Welcome Pepper Priestley!

Mac and I are thrilled to welcome Pepper, our doberman puppy, into our lives! We drove up to Missouri Friday afternoon and picked her out. There were ten puppies and four little girls. Mac picked out Pepper because of her great markings and coloring. Our drive home wasn't too eventful. She sat in my lap the whole way and napped. She would cry a little when she woke up, but would then immediately fall back asleep! We stopped halfway to see if she needed to potty, but no sir.

We got to our house around 9:30 pm. We gave her some food and water and sat her in her crate...she immediately went to sleep! We put a ticking clock by her crate to remind her of her siblings and mothers heartbeat. Several people recommended that we do this. I am no sure if it was the clock, or the stress she had been under, but she slept all night! I made Mac get up to check on her around 4am and this woke her up. He took her outside and she went to the potty! We put her back in the crate and she went to sleep!

This morning we took her to the vet (she weighs 10.2 lbs) and pet store to get some new food. The vet said we need to plump her up a little bit. We stopped at Kroger to get some Pedialyte and then the pet store (again) to buy some powdered milk. Let me tell you...Pepper loved her warm milk/food combo. I think we can fatten her up pretty soon! This afternoon, we have gone on a walk and she is now napping in the shade on the front porch. Fingers crossed that tonight goes as well as last night! Thanks to everyone for all of the love you have sent Pepper's way. We sure think she is precious!

Our Life Lately

Well hello! Yes, Mac and I are still alive..but we sure have been busy! Let me give you a quick rundown of the past two weeks! Mom came to Memphis last weekend. We got her an iPhone on Friday and on Saturday she taught me how to sew! Mac and I are officially getting a puppy, and on Saturday we kind of realized that we were not prepared. With Mom in tow, we went to Hollywood Feed and picked out our puppy basics and then Mom and I made a dog bed!

This week has been hectic too! I had a book club meeting on Monday, Addams Family at the Orpheum on Tuesday, tonight kicks off our Corporate Partner Summit at work, and we get the puppy on Friday. Mac's team got first place in their bowling league on Tuesday, so he was pretty pumped about that. He gets a big trophy next week.

So Friday is the big day! We are driving to pick out our doberman puppy, Basilone. We can't wait to meet her and will be sure to post plenty of photos as soon as we get her home. Wish us luck!

Festival Season

Mac and I kicked off festival season today with Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival in downtown Memphis. Mac was in crawfish heaven!

Surprise! Mac is 30! pt. 2

We had so much fun at Mac's party! I am grateful to everyone for making time in their weekend to attend. I have over 250 photos from the party...thanks Libby and Dad! Here are a few.

Cliff, Lauren, Joe and Kathy

Me and the birthday boy! Notice the ribbon...just to make sure everyone knew he was 30.

Another thank you to Libby!! You were the best party helper ever!

 

Mac's bowling league team members, Darrell and Matt!

(Also our Florida friends! Is it August yet?!)

This is how Mac reacted to the surprise. Just a big wave and a "hello!".

I think this is his real surprise face. It finally sunk in what was going on!

 

Joe, Kathy, mom and me!

 

Rusty and the birthday boy!

At the end of the night, Mac decided to show off his "unique" bowling form.

Again, sorry the photo won't flip. My mom greatly improved her bowling over this two hour period. Check out that form!

 

Me, Mac, Adam and Jessica

We can't wait for their wedding in just a few weeks!

 

Surprise! Mac is 30!

Finally! Almost two weeks later I am getting around to posting about Mac's surprise birthday party! This event is going to be broken up into a few posts. Today's is all about the details! I first started thinking about Mac's 30th about two months ago. I knew we needed to do something big, but wasn't sure what that would be. I toyed with the idea of a skating party or maybe a backyard cookout. Then I realized that Mac's favorite new pastime of bowling would be perfect! And why not make it a surprise!?

 So I began planning (and Pinteresting) to make it a reality. I knew that the bowling alley had delicious pizza, so that took care of the main course, and I could do a whole table of all Mac's favorite foods. The decor had to feature the big 3-0 but not too much frills...because hey, he is a guy and he is 30. 


I have to give a very special THANK YOU to my parents and Libby and Darrell Smith. Without their help setting up and planning, the party wouldn't have happened! Thank you so much! Libby and my Dad also took all of the photos you are going to see below.

 So here is our main table with all of Mac's favorite foods! We had pimento cheese dip, Pancho's cheese dip, pickles, jalapenos, olives, cheese, Oreo balls and fruit pies. I got my lovely blue table cloth at Target, made the banners while in Camden for DeeDee's weekend, and ordered all the balloons at Kroger!

Check out the tray of Mac's favorite snacks! There are also little bowling balls and 30 signs nestled into the snacks!
 

 Here is our bowl of tasty Oreo balls. (Sorry I can't get the photo to flip!) These were a favorite of the party goers.

 Ta-da! Thanks to Muddy's Bake Shop for the fantastic fruit pies. If you know Mac at all, you know that his favorite desserts are pies and cobblers...not cake! We lit them up with Happy Birthday candles and 30 signs! They were SO tasty. Muddy's is known for their delicious cupcakes, but these pies were amazing.

 I made a total of four "Mac is 30" banners for the ball return and the main food table. I also had large "30" signs that went on all of our chairs! For an old bowling alley, I think it made a great party spot for Mac's big day.


Hope you enjoyed all of our party decor. I will be back with some more photos of all the bowling fun!




 

Dee Dee's Weekend

This post is going to take us way back to March! When I uploaded my photos, I realized I never blogged about Dee Dee's Weekend! This year we held the second annual event on March 24th! Mac was riding in a motorcycle rally and Dynelle was in New Orleans, so Jack and I rode to Camden together to celebrate Dee Dee and how awesome she is! Aunt Linda and Jennifer came down from Ohio earlier in the week so we could all be together.

We started the day out with the Cooper tradition of a big breakfast with chocolate gravy. Oh my...how I love chocolate gravy. You can see from the photo below that we require a vat of it to feed our family. What you don't see is that there is still a large pot of chocolate gravy sitting on the stove! Ha!

 

 

 I pretty much spread the delicious gravy on everything on my plate...biscuits, strawberries, bacon, it doesn't matter. It is all tasty.

After breakfast, we just sat around and visited. We always have lots of laughs. Dee Dee celebrated her 93rd birthday on February 14, but hey, when you are 93, why not celebrate again!? We all met up for dinner at Country and Western to celebrate. There were friends, family and people from her church that joined us to celebrate.  I think Dad ordered the cake. I am not sure if you can tell from this photo, but the sucker was huge! We handed out cake to everyone in the restaurant. Haha! After dinner, Jack and I headed back to Memphis.
 

 It was a quick trip, but always worth it to spend time with our awesome family! I can't wait to celebrate again next year!

Starbucks at last!

This post is a day late, but I enjoyed my first Starbucks after Lent on Monday. It was delicious and wonderful as usual.

I spent some time last night uploading photos, so I will have some fun-filled posts in the coming days!

Birthday Fun

I still have yet to upload all of the surprise party photos, but will be doing that soon. For now, here are two iPhone photos from Mac's birthday weekend!

 This is our dinner on Monday, Mac's actual birthday! We decided to stay in and cook. Mac wanted bacon-wrapped filets from Charlie's Meat Market, fried okra, and roasted brussel sprouts...so that is what he got! We had a delicious meal on a beautiful day.

This is a photo of Mac's dessert from Friday. We had dinner at Restaurant Iris with my parents. That place never disappoints. Wow. What a dinner! Mac's dessert was a praline bread pudding and it was fantastic. It was a great way to kick off a weekend of celebrations!

 

Happy Birthday, Mac!

Today is Mac's 30th birthday! We had a great weekend filled with celebrations! My parents came to Memphis and we dined at Restaurant Iris on Friday night(argh! so good!). Saturday we did some work on our back patio area and then...a SURPRISE birthday bowling party for Mac! Tonight we are grilling steaks and cooking brussel sprouts and okra. All are Mac's favorites! As soon as I load them on my computer, I will post photos from the party.

 Happy Birthday, Mac! I look forward to spending many, many more birthdays with you. I love you very much and am blessed to have you in my life! Happy Birthday!