We got it!

We were at the Nationals game Friday and our realtor called Tanner and he didn't have to say anything...I knew. They accepted our counter-offer! We have not been this excited for anything in a long time it was reason for lots of high-fives and hugs. They will be done building September 26th and we will be able to move in soon after.

We finally got to go back to visit (we couldn't let them know how much we loved it for bargaining purposes) yesterday and I snapped a few more photos. The model gives us so many ideas for decorating...we love the house and are so excited to make it our own.

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Our Nerf Life in Redskins Country

Interesting things have been happening that are pretty out of the ordinary. Living here has been an adventure to say the least. Being in VA has allowed Tanner to become more involved with the website...(not like he wasn't already, huh Ryan?)

It's been good though. Between studying and trying to normalize ourselves we have found ourselves at many a business luncheon. We've met with many random people from movie producers, to newswriters, to sportscasters, to Comcast marketing people, etc. People are really interested in what Chris and Tanner are trying to accomplish. They are enjoying this while it lasts because in all actuality who knows how long that may be.

An entertaining event that occurred that caused me to laugh until my abs killed included the creation of a homemade "Fantasy Files" commercial. Chris and a masked friend whose name we will not mention dressed up as rival Cowboy players Romo and Whitten.

These two were hilarious during the production of this spoof. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. It felt good and it was great to see the footage that came out of the frivolous night.

Here is Chris's REAL NFL.com Fantasy File commercial for those of you who may not know what I am talking about.


I have never been around so many diehard sports fans. Anything Redskins related is on the 5 o'clock news or in the Washington Post....The most recent story "Unofficial Redskins Mascot's Tomahawk Stolen." This title may seem silly but it was not taken lightly. While reading the Post at Starbuck's Christy noticed the headline told Chris and instantly had Tanner post a reward (a signed jersey) on Chris's blog for the safe recovery of the Tomahawk.

The results follow in an excerpt from Tanner:

"OH man, oh man, oh man, oh man, OH MAN!" Is what I heard on the other line when I called to tell the Chief that we retrieved his stolen tomahawk. I can't even begin to explain the excitement that brought me. Being able to send out this "APB" and have the missing item returned in less than 6 hours...WOW!

Chief Zee is at every Skins game and is a faithful fan...he's been carrying that tomahawk for the past 30 years and said he felt naked without it. It was heartwarming to see how grateful he was to the Cooley's for getting it back.

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All Kinds.

Tanner recently got a new job creating a blog for a car company out here called Eastern Motors. They gave him the option of either being paid with a regular salary or with a new car. We weighed the options and decided to take the car. So every month he gets to trade in for a new one...here is this month's ride.

Tanner was so excited about this especially because we had to leave his life-long love (the Durango) in Logan. While we were waiting at Eastern Motors Hyundai for the paperwork to get done etc. I decided I would call Eastern Motors in Tysons Corner to see what they had available over there. Here is how it all played out.

Kirsten: "Hi, what type of cars do you carry?"

Receptionist: "All kinds."

Kirsten: "Like...what brands? Can you tell me?"

Receptionist: "All brands."

Kirsten: "Like you have Lexus...BMW...and Mazda?"

Receptionist: "Let me transfer you."

Salesman: "Hello."

Kirsten: "Hi, what brands of cars do you carry?"

Salesman: "All kinds."

Eastern Motors employees and their complacent statement made me feel like a complete idiot. Tanner and I couldn't stop laughing about it in the waiting room. But, apparently they have everything Tanner could ever wish for at Eastern Motors in Tysons Corner.

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Puplers

I know that my family probably misses our pups even more than they miss us. Here are a few cute photos to fill the void.

Jack causing trouble. I am not even sure how he got in this box.

Jack posing in his Cooley jersey.

Baxter stole this squirrel from Chip and carries it with him everywhere.

He even fell asleep with it in his mouth.
GRAND FINALE

Baxter learned a new trick...

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WOW MOM!

Cole girls hanging out...

My mom is celebrating her 22nd birthday today (okay so not really but she could pass for my sister). I wish I could be with her to celebrate, I'm sure she has big, fun party plans for the evening. She is such an amazing woman/mom/friend and I hope she knows that. I have such a blast with her. I feel like whenever we are together we are constantly laughing and having a good time. It's great when your mom is also your bestfriend, I can tell her anything. Everything I know I learned from my mom and I am really thankful for how supportive she has been of all of my decisions lately. Love you mom! Happy Birthday.

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And now we wait...

We have been house-hunting for the past couple of weeks. We have been in and out of so many condos and townhouses...it is unreal. I cannot believe what people pay for convenience out here. Well the good news is after all of our hardwork we found our dream home in Ashburn, VA. We thought it might be too far away to drive to McLean and D.C. so we braved the traffic this morning to see if it could be feasible. It turns out it is only 12 minutes longer than where we have been focusing all of our efforts. So, we gave them an offer tonight! We are really nervous and excited about it all. Here are a few photos of our future (hopefully) condo.

Kitchen

Living area
Dining Room

I will take some photos of the upstairs and post them later..... Read more...

I thought you said...

One of the all time worst skills that my family has is listening. We are really terrible at it. Sometimes one of us will say something and the listener will hear something completely different.

Here are a few of the funniest examples...

My aunt said: "Tomorrow you'll be 81!"
My grandma replied: "Tomorrow I'll be dating Juan?"

Kirsten said: "What just happened?"
Courteney replied: "You want a mint?"

Courteney said: "I don't know if I wanna wear a tanktop"
My mom replied: "You want to order take-out?"

Tanner said: "Will you pass me the salt, please?"
Courteney thought he said: "You really just need to stop, please!"

Tanner said: "It's long enough I can pull it."
Kirsten replied: "You're flying off like a bullet?"

This happens all the time to my fam so we started writing them down. Because when you try to explain it to someone they are impossible to make up...they have to come naturally. Read more...

Rebecca

Tanner and I are constantly lost these days and we have been relying on our navigations to get us to everyday places such as the post office, petsmart, and the dry cleaners...we made a simple request to our navigation, Becky, today. We asked her to take us to a car wash so she suggested we go to C&C Car Wash and Detail. We were on our way and started getting a weird feeling like we were getting into suburbia. By the time we reached our so-called destination this is what we saw.

We thought this was a fluke...and asked for a new suggestion. We started toward Leesburg Car Wash. It took us to the complete other side of Leesburg and once again we started seeing young children running about and people walking their dogs. We decided that whoever programmed the navigation must have added a few misdirections for a good laugh. And we definitely got the brunt of it today.

Tanner was ready to give up and go home but I wasn't about to let Rebecca get the best of us. So we tried once again...and then I spotted it...the gold. We found a 90 foot tunnel car wash! We stopped at the vac and then started driving toward the tunnel and then National Lampoon's Vacation style we see a giant TUNNEL CLOSED sign hovering in front of our target.

Rebecca and the Car Wash Gods were definitely working together today. And for some reason unbeknownst to us they wanted to give us a tour of Leesburg and for our car to remain filthy. I guess we shouldn't try to fight it.

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Jurassic Park

Something exciting...I was a guest blogger on Chris's website. He wants me to add an insider's look into how it is living at their house.

Every day we wake up bright and early to the serene sound of the pool-guys jack hammering their little hearts out. We pry open our eyes and see them laughing and talking about god knows what and Tanner and I look at each other and wonder will this ever end? Even though we have to hear the installation of C squareds new pool and deck we have definitely had a warm welcome in VA. Sometimes warm and wet. We brought our two pups with us and now live in what one might consider a petting zoo.


The Mr. & Mrs. Chris Cooley residence now consists of FOUR people, FOUR yorkies, TWO cats, and ONE great dane, and all of the outdoor wildlife as well...Chris lives in freaking rural nation. Its kind of scary to tell you the truth, especially at night. When we let the dogs out I'm afraid of what might emerge from the wilderness.

Chris & Christy's house always provides a story or two to tell and that's what we love. Last night was Chris's first night at home (he's been at training camp all month, you know). Christy made a delish meatloaf and then we opened over 3,000 football cards last night in search of an Adrian Peterson card. I felt like I was looking for the golden ticket...my thumbs KILL from opening so many packs! This is what we consider entertainment.

Then we started watching the Olympics so we could cheer on our favorite gymnast Shawn Johnson...we waited and waited and waited for gymnastics to start. We were swearing and making fun of the other athletes because we just wanted to watch the all-around gymnastics and it was getting ugly because 3 hours had passed. By the time it finally started Chris & Christy had fallen asleep and Tanner and I can't even harass them because we didn't even make it to the floor routines before we were staring at the back of our eyelids at 1:00 a.m.

So, yeah things are going good...we are slowly realizing that this is not an extended vacation it's real life. It's different but it is definitely real. Read more...

Look ma, no hands

We had so much fun this weekend. I am so glad my mom & Courte got to make it out to see our new home. Well I guess we don't have a place to call home quite yet. But we are lucky that Chris has so generously offered up his basement for us to crash. There has been a lot going on and I haven't posted for a while. Here is a quick recap...

My parents and I went to the Logan rodeo on Thursday...it was pouring rain but that didn't stop us from having a good time (especially because we had a giant umbrella). The rodeo was an experience to say the least. I had never been to a full-on rodeo. The only thing that I didn't like was when the chased the baby cows and tied up their feet and head...I felt bad.

Logan is b-e-a-utiful

These cowboys must be knee-deep in chiropratic bills.

My last day in Utah I decided to spill water on my cell phone. So I spent the morning trying to deal with that. Losing my info and dealing with that was fun....not. So, I bought a go phone and off we went! My mom and I flew out with the pups and it was pretty good besides the fact that Jack decided to puke right when someone swerved in front of us and Jack and I ended up getting covered in disgust on the way to the airport. Oh, and I also had an annoying tween crush that started petting my pups while I was on the phone and wouldn't leave us alone in the terminal. And as we walked onto the plane guess where our seats were? Right in front of them. Need I say more?

We had the great privilege of being filmed while moving into's house Saturday morning.There are some people interested in making a reality tv show about Chris, Christy, Tanner, and I so a film company is putting together something to shop to tv stations...Crazy I know. But the guy putting it together thinks it will be a good pitch. It is all very exciting, I really hope things go well with the demo.

Saturday night my mom & Courte got to go to their first Redskins game against the Bills. I think they had fun but unfortuately it was a pre-season game and honestly not super exciting. I think we ended up having the most fun stuck in the long concession lines. But we won so that made it awesome.

I loved this pic of Jack in his redskins jersey I had to post it!Courte and her water bottle balancing act "look ma, no hands"Tanner, Courte, my mom and I tried to go to D.C. for two days but things just kept us from making it there. Either because we were busy unpacking neverending boxes from the U-haul, or we woke up late, or what-have-you. We almost made it Sunday but the girls ended up at Tyson's mall. Which was not very touristy but it was fun.

Chris has a '68 Camaro and my mom had been eyeing it since the moment she arrived. She finally decided to ask Chris if she could drive it. My mom had the time of her life driving it I haven't seen her that happy in a long time. It was great.

The past 3 days we have spent the bulk of our time searching for condos. We have walked through about 40+ condos. Talk about tiring. But we have found about five that are amazing thanks to our realtor Mrs. Jefferson. She is a hoot and very good at her job. I am sure there will be many stories to tell about our house-hunting experiences but something that I will never forget is how she described an immaculate and indescribable condo to Chris in her cute little accent..."Sweetie when you walk into that place it makes you want to pee in your pants."

I will try to update more often so I don't have to force you all to read a novel ever again...this is honestly ridiculous! Read more...

What should I say?

I am a huge Dancing with the Stars fan...and my favorite couple on the show was Jason Taylor and Edyta Sliwinska. Let's just say I was overly excited when I found out that he was traded to the Redskins. I thought I would eventually meet him and I have been trying to figure out what I should say to him when I did...."I am your biggest fan...you and Edyta had so much chemistry...I loved watching you dance...I voted for you every week!" Tanner told me I was crazy and should just act normal when I met him.

I got my chance at the Bills game on Saturday. Tanner noticed Chris's agent, Gary Wichard, in Jason's car and instantly ran over to talk to him. Gary introduced Tanner to Jason Taylor and then Tanner told Jason that I was a huge fan and asked if he would he mind taking a photo with me. And just like that he got out of his car and met me and we had our little photo-op...he was so nice and tall. I was dying! I honestly don't even know what I said. Tanner is the best for acting so quickly and making it happen. Check out this video and you will see why he was my favorite on DWTS.
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Fiasco-ville

Moving sucks! Who knew? People kept asking us, "so are you all packed?" Wondering why they asked such a question we replied "About halfway." We thought, we have plenty of time (this was on Sunday). Apparently our house hides things well because our goods just seemed to keep flowing out of the nooks and crannies. From Monday morning to Wednesday afternoon it was the never-ending story. Many emotions and events were intermingled with runs to Wally for more bubble wrap and errands that just needed to be done before leaving the state. It even came to Tanner saying he was about to commit mover's suicide.

Tuesday morning we stopped off at U-haul to pick up our monster truck. They brought the truck around the corner and let's just say it wasn't even close to "monster." My eyes got big and I told Tanner that I thought we would never fit our life in that tiny truck. He looked a little weary but told me that you can always squish more into these moving trucks than it seems. So, off we went to begin the heavy lifting (well Tanner anyway). Thank goodness Tanner has such good friends because I am of no use when it comes to heavy lifting. These muscles are purely for looks. Ryan & Derek came over to help and it went pretty smooth until they began to doubt that the truck was going to allow everything to enter. Before I knew it Tanner started pulling me outside to ask me if I could part with our couches...our spare beds...all the while the truck was becoming eerily full and boxes were still being filled inside the house. Let's just say that it got to the point where I was coming to terms with leaving anything and everything just so Tanner could get on the road.

It started getting dark and Tanner was sending everyone home. Saying that the two of us would just continue packing the innards and everyone could come back in the morning and yeah...that's where we didn't know what in the world we were going to do...we had a full truck that took hours of work but a bunch of stuff still left in the house and garage. After we saw the tail-lights of the last person fade into the distance Tanner took some initiative and decided that we must have a bigger truck and began unloading. He came inside pouring sweat while I was busy trying to cut tape with my teeth and said he was done. What the? He unloaded the entire 14 foot truck by himself? It turns out the neighbor saw him struggling and came over to help. And that was that.

We went to sleep and woke up to Groundhog's day. Trial and error taught us that we needed a much larger truck. Tanner's friends and my parents came over to relive the previous day (thank goodness). I don't think Tanner will ever acknowledge that this event ever happened so this may be the only record.

My mom wondered why we were so calm during all of this...it was because we were so naive to the whole ordeal. Let's just say I never want to pack, move, or buy another item again!

Well the journey continues...I am sure Tanner will have many stories to tell from his long cross-country voyage in a giant U-haul towing the Civ. I am still in HATU having good times and will fly out with the pups and my madre Friday afternoon...so I am sure I will have plenty of drama to come. It is nice that I am still here to wrap up all of our loose ends. I am learning that Tanner seems to have a lot of knick knacks rolling around in more ways than one.

p.s. thanks Jess for bringing me and my poor house movers subway sandwiches and for helping me clean up the house after everyone was gone.

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Bonding over poop-soup

Today my dad FORCED me to workout against my will. I will admit it really was a nice way to keep my mind off of the undeniable...I'm leaving my hometown, CV, and it isn't easy. But anyway we got to the gym and there was Natalie to greet us at the door with a surprise (which we seem to get three times a week at bootcamp). She came up with a cardio day that included running around to people's homes asking them to donate nonperishable food items to us. Then we pack up all the goods in our grocery sacks and off to the next house on foot, preferably running. Sounds terrific, right? Running around outside with 29+ soup cans dangling from each shoulder...neat.

Since we were the sixth class to be performing this little task we were bound to run into some people that have already been asked to raid their cupboards for our workout and a good cause. Well dad and I aren't so good at strategizing. We started off running but my pops was crying about his aches and pains (I learned today where I get my constant urge to whine). He did have a good excuse though, he won a very important softball game last night, and word on the street is that it's the best game he's ever played. So we scurried down to my neighborhood and began knocking. Unfortunately we hit a saturated area. But people were really nice and gave whatever they could.

I thought I hit the jackpot when we stopped at my backdoor neighbor's house, with the creepy, possessed, single-colored (eyes, body, nose, you name it) dog. She invited me in and Cyrus (the dog) stared at my soul and demanded that I pet him and ask him to do tricks. He had me backed into a corner so I cracked and began telling him to roll over and speak. I was about to get out the hula-hoop when the mother of the house emerged from the basement with a whole pallet full of gumbo soup. She stated that she couldn't get her kids to eat this soup. So it ended up being perfect for both parties.

I went on my merry way and my competitive edge surfaced and I was getting ready to...what the? Something was leaking from my bag and all over the one pair of shorts that aren't packed somewhere in an ocean of boxes. I opened the bag...and oh no...it smelled and looked like Cyrus ate the gumbo soup and then crapped in my bag! It was leaking all over the place, thank goodness my dad was there to handle the vomit-festival. Apparently one of the cans decided to open it self right up on backdoor neighbor mom's shelf and grow something indescribable. He pulled out the moldy, disgusting can and disposed of it. He even carried the grody bag back to the Sports Academy as it continued to leak all over him. And oh man...the stench was...see below* We could have left the bag behind but this was a competition, hello! Ew...just got a whiff, its been many hours and I have taken a shower but it's lingering in my nostrils. When we got back to the Sports Academy our two-man team counted out 38 goods, not bad for a forty minute workout. Thanks Natalie for creating a platform for this daddy-daughter bonding sesh even if it included some poop-soup.

*abhorrent, abominable, awful, beastly, creepy, detestable, foul, fulsome, gross, hateful, hideous, loathsome, mawkish, nasty, nauseating, noisome, obscene, odious, offensive, rebarbative, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, shocking, sickening, vile, yucky


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Cooley BBQ in a cozy, outdoor oven.

We wanted to have a little BBQ before we made our cross-country voyage. It is becoming real to us finally. The photographs are being taken down, the memories are getting packed away in boxes, and the goodbyes are being said. It is crazy how sad it is to leave even though we are moving forward in our lives. Geez...enough of the emotional roller coaster let's get to the fun stuff. Here are some photos from today's get-together. It turned out great especially since it was the first party that we've ever thrown at our house (my family helped a lot, thank goodness!)

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An abrupt stop.

Today was my last day of school...forever. It has been 5 years of non-stop projects, homework, and presentations and it all ended today on a hot summer afternoon with my final group presentation on...yawn...Alternative Minimum Tax. I can't believe how fast its flown by! I have learned a lot and met many amazing people but I can gladly say I am ready for the next chapter in my life to begin.

Thankfully I have the CPA exam to keep me busy so I don't have to leave studying behind cold turkey...only 3 more tests to go. I am such a nerd; I am not sure I will know what to do with myself without that final exam or presentation leering over my shoulder...Hopefully I will find somehow to cope with the withdrawals I am likely to endure.

I must say, I definitely had a sigh of relief walking away from USU campus today.

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