Stomach Flu

1 Jul 2008

We have the stomach flu today and Tyler threw up on my new bed. It was gross.

Homemade Ice Cream

30 Jun 2008

Jared left this morning at 6:00 a.m. It was kinda crappy that we all had to get up at 4:30 to drive him to the airport but even worse that he's gone. We miss him and it's only been one day. We were all too sleepy to take pictures before he left so y'all won't get to see his super short haircut until later. He has called from Alabama 3 times and it's been so nice to talk to him. He says that its really hot and his socks are too small but he's too scared to go get new ones cause everyone is really "yelly." He says that he will have an internet connection to his laptop on Fri so he can get e-mails then (jaredbcooper@gmail.com). He will be back on Aug 1st.

A la Joseph and Amanda we have started taking pictures of our food. Jared made this ice cream from a recipe he found in his new Ben & Jerry's recipe book. It is fresh raspberry and it was really really good. This is the last picture I took of Jared before he left.

Our Last Night Out

28 Jun 2008

Since Jared is leaving for COT (commissioned officer training) on Mon (Jun 30th) we all went out to dinner and a movie on Saturday. We went to see WALL-E and we all really liked it. We give it an A++.

There was a clown at the restraunt who made balloon animals for the kids. Tyler got a black mouse. He has been obsessed with mice lately. He has this little skit in his head where he can conjure up mice friends that do kung fu with weapons to erradicate bad guys (ie. cats, elephants and other terrible creatures.) He is crying in this picture because he wouldn't eat his food so he didn't get any cake.
Derek got a Nemo fish balloon. Ralphie popped when we got home. Derek didn't really care but Ralphie sure did.
This picture is kind of dark, but it is of Derek being afraid of the giant Hulk statue in the lobby of the movie theater. It was a really cool statue but Derek wouldn't get close enough for us to take a good picture.
This is the statue.

Derek's Special Things

27 Jun 2008

Derek likes to put all of his special things in the back of his lego block dump truck to keep them safe. As you can see, Mom is very special to him.

Our first houseguest

Below is a video of Derek affectionately interacting with a little guy who showed up just inside our front door. He was too big to just step on, so we captured it, then later flushed it down the toilet.



There's something beautiful and terrifying about a toddler playing with a huge spider, reminiscent of this video.

I Guess I'm Not A Nerd

58 words

Speed test

I found this typing test on Joseph and Amanda's blog. Amanda can type 101 wpm. That is way faster than me. However, she should try this one and see how she does.

http://www.learn2type.com/index.cfm?action=TenKeyTest&reset=113936

I got 18,248 kph without any mistakes. I might be a nerd after all.

We Made it to Texas!!

16 June 2008

After 3 days of driving through what Jared called "an automobile tour of the world's worst climates" (referring to New Mexico and West Texas) we made it to our new house.
The address is 811 Point Valley, San Antonio, TX 78253 and our phone number is 210-592-9563
It is only about 1 year old and smelled really nice until we moved in all of our stinky stuff.

This is our new house! The driveway is a lot steeper than it looks and Derek has a hard time walking on it. The grass was a lot deader when we got here too because the grass had gotten so tall that it blocked the sprinkers from popping up. Jared says that there is a nest of fire ants there in the corner that he found while he was mowing in his sandals.

This is the living room. It's twice the size of our old one. Tyler's only requirement for the new house was a fireplace for Santa. As you can see, we made that a priority.
Here is the kitchen. Again twice the size of our old one.
Here is the master bath. It is twice the size of our old master bedroom.

Here is our master closet. This takes up pretty much 1/2 the house. Good thing we have a lot of clothes.
Here is our new car. I bought it on e-bay. It was a good deal because it had hail damage. You can't really see it in the picture but it's there. There are a few dents on the hood and lots on the roof. It looks like the power steering has a problem too, but we'll just have to pay to get that fixed.

My mom and dad came with us and stayed for a week to help us unpack. Now we have an unbelievable pile of empty boxes in our dining room. However, if they hadn't come, we would have unbelievable piles of non-empty boxes all over the house. Thanks mom and dad!

Anybody need some moving boxes? Come and get 'em!

Mesa Verde

14 Jun 2008

On our way to Texas we stopped in Colorado to see Mesa Verde. I've been there before when I was very young and thought it was cool so I wanted to take the kids. Tyler seemed to enjoy himself despite the heat but Derek was bored. They wouldn't let us take Ralphie on the hike so my mom got out of hiking and stayed with him at the visitor's center.

Getting Ready to Move

9 June 2008

Well it's been quite awhile since my last post but that's because I've been working full time since March. All that's changed now. I've officially retired and moved to the sunny South. I'm going to back-date some of these posts so that I can keep things in chronological order.

When the movers came to pack up our stuff, they made us fill out a lot of insurance forms and Jared commented that it might just be better for us if the truck fell off a cliff or caught on fire so that we could get the money. He was probably right.

This is how they packed up our old couch that we got for free from my sister Kay Lynn after she got it used from a student apartment for like $10.

This is the truck that moved our stuff for us. We used up half of it. It seemed like a lot until we unpacked all 190 boxes and realized that they were mostly full of newsprint used for cushioning.

This is our tire. We had to get a new one. It blew out just before Price, UT. Luckily we found a nice guy at a tire shop who sold us a better (but not new) tire.

Jared's Look-Alikes

Jared's not so sure about his look - alikes. Maybe he doesn't really look like any celebrities. We were suprised that David Copperfied and David Duchovney weren't on his list.