Getting to know Serenity

Welcome to getting to know Serenity!

1. Who is your hero? 
   • Honestly, I believe I owe it to Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, and Matpat. Watching them every day on YouTube got me through the real rough parts, they are the heroes who helped me find my own will to live.  

2. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?  
   • I don’t a think I actually care WHERE we’d live, I care more about finding somewhere to live where we all have our own space. I want each kid to have their own room, I’d like there to be an office, an art room, and a kids’ playroom. Somewhere where we also have a decent enough yard space for a small garden, a trampoline, a decent pool, and a fire pit area. I’ve always wanted to live in Hawaii but of late maybe somewhere by Africa or England. Somewhere with a new culture to explore and learn about.  

3. What is your biggest fear?  
   • I think the only thing I can classify as my biggest fear (other than being covered in insects/arachnids) is not being able to support our family. Being a stay-at-home mother, I don’t contribute to the financial stability of the house and with our greedy governments and cooperations sucking the country of every single penny with all the inflation and keeping us sick because healthy people don’t make profit. My biggest fear is the family not making it through to a better world than it currently is.  

4. What is your favorite family vacation?  
   • We weren’t a family for vacations during my youth, and I don’t count the month every summer at my dad’s a vacation. The only real “vacations” I enjoyed were our trips to Cedar Point or Kalahari. 

5. What would you change about yourself if you could?  
   • I’d used to say that I’d change my body to be closer to my ideal body size, but I no longer mind myself. So, I think maybe the next thing is my awareness and ability to communicate, to be wiser and more effective with my words.  

6. What really makes you angry?  
   • I make myself angry when the children trigger me, and I can’t stop the automatic response yelling no matter how hard I try some days. It also makes me mad when I feel I’m giving my 110% and I don’t feel it being reciprocated back to me, let alone to the same frequency. 

7. What motivates you to work hard?  
   • Wanting to provide a home and make the lives of our children and our loved ones as easy as possible. Getting everyone through every day with minimal problems.  

8. What is your favorite thing about your career?  
   • My career as a stay-at-home mom? Getting to be here for as much as the children’s lives as possible. As an ”artist” being able to see what all I can make in whichever mediums I choose.  

9. What is your biggest complaint about your job?  
   • Children are loud and super energetic and as a neurodivergent I get sound overwhelmed. It can send me into an unresponsive or an explosive state and it takes a while for me to come down, and sometimes my fuse doesn’t fully go out.  

10. What is your proudest accomplishment?  
    • My proudest accomplishment, honestly, is just getting older, aging. As much as I’d love to say something like being a good parent or partner, but no, it’s getting to a point where I found a will to live instead of trying to find “my way out”.   

11. What is your child’s proudest accomplishment?  
    • Uuuuuh. Maybe I don’t understand why the question is worded that way? Like, I’m not exactly sure what they call their proudest accomplishments are. I’ll say I’m proud of all of them for growing and learning without serious injury or issues? 

12. What is your favorite book to read?  
    • Well, I don’t like reading, it’s not something I usually find enjoyable. My favorite book I’ve read, besides the House of Night series by P.C. And Kristin Cast, maybe Stargirl by Jerry Spenelli. Other than that, I mostly read fan fiction. Reading is too hard for my brain. Though I would like to listen to more audiobooks to see if they’ll help me. I do want to ”read” the FNAF books eventually. And I’d listen to psych and physics books.  

13. What makes you laugh the most?  
    • I love laughing so I laugh a lot, there’s countless YouTube videos, how many billions of comedy skits there are, like on TikTok, regular comedians, cute babies and animal videos make me laugh. Living with neurodiversity makes me laugh all the time at nothing besides my own brain.  

14. What was the last movie you went to?  
    • Five Nights of Freddies!!! Very proudly so. We made sure to all go as an important date. Us being long time FNAF fans and the youtubers who’ve played all the games and the master theorist himself Matpat was in the film. What better way of supporting Scott Cawthorn than to go see his movie within the first week? Such a great representation of the franchise.  

15. What did you want to be when you were small?  
    • Well first I wanted to be a musician, a violinist specifically, then I wanted to be a dancer up until I got diagnosed with asthma and I got pulled from my extracurriculars, in like 4th grade. 

16. What does your child want to be when he/she grows up?  
    • One wants to be a YouTuber or a sport star, and none of the other ones have outwardly expressed something like that.  

17. If you could choose to do anything for a day, what would it be?  
    • If I could have the whole day however I want, I think I would go to the mall to the art studio and paint some pottery and maybe try the glasswork they have there, but if I’m honest I’d end up spending the whole day painting pottery. And I’d probably have my music playing or something on my headphones unless I had people with me, but I would choose to have a day away from children. 

18. What is your favorite game or sport to watch and play?  
    • Gross. I think sports are a completely pointless profession and it really bothers me that they get paid a ridiculous salary to play when we have such a homeless and hungry population. That should be more important than paying grown men to kick a ball or tackle each other. So stupid. I do suppose I can answer this another way though, competitive dance and ice skating is the closest thing.  

19. Would you rather ride a bike, ride a horse, or drive a car?  
    • Drive a car, I love the windows down and being able to hook my music up. I’d ride a bike but not to the store or things like that, and no thank you for the horse, I was never a horse girl.  

20. What would you sing at Karaoke night?  
    • Funny, I’d used to think never, cuz I’ve been too scared to try out for solos and sing in public but now, now I sing acapella in stores. And I have a wide repertoire of arts and songs I know well enough to sing karaoke. I think my first gut response was Waiting on a Miracle from Encanto, mostly because I feel my voice is a good match for Mirabelle, but there’s Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift or Pink, the potential is endless.  

21. What two radio stations do you listen to in the car the most?  
    • Uh, whichever one either Lisa or Brett puts on, otherwise we don’t listen to the radio, or at least I don’t. I use the aux cord and play my collection of music from childhood to current releases.  

22. Which would you rather do: wash dishes, mow the lawn, clean the bathroom, or vacuum the house?  
    • I would much rather vacuum or wash dishes. Even though vacuuming also includes clearing the floor first and throwing garbage away, and dishes are normally disgusting cuz 10 people in the house and not everything gets rinsed like it’s supposed to. Fuck doing yard work, and when it comes to the bathroom, I feel it needs cleaned with bleach every time it’s cleaned and my lungs don’t handle bleach well at all, so that is also not a chore I do unless it is extremely important to get done. 

23. If you could hire someone to help you, would it be with cleaning, cooking, or yard work? 
    • I would love to hire someone to help the house stay clean, as much as cooking is enticing, it would be much more beneficial for our household to have someone more dedicated to keeping it cleaner and tidier, cuz no matter how hard I try to keep it nice, there’s 5 kids, 4 under the age of 6, they are still tiny tornadoes. I can clean all day and you’d never be able to tell, which does drain me.  

24. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?  
    • Sarku. That’s like the only acceptable answer for me. And donuts.  

25. Who is your favorite author?  
    • Well, I think I have answered this several times now. lol P.C. and Kristin Cast. Scott Cunningham is my favorite pagan author. 

26. Have you ever had a nickname? What is it?  
    • My grandma called me sweet pea, I used to go by my middle name as Cheyenne, and Marissa has gotten shortened to Rissa, which I love.  

27. Do you like or dislike surprises? Why or why not?  
    • I don’t know anymore. Surprises were a big no for me for a while, cuz I’m a reciprocative person, if you’d surprise me with something, I’d feel like absolute shit for not having something to give in return, and I realize some of this is childhood trauma, but I’ve started to like them sometimes secretly actually. It’s more flattering now than constantly not being worth spending money on. It’s weird.  

28. In the evening, would you rather play a game, visit a relative, watch a movie, or read?  
    • Either play a game or watch a movie, hands down. Reading sucks and I’m not in contact with 99% of the family so that would just be bizarre to visit a stranger.  

29. Would you rather vacation in Hawaii or Alaska, and why?  
    • Of all the places this is actually hard. When I was little Papa went on a cruise in Alaska and he’s always gone on about how beautiful it was there and I’d love to go vacation there to be a part of the Iditarod, but I would also love to go vacation in Hawaii, swim in the ocean, attend some luau, and maybe take some dance lessons while I’m there. My answer is both, take it or leave it. 

30. Would you rather win the lottery or work at the perfect job? And why?  
    • Ideally, I’d like to be with my husband, but if the goal is to survive and escape, I’ll take Aleister, he’s got the skillset for that, he’d get me to safety to be back with everyone.  

31. Who would you want to be stranded with on a deserted island?  
    • I would rather win the lottery, as a stay-at-home mom who’s never had a ”real” job, winning the lottery would give in the immediate gratification of being able to find a more suitable place to live MUCH sooner than having to save up. And for myself personally, having the perfect job would be making art and it actually sell regularly  

32. If money was no object, what would you do all day?  
    • Well, if money was no object, apart from making art from ANY media, I would spend my time maybe going back to school to learn more about psychology and sciences like chemistry and quantum physics or something. Maybe I’d also go take classes for being an interior designer. 

33. If you could go back in time, what year would you travel to?  
    • Honestly, I don’t know, if it’s to change something, I wouldn’t, but I’d maybe go back to 2008 or 2009 and tell myself that I find a will to live, that life will work out. 

34. How would your friends describe you?  
    • I’m the mom friend, unfortunately, I’m loyal and kind, and a good listener, but at my core I tend to be the caregiver, which isn’t a bad thing, sometimes I just wish I could be the fun one once and a while.  

35. What are your hobbies?  
    • Singing, dancing, drawing, painting, coloring, beading, knitting, crocheting, writing, playing cozy games. Singing and making artsy things are clearly my favorite though. 

36. What is the best gift you have been given?  
    • I really want to say the Made in Abyss game for the switch this year. Cuz I had asked for it for my birthday and we didn’t really have the availability to get it and Brett got it for me around thanksgiving because when I was asked what I wanted for Christmas I said my birthday presents, and he got it and gave it to me like immediately instead of waiting and it really warmed me. And it was the deluxe one, so it came with a journal and stuff and like, it was super dope. Lisa also got me a cotton candy colored crown that I love way more than the one I had prior, it’s just so perfect. Then I’d say the TSO tickets the one year, that was a good time.  

37. What is the worst gift you have received?  
    • You know, it’s not really about getting ”the worst thing”. Immediately I went to the blanket or the silver vulpix necklace from my father, but it’s not the fact that I didn’t like the object itself. It was a very nice blanket that we do use here, and I did love the vulpix necklace, it’s more so that my father couldn’t take any time to actually get something with any form of meaning. When I opened the necklace, he immediately said I saw you share it on Facebook, and I thought you wanted it.  Yes, it’s adorable and I love Pokémon and I tend to be a fire trainer, Vulpix is one I’ve always liked. But him specifically calling that out, I shared it to Mary because the silver one specifically looked like the alolan form which Mary adores and that’s why I shared it to her, that’s why it bothered me, it made me feel like he didn’t even take a second to read the post to see I was tagging for someone else. And how impersonal is it to just gift them a nice furry blanket? It pointed out more that he’s never really given any personal thought to even get to know me enough to know what I would like or what would be useful. Money is always a better option because it’s more useful and honestly more thoughtful, because I appreciate the usefulness of getting exactly what is useful or wanted. Fuck, this year I didn’t even get anything, all I got was being wished a happy Christmas.  

38. Aside from necessities, what one thing could you not go a day without?  
    • Well, since I count my weed and my meds as a necessity, I think I’ll say my phone, for my music. I don’t like not having something in the background noise that isn’t children screaming or talking. I feel better when there’s some form of music playing, at all times. 

39. List two pet peeves.  
    • I hate it when people break promises and or back out of plans at the last second. I hate being late, especially more than like 5 minutes. And being ignored. 

40. Where do you see yourself in five years?  
    • I want to see myself in 5 years, still being a stay at home partner, with all the kids finally out of the house for school during the day I’d hope to be more able to upkeep the cleanliness of the house and still have time for personal things like making art or something till the kids all get home from school. I want to see myself have a little bit more self-freedom, so I don’t feel shackled to the house anymore. 

41. How many pairs of shoes do you own?  
    • Like 6 or 7. I like thrifting for shoes, I have 3 pairs of heels. 2 pair of boots, and the rest are like sandals and flip flops. Oh, and I have a pair of cow slippers. 

42. If you were a super-hero, what powers would you have?  
    • Personally, I’d like to have telekinetic powers, but I’d rather be a bit more helpful, so maybe like the power to heal wounds and illnesses, I’ll travel to hospitals all over the world or something. But being a super-hero is not something I’d like to do. Maybe I’d be able to heal mother earth too, so we can stop setting her on fire pretending global warming isn’t real. 

43. What would you do if you won the lottery?  
    • Uh, go find a house big enough for all of us and put as much down as I can? Fill the house with groceries, put gas in all the cars? Normal poor people stuff 

44. What form of public transportation do you prefer? (air, boat, train, bus, car, etc.)  
    • Car.  

45. What’s your favorite zoo animal?  
    • I think my all-time favorite has been and will always be the wolves and the dingoes. I always love going to the cat house and seeing the armadillos, and I’ve always loved bats and going to the rainforest area, but as far an animal in the zoo I’d leap at the chance to pet or something would be my beautiful wolves or my barkless Austrian dog the dingo. Maybe a dik-dik, they’re adorable AF. 

46. If you could go back in time to change one thing, what would it be?  
    • At this point in my life, I don’t think I’d want to go back and change. I like who I am and it’s because of where I’ve been. I’d maybe say my senior year of high school, on the principles of exploring another totally different life experience path. 

47. If you could share a meal with any 4 individuals, living or dead, who would they be?  
    • Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, Matpat, and Ethan. At my core I want to meet them for real life, getting a hug from them would literally mean the world to me. 

48. How many pillows do you sleep with?  
    • Technically 1, I do have a neck pillow I use some nights if I feel I need extra support, and I have a squishmello I hug, but it’s big enough to be called a pillow, the rest are plushies. 

49. What’s the longest you’ve gone without sleep (and why)?  
    • Uh, it’s been a while. I think closer to like 30 hours, I don’t think I’ve made it 2 full days without crashing at some point. And because teenagers, because having children, because being mentally unstable, there’s been all kinds of reasons we’ve stayed up. 

50. What’s the tallest building you’ve been to the top in?  
    • Tower city in Cleveland? I don’t really think I’ve been in many actually tall buildings, however I’ve jumped out of a plate at 13,000ft, so 

51. Would you rather trade intelligence for looks or looks for intelligence?  
    • I think I’m good where I am, but to answer the question I’d trade looks for intelligence, having more wisdom is way more important than looking good in a mirror.  

52. How often do you buy clothes?  
    • Well, I used to despise clothes shopping and I would avoid it for years, if possible, but I’ve been slowly getting new stuff or thrifting some cute stuff when we’ve been out the last year or so, so I feel I buy clothes at least twice a season. 

53. Have you ever had a secret admirer?  
    • Not to my knowledge, few people liked me when I was younger, I was always the oddball out. I guess that doesn’t mean I haven’t, but I feel confident that no I don’t think I ever did. 

54. What’s your favorite holiday?  
    • Seriously? Halloween! Duh, is there actually another way to answer that question? I don’t think there’s another holiday I’m excited for.  

55. What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?  
    • Jumped out of a plane? Even though from an early age I knew I was going to skydive as soon as humanly possible, it’s still something I’d do again, but it’s definitely something. 

56. What was the last thing you recorded on TV?  
    • Would this be the equivalent of waiting for a new episode to stream? Cuz recording things has been aged out for us for years now. It probably would have been Supergirl on the CW, but otherwise it RuPaul’s Drag Race and Traitors. 

57. What was the last book you read?  
    • I think the last like real book I read was either “A Child Called It” or the beauty series by Anne Rice. I am currently trying to read ”13 Things Mentally Stong Parents Don’t Do” but it’s almost impossible for me to prioritize reading it. 

58. What’s your favorite type of foreign food?  
    • I love Chinese, Japanese, and Korean food, but I am super down for trying new foods from all cultures, however I am the most excited to try some African cuisine, I really want to try foo foo, it looks so delicious. There’s a place in Cleveland where we will eventually go try on a date.  

59. Are you a clean or messy person?  
    • As much as I hate it, I have to say I’m messy, but I do try and stay organized, but the ADHD isn’t a friend for keeping things clean, at least not for me.  

60. Who would you want to play you in a movie of your life?  
    • For the sake of the question I’ll say Rebel Wilson, I adore her as an actress, love her in pitch perfect. But I can’t think of someone to “actually represent” me for such a thing. 

61. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?  
    • Like 5 minutes. I am quick and efficient. 

62. What kitchen appliance do you use every day?  
    • Um, all of them? Having 10 people in the house for 3 meals a day, usually they all end up getting used throughout the day.   

63. What’s your favorite fast-food chain?  
    • I guess Wendy’s, their food tastes the best of any fast-food option, maybe KFC. But if we’re being honest most of the food chains taste super fake. 

64. What’s your favorite family recipe?  
    • I don’t have a family recipe to even call my favorite, food skills or food knowledge was not something given to me. I like Aleister’s sloppy Joe recipe. 

65. Do you love or hate rollercoasters?  
    • I am a huge rollercoaster junkie! I’ll ride anything, everything. What’s the point in going to an amusement park otherwise? If you want to walk around go to the zoo or something.  

66. What’s your favorite family tradition?  
    • Uh, again, I don’t think I have any family traditions besides be a sheep and follow society. But I’m done with that.  

67. What is your favorite childhood memory?  
    • Probably all the swimming with friends, those are the happy memories I remember more of.  

68. What’s your favorite movie?  
    • There’s lots of really awesome movies. Lucy is really good, I like the Resident Evil movies, Avatar, How to train your dragons, technically the first season of Made in Abyss was smooshed into 3 movies on Hulu. 

69. How old were you when you learned Santa wasn’t real? How did you find out?  
    • I can’t say for certain, but I stopped believing after 2005 because that was the year Santa had to make a stop at the house while I was at church to bring in and set up a computer, from there Papa is Santa, still is.  

70. Is your glass half full or half empty?  
    • I want to say half full, but I used to always be a half empty person. 

71. What’s the craziest thing you’ve done in the name of love?  
    • I have allowed things to slide under the rug no matter how much it’s bothered me or just because I’m personally unsure of the best path forward. 

72. What three items would you take with you on a deserted island?  
    • A boat, my husband who can drive the boat, and a bookbag of food and water supplies. 

73. What was your favorite subject in school?  
    • Art and Math, always.  

74. What is the most unusual thing you have ever eaten?  
    • I think the seaweed salad and octopus are the most unusual things I’ve eaten. 

75. Do you collect anything?  
    • I collected stickers and erasers when I was little, I still technically collect erasers. And now I collect art supplies and projects to do and books to journal in. 

76. Is there anything you wished would come back into fashion?  
    • Bellbottoms, crop tops, and emo chain pants.  

77. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?  
    • I am an introvert, it’s safer in my brain than out of my brain. 

78. Which of the five senses would you say is your strongest?  
    • Sight maybe, I don’t need glasses, and I am really strong with defining different shades of color, I see more color than others do.  

79. Have you ever had a surprise party? (that was an actual surprise)  
    • No, that would also have required having birthday parties or throwing parties for anything. The last party I have knowledge of was maybe my 4th birthday at Chuck E Cheese.  

80. Are you related or distantly related to anyone famous?  
    • I mean I’m sure we all are, but I can’t say I am, because I don’t think I’ve ever been told of any relation to someone in any way. 

81. What do you do to keep fit?  
    • I don’t keep fit, but I suppose I try and keep healthy by eating as healthy as I can, I’d much rather eat good real food than most of everything available, and I love dancing, I dance while I’m cleaning and such, and doing housework is sometimes a good workout.  

82. Does your family have a “motto” – spoken or unspoken?  
    • “The petty will pay” ”nothing changes if nothing changes” 

83. If you were ruler of your own country what would be the first law you would introduce?  
    • I’d like to make sure that everyone’s basic needs, like food and shelter are provided. I don’t actually know what I would do as a ruler to that caliber. 

84. Who was your favorite teacher in school and why?  
    • Mr. Grier, the best of all the art teachers. He was the one whose paintings were all over the school and he painted the props and things for plays and the school dances, being someone who wants to be an artist, I just, I loved his bubbly personality, he was always very open to talk to, especially as a high schooler who was thinking of being an art teacher herself, I got really close to him asking his questions and listening to his stories of his schooling.  He was a wonderful person. 

85. What three things do you think of the most each day?  
    • I think about what I need to accomplish for the day, and how many spoons I have verses how many spoons it’d take for said list, I think about how to get the kids and the grownups mentally, emotionally, and physically through the day, without fighting or causing unneeded issues and stress. 

86. If you had a warning label, what would yours say?  
    • Warning, you will need to pass a vibe check to get closer. 

87. What song would you say best sums you up?  
    • “Show Yourself” by Idina Menzel, “Fine” by Kyle Hume, “Cover Me in Sunshine” by Pink and Willow, ”Hurts 2B Human” by Pink ft. Khalid  

88. What celebrity would you like to meet at Starbucks for a cup of coffee?  
    • Again, Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, or Matpat. But for that specific event, it’d be cool to run into Lady Gaga, or Jack Black, or maybe Tom Hiddleston or Benedict Cumberbatch. 

89. Who was your first crush?  
    • As in the first real person I had a crush on, Paul, my childhood best friend. If we’re talking like media related like book or tv character, Ash Ketchum followed closely with Yugi and Joey from Yu-Gi-Oh. 

90. What is the most interesting thing you can see out of your office or kitchen window?  
    • I don’t have an office, and out my kitchen window is the driveway and the siding of the house next door, but the big window above the dining table I always have a good view of the sky and trees as the wheel of the year turns and there’s a lamp post and it always looks peaceful. 

91. On a scale of 1-10 how funny would you say you are? 
    • Uh. 4 maybe 5? I like witty banter, and sometimes they real are good. But I at least don’t see myself as a ”funny” person per say, but I am outgoing, and I love to laugh and have a good time. 

92. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?  
    • Oooh fun question. In 10 years our youngest would be 13, so our oldest would be 20. I hope to see myself being able to pursue my own passions and continue to support my family as best I can. 

93. What was your first job?  
    • Fun fact, I did have a daycare job for a whole week when Derek was like 1. I was allowed to bring Derek with me, but there was a little girl who bit him, and he bit her back, so they told me not to come back, and it was actually hard to get the money I was owed for the work I did do. 

94. If you could join any past or current music group which would you want to join?  
    • I think I would enjoy being one of the random backup harmonized/dancer for the Glee cast. But I’d really be willing to sing backup for numerous groups and pop stars. But at my core I’m a choir chick, I want to be in an adult choir locally I just don’t have the availability to allow that yet. It’s on my list. 

95. How many languages do you speak?  
    • English is the only language I’m fluent in, I still remember some Spanish and Russian from middle and high school, and I took ASL in college and I can still somewhat sign, but that’s as far as I have. Tho I have sung numerous more with all my years in choir and watching anime.  

96. What is your favorite family holiday tradition?  
    • Wasn’t this a question up there already? I’m not aware of any traditions we have so I have no favorite family tradition. It is what it is.  

97. Who is the most intelligent person you know?  
    • I don’t really think I have an answer to that, I suppose I see my husband as intelligent, but what came to mind first was Chick our astronomy teacher in college was like the most intelligent person I’ve met, but it’s not like I ”knew” her, does that count? 

98. If you had to describe yourself as an animal, which one would it be?  
    • I would have to say I think I would be the alpha male wolf partner. They are known for protecting the leader by staying right under the male, protecting his throat, and I just think it’s a good fit overall, a wolf in a wolf pack.  

99. What is one thing you will never do again?  
    • The only thing I think I can say with 100% certainty is I won’t be cutting myself ever again, and I don’t think that’s a bad answer.  

100.  Who knows you the best?  
     • I would have to say all my partners know me the best, but I want to give Brett special credit, being my husband, he knows what I’m thinking almost always, he can tell me to stop writing when I’m upset because he knows what I’m writing, and he’s yet to be wrong.