My name is Kate Hindin, and I am currently living in Hampton, Iowa with my husband on a farm owned by my parents. So, naturally, we share the property with lots of my family's animals, mainly horses.
We also have a few cows, a few sheep, three dogs, and my husband and I have two cats that live inside.
I'm originally from Hampton, Iowa. I graduated from Hampton-Dumont High School in 1996. At the time, since math is my thing,
I thought that actuary science was what I wanted to pursue. So I was off to Drake University in Des Moines, IA. It didn't take
me long to realize that actuary science WASN'T what I wanted to do, however, what I DID want to do was still kind of up in the air.
I think I'd always known in the back of my mind that education was where I really wanted to be. I finished my second year at Drake and
transferred to Iowa State the next fall ('98). I was accepted to the teacher education program during the fall '99 semester and graduated in May of 2001.
Since I graduated, I have had the opportunity to teach a wide variety of ages and subjects. For the past three summers I have taught summer school in Hampton teaching everything from pre-school to sixth grade. During the 2001-02 school year I worked at Rockwell-Swaledale School.
I was a half time teacher and half time district technology coordinator. It kept me very very busy! In addition to my tech. coordinator duties I taught 6th grade Language Arts, Reading, and Math, as well as 5th grade Keyboarding. Sadly though, due to state budget cuts, my position at Rockwell
was eliminated at the end of the school year. I began the 2002-03 school year at CAL Community School as a long-term sub for their Reading Recovery teacher who was on maternity leave. Most recently I have been busy subbing for all levels of elementary for a few different schools around, but mostly here in Hampton.
I am able to make the unique claim of having married the same man twice! He is wonderful man from New Zealand named Paul Hindin. We met online in late 1996, and were engaged over the New Year (1999-2000) while I was in New Zealand. While I was in school it was difficult to be together, but
we tried to visit each other whenever we could. The original plan was to get married in October 2001. Then I was going to move to New Zealand with him for a few years and then we were coming back to the States. However, plans turned around about 180 degrees in December 2000. Paul was coming to visit for Christmas, and we decided to
just go ahead and get married then so he could just stay here with me! We were married on December 28, 2000 in front of the fireplace in my parents' home (in the middle of a snowstorm no less, welcome to Iowa!). We still had the church ceremony and reception in October like we had been planning, so we could celebrate with all our family and friends. Paul has been here in the US with
me since December 2000, and we've been wading through INS paperwork ever since. It seems that everything with the INS is a "hurry up, then wait" process. As of right now we are officially done with all of our paperwork and interview requirements. We are just waiting for Paul's greencard to arrive in the mail...any day now. The plan is to head back to New Zealand for a couple months as soon as possible after
we receive his greencard. At any rate, we're so happy to finally be together and thoroughly enjoying married life.
One of my favourite things to do in my spare time is read. I am a mystery fan. Although he isn't exactly a mystery writer, my favourite author is Michael Crichton. Right now I'm in the midst of the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett.
Paul introduced me to them while I was in New Zealand visiting and now I'm hooked. I haven't had much time lately and so I'm not very far into the series yet, but I have really enjoyed what I've read so far.
Another author I've come to like recently is Sparkle Hayter. She writes kind of quirky mystery stories that remind me of Nancy Drew books for adults. Since I think I read just about every Nancy Drew ever written
when I was younger, her books seem to be right up my alley.
Other things I like to do in my spare time are ride horses with my family, scrapbooking, and other various crafts with rubber stamps.
Also, as you will see on my hobbies page, I collect quotes. So if you have any good quotes or words of wisdom you'd like to share, please send them to me and I will add them to the collection!
Well, that's me in a nutshell. You can find more information about my family, friends, and hobbies in their respective sections of this site.
