Simple Things I Love #9 - LOL & Meatballs

Laughing Out Loud! The latter half of this week I was in somewhat of a downer mood...ok Thursday evening I was pretty grumpy. Laughter usually gets me out of those moods. BIG THANKS to my hubby, my kids, and my friends that have a healthy sense of humor to keep me smiling. These pics are about a year old but they made me laugh. I realize the funny things my kids say are mostly funny to me but here are some from this week.
Pie: "Mommy I just love black sprite!"(as she reached for my Diet Coke)
Pie: (As she is walking from her room into the kitchen) "Mom Dad needs some meatballs."
Me, "Meatballs?"
"Ya meatballs for my closet"
" Why does Dad need meatballs in your closet"
"Just get him some meatballs"
It finally dawned on me she was talking about light bulbs

"On it like Blue Bonnet"

I've completely stolen this expression from my friend Katie. When she first said it, I laughed and thought, I am going to have to borrow that. I grew up with a lot of Blue Bonnet at my house so somehow it fits in my life. Tuesday I was completely 'on it like blue bonnet' or in other words I sooo had my 'game on'. From the 4:59 alarm to the gym to the crock pot dinner and kids breakfast made by 7:00 am, email checked, scriptures read, etc. etc. etc. etc. I got to the end of the day feeling proud I had checked off all the to-do boxes. It was good to get all that stuff done, but it made me realize, I couldn't live everyday like that, because I really didn't enjoy it.
Enjoy the journey and live the dream!

Lonely

When I was called to be Primary President almost 2 1/2 years ago I have to admit I was more overwhelmed than excited. And the more I learned about my calling the more the weight of the 'mantle' humbled me. I've had 175 to 183 kids in our primary and that's a lot of kidos, teachers, and leaders to think about. When I found out I was going to be released I felt that 'mantle' leave my shoulders. I should be excited or relieved but instead the only way I can describe it is 'lonely'

What do you do Sunday afternoons?

Today necessity became the mother of invention. Cambridge was extremely frustrated trying to tape chopsticks to his hands to create Wolverine hands. With even my futile attempt to help him with the tape it just wasn't working. With some old knit gloves, thread and chopsticks courtesy of Tempanyaki....voila we have Wolverine hands! Next time we will try something more spiritual.

Simple Things I Love #8 Lazy Weekends

The View


We played outside

We colored Nightcrawler by CambridgeWe checked out the bugs
Read Stories

Ended with a little Twister

Actually the 'relaxing weekend' ended with 2 hours of getting the Van unstuck. You can't tell from the photo but on the way down the driveway I buried the van in a big hole of snow. oops

My very good man stayed behind and plowed out the driveway while I raced down the canyon to do sharing time for primary. The second 'simple thing' I love this week is feeling the spirit. Due to my crazy morning I didn't exactly come to church the with the best spirit. As this sweetest girl said the closing prayer the spirit slammed into my heart that I was in the right place doing the right thing. I am so grateful for my calling!

Would it be weird if.......?

I'm going out on a limb here; this is the Internet and I don't know who is reading this, and it could become way embarrassing but here goes.....
To quote John Bytheway, " It can take the wrong one to be the right one that leads you to the eternal one." I totally believe this. To all the men I've loved before.....thank you, because I definitely landed with the 'right' eternal one. That being said, this coming weekend I have one of my clients using my cabin for his family retreat. I could start singing, "it's a small world after all"; I compete in business with his one son, his son-in-law I know from WSU, and his other son I dated. All in all......very cool family. But, when you know someone that you once dated, is coming with his wife and kids to your cabin; is it weird? I wanted to run around the cabin and hide any pictures of me that weren't my 'best' and as I made all the beds with fresh sheets, wondering where they were all going to sleep, I wanted to hang a sign on the door that said, "PLEASE NO HANKY PANKY!!!" It's just toooo much to think about.

Seriously SOOOO sappy

I was reading through some of my own posts, and lest you think I am sappy, I am going to add some reality from the past few days.
I have not recovered (nor has my house) from my kids being sick last weekend. I was going to use yesterday to catch up but then....
1. Remy puked during sacrament (right after the bread came by) as I'm racing in and out, Zoe is asking very loudly, "mommy what are you doing? mommy are we leaving? mommy are we staying? mommy why is Remy sick?"
2.. My bedroom stinketh....Rems came home only to continue blowing green stuff out both ends all over my bed. And his green stuff REEKS!
3. The puking continued this morning on the couch. (Thank heavens for leather couches)
4. My laundry piles are taller than I am and my kitchen looks like a bomb exploded.
5. I have a warrant out for my arrest (so not kidding) I forgot to pay a speeding ticket.

Simple things I Love week #7 / a Good Man

He's a hard worker

He teases

He plays

He builds snowmen He fishes
He's the business man (the scowl was for me)

He is my heart throb and babe!

The love of my life and my love for the eternities to come!

This week brought to my attention how completely awesome he is. I was quite involved with a conference this week and Brian handled the dinners, homework, laundry...you name it

Brian is completely perfect for me! He makes me laugh. He is my rock when I need it. He is an amazing Dad and wonderful husband. I could gush on and on about why is such a good man. I am grateful everyday that he is my partner, my best friend and my lover.

Sweet n' Sour Valentines

The SWEET - Friday evening we celebrated the February birthdays and Valentines at my mom house. As usual the decor rocked! I'm sure the grand kids have no clue how much time and effort she puts into thsese parties. I think she hit 6 stores to obtain all of the kid's valentines plates. It was perfect! Yes mother, presentation is everything!

The SOUR - Friday ind the middle of the craziness...getting ready for the princess party, valentines, and GKAS... the school called, and Cambridge was sick. He missed the party and by Saturday he was running a fever of 103. By Saturday night he was "barfing" (his term) and by Sunday morning Brian has joined the red hot puking crew. Definitely not our most romantic Valentines!

"Do good are care not to whom"

Give Kids a Smile 2009. February is children's dental health month. The ADA has partnered with Henry Schein to provide free dentistry for kids across the country. Utah conducted 4 clinics this year. The Weber Dental Society, the students from the WSU Hygiene school and Henry Schein conducted this clinic. We saw over 100 kids from 8-2 on Saturday. In my selfish mode of being a working mom, with three little kids, its hard to give up the time to plan, prepare and pull this off. The feeling after makes it worth it! BIG THANKS to the awesome Dentists in the area that donated the time, materials and skills to make this happen.

Simple things I love week #6 ZOE

Zophia Elizabeth Bingham - Happy 3rd Birthday! You are the princess pie! You are smart and funny. You are pure girl but not afraid to wrestle your brothers. You are the perfect combination of sugar, spice and everything nice! We LOVE you!

Princess Party

My Zoe is 3!!! She wanted a princess party and her wish was my command. We had 10 little princess (ages 3 and 4) join us. We had pink princess sandwiches with princess graham crackers pink princess strawberries and...you get the idea. We played princess and the pea on the pillows, painted fingers, cast magic spells, danced like princesses, and made magic pixie wands. They were darling but 3 is really little to do this with sooo many little girls! BIG HUGE thanks to Jenny and Liz for helping I would have DIED without you.

My apologies to my mother

Sometimes I forget this is the Internet and yes my mom is reading my blog. As mentioned by my friend Stephanie, in a comment to the post below...without realizing it, I made my mom feel bad. I could edit the post, but I would rather clarify because it's something that has been on my mind a lot lately. Where and when do we develop our self image? What is the difference between self-esteem and self-confidence? How do we accept and love the bodies God has blessed us with? We are taught our bodies are a temple. When we don't exercise our bodies, deprive them of sleep, over stress them, neglect to give them fresh nutrient rich foods, and fuel them with fried foods and processed sugars, is that treating them like a temple? As for self-esteem and self-confidence, I believe they are completely different things. Self-esteem to me is not about my 'self' at all. It's about my understanding and acceptance that I am a daughter of God. I believe this begins in primary and is an evolving process. Self-confidence for me, comes from the ability to reach a goal, or complete a task and it certainly helps to have your family and friends on the sidelines cheering you on. I would define my self -image as a blend of these two. I have been very blessed to have been surrounded by a loving family and good friends that I know believe in me. The one in this area that gets the most credit would be my mom. She has always been my biggest cheerleader. She has always lavished me in her love and praise. My mom has always sacrificed her personal wants and needs for the success of her children. From very early dance recitals, to speech and debate tournaments, or whatever the situation was, in my mom's eyes I always new I was the best. Second place would have to go to my sister. I remember one specific time I was sobbing on my way to Primary Children's Hospital. Remy was sick...REALLY sick, and possibly not going to make it. I was crying that I just couldn't take anymore. My sister helped me reach into that almost empty well of confidence to get through it. Come to think of it, I think we've had that conversation several times. As for my physical body and how I view it. I thank God for it everyday. I have been given a great body. It is a strong, good body. There are things I absolutely love (I've got great lips for putting on lip-stick) and things I need to work on. With the gift of a body also came the choice and accountability as to how I treat that body, what I feed it, and how much exercise and sleep it gets. I want to do a better job in this area. I haven't gotten it all figured out yet, luckily it's a journey that daily I try to enjoy. Thanks for the comments! Love Mel

I think Satan was sittting on my shoulder today.

So much for being positive....I don't use 'Hate' a whole lot. In fact we try not to use it at all at our house. Today started off great. The blessed psycho scale is down 5lbs from yesterday. New low by a pound. I did great until dinner. I 'hate' it when I'm not prepared, thus we ended up at Training Table and I have no resistance when it comes to their cheese fries. Second stop Walmart to buy valentines and candy. The Dove dark chocolates were calling my name, I 'hate' it when I give into temptation. Next stop Katie's cousins jean party...I hate all girls that have a size 2 maybe a size4 bum that looks WAy cute in trendy pocket jeans. I couldn't find a single pair I liked on my bum. Last stop my house. I happened to be wearing a short sleeve shirt as I carried in groceries. I caught a side glimpse of cottage cheese on my upper arms I HATE COTTAGE CHEESE on my arms. Seriously want to give up. I HATE it when I feel this way.

p.s. (I don't really 'hate' those girls.... just jealous of their bums and genetics. At 5'11 it's just not going to happen for me.)

p.s.s. Don't anyone DARE lie and comment "oh Mel you look great" I'll smack ya! I'm not fishing for kudos, but maybe looking for comments as to what you do when you feel this way...Or maybe it's just me?

Simple Things I love/ week #5

This was a hard week from a work perspective, potty perspective, you name it. However the weekend made up for the week. Simple things I love this week:
1. Birthdays
2. Friends that call or txt just when you need it
3. Skiing on bright sunny days

Potty progress and the kidneys of a camel

Have you ever wanted to just give up!!! By Thursday of last week I was ready to bag the potty training. My darling little princess has the kidneys of a camel. She can hold it longer than any other kid I know. She didn't like the potty so she was refusing to go. NOT just refusing but any time we were waiting in the bathroom for her to go she would start crying and screaming her head off. Friday morning we went to the doctor because I thought she might have a u.t.i. mmm NO just a stubborn streak. I was ready to throw in the towel, even the Dr. suggested giving up and trying in a few more weeks. Brian said to give it one more day.. and see. Zoe wanted to go shopping after returning from the doctor's office. I took her over to Toys R US. At this point we've already tried prizes, pretty panties, potty trophies, you name it. I let her walk through the store and pick out whatever she wanted as a potty prize. She picked a princess scooter and I told her she could have it BUT There is no more crying in potty training!!!! It worked! We have not reached perfection but we are on our way!

Happy Birthday to Us!

(we look goofy but it's law in the Bingham house to wear a helmet)

February 7th 1968 and February 7th 1975.....voila they get married...When we were dating and Brian told me we had the same birthday, I didn't believe him I made him get his drivers license out to prove it. Sharing the same birthday is kind of like having two anniversaries. You never get your own day but you do get to share it with someone you love. We had a fabulous day skiing, and finished the day with a yummy dinner at Tempanyaki with the kids.
BIG THANKS to my friends that took me to breakfast, my mom for watching the kids while we skied, and the rest of you that txt, called, sent ecards, presents, and commented on my new facebook wall. It was a GREAT Birthday!!!

Death by Potty Training

It's all about options. She is sitting on one training seat and is using the other (never used) one as a crown or new age visor. I AM EXHAUSTED!!!!!! Day one of potty training was killer. 6 misses and 2 on target. I have a pile of wet laundry waiting for me and have been running around with the spot shot for the carpet. First thing this morning I flooded her with every beverage I could find. We sat in the bathroom for 2 FREAKING hours, we sang songs, we told stories, we had snacks.....and NOTHING! I let her take a break set the timer for ten minuets and tried again..Nothing set the timer for 10 minutes and at 6 minutes while I wasn't looking she went. And thus was our day... I tried taking her every 10, every 15, every 30 minutes...NO NO and NO. We had prizes, I did a royal happy dance when she did go, and she cried and cried. Every time I didn't pay attention for two seconds she tinkled in her pants. She said tonight, "Mommy I want to be done potty training." Me to sister, me too!

Ben and Holmes...Ballet or Football?

Look at those pointed toes!!!!! They would make any dance teacher proud! Those pointed toes just won the Super Bowl XLIII What an amazing game! Tense game! I asked Brian on the way to church this morning if he was nervous. He said, "I do have butterflies in my stomach." There is no question the Bingham house is part of the Steeler Nation. Thanks Greers for sharing the Victory and all the yummy party food. Crazy Party Crowd!