Amberle's Early Years
Amberle Thomason was born as Amberle Michelle Winterscheid on February 16, 1987, in Topeka Kansas to Melody and Christopher Winterscheid. She is the baby of the family with two older brothers, Matt and Doug. Her mother thought she was destined to have all boys and did not anticipate having a daughter. Both her and her mother almost died during child birth as Melody though she was having Braxtion-Hicks contractions and Chris had left to help a friend get unstuck from a snow drift. By the time Chris and Melody arrived at the hospital two doctors felt feet and Melody had to have an emergency cesarean section.
Growing up with two older brothers Amberle was more of a tom boy then a girly girl. She was constantly following her older brother Matt and his friends around and forcing them to include her in their fun and games. Amberle's favorite memory from child hood was building snow forts with Matt in the parking lot behind their house. The plows would push the snow to the area close their back yard. Matt, his friends, and Amberle would go out with shovels, spoons, and cups to make the snow hill into an igloo. Once it was as good as they could get they would decorate the outside with sticks and make a flag for the top with sticks and a wash cloth. Amberle's least favorite memory would be learning how to ride a bike in the same parking lot during the summer. Amberle's father Chris, had decided it was time for her to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels. They took her bike to the parking lot and had to keep riding it at the same starting point until she learned how to control the bike. She can't remember how many times she ran into the dumpster that was at the end of the parking lot but knows by the time her dad gave up her sock was soaked with blood from the cut on her knee from riding into it because she couldn't figure out how to turn the bike.
Amberle loved the outdoors, she loved going through trails, skating, playing sports, and swimming. She played softball from T-Ball until freshman year in high school through Raccoon River Ball Park. When she was a freshman she had to make her high schools softball team in order to continue playing. After observing practice for try outs she decided she did not like how the couch ran things and did not try out for the team. Sophomore year in high school she lost a bet and had to try out for cheer leading, which was supposed to be a joke since she has absolutely no rhythm or coordination, she made the wrestling cheer squad. She really enjoyed being in the squad and the other girls were really welcoming to the newbie. Towards the end of the season she was "caught" hanging out with someone who was smoking on school campus and was guilty by association. When the cheer leading couch called her into the office, she was told that the only reason why she was accepted and put on the squad was to put her on a different path than her older brother. Amberle was really upset by this and decided she was not going to try out for Junior year. However, her fellow cheerleaders on the squad convinced her to try out anyways. This time she was placed on the Basketball squad, which was not as fun as the wrestling squad.
A major life changing event happened during Amberle's junior year in high school that changed her life. Her mother took her into the doctor to figure out why she was having painful breathing. During this walk in visit a chest x-ray was done as Amberle had a big bump on her chest. The bump showed up on the x-ray and Amberle was referred to a heart surgeon. The next few weeks were countless MRI's, Cat scans, and x-rays. She went in for a routine biopsy of the bump, which turned into an 8-9 hour surgery resulting in 2 ribs and surrounding muscle tissue being removed. The items removed were sent to Mayo clinic in MN to check for cancer and she was diagnosed with Chondrosarcoma at age 16. She was now facing a lifetime weight lifting restriction of no more than 30 pounds. Her dreams of being a nurse were crushed, she could no longer hit a softball without dropping the bat on impact, and scared to death of having children for fear of passing along the cancer dream.
