1. July 5th is National Hawaii Day…have you ever been to Hawaii? Any desire to visit or make a return trip? Pineapple, mango, or guava…what’s your pleasure?

Yes! We’ve been twice: 2005 and 2015. I enjoyed both times very much but I don’t want to go back because a. the long flight and b. they aren’t treating this virus right. They’re kind of doing everything they can do to ruin their main import of tourism. I’d pick pineapple of the three fruits. You can get it in Hawaii’s version of a 7-11 and even there is is ten times better than what we have in our stores.

2. Last time you were ‘thrown in at the deep end’? Explain. 

I guess when I had to take on that dual enrolled high school class. I had no idea what they wanted out of me other than to teach the material in a way comparable to a college course. I could do that but still was unaware of their expectations.

3. Sun, sea, sand, salt…your favorite when it comes to summer? 

All of them? LOL. I guess I will go with sun because when I have a tan, I just feel better.

4. Bury your head in the sand, the sands of time, draw a line in the sand, pound sand, shifting sands…pick one and tell us how the phrase currently relates to your life in some way.

I’m going with shifting sands because we are very busy getting ready for Ash’s party but the hits keep coming. We just have a lot going on so those additions make it so I am constantly changing directions to get it all done. And right now, we’re getting the western bands of rain from that hurricane so that’s annoying too!

5. On a scale of 1-10 (1 = make your own rules and 10=like a warden), how strict were your parents? If you’re a parent where on the scale do you land? 

I feel like we’re somewhere between a 6-7. I have rules others parents don’t have such as having to earn game time, going to bed at a reasonable hour, and we don’t keep sugar and snacks as much as some people do. BUT I also feel like we give our kids a lot of tools to be successful on their own. We trust them, leave them alone from time to time, and we give them chores that they have to be responsible for. This in turn builds them to be better people and we don’t have to be so strict. I am actually surprised by how many parents spy on their kids internet activity but I just tell me kids that if they do something bad and break my trust, it will be like hell on earth – I’ll take all devices and games! That stuff means too much to them so they take it seriously.

ETA: I forgot to answer the first part! I don’t think my parents were super strict about much other than bedtimes. They had a good balance of saying yes and no to things such as sweets or going places. When I was in high school, I thought their curfew was pretty fair.

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

I honest-to-God thought today was Tuesday when I sat down to blog. I am just so crazy busy even though it is summer and should be relaxing! I guess I had that when we were on vacation. Now I have to get back to being on top of stuff. Yesterday I got a lot done actually: rented a carpet cleaner for the 2 area rugs downstairs, picked up wax for the shuffleboard table, called the high school and got Elliot out of HOPE (a state-run nutrition class? No thanks. Those clowns got the food pyramid wrong for decades), and called the county to send their mosquito truck out. With all this rain, we have had a massive influx of those suckers. Today I am grading for my classes and then I have to take my son for a haircut. Since it’s forecasted rain all day, I hope to get more grading done later then maybe tomorrow I can work in the yard. The party will be indoors and outside but I need to make it all look nice!