FINALLY! I got some layouts done!

I am determined that next year will be a different year for layouts................I'm going to do the 365 project again!  And my goal is to do a layout a day.  Not necessarily with a current picture.  Any picture is game!  OLD or NEW!  We shall see!  And, I'll be using my own kits, too!  So, we'll see how it all goes!

Today, I did a couple of pages for some challenges at Faith Sisters.  Hope you enjoy them!

(In the) NICK of Time! kit

(In the) NICK of Time! kit

The Biltmore

On Thursday, Dec. 23rd, we left the house at approx. 9:00.  We arrived in Asheville a little after 11 am.  We first went to the shopping district but found very little of interest to us.  Tim did find one fossilized snail-type creature that he bought for his fossil collection.  While downtown, we found the restaurant that we would eat our dinner that night.

We headed to the hotel, even though we were a couple hours early for check-in.  But, we were permitted to check in anyway.  So, we just hung out in the hotel til time to go to dinner.

Thanks is due Michael and Jessica for the gift certificate we used at Zambra's that evening.  It was described as being Spanish food.  The food was wonderful, but too expensive for the amount of food we were served.

Friday morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel and headed to the Biltmore.  I was bummed that we could not take pictures inside.  It was beautifully decorated for Christmas!  What a HUGE place!  We did buy a pack of postcards with pictures of the house that I will scan and share sometime.  After we finished our tour, we went in search of some thrift shops and found a few, but didn't buy anything.  We also went to the Biltmore Village to do some window shopping, but we didn't see anything interesting.  We ate at Long John Silver's pretty late so we didn't go out for dinner.  We snacked on the goodies we had taken with us.

On Saturday, Christmas day, we got up earlier to get ready to leave.  We hoped to beat the weather that was headed East.  We left as the snow was beginning to fly!  We left at 8 and were home by 10:30.  Yep!  The weather followed us!  You saw those pictures yesterday.  Here are a few from our Biltmore trip.

Standing in front of the Biltmore Estate

The Biltmore Estate

Showing the ambiance of Zambra Restaurant.

The restaurant looked like a dive of a place with the entrance from the alley!

Winter Wonderland

I'm pretty sure we moved from the area of Winter Wonderlands..............so how is it that we have had so much snow in the 2009/2010 winters?  One thing for sure, it is beautiful!  But, that is about it for me!  Especially when it causes your electricity to go off and causes cancellation of church services!

Last night, right before I went to bed at about midnight, the electricity went off for just a second.  So quick that I didn't even have to turn the computer back on.  The lights had been flickering and dimming all evening.  I am assuming now that it was the wet snow packing itself on the tree branches and everything else it landed on!  But, I didn't think anything about it.  After all, we weren't in WV where it was a common thing for the electricity to go out as tree branches out on the hills fell into the lines all the time!

Fast forward to 2:30 a.m.  Tim rolled over to look at the clock, but it was off.  He rolled back over and went to sleep thinking the electricity would be back on in the morning.  Not so much!  At 6:30 I saw him in the very dimly lit kitchen (from a flash light) and heard him pulling down the candles from the cabinets.  Then I heard him opening every drawer looking for matches.  By this time, I was up (to get some aspirin for my headache that I always wake up with) and got the matches and lit all the candles for him.  Then I went to the bathroom and back to bed, thinking the electricity would probably be back on by the time I needed to get up and ready for church.  Didn't happen.  I never did go back to sleep, but my headache had gone away, to I got up.

Since there was no electricity by 8:30, we called to let everyone know there would be no services.  Tim walked over to the neighbors' and found out that the electricity would be back on by 6 pm!!!  YIKES!  I should hope WAY sooner than that!  So, I bundled up and sat on the couch to crochet.  Tim did some reading.  The neighbor was on his way to Walmart and asked if we needed anything.  Tim told him to bring us some bread and milk back.  We waited forever for him to bring it back.  When he finally did bring it back, he told us the roads were fine.  So, we went to McD's for breakfast.  It was about 10:30 by that time.  We hung out in Walmart for a bit, dreading having to come back to the cold house.  Mainly, though, because there was nothing to do..............without electricity, that is!

When we got back, we worked on the parking lot and the side walks some.  It was warming up and things were starting to drip.  Then Tim put down some salt and we went inside.  By this time it is 60 in the house and I put my fish in a bag for Tim to take to his fish tank in the office because his water over there was 70 degrees still.  Then I went back to crocheting and Tim did some reading and was just starting to snooze when the SWEET electric hum of the refrigerator could be heard!  THANK YOU, LORD!  And the best part...........It was 12:15 pm, not 6 pm!  Hallelujah!!  The temperature had dropped another 2 degrees in the house and was now 58, and I had wrapped my scarf around my neck and wrapped in an afghan.  So, the electricity came back just in time!  I was beginning to think I would have to snuggle up in bed!

Anyway, here's some pictures for you to "enjoy????"  If you enjoy them, that's ok!  I enjoyed the beauty, if not the resulting problems!

Tree outside the back door

Out front looking toward the road

..................even the snow!

Bundled up for picture-taking.

Taken from the road

Looking across the field next door.  How pretty!

Low-hanging wires.  I don't think the electric company would have just left this hanging, so I figure someone from one of the houses nearby did this, but I don't know.

Low hanging tree branches.  We heard a chain saw, so I guess the power company was working on getting some branches off the power lines.

Merry CHRISTmas to my Children, Children in Love and Family and Friends!

I love you all and pray that you have a blessed CHRISTmas.  Please remember to thank GOD for His amazing Gift on that first CHRISTmas so long ago!

I will post some pictures from our Biltmore trip when I return home later today.

Scowl at the Cowl!

Well, we made it back from our travels to WV and KY at around 5:30 last night.  I needed to start laundry, but didn't feel like it!  I brought Hannah's cold back with me.  I was finally getting over the crud I picked up while helping Terry and Jessica move a couple of weeks ago and then added the cold on top of the left over sinus stuff.  Oh well!  Such is life!  I told Tim that I needed to stay in the south until all of my "diseases" were completely gone, lol!

We really enjoyed our time with Liz and the family.  Hated leaving the kiddies so sick!  But am glad they are back to normal!

We also enjoyed seeing everyone at Buffalo Baptist again!  It is good to see those who were faithful when we were there remaining faithful, even during the trial of not having a pastor to lead them!

The Lord blessed us with safe travels to visit Tim's parents in northern KY, too!  The roads had been taken care of and we enjoyed normal speeds!  But, boy!  The wind chill was so cold it hurt your skin!  I am soooooo thankful for a warm car to travel in rather than having to travel with a horse and buggy!  BRRRRR!!!  I cannot even imagine what that must have been like!

Tim's mom found some circular knitting needles at the thrift store that she gave to me!  She admired the sweaters I had with me that I made for the grandkids for Christmas.  We also talked about a cowl knitting pattern from a knitting/crochet newsletter we both get.  So, I decided to make one, which I started last night.  The pattern I had was a bit different than the one she had seen.  I finished mine tonight.  I shortened the length of it from what the pattern called for because I didn't think it would need to be as long as they called for.  Well, I was wrong!  It really could have used the other 6" of length!  But, I will still use it and just make a note to myself about the length! 

Elisabeth, Jessica J, Jessica D and Cheryl...............Here are some pictures to show you what it looks like.  I want to know if any of you would be interested in me making you one.  And, if so, what color would you like?

Side View

Cowl folded in half

I could have used this while we were in the frigid wind this weekend!

Not folded in half.

It SNOW FUN!

NOT!  We woke up at Liz's with about 3" of snow (Tim's guestimation).  And, it was COLD!!!  There was no school for Hannah, which was a good thing as she and Ryan had been throwing up all night!  Poor babies!  I hope they only got better through the day!  I know they probably had a good nap today, not to mention poor mommy, who was up with her babies all night!  I just pray Tim and I did not carry the bug with us to pass to his parents and ultimately us when we get home!

Anyway, we headed to Tim's parents around 9 am.  We didn't take the usual route north to Pt. Pleasant, WV then west through the bottom of Ohio.  Instead, we followed I-64 through WV into KY and then headed up north on I-75 from Lexington, KY.  The road was wet in WV but mostly dry through KY.  We ran through one squally of snow where we lost the sun for about 15 miles in KY.  But the rest of the trip was free sailing at the regular speed!

We spent an hour or so at Tim's dad's then headed to his mom's.  While there she asked Tim to install new guts inside the tank of the toilet.  After completing the task, the flapper would not go over the hole so the tank would fill with water, even though he didn't even work on that part of the toilet.  Tim and his mom ran to the store to get a new flapper to no avail.  So, unfortunately, we left her with no way to flush the toilet without doing it manually by pouring water into the toilet bowl.  She has a neighbor who does helps her with problems.  She will get him to look at it.  She treated us to dinner at Bob Evans for Tim's trouble.  I helped her with a few computer items while Tim worked on the toilet.  She found some knitting needles at the thrift store that she gave to me!  I showed her the crochet projects I have been working on for the grandkids for Christmas.  We gave her Christmas gift to her, which she loved. 

After dinner at Bob Evans, we dropped her back home and we headed to Florence to the Travelodge that we had reservations in.  Tomorrow, we will make the looooooong trip back to NC!  I am dreading the trip!  Guess I'll spend the time reading and/or playing on the computer!   And probably snoozing!  :D

Can't wait to get back in my own bed!

Back it Up!

Saturday was a snow day, the very first one for us here in NC. It started around 1 PM. I love taking pictures of the snow and of it snowing! This first picture is looking out the front window towards the road and through my grapevine wreath.

The snow seemed to slack off a bit. But, an hour later, this was the view out the back door towards the neighbor's field.
I zoomed in to capture the snow falling.
You can see the light pole of the picture above in this picture on the left.
How pretty! This is zoomed in to the trees between the two church buildings.

And, by Sunday morning in time for church it was all gone! YAY!! Today the breezes were blowing and giving a wind chill. Not as bad as up north, but still pretty nippy for NC! Hopefully, by the time we head north for the weekend, this weather front will have passed on by!

'Tis the Season.........

I need to find out if my grandkids already have the following games that I found at Goodwill. Brand new games, never opened. Don't even look like they were stored and never used. I'm thinking Goodwill might do some buyouts like Big Lots does. Anyway, I have the following games and want to make sure they are not already owned. I know some of them are owned (I found out after buying them earlier this year), so if you can tell me whether or not you have any of them, it would help in determining how to disperse them at Christmas.

1. Battleship - I know Michael has this, but it is for ages 7+, so I figure I will be keeping this one.
2. Chutes and Ladders - for preschoolers - I'm thinking this would be a good one for Kara.
3. Feed the Kitty - ages 4+. I'm thinking this would be more along the lines for Ryan.
4. Yahtzee - ages 8+ - I'm thinking Michael on this one, unless he already has it.
5. Candy Land - I think Hannah, Ryan and Kara all have this one. If I'm right, I will be keeping it.
6. I also have a beautiful jungle-type animal puzzle for ages 4+ that I figure I will give to Kara.

Falalalalalalalala :D

Routine Changes

Today's agenda:
1. Breakfast at IHOP (we decided to eat breakfast out instead of lunch). Very nice change! The stuffed french bread was sooooooo good!
2. Thrift store hopping. NOT even ONE purchase!
3. Back home for the afternoon where I worked on a new kit.
4. Dinner at Olive Garden (Tim got a gift card for doing a wedding).
5. Back home again for the evening.
6. Finished the kit..........finally!
7. To bed at 2:45 a.m.
8. The cold is better, btw!