I actually have a confession

confessionI, the other day, realized, 'cause I've been trying to, um, I'm not really a good social media person, I realized I wasn't actually in the Chafing at the Aid Station group.

Ice Cream Day T-shirts will be fresh

Other, other merch.

Get your other merch.

Um, we appreciate all the love everybody's shown us so far.

If you wanna be on or you know somebody who we should talk to, let us know.

I've got a list, um, that I need to work through.

[laughs]

I absolutely love it.

I was, you know, skeptical.

I was texting Axel, like, "Am I really gonna like it?" He's like, "Yeah, give it a try." I, I just lo- It's so well-written.

And it's un- it's unique.

Like, I just haven't really seen a lot like it, because I tend to stay away from the horror genre, 'cause I just don't like it.

But this, this is that, but it's like-

... looks up to him, and has a, l- seems like she's got the crush on him.

So I was wondering if you could talk us through how sewing first entered your lives.

Mm, yeah, that's a good question.

So I, my mom taught me to sew when I was, like, in junior high.

Um, and I would do, you know, like, a project randomly, you know, once every year, once every couple years.

Um, so I knew how to sew, but I didn't do it that often.

And then during the pandemic is kind of when I really picked it up again, and was just seeing, you know, all the fun things that w- people were making online, and I feel like that was kind of when the sewing Instagram community became really robust and I discovered, like, oh, there's these indie sewing patterns that are different from the sewing patterns that I learned to sew on, um, that seemed just, like, a little bit more, like, fun and fresh and approachable for my skill level.

So I started sewing a lot more then, and then Teresa and I, we kind of were, like, making similar patterns and comparing them and, like, saying, "Oh, have you made this?" Like, "Where are you getting your fabric?" And kind of, like, chatting about, you know, making and all sorts of sewing stuff, um, during then.

[laughs]

没错。

那我觉得我在那个年代的我，也有可能时代的原因，比较没有那么鼓励你要有那么多自己的想法，反正大家叫你念书，你就念书，叫你考试你就考试。所以我就觉得回想起来我是一个傻蛋，所以我没有那么想清楚，所以我不是一个特别有想法的人，所以我就觉得我好像不是那种有天分的人，如果有天分的人，可能不需要外在的这些刺激，你就自己会长成。我真的不是。那我，我一直觉得我是幸运的人，所以我在这个过程的养成，包含研究所毕业就来到了奥美，在这样的环境是很鼓励我们有自己想法的。

。乱把袜子丢在客厅的习惯改不了，可能你会想要去改变这件事情的策略，跟我的方式就不一样，根据我们的不同。

所以就跟我书上写说，我觉得最后跟爱很像，它都跟你原生的家庭，过去所受的训练，过去所感受到的体验，会影响你现在的一个解决事情的方法。如果我以前在一个很威权的环境长大，我也习惯这种方式解决，我可能就会很暴力的说，把袜子拿去放好，为什么每次用骂的，为什么每次都这样blablabla。但是如果是在一个比较善于沟通或者是理解，就会去，可能会先去想他是不是今天状态不好，连去丢袜子的力气都没有，再来想说我要如何去跟他做沟通。它就可能每个人状态不同，甚至个性不同，就会有不同的方法。

Mm.

I already knew it, but just to relearn it, go back to the basics, and I, I think, you know, my first two weeks on the program, I, I don't think I would lift anything heavier than a 10 pound, 'cause I was just, I didn't wanna hurt myself.Because I, it had been three years since I have lifted weights.

So, and then when I was like, "Okay, no, I could do a little more.

I could do a little more," and then I would progressively add more, progressively add more.

But now I'm playing around more with the eccentric side of the movement.

So in some of my exercises I actually backed down and started working more eccentrically and just working through the muscle.

So I think it's just the variety that you actually have and what you can play with and how you can see the benefits from, from all of that.

What do you attribute the success of that happening to so far?

How do you get selected to play over 40 State?

So there's a two-day trial, so ran over a Saturday and a Sunday.

It's pretty amazing talent there, to be perfectly honest.

Um, there's selectors all there around looking at you.

You know, just play some hockey, d- do a few drills.

Um, two and a half weeks later, we got the email in our mailbox.To say we've been selected

Did you think you were a chance?

To be perfectly honest, I didn't think I was going to get selected.

Nope

...

I have the Mastermind one.

[laughs] So I went in-

Testimonials.

I always just enjoy that I made a lot of connections, I feel like, today.

Being a first grade math teacher, having it brought down to the number 24 also, then I feel like I can make better connections with numbers that I'm familiar with versus the fractions and the exponents and things.

But you saying, like, the last time we talked about the X problem, it was product sum.

Were you taken seriously?

Some people did and some people didn't.

There's been a lot of people, you know, that you take it as you're just lazy or, like, you know, and I had a lot of that, but I think a lot of that was also just, like, in my head and, like, what I thought people thought of me.

But no one ever told me that.

It was more of just my inner thinking.

But I did have a lot of pushback with, you know, just some school things like getting extra time, getting extra help.

My mom had to, like, bring me to one of our dances in high school and, like, that was not the best thing, but, you know, she was there and she was there in case I needed her, and it worked.

And, well, so once you had this diagnosis, were you able to find things that helped a lot?

Nobody really understands what perimenopause is, what women are going through.

And I don't think eating less is the solution.

It's what we're eating.

Uh, what we're eating is...

That needs to be completely changed.

[laughs] Um, it needs to be...

And you may have already covered this, but, um, you know, for me and myself and I, I try to stay with a high protein, high fiber, the healthy fats, because it's so important at our age to keep these things, especially the healthy fats in our diet, to promote brain health.

Mm-hmm

How are you?

I'm good.

How are you?

What, sorry?

Wound care.

How about the specialty restaurants? What package did you have? I know they had Free at Sea, then they shifted to More at Sea, now it's back as of 2026 at Free at Sea again.

Yes.

Um, I have to say, unfortunately, we were under the More at Sea package, and I say that because we only had one specialty meal included with the inside room.

W- previously with the Free at Sea, and it, and it's what it's gone back to with the Free at Sea, that you're granted however many specialty meals depending on the length of your cruise.

For a, so a, for a seven-day cruise you would be given three, I believe, three meals depen- no matter if you had an inside or a balcony.

Um, but the More at Sea you were, only had one meal because you were on the inside.

The balconies had three meals.

Mm-hmm.

I was asking earlier, like, how did it all go down? Like, it just got posted on Instagram, and then-

I think it's an unfortunate time with the younger generations, right? That a woman just wants to sleep with Megan Thee Stallion's man.

And you know this, right? You have-

Well, I had a 40, early 40s today, never, never did Botox.

Her concern was her jowling and her wrinkles.

Never had a facial, never has had Botox.

There's no prizes for guessing what came next.

Every year, we have a massive bonfire at our farm.

We spend a whole year building it.It's usually around August or September, and so this particular year, which was 2020, so we were coming out of COVID lockdowns, et cetera.

It's probably the first big gathering that we'd had.

Uh, Matt went and asked my parents if he could marry me, and they said yes.

My mom and dad loved him.

And then the next morning, we're all hungover, dusty, and he just rolled over in bed and he said, "Hey, babe, do you wanna get married?" [laughs] And, and I said, "Absolutely." And then we started planning this amazing wedding, which we had on the property.

Through all of this, they were also dealing with the hows and whys around what Amy had gone through and whether it could have constituted medical malpractice.

You know, I've had a bunch of friends who have come to a realization of their own neurodivergence in recent years, and yeah, I feel like the more open I have been about my kids' experience, the more [laughs] you know, everybody has a kid with a similar story or knows somebody, you know? And I feel like as, as I have become more comfortable in having this be part of my story and my narrative and sharing that and being open about it, the more that has encouraged others, I think, to, to come into the conversation and really own their, their truths and their story, and that just makes us all more comfortable, right? To, to just really be able to be a better community to each other.

I feel like it's a lot more acceptable, and I say that with a little hesitation because my kids are both autistic, so when I was pregnant with them almost 15 years ago, it was like, "Oh, you know, you don't want an autistic kid.

Like, as long as they have all their fingers and toes and they're not autistic, it'll be okay." And, and I feel like that stigma is a little less now.

I think there's still some of that there.

W- we'll see...

We're seeing a lot of that resistance in the world today like, "Oh, no, no, I'm not autistic, but it's fine if you are." [laughs]

Yeah.

I don't wanna rush it.

I think someone even commented on maybe the Instagram post that went up about our breakup.

They're like, "How many dads are these kids gonna have?" And I was like, "Okay.

What?" I had a boyfriend.

He wasn't their dad.

Their dad is their dad.

[laughs]

Yeah.

Well, k- so here's the thing.

I get there wasn't a, a...

I didn't feel a romantic chemistry or, you know, that spark, but that didn't mean that I didn't ever wanna talk to him again.

Huh

... from a number I didn't recognize, and it, it says, "You should really date my son."

Yeah.

Well, k- so here's the thing.

Yeah, there wasn't a, a...

I didn't feel a romantic chemistry or, you know, that spark, but that didn't mean that I didn't ever wanna talk to him again.

Huh?

... from a number I didn't recognize, and it, it says, "You should really date my son."

... weren't happy, happy in the relationship?

I mean, I, I felt like so many things had piled up.

And there was an instigating event where one of our...

My hu- my ex-husband and I, a mutual friend of ours had had a, a bad fight with her husband, and she had said how it was, like, a marriage breaker.

And my ex-husband was like, "Yeah, that's a marriage breaker." And I was like, "Uh, let me just say there's, like, 10 marriage breakers we've had." And I was like, "You know what? I'm done." [laughs] And so it was, like-

Um, so are you still in that house to this day? This was like four or five years ago.

No. Um, yeah, actually, um, I ended up, uh, starting to date and then, um, September 7th met my new partner.

September 7th, 2023, met my new partner.

... at home was as-

It's, it's a se- I guess we'll call it a session.

I don't know that it's a class.

But so I bought, I, I signed up for three months to go, like, twice a month or something for three months.

Um, I could go once a week, but I was like, "Honestly, that's gonna be hard for me to do." [laughs] So I gave my goal, myself a goal of every other week, and then I stretch at home in between.

I really just m- am using it as a kickstarter, 'cause I need to start stretching more at home before and after walks and maybe even just when I wake up or if I'm watching TV or doing something, like, just making sure I'm being wise with that time.

And of course, I don't have to stretch the whole time, but I just find the older I get, like, I'm really starting to feel it.

[laughs]

... writing the things you wanna be.

Uh, but my mom liked her time at the capital.

I just thought, in Austin, that's where we lived, I, I just thought, "Well, this will be a good major to pick." I hated it so much.

Uh, so then, I, my junior year I needed to change it, and my advisor said, "Well, if you wanna graduate on time-ish, we can get you out of here not in four years, but four and a half years if you change to an agricultural development degree, and you need a 12-hour emphasis in something," which is less than a minor, but they require it, an emphasis.

And she was like, "And you have 12 hours of your poli sci government classes." So I have an agricultural development degree with an emphasis in poli sci.

[laughs]

'Cause you went somewhere else freshman year, right?

Yeah, I went to Blinn 'cause I didn't, [laughs] again, didn't even get into A&M, and that's the only school I applied to.

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... with Morgan Number 2.

[laughs]

... let him do what he was gonna do.

Uh, he was humoring me.

Um, and so one of the things that got me was as we were going around different parts of the ship, um, there was, uh, a- an amateur, uh, ghost hunting group with us.

There was about three of them, and I have to say they were a bit distracting, and this will come back, uh, later.

Um, and I was just really kind of, they had these bright lights, this, it was almost like a strobe light or something.

I don't know exactly what it was.

Yeah.

I look like a beach boy

...

I mean, it's, it's just, it's just a tan.

I mean, it's just a tan.

It's not like I changed your nose or anything.

I didn't do anything, like, crazy perma- It's nothing that you couldn't do if you worked out more or put in a little bit more effort.

Amy, were you attracted to him, or were you actually hoping that these changes would happen if you started dating him?

I was definitely attracted to him, but I do a lot to take care of myself, hence cold plunge.

Did you experience that same type of behavior from Cato?

I did, even though it's been a long time and I can't recall the specific details.

There would be musical practice after school, and so I'm assuming that I probably saw him at the beginning of rehearsal, or after rehearsal we were having a conversation, and maybe at that point we ended up going on drives.

My best friend had said that she remembers me saying something about dropping him off at his house or going to his house, but I do not remember that.

[laughs] We'd have days where we focused on the music or other days that we did blocking.

And so in those days, there would be opportunities to have the one-on-one sessions or smaller groups.

For one, the one-on-one personal attention started to grow.

Did that, with time, as you got older, change the way that you saw the experience?

No, I wanna hear that

... have the same, have the same ring.

No, I don't actually do death penalty cases, luckily for me, so this isn't really something I, I can weigh in on, but certainly there's lots of reasons-

We don't do any of that

... there's lots of reasons why somebody might not get the death penalty, between, like, whatever the statute is, to a plea agreement, like you said, or also there could be, you know, they might have a pot- I mean, there's just a lot, there's a lot of different reasons.