[speaker001:] Do you have children?
[speaker002:] Uh, yes. Uh, we have two sons. Uh, one's a freshman in college and one's a sophomore in high school.
[speaker001:] Oh.
[speaker002:] And you?
[speaker001:] I have one that's a freshman in high school, a daughter. And a son who's a sixth grader in a middle school.
[speaker002:] Okay.
[speaker001:] And I spend most of my time carpooling [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Oh [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] The story of my life [breathing].
[speaker002:] Yes [LAUGHTER]. Yes. Uh, *slash error
[speaker001:] My kids are involved in sports. My daughter has played basketball for six years, and my son plays football. I, my rule is that they can't play a sport the same time of the year [breathing],
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] because there's just not enough of me to drive them around everywhere.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] Uh, well, uh, yeah. We 've spend a lo-, spend a n-, did spend a lot of time, uh, it really helped when the, uh, older one was old enough to get his license and could, uh
[speaker001:] Yes.
[speaker002:] drive around by himself although that brought in a whole n-, other set of problems.
[speaker001:] I know,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] I know. The insurance.
[speaker002:] But, uh, I, uh, fo-, yeah, for one thing. Uh, [lipsmack] but yeah, we, uh, we do but our two had, had, uh, totally different interests of, but the-, there was not much, uh, overlap as such. The, the older one is not, was not at all into, uh, sports for the most part. Uh, he participated band and, and, uh, scouts were his two big things.
[speaker001:] Yes. My son,
[speaker002:] And, uh
[speaker001:] is in both band and scouts too.
[speaker002:] and the, yeah, younger one is, uh, uh, the sports one and the, whatever season it is he's, he's playing,
[speaker001:] Oh, gee.
[speaker002:] although football is really his favorite [LAUGHTER]. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, we spend a lot of time, uh, uh, carpooling and, uh, you know, and then trying to be, uh, up as much as possible with anything that they, that they do.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] But then, uh, we also didn't do, spend, uh, [breathing] time with them trying to, trying to, uh, you know, just family time.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Uh, [lipsmack] we had a, at a fairly young age we started teaching them to play games and card games and so forth. And, and, uh, uh, but we didn't, uh, do it as much or as often as, uh, I would have liked to. I would like to do that as a, as a family and,
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] and some T V watching. What about you?
[speaker001:] We found this Oriental tile game called Mah-jongg.
[speaker002:] Yeah, I've, I've heard of that.
[speaker001:] Have you?
[speaker002:] I've never actually, never actually played it. But,
[speaker001:] Well, it's really fun. Um, one of my neighbors moved here from Memphis and a lot of them played it, and she started a group going in the neighborhood and my kids wanted to learn how to play it and it's more fun with four people.
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah.
[speaker001:] And it's a game that none of their friends know how to play, and they both enjoy it. So if they want to play, they have to play with mom and dad.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] Yeah.
[speaker001:] So, uh, we play that a lot of them, and, uh, we like to go miniature golfing and to movies.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] [Lipsmack] We have family that lives outside of the state so we go visit both sets of grandparents and, and take car trips.
[speaker002:] Yeah, so do we.
[speaker001:] So, that, and my husband and son go camping
[speaker002:] Okay.
[speaker001:] with scouts mostly.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] My daughter and, and I hate camping so we go shopping.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] So that just kind of works out real well.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And, um, I'm a writer by profession and my daughter enjoys writing too, so a lot of times, she and I will travel to writers conferences together.
[speaker002:] Oh, now that's neat.
[speaker001:] Yeah. So, *slash error
[speaker002:] Yeah. No, we've never had anything
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] like that.
[speaker001:] So that gives us special time together too.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And she's on the yearbook staff and things like that so I can help her with that and she gives me ideas for my writing too so.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] Yep.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh. Oh, well, good. Well, I, you know, in terms of, in terms of any sorts of trends I, you know, obv-, obviously things are different from, for me than, and my children than when I was growing up.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] I, I, I grew up on a farm, uh, in Iowa, and, uh, you know the whole family was around the, the whole time. And then what my father did was, was, uh, in-, you know, obvious to me and I, I helped out with it. But, uh, although I have brought my boys into [breathing] to see where I work, it's not that easy, and it's, it's certainly not at all common, and they, they just don't really have that same idea,
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] so th-, they, uh, it's a, it's a whole different, uh, kind of thing there then, uh,
[speaker001:] My husband has taken us to work with him, and we still don't know what he does.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] So, [LAUGHTER] we just say he travels a lot. So, that kind of covers it.
[speaker002:] Yeah. Yeah. Well, that makes it hard though for in terms of, you know, family time with,
[speaker001:] Yes.
[speaker002:] with him.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] Yeah, I've been lucky in that respect that I don't, uh, don't travel too much.
[speaker001:] He's been on temporary duties where he's been gone nine months.
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] Yes.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] So those are the real killers. If he's just gone,
[speaker002:] Yes.
[speaker001:] he's gone three weeks right now and that's, that's mild compare to the big ones,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] so we just, you know. I just do the carpooling and, and handle whatever needs to be done. And something major,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] always needs to be done.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] So
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] you just have to, to handle it until he gets home [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Yeah, right.
[speaker001:] And hopefully he won't have too many surprises when he gets home.