angela's blog

I'm not a big window shopper but I was wandering around in stores a few weeks ago and stumbled upon a series of jewelry by a woman named Holly Yashi. She uses nature and Hawaii and some Asian influence in her jewelry making and her stuff is the prettiest jewelry I've seen in awhile. They are just dainty and delicate and exotic looking. And it's not like I'll ever have a reason to wear something this fancy on a regular basis but they are awfully pretty. Here are some of my favorites: The long teardrop look of this earring just suggests elegance to me. Plus I love the blue and silver. The same earring more or less but in gold and silver. Very luxurious, very upscale-night-on-the-town to me. This one is a little different in design and feel. To me this seems more of a casual earring. Maybe a light hearted date, or a girls' night out or something to that effect. I just like the line and make of all these. And finally, a drop necklace. This is the only one that I really think could be worn on a regular basis. It'd be easy to use this piece to dress up a work outfit or even something nice with jeans and nice shoes. I didn't have much else to say so there you go. Some pretty jewelry to look at.

Posted by Mrs. Cooper at 4/26/2006 11:47:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

I have been surprisingly diligent about the gym lately. For those of you who knew me in college I was almost crazy about working out. But that was mostly because twice a day, multiple times a week, I was doing the swimming thing. I'm having some issue with the way this gym thing is working though. Depending on how you phrase it, most people will agree with you that people who are within a specific range of weight are healthier than people who are outside that range. In other words, a balanced weight is better than too heavy or not heavy enough. On the other hand, though, I'm not sure what to think of this particular thing that has been happening my last 3 weeks in the gym: I'm slowly GAINING weight. I've cut back on calories, am now drinking water above any other beverage, and yet ... slowly gaining weight. Here's how I'm consoling myself for this somewhat unexpected outcome (which, if your goal is to lose weight, is a really annoying unexpected outcome). It's becoming somewhat apparent that I'm lifting again. As part of my new gym regimen I lift for about 45 minutes 2-3 times a week these days and I suspect that part of my weight gain is muscle. I don't think it's possible to see muscle tone and have it be detrimental. What I want to know is, when is all the cardio that uses these muscles going to pay off? I spend 45 minutes 2-3 times a week lifting. The rest of the time I am doing cardio. The days I lift I lift, and then do around half an hour of cardio. The days I don't lift, I do between 45 minutes and an hour of cardio. I will be first to admit that I don't workout 7 days a week. My body just can't take it. But I workout 5 days a week and on at least one of the other 2 days left I do something "physical" like chase kids around a playground, or go out and skate or something like that. If anyone has had this kind of experience with working out I wouldn't mind some encouragement. It's not like I'm going to quit working out because I've gained a few pounds, but it is a little frustrating to watch numbers go up when you're working out an hour or more a day. You know?

Posted by Mrs. Cooper at 4/20/2006 01:15:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Yesterday in honor of Michele's birthday I made my very first attempt at baking. I made my very own version of black-and-white cake. One side of the cake was chocolate layers filled with chocolate ganache and then frosted with chocolate. On the other side was classic yellow cake filled with strawberry preserves and whipped cream. Here's a peak into my (very) amateur baking adventure Here's a picture of the chocolate cakes cooling: And the yellow cakes cooling: While I used chocolate and yellow cake mix from a box, I did try to make my own filling. The ganache turned out lovely. Not bad for my first time using a double boiler! I made it using an Alton Brown recipe. It involved dark chocolate and heavy cream. Total richness ... if you like chocolate. Then I filled my cakes. And for some reason didn't take a picture of the yellow cakes but here are the chocolate ones: In order to make the cakes half black and half white after I filled them I cut them each in half and pushed the halves back together: Frosted them and then they were ready to eat! If you'll notice, the two cakes look pretty different. The one that I frosted with ganache, well, the two halves weren't the same height. I cut them unevenly. So I put some of the extra cake on top and made it look bumpy. But they were the same height after I did that. I took the top one (frosted with ganache) to small group. The other one, frosted with regular chocolate icing, JJ took to work today. Happy birthday to my favoritest Michele. I'm going to try and be better about pictures so this weekend we have the newhope banquet (which JJ and I are getting all dressed up for) and the Cary Wine Festival which I think we're going to with Jamie and Rob. Lots of pictures!

Posted by Mrs. Cooper at 4/19/2006 12:42:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Last night we had a nice low-key evening. We had paninis for dinner (JJ had meatball and I had turkey ranch and swiss) and then watched the Braves game on TV. Which brings me to my next pondering point. I decided this year I'm going to become a baseball fan. And I decided that the best way to do that was to root for a specific teams. I then decided that I should root for a team that I had some sort of connection with in the past and I decided on the St. Louis Cardinals since I watched them play in college. Well, I've since discovered a problem with that decision: if you live in North Carolina, you never see the Cardinals play. Unless it's a nationally televised night game or something. On the other hand, we get almost every single Braves game because they are shown on TBS down here in the Southeast. Last night I was chatting with Fogle's girlfriend Sandra, who is a hard core Mets fan, and she said that if I became a Braves fan she cannot support that. So now I have to decide, which one is more important - Sandra or baseball. I'm leaning towards the Braves on this one, though. Sandra is one of the goodest, sweetest, funnest girls I have ever had the pleasure to know and she and Fogle are so happy which makes me think, since she has Fogle, she doesn't need me to be a Mets fan! ;-) She has to convert Fogle first! Yeah I think I'm going with the Braves on this one. Which is exciting because that means there are 4 games in the next week I can watch, starting tomorrow. Yay! After we watched the Mets beat the Braves 4-3 last night, with Pedro Martinez getting his 200th career win, JJ and I played Boggle. It was SO MUCH FUN. And we are BIG DORKS. Yes we are. I envision us playing lots of Boggle in the future.

Posted by Mrs. Cooper at 4/18/2006 11:22:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

This weekend was every bit as busy as I had anticipated. It was also a lot more fun. Saturday morning JJ took me out for breakfast. Because of some mass changes (see Sabrina's blog for full details) we ended up not going to breakfast with the Australies on Sunday, but I love going to breakfast so we went on Saturday instead. I got my eggs, and I got my grits. It also came with bacon - which was okay but I'm not the greatest bacon fan in the world, and it also came with home fries - which were not the way I expected them to be so I didn't enjoy them as much. But I got my eggs and my grits and even a biscuit. After breakfast we shuffled off to Festival of Hope where JJ got the best job around - information tent. It involved standing in a nice, shaded tent and answering questions when people asked them about newhope. I was going to work with the food originally but then I got a way more fun job - shooting video. I think I'm going to try and edit this one, too, so we'll see what I can produce. My ambitions are not very high since I've never edited video in my life. Our downstairs neighbor, Tiffany, brought their son, Jonathan, and then we met more neighbors - Joe and his daughter Ashley, and so we played and played and played with the kids. And then Michele and Dylan and Kim and Howard and their brood came so we played and played and played some more. If I was keeping track right, Jessie had a thing of cotton candy the size of her head, 2 sno-cones, water, popcorn, and I don't know what else. She's a tiny little person but goodness she can eat. Yesterday we got all dressed up (and if I were smart I would have taken pictures) and went to church for the Easter service. And there we saw the Gibson brood again. Jessie was in fine form, cuter than cute. Jovan is getting to be a little ball of sweetness. Jaylyn was her usual sunny self. I don't know what those Forrests and Gibsons do to raise their kids but they sure are doing a good job. Their kids are so much fun to be around. Well, the older ones. Before we have our own children I'm going to have to get over my semi-phobia of diaper-wearing children. But the older 3 sure are fantastic - some of my most favorite kids ever. After the service I went to the gym while JJ went to Barnes and Noble and then we met up with Scott, Steve and Sabrina for lunch at Ted's Montana Grill, home of the half-sours. I could have just eaten half-sours. But I was good and had a hamburger, too. It was a weekend of good food, fun kids, and good tidings. It's always my favorite week of the year - and this year was no different.

Posted by Mrs. Cooper at 4/17/2006 03:02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

This Sunday is Easter. I had originally planned to have these two: that would be the wonderful Steve and Sabrina Australie and this guy: who would be the incomparable Scott Luce over for a traditional southern style Easter lunch/dinner. Only now I'm not. Why not? I have to work on a presentation ... a presentation on The Temporal Context Model in Spatial Navigation and Relational Learning ... so while I would much rather cook and eat with my friends, there will be no such festivities. Which is definitely too bad. But Steve and Sabrina and JJ and I decided that we're going to go to the early church service and then go out for breakfast. I LOVE going out for breakfast. Although I think that might actually be because I don't do it that often. I enjoy going out to breakfast because what happens is I can get non-sweet breakfast foods beyond cereal or bagels. Don't get me wrong. I love bagels. Breugger's bagels. With cream cheese. Soft, chewy, smooth, hot, cold ... where was I? Right. Going out for breakfast. It means I can get eggs, home fries and grits. I eat grits now and I love grits and really good grits are hard to make at home so it's generally a breakfast-out sort of food item. And that means that on Sunday I get my eggs, my home fries, and my grits. It also means that Monday I'm going to the gym hardcore. But I will definitely enjoy my not-so-traditional Easter breakfast on Sunday. Down in the deeper South my in-laws will be having Easter with their (and I suppose now my) extended friends-turned-family as they always have. We won't be there, obviously, but hopefully next week some time I will have a photo of our niece and nephew wearing the Easter clothes that we got them (well we bought Genna's - and I don't know what little boys wear, so my mother-in-law picked out Walker's).

Posted by Mrs. Cooper at 4/13/2006 04:53:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Mrs. Cooper at 4/12/2006 01:06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

My friend Danny had this in his AIM profile. Kinda makes you think don't it? The hard part of being Christian isn't believing. Believing is the easy part, and that's what makes it so dangerous. I feel an overwhelming temptation to go around saying, "Yes, I believe in Jesus," and use that statement as a shield to hide from my responsibilities. I'll listen to a sermon and think, "He can't be talking to me; I'm already Christian. This message is for the unbelievers." No more. If I believe, if I truly believe, then I must understand that to be Christian involves a greater responsibility to myself, to others, and to God. I have to challenge myself to grow and mature spiritually. I have to live my life in such a way that my belief can be seen in my actions. No longer will my relationship with God be a relationship of convenience. The way I see it, if being Christian doesn't inconvenience me, then I'm doing something wrong. Complacency is the most dangerous enemy of all. But now the war is on. Bring it.

Posted by Mrs. Cooper at 4/11/2006 10:11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Ye gods I almost forgot! This little guy: turned FOUR on Friday! He's all of 4 years old - almost a whole hand! This photo was taken before our wedding last summer but here are some more. How about him blowing out candles at Christmas breakfast on Christmas morning? Or opening presents? Happy birthday Walker! You're the coolest, greatest little boy ever. Love, Aunt Angela and Uncle JJ

Posted by Mrs. Cooper at 4/10/2006 04:32:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

This weekend turned out to be surprisingly less busy than we had originally planned. For one thing, it stormed. And because it stormed, that meant that Festival of Hope got postponed for a week so that took 3 hours out of our day. Saturday morning I had an Adobe training session with Curtis, Steve, and Janet at the church office. I can't want to get my hands on Adobe and just work on stuff. It's the sort of thing where I'll get going on it, look up, and 4 hours have passed. At least that's how I envision it. There are so many cool things you can do and stuff that I can play with that I need to come up with an excuse to shoot video at some point. Saturday afternoon we attempted to clean our messy apartment. It sort of worked. Scott came over and we watched Scrubs. While Scott was here I went to the grocery store and then at the checkout machine realized that I had gone to the store without my wallet. I called JJ and he (my hero!) came with his wallet to pay. My wallet was sitting on the kitchen table at home. Go me. That night we went and picked up this little guy: and his mom from the airport. They had been in Florida on vacation. This picture is over a year old. I have new ones, they're just not on the computer. Sunday morning we got up and went to the early service, then I went to the gym. I have been very good about the gym lately, working out an hour or more 5 times a week, and I'm hoping I'll see the results soon. After the gym I went BACK to the church to teach the 11:45 session of hopetown. I had in my class 5 rambunctious little girls. So much fun. Sunday afternoon we got courier bags from newhope with all kinds of neat stuff and then we had dinner. So maybe "not as busy" isn't quite true but it was definitely not as busy as we thought it was going to be.

Posted by Mrs. Cooper at 4/10/2006 11:48:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Last night I watched my first ever baseball game on TV. It actually aired on Wednesday Was it as boring as I thought it was going to be? Not really. Was it as exciting as I would hope? No. But it was a learning experience. I knew what the types of pitches were (or at least knew 4 of them) but now I can spot the difference between a slider and a fastball. The radar helps. And of course having a husband who knows the game backwards and forward helps, too. He showed me how the different pitches are different by using an orange from our fridge. It was fun. The Cards led the Phillies for a large portion of the game 3-1 and then in the bottom of the 8th the Phillies tied it up. The Cards pulled ahead by 1 in the 9th and the win. I'm learning. It's fun. There's another series this weekend - against the Cubs. We'll be watching that, too, I'm sure.

Posted by Mrs. Cooper at 4/07/2006 08:31:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

I had pre-ordered the latest Rascal Flatts album on iTunes and while I love CDs I had a gift certificate left from my birthday so I used it. It's good. It's just ... a little bit depressing. It's all about the one that got away and how much it hurts and how much he misses her. It's good though. They're definitely still one of my favorite bands. In other news I was browsing the Vera Bradley site (can you tell I have an unhealthy interest in these bags? Look at what Jennifer's cute little bag did to me) and THIS one is my new favorite: This weekend it's Festival of Hope at our new land ("our" being the church's, not like mine and JJ's) and lots and lots of cleaning. Our place is a total disaster. My life is not that interesting. :-) I Tivo'd the Cardinals game last night. I haven't watched it yet. I'm waiting for JJ. He is, after all, the baseball expert.

Posted by Mrs. Cooper at 4/06/2006 02:08:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

3 years ago I never would have said these bags were cute. And on top of that, I probably would have scoffed. A friend of mine had one of these the other day and I saw how cute and useful they were. Here's my top three favorites. The handbag: The bucket tote: And my personal favorite, the hobo bag: Aren't they cute? And useful? I don't need another bag at the moment - JJ got me a great bag for my birthday. But maybe I'll stash this away as a Christmas or birthday thing for a ways in the future. I like all the blue ones and the big bucket tote thing might be too big but the hobo is about perfect. Who knew that I would ever want this kind of bag? But I want to get one. Eventually.

Posted by Mrs. Cooper at 4/05/2006 09:17:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

I borrow stuff from my very good friend Sabrina's blog a lot ... but she borrows stuff from mine, too, sometimes. On Sabrina's blog everyone played "5 of Sabrina's favorite things" ... sooo let's play on this blog, too! In the comments, list 5 of Angela's favorite things. On your mark .... get set .... GO!

Posted by Mrs. Cooper at 4/04/2006 04:50:00 PM | Permalink | Comments