Bingaman Happenings

Has it really been since November since I last posted? Wow, time just flies by!

Here's the latest on the underwear saga...Last week I found out that Joshua doesn't always change his underwear. His words, "Oh, I forgot I was supposed to do that." EWWWWW!!!
I see that my work is cut out for me. I will be watching him like a hawk!

Now onto other news...
For those of you who don't know, Alan recently had a job change. He still works at the church but is now full time worship which means he runs sound and concentrates on recording. No more weird night shift schedules for the Bing house!!!

I have been stuggling with teaching the kids school. Somedays I feel very overwhelmed and take it out on the kids. I don't want to be that way and God doesn't want me to either. So, I have come to the decision that for next school year, I will be sending the 2 oldest kids to public school. Evan has lots of reservations about going but we are praying through his issues. Lydia can't wait and is counting down the days. When we were first throwing this idea around, Joshua said that the only way he'll go to public school is if we buy him an alarm clock. I guess he assumed that we wouldn't wake him up in time to get on the bus so he wanted to take care of that issue by himself. Joshua will remain at home with me for another couple of years.

We are trying really hard to get out of debt. We have some bills still to pay from when we got our yard done. It's really making us think, "Do we need this, Can we live without it?, Can we get this cheaper?" We are doing well with this. We are almost debt free except for our car and house. We are also working on getting an emergency fund supplied. It's a great feeling to be working on this. It's not always fun, but it feels really good to get some of our bills paid off.

We have been traveling with school again. In March we were in Harrisburg, Lehighton, New Cumberland and in April, we went from Pittsburgh to Philly in 3 days. That was crazy but fun. The kids had a blast swimming in all of the indoor pools.

Last night I got a phone call from my dad saying my mom is in the hopsital and is not doing well. 3 weeks ago, she had triple heart bypass surgery. They had some complications attaching the new veins because she is a diabetic and has been since she was a little girl. The doctors were finding that her veins were very brittle. Overall, the surgery went well but she wasn't healing as well as she should have been. Last week I called one day to check on her and she was out of it. She didn't even know who I was. That was a weird feeling. I called her yesterday and she said she was doing better. She was just tired. Then last night I was getting out of the car after coming home form church and get the call from my dad. It turns out that she had a pulmonary embolism (a blood clot) which stopped the blood flow to her heart and brain and lungs. (typically, these types of things tuen out fatal.) My dad called 911 and the paramedics got there withing 2 minutes and did CPR and revived her. She is currently on a ventilator and is not expected to last very long. She is having tests today to see if she has any brain function. So, if you think of us, please pray for peace for my dad, myself, and my brother and sister. I could really use some wisdom to know what to do and when to do it. It's hard being so far away. (They live in FL.) I asked my dad if he wanted us to come down and he told me to give it a couple days to see her status. Honestly, I don't know how I am feeling. I am still trying to process. Those of you who know the history between my mom and myself have an idea about what I am feeling. Those of you who don't, ask me sometime and I'll share. I was okay last night while talking to my dad until we were ready to hang up and I heard him crying. Then I started. I'll try to update as I hear anything new.