made our selections. I ordered a shrimp dish with an amazing sauce as well as rice. Uncle Markie ordered our table the 1905 salad for everyone and we were all set ready to indulge.

The salad came out first and our server was tossing it table side-how cool! I pretty much inhaled the salad and then ate some of my moms. Our food came next and this was also an explosion of flavor doing the mamba in my mouth. SO GOOD! The atmosphere was great, the food was impeccable and the company was as always-awesome!

Such a fun night, a picture of me in front of the restaurant is below.

Day 34-Holmes Beach

In May I sent a family text out seeing if anyone was interested in going to Florida. My Uncle Mark, and mom were all about it. So, in mid-June my Uncle texted us and asked if we would be game to go to Holmes Beach...uh yah!

We planned the trip in a day's time and it was done-god love the Internet! So much anticipation for our arrival and now we are here! It is a beautiful, quaint island and our condo is amazingly large and tastefully decorated. The last time I vacationed with my Uncle Mark & Michael was when I was 6 years old and we went to Destin, Florida. Some amazing memories were formed then, and I cannot wait for the memories to unfold while here for the next week!

Day 33-Letters to my students

Yes, I'm posting a day late...as you can imagine the Internet wasn't working again!!!
In a blog a few weeks ago I talked about how one of my students sent me a letter, well since then another student wrote me a letter. I took today to write them back. I'm hoping that since
I wrote them back, maybe some of their friends will write me!
Here's to hoping!

Day 32-Hand, Knee, & Foot

I've mentioned in previous blogs about growing up at the Farm. This was a place in Lead Hill, Arkansas on Bull Shoals Lake. My Gramps & Ma owned 100 + acres on the lake. During summer vacation or long weekend breaks you could find the entire Kennedy Clan down at the Farm. As you can imagine, the memories I have from this place are endless but one fond memory I have was after the sun would go down, and after dinner. All kids would be clean, and set up in front of the T.V. with a movie on, but in the room over or the dining room all of the grown ups would be gathered around playing cards. The game of choice was Canasta. I remember several times walking in from watching the movie and just listening and watching my family in action. I would hear hooting and hollering, laughing and cheering, jeering and sneering, any competitive remark you would typically hear was heard around this table. It was like a foreign language. I had no idea what the comments, "mully grubs" "black three" "pulling a Cindy" or many other things my family would say during this game meant. I was fascinated by how much fun they were having, and also how competitive they would become. 

I'll never forget how excited I was when my mom and dad sat my brother and I down at our family kitchen table, and told us we would be learning the game of Canasta as a family, and then we could play down at the Farm. Keithie and I learned all the ins and outs, and tried to develop as many strategies as we knew how and then we were ready! My mom suggested we teacher Cara and Jake how to play as well, so we did. This was our first game without any supervision. It went better than expected and then we were entered into the family tournament. This was my welcoming into the "playing cards world." Now, don't get me wrong, I had played the traditional card games that kids play when growing up, but I felt like this was an "adult" game and I had finally been considered "able" to play! 

It wasn't too long after our initiation of Canasta that we were teaching other people how to play, and it became a main thing in our house. One night we went to visit with my Grandma Josephine who is on the other side of the family and she had played Canasta, but had a variation called Hand and Foot. We learned how to play this game, and soon started the cycle of teaching people this game as well. 

On Sunday night, my brother, Hannah, and Jon all went over to my Grandma's house and she introduced us to another variation called, Hand, Knee, and Foot. We were quick to learn this game and brought it home to teach mom and dad. It's interesting how the tables turn. Instead of them being excited to teach us a game, we were the ones excited to teach them a new game. We played two hands, and plan to play the final two hands tomorrow evening. I couldn't find a site to teach you how to play Hand, Knee, and Foot, but found a site to teach you Hand & Foot. If you are luck enough I will teach you!


Hand & Foot Directions
 

Day 31-Boston Pops

I am not going to talk only about the heat wave sweeping the country because I know everyone else is, and knows how miserable this weather is!  I think this is the first Fourth of July that I did not go watch fireworks, or shoot them off myself. I'm sure you can guess the reason...the weather. I was too afraid that I would shoot off a bottle rocket and it would catch my whole house on fire. 

A trip down memory lane----
When I was little the Fourth of July consisted of the entire Kennedy family traveling down to Bull Shoals Lake for a mini-family reunion. Ma (my grandma) would make a huge spread of food and we would spend days there celebrating, eating, playing on the lake, visiting, and of course shooting off fireworks. Some of things in this spread of food were: potato salad, baked beans, chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches wrapped in aluminum foil hidden in the freezer, and pina colada cake. These are memories I will never forget. As I got older, so did my grandparents and soon we found ourselves moving them up to Hillsboro, Missouri. Because of time, and how it typically impacts everything, we found our Fourth of July tradition changing and becoming something else. 

I don't think we have established a tradition as of yet, but we do still try to get together with the family that is in town and BBQ. Staying true to form this is what we did today. My mom and I made the traditional meal minus the chocolate chip cookies, and invited the family over to just come hang out. Since this heat wave has impacted about everyone I know, and there have been numerous warnings about fireworks, our family opted to NOT shoot off fireworks this year and instead watch a display on T.V. This was a first for me. Sitting inside, and watching fireworks on T.V. from Boston. I do have to say I enjoyed seeing the fireworks on T.V. in the comfort of A.C rather than sweating to death and potentially having an anxiety attack every time a firework went off. The link to the Boston Pops Firework Display is below. It was an interesting change of pace, and I'm hoping that next year I'm able to at least light a sparkler!

Boston Pops

Day 30-An Afternoon with Grandpa Jordan

Grandpa Jordan & I

My friend Laura recently purchased her very first home! We decided to meet up for lunch and then go back to her house so I could see it. Her new house happens to be right down the road from my Grandpa Jordan. After our lunch, tour, and visiting I decided I would take my chances and bet that my Grandpa would be home.

I drove down his street and turned into his driveway and low and behold there he was walking around doing yard work! Grandpa, do you know how hot it is?! I got out of my car and he was happy that I came by. I got the infamous garden walk, which now I have much more appreciation, knowledge, and understanding of, and then we went into his house, sat down at his kitchen table and talked for hours.

Grandpa, Keithie, and I playing cards

This is the number one reason why I love my grandpa, he loves to talk, and so do I. We talked about various topics all afternoon. We laughed, we had serious talks, but more than anything we just enjoyed eachother. In the midst of this conversation I realized how fortunate and lucky I am to have this man, along with my grandma, and grampsie still alive. There are many people my age that wouldn't of had this privilege to just sit and talk to their grandparents about anything and enjoy one anothers company. When I came to this realization, I began absorbing everything about him. His scent, mannerisms, smile, laugh, you get the idea. I did this because I know one day I won't have him, and I won't be able to just go sit at his house and talk to him for hours, but because of days like today I will remember what this was like, and can reflect on how wonderful and fortunate I was/am to even have these memories. Of course I have many memories of my Grandpa Jordan, but today makes this long list.

Today was a wake up call, and goes back to my very first blog about how life is so short, and you only get one life to live. You may as well be with someone you can't live without, do something you love, and everyday find something to laugh about.

Day 29-Cardinal's Club

In December Jon's mom and Kirk handed Jon a schedule of all the Cardinal's games they had tickets to. They wanted him to select a few dates that we could go with them to the game.  At the time Jon was working for Papaya and knew the only guaranteed day he would have off were Monday's, so he signed us up for three or so of the Monday games. Kirk is a HUGE Cardinal's fan, (who wouldn't be!?) so he has a variety of seats. Two season ago, Jon and I sat on the third base line and the seats were amazing! I had never sat that close to the field before! This season, Maureen and Kirk invited us to go to the July 2nd game at 7:15pm in the Cardinal's Club seats. I was of course ecstatic and Jon was like a kid in the candy store when we found out how close we would be sitting for the game! 

Maureen met up with Jon a week or so prior to the game and handed him an envelope with the tickets, and a parking pass. What? We get a parking pass? You mean we don't have to pay to park and walk 5 miles to get to the stadium? So, we found "Lot C" which was our designated parking place, and got out of our car, had a police officer stop traffic so Jon and I could walk across the street, we walked through the gates and into a place titled "The Cardinal Club". Wait a minute, are you sure we are supposed to go in here?! This looks fancy! We walked in, found Maureen and Kirk and had a seat. Instantly our server came to our table asking what she could get us to drink, we soon realized drinks were included in the ticket price! After we ordered our drink we were invited to an appetizing buffet with chicken, salad, pork, and much much more. Needless to say, I ate a lot of meat and salad--YUM! At this point I was completely blown away at the fact that this goes on at EVERY GAME! My memories of the Cardinal's games definitely didn't include an all inclusive, all you can eat dining experience. Very awesome! 

After we ate, we followed Kirk out to our seats. Don't we need to climb up some stairs? Oh wait, not with these amazing seats! We walked straight out to where our seats were and oh how close we were to the field!!! I swear I could throw something and it would hit a baseball player! I've never been this close the field, nor did I know how amazing it would be to actually sit in these seats. Soon after we took our seats a lady is asking me if I would like anything to drink or eat. I'm not talking about a vendor screaming, "Hot Dogs! Peanuts! BUD LIGHT!" no this was a lady handing me a menu and asking if she can get me something. What? Is this actually happening?!?! Of course you can get me something! I would love a Diet Coke, she smiles at me and within minutes I am sipping an ice cold Diet Coke. This kind of service continued throughout the duration of the game. 

At the end of the game, as usual some fans had departed our area and some seats had opened up. I looked over to some vacant seats next to us, where 5 minutes before sat a family of four, and now there was a man with a "Fox Sports Midwest" microphone. Oh man! I don't know who you are, but you look fancy and famous...so I of course took a couple of pictures of him and then asked Jon who it was and he responded, "Jim Hayes." I do not know who this man is,nor have I ever seen him on t.v. but I took a couple of pictures that you can find below.  
Needless to say it was an unforgettable night, thanks to Kirk and Maureen for inviting us to attend this game with them!

Yummy food

Jon and I in the club eating before the game

View from our seats!

Jon and I

Jim Hayes

Day 28-Healthy Lifestyle

When I first started this blog a little less than a month ago, one of my goals was to live a more healthier lifestyle. In 2006 when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer her doctor recommended Take Shape For Life to help her kick start her weight loss. She went on this diet for around 3-4 months and lost a TON of weight. So, when I wanted to start eating more healthy, and I wanted to fit into the bridesmaid dress at my brother's wedding. I decided a kick start was exactly what I needed! 

I joined the program, got a health coach, bought some food and today marks a month of being on the diet. It is not the easiest diet in the world. No alcohol, no carbs, and no dairy make this diet quite challenging! This means I have not had any of these things for a month! If you would've asked me a month ago if I could survive without these things I literally would have laughed in your face! But here I am having survived this month without any of these things, and I'm feeling better than ever! I've lost a total of 15 lbs and still plan on losing 44 more pounds. This means I've still got at least two more months of dieting...I may switch to Weight Watchers at some point, but I feel that I'm doing pretty good with this program. 

I haven't blogged about this diet yet because I wanted to see if I could actually make it for a month, and I have! I'm very excited about losing 15lbs but I still want to lose more and felt a little discouraged today when it's been a month and I've still only lost 15...but I'm not going to dwell on this, and instead be more happy that I've lost this weight in a months time. My mom told me to imagine 15 boxes of butter, sitting on the kitchen table, and this is how much weight has come off of me. Wow! There are four sticks of butter in ONE thing of butter, and I've lost 15 of those...HOLY COW! 

I will keep you posted on my progress with this weight loss, but so far so good!

Day 27-Staining

A couple of months ago Jon got a new deck put into his backyard. This replaced a patio with sinking flat stones, and a flower bed. Of course we knew we would have to stain the deck! Our plan was to stain it sometime in the month of May. Now, many of you know in order to stain a deck you must power wash it first, let it dry, then stain, AND it cannot rain within 48 hours of the day you stain...so as you can imagine herein lies the problem with the month of May. 

We borrowed the power washer from my Daddio, and power washed away! It didn't take too long, and we were super stoked to get the stain and STAIN! But...you can guess...it rained that night! I know, right? It just freaking figures! I mean I guess we could have looked at the weather forecast, but who does that? Before we knew it the month of May had gotten away from us. So now we were already in June and the weather is progressively getting warmer, but we had other things that topped the priority list. Finally, Jon and I decided we HAD to get the deck stained before the end of June. Leave it to us procrastinators, we get it finished on June 30th! Ha-Ha

Jon had to work this morning from 8am-12pm, so our plan was for me to go to the store, get the stain, come back and only stain the railing. Easy! So, I woke up this morning, drove to Sherwin Williams, got all of the supplies I thought I would need and headed to Jon's house. It took me around 3 hours to complete just the railing with spindles. By this point it was around 100 degrees outside. I was sweating like a pig, literally, and I was exhausted! I had already completed more of the deck than Jon and I had thought I would get done, so I decided I would surprise him by having the whole thing finished! It was a giant goal, but I thought I could muster the energy and get it finished! Plus, it was my first time staining a deck, so I thought it would be a good memory if I got it finished all alone! I set to work, and did touch up paint on all of the railings, and then set to work on the floor of the deck. I was taking frequent water breaks, and checking my phone when I did this. I checked my phone at one point and it was 12:30pm. I had a text from Jon that he was leaving work...I hurried up and painted the last stroke when Jon pulled up in the driveway. 

His face was priceless as he walked up to a fully, finished, stained deck! Hooray! Success! He was so happy, I was glad I pulled it off! Staining a deck is quite rewarding I realized after today. I also realized how great it makes your deck look! As Jon and I were driving to my house I was noticing decks and how some decks aren't stained and how the ones that are stained look 100% better!!! Lesson learned, experience gained.

Before stain, you can tell I started staining the handrails

Finished product!

Enjoy the pictures below!

Day 26-Delta Zeta Alumnae Chapter

Kristi and I on Bid Day for Delta Zeta

Today I began reflecting on my college years. I started flipping through pictures on facebook and many pictures triggered specific memories and emotions. The one thing in college that was like a light that lit my path was Delta Zeta. I realized today how much it truly meant to me throughout college. It was a constant. If I was sad, there was someone there to comfort me, if I was happy, there was someone to laugh with me. Any mood I was in, I could find someone to talk with . There were times when we would go to the store with 15 girls. We would pull all of the tables together in the house for dinner because we all wanted to eat together. I became so involved in my chapter and on campus because I wanted to give back to the organization that helped give me so much. When I graduated from college, I was ready to move on. I was ready to embrace the next chapter of my life and leave Delta Zeta as a collegiate and accept whatever was to come my way. 

Now that I've completed my first year of teaching, I started to think about what I can do now as an alumnae of DZ. I know there is an alumnae chapter in St. Louis, so I began searching for information of how I could get involved. Today's new thing was contacting the person for the alumnae chapter as well as getting in touch with Epsilon Nu, my chapter at Missouri State University. I messaged the current president to gather some information on upcoming events and how I could be involved and help the chapter out. 

I'm hoping to hear some information of how the chapter is doing, as well as ways I can help! I shall keep you posted on this!