This weekend was a bit of a rough one. Barry’s parents came up on Friday night to visit through Saturday. It was great to see them, but it was a really emotionally difficult visit (we very abruptly lost Barry’s 27 year old sister, Sara, about 3 weeks ago). However, we were able to enjoy some quality time together on Saturday and we took them to one of our favorite local restaurants – MK’s Pizzeria.

After lunch we drove around a bit (it was a cold, but really clear day). We ended up driving through the community of Hiwassee, and stopped to check out my favorite bridge on the New River State Park Trail. I called it a trestle bridge on Facebook, but my uncle, who is an engineer, said it is actually a through truss bridge. Now we all know 🙂

We said goodbye to Barry’s parents late Saturday evening. Overnight, it got down into the teens. My daffodils, which bloomed last week, were not big fans of the frigid air. This is how I found them yesterday morning.

But it actually turned out to be a really nice day yesterday, sunny and in the mid-50’s. Perfect day for a long trail run, which is exactly what I had planned. Unfortunately my 10 mile trail run turned into a 3 mile run (told you it was a rough weekend….).

I haven’t really talked about it on the blog, but I have been having a lot of issues with breathing while running the past few months. It doesn’t happen on every run, but I start wheezing really bad on some runs. Especially ones where I exert myself more, like a trail run. I think it has something to do with the string of sinus infections I had from September through January. My typical “ignore it and it will go away” strategy has not worked and I think yesterday was the final straw (which is funny because I felt like I was breathing through a straw yesterday). I’m planning to make a doctor’s appointment hopefully this week so I can get this figured out. It’s hard to run when you can’t breathe.

Now to end on a good note. On Friday I bought some fresh cut flowers on a whim while I was at the store. I’ve got them in two different vases in our house – one on the kitchen counter and the other on the kitchen table.

They make me happy each time I look at them, like bringing a little spring into the house (despite the colder temperatures). What makes them even more special is that both vases were gifts, and the one on the left was handmade and hand-painted. Depending on how well I do with these, I think I may keep having fresh cut flowers in the house. Little things like that can help brighten your day.

Who else experienced a blast of cold air this weekend?
Do you ever keep fresh cut flowers in a vase just because?
What’s your favorite song lately? Mine is ‘The Heart’ by NEEDTOBREATHE