simply Fall.

we have no shortage of falling leaves around here and the ones outside our home were blown into a very nice, large pile last weekend.  i thought it would be fun to hide mary's bumbo and sit her amidst the leaves for some great fall pictures.  little did i know she would be enthralled with the crunchiness of the leaves and so excited that the bumbo was quite visible as she would sweep her arms across the top and move the leaves all about.  she had a blast outside in the leaves!  it is so fun to watch her experience the world.

Absolutely giddy!  We live in such a beautiful place, by the way.

Checking out the leaves by the fistful.

Wondering why I am interrupting her!

So intrigued by the crunching and texture.

"Oh, you just thought you'd "hide" my Bumbo mom.  Here, I moved these leaves for you!"

Finally caught a smile on camera!

the beauty around us.

the following pictures should speak for themselves...

i have beautiful lilies blooming in front of our apartment.  we walked/hiked down to the lake on campus today and took the dogs for a swim.

we live in a beautiful place and are so lucky to be surrounded by the beauty of nature.  enjoy!

john deere green.

campus has been quiet in the sense that all of the noisy boys are gone for the summer.  but last week, for two days, john deere was here filming a new commercial.  they passed up the cliffs (fancy, gated golfing community) and the biltmore to film at christ school.  why?  who knows.  but they were here last wednesday and thursday.  the mowing would start and stop and start and stop... you get the idea.  all day!

i took this picture from the front porch of the wellness center/our dwelling.  

bears, blankets, and the Biltmore

this post is a bit of a hodge podge of items but that is how this last week has been.  this has been week 2 of spring break and it's been filled with a little bit of everything- some cleaning and purging (aka nesting), a trip to the Biltmore, and finishing some things for baby girl and finding some things for baby girl.  i even did a little work this morning.

we visited the Biltmore on wednesday of this week.  since it is still the "off season" for Biltmore, we were able to get discount tickets and we used jay's mission hospital discount.  they have the audio headsets free until the end of the month, so aside from our lunch, we got almost a 2 for 1 deal on tickets and our visit.  we have been watching Downton Abbey on masterpiece classics (on PBS) and wanted to learn a little bit more about the history of the Biltmore house now that we've seen DA because we can picture the working nature of the home a little bit better.  it was a beautiful day.  the only thing that would have been better would have been if the gardens were in bloom.  i took a few pictures after we had been through the house and eaten our lunch.

the windows of the grand staircase 

you can see little bits of color... 

one end of the house

i have also been cleaning up our storage area in the apartment (this is in our large laundry room) and moving things around to put them away, purge things, and take stuff to our newer and larger off-site storage unit. i put up all of my winter clothes and spring and summer clothes and am working on cleaning out baby girl's closet and room and getting our office ready to be rearranged into an office/guest room.

after going through some of the boxes, i found a few things that our baby girl can use.  one of them is my first teddy bear.  i have a picture of me with my dad (somewhere) on my first Christmas when i got the bear and the bear is still in pretty good shape- "gently loved."  so the bear got a "bath" and some stitches to one of his armpits and now he's ready to go!

he needs a name... maybe rufus?  what else is sweet for a teddy bear?

i also finished (finally) knitting her blanket and i also found a couple of baby hats i made awhile ago that she may be able to wear.  

 a close up for detail

 seed stitch border with garter stitch in the middle (so it is reversible)

so we have a few things accumulated for our baby girl.  she has another blanket that was crocheted by a former coworker/friend of mine from williamson medical center and a blanket i bought on clearance awhile back and she received a little sweatshirt and some jeans she can wear next year!  i've also acquired a "my brest friend" nursing pillow and a couple of slip covers from one of the mamas here at school with a boppy on the way.  we have our first baby showers in tn in a couple of weeks.  i can't wait to see what we are blessed with besides the love of our family and friends!  

fall foliage, part two

there were a few spots of beauty that weren't near any overlooks and we seemed to always be on the wrong side of the road where the "pull-over" spots were for pictures yesterday.  so today i headed back up on the north side of the parkway and got some beautiful pictures.  i didn't enhance any of them.  (and i shot them in the "auto" setting.)  only God could provide such a gorgeous landscape!  the colors of nature today were stunning.  i hope you enjoy them as much as i did.

these looked pink to me in person.  never thought of pink as one of the fall colors- maybe it's dressed up for breast cancer awareness!

i love seeing the leaves as they are changing...

the view out my living room window (that's the chapel past the tree.)

fall foliage, part one

i think we're about a week from "peak" season but it's a beautiful time of year in the mountains.  yesterday was the annual drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway for Upstate Cruisers.  we had a small group meet at the pisgah inn for brunch and then we rode from mt. pisgah to mt. mitchell.  aside from some blustery wind, the weather was perfect and the scenery did not disappoint.  the pictures speak for themselves.

at the inn

just north of mt. pisgah

the view of craggy pinnacle from the visitor's center- look at that flag whipping in the wind

one of the many tunnels on the brp. can you see it?!

the view from the visitor's center

the view from mt. mitchell

it was a chilly 47 degrees at 2pm that high up- i'd hate to know what the wind chill was as it was gusting 20-30mph yesterday.  brrr!

reserves training

i never get tired of these views!