Lazy Bones

29 Nov 2008

I am just a lazy bones. I've been so busy with cooking Thanksgiving dinner and buying Chirstmas presents and watching TV and sleeping lately that I've really neglected my blog. Sorry everyone. I don't even have any new pictures (we forgot to take a picture of the Thanksgiving table - it was really pretty though.)

We had Joseph and Amanda and Emily over for Thanksgiving along with some trainees from the base. They have this thing called Operation Home Cooking where families in the area have airmen over for holiday meals because they aren't allowed to go home during boot camp. The two guys we got were nice - kind of like missionaries - but we found out later that they are both getting kicked out of the Air Force in the next week or two because of misrepresentations on the medical forms they submitted with their applications. One guy had previously dislocated his shoulder (like Jared) but didn't tell them (not like Jared). The other guy had some knee or heart problem that he didn't tell them about. Anyway, we had fun playing Wii and watching movies and playing games and eating turkery. I cooked a 22 lb turkey and we still have a bunch left - yum!

Today we went to the mall to renew Jared's cell phone plan and to see Santa. Tyler was really excited and spent a long time telling Santa about all the things he wanted. Derek was too scared and wanted to stay in the stroller. I did take a picture but I'll have to post it later. P.S. Jared didn't get to renew his plan or get a new phone. Apparently the deals that Verizon offers on their website are not the same deals that they offer in their stores. The lady actually told us that they "couldn't compete with that low of price." So....Verizon is competing with itself? Weird. Jared just ordered the phone online.

BIG NEWS!!!!!

Kevin is engaged! Kevin and his new fiance, Karen, are officially engaged as of today. The are getting married on May 7th (I think). I have some pictures of them somewhere but I will have to post them later too.

Well, I am having too many contractions to make sitting in this chair bearable (like one every 15-20 min, and I'm not even due for 5 weeks! Argh!) so I guess I'm done. We plan to go to Kevins wedding in May so hopefully we will see lots of you when we are there in Utah.

Suzie

Tiny Midget

24 Nov 2008

We went shopping for Thanksgiving dinner last Saturday. Today I was entering the receipt into QuickBooks and I found the following purchase:

We've bought other great things at Walmart too:

Black $3.88

Prince $9.00

Ice Breaker $1.67

Mom $3.34

Brer Rabbitt $2.22

Here is a picture of Tyler right after Halloween. I was going to fix the red eye but then I thought it made the picture even better!

Walmart Receipt Answer Key: Tiny Midget = Pickles, Black = Wire Letter Basket, Prince = Prince CD, Ice Breaker = Windshield Washer Fluid, Mom = Malt-O-Meal Cereal, Brer Rabbitt = Molasses

Jared's Holiday Ramblings

The Coopers continue gearing up for the holidays. Many of you already know of our tradition to buy a cute ornament and a strange ornament each year. This year's winners are below. The first one is our cute one, inspired by our new Texas home, it's a pickup with longhorns on the grille and presents in the back.

...and then the crazy one. This guy follows in the proud tradition of Fishing Mer-Santa and Parachuting Santa-with-candycane-hanging-off-of-bum. This is a Christmas Armadillo.

We're having the Joseph, Amanda and Emily over for Thanksgiving, and we've also invited two basic trainees from the base to spend the day with us as well. It seemed like a good time to throw up some Christmas decorations with so much company on the way. I have lots of Christmas lights, but there's a big difference between hanging lights on an old Orem rambler, and a more modern-style house. The roof is a lot steeper, and the drop is a LOT farther. I don't have a tall ladder, so I had to do the whole thing from on top. I managed to keep from falling, and I think the end-result is pretty nice.

Work on Suzie's gingerbread house continues, mostly just more doors and raw construction material. Unfortunately, Suzie's construction site keeps getting raided by thieves, candy-junkies desperate for a fix now that the Halloween reserves are getting low.

There was a flurry of activity at the house across the street about a week ago, we'd thought they had all moved out long before Halloween. They've changed the plates on at least one of their cars to Utah tags. It must be hard on the kids to move around so much.

Tyler has the entire week off of school for Thanksgiving (seems like we only got Wednesday, Thursday, Friday off when I was a kid), and he loves to get phone calls from relatives. He spoke with Robert and Mom for over an hour the other evening. I think he gets sick of hanging out with his Mom and Dad sometimes.

I've decided to take the plunge and get eye-surgery.

I can get surgery for free, but I would have to pay to get glasses or contacts. Truly, I'm a little torn, I like how I look in glasses, but I've never been able to do things like wear sunglasses, swim, or even wake-up in the morning without doing something to be able to see. It might be nice to be able to see ALL of the time. I'm told that long-vision is improved near-permenantly, but that the short-vision will deteriorate naturally over time, so I will need cheaters to read in 10-20 years. Apparently they offer LASIK, LASEK, and PRK at the base. I don't know which I'm getting, and they all sound terrifying if you look them up on the net, maybe I can just do it myself...

As the christmas season approaches, Justin Timberlake urges all of us to open our hearts...and our wallets.

Tyler and Derek are hard at work making christmas lists (stay tuned), and Suzie is making a Festival-of-Trees-Quality gingerbread house. First she made a cardboard model of the house she is building.

...using this picture as her inspiration...

...first she made a LOT of gingerbread...these are just the walls!

...then she made windows by melting down butterscotch candies. Then she used the wipes to wipe Derek's butt.

Here 8-month-pregnant Suzie demonstrates the warm holiday glow offered by the candy windows.

It's coming together. These are two walls that already have their windows and masonry (big-red cut into quarters).

When it's finished, the gingerbread house should be about 18" tall and 20" wide.

There's been a little bit of a nip in the air, the rumor was that the temperature might even reach freezing over the weekend. It almost never snows here, but the roads still ice over just from moisture in the air condensing on the roads. They don't have sand or salt for the road, and there's no warning (like a blanket of snow), to let you know you need to slow down. One more reason Jared hasn't bought another motorbike yet.

Jared misses the snowy mountains and pine trees, Suzie really does NOT miss snowy anything. It's a different atmosphere down here, that's for sure. It looks like the neighboorhood is gearing up for some serious christmas light displays, which is good. We're going to try to resist buying hot-pepper lights and Texas Longhorns ornaments, if we can.

Things People Say

3 Nov 2008

I thought that I would include some recent additions to the quote book for my blog today.

Suzie and Derek in the Kitchen
Derek: Candy please Mom?
Suzie: Sure here you go (handing him a chocolate eyeball).
Derek: Ew gross. No eyeball. Candy!
Suzie: That is candy. It's chocolate.
Derek: Not chocolate. Eyeball.
Suzie: It's good.
Derek: No way. No candy.
Suzie: You weirdo - chocolate is good. You like it.
Derek (in a loud voice while shaking his finger): Mom, you are a stinky thomas! You are stinky!

Suzie and Jared on a Date
Jared: I like that girl's shoes.
Suzie: The stilletos or the leopard skin platforms?
Jared: The stilletos.
Suzie: You love uncomfortable shoes that ruin your hips.
Jared: Yeah, when I die that's what they'll say. They'll say,"'Dear 'ol Brother Cooper, he sure liked himself some high heels."

Tyler's Letter to the New Baby

I rote this letter on October Sunday 2008

Dear stasye.

I Y Girls.

Im so in love!

From Tyler

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

I love you and you love me.

You are in Heven.

P.S. We have decided to name the baby Stacy. Tyler spelled it wrong in his letter. "Stasye" is not a good way to spell "Stacy."

USAF Air Show

1 Nov 2008

Today we spent all day at the air show. It started at 10:30 and went till about 4:30 and we saw some really cool stuff. The weather was really nice - about 80 degrees - but the sun was pretty hot. I'm the only one who got a sunburn because I forgot to put lotion on my neck - oops - it's not that bad though. We saw helicopters, F-15's (way too loud for Derek), parachuters, a hang glider that was being towed by a truck, some stunt/trick planes that would fly way up in the air and then fall until they were just about to crash and then fly off, F-22's (amazing and also too loud for Derek), a Harrier jet, a recreation of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the Navy Blue Angels (F-18's). We also got to go inside the very first Air Force One (the one the Kennedy's used) and eat some $6.00 hot dogs (way better than $.50 hot dogs). Nancy came with us for the first hour but then she had to catch a cab back to the airport to go home to Utah. We were glad she came to visit and do some trick-or-treating with the kids on Halloween night.

These are the costumes that the kids wore to the USO Halloween party.

Derek wore the camo for trick-or-treating but Tyler wore this. I stayed home to give out candy but Jared and Nancy told me that he scared all the other kids.

These are the Blue Angels flying by us - really, really close. It was hard to get a good picture because they were so close and so fast!

Here are the Blue Angels again a little further away.

Obviously this is not one of the actual Doolittle Raiders,

as anyone who has seen the end of Pearl Harbor already knows.

We especially like the "Use of Deadly Force Authorized" part.

Derek was holding his ears most of the time - even when the planes weren't flying.

The USAF Heritage Flight. It includes the P-40 Warhawk, F-15E Strike Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-22 Raptor.

The Harrier jet flying sideways then rotating in mid-air.

F-22 doing a controlled backward-slide.

USO Halloween Party

26 Oct 2008

Yesterday was our ward Halloween party/chili cook off but we couldn't go because we were invited to dinner at the colonel's house. So to help the kids not feel like they were missing out on Halloween, we took them to the downtown trick-or-treat street and the USO Halloween party. The trick-or-treat street was really crowded but the kids had a pretty good time going to the booths getting little pieces of candy. Jared and I had a lot of flash backs to the vender streets in Cancun. I didn't take any pictures of the kids but here are some photos from the internet.

This is the classy part of Market Square (by the restaurants). When we were here yesterday the sidewalk was FULL of people and kids in costumes (imagine this picture with about 10,000 people in it.) This is the picture that reminds us of Cancun. Cancun market motto: "We have different junk!"

The USO Halloween party was tonight and we were kind of hesitant to go to a party on Sunday but since we don't have much else to do on Sunday afternoons we thought it would be okay - and it really was. The people that work at the USO are always SO SO NICE! They had it all decorated and they served us hot dogs and chips and had 5 or 6 games for the kids and candy prizes. There were about 50-60 people there and it actually felt more like a big family party than anything else. The kids had fun.

In this picture Derek is supposed to be blowing a cotton ball across the floor. Instead he just held onto it in his hand and crawled like the other kids.

This is a game where you are supposed to turn your partner into a mummy. Derek put some on me and then put the rest around himself.

Tyler tried to turn Derek into a mummy but Derek kept trying to help by ripping the paper.

Strung-out Ty

So they really like Cream Soda here in the south, and it comes in many different brands. In Orem, we often bought Shasta Cream Soda because it came in diet. The other day, Suzie found Diet A&W Cream Soda, and we were all elated.

Well apparently, A&W is the only Cream Soda that is also caffeinated, but we didn't know that until we had already given some to Tyler. We went shopping right after, and Tyler was buzzing like a hornet.



Back to Big Red for Ty.

Japanese Tea Gardens

18 Oct 2008

Today we went to the Japanese Tea Gardens in San Antonio with Joseph and Amanda and Emily. It was really cool! It was built by an old Japanese guy in the early 1900's in an abandoned limestone quarry. During WWII they changed the name to the Chinese Tea Gardens and there is still an old sign that says that. We walked on all the trails and even found a lady who gave us some food to feed the fish. The kids really had a fun time. Emily tried to climb into the water every chance she got. Jared told Joseph that she would only fall in once and then learn her lesson but Joseph wasn't so sure. Apparently Emily is braver than my 6 year-old boy and my almost 3-year old boy put together. Afterward we had Subway sandwiches back at our house, played Wii Rock Band (sorry about my singing guys) and decorated Halloween cookies that Amanda made.

Who to Vote For?

17 Oct 2008

We don't know who to vote for. It's kind of an important decision since the new president will be largely responsible for our pay and lifestyle over the next three years (at least) but we still can't make up our minds. What do you think?

Get This - Survey Results - GlowDay.com

P.S. The Walmart on the corner of Culebra and the South 1604 has regular gas for $2.43/gal! I need to put a permanent gas price meter on the side of my blog.