It's August already?

I'm still here, trudging away every day. I've had the slight guilt of not having posted on my blog recently, but it was a busy & tiring week. No huge news from here, except that we had a small quake at the cabin at 9:38 AM yesterday morning. The epicenter was about 8 miles from here & it was a 3.2 magnitude. Earthquakes always feel weird, and this one was no different. It was like something struck our house and left in a wave. Josh went to the front door & said he could hear it rolling over the mountains as it left. I could feel the ripple roll through the house. Like I said, strange.

I made a quite yummy recipe yesterday taken from Taste of Home. It was a Creamy Hash brown Casserole, and it was delicious. If I get a chance sometime, I'll post it. We brought the leftovers to Mamaw's today, and the Holder family also approved. We ate a portion of it yesterday along with another one of the Taste of Home recipes - chicken nuggets. The breading has Parmesan cheese in it. Yum!

That's about it for now. I'm tired; we came home late from a dinner at Stevie's B's & some bargain grocery shopping. Have a great week. I'll try not to be so much of a stranger.

TGIF

Not much to say tonight. It's been a relatively quiet week at work. Our only issue of the week was ACS going down for most of Thursday, and therefore payroll was about 4 1/2 hours late.

Today has been very low key for me. My allergies have been plaguing me, so I have felt sluggish & clogged most of the day. I've been taking allergy shots for about 5 years now, and it seems that in the past year or so I've started flaring up right before my shot. I can't be late for my shot, or I end up sick to the point of bronchitis or a sinus infection. It's very annoying, especially since I was doing a lot better 2-3 years into the shot process. Now I'm back to daily medicine, whereas a few years back the shots had been successful enough to keep me mostly medicine free.

I did manage to wash several days worth of dishes; I also did some laundry. Dinner was roast with potatoes & carrots, so once I willed myself to do more than sit on the couch, I prepared it, and let it cook for about 4 hours. It was very yummy. We had some fresh ears of corn (from Papaw's garden) & Hawaiian Sweet Rolls with our roast. Outside we have some homemade ice cream chilling, and we're going to add some Reese's Cups & Magic Shell in attempts to make a homemade Moosetracks. I'm excited to try it!

I'm off to see if Josh needs any more help with the ice cream. I'll let you know how it turns out. You can tell it's the weekend when I'm talking about making dinner & dessert. We don't have time for it the rest of the week.

Biltmore Flowers

Bye-Bye Bunky

I found out tonight that our family dog (at my parents' house) passed away tonight. He was a very sweet dog, but he was old, and he went peacefully.

Waiting at the door for Mom & Dad to come home.
Aren't I pitiful?

Camoflauge Bunky.

Shaggy Dog.

Homely Dog.

*Yawn*

Getting a haircut.

Gonna miss you Bunky.

More about Ridgecrest & Biltmore

Today has been a good day, filled with sleeping in, beautiful weather, grocery shopping, & spending time with my husband. I haven't been entirely productive over the last few days, although I won't profess to having done nothing. I've gotten plenty of laundry, dish washing, & sorting done. I have definitely been in a "sitting" mood though, therefore I haven't even done yoga this weekend.


I promised more of an overview of the Ridgecrest weekend, so I'll tell you a little bit about it before heading off to bed. The theme for the weekend was "The Power of the Connected Sunday School". Conferences I attended were, Connecting with Professional Childhood Ministers, The Parent Adventure, Let the Littlest Come: How to Include Worship in Preschool Teaching, De-Stressing Your Ministry, Connecting through Books, 25 Uses for Bible Teaching Pictures in the Classroom, Using Music & Movement in the Classroom, and What's in a Box.


Of course, that list is composed of hours of conferences, and therefore, it is impossible to tap into everything I learned so that I can share it with you. Some high points were that I was reminded in De-Stressing Your Ministry not to take things personally, make sure to take care of myself both spiritually & physically, and don't be afraid to ask for help. In other conferences I got to see some Lifeway literature more in depth, got some fresh ideas to approach things in my ministry, and got some great ideas to help with us starting a pre-k/kindergarten kid's church time this fall. The last four I mentioned were mini-sessions, and I got some cute & helpful ideas for things to do in the classrooms.


The weekend also comprised of our trip to Biltmore on the way home. I couldn't take pictures inside the house, but I got some pictures outside (which were in a previous post). Biltmore, if you did not know, was built by the Vanderbilt family, and is the largest house in the United States. It truly is old & extravagant, and it ran through both Josh's & my mind that it is ridiculous the excess that the man put into this house. It is a sight to see, and I do recommend it as a tourist stop.

My favorite room was the library that was a high ceiling room with two stories of shelves all around the walls. The second story had a wooden railing around it. It was AWESOME! I also enjoyed the swimming pool in the basement. With the sheer size of house and all the rooms was so maze-like, I imagine it would have been such a neat house to grow up in. If, indeed the children were able to act like kids (and not be "proper") it would have been a blast. Between the main bedrooms, the guest rooms, the servant's quarter, bathrooms, closets, hallways, common areas, dining room (complete with three fireplaces), not to mention the kitchens, laundry, & stables areas, the place takes a while to tour, but it doesn't get old. They also had an exhibit talking about some of the restoration.


I found this picture & rendering of the library online (Biltmore's website & Vintage views). The pictures to do not belong to me, but may give you a better idea of what it looks like. You can cross behind that tapestry & continue on to the other side of the 2nd story of the room. Cool, huh?

Other neat elements in the house were the indoor bowling alley, observatory, and all the staircases & viewing areas outside the house. Some of those outside areas require a special guided tour & therefore extra $$$.

Josh & I decided that after our Disney annual passes run out that maybe we'll consider one to Biltmore. We didn't even go in the winery, farm area, or take any special tours. Also, the gardens & walking/biking/riding trails, are all over the huge property that belongs to the estate, so Biltmore is a definitely more of a one trip kinds of place. We didn't try any of the food either, which smelled fantastic. It was a "slow" day for Biltmore, and considering the crowds, I would hate to see it busy! The history there is pretty neat, so I can't blame people for coming to see it.

We also visited some of the gardens, and I'll try to post some pictures of flowers next time. Off to bed now! I have a Sunday School meeting to attend in the morning, which means we'll be going to early service.

McDonald's at Biltmore

I ran out of time today, so I'll post more tomorrow, but I'll leave you with some pictures of the McDonald's in Biltmore Village. The food is exactly the same; it's just snazzy since it's in a historic district. I liked the piano that played itself. It was modern music (like "Material Girl", etc), and the piano played the whole time. What did I eat? Southwestern Grilled Chicken Salad with water. It was yummy!

Weekend Adventures

I'm back from a fun weekend, and I wanted to share some of it with you before I head off to bed.

First, I'll catch you up on the end of last week. I brought my car in to the shop at Toyota for its 30,000 mile checkup. The cost: $315. It is severely annoying since we could have had the maintenance done cheaper with Josh's dad, who is a mechanic, but we are trying to bring it back to Toyota every once in a while to keep them from backing out of warranty things if something were to become an issue. Good / bad news we found out -- We're going to need new tires within the next 3 months. Good news because it's good to know when your tires are wearing out, and it is good that it is still a few months away. Bad news because it does cost lots of money to replace tires.

Besides the car, the rest of the week involved work, a trip to the gym, blackberry picking, & packing.

Here's picture of a beautiful sunset taken from the front porch of the cabin.
Here's the blackberries I picked. Now freezing in the deep freeze.

So why was I packing? Josh & I went to Ridgecrest this weekend, to a Sunday School conference. I don't have time right now to talk about how great the conference was, so I'll try to talk about it more later. I have learned lots, and I'll try to make a post about new ideas.

After Ridgecrest ended this morning, Josh & I headed over to Biltmore. It was as grandiose as anticipated, and I put some pictures of the gardens, grounds, & statues below.

I'm sorry that this post is so rushed, if anything, you can can count it as a preview for a written blog to come. I'll try to let you know more about Biltmore as well. I also have some great pictures of flowers as well as the Biltmore Village McDonald's.

Last but not least, one of my souvenirs. Not only do I like cats, but I thought the trivet looked a bit like Homer. ;)

Off to bed! It's back to reality tomorrow, and I have to work.