I've Been Interviewed

Here's how it works:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me".
2. I will respond by e-mailing you 5 questions.
3. You update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You include this explanation and an offer to interview others.
5. When you receive the comment from another, you will send them
5 questions.

Thanks, beautiful Lerin, for the interview!

1)Tell me how you and Reed met and fell in love.

I must say, I enjoy telling this story. Reed and I currently help in our diocese with the marriage prep. courses and when I get to tell our story, I fall in love all over again!! I like to label our story as a 'whirlwind romance', you'll see why.

I had served a year with NET Ministries and had been given the opportunity to work for a number of parishes as a youth minister. I worked for three amazing, young priests. One of the priests is an outdoors man. He loves to hunt and fish. Every year he invited a number of friends and other priests over for his annual Wild Game Feed in the winter. He cooked and prepared all of the food that he had caught throughout the year, with the help of a friend of his from his seminary days (who, after discernment of a year in seminary, had not pursued priesthood). The event had always only been open to males, but this priest decided that he would begin to invite a few couples and of course that included women. Since I was on staff with him at the time, I was one of the ladies invited.

I had heard about this friend of his who helped do the cooking (in case you haven't guessed it yet, it was Reed) and thought he sounded wonderful. I tried to meet him that evening while at the Game Feed, but I think we only engaged in a short conversation. I was intrigued though. Reed was also friends with one of the other priests I worked with at the time and occasionally I'd try to ask questions about him, but I never got much info. besides finding out that he was indeed single. The following summer, I was invited at the last minute, one evening for supper at the parish house and found that Reed would also be there, along with another priest. I was eager to go in order to hopefully learn more about this Reed guy. We were able to engage in a bit more conversation, but mostly with the rest of the group present. As time passed, I found myself wondering about Reed.

That fall, I was putting together a Confirmation retreat for high school students and needed a few males to help me out. I was striking out with every male I knew or even once knew, to help out. I got the great idea to give Reed a call and hoped and prayed he could help, because I was running out of time and desperate. I did call him and asked if he'd please give me a hand for a weekend retreat. He said he'd think about it and call me back. He eventually did decide to give me a hand. I was so glad and secretly was looking forward to the weekend, mostly to spend time with him. We were able to talk quite a bit that weekend and I realized that he was a really neat guy. I was so intrigued by him!!

Weeks followed and I think we had a few phone conversations. One day, he asked me to come to dinner and told me he wanted to cook for me. I was so impressed that he'd want to do that for me!! As the day got closer, I really was starting to feel something for him and knew that when we did get together for dinner, I needed to speak up and say something. I had it all planned out, 'I really enjoy spending time with you and would love to be great friends. However, I wouldn't mind something a bit more serious either. If I am to date you though, it is only with the intention of finding my future husband, not just to have someone to hang out with. Mostly though, I'd really like to be good friends.' As we sat engaged in conversation after dinner, I found myself nervous as I led up to my speech. As it turned out, he was feeling the same way and wanted to bring it up as well!! We were on the same page!! So, Dec. 16, 2000, we decided to start dating. Things went quickly and we easily began discussing issues like children, faith and marriage withing weeks.

I had fallen, exactly as I had always envisioned, quickly and deeply in love. Reed was the strong, devote Catholic I hoped for and the thoughtful, kind, considerate, gentle and loving man I dreamed of in my husband and father of my future children. Long before Valentine's day, we were discussing marriage and knew that we were meant to be together. On the evening of Feb. 13, 2001, we had already planned that Reed would come over to my parents and stay overnight so that we'd spend the whole day together on Valentine's day. Reed was ready and waiting for me when I got home from work. He stayed for dinner and afterward we were going to go to evening mass to meet up with our friend, Fr. Joe, who was one of the priests I worked for and also a close friend of Reed's. After supper though, Reed suggested we go visit Fr. Joe at the rectory before mass, so we should leave early. I agreed and as we drove the 10 miles there, I kind of noticed that Reed was a bit more quiet, even perhaps a bit uneasy. I thought nothing of it. We arrived at the rectory and no one was home. Reed mentioned that Fr. Joe had said he may be running late and we could just go on inside. We were sitting in the living room when Reed started reminiscing about our relationship and our first meeting, here, in this living room at the parish house. Before I knew it, he was digging something out of his pocket and asking me to be his wife and marry him!! I was so surprised!!

He had worked hard and taken care of every little detail...he made it special by arranging with Fr. Joe that no one be home. He knew how much I didn't want to get engaged on Valentine's day like so many other couples, so he was hoping the ring would be ready sooner, but the jeweler had just called that afternoon and he had picked it up only hours earlier. He had gotten off work early and arranged to meet with my parents before I arrived home in order to ask them first if he could marry me. I learned all of this later and was amazed at this wonderful man. My future husband. In keeping with our 'whirlwind' story, we only had a 7 month engagement and were married on September 8, 2001.

2) How did you choose Lily & Jonah's names? And what other baby names are you dreaming of using one day?

Names for our children gets a little tough. My husband has definite likes and dislikes. He doesn't like names that are 'popular' or 'trendy' or any that have any relation to anything that he can remember (a movie star he doesn't like or some kid in school he never liked, etc.)So, for Lily, that name actually came up well into the pregnancy and I mentioned it because I heard it on a show once and for me, when I thought of it I just thought of something beautiful and peaceful. Also because the lily flower is often presented with the saints as the symbol of purity. Reed did not like the name. I had kind of given up on it and a couple weeks later he came to me and said that it had grown on him and he really liked it. So, for Lily, our girl name choices going into the hospital were Lily or Josephina (or Josie for short). When she was born, we looked at her and knew she was our little Lily.

For Jonah, I loved the name Noah, but being that it was trendy I knew there was no way we'd be using it!! I even printed off the list of top 100 baby names from the year before and made sure that any names I presented were not even on the list or very far down there!! Jonah was a name that was definitely not on there! We both liked it and it made the cut for our final list, along with Jude. After Jonah's birth, it was actually a few hours before we decided on his name. He just seemed that he could be either a Jude or a Jonah and we had to decide so that we could call family and give them the name. So, Jonah it was!

As for future names I'd love to use (and I'm always coming up with more!!): Lucy, Gianna, Monica, Catherine and Josephina for girls. And for boys: Jude, Matthias, Josiah, Aaron, Gabriel, Aidan and Tobias. Keep in mind, this is my list, Reed may not agree on some of these!!

3) Tell me about your life growing up..where did you live? Brothers/Sisters? Favorite things?

I am a pure Minnesotan and have live here all my life. I grew up in a small town of around 700, Holdingford, with two Catholic churches!! In the 'old' days, they were separated as the German and Polish churches. Some people still see them that way. We belonged to the 'Polish' parish. I just have one brother, Joshua, and we are 15 months apart. We couldn't be more different! He was bold/strong-willed and I was the shy/quiet little girl. As for favorite things, I wasn't picky I don't think. I liked Barbies, Strawberry Shortcake and any dolls. I also loved to play with my kitchen set of things and pretty much anything involving imaginative play. I always played in my mind that I was a mom of 9 children!! Reading has always been one of my favorite things to do. I loved it even as a child. I was content to sit and read as long as possible and my brother was much more active and always wanting me to do something with him.

4) How did you make the decision to homeschool?

Well, after attending public school through my 9th grade year, my brother and I were homeschooled. We had friends who homeschooled (and back then, that was very rare!) and after a very tough year in 9th grade, I actually asked my parents if we could homeschool and eventually convinced my brother to try it as well and join me. So, I had known homeschool for a few years and knew that it was tough, but definitely worth it for me! Reed's knowledge only came from what I shared with him. We talked about it periodically as Lily got older, but before she was 5 we decided to attend the Catholic homeschool conference closest to us in the spring. I thought it would be good for Reed to see in person (and not just in a catalog or online)the materials and curriculum out there. We also wanted to make a decision at that point because we were being overrun with questions about school and where we'd send Lily, if she was in preschool, etc. The precious winter we had spent some time looking into the possibilites at the closest Catholic shcools as well. After seeing the different things and attending the workshops at the conference, I think it became more clear for both of us that this may be tough to do, but we needed to try it. Reed's concern mostly came in realizing that I'd have to take on most of the work with it and didn't want it to overwhelm me. So, we went ahead and decided that it was a good thing for our children and for our family.

5) If I took you out for a birthday lunch and pedicure, where would you want to eat and what color would you pick for your toenails?

Ooohhh, this is tough!! Mostly, I'd say anywhere we could just sit and take our time eating and chat the afternoon away!! But, if I had to decide, I'd choose either some place with Italian food or Baker's Square (which I think are all now closing!!), because I love their pie!! Nail polish color? Some tone of dark pink/mauve. I seem to gravitate toward those colors!!


*******

Do you want to be interviewed? Leave me a comment and I'll see what questions I can come up with for you!