Treading Water and Stuff

Seems like we have been so busy lately. The end of January marks three family birthdays in eight days, which means excitement. Katie turned 8 on Friday and we had a small-scale family soiree that night. She REALLY enjoyed her friends party on Saturday. I took her and 6 pals to a bowling alley where they bowled two games and got free drinks. They even got special treats if they got a strike. Well with bumper bowling, strikes were plentiful for some of the gals. Only one cried when she thought she would never get a treat. Guess who... yup, you're right. I reminded her that she had a large Symphony bar at home from the night before and that helped a little. (It's still hidden in my sock drawer so daddy won't break down and eat it.) Any of you had a Tomagatchi? I don't know how to spell it, but it's a little electronic toy that's kind of like a pet. You have to feed it and do other things (by pushing buttons) to help it, or it will die. Here's a tip, don't buy one. Katie is obsessed with it, and now so is Lee Lee.

Katie will be baptized this coming Saturday, and we hope to see a few extended family members there. We had several extra Britts around yesterday as Jim was called to be in our new bishopric. It was one of those things that people had been speculating about for months, since our former bishop's 5 years were up in October. But we didn't think much of it until late December or early January when I got a funny feeling that I couldn't suppress. I shared that with Jim after a week or two, and we thought, whatever happens, we'll do our best. Funny thing, the stake presidency met with me before they met with Jim to tell me about the calling. Poor Jim was in the foyer sweating up a storm. We are excited and humbled about this. I'm not sure what it will mean for my Young Women's calling. I'm sure there's some reorganizing to be done. I will miss sitting by him on Sunday, although half of the time now there's a small girl in between us. I think it will be really good for Jim, and a good challenge for our family. We love the other people that were called and look forward to serving. We all (outgoing and incoming bishoprics and their wives) were part of sacrament meeting yesterday. I thought it was really nice.

Funny story
So last weekend, my in-laws showed up unexpectedly on Friday afternoon. They live 75 minutes away (depending on who's driving). They had gotten a little confused and were, actually, two weeks early for Katie's baptism. So they spent the night with us and we visited Saturday morning for a while. At one point, during a small lull in the conversation, grandma turned to me and said, "I'm sorry we're crazy!" which caught me off guard and was really funny. I told her they could stop by anytime and not to worry. Perhaps I should try this when I do wacky or perhaps regrettable things. "I'm sorry I'm crazy." Enough said.

Sledding Fun

Reading Makes You Smrt

So, we encourage the girls to read for 30 minutes every day. And they are pretty good to do this most of the time. The elementary school has their own reading program, and we try to sign the charts and all that jazz. Certain Christmas books made reading more fun for a week or two. But sometimes it's a chore to get certain girls excited about it.

So yesterday, after my white-knuckle drive home, Becky proudly announced to me that she had a new book from the school library (first day back after the holiday break). She held it behind her back and asked me to guess what it was. She quickly interpreted my mood and then playfully asked, "You know that movie Desperaux that's out?"

I replied, "Yes, the one with the mouse."

And she drew forth her shiny new book, complete with the cartoon mouse on the front. "Oh, good," I mustered. Then I decided to see how difficult a book it might be for her... and in about one second I discovered that the entire book was...


in Spanish!