The College Scene

Oskaloosa, Iowa - Fall 2008

Corey is currently attending college at William Penn University in Oskaloosa. It is a small town not far from Des Moines.

This is a picture of the first snow of the season. Needless to say, it gets very cold there. Corey really enjoys it there.

His school consists of about 800 students. Corey is studying engineering. He would like to be a Mechanical Engineer.

Alot of people ask "why Iowa"? Corey's really good friend Christine went to WPU to check out the soft- ball program and decided to sign on. She came back and told Corey about it and asked him to consider going there as well. Ben, myself and Corey took a trip there last February to meet with a few teachers. The week we went it had snowed like 5'. It was crazy, definately not what we were used to. We met with Levi (a counselor), the Dean of Students, the music teacher and the head of the engineering dept. We were pretty impressed with what we saw. Corey came to a decision right away.

While we were there, I had an unfortunate incident. Following a lunch with the music professor, I took a fall down a flight of stairs. To prevent myself from falling real bad, I had reached back and grabbed the stair rail with my left hand. I didn't know it at the time, but I injured my left shouler pretty bad. Needless to say, it was quite a memorable trip.

Corey is getting to enjoy playing the drums. Those of you know Corey loves playing the drums, so besides learning to be an engineer he gets to take part in his favorite hobby. Both semesters, he has taken seventeen credits. The first semester, his GPA was 3.97. He got an A- which prevented him from getting a 4.0. This semester so far, he has all A's except in his Calculus 3 class, there is has a B. We are very pleased with how he is doing.

Corey came home for Spring Break two weeks ago. He stayed for 8 days. He stayed pretty busy meeting up with old friends. I told him my new saying for him when he comes home is "he keeps the pavement warm". School ends the first week of May. Then he plans on starting a new job out at the test site in the engineering department.

Digital Scrapbooking

Wow, I did it! I have a digital scrapbooking program called Memory Mixers. I put this cute album together of my neice Cami and her family. This particular page I have posted stems from an awesome night at Vals and Coby's Great Grandma McDonald's house (my mom). When it is time to go fishing, instead of buying night crawlers we go out and hunt them at Great Grams house. When these pictures were taken, it was very dark. But with Bens super duper digital camera and flash the pictures came out great. So now with his great picture taking and this new program, I can scrapbook straight from the computer if I am physically unable to do all the embellishing by hand. It has alot of neat backgrounds and embellishments. It makes calendars, cards, photo books and you can add video and music to it as well. I would reccomend this program to everyone. Check it out, there's a new one coming out in March.

Oskaloosa, Iowa

This is a picture Ben took while we were in Iowa visiting Corey's College (William Penn University). We went there one year ago to see a college Corey was interested in. It had just snowed a total of seven inches the day before we arrived. Wow what a difference for us. We did get to see some old barns like this one throughout the area. This will be perfect for a scrapbook page.

My Illness

Late October 2004, I became ill with a high fever for eight days. I went to a local PA. She said I had a virus and treated me as such. After my fever had gone, I still felt bad, hurting in my joints and having all over body pain. I went back to her and she said it was virus that had concentrated in my joints and that it had to work its way out. After a few months and some blood tests I went to someone different and was told I had Lupus. The news was devastating. Ben had an older sister who had Lupus and died from it.
Well luckily about 2-1/2 years before I got sick, I had purchased a disability plan thru my work. In the event I would become disabled, I would get paid while out of work. After learning of my illness, I began to get my disablity. I could no longer work, due my extreme joint and body pains. I was also experiencing tremors and bad headaches. The disability company would not take a PA's diagnosis and I had to see a MD. He had me get more tests and pulled back on the Lupus diagnosis. He had his suspisions of Fibromyalgia but wanted me to see a rhumatologist. I did and he comfirmed it "Fibromyalgia". Then finding out that there is nothing they can do for it was a big blow. All that could be done is pain meds. Others followed due to depression, migraines and inflamation.
Well, it is 2009 and I may have a new diagnosis. I started seeing a neurologist last year and he has given me some bad news. He found that I have no curve in my spine. I have been suffering for almost a year of bad pain down my spine. I did try some PT, but at times it is worse.
I just recently saw him again and after some tests he thinks I may have Stiff People Syndrom. This is another Auto Immune disease without a cure, but it does have a treatment. I am currently waiting to see if my insurance company will approve it. It is a treatment through an IV and takes about five hours. A nurse will come to our home and administer it. It is very expensive, that is why we are waiting to hear from the insurance company.
I have been very frustrated since this has happened to me. It went from me doing everything with my family, working and keeping up my yard to sometimes not even being able to get out of bed. It is my hope that someone could hear my story and know someone with something similar that I could talk to and maybe we could make a difference in ones life.
It is a continuous struggle and hopefully this treatment will come thru and I could be adding to my story of something more positive. Please pass good thoughts my way... Becki

Back in Time

This is a photo of my parents when their life together just began. My sister Debbie is their first born in 1960, my brother Jody is the middle child born in 1962. I came quite bit later in 1966. It is a pretty funny story the way my mom tells it. When I was born, my sister and brother both did not like the idea at all. The told my mom to put me back where I came from. Needless to say "that never happened". I being several years younger than my sister & brother was difficult at times while growing up. I am sure there are others out there that went thru the same things as I did.

My parents moved from Indian Springs to Pahrump February of 1967. I was six months old at the time. They bought five acres on Blagg road where they still reside. Most of my younger years are blurry. I do remember my parents would always have a summer garden jammed packed with all kinds of veggies. I spent most of my time at the public pool (which still is the same).

I attended school at Manse Elementary. From there was junior high in the south building located on the high school campus. Then there was High school in the main building of the 9th grade academy. That was an exciting time of my life. I was a cheerleader and was is Student Council. I stayed on the honor roll making sure I could always cheer.

Right before my senior was to begin, I began to have a crush on Ben Veloz. We had been friends throughout our high school years having classes together and going on sports activity trips, but we never saw each other as more than that. Ben was very shy and to my surprise just after school started he asked me to go on a date with him. It was amazing! I can only speak for myself, I knew he was the one for me from the get go.

We began dating September 6th, 1983. Ben was playing football, then basketball. With me cheerleading and going to all the events with him, we could only grow closer. In March 1984 we became engaged. Wow! Were we the talk of the school. First everybody couldn't believe we were even dating, being that he was so shy and I, well I wasn't. Then the engagement. There was only one other girl in our senior class wearing an engagement ring.

We graduated in May and were both working and planning the wedding. Ben was working in Vegas, so we knew we would move there just after the wedding.

We married December 15th, 1984. We did live in Vegas for a short time. We then moved out of state for work reasons and then back to Pahrump, all in the first year we were married. WOW!We bought a home soon after moving back to Pahrump, both found local jobs.

In early 1988 we found out our family would grow. On November 11, 1988 Mario Jose was born. That was something I had been dreaming of all my life. I wanted most in my life to be a mom. Then on August 11, 1990 we had Corey Chase. Our family was complete. Our boys grew up very close and had alot of family close by and knew the importance of Family.

When the boys were in school full time, I went to work for the School District. It was great having the same schedule as my boys, that was my intention so we could still be close and not have to spend time apart because of my job. I ended up working at the same school they attended elementary school. Of course with time they went to different schools as did I. I stayed with the district for about nine years, until 2005.

Things that I am Thankful for:

1. A Loving Husband
2. Two wonderful sons (both are in college now)
3. A supportive family
4. My laptop computer
5. wireless internet
6. wireless mouse
7. My ipod touch
8. My Scrapbook room my husband created for me
9. The comforts of home
10. The wonderful throw blanket my sister gave me for xmas
11. my three loving cats that comfort me
12. my kindle
13. music
14. my cricut expression
15. my koi pond

Our Wedding Photo 25 Years ago

This year is a very special year!
On December 15th we will be celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary.

Mario, Becki, Ben and Corey

Our Family Christmas Photo - 2008!















Mario and Corey took Ben to their old place of employment (Spring Mountain Motor Sports). It is a place where people can bring their fancy cars and race them on a track. The boys' cousin Victor is an instructor there so he gave them a ride. It was a first for Ben. He said they got going about 13o in a vette. He said he was speechless. He didn't want to talk because he might spoil the ride. He had alot of fun. I guess guys do have the need for speed...