I was only about five years old when my sister, Heather Stone, started teaching me how to roller skate. I was very excited because I had seen her roller skate down the neighborhood street probably going almost 100 mph!! My sister had the most popping skates in town. They had a white base with pink laces and wheels. I think that even a blind man could see those skates from 3 miles away!! I was so thrilled, so I slipped on the loud skates and stood up, I quickly fell to the ground. Since I was only five, I started crying, and I was getting very upset wondering if I would ever be able to skate.

Suddenly, Heather jumped up from the sidewalk and sprinted into the house. I couldn't tell what she was doing, but her bedroom window was open and I saw her run in. She stood there in the middle of the room for a split second, then yanked a large pillow from her bed. Before I even knew it, I heard the front door open and shut fast. I saw Heather, with her pillow race towards the garage and grab a rope. When she came back, I was still on the ground wiping away my tears. She told me to stand up and I saw her running around me holding the rope. When I looked down, I had a pillow tied to my butt.

Heather explained to me how to skate, stop, and speed up. I listened carefully. She was like a coach, training her athlete or something. After her quick pep-talk, she pushed me out to the neighborhood street. I did exactly as she said. Very soon, I was skating. Not going very fast, but at that moment I felt like I had just won a world tournament or something. Some of the neighbors were outside, and you can't even imagine what they were thinking when they saw me, Ashley Stahl, the most impressive girl on the street skating, with a pillow on my butt.

I could never forget that day. Especially after getting a job at Sonic where we delivered the food on roller skates, nearly a decade later. Now, 25 years later, my sister and I still own the most popping skates in town!

“One of the scariest moments of my life was 16 years ago when my son EJ, who is now a Junior here at GVHS, almost drowned during a family vacation in Daytona Beach, Florida. The whole family was there; my mom, dad, brother, sister (Mrs. Strom who also teaches Spanish here at GVHS), myself, and little baby EJ. We were all wading in the ocean, and us girls were floating in the waves while the boys were body surfing ahead of us in the water. I was holding on to EJ’s yellow baby float tube while we chatted and enjoyed each other's company and the relaxing feel that beach vacations bring. Our joy was brought to a screaming halt when, out of nowhere, a colossal wave came up behind all 4 of us and took us under. With all my might I held on to Ej’s floatation device, but the strength of the wave pushed me down to the ocean floor and carried his tube, with him in it, away with the force of the wave. As I gasped for a breath rising to the surface, EJ was nowhere in sight. All I could see was his yellow floatie, upside down on top of the water floating swiftly away from me. In a panic, I raced towards the shore. I thought he was lost forever. Luckily, my dad and brother, who were just ahead of us catching the waves, witnessed the wave decimate us all and take EJ along with it. My younger brother, who must have been about 16 at the time, quickly swam towards the yellow floaty, reached his hand into the leg hole of the floaty, where EJ’s chubby little leg was stuck and pulled my baby out of the water upside down by his small baby foot. Thank God, EJ was fine, he was most likely under the water for only a few seconds, but it seemed like an eternity. I grabbed my child into my arms, trembling, and sobbing with fear. We walked to the shore and did not re-enter the ocean for the rest of the trip. To this day, I remember how at that moment I thought I would never see my baby again. I’m so thankful my little brother had the swift reflex to swim so fast and save his life. Those two bonded that day, and have been close ever since.”

The funniest thing that has happened to me is my first car accident with a little lady. It was a nice night with the moonlight shining down on the dark black asphalt. All of a sudden I got into a car accident. When the police first arrived, everything was calm and then after a little while of us talking to the police she started jumping up and down screaming “ DON’T YOU TELL A RIE!!” Once they realized what she was saying the police and all my friends started busting out laughing. This made the lady even angrier and even more unintelligible. That made the police and me and my friends laugh even more and even harder.

The weirdest thing that has happened to me in Grandview was at my old house. My family and I were building a storage barn out in our pasture. We were building it so we could store all the extra things that we had. We needed a very big culvert pipe so we could drain out all the water that was in the storage barn. My neighbor had a really big pile of scrap metal junk out in his 15-acre pasture that had a big culvert pipe in the pile, so I went to the neighbor’s house and tried to go buy it from him. I went and knocked on the neighbor's front door and asked him about the culvert pipe. When he answered the door I saw a very large man wearing nothing else but red silk underwear briefs. My neighbor was out in bright daylight on a nice sunny day with only the red silk underwear on with cars coming past and having a full conversation with me. Eventually, I did end up buying the culvert pipe and successfully building and draining out the storage barn.

“In high school, I was a part of the Lady Zebras softball team. Most of my High School memories are from being a part of that team, which honestly felt more like a family. My senior year we had a heck of a ride! We were undefeated district champions as well as areal champs. Our team was close and the memories we made I will cherish for the rest of my life! My days consisted of long after school practices, team dinners, gas station snacks, tournaments, games, and crazy after game bus rides. I had no idea what I wanted to do after high school, until one day of my junior year. My school hosted a special needs field day for all of the surrounding schools. I was placed with a sweet group of little boys for the day and we had an absolute blast! After that, I went straight to our school´s special education teacher and asked her what I needed to do to be just like her. I attended classes at Starlet on State University where I earned my Bachelor's degree and a teaching certificate. Once I graduated, I took my very first teaching position as a Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities teacher at Godley which led me to be the first PPCD teacher in Grandview! I have always had a passion for working with individuals with special needs. They absolutely fill my heart with joy! These sweet babies have impacted my life more than they will ever know. Ultimately this has even led my husband and me to adopt our sweet little boy with Down Syndrome. I have two amazing little boys! Blaiden is 9 and Creedyn is 2. Blaiden is a student at Grandview Elementary and his little brother is not far behind him as he will start school next year. We are a family on the go. Blaiden loves to play football and baseball and tends to keep us very busy most weekends. Creedyn loves watching and playing with his big brother! It won't be long until he is following in his footsteps, I'm sure! We love spending time together and having family movie nights full of popcorn and snacks!¨