February....

January is over and February has begun.  Here in Virginia, February announced itself with incredibly cold weather and snow.  I didn't think it snowed much up here, and even though it hasn't snowed a lot or lasted long, it has snowed several times now.  The snow is beautiful...I had forgotten how quiet, calm, peaceful, and beautiful it makes the world appear.  The downside?  It's cold!

This has been a yin and yang sort of week...I am still struggling to get over this sinus infection and haven't felt great...my energy level is low...I'm exhausted most of the time, and I'm still congested.  But the good news is that every day is at least a little better than the day before.  In all of this, we have been shown such love and care by our ward family.  In addition to the dear sister who gave us homemade bread and made homemade chicken noodle soup for us last Sunday, my visiting teacher showed up Monday evening and brought a lovely card, some saline spray for my nose, and an offer to bring dinner over the next night, which she did.  It was not necessary, but it was definitely very much appreciated.

And my parents and Grandma came to visit this weekend!  That was definitely the highlight for me.  They arrived Thursday afternoon and left today after church.  I was sad to see them leave, but so happy they were able to come visit, even for just a couple of days.  We kept busy, too.  We did some shopping on Friday, and then on Saturday we went to the Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport -- one of the Smithsonian museums.  It was huge!  We saw the Enola Gay (the airplane that dropped one of the atomic bombs), the space shuttle Discovery (SO cool!), satellites, rockets, and some of the very first airplanes ever built.  It was really neat and I look forward to going back and going on one of their tours to hear more about the various displays.  It made me realize how fortunate we are to live in an area where we have access to so much history, culture, information, and art.

We also did a lot of work in the kitchen and sunroom, including making a valance for one of the windows, table skirts for the two butcher block tables we bought for the kitchen, and two throw pillows.  I don't know how many times I went up and down the stairs during these projects...I was doing the cutting and pinning on the main floor of the house, ironing seams and hems upstairs, and sewing down in the basement.  My legs are sore today!  But I'm so excited with how it's coming together.  My next big project is to get the kitchen pantry organized and maybe do some reorganizing of the kitchen cabinets...need to get some family pictures printed to hang on the walls, add some color, and these two rooms will be done.  Yea!  Both times Mom has come to visit we've ended up working on the house....the first time they came we went out and bought curtains for the living room, curtain rods, and rugs and towels for the bathroom.  This time we worked on the kitchen and sun room. She jokingly asked me which part of the house we would be working on next time they visit.  I'm sure we'll come up with something!  It was wonderful to spend time with them....

Alyssa had a good week at school, aside from being sick with a bad cold.  The highlight of her week was going to the BYU basketball game last night and being shown on the big screen twice!  How cool is that???!!!

All in all, it's been a good week.