Interview with Ann Glanzer, Sister-in-Law

Next up in my “women of the family” interview series is my brother’s wife, Ann Marie (Poppen) Glanzer. (I’m not sure what name exactly she goes by.) Ann and Alex are enjoying their third year of marriage and first year of parenthood as they reside in Willow Lake, South Dakota, where they graduated from high school together in 2006. Let’s see what crazy adventures Ann is up to these days!

1. I’m sure everyone is wondering, how have the first 7+ months of parenthood gone for you and Alex? How is little Hadley doing?

Of course I won’t speak for Alex, but I think the first few months of parenthood have gone quite well. We’ve had no major illnesses or contusions – Hadley is usually very content and seems to have a smile for everyone. I know that we’re very lucky in that regard, as that is not the case with all babies.

2. Have you witnessed any monumental “firsts” of Hadley’s lately?

Well, she sits up by herself now – that was a pretty big achievement. She has been eating solid (baby) food for about a month now and really likes that. We celebrated her first Halloween recently – she was a pretty darn cute monkey if I say so myself. Of course, she gets that from me. And while I didn’t actually witness this, she did survive her first road trip with Dick Poppen (my dad). He was babysitting for us one day and had to go on a parts run to North Dakota. Apparently all Hadley ended up doing was sleeping most of the way and then messing herself. Which is probably what any one of us would’ve done in that situation, as road trips with my dad are truly something to behold.

3. Now that you have your fancy SDSU bachelor’s degree in Journalism, how are you putting it to use?

By using words like “contusions” in question #1. Just kidding. To be honest I don’t use a lot of those skills in my job. Not many people know this, but a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to buy a local paper. But being both an editor and publisher in this current climate is tough, and that really wasn’t a risk I wanted to take at this point in my life.

4. Looking back on your wedding from 2008, is there anything you wish you would have done differently?

I really liked our wedding. I liked that it was in my home church and that the reception was in a somewhat non-traditional location. I thought that we had really good food as far as wedding food goes, which is important to me. All of my immediate family and most of my extended family was there, which was also quite special. But, I would have to say, it might have been nice to have a destination wedding and then a reception back home. Both sets of parents offered this option, and I’m sure it would have saved money in the long-run.

5. What is the most romantic thing Alex has done for you lately?

I came home from work one day this past week, and he had cleaned up the kitchen, swept the floors, started some laundry and made the bed. Not what some might call “romantic,” but it sure made my day!

6. Do you have any plans to improve upon or renovate your house soon?

Oh my God yes. We have a water issue with our shingles that is wrecking some drywall inside the house that needs to be addressed fairly soon. There has been some talk (mostly mine) of a large-scale kitchen renovation. But, other things need to be paid off first, so we’ll see what happens.

7. Is there anything that you are addicted to?

Caffeine and HGTV.

8. Do you have any favorite teams in any sports?

As Alex will tell you, I don’t really care for professional or college sports, aside from Major League Baseball, that I find somewhat palatable. The only team I follow with any sort of interest is the Twins.

9. After your failed dog experiment, will you be trying again with another dog from the Humane Society soon?

First off, I would like to sincerely apologize for our failed experiment. We decided to take on the responsibility of having a dog, and then couldn’t follow through with it, and for that I feel really bad. Thankfully the dog now has a good home with someone who can be home with it a lot more than we can and give it the attention it obviously needs. All that being said, we now know what kind of dog would work for us: we need to start with a puppy and it needs to be a friendly breed of dog, like a lab or golden retriever.

10. Who are your three favorite music artists of all-time?

The first two are super easy… #1 Creedence Clearwater Revival #2 The Beatles – and after that it gets dicey as I like so many different kinds of music and the first two are really the only two I could possibly consider “all-time” favorites. I’m going to go out on a limb for #3 and say Jason Aldean. I like everything that he’s put out, and he’s not horribly “twangy” country which I really like. So he’s a current fave.

Thanks for joining us today Ann, any closing remarks?

I’m always really excited to do these interviews, so thanks for including me. As a side note, I’m glad you didn’t ask any questions regarding politics as this last state election was really a downer for me.