Well, I am still working at Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in the Regional Transaction Center (RTC) as an Administrative Team Leader. I am the Team Leader of the Hi-Tech industry (this includes consumer electronics, medical, and dental customers) and manage a group on average of 15 staff. It’s always difficult to explain what exactly we do in our department, but on the basic level we just work in cubicles in an office on a computer all day. Being a supervisor I do tend to run around a bit more than that, sometimes a bit more than I’d like, but it breaks things up. I was fortunate enough to be able to go on my first business trip. They sent the supervisors to the first ever global meeting, taking place in Northbrook, IL (near Chicago) in June. It was a lot of work, but a great experience full of learning, networking, and loads of fun! I was even lucky enough to stay behind a few days and visit with family living in the area. They showed me such a wonderful time, I loved it! Thank you to the Contreras family!
I’m happy to say that Adam is working at UL as well. It has been such a joy to be able to see him on breaks and lunches since he’s started and we even get to carpool whenever possible. He started out in the same department as me and in September moved over to Customer Service where he has become quite a rock star. The knowledge that he obtained while in the RTC has really made him stand out in his department and made him become an outstanding resource for all of those that surround him. He assists customers every day in finding the best way to accomplish what they need done and is constantly contributing to the organization.
Summer is a great time of the year for us as it better allows us to do some of our favorite things. We did our annual trip in July where we invite all the friends and family that want to join us. We have traditionally taken this trip to the Barview Jetty campground on the Oregon Coast where I spent many summers growing up. I love how it allows us to camp in a woodsy area and with a short walk over the hill brings us to the beach. This upcoming year we are looking for a change so we’ll see where that takes us. August brings the county fair that I always love going to. I guess that’s another tradition that I’ve carried on from my childhood days as I participated in 4-H for many years. Also in August, we joined some of our friends and their family on a camping trip to Leavenworth, WA. First time being there and it was a really neat experience going through the town that was built like a Bavarian Village. We really hope to make it back in the wintertime some year as I hear they decorate it beautifully for Christmas. This summer we also went on a few hikes that we hadn’t done before and saw some breath taking views. One of them brought us into the clouds when we reached the summit and another brought us across many waterfalls we hadn’t seen before. The Northwest has so many beautiful places to hike!
In August, my Grandpa Bean (my mother’s father) celebrated his 85th birthday and in September he passed away. We were very lucky that they lived in Idaho and that I was able to see him often growing up through the years. I’m also very happy that I was able to join my family for the 4th of July weekend and be able to spend some time with him. His passing wasn’t a surprise since he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer for quite awhile now. I’m thankful that my mother and her siblings were able to visit with him just before he passed. The rest of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and immediate family were able to make it over there for a wonderful gathering to honor him and to say goodbye, he will be missed.
Now on to more uplifting events for 2008…For those of you that haven’t known, we have been on the hunt for a house for a very long time and the right time to buy one. It was a cumbersome process looking at houses, working with our mortgage broker, negotiating with sellers and other buyers. We took some breaks throughout the process along the way and at last everything aligned. On October 2nd (Adam’s birthday as well) we finally got the keys to our first house!
We spent the month packing and bringing boxes over each time we went to do any work on the house. Just about every room was repainted as the previous owners had a peculiar idea of what would look good and how to do it. The walls in the main part of the house were a yellow of some sort and they decided to paint over it (very badly I might add) a green and then they painted a couple red accent walls (again, very badly, there definitely needed to be more than one coat). The office was a horrible shade of purple, with a decal of a wreath of seashells on one wall (I don’t know what they were thinking). The master bedroom was a very dark burgundy type color and its bathroom was a weird red with a tint of pink. You’ll have to check out the pictures that I have of the before status of the house, I’m so happy that it doesn’t look like that anymore.
We were all moved out of our rental townhouse by the end of October and have been moving in ever since. Moving was a very eye opening experience as we discovered many things that had gone forgotten and not missed for a very long time. We determined that this would be the time to start fresh so we had all of our boxes put into the garage and decided that we’d only bring in the items that we want to have in and leave all the rest out for a garage sale, donation, trash, etc. I’m afraid it’s going to take a year before we’re done with it all!
Special thanks to all of those that helped with the entire process! Many of our friends and family worked their tails off and we appreciate them all so much!
On November 29th we added to our family in the way of a puppy! My parents breed, raise, show, etc Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers and we were able to get a little girl from their most recent litter. They tend to go with themes for their show litters and this litters theme was based on places my parents traveled while the litter was at home. It happens that one of the places they traveled was China. There were a number of name options they provided; however we decided that we liked Asia. She is such a joy and is learning so well, at our home at least. Every day we go to work we drop her off at my parents to play with the other dogs and while there she’s just a rambunctious kid.
Speaking of kids, we are actually adding one of those to our family as well! For those of you that haven’t heard yet, we are expecting our first child. I know, I know, many of you have been wondering when we were going to finally get a move on that. We have already found out that it’s a boy and that the “scheduled” due date is May 13th, although I know it’s pretty uncommon for babies to be born on their due date. We are fortunate that our house happened to come with a room that was painted just perfectly for children. We’ve decided that we’ll keep the jungle theme as is (be sure to check out the pics of it). It’s been crazy to imagine over the holidays and moving forward that we’ll have a little boy crawling around in our lives. It’s truly amazing and we are so very excited about it!
Now that I feel that I’ve left you a novel to read, I suppose I should wrap up. It’s been a whirlwind of a year with plenty of ups and some downs. I’m so thankful for the family and friends that I have and want you all to know it. I don’t always keep in the best touch with everyone that I would like, but you are all on my mind and in my heart all year long.
Take care,
The Hopper Family
~ Adam, Valerie, Rupert and Sage (our cats), Asia, and our bun in the oven
P.S. If you want to see what we’ve been up to, click here to take a look at our pictures from 2008.
