"Lived Everywhere"
Text for this audio is also below...
"We have lived practically everywhere..."
3:38 min. Joe talks about the family's "current" whereabouts, and such. [text below]
For more about the new house, see bottom of page...
Our Sarah (5' 5", with the ball) plays guard for the Franciscan University Barons. Her coach describes her as a "real spitfire" on the court, and she was named "Newcomer of the Year" in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference her freshman year. Sarah is currently a Junior who is majoring in social work. On two of her Spring breaks in college, Sarah has gone on missions trips to Nicaragua and Haiti to do outreach work. Sarah also plays soccer for the university and has recently joined a campus "Household," Franciscan's version of a "sorority." That is, Sarah's particular Household revolves around a charism of prayer and outreach to others. (Franciscan's motto: "Catholic to the Max!"). For a broader look at Sarah over the years, see Sarah's Page.
As this graphic notes, Joseph, 19, is a Freshman at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. He is majoring in business, with a strong entrepreneurial bent. He plays both basketball and soccer (goalie) for the college. He also enjoys art, mechanics and woodworking. His senior year in high school. Joseph made this table out of old barn wood for an Industrial Tech Class project. It sits proudly in our dining room. For a broader look at Joeseph over the years, see Joeseph's Page.
As I type this, our Jonathan is just about to enter high school. He's doing quite well academically (including becoming quite a good writer), was named to the All Star Team in basketball this year, and is a very skilled soccer player as well. Jonathan is also extremely good at art, his favorite medium being pencil sketches (like his Jesus drawing here). Over the years he's been involved with church youth groups, including outreach to the disadvantaged. As an aside, Jonathan is also quite good at card tricks. And he recently entertained a rather large group at the Maple Crest Assisted Living Facility in Bluffton, Ohio.
LIz has recently left magazine publishing, and is now a "Major Gift Officer" for Franciscan University in Ohio. Her primary function is soliciting donations for the university from alumni, corporations, and so on. She is also on a number of steering committees at the university. What's more, Liz has begun speaking on what Pope John Paul II called "Third Way Feminism." (She recently gave a talk at Franciscan on this and is working on the book "Feminism Baptized"about the subject as well -- based on our years of travel and the women she has met along the way who are living out this ethos in various ways.) When not doing all these things, Liz can often be found at one our many kids' sporting events. She is pictured here braving (or, well, kind of braving) the elements during a late Fall soccer match.
http://www.voteforjoe.com/lizs-magazine
http://www.voteforjoe.com/liz-author
As I write this, I'm continuing to paint houses, do some free-lance writing, take evening walks/bike rides with Liz, attend kids' sporting events, and keep up my athletics as well. At night I continue to 'burn the midnight oil,' doing more research, updating our website, and planning strategies in my ongoing quest for the presidency. I've often joked that: "Running for president is taking a little more time than I thought it would." --Joe
"We have lived practically everywhere..."
"We have lived every place but at something akin to Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, literally. And each place has given us a good feel for various aspects of American life. Something that, well, we believe the American people will appreciate. That is, this wide swath of living experiences has given us a good 'up-close-and-personal' feel for the living experiences of many sectors of our society.
"While not 'Trump Tower,' I lived for a time when I was single in a high-rise condominium complex along what is referred to as Lakewood, Ohio's "Gold Coast." Prior to that, I had lived for five years in Lorain, Ohio (pop. 64,097), which at the time was primarily a hardscrabble Rust Belt town on Lake Erie. When Liz and I were first married, we lived in the small Eastern Shore of Maryland fishing village of Mt. Vernon (pop. 721). A couple years later, we spent a year in Noblesville, Indiana, a suburban setting north of Indianapolis. We have also twice lived for extended periods in the small towns of Ripley, Ohio (pop. 1,750) and Bluffton, Ohio (pop. 4,125). We have also twice lived, and worked, on farms for extended periods of time in Jelloway, Ohio (pop. 300, including a good number of Amish people) and Yorkshire, Ohio (pop. 96). And at the other end of the population continuum, we lived in a rough neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio (pop. 390,113), for five years doing outreach work.
"And if there was any settings we missed living in, we intersected with most of the others -- for various periods of time -- in our extensive (250,000 miles) cross country travels. Travels that took us into Kentucky hollers, Mohave desert towns, Alaskan villages, Northwest forest communities, Native American Reservations, many metropolitan cities, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana... ranching communities; Texas, New Mexico, Arizona... border towns; Plain States agriculture belts; Gulf Coast flood zones (which were many after Hurricane Katrina); outside-the-lines towns like Florida's Key West, Cape Cod's Provincetown, Ohio's Yellow Springs...
"So in making our last move, we decided on a town that had a good mix of practically all this (sans the desert thing). Steubenville, Ohio (pop. 18,659). Our state's tourism slogan is: "Ohio, the heart of it all." And they had Steubenville in mind when they came up with that! Steubenville sits on the Ohio River. It's a Rust Belt City making a comeback. There is a touch of a metropolitan feel downtown, some hardscrabble areas close by the downtown, suburban enclaves, a college, and some small towns dot the surrounding rural landscape. It used to be that: "If it played in Peioria, it would play anywhere." Well, that's right, that's been changed to: "If it plays in Steubenville..."
"So the 'Almost First Family' (aka: the Schriner family) is now positioned with it's finger directly on the eclectic pulse of the nation. What's more, we decided on a house in Steubenville that resembles a mini-White House (notice the round pillars, the color white, all that) -- so that we can get some preliminary practice.
"Oops, actually I have to stop now. The 'Almost First Lady' said it's time for me to rake the leaves.
"I'm hoping they have someone to do that at the real White House when we get there." --Joe
*Note: For a description of each of our family members, and so on, go to Family 2.
Joe's Current Family Life
I refer to our new Steubenville home as the "mini-White House." Liz says I should stop doing that.
Our kids played so many sports, we decided on a "one sign for all" homemade thing. By the way, Bluffton High School is red, Franciscan U., green.
Okay, so it's not Mar-a-Lago's course, but I can usually get the chips pretty close to the clothesline pole.
Our living room on Main Street. Liz has got this great interior decorating touch.
Family update photos: 10/13/17
