Solari Sentinel, October 2012

Howdy!

Hello to all.  I'm truly sorry I majorly dropped the ball on this newsletter.  I have great hopes of doing much better in the coming year.  Maybe by then even more family members will have time to contribute and help us continue this way of keeping in touch over more than just Facebook statuses.

Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Valentine's Day, Happy St. Patrick's Day, Happy Easter, Happy 4th of July, Happy Birthday{s}, Happy Anniversary{ies}, and Happy 1st Day of Fall.

I think we're caught up now!

Until next time,
Mel :) 

Cooper Clan

Where to begin?

Since August of 2011, we've had just a *few* changes in our family.

Evan Michael was born on 11/11/11.

We FINALLY bought and moved into our first home in April of 2012, and are LOVING IT!

We've been on a Cooper reunion to a lake in Arkansas, a trip to Utah/San Fransisco/back to Utah in August, and hurried back to let Kyle start his Bridge Class {it's a 4-day a week program for 5 year old not quite ready for Kindergarten.}  He LOVES it, and stays busy with that and soccer.

Ryan is almost 2 1/2.  He's busy and sweet and finally starting to have a lot to say.

Evan is almost 1 and is into everything.  He's so close to walking, so he keeps us on our toes.

Stephen loves his job and is settling in well.

I'm staying busy with Mommy and Me groups, playgroups, Lunch Bunch, Iron Chef Club, planning parties, making holiday crafts, and finally having a home to decorate.  I love it.  {If I could just make it through potty training, life would  be grand.}

We are looking forward to the holidays and all the crazy goodness that comes with them!

Love,
Stephen, Melodee, Kyle, Ryan, & Evan  :)

P.S.  You can check out our blog: melodeecooper.blogspot.com for more on what we're up to.  

The Boulter Bunch

I can't even remember the last time we caught up on everyone so if I repeat things you've already head, just think of it as a "rerun"!
A lot of change has been going on in our family...Since Jan. 21, 2012 (when Jules & Jeff got married), Mike & I have become "empty nesters"-WOO HOO!  Yes, it's great, but there ARE adjustments!  It's also been an interesting time coz Mike has started his own contracting business, Blue Steel Design/Build, with a partner and is working HARD to get it going.  Things are moving forward and we are so grateful to have work!
I am still the Registrar at Orem University Institute-things have been busy lately with the new semester start, but again I am thankful to have a good, steady job.
Our spring & summer were mostly filled with work, but we were able to have ALL of our family here the first week of August.  That was great!!!! (although we realized how "small" our house seems when everybody is there!)  Granna & Gramps got to take care of Kyle, Ryan, & Evan while Mel & Stephen went to San Francisco for a CRNA Conference.  That was a blast! (But very exhausting ) We then went down to Fish Lake for the weekend and enjoyed the beautiful scenery & good fishing.  It was hard to have everyone go home, especially the "Texans", knowing they're so far away, but we're glad that we all got to be together, even for that short time.  Now Mike & I are enjoying a gorgeous Fall here in Utah-the changing leaves are really brilliant this year.  We love to drive up American Fork Canyon & down the Alpine Loop to Sundance & Provo Canyon in our cute little Fiat! We are able to take a "mini-vacation" quite often after work-what a blessing!
Just a little about our kids: Emmy & Eric are still in Midland with Eric at Midland College, looking to get his Associates in May & Emmy working for a really good oil/gas company.  They have a new addition to the family: Rango, the cat! We're so happy that they are doing well! (Thanks, Grama Sue, Auntie Deb, Uncle Mark & Aunt Terri for all of your TLC-it helps me immensely to know you "have their backs"!) Matt & Nicole and Jules & Jeff are working together on their theater that they started in February (right after Jules & Jeff got home from their honeymoon!).  It's called The Echo Theatre and it's been QUITE an adventure for them! (Be sure to check out their website to see what's going on: www.theEchoTheatre.com) When he's not building sets or rehearsing shows, Matt is still the manager at JCWs-Provo working 40-50 hrs a week while Nicole helps with the theater finances, etc. & is fixing up their new basement apt. to get ready for BABY GIRL BOULTER due 12/12/12!  Pretty exciting!!!!  Julianna is now working at American Heritage School, a private school in American Fork, teaching K-3 music & accompanying choirs as well as teaching private music lessons on the side.  In her "spare time", she is usually at the Echo, doing whatever needs to be done, while Jeff is busy working at the Echo doing marketing, producing, directing, etc.  It's a crazy life, but they are making it work! (As a little side note, any donations to The Echo would greatly appreciated!!!!!) Bryan, Lacie, & Paisley have a busy life right now, too!  They have moved in Lacie's mom's house & rented out their townhome so that Bryan can go back to school while still working. (He's working on becoming a high school science teacher!) Lacie is working a lot at her nursing job so it is good that her mom can watch Paisley while they work.  Pais is almost 18 months old-where does the time go?!  Granna & Gramps LOVE to have her come over & play with the toys & dance to Disney music!  Brandon & Melinda decided to stay in Utah this year because Melinda started a Masters program at the University of Utah.  The District Court judges Brandon works with were VERY happy to hear that he was staying another year!  We're glad that we still get to see them every other week or so! I'm sure you will get to read the Coopers' news in the Sentinel-we are just so happy that they are FINALLY in their own home!  I got to go visit in April-it's a wonderful home in a great neighborhood!  I LOVED being with the boys in their own place & I'm looking forward to going in November to celebrate Evan's 1st Bday on 11/11/12!!! 
So that's what's happening in our neck of the woods.....Hope all is well with your "crew"!  Please know that the "Boulter Bed & Breakfast" is open for any visitors if you are ever in Utah!  Love to all, Dee & Mike alias Granna & Gramps!

Sue's News

Greetings

    As usual I always complain that time goes too fast.  I can't believe it is already October.  This year I have not done much traveling but time seemed to pass by as I was watching.  In May it was Rachael's graduation from A & M. In June Mark and Terri took the girls to Italy.  While in Venice, Rachael's boyfriend and family flew to Venice and he proposed.  They are planning to be married on June 1, 2013.  Deb and I went to Cabo for a week.  Great weather and lots of fun in the sun and eating.  I sweated my way across June and July with a quick trip to Mark and Terri's lake house over the July 6 weekend.  I helped with the MS150 a 150 mile bike ride to benefit MS.  Mark, Terri, the girls and Terri's dad and brothers family all took part.  The temperature was HOT but they all made it.
I have been busy with all my groups but in June I became Vice President of the Midland-Odessa Symphony and Chorale.  I will be president next year!  How crazy am I.  I worked out at the symphony office with tickets as this is our first year in our new performing arts center and our 50 year anniversary. 
    I just made a visit to Temple to Scott and White for a physical.  The doctor told me I take good care of myself.  Then  he asked me what I do all day.  After I stopped laughing he said I must be doing something right.  I lost my good friend Paul Friemel this summer.  Deb and I were able to be with Mary for a few days.
    It has been fun watching all the kids grow up.  It has been great to have Eric and Emmie here in Midland while Eric goes to school.  Deb has changed jobs and is so much happier in her new job.  We both keep active with our church.  I am looking forward to Fall and cooler weather and also the holidays.  Hope this finds you all well and happy.  Hope we can all can get together again sometime soon.

Love, Sue Solari

E squared

Howdy ya'll!  I think this is our first official sentinel blurb! YAH haha I'm finally stepping up to the plate!  Well Eric and I are just continuing life in Midland.  Eric just started school again and will have one more semester after this! Hooray!  He will be graduating in May and we are thrilled!  I'm just working in the mean time at a company called Discovery Operating doing accounting.  I'm getting ready to apply for school again and get back on that wagon!  I'm getting my degree in Hospitality Management and am actually really excited to get back to school.   We recently got back from a trip to Utah to catch up with family and I did 3 different showers!  The trip was crazy busy but full of lots of fun.  For those of you who don't know, I'm super into event planning and love to plan any kind of party.  So I did a bridal shower for by best friend, a baby shower for my sister in law on Eric's side and a baby shower for my sister in law Nicole!  They all turned out great and were a lot of fun!  Right now Eric is trying to find a good job to help get him through school until he graduates, please keep him in your prayers that he can find something soon!  Right now we are just trying to enjoy life day by day and not plan too far ahead ;).  Anyone who knows my personality knows this isn't an easy task for me!  But with him graduating in May anything could happen and we could end up anywhere, so I'm learning to have patience and fly by the seat of my pants.  We hope life is well with all of you and know you're in our prayers and we think of you often!

Love Emmalee and Eric Simons

Marie & Ange

It has been a busy summer for us.  Jared, Carolyn and Dale’s son, was married on our ranch 9/11/12.  It was a busy time with all the preparation, thanks to Carolyn.  Our yard never looked so pretty for the 180 guests.  They were married under the avocado tree on the lawn with the reception tables set up on our driveway.  Now the honeymoons are off to Kauai on a delayed trip.  Seven of Marla Sue’s family stayed with us, some for a week.  They were such good help.  Marianne and Larry stayed at the Holiday Inn in Carpinteria.  It was so good to see them, a wonderful relaxing visit on Sunday after the wedding.  The following week it was do nothing.  Now we are off to up-state New York to stay in Plattsburg on Lake Champlain.  Collin is getting married on 10/11/12.  They have rented a house on the lake and that is where the wedding will take place.  We will have a room at the house and will stay for a week.  Danielle is in Northampton, Mass and will join the group.  It will be so good to see her.  She is now a certified herbalist.  .

The avocado festival starts Friday, October 5th.  We are helping Saturday morning as we always do at the largest avocado contest table, Carolyn takes over when we leave as we take the air bus that afternoon to LA where we spend the night before we fly east on the 7th.  When we get home we are going to have an equipment shelter added on to our existing metal building.  Our previous wooden shelter blew down last winter in one of the rainy wind storms.  We had a large avocado pick this year but the price was almost half of what it was last year.

We are enjoying our dear great granddaughter, Callie.  She was two in June and is so much fun.  It seems like they get smarter now before they go to kindergarten.  Pre-school does the trick as well as television.  She was the flower girl in Jared’s wedding.

We are still in good health, enjoy musicals and plays, keep busy and try to stay out of mischief.  We always enjoy reading the Sentinel to see what our relatives are doing, so Melody thank you for keeping us informed.  Enjoy this fall and the coming holidays.

Hugs to all,  Marie & Ange

Joe, Dawn, Amy, & Joey

This past several months have been very busy for all of us here.

Here is the month by month break down:
May – Joey Graduated High School and we started the packing job to move from the Tustin home.
June – We moved into a new house in Corona. We are now 25 minutes closer to Dawn’s parents and Pops and Mare. Celebrated my “Big 50”. Amy celebrated “21”.
July – quiet month for us.
August – Joey started College at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Amy started back to school for her Senior Year at Pepperdine University.
September – Dawn and I celebrated our 23 wedding anniversary. Dawn’s parents celebrate 50 years of marriage.

So that is the month to month but here are some of the highlights. With Joey’s graduation we have now joined the ranks of the “Empty Nesters”. This officially began in August but we felt like it started in June.  Joey trained all summer long for the Jr. Olympics.  He qualified for regionals but his coach forgot to register him and another boy so neither got to compete. College has been fun for him and he is getting a lot of time on the ocean and the beach.  One of his favorite past times is Cliff Diving.  Remember those days when it was no big deal for us but when Mom heard she was like “Are you kidding me?”  We heard about his cliff diving one day in the form of a text that said “Going Cliff diving.  hope to call you later”.  Now to be honest he has bad service at school and so that was what the last part referred to but, well you get the point.

Amy is doing really good. She worked most of the summer for Cindy Crawford. Not bad to get to hang out with Cindy and then have George Clooney come over.  He has even asked Amy for help with a computer problem.  We did get her home for a month from the middle of July to middle of August.  She is now a Senior at Pepperdine and is Delta Gamma (DG) President.  She is supper busy with all the responsibilities, work and of course school.  They just finished rush for this year and got 28 new girls.  Some of the other sororities where complaining to them that they were stealing all the good girls.

Dawn has been really busy with all the new ventures that she is pursuing.  She was finally able, with much hard work and determination, to get the new invention that she and Joey have been working on Patented.  She was able to launch the web site to start selling in September and has made great in roads with a track and field supplier.  They want to put the product in their catalog and have links to the online store from their store.  In addition to all this she got word that one of the Reality shows that she has been pursing for almost 2 years is within weeks of getting going.  We are all excited to see this!  She has been working really hard on all these avenues and I am really proud of her and her efforts.

The new house in Corona came via an investment from Pops and Mare.  We are on a golf course but are not playing.  We are however collecting golf balls at about 1 to 3 a day.  Let me know if anyone needs a certain type of golf ball and I will save them for you.  The house is great and we are thrilled to be in.  There is much to do in the decorating phase (painting and window coverings and the like) but we are taking that a bit at a time. As for me, I took the LSAT in June after only really studying for a week.  Not the smartest thing to do as it was much harder than the practice tests that I took.  So I started studying in September for the October test and have really gotten prepared with scores up.  I am looking to start Law School in January.  Dad and I have continued to work on the program and are in the middle of completing the demo.  Once that is completed we can get the marketing phase in full swing.

We had a sad day a couple of days after our anniversary.  Our cat of 12 years, Tiger, passed away.  It was a really bad day for us as this cat had more personality than I have ever seen in a cat.  He is really missed by all.

That’s it for the Corona Hudacks.  Looking forward to a reunion in California when we all can make it.

God Bless!

Joey, Amy, Dawn and Joe

Matt, Kristen, Riley, and Kate

Dear Family,

As usual I can't remember where we left off so.......... 

Spring time........Our new nephew, Braydon Patrick Galey, arrived on February 21.  You may remember we hosted my brother Brian's wedding here a few years ago and we are thrilled to have a new baby in the family!  Brian and Vanessa are enjoying the joys and chaos that a new baby brings.  Just to add to the madness they moved into their first house a few months after he was born.  It was all hands on deck as the family arrived in droves to help demo, scrape, paint, install wood floors (Matt and Riley), new blinds, and try to get the house livable.

Over Spring Break Kate traveled to Washington DC and New York City with her 8th grade class and had a fabulous time touring our nation's capitol and seeing the city sights and a Broadway play.  Both kids were busy with their lacrosse seasons so we bounced from one game to another.  Lots of birthdays for us in the spring, Riley turned 17, my dad turned 80 and Kate turned 14 and celebrated with friends paddle boarding and dinner at the beach.

The end of the school year brought us Kate's 8th grade promotion activities.  Mare and Pops joined us for promotion and a special celebration dinner.  Kate also had her dance recital at the end of June.  She made the high school tennis team so decided to hang up her pointe and jazz shoes and finished her 11 year dance career with a beautiful dance solo.

A few weeks after school ended we were off to Gettysburg, Pa for Riley's 4 day Gait Cup lacrosse tournament.  The team stayed in the dorms at Gettysburg College and enjoyed 3-4 games a day in 103 F weather with all that lovely humidity.  We all cheered and sweated from the sidelines.  We traveled with another family and were the official "hydration station" where we dragged coolers of ice, water and gatorade for the team.  In between games we toured the Battlefields, Gettysburg Cemetery, and the Museums.  Cold nightly libations kept us hydrated!

We were able to get away for 11 days to Whidbey this summer.  On the way in we stopped at the St. Michele Winery and celebrated my mom's 75th  birthday.  It was a nice quiet vacation and we had the opportunity to deal with some house issues.  The neighbors thanked us for bringing some California weather with us.

Riley's summer has been busy with lacrosse tournaments, football practice, writing his college essays, charity work, surfing (a new hobby), and seeing friends.  He is looking forward to his senior year and we are trying to savor every moment with him.

Kate has been busy with NCL, tennis and spending time with friends.  She will be a freshman in high school and is looking forward to being at school with Riley.  We are so thankful they will have one year together and big brother will keep watch over her.

To celebrate Mare and Pops birthdays, Matt and I and the kids took them to see the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach.  We lucked out with a beautiful evening spent touring the art, nice dinner and what we all agreed was the best show they had put on so far.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer and can't wait to hear all the news.


Love,
Matt, Kristen, Riley and Kate 

Delbe' and Mic

Hi All,

I don't know where to start because I can't remember where I left off. 2012 began with arthoscopic knee surgery for me, which didn't do any good, so in March I had partial knee surgery and we've been battling our primary insurance company ever since. Funny thing is my knee is still no better than it was.

Delbe' has spent months navigating through the retirement process, paper work, phone calls, emails, etc. and now he's not even sure if he's ready to turn in his papers. I can't make that decision for him. If he could still do all the yard work he used to do and loved to do, there'd be no problem. That was always therapeutic for him as well as being a hobby. His weaker lung power just won't let him get out and work in the heat/humidity. Of course I have a to-do list a mile long but that's no fun!

We had a fun two weeks with Wendi, Piper and Fin when they came out while Joe was in Huntsville working on a feature film. We all helped Piper celebrate her 7th birthday. Like last year we celebrated Fin's June birthday the same time. We all missed Joe. Fin informed one of us that "Gran's cat is not normal". She's right about that. Mia doesn't like people but she has to be in the middle of what ever is going on. Talk to her and she hisses, walk by her and she hisses, look at her and she hisses.

Kurt fell off a ladder before the Fourth of July and ended up with a broken right femur, a crushed left elbow and broken left wrist. When the exrays were done the doctor found the wrist had been broken before but never fixed. It has given him a lot of pain and frustation. He had another operation on it last week. The elbow and leg seem to have healed. It's been a very long three months for him and Shel. Sue's having surgery on her left thumb September 27th. The doctor told her she'd hate him the first three days.

Our priest informed us just before Easter that he was leaving us for a church just down the road in Melbourne Beach. No one had any idea he was even thinking about going so we were thrown for a loop. As the Senior Warden of the Vestry, I all of a sudden became the "boss". It's been one thing after another since Fr. Norman left. Just before he did we began smelling something dead under the church. It wasn't under the church but had gotten into an a/c unit and ruined everything. New a/c unit. Next I had to terminate the youth leader's contract for which may or may not have been improper actions. VBS was canceled as a result. One of the sprinkler pumps died, another expense. Our Priest-in-Charge fell and ended up in the hospital. Healing has been very slow and since we couldn't afford to pay him and a supply priest while he was mending, I had to terminate his contract. I've had to contact supply priests to come lead our services. We've gone to one service and canceled the Wednesday service and things are running okay, now. The search committee is hard at work but it will be a few months I'm sure before we find a new priest. I can hardly wait.

Our summer has been very typical and long and it will be nice to turn the a/c off and open up once again. That kind of weather isn't around long enough.              We'll be so glad to get the election over with. I just hope and pray for the right outcome, other wise America will be in a world of hurt I'm afraid.

Everyone take care and enjoy the rest of 2012!!!!!

Love,

Delbe' and Mic