hello...it's me.

Hi. It has been a while. It has been a BUSY but great summer. In July, I photographed 3 weddings, Rick went on 2 trips (one with youth and one with college) AND we spent a week in California. No wonder I'm tired. During that time I was still trying to help out at collegedale, but they found a great person for the job and she is already whipping the place into shape. Me & Benjamin can really do some damage. :) Not that we spent an insane amount of time up there, but it's been strange to be back home with no where to go. I've enjoyed the time with Benjamin though. He's starting pre-school next week which is bitter sweet for me. I'll love the "me" time, but I'll be so excited when I get to pick him up everyday.

So if you want to see what I've been up to photography-wise, you can check that out here:

laurencochranphotography

I have been so excited to be so busy. Photography is my passion. That's what got us out to California too. I have a connection through a co-worker from Marietta and she flew me out to Malibu for her daughter's wedding. Since Benjamin's flight would be free as well, we decided to make it a family trip. Well, that and Rick said I wasn't going to Malibu without him. I'm so glad we did. We haven't done anything like that in such a long time. We hung out in Malibu, went to the beach, toured LA and Hollywood, and spent a couple days in San Diego too. That's where we had the most fun...we took Benjamin to the zoo. It was worth the whole trip to me. Benjamin loved it and learned so much in just a day.

He is getting so smart these days. It just shocks me how I can sit down with him and talk about something. He never even acknowledges my presence and somehow later finds me and repeats what I taught him. For example, he knows that apple starts with A. He doesn't know that alligator starts with A, just apple. :) Also, every thing that looks like a letter is "A, apple."

I also love to hear him talk. He picks up on things we say (even the not so correct way of speaking). He's getting more and more independent, not as much in what he does for himself but what he wants to do. It's sort of teenager-ish. Sometimes it seems like he hates my ideas, just because they are mine. It's just a phase though and it too shall pass. He is alot like Rick - laid back and for that I am thankful. He'll be the perfect balance for some lucky high-strung girl someday - just like daddy.

Rick is busy busy busy these days. Even getting a little stressed at times, which is not just rare, but unheard of for him. We are getting super pumped about the start of school this next week and he wants it to be great. We want to reach as many people as possible because we know how this ministry changed us, and that it can do the same for others.

On a side note, don't know how many people actually read this blog, but this precious girl need prayers. Hailey Trainer, from Marietta, GA, was diagnosed in Sept. 2008 with AT/RT brain cancer. She, along with her beautiful family, has fought for 2 years a battle that not many could even imagine. All seemed to be going well and she was making tremendous progress, but a new tumor was spotted in her last MRI. Please pray for strength and comfort for her and her family and that Hailey can continue to shine and show the world how amazing she is. You can read her story here.

Be blessed,

the month of JUNE

Wow! So, don't look at the date of my last post....it's definitely been a MONTH. I was doing so good for a while there, updating about once a week, but we got so busy, and I haven't made the time.

It's been a good month though. I have so enjoyed having my husband back. He was in Africa on a mission trip for 2 weeks. It felt like 2 months. The second week he was gone, we went traveling to visit with family and friends. We had a great time in Mobile. We went to the beach at Dauphin Island with Granna & Uncle Brian. Benjamin had a the best time playing in the sand!

We hung out with Kelly in her classroom, visited with the grandmothers and with Aunt Barbara.

We also went to Marietta for a few days to catch up with friends there and to be in Atlanta when Rick returned. We got to spend time with so many great friends out at dinner, watching Lost and painting pottery.

Benjamin always has his moments, especially if there is a missed nap involved, but he has been the sweetest kid lately. He's been so lovey and just enjoying life. He had swimming lessons for a week and a half, which he loved. I couldn't even say the word swimming without him running through the house looking for a swimmy diaper and swimsuit. He still brings them to me and says "simmeeeng."


He started lessons like this:


then to this:


finally:


I guess that's another thing that has been so cute about him lately. He's been talking and I love his rendition on our English language. I just love his little child voice too. He melts me when he says "nite niiiiite" and "ah - u" (i love you).

Grandmama & Granddaddy came to visit for a few days. We had a great time with them and a great father's day.

2 great Dads -


the best daddy ever -


I'm so thankful for Rick. Not only have I found a wonderful husband, but also an amazing father to our child.


Last week was vbs at collegedale and he loved every minute of it. I tried to peek in on his class a few times just to watch. I saw him at the game station, pick up the bowling ball pin, pass the bowling ball to the teacher and stand in position to bat the ball. We all laughed.

He has picked up on some of the motions from the songs and will just sing and move his arms "hack, hack, hack cuts my saw all day" (noah's ark).

We went to the Brave's game on Saturday and although it was a long day, it was lots of fun. He loves baseball right now, but then again he does see it on TV every night.


We are really enjoying our new house, still trying to get rid of those ugly brown cardboard boxes, but we'll get there one day. I'm planting a few things too...I'll try to post some pictures of those too.

As if I didn't think we were busy enough, I was looking at my calendar the other day to plan a photography session and we have no empty weekends for about 2 - 3 months. I have 3 weddings in July, including one in Malibu, California, so things are really going to get crazy around here.

We are going to Tennessee this weekend to see, well all kind of folks really, Rick's parents, grandparents, his cousin and family and Dana and the kids. I'm excited for Benjamin to spend time with his cousins. I know he'll really enjoy playing with them.

So there's an update and lots of randomness. I'll try not to be such a stranger.

Be blessed,

Look at my little productive self.....

Ok, so I can't totally claim all the productivity around here! My mom is MAINLY the reason I have gotten so much done. Rick is in Africa. He's been gone for what seems like forever but only about 4 days. He's in Malawi on a mission trip, and as much as I miss him, I'm pretty jealous too! We have always done that trip together before in the past and it's where we got engaged, so it's tough to hang back here on the home front. I miss those precious little ones of Mtendere village and still think a piece of my heart is in Africa.

I have talked to Rick a couple of times and they are doing well. They made it there without their luggage which had to be tough, but they got it a couple days later.

About my productivity....to preface, when we moved it was at the end of the semester when everything was CRAZY, so we just threw everything in the garage until we could get to it. Well, I'm just now getting to it, but am I ever! I am so excited to let go of some things that I have been holding onto forever...unneccessarily. It feels so good. Mom and I have gone through everything, tossed out alot, put up signs for our sale, put things on craigslist to sale, and just cleaned. I have donated, and will probably be doing more of that after the sale. Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty to do....I've got pictures to edit, paperwork to sort, a table to finish, grout to seal....and the list goes on, but we're getting there.

So on the health front, Benjamin and I have fallen apart since Rick left...ok, not really, but I guess him leaving just makes us sick! :) Benjamin has a double ear infection...kudos to mom for catching that one. So he'll be on an antibiotic and have nasty poop for the next couple of weeks. I woke up yesterday with no voice, but nothing else was really bothering me. My throat started hurting last night and now I've got all kind of junk. Nothing terrible though...could be worse...and it hasn't stopped me from getting things done. I really want our house to look great when Rick gets back home. Especially since I already told him he wouldn't recognize it when he got back. ;)

Benjamin has shocked me this week. I have decided to invest more in him. He is such a sponge right now and I feel like I am holding him back by not exposing him to more. I thought we would start with letters. We take a letter for a whole week and write it on his board, listen to how it sounds and talk about it all week. We grab items that start with that letter and collect them in a bucket. We eat foods (when available) that start with the letter. I know he won't get it all, but I think it's all about exposing him to more. We've started with letters, but he seems to be telling me to go in a different direction...so maybe we'll do both. We were in his room the other day and he was playing with blocks. He picked up a yellow block and I told him what color it was. I also grabbed other things around that were the same color. Then I told him to find something yellow. He reached right in his basket and grabbed another YELLOW block! I really thought kids couldn't understand colors yet...it's a hard concept...a little abstract I think. I was impressed but kind of wrote it off until we were in shoe station looking for some crocs and he found the yellow ones and said YELLOW! Then I was blown away! So I've got to get on it. He gets stuff so I've got to give it to him. So one color down...a few more to go.

So I know most of you won't give a flip about reading this post, but Rick can read it when he gets back and be proud of "his babies" as he calls us. Well, I'm going to get to work.

Have a great weekend!

The most disgusting thing ever....and a few other updates

So, I'm pretty sure the most disgusting thing ever happened last night! I've learned that lots of disgusting things happen with kids around. They just don't know what they're doing sometimes. I'll have to warn you, if you don't have kids, you will not understand this and might not want any after this story. If you do have kids, you will laugh and probably think of something equally as gross that has happened in your family. :) Here we go: We had made a simple, but most delicious supper - grilled hamburgers and grilled corn on the cob with some fresh strawberries for dessert. We are in the process of painting our table (that we got at Christmas by the way) so we were eating in the living room. I don't even know how to lead into this next part, but Benjamin brought me a tiny little piece of his "hamburger" and I put it on my plate. It wasn't until he brought me another piece that I realized it wasn't hamburger! Yep, it was the other brown stuff. He was reaching in his diaper and pulling out his poop!!! I know! I still can't believe it as I type. What was grosser (might have made that word up) was that I was putting it on my plate! So after I got over the disgust, it was funny. Rick thought it was hilarious and said I had to put this on the blog. I'm thinking it's time to potty train!

Well, there's a lot to update here. It's been an exciting couple of weeks. Things are settling down...a little since the college spring semester is over, but we won't be able to rest long - Rick leaves for Malawi, Africa, in less than a week. We are shopping for all of his supplies, trying to get the house in order and working out our schedule for when he's gone.

We've been getting ALOT of family time lately as we've been carpooling everwhere! Rick's car was hit in the church building parking lot last week. The back wheel was bent inward so he hasn't been able to drive it. The most frustrating part of this is that the person who jumped the curb, drove down the hill (I'm assuming out of control since it was a rainy day) and ran into his car, just left. No note, no "sorry I hit your car," nothing. Just a messed up car. Through this though, I've seen he's a better person than I am, not that I ever doubted. He was hardly bothered by it when it happened. He went back inside and started working again. I was a little more frustrated. It did start to get to him later in the week when he couldn't get around as easily, then he did a wed. night lesson on Phil. 2:14 - do everything w/o complaining. The estimates on the car weren't good. It will cost more to fix it than it's worth, and we're not ready for a car note at the moment. We took it just to see what it would cost to get it driving again and I guess we're going to try to knock out the dents. I know it won't look great, but that's all we can do for now.

On a better note, I had the best mother's day ever! Ok, it was only my second one, but it was still wonderful. Rick cooked us a big breakfast and we scrambled around like we always do on Sunday mornings, but the afternoon, sigh, was perfect. We made sandwiches and somewhat homemade cookies and had a picnic on the quad on campus. It was the most beautiful, perfect day. Benjamin loved running around and chasing birds, squirrels and anything else. We walked around campus and checked out all the new building projects. There was nowhere to be, nothing to do, just enjoy each other. It was a great day.

I thought the weekend was going to be rough after we figured out on Friday that Benjamin had pink eye. The doc called in some drops and he was fine after the third time we put them in. He's done great with the drops too. It's definitely a 2-man job, but he's been good.

I have some pics from the weekend. I'll post them soon. :)
Have a great week everybody!

Crazy with the Cochrans

Get ready, it's a book!

Ok, I just have to write about our crazy day. It is 11:45 and I am EXHAUSTED! Sundays are just hard. We get up early, rush rush rush to get ready and get to class/worship, scramble with things to do....no matter how prepared we are, then the fun starts for me. Worship is a battle, make it an all out war with Benjamin. I don't know what I'd do or what I'm gonna do when we have more than one child.

Let me go backwards a little. I've been co-teaching the infant class. I love seeing those sweet babies, but I get a little stressed about the class because I'm awful at it. I feel sorry for those precious little ones who are subjected to my crazy self for 45 whole minutes. Fortunately, quarter will be over soon and they'll get a normal teacher. Today, I had none and Benjamin had no teacher so I taught his class. I was reminded of the reason I don't already teach his class. He is a perfect little angel (that's what they tell me) for his other teachers, but not for mommy. So after all the getting ready madness, he had me again for class. Then worship. Back to WAR.

Rick leads singing at Collegedale so I try to sit on a pew that already has someone on the other end....preferably someone who won't mind being bothered by him occasionally. I do this so one end is blocked. He tries the entire time to get to the aisle and then walk on out to the nursery....yep, he's got it figured out. He makes it out into the aisle and he gets to go play with toys. I know, not great, but I can't fight him forever by myself. Last week, he threw his Bible into the aisle so he could go get it, and leave. Today however, he wanted to preach. He followed Rick up to the front before we began and I thought we were ok when he walked back to our pew. Not the case, he had forgotten his Bible, so he grabbed it, tucked it under his arm and made the trot back up front. Then we were starting, and he wasn't too happy about going back to the pew. I tried my whole bag of tricks but we didn't make it to the end of the first song. But when we went to the nursery, he saw the live feed of video on the TV in there, and was mad he couldn't go preach, so he screamed for a while. At this point, I seriously considered going and getting the car keys from Rick. I didn't and we fought the rest of the hour. I think the lesson was on forgiveness, but not real sure. It's funny....Rick will always ask me things about the service when we get home, "how was this or that?" I never know. It's survival mode and most times I feel like I lose. I know there is a purpose for us going, but sometimes I do wonder. I definitely think I should change my wardrobe. I need to be wearing work out clothes instead of a dress.

He was tired all day and there were many battles. Books-A-Million was fun....not. We were ok until he realized there were books on all those shelves. He wanted to pull them all off.

At dinner tonight with some friends from college, he was tired/bored and threw his passy into the booth behind us. He had already made friends with these strangers by tapping their shoulder every other bite.

Rick said I had to include this:
To tell you a little of how brain-less I am at the end of these kind of days, check this out. As we (make that Rick) was watching sports highlights tonight, Rick made a comment about how he thought the last play was goal-tending. I came back with, "maybe it's different rules for college and NFL." This will mean nothing to some of you, and that's ok, but I know better and that's why it's funny. Goal-tending is in basketball and the pro form of that is NBA. I'm losing it little by little.

Back to Benjamin, he's a very sweet, precious, busy, restless boy. He fills our days with many laughs and much joy. Ok, I'm going to bed.

Good night,

We have been busy lately....seriously! I'm not a good blogger for 2 reasons. When I have time, I feel like there's nothing interesting enough to write about and when we do have exciting things happening, I can't find a second to write!

The semester is coming to an end here at Troy. Our lives now revolve around a college school schedule though none of us are in school...funny. Rick put a volleyball tournament together last week to benefit Stella's house. It's a home in Moldova that rescues young girls from the sex trafficking industry. It's an amazing work! We didn't end up raising a ton of money, but got the awareness we were going for. Two of the young ladies actually came and told their story. Check out their website.

I have started a new job. I'm filling in for the secretary at Collegedale while she is out on maternity leave. It's gone well so far. It's pretty laid back, which is good. Benjamin comes with me sometimes so it helps that I can have some time to devote to him. He wouldn't have it any other way.

Benjamin currently has a green nose. It's been a purple-ish, blue-ish, gray-ish, now green. He was jumping on the bed at a friend's house and it didn't end well. Where were his parents you might ask....in the other room watching some dumb alligator show with the college students...real responsible I know. I think it hurt me more than him.

Today we had lots of fun. It was Rick's off day, which I always look forward to. It's kind of our family day. We put in our mailbox post and played in the sprinklers. It was great. Benjamin, I think was supposed to be a fish. This kid LOVES water! He can't resist playing in it, the sink, the bathtub, rain, puddles, pools, doesn't matter, has to touch it.

Our new home is really cozy. It feels more like home than most of the places we've lived since we were married. I feel like it was built just for us. On that note, Rick and I were talking today about a privacy fence. Yeah, didn't know those things were quite so expensive, but apparently we need one. There are a lot of small streams behind our house in the woods. Rick was talking to the builder today and found out they killed 2 moccasins in our little culdesac. fabulous. We have been outside behind the house everyday to play, it's about 30 feet from the woods, but we've been in the woods on several occasions...."exploring." Yeah, it'll be a while before we do that again. I'm a little paranoid and not a big fan of snakes, so I guess we'll be going with option A, the fence.

Well, I guess that's all for now. Hope you're having a blessed week!

Love,

We are busy these days! Very busy! We moved into our new house a little over a week ago and everything's still chaotic. We had things going on every night last week and Thursday Benjamin and I took off to Mobile for a visit and a small photography job. We had an awesome weekend. We played barefoot in the country at grandma johnsons, in the water on the bay with aunt barbara and in the back yard with granna. Benjamin had a blast! We got back to Troy Sunday before worship then scrambled around to pull together a baby shower.

This week's packed too! I started a new job. It's kind of by default that I got it. Our church secretary had her baby today, so I'm filling in for her until she gets back. It won't be quite full time, but it will keep me busy. Rick's got a big volleyball tournament on Thursday and service day Saturday. I don't know if we'll ever get our house together or our mailbox up, but we're thrilled to be in the house regardless.

Enjoy this pic of Ben on the bay!



Have a great week!

Ok, it's been forever.

Check out these awesome pictures Lindsey took of us at the house! Thanks Lindsey! I will treasure them and can't wait to snap some shots of baby Bagwell when he/she gets here! More house info at the bottom.

We've been pretty busy lately. We've spent the last 3 out of 4 weekends out of town and the last two in the woods on camping retreats...woohoo! The retreat part was fun, but I'm not all that woodsy anymore. I remember going to camp when I was younger. It was the highlight of the whole summer, but I guess I've gotten all girly and high maintenance since having a baby. Who knows, I love the outdoors, just not living in it. The first weekend we went to Florida Bible Camp with the college students and Granna stayed with Benjamin. I kind of felt like I was in college again without the responsibility of the little one. It truly was a retreat. Last weekend we went to the beautiful Berry College Winshape Camp and that wasn't quite as enjoyable. Benjamin is very, well, determined. He gets his mind set on something and that's it. Everything is fine until he hears the word "no." He is almost 19 months so I'm afraid the terribles are within sight, or here already. Just a couple months ago I was saying that this was my FAVORITE age...it ended too quickly. We'll survive, I know, it's just hard. It would be easy to just give him what he wants to make him stop crying, but I always said I didn't want a brat. So if you out there notice any brat-ness, let me know, because it means I'm not doing my job. :)

On another note, but kind of similar, we ate lunch the other day at Red Lobster, a treat for the long car ride we were about to endure. I caught Rick staring out the window, then he said, "O my goodness." I couldn't imagine what was going on, then he said, "five kids and a pregnant!" Nothing else, not five kids and a pregnant WOMAN, or what a nice family....but this is when we were trying to clean mash potatoes off of everything at our table, so, I'm thinking we won't be having six kids, or any number close to six. :)

We closed on the house last Tuesday! We are trying to move in this week....gradually. We moved some of Benjamin's things today so we'll get there. It's so exciting! Can't wait to be totally in!

I'm going to boil some eggs to dye tomorrow! I just love spring and Easter. My mom always made a big deal of little holidays throughout the year. She loved doing special things for us, and I love doing things for Rick and Benjamin. I know the holiday has really become commercialized, but I love the memories of spending time with family and that Jesus is praised more than ever for the sacrifice He was for us.

Have a blessed week.

Going crazy with the coupons....

Ok, so maybe I'm a little obsessed, maybe crazy with the couponing and saving money! It is a little time consuming, but I feel that it's well worth it. I am saving us lots of money and having fun at the same time. So I wanted to share (maybe even brag a little) about my deals this week. I am shopping at drug stores, which I always thought were more expensive, but not if you just get what's on sale. I laugh because the guy at Walgreens always tries to sell me a $2 candy bar at the register. He obviously doesn't know who he's dealing with because I can stretch $2 a lot further than just one measly little candy bar!

Anyway, first Rite Aid, I have to enter my receipt online to get my $10 rebate, but after that here are my purchases and my total:

3 packages of Pampers diapers (31 count) - normally $9 each
1 Covergirl powder (yes, I wear cheap makeup)
1 Covergirl blush
1 Covergirl eyeshadow
1 Covergirl lip gloss
2 Oral B toothbrushes
total= $11.50

Now on to my bargains at CVS:

4 boxes of Kelloggs cereal
4 Pantene shampoos/conditioners
2 toothbrushes
1 bounce dryer bar
3 tide stain release packages
total= $9

Um, yeah, I was pretty pumped! With my conservative estimates, I saved about $75 this week. Woo hoo! It's a good thing, because we hit up the Sisters' Seafood Buffet tonight, and it was delish, but not cheap!

Hope you have a great weekend. I have a craft project, some cleaning, maybe a baseball game and enjoying the spring-like weather on my to-do list!

Good night.

New signature

So I'm just getting the hang of this whole blog thing and learning as I go, but I just wanted to try out my new signature. Here it is!