Recap

February seems to be flying by!

I wanted to share some of the photos out my great room windows. Whenever I feel blahhhhh I look out these windows and am driven to gratitude for the beautiful world Heavenly Father created. After having a couple of weeks of mid 30's to 60's, we're back to a cold morning. It was 19 when I first woke up. And this is the view out those windows.
This is the view I usually have.
Kind of a different view. This last one is without the telephoto lense, but you get the idea. We call this the meadow. It is protected land that will never be built on. So far we have only seen fox and coyote and steer and birds, but our neighbor saw two bobcats last week, and we hear there are occasionally deer and elk too. We're excited, but I have to say I'm relieved not to have seen the bobcats up close, which is why its nice to have these windows. I feel safe inside.

This morning we had a woodpecker on our house and everyday we see beautiful bluebirds, red-winged blackbirds, numerous other small birds, and these:
These are big magpies. They are plentiful. Here you see a small sampling of my neighbor's birdfeeders. She keeps them stocked, and the birds love to visit. One thing I haven't seen at all is squirrels. We were so used to them when we lived in Colorado before. We even had to have an exterminator come to get them to quit getting into our roof before, and in Maryland, they were plentiful. But here, I guess its because we're not close to nut-bearing trees.

Here are some photos to summarize February for us. I'm sad I didn't bring my camera everywhere I went, so I'll fill in as needed. This is how bad the floors used to be.
These are the floors now. You can see how much more beautiful and polished they are. And, of course, no faded spots or worse, the dark patches where the cat did whatever. This was taken before the painter touched up the trim, but its all good now. In fact, two people in the ward have been in my home and asked for the name of my painter because he did such a good job.

The last day the painter was in our house, was on LittleBuddy's birthday.
He wanted to celebrate at home, so we did. He loved his gifts and his cake.
The next night we went to the Air Force Academy to see BYU play Air Force. Well, actually, I should say, we really wanted to see Jimmer Fredette, and while BYU won 90-52, or somewhere around 40 pts, I wasn't even focused on the score, but on the great plays. There were other good players too, and it was easy to see why BYU has had such a great season so far. . . keeping our fingers crossed for continued success.


Then there was the Court of Honor where LittleBuddy received his 1st Class.

Another big event, is that MyGirl has started attending a public high school. She takes a ceramics class there, and eats lunch with her friends. She only goes every other day, because of the type of schedule they have here, but she loves it. She still does her academics at home, and that's going well too. She won't let me take her picture, no surprise, but its fun to see her happier with more friends.

We also are enjoying a great outpouring of social invitations here, and really have been welcomed by our ward. Our realtor had a wonderful brunch she invited us to last Sat. We've had three dinner invitations, and I was already invited to the "ladies who do lunch" that are my age to celebrate someone's birthday yesterday. We had some good laughs. Its fun to hear about their missionaries or soon-to-be ones.

In the past month BigBuddy has had four friends get mission calls, and in this new ward, there have been three just in the past couple of weeks, so I'm feeling the excitement growing with each one. He can turn his papers in the end of March, and is going to have it sent here, since his finals are done by the 10th of April. Hopefully we will arrive just in time for him to open it up. BigBuddy and I talked about it, and he doesn't care at all where he gets sent. In fact, he's thinking he's going to be in Baltimore, feeling like he has unfinished business there. We'll see. I have no idea, or no strong feelings either way. I guess I know very clearly that Heavenly Father knows and loves my boy, and that wherever He gets sent will be the best place for him to serve, so I'm okay with wherever, even if its a dangerous place. Its just so fun to hear his excitement, and to hear how he's preparing, and how grateful he is that he's had this year to be away from home to have more time to grow and prepare. To think that in two months from now, we could know where he's going - so exciting!

Cowgirl is making good progress in college. Her grades are excellent, and she's enjoying what she's learning, so much so, that she's decided to take a minor in accounting to accompany her business/marketing degree. She bought another car this month after having a scary accident in Jan. with a tree and a deer. She's loving it, and already spent a weekend with her grandparents.

Mike's dad had surgery last week for an aortic aneurysm, and was sent home the next day. Modern medicine sure has changed.

We also got to see my brother in Denver on President's Day; his house, his dog, where his art gallery used to be. It was good to be together again. We all had lunch at a great place, and just visited. I'll be excited to go back when his garden is growing. He's quite the gardener! I'm sure I can learn a few tips from him.

So, its been a good month. I got the perspective I needed about moving from a sister I've been assigned to visit teach. Like us, she is planning on living here forever. She was heading out of town for three weeks to help out extended family, and said, I'm not going to worry about how fast it all happens because I know it will happen eventually. I needed that reminder. Clearly, patience is a virtue I'm still working on. Hopefully this will be the home to see those refinements take place. . . always more progress to be made.