Fantastic Five Meme

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.

Audrey, my awesome blog buddy over at Prosapia Vita, sent me my five great questions, which I have answered below. Please let me know if you would like me to interview you...it's fun!

1. What is your greatest triumph?
This one is EASY! Giving birth to Maggie on 12/1/07. Although giving birth to all of my lovies can qualify as my greatest triumph, I have to say that Maggie's birth was special because it was my only labor without drugs/medication. It made me feel so empowered, so proud, so strong, and so thankful for what my body can do.

2. When you treat yourself, how do you indulge? (For example, I love Starbucks Vanilla Bean Frappuccinos but don't get them very often because they have 6000 calories per sip--your answer doesn't have to be a food item, though!)
Okay, this is hard because I love to shop and I love to eat. SO I guess my indulgence would be a nice meal with my hubby and then shopping (not with the hubby, he is too practical!)

3. If you were giving an address at a graduation, what advice would you give the students?
Since I have a HUGE fear of public speaking, I would just have my husband give the speech, and he would probably figure out a way to incorporate Pope John Paul's II Theology of the Body into the advice :)

4. How did you meet your spouse?
Ooooh, great, a love story!!! I went to Franciscan University of Steubenville and in January 2000, I spent a semester at their campus in Gaming, Austria. At the time, I was dating my boyfriend from back home for almost 3 years.

One night, my roommate, Annie, and I went to knock on a friend's door in the dorm (he was a student from Hungary that we had just met) and his two roommates answered in their pj's, brushing their teeth. One of them was Phil (also from Franciscan University of Steubenville) and we all introduced ourselves. The next day, he and his roommate sat with me and Annie for all three meals! Since I was dating somebody else, I wasn't even thinking of Phil in any way other than a friend, actually I assumed he kept sitting with us because I thought his roommate liked Annie.

Later that week, all the students attended a meeting about safety while travelling throughout Europe, and they warned the girls (especially the blond haired, blue-eyed girls) that they should NOT travel to Eastern European countries by themselves. They suggested we travel in a group with guys as well. Since Annie and I were both blond girls with blue eyes, we got a little nervous and asked Phil and two of his friends to travel with us that coming weekend to Poland. They wholeheartedly agreed and so we planned our departure.

The night before we left, Phil asked me to go to the Valentine's Day Dance with him that would be on the Monday after our Poland trip. I agreed to go, but I told him I had a boyfriend back home, and he seemed okay with that, so then I wasn't sure if he liked me anyway.

We left for Poland that weekend, and it was on the overnight train rides and walking through Europe that Phil and I were able to talk a lot, and I realized how much I liked him. I had a tough decision to make, because while I knew Phil was more like the type of guy I wanted to marry, I wasn't sure how he felt. But I knew I had to break up with my boyfriend before anything could potentially get serious with Phil, and I felt really bad doing it on the phone from Austria.

I let Phil know I had broken up with my boyfriend, and the next day when Phil "picked me up" at my room for the dance, he had a dozen RED ROSES for me. I still make fun of him for that, RED roses on a first date!! He didn't know anything about what rose colors signify, he just thought red was for Valentine's Day...too cute!

We went to the dance, and danced on the balcony in Austria to "Amazed" by Lonestar. SO romantic! We hung out for a couple more weeks and then he took me out to dinner for my birthday and on the walk home, he asked me to be his girlfriend.

He still didn't kiss me until three weeks after that!!! I was his first kiss, and it was beautiful, innocent, and super romantic because it happened in Assisi. We really loved spending that semester together in Europe, getting to know each other on all those long train rides, and taking classes together which never happened back in Steubenville since I was an accounting major and he was a theology major.

Wow, that was a long story, but I am an uber-romantic!!

5. As a mother, what really makes your day?
So many things: hearing my kids pray, seeing them share/play together, the random hugs and kisses they give me without asking, the "I love you's", the giggles, the fact that right now Mom and Dad are still the coolest people on the planet (which I know is about to change!), and playing HiLo at dinner.