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I have had many life experiences since graduation. I have an Associates degree from Terra in Early Childhood Ed. and the recieved my B.S. in Elementary Ed. from Ashland University. After college, I started teaching at St. Joe Elementary in Fremont where I taught third grade for a year before taking the Kindergarten teaching job at St. Boniface in Oak Harbor. (I was the first person to graduate from there and then go back and teach there.) After two years, I decided to try my hand at graduate school full time at the University of Dayton, where I majored in pastoral ministry. While there, I realized how much I missed teaching, so I after one year, I took a teaching job with the Head Start program in Dayton. When cuts were made and I lost my job, I subbed for a while in Dayton and then headed back to Oak Harbor and worked at the grocery store there and at Bassett's hardware in P.C. until another teaching job came along at the Terra Community College Early Learning Center. I taught there until last April(2008), when I decided to leave for a variety of reasons. I have recently started working as a Home Based Teacher for WSOS/Head Start. I get to travel all over Ottawa County and work with low income families. The job requires both teaching and social work and I love it!
During my time working at Bassett's, I met my husband, Matt! He is a carpenter/cabinet maker by trade, but he was working produce at Bassett's for a little extra spending money. After some pushing from others, he finally called me and we talked for 2 hours. Let's just say it was love at first phone call. When I hung up with him, I knew that he was special and different and that he would end up being the love of my life! He proposed to me on May 19, 2006 right in the Bassett's breakroom where we met and we got married exactly one year later on May 19, 2007. 9 months later we had our beautiful baby girl, Allison Susann! Our little honeymoon baby! She is amazing! She has the most amazing personality and is already saying words at 11 months! She keeps us laughing and continues to amaze us! She is truly a blessing in so many ways!
While I was pregnant with Allie and I had my pregnancy bloodwork done, they noticed that I had a very high platelet level...3X the normal limit. Platelet's are the part of your blood that helps with clotting, so having to many puts you in danger of having clots, a stroke, or worse. They immediately put me on blood thinners and ran lots of tests. They found out I have a rare, chronic disease where my bone marrow makes to many platelets. This also made me very high risk during pregnancy. Praise God that after lots of prayers, Allie was induced early, but was completely healthy. I, too am doing well on medication...my platelets continue to stay within the normal limit. Because this disease has very few symptoms and is usually found in older people, they would never have found it without me having bloodwork done, which would not have happened had I not gotten pregnant. This is why I say Allison was such a blessing, because not only was I able to give her life, she was able to save mine. God is truly awesome and we are so thankful for our gifts!
We live in Oak Harbor and I remain active at St. Boniface church. I am also on the committee for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. Matt works for the Carpenter's Union and is in and out of jobs, but we are very happy! It is amazing how nothing matters as much as having a wonderful, beautiful family and a strong faith!
