November Adventures

We are busy.  We are crazy.  We don't blog much.  Here are some pictures to document life in the Binggeli House in the last few weeks.

One Thursday night, the kids and I had a marathon night.  We left school right when the high school students got out to head to an appointment at Primary's and then decided to get flu shots and eat dinner in the hospital cafeteria while we stalled to go to the first Utes basketball game.  After we waited for honestly 45 minutes for our stinkin' flu shots, we really didn't have any choice but to eat at the cafeteria because my children were about ready to eat each other and traveling to a different place may have been deadly.  After the fun and excitement of appointments, shots, and hospital cafeterias, we went and parked our car for the ball game and decided to just ride the train around.  

We walked across the big Olympic Bridge and the kids thought that was cool.  We hopped on the train and rode west a stop, got off, got back on, rode east 2 stops, got off, got back on, and then headed back west a few stops.  My kids like the train and were super well-behaved.  They had fun. Willie's friend Chunky happened to get on the train so we talked to him for a minute, too, and that was fun.

One Saturday, Annie hosted a "Pop-Up" Show in her house to sell her bags and host a variety of other vendors.  It seemed to be a huge success and she did really well.  My mom kidnapped the Howden's for the day of the show and we met them for a movie.  We saw Charlie Brown in 3D.  It was cute.  Jack and I may have dozed off, but we still liked it.  Afterwards, we went to Grandpa's to rake his leaves.  The kids were not exactly helpful, but I think they had fun.

November included College Application Week.  This was the first year our school participated.  It was a big deal and our counseling center did a great job.  Teachers were encouraged to participate in the door decorating contest.  Most of the other math teachers were super lame and didn't do it, but I was pretty happy with how mine turned out.  I liked it and thought my T.A. and I did a nice job.  I didn't win the contest (I never do), but I thought my door looked good.

The basement . . .  is SLOWLY moving.  James and his dad worked hard to get the drywall all hung. Now is mud time.  I have yet to finish mudding the bathroom.  I have watched a plethora of youtube videos on the subject, but it just never works out as easy as the people on the videos make it look.

That is it for now.  We are excited to have some days off for Thanksgiving and are looking forward to getting started with the crazy Christmas season!  Hooray!

We spend most of our time at work and school, doing homework (kindergarten homework can be intense), eating, bathing, going to church, and sleeping.  We try to get along as life goes along.  

Happy Veteran's Day

I went through some old photos to find a very young James doing his military duty.  Happy Veterans Day and thank you for your service.

October

Once again, time has flown by and I haven't updated this hear blog.  Here is a rundown of the month of October (since now it is November).

Molly did her first ever school presentation.  She had to do a 2-3 minute report about pumpkins.  We checked out a book from the library about pumpkins, we wrote down what was important and decided what we wanted to tell the class.  Molly picked the pink poster paper, typed the words (with mom telling her how to spell the words), cut and arranged everything on the paper.  I met her at school the morning of her report to carry in her visual aid pumpkins and leaves.  She did a great job!

Halloween happened.  The kids were back and forth on what they wanted to be.  Mostly, Molly wanted to be a My Little Pony and Jack wanted to be a Minion.  We went to a store one night and they found these costumes - Pink Crayon and Green Skeleton.  They didn't change their minds and I was happy about that!

The kids dressed up for a ward party, school, and Halloween on Saturday.  The costumes got some good use.  

James dressed up for work.  He's been growing this yucky beard and has purchased a new hat and earmuffs since this picture to improve his Yukon Cornelius costume.  

Jack came Trick-or-Treating to my classroom!

Grandma Judy was able to go to Molly's parade.

When the actual night of Halloween came, the kids and I made it around the block before Jack's legs were broken and he was literally crawling on the sidewalk.  Once inside, the kids had a lot of fun passing out treats to the kids coming to our house.

I said "sucky" over the pulpit. Is that ok?

At this Binggeli house, we (mostly me) try to pile on as many challenges as possible.  We work full time.  We have two kids.  James is working on his master's degree.  We have busy church callings.  We lead health challenges.  We sign our kids up for soccer.  And then . . .  hey let's start a major construction project in the middle of it all.  I'm pretty good at creating challenges for our family, but sometimes life throws challenges at you that you would never anticipate and basically are just rotten.  That's kind of where we're at right now.  However, like solving a tough math problem, you assess the situation and then just jump in and work at it.  This too shall pass.  I don't know what I'd do without the support of my family and my beliefs.  We are blessed beyond measure even when times get tough.

Here is a quick thought I sent to my brother in an e-mail a couple of weeks ago . . .

I bored my testimony today for fast and testimony meeting.  A returned missionary girl in our ward (she's been home for a year or so, I guess), said that if you have self-doubt or doubt in the gospel then you should bare your testimony!  I have been struggling with life lately and thought about what she said.  I pray a lot, but don't really feel like I get any answers and sometimes just wonder if anyone is listening.  I never waver from the way I live my life, but I sometimes wrestle with things in my head about where I stand with the gospel.  In the meantime, another guy got up and said how he was often asked as a kid (living in California) about why you would want to join a church with so many "restrictions."  He explained that what others may call "restrictions" are really allowing us to live a life without real restrictions and burdens that we would have if we lived a life of sin (or something like that).  I mulled it over and then got that crazy "burning in my bosom" that I needed to try out what the returned missionary girl had said.  Plus, I was thinking about the whole "restrictions" thing.  I couldn't put it aside and had to bear my testimony.  Basically, I said that I needed to bare my testimony as a reinvestment in my own testimony.  The Church is true.  Life is meant to be a test, but sometimes it is just downright sucky.  I can't imagine getting through life WITHOUT the blessings of living the gospel.  I can't imagine how "restricted" we would we be with any other path.  It wasn't very eloquent.  I kind of fumbled.  At least I got a laugh at the "sucky" part.  

When I got back to my seat, the closing song was "Nearer My God to Thee."  I felt the presence of my Grandma's near and thought they were giving me a hug and telling me I'm a good kid.  I felt the presence of my doofy little brother (because let's face it, he only knows a few songs on the piano and that's one of them) and I hoped he would have been proud of my testimony.  For the first time in a few weeks, I felt that Heavenly Father had been listening to my prayers and that he was finally answering them.  I am so grateful for the sister who didn't realize she was encouraging me to bare my testimony.  I needed to state out loud (however discombobulated it was), what I believed.  In doing so, I felt the love of our Heavenly Father.

That is my spiritual experience for the week.

I also got to talk for 2 minutes in Sharing Time today about my doofy little brother, the missionary.  Sharing time was about missionary work.  I took a picture of you and shared.  It was fun!

Time Flies By

Holy Cow!  I have not updated this blog in more than a month.  Time flies by and life is insane.  Here are some things that have been happening.

One night we ventured to the mountains for dinner with these crazies.  They spent quite a bit of time looking for snipes.  They each got really close to finding one, but every time, the snipe just got away.

After visiting the Utah State Fair and not being able to go to the Circus that they were having there, we decided to go to the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus.  We invited my parents to go with us and we had a great time.  The kids were quite amazed and actually payed attention for most of the show.  The adults were pretty amazed as well.  This was nothing like a circus I remember going to as a kid.  It was quite the production with music, dancers, and constant movement.  Each new act was set up in the dark while your attention was drawn to some crazy stunt elsewhere in the arena.  There were strong men, tigers, elephants, camels, clowns, high wire stunts, BMX bikes, and trampolines, but just all taken to the extreme.  It was definitely entertaining!

We grew a ton of pumpkins in our yard this year and the kids had this great idea that we should sell them.  Eventually, I obliged and we set up a Pumpkin Stand on the corner of our circle.  I was hoping that they would sell 1 and be excited enough to be finished.  I never could have imagined the response!  They sold 8 pumpkins in 30 minutes and with a few tips made $18.  It was pretty crazy!  They were way excited!

The basement is moving along, slowly but surely.  Grandpa Binggeli has been hanging out at our house a lot lately while he and James work on hanging sheet rock.  The kids love having him there and our morning routine has gone much more smoothly with him at our house to add excitement every morning.  When this whole project is finished, he'll have a nice place to sleep downstairs (instead of on an air mattress in the family room).  

Over UEA break we played with Cousin Max a couple of times.  These kids have a ton of fun when they get together.  Luckily, the battery in Max's car doesn't last too long or we'd be driving off cliffs in the neighbors yard all day!

Every Saturday morning we spend a couple of hours at the church running Young Women's Volleyball.  I can't say this is my most favorite calling I've ever had.  In fact, I think it is my least favorite calling.  But . . .  the girls who come have fun and hopefully learn a little bit more about the game.  I have great helpers who support and get things running with me.  It works.