from the mouth of babes

sorry the posts have been few and far between lately. i started studying for the bar about a week and a half ago and life as i knew it ended abruptly. i had a few minutes to post tonight though, so i wanted to share a little bit about caleb so you all can understand why we have a video of him speaking in some unrecognizable language. the language is actually english and he is reciting a scripture he memorized and shared at church during primary open exercises.

for those of you who don't speak 'mormon', all the kids at church go to kid-oriented classes called primary. before they separate into classes based on their ages, all of the kids under age 7 or 8 meet together and have some group teaching take place. as part of the group teaching, kids are assigned different things to do to take part in the teachings. for example, caleb was assigned the week before to share a scripture of his choice with everyone.

caleb decided to share moses 1:39 because jameson had also memorized this scripture when he was younger and shared it during primary. so, with the scripture picked out, he, jameson, and mom started working on memorizing it. at times he would try and recite it to me during the week, but usually would not do so without aim's help and prompts. sunday finally rolled around and he was excited to share his scripture but i hadn't heard him recite once all by himself. i figured he could do it, but caleb can be shy and stubborn. these attributes do not make for a good combination when it comes to a child required to speak in public.

at any rate, caleb and i went into the primary room a little before primary started to practice with the microphone (he insisted that i call it a microphone and not a mic). true to form, caleb balked on the stand and would not recite the scripture as i coaxed him to practice. so, even though things weren't going quite as planned, i just figured when the time came, we'd have to prompt him along from the crowd as he shared his scripture.

with that primary started and we all sat down. caleb felt extra important that day as he got to sit in the scripture chair at the front of the room while he waited for his turn. finally it came and he walked up to the pulpit, stood on the step, and looked out at the group of kids and parents who sat anxiously awaiting his scripture. caleb paused for a minute, as though he were not entirely sure what to do without aim or i there to coax him along. we waited, and i thought after a second or two aim or i would have to start him off by saying the first couple of words out loud. but to our pleasant surprise, caleb rattled off moses 1:39 as clear and as accurate as could be:

for behold, this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. moses chapter one verse thirty-nine.

aim and i both got goose-bumps and our eyes teared up. it was a really neat moment for us as parents to see our little boy share the scripture so well. he exceeded our expectations. all you have to do is watch the video to see how good of a job he did. as you can tell from the video, he is very difficult to understand and that's take number 15 or so. that was as clear as we could get him to speak after constant cajoling and myriad bribes. so, you can imagine our surprise when on sunday, he actually spit it all out as eloquently and articulately as a stubborn, little three-year old boy can.

we are so proud of him, we just wanted everyone else to see why. hope it all makes sense now.

j

the mets v. the 51s

on friday, we had a chance to go see the 51s with jameson's baseball team. it had been a while since i had been to cashman field for something other than stake conference or a boat show. even though it was wet and cold, we had a lot of fun. jameson got to go onto the field before the game started and run out with the 51s player who plays his position when the starting line-up was announced. he also got to lead the crowd on the microphone from the announcer's box, along with his teammates, in a roaring rendition of "take me out to the ball game" during the 7th inning stretch. jameson has had a lot of fun with baseball this year and has made some good friends. the playoffs start on may 31. should be fun.

enjoy the slide show.

viva la graduacion!

graduation was over the weekend. it was great and by great i mean it was mostly uninspiring, although it did have its moments. i just wanted to post some pics we got for your viewing pleasure. in case you were wondering, some of the pics are from the celebratory lunch we had afterwards.

lastly, but not least, i just want to thank everyone who has supported us in any way over the last three years. we could not have done it without everyone's love and support. thank you!!!

j

quick hits (literally): closed fist or flat-hand slap?

first, let me just say that everyone should check out aim's bear cake pics i posted down below... very impressive.

second, i need to confess to a little mishap i had the other day. i need to preface my remarks here by saying that this happened on a sunday morning, a fast sunday no less, and this particular sunday being the sunday just before finals week (plus i don't think i got much sleep the night before). also, most of you that know me, know that i am a pretty tranquil guy... so, don't let this change your opinion of me.

besides, had i listened to my good friend johnny miller, none of this would have ever happened. you see, johnny once gave me some valuable advice after i had informed him that i had broken a metacarpal in my fist after punching one of those padded wall mat things in church gyms behind basketball hoops (this particular one wasn't much of a pad at all, more like a piece of plastic). johnny said, "jur, you flathand slap those things, don't try and punch them, fool" (ok, he didn't actually say 'fool', but that sounds better to me). he's right. had i flathanded that mat, i wouldn't have broken my hand and i probably would have made my point even more emphatically than i did with my fist because slapping the mat is louder than punching it and i just wanted everyone playing to know that i knew and was frustrated over having taken a bad shot (i had to act frustrated so these guys would know that that kind of shot selection, and actually missing a shot, is atypical for me... at least that's what i wanted them to think because these guys were cool jocks that had gone to high school with aimee and they needed to know that she married a world class athlete/basketball mastermind who only passed on the nba because he knew it would be hard on his family life... and who wouldn't come to such a conclusion after seeing someone punch a brick wall after missing a shot? it's perfectly logical). so, i punched, heard a pop, and my hand turned into a balloon. funny thing is, i started shooting better after that.

anyway, as usual: i digress. back to my original confession: i kicked a hole in the wall that cursed sunday morning. before you all judge me, i invite you... no, DARE you... to come spend a sabbath morning in our humble abode. word on the street is that the producers of survivor are looking at shooting next season of the show upstairs at our house on a sunday morning. sounds like it won't fly because it is too much for network tv. in short, i will just say that i would rather try to castrate a porcupine most sunday mornings than get our kids ready for church. that's how bad it can be.

most sundays i feel like as soon as i get up, a bell rings and i am suddenly engaged in a no-holds-barred cage-fighting match from sun up until sun down featuring aim and i in one corner of the ring and the terrible three in the other... and let me tell you, they kick our trash week in and week out. yet, we keep coming back for more. are we sadists? masochists? gluttons for punishments? who knows (mostly i don't know because i can never remember the difference between sadists and masochists... i am pretty sure we are one, but i am just not sure which one). all i know is that on the particular sunday at issue here, i had had enough: i was going to fight the three strongest boys in the village, perhaps the world, that morning and i was going to prevail. if i'd had some stretchy pants and a mask i would have thrown them on because it was go time, no more mr. nice guy.

as such, i psyched myself up to some MoTab "consider the lillies" and headed up the stairs ready for hand-to-hand combat. jameson was in his room working on his signature move - "ignoring us" - as evidenced by his flat out ignoring me when i asked him to start getting ready. and that was when it happened: something inside me said "no more." i needed to respond with authority. i needed to re-establish who wore the stretchy pants in this family and so i thought: what can i do to catch his attention? for a minute i considered flathanding the wall, for flathanding would carry out the intended "shock and awe" effect while inflicting minimal damage to our property and my person. yet somehow that made too much sense at the time. instead, i thought i would try something new: why not kick the wall? yes, they have not seen wall-kick before and if i executed it just right, it would still make a sudden loud slapping noise, not hurt too bad, and not damage the wall. but, as you can see, this new move was more risky than a flathand slap as it required a higher degree of skill than the slap. no matter, i was determined to be a cutting edge disciplinarian in this moment and so i kicked. sorry, johnny, i have failed you yet again. but, whatever...

it felt good at first: i could tell i had not broken any bones, jameson looked up startled and started moving at a quickened pace, but as i slowly looked down, i noticed i had not carried out what i'd hoped would become my signature move... alas, there was a hole in the wall. i glared down half-impressed and half-frustrated at first: impressed because i couldn't believe that i could so easily kick a hole in the wall no matter how strong i thought i was; frustrated because now not only did i have kids to get ready for church and finals to worry about, but a new hole in the wall to fix. unfortunately, this is what happens when one reacts first without thinking rationally. yes, i am somewhat embarrassed by my actions and i hope they serve as a future reminder to think first and then kick the wall. at any rate, it only took all of church and a few hours before jameson was back to pulling off his signature move again along with his brothers without fear of having the wall kicked- in again.

oh well... all's well that ends well, i guess. besides, i learned my lesson: it really isn't all that hard to patch up holes in your drywall (it's amazing what you can learn on the internet these days).

check out the before and after pics (i still haven't painted)

treat your mother right

a friend at work introduced me to this absolute gem and i couldn't resist posting it to the blog as a tribute to aim, my mom, gaylin, and all the other mothers out there. if this doesn’t make you appreciate your mother, then nothing ever will.

i heart the moms in my life (especially the ones whose names start with a and end with imee). so, as a late m-days tribute, watch the video:

open email on graduation ceremonies

Just in case any of you are interested (and who wouldn't be interested in reading about an invitation to someone else's graduation), here is an email I sent out to my family regarding my graduation this weekend. I thought some of you may appreciate it...

Please forward this to any immediate family members missing above that I may have unintentinoally left off the email list. The only person I intentionally left off was Kathryn, but that's beacuse she doesn't have an email address (and I can understand why since getting your own email address is far too expensive these days whatwithall the skyrocketing stamp prices and such!).

All,

Yes, it is true: I will be graduating from 21st grade this Friday. I would like to formally invite any and all of you who would like to attend an event to be held in my honor this Friday at UNLV (there might be a bunch of other people there in caps and gowns and they might even act like the event is for them as well, but the truth is that it is all for me). That was a joke. The upper case letters may have thrown you off.

Seriously, if you would like to come to the graduation ceremonies there is an attachment with some info and some more info below. I haven't read, but I think it says that thre are two graduations: one on Friday in the morning and on on Saturday in the afternoon. If you are going to come, come to the one on Friday. The one on Saturday will be lame and boring (that's not to say that the one on Friday won't be lame and boring, but the one on Saturday is for all of UNLV while the one on Friday is only for the law school). Plus, they won't actually say my name really loud through a microphone and teach me the secret handshake on stage at the one on Saturday.

I expect everyone to be there and I will not except excuses like: "oh, I'm in Utah, I'm nine months pregnant and I might go into labor" or "oh, I'm in Jerusalem and I can't afford to fly back for the weekend." Cry me a river. Jeriann, if you deliver during my graduation, not only would you likely make the evening news, you could name Ruthy after me instead of il Bambino. Tami, if you don't feel that my graduation is important engough to traverse a couple contintents, an ocean and the country, then I might just wear white socks with my suit at your wedding. Bryson, if you're too busy re-telling a patient bad jokes about my mom's food, he will probably actually appreciate it if you leave and spare him the humor (courtesy laughs hurt when there is dental equipment in your mouth).

Seriosuly (this time I mean it when I say "seriously"), don't go out of your way to see this. I am mainly sending this email out because some of you have asked and my self esteem is such that I need to hear all of you congratulate me. It'll be just a bunch of pomp and cirucmstance infused with a grip of academics showing off their sweet looking robes and hats while patting themselves on their high-minded backs. But, if you are looking for something to do, or just feel bad about not ever buying me a suit to wear to prom because all of our money went towards the girls' dresses, here's your chance to make peace with yourself and sound an air-powered blowhorn when they call my name even though they ask you not to. That would mean a lot to me.

Regards,

Jeremy

disclaimer: this email was all in jest except for the part about me graduating and the suit for prom.

the day we have all been waiting for...

some day many, if not all, of you will look back on may 9, 2008 and remember exactly what you were doing with uncanny clarity because you will remember it as the belssed day that you heard jeremy cooper completed his final law school final exam. it is a moment that will forever be branded in our impressionable minds and in some cases silently celebrated. yes, it is true: i am calling it quits as a student. many of you may be thinking that armageddon is surely upon us, and maybe it is... but i can't in good conscience take any credit for ushering in the last of the last days by simply graduating from law school. that's not to say that making it through the last three years has been anything short of a miracle, but c'mon... the second coming? seriously. no, seriously.

i am not sure how i will handle being completely done with school and working full-time in a real job since the last time that happened i ended up quitting my job and going back to school. at any rate, it feels nice to be done. however, it would feel a whole lot nicer if i didn't have to take and pass the bar in order for finshing law school to really mean anything at all. i think this is why finishing up law school has been somewhat anti-climatic (that and the fact that grauating gets kind of old the third time around). but, while the bar tends to put a damper on things, i refuse to let it get me down. instead i am choosing to celebrate my triumph by writing a post for out blog. what a party.

not much has happened with the blog over the last week because i have been busy studying and taking finals. for that i apologize. we have a lot to catch up on (like why there is a hole in our wall now and why caleb is standing on the ac unit with no clothes on), but that will have to wait for another time when i feeling more inspired and much wittier than i do now.

i just had to kill some time while i wait for aim to finish baking a cake for a baby shower tomorrow. she could be a while since anything short of a cake fit for martha stewart magazine is unacceptable. you see, other women will actually be at this shower and if even the slightest indication of ordinary shows up on our cake, we are ruined. all of the hard work and shameless flattery we have doled out over the last year in an effort to claw our way up the mormon caste system ladder will be for naught in the event aimee's creation can't knock the seven jeans and shade shirts off every sister present. in fact, i am getting a little nervous just thinking about not receiving an invite to the next ward clique dinner party (especially since i have some new pampered chef servingware and this very rare and extremely creative yam dish complete with paper mache reindeer, chick peas and brazilian nuts... all from trader joes and whole foods, of course - ok, so the chick peas are from albertsons, but i got them from the organic food section... i promise). i better go provide some quality control downstairs so aimee doesn't put jameson's arranged marriage at risk.

after that i am going to google phd programs i'm interested in.

sorry folks... that's all i've got tonight.

j

check out the new pics and slideshows...

all,

i have updated a few of our prior posts to include the promised pictures as i know you have all been waiting on pins and needles to look at more images of us.

see the following posts: the backyard (sorry ladies, no pictures of shane), easter, jameson: a scholar and a gentleman, and the gauntlet for a little mixed media.

enjoy. more to come.

j

pigeons, poop, and gameballs

saturday was an interesting day for us. as far as saturdays go, it was the best of saturdays, it was the worst of saturdays. we’ll start with the worst: getting pooped on. ever since we put in the concrete in our backyard, we have noticed that we have a serious pigeon problem. apparently our house looks exactly like a public restroom for pigeons (aka the cockroaches of the sky) and we are the only reststop in between every pigeons’ residence in town and pigeon disneyland because it looks like a juiced up jackson pollock went all pigeon excrement on our patio... several times over.

inasmuch as mr. pollock (or, jack, as i like to call him) is arguably my painter of choice, i prefer oil on canvas hanging on the wall rather than feces on concrete hanging off the bottom of my shoe (or out of colston’s mouth). as such, we were delighted when we recently found a business card on our doorstep informing us that we had a bird problem and that “they” could help… all we had to do was call a number and pay some money. i thought: no sweat, let’s pay someone else (see previous post on paying people to do work for me) fifty to a hundred buck to climb way up on a ladder and take care of this garbage and be done with it. i don’t have a ladder that will go as high up as i need, plus i don’t want to break my neck. so, being the dutiful wife that she is (as well as being very well accustomed to cleaning up after everyone’s crap), aimee gave the business a call.

we were filled with hope as we began to envision a day in which we would step out onto our patio without the fear of slipping on pigeon droppings. we thought to ourselves: can this be true? is someone really willing and able to rid us of this annoyance? and so we waited. we waited anxiously right up until saturday morning when the bid-giver guy arrived. he came and unfortunately our hopes and dreams of a better life were dashed. aimee dealt with the guy so i don’t have details. all i know is the guy checked out the house and told us it would be $700 to pigeon proof the house. $700!!! are you kidding me??? come on!!! $700!!! i couldn’t believe it. i was already being pooped on by the pigeons, i wasn’t about to take it from the pigeon problem fixers as well. needless to say, i was out cleaning pigeon poop off the patio this morning before church.

second worst of saturday event: we got a text from some friends we go to church with inviting us over to go swimming at their house saturday afternoon. the weather was nice, we like to swim, and we like the people who invited us over, so, why not? and we did. we hopped in our swimwear and headed over to charles and aniges’ for a pleasant afternoon in the pool, but as we all know, not many things are pleasant when our very active boys are involved (fun, yes, but pleasant… not even a little) why should Saturday have been any different?

we arrived at the coons-gubler residence and made our way to the backyard with charles (angie and the girls were not back from a birthday party yet). the big pool was still way too cold for swimming, but the hot tub was perfect so we all hopped in and were having a grand ol’ time until jameson surfaced from the depths of the jaccuzzi with what appeared to be… well, either a very soggy snickers bar or as charles put it: a floaty. unfortunately for us, it was the latter… even more unfortunately for us, it did not belong to charles (which means it belonged to one of us… the guests…). which also means that this was not our house, nor our pool we were desecrating (i for one would have felt much better if the floater did not belong to one of our kids)… and even more unfotunatelier for us, this discovery was made just as angie and the girls were getting home.

i am not quite sure what must have been going through anige’s mind as she stepped into they backyard and saw charles heading to the garbage with a very suspicious looking item encased in an ice-cream sandwich box while jameson fished out the remaining dookie morsels and placed them in a plastic bag i was holding. i never really understood the actual meaning of the word “mortified” until that very moment. thanks to one of our sons, i will forever have a most embarrassing moment experience that i can share at every team building activity or ward home evening i attend for the rest of my life. i think aimee went into shock when she saw angie (keep in mind that aimee refers to angie as “lady angie”). luckily, charles was johnny on the spot and drained the hot tub faster than aimee could pass out and drown in the hot tub (which is good because had she started drowning i am not sure i would have stopped cleaning up with jameson to rescue her). first it was the pigeons, then the bid-giver guy, and now one of our sons (who will remain nameless).

thank goodness sir charles and lady angie are a class act and handled the situation very well. in other words, they did not kick us out or make us feel like the feces we just cleaned out of their pool. and just so we’re clear, we did get it all cleaned out. the marvels of modern pool engineering, chemicals, and salt allowed charles to empty out the hot tub and refill it with clean water (that’s right, because of us, the coons-gublers had to drain their hot tub and refill it… wonder if we will ever get invited back to swim again?). anyhow, charles, angie, and family, if you are reading this: thanks for inviting us over and thanks for not making us feel really badly (because we already do). you guys are great!!!

people pooping on the coopers: 3. coopers: 0.

time to even the score. now for the best of saturday: hands down, the best part of saturday was jameson’s baseball game. for the second time in three games jameson was awarded a game ball for his solid performance on the diamond. for starters, jameson just about hit for the cycle: his first at bat went for a triple and his third, a double; but it was his second at bat that really caught everyone’s attention. it took only one pitch for jameson to rope the ball and go yard with it. it was easily the best hit ball that i have seen any player hit in his league this year. i was coaching first base when he hit the ball and could tell when it didn’t even hit the ground until it reached the outfield that he’d be rounding the bags. i got some goosebumps. it brought tears to aim’s eyes. we were definitely the epitome of proud parents. jameson’s coach said the ball rolled until it came within two feet of the fence. that, along with some solid d, was enough to earn him a game ball and that trumps all the other poop we had to put up with on saturday.

j

Paragraphs v. Bullets

Please forgive Jeremy. He tends to think in paragraphs or book form when I think in bullet-point format and incomplete sentences, but I get the main points down. Maybe that explains the difference in our head sizes?!? And my love for post-it notes. I would love to see Jeremy try and squeeze his thoughts on a post it! Jeremy loves to write and as you can see sometimes has a difficult time writing for a quick reader: someone that looks at the page and thinks the less words the better; someone who doesn’t want to spend very much time reading;; or someone who likes to read books with lots of pictures and few words. But, Jeremy is a good writer and I know every time I read what he’s written, I enjoy what I read (except the stuff about the gauntlet). So, hang in there my fellow “bullet” thinkers and together we’ll read through Jeremy’s lengthy blogs and enjoy ourselves- or just the pictures and an occasional sentence or two...

A