The Biltmore Estate

Isn't this place beautiful? I know this would be prettier in spring, summer or fall but it's still a beautiful view. During Christmas time they put a decorated Christmas tree in each room on the tour. The banquet hall had the largest tree by far at around 40 feet. It was huge! The tour was great. We became season pass holders so we could come back to see the gardens at a better time of the year. I'll give you some history on the house because I think it is amazing!



(FYI, I copied most of the history from www.biltmore.com)

The Biltmore Estate was originally owned by George Washington Vanderbilt. Building Biltmore was, at the time, one of the largest undertakings in the history of American residential architecture. Over a six-year period, an entire community of craftsmen worked to build the country's premier home. The estate boasted its own brick factory, woodworking shop, and a three-mile railway spur for transporting materials to the site.

The celebrated architect Richard Morris Hunt modeled the house on three châteaux built in 16th-century France. It would feature 4 acres of floor space, 250 rooms, 34 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. The basement alone would house a swimming pool, gymnasium and changing rooms, bowling alley, servants' quarters, kitchens, and more.

George Vanderbilt officially opened the home to friends and family on Christmas Eve in 1895. He had created a country retreat where he could pursue his passion for art, literature, and horticulture. After marrying the American Edith Stuyvesant Dresser (1873–1958) in Paris during the summer of 1898, George and his new bride came to live at the estate. Their only child, Cornelia (1900–1976), was born and grew up at Biltmore. It is the largest privately owned home in America and is still owned by the family.



It was rather cold and rainy/snowy the day we went.






This used to be the stables.


This is taken from the side of the house where the gardens start.

The grounds of the 125,000-acre estate were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the creator of New York's Central Park and the father of American landscape architecture. He not only developed acres of gardens and parkland, but in his efforts to protect the environment and reclaim over-farmed land, Olmsted established America's first managed forest.


A beautiful view over the rolling hills.

Click on the pictures to really see some of the detail on the house.











This is one of the many unique water fountains on the estate.

It was so interesting to tour the house and grounds and learn some of the history there. It was fun to learn the history of the family as well. I loved viewing all of the rooms in the house but I think one of my very favorites was the library. George Vanderbilt had a collection of over 20,000 books. Not all of them were in the library but it was a lot. It reminded me of a smaller version of the library in Beauty and the Beast. Actually several things reminded me of the Beauty and the Beast castle, including the intricate detail (including gargoyles) on the outside of the house. What would it have been like to live here? I will never find out but just seeing it was really cool.

I hope everyone has a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Asheville, NC

I really loved getting Christmas presents when I was growing up. Now that I'm an adult, it's hard to think of anything I want that I would be patient enough to wait for Christmas to open. I generally would rather take a trip than spend money on Christmas presents anyway so this year my Christmas present was a weekend trip to Asheville, NC.

My mom first told me about this place. Then Jaren and I were walking through a Thomas Kinkade Art Gallery one day and we came across this beautiful painting.



This is a painting he did of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. It is the largest privately owned home in America. It is ridiculously huge. I will post more on that later. We found several great things while in Asheville.

We started our Saturday morning by doing something I have always wanted to do! I found a lovely looking cafe and we went in to order hot chocolate, breakfast sandwiches, fresh squeezed orange juice and a pastry. Jaren has never been fond of cafes because he thinks they are expensive (which they are compared to McDonald's) and the food never meet his expectations. This cafe was a good choice though. It was great just relaxing at a table by the window while eating breakfast and sipping hot chocolate and fresh squeezed orange juice. This may not seem exciting to many people but I love those cozy and relaxed atmospheres that you can enjoy with people you love! It was great!

Afterwards we drove out to the Grove Park Inn. One day, I'm going to come back to Asheville and stay in this huge resort. It was absolutely beautiful!


(Click on the picture to get a better view)

So it didn't look like this when we were there. It was much colder, cloudy, and snowy. But this picturesque, mountainside resort is the place anyone would dream of staying. They had hallways with pictures of all the famous people that had stayed at the resort. It first opened in 1913. Some on the list of famous people who stayed include Helen Keller, Harry Houdini, Will Rogers, George Gershwin, Thomas Edison, Eleanor Roosevelt and Henry Ford. Not to mention presidents — William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard M. Nixon, George H. W. Bush, William J. Clinton and Barack H. Obama. The last couple of names almost taint the place but I'm willing to overlook that with how wonderful the rest of it is. This is a little more of what it looked like from our view...






We had the small camera that isn't as great and several pictures are blurry...sorry!

They had huge fireplaces throughout the resort with several areas with panoramic views and comfortable seating to just relax in. I wanted to stay there the whole day. Here is a view of the back with the terrace.









You can see downtown Asheville and the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance. It was beautiful!

The resort was all decked out for Christmas. They had SO MANY Christmas trees. The trees were all themed in very unique ways. I saw a fishing Christmas tree complete with mini-fishing poles shooting out the top and a country tree with green tractor ornaments. Here are a couple that I had to take pictures of...





Yes, this is a peacock Christmas tree. I thought it looked so cool!

The whole reason we went out to see a resort we weren't staying in was because they had a ton of gingerbread houses on display from their gingerbread house contest. I took several pictures and plan to post my favorites but this post is already too long. I'll put them on my blog in a couple of days.

It is rather difficult to take any pictures together. Out of all the pictures we took the entire weekend, this is the only one of us together. All the rest you will see are only one of us at a time.


(Yes, I did officially cut off all of my curls)

We had a great time there and I plan on going back someday to stay for a day or two!

Don't worry, we're still alive!

Yep, nothing much has changed since my last post but I know you are all probably sick of seeing it. This working woman just has no time anymore! I have a few things to post on the blog but have yet to get pictures from the camera to the computer. So here is my promise that by tomorrow night I will have something other than depressingness posted on my blog!

In the meantime, I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season!

Really, really, SUPER BAD day!

What do you do when your day is utterly horrible, and you know the next one after that will probably be just as bad...and the one after that...for about 2 months? If you are a girl:

First, you have a good cry.

Second, maybe eat some chocolate.

But if you're so stressed you can't even think about eating, then you do number three which is to count the blessing you do have. Maybe there isn't much I can do about a particular situation, but at least I have my hubby who loves me, a roof over my head, family and friends, and the gospel that teaches me that even if it feels like Hell on earth right now, the next life will be better than this one. Oh yeah, with the one stipulation that I "endure it well". Even the Telestial kingdom is supposed to be better than this, right?

The 80's Birthday Bash

So we have a friend in the ward who was turning the big 3-0, and his wife wanted to throw a fun birthday party for him. They decided since he was born in 1980, they would throw an 80's themed birthday party. Can I just say, WOW! Though I was very young during the 80's, I remember the outfits well...and the hair...and the makeup. We were the first couple to arrive and it was so fun to see everyone arrive. Each couple brought more fun 80's outfits, hair (wigs), and jewelry. Some of us even bought a lot of our stuff at regular stores because the 80's style is (unfortunately) coming back. Here is a little taste of the 80's...




Jaren's ensemble was complete with with track suit, sweat bands, and mullet wig. Sexy!




My outfit was a lovely neon green mini skirt, black leggings with silver studs, hot pink splatter paint cut-off tee, silver loop belt, lace gloves, ugly makeup, half up side ponytail with matching hot green scrunchy. Don't forget the way awesome and matching earrings that I have had since my 10th birthday. They're back in style! Somebody even asked if I got them at Kohl's...they saw the exact pair.



Jaren and Emily? You mean Studly and Bodacious!




I couldn't help but snap a picture of this fun couple in radical 80's rocker outfits. She is the primary president. He normally shaves his head so it was funny to see so much hair. And I just love the zebra spandex pants.

It was a gnarly party! The outfits were tubular! And the party was even complete with classic 80's music.

What fun people I have in my ward. It was interesting to be at a party with a bunch of "adults" who all had babysitters (except us, of course). I feel old. Hopefully everyone had a totally awesome weekend! Later dudes!

Did that hit him in the head?!

Yes, we have been so busy that I haven't been able to update my blog for a month and a half. I was told today (for a second time) that I needed to update my blog because the unmentioned person was sick of looking at the same thing over and over. I know, I know. Since it has been so long since my last post, this will be a long one. Feel free to read part and come back later to read the rest. Here is just a bit of what we have been up to.

My mom came to visit a month ago. She was here for two weeks and we got more accomplished than I thought humanly possible. If I had as much energy as she did, we probably could have gotten twice as much done. I was exhausted every day not just from her workouts but everything else we did. I was sore the entire time she was here. Jaren insisted we all needed a fun weekend so we drove out to Charleston, SC and it was so gorgeous! Driving downtown with all of the old buildings was so neat. I didn't know we had buildings still standing that dated back to the 1700's. We toured Fort Sumter and also went out to the Magnolia Plantation. And of course we had to go spend some time at the beach so Jaren could play in the water. I was having fun in the water with him until I got ONE little grain of sand in my eye and then I couldn't hardly do anything. Once I got it out back at the hotel I was fine. I was amazed at how much one little bitty grain of sand could bother or hurt you. While she was here we also went to downtown Augusta and toured around a bit. All the while we forgot to get the camera wherever we went. So typical of us. Now I will have to visit those places again just to get pictures! It was great having my mom to help me with projects on the house (inside and out) and the many sewing projects she did for me. :) Thanks mom! Once she was gone though I certainly needed time to rest and recover!

I started my new job working at Fort Gordon as a Financial Technician. It is similar to what I was doing in the Army. I now go to work at 7:30 am which is VERY difficult for me to get ready, pack lunches for Jaren and I, and leave on time. That means a very early wake-up for me. One of the curses of being a woman is that it takes so much longer for us to get ready than it does the men! I wake up far earlier than Jaren and leave a half an hour later. Where is the justice in that? Oh well. I don't know how working moms do it. I come home and don't want to do anything let alone cook and clean. My sweet husband is willing to help out but he is limited to what he can help me with...or what this stubborn girl is willing to let him help with.

Jaren also joined a softball league that had games every Tuesday and Thursday night. There were some good games and some games they just got slaughtered. A couple of games Jaren had some "exciting" things happen. One night in particular they were playing well and it was a close game. Jaren's team was up to bat and he was on second base. The ball was hit and he was off towards third. The opposing team threw it to the third baseman so Jaren would be out and wouldn't be able to get a run but this third baseman (a female) was blocking the base where he was running to. He saw this predicament and decided that in order to avoid a full-on collision to get to the base he would slide. She caught the ball just as he was sliding...right into her. It looked painful! It looked like when he slid, his legs must have taken hers right out from under her so hard that they went out, up and over. It looked like she did a cartwheel in the air! She landed on her back and the ball went flying out of her glove. He certainly wasn't trying to hit her but there was no way around! She got up cursing and mad as a hornet. The umpire even came over to make sure he didn't hit her on purpose. If you are standing on the baseline and blocking the base where 200+ lbs of momentum is coming, you better move or get hit like a freight train. She very easily could have altered her position and still tagged him. Jaren felt really bad for taking her out even if he didn't do it intentionally.

The very next game he played the outfield a lot. He had some great catches and a few almost catches. At one point, the batter hit it so hard that if it went more out than up it would have gone to the fence. This ball went high! Jaren was right there under it and everyone was holding there breath for Jaren to catch it. It looked like he had it! Then from my eyes it looked like it came down, hit the outside of his glove and bounced off. He immediately turned around, ball forgotten and walked away. I thought maybe he was just so mad that he missed it that he didn't even want to go after it. Then people on the bleachers were saying "Did that hit him in the head?!" I didn't think so. They called a time-out for a very short bit to make sure Jaren was all right but it didn't seem like anything was wrong. It wasn't until the third out when they all came in and shortly thereafter that Jaren came out to me on the bleachers while holding an ice pack to his head that I realized it really had hit him. Apparently, right as he was about to catch the ball, it went into the light and he lost it. Instead of landing in his glove it smacked him really hard on the forehead. He immediately turned around and walked away because he was so dazed and knew he didn't have the mindset to pick up the ball and throw it.

He immediately developed a nasty looking bruise (which you can't see in the pictures) and a huge goose egg. He had to stay out for the rest of the game just walking around and holding the ice pack on his head. He was feeling really nauseous and probably had a concussion. I drove home and he ended up staying up until 3:00 am before finally going to sleep since you are supposed to stay awake for awhile after such head trauma. I woke him up a few times after to make sure he was okay. He's had headaches pretty much daily ever since. It's been about two weeks now and they seem to be mellowing out a bit. Poor guy. Here are a couple of pictures immediately after we got home.





Okay so these pictures are nearly identical and certainly don't do the injury justice but you can see the lines where the stitches on the ball cut him. His eye was slightly swollen shut and he eventually got a tiny bit of a black eye on the eyelid but I think it ended up being more internally painful for him. His head is all healed now and the softball games are over.

We also FINALLY got our master bedroom painted (we started working on it a month ago). I did take before pictures of the house and will be posting after pictures with them soon. I would like to wait to post pictures though of the rooms that we've painted until I get pictures on the wall and some decorations in there. They will be forthcoming.

The weather has been gorgeous in the 80's during the day and 50's at night. I think that we'll have nice weather on Halloween! I'll just enjoy these beautiful fall days for as long as they are here. Hopefully everyone is doing well! Have a great week!

Mockingjay Review

I was among the crowd that couldn't wait until the bookstores opened yesterday morning before getting there to buy my copy of "Mockingjay". I was just dying to see how it all ended. I have finished the book and am writing my review on my blog. I realize that most people may not have finished or even picked it up yet so be forewarned that this is a spoiler!

Again, if you haven't finished the book (or started reading it) and don't want to read a spoiler, don't read this review until you have finished the book!!!

Where to start. I must say that I was excited yet apprehensive about this book. I knew it would be more difficult to read than the first two because of the situation things are left in at the end of book two. I like chick-flicks because I like my happy endings. I want everyone to be happy by the end of this book but where a love triangle is involved that is likely to leave the reader unsettled in some way. The girl can't end up with both guys! And with a war, there is bound to be death. I fully realize these things which is why I knew it would be hard to be happy with the way some things in the book turned out.

This book had just as many "didn't-see-that-coming" moments which left you wondering what would happen next and how Suzanne Collins really would resolve everything at the end. As a whole, my opinion of the book is that I certainly did NOT love it. The first two are way better. I felt like everything about the main characters that endeared you to them in books 1 and 2 were completely wiped out. The author just changed them so much that by the end I didn't really like them anymore. I realize that in the book they experience things that would leave any person struggling mentally or change them forever but it was so depressing to see. I hated what happened to Peeta. I also didn't like that Gale becomes so blood thirsty so that the end justifies any means for him. He also just kind of left at the end without saying anything. And I absolutely HATED the fact that by the end I was not a huge fan of Katniss who I've always liked. She even says yes to the new Hunger Games. That goes against everything she stood for in the beginning! And with the death of certain characters, it leaves you mad at Collins for killing them! Two were particularly hard, Finnick and Prim. Really??? Come on! Maybe I'm so mad about Finnick because he had finally gotten his happy ending when...BAM! Killed in a horrifying way and yet with such little mention you almost have to read it again to make sure it really happened. And Prim...she's what the whole story started for. It was because Katniss was trying to protect and save her. If I were Katniss I would have gone all depressed in the end too thinking that everything was all for nothing.

I think the biggest thing that really bothered me about this book is that no matter who takes control at the end, you feel like things aren't going to get better. They're just going to change. I felt like the story was about how terrible humanity is. There were good and decent people fighting but nobody good and decent to be a leader? Even some of the good and decent people don't seem so by the end. The last quarter of the book I couldn't help but feel depressed and empty. Like there was no hope and never was.

In the end the love triangle is resolved and as I had hoped, Katniss and Peeta end up together. I guess that's my happy ending which didn't occur until the last 2 pages of the book. There were so many ways the author could have written this book and I understand this is her book and her world she created. It's just my opinion that her choice of story for book 3 was the worst one. I'm still depressed about the book and don't think I will be reading it a second time like I did the first two.

The series is now tainted for me. I feel like the first two books are completely separate and still unresolved. Maybe I'm deluding myself into thinking that her view of humanity is overly negative and that the outcome in this book is unrealistic. I like to give the human race a little more credit as to the good we possess. Or maybe she's completely right and this is what would happen if there was no second coming after the battle of Armagedon. If Christ didn't come and instead, Panem was formed (after the entire country had been nearly destroyed through war) this is what humanity would be like. If it is, I would hope I was not around to see it. It would be too depressing.

Paint and Mr. Turtle

We FINALLY were able to close on our house last Friday and get moved in Saturday. Once we got finished with the actual move we didn't waste any time getting started on painting. We had previously purchased a paint sprayer because we knew we would have a lot of painting to do here in this house (the entire interior). With several rooms already prepped for primer, we started in on a couple Saturday night.

Now I don't consider myself in any way a painting expert because I've hardly done any in my life but I have been watching a lot of HGTV and whenever they use a paint sprayer they have on a suit and wear a respirator mask and protective glasses. Jaren didn't think there would be that much over-spray and said it wasn't necessary to have the suit (with a hood). Nor did he think it necessary to have a respirator mask but just your generic paint fumes mask. Whatever. I knew he wouldn't budge so I went along with it.

Not long after he started spraying I felt like I was in a cloud of paint. It was everywhere! I could feel the hairs on my arms and my eyelashes starting to get sticky as well as the bottom of my feet. Even though I had a little mask on, it didn't seem to be doing much. I felt like I was breathing in a ton of paint! And only Jaren got the protective glasses since he was using the sprayer. My eyes were burning! It was all I could do to be in the room and help...rolling over areas that got too much paint and such. What a nightmare. I took off my mask when we were finished and noticed that my nose seemed to be white. I ran to the bathroom and this is what I saw...



a little closer view...


Click on the picture for the full paint in the eyelashes effect.

I didn't know that you're supposed to pinch the medal strip across the top of the mask to fit your nose (which prevents stuff/paint from coming in through the gaps).



This shirt used to be navy blue.



The paint in the hair looked worse in real life. Yes, this was a serious PAIN to try and wash out.



I had so much paint on my feet from walking around on the painter's tarp that I could just peel it off afterward.



I decided that if Jaren was going to continue painting with the sprayer, we needed to consider his health more seriously and prevent paint in the lungs. So I purchased a suit and respirator mask. I didn't realize the one suit I bought was the only kind without the hood! So I made him one from a grocery sack. I just seal him up in the room now and he does all the work. :)



These suits are basically just thick paper so as soon as he put it on it started ripping at the seams in the groin and thighs. This is my super strong duct tape mending job. Looks great doesn't it?



Oh yeah! Sexy!



There was only a bit of paint on the face where the goggles and mask didn't cover. Much better to wash than what we had to before!


This should be a separate post because this one is long already but I'm lazy and am combining the two. It's mostly pictures anyway.


Tuesday morning after Jaren went to work, I started in on unpacking and cleaning. As I was heading to the stairs I glanced through the small side window next to the door and saw a large dark something on the doorstep. It freaked me out as I thought, "What wild animal is on my front porch waiting for me to open the door and attack??!!!" Then I looked through the window again and got a better view of the wild and ferocious animal...



A very large Mr. Turtle.

What he was doing on my front porch and where did he come from? I have no idea. He looks like he just crawled out of the swamp.



I tried feeding him lettuce but he didn't make a move to try any. I wanted to measure him but the only thing I could find was this paint stick. I later measured the paint stick at 14 inches. As you can tell he's a little larger and if his tail were all the way extended he would be about 21 inches long.



He just sat there...staring...



...on my porch. I had work to do so I went back into the house and kept coming back to check on him. I figured he would eventually walk his way back to his swamp. After a couple of hours he got up and started walking away.



Then went to lay in the grass.



I checked on him a few other times and he was in a different spot in the grass each time but he eventually disappeared. Hopefully he made it safely home. Not many people can say that they have opened the door to find a wild turtle sitting on their front porch. I thought it was just so cool!

Update: I googled Mr. Turtle to see what kind he is and was rather grateful all 10 of my fingers are still intact. Yes, this is a common snapping turtle. Maybe it wasn't smart for me to touch Mr. Turtle's front leg or tail or even put lettuce right in front of his face (trying to coerce him to eat it) but I didn't know at the time what he was. He looked like such a sweet and innocent turtle! Had I known, I probably would have given him a much bigger personal bubble space. Wikipedia says that the common snapping turtles have a vicious disposition and readily snap at nearby objects. Their necks are so long that they can reach all the way back to their hind legs to bite and can amputate a finger with that strong, beak-like jaw. Nice to know. I also read that they are omnivorous and will eat most any kind of animal as well as certain vegetation. Maybe my lettuce didn't look as appealing as some of the animals he has eaten. Even though Mr. Turtle could have easily taken off a finger or two (and had a few opportunities to do so), he was mellow when I was near him and it was still cool to have him on my front porch!

A Pink Bug and Daisies

If a 4 year old girl could drive...



... this would be the car I would picture her driving.

Anniversary trip to the beach!

Today is our anniversary! Jaren and I have been married 7 years! I don't know where the time has gone. It just seems to fly by so fast.

We decided to take a trip out to the coast to celebrate our anniversary. We went to Savannah and stayed the night Friday. We did drive out to Tybee Island that night because we were so excited to see the beach! Tybee Island is about a 20-30 minute drive from Savannah. It was beautiful! The weather was so nice and we got there just when the sun had set. We didn't go in the water but we walked on the beach and waded around in the water which was wonderful!



The rest of the pictures are out of focus and not very good because of the lighting but a post is always better with pictures.





We spent pretty much all day Saturday at the beach. My sweet husband rented a beach umbrella and chairs so I could have some shade...it's a good thing he did. We packed a lunch, snacks, and drinks so we were set. The waves were the best in the late afternoon and it was just fun to body surf, ride the boogie board, and float in the water. A serious downer however, was when something that certainly did NOT belong in the ocean floated by and I just had to get out of the water for a bit until it was definitely gone. I won't tell you what it was for fear of ruining this post. We got out and built a sand castle until we figured it was safe to go back in the water. A couple more things that didn't make the trip so pleasant were the microscopic jellyfish that would sting us occasionally and the terrible sunburns we both came home with.



I know, not the most flattering picture but it gives you an idea of the redness. It certainly stings and makes it impossible to sleep comfortably at night or do anything during the day! We did put lots of sunscreen on and the first application had plenty of time to soak in. It was sweat proof and water proof too! It was only a couple of hours before I noticed how RED Jaren's shoulders were. I think one of the brand new bottles I bought was bad. I used a different sunblock on my face and that didn't get near as burnt. Oh well. It was still a lot of fun and a nice getaway from our little apartment. We will be going back to the beach for sure! This will be a place we would love to take our visitors to as well. It's always more fun with friends and family!

I am SO very glad I married my sweet husband. After being married for seven years I would say that marriage is so many things:
Wonderful
Stressful
FUN
crazy
Happy
Lots of hard work
Full of Love
and
Eternal

I can't wait for another seven years and all of the things that it will bring! To my amazing husband who understands me, is patient with me, and loves me...I love you so very much and couldn't imagine my life without you!