Melissa Reid - Teacher, Peace Corps, Reading Teacher of the Year, Camp Kiwanilong

Before we get to our guest, I want you to know about the fun featured author, Susan McCormick who tells about her Fog Ladies San Francisco Cozy Murder Mysteries. Links to her books are at my website, jan-johnson.com under northwest authors.

And today’s amazing guest is Melissa Reid, a go-getter of a woman with an infectious laugh.

Melissa tells about her adventures with Peace Corps in Honduras and life in Romania. 

She speaks a number of languages, but is fluent in Spanish. She has raised her two children to be bilingual, both speaking and reading. 

She was named Reading Teacher of the Year and helped get Camp Kiwanilong, a youth camp situated in Warrenton, Oregon, off the ground. 

Currently she teaches in Knappa, Oregon.

My royalty free music is from bensound.com.

#melissareid,#susanmccormick,#peacecorps,#honduras,#romania,#spanishlanguage,#mom,#teaching,#teachingknappaoregon,#readingteacheroftheyear,#campkiwanilong,#warrentonoregon,#knappaschooldistrict,#fogladiessanfranciscocozymurdermysteries

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Find me on my website: jan-johnson.com

Transcript

Episode 9 Melissa Reid

#Moose,#Spanish,#children,#travelinglife,#peacecorps,#community,#Honduras,#teaching 

 Jan Johnson 0:00

Hello, I'm so glad that you're here joining us today. I have an exciting person to interview a woman who is just an ordinary woman leading a very extraordinary life. It's true. I think one of the things about extraordinary women is they like to laugh. 

Melissa Reid 0:21

Absolutely. 

Jan Johnson 0:22

So, I have here with me today, Melissa Reid, she lives in Burnside, with a beautiful view of the river. So, we've got fun things to talk about today. Melissa, I'm so glad you're here. 

Melissa Reid 0:45

Thank you. 

 Jan Johnson 0:46

One of the things that I would like to know about your past, you have done a lot of traveling in your life, all kinds of things. Tell me about when you were in the Peace Corps. Peace Corps in Honduras Tell me about that.

Melissa Reid1:02

I don't even know where to start. There are so many different things. So, the Peace Corps is a volunteer organization. I went into it because I believe in serving my country. But I couldn't see myself being in the armed services on any level. And I didn't want to do AmeriCorps because I felt like the rest of my life would be in America doing things and serving here. So, I was really attracted by the Peace Corps. And I was attracted-their three goals are to get to know another culture well, and to help people in another culture, get to know our culture on a personal level. And then to provide some hard skills there. And I got hired as a hillside farmer, because my mother was a massive gardener. And I always helped out in her vegetable garden growing up. 

 Jan Johnson 1:52

And somehow, they thought that was gonna translate. 

Melissa Reid 1:54

And somehow that parlayed into hillside farming for the Peace Corps in Honduras, 

Jan Johnson 2:00

So, was a little bit of an eye opener for you.?

Melissa Reid 2:03

Oh my. Yes, yes, it was. You know, having a large flat garden with tons of water available to us. We just have an irrigation system that actually pulled out of the Columbia River. So we never stinted on watering anything to working in cornfields on mountain sides with water just wasn't a guarantee.

 Jan Johnson 2:28

Oh, I know, I've seen the hillside planning in Guatemalan, I mean, some of those higher steep hills , I don't even know how you stand on them without losing your balance.

Melissa 2:38

And that was my job was to go up in the mountains, a single white woman in the middle of Honduras. And I was actually in Olancho, which is a complete it's it's almost the heart of the country. But they've tried to secede three times in their history. Because regardless of whether they have any access to other countries or not, they were pretty sure that they could be their own country, because they're very independent people. They're known for their independence in this area and their macho ism. So, it was very exciting. But going up and then finding these cornfields on the sides of the mountains and trying to work with the farmers to practice erosion control measures, to practice green manures to use pesticides that weren't chemicals that were killing everything but more natural pesticides. And you know, it's subsistence farming, so they're literally starving, and trying to pay off the bill for the seeds they already purchased. So, to get them to move away from chemicals, and what they'd been told would work is a real task. And it's a real investment in the future. 

 Jan Johnson 3:47

How old were you? 

Melissa Reid 3:49

I was I had graduated from college, and I had taken six months and done something else prior to going in. So I had just turned 23 When I headed there.

 Jan Johnson 4:00

So, you were just full of I can take on the world.

Melissa 4:05

Well, I actually had just come from a stint of traveling by myself in Eastern Europe. And so no, I had actually realized that I did have some limitations. The world is a big kind of scary place. But I was already signed up and I was already going to go so away I went.

Jan Johnson 4:25

And so that wasn't when travel was quite as easy as it is now. 

Melissa Reid 4:30

No. 

Jan Johnson 4:31

Did you do hitch hiking in Europe, or what did you do? 

Melissa Reid 4:35

Well, so I did some hitchhiking. I did have a Eurail pass. And the probably the most exciting thing I did in terms of just being traveling was I got on a boat from Greece from Greece to Israel. And I only paid deck fare because I only had $2,000 for the six months I was going to be traveling. And so, I thought Why would I pay the extra money to go inside? Well, when the storm came up and the waves were washing over the top, and they wouldn't even let us go into the protected stairwells because we'd only paid deck fare, and there were only five of us on the deck. Any one of us could have gotten washed off and nobody would ever have known.

 Jan Johnson 5:21

Oh my gosh. Making memories

Melissa Reid 5:25

making memories. Yes.

 Jan Johnson 5:30

That's amazing. Oh, what did you do in Romania?

Melissa Reid 5:33

Well, in Romania, I ended up going I started there, because I took a class through Linfield College Now Linfield University recently. They have a January term where they'll take travel classes, different places. And somehow, I managed to get into a change and culture in Romania class. And I was not a sociology student. But I had some connections with the program. And I have a facility for learning languages. And so, they agreed to take me. And so we went, we started off in Hungary, just to kind of acclimate to a different way of living, right. And then they took us on public transportation deep into the Carpathian Mountains, to a place called Sighet which is where they had one of the jails for political prisoners during the Cold War era, and during our World War II time, and they started us off with a tour of that jail by somebody who had actually been imprisoned there for his faith in God. 

 Jan Johnson 6:37

Wow. 

Melissa Reid 6:37

That's how we started our time in Romania. It was incredible. And then we got on a very small bus and went from there to a place where we just had to stop and hike in. And then we stayed in this tiny village, in the Carpathian Mountains. And it was very cold. And we're not used to that living in Oregon, right? So many changes, but just incredible people, warm people, caring people. I felt like a living doll. They wanted to dress me up in the traditional Romanian outfits. The pictures are incredible. And I loved it so much. And it was just that cultural exchange, again, was really the key. And I loved it so much that I ended up going back at the end of my six months, because everybody else went home in three weeks. And I stayed in Romania an extra two weeks. And then I went and traveled and did my thing through to Israel and back up. And then I got to be there at the beginning of the summertime as well.

 Jan Johnson 7:34

So, you saw the different seasons in there as well. 

Melissa

7:37 It was fabulous. And I actually have made you know, those huge haystacks that you see in the countryside, and some of these old pictures that the mountains there are so steep, they tried to tractor once, and it fell off the mountain to basically roll down the mountain. But we went up and we use the sides and we cut the hay and we raked it and we got it dry. And then I got to be there. I didn't really help. I'm embarrassed to admit I watched the children. Because this was beyond my skill set. I did help cart some of the hay up the hill to where we were going to make the haystack. But I've participated in making one of those haystacks, it was incredible.

 Jan Johnson 8:18

Well, I just came across two of our old wooden handled scythes. If you get the itch to do that again. 

Melissa Reid 8:27

Right. Unlikely one of my things about hillside farming was I asked, well, I have to use the scythe? And they assured me that was unlikely. So that is not on my bucket list. But thank you for offering.

 Jan Johnson 8:44

So, with the different countries that you've been to, do you have a dream that maybe your kids would go to some of these places?

Melissa Reid 8:54

Well, you know, I got started traveling because my parents took me traveling quite a bit. And our travel. My dad worked for State Farm Insurance. And so if you sold enough insurance, you got a trip with all the insurance guys.

 Jan Johnson9:06

There's a benefit.

Melissa Reid

9:07

It was it was pretty amazing. 

 Jan Johnson 9:09

I think I'm in the wrong profession.

Melissa Reid 9:12

Well, they did things like they were actually in Hungary when the Iron Curtain was still in place.  

Jan Johnson 9:16

Oh my 

Melissa Reid 9:16

and their tour leader. My dad was quite a large man. And the tour leader when they went to get back on the bus to leave the country, she said, Where's your passport? And he couldn't find it. And the police came, and I mean we're thinking that I wasn't there. i This is before I was very young. My parents left me home on this one. But they were thinking oh my gosh, have we just lost Roger to the Iron Curtain? 

 Jan Johnson 9:43

Oh my gosh, that would be scary. 

Melissa Reid 9:46

And then everybody started laughing. The tour leader had been waiting for the right person to play this trick on it was all just a joke, a practical joke. So, I grew up hearing these travel stories right And then I did get to go on some of these trips, but they were all very orchestrated.  

Jan Johnson 10:26

So your parents were influential to you with your traveling. What are the kinds of things like characteristics that maybe they taught you that have made you the person that you are today?

Melissa Reid 10:40

Well, my mother just had an amazing outlook on people on things on life happenings, she was just determined to see the best in everybody. She has many sayings that I often quote, I call them Flory isms, because her name was Flory. And they'll probably come up as we continue to talk, but I can't pull them up just out of the blue. It has to be in context. But she had many words of wisdom and many things that definitely have shaped how I see the world. They made me feel secure and safe. I don't say that I was feral. But I was definitely a free-range child. I was the youngest of four and significantly younger than the others. 

 Jan Johnson11:24

A tagalong girl.

Melissa Reid 11:25

Absolutely. My parents say I was not a mistake. But I was certainly a surprise when I came along. Yes. So, I think that just in terms of instilling confidence, and well, of course you could do that. Go ahead, we'll watch right? Or not, maybe we'll close our eyes, but I never knew that. Right. So, I think that's how you

 Jan Johnson 11:49

You felt confident enough. And is that something that same kind of things that things that you want to instill in your children?

Melissa Reid 11:56

Yes, so I definitely I have not taken my children traveling as much. I'm partially because you know, it's my husband and I and we don't always see eye to eye as to where the children should be going. That's just a natural piece of life. We negotiate all of that. But we've gone to Mexico several times. We had a grand time in Alaska last summer just the children and I driving around up there. We hit a moose and live to tell about it at 65 miles. Well, we were going 72 Before I hit the brakes, and the moose stopped us dead.

 Jan Johnson 12:34

Maybe that was a little scary.

Melissa Reid 12:36

It was certainly scary for My poor husband who was at home. We didn't see any of it except them I'll my children that even see the moose coming over the road. I was the only one that saw it running over the road and I thought oh, leap and you could miss me we wouldn't hit you. And moose don't leap except this moose. It hit us we hit it. It stopped us absolutely dead. And thank goodness there was no one behind us. And then there was a line of traffic coming towards us. And there were eight cars they all stopped and got out and came running towards us. Oh, my goodness. Are you guys okay? Anybody in there alive. And they said that moose. Usually, they slide up and come through the windshield and they take your heads off. This moose it stopped us dead. And then it did two somersaults in the air— a moose flying through the air from a little Subaru impact. And fell into the ditch shook itself and got up and ran off.

 Jan Johnson13:31

It didn't even kill it.

Melissa Reid13:32

It didn't even kill it. They were more worried about the bear that was probably chasing it coming up and getting us

 Jan Johnson13:39

oh my 

Jan Johnson 13:40

trying to go after the moose and getting distracted by us while we were trying to get the window is the car gonna blow up? Let's push it off the road. Stay away. Everybody get your baggage out. It was kind of exciting. So 

Jan Johnson 13:49

where are you in writing down your stories? As one author to a potential other author?

Melissa Reid 13:59

Ooh, that's a hard question. You know, I'm in the midst of child rearing and a career and all of that. I will say I may have started a little bit when I was preparing for the interview. So that was a good start for me. I thank you for that. But

 Jan Johnson14:14

let me ask you this. I know that you are fluent in Spanish. Are there other languages you're fluent in as well?

Melissa Reid 14:22

I speak English pretty well. And my sister-in-law is deaf mute from birth. And so, we do a lot of American Sign Language in our family just to be able to keep up with her. And I've studied a total of nine languages and used them in their countries, most of them but I wouldn't say I'm fluent in anything other than English and Spanish and maybe American Sign Language.

Jan Johnson 14:47

Like my son Aaron who can just do any language and challenges himself with learning new things and whatever. It's a lot of fun, isn't it?

Melissa Reid14:57

It tickles my brain and just the right way

 Jan Johnson14:59

right Yeah, and so, but you've also taught your children to speak Spanish, so they're fluent as well.

Melissa Reid15:06

Well, my first job when I came back from the Peace Corps, I got hired as a teacher and I already had my teaching certificate from college. And my first job was to teach native Spanish speakers how to read and write in Spanish. Children in the public schools. Because it's a lot easier to read and write in the language you already know.

Jan Johnson15:26

Exactly. 

Melissa Reid 15:26

And it's a lot easier to learn to read and write in a second language and speak it if you're fluent. If you're, what's the word you can read and write in your first language, right. And so that was my job, I got hired to do K-5 , let's teach them to read and write in Spanish and make sure that they can do that so that they can learn English more quickly and more efficiently. And I got a lot of feedback on that, shall we say, from family members from I'm the only one in my family that was bilingual. And from people in the community, right, why are you doing this? What is this? Yeah. And it made me realize that if I'm going to do it with other people's children in believing that I should do it with my own. And I think that sometimes can make a bigger impact on our communities to see that. And so here I had my son and my daughter, speaking Spanish before they could speak English, and it was hard on their father who was monolingual English speaking, right. But, we both believe this was really important so that they both learn to read and write in Spanish before they learned to read and write in English, because that was their native language. And they're both doing great in English now too. The Spanish has kind of stopped a little bit now that we're in Knappa. And there aren't many places to practice it right. But, we're always looking for that. And it's always fun. We listen to a lot of music in Spanish, and I still sing them to sleep at night in Spanish.

 Jan Johnson 16:48

So fun. Well, didn't that lead you to being a nominee for the reading teacher of the year?

Melissa Reid 16:57

Wow, that was a wild time because my husband was traveling so much. And I was home. Samuel, my firstborn was two and a half. And I was pregnant with Rebecca, my, my other child. And I had transitioned from the native language development program. Over to the dual immersion program, they were opening up a dual immersion. And when it got to third grade, I thought, well, that's my sweet spot. I want to go do that now. And so I applied and got hired to open up the third grade from the ground up, we wrote the curriculum, we figured out the English and the Spanish pieces, we had to work together closely in this group of educators. It was really intense and that was the year that my son Samuel was born. He was born in June, and I started that. I went to work teaching third grade bilingually. I was the Spanish half somebody else did the English part. 

 Jan Johnson 18:21

How you got nominated. 

Melissa Reid 18:27

And so, I had this amazing group of children come into my classroom. And I actually that year, I got to do some special Spanish language development with the English speakers because they were worried that the English speakers, even though they're in a bilingual program, there's so much English around that they weren't getting as much Spanish as they needed. And they wanted somebody to develop that a little more. So, I worked a little bit more with that group. That year, and then two years later, when I went to fifth grade and open it up from the ground floor in fifth grade, the year Rebecca was born. didn't quite have enough on my plate yet. Right.

 Jan Johnson19:00

I know. I know that person.

Melissa Reid 19:02

I think we know quite a few of them around. Right. I bet a lot of you listening. But I had the same group of children then that I had in third grade. I started them off in fifth grade. So, my first year in fifth grade. That's a special group to me, right? You get them two years in a row. That doesn't happen all the time. Right. And apparently, I was special to them too, because some of their parents nominated me for Reading Teacher of the Year that year. The parents nominate you. And I didn't get the nominate. I didn't I didn't win. I was second place. And it's okay. And they nominated me again the next year, and I did win. 

Jan Johnson 19:42

Oh, my. 

Melissa Reid

19:43

And it was the first time that at least in our area, that somebody who teaches reading in Spanish was the winner.  

Jan Johnson 19:51

That was quite an honor.

Melissa Reid 19:52

it was really a special time. Yeah, it was a special time for our school just recognizing the quality of our instruction there and in the quality of the program that meant a lot to the whole building, it was really neat. 

Jan Johnson 20:03

That is neat. How do your ideas come to you as to, oh, I could do that or whatever? How does that happen for you?

Melissa Reid 20:15

You know, I think about this a lot, because I look at what's happened in my life. And I think really, where did that come from? How did I end up there? And I don't know that this is a technique, but they just come up. I just sit still. And I listen. And I watch. And something appears on the horizon that appeals to me, and I start to walk towards it,

 Jan Johnson 20:47

Do you kind of feel like an itch if you don't have something going on? Like, oh, yeah, I could do that too. Probably maybe?

Melissa Reid 21:05

That's a really good question. I know, I don't necessarily ever have an itch I usually keep my mother always said that. I like my plate full. And I like the plate next to me full too. And if I can't keep them spinning that way that I'm going to add a third because that's probably what I'm missing for balance.

 Jan Johnson 21:21

So, you've been like this all your life?

Melissa Reid 21:23

Apparently. Yes. Yes, I have.

 Jan Johnson 21:28

And then so you know, when you got those three plates, spinning one of those plates is going to be activities with your children. Yes. And their needs and desires and one, so whatever. But when you have the other two going, how do you balance your family life?

Melissa Reid 21:43

I drag my children into it with me. 

Jan Johnson 21:46

Yeah, 

Melissa Reid 21:47

yep. That's the only way I know to do it. Because unless they're part of it, I can't be successful at it. They're still young enough. They're eight and just turned 11. So, they're not like they're teenagers. And they're going to be independent and go do their own thing regardless of what their mom is doing. Right? They're at a stage where if they're not part of it, I really struggled to be part of it. And when something pops up, I'll say, hey, let's go do this. And they say, Okay, mom. So, for example, after we hit the moose in Alaska, within a month, we were on a road trip from Oregon, to Colorado. Guess where else we have moose in the United States. 

 Jan Johnson 22:20

Oh, my

Melissa Reid 22:21

southern Oregon and Colorado

 Jan Johnson22:23

Southern Oregon has moose? 

Melissa Reid 22:25

around Crater Lake. Apparently, there are some moose down in that area. 

Jan Johnson 22:30

I didn't know that. 

Melissa Reid 22:31

That's what I was told. We didn't see moose there. But we did see moose in Colorado. We went up to the cut, we took a wrong turn. This is this is how I get my inspiration. We took a wrong turn. We ended up at the top of the continental divide. Oh, and on the way back down there were moose on the roadside. Oh, my. And that just

 Jan Johnson 22:50

and then of course you had to go see them. And then maybe you probably had to do some research about moose and find out more about them. And then that led to a story or two.

Melissa Reid 23:01

Well, and we all got stuffed moose for our birthdays and Christmas that year. 

Jan Johnson 23:06

Is your life a little bit like if you gave him a cookie?

Melissa Reid 23:13

I hadn't thought of that. But that is a possibility. Everything does build. Everything does build on each other. That's for sure.

 Jan Johnson 23:29

I kind of think it's that way too, right? What do you think is your biggest inspiration for things?

Melissa Reid 23:41

Oh, well, I believe in connections. And I believe in community. And if there's something that I can do that will connect people in my community or connect my family and I better to our community. I find myself drawn to that. That's one of the things I felt like there was a huge community of Spanish speakers in Canby and they weren't connected to the rest of the community. And that really became my rallying point is how do we help everybody belong here. And I find that that's the most appealing thing to me.

 Jan Johnson 24:23

And you love working with children? Oh, so that's a given that somewhere that's going to be involved.

Melissa Reid 24:28

Absolutely. Well, and I ran Camp Kiwanilong summer youth programs for a decade. Oh, my goodness. 

 Jan Johnson 24:36

So many experiences for kids around this area that

Melissa Reid 24:40

Oh, yes. And adults now too. It's been going on for over 30 years. And it started off because kids in Clatsop County just needed something positive to be involved in in the summertime and so a couple of teachers and assistants out at Seaside, Debbie Vale and a couple of other folks started this program for kids in the summertime. They started with just two weeks. And I showed up when they had been going four years. And just loved my summers there and just kept going with it. I ended up running the waterfront for a couple years as an older teenager, and I will never forget the first year that I ran the waterfront for them. It rained every single day that summer, except for two. And both of those days were Saturdays when nobody got in the water anyway.

 Jan Johnson 25:27

So, the waterfront when you talk about that describe that.

Melissa Reid 25:30

So, it's a lake and it's got quite a bit of algae growing in it. Although we you know, we're always working on it. We clean it up every week. And that's part of the fun is being swamp monsters. And encouraging children to get in the water was always interesting, but so they have a swimming area and a canoeing area. And it's just camp Kiwanilong is all about old fashioned, drop everything at the door, come in and be a kid fun. 

Jan Johnson 25:56

What were the age range for kids?

Melissa Reid 25:58

usually going into third grade until you're about 15, then you would apply to be a counselor and training if that's your call. And there's a pretty vigorous two year training for that before you can become staff.

 Jan Johnson 26:10

What's the story you could tell about an experience that you remember? Oh, well, maybe narrowed down to one.

Melissa Reid 26:24

Yeah, that's the tricky part. I will never forget getting my first bull's eye. We shoot, you know, there's both there's an archery range out there. So, kids starting, you know, third grade can get their hands on a bow and an arrow and shoot toward a target. And we try to make it fun because at that age, you're not really going to be very successful. And it's a little embarrassing, but I did not get my first bull's eye. I started when I was seven. I got to start a little bit early because there's some things going on. And that was a small program and stuff. But 10 years later at 17 I got my first bull's eye. Oh, 

Jan Johnson 27:02

And there was a whooping and hollering then.

Melissa Reid 27:04

There was there was much rejoicing. I was on staff at that point. And I mean, the whole staff was happy for me, I'm sure of it. 

Jan Johnson 27:12

Did you get an award?

Melissa Reid 27:13

You get a little you get a golden bead. Okay, a yellow bead for on a bull's eye bead is what you got from your name tag. The other one that I remember is we started we had one of the things that we saw in Clatsop County was that there wasn't anything for teenagers to do during the summer. And so, they decided to start a Junior High week. 

 Jan Johnson27:32

Oh, okay. R

Melissa Reid27:32

And it's a unique program. There aren't a lot quite like this. Because we don't allow any electronics never have, probably never will. Yeah. When we first got started, the final Friday night, you always dress up a little bit and you have a fancier dinner just because it's the culmination of the week. And for Junior High week then we were brainstorming how to make this even more special. And we decided to do Italian night at the canteen. Okay. And so we played Italian music, everybody was told early on to bring up actually nice clothing but camp appropriate, right? And they had two of us dancing the tango on a table as the dinner show. And I was one of them. Ooh, was that fun?

 Jan Johnson 28:18

Oh, gosh. That's a video moment for sure. Oh, my goodness. So, what are you not good at Melissa?

Melissa Reid 28:27

Oh, boy. Well, you know, my mother was a tremendous gardener. And I love gardening, but I've realized I'm not very good at it. And it's been kind of a hard road for me to actually get there. You can see my weeds from here, huh? Just looks joyful, right? That's what I say when I look at it. 

Jan Johnson 28:46

It's a natural garden. There we go. Because you know those yellow flowers and some people call weeds? They're not. You should just grow the things that grow naturally and call them flowers.

Melissa Reid28:58

Oh, my goodness. Right.  

Jan Johnson28:59

Change your perspective. 

Melissa Reid 29:01

Right. That's it. Perspective is everything. Yes. Well, I laughed at the old hillside farmer is not a very good farmer on her own property. What are you gonna do? 

Jan Johnson29:10

What would you say is your love language?

Melissa Reid29:14

Embarrassing to admit, but I realized when my mother passed away, and somebody brought me Rice Krispie treats. It was the first thing anybody ever did to recognize that I lost my mom. And I realized, oh, food and giving and giving nourishment that is my love language. I hadn't realized that it wasn't I hadn't realized what a big deal that was I've always made casseroles and had them in the freezer and gone and visited people and when I was doing the native language development trying to create community, I would go to any dinner anybody ever invited me to their house. But that was the moment this last year when I actually realized oh, that's because this is my love language. 

Jan Johnson 29:58

Yeah, yeah. Ah, that is really special. Okay, well, what's your next adventure gonna be? 

Jan Johnson 30:54

Takes a lot of courage to step out and do something new that you don't know all the answers to. 

Jan Johnson31:13

Yeah. You know and thinking outside of the box is always a good thing. You know, you may come up with something that you're forced into that you go, oh, well, hey, maybe that's something we want to keep? Who knows? So, I guess we need to look for those opportunities. Right?

Melissa Reid31:30

The future is bright, our opportunities and again, perspective and attitude. Is everything, 

 Jan Johnson31:38

Everything. Yes. Well, Melissa, this has really been fun. I'm so glad that you offered to spend some time with us and let us interview you and I hope you have been an encouragement to those listeners that we have today. And yeahR

Melissa Reid31:52

Well and thank you so much. This has been fun. 

Jan Johnson31:54

You're certainly welcome.