Saturday, our daughter-in-law Patty celebrated her birthday with her mom and children in the Washington DC area. That's where she teaches and her husband and our son is stationed. Right now, though, Dave is deployed in Afghanistan and Patty is 'holding down the fort'. As usual, I've sprinkled pictures throughout this post that may or may not fit the interview. But each one shows something about this beautiful person.
In keeping with tradition, I interviewed her over the weekend via email. Here's what she had to say:
What did you do on your birthday?
I spent the morning with 6 eight or nine year old boys because Matthew had his birthday sleepover from Friday to Saturday. I also went out to eat with my kids and watched David's basketball team win the league championship!
What's the secret to managing your very full schedule?
I just take one day at a time and the older kids are good at helping out.
Your schedule is insane when everything's normal. How in the world do you cope now that Dave is deployed?
My mother is a huge help in transporting kids to activities. I counted up that the older three are involved in seven extracurricular activities - scary!
What are your goals career-wise?
I love my job as an instructional coach, but it is more time away from the kids. I am toying with the idea of going back to being a reading teacher just to be closer to home.
As an Army wife, you've lived in a lot of locations. Which is your favorite?
Weather-wise - South Carolina. Experience-wise - Tennessee
What's your idea of an ideal vacation?
Right now - warm weather, beaches, spas
You're very athletic and sports oriented. You were on three teams that went to the state finals in Volleyball and two of them won the state championship. You also played college volleyball until an injury sidelined you. What are your feelings about such a sports oriented youth and do you recommend it for your kids?
I learned so much about life from playing sports and I definitely encourage it for my kids. Part of the reason I am a taxi-driver from 4:30 - 9:00 every evening is that I feel like my kids are too young to specialize in a sport. They need the experience of trying many new things out.
Patty and her father-in-law warming up for a round of golf.
Patty and Dave
What are you looking forward to in the coming year?
Continuing to watch my children grow and taking the time to focus on me - exercise is a big priority. And, of course, the end of Dave's deployment and having our family together again.
What other interesting things might I include about you?
ummmm.. I'm a Grey's Anatomy junkie, even though I have this entire season on DVR right now because I haven't had time to watch it. Other than that, I'm not very interesting.
I loved Patty's interview answers but she's wrong about one thing. She is
very interesting. She has many interests and she's one of the kindest and sweetest people I've ever met.
With the patience of Job and the wisdom of Solomon, she's a perfect fit working with children in her career but more importantly as a mom to her beautiful children.
Eli being anointed by his new Godmother at his baptism
But she doesn't just shine in the world of children. She's sweet, understanding, modest, conscientious and hard working. Loving to everyone - friends, family, children, animals, and the population in general she, in turn, is loved by all.
So, Patty, I hope you had a very happy birthday. We're so blessed to have you in our family.
Here's Dave with his lunch. He said that the guys he works with think they're really, really funny hence the enhancements to his lunch cooler. (It really is kind of funny).
The first ones to leave were, of course, the first ones up. Everybody went about their business in order to leave on time. Everything was organized and nobody was frenzied or frantic. I was so impressed.
Today David was getting a ride to school but I don't think that's typical. On a typical day, I believe everybody in this family leaves the house at a different time. (By the way, I think Patty has finally admitted that David is taller than her.)
Katie was next. How can they all be so pretty and handsome and cheerful and sweet so early in the morning?
Evan Zachary who was up with the first ones orbited around everybody's sphere cheerfully. Don't let this picture deceive. Each one ate a healthy breakfast but because we were here Zachary got to finish his off with Chocolate donuts. I wanted to include this because it was so cute that he was adamant that his donuts had to be chocolate and then he insisted on calling them brownies.
Here's Matthew cheerfully enjoying his healthy breakfast.
And then ready to head out the door - right on time.
Meanwhile Zachary, who has to look at each picture after it's taken, realized that sometimes he looked really big and sometimes little. I explained that it depended on how close he was to the camera so he experimented. Here he wanted his hand to look big.
And here he moved far away so he'd look small. He's SO smart!
All too soon it was time to leave. Patty's mom (Nana) arrived to take over and we headed out.
On the way home, we ran into this critter. I was glad that he was securely tied because I sure wouldn't want to run into him on the loose somewhere.
More about our busy week in the next post.
