Beautiful family

 What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life – to be with each other creating memories.  -George Eliot

 

   

Why We Love the "I" States

Earlier this spring, Michael's AAU team, Prodigy, did so well in a Cincinnati tournament that they qualified to participate in the National Tournament for the Midwest region, held in Indianapolis.  Finally, the tournament arrived.  Michael's team played more synergistically than they had all year, and it paid off.  Team Prodigy advanced to the Final Four, in the gold bracket, before losing to the eventual champions.  Michael was spectacular, leading his team with scoring throughout the weekend.  Truly a once in a lifetime experience that will likely stay with him for years, if not for life!

Almost equally as exciting (not really), Steven and I kept the official scoreboard and clock for every game in which Prodigy played.  That helped us not yell as frenetically as usual, because we were seated next to a representative of the opposing team and were instructed to remain impartial.  As if. Angie accompanied us on the trip!  She and Elizabeth sat together and we could always, always hear them cheering.  Here are a couple of clips, I hope they aren't blurry: His usual NBA three and then a jumper which cracked me up because he gets past 3 defenders while being fouled and then someone yells "Thank you!" while Angie nervously covers her face. The 5 of us had many laughs together in between the games.  After the tournament, Angie and Michael drove back to Georgetown to relieve Stephen Jasper of the three stooges' duty.

    

Elizabeth, Steven, and I traveled an additional 4.5 hours to Galesburg, Illinois, home of Knox College.  Go Blazing Prairie Fire!  Knox is one of Loren Pope's 40 most influential colleges and emphasizes social justice and diversity inclusion across their curriculum.  Elizabeth spotted their Human Rights Center immediately upon our arrival.  One of the windows displayed a sign that read "whoever you are, wherever you are from, you are welcome here."  WE have that sign in our house!!!  During our visit, we took a tour led by an alum from San Diego; Elizabeth loved the tour guide, who truly was inspiring (a psychology major who is pursuing a ph.d. in something upon which she hasn't decided).  Then Elizabeth had a one-on-one meeting with an admissions counselor named Joyce.  Joyce told Steven and me that Elizabeth is amazing! and that she cannot believe how aware Elizabeth is of social issues and how impressed she was by Elizabeth's involvement in related projects.  She told Elizabeth the Peace Corps seems like a good fit for her post-college, which is what Joyce did in Africa.

Galesburg is home to one of the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.  Elizabeth sat in Lincoln's chair, which we were told is periodically reupholstered but otherwise is in its original form.  Elizabeth loved learning that President Obama has spoken at Knox twice since 2005.  So much to love about Knox!  We left that campus so excited about the possibility of Elizabeth attending there. 

We eventually made our way back to Kentucky, appreciative that our trips to Indiana and Illinois were so positive, successful, and memorable.  Maybe next year we'll visit Idaho and Iowa!

Four drivers

Not referring to golf clubs (pretty clever writing, considering I don't know how to play golf, right?), but rather, whose behind our vehicles' steering wheels.  Michael got his driver's permit!!!  He's a calm, coordinated driver who drove home from Lexington two days later. He had a super fun birthday, celebrating with friends and an Oreo ice cream cake with blue frosting, but the best was passing the written test.

Good things have happened to all of us since he passed his test:

I won't go on and on with details - although I have plenty - but once again,
Michael's AAU team won a tournament championship.  Michael, once again, was the team's leading scorer across the two days of playing.  It was easy to find photos to use in a poster - all shots are from made baskets.  :)

Elizabeth completed her summer college course, Psychology of Women.  Every day Steven and I commented on her diligence and conscientiousness, as she logged on for 1-3 hours, reading sometimes-dense research articles, watching documentaries, listening to lectures, and writing, writing, writing.  Her original PowerPoint presentation on honour killings in Pakistan was beautifully-done.  Her professor commented on how impressively she connected lecture material and assigned readings to her research (including a Maya Angelou poem!).  She earned 1000/1000 points for the course.  Not that I doubt my daughter's academic abilities in any way, but I have never, ever seen a perfect score for an upper level course with so many different requirements.  Elizabeth enjoyed the course and appreciated learning so much about women's experiences around the world, but I saw her huge smile when she submitted that final exam.

Bennett visited!  Then Fred and Virginia brought Parker, Sam, and Elise for a visit!  We were sad we didn't get to meet up with Tiffany as well.  Although the visits were brief, we loved them.  It made all of us McKenzies even more super excited for our California visit.  Sports challenges were made.  There are some competitive souls amongst the cousins!  :) 

Steven and I celebrated our 24 year anniversary!  We went to Cane's for lunch so we could see Elizabeth.  We walked through some model homes and snickered at some gaudy decorations.  Oh, I mean, I snickered; Steven always find the good in everything.  I am so fortunate to have a husband with such a beautiful soul.

I continue having coffee and lunch with friends. Here I am at the annual lunch with the group I call my geriatric friends (maybe don't tell them that).  Combined age: 280 years (Macy is 81).  All three are retired faculty and remain so active, busy, and intellectual. 

Sending you all love.  Experiencing sheer excitement in anticipation of seeing siblings, in-laws, and cousins later this month!!!!!!!!

Breathing more easily

We are all breathing more easily these days.  Yes, school is out!

Elizabeth continues to love work, both her co-workers and the work tasks.  She has begun her on-line Psychology of Women college course and diligently spends time each day on the readings, lectures, and writing assignments.  She is familiar with a lot of the background material already, due to her high school sociology course (and having a social psychologist as a mom, ha ha); in fact, she informed me that the only thing she has actually learned thus far is the term outgroup homogeneity!  Wow, that daughter of mine sure does know a lot about gender studies and the history of women's suffrage!

Michael's AAU travel basketball team has found their synergy. 
Two weekends ago, we travelled to Atlanta, where his team went undefeated, winning the entire tournament! 

Last weekend they competed in a Louisville tournament and won first in the silver bracket (they lost only one game over the three days).  I'm telling you, don't mess with Basketball Michael.  He will take you on.  And you will lose.  He is amazing to watch.  Angie opened up her home to eight of us - the four McKenzies, Michael's friend Aaron, and the three stooges [our dogs] - what a gracious host.  I love spending time with Angie and so appreciated her attending every single one of his games that weekend.  Rosemary went to most of them as well.  Michael has been working a children's basketball camp at the high school all week, then goes to high school practice in the afternoon, followed by AAU practice during the evenings.  Michael's JV team starts competing this weekend.  As you can see, we never have too much basketball.

Elizabeth wanted to go (well, we made her go) to the Atlanta tournament.  She and I snuck off to Agnes Scott College in between games and went on a self-tour of the all-female, private, small, liberal arts campus.  One of our favorite parts of the beautiful campus was the enormous sign that read "smart women sweat."  Although it was referring to women in sports, Elizabeth and I felt super smart because it was really humid, so we were certainly sweating.  I loved spending time with her talking about college life and was so happy the four of us were together for the whole weekend.

Speaking of college, Austin graduated summa cum laude from Eastern Kentucky University last month.  Steven was able to attend the ceremony and spend the afternoon and evening with his family.  I can imagine how everyone had many poignant thoughts of David during the festivities.  How proud he was of  Austin for so many reasons, certainly one of which was Austin's academic achievements.

My sabbatical has officially ended! The last 2 activities I completed during the semester include a presentation and a proposal.  I presented at a ministry festival, my topic was how faculty combine their spiritual beliefs with their academic calling.  The other final task was collaborating with my two brilliant sisters on our cross-cultural research project conference proposal.  We submitted it last night for the November 

conference.  We will officially be notified by August as to whether our proposal was accepted, but I'm telling you on June 1st that it will definitely be accepted.  We rocked that research project!  I am thankful for sabbatical for many reasons, including I got to have many lunches and get togethers with friends around the state!  I even caught up with LBJ one week and Carolyn Ludwig another. Last weekend my UK mentor Monica, UK peer Mark, and I got together in Lexington. 

Steven continues to be the family rock.  Pretty much everything the man does is for his family, including arriving at work before 5 each morning so he can leave by 2:30 and be with us.  He cooks, cleans, makes every call related to finances, and takes care of all the landscaping and yard work.  He drives  Michael to his many, many practices and events.  He continues researching colleges for Elizabeth.  He keeps me even-keeled with his calm demeanor.  And of course, we love our evening walks with the three stooges. Again, the man is our rock.

Love and miss you all!  Can't wait for the California trip!!!

The girl who never dresses up

Elizabeth has never enjoyed dressing up.  The first time she willingly wore a dress as a child was when she was 4 and Aunt Laura sent her a lederhosen dress.  After that, we didn't really see another dress that was voluntarily chosen by her for at least ten years.

Enter the transformation of Elizabeth, who agreed to go to prom earlier this month with a group of friends.  As she says, "People I know who are in relationships make stupid decisions."  That's one wise daughter we have!

Dress shopping with Elizabeth was awesome.  She is very decisive ("no way would I ever wear that") and knew just what she wanted.

Her thick hair was simply beautiful.  Here's half of it curled - the other half is pulled to the front of her shirt, awaiting the straightener (ironic name, yes?).

She was breath-taking.


More importantly, she had a fabulous time!  First, the group of 8 went to Spindletop (UK's club) for photos and dinner, then to prom.  She even danced!!!  The school sponsored a midnight breakfast from 11-3, which somewhat disappointed E and her friends because the advertised mini-chicken biscuits were not to be found.  But that was the only downside.  After the biscuit-less breakfast, most of the group spent the night at a friend's house.  Who says slumber parties only happen during middle school?!

Happy Spring

Elizabeth continues her quest to fight injustice and improve the lives of those who suffer through little or no fault of their own.  For example, she bought 150 chapsticks and attached labels with information on human trafficking survivor resources.  The chapsticks are placed in hotels, motels, and other areas heavily traveled by victims of human trafficking in the hopes the victims will find them and seek help in order to leave the industry.  We joined the Lexington Women's March in January.  She wrote emails to our council members expressing her support for a proposed Fairness Ordinance, which would make discrimination based on one's sexual orientation illegal.  She recently attended the college's Take Back the Night program and is waiting on Stop the Violence wristbands to distribute at her high school.  We are so proud of her awareness of human frailty and suffering and her strong desire to actually do something about it, in whatever small way she can.

And she got a job!  She submitted her resume to Raising Cane's one night.  Received a call from the manager the next day.  Was interviewed the following day.  And hired as soon as her background check was returned.  If only most people's hiring process were so easy!  Because the restaurant was still under construction when she was interviewed, she met the manager at a hotel conference center - and on her way out of the interview, the hotel manager asked her if she would be interested in working for the hotel!  Elizabeth absolutely loves her job.  She picks up extra shifts, stays late to close, forgets to take her scheduled breaks (isn't that illegal?), and is eagerly awaiting her first paycheck.  The manager is so complimentary about her and she loves (almost) all of her colleagues.  We are so proud to see her in this new role of employee, so responsible and competent and energized.

One of Michael's recent English assignments was to write an original poem and perform it in front of his class.  The performance had to be at least 2 minutes long and include a variety of literary devices, like alliteration, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, simile, etc.  He decided to write about the different personalities of the three dogs: The Wise One, the Depressed One, and the Crazy One.  Can you guess which is which?  We had fun as a family watching Michael practice and practice, acting out the words and imitating the dogs.  He was proud to tell us his poem and performance were selected by his peers as one of the top three in his class, which allowed him to perform it again the next week.


Michael continues his basketball amazingness (not a word, but it should be).  He astounds me with all his points and his moves and his ball playing abilities.  I never grow tired of watching him play.  I never mind reading in my car until the next game begins!  He is on the select team Prodigy.  Another select team recruited him hard and he played with them two weekends he didn't have Prodigy commitments - they won 2nd place with Michael on their team; lost by about 60 each game the next weekend without him.  Michael pretty much outscores everyone and never loses those nerves of steel.  If you ever want to see a few hundred clips of his feats, let me know.  I leave them on my phone, just in case someone asks.

I saw GC alum Katie Columbus a couple of weeks ago.  She and her girlfriend Erin were moving Erin from NYC to Denver, where Katie lives.  They swung through Kentucky so I could see them both.  Oh how E and M loved Katie when they were younger - every time Katie was in Ky she would come over and play with them.  This happened multiple times each year for at least 10 years.  What joy she has brought our family.

My sabbatical is going well.  The three sisters have collected our data from the US and the Germany students.  Mary hired Elizabeth to be our research assistant and help us with data scoring and coding.  We will know our results soon.  Last month, Lisa Eddy and I presented at a teaching conference and loved our distraction-free time together.  Meanwhile, I have read many academic books this semester, yet most days I still find time for some quality Dateline or Forensic Files episodes.  Keep your doors locked.

Steven continues to devote most of his free time to his family.  Specifically, he mentors Michael in basketball ... and conditioning.  They go to the college gym and work out.  Sometimes they practice on our back yard court.  Steven spends hours each week researching colleges that emphasize social justice and diversity.  Then he and Elizabeth talk about the benefits of each and continue narrowing down her college choices.  As always, Steven is constantly improving our home.  This week he constructed shoe racks for Michael, painted the laundry room shelves, and designed a fence for the backyard.  I love his creativity and conscientiousness.  And our evening walks with the three dogs.  Sometimes he's even drawn into those Dateline episodes.  :)

So that's life in a nut shell.  Hope you are all well.  We love you.