Let me introduce myself

Hi. My name is Tammy. The last name is complicated. At work it is Dreher, with my kids it is Cooper. But, Smelly-Go-Name Tammy Dreher-Cooper. The Smelly part comes from my wacky husband, Craig. You see, when we had our daughter, the nurse asked me what my name was for the Birth Certificate. I replied "Tammy Dreher-Cooper." Craig said are you sure? Yes, I said. It is my legal name. But, somehow he heard 'Smelly-Go-Name' instead.

To go back a little farther in time and explain why it is hyphenated, we married in 2001. By then, I was 33 years old, and had lost my dad to cancer in 1999. When faced with the idea of changing my name to Cooper, there was a part of me that just couldn't bear to let go to my dad's name. So, I hyphenated the two, and I interchange them to suit different circumstances. Yep, I know I am weird.

Anyways, to get back to introductions, I am married to a wonderful man, Craig. We met in 1999, and fell in love so fast and so hard, there was no stopping us. He had two beautiful daughters already when we met. Lauren was 14, Lindsay, 10. About a month after we met, they lost their mom suddenly. Though I never tried to take her place, I have always been thrilled to try and fill some of the void that they felt after her passing. I don't think any of us will ever be completely over losing their mom, but we have been able to create a beautiful family for ourselves that always includes memories of their mom. They are now 20 & 24. Lauren has her own apartment, and Lindsay lives on campus up at college. So, the noise level is not what it used to be. But, the chaos never stops!

In 2004, we welcomed our daughter, Mackenzie Ellen, into the world. She will be 6 very soon. She is growing up so fast. We are blessed. Truly blessed.

We also have a menagerie of pets. We have two dogs. Little Guy, or LG, is going to be 15 this year in May. He is a rat terrier. Emma, our adopted wire haired fox terrier will be 14 sometime this Spring. The dogs are frequently known as Dumb and Dumber - only we can't tell which is which. We have two cats. Samantha is all black, and she is 12 years old. Maxine is our polydactyl tuxedo - she is 11. Then there is Cooper the bunny. We call him the largest indoor rabbit ever, he is HUGE. We also have two parakeets. Their names have never stuck, so we will call them "the girls." We also have a large fish tank with tropical fish, and we have an outdoor pond with the world's most resilient and possibly the oldest feeder goldfish ever. They are as big as a small guinea pig, and we have become very attached to them. At times, we also have baby quail, when we hatch the eggs and help raise the babies.

We live on a quiet culdesac in Smithtown, NY. Well, it was quiet until we moved in.

More to come later.....