The Solari Sentinel, March 21, 2011

Happy Spring, Everyone!

It's good to hear from so many of you. I hope this edition of the Sentinel finds you well.

Happy Birthday:

Shelbe S.--January 8

Katy G.--January 13

Mike S.--January 20

Don S.--January 24

Rachael S.--January 26

David G.--January 26

Sandy S.--January 30

Miranda S.--February 5

Rick S.--February 13

Mickie S.--February 23

Joe S.--February 27

Rylie H.--March 5

Sue S.--March 6

Starla S.--March 21

Mike B.--March 21

Delbe S.--March 30

Julianna B.--April 7

Ryan C.--April 9

Stephen C.--April 14

Michelle S.--April 21

Wendi S.--May 1

Danielle G.--May 2

Dawn H.--May 2

Shelbe Z.--May 4

Sue G.--May 5

Kate H.--May 6

(Please let me know if I'm missing anyone or have a wrong date!)

The Cooper Clan

Howdy!

How great it is to be back in the great state of Texas!!!!!

What a busy few months we've had. Stephen graduated from FIU on December 14th, we packed up our home, moved on the 15th, arrived to Texas on the 17th, and repacked for our trip to Utah! I'm so glad we were able to stay put for a few weeks with family in Utah, enjoying some much-needed time off, grandparent time for the boys, Christmas...oh, and a wedding! (Emmalee and Eric Simons}

Vacation can't last forever. Soon, it was time to come home so Stephen could take his Anesthesia boards exam. Thankfully, he passed and is ready to start working any day now--since the licensing finally went through! To celebrate, we went on a cruise to Cozumel, Belize, and Honduras, and had an amazing time.

The boys are doing well and adjusting to the move nicely. They are glad to be around some grandparents and can't wait for the weather to warm up enough to get in the pool.

I'm looking forward to this new phase in our lives and am just trying to take one day at a time!

love to all,
Stephen, Melodee, Kyle, & Ryan

Sue's News

Hi from Texas,

I can't remember when the last Sentinel was mailed (senior moment) so I will just begin with Christmas.

It was great fun but went by too fast. We enjoyed the visits of the Cooper family both going and

coming from Utah. Then in January we had a visit from the Newlyweds (Emmie and Eric).

I had a party to introduce them to my friends. In February it was the annual Tool Box Bash for

Habitat for Humanity which was a big success. In March Maridell Fryar and I flew to Dallas for

the opera Romeo and Juliet, It was fantastic. It had beautiful sets and Romeo had a great voice

and he wasn't bad to look at either. I may be old but I'm not dead! On April 2, Maridell, Jane,

Bea and I are going to Dallas to see 2 operas back to back, shop and play bridge. I keep busy with

lots of meetings. I am in charge of fund raising for the Midland-Odessa Symphony and Chorale so

I am getting letters out and writing thank you notes. I am also in the midst of trying to sell my trailer

since I can't seem to find anyone to travel with me. Terri is president of the board of Safe Place,

a home for battered women and children and we are looking forward to their annual fashion show

fund raiser next week. Deb and I went to San Antonio over my birthday to see Paul and Mary Friemel.

I worked for Paul for many years and they are two of my best friends. We had a ball eating our way

across San Antonio and we saw a great movie Grace Card. Much Fun. On April 18th Deb and I fly to

Utah for Matt and Nicole's wedding and Brandon's graduation from law school. Should be great fun..

In May I am flying to California for my 60th high school reunion. I have been giving them a bad time

since it is only a luncheon. I keep saying - I am flying to California for a luncheon! Surely we can

get together some other time too. I hope to be able to give a luncheon for some of my old friends. I am

now trying to diet to see if I can get into some of my old summer clothes. Since a few of my friends have

married old high school sweethearts, my friends keep asking me if I plan to look around. I tell them

I don't have time to train one and besides most of them are still married.

Deb, Mark and Terri are all doing well. Midland is like living in a bubble. We have the lowest

unemployment in Texas and oil is one hundred dollars a barrel and they are drilling everywhere. They

have a hard time keeping help in the restaurants since they can work in the oil field for big bucks. Michelle

graduates from Texas State in May and is going to Oregon again to work. Rachael will be working in

Houston and will be a senior in the fall. Deb is busy with work and church. We are hoping that Emmie

and Eric will be joining us in Midland in the summer. Eric will be starting school at Midland College in the Fall.

Hope all of you are well and busy. I keep remembering the reunion last June and what fun we had.

Take care and keep well. I heard a saying a our Women's Retreat a few weeks ago that I have adopted

as my theme - I'm so blessed I won't get distressed.

Love, Sue Solari

Deb

Greetings Everyone!!
Sorry I haven’t written in a while. I will try and update you on what has been going on.
For the last 11 months, I have been busy working on an Accounting system conversion and bringing the accounting function into our office (this had previously been outsourced to a company in Ft. Worth). This required lots and lots of hours, training, converting data, checking data, hiring people , doing office build out and working in survival mode as well as getting the Vendors and Owners paid on time. After many 80+ hour work weeks, it is completed and we are live in the new accounting system. This was quite an accomplishment but a big toll on me and the stress factor. It had been survival mode, but after we went live, my boss noticed that I was on the edge of a brakdown, so my job has now changed. I am just going back to working a 40hr work week and much less stress, with no deadlines. I am now a much happier person and I have been taking weekend trips. I love my new hours and no stress. It is amazing what stress can do to you.
This winter besides the hours at work, I did manage a good visit with Melodee, Stephen, Kyle and Ryan on their way back to Houston from Utah. I volunteered to watch the boys while Mel and Stephen went out to dinner with family. It is so much fun to play with the boys, but they can wear you out. AS they were packing up the car, and you could barely see the boys from all of the toys and luggage, we told Stephen not to stop too quick. I am so proud of Mel and Stephen and excited for their new adventure in Houston. I am so proud of Stephen for passing his boards and getting to do what he is trained to do.
A week after Mel and Stephen came through, we were blessed to have Emmalee and her new husband, Eric come down to Midland. Mom had a wonderful party for them where we got to show them off to our friends, as well as Eric helping fix things around Mom’s house. Mike and Olivia got to come too so we had a great visit with them. I think Eric liked Midland and it looks like now they are moving to Midland for him to go to school and work at Chevron. It will be great to have Emmalee and Eric here in Midland. Lots of new doors are opening up for them and I have been telling lots of friends that they are coming and they are both great volunteers and hard workers. WE are excited to have them come!!
In February, I was working on having a party to celebrate what would have been Dad’s 80th birthday, but I couldn’t get it together, so Mom, Mark, Terri and I went out to a nice restaurant , where we had a birthday party for Dad. Terri brought a picture of Dad so he sat with us at the table where we reminisced about old times, funny stories and just how much we miss him. It is hard to believe that it has been 20 years since he died. I miss him everyday.
Also in February, we had our annual Women’s Retreat for church where Mom was one of the speakers. It was about the “Fruit of the Spirit.” Mom’s topic was Goodness. She did a great job and I am so proud of her for doing it. We had a wonderful weekend together.
The first weekend in March and Mom’s birthday weekend, we finally made a trip down to Boerne, Texas where we saw Mary and Paul Friemel. (They were mom and dad’s best friends, and mom had worked for Paul and Mary.) They have been in Boerne for almost 5 years and I had not been down to see them. Paul has had some medical problems and I knew I needed to go see them. We had such a great weekend, visiting , shopping and celebrating Mom’s birthday. The next weekend, I had gotten an invitation to see some property at Lake Brownwood. I knew I wasn’t going to buy any land, but by listing to the spiel, I got cash for gas money, a free 7 day cruise and 4 rounds of golf. It happened that Mark and Terri were at their lake house that weekend, so I met up with them and spent the night. (It didn’t hurt that Mark was cooking steaks too!) Even though we live in the same town, with my work schedule, I hadn’t gotten to visit with them so we got to catch
up. It was a lot of fun plus now I have a free cruise to plan, works for me.
The next big trip is to Utah in April to celebrate a new great niece (Bryan and Lacie’s new baby girl), Matt and Nicole’s wedding, and Brandon’s graduation from Law school. Did I mention that this is Easter weekend too? I am so looking forward to seeing the Utah crew and being there to celebrate these big events in their lives.
In May I will go to my annual week in Cabo San Lucas and then, I will go to Tennessee to do something on my “bucket list”. I have always wanted to go see Michael W. Smith (Contemporary Christian artist) at his church and recording studio in Franklin Tennessee. Well my wish is coming through. Terri and a good friend are joining me so I know we will have lots of fun with some great music.
Hopefully I will be doing more traveling this year and will try and make trips to go see family. With my new position, I don’t really have deadlines anymore, so I don’t have to worry about being here for the monthly closings!!! So don’t be surprised when I call to say I am coming your way.
Hope everyone remains healthy and happy. Much love to everyone and look forward to reading what has been happening in your lives.
Love, Deb

Matt, Kristen, Riley, & Kate

Hi All!

I forget where we left off last time but, here goes....

Kate's 7th grade year has been great. She has kept busy with dance. This summer she worked very hard to get on pointe(ballet). Weekend rehearsals kept her busy preparing for her studio's Nutcracker Ballet in December. After Christmas she decided that piano,NCL(National Charity League) and homework wasn't enough so she joined her middle school's lacrosse team. She enjoyed her first lacrosse experience and took after her brother and played defense. Those soccer skills really came in handy. Lacrosse ended so she is now onto tennis! She turns 13 in May and will be an official "tweenager".

Riley is busy with his sophomore year of High School. Lots of homework, challenging classes, JV Football and his social life kept him busy. He was able to play in the last Varsity play off game and so he earned a "Varsity letter". Of course this is being sewn on his new Varsity Letterman Jacket we got him for his 16th birthday just last week. Yikes! Not driving yet, but this summer he should be.

Unfortunately for Riley after hearing he made 2 Elite summer lacrosse teams and making the JV Lacrosse team and being named a slider to the Varsity, we found out he had to have season ending knee surgery. He had had knee pain off and on for a couple of months and after coming home with a swollen knee from practice off to the orthopedic surgeon we went. The MRI said there was an unstable lesion that needed to be fixed. He had 2 smart pins put in to reattach the bone and cartilage and he is in a brace and on crutches for 6 weeks as well as physical therapy 2 times a week. Hopefully he will be back by summer.

Matt is keeping busy with work, the kids, Football Booster Board, Lacrosse Booster Board, the Foothilll High School Ed Fund board and helping to fundraiser for all of these simultaneously! I just watch and help out when I can.

I am busy with the kids, PTA board, NCL (National Charity League) with Kate, helping out at the high school once a week, tennis and trying to keep all the balls afloat!

We hope all is well with everyone and can't wait to hear what everyone is doing!

Happy almost Spring!

Love, Kristen, Matt, Riley and Kate

Marie & Ange

Here we are with not much news from Carpinteria. Marie is
pretty much recovered from her broken wrist that happened September 29th.
From that she developed carpel tunnel and had surgery seven weeks
ago. She is back in therapy getting those fingers to work properly and
finds she can do most everything again. We have not done any foreign
travel this year and it does not look like we will be taking any. World is
getting too unsettled and expensive to travel. The day trips are suiting
us just fine. This last week we went to Santa Anita for a day at the
races. We always look forward to going at least once a year. It has
fond memories for both of us, Marie going with the family in about 1937 when
Tanta Gretchen and her daughter, Marie, from New York came to visit at the
ranch. Ange went with the boy scouts on a camp out and we both use to
go with Dude and Attala. Marie did spend five days at Mammoth with her ski
ladies. The economics have really hurt our rentals with the best snow in
years. That's life. At our age of 86 we are very fortunate to both
have good health. Carolyn, Brianna, Callie and I went on the annual
Flower Grower's tour. It is amazing to see all those beautiful flowers
grown in hot houses and shipped all over the United States. One of the
growers sells 1-800-flowers. Order a special arrangement and it will be
delivered from Carpinteria. A lot of the flowers are made into bouquets
and sold in super markets. We hope everyone is doing
fine and enjoy the spring and have a wonderful summer.

Love and hugs, Marie & Ange

Delbe' & Mic

It can't be that time again!

The big news here is that Shel and I managed to surprise Joe for his birthday. He was absolutely stunned to see us when he walked in the door after a long day at work. We had three fun days with him. A handful of friends joined us for Joe's choice, a three-course fondue dinner. We got to see how Piper has improved in gymnastics and Fin in her first year of dance and 'nastics. The weather was cooler than what we left behind in Florida. It was a real treat to look out the front and see mountains covered with snow. Since Joe didn't know we were coming, we didn't try to get in touch with anyone else, in case he wanted to do something special. The girls had their own special playmate in Aunt Shel! On such a quick trip there's never enough time anyway. They have their plane tickets to fly here July 5-19 and like last year will fly out of Phoenix after being with Wendi's folks for Dorman's birthday.

Things are fine here. Today we're getting a much needed rain.

We hope all's well with ya'll. Delbe' and Mic

{The So Cal Solaris}

We hope your 2011 has been wonderful so far.

Joe had a nice long 3 weeks off of work for his Christmas hiatus. Our Christmas was spent at home. It was low-key and very nice. Waking up in our own home on Christmas morning is great now that we have little kiddos. Wendi’s parents came to celebrate with us from Arizona and stayed about 5 days. The girls always love having family around.

The New Year saw Joe headed back to work on Zeke and Luther and Piper back to school to start the second half of her Kindergarten year. It is truly exciting to see what Piper is learning and accomplishing daily. She is learning addition and subtraction, how to tell time (with the big and little hands!), writing paragraphs, and reading things we never dreamed a Kindergartener could read. Piper has moved to the “big” gym in gymnastics. She passed her first beginners class in her one session and is now learning more advanced skills in beginners 2. She is conquering her fear of performing skills unaccompanied on the [high] balance beam, learning to tumble like a champ, and mastering the uneven bars. She began a cheerleading class about a month ago and with only a few classes left, she has declared that she is bored and would rather return to dance. So in a few weeks, dance class it is! Piper is an amazing big sister and her imagination fuels some very exciting adventures for Finley and her.

Finley trails Piper’s every step, mimicking her every action, and picking up every bit of skill and knowledge she can scrounge! She is in preschool 2 ½ days every week and has a blast there. Fin can be heard singing a variety of songs at any given moment. She loves pretending to sound out words while reading, just as Piper does. Fin is still in gymnastics also, though in the “little” gym, and she is a tenacious little booger! About a month ago Fin started her very first dance class and is in the Tiny Twos! It is as adorable as it sounds. They do 15 minutes of ballet and 15 minutes of tap in each class. Fin has an amazing attention span when it comes to her class and resists the urge to follow the other little girls who are constantly running in and out of class to their parents, etc.

Joe is still having a good time working on Zeke and Luther and word on the street is that this will most likely be the last season. Although it is a highly rated show for Disney Channel, it is their most expensive show to produce due to heavy stunts in most episodes. A three-season run has been a blessing and now we look to the future as we have done so many times before. Joe has also started running on his lunch breaks and after long days at work. One of his co-workers was a rabbit (pacer) for marathons and has really challenged Joe…and Joe has stepped up. He is currently running sub 7-minute miles and has really upped his mileage in recent days. If memory serves, he is at ±8 miles a day. Pretty sure there are some races in his future.

Typically the first 3 months of the year are down time for photographers and this year has been no exception for Wendi. She has been assistant shooting at weddings on weekend here and there and is beginning to market weddings herself. She is using the down time to reflect on what worked and did not work for the business in the previous year, shoot creatively for herself, organize the office, spend more quality time with the girls, and create new jewelry designs. She has been assistant shooting at weddings on weekends here and there and is beginning to market weddings herself. She still really enjoys making jewelry and it is a nice creative outlet. There has not been as much emphasis on marketing/advertising her jewelry but that is a definite focus for 2011. As far as running goes, Joe has lit the fire under Wendi but she rejoices if she completes 4 miles without crawling home. She runs, but a runner she is not!!

We have really been working on the landscaping in our front and back yards. It is fun to see our plans come to fruition, albeit s-l-o-w-l-y! Southern California has had some fickle weather in the past months but we’ve had our share of Spring-like days and we are taking FULL advantage. Next on our list is rebuilding our single and double gates leading to the backyard. We’ve got a design and now it is time to pull the trigger. We both know how much work it is going to be so we might be subconsciously dragging our feet a bit! Just maybe.

Joe got the surprise of all time when a few days before his birthday and after a long day at work he walked in our living room to find his mom and sister Shelbë sitting on our couch. His reaction was priceless and so sweet. They were able to stay Thursday to Tuesday. Over the weekend we had a few friends over for Joe’s fondue birthday dinner. Wine, great food, family, and friends made the day truly special for Joe. The girls loved every single moment that Gran and Shel were here and they did not let Aunt Shel rest. I am pretty sure Shel went home and slept two days straight! {Wendi had separation anxiety too and is looking at real estate in Florida as you read this! :) }

We really hope everyone is healthy and happy. Have a wonderful Easter and Spring.

All our love,

Joe, Wendi, Piper, and Finley Solari