For the summer, Kendra is back with her Answer Me This link up. Yay!

Here are her questions, and my answers:

1. Any big plans for the summer?

We’re putting our house on the market, and building a new house. That’s pretty big.

Also, I’m going to Edel, with Super Friend! That’s definitely big.

And we’re going to a wedding at the beginning of August, where I will be singing many songs for the reception afterward, along with the band that consists of my husband, his brother, two of his cousins, and a family friend. Big.

Other than that, we’re at the Farm for the rest of this week, we’ll be going to the pool a lot, the girls have a few weeks of YMCA camp, and we’ll be soaking in the gloriousness of summer in Wisconsin.

2. What is the strangest thing you believed as a child?

Well, I think I’ve mentioned before that I had an imaginary friend named Banny. At some point in my childhood, I guess I no longer felt the need to have Banny around. My explanation for his departure was that I accidentally killed him by jumping on my bed without realizing he was taking a nap between my mattress and box spring (which was where he slept?). You’d think this would have been traumatic for me, but it wasn’t at all. Perhaps I should be disturbed by that, but I’m not at all.

3. What is your favorite amusement park ride? (can be a specific one at a specific park or just a type of ride)

When I was a kid, I used to go to an amusement park called Boblo Island.

They had a ferris-wheel-type ride there that I don’t remember the name of. As I recall, it started out flat on the ground and you got into these little cars that started to rotate around the wheel and rise up off the ground. It went very fast, and in addition to that, there was a steering wheel inside the car that you could turn as fast as you wanted to make your individual car spin around. It was my favorite ever.

Beyond that, I always like pretty much all roller coasters and fast rides.

4. What’s on your summer reading list?

Surprisingly, I don’t actually have a summer reading list this year. Right now I’m finishing Confessions by St. Augustine.

After that, I think I’ll read Teaching in Your Tiara: A Homeschooling Book for the Rest of Us and A Dark Lure, which are on my Kindle waiting to be read (the latter of those was a free download). I also have a lot of other books at home that I want to read, like 10 Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, St. Rita of Cascia, The Heart of Motherhood: Finding Holiness in the Catholic Home, and Therese, Faustina, and Bernadette: Three Saints Who Challenged my Faith, Gave Me Hope, and Taught Me How to Love

5. Have you ever fallen asleep in public?

Yes, on a plane. I don’t think anywhere else.

6. What is your favorite smell?

New baby. And a very close second is newly baptized baby/chrism oil.

That’s it for this week.

You can see Kendra’s answers to these and check out others’ posts/answers here.

This week I’m doing Kendra’s Answer Me This, and as a special treat, my husband is answering the questions as well.

1. What’s something you’ve won, and how did you win it?

Me: I won my school’s spelling bee when I was in fifth grade. The word that clinched my victory over a sixth grade boy named Darren was “juvenile.” I have a weird love for spelling (and sentence diagramming) and it’s always been something I’m good at.

I went on to the regional spelling bee, where I placed fourth. The word that knocked me out was “nemesis.” I had never heard the word before, and I spelled it N-E-M-I-S-I-S. At the district-wide spelling bee I was the runner up. I missed the word “exhaust.” Forgot the H, and realized my mistake as soon as I saw the look on my Mom’s face in the audience.

Is it disturbing that I have such a vivid memory of this? I swear, I do not feel that my life is lacking because I never won the regional or district spelling bee. . . I do still have the dictionary they gave me for winning my school bee though.

Husband: I won a State Wrestling Championship by kicking ass.

2. Do you save old greeting cards and letters, or throw them all away? Why?

Me: I save things from my husband and children, and some extra special things from other people. I have letters my husband wrote to me during our first year of dating when we had a long-distance relationship. I also printed out all the emails he sent me during that time. Those are all tied up in a ribbon and saved in a box in my closet. I also have birthday and anniversary cards from him, cards from my daughters, some letters and cards from my Grandma, and a thank you card from Super Friend. I also saved all the cards and notes I got during and after my conversion. I throw away most other things after saving them for a bit.

Why do I save them? I’m sentimental. I like them. They make me smile, and I want to be able to look at them when I’m old. I’ve read over the letters from my husband and some of the other notes and cards on occasion. In a world where everything is electronic and sentiments are rarely lasting, I want to be able to hold on to some expressions of love and support and friendship that have meant a lot to me at various times.

Husband: I throw them away. Next. (Note, I pointed out to him that he has a bunch of cards and artwork by our girls on his desk right now that he has not thrown away, to which he responded, “Yeah, but that’s like 1% of all the cards I’ve gotten. . .”)

Don’t let him fool you into thinking he isn’t sentimental. Here’s the upper shelf of his desk:

3. When you’re at home, do you wear shoes, socks, slippers, or go barefoot?

Me: Socks in winter, barefoot otherwise.

Husband: Barefoot. And socks in winter.

4. Who’s the most famous person you have ever met? 

Me: Depends who is more famous, Tom Arnold or Joey Lawrence.

Husband: Bill Clinton. Or Al Gore.

5. What has been your best work of art?

Me: My blog. It’s my way of being creative.

I also once cooked a coq au vin that was a masterpiece. (see #6 below)

Husband: Honestly, I don’t do art.

6. What is your strongest sense?

Me: Taste. I love me some tasty food. Example: Recently Super Friend and I went out to brunch at a local bar. On the way out, we were both rubbernecking a table of guys. We got outside and started laughing, because we had each noticed the other’s ogling, and both knew that the ogling had nothing to do with the guys at the table, but rather with their huge plate of yummy-looking nachos. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. . .

Husband: (laughs) Hmm. My common sense.

Check out more answers at Kendra’s link up. Also, check out her great post from today about family planning and having babies and not having babies.

I’m linking with Kendra again for Answer Me This! What is it about these question and answer things that is so addictive? I don’t know, but here we go.

1. Do you have a land line?

Yes. I like having one. My cell phone doesn’t work well inside my house. And I just prefer to talk on a regular phone instead of a cell phone if given the choice. Call me old fashioned if you will.

I don’t get it from any stranger. We actually had a phone just like that ^^ when I was growing up.

I think a regular landline phone is more comfortable in general, and easier to hold between my ear and shoulder if I need to be using my hands. I know, bluetooth or whatever, but no thank you.

2. What is your least favorite food?

Coconut. It’s a texture thing.  I don’t mind the taste of it so much, but I can’t eat it because of the texture. It’s followed closely in the level of my loathing by corn bread and grits.

3. What’s on your summer reading list?

Oh boy, lots of things. I feel like I should do a separate post just about this. Right now I’m reading The Little Oratory and Teaching From a State of Rest and See How She Loves Us and Style, Sex, and Substance: 10 Catholic Women Consider the Things that Really Matter. I never used to read more than one book at a time until I started reading Catholic books. I can’t seem to limit myself to only one nowadays.

Very soon I will be starting The Dolorus Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which I’m reading for a book discussion. I saw The Passion of the Christ for the first time on Good Friday this year, and when I read about this book, which the movie was based heavily on, I had to get it. There are a lot more books on my list to read, but I can’t think of any at the moment.

4. Is there something that people consistently ask your advice on? What is it?

I used to get asked questions about mental health or relationship issues all the time when I was working as a psychologist. I’m still licensed and so technically still a psychologist, but I’m pretty far removed from that world and I don’t think people associate that with me anymore.

Nowadays I get asked all the time about potty training. I’m quite vocal about my love of this 3 Day Potty Training Method, so several people have asked for my advice about fast and briefly painful, but effective, potty training.

5. What’s the most physically demanding thing you’ve ever done? 

By far, my delivery of Lass. I had a c-section with Miss, so Lass was my first real labor and delivery. My labor with her was unmedicated, lasted about 20 hours, and she was 10lb., 7oz. Enough said, I suppose, but if you want the full story, I wrote about her birth here (it’s not written very well, but it’s documented anyway).

^^ Very early in my labor

^^ Kind of in the middle I think. There are no pictures of the later hours of labor. I was a screaming hot mess, and not very receptive to the camera, I imagine.

6. How do you feel about massages? 

I think they’re perfectly lovely. I very much like getting one as a special treat now and then. I just try not to think about the slight awkwardness factor of the whole thing and it’s quite enjoyable.

See how others answered these questions here.

Linking with Haley this time for Answer Me This!

1. What’s the scariest thing that’s ever been in your yard?

Not much scary has been in my current yard. Probably this guy, I guess:

He really wasn’t that scary, but he was missing a leg and his tail. And I have a history with opossums.

Scariest thing ever was a drive-by shooter when we lived in North Carolina (oddly also part of the opossum back story). I guess not technically in my yard. But close enough, since two bullets came through the front wall of my house.

2. Beards. Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Thumbs definitely up.

I love the beard. Though I loved the bald too.

3. If stuff breaks, can you fix it?

Some stuff. I can manage a hammer, most small and some larger power tools, a needle and thread (or sewing machine), and crazy glue. However, beyond the sewing and gluing, I usually leave broken stuff to my husband these days.

4. What was your first car?

A Ford Escort I shared with my brother until he went away to college. Kind of like this one but grey and a few years older:

5. How often do you eat out?

Every other week to once a week. My husband and I go on date nights or we go out for a “family date night.” I have a great love of date nights. Also, I go out to dinner with Super Friend sometimes.

6. Why is your hair like that?

Because it’s thick and heavy. And because I don’t know how to do anything else with it. Or I’m too lazy to do anything else (example: I cannot commit to regular visits to the salon, so hair color and short cuts are out).

Heck, sometimes I can’t even manage that^^ and have to go for a bang-free variation.

I didn’t have bangs until December. Prior to that my hair had been the same long-and-straight ‘do pretty consistently since I was about 16. Once in a while I’d try something new, but it was always either pretty awful or more trouble than it was worth.

So I always come back to the basic long and straight. The bangs have been my latest attempt at “something different,” and they seem to be manageable so far.

See more answers at Carrots for Michaelmas.