For those who doubt the power of the Cooper:
Last night, we went to Ikea and bought a bookshelf I’ve been looking at for months. At about six feet tall and with 16 compartments, it’s huge- I have a lot of books. The cost of shipping was almost as much as the cost of the shelf itself, so we decided to measure Ace and see if she could handle it (For those who don’t know, my car’s name is Ace). It looked good in theory, but would it work? We headed down there, grabbed the shelf, and pulled up the car.
About 5 minutes and several sounds of laughter from the other customers, it totally fit! I could even shift, see out the back window, and see all my blind spots. Boone was squished against the from window a bit, but not too terribly.
Here’s some photos for those out there still doubting- I know I won’t be anymore. 🙂

Boone here. Jess and I recently returned from our wonderful honeymoon on the island of Oahu, Hawai’i.

It was Fabulous!!!

We spent about 10 days enjoying the many sites and sounds that Hawai’i has to offer. A few of our favorite activities included:

• Spending time with co-workers at a Buddhist temple
• Eating Pancakes in a plantation city at the base of a 13,000 foot volcano, Mauna Loa
• Eating sushi by Kuhio Beach for two days
• Strolling on a Black Sand Beach on the Big Island of Hawai’i
• Surfing at the birthplace of surfing, Waikiki Beach
• Standing atop the home (volcanic crater) of the volcano god, Pele in the Volcano National Park
• Seeing ancient Petroglyphs carved into the volcanic rock in the Big Island desert
• Climbing to the summit of a dormant military volcano site, Diamond Head, on Oahu
• Spending 7 hours enjoying the Polynesian Cultural Center
• Walking through a Lava Tube hidden within the Big Island’s Rainforest

Stay tuned for more pictures and stories from our adventure in Hawai’i.

So, we just attended our cousin Carrie’s wedding this past weekend and it was the last wedding of our summer (whew!). It turned out beautiful and it was so good to be a part of their day. I was amazed at how different all the weddings we went to this summer were. I was kinda worried that it would get old, and all our family would be bored, but each of them was wonderful and I think everyone had a great time.

Carrie and Mark head to Italy for their honeymoon after this and it will be weird not to see them and talk about wedding stuff. It’s kind of weird not to be talking about wedding stuff period, but think of all the free time (and money) we will have. Hmmm….. You can see some pictures of Carrie’s wedding on our pictures page.

Isn’t technology wonderful!? We already have our wedding pictures back and I found a great way to share them with everyone. It’s a web site called Shutterfly and it allowed you to create online albums and collections. The best parts- you can add pictures to the albums, order prints from them, or even just right-click and copy the image to your computer. How cool! The NY Times did a great article on some of these sites, too, talking about how good they are for pictures and such.
Anyway, you can check it out for yourself at the link on the top left that says ‘Wedding pictures.” Enjoy!

It finally happened- we got married! After a few scares from the rain clouds, it cleared up and we had a beautiful day on the lake. We loved hanging out with our family and friends, and there were only minor dramas and issues. While we are glad to have a semi-normal life back, it will be weird not to have this constant project to do. We’ll have pictures for you to check out soon!

Boone and I had our bachelor and bachelorette parties this weekend. It was a lot of fun and most of the wedding party made it. Our friends made it a weekend long event (nicknamed Boone-and-jess-apolooza) and it turned out really well.

They threw us a shower on Saturday, complete with pie and coffee. Then the guys went golfing on Sunday and I got to spend some time with my mom, sister, and bridesmaid Missy. Then everyone had dinner together on Sunday nigh, with the guys heading out to the bars and the girls riding around in a limo. Everyone had a good time, with a few of us having too much fun, and we even managed to eat some food on Monday.

It was really nice to spend some quality time with all our friends (and Charlie) before the wedding choas kicks in. We really do have the best friends ever.

So far, most people have been able to RSVP on the web site just fine. Some others have had trouble. If you are one of those having trouble, just email me if you are coming, your names, and any vegetarian/children’s meal requests. My email is jj_jewls@hotmail.com. Technology is great, but sometimes it’s a little difficult.

Boone here. Jess and I had been waiting for 5 weeks while the seller got things together on their end. However, I am pleased to say that the dust has finally settled. Things went really really well. Our realtor even brought us coffee from Starbucks.

This gave Jess and I a chance to get back in and take some measurements. You can see some pictures we took on our pictures page!

We did it! Boone and I are offically homeowners! We bought a 2-bedroom, 1.5 bathroom townhouse/condo on the west side of Madison. It’s a little bit smaller than what we had hoped for, but it should serve us well for the next few years.

Unfortunately, we don’t close until mod-April. That’s two months of waiting to move in! And April will be busy with weddings, showers, plannings, etc.  But it gives us some needed wedding and packing time.

So, Boone and I decided we didn’t have enough to do and started house hunting. We plan on staying here for a while, so why not build some equity in the Madison market. It’s a bit overwhelming for us clueless realestate newbies – escrow, closing costs, assessment, school district. But we figure it’s the best choice for us. Hopefully we find something that we can handle and love at the same time.