Random Ramblings & Photos

This Belle of the Ball is our wonderful friend Julie, the mother of the special K's. (Kendra and Katrina) She is dressed up for a presentation at her church and made a lovely anti bellum belle. As you can see, she has a lovely sense of humor and we would be proud to be her parents.
In every life there are a series of people that you meet that have an impact on your life. Barbara has had a series of young teachers just starting out in Special Education assigned to her school over the years. Most of them have grown to love Barb as much as I do. She has become a mentor, a friend, a co-worker and mostly like family. We get cards and notes from far flung places in the world. One went to Japan for a while and now we have a friend in Morocco.
It is Julie our friend in Morocco that I write about today. I am not sure what words to use to describe her. Sweet, caring, intelligent, pretty, nice and accepting all come to mind. She has a joy in life that must stem from her strong Christian background. If ever there was a need for a role model for what every young woman should be like I know where to look for all the attributes in one place. Until Dave married his wife, Julie was the surrogate daughter I needed to round out that side of our life in Topeka. Her acceptance of this Mean Old Uncle Denny is a tribute to her faith that god put something nice in everyone.
Julie is the daughter of a Doctor that practiced Eye Surgery around the world. She has spent time in Afghanistan and still holds fond memories of her time there. Her mother’s family was missionaries and traveled worldwide. Julie’s parents settled in Hillsborough, Kansas but I’m sure that they can truly claim citizenship in the entire world. U nfortunately Julie 's father passed away and is now serving a group of people in heaven. Gerald’s parents live in western Kansas in Meade. Julie still has brothers in far flung places and is fortunate to have one in Morocco.
Julie came to T. South with her maiden name Friesen. She was engaged to Gerald Reimer at that time and had all the enthusiasm that new teachers have. She spent about half of her day over at the Middle School and really didn’t like the administration there. She was thrilled to be assigned full time to South in her second year. They made a great team at South and I heard nothing but great things from Barb about Julie and her work with the kids. At one point in time, Julie married Gerald and they opened a second chapter in their life. I’m sure that they dedicated their lives to being good parents and members of their church and community. As usual, it was on a National Guard weekend they got married. You know, you don’t get buried or married on Denny’s drill. If you do, I won’t be there.
After a couple of years in the Special Ed classroom, Julie asked for a regular education class. This was almost never done in this school district but I’m sure they could see what a special person she was and let her move into general education. Barb would often come home late from school and if we drove by the school, Julie’s car would still be in the school parking lot. Julie worked long and hard to make sure her students were successful. In fact, she and Barb even cooked up a scheme to have me come and help one of the students after school. For a couple of months I would come by after school and we all would eat a Snicker and do homework. Julie spent most of her time grading papers and making lesson plans while I worked with her student. From time to time I would have to ask Julie what something meant and how the heck to do some of the math. My methods were old school and the new methods were not a part of my processing. I swear I am missing a couple of math genes but make up for them in my verbosity.
Julie and Gerald were like most young couples and after a while decided that a family was what they needed. Julie worked until their first daughter was born. She became a full time mother to Katrina and Barb and I became surrogate grandparents. We were allowed to baby sit all we wanted and were there if an emergency arose. We loved their daughter as much as anyone could. Smart, cute and funny was the best I could describe her. After a year or two they decided that an additional child was needed and they were blessed with Kendra. Typical second child that tries to keep up with big sister and is another cute and smart child. Kendra is far from the copy of Katrina I expected. She is different in a lot of ways but we loved her, nonetheless. I call them, them the special K’s.
Over the years, Julie has allowed us to be a friend and share their adventures. These adventures continue today as Gerald is teaching at a University in Ifrane, Morocco. I find it interesting that through their blog and e-mails we stay almost as in touch as we did when they were here. One thing I will miss is the Halloween Trick-or-Treating. Gerald and I would go out with the special K’s and the big girls would stay at the house enjoying the costumes. Julie and Gerald would take the girls to the houses on their street mostly to say hi to the neighbors and the guys would go over a block or two. I hope you allow me to divert my writing every once in a while to talk about people that are special to us. I know that this is only a surface description of a very complex person. How can one person describe another person other than to compare how they interact with your life? I wish you all could have met and spent time with Julie and grown to love her like we have. I know she would want to say “God Bless You and May he protect you.” As salaam Alaikum.