Birk Adventures

Sometimes I marvel at Sunday being called the day of rest. Most days of the week I wake up with Marian, leisurely eat breakfast, exercise, shower, and do whatever I want to keep us busy. So contrast that with my "day of rest" yesterday: We started the day off with a scheduled power outage from 7 am to noon. It was a stormy day so our apartment was pretty gray! The power came back on at 9:40 as Marian and I were walking out the door. Here was our schedule the rest of the day: 7-10 Adam's meetings 9:45 practice song for Relief Society (I sang a duet with Lindsay Florence) 10:15 meeting 11:00-2:00 church, sing in Relief Society 3:00 visit teach 3:45-5:00 frantically make and frost about 90 mini cupcakes and make dinner--actually Adam was the hero here and did the cupcakes and casserole while I tried to keep up with the dishes, set the table, and prepared some training 5:00 we had our friends the Wagstaffs over for dinner 6:45 got the cupcakes to the car in the midst of a maj

My mom always told me that nerds make the best husbands and I am here to testify to the truth of that statement. Tonight as I was emailing/blogging, Adam was sitting on the couch absorbed in something--I assumed a law book. To my great amusement, I turned around to see his nose buried in his watch manual. OK, maybe I'd cut him a little slack if this were a new watch for Christmas. But NO, he got it for his birthday in 2007!! He just loves to read manuals. He saves them for spare moments to study them. Several times he's said to me, "The other day I was reading our car manual and learned..." I never hear what he learned because of my utter amusement/shock that he simply just reads the manual for fun. Even now as I type he sporadically makes satisfied grunts or excited "ah's" as he discovers new things about his watch. Like Mom always said, nerdiness is a fertile breeding ground for a wonderful husband!

A year can make a big difference! Here she is last birthday: And here she is eating her birthday breakfast this morning. I love this little girl and getting to hang out with her all day every day. It's the best job ever! Here is a video of her singing the ABC's. Once again, I know I'm her mom but I think she's brilliant.

Last year one of my New Year's resolutions was to read more. I tried for a book every month but didn't quite make it. However, I loved reading more and reading for enjoyment, not to get a good grade on a test. Here are the books I read: President Hinckley's biography (finished in 2008, started in 2007) Gilead Bonds That Make Us Free Covenant Hearts Man's Search for Meaning A Tale of Two Cities Pride and Prejudice Austenland Black Like Me (still finishing) I enjoyed all of them (OK, I didn't love Gilead) but especially LOVED A Tale of Two Cities. I didn't know anything about it before so didn't have any "great expectations" (sorry, just couldn't resist the Charles Dickens pun) and loved it. It was very powerful. So if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. Here's my list to read next: To Kill a Mockingbird The Bronze Bow Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Screwtape Letters What other recommendations do you have? I'm pretty

In honor of our upcoming BABY GIRL, we're going pink!! We just had the ultrasound today and are very excited, but very surprised. Everyone, including Adam and me, totally thought this one was a boy. But we got a pretty good look and she's all girl. I'm excited for Mini to have a friend, to be able to use the same clothes, and to get matching dresses for them! More than anything I'm glad that she's healthy as far as we can tell. As for a holiday update, we have had a great time spending time with both of our families (consequently getting to know I-15 from Provo to Salt Lake even better). It's always fun to have Adam's parents here from Denmark since we don't get to see them very much. We did Christmas Eve with them and enjoyed the Danish traditional dinner (pork roast, caramelized potatoes, and red cabbage), dessert (an almond pudding with cherry dressing--I love it!), and dancing around the Christmas tree. This was what Christmas morning looked like at