Jessica Kopp

Get Away

road trip. zion. family. hiking. swimming. eating. laughing. enjoying. loving.

Give it a try

I'm so proud of my little Sydney-Lou. In the past few months she has been extremely brave and conquered two of her biggest fears: swimming and bike riding. To most kids these are no brainers, but Syd isn't a risk taker. She likes things to be nice and safe.

She's been thinking about riding a 2-wheeler for over 3 years. I've run up and down the street over a thousand times holding onto her seat to steady her. And don't get me started on the number of tears that have been shed on the edge of a swimming pool. The last 2 times I've signed her up for lessons she's just sat on the edge and splashed her feet in the water. There was no actually getting in, getting wet or swimming.

But something clicked this spring and she is a new woman. She's trying new things. She taking risks. She is giving things a try. And because of this she has learned that swimming isn't scary (if you have goggles) and riding a bike is a piece of cake (once you learn about brakes). She is in swimming lessons right now and is bobbing, floating and swimming like a pro. She has also fallen in love with pedaling. She always wants to go on a bike ride to the park and squeezes in a couple laps around the neighborhood everyday.

 

 Congrats Syd on your new found adventurous spirit. I'm excited to see what you tackle next.

Abby vs. Culver - Round 2

As many of you know, Culver wasn't very nice to Abigail last year. Besides having a HORRIBLE case of home sickness, she was in and out of the infirmary weekly with injury after injury. She fell off a horse, sprained her ankle (twice), ran into a tree, got a concussion, got stung by a bee, scraped up her nose and finally had to be checked out of camp 4 days early after she got impetigo all over her face. It was a rough summer. 

At first Abby swore to never return, and then she decided to just take a year off, and finally it was "I can't wait to see all my friends this summer." I have to admit I was very impressed when she told Derek and me that she wanted to go back to Culver. Last summer is easily the hardest thing she has ever done in her life and yet she was willing to give it another try. She is a very brave girl. She told us that this summer is Abby vs. Culver, round 2, and this year she was going to WIN.

I sure hope she is right. This mamma can't handle another summer like last year. I want to get happy, cheerful letters and I don't want to have weekly calls with the doctors and nurses on staff. She can't have that horrible of a summer twice, right??

Culver started today and I can just feel that this year is going to be great. Yesterday when Abby flew out she was full of hope and excitement. She was excited to meet new and old friends, eat the amazing food and spend tons of time on the lake.

Good luck miss Abby. You will be missed every single day, but I know you are having an amazing experience. Be good and please, please, please be safe! Love you!

Sisters

I woke up this morning to the sounds of sisters. Giggling. Whispering. I laid in bed smiling and soaking it in. To celebrate Abby's last night before Culver, Sydney had camped out on Abby's floor. They were trying to cram as much togetherness as possible into the short time left. I love the relationship these two are developing. It is full of fights and tears, but it is also sweet and kind. They really do love each other and are going to deeply miss each other over the summer.

Vroom, Vroom

Evan is obsessed with cars. He LOVES them. Big ones, small ones, fake ones, real ones...he doesn't care. He wants to be playing and riding with them all. He calls them "vroom, vrooms." 

He loves to stand in the drivers seat of my car and turn the steering wheel, push the buttons, honk the horn and make the windshield wipers go one and off. He got a race track for Christmas and it is the most played with toy in our house. He especially loves the cars his grandpa just got him at a yard sale for $.25. They can go by themselves, make real car sounds and have flashing lights.

Recently he was introduced to the massive and hard-to-maneuver car carts at the grocery store. From the second he sees the grocery store sign he starts kicking his feat and saying over and over again "vroom, vroom mommy, vroom, vroom mommy." We aren't always able to get one, but when we do he is in heaven. He likes to steer both wheels at the same time and he always pretends to honk the horns. I love how excited he gets, but I don't like how easily he can escape every time I stop to look at something.

Let's Get Dirty

I'm not quite sure what possessed me to challenge my neighbors to join me in running the Dirty Dash, but I'm so glad I did! I think if you are going to torture yourself with all that running, you might as well be doing something fun and adventurous along the way.

There is nothing better than a group of grown women, mothers and wives acting like a bunch of little kids tackling each other, doing canon balls and throwing fistfuls of mud. My girls thought I had lost my mind. And little Evan was completely scared of his crazy, dirty mommy.

I knew we would get some mud on us, but I didn't totally understood exactly how MUCH MUD we we would be covered in when it was all said and done. It was up our noses, matted in our hair, smashed in our ears, and caked to our clothes. Poor Renee's eye was caked completely shut with mud. Darci got a big old mouth full of dirt and grass. Brandi and Shana were struggling to keep their pants up. Daniella, Kristen and I kept the shower caps on for as long as possible, but we still ended up with brown goopy mud soaked hair.

Here is a group shot of us before the race. Don't we look all clean and shiny. Here we are acting so grown up and responsible.

Who would have guessed that by mile 3, after scaling walls, crawling through tubes, being shot with fire hoses and crossing rivers we would be acting and looking like this.

Here we are after the race. I love how happy everyone looks in this photos. We really truly had a fantastic time.

After the adults it was time for the Piglets to get a change. Abby was really excited. Sydney not so much. Derek was a good sport and went along as the adult supervision. They only had to run about a mile, but it sure didn't stop them from getting as muddy as the rest of us.

ps: Sorry for the rapid decline in blog posts lately. Looks like I've gone and gotten myself pneumonia. I'm sure it had NOTHING to do with running and playing in the mud. Nothing at all!

 

Today

• I bought the best bright pink pinstriped scrub pants at the DI. A $3 score!  (I'm wearing them right now.)

• Evan had pizza for breakfast. He calls it "peza." It's his favorite.

• Abby had her last day of 5th grade. She is officially a 6th grader! 

• Dinner was leftover pasta. 

• Sydney put on her lawyer hat and argued the fact that being grounded from her iphone is NOT the same thing as being grounded from an old ipod. She was very disappointed when she lost.

• Derek snuck in a few minutes of band practice at work today. He still wants to be a rock star when he grows up.

• I didn't get the 'official' dress code memo at work and showed up in hot pink, while everyone else was wearing black. I didn't stand out at all! 

• Evan was laughing hysterically over the smell of his watering can. Not sure why it was so funny to him, but we were all busting up watching him busting up. 

• Before bedtime all 5 of us were snuggled up in our bed. It might be time for a King.

• I picked up my first ever race packet. The Bull River Babes are going to do awesome on Saturday at the Dirty Dash. I know I'm looking forward to mud up my nose and in my ears. 

• Derek is killing me at Words With Friends. You should not be allowed to play a 63 point word on the first round.

Boys and Bras

The night before Abby turned 10 I made her promise to not start turning into a teenager with emotions and hormones and craziness. Abby reassured me that going 'double-digits' didn't mean any of that was going to happen and promised that she wouldn't start acting like a teenager until she was at least 13. She informed me that ages 10, 11 and 12 don't have 'teen' in them, therefore she wasn't officially a teenager. I could totally get on board with that plan. It gave me 3 more years of normal.

What I overlooked about her turning 'double-digits' has nothing to do with hormones. My little girl is growing up. Plain and simple. She wants and likes grown-up things. She still plays with barbies and watches cartoons, but she is also wearing deodorant and dangly earrings. She now cares about brands of clothes, going to the mall, painting her nails and how perfect her hair is twisted.

I am okay and adjusting nicely to all of this, but recently we have started into new territory..... boys and bras. She has a total crush on a boy in her class and everyday I get to hear a story about something he said, something he did or how funny he is. I don't even know where to start on the bras. I was totally and complete embarrassed when I started wearing one....Abby is the exact opposite. We bought some this weekend and the first thing she did when she walked in the door from the store was show and tell her dad all about them. I wish I had a photo of Derek's face...it was priceless. He was trying so hard to be "super excited" she got one with polk-a-dots and another one with plaid! Poor guy.

I love my Abby and I'm excited to see her growing and maturing. But I'm always going to miss my little girl who used to run around in Tellatubby underwear and slippers with tiny little pigtails. 

I'm a little scared for what is coming next. Any experienced moms out there willing to give me a heads up?