Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Mom Vs. Dad

Okay, I don't know what it is. I'm sure most moms can relate. What is the difference between mom and dad? Why do the kids behave so much better for daddy? Allow me to present my case:

The following are pictures representing the
girls' behavior around MOM when I'm trying to shower or clean the house


EXHIBIT A: Sylvie gets into things and shares them with Chloe.
Nice gesture, but is it okay for the baby to eat? Usually not.



EXHIBIT B: Sylvie brushes Chloe's hair/eyes.


EXHIBIT C: I try to put them down for a nap and Sylvie
climbs into Chloe's bed. I don't have pictures of Sylvie trying
to suffocate Chloe or nearly jumping on her head or stomach. But
I have to make sure I check up on these two regularly or somebody is going to die.
Seriously!


EXHIBIT D: Sylvie gets on my mucho expensivo keyboard that I used to
write music on back in my "I'm going to be a rockstar" days. I know I'm
not really doing anything with it NOW, but it cost a lot of money and I might
still try to be a rockstar someday. Anyway, she LOVES to crawl up on this thing,
throw off the cover, turn it on, plug in some earphones. Yeah. She knows what she's
doing just a little too well. It scares me.


EXHIBIT E: She gets into John John's room, which is a big NO-NO
and gets his goggles on and comes to me to rescue her because they
"Won't come off, mommy. Need help".

Then there's daddy. I leave the girls with him so I can go
out and get some errands run. And what do they do the entire
time?

Kick back. Sit on his lap.

Watch Mike Portnoy drumming videos all night long.

I can't get them to sit still for 2 minutes and watch a CARTOON with me, but they'll sit and watch instructional drum videos with dad. THANKS A LOT, KIDS!!!!

Sunday, December 9, 2007

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Today is our 3rd anniversary. I know that at our age, we should be celebrating more years together, but it took us a long time to find each other. A lot has happened in three years. I think we're living our lives in fast forward because what we've been through takes most people at least twice as long, I think.

To recap, Bertrand and I married at first sight. I picked him up at the airport and we went and got married right then. It's a little bit more responsible than it sounds, but we both took a major leap of faith. What immediately followed was rough. I immediately became pregnant, Bertrand was desperately trying to find a job, and major health problems set in for Bertrand. We nearly lost the condo I had purchased as a single mom, so we quickly sold it, paid off our debts, and started out fresh in Queen Creek. Queen Creek brought us another unexpected, but wonderful surprise, another daughter. The health problems grew increasingly worse for Bertrand, and the finances were barely hanging on by a thread. Our fresh start was quickly becoming a nightmare.

After two years of trying to make it work and trying to find a way back into the housing market, we realized it was time to start out fresh yet again somewhere else, so we quickly picked up and moved back to Mesa. We rented a little old house thinking it would give us an opportunity to save money, living in something smaller and closer to Bertrand's work. We were wrong. Because the house is so old, it's not insulated well and the utility bills are actually higher than they were in our Queen Creek rental that was nearly twice this size.

Now we're dealing with trying to get Bertrand a permanent Visa so that he's not deported and taken away from us, his truck continues to break down and cost us thousands of dollars, and I just lost my biggest client this last week, so our money supply has been diminished significantly.

I don't say all of these things to campaign for sympathy. I'm not entering a competition to be the most pathetic. I just look back over the last three years with Bertrand and ponder on what we've been through and marvel that we're still together and that I am feeling closer to him as we trudge through trial after trial.

I look at him and think, "How funny. I married a complete stranger. I really had no idea what I was doing. I just know that I prayed about it and I knew it was the right thing to do. And after all of these years and all of these trials, I feel like I can't imagine going through them with anyone else. And I feel like I've known him my whole life. And I know I married the right man".

I'm so grateful to him for sticking by my side through all of the craziness. I'm so grateful that he's not exactly like me because I've seen how our differences complement each other. When he's up, I'm down and when I'm up, he's down and we just take turns going back and forth, holding each other and saying it's going to be all right. I know that we'll figure out a better plan for our family and that life won't always be as rough as it has been, but I feel at this point that Bertrand and I can handle pretty much anything.

Now, our next order of business - getting to the temple to be sealed. It would be a shame to lose all that we've built up together. I want to be sealed to him and our children for all eternity. I look forward to that day with great anticipation when we can kneel across the altar and take each other's hands and look into each other's eyes and know that we will be together forever no matter what.

My darling man has no money and he's so frustrated about that. All he could afford were these flowers. Well, that's the way HE put it. They're beautiful. I love them.

One of the most romantic things he ever did for me occurred the day I was having a breakdown. The girls were difficult, the house looked like a tornado had blown through and had looked that way for months, I never had time for myself and I was looking ragged and haggard, and we were just getting ready to move out of this big, beautiful Queen Creek house so I was trying to slowly get it packed and cleaned on top of dealing with two babies and working a full time job. One morning I was upstairs working, Chloe was asleep and Sylvie was being really quiet. I decided to go downstairs and see what she was up to. Somehow she had found something black (looked like permanent marker) and had drawn all over a patch of carpet in heavy black marker. I lost it. I completely lost it. After disciplining Sylvie, cleaning her up and putting her into bed, I got to work trying to wash out the black. It wouldn't come out. Wouldn't even fade in darkness. I bawled my eyes out and called Bertrand in a panic. I could barely talk on the phone, I was hyperventilating and crying so hard. One of my friends wanted to take me to a movie for my birthday that day and I called her up and said that I couldn't go. I could barely get THOSE words out. I was so upset, I was beside myself.

My friend insisted on picking me up anyway. Bertrand asked over the phone what he could do to help me. I said, "Nothing. There's nothing you can do. The damage is done. We'll just have to try to figure out a way to get this out later. I'm going with Amanda. I have to get out of here for a little while". I went to the movie with my friend and practically cried my way through the movie. I was under so much stress and so exhausted from the girls and my job and the overwhelming size of that house. I returned home from the movies and my friend, Amanda, asked if she could come in and help me clean the house. I said, "No. I don't want you to see it. It's awful. I'll do it. I feel better after getting out for a while. I can do this, but thanks anyway". She gave me that "are you sure" look and I said, "I'm fine. Really".

I got out of her car, walked up to the door, opened it, walked in and saw flowers on the table. My first thought was, "Oh my gosh! Who's been in my house?" I walked over to the flowers. They were all I could see. My heart was pounding. I was actually scared. lol. Then I saw a letter folded up underneath them. I opened it and read it. It was from my husband. It was the sweetest letter I have ever received from him. I will cherish it forever. He said that he had come home and cleaned the house. I dropped the letter to my side and looked around, my jaw hanging open. I hadn't even noticed. The house was straightened up and vacuumed. I picked the letter up and finished. He said that he hoped this little bit would help me. He said not to worry about the marker. He would figure out how to get it out. He told me he loved me and that he was so sorry that things were so difficult lately. I collapsed into a heap on the ground and cried. Just to help anyone reading this understand how big of a deal that was, he drove at least an hour to get home, spent an hour cleaning the house, and then drove another hour back to the job site, at which point he was extremely behind on work, so it put stress on him to get everything done. That was one of the most romantic things I had ever seen! I started to question whether or not I would have gone that above and beyond for him. I honestly don't know, but I feel forever indebted to him.

I am excited that we've made it this far and I'm excited to see what the future has in store for us. We can do this! I know we can! I love you, Bertrand.

Monday, December 3, 2007

'MOM'ing It!

Apparently there is a new phrase out there amongst pre-teens and possibly teens and also possibly it's not new, but just new to me as I officially own a pre-teen. There are a lot of products out there and it's difficult to tell sometimes what was intended for adults and what was intended for teenagers. There's a fine line - sometimes so fine I tend to cross it a little too often without realizing. I now have a pre-teen to keep in my place with his new phrase, "Oh, you totally mom'd that!"

Here are a few of the things I have recently MOM'd:


MOM'd it!



Totally MOM'd it!



It's an aMOMination!


So MOMalicious!


MOM'd it BIG TIME along with the sequel and still MOM it on a daily basis! Not kidding here, people.


Attempting to MOM it as you read this! (Oh yes! All you Twilight lovers! It's Bella's bracelet. Uh huh! And I'm MOM'ing it right now and it feels so good!)

And the list goes on. So, all of you moms out there. Be careful with your choices. Some of these things were NOT intended for you. So quit MOM'ing them!!!!! You're upsetting the teenagers!


Sunday, December 2, 2007

Try Walking In My Shoes

You know, sometimes we look at other people and we think, "They seem to have it so good. Why can't I have what they have?" And usually we're learning these lessons in our adulthood or teenage years.


But in the Coppee family, we're a little more advanced. My darling Chloe at the tender age of 10 months learned a very important lesson - Sylvie may be able to walk and run on her own, but having to push you in that little doll stroller is no walk in the park. Chloe thought life was so much better for Sylvie, but after having to push her around the house in that thing, I think she's glad she's the younger sister making all of the demands - getting the free rides.

Practical Use For Beef Jerky #182

Teething!

The flavor is delish! And the teeth can't quite cut through so baby won't choke. It's perfect. Thank you, beef-jerky-maker-people, for creating the perfect resolution to the universal teething problem.

Okay, for those of you paying attention, you're probably thinking to yourself, "Wait a minute. I swear Chloe is looking younger now than the last set of pictures".

This picture is a few months old, but I just came across it and I love it, so I had to post it.

The Good Thing About Having Girls 15 Months Apart


I say "The good THING" because there's only one good thing about girls that close in age (in my opinion) and that is that you can dress them the same and pretend they are twins! YAY!

Oh, there's plenty more where that came from. Stay tuned! Walmart was having a sale and my girls will be wearing the same thing for like the next year! Oh yeah!

Let The Snowman Do The Disciplining!

Sylvie has suddenly taken it upon herself to discipline Chloe now. I suppose it's her way of taking the focus off of herself and all of her "naughty pants" stunts. This evening as I was cooking dinner, Chloe pulled one of her new moves, she grabbed a bag of animal crackers, bit it open and dumped it on the floor. Sylvie gasped and said, "No COEEEEE!" Then I glanced over and saw Sylvie kicking at Chloe's head. Not quite reaching it (she was cursed with my stubby legs), but certainly trying - inching a bit closer with each kick, trying to deliver a good one right to Chloe's left temple. I shouted, "Sylvie, no! Don't you kick your baby sister! That's naughty pants!"


Sylvie's no dummy. She figures, "Okay, I can't discipline Chloe, but maybe this stuffed, life-size snowman CAN!" She just looked at me defiantly and waited for me to turn back to the stove. Then I peeked over out of the corner of my eye and saw her pick up this stuffed snowman. She carried him to the scene of the crime and said, "Wook Snowman! C0-ee do dat". Then she started speaking for this snowman. She made the snowman gasp and say (in a deep voice). "Oh no. Co-ee naughty. Her gets spankin".


Then she marched over to Chloe with the snowman and took a hold of its movable arm and wagging the arm at Chloe she said (in a deep voice - speaking for the snowman) "Co-ee! NO! NO! Want spankins? Huh? Okay".

At this point Chloe looked over at me with that "Mom, HELP ME!" look. Poor baby. Don't worry. I stepped in. I got down on my knees and looked Mr. Snowman right in his beady little button eyes and said, "Mr. Snowman, I'm the mom, not you. Chloe is just a baby. I'll clean it up. Now you go play and leave Chloe alone".

Sylvie's a smart little thing. She's always scheming. I hope that pays off for her someday. For now, it's good for a laugh.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

News Flash

A post with no pictures? I'm getting crazy now.

Well, the time has arrived in my life when my career is taking a nosedive and I'm at a crossroads. Time to make some decisions. I have decided to go back to school. After months of researching and trying to figure out what I want, I have finally come to the conclusion.

I will be attending Southwest Institute of Healing Arts and working towards a master massage practitioner degree with an emphasis on hypnotherapy and holistic medicine. It's the closest I can get to being a doctor. I can't deal with invasive techniques. Needles and blood scare me.

So, it will pretty much be like attending a university, as I will be in school for quite a while. But I'm really excited. This is something I'm very passionate about and that's what is going to get me through these next few years. My end goal is to open my own private practice. My own healing spa. I'm really excited!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Good morning!


Ever wonder what mornings look like in the Coppee household? Let me just clear up that mystery right now.

Do I Scare You?


So, it was Halloween night and I was getting the kids ready to go to my parents' house for trick-or-treating and I decided to be a vampire with my son. I put on my makeup first and then got ready to do John's, but the girls were screaming and my husband wasn't home, so I decided to get them over to my mom's quick for some help.

I sat down on my mom's couch to try and feed Chloe a bottle and she reached her little hand up and smeared the blood-red lipstick off my face and all around my mouth. Nice. Now, you're probably wondering - where are the cute pics of your kids in their costumes? They don't exist. My kids do not like Halloween. My girls are not interested in wearing their adorable $40-a-piece costumes that I ordered six weeks before Halloween and then called my friend and asked her to do some professional pictures of (that won't happen). The first night I tried to put the costumes on, it was a screaming wrestling match. They hated them. And John wasn't in the mood to do Halloween because he just got braces and he can't eat candy. I finally talked him into some vampire make-up, but the second he got back from trick-or-treating at like 8 houses, he ran into the bathroom and washed it off quick.

So....you're stuck with a freaky picture of me. AND just to make matters worse, later that night at home, I hadn't had a chance to wash this stuff off yet and my husband, who was standing about 5 feet from me, said "Oh, you washed your make-up off already" and I was like, "Ummm....no I didn't actually. Are you teasing me?" And he was like, "No. It looked like you took it off" and I was like, "You know what? You're a jerk".

Recall Notice

This is an important announcement regarding a recent product recall. It's the Sylvie-Faye GMC (Gretchen Marie Coppee) 2005. This product has been known to malfunction on a regular basis. Circuits in this model are known to jam up causing the robot child to kick and scream uncontrollably in excess of 30 minutes continuously. This product was recently tested in an LDS church nursery and after one hour, was immediately returned indefinitely.

So, Sylvie-Faye threw an absolute fit in nursery on Sunday in our new ward. And I took Chloe with me to go check and see if she was behaving. As I approached the peep hole to have a look, the door flew open and one of the sisters in the ward was wrestling with my daughter and made the comment, "Oh my gosh. If this kid is in our ward now, I'm going to scream". I was so offended, but kept my cool, retrieved my daughter, and brought the demon child home.

When I asked her why she was being naughty in nursery, I got her usual response:



Naughty little robot.

The Family Dog


We can't have real pets because it's against the lease terms. And also Bertrand and I can't agree on what to get anyway. So, Sylvie-Faye volunteered (it gets her out of the house) and John was more than happy to take the new dog on its morning walks (he thinks it's hilarious and I have to remind him that tormenting his sister by pulling on the leash and preventing her from walking forwards, which results in a high-pitched, ear-piercing scream, is not acceptable). Now, I know the dog looks a little mangy, but the care of this creature has improved since this picture and I promise an update real soon.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Our Deep Dark Family Secret REVEALED!


This is a really tough thing to admit, but (drum roll please) we are not photogenic. We just aren't. What can I say? My daughter, Chloe, is a beautiful baby, but you're never gonna see that on this blog. She's not liking the camera.

I don't even know what to say about this one. I mean - what is this? It's like she's playing charades and the answer is "baby pig fetus pickled in a jar".


Ugh! See what I mean? My girls are so cute in the morning - laying there drinking their milk, watching Jo Jo's Circus. But, you're just gonna have to come over at 6:00 AM and see for yourself.

Charades


Okay, if you can guess what she's doing here, you win the game! Hint: She's not sleeping.

Give up? She's eating. Yes, eating. Studies have shown that this position helps the food digest better. We're a very forward-thinking family.

All Grow'd Up


Just another day at the office. We need money and she's old enough to type, so we put her to work for us.


She also dresses herself. It's great. I don't really have to do anything for her anymore.


Sometimes she malfunctions, though, like this time when I said, "Go sit at your table, honey. I'm bringing you breakfast" and she sat underneath it.

Dream Theater


This band was so amazing! They actually blew up at the end! This is what happens when there are crazy lighting effects and you try to take a picture of it. This is my husband's MOST FAVORITE-IST band of all time. Dream Theater. This is what my husband aspires to. He will be the next Mike Portnoy.

John's 11th Birthday



Okay, first of all I would like to say that I have been super busy and have fallen WAY behind on blogging. Is anybody out there even looking? Does anybody care? Probably not, but I'm apologizing anyway....to cyberspace. My sister, Sonia, told me she needs to come over and get me blogdafied because my blog is boring. I don't have a cool background and music and stuff jumping out at you when you enter. She's gonna get me cool again. What am I saying? AGAIN? Yeah. What I meant was cool at last.

Now, about John's birthday. Because I am the coolest mom in the UNIVERSE I stayed up until 1:00 AM blowing up balloons and sneaking them into his room while he snoozed away. I had no help. Bertrand was at a concert with his buddies, so I stayed up trying to figure out how to surprise John. I think Sylvie enjoyed the balloons more. I tried to get a picture of John surrounded by balloons, but it wasn't happening for me.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Sylvie's New Doll



Sylvie loves pushing things around in her stroller, but I guess she got tired of her kitty and baby doll, so she tried to pick Chloe up and put her in the baby stroller. Of course, Chloe is too heavy, so I decided to help the situation and put Chloe in for her. It was kind of scary and I wondered if I did a bad thing because Sylvie is a bit of a "rough and tumble" and she likes to RUN with objects in her stroller. Chloe just giggled. She liked it, but there's no real seatbelt on the thing, so I had to snap some pics quick and then stay close to stop Chloe from perishing in a big crash.

Sharing is Caring


These are my babies sharing a chew toy. Sylvie is a little bit possessive of her former baby items. She climbed into the walker to claim her territory. She's not giving it up so easily to Chloe. Fortunately, Chloe was content to stand on the outside and chew on the toys right alongside Sylvie.

Friday, June 15, 2007

John Plays Along


John is a great big brother. He puts up with a lot. Here he is sitting at a Disney princess table and eating breakfast just to keep his little sister happy. Sylvie-Faye has apparently graduated herself from the high chair and insists on eating at a table, so I bought her this one. She loves it. She wants to eat all of her meals there and sometimes she just sits at it and plays with kitty.

Kitty Kitty Has To Eat Too


My child thinks her "kitty kitty" is real. Meal time has become extremely unpleasant because Sylvie-Faye will throw a huge fit if her kitty doesn't get to eat with her so she can feed it. Kitty ends up getting food and drink all over her and I have to wash her every day. If I try to tell Sylvie that kitty is not real and kitty is getting dirty, she gets mad and screams and fusses for the rest of dinner. Afterwards she wipes kitty clean with a wet wipe.

Friday, June 8, 2007

UH OH!



Sylvie-Faye got a hold of Bertrand's permanent black marker and drew all over herself and a bit on the carpet in her bedroom. Little stinker! As I was coming up the stairs with Chloe, I saw Sylvie-Faye shutting her bedroom door. I put Chloe down for a nap and went and listened at Sylvie's door. She was talking and playing and I thought, "Oh, how sweet. I'll leave her alone and go do some work". A few minutes later she came out of her room and ran up to me saying, "Uh-oh mommy. Uh-oh." She handed me the permanent maker and then hung her head in shame. I'm learning that anytime she's about to do something naughty, she shuts herself in her room.

Visit from Miss Kitty



One morning a couple of weeks ago it was nice and cool outside. A nice change from the heat! So, I opened all of the windows, including the back sliding door, cooked up a nice breakfast and we all sat around the table and enjoyed the morning air. Suddenly we heard a "meow" at the back window. Sylvie-Faye was SO excited! She absolutely loves cats. Whenever she sees a cat she either says, "Mommy, it's a mee-ow" or "Mommy, c'est kitty kitty".

We let her out of her highchair and Bertrand brought the cat in for the kids to pet. Sylvie-Faye was in heaven!

Yes, my men are shirtless. Our standard is down around here. We're working on it. Sorry about that. Just focus on Sylvie and the kitty kitty.

SISTERS


These are my girls just hanging out together. Sylvie-Faye is having a hard time not being the baby anymore. She still wants a bottle occasionally because she sees Chloe taking one and she just wants to lay underneath the baby playground and bat at the little critters too. Chloe loves it. Everytime Sylvie-Faye enters the room, Chloe perks up and smiles and coos to her. One afternoon Sylvie-Faye was trying to climb all over me while I was feeding Chloe. I kept telling her to sit down and I eventually had to physically make her sit, so she started trying to kick at the baby. I pushed her off of the couch and told her that was naughty, so she threw a fit on the ground and just laid there crying. Chloe couldn't drink her bottle. She was so concerned about Sylvie-Faye. She sat up and just stared at Sylvie until she stopped crying.

All About Silver





This is my Silver. She has so much personality and spunk it's hard to keep it under control. She is such a goof! And she has so much determination. She knows exactly what she wants and if you try to stand in her way she either throws a fit or finds another way to accomplish her goals. She loves to be silly and make us all laugh. And she is attached to her stuffed kitty. This picture of her with her kitty is the day we bought "kitty kitty". She can't go anywhere or do anything without her and she especially cannot sleep without her.