1. Don’t you love second chances? I love second chances. I’m one of these lucky girls who was fortunate enough to get married young, figure out what NOT to do, divorce, and give it another try with a lot more life experience under my belt. Not saying my divorce was my doing, but hindsight is 20/20, ya know. I’m the wife of a high school football coach seven years my junior. What an adventure it’s been with this guy who has brought me to so many uncharted territories! We are opposites in practically every way and have such different backgrounds, but somehow, we find compromise and humor in our everyday lives – especially in the instances when we remember he was in the fifth grade when I was a senior in high school!

2. I never set out to be a mom. I was never the teenager who wanted to babysit or work in the nursery at church and I had never changed a diaper until that warm and very clear day in October of 2010 when I first met my oldest son Eli. He peed on the doctor before I actually saw his face and it was his diaper that was the first one I ever changed. I had another son, Don, a few years later, and then suddenly I found myself to be the single mom of 4-year-old and 8-month-old sons. Scary, scary times. It’s hard to mother whilst laying on the bathroom floor devastated from the failure of a marriage. But alas! The clouds did indeed part and I was blessed beyond measure not only with my husband, but with yet another son, Jack, my last chance at mothering another infant, another adventure which I would’ve never seen coming at age 38. If I had to describe my mothering style with one word, it would be “survivalist.” I do what needs to be done for my boys, I try to bring fun and laughter into most things, and sometimes we are a big disorganized, flustered mess, but I highly doubt my boys ever question whether or not they are loved by ALL of their parents.

3. Currently my favorite thing to do is to sit in my favorite chair beside a large window early in the morning, drink coffee, see who is out driving in my neighborhood, and read that week’s copy of New Yorker Magazine. I feel so artistic and connected to New York City when I read the articles and all the goings-on in the art world up there. Of course, it takes me the whole week to get through one issue because I have three sons and a husband and sometimes those articles are small novels! I love that my sister has gotten into producing abstract-like art and I’m slowly filling my home with her work. My favorites are the ones with lots of color – they really stand out on my obligatory gray living room walls.

4. Besides my family and music, food is my next favorite subject… I’m a FOODIE. I love food. No, no, you don’t understand, I Loooooovveeeee food. Food is my best friend…, well, one of them. And you can absolutely tell it by looking at me. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to lose weight, trying to count points and calories here and there…, but the fact of the matter is, is that I LOVE eating good food. At the end of a long day at school with 9000 children wanting to all sing the same song 100 times each, all I wanna do is whip up a huge pot of Smoky Tomato Bacon Pasta. Now there’s a dish… pasta, tomatoes, bacon, cream cheese…. What else could make you feel that good after a trying day ?

5. Someone that I love very much recently said to me, “Why are you ALWAYS laughing?” I guess maybe it’s because I’m constantly around people under the age of 8, or maybe because my spirit age is around 12 or so. Either way, the internal conversation with myself is always of the highest level of comedy and even when sitting quietly watching TV, or reading, or just sitting in a waiting room or something, you more than likely will hear me suddenly chuckle, at which point you probably will think, “WHAT is she laughing at ??” (The teacher next door to me frequently hears bursts of laughter coming from the other side of the wall but has never really questioned me about it.) My sister did confess to me that “it gets on people’s nerves!” My response to that is, if you think being constantly happy and laughing incessantly is a problem, then go find a grouch to hang out with!!!