Today's spotlight is on .... Robyn aka: Mnmischief, Rob (although only my family and Candy call me that and I don't really care for it) Occcupation: Daycare provider Family:  Married for the second time to Bob (my own personal palindrome).  He is my knight in shining armor, my biggest admirer, and he spoils me rotten. And I love every minute of it! lol  We have our problems like most couples, but overall, I think I'll renew his contract when it comes due in November.  I also have a son, Matt, 26; a daughter, Jessica, 21, both by my first marriage. And of course a precious granddaughter, Abby, who is 3 going on 13. I am fully convinced I should have been the mother of four, but fate didn't work out that way. I was married for 9 years, 1 month, and 14 days before I got pregnant for the first time (it says so on the conception announcements we sent out! ), much to the consternation of relatives who swore I was pregnant when I got married at 19!  So to them I say.... ppppttttttthhh!   It took another 4 years to conceive the second child. They are a joy to me! And while they are two totally different people, they offer the most wonderful qualities a mother could ask. Characteristic that describes you best:  Strident? Does that make me a typical American????   Actually I think the characteristic that describes me best is vivacious! Have you ever looked at people and thought, if they were an animal they would be a .... fill in the blank.  If I were an animal I would be a chickadee (do they have chickadees in England?) ~ always flitting from place to place, letting my presence be known by the noise I'm making! lol Interests/hobbies: I love bird watching and I keep track of which birds I've seen and where. I love reading, although I go in spurts. There will be months at a time where I don't read a thing, then I can't seem to put a book down. We go canoeing when we can. It's so relaxing and leisurely, and so unobtrusive to the animals around us. I love Vikings Football! I don't have anything I would call a hobby. I'm one of those people who know a little about a lot of things, but not a lot about any one thing. Same with hobbies. I can sew, crochet, paint, cook, etc., just not well enough to really DO anything with it. Places you've been to: I've lived in New York, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Minnesota. I've seen all five of the Great Lakes: Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario. I've been to Florida and Texas in the middle of summer; I've seen the buffalo roam and the antelope play in the Badlands of South Dakota, and seen the presidents heads in Mount Rushmore.   I've seen grizzly bears and mountain goats and the sun set in the Rocky Mountains of Montana; and I've seen the mountains and traffic jams of southern California. I've bartered for goods in a Mexican border town, and heard the thundering roar of Niagara Falls in Canada. And I'm about to make my first overseas trip to England. Favorite Place: My favorite place has to be Ripley beach, just sitting on the rocks watching the waves roll in.... Proudest Accomplishment (NOT including your children): I've done a lot of things in my life that I'm not proud of, but when it comes to the final accounting I hope the good outweighs the bad. There are some things I've done in my life of which I'm very proud, but there are two that stand out in my mind. When I was 24 (and my husband was 37) we got a call that his uncle had passed away and left three teenage boys orphaned, ages 11, 12 and 13. We were asked if we could take these boys and raise them until "other arrangements" could be made. We had no idea what we were getting into. We dealt with drug and alcohol problems, bedwetting, illiteracy, behavioral problems, and run-ins with the police. For three years we tried our best to give them a good home and instill decent values. In the end the two older boys ran away from home to live with a drug addicted older half-sister, and we adopted the youngest boy. The other event was caring for my mother-in-law. Bob's mother suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for decades. When I met her she was wheel chair bound and couldn't walk at all. Bob's parents were wonderful people and I was as devastated as he when his father died in his sleep. By this time his mother was partially blind from cataracts, hard of hearing, and had a tracheotomy, and suffered from dementia. The only thing she could do for herself was lift a spoon to eat. We took her into our home, where we cared for her until she passed away a year and a half later. Future Goal:  I want to write books. I have so many stories I want to tell, true stories about a woman I never met who kept tapes of her ramblings into insanity; the story of the journey to eternal rest my mother-in-law made; the story of my father and his life growing up with a cruel step-mother and life on a dairy farm...  They sound like downers, don't they!  To me they are stories of life and hope, the struggle to make the most of this life and a fervent hope that the next one is better.