When It Rains It Pours - Thank Goodness for "Tender Mercies"

Hi Family,

January's been a rough month for us. To start off the month, I was let go from Barnes & Noble. I have applied for upward of 25 jobs since then, and even had a couple of interviews, but so far nothing has come up. In the mean time, I am spreading the word that I teach piano. I've had two kids for a few months now, and LOVE teaching. I've added one student so far, and am scheduled to meet with a lady about two of her kids the first week of February. I figure if I end up adding enough students to my schedule I won't have to worry about finding a "real" job. That's not to say that if I happen to get a job offer and my piano schedule hasn't filled up, I won't take it - I most certainly will.

The second week of the month brought me an infection. Go figure that this would happen the week after I lost my health insurance. We'll probably have to pay for the doctor appointment, but at least the bill won't come until after Jason gets paid. Thankfully, the Lord stepped in and the pharmacist gave us a huge discount on my prescriptions, so I have them and am feeling much better!

Our car stopped working during the third week of the month. Our one and only car. Yuck. I guess that's what I get for being frustrated about having only one car (it was part of the reason I lost my job). I got mad at the situation and, even though I did TRY to see the positive side of having one car, I guess I needed some humbling. That being said, I consider it a blessing that [1] the car died while I was at my piano student's home, so I had help trying to figure out what was wrong with the car AND was fed dinner while I waited for the tow truck (I love that family!), [2] towing the car didn't cost us a penny, because we had just signed up for a free AutoVantage trial (meaning to cancel before we got charged but after they sent us the free GPS promised) and towing is free for the first 150 miles (coincidence??? I think not...), [3] our home teacher is good with cars and his wife works for an auto dealer and got us a discount on the part we needed (the part will arrive in a few days... cross your fingers for us!!!), and [4] Jason is able to carpool to work most of the time and my in-laws let us borrow their truck for the other stuff.

Aside from the obstacles that presented themselves, this month has also brought some good things. The first? 70 degree weather!!! It is sunny and green in California already, and I LOVE it. =) It has inspired me to fill some of the new time I have now running more. I'm itching to do another Ragnar Relay, but I'll train in the mean time. I have also used my new-found time to finish a sewing project, clean the fish tank, de-clutter the bedroom, AND, most importantly, read the scriptures with my husband. We've taken our Primary's challenge to heart, and we are reading at least 3 minutes EVERY day (we have a cute little hour glass that keeps time for us and a set of 12 goal cards with boxes to color in for each day we read).

Speaking of the Primary, I was just moved from CTR 5 to CTR 7. I'll be working with the kids I taught two years ago. Part of me is excited because I'll get to watch these kids get baptized this year. The other part of me is worried, because this group of kids was a hand-full two years ago and they haven't changed. I fell in love with this year's CTR 5 group fast, and I'm sad I don't get to keep teaching them, but I'm going to try and feel the same love for the CTR 7 kids. There's got to be some way to get them to be reverent. I just have to find it. Any ideas???

Before I end, I should also probably tell you that I got released as ward organist, and that school started back this month. That's all for now. We love you bunches and are super excited about the family reunion this summer. =D

Love,
Brittany & Jason

New Year Resolution

So, I am starting the new year off right. It has been a couple of months since I last posted, so here is catching everyone up on what has happened recently from the Lehi Hancocks.

This year for Christmas I took a couple of weeks off over the holidays. It has been quite relaxing and a lot of fun. It is a bit different this year with Kaylie, Nate and Zach gone, but we did have Kaylie and LJ with us for a few days before they headed out to New Jersey.

Things have been going pretty well with work. It is very busy, but that has been good. Despite the economy, Rapid Intake has been blessed. We have not been without challenges, but we continue to make it and do well some months.

Lynette has been keeping busy with a number of different things. She spends time doing PTA things. She also spends a lot of time indexing and depending on the season of the year there are other projects she is working on.

On Christmas we were able to speak to Nate and Zach. We almost didn't get through to Zach. He gave us a wrong number. After about 40 minutes, LJ had a burst of inspiration and saved Christmas for us. He suggested we remove one of the numbers and it worked. It was great to talk to them both. Zach's spanish sounds really good to us. He speaks really fast, so we assume he must be comfortable with the language. It was so fun to talk to them. It is amazing how fast 45 mintues can pass when you are talking to them.

Kelsey is of course into her senior year. High School soccer season is over, so she is focussing on getting ready for college, club soccer and school. It looks like she will be going to Utah State come fall. Nate is not too excited about that because Kelsey will be ahead of him in school by the time he gets home.

Annika is in the middle of basketball season. She made the JV team this year and has played some garbage minutes in Varsity. There has been a few games were she has dressed for sophmore, JV and Varsity. I think she gets tired of sitting on the bench. She seems to play the most in JV. So we now spend our Friday evenings and Tuesday evenings at basketball games.

Tyson, Brianna and Max will also be playing basketball starting next week.

This Christmas season Brianna had a couple of performances with her Lehi Choir. She has really enjoyed being a part of the choir. I think we have found something that Brianna can really get interested in.

Tyson and Max have also been playing futsal. Max will still be playing more in January, but Tyson is going to focus on basketball.

I think that gets us caught up on everyone. We hope everyone is doing well.

The Lehi Hancocks