lil' c starts pre-school: the art of bribery

big cabes started pre-school about a week and a half ago. he was pretty excited especially since he found out he'd get to ride in a bus in order to get there. aim and i were also pretty excited about not having to drive him there until we found out that the bus would pick him up at 6:50 am which wouldn't be the worst thing in the world except that caleb isn't a morning person (i typically am just getting back from a mini-iron man workout during which i spend time at the peak of mt. chrleston reading scriptures and pondering life around 6:50, so it's not biggie for me... it's cabes that struggles in the morning).

at first, the early mornings were no big deal; but, we all knew that day was quickly coming when it would require an all-out war to get the kid up, on the bus, and off to school before 6:50. unfortunately, the novelty of the situation wore off after only his first two days at which point aim and i had to do what any set of self-respecting, well-grounded parents would do... we resorted to bribery.

my experience is that bribery generally works with most kids. i have also found that by caleb's own admission, i am his "best buddy" when i buy him things that he wants. which is good to know, because caleb is a very formidable, if not masterful, opponent in matches of who can out-stubborn whom. there is no text book for negotiating with a child like our #2 and even if there ever was, i likely threw it out the window long ago while trying to convince caleb to do some tortuous task like eat lunch.

fine. he may be stubborn, but i'm smart. aimee's smart. therefore, together we must be smart squared. that's pretty dang smart (i think my claim of being smart just took a hit). the point? we have learned over the course of our dealings with caleb that negotiations are delicate and unpredictable. one day the threat of not being able to watch batman will work wonders, but then accomplish nothing the next. for me, the trick has been listening to caleb talk about what interests him at the time (i think i may be on to something with this listening stuff) and then using it as a carrot. of course some carrots are bigger than others and sometimes the size of the carrot is not as important as the timing of the delivery of the carrot.

lately, caleb has been wanting to go to chuck e. cheeze's (side note: hand sanitizing companies could increase sales by 200% by simply setting up shop in every chuck e. cheeze's in the country). boom: there's the carrot.

wednesday rolls around. this is a day to day battle. must be nimble. a new day calls for a new carrot. chuck e. cheeze's is a pretty big carrot. should be sufficient to incentivize him into getting up, getting ready and onto the bus without much effort. cell phone alarm clock goes off... hit snooze. goes off again, hit snooze again. goes off one more time, snooze one more time. goes off yet again and now we only have ten minutes to get him ready and on the bus (the school feeds him breakfast thank goodness).

negotiations begin.

caleb: i don't want to get up... i'm sleepy. you never let me sleep (it's true. we keep our kids up all night by spraying water on them as soon as they start to close their eyes).

aim/jer: (thought process: start small, see if it's enough. save cheeze's if possible) but caleb, don't you want to go to class, you're teacher is waiting...

caleb: no, i'm sleepy.

aim/jer: but caleb, the bus is on it's way. do you want us to have to call the bus driver and tell her to turn around because you don't want to go???

caleb: yes

aim/jer: are you sure??? that's not very nice....

caleb: yes, i'm sleepy.

aim/jer: (time is short. initiate plan b, bring out the big guns) caleb, what if we go to chuck e. cheeze's tonight? if you're a good boy and get up and get ready, we can go to chuck e. cheeze's

caleb: //silence// (did he go back to sleep, or is he thinking about it?)

aim/jer: don't you want to go to chuck e. cheeze's?

caleb: yes

we got him...

caleb: but, not tonight... (translation: you have no leverage here. move on to your next bargaining chip).

what??? back to the drawing board.

lately, that has been the typical morning around here. fortunately, caleb is loving pre-school (after he wakes up and gets there). as you can see from the pictures, he was pretty excited to go and has a good time while he is there. this helps get him motivated in the morning. he has been talking about this for months, so we are glad he is finally getting to do it.

i just realized it is sunday night and i have no carrots lined up for tomorrow's negotiations. i'm done.

pics from the deep south

i finally got around to uploading the photos from our mississippi and louisiana trip. here are some of my favorites. you can catch them all in the video below. many thanks to big jeff and special k for making the trip possible. we loved it and are already looking forward to the next one.


kicking back in the room.


on the river


pulling the waverunner out.


taking it in.


out to the pier for some fishing.


j-man trying to catch something.


getting ready to eat some brazilian bbq.


limo from the airport.


always the watchful parents.


kat and b lemon on the escalator at the aquarium.


g-ma with da boyz.


cool indo american pole at the zoo.


little ones checking out the animals.


this is the bus we showed up to church in. see post below.


this was the view from mine and aim's room.


web from the zoo.


kids jumping at the zoo.


checking out the gators.

video forthcoming.

late 4th of july post and the olympics wrap-up

the olympics just ended and i am feeling a little patriotic, so i have included a slide show of our 4th of july celebration at my parent's place. the olympics were fun to watch, but in a way i am glad they are over because i was losing way too much sleep over them. i lack self-control when it comes to going to bed at night if there is something on tv worth watching. no matter what i have going on the next day, i will fight the sleepiness and stay awake just to catch the likes of synchronized diving and women's gymnastics. but, truth be told, nothing beats watching runners run a marathon... enthralling entertainment that has me on the edge of my seat every time.

in all seriousness, i had fun watching the olympics. i think aim really enjoyed the swimmers and their attire. i thought i would quickly note some of my personal highlights from the olympics as well as some of the lowlights:

highlights:

1. us mens indoor volleyball beating brazil to win gold: i think this was one of the best stories of the olympics. coach's family killed at the olympics. team beats russia, serbia, italy, and brazil to win gold for the first time in over 20 years. some of the guys on the team had been to three, even four, olympics without having won a medal. plus two of the players and the coach went to byu. it's a tragedy this team and event didn't get more coverage.

2. us swimmers in relay beating france: amazing. unbelievable. i never thought i would stand up and cheer for swimmers... oh, did i ever. this was arguably the best moment of the olympics.

3. us mens basketball winning gold: the universe is falling back into place. the us team won gold, byu is dominating the mountain west and beating utah in most sports, the bar has ended. i grew up a lakers fan, but have never been a big kobe bryant fan. i have to admit that there is no one other than kobe who i wanted to see with the ball in the 4th quarter of that gold medal game. i changed my opinion of kobe and am happy he and the other guys were able to pull it off.

lowlights:

1. the coverage focused way too much on women's gymnastics, beach volleyball, and marathon running. women's gymnastics is great and all, but enough already. beach volleyball is fun to play, but not nearly as fun to watch and not even close to watching indoor volleyball. and, i love the fact that may-treanor and walsh dominate, but seriously, did we have to see that much of them??? i wonder if they would have received as much coverage if they didn't play their sport in string bikinis. marathon running??? are you kidding me???

very disappointed that the mens indoor volleyball team didn't get more pub. this was a true travesty.

2. the us men's b-ball team only beat spain by 11 points. this game about killed me. the perfect storm was brewing. luckily, kobe and wade pulled it off, but i would rather have seen them crush the hairy spaniards. where was the defense? oh well, i'll settle for 11 points and the renewed vigor i think this group has instilled in future nba olympic b-ballers. the gold should never leave us soil again in this sport.

3. china beat us in total golds. it's unfortunate that china got more golds than us. it's even more lame that they accomplished it by winning non-sport sports that have no business being part of the olympics.

that's it. enjoy the video.

rain gutter regatta: jameson competes, the man scouts, and other frivolity

i thought we should post a couple of video clips from jameson's recent rain gutter regatta which he competed in for a cub scouts activity. jameson is really enjoying scouts and his leaders are doing a great job of coming up with engaging activities for the boys. this particular activity is like a pinewood derby for boats. the boys built little boats and then used straws to put wind into their sails.



as i speak of the cub scouts, i am reminded of a group headed by my friend, taylor, with whom i spent too much time studying for the bar: the man scouts (i believe taylor is the founder). apparently, taylor is an eagle scout... that just means that his mom was probably just as motivated as mine was to see that she pushed her son to the brink of his eighteenth birthday to get the award so that he/we could pin a button on her in front of the ward. anyways, during one of our diversions from studying for the bar (which rarely happened), taylor made some comment about how great of a scout he was or something like that so someone challenged his scouthood by calling him a cub scout (for those who don't know, cub scouts are for little boys... thus, we were attempting to make taylor feel like he was less of a man by calling him a boy scout... this is how we motivated each other to study). taylor was not about to have his manhood, or scouthood for that matter, insulted and, consequently, replied by informing us that he was actually a man scout.

man scout, huh? i'm sure in theory that's a great comeback to being called a cub scout, but practically speaking, i'm not so sure someone concerned about his manhood should want to be associated with a group known as the man scouts. man scouts conjures up some weird connotations. i for one would never join a group known as the man scouts and even if i did i would not tell other people about it. i'm pretty sure taylor regretted his comeback just as the word "scout" left his lips; but just in case he didn't, mike (my other bar study friend) and i made sure he did by the end of our two months of studying for the bar. that one never got old.

just in case some of you are feeling sorry for taylor and the verbal abuse he is taking from me on the blog, let me just say it is good for him. taylor is from a small town (neighborhood?) in southern nevada. taylor's a good-looking guy that can sing, dance, install ceiling fans, and pour concrete all in one afternoon (believe me, i've seen him do all four... he's much better at the latter two than the first two). moreover, he has a soothing shakespearean voice (according to one of our professors)... oh, and he got an "a" in our contracts class. plus, he has one of those tall, dark and handsome looks going for him except that he's not tall. when his wife lets his hair grow out a little he resembles a brazilian swimsuit model (a male one... not female). also, taylor gets up early every day and works out, reads scriptures, prays, writes in his journal, reads in portuguese and all that good stuff.

my point is, taylor probably has enough confidence not only for himself, but for all of the small town in souther nevada from which he hails (so he can stand for a little dose of humility from me)... not that you'd know, because he is the humble son of peasants and would never boast of his superior intellect, dashing good looks, and many impressive talents (just kidding about the peasants, his parents are actually very nice and accomplished persons... sometimes i just refer to people from small nevada farming communities as peasants so we city folk can feel more sophisticated... again, that was a joke. but, as a word of advice, if you haven't gotten used to my sense of humor yet, you probably never will and at some point i will offend you, so you're probably better off not reading the blog unless you like being offended).

i like small-town people. in fact, i had some come in to work the other day who actually knew taylor and his family. everyone knows everyone in small towns and they are all great people. my grandparents come from small towns and they were great people. small towns are generally filled with hardworking, god-fearing conservatives which is very endearing to a guy like me. small towns are pretty. have i un-offended all of the small town folk yet? oh well, i doubt they even get the internet in small towns, so i don't know what i'm so worried about.

to bring this all home: man scouts = weird. boy scouts = good. taylor = can't be offended by me. small town people = salt of the earth.

oh, and jameson did well in his competition with the boats. watch the clips. he's a competitive little guy as you will note by his reaction to his lone loss (he says he was going to look for his friend cooper, who he actually blew right by... methinks he was a little bugged about losing.... that's ok because competitive nature = jer and aim's offspring, no dna test necessary).

so, you think you can dance? jer and aim's top numbers

aim and i are pretty big fans of fox's "so, you think you can dance?" tv show. we watched every episode this last season, but we were out of town when the finale aired and missed it. well, we finally got around to watching it tonight and it made me think that since we have started doing these "best of" lists, we should list our favorite numbers from this last season. so, here they are in no particular order. let us know what you think... and no, i am not ashamed to admit that i like a show where people dance.

1. bleeding heart. aim's favorite by far. i think she can relate.



2. mercy. mia michaels is pretty dang good. i think aimee can relate to this one, too.



3. pop-off. this is my personal favorite. these guys are incredible.



4. hometown glory (katee and joshua). mia's at it again.



5. forever (twitch and comfort). we need to see more dave scott.



6. twitch and kerrington krump number. i'm not a big fan of krump, but this was pretty buck.



7. all by myself. katee and joshua doing tyce's number. check out the part where he catches her in mid-air.



8. paso doble. good stuff.



9. imagine. this is arguably my favorite. unbelievable.



10. silence. jessica and will. will was the best dancer on the show by far. this number made us big fans of tyce's numbers. he had some awesome stuff this season.



11. the garden. this one was crazy. loved it.



12. last one: no air. tabatha and napolean had some good numbers as well this year.



there were a few more, but that should keep you busy for a while. enjoy and let us know what you think.

i am going to start working on my lines and try out next season.

so-cal trip: catching up

seriously, this will be your first low-caloric post of the shorter posts era. however, the video is longer than the average videos i have done. deal with it.

this post will be short because it relates to something i know very little about... but, when has that stopped me in the past? actually, this is a catch-up post meant to fill you all in on aim and the boys' trip to california with our friends alissa and layden to visit alissa's family and get out of dodge for a few days while i continued studying for the bar.

this trip took place sometime in july. aim and the boys had a blast. but, don't take my word for it... check out the photos and see for yourself.

maybe aim will end her blog boycott and post a little about the trip. maybe she won't because she is intimidated by the postmaster.

the cooper five's top five superheros: the origin of the postmaster

i realize i am behind on my posts and for that i apologize. i started work this week, so things have been a little hectic lately.... but, i vow to make up for lost time with short, yet substantive, posts. i think many of you have become hedonistic gluttons as a result of my spoiling you with such long posts. i realize that at times my posts can be a bit overbearing, much like a meal at a typical restaurant, and though you know you should not keep eating that footlong burrito at the cheesecake factory because of the cheesecake you will be eating for dessert (i mean, c'mon, it's the cheesecake factory.... are you allowed to eat there without having some cheesecake?) and the coconut shrimp you had as an appetizer, you pound away until you've taken the entire burrito out.

yes, my posts are long, and they are full of all the juicy, fattening, yummy-tasting stuff that creates blog reading love-handles and cellulite. i am concerned for you and your clogged arteries and brain cells and for that very reason i am planning to offer a low mental calorie alternative to my previous blog posts until i catch up or you regain previously lost intelligence.

thus, it is with pleasure that i introduce to you the first of a much leaner and more sinewy variety of cooper five blog post: the top five superheroes in the eyes of the cooper five. i feel it is appropriate that superheroes are the inaugural subject of the jenny craig version of cooper five blog posts since i have only seen probably one superhero with any fat on his body (the blob) and no one really likes that guy anyways. as such, without further delay, i present to you the cooper five's top five superheros (by the way, i got this idea today when jameson handed me a piece of paper on which he had written down his top five superheroes for no apparent reason other than to make sure he has published to the world the ranking of superheroes in his eyes. so since this is jameson's idea, we'll start with his list):

jameson's five:

1. batman tied with star wars. no surprises here. dude's been a batman freak ever since i can remember. granted, star wars isn't very specific and technically not superheros... but i'll let it slide since we went and saw the clone wars yesterday.



2. hulk tied with transformers. i think his recent viewing of the hulk movie probably gave hulk a boost in the rankings he might not have enjoyed otherwise. no biggie. see comment above regarding star wars with respect to transformers.



3. avengers tied with teen titans. solid choice. both has a stellar array of superheros worthy of this spot. i predict that avengers will move up on this list as the motion picture and all its individual movies continue to show.



4. superfirends tied with galaxy rangers. ok, so he only put four (but they were all ties) on his list and he took the easy way out on this one... i mean, superfriends pretty much hits them all. as for galaxy rangers, i'd have to say that's all my and netflix's doing. check them out some time on line as i am sure the majority of you have no idea who they are... goose is the man.





caleb's five:

1. superman: superman is to caleb what batman is to jameson. it's a nice contrast. i like it. kind of reminds me of my brother and me... i was always a batman guy and jeff, superman.



2. batman: 'nuff said.

3. flash: he likes him because he is fast.



4. hulk: he got a toy of him from macdonalds... what's not to like.

5. robin: he loves teen titans.



jeremy's five:

1. the postmaster: you have probably never heard of this guy, but he will soon be a household name. he can usually be found posting on this site. his mission in life is to keep the legions of cooper five fans satisfied with noteworthy blogs. i cannot reveal his secret identity or he may lose his uncanny ability to write such vibrant, witty and engaging posts. his super power is to become so wrapped up in his writing that he forgets that most people don't care. this is also his weakness.

2. batman: hated the old franchise (tim burton). complete garbage. absolutely love the new stuff. the batman cartoon is easily the best cartoon on tv and it's not even close. long time fan.

3. green lantern (hal jordan): childhood favorite. got to be one of the coolest superhoeros ever created... what's not to like about a ring that does pretty much anything? interesting that two of my top three are dc guys since i only read marvel stuff growing up... but the cartoons are what did it for me... marvel was a latecomer to tv.



4. wolverine: he's the guy that got me hooked on comic books. if there is a cooler comic book character than green lantern, it is wolverine. he's way too popular now though... not as fun to like as when i was in sixth grade. although, i'm anxious to see how the movies turn out.



5. iron man/cyclops/the incredibles: iron man is only on here because of the movie. robert downey, jr., was amazing in this role. can't wait to see more. cyclops is about as underrated as a superhero as there is. i thought he was always getting a bum rap by some of the other x-men and the movies completely underplayed his role as an x-men. would like to have seen him in a role that was more true to the comic book. as for the incredibles, easily one of the best movies i have ever seen. thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it... especially loved its subtle james bond undertones.







aim's list:

1. she-ra: he-man, as a toy, was so revolutionary when it came out, little girls everywhere must have cursed their fathers' names for contributing the wrong strands of dna to their creation. it was good to be a boy then (it still is for me). i remember the first time i set eyes on the he-man toys in sears i about wet myself i thought they were so cool... it was as if i was catching a glimpse of the holy grail itself when i first saw he-man (furry loin cloth and all), skeletor, man-at-arms, stratos, trap jaw, battle cat, castle gray skull, etc.

he-man toys was so cool for boys and it was so unfair to simply relegate the girls to the likes of jem and the holograms, that the only logical solution for establishing toy equilibrium in the universe again was to create she-ra. it failed miserably. very lame stuff, but apparently my wife liked it. women, let me just say you were ripped off. you can take some solace in the fact that the cartoon for he-man ruined the franchise. besides, these guys aren't superheros anyway.



2. superman: every girl's dream. blue spandex and christopher reeves or the new no-name who looks kind of like him... need i say more?



3. flash: didn't even know she knew who he was. good for her.

4. my little ponies: cricket chirping...



5. strawberry shortcake: still chirping...



as you can see, i have done a much better job of educating my boys in the way of the superhero universe than i have my wife (although she did just say that wonder woman should be on here... too late). but, hey, at least she's making an effort and i love her for it. i would love to hear who your top superheros are, so post if you dare.

how's that for a lean post... maybe we'll start the diet tomorrow. besides, it's just the pictures that make this post's butt look fat.

noodlin' for catfish

as you know, we just got back from a family vacation in the deep south. i thought i would include a video clip of one of the activities we participated in while there. you most likely have read about two of my brothers-in-law in previous posts (ryan and bryson). here is your chance to see them in action as they attempt to noodle a catfish during our vacation (they have taken a strong to quite strong interest in redneck culture). for those who do not know what noodling is, i have included wikipedia's definition below:

Noodling is a southern US practice of fishing for catfish using only bare hands. Many other names, such as catfisting, grabbling, graveling, hogging, dogging, tickling and stumping, are used in different regions for the same activity. Noodling is currently legal in eleven states.

The term "noodling", although today used primarily towards the capture of flathead catfish, can and has been applied to all hand fishing methods, regardless of the method or species of fish sought. Noodling as a term has also been applied to various unconventional methods of fishing, such as any which do not use bait, rod & reel, speargun, etc., but this usage is much less common.

here's a clip of my brothers-in-law noodling a 50 pounder. enjoy.

time to get back to it

the vacation is over. i am sitting here in new orleans’ louie armstrong airport awaiting a flight to vegas. now aim and i need a vacation on our own to wind down from our vacation with the kids. we had a great time. the kids had a blast. i realize i am a couple or three posts behind, but i hope to make up some posting on the flight home. unfortunately, seeing as how i am flying with the kids (see prior post) it’s not likely i’ll get much more done than wiping noses, ordering drinks and opening bags of peanuts.

since today is another travel day (read: make-up post day), this post will probably be pretty short. i will comment quickly on the olympics last night to say that it was pretty dang cool to see the men’s swim team win the 4 x 100 relay. it was especially fun considering the trash talking being done by another one of the teams . actually, the race was downright amazing. the fact that the last american swimmer was able to close that gap on the french swimmer was nothing short of phenomenal.

the swim team has reinvigorated me to be a better blogger. when i get home i am going to shave all of my body hair so that i can type with more aerodynasticity (i just made that word up... it was either that aerodynamicsm or quickerness... look for the next edition of websters to have at least two of those words if not all three). i am also considering hiring an agent to get some new endorsement deals in the works. judging by the number of comments i am getting on the blog, my popularity is at all time high. i figure now is the time to cash in on my celebrity. blogging is a fickle industry.

it’s pretty stormy outside, which always makes me nervous when i am about to board a plane. i don’t like flying much as it is, but throw in a lot of water, thunder and lightening, and i like it even less. if the plane happens to go down, i at least hope we land on some island that has crazy magical powers and maybe some people that already live there that are pretty hostile towards us and who used to perform some crazy social and scientific experiments until there was some kind of genocidal conflict and some really rich guys fighting over possession of the island... oh, and a really big fat dude with super curley hair. that might make for some good blogging.

if we don’t crash on the island, i’ll just sell the rights to my life story. i want the guy who has recently done the james bond flicks to make the movie. i think he is doing good work and would accurately portray my cutting edge lifestyle. make sure he knows that i am happily married and so i can only be a one woman man in the show, but i would like to trade in my elantra for an aston maritn. i will settle for a bentley if the aston martin is too euro.

i recommend that jack bauer play me, but since he is a fictional character and keefer sutherland just doesn’t cut it on his own, i’ll understand if that can’t be arranged. daniel craig could play me if he can get the vegas accent down or mathew mchoughnhy (no idea how to spell his last name) as long as he cuts his hair, doesn’t talk like a redneck and does a few more push-ups.

i think my arch-nemisis should be played by someone who has a limp and a mechanical limb. doesn’t matter which limb is mechanical, but it has to be a visible one... not his kneecap or something lame like that. i also request that he have a pet alligator and an electric eel that he carries around in a portable saltwater fish tank. i’m thinking a mix between ernst savro blofeldt and the joker (heath ledger, not jack).

just in case the technology is not available yet to create the special effects necessary to really give people a clear idea of what i go through day in and day out, i suggest that a digitally animated version of my life be done. i choose the guy who plays obi won kenobi in the upcoming “clone wars” movie to be me (as long as he shaves his beard or at least does a half-beard) and that lucas films be in charge of everything. lastly, just so all my bases are covered, if my superhero identity is discovered and they decide to do a superhero version of my life, i’m thinking robert downey, jr. or christian bale... go figure.

well, we’re up in the air now. so far, so good. if we enter a death spiral, i’ll be sure to type my final blog and ask the pilot to place my laptop in the black box so that it will be protected. hopefully, the attendants will promptly respond to my page, because they usually don’t and i imagine you don’t have a lot of time to get stuff done when in a death spiral.

going to church in style

this post relates to sunday, august 10.

some people take vacations to get away from everything... including church. not the coopers. we are a churchgoing people and it would take a lot more than a 20 minute ride in the imperial palace (ip) hotel and casino shuttle bus to keep us from our worship. there is nothing quite like showing up for church, nicely dressed, white shirts, ties, hair combed and parted, pig tails, dresses, shiny smiles, squeaky clean dispositions, and scriptures in hand as we disembark via the stairs of the ip bus vibrantly decorated with dollar bills, ads for gambling, and the word casino plastered throughout, parked right smack in front of the entrance for the church just as the other members are arriving.

it’s times like these when i am thankful for the invention of blogging. these are the kinds of accounts the cooper five blog was made for. i think there were four missionaries in the ward we went to. all four of them had to come up to see who had the audacity to arrive in such, shall we say, “style.” there is something paradoxical about arriving to church in a casino’s shuttle bus... not quite as paradoxical as having a huge plasma screen tv when they first came out with a set of rabbit ears on top (dad), but paradoxical nonetheless.

still, we entered the lord’s house and left our casino tarnished image at the door. we had a good experience in the ocean springs ward, heard an excellent talk about testimonies, a great sunday school lesson on alma the younger, met some neat people and then headed back to the hotel in time for the lunch buffet where we were we enjoyed the background jingle of coins hitting the slot machine trays and atari-esque electronic sounds all about.

it was a special sunday.

in all seriousness, we did have a pretty cool day at church as aim ran into a fellow provoite who remembered her from high school. he was a year younger than aimee, so she did not know him, but he said that he remembered her because she was nice to him when other kids weren’t. made me feel bad about all the kids i could have been nicer to growing up.