happy birthday, aim... i got you the greatest present ever

to my lovely little aim on her birthday,

since my life is an open-blog to all my greeny faithful, i thought i would share something i created for aim for her birthday on the information super highway as a symbol of my love, appreciation, and ability to navigate the internet. yes, i am a ware of the fact that this is a day late and several hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars short; but i was banished to the realm of little league/t-ball pictures and opening day ceremony purgatory with the boys for about eight straight hours of blissful hell yesterday. then there was the priesthood session and some birthday activities to fill out the remainder of the day leaving me with absolutely no time to post. i feel bad, but i am about to make up for it with the greatest gift yet in our 11 years of marriage:

a mix cd.

well, not actually a cd, because cds are so 1995, instead i am just going to choose a select group of songs and include links to their youtube videos for your listening pleasure. this post will pretty much be your own personal ipod. each of these songs carries some kind of special meaning relating to you, aim, or our relationships together. i can't think of a more beautiful, more original, way to celebrate your 32 years of life. so, here's the line-up:

fighter girl by mason jennings



i know aim doesn't like mason jennings all that much, and i know that she probably doesn't really like the not-so-feminine connotations of being likened to a "fighter girl", but i think this song is an anthem for aim and her soujurn with me.

as aim's dad might say: aim's a tough cookie, or as i might say: she's like a jolly rancher or sweet tart. cookies are sweet and yummy, which aim often is, but to leave it at that doesn't really give the full picture. i like to think of aim as a jolly rancher or sweet tart, which are coincidentally my favorite hard candies, not only because they are sweet and tasty, but because they have some sassy tartness about them... as does aim. personally, i can't get enough of them... i'll be soaking one in, for instance, thinking, man, this is pretty tangy --- in fact it's almost more than my mouth can bare --- but i can't spit it out, they're that good. well, so is aim. think red vines and mr. pibb, but crazier delicious.

she's a fighter. she's put up with me and my pipe dreams through 11 years of marriage, 8 years of school, while raising for 4 rambunctious boys, including 3 years of busy seasons, 2 professional exams (cpa and bar) and all in the face of spending eternity with 1 imperfect husband in a pear tree (note to self: create the cooper family twelve days of Christmas blog post this year using these items. now if i can only fill in the other numbers... the plain white-t's have inspired me).

here's the thing, aim fights for perfection in an imperfect world. she's not perfect herself, but she's making a go of it and she generally gives it her all. i can't say the same for the rest of us (meaning me and my boys, i'm sure the rest of you are either perfect or close to it which is partially due to the fact that you consistently tune into the blog). this is one of the things that first attracted me to aim and is something i knew i wanted in my wife. in short, she can hold her own and that's the type companion i want in the fox hole with me when times get tough. she's got my back in more than one way. keep swinging, babe, but not in the "swinger" kind of way, in the "i can kiss the sky and no one can stop me" kind of way

oh, and how can you not love this line in the song... "come on kiss me, keep on kissing me." mason sings it much better than i type it, but you get the point. you should see me listening to this song in the car... makes me want to pick up a guitar and sing... actually it makes me want to suck on a jolly rancher.

she bangs the drums by the stone roses

Stone Roses She Bangs The Drums
Uploaded by Celtiemama

i had to throw in something from the roses. i played a little bit of drums in a former life and i'd have to say that there is something therapeutic about the rhythmic pounding on stuff with wooden sticks. in fact, i think most stay at home moms should take up the drums as a way of coping with the frustrations of raising children... especially stay-at-home mom's with three boys. i remember the time i was studying for finals in our dining room and the boys were being pretty crazy, so crazy that i all of a sudden looked up from my notes and to the left in time to notice aim marching jameson and caleb to the front door before summarily dismissing them the wee lads from the house... i beleieve "get out" were the exact words she used.

i just kept my head down and studied... i wasn't about to get involved in that. by the way, it was december and the boys didn't have shoes on. as such, when the boys didn't return after a few minutes aim went to retrieve our offspring but was unable to locate them in the streets or at their friends' houses. she came back a little worried and so i embarked on a quest to find the little street urchins. at first, i couldn't find them and started to get a little worried myself. fortunately, i eventually found the boys down by the community pool area... they were looking for wood to make a fire to keep themselves warm. and to think, drums could have prevented this.

just so we're clear, aim is an angelic mother... there's no doubt about that, but there are times when i get home and i can tell it's been one of those days. those are the days when i wish i could give her some sticks and a few minutes to just go bust out a solo and let loose on the skins. it would help. but if drums are cost prohibitive, a punching bag would do.

you know, one of those big ones that you can really lay into... in fact, there was this time we were cruising around some department store and were coming up on a punching bag on the edge of the aisle. who can't resist punching one of those? i couldn't... most people can't. they see one they punch it... with their hands that is. aim handled the punching bag a little differently. as we approached the bag, i pointed it out and probably even gave it a few playful punches. aim on the other hand, without hesitation, unleashed a swift upward kick that nearly reached as high as her head directly onto the bag. did i mention she had on a somewhat fitting mid-calf length skirt? did i mention that we were casually walking down the open aisle of a department store one minute and then aim went all bruce lee on the bag the next? it was jaw dropping to say the least. impressive for someone who's not a ninja... i would know.

like i said therapeutic.

always where i need to be by the kooks



aim is punctual except for when she is getting ready to go somewhere. it takes her a while to get all gussied up, but i generally have no qualms about it since she's so easy on my eyes.

while i could draw some general comparisons to this song and our relationship, for purposes of this post, i choose to refer to one specific event in our marriage i'll call "the journey to jerome".

aim has a lot of family in idaho, what with both her parents hailing from the great potato state. it just so happens that these folks like to get together for family reunions and the like every so often. well, one friday during the winter of 1999 the in-laws and their extended family were all descending upon the motherland of the greater idaho falls area for one such get-together. of course we were invited, and of course we planned to go, but as is usually the case, some other commitment semi-interfered with the event making it so we would have to travel up separately from the rest of the family to get there.

to make a long story short, we were up late the night before we were to drive to idaho, we got up late for the event we had to be to in salt lake city the following morning before we headed to idaho, we were scrambling, we were hustling, we were frantic, but we miraculously made it to the first event on time and had a very pleasant experience considering. once that was done, with a huge sigh of relief, we hit the road with idaho falls on the radar (figuratively speaking, we didn't really have a radar in our car at the time). aim was tired so i drove and, as is usually the case, she soon entered the inviting comatose state of slumber she is so familiar with when serving as my wing-woman/navigator/pre-mapquest-cell phone ownership human gps system.

first problem, i had never been to idaho in my adult life. second problem, i asked aim for directions as we approached an apparently crucial fork in the interstate while she was asleep and she half answered, in her uneven state of mind, without ever really opening her eyes. third problem, i actually listened to aim as she said "stay left" and, being the man i am, felt no need to ask for further direction.

some two or three hours passed and we seemed to be making great time. i was like speed racer. we were going to make that family reunion afterall... but, then aim woke up, looked around and asked "where are we?" with a bit of a "what have you done?" tone in her voice. i looked at a sign and replied "we're in jerome, idaho."

never heard of it.

long story short (note to self: any time you say this twice within the same story, you are not making a long story short), we pulled into a gas station and found out we were pretty much on the wrong side of the state with no direct route from where we were to where we needed to be. that meant we had to go all the way back down to where i "stayed left" and actually go right. ctr. i should have known. that wasn't a very fun experience, especially since we were operating on little sleep, but it sure makes for a few good laughs these days... in fact, i think we should name our next kid, jerome.

nausea by beck



this song is just another reminder of a choice experience in our marriage that has to do with flan, old ladies and me playing a practical joke on aim, not to mention the severe bouts with all-day sickness aim gets when pregnant. unfortunately, due to time constraints, we'll have to save this story for another day.

let's just say that aim's not a fan of flan or being pregnant and it's probably my fault, in both cases.

my heart will go on/titanic theme song by celine dion



this is our dripping wet with cheese song that made its debut on our wedding video. one reason i am so interested in learning how to edit videos is so i can remove this song from our video. i really don't like it anymore. we were duped by all the titanic hype taking place about the time we got married. but, hey, it was leo di capprio... cut me some slack. celine's voice entranced us and we obeyed by selecting her ditty as the signature song to commence our lives together. it seemed beautiful at the time and in some ways it still makes me want to stand up on the front of a boat and fly like an eagle, but mostly it just makes we want to vomit, literally... in fact, i just threw up in my mouth.

unfortunately, to ignore this piece of work would be to ignore a foundational moment in aim's life. now, let's move on.

the heinrich maneuver by interpol



i just had to throw this song in because of the opening lines:

how are things on the west coast?
i hear you're moving real fine
you wear those shoes like a dove
let's cut those shoes
we'll go roaming in the night

aim likes the west coast, especially the beaches of the west coast. aim wears her shoes like a dove, all five hundred pairs of them. aim's a bit of a llegua as they would say in argentina, which translates to filly in english, which translates to a female horse in layman's english. think a female version of a wild mustang. in argentina it just means you're hot, for purposes of this post it means aim's hot and unbridled. she cannot be tamed. i don't mean to compare aim to a wild animal, but i do. i've tried to bridle her in, but i'm not sure she was meant to be harnessed... but that's half the fun. she wants to roam, but she's not a woman of the night. we've had some good times together i think to myself as i blankly stare off into the horizon at nothing in particular, lost in the familiar confines of nostalgia.

i'm back.

believe by the bravery



in my place by coldplay



let me just say as jrr tolkien said, "not all who wander are lost." i'll leave it at that. your time will come.

lastly, one of aim's favorites:

viva la vida by coldplay



aim loves this song. i must admit, it's a good one. coldplay's a solid group for the ages. aim's a solid woman for the ages... literally, she's pretty solid. ask her to let you pinch her thigh some time, it's like a rock.

actually, "viva la vida" pretty much means "live life" or "keep life alive" in english. aim does this. she's constantly trying to get the most out of herself and those around her. she's typically looking for the next worthwhile activity and how to enhance her and her family's experience with it. she cannot be underestimated as her abilities and potential are immeasurable though she may lead others to believe differently. she wants it all and she wants it now and i have a feeling before all is said and done, she'll probably get it. and when i say "it," i'm not talking about material things, i'm talking about personal satisfaction with what she's done and how she's done it.

this is the woman i love. she's imperfect, yet pure. beautiful, but blind to it. unsatisfied, yet satisfying. a butterfly and a bee.

happy birthday, babe!