24 April 2010

Baby Update

Hello blog world. James keeps trying to take pictures of me. I don't like my picture taken, period, let alone my picture taken with a beach ball in my stomach. I decided that for posterity's sake (whatever) that I would take a picture of myself. Here it is (and yes, I am wearing stretchy pants, thank you very much):



I am at week 38 on Monday. What does that mean? I don't know. I guess it means that little Bing Bing baby will come sooner than later. People keep asking me how I'm feeling. I'm fine. I'm finally to the point where things are getting a little uncomfortable. I can't walk when I get up in the morning and feel like an old grandma holding on to furniture and counter tops, but by the time I get out of the shower, I'm fine. In reverse order, when I get up I have slight definition to my ankles, but by the time I got to bed, my sausages, I mean toes, are so fat that I can't even wiggle them. (Is wiggle spelled like that or spelled like wriggle? Spell check accepts both.)

My doctor says to plan on the baby coming a week late. My mom still thinks she's coming early. I just need one more week to get some things finished as school and two more homework assignments finished and then I think I'll be okay.

What else? A student touched my stomach this week. Yes, creepy. My mom does it all the time, but she's my mom and a little coo-coo, so I forgive her. At school? I was leaning on one side of the aisle helping a student when a hand comes out of nowhere and is rubbing me. Ahhhhhh . . . . . creepy . . . . . . run away!!! It was from a girl on the other side of the aisle. She said, "but Mrs. Binggeli it's so cute. I can't help it! That's what you're supposed to do to pregnant women." Ug. I ran away and have tried to avoid her ever since. She's the same girl that wrote me this a while ago.

What else? My cousin Maddie had her cute little baby this week . . . AFTER 30 HOURS IN THE HOSPITAL!! Oh dear, I'm scared. I would like to be in the hospital 30 hours total, not 30 hours waiting for the baby to come. I wish Maddie and Ben and little Cole the best of luck!

18 April 2010

I'm Tired!

I was going to wrap up what I was doing and head to bed by 10:00 p.m. tonight, but it's now 10:30. Oh well. I've got papers graded that I needed for tomorrow, but left the ones that need to be done by Tuesday. I did a few things I needed to for my USU classes. Then, I realized my blog was stale and it could use some current staleness.

Week in Review

- Monday night we had a long HOA meeting. The WVC policeman came to talk to us about preventing crime. James' car was broken into a week ago as were several others. The policeman is coming to our annual meeting in another week or so. James and I are resigning our post as secretary on the board. We're done.

- Tuesday and Wednesday were the last nights for piano/guitar lessons. As a soon to be full-time school teacher and mom, I had to give up something. Tomorrow night is our last recital and then that's it. I've been doing this off and on since we moved to our Hunter house when I was 19. I'll really miss some of the kids I've taught, but I'm done and ready to move on.

-Wednesday afternoon I also had a primary meeting. We have a leadership meeting coming up in another week. I am speaking on "leadership principles" from a message given by Sister Lant. I am also in charge of purchasing refreshments from Schmidt's.

-Thursday night James invited some guy to come talk to us about pre-paid funerals. Um . . . no thanks. I had to excuse myself early (thank goodness) to go to a pre-ward conference leadership meeting. We visited with the Samoan Ward in our stake and then split up to visit families in the ward who needed "rescue," as directed by the Stake Presidency. I went with another sister in our Stake Primary and a lady from the Stake Relief Society who is also in the Samoan Ward. We visited a sister who has been inactive since she was in young womens. She has 9 children ranging in age from 14 down to 2 weeks old. Her house was a little smelly and dirty. Her children were running everywhere and screaming. The Samoan sister from the ward talked to her about maybe starting to have family prayer or a family home evening in the home to teach about Christ. The woman's husband is a Methodist and doesn't really want the children participating in our church. It was a tough situation. In the end, the Samoan sister from the ward offered to come to the home once a week with her family and hold some type of short meeting to teach the children about Christ and hold a prayer. I thought that was extremely generous of her. I felt like I had zero impact on the family, but was at least grateful for a new, albeit uncomfortable experience.

- Friday night James teased me that he hadn't seen me all week, but then I reminded him that we had a family party to get to. My cousin Melinda was in town to visit and announce that they will be moving back to Magna from Overton, NV, while Cory enters a fire training program at UVU. It was nice to see them and we wish them the best.

- On Saturday, my mom, Annie, and friend Emily (with help from others) threw me a baby shower. I have a lot of aunts and cousins. With just a few extra non-family people added to the guest list, there was an enormous crowd at my mom's and everyone was very generous to us and our new baby. We got a lot of really cute things and I think I am now stocked up on baby clothes for a while. While all of is was really cute, my favorite thing had to be a yellow sunflower dress, sweater, and shoes from my aunt Lori. And, my aunt Karen finished a burper rag and a blanket that my Grandma Petersen had started at some point (that, of course, made me cry like a boob, even though I haven't had a melt down for several weeks). Thanks to everyone and your generosity at the shower!

- Also on Saturday night Willie went to a regional church dance. He said it was fun, some of his non Hunter Jr. friends were there, and he danced with three girls. I'm not sure I'm ready for my brother to like girls and I know my mom is not. After raising two girls who would never have stepped foot in a church dance, none of us know what to do with a boy who wants to go to them. Willie has had several "expectations talks" lately with Mother Judy and as he was ready to leave to the dance, my dad said, "let's go." My mom quickly stood up and said, "no, I'm taking him. I need to remind him of a few things." I guess he survived the talk in the car on the way to the dance since my mom DID leave him there. He's a good boy. He better be!!

- Today was the actual ward conference for the Samoan Ward. They fill up the chapel and half of the gym. They got a new bishop today and Sacrament meeting lasted for an hour and a half. Primary was a little crazy, needless to say, after that long of a sacrament. I think I guessed that they had around 70-80 kids in primary. The highlights included really beautiful music (during the prelude music, musical numbers, and the kids in primary) and 14 handsomely dressed deacons and teachers passing the sacrament.

- There were also a few things that continued on all week . . . late nights at school (no more student teacher), enormous feet and ankles, the dentist, James doing homework, me doing homework, both of us wishing the semester were over . . . that's about it!

What's on the docket for this week?
- Recital
- Doctor appointment
- Wrap up USU classes so I don't have to worry about them anymore
- Bug James to write his last big case study paper that he has to do
- Buy a few more baby things that we still need
- More school work to try and get ahead for the sub
- Mail James' graduation announcements
- Write thank you cards
- Take a nap.

Have a great week to you, too (everyone out there in blog world)!