An actual update

These past few months have been filled with work, work related decisions, school, and a few fun events on the side. I clearly can't fill you - my reader - in on everything at one time. I can, however, give you a brief update.

(1) I have been really blessed to have some career decisions made for after law school. Next year, I will be clerking with a federal judge in Oklahoma City. It is a wonderful opportunity that I am really excited about. After that, I will begin as an associate in an OKC law firm.

(2) I am in my final year of law school. Crazy, I know. A few finals this semester, fifteen more hours next semester, one huge test in the summer, and hopefully, I'll be sworn in as a real-life lawyer.

(3) I have not been doing bootcamp anymore. But a girl from my church teaches a Zumba class once a week that I've been going to. Oh yeah, and I ran a 5k race yesterday.

(4) Life keeps going; the world keeps turning; it's not always easy, but we're moving along.

Totally Irrelevant, but Fun.

I'm not even going to try to talk about why it's been forever since I last posted. This has absolutely nothing to do with my life right now, and I will have to actually update later. But this is fun. Aaron and I started watching The Sing Off and I absolutely love the music and the whole production. I just wanted to share this fun song from a few episodes back. Here's the University of Rochester "Yellow Jackets" singing "Wavin Flag" (skip to 2:09 to get to the song):

Which reminds me, sometimes I am just amazed by how much I don't know about or remember from last year (in the midst of our tragedy and mourning). Great example: the 2010 World Cup - or either of these songs:

(1) The original "Wavin' Flag;"

(2) And "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" by Shakira:

What else don't I remember? Anything from my Church State Relations class or Criminal Procedure. Just kidding. Not really. Seriously, I remember some of it, I'm sure? Something about searches and seizures . . .

Summer Reading List

I got to take a week off between my summer internships to go to the beach with my family. I'll hopefully post some pictures from that trip sometime. In the meantime, I thought I'd update you on my summer reading list. The Help was A-mazing. Water for Elephants = ditto. I'm only about halfway through The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, but it's great so far. I recommend them all!

I'm still here!

Busy, busy summer. It's been fun, but exhausting. One of these days I might even write an update about it. Until then, I'll leave you a picture of us. Aaron and I went to see Harry Potter 7 and I needed to document the event. So good.

Haircut and Old Friends

I got my hair cut off yesterday! I'm hoping it will be a much more manageable (and cool) summer 'do!

Today, Aaron and I drove to Tulsa to visit with some old friends. Nathan and Andrea Reese were in town and we had a get together at Kathryn and Michael Junk's house. The Reeses have a brand new baby named CeCe that we got to love on all afternoon!

Cecelia Marie:

Haircut:

Remembering Dad

We are remembering this great man.

Checking in

So I haven't written anything in a while, but I haven't had a really good excuse. Now, however, I'm getting really busy with finals prep, so it may be a while more. In the meantime, here are some highlights of life recently:

- Traveled to Lake Providence with the fam for the annual French Family Crawfish Boil (really it's the Minsky Family, but all the sisters were formerly Frenchs, so I can call it that).

- Studying for finals: Wills & Trusts; International Business Transactions; Antitrust II {finals are the first week of May}. Gross.

- Helping my mom get her new chicks (yes, you read that right) settled in.

- Aaron & I bought a new used car - 2008 Honda Accord.

- Garden growing well inside; transplanted outside; huge windstorm came through and blew some of them to smithereens; re-planting outside and praying that they'll survive.

- Planning for my bridal portraits (they're this Thursday); pretty crazy when you got married nearly a year ago.

- Bootcamp 4-5 times per week. (Picture below of Stadium Day)

So that's pretty much it. Ok, not really. Our lives have been really full... busy and blessed.

I'll leave you with a picture of us from our trip to Louisiana. We heart wheat fields.

One year ago Today

One year ago today we were at M.D. Anderson where my Dad was beginning an experimental treatment.

He was so Alive.

It's hard to come across pictures like this and remember that he is no longer here. Look at that life in his face.

This was 3 short weeks before he passed away.

Day 7

I am obsessed with this new gardening project. There are sprouts coming up on everything except the peppers now. I sit in front of this little plot and inspect every bit of it. Aaron's always asking me if something new has sprouted since I looked at it 5 minutes before. Snarky boy.

The tomatoes coming up!

Check out the salad mix... it's growing like crazy. Unfortunately, I do not know what sprout is what plant. There are a couple of red sprouts at the back that I am excited about eating!

Another view of the growing half of the plot (the peppers are to the left and not sprouted through yet)... some of the herbs on the far right are slowly making an appearance, but they are teeny-tiny little plants.

The cellophane wrap is serving as my "greenhouse." You're only supposed to keep them covered until they have sprouted, so I keep having to re-position the wrap.

The herbs over the sink do not appear to be working as well... I'm afraid I planted those seeds a little too deep. However, the Basil is starting to make its appearance (and let's be honest, that's the only one I really care about).

I'm thinking I may need to transplant the salad mix to a bigger container soon. Those suckers are growing so fast!

Mmmm, apple butter

I made homemade, no sugar added apple butter today. Stuck it in the crock-pot last night, blended it this morning, cooked off some excess liquid, and then got to canning. I have never canned anything, so this is quite the experiment. I don't have any professional canning equipment, so I did a boiling water bath. Apparently you have to let them boiled cans sit for 8-12 hours and hope the seal holds. If it doesn't, I may have some extra apple butter to give away (if not canned, it only lasts in the refrigerator for 3 weeks)!

My "canner"

The four canned cans

Yay for yummy apple butter!

My future garden

It's planting day at the Cooper household! I couldn't wait to start my garden by transplanting plants in late April, so I bought some indoors seed starters and seeds and got to work. I planted a bell pepper mix, hot pepper mix, sweet salad mesculun mix, yellow jubilee tomatoes, basil, chives, cilantro, oregano and parsley. I bought a windowsill planter for the herbs, but went ahead and did some in the seed starters so I can have enough of my favorites. Sometime this spring, Aaron's dad is going to bring us some big tubs for outdoor planting (since we're renting and can't really actually sow a ground garden). Hopefully I can get these plants to a good transplant height before then.

This is just an experiment... I have no idea if I inherited my Dad's green thumb, but I hope so!

The seeds...

My windowsill herbs.

My individual basil pot.

The seed starter filled with all the good stuff!

-- Post From My iPhone

A Whale of a Tale

I went fishing this weekend with Aaron and his Dad. I caught TWO fish. It was fabulous!

This one is my baby fish.

Aaron and Mr. C

The people whose land we were fishing on sent us home with some fresh eggs... I was so excited! And they are delicious. Check out the blue chicken eggs (from a type of Chicken from Chile).

Showering Danis & Drew

My mom and several other women hosted a shower for Danis and Drew this weekend at our home in Conway. I got to go home to help (lots of cleaning and decorating), and my sister came home as well! We had such a great time and I think the shower was a success. Here are a few pictures:

First, the cake, drinks and dessert room.

Cakes by Patty Cakes in Conway:

Present time!

Danis is super excited about something. :)

Great gift idea. Wok with all the Asian seasonings and spices you could ever need:

Danis's great-grandmother quilted every one of the grandchildren a quilt before she passed away. Danis's mother saved it to give to Danis for her wedding. So sweet.

Look at all the great gifts they got!

Danis, Drew and the moms:

Danis and the hostesses:

The beautiful couple:

Per usual, I just said something super funny:

The three amigos. So fun catching up with Christin. Can't wait to meet Baby R at Danis's wedding.

Conway Re-Design

Just a few pictures of my mom's redecorated house. It is gorgeous!

Here's the first view of the den. Love the new chair and ottoman.

Another view of the den.

Third den view. The presents on the new table are not always there... just for Danis' shower!

This is the front living room. The color yellow in the first picture is the most accurate (it's not near as bright of a yellow as the second picture makes it seems).

The kitchen. Again, it's not that bright of a green. I love the new china hutch (and I decorated that piece myself)!

You can see more of the re-design in the next post with pictures of Danis' shower.