Family photos 2010

Thanksgiving 2010

Great Grandma Janet and Great Auntie Jane came to visit for Thanksgiving. They had fun visiting with the girls.

The Stenhoffs invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner this year. Don's parents were in town from Washington. We enjoyed a delicious dinner on the back porch. What a wonderful afternoon.

The girls table. Anna did a little craft with the girls before dinner. Fun fun.

Go Anna Go

We are so thankful for wonderful family and friends.

Time for pie !!

We also celebrated Jane's Birthday on Thanksgiving.

Happy Birthday Auntie Jane (with Emma and princess Mathea)

Thanksgiving Feast

A room full of turkeys

Emma's class after their Thanksgiving day feast

Mom and Em in class

I feel so blessed to be able to volunteer in Emma's Kindergarten class every other Friday and for special occasions. Emma face lights up when I come into class, I just love it and treasure these special days. It is so fun to be a part of her school life. The kiddos tasted apple, cherry and pumpkin pie and voted for their favorite. Emma's favorite was....pumpkin.

Em's table enjoying their feast.

A Little Bit about Auntie Jane

A Little Bit about Auntie Jane

From the time I was a little girl, I knew that I would be a teacher of some sort - but more than that, a teacher of children with disabilities. As a young Girl Scout my troop visited a special education school - I was touched by the students and impressed by the dedication of their teachers. As an older Girl Scout, I volunteered to do "patterning," a therapeutic strategy popular in the 60's, and that further solidified my interest in the field of special education. When interviewed after being named the Girl's League "March Girl-of-the-Month" during my senior year in high school, my answer to a question abut my career plans was, "become a teacher for students with mental retardation" (still a p.c. term at the time).

During my freshman year at La Verne College (now University of La Verne), I was introduced by a roommate to the world of Speech Pathology. Intrigued by the many facets of this field and awed by the wide range of positions available (i.e. work in a clinical or hospital setting, work in the pubic school system as a therapist or as a classroom teacher of communicatively handicapped children), I declared a Speech Path major...then in graduate school at the University of Redlands, I refined my expertise in communicative disorders with a specific emphasis in language pathology.

When I began grad school, I was leaning toward seeking a position in a hospital rehabilitation unit, but my medical internships changed my mind! One of my patients, a sweet old lady who had had a stroke passed away suddenly and a couple of days later I was called in to do a post-trauma evaluation on a small boy who had fallen down a cliff while hiking with his family...I quickly saw that working in a hospital was not for the faint of heart! Thankfully, I then did my student teaching in the public school system. I did half my student teaching as an itinerant speech therapist and half as a special education teacher for 1st and 2nd graders with severe oral language deficits...I was hooked! I loved working in the schools!

And sure enough, for the past 34 years, I have worked in the public school system either as a speech therapist (known as a Speech-Language Pathologist these days) or as a special day class teacher for students with severe language impairments. Currently, as I begin the fast track toward retirement, I am an SLP at a special education school in Riverside, California. I work exclusively with students 3 to 5 years of age who have moderate to severe disabilities.

I have never regretted choosing this career field, and I am incredibly blessed to have been able to put my practical experience to good use outside of the school system. It is amazing to me to look back on my life and see how the Lord has used my education and experience in fields far-removed from school!

As I worked with an increasing number of families as a therapist or teacher, I began to see how having a child with any kind of disability was simply overwhelming. The need for respite care, practical support, and education for parents became increasingly apparent as did the tremendous need for these children, whatever the nature of their disabilities, to have "community," to have friends and activities and ample opportunities to experience what typically-developing children experience, but at a level appropriate to their development. This awareness led me, with a team of dedicated volunteers, to develop a "disabilities ministry" at my church where we offered monthly daytime and evening respite opportunities as well as a support group for parents. For children and young adults with disabilities, we offered Sunday School, weekend camping adventures, a choir which produced two full-scale musicals a year, mid-week Bible study and recreation programs, field trips such as whale watching and Disneyland...wow! What a joy and a privilege to be able to use my education and teaching/therapy experience as a basis for developing programs designed not to remediate and "fix," but to enrich and uplift.

The continued development of the disabilities ministry opened up the world to me, literally. While I had been a foreign exchange student to Finland when I was 16, I had not been out of the USA again until the need for disabilities-related mission trips became apparent. I found myself journeying to places like Oradea, Romania; Moscow, Russia; David, Panama; Chipata, Zambia; Langfang, China - not for the tourist attractions, but for the opportunity to assist in the development of special education schools, to provide developmental assessments for pre-adoptive children, and to enhance the educational component in orphanages, as well as the education of churches in what they could do to enrich the lives of families experiencing disabilities.

Who would have thought when I first declared a Speech Pathology major that that decision would have an impact around the world? How blessed, how awesomely blessed, I am to have a Heavenly Father who created me for good works that He had planned even before I was born! How grateful I am for the many opportunities He has given me to be used by Him in extraordinary ways. I hope always for all I do to be a reflection of His incredible grace, mercy and love.

Post written by Jane Simmons- Emma and Caitlyn's Great Aunt while she was here visiting for Thanksgiving 2010.

Two little cowgirls

Emma was invited to go horseback riding with Ella to celebrate her 5th birthday. The girls had a great morning riding along the base of South Mountain.

Emma's horse's name was Martha. She was a good ol horse, just a little gassy. He he.

Emma and Ella in their pink cowgirl hats. Yeeehaw, what a fun way to celebrate Ella's birthday.

A Race for Maggie's Place 2010

We ran Maggie's Place Race for a second year. This was their 10 year anniversary so there was a 10K in addition to the 9K. We made pretty good time pushing our two favorite girls in the jogger stroller. We ran the 10K in 1 hour and 4 minutes. The girls did a great job and Bryan did a super job pushing all 70ish lbs.

Caitlyn and Emma ran the .9 miles Kids Dash with Jack Bradley. They all had a blast ! Here they are stretching.

Caitlyn talked about "her baby race" the whole time we were running. She was so excited about her run and has been showing us her run in the house since then. It was so sweet. She was so happy to show Nana and Papa her metal.

An attempt at a family photo.

Women's Half Marathon

A perfect day for a race with a friend.

November 7, 2010 - Women's Half Marathon (Tempe & Scottsdale)

I ran the race in honor of my Grandma Velma who passed away on November 2, 2010 at the age of 95. She was a breast cancer survivor. The race went to benefit the Susan G. Komen foundation for breast cancer awareness. I thought about my Grandma a lot along the way. Memories of her helped me through some tough times during the race.

Maria came to town to run too. We ran the first mile together which was awesome. We passed each other during the race (due to the way the course was set up) and got to cheer each other on.

My hurt foot made it to about 9.5 before it really started to bother me. Here I am resting after some ice and biofreeze.

Miss Em sporting my metal.

Miss Maria- we have been friends since grad school at Gonzaga (she supervised me in the clinic) :-), she got her PhD at UGA when we were in ATL, she was in our wedding and she the girls' Godmother. It was awesome to share this experience with her. In the words of the girls "Go Maria Go"

I finished in 2 hours, 28 minutes and 56 seconds. I was okay with that time considering my foot was hurt and I had been on antibiotics for bronchitis the week before. Hoping for a little faster time next time around. All in all it was fun and a great race. Next up, Maggie's Place 10K and Emma's kid's dash.

After a great race day, we had a great evening with more Gonzaga friends, in town from Seattle. Brian and Nate were roommates. We enjoyed some yummy food with Brian, Kendra and their new baby girl Alina at Joe's Farm Grill. It was mini ZAG reunion.

Such a good day.