HoMe(s) 4 the HoLiDaYs Part 1

We were lucky enough to spend the holiday break with BOTH of our families in BOTH of the different states. We drove down to Vegas Saturday {18}, flew to California Wednesday {22}, and flying back to Vegas tomorrow {28} until we head back to Provo. So we spent about a week at each house. This is part 1 of our trip. This is the synopsis of California because we still have more fun times ahead in Vegas! Here are some California highlights.

*One of our Christmas traditions is to have a "Christmas Eve Program." Some people sing. Some people play instruments. Some people share a thought, but everyone has to participate.

-for some reason this is the best shot I have of Kendell and the cello. sad.

*Christmas morning!

*for Christmas Santa gave my sister Kendell a wii. My entire family had a blast doing this dancing game. We had couple competitions and everything. It was so fun! {don't worry OF COURSE we dominated. James's boyband time had to count for something!}

*went to the swapmeet... which is one of my favorite places ever! These are the sunglasses we bought there.

*We went to Knotts Berry Farm!

-ate lunch @ Johnny Rockets! (I like Knotts and all but this is what I was most excited for while there!)

-James won a prize for a soccer game!

-This is us here

-and here!

Other than that we went out to dinner at some of our favorite places {Cheesecake factory, Selmas, Rubinos, and lots of Golden Spoon}. We saw a ton of movies, in theaters {tourist} and at home {tangled, prince of persia, despicable me}. Overall it was a great trip and a fun time with family! We're excited to still have more time with James's family in Vegas!

Merry Christmas

From the Bindrups to you!

Pillow time

I finished my finals on Wednesday morning several days before we left for Vegas{we're leaving tomorrow}. So what did I do with my time you ask? I did my favorite thing ever. craft. Luckily for me my sewing machine arrived on my doorstep Tuesday afternoon. So what did I sew?

Pillows.

Lots and lots of pillows.

I have made 5 thus far and want to make 3 more. I have been sewing so much it hurts. I need to take a break. So what better to do than blog and share my new treasures?

Before I reveal them, let me give you an idea at my goal {I'm about to bring out my artsy side most of you didn't know I had} I wanted all of the pillows to be different. The are each little masterpieces of mine. Some are more simple and some are really complex {at least complex for me}. They are all made with the same three fabrics, so hopefully they will all come together in the end!

Here's what I have so far:

Pillow #1 {big pillow} This is probably my most basic pillow, but I like it. I sewed it exactly how it looks.

James actually had this idea. I thought it would be pretty easy, so this was the first thing I did on my sewing machine.

Pillow # 2{big pillow} I made this just how you would sew quilt squares. This one would have taken forever to sew my hand! I was to happy to have my sewing machine!

I can't find the picture of my original inspiration came from, but it was essentially quilt squares.

Pillow #3 {big pillow} There really isn't any inspiration for this one either. I wanted to have 2 pillows with buttons that matched, and I knew I wanted to use buttons on my idea for pillow #5. So I thought of this one. The light blue is a not a clean stitch {what is that really called} anyways, I think it looks cool.

Pillow #4 {small pillow} I made a regular one color slip cover. Then hand stitched these flowers on. It took forever, but it was worth it!

No inspiration for thins pillow. I was at Joann's looking for lace for pillow #5 and I saw this flower print and LOVED it. You will never believed how I dyed the tips blue. I had some old, cheap acrylic paint that I mixed with water and had the flowers soak in that for a few minutes. That's it! Crazy huh? They are mainly blue on the tips and white in the center. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it gives you the idea.

Pillow # 5- {small pillow} I just made a regular slip cover pillowcase, in one color. I bought this lace at Joann's in white. Then I dyed it the same way as in the previous pillow. I sewed it all by hand. {this is mostly why my fingers hurt} Then sewed the button on. I like how it turned out.

This was my inspiration from allthingsthrifty.com, such an awesome website you should check it out.
That is all so far, but 3 more should be coming! Hopefully I can finish the pillows {and have a clean house} before we leave for Vegas tomorrow!

Happy 6 Months...

....to us!

 

Can you believe we've been married 6 months today? Crazy right?

Yesterday I asked James if we could give marriage advice to someone what would we say... we came up with a lot of different ideas, but then he decided that everyone is so different and has such different needs. He said the best marriage advice he could give is "have fun figuring it out!" I think that's the best advice you can give someone.

I think the people that say the first year of marriage is the hardest, are insane. Our first half of the year has been so much fun, rarely any rocky moments. I hope this is our hardest year! :)

We celebrated our 6 months by celebrating marriage- Whitney and Kyle got married last weekend. Today they had their open house in Springville, Utah. I hope their first 6 month is as great as ours!

We're baack!

After being out of town for about 2 1/2 weeks. We're back and can't wait to share our stories with our friends BUT as for right now we are dying trying to catch up on school. Be excited to hear about

• Jerusalem and all that entails
• Thanksgiving in California
• Whitney's wedding

As for now I will leave you with a story. At the end of our trip we were in New York for a few days. We flew in from Israel around 5 am Friday the 19 and were supposed to fly back @ 8:30 pm Saturday the 20. Ya that didn't happen, for some reason James and I had our flight time wrong. We thought it was 9:30 and we were planning to be at the airport at 7:30 so we would have made it but did you know huge parts of the subway system shuts down for maintenance repairs on weekend nights? Neither did we. It took us an extra 45 minutes because of all of the transfers we had to make in order to get to the airtram to get to the airport. We arrive at the airport at 8:15, which was cutting it close for our nonexistent 9:30 flight, but definitely not okay for our real 8:30 flight. As we are walking to get in line I look over to the departure sign and Salt Lake City is blinking. The plane is boarding RIGHT NOW! I then ask James, "Was our flight at 8:30?" We run up to the desk and the guy wouldn't even let us try to make it. He put us on standby for the next flight to Salt Lake City... which was the same exact flight 24 hours later. We didn't want to spent the $30 it would be to get out of the airport plus the $150 more for the hotel, so we stayed in the airport. We slept here.

 

I had ear plugs and slept with my scarf over my face. For the rest of the time there we watched movies on James's laptop, looked around, rode the airtram about a zillion times (because some terminals had food but didn't have internet, and the places that had internet didn't have food), and we did a ton of homework. Basically if you ever need someone to show you around the JFK airport I'm your girl.

We got into our standby flight AND it was delayed 2 hours, awesome. So we called and told our friends not to pick us up on a school night at 2 am. We got in at 2. James's grandma came to get us, we dropped her off at her place and took her car to Provo. We were in Provo from about 330 am to 230 pm when we had to drive back to Salt Lake for our flight out to California.

Right now I hate airplanes. We went to the movies a few days after this incident and I was just angry the whole time because the movie theater felt like an airplane. I fell right asleep (like I do on planes) I literally watched 2 minutes of Harry Potter. Oh well.

Hope you enjoyed our mishaps :)

Mrs. Beandrop!

Student in the second grade-"teechur!"
I don't turn around
"Mrs. Beandrop!" (ya that's how they say my name)
I turn around.
"You have evil ears."
me- "what did you just say?"
"You have ears like those evils."
me-"You mean elves?"
"Ya, elves"

... my ears are pointed. It's true. I used to tell my sister I worked for Santa and she wasn't allowed because she had round ears.

P.s. we are flying out tomorrow! We'll be in New York for 3 days and Jerusalem the rest of the time until the 20. THEN we fly out to California on the 22!

my dad was....

Captain Hook for Halloween!

If you knew him this would be a lot funnier to you..

sEcOnd grAdE

Today one of my second graders called me Mrs. Gumdrop.... close enough right?





... I could probably do an interesting story like this everyday. Oh the life of an {almost} elementary school teacher.

A weekend in the mountains

James and I were privileged enough to be invited to go with some friends to their cabin in Cedar City. It was such a fun weekend! Couples retreats are seriously the way to go. We had the best weekend ever!

Highlights:
* Full on battle to the death fights over boys vs. girls games of Cranium. Seriously intense.. we are all way too competitive.
*The 8 of us stayed up until 4 in the morning Saturday night talking. I cannot remember the last time I stayed up that late! It was crazy!
*Chocolate covered pomegranates.
*Meals made by each couple... we took the easy route and made breakfast :)
*Exploring the ice caves (could be deceiving the name is ice caves, but there is only one cave).
*Watching the Prince of Persia.
*Driving there and back with Natali and Reed. (And when the Arby's guy forgot our food!)
*Banana Grams with Adrianne.
*Exploring the look out point that was way too foggy to see any thing!
*And of course freezing to death while 4-wheeling!

We LOVED our couples retreat and can't wait until the next one! Vegas next time maybe?

Want to hear about my day today?

I was out the door at about 6:45 because if one thing never fails me it is that I ALWAYS get lost on the way to something for the first time, especially important things. I, of course, had to call my dad to have him help me get on the right path for my journey. I was on my way to Sharon Elementary {when I called my dad I somehow ended up at Scera Park Elementary? Ya.. I don't know how that happened either}. I was on my way there because I am one of the newest SECOND GRADE TEACHERS at Sharon Elementary, for the next few weeks anyway. I was a little nervous going into it, but I really loved it. I love the school. I love the environment. I love the other teachers. I love my students and the other second grade students I work with. And my mentor teacher is awesome, exactly the type of teacher I needed to get the right perspective. I was in the schools from 7:30ish to 3:45ish and the day flew by! Then I was on my way straight to work where I am right now. I only worked 4 hours today I had someone cover my first half of my shift {thanks Devin!}

Just in case anyone was wonder 7 to 8 is a long day...

Oh and the Jerusalem trip is still on :)

I needed this... especially during midterms

Jerusalem Trip - CANCELED

James and I were going to go to Jerusalem with his family November 12- 20. Today we got an email stating that the trip has been CANCELED!!! It was canceled because of safety reasons. Sad! Well... mostly sad, I'm a little relieved. I was getting so stressed about all that I needed to do to make this trip possible. Now all of the stress is gone. That's something to be happy about right?  

This is my husband in high school....

Welcome to the world of boy band aka my husband dressed up like a gingerbread man.



Hilarious? I think so...

The note that was on my car...

{If you can't read it, it says "you suck at parking fyi"}

To the person that wrote this: You are a gem. I am so glad to be sharing this planet with someone like you.

Just in case anyone was wondering I am NOT the best parker in the world, but in this particular instance I had to fit between 2 large cars one of which was extremely crooked and a truck that pulled through some of my spot. I had to get to class. It was the first spot I found. I didn't care if I was a little crooked. I certainly did my best.

To people who would ever think of doing something like this to someone else: What do you think you're accomplishing? The only thing this accomplished is showed me the person that wrote this has ZERO class.

How married we are...

This is not a food post. Has anyone noticed all my posts are about food? Apparently I'm SUPER boring and married, so I have nothing to blog about... I wanted to illustrate how boring and married we are.

1. I have nothing to blog about ever. The most exciting thing in life is the fun things we cook. I don't even like food that much. So weird.

2. Secondly, for the last 4 weekends in a row {including yesterday} we go to the grocery store on Saturday night. The first time it was the only time we could go, now I plan on going at that time.

3. Yesterday we got home from the mission reunion and decided we wanted to watch a show. Instead of debating if we should watch one of James's shows or one of my shows, we decided we would each watch our own shows on our laptops with our headphones in. Ridiculous? yes. So married? yes.

I could probably think of a few more.. but those are my favorites.

P.S. For those of you at BYU, did you notice Elder Hales gave the same talk he gave in conference a few weeks ago in devotional. Why do you think that is? Why wouldn't he have 2 different talks?

my husband the expert chef

I come home from work and this is what I see. (p.s. Anna that's you on the fridge!)

He made fried rice

and sweet and sour sauce with chicken.

Best husband ever? I think so!

We go here...

World Class University Commercial from BYU HD Video on Vimeo.

The WORST pan ever!

I'm not sure you can tell what this is. In case you were wondering, this is how my oven looked last night. When my glass OVEN SAFE pan blew up! Can you even believe that?

P.S. Don't worry we recovered. We went out for dinner :) and eventually it was clean.

Who needs in-n-out?

When it's Sunday and you are craving in-n-out... what do you do? Maybe for lunch make burgers, fries, and strawberry milkshakes. Success!! P.S. my hair is brown and I love it!

The Forest Fire My Husband Started

Saturday James started a forest fire. I laugh every time I say it. He is so hilarious. He and his friend Aaron decided it would be a good idea to take the damaged scooter into the wilderness and shoot at it. So they did. Genius. Everything was fine at first, until someone shot the tail light and it lit some sagebrush on fire. Which they weren't too worried about {for some reason}. They tried to put the fire out, and it kept getting bigger. Eventually they couldn't get a handle on it. So my {somewhat} responsible husband called 9-1-1 for some help. The fire fighters came and the sheriff came to discuss consequences for James and Aaron's actions. First and foremost they were going to be charged for illegal dumping of the scooter in the wilderness. Plus the cost of getting all of the fire fighters out there and paying them for their job. Plus various other fines for not being smart. Awesome. In the end the sheriff was pretty impressed that the guys actually called for help instead of running away, so he said that if they come back tomorrow and pick up the scooter {to waive the illegal dumping charge} they would be free of any charges. When James and Aaron went back the next day James said they did about 2 football fields long and 1 football field wide of damage.

R.I.P. Skippy

Skippy is our scooter. He has been in our family from the beginning. Wednesday he took a turn for the worst, literally. James was riding him to school and took a turn too quickly. Skippy is in a better place now{Western Metal Recycling, notice the wires sticking out everywhere}.

On to something more important... James has bumps and bruises everywhere! And is currently on crutches for his sprained ankle. But we are VERY grateful because it could have been way worse! {Notice the band-aids on both hands, face, and ankles} We vow to NEVER scooter again. About 3 years ago James and I were scootering and I was in an accident.

We should probably stick to non-motorized bikes!

Inside Picnics!

We have been doing SO many fun things lately. I wish we took more pictures. Here is one particular event that we did take pictures. We had an inside picnic while watch Hotel Rwanda. We had home-made tortilla chips {basically we cut up tortillas and put them in our deep fat fryer SUPER healthy I know}, home-made guacamole, turkey sandwiches with guac, watermelon, and some Smiths cookies. It was really fun!

Kitchen Craft #4

(Don't worry.. I think this is my last one, for the kitchen at least)

I really wanted one of those "I kiss better than I cook" signs. I did a lot of looking around and I decided I wanted to make my own. I bought letters at Michaels and painted them white.Then I bought scrap wood at Lowes. Did you know any size scrap wood is free? You just have to pay $1 for them to cut it the size you want it, pretty cool fact to know. Then I sewed extra fabric from the reupholstered chairs and the brown fabric together. The brown fabric is actually the old fabric for the chairs that I took off. And here is the final project! It has yet to be hung on the wall, but it will soon!

Kitchen Craft #3

This is my kitchen. Notice the EXTREMELY white walls and that huge open white spot. I had to do something about it. I bought $1 piece of wood at Michaels and $1 hooks from Target. I painted the piece of wood (please do not judge my non-artistic-ness) and James screwed in the hooks. Here it is. We hung it up in the white spot and it has become an apron hanger. Looks way better right?