Name: Melinda Leigh Woodson Beane, a.k.a. Min

Where I Live: Jacksonville, Florida

Birth Date and Place: October 22 - Jacksonville, Florida

Job: Kindergarten Teacher at McRae Elementary School in Keystone Heights, FL

Becoming Min...

I have been called Mindy for pretty much all of my life. Bill was the one who started calling me Min soon after we started dating.

Well, I needed to call her something special. She was too fun of a person to call Melinda and everyone else called her Mindy, so I started calling her Min. I even set her up an email account where I worked at the time, she was LadyMin...

What I want to be when I grow up...

I have wanted to be a teacher since I was about eight years old. I love working with children. I have worked in daycare and as a substitute teacher, but my biggest goal in life has been to be a school teacher. Now, I will get my chance. I recently got a job as a Kindergarten Teacher at McRae Elementary School.

Yay!!! and there was much rejoicing... Min has worked hard to get the chance to teach and now it has come to pass...

I interviewed all summer at various schools around Clay County without luck. Then I got an interview at McRae. Since it was a long drive,

Forty-five miles from our place to the school...

Bill offered to drive me there for my interview. So I picked him up from work and we headed for McRae. On the way there I joked about him being my good luck charm. Little did I know that it would turn out to be true. I was very comfortable at the interview and felt like McRae would be a great place to teach. I was a bit disappointed when I did not get a job offer at the end of the interview, but Mr. Dooley the principal explained that he always takes time to replay the interview in his mind and think about it before hiring a person. When I got the callback from him, I knew that I would be happy at McRae.

I just wished she would stop calling me her lucky charm... it making me feel very "cereal-like"...  :)

About Me and Bill...

I met Bill in 1999. I was introduced to him by Hollie, one of my close friends who worked with him. We exchanged emails and chatted on AIM for about a month before I gave him my phone number. The day after I gave him my phone number, he called me. We talked for about four hours that first call and decided to meet for dinner the next day. We had dinner and saw a movie. I went home and told my mother that I was going to marry him someday. We dated for about two months before we reached the point where it was time to break up or get married. I guess you know which one we picked... We were married on June 10, 2000 and honeymooned at Walt Disney World.

Min the Collector...

I am sort of a pack rat at heart but the things I love to collect most are anything to do with Winnie the Pooh, Charming Tails figurines, Disney Pins and recently Minnie Mouse memorabilia.

I am a huge Winnie the Pooh fan. I have Pooh and the gang stickers, Christmas cards, cookie cutters, cookie jars, folders, lamps, clocks, calendars, flower pots, board games, picture frames, night shirts, socks, coffee mugs, drinking glasses, photo boxes, sunglasses, pens, pencils, gift bags, checks, address labels, photo albums, and over 45 plush Poohs.

I started collecting Charming Tails figurines from Fitz and Floyd in 1999 when Bill got me one for my birthday. I now have over 41 figurines in my collection. Since the first one Bill bought me was a girl and boy mouse in a teacup, I have focused on collecting pieces with the boy and the girl mouse together as a couple. The boy is named Mackenzie, and the girl is named Maxine. They are really cute and each piece has a special memory for me, commemorating birthdays, holidays, special events or times in my life since I have met Bill.

When it comes to Disney Pins, we do not collect just to collect. Each pin has a place from one of our trips. We usually get a Walt Disney World pin, a resort pin and other pins that mark things we did or days that we visited for each trip. We have several cork boards on the wall above my desk at home where we display our Disney pin collection.

My Minnie Mouse collection is rather small at this time. I only have about eight or nine Minnie things. Collecting Minnie's is something that I decided to do on one of our trips to Walt Disney World earlier this year. Since I have all kinds of stuff for Pooh, I wanted to start collecting things from another character. I wanted a girl character but am not really a big fan of the Princesses, so I quickly narrowed my choices down to Minnie and Daisy Duck. After looking around the parks at the different collectables, I decided on Minnie.

I love listening to the Disney CDs that we have brought on our trips to Walt Disney World. We have Disney's Greatest Hits, all 3 Volumes, Where the Magic Lives, Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, Magic in the Streets, Return to Zero (a.k.a. Four for a Dollar), and Mannheim Steamroller meets the Mouse. My favorite is the Illuminations: Reflections of Earth.

My Computer...

Bill got me my own computer as one of my Christmas gifts the first year we were married. I think he was trying to turn me into a computer geek like him...

I soon discovered RADP, AllEarsNet and many other Disney web sites.

I like playing games on my computer.

I also keep up with many of my friends via emails and letters. I even chat with a few of them from time to time on AIM.

I keep the household budget spreadsheet and also making sure everyone in the family and our friends get birthday cards, Christmas gifts and a "hey we are still alive" message from time to time.