Cynthia Green Mavis

After High School and Beauty College I moved to Arizona in 1976. Throw in several marriages I wanted out of,  I figured marriage was not for me!  I had two beautiful children Dustin and Amanda four years later, and considered myself blessed.
My main goal had been to get my degree before I turned 40.  I had some courses from Bacone and Connors (and don't forget the Beautician's license) but still had a long way to go for the degree I wanted.   I was working at Abbott Labs and decided to take night classes in Phoenix, with the approval of my kids. It was part of my soapbox speech to them both about getting an education earlier in life before it gets so demanding.  They supported me and I graduated before 40!!  I was a training crew-leader for the plant.  We had required training(sexual harassment,hazardous waste, etc) in all areas as well as soft skills. (conflict resolution, working in teams,etc)  I also was a licensed forklift operator/trainer for about 200 operators. Everyone had to renew their license each year.

By this time, I had met someone who must have invented the expression, "Never say never!" I hate to use the overworked Soul Mate, but this was really it!!!  I finally had found what I had been looking for in a relationship.  My life could not have been more perfect.

I was the luckiest person in the world for about a year and a half.  My world came crashing down when I received a phone call that my precious Amanda had been killed in a car accident.  She was to turn 16 in a week.  My son Dustin was in the Marines and had to be called home with news that you can never be ready to hear.

I never could have made it without my son and Joe Mavis. Even after all these years, it is something you never get over.  It happened in 1990 and now I have a grand-daughter named after her as well as a grandson.  They are a joy as well as a reminder that you must live each day appreciative of God's blessings and accept decisions that we don't understand.

After retiring from Abbott about 10 years ago, Joe and I moved to the White Mountains in northern Arizona.  It is really God's Country and the beauty is inspiring. I started subbing and then took a full time job as the Responsible Thinking Facilitator on the White Mountain Apache Reservation in a small school K-8.  I handle the discipline which is non-punitive and consists of writing a plan about how, when faced with the same situation next time, will you handle it differently? Of course the plan writing does not always work and I have to suspend occasionally.  There is so much abuse because of alcohol on the reservation, that just being there is so important to so many of our kids. It is depressing and at the same time uplifting to know that you are making a difference.

I started a girls club HEARTS (helping every aggressive relationship through speaking-out)
three years ago.  We do community service and have fundraisers so we can do things they have never done. We meet once a month and discuss speaking out as opposed to keeping everything inside as well as supporting each other.  We just got back from taking a train (none had ridden a train) to the Grand Canyon and then spending the night in Flagstaff and going to the mall and shopping!
There are no malls around here and that is a BIG deal.

Joe runs the golf services at the country club we live in and we both love to golf.  Dusty loves it and comes up often with the grand-kids and his clubs.  We are lucky to live in such a gorgeous area and will never take it for granted.  My Dad passed a couple of years ago and we moved my Mom up here with us.  She will be 86 in August and is doing great.  She is the Queen of her Red Hat group and volunteers at the police department twice a week.

I am including a picture of Kate (named after Amanda Kate) and me in our front yard.  Also, and old picture of my BEST friends from way back.  Marty and Cindy.  Cindy Miller and I got to be together again in Arizona until her death a few years after I moved out here.  Marty came to visit me last year.  These two were the best!!!

Cynthia Miller, Marty Adamson, and Cynthia Green

Penny Baker Maus

After graduation from Central, I attended the University of Arkansas where I met Mike Maus from Atkins, AR on a blind date.  We were married in August 1970 after we both graduated from UA—I had a degree in Education, and Mike’s was in Business.

Mike went to work for Sun Oil Company until Uncle Sam sent him a “love letter.”  Mike quickly joined the Air Force and became a helicopter pilot.  Thankfully, he never had to go to Vietnam—his assignments took us to Ellsworth AFB outside of Rapid City, SD; Yokota AFB, Japan; Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, TX; Scott AFB near O’Fallon, IL (which is just east of St. Louis); Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, AL; and finally to Eglin AFB near Niceville, FL in 1989.  When Mike retired in 1997, I told him that I would continue to follow him wherever he wanted to go but that I was not moving north of Interstate-10!!! 

I did a variety of things as we moved around:  substitute teacher, classified advertising, private English tutor, date entry clerk at GMAC, and defense contractor secretary.  In 1992, I went to work for a local orthopedic surgeon and filed medical insurance.  When our office manager and her husband decided to move to Wichita, KS to be near their grandchildren, the doctor sent Fran, our receptionist, me, and his wife to Hong Kong for ten days!!!  I took over as Office Manager in 2004 and am now closing out the business as the doctor has decided to retire from private practice. 

Mike and I were never blessed with children—just cats.  However, we have lots and lots of nieces and nephews as well as many children of our military friends who call us “Uncle” Mike and “Aunt” Penny. 

For most of our married life, Mike and I have spent our vacations visiting his family in Arkansas and my parents in Muskogee.  We moved my Mom and Dad into Dogwood Creek, an assisted living facility, in May 2004.  Daddy passed away in August 2008 just a few days before his 91^st birthday.  Mother remained at Dogwood until April 2010 when we were able to move her into an assisted living facility only minutes from our house.  She just recently passed away on February 10^th.

I will soon join the ranks of the unemployed and will then have plenty of time to pursue my hobbies—quilting, gardening, and riding on the back of Mike’s motorcycle.