The Cooley Clan: June 2010

June 27, 2010

Father's Day Activities

Sunday, June 20th FATHER'S DAY was spent making dad a yummy Puffed-oven pancake breakfast with fruit, going to church, coming home and making dinner and for dessert we had homemade whole wheat brownies (I made) and Jacob made some Lemon pudding cake because Dad LOVES anything with lemons! He got the Wii Monopoly game, a Monopoly card game (which is pretty fun and a LOT quicker to play than the original game), as well as a book companion to the Bible which has all the Bible stories in Chronological order and easily understood called, How oft would I have gathered you, by Val Greenwood. I got the book at Costco and even had the Author sign and personalize the copy to Richard. I think that Rich had a nice Father's Day and weekend!

After we went bowling in Bountiful, Utah, we drove to Salt Lake and were going to try out a new Brazillian restaurant called the Braza Express Grill (on Main Street), but they are closed on Saturdays, so we went next door and ate at an organic cafe which was overpriced and not very good food. So, I went in to pay for the food and after they asked me how the meal was, I told them it was not that great and wasn't a whole lot of food for the price, they wanted to make it up to me by giving us some more food...they brought out organic peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches for the kids (which were NASTY...I make organic PB and J better) and another panini and some soup for Rich and myself. The soup was my favorite of everything...I wish we would have ordered that the first go-around! Oh well. We paid $35 for lunch and I'll never go there again though it was very nice of them to make up for their poor meals!

Then we headed to Orchard Lanes Bowling Alley to bowl a couple of games with dad.

The kids liked the arcade more so the second game was just with Rich and myself which turned out great because I beat Rich by quite a bit whereas I came in last with a score of 69 I think on the first game...pretty lousy!!! We don't go out bowling very often as you might have guessed!

Saturday, June 19th First, we left about noon and after going to the bank, went to the kids preview of the Savior of the World muscial put on by our Stake Young Men and Young Women of our church that was performed in the Regional Conference Center (white-dome building in Bountiful) in which the kids got to get pictures with the man portraying Jesus Christ, and saw one of the scenes from the play. It was very touching. We ended up going to the real performance the following Friday night with Jacob and Rachael (only age 8 and older could attend), which was very nice.

June 23, 2010

We each decorated our own wooden spoons! (The kids decorated Dad's spoon for one of his Father's Day gifts, and Aleah decorated Luke's)

New Hill AFB Splash Park!!!

June 17th we decided to have a picnic lunch at the new Splash Park located right across the street from the Warrior Fitness Center on Hill AFB. Jacob invited his friend, Tate Pace and we had a nice day in the sun! Richard was in Florida on TDY (Tour of Duty) for work and so I wanted to do something fun with just them and mom...and I LOVE FREE activities!!! We'll probably go with some friends of ours from the Hess Family Gym (Jamie Clapier and her two kids, Dyson and Jersey) next week.

Aleah doesn't like taking naps in her bed...so she sleeps wherever she is!

Aleah fell asleep on the arm of our chair at Rich's desk! She has always been one that would fall asleep wherever she was...it didn't matter if it was uncomfortable or not! Even the kitchen floor has been her bed a quite a few times! After taking the picture, she was pretty grumpy! I would be too if I were sleeping in an uncomfortable chair!

Big hailstorm!

Rachael runs for cover!

June 12, 2010 was a very windy day...and then the hail started coming down pretty hard. Here is a picture of how big the hail stones were. Many of them were as big as my finger! And we all thought it was summer!!!

June 10, 2010

Richard's Catheter Ablation

Richard's Catheter Ablation surgery was successful and he just got home this morning...we are very grateful that all went well! This surgery was necessary because he has had an irratic heart rhythm (Atrium Fibrilation) for about a year or so, that would jump from 70-140 beats per minute even when he was resting. Doctor Forstall said that usually this electrical part of the heart acts up in people older like in their 60's so Rich is one of the rare individuals that has it show up early. There is nothing he can do to change it...diet or exercise...doesn't play a role. This surgery helped, but he may need it done again in the future. Now, he is taking it easy this weekend and will not be able to pick up anything heavier than 5 lbs for a week or so. It was nice to have Rich's mom and Aunt Edith come up from AZ to visit and help out with things! They got up here Tuesday (8th) early morning and left Friday morning at about 11 a.m for Missouri (home). It's always nice to have help when something like this occurs. Now it's just recovery and hopefully NO MORE surgeries for a while!!!

Funny Kid Moments!

December 20, 2011- We were all in the kitchen making gingerbread and I had just taken out the first batch of the gingerbread boy and girl. As I attempted to scrape up the girl on the spatula, she was too soft and started to fall apart as I quickly placed the mangled mess on the brown paper bag! Qaiden pointed to the messed up cookie and said, "Ladies first!" and "Mom killed her!" It was just so funny I changed from being really upset that I had ruined the cookie to laughing so hard at the random funny comment! I keep telling the boys, "Ladies first", and I guess it is sinking in!

November 2011- I like to recycle plastic containers and so I had just washed out one of them and placed the plastic lid on top the toaster (near the sink) to dry. Jacob went to put some bread in the toaster and while in there, the lid melted! Just a little while later as I was getting dinner prepared, Qaiden sat on the stove counter right next to the hot stove top. I told Q to get down off the counter but he was slow to obey. I had turned off the stove, but one of the burners was still hot and so as Q sat there, his coat was lying on the still hot burner and his inner part of the coat melted. I was a bit angry with him for not being obedient and was pretty frustrated. At this point, I turned to the boys and said, "Ok, and the winner for the 'NO-BRAINER' award goes to...drum roll please...QAIDEN!" I changed from being angry to laughing because of how funny my own comment seemed to me! ;) (Sometimes you just gotta laugh at yourself!)So, whenever we do something stupidly funny, we call it the NO-BRAINER award! It's become quite funny to see some of the silly things we do each day!

May 25, 2010- As the kids got ready for school this morning, I asked Rachael if she remembered to get a leotard for Gymnastics today after school. Qaiden overheard and said "...it's NOT Aleah-tard, it's a Rachael-tard! And I would wear a Qaiden-tard!" Ohhhh the silly things that kids come up with!

Jan 20, 2010- I was in the middle of winding the cord of our kirby vacuum cleaner while singing 'Ring around the rosies a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes we all fall down'...and Aleah just standing there all the sudden dropped to her bottom without bending her knees (looked a little awkward). It was just one of those moments that made me laugh because it was so unexpected!

Who Is... Richard LeRoy Cooley II

With much pushing and proding from Charise and a little from her Mom, I am attempting to briefly answer the question "Who am I?". To begin, I was born to wonderful parents, Richard LeRoy Cooley and Leah Tryon on October 16, 1970 in Little Rock, Arkansas. I am the 2nd eldest of eight children... Nichale, myself, Rodney, Roger, Oralea, Tawnya, Andelaura and Gayla. I moved to Mesa, Arizona when I was about 3 years old and lived there till I was 9 years old. In the summer of 1980 my family moved to Carthage, Missouri where I spent the most important and influential part of my childhood. It was during my time in Carthage that I finished grade school, Junior High and High School. I graduated from Carthage High School in May 1989 and shortly after entered the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo, Utah, January 1990. I served an honorable mission to Brasilia, Brazil. Shortly after my mission, I enlisted in the Air Force and was Active Duty for 9 years. My time on active duty in the Air Force was spent in San Antonio, TX (Lackland AFB) for basic training, then I went to Technical School in Dever, Colorado (Lowry AFB) after which I moved to Hill AFB in Clearfield, Utah. I was afterwards, stationed in South Korea (Osan AFB) and was there for 1 year. Then I cross-trained from Munitions (otherwise known as "Ammo") to Computer Maintenance and went to Buloxi, Mississippi (Keesler AFB). My time as an "Active Duty" enlisted member ended in Anchorage, Alaska (Elmendorf AFB), where I met and married my wonderful wife, Charise Alithea Nebeker. Her father worked as the Chief Auditor at Elmendorf AFB and was just around the corner from the Headquarters bldg. where I worked in what was called the RAOC - pronounced rock - (in the basement of that bldg.). We met in June, 1997 at the LDS Singles Branch at the Maplewood Chapel in Anchorage, AK and dated till she went back to Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho. Charise came home for Christmas and we got engaged January 1, 1998 and got married that summer, July 18, 1998 in the Salt Lake City Temple! It was a VERY special day for me! We lived there in Anchorage till 2000 and then moved in to Charise's parents home (10411 High Bluff Dr., Eagle River, AK 99577) for 10 months to save money for school. Thanks to Charise's parents we were able to save a substantial amount for school, which eventually was used as a down-payment on our 1st home. We had just had our 1st baby, Jacob LeRoy, August 26th, 1999 and then we were blessed with a baby girl, Rachael Anne on March 9th, 2001. We moved to Logan, Utah, May 2001 so I could go to school at Utah State University to finally finish my degree in Electrical Engineering that I'd been trying to finish for quite some time and which was VERY difficult to do while working in the military and moving around a lot. I also transitioned from Active duty to the Air Force Reserves shortly after arriving in Logan. I got my Bachelor degree December 2003 and got a job working with the government on Hill AFB as an Electronics Engineer six months later in a three year internship. We moved closer to the base in May of 2004 soon after our third child was born; Qaiden John, April 6, 2004. I was fortunately to get commissioned as an Officer in the Reserves about a year after starting work at Hill AFB and just before going back to school to get my Masters of Engineering in Electrical Engineering. It only took me a year and a half. I am currently a Captain in the Reserves and work as an Individual Augmentee (IMA) in the 508th ASW, which is an Active Duty unit. Our 4th child, Aleah Reese was born on my wife's birthday, February 28, 2007, in Layton, Utah and we had our 5th child, Luke William on September 19, 2009 at Davis Hospital and Medical Center in Layton, Utah as well. Life is going well for my family and we are grateful for ALL of our blessings!!!