whirlagig - family update!

Hello all! I wanted to apologize for my lack of "real" updates recently, but you know how it goes in the summer. Everyone is so busy going here and there and such, the time really gets away from you.

We are doing well in our new abode. It's finally starting to sink in that this is home and even though we still miss Colorado (and all our peeps) we are getting to know and love our new town.

I think having visitors come to stay with us provided us unique chances to visit some of the cooler things in town and made us appreciate all that OKC really has to offer. It also doesn't hurt that we've made lots of new friends. Having friends always makes a place seem a little more homey.

Work has been terrifically busy. I can't complain... This month alone has been one of my personal best, just with the amount and relative size of the projects I've landed. I'm really reaching my stride as a project manager and web designer. I'm busy working on a total revamp of my website as well as our new business website which we hope to launch before the new year.

My family is doing really well. My parents are busy as ever, but things out at the farm have quieted down now that they are emptying the nest a bit. Jackson is still in high school but is growing up into a strapping young man. He tried out for football this year and will be playing the defensive end for his school team. He's also gotten his driver's license and will be seen tooling around in Dad's little pickup when he starts his junior year this fall. Can he really be almost 17? He was 6 when I left home for the Air Force and when I look at him, he still seems a bit like that chubby little tow-headed shredder. :)

Mary and her family are all settled into their new life in Pennsylvania. They have a lovely little house and their 3rd baby is due in October. They are thinking of buying a house out there, so it looks like this relocation may be for good. But, you never can tell with her. Mary is sort of a fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants kind of gal. ;)

Emily is busy planning her wedding to Tyler. Next summer seems like a long ways off, but as any engaged girl will tell you, the wedding planning can make a year seem like a month. They are planning a lovely outdoor wedding and I have already seen her AMAZING dress. I actually choked up a little seeing her wearing the veil. My little Emily is going to be married! It hardly seems like she is old enough to be doing anything so serious!

That's the round up for now. I'm off to bed with a busy day ahead of me tomorrow. We are planning on joining Tim's entire family up at the lake house for the holiday weekend, and I'm finally in charge of my first holiday dinner. I am actually not SURE how much food to make because I'm not clear on how many people there actually ARE in his family. They are an ARMY, no joke. :) I'm really loving getting to spend so much time with all of them, but especially the younger ones. I love getting to be "fun" Auntie Erin. Last time we were at the lake, I dazzled them with my amazing sand castle building skills.:)

I'm composing some future posts in my head, not the least of which is my Halloween party inspirations. This year is going to be awesome and I can't wait to decorate the new house. I'll give you a hint - my dining room is going to be transformed into a mad scientist style dungeon! ;)

More to come...

There and back again...

Princess Bananahammock's round up of the weekend here


Pictures below:


Will blog more when I can think in full sentenc.......zzzzzz......zzzzzzzzzzzzz

OKC - Watch OUT!

 

Wink DeVille and General Lee Fabulous are taking over the town this weekend! Wheeee!

Well Howdy Doo!

Tonight we had our first big thunder storm since we've lived in our new house. The first few crashes sent the kitties scrambling, and I must admit, made me jump as well. It really reminded me of that one summer we visited my Aunt in Lawton and we all sat out on the front porch watching the lightning fill the sky.

I'm getting used to our new life in OKC and am finding my way around fairly easily. I have managed to get lost a time or two though without the mountains to point me in the right direction. I am embarrassed to say how much I depended on them as a reference point while living in Denver. I'm going to have to get a compass installed in the car, otherwise I'm going to keep ending up in Kansas every time I try to go to the supermarket.

The visit with my parents was a big success. They really loved the new house and we had some great moments hanging out with them. We visited the botanical gardens, the OKC bombing memorial, and the western heritage museum...All places I'd never even seen before. I keep forgetting what a big city this actually is. We're somewhat sequestered over here on the NW side, and it really feels a bit like a small town to me.

Here are some photos from the past week:


I'm planning on taking pictures of the finished rooms in the house tomorrow so everyone can see what we've done with the place. We're keen to show off some of our new purchases (ahem....42 inch flatscreen HDTV, perfect for watching the OLYMPICS in HIGH DEF BABY!) as well as our recently inherited upright piano. :)

More to come...

Happy Birthday To Tim!

The 'rents are still in town, and I have lots to talk about this week, but it will all have to wait. So, for now, here are the pics from Tim's birthday party!

Okie Twist Off

The 'rents are coming to town on Thursday and we've got all kinds of stuff planned while they are here. One of the things I'm most excited about is the Okie Twist-Off. It's a Rockabilly Music & Car Festival sponsored by the RBA.

I'm sure it will be loads of fun, even though my Dad might get distracted and start telling me they are all a bunch of criminals.... (of COURSE they are criminals! That's what makes them so BAD ass. If they weren't criminals, then they'd just be ASS.)

We are also planning a big shebang for Tim's 31st birthday and are trying to get the house all set up for that.

Oh, and we went and bought a King sized bed yesterday and are SUPER excited to get that set up in the master. Wheee.... think of all the room we'll have for cats! ;)

Anyway, we've got a crazy week ahead of us, so I better get started on it!

Two Turtle Doves...

(photo by Tim Cooper)

The first week we moved into our house, we discovered (using our telephoto lens) that we had two Turtle Doves living in the tree in front of our house. A day or two later, my sister-in-law stopped by with her girls and noticed that a baby dove had fallen from the the nest and was under the tree flopping around in the hot sun.

We weren't sure what to do, but with all the animals that roam free in our neighborhood and the blistering hot sun, we knew he probably wouldn't last without his parents help. So, Tim went to the garage and found a 2x4 and nailed a little cardboard box to one end, pulling a flap down on one side, so as to slide the baby bird into the nest. He wore gloves and carefully placed the baby in the box and lifted it high into the air.

The mother dove in the nest flew away with a start after seeing a shoe box full of baby bird coming towards her. It didn't work QUITE as well as we'd hoped, but after a few tries, he succeeded in replacing the baby bird in the nest. And we waited...for some sign that the baby was okay. A couple days later, I came home from the store to find the mother dove sitting very still in the yard. I walked closer and saw that she was sitting next to a lifeless baby bird. I ran inside, grabbed Tim and we both walked closer to be sure that nothing could be done. The mother sat VERY still as we came closer and closer and then flopped away down the driveway.

She'd obviously been injured and couldn't fly. There are kites everywhere in Oklahoma and we both were concerned about how exposed the nest had been in our little tree. We assumed that she'd been attacked, possibly by a kite or even by a neighborhood cat. We realized that we couldn't really do anything else, and scooped up the lifeless baby and started to walk to the garage trash bin. Then we noticed ANOTHER lifeless baby bird on the side yard of our neighbors house. Apparently this was NOT a good week for our little turtle dove family.

Anyway, after disposing of the baby birds, we both sat around pretty morose about our little avian tragedy. It's tragic that the babies died, but sadder still that the mother was injured. Turtle doves mate for life, and if she doesn't make it, her partner will be alone. So, we are watching anxiously to see both of them together again soon...And hopefully, the next round of babies will be more successful.

For LenaBena

Here is our most finished room. It's really coming together, but I'm not happy with it yet... There are some blank areas and I could use some suggestions about the art above the sofas. Any ideas?

Also, my office is really coming together. I'm hoping to have it all set up by next week, so I'll be uploading those pictures soon...

We miss you guys so much! Give Truman a kiss from us. Tell Shivani I've found a great indian place down the street, you guys will have to give it a try when you come visit.

Lotsa love!
~e

Open Letter to Oklahoma

Dear Oklahoma (and the people living here),

Your collective low self esteem as a state and a people is troubling me. I can't count how many times I've been somewhere and people find out that I'm from Denver and give me this apologetic look and say something like, "well, it's not THAT bad..." or "I'm sorry...", or "why the heck did you move HERE?"

What is so wrong with Oklahoma? Seriously! I'm from a small town where there wasn't much to do, but even they didn't spend this much time apologizing for themselves. Sure, Oklahoma isn't Hawaii or California, but so far, I think it's a pretty cool place to live. The only real thing you guys should be apologizing for is your lack of a Whole Foods market and more vegetarian restaurants!

I asked some Ol' Timers about this propensity for over apologizing and they seem to think that it stems from the Great Depression and the idea of "Okies" and the dust bowl... But I think everyone needs to stop and look around! The land here is lush and green everywhere I look. There are birds and flowers and healthy grass everywhere. There is a beautiful lake in the center of town with trails all around, and plenty of water sports. It's hot here, but this last week, things have cooled down and it's pretty pleasant. The bugs seem to be mellowing out as well, which is a huge relief.

I bought a sweet house for an unheard of price, so that alone endears me to you. Sure, downtown doesn't have QUITE as many options for dining as Denver, but so far all the restaurants on the Northwest side have made up for it. The shopping has been great, and I'm really looking forward to this Tax-free weekend coming up! The cost of living here is much cheaper in general and I've been able to find a lot of bargains on stuff for the house, so that's great too.

Sure, there are no Rocky Mountains here, but there is a rich and vibrant lake culture. Sure, the dining isn't quite as varied, but it seems to be improving all the time. Sure, the state is mostly conservatives, but there seems to be a strong little pocket of some left wing liberals and they serve GREAT coffee. :) Sure, there aren't as many museums here, but the ones that do exist are interesting and full of history. Besides, how many times can you go to a museum? Even the ones in Denver start to get a little stale after a while...

So, buck up! As an outsider, I can say that it's not as bad as you all make it out to be. Maybe you're just not getting out enough... Have you ever been to Great Falls, Montana? Now that is a town that ought to be apologizing to some people...

Thanks for listening,

~erin

P.S. Order up that Whole Foods. SERIOUSLY. I mean it.

Girls Night

My friend Jessica invited me out last night to meet some of her girl friends for happy hour at Belle Isle brewery last night. They were all super nice and we had a pretty good time, considering I'd never met any of them before.

I was so distracted with the stories and chatting that about 3 drinks in, I realized all I'd had to eat was some chips and two fried pickles. THAT'S RIGHT PEOPLE, I ate a fried pickle. It was so tasty, that I had another one. How OKIE of me! Anyhoo, the rest of the night was a bit of a blur and I was reminded of my Martini rule that I DIDN'T follow...

Martini's are like breasts, one isn't enough, but three is too many.

We ended up hanging out at Tim's parent's place with a bunch of people from the family, and just having a good time chatting. Tim's dad leaves for a week-long mission aid trip to Peru with some of the the grand kid's today, so we all wanted to say goodbye and wish them luck on their venture. It was a great night, but when it's all said and done this morning, I wish I'd eaten more dinner and had less drinks. That's one ratio that I regret screwing up. Eeesh...

At least today is Friday and work should be relatively quiet today...

The Red Cup

We discovered a super cool new cafe in OKC called The Red Cup. It's sort of a cross between St. Marks/Vine St. Pub/Watercourse Foods and a cool deli I once visited in Haight Ashbury. Yes, it's THAT cool.

We had a great lunch and while we were sitting there, soaking up the ambiance, the following conversation ensued...

Erin: Isn't it awesome that no matter where you go, there will always be these little pockets of coolness?

Tim: You mean this place?

Erin: Yeah...with it's funky art and whatnot...It's just cool that there are always these types of people, no matter where you live, and they congregate in places like this.

Tim: Well sure...Where else would the Pinko Commies be hanging out?

Erin. Ya, It's the RED cup. R-E-D. I think I'm gonna like it here....

Life - Slightly Blurry

The past two weeks have been just NUTS, as I'm sure you all can imagine. Here are the photos from our recent move and the trip to the lake this weekend. Click HERE if you want to seem them larger and with captions.



More to come soon...

Bitter Twitter

"Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as tweets) which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length."

Sometimes I have a thought that is shorter than a typical blog post, so I twitter it, but then sometimes I have a thought that's still too small to blog, but it's about 300 characters long. It's a real dilemma. :) So here are a few randomnocities that happen to be in my head...

--

Today we were stopped at a light in town and looked over to see Tim's Dad's handyman waving to us. It's just so random that in a town of this size, after being here for a week, we run into people we know at stop lights. And at the supermarket, and the gas station. OKC, it's a really small big city.

--

I found myself getting jealous of my cats' hair and how it protects them from bug bites, but then I remembered how hot it would be to have fur in this weather...bleh! It is 100 degrees today!

--

We're going to be painting my office tonight! It's our first home improvement project together and a chance for Tim to shine. He's got lots of experience with painting and finishing rooms. He's in charge of the technical stuff, and I'm in charge of looking cute in my work pants and bandanna, and making a "room painting" playlist. CHECK!

--

After going to several furniture stores yesterday, we finally learned the trick to blowing off annoying salesman who try to work you for a commission. Tell them you are in the market for a lamp. Just one lamp. Works every time. Thanks to Jared for the tip!

--

Okie Twist-Off!
There is going to be a Rockabilly car show and pub crawl the weekend that my folks are in town. I think the boys will get a big kick out of all the hot rods and it will give me a dress-up event to look forward to. Wheee! In other news, they should REALLY let us do their website! That needs HELP!

Happy Birthday Princess Consuela Bananahammock!

Miss you more than you know, hope your birthday is FABULOUS! *kiss kiss*

Tell 'em that it's human nature...

We were visiting with friends today and we were talking about having babies and the like and the subject of "WHY" came up. It's not something I talk about a lot with friends, mostly because there is a large contingent of people who are opposed to having children. Also because my own experience with taking care of babies & children is sort of unique and I don't think most people will understand.

I never had any naivete about babies or family life. Dad was the Captain, Mom was the First Mate and we, as the crew, did our part. Meals were always planned in advance, strict rules were in place most of the time. I helped with the babies, and around the house and that was expected of me. I had a lot of responsibilities at a young age and it completely colored my personality.

When I finally left home, it was with a rebellious attitude. I was so glad to finally be FREE. I just wanted to do things for MYSELF and the relief of not having anyone to care for or be responsible for was overwhelming. Of course, being the extreme person I am, I took it to the limit. Over time I became a selfish and manipulative person with my own interests being foremost. At some point, it dawned on me that I needed to do something drastically different, or I was going to end up alone.

Then I met Tim.

Our meeting was idyllic in a lot of ways, but I didn't know at the time how much I would have to sacrifice to be with him. That was the turning point. I had an opportunity to go to the U.K. to work, and leave him and everything we had, behind. I wanted what I wanted. I wanted him AND my dream of travel. I asked him if he wanted to come with me, and he agreed, and it was settled.

But, that is when everything went wrong. The orders fell through, and they canceled our trip. THEN...miraculously, it was back on...only this time, Tim said no, he wanted to create a life for us in Denver. He didn't want all of our decisions to be based on the Air Force, so I had to choose between my Air Force career, and the love of my life.

THAT was the awakening. That was when my direction changed. I realized that it felt good to compromise and in the end, I knew I'd be better off with this man, then I would have staying in the Air Force. It really did turn out better than I ever would have imagined. We are much more successful in our careers, and have even been to Europe on our OWN terms now.

So, here we are again...thinking about traveling further away from our young and selfish desires. We left Denver to embark on this new chapter of starting our family. WHY? Why have children? What purpose does this serve? To carry on the family name? There are enough Cooper's in the world! To fulfill our families wishes and desires for more grandchildren? To fulfill our own fantasies about family life? Talk about a selfish desire.

I'm not doing this because of misty dreams of wearing silken pajamas while cuddling with our baby in some quiet rocking chair, I'm not doing this because I especially love all children, (I don't) and I'm not doing this because I think another white kid is the answer to the worlds problems. I'm doing this for my OWN reasons. They may not work for everyone, but deep down, they all go back to the same things.

We are having kids because that's what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to want to die to ourselves a bit and put another person's needs above our own. That is how we were made to attain a certain kind of fulfillment. We do these things because there is a little spark inside us that wants to improve on everything we were given, share the world as we know it, and create a little life that is ours. It's a selfish desire to smoosh our love together and give it a name.

But once he or she arrives, the notion that we live our lives only for ourselves disappears. Then it's all about the idea that you have to give of yourself in every way to bring this child's life to fruition. I think most people need that little push to evolve as people.

My mom once told me that she had babies because that is what people DID back then. They didn't think about it, they just DID it. Well, when my child is old enough to understand, I hope they know that I DID think about it. Day in, and day out, trying to make sure this was the right choice. Baby, you were NO accident. We brought you here because our family had a hole in it that was baby shaped. You didn't NEED to be brought into this world, but we NEEDED you to be in ours.