The Unplanned Podcast with Matt & Abby - My mom: Getting married young, Hawaii, and Parenting Now vs. Then

Episode Date: May 20, 2026

This episode is sponsored by Better Help, Ladder, Wayfair, & Kindred Bravely Better Help: Find support and get 10% off therapy at https://betterhelp.com/UNPLANNEDPODCAST . #ad Ladder: If you have an iPhone, go to https://ladder.fit/UNPLANNED to take a quick quiz and get a free 7-day trial with no credit card required, plus $10 off your first month if you join. Wayfair: Get prepped for patio season for way less at https://wayfair.com Kindred Bravely: Get 20% off your first order at https://KindredBravely.com/UNPLANNED On this episode of Unplanned, Matt & Abby sit down with Abby’s mom, Lori, for one of their most honest family conversations yet. They finally unpack why the family was so against them getting married young, why the move to Hawaii caused so much tension, what Abby was really like growing up, and the parenting debates they still disagree on today. Check out Lori's Travel Book! : https://www.amazon.com/Lets-Travel-Hawaii-Guide-Kids/dp/B0GX7BFTGJ/ Follow her insta: @whatasmartcookiepublishing Follow The Unplanned Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/unplanned__podcast/ https://www.tiktok.com/@unplanned_podcast Listen to the pod on Spotify/ Apple Podcasts: https://open.spotify.com/show/1ToDA4ufQuWuEgMq07zN6t https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unplanned-podcast/id1669604504 Follow Matt & Abby: Abby's Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/abbyelizabethoward/ Matt's Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/_matt_howard_/ TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@matt_and_abby Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/mattandabb YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@MattandAbby Chapters: 02:10 - Dad's camera phobia 03:45 - Abby's childhood 10:45 - Matt and Abby meet cute 13:13 - Ad Break 16:37 - Mom is an author! 22:50 - Getting married in college 29:09 - Ad Break 32:54 - Asking for Abby's hand in marriage 38:35 - Social Media career 40:42 - Moving to Hawaii 48:57 - Being a teacher and a mom 50:13 - Ad Break 01:06:30 - Living in Arizona 01:08:16 - Questions from our audience 1:15:40 - Ad break #unplannedpodcast #mattandabby Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thank you to Time for Learning for sponsoring this portion of today's episode. We are entering the beginning of school time for our kids. It feels like there's so many ways we can go and it feels like we need to lock it in now so they can stay consistent through all their years. All the options are great, but sometimes it can be overwhelming. That is why I'm really excited about the option of time for learning. Because schooling is honestly one of the most important decisions you make for your child. And time for learning is an amazing option if you want flexibility like us.

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can get $20 off their first month at TimeforLearning.com with code unplanned at checkout. That's time number four learning.com and use code unplanned for $20 off any flexible, self-paced curriculum. Start today, month to month, no long-term commitment. When did I freak you out for the first time? Mom, you can just confront him right now. This was a moment that I was dreading for years. What happened? Bring up a lot of stuff, Matt. You're bringing up her trauma. Do you secretly have a favorite kid no but I'm not true I think Blake it's you I think there was ever gonna be like a time that you were like yeah take her from me no it was just hard to accept the whole right yeah I didn't want to change all right you guys

welcome back to the unplanned podcast this week we have a very very special guest probably my favorite guest we've ever had on this podcast it's my very own mom give it up for Lori Biswell took over three years of this podcast. And I do think that I need to open by addressing the elephant in the room. Where's this guy? The elephant is at the park with the boys. The elephant is at the park with my sons because my mom is happily married to my father,

has been for over 30 years. They are honestly attached at the hip at any given moment at any time except for if there's a camera on. They can't do anything not together. Not together. Except for being on camera. Except for being on the podcast. Yeah. No, you guys are always together.

We are often. And, um, no, pretty much always. All right. And, um, and I think it's really sweet. But my dad does have, what would he call this? Anxiety phobia. It hasn't been diagnosed officially yet. He's got like a, you guys, why my family, I was raised very, I would say sarcastic.

We show our love by teasing each other. And we've really teased my dad about this. But then there comes a point we're like, no, this is like actually serious. Oh, yeah. No, I think, what was it? What's the story, Abby? You guys were at Disney World, and then he was worried that he was going to get the camera on him at the laugh floor.

You guys know at Disney World? No, here's the thing. He doesn't get to defend himself because he didn't show up. And also we say this with love because I'm also acknowledging he has a real thing, which is so funny because he is, I have his DNA. You cannot be more different than your dad. I know. Yeah.

I'm probably a little bit closer to dad than you, though, in this regard. Yes, totally. But, you know, okay, so Disney World has this Monsters Inc. laugh floor thing. It's like a comedy show. It's literally for kids and just for fun people on vacations. But they do like put the camera on audience members. And the sheer thought of that has my dad drenched in sweat and he has to vacate the premises. I've thought about this.

And I think here's where it all started. When we were like probably first married, there was a comedy club in Quincy, if you can believe it. And we sat the very front row and this comedian the entire time. pointed us out and said stuff to us. Oh, so he has trauma. I think, I think it's PTSD from that comedy comedy. I've never, how have I never heard this story? We've tried not to talk about it. You guys went to a comedy club? I know, it doesn't seem like that. Was it clean? I think so. Well, you know, it's, I think mostly. Okay. Wow. So, mom brings up Quincy. So we, I was raised and my mom lived her entire life in the town of Quincy, Illinois, which is, I always say small town, but I

say this like the little level of fear that it's, I'm offending people in Quincy. Do people in Quincy recognize it as a small town? I mean, probably a lot of people don't exactly because there's so many smaller ones around it. Right. But, you know, it's like 40,000 maybe. Yeah, I didn't grow up thinking it was small, but then when you leave, you're like, oh yeah, that was small. Because we know, we all know people in like the littler towns around us. So that's the small, those are the small towns. Quincy's the big city compared to everywhere around it. Like people who drive in from other towns you come to... For medical stuff and for restaurants and shopping.

Yeah, what can you tell us about a young Abby Biswell when she was a kid growing up in the small town of Quincy, Illinois? Wow. Some of the good things about Quincy is they're very good with fine arts and the music and theater. You know, a lot... She didn't necessarily play an instrument for very long, but the vocal stuff going on in Quincy and I think those are all really big positive.

of things in Quincy and I think you had some great training in a lot of those things maybe more attention than you would have maybe in a bigger city big fish and a little because Abby did some sort of professional show of Alice and Opera Land right wasn't she Alice that's the biggest one you came up with that wasn't that your claim to fame Alice so many you were Alice in Opera Land I was you were you were something there really is the Santa Claus what's the yes Virginia there's a Santa Claus yeah you used to have that frayed up in your house. It was on the front of Arts Quincy.

Yeah. Wow. I was on the front of Arts Quincy. I was in a couple commercials. You were friends with the mayor. He used to, you the mayor were buddies. He gave a little speech for the mayor when he was running. A few times.

I, oh, the bridge lighting. I did a little bridge lighting with the town. I feel like that's like one of the really special things about growing up in a small town is that you kind of, like I said, you're a big fish in a little pond, but also like it's a small, tight-knit community so then like you just had so many opportunities to like like in what situation am I going to be talking with the mayor of where we live now you know what I mean we just need to get Jonathan Vanessa on the podcast because he's another he's another Quincy

legend you know I know Jonathan from when he was a little kid where did you teach him in school no but I was when I was in high school and I was a pool waitress at the country club and he was a member there as a little toddler and I can remember him walking around there and hanging out with him at the country club and him he wanted to pretend like he was a pool waitress with us that's cute and um as a little kid i don't know him as an adult but wow it's a tight-knit but very nice family super nice family yeah wow that's awesome yeah and so i was very involved in the arts which is actually kind of funny because i feel like you and dad i mean certainly not dad but not even you really were what was your motivation then was because that was so

shy at first? I don't think you were shy. Really? No. I can remember just, I think it started with dance and you were like a preschooler and I can remember talking to some of my friends about where you should go to dance and then like go to Cheryl Kaiser School of Dance because she does a lot in musical theater kind of stuff. I thought that sounds cool. Like shows and stuff. So I think that's where it started. And then when you were in second grade, is that when. Yeah, I was in second grade. Best Christmas page ever. They were doing at the community theater.

I had one line. And you took a class right before just to kind of be comfortable and got cast in the show as well as Blake, his debut as well. Little brother. It was so difficult to work with your little brother. I would never recommend it. Whenever he would misbehave, I felt personally responsible for it. He kind of fell through the cracks on the whole thing.

I was like, oh my gosh, please ignore. Do you know the first line from the show that I was, do you know the one line I had? An angel broke my, an angel? My wings are bent. Okay, my wings are bent. Yeah. I was named Juanita, the baby angel that has one line. That's sweet.

I feel like the questions people really have for you are about your first impressions of me, your first impressions of like us dating. But to get to there, I feel like we first need to talk about the Muni, you know, that's kind of the, that's the theater in St. Louis, the Abby and I met. So what's the story behind? how you and Abby ended up in St. Louis for musical theater at the Muni. I think somebody had said that they, like I didn't even know it was a thing to audition for there. And then...

Because it's two hours from where we live. Which, for context, for people that have no idea what the uni is, it's the oldest and largest outdoor musical theater in North America. It's like a St. Louis tradition. It's been around for over 100 years. They do summer theater. Every single summer. Like it seems like 11,000 people. Yeah.

It's 11,000 people. They have like free seats in the back where if you want to come. A thousand free seats. Yeah. Is it over a thousand? 5,000 I was thinking. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong.

I don't think it's 5,000 free seats, but it's a lot of free seats. It's cool. It's a St. Louis tradition and it's in Forest Park where they had the World's Fair back in 1904. So back of the day when like they used to do worlds fairs all over the place, St. Louis held it. And then I think it was, yeah, not too long after the World's Fair that they converted that part of of Forest Park into the summer theater. And so it's cool, you guys.

like they bring in super talented people from Broadway every single summer and then they have a youth program for St. Louis kids and teens to get to work alongside this like high caliber of Broadway talent and Abby and I were some of those kids and teens growing up and that's the place that we met so yeah I was really an outsider of sorts coming from like not like not being local but I have to shout out my mom because she really like saw this passion and driving me and and just like you went 150% like this whole like the whole time like nothing but support from both my parents because also like my dad couldn't just leave for the summer you know like that but he was like more than he was like go do it like chase your dreams and so that's what led you to having

like honestly I think you you heard from other moms about this audition yeah I can't remember how we knew about the audition but I think the first year to make it you're right well I think we like decided like the night before something crazy like that and then the next year we kind of had a little bit more knowledge on what to do and you know we're prepared for it but i can remember how exciting it was like when you got a call back for it and then i'll never forget that that was such a fun night and we spent the night we were so happy and giddy together like you were like i don't guess we got to get a toothbrush yeah we went to target and we bought a little because we didn't think we were going to spend the night but i actually secretly had packed a few little things in the back of the car just

like hoping yeah like some extra clothes just in case but anyway so that was super fun and so you got cast in that first show I think you were in between your eighth and ninth grade year yeah and we really didn't know at all what to expect because we were there maybe a month by the time it had rehearsals and um and the shows and then met matt's mom Teresa I think did you meet her first before did you like meet my mom before you met me I think so okay I think so. Well, yeah, I knew your mom definitely from like the call-bill before that and stuff. I can't remember exactly. Yeah, a lot of those moms I met from there.

And then, yeah, so I can remember you guys like playing cards together. Like all the kids would play cards when you weren't on stage. There was a lot of downtime because we weren't necessarily in every number. We were in, let's just say about 90 seconds of the productions. I mean, it depends on the show. Yeah, it depended on the show. Like, if it was a show, like you got to be in 90 seconds. Some shows, like I want to say,

there was a show that I was in like half of the show. Yeah, because you were the Muni Golden Child. That's not true. I was for a little bit. And then I feel like I got blacklisted for a little bit. Oh, wow. Because I went and I did shows at another theater. The scandal. I did shows at St. St. Louis.

Isn't it funny, though, how high stakes kids, theater, dance, sports, like how high stakes it can get like that? There's politics to it. There's politics even in kids stuff, you know? It's funny. Totally. But I, what's funny, Lori is I remember my mom telling me probably when I was in eighth grade like yeah this this you know cute girl and her mom invited

you to come like do shows in and their small town of Quincy Illinois and I was like oh that's cute like I just didn't like it was it was like a week long camp is a big deal on Quincy see I didn't know that like I couldn't sleep the night before it started like I was so excited which yeah which anyway I looking back if I could go back I probably should have done the boot camp because I probably would have learned to act better. I spent so much time dancing. Like, it came time to act. And I never really, I never really, like, learned how to act

until maybe my senior year of high school. It's never too late. I think, yeah, Brandon Thompson, who was the director of the theater and was for your whole time in Quincy. I mean, I think he taught you so much. Totally. Stuff, I don't think that you would just learn from random classes if you were somewhere else.

And so. Lori, was that your first attempt to put Abby and I together when we were in eighth grade? No, not eighth grade. When were you trying to like do your matchmaking? I feel like the sprinkling started around my brain. Yeah, when did you become a matchmaker? I don't know.

I think honestly getting to get like we'd come like there were some those classes or whatever at the Christmas time like around. Yes. And so then that would be a second time. Broadway theater connection is what it's called. A second time that we go to San Luis. I don't know if you always were at it. But like I'd get together with your mom still.

We'd have coffee and talk and I'm like, gosh, our family seemed like a lot of like and maybe I just really liked your mom at the first and then I was like it's important but Matt seems like you know obviously you came from a nice family and um so I got to know you kind of through your mom I'd say ah okay this show is sponsored by better help this is your reminder that no matter what you're going through in your life you do not have to go through it alone and that's I'm a huge advocate and so is Abby for therapy not only do we do couples therapy we've also both gone to individual therapy. And with over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is one of the world's largest online therapy platforms, having served over six million people globally. BetterHelp is an amazing introduction, especially if therapy feels overwhelming for you, because you can do it from the safety of your own home on your own calendar.

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That's betterh-h-elp.com slash unplanned podcast. I remember, I feel like whenever, like, I would talk about boys around my mom, which I will say wasn't that much. I was not the most boy crazy girl. Like, even though I get accused of being boy crazy. No, you were not at all. Thank you. Not at all.

And not even just like, you just didn't seem like, yeah, there was nobody. I was so, that was too driven. I had a, had a purpose. I had a other things that were important to you and it wasn't boys. And I loved hanging out with my friends. And my friends weren't really like that either. No. So I feel like if my friends were more like boy crazy,

then maybe it would be like... The girls would hang out, yeah. They were good influences on me. It was probably the craziest of all of them, which is pretty crazy you think about. But I remember when I would talk about other boys, they would be like, or my mom would be like, he's no Matt Howard.

I would say that. The standard. And so she really got in my ear. That's getting bigger and bigger. And I was like, Mom, he has no idea who I am. He has no idea who I am. And it might have been true. And honestly, I don't think you thought a thing about me.

I'll be honest, I did not pay much attention until high school. Rude. Sorry, sorry. I think you just like got more attractive. I don't know. I don't know. We both did. Look at the picture of us.

I had like pimples on my face. I don't even know. What did you even see in me? There was a lot of humidity that night that you guys had that first picture taking you. Should we throw the picture, the OG pick? Of Abby and I, from when we were in Mary. Poppins. It was very humid. 2013. You can't control it.

13 years. And my hair was cut way too short for how thick and frizzy it was. It's weird to say that was 13 years ago. It was a post show too. It was a post show. Yeah. That's a long time. I just look down. I'm like, wait, I need to bring this up. What? Oh, yeah. Bring it up. Also, mom doesn't just do a hiatus from the podcast for three years for nothing. She's an

author now. She's on her official press tour. She's doing it. She's doing the circuit. She's going on all the big podcast. She was just on Always Here with the Abby Howard's and now she's on unplanned. Promoting her brand new book. First ever book that she wrote with my aunt called Let's Travel to Hawaii. Mom, talk about your book a little bit. All right. Well, so, I don't know. So Gene and I, my sister and I

had decided, I mean like, I don't know, 15 years ago we were going to do a travel book. And I think we first thought about it because, you know, we did a lot of nice traveling as you know it was a priority um yeah i mean you know everybody decides what's to do with their money and i think we it was important to us to travel and so i always thought you guys did the coolest trip because it was your your parents that would take you guys on these you know different vacations to greece and italy we would go to disney every time okay because that's that was our that's our place it still is my place yeah but um otherwise we did go with we went with my mom and dad and my sister and her husband and their cousins, Brett and Bennett, and we did some really nice traveling.

And so whenever we would go, you know, I would think, oh, I want to, you know, if you have more buy-in, if, and it seems more fun, if you have some knowledge about the place. And so I'd always look to see what kind of books could I get for the kids or, you know, to learn about it. And honestly, there really, there just weren't anything that was quality that was out on the market that I could find about any of these places that we'd go to. And we went to Hawaii, we went to Alaska and Europe and some different places. And I'd always look and you couldn't find anything good. And honestly, to this day, so you'd think at this many years later,

there would be some good books out now. But there really aren't. The things you can find a lot of times are just like, you know, write your thoughts about the day or, you know. But I wanted something for you guys at the time. and now that was, you know, visually appealing, but had, you know, good facts about the place. And so that's kind of why we decided to write this book. So it's the first in the series.

And Hawaii is out now. But Florida's already in the works. And then we're going to, you know, do some international or we're not sure. What should we do next after Florida? Yeah, comment down below. Should you see them cover next? What's really cool is that this feels so fitting for a multitude of reasons for my mom. First of all, she was a teacher, elementary teacher for 27 years.

And her teaching never stopped in the classroom because I was certainly raised by a teacher's child because I have memories of us road tripping to Florida from Illinois because we surely drove most years. We did a lot of times. And I remember like when we would cross state, you know, you're crossing over a lot of states. driving from Illinois. There was some times where mom would prepare for every state border we crossed a new state activity, like work sheet activity, like some type of learning. In typical elementary school teacher fashion. It's summer, you know, we're on summer break. And here we are. We have crack out our,

oh, we're now in Georgia. Get out your peach thing. And so this is very fitting for you. And the book is beautiful. We can open it. Yeah, correct me if I'm wrong. Did you teach elementary school for 20 years? How many? Well, 27 years in education. 27 years. A couple of years where I was doing a few different things. She was a star guide? Well, for a few years.

She was the behavior enforcer. At the last few years it was a, I mean, it's kind of like. I love it. A dean for elementary school children kind of a thing. I guess I'm thinking, I'm hoping, you know, even adults would think it's fun to look at it. I mean, you know, you're not going to get everything you need to know about Hawaii if you're trying to do. But I'd say it's a good overview of every, you know, the main things. in each place and in a fun to read way.

What would be like the best age you think for a kid to really enjoy this book? Because obviously the pictures are cool. I think Griffin, our three-year-old, would love just looking through the pictures. But to actually read it, do you think it's more of like a third grade or fourth grade? Which is the grade I taught.

Okay. Yeah. I'd say probably so. That's really cool. It's really cool. It's very, here's the thing. It's great for anyone's home library too.

Just like, okay, how many times are you doing a project on a certain state or you just, I don't know, it's just so visually appealing and here's the best Easter egg of all. Oh, yeah. Did you notice? Me and my cousins in Hawaii. Oh, that's cute. So we're trying to do a little Easter egg thing on each book on that same page, a picture of you guys,

you and Blake and your cousins at those wherever it is. It's really cool. And also, it's just the perfect collaboration between you and, your sister. Our whole family is you're going to see this trend if you haven't already with us. Very tight-knit. Like, and, um, I think I took that for granted until honestly I was about 27. Like I was like, this is unusual what we have here. But the fact that like you and your sister are working together combining your skills as both moms, but teachers and a professional, like, journalist, author or really a writer is what Gina is now, now authors to create this awesome

resource for families and kids. And, um, I'm really proud of you, Mom. Thank you. Was your job more of the illustration and Gina was more of the writing? Almost all of it. Yeah. And then my mom and grandma also helped. And grandma also helped.

I was on the team with some of it. But yeah, Gina did the writing and I did the graphic design. Let me say that I am so proud of what my mom is doing, but it would mean like so, so, so much to me, you guys. If you follow them on Instagram, purchase the book if you can. It's on Amazon. It's on Prime. prime it's really easy it's a quick buy it's great to add to any library i know a lot of you guys have kids or just i don't know it's a it's just a beautiful book to add to your library and i just really

think that it would just be such a i would be so grateful if you took the action of just supporting my mom because honestly loving my family and supporting my family is like the greatest act of supporting and loving me so thank you so so much in advance for all of you that do that right of a review if you buy it give it five stars and um we'll link it down below and also follow what a smart cookie publishing and thanks guys really thankful for this community is it okay if we circle back to yes our love story through Lori's eyes yes I think we need to get back I feel like we've talked a lot about like yeah this is what my parents said and my parents did not want us to get married yeah but you just haven't like and we haven't really like talked that through with your

mom and she's right here and we can we can ask her literally whatever yeah so we were scandalous and we wanted to get married before we graduated from college I feel like we've talked about this a lot But even before that, though, I feel like, wasn't, I feel like your mom was just like, Oh yeah, she has a specific memory. She would drive, can we just address this? Lori would drive Abby from Quincy two hours away to St. Louis all the time so we could go on dates. Yeah, I wasn't allowed to drive on highways. Like you would, yeah, so you weren't allowed to drive to visit me.

And so you would go and stay at like a hotel using points, right? Let's be honest that the driving part was more dad, not one of his phobia. That's right. Your dad would drive because he didn't want your mom driving alone. He's got a little safety thing. Well, also in Quincy, the fastest road is 40 miles per hour. So I had no experience driving fast. And that's maybe a stretch, 40 by these.

Yeah, and I don't even think my car could have even gone. See, Abby, like, that's just, like, finally dawning on me, like, why the highway was so scary for you guys, because, like, driving on the highway was just, like, part of life for me. Dude, when we moved to Phoenix, that was the first time I was, like, how am I going to drive here? We drive on the highway every day. That's the reason why my grandma can't move here. That's the reason why, like, mom was worried about driving here. She was worried moving here because of the driving.

Yeah. It is a big change. I'm talking about Vicky, too. We're talking about different grandmas, I think. Ah, okay. Everyone was worried about driving. Let's just say that. Everyone in the family.

Phoenix is probably not a good example of moving to bigger city with the driving. Seriously. You were very supportive of the dating. I was supportive of the dating. Why? Why did you? Because I just thought, you know, it just seems like you guys have a lot of the same values. You, as I said.

You got along with Teresa well. I loved your family. I can remember going out to dinners and stuff with your whole family. I don't even know if you guys were dating then. Maybe, maybe you were. It's almost been 10 years ago. When did, when did I freak you out for the first time? Okay. Can we talk about that? Yes. Mom, you can just confront him right now. Yeah, let's just have this conversation right here. I can remember where we were. You and I were in the car. Okay. It was Abby's senior recital, dance recital, the last one, as well as her graduation from high school was all in the same weekend.

So you're just feeling so emotional. Yeah. As was I. This was horrible. This was a moment that I was dreading for years and years. This moment when it's like I distinctly remember just so many times just being sad and upset about Abby growing up and dad would be like, don't waste your time. You know, think about the, don't think about that now. Don't waste a time now.

But anyway. You've unfortunately given me that quality. I've already cried about Griffin and all you leaving. This was the climax. This was the big weekend that I, four years, was dreading. You were dreading that weekend. And then here we are in the car.

And what do I say to you? You ask, could I take you to go get some flowers for Abby for either the days or graduation? Yes, I can. And then you're like, hey Lori, I've been thinking about this. Who would you think if Abby and I got married young? And I was like, thinking of my head,

you have got to be kidding. me. This is the moment you chose of all moments. He's never been one for timing. It was just the, you know, I think I'm going to say it. I think I'm going to say it. And then you said it. And I thought, and I'm pretty sure I said this is not the time to have this conversation.

You always been comfortable. I feel like you're also extra comfortable with Matt because you literally met him when he was a child. You know what I mean? So I feel like there's just a different level. Like when we were dating. he stayed in our house that's the thing it's not just like a typical dating thing

because of the you can't just like go on a quick date and come back home at night so he would come and stay at each other's houses and stay at our house for weekends yeah that's the thing with long distance

is like we're just hanging out like I'm at your house you're at my house we do all the meals together you know meals together we you know it's like he's already a part of family I know yeah

and I also remember and Matt my Matt okay just so everybody knows. My dad's name is also Matt. Yeah, his. Very confusing. Matt, you're Matt. Matt, there's well and Matt Howard.

Yeah, we got a lot of Mats. A lot of, you know. Maybe we should name this baby, Matt. That'd be fantastic. It'd be very fantastic. I can remember being somewhere. I was on a Sunday and it was like you'd come for the weekend and you had to go back. You were going to go back and you're like, oh, I'm pretty sure the weather looks really bad outside.

I think I don't know about this ice outside and we're like there's no ice outside. And you're like, I think it's going to get back. I think I better just not go back tonight. And so you stay another night and you're like, there's no ice outside at all. So funny. I loved being at your house. Like it was just so much fun.

Yeah. Played lots of games. That was a staple growing up. Gosh, if I could, if I had a time machine, I wish I could just go back to that time. That was so fun. Just to be like, just to be young and in love again. Oh, wow.

But like. Now you're just old. than love. No, but like, to, yeah, just, I don't know, it's just like everything is so exciting. Oh, yeah. Literally everything. Yeah. Every date we went on was just like, I can't believe I'm taking this pretty girl on the date. Oh my gosh. So fun. Yeah. Um, was that before, so that conversation where I told you that I wanted to marry Abby Young, was that before after we had talked about me getting a promise ring for Abby? Or did I just, did I just spring down on you guys? Did you just find out? I don't know. After the fact. She blacked out. She's, she's wearing it right now. I got. I got. our promise ring in high school that is a real diamond and I went and I negotiated the price down at the jewelry store that sounds like something you would yeah I would yeah um I don't know this was this was her high so you probably got that first huh I don't know I got that school

yeah that was probably that conversation because you gave it to me in June of after high school I remember I was in music theory class and telling like some of the girls who were in the class being like yeah I'm gonna get my girlfriend this promise ring and tell her that I'm like want to marry her And I was like, what do you guys think about these? And like, oh, that one's cute. And then I went and bought it at the jewelry store. Thank you to Ladder for sponsoring today's episode. If I'm being completely honest with you guys, at first, the gym was very overwhelming to me

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And I was like, we had the type of relationship where I feel like I would just like tell you things that like maybe other high school girls wouldn't feel comfortable telling their mom. And I remember like literally a week, no, no, a month after us dating. And my mom, he would drive to pick me up. Like, because you would have to stay the weekend, like, in a hotel or, like, what even happened with that? I can remember. Well, his, that's prom? No, this was, must have been homecoming. But, like, just so I could hang out with Matt.

Yeah. And I remember I asking you, I was like, Mom, do you think that Matt and I are going to get, or do you think that was, do you think we're going to stay together or something like that? Or do you think we're going to break up ever? And you're like, I can't picture one of you breaking up with each other. Like, I remember thinking that and, like, having that validation. from mom of like, so did you actually take it seriously at that point? Or were you kind of just like, she's just infatuated as a high schooler? I think because I've been thinking about it for so many years, like in my head I kept thinking

this just seems like perfect. So then it almost seemed weird at then when it got to the time when you actually went on a date. I'm like, how did this actually happen? How did I manifest this? Because I, that would be a very very, you know. weird thing to actually have work out because being in two completely different cities and, you know, being young and...

Right. And so when we were in high school, did you actually think we'd get married? I think I did, yeah. But I just didn't think about it that soon. Yeah, that was the big thing. She really wanted us to graduate college. Was it the fear that I would drop out of college or was it... No, I...

No, it really wasn't that. I think the biggest fear it was just like changing our family, structure so soon it was just like because I mean that's like been you know like the most important thing yeah just like the four of us the our core family unit was like gonna change and that's it wasn't that I didn't want Matt included and it was just like it was just like too soon yeah you weren't ready for that to change that's valid can we talk about the conversation of me asking you and Matt to marry Abby if I could marry Abby I wasn't there So I can't call it on this.

It didn't go the way I said it should go. What happened? What do you remember? Well, I mean, this is a lot of... You're bringing up a lot of stress. You're bringing up her trauma. So anyway, it was a long struggle of accepting that, trying to accept this or not accept it,

like fighting about it. Lots of hard conversations. And talking to other people. And after we talked to... I think you made us meet with like, several people. I taught, we had, oh yeah. We did.

You put together the Avengers to try to convince us. Wait, wait, wait, hold up. Lori literally got to get together the Don't Get Married Avengers. You got all these like married couples that you knew from your community and your church to be like, well, you guys know that like when you get married you can't do this and you can't do this and then like you have finance and they're like trying to like convince us not to get married. And then one of them eventually like we went to like get tacos with one of these couples. And then one of the guy was just like, honestly, it's a lot of them.

pretty freaking great. It's like, and we're like, wow, I don't think you got the memo from Lori, dude. One of them said to us,

which we'll never forget, they're like, well, you just can't, when you get married, you just don't have, you can't be selfish anymore. And we're like,

well, is that what we're supposed to be strapping for? Well, I had, we had talked, so I was just like, panic mode.

So I, Matt and I had gone to go talk to our pastor and his wife. And I was like, they're going to be on my side. This is, this is it. What are I, they're going to tell me. And finally, I can remember his wife saying, you know, so, you know, basically what you,

what we like about you, you know, if there's anything we were. Like, were there concerns about Matt as a husband? No, there's not, no. And so she's like, you know, you might lose the battle, but you're going to win the war. I think you need to accept this whole thing. So I was like, you never told me that. Okay. Do you want to know who told me that? Papa. Oh. So.

That's hilarious that. You heard that from your Papa. Here's what happened then. So I was like, all right, Matt, that's what they told us to do. So I said, Matt wants to talk to you by yourself. So I know that's what this is. This is freshman year of college. So I'm 19.

I'm not going to be at home. Abby's 19. I'm not going to be at home. You take this. You do this conversation. He's like, okay. So I'm just supposed to be like, okay? And I said, yes.

Can I just clear my record? I had no idea that this was taking place. This was before I left for the summer to be in Orlando. And so I was like, I need to have this conversation now because I knew I was going to pop the question at Disney. You told me you didn't know that. Well, I was going to pop the question at Disney World because I knew that you wanted me to propose in front of the castle. I knew that that would be like your dream place to get proposed to. You set up a lot of lies because I thought you were going to propose at Christmas time.

But that's a specific. Well, I was like, I was also like figuring out in my memory. I was like, yeah. So mom, you were like, you want to dad out of a conversation without you? Well, Matt officially had asked Dad. Okay. So I was like, I'm going to be out of the house. So he goes, all right.

So I'm going to be like, yes, it's fine. I said, yeah, I think that's what they told us to do that. Does this mean that you wear the pants in your relationship? No, we just, I think he knew I was more upset. Okay. I think I had the most struggle with the whole thing. So he's like, all right. So I walk in the kitchen.

I can remember where everybody's standing in the kitchen. I walked in from the garage. And I was like, like, I, you know, he must have already asked, you must have already asked, and he was like, okay, I don't know, you know, I wasn't there. But then I can remember thinking, it just started bubbling up again. And I was like, I can't accept this. So then I started arguing again, and about kind of it.

And then later, Dag was like, what was that? You told me we were going to go for this thing. And then you go back on it. The conversation with Matt was like maybe 60 seconds. And with you, I think we talked for over. an hour. You asked me a lot of questions about, like, what are you going to do to pay the bills? How are you going to afford this? And I was trying to come up with anything. Yeah, I know. And I was, and I came prepared. I was like, look, I've been working a job since the day we, you know,

started college at Missouri State. And then we even, we found low income housing that fit our budget because, you know, shocker, we were low income. So just, it worked. It worked out. Just, just, just. This is stressing me out. This is a lot of trauma. That's a lot of trauma. So you love Matt. I got grilled. I got grilled for an hour. Let me just clear the room. She loved that. Wanted me to get married to him. It was just the timing. And I don't think, if we're totally honest,

mom, I don't think there was ever going to be like a time that you were like, yeah, take her from me. No. I think I knew it was the right thing. I just, it was just hard to accept the whole family thing changing because it was like perfect. You know, I thought everything was perfect.

And anyway, I didn't want to change. Yeah, that's hard. And I feel like mom and I like all growing up and even to now. Like I think what you didn't know maybe then is that we would still be super close. Like through it all. I guess in my head the whole thing's over, you know. Right.

You get married, the whole thing's over. And everything I, you know, loved was different. But it's not. Because growing up it was me and mom kind of like a tight unit. And then Blake, my little brother and my dad were like a tight. unit. So then we get married, you know, you think that everything's fine. What do you mean? And then we're posting, and then we're

posting on YouTube every week. This is her other trauma. Don't bring up all the traumas. Okay, we don't need a good, sorry. Mom hate social media, that's okay. I don't. Let's be honest, you didn't. You hate us being on social media. Again, I wouldn't say that's, that's strongly. There are things

I like more than others. She just likes us being on social media. No. She doesn't like us being open. I think it's hard for parents to see their kid get, you know, for people, it's hard for parent to see people like be mean to their kid. Yeah. So that's why like we have to tell our parents to stay out of common sections.

And I do. Yeah. Yeah. You do now, but you used to screenshot them for me and text them to me. I was like, Mom, you were just actually re-traumatizing me every time. You're like, go and delete this. I learned. I learned.

So that's fine. but now mom's learning how to make reels. She's... She's making reels for smart. What a smart cookie publishing. Yes. So shout it out. Everyone, you guys seriously,

actually, I'll do a private plug, not in front of her, but if you could support it, that would be very, that's very awesome and sweet and mean a lot to me. So then the next chapter, which also I will say, my brother got married

and didn't face any, a single trial. Yeah, I think you're skipping a step, though, because you kind of forgot about the part of the story where we're like, hey, mom, I know we just got married and like we got married way sooner than you wanted us to. We're moving to freaking Hawaii.

Yeah, we honestly, Mom, this should be our formal apology. There's a lot of, maybe a lot of trauma wrapped up in why I wrote the Hawaii book. I don't know. I, that was, that was horrible. Yeah. And I can remember being at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Chicago and just crying and crying about it. sad. I'm the worst daughter ever.

No, you're not. I put you through a lot all at once. You know, you actually. I was an adult for all of these things. Was it easier to parent me as a child than as an adult? A thousand percent. Oof. Not because you were necessarily doing anything wrong as the adult because I'm not, like, in retrospect,

none of these things were wrong. It was just not how I wanted it to be. Right. So it was really all a selfish thing. It wasn't because you had done something wrong. It was all selfish stuff that I didn't want to change. I could see selfishly how if Augie's like, hey, dad, I'm going to move to New Zealand and go surf in New Zealand.

And I'm like, dude, I can't, I would have to take like a 20-hour journey to come see you. So I can see how like Hawaii's not quite that far, but it's still like, you know, from Quincy to Oahu is like a 10-hour journey. More than that. Actually, you got to drive to Chicago. Yeah, you first got to, or you take the training. Chicago and then you can take the plane. However you get there and then you get a 12 hour journey.

Yeah, it was a big stretch. I think, yeah, I'm thinking about all the things that mom just had to process. Were you regretting giving the permission? She wouldn't admit it if she was. No. She would, yeah. She regrets. We can just say it.

She regretted it. She was like, why? It was a very, to say I gave permission is still a little. Like, did I ever really? I don't know. It was all. She's like, I never said yes. I don't know.

I would say, Laura. I would say yes. And then I'd fight. Like, I'd get upset about it again. So I don't know. I had no idea that Matt and you had a conversation beforehand about like saying yes to my question. You guys didn't seem like a you know. I had no idea.

Well, that's why he was like, what are you doing? Hearing that is really funny because I had no. I had no clue. Yeah. He was like, we talked about this. And I'm like, I know, but I couldn't go through it. Where was I during all the last? I don't know.

I don't know. Dance class. Maybe doing something at like the theater or something. Or maybe, no, you're probably watching Wes and Elise. The kids are used to babysit. That's true.

Yeah. That's true. But I'm thinking it's like so funny because like it seems like, you know, we were just kind of out here gallivanting, making our own decisions. But also our family, we came back to visit family so much. And family came out to visit us so much,

even in that short amount of time that we were living there. And then when it came time to move, we were going to move back to like the mainland. We were like, we were telling our family, we're like, okay, so we're thinking between Utah and Arizona. And everyone our family is like, we'll move to Arizona. Like we could see ourselves moving to Arizona, but we never moved to Utah. We're like, okay, fine. I had never been to either place. So I don't even know if I weighed in on that.

I was never been to either place before. But you were like, I don't want the cold. If we would have moved to California, do you think anybody would have followed? I don't know. I think I was secretly voting a little bit. for Florida, but I don't know if that was ever in the movie. It was kind of. Florida, yeah, was Florida ever in the picture.

Nothing was off the table at this point. What's crazy, too, is we've logged all this. This is literally on our YouTube channel, like us going back and forth about where to move. That was real. It was real. It was 100%. None of it was scripted. None of it was like, oh, we like legitimately did not know we were going to move.

People would say, why did they decide to move to Phoenix? I'm like, ah, I think they thought it was be fun. And honestly, that's the answer I would have gave. It was not a solid, like, people think there's a big reason. I'm like, I think they think they think. think it would be fun and they had some friends here. And that was, that was it.

That was really it. We just liked the son. Yeah. That was really it. And you know what? Since then, since we have moved here four years ago, mom and dad, my parents moved out, my grandma moved out. My brother and his wife and they now have a daughter.

Your brother and his wife and they now have two children. Yep. And so it seems like, we brought out 10 people. But then again, and they're multiplying. There's a lot of other parents of some of other parents that are like, temporary residency yeah holy cow okay wait so between you and i and griffin oggy and i'm not going to say our son's name we already know what it is and then we have your parents and then your grandma and then caleb and abby there are two kids there are two kids and then blake and addy and they're briel 15 people

and also addie's parents come often your parents come often abby's parents come often so if we move back to Hawaii, our family's going to literally excommunicate us. I don't think, I don't think Lori could survive that one. She has weathered so many storms. Don't do that to this woman. If we ever move back, we'll bring her back on the podcast. Here's the thing I know about mom though. Here's the thing I know about mom. Well, you love Hawaii. You wrote a book about it. I do. She is a she doesn't go by grandma. In fact, we get in trouble if we use that term. My kids don't even know that you are their grandma. But she goes by honey and she will not be separated from her grandchildren. That's right. No.

I do think that even if we had decided to move to California, which would not have been her choice, she would have found a way to be there. That's true. And so would my dad. Ga is his name. We were. Yeah. So the funny story behind Honey and Gaugh is really not that funny. It's kind of just my mom's like when you guys have kids, I'm going to go by honey.

And then that was because there was a kid that would call his or her. In my class. Yeah, there was a kid in your class that would call her grandma honey. And then that's funny. Honey's picking me up and then she like loved that. I love that. And so she had already known that that was going to be her name. But then she's like asking my dad.

She's like, Matt, what are you going to be? And he's like, I'm going to let the kids decide. And we're like, Dad, that's what you get. That's what you get. You get a name like gaw. Yeah. Because when they're one year old and they can't talk and that's what they can do. And so it's honey and gaw.

And I remember Blake and Addy were like, we're not calling him gaw. It's so dumb. And then now sure enough, they're like, Breel, look it's gah. I mean, that's who he is. That's who he is. My favorite is when Griffin in full, like, not even stuttering once goes, hey, guys, this is, meet my honey and my gah. This is my honey, gaw.

He introduces his friends to his gaw. Yeah. Well, he introduces dad as his friend, my friend, my friend, Gah. Like, I don't think he knows. He thinks dad is a peer of his. And, frankly, dad acts like he's a peer. So, yeah. Yeah.

Okay, that's the thing. You guys were really young, having. getting married and having kids too. We weren't that young. Why, what was the big deal? I was 20 and you were 22. Because that's the thing. We thought you guys were going to be on board

and we asked permission because Abby was like, my parents got married when they were young, so this was totally going to be approved. Dad had graduated two years earlier, and I graduated three months earlier. I think you were 22, mom. Something like that. But it seems like a big difference.

Plus dad was two years older than that. Oh, well, I should have found myself an older man then, apparently. I guess so. It seems different though if you're in college or if you're outside of college. It just seems like you're in a different stage of life. That's true. It is really weird being a married student. I don't think I knew other kids that were married in college at the time. We were weird for sure.

But yeah, I think most of those kids don't end up going to college. There are a lot of kids that get married young but not usually. I know what happens. If you could see yourself now, Lori, you know, all these years, Oh gosh, we're looking at coming up on a decade of Abby and I being a couple. So this was nine years ago when I first brought up marrying Abby. If you could have just like shown yourself when you were having like one of the saddest days of your life after your sideline, you could just see Griffin and Augie. Isn't that like a lot of things?

Like you're like if I could just see how it turned out in the end, I would have been okay. But but yeah, of course, yeah. I would not have changed a thing then. but I just needed somebody to tell me that that you need a magic ball and I feel like the same goes for us doing social media because like you don't like us being public facing or like all the things that come with that but you do love some good PR and some good social media some influencer benefits uh you know on occasion it has it has its perks if it happens if it happened we've taken your parents on a trip before, right? Yeah, we've done some fun, fun travels. Fun travels, thanks to social media and some PR, some fun opportunities. So, do you think that I'm similar to you as a parent? Obviously, I was like, I remember, like, you're my mom. I remember things, but I'm like, I really only have memories, obviously, of when I was way older than the age my kids are. Do you think

I'm a similar parent? Like, do I think, I parent my kids like you parented? I probably was a little stricter than you are about things. I'm not saying that's good, but I'm just saying maybe my, maybe because of teaching and like needing things to be orderly and needing, you know, things to be calm. I probably had more rules on some things than you do. And I'm not, and again, and I probably, I probably needed to let more things go. And it wasn't, like, not behavior wise, but just like, messes. And it was more Blake, you know, than you. Noise.

Yeah. Mess is in noise. Maybe because I had so much mess and noise during the day. Right. That influenced things. I just really needed it to be more calm and orderly. Yeah, let's talk about being a teacher because I feel like the combination of being a teacher and being a mom, especially to littles at the exact same time, had to be.

I know that. I mean, that was overstimulating sometimes. Super over-simulating. Yeah. And how do you think being a teacher impacted you as a mom? Thank you to Wayfair for sponsoring this portion of today's episode. If you are anything like us, if we have the opportunity to be outside, we are going to be outside. It's just a way to keep the inside of your house clean.

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Way fair, every style, every home. I mean, you see it's, I mean, at school, the way other kids are behaving and you want to make sure sometimes that my, maybe I went overboard, but like you'd, I'm correcting things at home if you saw certain behaviors at school and maybe not behavior wise. But I also was always very aware of like things you needed to know in school, you know. Like benchmarks? Yeah. I hear this. if we talk a little bit about teaching. I feel like there's a lot of teachers that listen to our podcast too that find this interesting. Teach Appreciation Week. It's teacher appreciation week. It's

teacher appreciation week as well. That's amazing. Yes. It won't be by the time this episode goes out. I know. But you should appreciate the teachers. We appreciate all of the teachers. Yeah. I think that something I hear you say and something a lot of teachers that have taught for like through the years more, like have some more experience. Say like teaching is not what it used to be. Yeah, I just think the main thing. I mean, I think it's a lot of things. a lot of it is the discipline in the schools and things that, you know, kids are probably not raised quite the same as they were. You think it's 30 years.

Yeah. And therefore, at school, you're getting the kids coming from those households that are very different than maybe some of them they were in the past. And it's hard to know what to do with that then. your hands are tied in a lot of times and a lot of times the parents don't you know are not on your side or not on the teacher's side what's the thing that frustrates you the most about like how schools and specifically you taught out of public school like how public schools are talked about in america like now in the media like what's the thing that bothers you the most i mean i can only

speak for the quincy public schools and the quincy public schools are great and the teachers i know are super hardworking and they spend countless hours at school. They love the kids in their classes. And so I think unfortunately in the news you're going to have, you know, there's going to be this random teacher and this day did this thing and this round teacher. But that's, you could do that for any profession, that you can find somebody who's not doing what they're supposed to be doing and who's done something wrong. But for the great, great majority of the teachers, it's not that way. And so I kind of feel like they're getting a bad rap for a small amount of people that are doing something because the teachers that I know work super, super hard. And it's not just teachers.

It's the paraeducators. It's the administrators who also get ripped on by people unfairly because I do know I work closely with the administrators the last few years and how hard that they work. And, you know, having to juggle between what the parents want, what the school district, what the superintendent wants, what the about the kids. it's hard. I think that's frustrating too. Like I obviously can't know personally, but just being closely related to

many teachers, you, both my grandmas, like the fact that teachers have to face criticism from parents, the public, like everyone, and then they're also just like severely underpaid

and working so hard. But it's just like, I feel like it's there, or their points were like, what the heck am I doing this for? And what does it boil down to? It's tough. And I think about all the time now that I'm not teaching.

And I'm like, wow, you know, you really appreciate that when you're not in it at the moment anymore. You know, like, it's so much work. And with not a lot of give back to you, I guess. Right. It's kind of like. Yeah, well, it's for the kids. It is. and also mom always told me that she chose the job like being a teacher

primarily because she was like it'll be the best schedule for having kids and um that was great we spent all summers together obviously i went with mom to school and then went home with her to school she was my very own third grade teacher and blakes and so we were basically like always attached to the hip when you really think about it and um i think that's something one of the many things that I like got from you was like just this prioritizing of motherhood and it just it wasn't even something I consciously thought about like it just happened where I was like we have to find something that works for having kids like so I can spend as much time with them as possible because that is like the most important thing yeah and

that's what led us to honestly what we're doing now and obviously it didn't even foresee this as being an option because I did go to school I know going to school to be a teacher because I was like well I guess this is the best schedule for kids and then so many ways I was like because that was my priority being a parent was my priority right but also I needed to earn an income so that was the best thing I need to do and I followed your footsteps nearly exactly it's kind of funny the degree paths we went down because after I got grilled by your mom on like having finances together I was like I guess I need to do like finance I got to figure this money stuff so I can afford to be married. Well, the whole theater thing at the beginning was a little. Yeah, I was like, I don't want, I don't want, like, her parents to hate me because I, like, marry their daughter and now we're, like, broke and can't pay for our food. Like, we got to figure this out.

Yeah, that's funny. It's weird, though, like, the, the freaking changes. Like, we, we were so set on doing theater and so set on being performers. And we honestly dropped it so easily. We dropped it because we just put our, we put our relationship first. It was, I was shocked. It was like at Christmas time when you're, you're like, I think I'm changing my major education and Massachusetts to finance. I'm like, wow. And you know, I don't know how to explain it. At the time, it was just natural. It wasn't even that sad. It wasn't that scary. It was just like, I guess we just so, we were very young.

I feel like to have like, we really had our priorities. Yeah. Clearly mapped out for ourselves. It was like, it was us before careers, 100%. Yeah. And like family, marriage. And it's always kind of been that way. And I think it's because of the people that raised us.

that that made that not like anything crazy at the time. Okay, so we talked about you being a honey. I've asked mom this before, but, you know, for the sake of the cameras and the mics. Matt's mom says that she enjoys being a grandma more than she enjoyed being a mom. She doesn't mean, and that sounds bad the way I'm saying it, but she's saying like, basically what I hear a lot of grandma say. They're like, you get all the perks of the children. Like you get to have them like when it's fun. fun. It's not overwhelming, but you don't have to deal with like, you know, the sleepless nights,

the like, you know, the discipline, things like that. But what would you say that? That all makes sense. I mean, that all makes sense. But I also want to say that I loved being a parent so much that that I never thought that that would be matched or topped. And so that's why I was saying before, like, for so many years before you graduate, I was like dreading, dreading, dreading, dreading, dreading, dreading, because I didn't want it to be over. And, and, and, and, I was, At some point, like in the last, I don't know, four years or whatever, you know, before Griffin was born, I was like, wait a second. Because the things I liked doing so many things, like doing fun things for like the holidays or, you know, any of those kinds of things. Mom had so many themed dinners.

And so I love doing those things. And I'm like, so then at some point I'm like, I could actually do this all over again. Because I kept thinking there was like, this was like the end. This was the end of my fun. This was the end of everything I loved because you guys are grown. It's over. And then I'm like, you know what? It doesn't have to be over.

You can actually start all over again and do the same stuff again, but just slightly different, you know. She's already started. She's had like little parties for the kids. So cute. You're raising them to be little mini. There are many honeies on their personalities in some ways. Like Griffin loves a party. He loves a theme.

And I think Augie's going to be the same. same way, but he's just not able to vocalize it as much. And so, yeah, like, I'm just fun to think, you know, that, that doesn't have to actually end in your life. It can just repeat it in a slightly different way. And that's what I'm, I hope to do. They had like a little Grinch party at her house over Christmas and things like that. This is not new for her, though, because growing up, I remember we did dinners around the world. So, like, we, We would have like a theme night and mom would try to prepare food from, now, I don't know how authentic. Authentic thing were, but we, I had Italian night.

I got CDs from the library for the music to go with it. Yeah, we had CDs for music. You weren't you attending like some sort of kids college course? Oh, Mom taught kids college. You taught kids college. It was Ratatooey Disney theme. Oh, yeah, that was that were my, yeah, mom taught a kids college course. It was a ratatooie.

I did a French and Italian cooking class. had a theme of like ratatooie or ratatooy and a lady in the tramp mom never stopped teaching when you really think about it and she also always found a way to tie in Disney which leads my next question do you identify as a Disney adult yes

okay but not in a creepy weird way I don't know what you consider a Disney adult I don't know I just feel like it was news to me that this was something that was I know there's some kind of a cult Disney adult culture. I know what that is.

I think it's weirder when like the Disney adults like have to get their picture with like all the characters. No, I'm not that. And get them to like sign their book. No, no, no, no. I'm not that. If you just consider Disney adults an adult who loves to go to Disney, then yes. Because I will say my parents take solo trips to Disney.

We do. Frequently. And here's the thing I need to know. Like this doesn't follow dad's personality. Not really. But he goes. He would rather go there than. I think.

you know, again, we had so much fun going as a family that, you know, you continue doing something that you've always loved. And honestly, the first time dad and I went, without you guys, I'm like, this is not going to be any fun. And you had a lot of fun. And it was really fun. You know, because you do eliminate some things. Not that we were doing this up until, you know, you're not pushing strollers. You're not, although obviously you guys were going in high school and we weren't doing that still. But, you know, it is something to be just. You can, you can start to understand, which I don't think there's any excuse for this, but you can understand why some parents at their breaking point.

Like at Disney, there's always some parent that's like screaming at their kid. I hate that. Adults have meltdown than toddlers at Disney. I know. I'm like, chill out, dude. You're the happiest place on Earth. You brought your kids to Disney.

But I will say that last Disney trip that we took, I was so tired from all. We were close to having a meltdown. Like, you know, you're waiting in a line for an hour just to ride a ride for 45 seconds. And then you're just like, oh. Oh, here's the thing. It's not an easy. It's not an easy vacation.

Yeah. We have such good memories. of driving there and that, you know, the DVD players in the car. My dad had to leave in the middle of the night because he was just too excited to wait until the morning. There is an old commercial that people my age would know that like the kids are like in bed, they're talking. It's an old Disney commercial.

They're like, I can't sleep. I'm too excited. And then at the end it pans to the parents. And I guess it's the dad saying the same thing to his wife. I can't sleep. I'm too excited. And that's literally. That was my...

That's cute. It's funny to make jokes about Disney idols, but there's actually just so much nostalgia wrapped up in it for our family. Because Disney used to have... They called it fast passes. But there were physical paper tickets to get a quick... You didn't have to pay extra for them. You just had to get there first.

And my dad, shy man... What did you say? I would say competitive about it. Very competitive. He would like speedwalk, Sweating, like running to, like, I have memories of him, like, just sprinting to Splash Mountain. Oh my gosh, not even Splash Mountain anymore. Like, Sprinting to.

Yeah. Teana's by you. No, but just sprinting and we got the paper tickets. I can remember saying something to him about this. Like, don't just, don't stress about it. He goes, but I want to make sure. He's like, I want to make sure the kids get to go on all the stuff that they want to do. And I'm like, okay.

Yeah, there was no question. Always with family vacations that it was, it was about the kids. It was about us. So that was really, we have so many good memories. And so I say Disney adult in a fond way. Yeah, I don't know what, creepy way. I don't know what the definition of that is.

I think they think, I think the internet thinks Disney adults are obnoxious. That's not me. That's not mom. She does have a lot of special Disney backpacks and ears. She has every single one. I don't. Every single one. Most of them.

I have a couple. She has a couple. Little do you know there's probably hundreds and hundreds of these things Oh Matt there's a whole cult behind it. How many actually do you have? I mean four or five okay how many how many popcorn buckets though? I The kids love them too

They are fun I was so upset when you let us borrow your popcorn bucket and it didn't work at Disneyland What the heck? I did not realize that it should work at all the parks come on people I guess there's I have two I have two Christmas ones so that when the boys come over Christmas time they wear them around their neck and then And we, I fill it with snacks for them. Not popcorn, because we don't let them have popcorn. The puffs from Trader Joe's.

People were confused in the comments on why we weren't letting our kids have popcorn. They're like, you don't let your kids have popcorn, but you let them have a slurpee. And I'm like, yeah, because a slurpee's not a choking hazard. Silly juice. Talk to some nurses that have worked in ICU. Grapes are choking hazard. Certain candies are, yeah. Oh, nuts?

Certain nuts. Okay. And popcorn. For younger, maybe then. Yeah. Our kids love cashews. No, I think it's really. the shell aspect.

Oh, yeah. Our kids are boogey. They love cashews and blackberries. Could be worse. It could be, it could be bougier. I used to think those were like just... You know what's actually, bougie is the Johnny Pops that they like?

Johnny Pops. Because they go through so much of them. What even is that the Popsie? The no sugar added, like, popsicles. Anyway, so now, okay, back to Quincy. Quincy. lived in Quincy your whole life. Circling back.

Raised. And then you made the move out here to Arizona. I guess, wait, is this too far back? No, we don't. I mean, I guess maybe the question is, how is it living in Arizona now when you lived your entire life in this small town in Illinois? It's weird, you know, like you get used to. Here are the restaurants I go to.

Here are the, you know, things I do because it's what's available. And now, you know, there's like an endless amount of things that's available. to do and places to eat and go. You don't have the same people here, though, as we did. So some of that, you know, I have only positive things to say about Quincy. Do you miss that small town community? Because everybody kind of knows everyone. You know, honestly, one thing I miss are going to our high school basketball games,

which are a big deal in Quincy. That's so sweet. That's one thing I love doing. And, you know, certain restaurants, Tirmisu, Jim City, those are like, we still talk about like. T-CY isn't even local, but it's not. It feels local. Right.

We have all these places to go here, but we're like, you can never get better Italian food than Tirmisu or better pizza and nachos than Jim City. And so. You know, the town where there's just more Mexican and pizza combos than. But it works. It works. It works. It works.

And people that I taught with and other friends of mine, you know, I miss those kinds of things. But it's hard to beat the sunshine every day here. And honestly, if you've been. guys had moved to some dreary place that I didn't like, we probably still would have gone. Really? Seriously. Of course.

Yeah. So if we move again, will you guys follow us? We're not going to discuss that. She's like, no, I'm at. Okay. So we polled our audience. They knew that you were going to be on the podcast. And we pulled our audience and asked questions.

I'm too afraid to ask my mom. And so they're going to ask you those questions. Questions the audience. You're representing all moms. Oh, this is a lot of pressure. Yeah, so don't take this lightly. Ooh. This one's a random one to start.

What is it? It says, was there someone you almost married instead of your spouse? No. Me personally? Yeah. No, why are you saying you're excellent? No, I'm not. I'm like, no.

Did you, wait, did you ever date anybody that wasn't? I date other people, but not. What? Nobody seriously. Just kidding. In college. Here's the thing. This is the example I had of my parents.

Like, first of all, let me just. We can take this out if we need to, but there was a time when both the kids were really young and we needed to go to L.A. for a work thing, but we didn't want to leave the kids. We were like, Mom, could you just come and just like, while we're working, you watch the kids and then we'll just be back and like do it. And then the question you asked me was, but what am I going to do with your dad? Yeah. It was like a two-day trip.

And I was like, Matt, this honestly symbolizes like they are. This was right when we moved here too. This was when we interviewed Taylor Lautner and Tay Lautner. Like, mom felt like she needed to, she like, they just couldn't leave. Well, dad. And it's sweet because this is like, this is the example of marriage. Like, I feel like you guys were always, you were just a unit. Like, you just, like, were always together.

Like, there was never. So I think when I got married, there was some confusion for me. Like, when I, if Matt was sick, he wanted to sleep in a different bedroom because he's like, I don't want to get you sick. But, like, dad would literally never. think of that. Like you would literally be like, if you're getting sick, I'm getting sick too. Like we're both like, and that was just like it was like the remote like there. It's just, it's not one's better than the other. But I think that, you know, you look at your parents' marriage growing up and then you just think

you're going to do the same exact thing. And you're like, oh, wait, this isn't the same thing. And so when Matt, like, he's like, I'm going to sleep better if I'm like, I'm like, but you don't do that. You simply just don't do that. Like that was just, whereas your parents. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy that you married your father, you know. You married someone who's like just the exact same. You're nothing like my dad. You're nothing like my dad. But, um, no, you're not.

So, okay, sorry. How do you keep love growing in a long marriage? Deep question, mom. Try to go there for me. Hmm. I don't know. Just like we were talking about thinking about the other person and not having yourself first always and going on dates and doing fun things and not keeping everything.

the same always and conversations and maybe maybe some PDA in there as well no mom is more PDA than she thinks your parents are 10 times more PDA than my parents I don't even my parents the most I'll see them do is be like love you like it's like like a like a one little like tiny kiss and like your parents will just be like getting cozy on the couch you cuddle cuddle I don't know you cuddle you do a little butt smacking I do not do that but yeah Dad does. Mud smacking's going on. Everyone's slapping each other's butts.

I don't know. No, she said, I don't know. Did you pant? Weren't you, like, panting Matt for a while? Was that a thing? No, me and Blake did that. Oh, you were pantsing your dad. Yes.

Yeah, no problem. That's just some good classic humor. Were you off limits? Is it the pantsing, I'm guessing? Probably not. Oh, my God. I don't know. I don't remember.

I'm sure there was an age that that became no longer, but I kept doing it to Blake. I still do it to Blake. And my dad I still did That's messed up Anyway When did you know

You were ready to have children Hmm I think I Like you were saying I think I did a lot of same things That my parents did You know Actually my parents met the same college

And then dad and I met the same college And they got married right after they graduated And we got some of the same things And actually a lot The same professions kind of Between What is up with our family? Dad and my dad

and me and my mom. But anyway, I don't know. I think it was something I always knew we were going to do. And after two years of being married, it seemed like about the right time. Was there, I don't know if I, what specifically, if there was a moment that I thought this was the right time. But I don't know. It just seemed like natural that it would be then. This one's specifically for moms of girls.

When moms have girls, do they try? try to live through them vicariously. I think probably a lot of times they do. Probably, I mean, obviously that's not what you should be doing. And I hope I didn't try to do that. I think I tried to just have you do what you like to do and what made you happy. They weren't things that I had done as a child. So it wasn't like, oh, I was, I failed at dance.

So hopefully you're good at dance or something like that. You did your own things. But I don't think I lit, you know, I think you just. hopefully want to see your child succeed or whatever it makes them happy. This reminds me of something that you brought up earlier like towards the beginning. You were talking about how like I had done a short stint

of like trying instruments and I never liked playing instruments. But what's funny is that like a lot of parenting advice that I hear is like if your kids start something, make them finish it. But I remember mom got this piano. I think someone gave it to you. No, that's kind of a bad story. Why? I can remember we first got married

and I was like, I'm going to go buy. We needed some piece of furniture. I can remember on a Sunday and I was going to go buy it and somehow I saw this auction. I'm like, that's a nice piano. And so I can distinctly remember because we always had a piano growing up

calling dad and saying, it's about to rain and I actually just bought a piano at this auction. Could you come pick it up? Of course, that's not an easy thing to get instead of buying the thing out. was set out to get that day. But anyway.

You didn't tell them how much it was. Like you just went and purchased it. Yeah. And that like, hey, go get it right now somehow. Pick up this big piano because it's about to rain. And of course, outside. And we had a very, very tiny house and no room for a piano. But anyway.

So we had a piano. And then mom finally, my mom, like, you were like hooking me up with a piano instructor. And just the thought of that for whatever, I was so young. Like, I was like kindergarten or something. apparently in my little kindergarten head, I was like, that is not happening. And I was like, I refused. And she was like, fine, get her to the piano.

We're not doing it. She did. I didn't do, I don't think it did one lesson. I don't remember. And I was doing really bad at soccer. I was so bad at it. I was good when I was little. You're good.

Because I like mentally knew the sport. But then when it required athletic ability and other girls were getting more aggressive, I just want to stop. Pretty sure you guys let me quit soccer in the middle of the season, too. I don't know if those were good. advice to give him, but

I think, yeah, we're like, if you don't like it, I don't know. You're like, we were stricter than you and then you just letting you drop out of everything. If you were quitting everything and you weren't involved in anything at all. I was doing a lot of other things. Yeah, you were doing a lot of things. Thank you to Kendred Bravely for sponsoring this portion of today's episode. I am a huge fan of dropping off a meal at a friend or family member's house when they've had a new baby. And you're so good at it. You do it all the time.

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Hmm. I think what I was nervous about was more things. that were not in my control or even your control, like safety things or something bad happening or something that nobody could control. So I didn't think I was never nervous about a decision you were going to make or those kinds of things, you know, as a child or, you know, I don't think I was too worried about anything that we were doing on our part, but nervous about other things happening. What's one thing you wish you did differently raising your kids?

Do you don't want to answer that? I don't know. Differently. I mean, I always wish that I was able to stay home full time and that I could have come up with a way at the time to do that. I just didn't know of a better

solution. You know, there are a lot more opportunities now I think to work from home or have some kind of a flexible schedule that there weren't at the time. Yeah, a lot of like online work. Yeah, it's like same schedules your kids kind of a thing. Yeah. Well, I didn't ever, I felt like we were always with you.

So I don't really have like any type of. Okay. Do you secretly have a favorite kid? No. Not true. I think I have. It's Blake. It's you.

I have. No, you have your kids. One of them is your favorite for, fill in the blank year. One of them is your favorite for another, you know, for different reasons. Not favorite overall. Did you say fill in the blank year? No. Oh, here.

I don't know what I said. But basically, no, you don't have a favorite kid, but you have, you connect with each child on different levels for different reasons. And, no. Okay. That's not really a fair question anyway. I never really felt like there were favorites, to be fair. How do grandparents take boundaries that new parents set? I mean, I think you have to bite your tongue a little bit sometimes and say,

this is not exactly the way I would have done it, but these are not my children. I'm not raising my children. So I have to, a lot of times, you know, well, mom, you know, mom doesn't want you to do this, so we're not going to do this right now. Or maybe this is something, a rule that I know dad has on something, not that you guys have tons of rules. But you know what I mean? Like these are things, you know, maybe with what they eat or something like that,

that maybe it's not exactly the way you would have done it, but you have to go with what the parents want. So, I mean, if there's something big that is unhealthy for them for some reason, then you'd have to talk to you guys about it, but the parents about it. But otherwise, if it's just a parenting style, you have to go with what the parents want. I have to give you kudos because I feel like you do this really well. Like with the kids, you're like, well, you have to ask mom or mom says we can't do that. Like you don't really go off the cuff with like disciplining them. Dad breaks a screen time rule.

Dad breaks several rules probably on. He'll just pull up Darth Vader on his phone. He gives them whatever he wants. They want. I think. Yeah, it's not just the screen time. It's if they ask for it. Jelly beans probably.

Who knows what they're doing right now? We need to have an intervention with your dad. Oh, sit down. You need to come to us. We're the parents here. Honestly, God's a lost cause, because I know that she's going to rein it in. So I'm like, thank you. I'll correct him, but he doesn't necessarily.

But then once he hands him Dar's Vader, I'm like, what are we going to do now? It's game over. We've lost. We've lost to Ga. But you do a really good job of that. Thank you. I can't say the same for Dad. Do moms really not judge?

This person says my mom says she won't, but she seems to have strong opinions. Judge what? I'm taking this as like parents. decisions. I'm sure a lot of parents do. Like, among your friends, they're like, are they like, oh, my gosh, my daughter or my son-in-law or my son is doing this? I don't think too many of the people that I'm talking to do.

Okay. Which would be, we would know who they are. Yeah, no, they're not doing that. I think, I think the parents of people, the kids your age, whatever, the grandparents, are pretty supportive of what their kids are doing with their grandkids. That's sweet. That's gracious too. Do you think it's harder to parent today or when you were raising kids?

We talked about this on Always Here. Yeah. I think it's harder today just because of social media, for one thing, just access to so much more that you didn't have. You had more control over where your kids were, what they were viewing, or what, you know, who they were talking to, than, than now. And now there's so many avenues that you could get in trouble, I guess, and have issues.

So I think it's harder now than then in the past. Yeah, when you think about it, like me growing up, my world was so small. It didn't feel that way until I got probably to high school. And I was like, oh, there's things I want to do that I can't do here. But like the, and that was the first time I had social media too was when I was like in high school. Like the world felt so small and now it feels like because of the access the world is so big Which is good for so many reasons But just when you're you're developing brain

Like it's almost like that was a good Like growing zone like a healthy safe environment to grow in To be prepared for the world at large but now it's like they're just like dunked in the deep end You know what I mean? There are a lot more decisions you have to make now on what you can allow or what you Don't allow whereas the things weren't available then. Yeah, like life was pretty, I don't want to say it was simple, but like it seemed safer or it seemed, and maybe that's not true, but it seems like that. Yeah.

It seems like that. Like you could have, I mean, I, wow, this feels really fearmongering, but you could have like a predator in your own house just on a device, you know what I mean? Like things like that, that feels scary. And like the fact of like things getting posted, like something could be happening. And then it's also made public to so many more. If you think about bullying or things like that. I mean, now, for your child to watch a movie, they have access to everything in the world. Unless you've put some, you know, controls on your TV.

Whereas in the past, you've got a DVD, Disney DVD, you put it in there. You had to watch that a thousand times. That's all you, that's, you know what they're going to see. Yeah. You don't have to make a decision. Like Disney Plus, like Disney Plus has R-rated movies. So you've got to make sure that your kid is watching,

like the Disney Plus Kids version, you know? Yeah, you're right. It's harder. Yeah. When did you realize that Abby's job was legitimate? I think when I know what she's going to say. What? Go ahead.

When we were at a hotel in St. Louis, I don't know what we were doing there. And you're like, Mom, I think I might, I might quit college now to pursue the social media. And I'm like, this seems bad idea. I don't remember this conversation. Yeah, I remember where we were sitting in the booth, in the hotel. What hotel was this? The Hyatt Place. Were you going to drop out?

I was going to quit college or was I going to graduate early? You first were going to quit. And then you found out that you could graduate early. And then I said, please do me a favor. Before you just quit, can you please go talk to somebody and see if they can look at all the credits, if they can gather together to make a degree? It was you that made this possible that I got a degree. I think that's true.

Yeah, you kind of. And then a couple days later you're like, hey, yeah, they said I can get this degree. I have enough credits for this degree. And I'm like, okay, well, there's something there. When you're like, I'm going to drop out and they're like, actually you have enough credits right now to graduate. And I was like, oh, sick. Let's walk and graduation. Was that in the summer?

No, it was like at a Christmas time? It was kind of was Christmas, but at least it was the end. It was like getting towards the end of that fall semester. Wow. Yeah. So maybe I don't know if I thought it was legit then, but at least I thought you thought it was legit at the time. But I remember having the conversation with my dad where I was like, I was so proud to tell them that we made six figures. Because that was like when I was a kid, that was like the number.

That my dad was like, if you can make six figures, dad, you've made it. You know, like that's like. With inflation, it's gotten. Now I think it's higher than that. But yeah, I know. I was like, I was like, dad, we made six figures. No, that was something you'd really be proud of. And then, and I was like, sorry that I dropped out for college.

I'm sure he was, your parents have always been really supportive too. Someone wrote in, and I'm not making this up. How do I get my kids to turn out like Abby? That's a good question. You're a perfect person. To be honest with you, I've had some, I've had other parents ask me that. I can remember a parent in my class asked me that about you guys. And I'm like, that's so sweet.

Yeah, I remember the parent who actually has wonderful girls. girls. Like, so she obviously was on doing the right thing. And so I'm, you know, I'm not going to take credit for that, but you were a really easy child and obedient. And it was, that's probably why I didn't want anything to change because it was easy and it was fun. And I don't think there's any big secret. When I think about you as a parent, like I think about like, I don't remember there being a lot of rules. or like you described yourself as strict. I don't remember that,

but I feel like you had really high expectations for us that gave us the confidence to like achieve that because it's like you held it. Like I feel like a trap of parenthood that I'm afraid to fall into is like I don't ever want anything to be hard for my kids. Like I don't, I want to make it easy. But then I think that you like expecting like no, like having that expectation.

It wasn't even like, oh, I have. hope you can do this. It was literally like, no, this is the standard. It gave me the confidence. I was like, well, I must be able to meet that standard. And that went for behavior. But I'm also thinking about like in school, like I was like, you weren't like you have to do this. In fact, I was telling Mad the other day, I was like, you let me skip first hour. You would encourage me to skip first hour a lot. Well, I think at one time, I was like, you're working too hard. You're like, slow down, girl. Yeah. And I'm like, you don't have to get an A and everything. You can just, these are fine. and if you, you know, because you were working really hard and were involved in everything.

And I was like, just, like, I wanted to try out for everything. Yeah. And I, like, I really felt like I always talk, like, talk about this. Like, I have such a huge ego, apparently, but also growing up, and even, I'm going to say, it carries into adulthood. Like, I just feel like I never really struggled with confidence. But I don't think that was just an ax, like, I don't think I was born that way. Like I think it was truthfully like both my parents fully believing me from the day I was born to like never once stopping. Like I always tell the story about dad saying like I could be president of the United States and I was like yeah I could have a gosh that doesn't sound very fun.

Like I literally believe that. I was like I'm personally changing. If you would ask him now actually I said that to him the other day because I heard you bring that up and he goes she could still now if she wanted to. Like this is the people that raised me like how do you ever like she could still do that. She could still do that. But, and yeah, I don't think I was strict as in, I think that maybe that is the wrong connotation. Like, I don't think I was, because I don't think I had to be strict with you guys. I just, you know.

Like, I was never grounded growing up. I don't recall you ever really being in trouble. Like, because you just did it. I think the main thing I did was sass back. And I remember that. I remember saying, duh, to you guys and getting in trouble. that and I also did this when they were talking to me and I you only do that once you know there's a couple things you only do once you only say duh once you only call your brother a maggot once

did you do that yep I heard Lizzie I was on Lizzie McGuire and um actually a kid at recess told me that was a bad word but he actually was mixing that up with oh my gosh he's like such a bad word and um I was like really that's crazy because it's on Disney Channel. And I like, and here's the thing. In my head, then it was a bad word

and I could never say it again. There's so many things that I'm like, I grew up so sheltered. But I went to public schools and I think there's a lot of parents are like so fearful of public schools

because they're like, what is my kid going to be exposed to? Which is so valid. Even our two and three year old learned the word shut up from freaking monsters ink. Who would have known

that Monster Zink had shut up? Those two little, like those two monsters that work at the factory. They're like, the helpers, you shut up.

And then Griffin said that. And he goes, the guy on Monsters Inc. said it. Shut up. And I was like, oh my gosh. What can you show your kids these days? But then I was like, I grew up watching that and now I'm okay. But I also remember like, okay, this is how sheltered I was, going to a full public school, also in a small town, but also who, I mean, is exposed to everything.

And so I just, I remember a girl said to me, she's like, there is a bad word that starts with. F and it's three letters. And she's like, it's F you see. And I was like, that's not a word. And I was pretty much right. But she's like, no, my dad said it. And it's a bad word. And I don't know why. Like in my head, whatever I said around my friends, they believed. So I was like, don't worry, that's not a word. Everybody, stay calm. She's like confused. She's like, hey guys, it's not a bad word. When Chloe told me about periods, I was like, that's not real. Don't worry. And I was like, it's just pee, there's no blood, don't worry. And I just told everyone on that, then I was humbled at a subway.

Abby said it, it's fine. Abby said that's not real. And I'm like, everybody, it's fine. There's nothing to worry about here. You might need to cut a bunch of what I said. What did you say that was wrong? Here's the other thing. Mom made me so confident and then she struggles with confidence herself.

That is actually very true. Maybe that's where I was like, trying to. to live vicariously through you not in it just in the sense that like I probably haven't always been super confident but I thought you should be and so I appreciate that about you that you are confident and that um I always hoped that I was raising you to not care other people thought and maybe that went to the extreme here I don't know yeah I mean I really broke the mold I know I did social media I did so many things it's like because you gave me the confidence to make my own to the point where when I was an adult, I was like, I'm going to hear you out, but, like, ultimately,

I felt like I was equipped to, like, make an adult decision on marriage, marriage, career, kids, where I lived. And it was hard for you'd accept, but you did. You respected it. Well, make sure to pick up your copy of Let's Travel to Hawaii, Hawaii Travel Guide for Kids by What a Smart Cookie Publishing, which is, again, by Abby's mom, Lori, and Lori's sister, Gina. And we'll link this in the description. It's on Amazon, so it's a really easy purchase.

Yeah, if you just like search the title. Everyone's got Amazon Prime. It's on Amazon. I know that they would appreciate you guys supporting them. And let's read a review. Thank you guys for supporting our show so that we can keep doing this and putting out these episodes. We really appreciate when you guys leave us reviews. Yes, this review is from Chloe Dixon.

It says, Most Impactful. Matt and Abby have already made a huge impact on my life, workday, and way of thinking. I've always followed them on other social medias, but my sister-in-law recommended listening to their podcast. So glad she did because. I look forward to listening to new episodes and I get to listen to the old ones, thankfully. I'm going to be real sad when I run out of old episodes and I can't listen to a new to me episode all the time. Oh.

So nice. That's so sweet. So sweet. And who's that from? Chloe Dixon. Chloe, thank you so much. Thank you to your sister-in-law for recommending. And you guys should also take that seriously.

There's probably someone you should share a podcast too. Yeah. That might enjoy this as well. Maybe if you share this with someone, it'll make them have more positive day. Share it with your mom. Share with your mom. That would be sweet. Your sister.

Yeah. And I just, I think that, like I said, I've really taken for granted until I started my own family and have gotten closer to 30, which I know I still have a lot to learn in my life. But that it's very rare to have such good relationships with your parents as adults, especially in our culture and this day and age. And I just think that that comes a lot from the people that raised me. And they did such a good job. And I'm so grateful to them.

And I'm really grateful that my mom put herself out of her. comfort zone very this was a really far stretch for her you guys clearly my dad couldn't make it everybody everybody go hype lory up in the comments right now to let her know how great of a job she did on this episode yes thank you guys so much and please follow what a smart cookie publishing on instagram or facebook we'll tag it below follow it on instagram follow on facebook just bombard them buy the book it's on amazon write reviews and just interact it really just means so much to me Sweet. Thank you.

Thanks, Lori. Sweet. Thanks for listening, guys. And we'll see you in the next episode. Bye.