My Mother and Father-in-law are really great and wonderful people. I'm so lucky that I get along with them. They were kind enough to take me in and accept me after I met Matthew. I lived with them for over a year, which was wonderful, and they're really terrific folks.
My Mother-in-law, Ellen, is a lot like my own mother, very quiet, but she's also very athletic. A tiny woman not much taller than me, she never lets anything get her down. She teaches math and english at an alternative high school, and handles a lot of the less desirable sort of kids. Ellen rides and trains horses in dressage, and just loves cats. Right now she has 3 horses, a black one that's turning white, named Zophie (so' fee), a palomino named Sally, and a brand new 3 year old horse she got Thanksgiving 2003. Sometimes she'll have as many as 4 out in the paddock. She keeps one cat named Smoke, old and evil, and another named Silver that Matthew and I found as a kitten. Silver's kept outside, since Smoke doesn't like anyone, and there are several other wild cats that come around to eat, friendly to Silver, but skittish around people. Ellen loves to read, and from her Matthew and Philip get their love of reading. J. R. R. Tolkien, Chris Crutcher, Cynthia Voight, Robin McKinley, and Ursula K. LeGuin are some of her favorites, but she has too many that she likes to list completely. She quilts some, and made Matthew and me a blanket for our wedding.
My Father-in-law, Don, is very outgoing, and I really love visiting with him. Like my own father, Don knows a little bit about everything. He works as a cobbler, and makes wonderful looking cowboy boots, hiking boots, and orthodic insoles. He likes to read as well, but he likes more realistic fiction than fantasy most times. Don's favorite authors are Patrick O'Brien and Tom Clancy. He bowls and loves working with tools as well. He's a great builder, and can fix most things. He also likes dogs and hunting, and keeps two dogs, Luke and Sage. Both are well trained, purebred hunting dogs, and Don usually comes home with at least a little something from the hunt. He likes hunting pheasant the most, but he occasionally catches something else, like the big elk buck he got, or the cougar he recently shot in fall of 2003.
