It is a beautiful day today! Sunny, 60's, and not a cloud in the sky. We just came in from playing outside. Colored on the driveway with sidewalk chalk, played ball, and Alina practiced riding her bike. I'm trying to teach her to keep her balance by keeping her training wheels quiet. She gets the idea but it will take some more work.

We signed Alina up for swimming lessons today. They start March 3rd. She is so excited. She is such a water baby. We thought it would be right up her alley. Of course to celebrate, we went out to find a new swim suit. She picked out a really cute one. It is blue, purple, and white...kind of looks like colorful tiger stripes. I didn't care for it much on the hanger, but she insisted. She tried it on and it is TOO cute! She was right. She loves being right! :)

Grandma is not doing well. (My Grandma, not Alina's) She is 96 and I think it is just a matter of time before she passes. I will miss her very much, but I will be glad when she doesn't have to suffer so much. We will have to plan a trip home soon. Poor Dad is just exhausted making sure he gets everything done for her that she needs done.

Tomorrow is dress up day at Alina's school. All of the children are supposed to dress up as what they want to be when they grow up. Alina decided that she wants to be a police officer. We got a really cute costume together. She is going to be adorable complete with badge, sunglasses, hat, handcuffs, walkie talkie and name tag that says, "Officer Knode". Too cute.

Lent has begun! I look forward to Easter. I'm making an extra effort to get in more bible study and prayer time. Today was very nice. Just goes to show me how good life can be when I set my priorities in the right place. It also shows me, shamefully, how little effort I was putting in before. :)

Watching the Winter Olympics tonight. It amazes me what people can do. I've gotten sucked into speed skating this year. Especially the short track races. Womens' downhill was pretty cool too!

NASCAR!!!! My guy Jr. took second on Sunday!!!! Its about time. Last season was so horrible. It was good to see him trying to get back to what I know he can do! Go Jr!!! :)

Well, our computer died. Dan is working really hard to restore it, but since we felt we couldn't be without a computer in case someone tried to contact us with a potential adoption situation, we went out and bought a new laptop yesterday. It is nice to be able to work on a computer that isn't falling apart every other day!

Valentine's day was very nice. I woke up to a beautiful vase of purple roses and a hand made card from Alina. I got Dan some chocolate and Alina got a stash of gifts from us and both sets of grandparents. We went to church and then out to lunch. :)

Everyone is home today! Yay! It's Dan's normal day off but Alina is out of school for President's day. We are just hanging out. Alina is playing Wii right now. As soon as Dan is ready (he slept in this morning) we are off to find something fun to do.

The snow we got on Friday is all but gone. We were supposed to get more snow this morning but it doesn't look like it is going to happen. Alina is a little disappointed. We don't get much snow around here and she had a ball playing in it. Snowmen, snow angels, snow ball fights with her friend next door. Too fun!