blog help

My blog design is all messed up. I want a template that allows me a bigger writing space to post bigger pictures (they were getting cut in half on the last one, especially when I blogged from my phone).

I found a cute one at Hot bliggity blog, but I pasted it in the HTML/Java script, and it doesn't look right.

What should I do?

Heirloom

I love family heirlooms! My grandmother brought this to me on thursday for baby's nursery. My aunt cross-stitched (sp?) it for Leslie/me when we were babies. I'm going to put it in Baby Cooper's nursery. So sweet.

Baby's first gift

My friend Laura brought me my first baby gift last week. It's a stuffed cow named Darcy (she named it) and a book called The Pregnancy Journal. So sweet! I'm thankful for supportive and encouraging friends whose excitement makes me smile.

Also, I'm writing this blog from my phone! Booyah!

There is NOTHiNG on tv on Monday nights. Gah. I'm watching Property Virgins on HGTV. This couple has a down payment of $100,000. Whoa! Dave Ramsey would be proud.

Now I'm going to get on my computer and see how my phone blog turned out. :)

A Christmas Surprise

Well, here's how it started. Well, I guess you know how it started. I was a couple of days "late" (which never happens), so I took a pregnancy test. I was surprised to find this result:

So, I drove to the church to tell Kurt (took Winnie with me, of course). When we got home, we took these photos of our reactions:

So Kurt and I kept it a secret for another 2 weeks, until Christmas. Then we told our families, and swore them to secrecy.

Back story: Both my grandmother and Kurt's mom Barb had a rough year in 2010. My grandmother had to have emergency stomach surgery for a hole in her intestines in the fall. It was touch-and-go for a while, but she has recovered well since then. Barb got diagnosed with breast cancer last summer and had a double mastectomy and a subsequent stroke caused by a blood clot passing through a hole in her heart (that she was born with). Her recovery has been a difficult road for her, but she is doing really well now and is cancer free!

At each house for Christmas, after all the gifts were opened, we told my grandmother as well as Barb that we had gotten them an extra something "special" because they had a rough year. See the rest below...

Telling Marty's family on Christmas Eve:

Telling Kurt's family on Christmas Day:

Quite opposite reactions, huh? One was utter shock. (Sweet Granddad got teary-eyed.) The other was sheer joy. However, it took both parties a while to catch on to what we were telling them.

I love how Winnie joins in the excitement in the 2nd video. Ha. Sweet big sister.

Next we waited almost 3 weeks to tell anyone else, which was a huge feat for Barb because she was so excited. Every time she saw me during those 3 weeks, she squealed. And she's still squealing!

We wanted to wait to announce it to everyone else until I had my first sonogram -- where we got this:

Baby Cooper * 10 weeks * Due August 14, 2011

That little wiggle worm was dancing around (good moves, like its mama) and its heart was racing (we got to hear it!). It was so surreal, and I cried for quite a while during and after. Seeing our baby was amazing. There's nothing like it.

Obviously we feel very blessed and look forward to what this year will bring. Our friends and family have been so kind and encouraging. We are thankful to God for such blessings.

Emily: My bargain buddy

Emily and me

Emily, my neighbor from RTS when we lived in Jackson, enjoyed my blog dedicated to Audrey. So, I decided to make one for her as well!

Emily is a year older than I am and went to Belhaven College (now Belhaven University - psh, please) with my sister Leslie. Emily was a ballerina in high school in Tallahassee, which drew her to Belhaven. She majored in Psychology, and married an RD at Belhaven (Ryan), who was attending RTS to get his counseling degree. Kurt and I married in August of 2005, while he was in school at RTS, and moved into married housing. In October of 2005, Ryan and Emily married and moved to RTS married housing in the apartment next to ours. There ya go.

Ryan and Emily

Emily and I hit it off instantly when I met her through Leslie, and we reconnected as neighbors at RTS. We were practically the same age and we wore the same size in clothes. On top of that, we were both BARGAIN SHOPPERS! We had many double dinner dates at each other's apartments (Ryan makes a beautiful cosmopolitan and other mixed drinks) and game nights. We even had a neighborhood cookout/drinkfest when Hurricane Katrina hit and we lost all of our power. Grilling outside in the dark, drinking our beer. It was fun.

But one of my favorite nights was spent doing what we called Closet Shopping.

We had a 3rd neighbor (Katie) who was married to Kurt's RTS roommate (Brent) when they lived in single housing on campus. (sorry for confusion). They married that December I think, and they lived on the other side of the Russes. Katie was also petite like Emily and me. The three of us decided to go to our closets, one closet at a time as a group, and get rid of clothes, letting the others choose what they'd like. I think we started at mine, and I got rid of some things I didn't wear anymore, and Emily and Katie took what they wanted. Then we moved to Emily's closet, did the same, and ended at Katie's. We had a blast! We each ended up with a good amount of clothes for FREE! You can't beat that for a bargain.

I have no idea what our husbands were doing while we were closet shopping. Probably playing xbox.

See, we love sales!

Emily and I even had a yard sale together. I priced all of my items with stickers and Emily went the brave route (I hate to haggle) and asked people to make her an offer. We both sold a decent amount that day, but OF COURSE, we started the yard sale by trading a few items ourselves. I think she got some of my shoes in exchange for some of her jewelry. (To our husbands' dismay. I remember Kurt saying, "Sweetie, we're supposed to be getting rid of stuff today." Oh well, I can't pass up a good deal.)

Our husbands graduated from RTS and we moved to Tupelo, and the Russes moved to Little Rock, Ryan's hometown. We were determined to see each other still, so we visited them in LR. Emily told me about a sale the Junior League of LR was having downtown. We each paid for a ticket ($5 maybe?) and woke up extra early to get there when the doors opened and the deals began.

Us with our loot at the Junior League of LR sale. What am I wearing?

It was pretty chaotic. We looked at rack after rack, and we make several trips to the bathroom of the building where women were changing in the stalls to try on clothes. Eventually people got tired of waiting on stalls to open, and we all changed in the open air of the bathroom together. I didn't know any of those people, so I didn't care. (Plus, I'm not known for modesty...anyway.)
I still have a dark orange Banana Republic sweater I got there as well as a brown top with fluttery sleeves and a black Anne Taylor blazer thingy. Yay! I'd like to make it an annual event, especially now that they have little Eliza Day.

Eliza Day

Emily and Ryan welcomed Eliza a couple of months ago, and they stopped by our house during Thanksgiving break on their way to visit family in Florida. It was so good to see them and meet this precious little girl.

So, Em, when's the next bargain hunting adventure?

Merry Christmas from the Coopers

Kurt, Marty & Winnie

Guest Blogger: Winnie Claire

Woof! It's Winnie. You may be wondering how I got this computer.

Mommy was sitting on the couch watching 30 Rock and checking Twitter on her computer. I did my usual routine of whining and jumping on the couch, then standing over her lap, between her and the computer so she can no longer see the screen. What else can I do since I can't tell her, "Mommy, I want some attention!"...or a treat, or to go potty, or to go to the mailbox, or to take a walk, etc. So I resort to whining and forcing myself physically on her to get her attention.

She just got up to get a diet Dr. Pepper (she drinks those a lot), so I took over her computer. I'm pretty sure Mommy talks about me a lot to her friends, but she doesn't talk a lot about me on her blog. Shame on her! I'll be sure to whine extra at 3:00 this morning to punish her for that.

About me:

I like squeaky toys. If they don't squeak, forget about it. My usual operation when I receive a toy is to find the squeaker, run around the house squeaking it, and then park myself in one spot and chew and pull and tear for 30 minutes until I get the squeaker out and the rest of the toy is strewn about the room and Mommy has to clean it up and complain about how no toys last around here.

I also like rawhide bones. Mommy gives me about 1 per day. When she gives it to me, I will either run to the back door so I can chew it outside and prance around the yard with it in my mouth, or I run back to Mommy and Daddy's room and chew it in there. I really like Mommy and Daddy's room. I stay on their bed a lot. When Mommy wakes up in the morning, she takes me out to potty, and then she gets in the shower. When she does that, I get in her spot on the bed and snuggle with Daddy.

Sometimes at night when Mommy and Daddy go to bed, I get in the bed with them. Mommy calls it a Fam-Sam (family sammich) because the three of us are snuggled up like a sandwich and there isn't much room left in the bed when I get in there.

Another thing I do on occasion is fart in Daddy's face. A couple of weeks ago, Mommy was getting ready for work and said to Daddy, "Guess what the scale said this morning? 122.8!" and then Daddy said, "Well guess who farted in my face last night and then left the bed?" Mommy said, "Me?" and Daddy said, "No, Winnie!" I didn't understand what all they said, but I heard my name, so I knew it was important.

I have 3 friends that I know by name: Gus, Hula and Blue. If Mommy says, "Where's Hula?" I run to the window, jump in the chair, and look out of it and whine. Sometimes Hula's mom Leslie comes over and leaves Hula over here to play with me while she and Mommy go for a walk. We run around the back yard and wrestle. When Hula's mom takes her back home, I watch them out the window until they turn off the street. I love my friends.


The window chair is where I spend a lot of time and watch what is happening in the neighborhood. We live at the end of a cul-de-sac, and I see lots of exciting happenings on our street. Sometimes Mommy or Daddy looks out the window with me.

I like treats a lot. Beggin' Strips are my favorite! I also like Milkbones, and Mommy lets me brush my teeth with Greenies every once in a while.

Lately I have been waking Mommy up at 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning, whining next to her face by the bed. Sometimes I need to go potty, and sometimes I am just bored and want to play. She really doesn't like this new habit of mine. Daddy is nice and gets up with me some, too. Last night they took my water away from me at 10:00, and I didn't wake them up. I bet they keep doing that, and maybe even take it away earlier.

Mommy and Daddy have stopped giving me people food because it was making me throw up. Mommy feels bad, but Daddy says they are doing it because they love me. However, it doesn't stop me from begging for food when they eat. I put my head on their lap and drool on their clothes. I even whine, but they just won't give me a bite anymore.

I really hate bath time. Mommy and Daddy have to bathe me together because one of them has to hold me in the tub and one of them bathes and rinses me. It's a team effort. I endure it, and I always give them the most pathetic look that says, "Why are you abusing me?" while they bathe me. Mommy gives me pep talks throughout the procedure, but it doesn't help. After I get out of the tub, I shake off all over the living room an kitchen, soaking the floor, and make Mommy and Daddy towel dry everything.

I hope I get lots of toys and treats for Christmas. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Woof,
Winnie C. Cooper