BIltemore Estate, Mid December Visit

Walking around the fountain, not entirely happy about it

On a veranda

Looking out from the gardens. Pure Appalachia here

Walking in the gardens

With the entire estate in the background from some of the gardens.

Christ Candle

Well, this past Monday night we got to light the Christ candle. Tuesday advent was over as Christmas finally came!

We have had a very interesting couple of weeks since I last wrote. We went to the Biltmore Estate two weekends back and had a lot of fun. It was neat to see Christmas trees everywhere, but I very much miss the Christmas tree exhibit at MSI. We got to explore Asheville some too and will be going back for sure. The gardens at the estate were impressive and we want to see them come spring. We got a year pass, so expect more about the estate in future posts. I will also put some pictures up when I get home in a couple of days.

We managed to get a whirlwind trip to OK together and we are watching the weather religiously to get back to NC safely. When we left town we got out of town a bit late because we were waiting for the wind to die down some. The day before we had several inches of snow fall with 60 mph wind, so we thought it wise to wait a little. Once the wind died down it was pretty with the snow on the mountain sides as we drove down.

A has had a great Christmas thus far. Opening presents has been fun as she will tear off a small piece of paper and throw it away and repeat until the package is open. She has gotten all sorts of goodies and actually seems to like the toys over the packaging which I understand is a rarity for someone her age.

One of the interesting things that A has done is feed the puppies. She LOVES puppies and will run and startle any furry four legged creature and she has tormented many this trip. They tend to love A as she will feed them whatever she has in her hands. She will also purposefully line up food for the puppies to eat and they follow her around that way as well.

Here is a quick picture of A on her new tricycle. It has a handle for pushing the trike around but A doesn't want it on her tricycle thank you very much.

Sleigh Ride

And again...again? And again? A loves to ride around in her sleigh. We can go in circles and she especially likes wide turns and such. She occasionally tips out of the sleigh, cries a bit, then gets right back in for more.

Week of Peace

Well, this past week was a week of hope -- hope that we would get the media fill done at work and that everyone would remain sane. We now go into this week hopeful that it will be a bit more peaceful. There is nothing to do but wait on the media to not grow stuff -- we need it to not grow stuff and for all the praying types, please beseech the Lord that it doesn't grow stuff. Half of the people at work were sick this week, we almost failed several times for lack of materials, and the media is designed to grow stuff -- we literally bottle pink soy media and want it to still be pink in two weeks. If we grow stuff then we have to do three more media fills, back to back to back. If we pass then our aseptic techniques are quite robust and we deserve to be making drugs. There is also the issue that if we have to requalify with three media fills that puts us down the path of destruction, many companies have gone down the tubes because of failed media fills.

Chris stayed home with baby girl Tuesday, well, she went to work with him since I was working from before her daycare opened to a couple of hours after the daycare closed. She did quite well, and it wasn't until six or so that she decided it was time to see her mother. Friday the two of them stayed home again, though this time she got shots. It wasn't all fun and games...

Chris has all of the students checked out of labs now and is in a clean-up phase of the semester. He will be getting some organization and cleaning done there, so hopefully that goes well. The end of term always brings about a certain amount of peace that does help usher in Christmas I believe. We will see how the week goes.

We managed to make it by the library yesterday for story time. It was neat to see the librarian and have her read stories to A. A really just wanted to draw with chalk on the board, but she's getting there. She did make a wonderful santa -- but didn't want a cotton ball beard. Then she didn't want the cotton stuff/glue on her hands either, so we decided it was time to leave.

This morning we woke up with a sick baby girl. It is the first time she has been absolutely miserable. I stayed home with her while Chris went and did A/V stuff at church. We were able to watch the live stream, so I explained to her how it was daddy making it possible. She slept a lot, and has slept a lot today in fact. Her fever has broken, and she is no longer flushed, so that's a good thing. We will be going to school tomorrow.

We are continuing to have up in the air Christmas plans. Hopefully they will involve us getting to see family of some form, even if it is just on Skype.

Here is to the week of peace this Advent season.

Welcome Advent

Well, since it is December 1st, Advent starts today. Tomorrow will be the first Sunday in Advent, and I'm kind of sad that the church we attend does not recognize the tradition. Overall it is a good church, but one that doesn't follow a Christian year or anything like that. Chris has been able to help setup, in fact that is where he currently is. A and I have spent the past few hours alone while Chris goes to help put the chairs and stage together in the school where we hold church. We both survived and she did quite well with just me. Normally she wants us both to be here when we are home. Chris has also been working sound at the church for services so he will leave early tomorrow to do sound checks and everything. I actually got to be an AV nerd last week, but only had to find bible verses and switch between two different videos. The guest speaker walked across the stage the entire time and made me motion sick to the extreme. I basically pushed a lot of buttons and filled in since everyone was on Thanksgiving break still. We will see what tomorrow brings.

Work has been busy for both Chris and me. We still like our jobs most days, but the next week will be difficult for us. We have a media fill at work for me. It is to test sterility in our cleanroom over the course of a week. On Tuesday I will be at work insanely early and have to stay late, so late in fact that Chris will have to stay home with A.

We managed to get the tree up and decorated over the course of this past week. A really liked putting up the tree with Chris and then decorating it with me. She loves it every night when we turn on all the lights, she cheers in fact. She helped a lot and likes to move the ornaments around on the tree. It is kind of funny because she constantly change where she wants stuff on the tree. One night this week we even woke up around two to her screaming and crying in front of the tree. She had walked there and we could hear her crying, but couldn't figure out where she was. Now for Santa to come and bring some presents for under the tree and all will be set.

Well, I hear Chris outside so I should wrap this up. That is a quick update and I hope all is well with you as we enter this wonderful season.

A little of this, a lot of that

 Sorry for the delay the past few weeks. It has been rather hectic. I ran a half marathon in Tulsa, flew home (barely made it), worked a day and a half then we went to Arkansas for Thanksgiving. It was great to see everyone I managed to see, and I hope that I'll get some time off at Christmas to actually make a trip to OK. My half time was 2:24, so I was happy. It was right in the range I thought it should be.

A being a carry-on during our layover in Houston for the trip to Tulsa

Yep, people from NE, NC, and AZ all met to run the half marathon

My friend Maggie and me before our half marathon. We got dropped off and it strangely felt like we were 10 again...

Emily made it to the finish as well.

Yep all 13.1 miles (most of it with Maggie!)

Learning that ornaments are not balls, despite how similar they look

All a girl needs -- shoes and a handbag!

Riding in the car home from Arkansas

Figuring out which spoon to use

This one looks good

Well, maybe they'll both fit in my mouth

This one has stuff left on it

 Now we are getting ready for Christmas. Chris put up the tree today and we will slowly decorate it over the next few days. Today we also went to Sweet Frog, as you can see above. A demanded having her own spoon, quickly deciding she also wanted her daddy's. She took control of both leaving Chris to wonder why he didn't get more originally. Apparently the raspberry/pomegranate was good.

Anyway, more to do and a week to get ready for. The next few weeks of work for me are promising to be crazy, so hopefully I still have a job and we all have sanity at the end of it.

Black Saturday

Black Saturday is the last home game of the season here at Appalachian State. It is "Senior Day" and a big deal for all the graduating seniors. We got tickets for the grass under the video board. One advantage to having a field stuck in the side of a mountain is that sitting on the hill meant we got pretty decent seats. It was kind of difficult getting up and down or finding a flat place to put a drink. It was kind of cool, and as night closed in it got pretty chilly. The game was good. Not our usual OU standard of play, but still a decent game. ASU ended up winning 33-28, mainly because of the 4 field goals that were kicked.

The past few weeks have been fairly busy around here. After Sandy came through (we just got snow for 3 days straight) and the Nor'easter Pete (another 2 days of snow) this weekend has been beautiful. We got to test the new car in the snow and it does wonderfully. Chris had to shovel in and out of the drive in the Focus while I just zipped in, just for a comparison.

I've also managed to get a fair amount of quilting done. I really like this top and hope that the little girl it is going to likes it just as much. I've had quite the time with the corners and things measuring out right, as you can tell by this picture. The skulls have pink hairbows, as you can see in a few different places.

A has decided that "No No No" is her favorite word/phrase. She especially says it when we go to change her diapers. She wants to go on the toilet, and has managed to a few times, but not with enough consistency for us to feel confident letting her run around in underwear. Maybe some training pants are in our future...

She is also really liking to dress herself. If she says, "No" to something we will let her pick something else out, and normally that is a good compromise. We really do try and allow her to tell us, "No," provided it isn't something major. We also have a Tennessee Smokey Dog that is her favorite. Now if one of our wonderful OK family could get us a similar Boomer then we'd be in business. Smokey goes everywhere and does most everything with A. Here was one of her more entertaining outfits this week -- a pink crinoline skirt, with a skater type tee and her blue fleece hat that occasionally she let stay on longer than thirty seconds.

I hope you all have had a good couple of weeks!