Sheila (Ruminer) Kowalczyk

Hey everyone, this has been fun! I've very much enjoyed the pictures and stories of life that have been shared so far. A huge Thank You!! to the reunion committee, I really appreciate your time and efforts towards bringing the website and reunion events (and last minute bios) together like this, Wow! Even though in our adult lives we've gone on to other places and friends, we still have in common a set of childhood memories set in and around White Rock and Los Alamos. That connection is something special!

OK...after high school I went off to Colorado College, a small, fun, liberal arts school in Colorado Springs. It was a great experience meeting people from all over the country. But I was not prepared for the level of academics and hello...the necessary self-discipline to study more and party less. Eventually I discovered I was pretty decent in foreign languages and settled in to a degree in German, more for the opportunity to study abroad 8 months in Europe than for career possibilities but at age 20 that's OK I suppose. I snuck back to Germany after graduation for a 5 month internship at the American embassy in Bonn, another opportunity to travel, meet people, learn a little about life and the foreign service. A great experience.

In the spring of 1993 I came back to Los Alamos to work a little at the lab and buy some more time for myself to try and figure out what the heck to do for a career. It was a fun summer, and it seemed a lot of people were there doing the same thing. I met and started dating Joey Kowalczyk and we've been together ever since. Over the next five years I went on to get a graduate degree from UNM in Speech/Language Sciences and start my first job at a speech therapy clinic and school for deaf children in Albuquerque. Joey got his teaching certificate and coached high school football. Lots of time for ourselves, friends and parties, earn money and spend it all, etc.

We got married in 1998 and one year later we had our son Max. Funny how quickly you start thinking more seriously about the future when a kid comes along! We decided we'd had enough of Albuquerque and wanted to find a home of our own. We moved to Grand Junction, Colorado in 2000 just to try it out. Right away Joey got a teaching and coaching position in the town of Palisade which is just 15 minutes east of Grand Junction. I started work half time as a speech therapist in the school district's Early Childhood program. Our daughter Gretchen was born in 2001 and our second daughter Maren was born in 2003. In 2004 we moved the short distance from GJ to Palisade where Joey continues to teach and coach. It's very cool here, we've all made good friends, have two acres that we can hardly keep up with, and we are surrounded by great views and area orchards and vineyards. We've been lucky with our life here on Colorado's Western Slope and by far the best thing is having these three healthy, happy, silly kids. We are so proud of them as they grow and learn and make friends and get a small sense of who they are as individuals. At ages 9, 7, and 5 I like to think they are living the times and making those early childhood memories that many of us are now reminiscing about.

Joey and I plan on staying right here in Palisade for a good long time. Anyone who is interested in checking out the area or who is driving by on their way to Las Vegas or Denver should just stop and say hi! Here are a few pictures of us, I look forward to seeing you at the reunion, we'll catch up then!