5 Minutes with a Mom: Haley Villines

 

Name: Haley Villines

Children’s names and ages? Caleb (4) and Nola (7 mos)

Where are you from and how long have you lived in NWA? I spent my early years in McGehee, my junior high years in Hot Springs and my high school years in Little Rock. It’s just easiest to say “I’m from Arkansas.” When my husband, Rudy, finished grad school at the U of A, we moved to St. Louis for 5 years. After Caleb was born, we knew it was time to come home to Arkansas. We’ve been in Rogers since 2007.

Tell us about your work: I’m the speech-language pathologist at Reagan Elementary in Rogers. I’ve been an SLP for 10 years.

What do you like to read? I love to read when I can find the time. I devour books in the summer when I’m not working. Jodi Picoult and Jen Lancaster are my favorite authors. I have 2 books on my nightstand right now: Backseat Saints (Joshilyn Jackson) and Fearless (Max Lucado).

Favorite movie? I love movies about Southern women:  Steel Magnolias, Hope Floats, Sweet Home Alabama and The Blind Side.

What are your favorite childhood memories? My grandparents used to take me on a road trip every summer. We visited most of the National Parks and saw some really interesting things along the way. I treasure those memories and the time I got to spend with them. I also remember going to Vacation Bible School every summer. We sang and learned and we always had sugar wafer cookies and watered-down Kool-aid as a snack. 

Tell us about some traditions you’ve started with your kids: We make it a point to have supper at the kitchen table when everyone is home.  Sometimes it’s tough, but it’s really important to us. We usually try to talk about the best part of our day while we eat together. 

Rudy and Caleb go for weekend hikes and I hope to join them when Nola is a little older. 

I also started an Advent tradition with Caleb last year that I look forward to continuing. We have a sock for every day of Advent and the sock has a Bible verse, an activity or treat and someone particular to pray for. 

What’s your favorite thing to do in NWA? No question about this one: Razorback football games. I am a lifelong, dyed-in-the-wool Hog fan. There’s just nothing like being on The Hill on a fall day, surrounded by 70,000 of my closest friends! 

What are your favorite hobbies?Other than the obvious answer: spending time with my husband and kids? Photography and scrapbooking help me preserve our family’s memories. I also try to keep my blog as up to date as possible to share the events of our lives with our family and friends.  I think I might also be a little addicted to Facebook. 🙂  I’ve recently started doing Zumba and I really like that too.

If you could have a vacation anywhere this winter, where would it be? Anywhere with sun, sand and the sound of crashing waves.

Which songs are on your MP3 player right now? I have very eclectic taste in music. My favorites are Kenny Chesney and Jimmy Buffett. My iPod is heavily loaded with their music, but if you put my library on shuffle, you’ll get anything from Patsy Cline to Ludacris to Steven Curtis Chapman to Tim McGraw and even the Razorback Marching Band. 

If a song was written about your life, what would the title be? “Busy and Blessed”

One thing I have been meaning to do is: Consign/sell all of the outgrown kids’ clothes and toys in my attic. 

How do you unwind at the end of the day? After I get the daycare bags and lunch packed, the living room picked up, the laundry folded and that last bit of paperwork done after the kids go to bed, I like to blog or read some of the blogs on my Google Reader feed. I try to read a page (maybe two!) of a book before my eyes can’t stay open anymore. Sometimes, I might even manage to stop long enough to watch a DVR’d episode of Project Runway, Design Star, Biggest Loser, Glee or The Office.

One word to sum me up … Dedicated.