So it is the end of February and I'm getting excited for spring. I know, I know, it's gonna be a little while yet, but the way time flies as you get old, it should be here, sayyyy tomorrow. (Cause I'm that old). There's still snow and a lot of ice on the ground but the sun is rising when I get up to get the kids off to school and it's starting to set around dinner time. Walking is pleasant in the crisp air, and I feel renewed by the daily increase in daylight.

Jesse and Kira brought their mid term grades home and they are both doing outstanding. I couldn't be prouder. Jesse is a peer mediator at school and he's so proud. He takes his job very seriously. It's a great program and they are teaching him leadership and problem solving skills. The teacher that nominated him said he was the first student that came to her mind out of all the kids in her class. (yes, I'm bragging) Kira writes in her homemade journals everyday and loves to cut up paper and make decorations for the house. She's always got some kind of project going on, completely created in her own mind. She definitely does not get that from me. Tina used to do the same thing when she was little. I was always finding little drawings and art projects around the house. It's funny, Mandy and Jesse are a lot alike in ways and Tina and Kira are a lot a like too. RJ, well, he's just marching to his own drummer. I sure miss him dreadfully. We've got a Utah jar that we put all our loose change in to save for a trip to see RJ. He's growing so fast I just want to cry. Speaking of crying, my baby girl is getting married 2 summers from now. Sniff, sniff, I can't believe it. A mother's tears never end. We have tears of pure joy, tears of beaming pride, tears of sorrow when we miss our kids and tears of laughter when they say or do the funniest things. I especially like the tears of complete surety that my child loves me, and whenever one of them does something, even the littlest thing, that shows me that they care, I cry. Those are the best tears of all.