Just Some Miscellany

Here are some random moments from vacation....

There are times when the phone just isn't reliable for weather. Please note the forecast on the phone....and the weather outside the window.

We had a couple of ice cream treats along the way! In this one we were huddled under a ginormous umbrella in the 2 tiny dry seats following the above "mostly sunny" rainstorm.

So one morning, I opened the hotel door to find a USA Today outside in the hallway. Not being a big fan of news reading, I tossed it on Lynnette's bed, and she read it while she ate breakfast. I heard her say, "Marion, Indiana??" I said, "Oh great. Did someone get shot?" Turns out...not so much....just an update on the 4H fair. Seriously? I go five states away and the 4H fair follows me????

We may or may not have done a little shopping while we were gone. :) Among our stops....A FARMER'S MARKET!!!!!!! I was so excited! My second time this year - and it was on my summer livin' list. I guess I'm REALLY livin'! This one was much more of a permanent establishment than the one I went to in Granville. Multiple buildings and open every day.

The "ice cream garden." Could anything be more lovely? Ahhhh the garden of ice cream.

We ended up shopping at Belks (we don't have those here - but maybe some of you know what I'm talking about) and I got a SUPER cute dress...which I'm sure you'll see soon. And we made our way around the Biltmore Village, which was a collection of stores just outside the estate. I didn't buy anything there except lunch. :)

Everyone knows a good girls' weekend out includes SHOPPING!!!!

Outside the Biltmore

The Biltmore is as stunning OUTSIDE as it is INSIDE. So here's a sampling (and only a sampling...you're welcome) of our outdoor tour.

We ate lunch there on the grounds. Just outside the house was the carriage house area...renovated into gift shops and an eatery. We ate at the Courtyard Market which is hiding behind that palm tree looking thing.

We opted to share a pizza (we got the half-serving and it was PLENTY enough) - kind of a chicken florentine sort of thing. We ate outside, and the weather was just perfect!!

Okay you all know I'm a dork, so this picture won't surprise you. :) Found me a man:

He's quiet and sits very still. :) And apparently I wouldn't have to spend much time doing laundry!

When we were done eating and looking around the area immediately outside the house, we ventured over into the gardens. BEAUTIFUL rose gardens...even though rose season is largely over:

This was the hot house. Had my picture taken with the sign in honor of my broken internal thermostat, which makes EVERY house a hot house for this girl. (The thermometer in here registered 105. Yep. That's hot.)

Always take time to stop and smell the roses.

We stopped to get a bottle of water, because it was REALLY hot outside. THREE DOLLARS AND TWENTY ONE CENTS FOR THAT BOTTLE OF WATER. Did I keep it? As my mother would say, you bet your sweet bippy!! (No idea what a bippy is or why in the world someone would bet it.)

This little creek wandered all through the gardens and finally I could stand it no more. I had to get my toes wet. :)

Gorgeous. Absolutely stunning. (Talking about the scenery, not me. HELLO!)

Loved this bridge. And reflecting pictures. Love those too.

Lynnette standing on this really weird "bridge." It was just two stones sticking up even with the path. No room for error on that one!!

Some really nice guy took our picture in front of this waterfall. It was at this point that the thunder rumbling in the distance was becoming louder and more frequent, so we hurried back to the house after this one!

We paused to take the outside pictures at the house (that you already saw) and then caught the shuttle back to the parking lot. It was SO HOT - and I was desperate for air conditioning. When we got back to Sammy, we just sat there for a while with the air blasting full force. Our faces had completely slid off and our hair had wilted. Good thing we have been friends for a long time and are not offended by that sort of thing.

Praising in the Storm

Yesterday I mentioned the nasty storm that rolled (slammed) through Fort Wayne on Friday. After coming home, calming down, and thinking more about it...I had some observations that I think deserve their own post, so I'm interrupting my vacation chatter to tell you about this.

* I hate storms. HATE storms. Never loved them, came to entirely hate them after the tornado of 1997 and spent several years actually paralyzed in fear every time even the tiniest storm came along. I'm much better now. Ironically the Greensburg tornado taught me that if the big one REALLY does happen, you can't stop it...and life can be rebuilt. So a lot of the fears went away after that. Having said that...I still hate storms and while I can now make it through a regular thunderstorm without incident, I freak out in really bad storms.

*91 mile an hour winds constitute a "really bad storm." And that's exactly what Fort Wayne got on Friday. And because of that, I'm not going to feel bad about crying at work.

* My car was parked under a tree. A nice, young, healthy tree, to be honest, but I also don't think 91 mile an hour winds care much about which trees are young and healthy. Trees are trees and the fine city lost a great number of them on Friday. Thankfully NOT the one perched above my car.

* The roof leaked right above my desk. And by leaked, I mean a waterfall. Water poured down for about 5 minutes before we found a satisfactory tub to catch it (at which point we caught about an inch in a 66 quart tote). Had this storm happened even 2 hours later, we would have been gone from work, and the water would have soaked into all the books on that shelf, ruining them.

* It's been weeks since I had to stay late to work, but Friday night, Lynne and I were scheduled to take food to the Party Palooza winner's party. At the regular quitting time for work, I could not have gotten home, because that way were closed...because of overturned vehicles and downed trees. By the time I finished working the party and headed home, the road was open again.

* 50,000 people and businesses were out of power after the storm. Our party was scheduled to be held at a store near one mall and the restaurant catering the meal was in another mall. Though power was out all around both malls, those two particular businesses had power and the party went on as scheduled.

You can't tell me God doesn't care about the details. Even if, in the grand scheme of life, they're completely insignificant.

It's the Weekly Recap!!

* Last Sunday I drove 500 miles in one day, through five states, to get home from vacation, THUS MARKING - my longest solo drive ever at one time. (Pathetic but true.) There was one furry little occupant of this house who was so excited to see me that she skipped eating her treat. (No occupants of this house often skip food, so that's kind of a big deal.) HOME SAFE! Praise the Lord!

* Monday I made my first pilgrimage to the lake (this year, anyway) and had a BLAST out on the water. And um....got totally crispy fried, DESPITE two applications of sunscreen and wearing a beach towel over my legs and feet for the last hour of the adventure. Still, important lesson learned: if you're going to get burned, take the band-aids off your feet first. (And sorry for the rest of the view. I am not a foot model! ICK!!)

* Tuesday I drove to Indianapolis to visit one of my college roommates, Jenny and we spent the day together! Her little boy is HILARIOUS and he cracked me right up. I also stopped to see my sister, Julie, and we had dinner together. And....guess what this girl did to continue the vacation adventure? Want a hint?

Second piercing! That is as close to the edge as I live.

* Wednesday was my last day off work, and my first day to be completely lazy. I slept in...watched TV...did some scrapping...you know, lazy stuff. Had some help with it too:

 Yep. She missed me. I went to visit my old office and then (sniff, sniff, moment of silence) I had to take my precious Sammy back to the rental place. Man, I loved that car. Wanted to keep him.

* Thursday I returned to work and actually enjoyed doing so!! (Hope you were sitting down for that!!) Lynne welcomed me back in style:

And we shared the airwaves for a show all about weddings. We had a blast. I just love working with her. Have I mentioned that?? And Thursday was also the day it was 106 degrees IN OUR STATE. That's about the hottest I ever remember it being in my adult (or ever) life. You can imagine my joy.

* Friday was a very full day. We had a ridiculously horrible storm in the afternoon. It blew up out of nowhere and Ms. Scared-to-Death-of Storms was in actual tears at her desk. I hate crying at work. Especially over dumb things like storms. This was Lynne's solution to my storm-drama:

It's not there if you can't see it, she says! It lasted a while and resulted in TONS of downed trees and debris in town...and 50,000 people without power...and much cooler temps! In other news...Lynne and I went to our party palooza winner's luau party (dressed for the occasion) - and I ran one mile without stopping. In nine minutes. Thankyouverymuch.

* Saturday night I hosted game night at my house!!! I had to miss the last one because I had the flu, so it was great to be back with my friends! And by that, of course, I mean getting my tail KICKED. I cannot win with these people. But I'm very good for their self-esteem!! :)

One Thousand Gifts: I will write more about this later, I'm sure, but on Friday, when Fort Wayne got blasted with the horrible storm, there were 50,000 people/places without electricity throughout the county. It was the night of our party palooza winner's party and despite the closed roads and lack of power, everyone was able to make it to the party, and both the store hosting the party AND the restaurant providing the food had power. I call that a miracle.

Pinterest Inspiration: People. Prepare to be amazed. (Are you prepared???)

I had to make a dessert for work this week, for a co-worker who is an amazing cook. Nothing puts fear in a girl like cooking for a cook. So, because THIS is a smart solution to that problem, I thought...hey! Let's try something brand new! (Never claimed to be intelligent, my friends.) So I made this:

Source: the-girl-who-ate-everything.com via Rebekah on Pinterest

Here is mine:

They. Loved. It. At. Work.

June: Done

The beginning of June feels like it was 850 years ago. CRAZY. It's been one full and beautiful month!

Started the Experiencing God study with my Sunday School class at church. The daily homework is a discipline to complete, but God is definitely using the study to teach me!

Had the privilege to interview Bruce Marchiano, about his role of portraying Jesus in a few movies...and that interview was an honor!!

Attended my friend Lisa's baby shower and had a blast catching up with friends I made during Olivia's wedding!

Spent an afternoon with my buddies James and Liam - which was fun unbridled...and also exhausting! Two boys wear a person out!

Crashed one of the station's Sticker Stops to hang out with my friends Sheryl, Amy, and Anna. You know you love your job when you voluntarily go see your work buds OFF the clock.

Went to Savannah and Liam's art show and got to see some of their creativity unleashed. Not gonna lie - they did great. Much better than I would have. :)

Went swimming at Rachel's house which reminded me how grateful I am to have A) friends and 2) friends with pools.

Rented a car for the first time in my life for my trip to visit Lynnette in Asheville, North Carolina. Fell in love with little Sammy the Civic and decided I wanted to keep him. (I didn't.)

Drove BY MYSELF to Asheville and back, making it my first ever solo trip of that distance AND my first time in the mountains. Fell in love with those, too!

Visited the Biltmore Estate, traveled on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and attended a Shakespeare play all as part of Lynnette's birthday weekend adventure!

First trip to Lake Webster for the season - resulted in a crazy ridiculous sunburn but so much fun o the side!!

Visited my college roommate and my sister on one of my vacation days! Great to see both of them.

Served dinner at the PARTY PALOOZA winner's party in Fort Wayne - a luau theme! And yes. I wore a grass skirt, thankyouverymuch.

Rounding out the month with a game night with my high school buddies!

Biltmore, Baby!

Lynnette and I declared Friday our Biltmore day. We got up early (read: before noon) and headed to "the big castle." Lynnette had done her research well (this really WAS a vacation for me...she even did the research!) and knew the place wasn't air conditioned. Have mercy. She figured if we went early in the day, we would avoid the bulk of the crowds and the worst of the heat.

GOOD THINKING. This is why we're friends. She's a smart one.

So we drove to the Biltmore and bought our tickets which granted us access to the grounds for the day. We parked Sammy and caught a shuttle over to the house. (We weren't lazy. We were WISE. We did a LOT of walking that day.) This is Lynnette (and Aslan) before we began our tour of the house. 

Real quick factoids for ya, just in case you're not familiar with the Biltmore: it has four acres of floor space, 250 rooms 34 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces. PRAISE THE LORD I'm not preparing THAT house to show.

Anyway. All that to say, this house tour goes a LITTLE longer than than a real estate showing. Lynnette and I bought the audio tour on the good advice of her mother-in-law, and it turned out to be a great decision. The audio tour lets you rent little mp3 players with headphones and as you walk through each room (each ALLOWED room - you don't go to all 250) you enter the number and the narrator gives you some information about what you're seeing and what it signifies. We were able to go at our own pace without keeping up with a tour guide. That was fun.

There aren't any pictures allowed inside the house, so...you're spared! :)

We did get to take pictures on this little porch on the back side of the house. It was off the tapestry gallery, you know. (What? You don't have a porch off YOUR tapestry gallery???)

We were going to ask this lady on the porch to take our picture but she went into a 35 sneeze fit right about then and we thought perhaps we'd just self-photograph. Turned out to be my favorite picture of the whole trip! 

It took about 2 hours to get through our tour, and by the end of it, the crowds had REALLY picked up, and so had the HEAT! So we were glad to be back outside to enjoy sun and breeze for a bit!

My favorite room? Well since you asked...it was the swimming pool. Per the handy dandy guide book, "The 70,000 gallon indoor pool was heated and still has its original underwater lighting. Swimmers could push call buttons, located on the wall near the doors, to order refreshments or to signal they were ready to leave and needed help changing." I would consider that room a luxury in a house NOW. To think they did that in the 1890's...blew my mind.

We did find a nice lady who took our picture outside...this isn't the front. Just over to the side. (Reminded me a lot of "over to the side" outside my own house.) 

The back of the house. (And some wind. Good night nurse.) Right behind  my left shoulder is the porch where we'd had the other pictures taken earlier.

We walked the gardens (more on that another day) and then came back...and by that, I mean RUSHED...to take pictures of the outside of the house before the storm rumbling in the distance showed up. We weren't far ahead of it. Whew!!

Anyway. My official photo with the Biltmore.

 And Lynnette's official photo with the Biltmore.

If you look left of Lynnette in the picture above, you'll see a couple of people walking away from the shuttle and toward us. They were this darling couple who flagged us down and asked us if we'd take their picture. We said no. I'm KIDDING!

We took their picture and then they asked if we'd like them to take ours! Well sure!!!! So they did:

 And then they held hands and walked away...and I heard the girl say "Hey let's run!" so they took off running hand in hand. Like I said. DARLING.

And one more view...for the road!!!!

We took these pictures while dodging some sort of photo shoot involving two 16ish age girls, a LOT of curls and hairspray, lethally high heels, and honest-to-goodness hoop skirts. (And did I mention it was almost a billion degrees outside with equal humidity?)

Welcome to Asheville!!!

Thanks to my 45 minute wait in construction, thankyouverymuch, Lynnette beat me to Asheville, so she got all settled in the room, and then Sammy and I showed up with allllllllll the luggage.  (You remember the luggage.)

We rested for a bit (driving so wears a person out....) and then decided to explore the heart of downtown Asheville for dinner. Lynnette asked the lovely hotel lady where we should go for some local food and she suggested the Early Girl Eatery. So we went! It was an artsy little place, and we got to hide away in a corner and catch up on life. (Translated: Bekah talked Lynnette's poor ear right off.)

You already saw this one on the recap - but the cobb salad I had really was very good. I've recently developed a strange love for avocado (?????) so I was really excited that this salad had that. In fact, it's pretty much why I ordered it.

And um...we might have ordered dessert. Couldn't finish the salad, but you can better believe I did everything short of LICK THIS PLATE.

After dinner, we walked around downtown Asheville for a while and then came back to the hotel, where we had my birthday party!!! CUTEST orange flip flops (and later in the week I may or may not have purchased a DARLING dress to match) - and pedicure stuff and (be still my beating heart) orange Essie polish.

And this part CRACKED us up. When we got back to the hotel for the night, I came in toting the massive suitcase, because I'd not lugged it in yet. We passed a guy walking OUT of the very busy lobby, and as he moved past me, he tossed over a "Lotsa luck" in a REALLY disgusted voice. Lynnette and I just looked at each other...what in the world? All we could figure was that he didn't make a reservation and they were full. We didn't bother to mention we'd had this room for a couple of months...because we're girls and we PLAN AHEAD.

Brave, Take 2

Remember last week when I posted about my secret hunger to be brave? It "just so happened" (read: God ordained it) that the bravery post occurred the same day I made the long part of my drive from Indiana to North Carolina to meet up with Lynnette.

The first part of the trip went flawlessly, and then I hit a 45 minute construction delay, which made me panic. (My car overheated during a construction delay on my Wisconsin vacation a couple of years ago, so I'm a little sensitive to that.) It took a while for me to calm back down. Seriously. I passed a Sonic without stopping for a treat. (Hope you were sitting down for that.)

I got into the last couple of hours of the trip and found myself in the middle of an ENORMOUS mountain. Quite a change in scenery from the flatlands of Indiana.

The road was so winding and curvy that I pulled the old 10 and 2 trick from driver's ed and focused ahead. And speaking of driver's ed...it was right about then that it occurred to me that I was really doing this! The girl who curbed the car the first time she drove it in driver's ed...the girl who refused to drive on interstates until 2 years ago...the girl who was PETRIFIED of cities...was driving through a crazy mountain. Alone.

Then I thought back to 2 years ago when I went to see Lynnette for my birthday...and it took every ounce of strength I had to put myself on a plane and stand up and walk back off when it landed. When I couldn't eat or sleep or care. I couldn't have driven that year. And two years later...I was driving by myself through the mountains for a new vacation.

And God whispered to my heart: This is brave. You are DOING bravery. You're doing it. Right now. You're in a mountain all by yourself with only a GPS to lead you along and you're DOING IT.

You.  Are.  Brave.

Of course I started crying. I cried because the song on the CD player blasted out Praise My Soul the King of Glory and that's exactly what I was doing as I thought about the healing He's worked in my heart. And then I cried because the song switched to America the Beautiful and there I was...smack in the middle of breathtaking scenery I'd ever laid eyes on before...and it was indeed beautiful. And I cried because I'm Bekah and that's what I do.

I remember once reading that Beth Moore had a little church moment in her car one day in the middle of downtown Houston. Hands up, praising, with traffic passing by and people staring. I felt a bit like that twisting through the mountains. Crying and giggling and catching my breath and embracing bravery and the smile of Abba...

I'm so glad I drove. That's a moment I never would have had in plane.

 

The moment I was brave.

Leavin...In a Honda Civic!

So... several months ago, Lynnette asked me if I'd be willing to take a little road trip for her birthday. She really wanted to visit the Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina, and she wondered if I would come with her. Sure!!! So I took a few days off work (my first time off work since starting my job, actually!) and the great road trip of 2012 began!! :)

I worked on Wednesday before leaving that night, and when I got to work that morning, the lovely Sheryl left this present on my desk. I loved it because HELLO...it's food! and I loved it because she was so thoughtful in planning it (lime chips...my fave...a Kind bar...yum!...chocolate and peanut butter...yummy...and a Starbucks card!!) AND I loved it because she even got THIS bag because it looks like my Easter dress!!

Of course that evening, someone ELSE thought it was for her. Shaking head.

And this, my dear people, is why I don't fly.

My precious little car gets so much abuse every day, and he's old. He's 10 years old now. He's had a lot of work done lately and I just kinda wanted to keep everything new for him. So I rented this little guy and named him Sammy. Sammy the Civic. He was a GREAT car for a road trip!

I left home between 6 and 7 Wednesday evening and of COURSE...first stop?? STARBUCKS, BABY!!!

I drove until I was just about a half hour from Cincinnati and stopped for the night in good old Batesville, Indiana. Stopped there based on my mother's recommendation. Know what I found out? Batesville is 1) where they make caskets and B) where the movie Psycho was set. SERIOUSLY, MOM????? THIS IS WHERE YOU SUGGEST I STAY??????

Best part of being a grown up? You can eat cookies in bed at 11 p.m. and no one yells at you.

And that's how the trip began.