Weekend Wrap-Up

Yes, I'm still alive! I'm just trying to get back in the swing of school.  Last week was a really busy one: I had something every night except for Friday, and Tues. & Thurs. I didn't get home until 8:00-9:00.  Not fun when you leave the house at 6:30 a.m.
I'm waaaay behind on blogging, and reading blogs, so if you're still with me, thank you! I promise to try to get to everybody very soon!
CH & I took it easy on Friday night. Sat. morning, we threw some stuff in our trailer and headed to Asheville. OS moved to that area a couple of weeks ago, and we needed to take him an old loveseat that we had, along with some spare kitchen essentials. We were pleasantly surprised at his new house: It's actually quite nice. He has woods on the side and to the back so they feel like they have a little bit of privacy. 
After we dropped stuff off at the house, we drove out to the campground and set up.  Then OS showed us around a little bit, and we went into downtown Asheville. We saw some pretty interesting people:

and things:

This is a roaming bar that the patrons pedal. Interesting. They were having a very good time!
We ate at Wicked Weed:

If you walk around the back, you can take your dog with you. The wait staff was extremely friendly, and just about everybody wanted to pet Laika & Sultie (OS' dog). 

The wait staff brought the dogs some water as soon as we sat down. They didn't have a very big menu, but we were just there for burgers, anyway.  OS had a black bean burger that had firewalker pimento cheese & pickled green beans.  I had a taste, and it really wasn't half bad! 

Since it is a brewery, they make their own beer right on the premises. Again, it wasn't bad at all!  I had the Apple Harvest Ale, which is a Belgian blond ale with apple cider that is made locally. 

After we ate, we ran into the grocery store to get something to grill for dinner.  OS joined us for steak, corn on the cob, and potato salad.

We really ate very well on Saturday! Our campsite was right on the river:

I didn't zoom in with that picture.  I sat in my chair and took the picture. It was pretty calming to hear the river. There were a lot of ducks just to the left of the little island, but they stayed in the water & didn't come up to the campsite.

Sunday morning we got up, packed up, and headed home. OS had plans to kayak, so we didn't see him. On the way home, we saw this:

Just in case you can't see it, those are dinosaurs on the hood. The owner was nice enough to allow me to take a picture, and he laughed about it. Seems he has a good sense of humor!

After we got home, we cleaned out the trailer and then reorganized it so we won't have to do it for Fall Break. 20 more days!

I still have to catch y'all up on Sisters' Weekend, which was last weekend. What a blast!

Hope everyone had a nice, relaxing, fun-filled weekend!

Summer's Over Hodgepodge

1.  What's something you wanted to do this summer that you never got around to actually doing?
I can't think of a thing. Everything I wanted to do, I did.

2. Share a favorite memory of your own back -to-school days as a child.
I remember how excited I was to wear a new outfit on the first day of school. I don't have a specific memory of a first day.

3.  What's one chore or daily task you prefer doing 'old-school' ?
Washing the pots & pans.  I don't put those in the dishwashwer.

4.  Share something you've learned in life through the 'school of hard knocks'.
I'm having a hard time thinking of anything on this one. 

5.  As a child, did you mostly bring or buy your lunch for school? What was your favorite thing to find in your lunchbox?
Hmmm...let's see if you can guess from these 2 words:  9 siblings. Yep, I took my lunch almost every single day! I loved the peanut butter & jelly sandwiches Mama used to make! 

6. Football season is upon us which has me wondering... how big of a sports fan are you (not just football) ? On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being 'I scream at the players through my television screen' and 1 being 'is knitting a sport?' where do you fall in fandom? 
Oh, a 10!  Definitely a 10! The dogs run & hide when I start yelling at the tv!

Yep, that would be me!
7. Share a favorite quote you think might inspire students of all ages at the start of a new school year. 

8.  Random thought:

Well, my favorite meteorologist is leaving Knoxville. He's from Denver, and is going home to start a job with Weather Nation.  Here's the clip from his goodbye the other day.  I think you'll see why he's my favorite after looking at this:
http://www.wbir.com/story/life/people/2014/08/29/saying-goodbye-to-mike-witcher/14801525/

Weekend Wrap-Up

Another Labor Day has come & gone. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for Fall! Even though we've had a relatively mild summer, there's just something about Fall: clean, crisp air, the cool evenings (and mornings), the humidity going down, and football.  Yep, it's just about the perfect season!

As I write this, OS is about to begin the last leg of his move back to NC from Utah. He called yesterday, broken down on the interstate in Ky. Turns out he may have gotten some bad gas; after a couple of hours he was back on the road, headed toward a buddy's house in Nashville. After 3 full days on the road, I know he'll be glad to get to his new home. This last leg will be a short one for him: only a little more than 4 hours.

Thursday night, I had my first flute choir meeting of the year. We didn't play any; it took all 2 hours to figure out dates for performances for the year. We have one member who drives over 2 hours for practices (her mother lives in the area), and we have another member who evidently has no one to talk to during the day, so we end up wasting quite a bit of time listening to her talk.  The member who drives so far very gently suggested that we keep the conversation to a minimum during practice, so we can optimize our playing time. I thought she did a wonderful job with the suggestion. It really gets me perturbed during practice when we waste so much time and then feel unprepared for performances. We'll see how it goes!

Friday night was "rival night", and the Small Town got a beat-down.  They lost horribly to the Rival High School.  Very disappointing!

I spent part of the weekend making materials for school. Last year, I spent Labor Day writing IEPs & Invitations to IEP Meetings. I was so overwhelmed last year with my caseload; this year is so much better and less stressful. I went to Mass with my Daddy on Saturday night.  When I left, I told YS' girlfriend that they could put together a pasta/spinach/chicken salad, or they could wait and I would make it when I got home. I came home to this:

I got the recipe from Laura at I'm not a Trophy Wife; I highly recommend it.  YS' girlfriend said she usually doesn't like salad like that, but she wanted the recipe. 

On Sunday, CH & I took a drive up to the mountains; specifically, Cades Cove. It doesn't matter how much I've gone up there, I still marvel at how beautiful it is. It rained Saturday night, so the air smelled clean. Love to smell the mountain air, especially after a rain!

On our way out, we stopped and walked by the river at the "Y" (or "Wye"):

Yesterday, I went to Daily Mass with my Daddy, and then ran by the  Dollar Tree (a school employees' heaven!) to get some ideas for something in my rooms. Hopefully it will work the way I want it!

Hope you had an awesome weekend!