Today’s theme is “sweet.” So I give to you a picture of my son with a big bowl of fresh raspberries and blueberries. This picture fits this theme in a couple of ways. First, Nick is a very sweet boy. He’s tenderhearted and kind. Secondly, his favorite sweet things are fruits. Here he is on a Disney Cruise after he figured out he can order a “big bowl of raspberries and blueberries” at every meal! And the servers bring them without a second thought. We’ve often thought of calling Disney Cruise Line prior to sailing to warn them that Mr. Blueberry and Raspberry will be on the cruise and they’d better stock up!

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Midsummer night asks, “I second the homeschooling questions. I really want to homeschool my boys so I am always curious about anyone who homeschools. I will throw in a fun one too. I have not been reading long, so you might have mentioned this somewhere but I will ask anyway. What was your favorite childhood book and your current favorite book?”

Great questions. I answered a home schooling question already, but if there is anything specific you want to know, just holler!

As for books. Wow. I LOVED books as a kid. I remember schleping them home from the library all the time. I’d lose myself in a good book and sometimes wouldn’t do much else. I’d probably say my favorite book as a kid was Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry. I read that book over and over. It helped that my sister owned an actual Chincoteague pony, and that I had attended pony penning days a couple of times. I also read the other books in that series, but Misty was by far my favorite.

As for books today. Well, I’m going to have to say I must love the book Marley and Me by John Grogan. Why do I say this? Because I’ve been reading it for approximately 8 months. Yeah, I know, it’s 304 pages. That means I’ve averaged about 1.3 pages per day. Problem is that now when I get a chance to read, I fall asleep! It’s a skill I acquired in nursing school. Many times my college roomies would find me in my bed sound asleep with my face lying on an open nursing text book! So, unfortunately I don’t read much for pleasure*. BUT….our library has an “adult summer reading program” that parallels the children’s program, so hopefully this summer I’ll read more than the Sunday paper!

*I did read Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey and stayed awake the whole time! And I’ve read all of the Harry Potter books to the kids and we’re looking forward to reading the final book in the series.

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Continuing our series of questions, Chrissy writes in and says, “How fun! I am a very curious person too!!! How old are you and Dr. Mike? What made him want to start the podcast and why do you homeschool your children, how long have you done the homeschooling and do you plan to do it untill they graduate? was that too many?”

Well, the first one is easy. Dr. Mike and I are both 39 years old*. I plan on staying 39 for quite some time! I am actually 1 month and 5 days older than Mike (cradle robber) which has worked out perfectly for me. I warned him from the get-go that whatever sick party jokes he plays on me for those monumental birthdays (30, 40, 50) he would get back on his big day. I think I actually said, “Go ahead and decorate with black over-the-hill balloons when I turn 40, because I’ll save them and use them at YOUR 40th birthday party!”

As for the podcast question, I’m encouraging Mike to post the answer to that one. It’d be so much better coming from him than me.

Why do we home school? I’m going to be really lazy and guide you to these two posts:

Why we home school part 1

Why we home school part 2

As for how long we’ll continue, we take that year by year. Right now we’re set to home school through the 2007-2008 school year. In spring of 2008, we’ll reevaluate everyone’s needs and the opportunities for other options. We live in a less than stellar school district, and I fully believe that my kids are getting an education far superior to anything they’d get in the schools around here.

And, no, that was not too many questions.
Thanks for asking! I had fun answering!

*I had this post all queued up and ready to post when I realized that TODAY is my 1/2 birthday! I am 39 1/2 today!

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Whoa! 5 Minutes for Mom is giving away some awesome prizes!! You can win an ice cream maker, a baby sling, even a weekend retreat!! Too many good prizes to list. You’ll just have to go check it out for yourself!! Click here. And GOOD LUCK!

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Here we go with the next set of questions. Deb S. asked, “Hmmm, how/when did you and Dr. Mike meet? Are you both from Ohio originally? How many times have you been to Disney World?”

Great questions. Actually, I had “how we met” as an idea in MacJournal, so you and I are on the same wavelength! I haven’t gotten to it yet because it’s a long story so thanks for the nudge.

I grew up in a small town on the far west side of Cleveland…..the sort of town that had one traffic light and where everyone knew everyone else. Mike grew up in several small towns in the southwest area of Ohio (Urbana and Lawrenceville to name a couple). As fate would have it, we both chose Ohio Wesleyan University for college, me for nursing school, him for….well, “undecided” at first.

We met early in our freshman year which would have been fall of 1986. I can’t tell you exact details. He remembers we met at the library while we were studying. From my memory I can’t give you that detail, so I’ll go with his account. We ended up striking up a friendship, and along with a few other kids living in our dorm, we formed a group of awkward, geeky nerds who hung out together while the “cool” kids partied. We were a pretty tight knit co-ed group that did all sorts of things together, but there was no romantic involvement between any of us. In fact, 4 or 5 years ago I found my journal from that year. On one occasion I wrote about the evening Mike and I hung out and talked while waiting for our clothes to dry at the dorm laundry room. I actually wrote, “Mike is a nice guy. Not bad looking. But not the sort of guy I’d want to marry.”

Yes. It’s true. I wrote that.

Anyway, our friendship continued throughout freshman year. Our group created a pretend fraternity to mock the actual Greek system. Ours was called IBT. Which is Greek for “I Bite-a Thigh.” We actually hung flyers all over the campus announcing the IBT Christmas party! I told you we were geeky nerds, didn’t I?

Anyway, freshman year was a blast, but then sophomore year came. I moved to a different dorm and Mike and his roommate, Bob, became R.A.s in yet another dorm. We drifted apart. I was busy with my nursing clinicals. Mike began dating someone and was also pretty involved with his R.A. job and being a justice on the Student Court.

So for two years we did our own thing. He dated Anne, I dated several people (not all at the same time). We’d pass along the street once in awhile and say “Hi,” but that was it. We had the same statistics class junior year (same professor, different time) and once I remember him calling and asking if I could explain a few things to him. So he came over and I walked him through some problems. He ended up getting an A, thanks to me!
Then senior year there was a big change. Our friend Bob was going to become an R.A. in the dorm I had lived in for the last two years. In fact, he was going to be on my floor! And Mike was going to be his roommate. On another front, Mike and Anne had broken up, and I wasn’t seeing anyone at the time. So we started hanging out together again, just as friends. We’d coordinate our lunches and dinners so we could eat together. We’d study together. We’d lounge and watch TV together. Then after about a month, something changed. I didn’t see him as the “nice, not bad looking, but not someone I’d want to marry” guy anymore.

So, one evening we had been studying and I looked at him with total 100% seriousness in my face and said, “I have really enjoyed these past few weeks together. I’ve liked eating meals with you, studying with you, hanging out with you. And…..and….I’m really (pause) finding myself (pause) becoming very attracted to (long dramatic pause) BOB.” HA! He should have gone running then! Thankfully he didn’t!

And, as they say…..the rest is history.

And as for the Walt Disney World question….too many to count. We go about twice a year (we own a timeshare). In fact, it’s weird, but we live in Ohio and we have Walt Disney World annual passes!

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