Happy Anniversary

Well, it's been a while since I made a blog post... I have to come clean...I temporarily was lulled into the land of "Facebook" and I will confess that it was a consuming passion/addiction/HUGE TIME WASTER for about a week.

I have, however, seen the error of my ways (i.e., that Facebook really has nothing to offer except possibly for "Flair" and a potential chance to reconnect with long lost friends. Sadly, though, I only found one college friend I'd lost touch with and came to complete dead-ends on the rest of my searches for people from elementary school through college. I have concluded that perhaps the majority of the people from my 'generation' are just not hip enough to have found Facebook yet--- which either makes me super cool for being one of the 'first'... or just flat out old because maybe most of my peers are just too fuddy-duddy to even attempt it at all!!! I'm going to go with me being cool-- because the second option is just depressing!!)

Anyhoo... long story longer... I'm back to blogging. Although truly not all that much has been happening that's interesting enough to blog about (because I'm pretty sure you don't want to hear the details of the the 3 rounds of the stomach virus that went around our house last week!) We've been enjoying a lot of quiet time at home just hanging out which has been great. School starts this week so the days of rest and relaxation will soon be distant memories!

A few weeks ago, Michael mentioned that he would like us to take a short trip out of town for our anniversary. We have made a habit of trying to go somewhere each year, even if it's just overnight, and I think we've only missed a few years out of 14-- a pretty good record, I think! Michael had heard (on the FISH, naturally!) that Steven Curtis Chapman was going to be performing an outdoor concert on the lawn of the Biltmore House over the weekend just before our anniversary and suggested we get tickets to attend. The Biltmore House is special to us because it is the site of our first 'date'-- the place where we decided to make a move from friends to 'more than friends'. And we've loved Steven Curtis Chapman's music for probably about as long as he's been singing. So it seemed like a great way to spend anniversary #14! Michael lined up his parents to keep the girls, I snagged us a half price hotel room on Priceline and we were headed to Asheville for the weekend.

The concert was-- in a word-- AMAZING! It's pretty hard to beat that setting-- south lawn of America's largest home with a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains at sunset. The concert was sold out-- it was the first Christian concert ever held at Biltmore.

The music was great as we expected it would be... but what was most incredible was just to listen to the heart of this man who is literally walking through a tragedy that seems like every parent's worst nightmare come true and yet he is still able to sing and speak and share his faith with the world. He was very open about his grief-- and he did get very emotional several times during the evening. But his testimony is that God is still God-- they don't understand-- but they still believe. I cannot even begin to describe how powerful it was to hear him share except to say that by the end of his first song ("Blessed be Your Name"), I think the entire audience was one big puddle of tears. The family is supposed to be featured on Good Morning America on Wednesday morning and on Larry King Live on Thursday night (as well as on the cover of People magazine next week)-- it's neat to see God use the secular news media to spread their story and testimony for His glory!

So after the emotional concert evening, we headed back to the hotel (with it's soothing lavender spray for our sheets and special 'sleep cd' to help us relax!!) for a great night's sleep. Our tickets included the opportunity to tour the Biltmore on Saturday, so we were up and out the door fairly early and on the grounds by 9:30... which turned out to be a blessing because we had forgotten (here's a bonus tourist tip-- visit in the spring or fall) that the house is NOT (yes, that's right NOT) air-conditioned!! It actually wasn't all that bad-- they had windows open and fans on but it was a Saturday and pretty crowded so I think that made it seem a little worse than it really was.

(Side note-- in case you haven't ever visited the Biltmore and haven't yet gotten the sense of just how grand this place is-- you know, if the fact that it has 250 rooms, 43 bathrooms and 60+ fireplaces doesn't tell you-- then maybe this will give you a clue... the McDonald's across the street from the entrance of the Biltmore estate, in an attempt to even be worthy to be in the same zip code-- had a baby grand piano AND a fireplace inside of it and fresh flowers on the tables-- yes, that's right--at a McDONALD'S!! There was nary a Playland in sight!! Anyhow-- I just thought that was humorous!)

We also took a 'behind the scenes' tour which was pretty interesting-- we got to see some places in the house that are, well, behind the scenes! Things like the butler's pantry-- a two story room just to house the china and crystal (I think they had at least 10 patterns of china!), the organ room where all the workings of the pipe organ are housed and outside to several balconies and overlooks. It's a pretty spectacular house to say the least! And the 'yard' isn't too shabby either!

We had lunch in the Stable Cafe (that really was once their stable-- and nicer than most homes I've ever been in!) and drove around the grounds before heading home. We (well, I) waved to Furman as we drove through Greenville and enjoyed the $3.54/gallon gas in South Carolina!

It was a fun little anniversary getaway! Thanks to my sweet husband for the great idea! Happy 14th!!