Eva Mae

Miss Eva Mae Cooper, born Saturday, December 8, 2012.  Pictures from 12/13/12, Eva's planned C-Section day......but she had plans of her own.

Visions of Vacation

Having a nice quiet weekend at home.  I just got approved to have July 4-6 off, which gives me a fabulous 5 day weekend coming up, and I currently have no plans whatsoever.  I might finish up painting upstairs, now that we have our ladder back...

Today, we are heading over to Key Arena to watch the Storm play at 4pm.  I think we will leave really early, or take the bus, since the Pride parade and Pridefest are going on today, and parking is going to really suck.  Maybe we will head down early and eat at Pridefest.....decisions, decisions, decisions....

Still talking Ethan into going to Europe next year.  Did I mention that before??  We want to go back to Europe.  *I* want to go back to Europe, and Ethan wants to make sure we can *afford* to go back to Europe.  We can.  We will be able to.  Couldn't go today, since we are broke, but our vacation fund builds up each month, and we haven't been anywhere since last October (Palm Springs), so it is getting hefty.  There is that pesky Hawai'i trip coming up, but I can commit to being not so spendy there, and saving our trip money for Europe. 

Hawai'i can be not so spendy--free snorkelling right off the beach at our resort (we bought our own snorkel gear, since Ethan's feet are so big it is always hit or miss getting fins that fit, and he generally gets smooshed into too small fins), cook our own meals in our condo, do fun but free things like check out the blowhole, swim, drive around looking at sights, hike a bit.....lots of things that don't break the bank.  I think we are contractually obligated to going ziplining with mom, which is spendy, but that is a perfectly acceptable splurge to do.

So--Europe.  Definitely want to see Paris again, and definitely Amsterdam.  Looks like flights into London would be easiest in my attempt to use airline miles again (spent $100 and total of 80K airline miles for 2 tickets last time), and I found flights home from Paris.  Maybe a few days in London, then Chunnel and high speed train to Amsterdam for a few more days, then train back to Paris for awhile and fly home from there??  I found tons of teensy apartment rentals in Paris that are in my price range (€600 or less for a week).  They have teeny washing machines (no finding a spendy laundromat like Ethan did last time in Amsterdam), and I only want a place that has free wifi.  These places are sooooo tiny--like 100 square feetish, but have mini-kitchens and bathrooms.  Some have beds that pull straight down from the ceiling (not murphy beds that fold out from the wall--those are uncomfortable!!).  I ruled out any that have sofa beds, because my hips have enough issues as it is--I need a good bed!

I found lots of cool places right in Paris.  I want to go to a fromagerie and buy cheeses and get a baguette from a boulangerie and browse a grocery store until we figure out supplies for a meal.  I want to stroll through some of the parks and peek inside the gorgeous churches that we missed last time around (didn't realize that churches were so amazing inside until we went into a few in Rome).  I really didn't think we would be overly impressed with Paris last time around, but I soooo want to go back there again!

How freaking cute are these places!?!  Red  This one would be more of a splurge..  Green

Don't *you* want to go now???

what have I been up to lately....




We just got back from a whirlwind trip to Missoula to see our good friend Kim get her MBA from UM. It was a short but very fun trip. I am still coveting her sister Erica's house (where we had a 10+ hour BBQ event after the graduation). Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. She extensively remodeled and finished up the 1930's house and I am in love, love love with it. Makes my house seem so sad. We have a nice house, just no storage whatsoever. Anyone have storage ideas?? My teeny closet in the master bedroom seriously needs some help. I actually use the spare bedroom #1/cat hospital room closet for my clothes, since there isn't enough room in our teeny closet. We need a closet organizing system of some sort. I will look into that..





I have gotten official permission from Ethan to repaint the upstairs and stairway in our house.......white. I *do* get to choose the exact shade of white to use, which will be fun. We both agree that the paint is looking old and needs refreshing. I enjoy painting, so I will get to that one of these weekends. I lost my three day weekends with my job change, so it is harder to do things around the house than it used to be. I am utterly unmotivated in the evenings when I get home (around 5pm), since I head up to bed in the 8 o'clock hour. (I water the cats, putz around, then read before actually going to bed, if you were wondering)



Anyway. No excitement in my life right now, which is not necessarily a bad thing. A boring thing, but not a bad thing. Just boring. Like I said.



We are excited to have mom coming up in a few weekends to visit. Haven't seen her since she had her cochlear implant activated, so that should be cool. We may or may not go to the Folklife festival. Maybe just hang out around the house or go to Lincoln park or something.



Our grand plans for this upcoming weekend involve a Storm game on Friday (first of the season for us!), then the big decision--deciding between seeing The Avengers and Battleship. Ethan is uber excited about both, and I really like movie popcorn, so it is a win-win situation. (both movies look interesting to me. Not 'newfavoritemovieofalltime', but interesting).



So. My life, updated....

Am I the only one who is totally fanatical about the Olympics?   And, by Olympics, I mean the 3 week international sporting event, not the mountain range to the West of Seattle. 

I love the Olympics.  I enjoy the winter Olympics, but it is just a placeholder for the real deal--the summer Olympics.  Back in my younger teenage years, I made plans with mom to go to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.  Before I realized that it would be uber spendy.  And before I realized that I would get a better show at home.  We didn't go....but I watch every minute I can of the Olympics.  Ethan is already on notice that we will be clearing out the DVR in mid-July to make room for me to daily DVR every minute of coverage I can find, on every channel that is showing a sport I have heard of.  I love the Canadian coverage for not time-delaying everything, and for showing LOTS of athletes from multiple countries with inspiring stories, not just the NBC prime time showing of US athletes only.  I go on a media blackout at work--they are told daily NOT to discuss Olympics around me...and I am careful with my internet usage (no reading the paper, which about kills me since I NEVER miss reading a day of the newspaper--even while on vacation)

Anyway.  Love the Olympics.  Love all the stories about different athletes, love the idea of countries who do not get along politically having athletes form bonds together.  The Olympic spirit and all that.  Love, love love.

Long time no see...

It's about time I updated this sad, sad blog. I have nothing to report. My life is boring. One week looks pretty much the same as the last one. So, on to travel planning. Ethan and I are heading to Hawai'i in late September, along with Jobie, Ty Leigh and Lilly, Mom, and Ty Leigh's mom Linda. We are renting a 3 bedroom condo on Maui for a week, and Ethan and I are tacking on a few extra days either on O'ahu or the Big Island before we come home. Should be a nice trip. The condo was extremely affordable, and I am hoping this inspires the Cooper kids family to try a Hawai'i Christmas trip in the near future.

Other than that, not much planned. I have grand plans to scour the frequent flier flights and get Ethan and I to Europe next spring. No sure exactly where we would go--it all depends on what flights we can get onto. Definitely want to get back to Amsterdam for Queen's Day again if possible. And we may have some availability to get a timeshare/condo in Paris for a week, if timing works out perfectly. I loooooved Paris. So easy to get around! And we hadn't discovered how cool churches can be to explore when we went last time, so that would be a great add-on. And I want to see more of the Army Museum, and check out some of the art museums and oodles of places I read about but we didn't get to go to in our short stay last time. We have decided to do 2 or 3 cities this time, instead of 4 like we did last time. More time per place. Anyway. We shall see.

Frequent flier tickets can be purchased up to 11 months ahead of time, so I will start looking in late May for some late April 2013 flights and see what I can see. We have been faithful in our savings plan (thanks, SmartyPig!) for travel, so we have a bit of $$ saved up (or we will by next spring), so this may in fact be doable. I am really in need of a vacation right now--we haven't gone anywhere since October 2011, with no plans until nearly October 2012. We are twice a year vacationers and I am really feeling it. This is what happens when all the males in a household try to keel over in a 6-month period and you have to pay vets and doctors to get them functioning again. It is worth it in the long run, but no fun having lots of medical bills and credit card debt. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though, so I will keep looking that direction.

I am totally out of witty and interesting things to say. And I have discovered that I don't take pictures unless I am on vacation, so I have none to add here. So, here is a video from last fall of a locksmithing acquaintance of Ethans who sits near us at Seahawks games.

9/11/01

I know I remember where *I* was on 9-11-01.

I was driving to work, on my second day at Harborview as an RN. I was still in orientation.

Sports Radio 950am KJR was on, and they were talking about a plane crash in NY City at the World Trade Center buildings. They are goofy in the morning, and I wasn't sure if this was some sort of a joke or not, so I called Ethan up at home and asked him to turn the TV on. He told me I had it wrong--there was a crash at the Pentagon, not in New York. Then a few seconds later, the coverage switched back to New York and we realized that there were attacks in both cities, and that our world would never be the same.

We were glued to the TV at work that day, and for several days afterwards. Seattle had a huge memorial/unity event that Saturday, in honor of those whose lives were lost. I went with some flowers and took a few pictures while I was there.

2011 Fremont Solstice Parade

We had a great time at the Fremont solstice parade with Tobias and Stacy in the heart of Fremont, the Center of the Universe. A thick but very misty rain for the hours before the parade when we sat in our chairs waiting for things to get started, but it died off shortly after the parade reached us.
The parade as always started with the naked cyclists. We were quite impressed with some of the creative paint jobs they did. And with their bravery on this chilly, rainy day!

These were the Mormon missionaries


Santa!!!






The Solstice parade take on Seattle's Hammering Man

I saw this guy go by twice, and didn't realize he was nekkid until I looked closely at the picture while editing it. He did a good job with his jeans! I especially like the pockets.


Optimus Prime biker

Naked Unicyclist with a Storm theme