How have I never heard of this?

I had to go to the eye doctor this week because I was getting some sort of infection in my eyes. I had a real bad infection about 5 years ago (cold sore virus in the eyes) and I was pretty sure that it was coming back. However, much to my surprise, it was not the same thing I had before. The doc just told me to not wear my contacts for a few days (arghhh!! I HATE wearing glasses. And I like to talk like a pirate, apparently...) AND he gave me a new cleaning solution and case- a kind that was like nothing I had seen before. Maybe all you contact wearers out there have heard of this, but I never had. It is a cleaning solution made of 3% hydrogen peroxide. (Yes, you read that correctly) and then the case you use is like an upright mini contact lens dishwasher. Anyway, as the bottle and box clearly SCREAM at you, you are never to use this special solution directly in your eye or directly on your contacts before you put them in!!!! The lenses have to soak in the stuff for 6 hours in order for the solution to be neutralized and then safe to put in your eyes. Anyway, I put the contacts in there tonight for the first time and just as the doctor said, the stuff started bubbling and foaming like some sort of eye Polident! It is still going strong right now and by morning the lenses will be squeaky clean! Who knew? I just read some online reviews and almost all of them are glowing. So maybe this solves my contact lens issues (how they are uncomfortable, I hate taking them out, they stick to my eyes like atomic saran wrap, etc.) As always, you will be the first to know how the old eyeballs take to them in the morning.

Misty's Visit

My sister-in-law, Misty, and my nieces, Addie and Laurel, were in town for a funeral this past week. They spent most of their time up in Tallahassee with family, but got to spend a day with us here in Lakeland before they headed back out to Utah. We went to a new kid's park here that is absolutely wonderful. It's huge, it's new, it has the coolest equipment, and the kids had a blast. A few pics from the visit....










Awh, Addie missed Diabo!

Just like Luke, Addie was mesmorized by Grandma Bingham's Fish Lips. Truly!

I love the name Addie, but it's awfully tempting to call her Dave Jr. :)

Our time was short, but we had a great time together. Can't wait to see all of you again, hopefully it won't be too long!

The best things in life are free...really!

I am sure that by now you have heard many times over about the impending switch of all analog TV signals to digital. This switch is not that big of a deal to anyone with either a newer TV or a subscription to cable or satellite. I, however, fall into the category of those 100 special humans on the planet that have neither of these things and doesn't see things changing anytime soon. Yes, it is the old rabbit ears for us. Anyway, I sent away for our coupons to buy our digital converter box and they came this past week. I was not really thinking about this as being urgent, as the official switch is not happening until February sometime. But yesterday, we decided to go ahead and get a box or two and hook it up. After all, maybe we could get some new channels and maybe our old ones would become only kinda crappy, instead of thier usual really crappy. So after we hooked up the box, the picture was a little better, and we could clearly see that we were actually picking up about 12 more channels!! In the land of the cable impaired, this is front page news. We were stunned and simultaneously overjoyed. And our good luck has continued! Last night I stumbled upon an online video that instructs you how to make the best homemade TV antenna with just coathangers and screws. (watch video here) Jacob watched it a few times and then said he could make it. He dug out some copper wire we had hiding in the garage, got a piece of wood from Mom's house, bought one little cable piece from Radio Shack, and Eureka!! It really works. This is our new antenna behind our TV and it works IONS better than the rabbit ears. It's not even a contest! So now we have about 25 totally FREE channels to choose from, including about 5 new pbs-type stations and 2 new stations that are entirely made up of kids programming! I can't believe the government finally did something right in requiring us to make this switch. However, it is still a good news/bad news situation. Good news: More channels, awesome picture. Bad News: we have to look at this thing every day from now on. But, as you can see, I did take the liberty of drawing a small nose on the bottom to give it a face and have lovingly named him "Amazing Larry." (See Pee-Wee's Big Adventure for reference) Anyway, if you are doing the rabbit ear thing (that's you, Amy and Christina) and it sucks- make this antenna! I have to say that this whole experience has reaffirmed three things in my mind: 1. Not paying for cable is wonderful. 2. I LOVE the Internet. (No, really, I wish I could marry it and become Mrs. Internet) and 3. Jacob can build/fix anything! You should see the nuclear reactor out by the shed. Amazing!

On your mark, get set, fall asleep!

I don't know about you, but when it comes to napping (and sleeping in general), I am a complete spaz. It seems that taking a nap should be so normal, so easy to do. I mean, you're tired, you got time on your hands, it makes sense to lay down and take a snooze. It's cozy, comfortable, it's very refreshing! I get it! But me and naps just don't get along. Actually, let me rephrase that, me and planned naps, do not get along. There is something about telling yourself that you are supposed to fall asleep and the pressure it creates that complete ruins the whole experience for me. It is impossible for me to make myself sleep during a specific window of opportunity. Like when you have an hour or so before mutual that night and could squeeze in some Z's or like after you have a baby and some saintly soul comes to your house to watch the baby so you can nap. What an opportunity! But it never worked out that way for me. I would try to sleep, but knowing that I was now expected to sleep and the entire point was for me to sleep, was simply too much pressure and I was consequently, wide awake. (Although just laying down and resting was still a huge treat.) However, put me in a situation where I doze off completely by accident and we got a winner! That is my favorite napping scenario. I can't come home from church and get into bed and make myself sleep. Can't be done. But put me on the couch watching a science fiction movie or Word Girl on PBS or let me read a book for a while and I am usually a gonner. Which is good to know, because sleep in and of itself is such a mystery to me. How come we can be sooo tired when we need to be awake (like when I was in Econ 101 at BYU or when I am reading Little Fox goes to the End of the World to Cindy in her bed at 8pm) and then completely wide awake when it is time to go to bed? Plus, when I am finally in my own bed and waiting to fall asleep, I start thinking about how exactly we fall asleep and also start wondering how we never notice we are falling asleep. Then I worry that I won't ever fall asleep that night because I am simply waiting to observe it happening. (I told you I was a spaz.) Add to this the extremely good possibility that I will have the strangest dreams imaginable and it is really a miracle I ever sleep, ever. So pretty much I have stopped announcing that I am going to take a nap. I now just make my way to the couch and turn on some Star Trek. "Captain, re-route all available energy to the sleeping systems!" Works every time....

Word to your Mother

The other day I was telling Jacob some of my favorite words. You know, the ones you like to say because you like the way they sound or the way they come off your tongue? So here are some of my favorite words: (meaning has absolutely no bearing, because quite honestly, I don't know what some of these mean)

1. Impervious
2. Brisket
3. Reciprocity
4. Chicanery
5. Reiterate
6. Ne'er-do-well
7. Expunge
8. Sycophant
9. Hamburglar
10. Flautist
11. Chihuahua
12. Barnacle
13. Hobgoblin
14. Festoon
15. Serendipity
16. Calypso
17. Jugular
18. Viva
19. Spritzer
20. Astrometrics

Do you see any of your favorite words on there? If you do, I am happy to be your homodoxian. (Geez! Get your mind out of the gutter! It means 'someone who feels the same way as you do' :)

Sadie's Party

Cindy's cousin, Sadie, turned 7 this past week! Cindy got to go to her party, where we went to a real nail salon and got her nails painted! The funniest part was that in the week leading up to the party, Cindy became very worried about whether the person that was going to paint her nails was going to be a girl or a boy, because she did not want a boy to do it. Only Cindy would think of that :)













Cindy waited to have the same girl who did Ana's nails do her nails too. All is well in the world!


We even got to upgrade to a flower design on the thumbs! How girlie!


Aunt Molly made a darling nail polish cake that was totally adorable and tasted amazing. Happy Birthday to Sadie! We had a great time :)

You say Potato, I say Opossum

This past Saturday morning, Cindy came in and told me that something creepy was out on our back fence. I came to look, and sure enough, there was a big ol' possum out yonder (as we say here in Polk County). It was 9 in the morning, and as Cindy was very quick to point out, being nocturnal, it should not have been there.
Now, I have seen many a possum in my lifetime here in Florida, but I have never been able to get a good picture of one! But I grabbed the camera anyway and finally went outside to see if I could sneak up on it and get a picture. There was no need for a surprise attack, as I think this possum was not the sharpest tool in the shed. I pretty much went right up to it's face and it just stared at me like I was the disgusting rodent. Anyway, this experience got me thinking about how sometimes I hear these animals referred to as 'possums' and other times 'opossums'. Again, I turned to the internet to add to my Gee Whiz collection. So are they the same?? Oh no, my little friend, they are not! What I have in my backyard is an opossum. Straight up Possums are marsupials found in Australia and New Zealand. This here is a Possum:


However, just because it is spelled opossum, does not mean it is not pronounced "oh-possum" (as in "Oh, possum I have missed you!") It is pronounced "uh-possum", with the 'uh' barely noticable. In fact, that is why most people call opossums, possums- because over time the phonetic "uh" sound was subtle enough to be dropped altogher.

And what other amazing facts did I learn about opossums? I thought you would never ask!
1. Opossums have over 50 teeth- the most of any mammal, besides sharks.
2. They have soft, delicate hands and are terrible diggers.
3. They are partially or totally immune to the venom of rattlesnakes, pit vipers and cottonmouth snakes.
4. They are incredibly creepy looking in the daytime and have very low IQs. Hence their average lifespan of about 2 years.
5. The first Saturday of August has been designated as "Possum Day" in the Great State of Florida. (I am already working on my opossum float. I shall call it "Enchantment Under the Shed")
6. There is a Florida State Opossum Monument in Wausau, Florida that states the following: (and I am not making this up)

"Erected in grateful recognition of the role the
North American possum, a magnificient
survivor of the marsupial family pre-dating
the ages of the mastodon and the dinosaur
has played in furnishing both food and fur for
the early settlers and their successors. Their
presence here has provided a source of
nutritious and flavorful food in normal times
and has been important aid to human
survival in times of distress and critical need."

("Normal times".....I love it!)



Anyway, Sunflower (as Cindy named it) stayed out on our fence for at least the next 30 minutes we were home and possibly more after we left for a church activity. And at one point in all this excitement, I was on the patio with Rosa the bunny, who was keeping an eye out for Yoshi the cat, who was deciding what to think of the Sunflower the opossum. Awwh, it was like a redneck petting zoo in my own backyard.








The other popular search result that came up when Googling opossum was opossum removal. This was my most favorite picture I found on that subject:

And click here to see the story of how they found an opossum living in the engine of a car.

Anyway, now that I have done my research and learned all about these critters, I have the willies on a much larger scale than before. Once again, thank you, Internet. And goodbye Sunflower, until we meet again...(which I am sure we will, but probably when you are stealing Yoshi's Ocean whitefish medley one lonely Florida night).

LOL

Quick story that made me laugh...

This Christmas my Mom gave my neice, Ana, the play kitchen that was at my mom's house in their extra bedroom. Consequently, when Cindy went to my Mom's house after she had given it away, Cindy was totally confused where it had gone and asked my mom what had happened to the kitchen. Fearing that somehow Cindy might tell Ana where the kitchen really came from, my Mom decided to tell Cindy that she had given the kitchen to the "Christmas Elves" and didn't know what they had done with it. Cindy apparently took that story, hook, line and sinker, because today when we went to Ana's house for Sadie's (her sister's) birthday party, Cindy saw the kitchen in Ana's room and when she saw it she loudly exclaimed, quite surprised, "Oh my goodness, I need to tell Grandma Bingham!!!! She said she the elves had her kitchen and she didn't know where it went, but it is RIGHT HERE!!!" I think it's the fact that she is so serious when she says these kinds of things that makes it so funny. Definitely one for her journal. :)

PS> Cute pics from the birthday party coming soon. 7 little girls at the nail salon: Priceless!

30 Rocks!

Or at least that is what I have been trying to convince myself of lately. With my milestone birthday looming over me, I was thinking of a way to embrace this upcoming event rather than dread it. And luckily for everyone out there reading this blog, I thought of something! (You lucky blog readers, you!) Over the last three weeks or so I have been compiling a list, a list I have lovingly entitled "30 Things I have Never Done Before, But Want To Try."
I am sure you may have seen lists like this before, usually they involve the mentioning of skydiving (why is it ALWAYS skydiving??), bungee jumping, leaving the country, eating some exotic food like squid or caviar, getting a tattoo and things of this nature. Well, my list is a lot simpler than that. Reason one being I simply don't have the funds to bankroll activities such as those and reason two being that I did qualify my 30 things by saying I want to try them. (I don't want to skydive, bungee jump, eat nasty food or get inked- sorry to disappoint you). So over the course of the year I will be documenting each of my 30 new experiences right here on my blog as I check them off my list. (I feel like Earl Hickey right now...) I am not going to disclose what they are- it has to be a surprise. Mu-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I can tell you that these experiences are both big and small, exciting and boring and you just never know what I am going to do next. Currently I have about 17 things on the list and will be, of course, adding more. I must admit that just having this list and adding things to it has been a nice source of excitement for me- and since I will not allow myself to do any of these things before my birthday (well, I might cheat on the first one) I am totally excited for January 31 to get here so that all this list-crossing-off action can begin! Wow, this list must be magic because I actually just said I am looking forward to my 30th birthday. I think I need to make more lists!

And now for something completely different

Today's post is totally random, with the following items for your entertainment:

#1
For my dearest Misty,

I only a have a few pics of Trek to share, the camera died shortly upon arrival. But here are three just for you. I finally got them downloaded! Enjoy! :)





#2
Dad shaves the Beard! Or grows a beard (as I like to put them in reverse order)



Too bad- I had high hopes for the Hitler 'stache...





#3
I fed Yoshi the expired canned salmon!

This smelled so HORRIFFIC- It was overwhlemingly disgusting. Yoshi licked all the juice off right away and then left. (We assumed she went to go and die of food poisoning, but we found her alive the next morning and also the bowl EMPTY of all salmon). I am sure many cats from all over the neighborhood took turns with that one. Actually, the bowl was not completely empty, there were some very creepy round bones left in the end. I am feeling queasy just writing this. Blecchh!











Luke kept plugging his nose and saying "Ewwww!"



#4- It Rained!!
This is only exciting because Cindy and Luke both got umbrellas from their Great Grandma Donna and Cindy has been dying for it to rain so they could both go out and use them. Anyway, we woke Luke from his nap yesterday in hopes that he would want to play. He did, but just not with the umbrella. :) Anyway, some pics...







#5
I can now add Hershey's Dark Chocolate Baking Cocoa to my list of Favorite things. My friend Christina brought me some yesterday and the cookies I made with it are like bite sized crack. I am completely addicted! Truly, some of the best cookies I ever had. Thank You Christina!!