The First Few Chapters of my Book

Hey everyone tonight I took the time to post the first five or so chapters from my book and I would love to get some feedback from everyone while I'm away for the next couple of weeks.

Fith Chapter

Elementary School

I started going to Enchanted Hills Elementary school in January of 1996 located in Rio Rancho NM.  I had many great teachers.  I also experienced lots of new skills as the years went by.  I will share some good and bad facts about those years of school.

I enjoyed all the features of my first grade class.  One is that I loved the teacher, her name was Ms. Campbell and was very nice and sweet.  We had a lot of fun during story time.  I also learned how to write little words and then even turn the words into sentences.  Then, in that class we had homework which includes some spelling and some addition math problems night after night.  I made lots of cool friends.  I enjoyed going back to class everyday cause I knew that I would be able to spend a lot of time with all the other classmates and friends that made throughout the entire first grade class which consisted of eight different first grade classes.  That means that there was at least one hundred first grade boys and girls so I had plenty of opportunity to meat new people.  Also, I was able to make lots of friends throughout the year.  It was always fun going to the computer lab to work on different group work assignments.  I won’t forget all those times I spent working on so many of my skills related to my visual disability.  I learned that my disease is Retnites Pigmentosa which is when the retna slowly deseiagrates and most people with this disease usually loose all of their vision by the age of 25.  My eyesite is pretty stable as of the age of 21.  I finished first grade on May 23, 1996.  My grade point average for that year consisted of 4 A’s and 2 B’s.  That summer I spent time going places with my family and it was a lot of fun times that I will never be able to forget.

I will now share some of the amazing features of what was like to be in second grade.  I started the class on August 15, 1996.  I was introduced to a really nice teacher, her name was Mrs. Garden.  I enjoyed all the fun field trips that we went on.  Also, I loved to be the one to be asked to come up the board and read what the class agenda would be for the day on numerous occasions.  There was always home work assignments.  They consisted of subtraction and addition math worksheets.  There was a spelling list every week that would be given out at the beginning of every week and at the end of every week we would have a test and most of the weeks there would be other assignments during the week to help memorize all of the words real well.  I always had a little bit of trouble the little stories that we would read together, mainly it was hard for me to make out answers for the comprehension questions.  We  did many different class assemblies that deal with many key aspects of features from the school that were really important for us to know.  I always had fun at recess too.  That year I really found a key friend who I would hang out with numerous times of the year on the weekends or after school and his name was Andrew.  It was always fun to go to the after school activities.  Those were times when the teachers and the parents of the kids would also meet together and get to know each other more.  Finally, I will always, remember all of my classmates and especially my teacher who I still keep in touch even now.

These are some of the amazing features and memories I have from my  third grade year of school which started on August 16, 1997 and ended on May 23, 1998.  I had a really nice teacher whose name was Connie Ortiz.  She was so good at teaching.  I learned how to read short stories.  I also was able to write stories about my feelings.  Then she taught us how to find great fiction novels to read during quiet reading time.  Also, that year I learned how to do multiplication problems in math class.  I even was told by the teacher that I was the first to make out all the multiples for the #’s 1-12.  There was always those great field trips too.  We went to the zoo to learn lot’s of great historical facts about all of the animals.  I know all of us kids looked forward to going for a picnic in the park after the zoo.  I won’t ever forget that summer because I had a bike accident on the 4^th of July.  I was riding my bike to a nearby park with my sisters.  So one of my sister’s and I decided to have a race and I ended up winning the race.  In the process of winning that race I fell off my bike over the handlebars and due to that I lost my four front teeth and broke the lower jaw bone completely so therefore I spent the rest of that day in the hospital having an operation on my mouth.  That was the worst 4^th of July holiday I had in my entire life cause I couldn’t do anything but lay in bed and watch movies and TV shows.

These some features I remember from the fourth grade in elementary school.  First, so many people made fun of me for how I talked after having that horrible bike accident that made me loose my front teeth.  Second, I really enjoyed the many science experiements that I learned from my teacher who was the same teacher that I had in third grade.  I learned how to play a lot of cool games during PE from the coach.  Also, I had a lot of fun going to music class.  It was such fun musical that we had to learn and perform at the end of the school year for our class final.  I remember having a lot of good times in my math class because I had that class with my cousin so that made it even more fun to go to class every day of the year.  Then there was all those fun times that I had going to the library every day to find books that would deal with animals and cars.   I found that it was hard for me to do essay papers for writing assignments from time to time at the point in time of my life. 

Here are some of the many features that I remember from the fifth grade.  First, I will remember the great teachers that I had their names were Mrs. Accoya, Ms. Cordiva and Miss. Tremboli.  It was considered an inclusion class that consisted of 45 students between the two classes.  I learned how to do research projects on the computer and it was a lot of fun.  Also, I enjoyed having the opportunity to be a mediator during recess with another classmate and it was such an eye opener for me and that was the first step to lme becoming more involved with childcare programs.  I enjoyed going on some of the most amazing field trips that year too such as getting to go the natural history museum for the first time and learn so many great artifacts about the history of our state.  I will also not forget the most important day of elementary school which was graduation day.  This took place on May 19, 2000.  It’s such a memory cause it’s a time when the principle, vice principle, and all of your teachers reganize for those five year of really hard work.  It was especially meanyful to me because of the fact that I was the first blind student to graduate from that school that year.  I think that a lot of people were stunned to see that I was able to complete those five years of school as hard as it was just for a normal student.  So for those of you who didn’t know who I was at that point of my life here are many of the important activities and features that I accomplished as student who was legally blind and how I  overcame all of that as a site less child.

Fourth Chapter

Move to New Mexico

The transition to New Mexico was kind of hard.  First, I was just starting the first grade of elementary school; and I just had this feeling I would not fit in to the school here in Rio Rancho New Mexico.  Even though I new we had to move or otherwise my dad would be out of work and that would not be could for middle aged couple with five children at all.  I slowly adapted well although I was so upset that I had to leave from all of my friends in Newberg Oregon.  It was a long three day trip that I won’t ever forget.  It was also very hard to leave my grandparents and all the rest of extended family.  I was really comforted by the people from the little Church we went and visited right after we got settle over at the KOA campground to live for the first six months to find out for sure if we are going to be for just a short time or for an extended amount of time.  Well God blessed us by keeping us in in New Mexico from December of 1995 until October of 1997.  So we loaded up the family and went back to Oregon for just a few months and came back over to New Mexico in March of 1998; and God even worked it out so that no one had bought our past house here in Rio Rancho so we just moved right back into it and lived there until May of 2000

Third Chapter

   

The Catholic Preschool

These are some of the funny moments that I remember from preschool.  First, I will never forget how loving and caring they were for all of us youngster every day for an entire school year.  Next, I always won’t forget how much time they took teaching just the simple lessons in life that we all desperately needed to learn.  Also, I won’t ever forget all of the musicals that we did during the Christmas season.  I remember making a lot of friends that I didn’t want to part with when it came to the end of that year.  The teachers always had different crafts and games planned for every day of the week that were so fun in so many unique ways.  It was also fun to go the park and play on the huge playground after school on many occasions.  My brother and two sisters would also like having picnics out in the grass at the park there in Portland Oregon.  There were a lot of nice kids in the class.  I know that my brother, sister, and myself always loved going back day after day.  I can’t forget about all the teacher’s assistants who played such an important roll in teaching us every class period.

     Now I will mention many of the fun activities and lessons that we participated in during the classes.  One is that we spent a lot of time learning how to draw and color our favorite cartoon characters.  Also, they would read us many funny short stories.  They would ask us questions from the stories to make sure we would be listening the stories instead of thinking about other things such as what me might be doing after class or what might happen after story time that day.  Our teacher also spent a lot of valuable time teaching how to learn the alphabet so we could start learning how to at least right out our name and sometimes other short words that we might of known really well.  We also were taught how to be kind to the others around us in the class.  I know we also enjoyed the many fun times we were able to have out side on the playground.  There was always great snacks after our outside playtime provided by either the teachers or a particular kids parents would volunteer to bring something in to share with the rest of the class for each day we had that class.  Those are the many fun memories from preschool that I will never forget to come back to throughout the rest of my life.      

Second Chapter

              Life in Oregon

That was where I lived for the first five years of my life.  It was so fun to always see my grandparents on my mom’s side of the family cause we would constantly make many visits for the first year after I was released from the hospital.  We soon moved to a three bedroom fixer upper house just outside of Portland Oregon.  So, my dad said that it would be no problem for all of us as a family to fix up that house because of his prior construction experiences that he did with his dad and his brother.  I remember it also being really cool to have my mom’s cousin and here only son live with us for at least 4-6 years prior to here getting married over Mcminvile Oregon in the summer of 1997.  I remember having many great times with my grandparents on my dad’s side of the family.  They are so nice.  One is that they always took time to help me with hard things that I would want to learn how to do myself.  When I was three years old I learned how to read and write.  So, my brother and I meat some really great friends from  our local eye doctor.  We had a lot of fun times while playing at their house.  I even enjoyed going to Sunday school at church every week cause it was amazing to here new features about Jesus.  Next, it was fun to always go to the park with my cousins.  I would enjoy playing with my cousins at their house, because there was this huge basement where we play video games, just mess around, and have awesome slumber parties on the weekend occasionally.  Also, there would be times when they would come visit us at our house too.  We all enjoyed being together every time we could even though between all of us relatives on my dad’s side of the family were at least a one hour drive apart from another if not longer depending on what part of Oregon they lived in.

     There are many features that I remember from the many visits that I enjoyed having with my dad’s parents and many of his other relatives in Corvallis Oregon.  One is that will never forget the many amazing morning meals that he would always make wich would include his famous hot cakes and super duper eggs.  I also won’t forget the famous mail box that was always full of goodies for all of us grandkids every time we went to visit them.  Next, we all would take turns driving the lawn tractor around the yard.  When we were younger we just barely run over the lawn.  Then once we got a little older we would actually be able to cut all the grass.  So by the time you would drive all the way around the loop it would probably be a quarter of a mile almost.  Him and I would play basket ball games occasionally.  I also enjoyed going to their Church where he served as the associate pastor while I was a child even though he was a senior pastor before I was born for some time.  I do miss the beauty of green trees; but I really don’t miss having constant rainstorm after another.  So these are the many fun times that I experienced while living in Oregon.

First Chapter

Serious Moments

 I started out as a little boy.  I was born in Calcutu India.  My mother didn’t care for me at all so to start it off I was dropped on the doorstep of a local orphanage.  Then, I stayed there for just a short time.  It wasn’t long before I was adopted into the US by some amazing couple whose names were Ken & Robin Brownell.   I was shortly diagnosed with heart problems after I moved to Oregon.  Next, I was introduced to all of my immediate extended family.  Then my parents

 took me a local doctor in Portland and I had my first X-Rays and the doctor immediately suggested that I start surgery. So the surgery started in October of 1989 and lasted until just after October of 90.  My parents told me that I was in the hospital for an entire year due to many complications such as a staff infection and there was more to follow.  My parents and all of the relatives had a big birthday party to celebrate the success of the heart surgeries.  First, of all I’m so thankful for the decision that my parents made.  I would of never been able to experience loving care.  I grew up in a large family.  I’m the second oldest grandchild on my dad’s side of the family out of 19.  I also was the first grandchild on my mom’s side of the family of 13 grandkids.  My brother and I were the only grandson’s on my mother’s side of the family until October 10, 2010 when her brother and his wife gave birth to little Bradly boy and that is a mild stone for Larry and Penny Reiter.  I know that if it was not for the grace of God I would not have lived through that horrible time of my life.  The doctors in Portland Oregon were always very helpful to all of my procedures.  So, I think I will always just have to look back on God when I’m in a sticky situation.  I know that my body wouldn’t have been repaired if it wasn’t for the work of our great Lord.  This means that He is my rock through every problem that I might be an excuse for me not to be successful in the many years to come. I also want to thank my parents for everything they had to give up for me to get my heart transplant.  I am blessed to be the oldest child of seven kids.  I’ve had the amazing privilege to share many great memories with all of the other kids in the family.  We all experienced some very hard times as well.  One is that I experienced a severe bike accident while living in Rio Rancho NM; and due to that accident I don’t have my four front teeth.  So these are some of the more serious moments that have occurred throughout thef first few years of my life.

Introduction Page

i

Introduction

In this book I will discuss many of the historic points of my life.  I will share many of the high points and low points during this time.  Also, I will share many fun memories from times that spent with my family and many of their relatives.  Also, I will talk about my school life and the many teachers and other Adults that were huge influence’s throughout that period of my life.  Finally I will talk about the many successful moments that I experienced and anything else I might have forgotten mention here.

Table of Content's Page

Table of contents

Introduction 5

Serious Memories 6-13

Life in Oregon 14-22 

The Catholic Preschool 23-29 

Move to New Mexico 30-33                                                            

Elementary School Me6mories 34-56

Life In Arizona 57-77

Middle School Memories 78-95

Summer Trips 96-112

My Growth with God 113-127

High School Life 128-143

Fun Times At the Cabin 144-156

Favorite Movies & Shows 157-

Favorite Family Resturants

Future Goals & Dreams

Acknowledgements & Thank-You’s

My Book /Title Page

SHRIMANTA

By

Josh

Brownell

This is a first

I recently finished my book, Shrimanta.  I will be posting sections from it to get your feedback.