Easter pics

Mark, it was great seeing you, Natalie and Lillianita this past weekend. I'm sorry I was too sick to play with her but I was able to teach her how to blow kisses. Here are a few of our Easter pics, no captions necessary:

Beach party update

James, Mark, Rock,

Due to a scheduling error on my part, we are moving the beach weekend party to an undetermined date. I just looked at the calander and realized that the 22nd of April is the day that Rebekah and I get back from Maui. The thought of trying to host a shindig of that size coming right off a 10 hr flight and skipping a night's sleep would be enough to ruin Rebekah's vacation, so we're going to try to find another weekend that will suit enough people to do it again.

I hope that I can see all of you and your families this weekend.

Peace Byatches!

Fitness update

Mikey, great to hear about your working out! I brag about you all the time to people. I call you the Granite Cooper (but now I'm going to call you Rock Houston). Anyway, I'm still at it too but my diet has gone all to hell of late being that I have to eat in restaurants for all my meals now. Plus, every time I turn around, people are throwing barbeque and pasta at me. Yeah, life sucks. It's delicious but I cannot eat that way and keep from swelling. I'm working on getting an apartment right now so I can go back to cooking for myself again and eat things like chicken breasts and veggies instead of angel hair and garlic bread.

I also missed 3 days in the gym last week for no good reason other than sloth and felt like shit for it. I always feel guilty and sluggish after missing workouts.

You can all probably tell from the picture of me and Erica on the beach that my girth is expanding again, too. Well, to arrest that, this morning I paid penance in my spinning class. My instructor, a very intense and crazy Brazilian dude, must have had a fight with his girlfriend last night because he almost fucking killed us.

Keep it up, dude. Robbie, I read your post about how you're fatter than ever. As painful as your back is, I wouldn't worry about it. Congrats on keeping the on the wagon about the smokes too.

I'm Rock Houston, and I'm all man, baby.

"Rock is back in Houston." Rock . . . Houston. Rock Houston. Mikey, I think we've found your porn star name.

I heard that KLOL had become a salsa station and I'm glad to hear that it's back, even if it is on another point on the dial. I always loved Outlaw Radio and, even though I was never really a fan of Stevens & Pruitt, I missed them after I moved away.

But, the radio must serve the interests of the community at large and apparently, the powers-that-be at Clear Channel thought that 12 salsa stations just weren't quite enough for Houston. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that Clear Channel is headquarted in San Antonio, hmm? Conicidence? I think not.

Rock in Houston is back!

James, i dont know if you were aware, but about 4 months ago while on my morning commute to work I turned my radio to 101 klol for my dose of walton & johnson in the morning show to hear and find what once was klol has turned into a hispanic music station. I thought you might find it intresting because that station was around for what, like 30 years. Clearchannel bagged the rock station. Anyhow, rock is back along with my boys.. W&J on a different station but same staff and music as the former. Cool stuff maynard!

Everything else is going pretty status quo. Work has slowed down for me a lil bit. I actually went hard core cold calling today. Yes the kind where you go into a 6 story building and go door to door, floor to floor. It sucks.

Workouts are going pretty good again. I'm actually getting back into good shape. I've managed to lose about 10 lbs which puts me at about 206. The difference this time rather than a year ago is that Im lifting weights alot more and doing lots of cardio. My eating habits are somewhat "weightwatchers" based. Basically portion control.

Ill see you guys later.

More jax pix!

Since I know you all can’t get enough of me and my beautiful crew, I present for your viewing pleasure, more Cooper family Jacksonville pix!

This is Courtney hamming it up at Megan’s hotel on Jacksonville Beach.




The next is another simply wonderful picture of Courtney taken by Megan (who, as you all know, takes a pretty good picture herself). I like this one so much that I’m beginning to think Megan has some talent as a photographer here.




Here I am just chillin’ on the beach. Want to know why I’m smiling? Well, it because of . . .




. . . this! Here’s Erica getting comfortable on the beach too. Oh yeah, they’re real, fellas.




This one doesn’t really need a comment does it? Just my 2 happy girls having fun in the sun.




Here’s Courtney in the sandbox. She could only play in the sand because . . .




. . . she discovered the hard way that the Atlantic is just too damned cold to play in in March!




And here we are later at Joe’s Crab Shack. Not exactly what you’d call “local flavor” but the weather was great, the beer was cold and the food was good enough.




And the last one, one of my favorites is this self-portrait by Megan. God knows, Meg has a smile that’s bright enough to light up Manhattan but I really like how she just looks into the camera here. What a great photo.

Greetings from North Florida

Hey guys. So it's our one year bloggiversary, huh? Cool.

I know you'll all be surprised to hear this from me but I've had trouble coming up with things to write about. You all know me, in normal times I could fill 2 pages talking about nothing more than the fact that I have nothing to say. Well, there's a lot to say but I just haven't felt compelled to put it down. But, for the sake of posterity, I'll try.

Wow, what an eventful year it's been. Lillian was born and Dad died. Megan's about to graduate high school. Both Mark and I ended our great experiment with Dad rather unhappily (but both wiser for the experience) and now this whole fucking mess with Dad's estate . . . . Jeez, we've all had a big dose of history the last year and it's been, well, eventful to say the least.

We are now looking for a house in Jacksonville and I had Erica the girls down this past weekend to look around. Megan and 2 of her friends came down and stayed on Jacksonville Beach when their plans to go to Padre Island fell through at the last moment. Anyway, we found a few neighborhoods that we really like but the homes there aren’t staying on the market more than 3 to 4 weeks before they’re sold. Real estate is white hot here and it is definitely a seller’s market. I hope I won’t be buying at the top of the market either because I am going to be paying at least $100K more for a house here than I am going to end up selling my house in San Antonio for. For instance, my house in SA just appraised at $175K (I know because we just did a refi a few months ago) and I will bend over and kiss my own ass if I can sell it for that much. The house Erica fell in love with here is listing for $260K. It has slightly less square footage than my house in SA too. Work’s going fine though and we all had a nice time this passt weekend. Here are a few pictures.

Here’s me and Erica on Jax Beach one night. It’s really cool being on the coast and having the beach right there.




Here’s Megan and her friends Cory and Wade. I know what you’re thinking and you can all shut up right now. We have known these boys for the past 3 years and we also know their parents. They’re good kids.




Well, gotta get back to work now. People to meet, claims to deny; you know the drill.

Peace out.

Happy Blogiversary!

So one year huh? James and I started this site as an accountability forum for our training. And I'm happy to report that I am fatter today than ever. I can't help it. I am working harder than I ever have. (which isn't saying much considering my past track record for work ethic) So when I get home, all I want is a glass of wine, dinner and some TV time.

I still haven't had a cigarette this year, with the exception of one time which almost made me puke. So I got that going for me,,,,which is nice.

The past twelve months have been eventful for sure. To name a few:

• Dad's passing.
• Rachal's battle with cancer.
• James, you've changed jobs and are about to relocate to Fla.
• Mark, your new job.
• Lilian's first full year.
• Mike, meeting and falling in love with Molly.
• Rebekah lost both of her grandparents.
• Christian starting junior high.
• Emily just lost her first tooth.
• Megan is about to graduate.

That's a lot of shit for one year.

One Year of Blogging...

I was looking in the archives of this blog. Mike and I joined in this time last year, right after James broke the news to Dad that he was going back to adjusting. It was also right after we learned about Rachel.

To say the least, reading our posts from a year ago was bittersweet. It may as well have been ten years ago... Yall should do it, and then post your reflections.

Hopefully we can preserve this somehow. How would you recommend doing that James?

Just when you thought "Reality TV" was dying out

With all the far reaching (and failing) reality shows that are out there, one would think that this fad may be losing interest in the public eye. Take Fear Factor for example: I can't even get through a commercial for it without nearly dry heaving. I mean, how many times can you see someone dipped in a swimming pool of festering dead rats and cockroaches and forced to eat their way out... no thanks. And the Starlet?? "Don't call us, we'll call you" a la the Donald's "You're Fired"? C'mon. Yup, all signs were pointing to the demise of Reality TV in my opinion.

Notice I said "were". I say that because Mark Burnett is a friggin genious. Have you guys watched The Contender yet? Two words: Awe Some! Seeing Ishe whoop that Baby Face kid was SO sweet. It got me thinking that it's almost too good. Someone HAS to be behind the curtain pulling the strings. Baby Face was an incarnation of Apollo Creed in Rocky I and II. Next we'll see one of the guys at the press conference going "My prediction? .. Pain." Still, it's great fun to watch. Yall should have seen Natalie get into it. We were like Rocky's kids watching him fight on TV in Russia.

I guess Reality is here to stay for a while. You know that The Contender is going to be a franchise.

That's my two cents for the day.

Hey Folks!

W'hapnin? Not too much going on here. It just seems like these weeks are flying by so dang fast. Does anyone else feel that way? Work's got me so busy that the days are over before I know it, then the evenings go by even quicker. My Fridays have been feeling like Wednesdays which is cool... Strange how a 50+ hours feels like a three day a week job.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to coming down with the fam for Easter. Lillian's hair has gotten so long that Natalie had to cut her bangs. They were always down in her face. She cut them a little TOO short though. Now, with the new mullet and the baby gut tummy, she looks like a tiny NASCAR fan.

"Is she hot?" "See for yourself" "Wow, I like her bangs"

Anyone know the flick?

im steppen up

Whats up guys? I'm just chillen here at the house on a monday night, just got in from the gym. I'm in my 3rd week of hitting it relatively hard. Tonight was my 2nd leg workout in as many nights so I'm sure ill be feeling it tommorrow. I feel like im getting my strength back pretty fast. Im at about 210 right now and probably just want to lose maybe about 5lb's but just mainly loseing a lil bit of fat and increasing lean BM. Molly and I are going to PV mexico at the end of the month..... Things go right ill be showing her the oh face ohhhhh ohhhhhhhhhh! Maybe takeing her for a ride on the ol bone rollercoaster! Ha!

It's looking good about her taking the pharmaceutical sales job in houston. She's got one more interview with Warner Chillcott, a speciality pharmaceutical company. She could be here in less than a month. Keep your fingers crossed. Also looks like im going to be moving out of this house in may. Yes, I might once again be OTL. Im looking at some lofts around Westheimer and Voss if that make any sence to you. Anyway, holla back ya heard!

Jeez, this blog's become a ghost town

I think I just saw a tumbleweed blow by too.

Does nobody have anything to say? Nothing? I don't believe it. Mark, I know you've got some things to say about your new job and I KNOW you've got some cute Lillian stories for us. Robbie, you're just being lazy. You've ALWAYS got something to say. Mikey, it's been a month so it's time for us to hear from you.

Here's what's up with us. I am working like a fucking slave in Florida but enjoying it. Erica and the girls are going to come over next week and will stay until the following Wednesday so we can actually get out and look at the city a bit. I don't finish work until it's way past dark on most days so I haven't seen much of the city yet, at least the parts where I think we'd like to live.

The girls are doing well in school too so all in all, we're all well.

Now, who's next?