Jessica Kopp

gobble gobble

 

10 years

On my first day of college, in my very first class, I spotted Derek across the room. 

And the rest is history. 

This fall we celebrated our 10 year anniversary, so tomorrow we are skipping out on the Thanksgiving feasts and jumping on a ship to cruise the Bahamas. We've been through a lot over the years, more then I ever imagined possible, and I'm so excited to get some time together to celebrate our friendship and marriage and toast the next 10 years.

So enjoy the turkey and I'll see you next week, hopefully with a tan.

Aruba, Jamaica ooo I wanna take ya


To Bermuda, BAHAMA come on pretty mama........

dinner at the kopp house

While making dinner tonight I asked Abby to run downstairs and grab me a can of green beans. She appeared several minutes later with a can of corn.  This is the conversation that followed:

me: thanks abby, but I need green beans.

abby: why?

me: because we are having 2 other yellow foods and everything will look better with green on the plate.

abby: i don’t care how it looks. I care how it tastes, and I like corn better

me: but abby. . .

abby: (big eye roll) are we seriously still talking about this?

It might have all looked blah, but Abby was right, it tasted good.

ella bella

I am so in love with this little angel. 

She is tiny, sweet and absolutely perfect.

Thanks Melissa and Rob for letting me torture your new arrival. I promise it won't be the last time.

i'm going to throw her off a mountain

This is the response Derek gave every time anyone asked him what he was going to do for my birthday. Most people assumed he was joking and laughed it off, but he was serious. I turned 30 on September 30th, one month before this little blog existed. It was a big day for me, one I want to always remember, so please bear with me as we visit the past.

******************

Turning 30 was a huge deal for me. I was so excited and had been counting down for months. I was so ready to have a 3 in the front of my age. I know, I'm crazy. Most people dread the day. I've heard so many stories of tears and sadness on the big 3-0. I, on the other hand, was ready to move out of the 20's and into my 30's. According to Oprah, life gets better the older you get?!? I was ready to give it a try.

We live right around the point of the mountain in Utah and every Saturday and Sunday tons of people "throw" themselves off the mountain. I watch them every week and every time I say that that is something I would love to do. I think most people thought I was joking and would never actually do it, but Derek knew I was serious. So on my big day, he made us an appointment.

It was amazing.

And to top off my day, Derek planned a surprise party for me with all my family and friends. I consider myself to be a very observant girl and usually end up finding out about stuff like this and having to do a bad job of pretending not to know. But I honestly had NO IDEA. I was just planning on a regular dinner of Raspberry Cream Soda, Italian Nachos and Chicken Skilletini (my favorite meal) at Carinos, so when the curtain opened and everyone I loved was there, I was not only surprised, but I was speechless. I might have even shed a tear or two.

******************

It was a great day.

Should I jump out of an airplane for the big 40?

friday funday

I had a great day today. I got to spend the whole day with Maddie and Jude, my niece and nephew, while their mom and dad were at the hospital having a new sweet baby girl. We started off the day bright and early at 5:45 and never stopped to take a break. We built and destroyed towers, played games, quacked like ducks, rearranged the pumpkins, watched cartoons, drank apple juice, sang songs, played the piano, colored, drew pictures, ate mickey nuggets, and went to the dollar store. Can you think of any better way to spend a day?

I'm exhausted:)

goodbye abigail, you will be missed

Last week while cleaning Abby's room I came across this letter.

It reads:

I have disided to runaway. I hope you are ok with that.

p.s. thank you for disnyland!

Love, Abby

p.s.s. I will miss you

p.s.s.s. Don't come and get me. I love you.

I had two very different reactions to this letter. First, I was sad. The letter broke my heart. What had happened that had made Abby feel that she wanted to runaway? And second, I laughed. This girl cracks me up. I love how she thanks us for taking her to Disneyland, right before telling us to not come and get her. At least she remembered to say thank you.

Abby has had kind of a couple of hard weeks. She has spent a lot of time in her room thinking about decisions and how we can make better ones. I've decided she is just too smart for her own good. She can easily read a situation and likes to take advantage of what she sees. She knows what buttons to push on her sister and can get her screaming in seconds, without even touching her. And then she can effortlessly argue that none of it was her fault. She is the girl who walks toward her sister swinging her arms wildly in circles and then claims it was Sydney's fault for getting hit by them. Derek is convinced she is going to be a lawyer. She wants to be a vet, so maybe an animal rights activist???

I did talk to Abby about the letter and she said she was just having a sad day. She decided she just wanted to be by herself, so she was going to runaway to the corner of the yard and live behind the big green utility box. She already had a tent set up there, so it made perfect sense to me.

Since finding this letter I've tried really had to put a lot of effort into pointing out the good things she does and not always focusing on the bad. She is such a sweet girl and life just wouldn't be as fun or entertaining without her around.

I love you too Abby.

thanks stacy

Imagine my surprise when I came across this during my morning ritual of blog stalking.

It totally took me by surprise. Stacy's blog is one of my favorite spots to check everyday and I'm so honored she took the time to say such nice things. Thanks Stacy for all the kind words and Hi! to all of Stacy's friends.

10 things tuesday

1: There is nothing worse then going grocery shopping on a Friday night to Walmart with your kids and getting pulled over by a cop at the bottom of a hill for speeding. I tried it last weekend and wouldn't recommend it. The kids, on the other hand, will think it is great and be totally fascinated with the flashing lights, gun and flash light in your face. They will also jump out of their seat belts, before the cop can see they had them on, so you will be warned and lectured on seat belt safety.

2: Sydney screamed for 30 minutes before school today about not going to school, which resulted in me carrying her out to the carpool screaming in my face, while in my purple robe and slippers, in front of my 2 neighbors' husbands. HI GUYS! I then very lovingly, with a I'm going to kill you smile plastered to my face, told Trent he had my permission to just push her out at the curb at school.

3: Derek's brother Johnny is coming to town this week to record Derek's band. So basically I will be a single parent all weekend. I love my husband the rock star.

4: And while on the topic of family, Melissa, Derek's sister, is having her baby this weekend. I'm so excited, I love newborn babies. And if everything goes according to plan and she gets induced on Friday morning, we will be having a sleepover Thursday night with Maddie and Jude. My girls are ecstatic, but are sure going to be mad when I make them go to school Friday morning.

5: The most exciting thing has happened at our house this past month, Abby has decided that reading is cool. It has always been a battle to get her to finishing her readying every night, 20 minutes always seemed like HOURS to her. But something has recently clicked and she begs us to keep her light on at night and read another chapter. Who can say no to that?

6: I hate buying new boots, gloves and coats every year. Why do the girls have to keep out growing them and why do they have to be so expensive? We stopped at 2 stores last night looking for a "light blue" coat for Abby and the cheapest one we found was $48. OUCH! The boots where $25 and I didn't even buy anything nice or fancy.

7: We recently split the girls up and put them in separate bedrooms and I have been amazed at the amount of fighting/yelling/bickering that has gone away. Don't get me wrong, we still fight constantly and now they each have their own door to slam, but for some reason I feel more love at home with everyone not so close together all the time.

8: We had some huge deadlines at work last week so I headed into the office 4 days last week. I'm so glad I'm back to only 2 days this week. I forgot how much I hated the commute. Some days it took only 15-20 minutes, while on other days it took closer to an hour. The only upside was I got to do a lot of catching up with family and friends. Before when I drove to the office 3 or 4 times a week with an hour+ commute I did a lot of talking in the car while I was by myself and it was quiet. I have really missed that. Thanks everyone for keeping me sane and chatting with me last week.

9: Derek and I are in the Marriage and Family class at church. We have been talking about Love Languages and we took a test to see what language we spoke in. I was off the chart in the "do" category. Does that surprise anyone? So basically the more things that get done, the more loved I feel. My sweet husband took this to heart this week and has gone out of his way to get things off his "Jessica List." He painted Abby's bedroom, cleaned the garage, fixed the Christmas lights, hauled stuff out of the basement, put groceries away, and helped me return stuff to IKEA. I wonder if all this doing has anything to do with #3 on my list today?

10: Sydney and her friends made a snowman last week and she asked me last night why I hadn't posted a picture of it yet. So here it is. She was so proud that they made it without any grownups help. Enjoy.

murder high: class of '85

Darci and I hosted a 80's themed murder mystery party Saturday night. It was hilarious. We assigned parts and everyone came dressed up 80's style, complete with big hair and loud clothes. We had every group of high school covered: jock, bully, geek, cheerleader, flirts, drama, student-body officer, prom royalty, valedictorian, journalism, hall monitor, and band. Thanks everyone for coming and making it such a fun evening.