Happy Fall everyone!! I am so terrible about updating this blog! So here are a few things that have been happening in our family lately.....

August 25 Robert started Kindergarten! My baby is getting so big! Don't tell him I called him a baby, because he told me the other night at a football game that he is a "grown man". Whatever stinker, you will always be my baby no matter how old you are! He has Mrs. Haber and he loves school. One morning when I picked him up he came running over to me yelling "Hey Mom, I AM LIVIN' THE DREAM!!!" To which I said, what dream is that? His answer - Goin' to school!

September 22 Miss Shea turned 17. Holy cow! I can't believe I have a daughter that is 17. Crazy! Shea is doing great in school and wants to be a kindergarten teacher after she graduates and goes back to school.

Bodie is "livin' his dream" of playing football at Poky and he is the quarterback of the freshman team. He has had a phenomenal season and they were undefeated up until a loss in overtime to the Highland Rams last night. It was pretty devastating, but what a game!!

Cierra is in 8th grade and getting ready to start basketball on Monday. She should be getting her braces off soon too! Something she is really looking forward too.

Today, Friday October 9th, is Buck's 35th birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!! He is busy, busy at work and then chasing Bodie to all his practices and games. They are big supporters of the Varsity Indians too and go to most all of their games. Tonight is the big "Black and Blue Bowl" between Poky and Highland and of course they'll be there cheering the Indians on!!

I am still making watches and getting ready to go to a big craft show at CSI in Twin Falls. Should be a good time. My sister Julie is going with me, she is an amazing seamstress and makes beautiful quilts and baby things. Hopefully we do well.

There it is, a few new things. I have a ton of pictures that i could post, but I will have to take care of that later. Hope everyone is doing well and having a great Fall season!!

I have a new blog, it's in my followers, called Cori's Creations. It's a site that I am posting pictures of the watches and watch bands that I am selling. If you are interested, you can contact me at coris-creations@msn.com, or leave a comment on my watch blog!

Cori

Boomer meets Dinger, the Rockies mascot...

and gets his autograqph!!!!! The boys getting autographs - Mitch Haber, Bo burrup, Bodie, Robert, Justin and Jerred Stiffler, Zach Arzola and Chase Teter

The Cooper's at Coors Field...

Grandma Carol, Shea, Bodie, Cori, Buck and Robert

The Rockies won 4-3

D-Backs in Steamboat

That's my boy!!

If you aren't going to hit it over, a triple is still pretty sweet

Bodie is such an awesome catcher!

The Team

Cade Hall, Bodie, Andy Burtenshaw, Justin Stiffler, CC Burrup

Pictures of the condo we stayed in and the last one is the view from the deck. It was so gorgeous!!

Little update - pictures to follow!

Well.... it's been a while hasn't it!?!?! We are all doing well and keeping busy. Shea is in American Falls again working at Lucky's Restaurant. So if you are ever in AF stop in and say hi and have an ice cream or something. Bodie has just finished up baseball, but is right into football and some basketball camps. Cierra has started her softball season. And Boomer, well it's always Boomer season at our house!

After everyone got done with school - nothing but A's and B's!! Yeah! we had our big family/baseball tourney trip. This year we all (except Cierra) went to Steamboat Springs, Colorado with the Diamondbacks. Cierra decided to go to the Oregon coast with her best friend Lexy. We went to Colorado a little earlier and stayed the first 2 nights in Denver and caught a 3 game series with the Rockies and the Tampa Bay Rays! it was AWESOME. That was the first professional game I had ever been too, and it was so fun! The boys got a lot of baseballs autographed. They got Evan Longoria, BJ Upton, David Price, Jeff Niemann and lots of others that the boys knew, but I didn't. It was cool to see guys that you normally only see on Tv up close! I asked Shea if it would be ok with her if I jumped over the centerfield wall and ran out and tackled BJ Upton, but her and Buck wouldn't let me do it! I thought it would have been kinda fun - what a couple of downers!

After those couple of whirlwind days, we headed for Steamboat Springs. It was about a 3 hour drive from Denver. When we left Denver it was 86 degrees, when we got to the top of the pass (not sure of the name) it was 40 flippin degrees! We were a little worried, because we were packed for summer, not winter - cause there was still snow too!! But friday when we got up and going, the weather was beautiful and it stayed that way the whole time we were there. What a gorgeous place! Steamboat is beautiful. The condo we stayed in was gorgeous. Almost too nice for a bunch of 13 year old boys to stay in. We had to put some vases and glass decorations away in the cupboards while we were there. But it was a great trip and the baseball was great. Our boys went 6-1 and ended up with 3rd. They played some great ball. It was also very sad and bittersweet, because the last game we played was Bodie's last game with the Diamondbacks. We've been with the D-Backs for the last 3 years. Bodie and Buck have gotten to have some great experiences with this team, and we have made some great friends along the way - we are so appreciative for that one phone call from Jerry Stiffler and Jim Burrup those 3 years ago!! Thanks Jim, Jerry and all of the D-Backs!! It's been a heck of a fun ride! It was hard to come home from this trip. I am usually ready to be home, but this time, I could have stayed another couple of days.


We've had other stuff going on and this post could go on and on and on. But I will give it a rest for now. When i get home I will post some pictures for ya - cause we got a new camera too and we have so many pictures it's insane!!

What you may or may not know........

Ok.. I decided I would make one of the lists that my sister is alway making on her blog, and I thought I would do it on things you may, or may not know about me!

1. My name is .... Cori Ann (Sparks) Cooper
2. I am the 3rd of 6 children - two older brothers and 3 younger sisters
3. I was born in Bountiful, Utah and lived there until I was 4 when we moved to American Falls, Idaho (So i consider myself an Idahoan and not a Utard!)
4. I went to Hillcrest Elementary School, William Thomas Middle School, and American Falls High School - all in American Falls -
5. I graduated from AFHS in 1989
6. I was the female athlete of the year in 1989 -
7. My Senior year I lettered in 4 sports in one year - volleyball, basketball, golf, and track.
8. I went to Germany for 4 weeks with my German class the summer before my senior year. It was the last year that the Berlin wall was up and there was West Berlin and East Berlin. The next year the wall came down!!
9. I met my husband in 1991 while we both worked at Pizza Hut in American Falls. He still claims to this day that I was mean to him and yelled at him because he had the dishwater too hot. I totally disagree that this ever occured!!
10. Buck and I bought our first home in 1993 in American Falls - 740 Teton Ave -
11. We bought our second home in 1999 and moved to Pocatello - 1005 Camas Lane -
12. We have 4 children whom we love (most of the time...jk) very much!
13. Our oldest daughter, Shea, was born 9 weeks premature and was in the NICU for 3 weeks before we got to bring her home.
14. We now live in Chubbuck and love it here very much.
15. I LOVE to camp and be outdoors.
16. I love to watch my kids play and excel at sports.
17. I LOVE MY FAMILY!!

Basketball

3/7/09... To update the basketball season end. Irving beat Hawthorne (I can't remember the score) on Monday March 2 so they had to play Franklin for the champoinship on Wednesday March 4. They lost to Franklin to take second place (and I unfortunately can't remember that score either). And so one sport ends and another begins!! At least baseball is one of our favorites even though it sometimes seems to take over our lives!


Bodie's last 2 (maybe 1) basketball game/s will be this coming Monday. This season has seemed to go by pretty fast. His team has done really well. And Bodie has had a fun time playing. It's hard when they play the same 2 teams over and over and over. They have beat them both and lost to the both of them too. But they have all been good games. I just enjoy watching my son play sports, even if they aren't his best or favorite.






This is after last Friday's game when we beat Hawthorne. Bodie hit a 3-point shot in the 2nd quarter, it was awesome!! After next Tuesday basketball will be done and we will have a couple of down weeks and then start in to baseball.

Pitfalls of working around Humans!

It is so nice in these days of uncertainty to have a fairly safe and secure job. I wanted to say that first because for the most part my job is good! But I can tell you, there are days when I can understand how someone could go POSTAL! Dealing with the public is the most irritating, annoying, dumbfounding thing I have ever had to do. I have worked in a bank, and when people are banking they can get pretty nasty. I worked for a call center for satellite t.v. and those people are totally off their rockers. If you think television is a necessity, kind of like water or let's say, maybe air - you have got some issues. And now I work for the City and some of things that I have heard never cease to amaze me. Just when you think you have heard it all, someone comes around and smacks you with another good one. One of my favorites was a lady who came in and she was in tears because she couldn't pay her bill because she had to buy toilet paper!! That one still makes me giggle. Humans are pretty good at coming up with excuses. The bad thing about this job is it does make you very cynical and you just get sick of the excuses. I can't pay my bill because I have a newborn in the house, (Even more reason to pay), I can't pay my bill because I had to buy dog food - you name it, I have heard the excuse. And I have been told that I have a black heart, and I am heartless, one guy told me he hoped I had kids and that they all starve to death. Anyway, I am glad I have a job, I just wish it didn't involve people!!!

Mom, monsters have licked the cupcakes you made!!!

At my office we like to bring food to celebrate co-workers birthdays. We had one this last Friday and I had Cierra bake some cupcakes. I knew it was going to be a huge temptation for a little monkey that lives with us. He did pretty good, and got to eat a couple extras that we had. We were all in bed (so I thought) and I was starting to doze off when our door opens and Robert comes over and taps me on the head and says this "Monsters have licked some of the cupcakes!!" Me: "Are you sure it was monsters, and was the monster named Robert?" Robert: "No mom, it was monsters, or maybe Bodie" Me: "Lets' go look and see!" He took me by the hand and we walked out to found out that sure enough, monsters had eaten off the tops of 2 cupcakes and had licked all of the frosting off of one other. I guess we had better start checking that monsters are securely in bed more often at our house!!!

I guess I better add a little something about the "other" Cooper family member! He is small, messy, noisy, and completely NEUROTIC! In short, he fits in pretty well. He is Dippy, our Yellow Collared Macaw. Dippy is 7-years old and came to our home from a pet rescue in October of 2007. Dippy was abandoned by his previous owner and lived in the rescue for a year. Dippy is what is known as a plucker. He has no feathers because he breaks them off and won't let them grow. He had feathers when we got him, and then one other time he let them grow in, but for the most part he has been naked. It does make for quite the conversation when people come over. Everyone always asks what's wrong with him. Nothing is wrong with him, he is healthy, he eats well, he just won't let his feathers grow in. When people come over he gets over excited and goes crazy screaming and trying to get out of the cage. If I hold him he usually does okay, but people other than Buck and I can't hold him because he is a terrible biter. Sounds like having a nightmare living with you and sometimes it is. But I love him and I don't want to put him through having to find another home ever again. So he is stuck with us, and we are stuck with him, maybe he'll realize we love him and he is not losing us and he will someday calm down. Until then, thick skin are two words we live by!!

Meet the Cooper Family

Just a little bit about us. We are the Cooper's. We live in Pocatello and have 4 kids - Shea, Bodie, Cierra, and Robert. I thought this would be a great way to help our family and friends keep up with our family and our hectic schedule. We are normally pretty busy with work and school and sports and day to day stuff. Right now with the Holidays we are getting a little break from running here and there. But not for long. Basketball tryouts for Bodie, who is 13, start on Monday. He will also be starting into baseball and gearing up for his last season with the Idaho Diamondbacks. For those of you who don't know, Shea is 16 and an officially licensed driver, which is somewhat frightening, but also quite handy at the same time. Cierra, who is 12, just got done with her basketball season. Unfortunately it was a very disappointing season, but next year she will get to tryout for the school team and is really looking forward to that. Robert, AKA Boomer, well, what can I say. He is just as busy as he normally is being a 5-year old. The other night while we were downstairs playing Guitar Hero Shea comes down all frantic and tells us that we have to come and see what Boomer is doing. When Buck got upstairs he discovered the string for the blinds, a bungee cord, and a bag strap rigged across Boom's room and him in the window seal getting ready to zipline across his room!!! Being fearless isn't always good for Mom and Dad's blood pressure!