Bolivar Grads Network Reaches 50 Members!

{Here is a good long post for you}

Bolivar Grads has been up a few weeks and already 50 people have made contact with me. I also would say there is twice that many people who know about the site but have not contacted me so far.

I am relying on all of the members to forward this on to Bolivar Alumni that you keep in contact with and have them send me an email.

Here are some new members.

Class of 1987

Kim Vest (Jarman) - Kim has been married to Leslie Jarman (Class of 1988) since 1993. They live just south of Bolivar in Brighton, MO with their 4 dogs (a yorkie, beagel, & 2 boxers), a cat and some cows. Kim works at St. Johns Hospital in Springfield as a registered nurse and Les owns his own business painting automobiles. Together they do a lot of lake camping and 4 wheel riding. Kim said that they see Steve and Kim Hawk (Class of 1988) and Shelly Abel (Chaney), Linda Abel (Perkins) and Bruce Hood (who is their Vet). Thanks for sending the recent picture Kim!
THEN

NOW



Shelly Abel (Chaney) - Shelly actually called me Sunday night and we chatted a bit. She then followed up with an email to give us the scoop on what she is doing. She lives in Orrick, MO which is just East of Kansas City. Shelly and her husband Larry have been married 9 years and they have 4 children in Brooke 17, Brina 15, Brock 12 and Brianna 11. She said they are a handful and I believe her. I was really impressed with Shelly's activities she is involved with. She is very involved in the PTO and has been a member for 9 years, she has been President of the Orrick Swim Club for 4 years, and has been in the Town Sorority (Beta Sigma Phi) since 1999 where she has been Vice President for 4 years and President for 2 years. She has been working for Easley's Auto Auction for the last 5 years and merchandised for Archway Merchandising for the last year and loves it. She even cleans houses on side for extra cash. Shelly...tell me your secret of how you find all the time?
In March of 2003 her husband Larry broke his neck. Thankfully he is not in a wheelchair but he is still recovering and going to college and Shelly is there to help him.
She still keeps in touch with Kim Vest, Shane Davolt, Jill Wilkerson, Lisa Wolfe, Mike Hale, and of course her sister Linda Abel (Perkins) who is living in Bolivar. Shelly promised to send some pictures soon and I can't wait!!! Since a lot of people have promised to send pictures, I am going to have a post dedicated to current pictures of Bolivar Grads.

Class of 1988

John (Chris) Smith - I have mentioned that I have contact with Chris in an earlier post, but I have not highlighted him yet. We all knew him as John Smith at Bolivar High, but in college John decided to go by his middle name Christopher. Since I went to SBU with him and roomed with him for a year in Springfield when I went to SMS, I think of him as Chris now. Chris has lived in Phoenix, AZ for over a decade now. For most of the time there he was a Director at a Telemarketing Center, but after working in a call center for more than 10 years he got burned out on it. A couple of years ago he decided to go into insurance and now he works as an Insurance Agent. He is married to his wife Lisa and together they have a two daughters in Shania 7 and Christian (goes by Cookie) 4. Chris keeps in contact with Brad Roweton, Daniel Hicks, Stephanie Farmer (Lawson) and Brian Leach. Here are some recent pictures of him with his wife and his girls.



Ronda Fink (Riden) - Another person that I mentioned that in my very first post was Ronda Fink (Riden). She was partially to credit (or blame) for me starting this website. She was looking through the SBU Alumni Letter and saw that they had published my email address. So one day I get this email out of the blue asking if I remember Ronda Fink. Of course I do! Ronda is still in Bolivar where she takes care of her folks business while her husband of 11 years owns an automotive shop. They have 1 boy who just turned 7. On the weekends Ronda and her husband race 4 wheelers. Hmmm, maybe you should hook up with Les and Kim Jarman! It was so great to get the email from Ronda out of the blue that it started me down a path of wondering how more people I went to school with are doing today.

Class of 1989

Rob Parsons - Rob emailed me from Bolivar where he lives and works with his wife of 12 years Michelle (Rhoads) who was Class of 1991. Michelle works at Citizens Memorial Hospital as a Speech-Language Pathologist. At CMH, Michelle ran into Raquel Vest (Boyce) who told her to check out this site (Good job Raquel). Rob (I keep wanting to call you Robbie) works as a self employed contractor. The Parsons don't have any kids but Rob did inform me that they have 2 very spoiled poodles. I think we all remember Rob's mom - Mrs. Parsons (Now Jean Vincent) the High School History teacher. She has been living in Maryland but will be returning to Bolivar in 2006 for good. Rob said that Michelle was going to mention the site to Jeff Miller and Jenny Gambriel (Eggert) who also work at CMH. Rob on the other hand was going to let his sisters Lisa Parsons (Hammett) and Lori Parsons (Ellis) know about the site.
Make sure to send some pictures of you, Michelle and the poodles Rob!

Class of 1991

Tricia Myers (Pyle) - Tricia emailed me from the Bolivar suburb of Polk, MO :) . She has been married to Jeff Pyle (Class of 1984) for 10 years. They have two boys in Samuel 6 and Matthew 4. Jeff works at Vestal Equipment in Bolivar while Tricia has worked at Citizens Memorial Hospital for the past 13 years in the Information Systems Department as a software specialist. Many of us will remember her mom - Mrs. Myers who worked in the lunch room and called everyone "Hun". She retired in 1999 but is still in Bolivar. She was going to forward the website on to Sandy Branstetter, Lynn Breshears (Quennoz), Aaron Hood, Jeff Miller, Gary Krtek, Jennifer Earl (Gifford), Jennifer Gambriel (Eggert) and of course her big brother Tim Myers. We look forward to hearing from them and would love some pictures of you and your family Tricia.

Renee Morehouse (Jones) - Renee emailed me from Raytown, MO just outside of Kansas City where she has lived since graduating from William Jewell College. She has been married to Sam Jones since 1995 and they now have 3 children in Ashlyn 4, Greyson 2, and Peyton 2 months. Renee travels every other week to Bolivar to work with his sister Laurie and Mom on their business venture called ELR. You can read more about that in the last post for Laurie Morehouse (Ball). Renee is also a Loan Officer out of her home working for LaDon Mortgage out of Springfield, MO. Her husband Sam is a Juvenile Detective for the Raytown Police Department. She said that her life is really busy with two jobs and 3 children but they are very happy. She has promised to send me some Christmas pictures that they are having taken in a couple of weeks. We can't wait!


Some New Toys!

Ok, BolivarGrads.com has a couple of new features to use. The first one is a cool map that will show where everyone is in the United States. There is a button on the right column under links called "Where are we?" Click on that and fill in your name and zip code and it will put you on our Bolivar Grads Map!

The second new toy is a tool called Blogarithm. It is a service that will email you when a new post has been made on the website. You can put your email in and it usually will email you the next morning to say that there is an update to the site.

I post every few days because I want to get a few profiles of people in before I post again. Now I am needing some more people to contact me, so I really need your help to pass the word along to folks and have them email me.

Look for my next post soon!

JR Mariottini
Class of 1988
JR@bolivargrads.com
Cell: 630-841-5129

Oh, and people keep asking to see pictures of me and my two little girls - Payton and Macy. Here you go! A picture of me an my wife Kristen in Vegas and the girls.