Tigers Around Town and 23 Months Old

This weekend, we ventured to The University of Memphis for their Tigers Around Town event. This being the 100th year the university is in existence, they kicked off the celebration by getting local artists to decorate life-sized tigers, each representing a year. We ran through the exhibit because someone was out of sorts, but did manage to get pictures of several of the tigers.


Joey Dorsey tiger in honor of my favorite Memphis basketball player, aside from Earl Barron and Kelly Wise.


Us in fron of the 1999 tiger- that was the year I started at Memphis.


The 2003 tiger, which was the year I graduated with my undergraduate degree.


I think this was 1926, but I really took the picture because I thought the tiger was cute.
*The other pictures we took either didn't make it out of the camera or didn't turn out well including 1976 (the year YaYa graduated), 1977 (the year Pops graduate), 1987 (Tada's birth year), 1998 (the year Jeff started at Memphis), and 2007 (the year I graduated with my Master's). Like I said, quick outing.

Speaking of someone, we are a mere month away from having a 2 year old on our hands. I was looking at his baby pictures, getting all teary eyed because he's really not a baby anymore. And he's really not staying in his bed, either, so maybe those tears are from lack of sleep. No, I'm pretty sure it's because I can't believe almost 2 years have gone by so quickly.

So, what's Mr. Cooper up to these days?
*Escaping from his crib and room with the greatest of ease. Just call him David Copperfield. We've been battling naptime and bedtime because he's decided he's not going to stay put. We're working on this. Diligently. Because Mommy and Daddy are t-i-r-e-d.
*Talking up a storm. Frequent calls are made to Bob-O, Nana, Pops, YaYa, and Tada in which he says "hi", "love you", "bye" and may or may not hang up in the middle of the conversation. He talks about Mommy's glasses being on and off, our shoes being on and off, he and Daddy wearing hats, Avery playing with her golf ball and all the things "Coopie" is doing. Loves to point out school buses, trucks, cars that resemble family members' cars, airplanes, puppy dogs. And did you know that everyone mows the grass, even Carnie, Bob-O and Nana's dog? It's true.
*Loves brushing his teeth. Every morning and night, we go through "Mommy brush teeth?", "Daddy brush teeth?", "Coopie brush teeth?", "Avey brush teeth?"
*Loves reading, especially his potty book and Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin. We've read that one so much he can recite it along with us.
*Needs to check the mail everyday. He proudly announces "Maaaaaiiiiillll" or "No maaaaaiiiiillll" each time we walk in the house. Those drawn-out letters are no joke- Cooper has a strong Southern accent.
*Potty-training when he feels like it. Sometimes, he has no problems sitting on the potty and going. Others, you'd think we were about to waterboard the child. We're picking our battles, which probably isn't what hardcore parents would say to do.
*Has found a love of yogurt (strawberry seems to be his favorite) and cheese puffs. We're still struggling with him being a picky eater.

We're gearing up for his birthday party, although his Mama can't quite get it together enough to plan anything out. A party planner, I am not.

September 11th

A day that will forever be known as the worst day in American history.

I'm not one to talk about September 11th. The fact that it's been 10 years is hard to believe. For good or bad, I wasn't the person who jumped in to help the cause. I didn't join the military because I felt it was my duty to serve my country. I don't even think I ran out to buy something red, white, and blue- a flag, a shirt, a pin- to show my support of the country.

I just remember being scared.

I know what our parents and grandparents talk about when they say they know exactly where they were when they heard news about those events. I remember each minute of that day like it was yesterday.

I had an 8am class, so I didn't know anything had happened until I headed to my 2nd class of the day. Looking back on it now, the energy on campus going to that class was much different than any other day. It was almost as if people couldn't speak in complete sentences; there was so much confusion. I made it to my second class before the story really started coming together. Before I knew it, my professor stood in the doorway of the classroom and said, "Leave this room, find a TV, and plant yourself in front of it. You're going to watch history being made." and he left. I went back to my dorm room and watched The Today Show. By that time, Katie Couric and Matt Lauer were sitting on The Today Show couch, speechless for the most part. They were showing replays of the first plane hitting the tower, so you fully understood that originally, this was thought to be some terrible accident that changed in an instant. The planes had also already hit the Pentagon and been taken down in Shanksville. I called Daddy who told me that whatever it was, whoever had done it, it was bad. I watched the coverage in stunned silence, just not knowing what to think. Everything was raw footage, so all the horror, all the scenes that aren't shown anymore because of their graphic nature, weren't edited out.

Not knowing what to do, I went to work at the architecture firm that I worked at all through college. Everyone was watching the news coverage, but it wasn't long before our boss sent us home for the day. The phones weren't ringing, no one was working, and I honestly don't even know if the mail was delivered that day. I went to my parents' house. I just keep thinking that any minute, the death and destruction was going to start up again. I eventually went back out to school, met up with some friends and went to church to pray, then stayed with Jeff that night because again, everything was unknown and if the attacks started again, I certainly didn't want to be by myself.

I couldn't tear myself away from the coverage, which as most will remember, would have been hard to do anyway because all stations- even MTV, ESPN, and the Food Network- were covering. I had early classes everyday and I watched The Today Show as I was getting ready, but for weeks, there was not any sort of structure to the show. They would automatically go into the updates about finding survivors, then remains, then cleaning up the site.

Eventually, despite thinking it never would, life went on and got back to the "new normal." Watching the coverage this morning makes me hold onto Cooper much tighter and maybe having him in my life is what makes this much harder to comprehend. I certainly have cried more about the day now than I ever did when it actually happened. How the families who were directly affected by this tragedy have survived- I will never know.

MTV VMAs

I realized how old I was last night when I watched the MTV VMAs. Believing I should fully immerse myself in pop culture, I am guilty of watching Jersey Shore (it's still on DVR rotation) and when nothing else is on, Teen Mom and True Life have been known to be on our TV.

And truthfully, there's always some crazy something that happens during the MTV awards shows that people are talking about later. Who wants to miss trainwrecks?

Let's start with Lady Gaga, who I normally love, but who showed up as Jo Calderone, some alter-ego, greaser-looking version of herself.

Her performance of You and I was great, but the character was just weird. And it got worse as the night went on and she presented Britney Spears with the Lifetime Achievement Award (or whatever MTV calls it), then tried to kiss her. And since Britney is on the straight and narrow (when she wants to be) now, she was like, "I've already done that." and turned away. Awkward.

Regardless of the fact Britney read the teleprompter like Hooked on Phonics really didn't work for her, she actually looked decent, like she's finally getting her act together. And who woulda thunk she'd end up with someone like Jason Traywick:


Did you hear? Beyonce is pregnant! If you haven't heard that, you must be living under a rock. Not only was it rumored, but that's all anyone has talked about since Sunday. Truly though, she really does have that "glow" and at the end of her performance when she turned to show off her belly, you could tell she was thrilled. Really cute to see:


Love Adele. Love, love, love her.


You knew I'd include a Foo Fighters picture. They won for Walk and all I could think of is how it wasn't that long ago that MTV was about music and now the Foo Fighters are almost an enigma in the music world.


And then I felt even worse for Dave Grohl when Chris Brown, who didn't so much sing as "beat that beat" and dance angrily, used a portion of Smells Like Teen Spirit in his acrobatic act:


Russell Brand did a really nice tribute to Amy Winehouse, even if he's normally so funny that it was hard to take him seriously. Bruno Mars did a great version of Valerie as a tribute. I could listen to the Back to Black CD over and over again and never get tired of it.


What the what? Is that Rainbow Brite on stage?


Oh, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj...your attempts at being the poor man's Lady Gaga are failing. Miserably.



So, the night turned out to be rather calm by MTV standards. No overly elaborate costumes, no one running on stage to ruin poor Taylor Swift's speech, and Lil Wayne's performance was almost impossible to understand because of the bleeping and screaming. Par for the course!

Precious

Jeff's grandmother was making his grandfather a robe a few weeks ago and realized she was going to have enough fabric left over to make a smaller version.

This just warms my heart:


Cooper and Paw Paw modeling their robes.

Taco Cornbread Bake

I got this recipe from a blog called Plain Chicken that I follow. Although I was pretty certain I had messed it up, it didn't turn out that bad. For those of you who are just as shocked as I am that our oven was turned on 2 days in a row for cooking purposes, just slow your roll. This will be tomorrow night's dinner and Jeff will probably grill out for us the rest of the week. I can't have people thinking I might actually have some clue as to what I'm doing in a kitchen.

Taco Cornbread Bake
*1 lb ground beef
*1 packet taco seasoning
*1/3 cup water
*1 can Rotel tomatoes with green chiles
*1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
*1 box Jiffy cornbread mix, plus ingredients to make cornbread
*1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
*Sour cream
*Salsa

In a large skillet, cook ground beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in water and taco seasoning, simmering for 5 minutes. Stir in 1/2 cup cheese, Rotel tomatoes, and black beans. Spoon into 8x8 baking dish. Prepare cornbread according to package directions. Spread over beef mixture and bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake for another 5 minutes. Serve with sour cream and salsa.

I will definitely make this again, but might add corn to it on the next try. It tasted fine, but I figure adding another vegetable, even if it isn't the healthiest one, can't be bad!

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

I had some over-ripe bananas and decided that I'd give chocolate chip banana muffins a try. I have to admit- they weren't bad! Cooper ate about half of his, but then again, he'd already had a bowl full of Honey Smacks. I think the recipe came from epicurious.com

Here it is:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2-3 large, over-ripe bananas, mashed
1 large egg
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup milk
3/4 semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Mix flour, sugar, and baking powder in a large bowl. Mix bananas, egg, melted butter, and milk in a medium bowl. Combine wet and dry ingredients, then add chocolate chips to the mix. Pour into a lined or greased muffin pan and bake until tops are golden brown- about 32 minutes. Enjoy!

22 Months

Time is flying by and yesterday, Cooper Boy turned 22 months old. We're hard at work planning the big 2 year old birthday party while trying to keep up with an active toddler.

So what's new these days?

*My personal favorite: Coop saying, "Bless you!" when someone sneezes. "Bless you, Mommy!", "Bless you, Daddy!" When I'm at work and sneeze, I really miss his little voice.
*Not as endearing is "Let go!" It's our fault. When we're changing his diaper, we let him hold the clean one until it's time to put it on. Jeff and I both will say "Let go!" to get it back from him. He's figured out that "Let go!" can be used in any situation. Want Daddy or Mama's cell phone? "Let go!" Wants a toy from his friend, Brody? "Let go!" It's something we're going to have to work on.
*Will repeat anything we ask him to say. We're really working on making Cooper point out what he wants, telling him what the word is for what he wants, and making him repeat it. He also has a very Southern accent and draws out his syllables. Golf comes out "Goooooolf" and mail comes out "maaaaaaiiiillll."
*Loves to point out school buses; cars that look like Mama's, Daddy's, Bob-O's, Nana's, Pops's, and YaYa's; people running and will say "Ha, ha, running!"; babies, puppy dogs, and boats.
*Notices detail..."Glasses off?" when I don't have my glasses on; "Shoes off?" when Jeff and I are barefoot around the house.
*Cooper is still a very picky eater. He will eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at LaLa's, but not anywhere else. He will eat yogurt at Nana and Bob-O's house, but nowhere else. He will eat grilled chicken at Pops and YaYa's house, but it ends there. I'm glad he still eats apples, bananas, grapes, and oranges, but we work hard to make sure he gets balanced meals and it doesn't always work out.

We're getting ready to attempt potty training. I'm not sure of the route we're taking, but I'm getting ready to order a step stool, potty seat for our's and LaLa's houses, and some books. We've tried putting Cooper on the potty a few times and you can tell he thinks he's such a big boy, but no success yet.

We're also getting ready to take down a lot of Cooper's baby things. It's overdue, really, but we're lazy, busy, and quite frankly, I can't get over the fact that Cooper has outgrown his baby stuff. We'll keep the pack-n-play up because it's where we keep Cooper's toys in the living room and he can reach them easily. The swing and jump-a-roo need to be put in storage.

Everything is changing so much and so fast. It's hard to believe our little boy is almost 2!