biltmore house

this house is amazing. if you ever get the chance to go, its kind of expensive, but worth it. I love going to historical houses, although it annoys the snot of me that you cant walk through and see ALL the rooms of the houses. I mean, why open the house up, if you cant go and walk through and see all the authenticity of the house. it kind of bugs me. a lot… because they do that with ALL the historical houses.

but this is the beautiful and majestic view of biltmore estate. it has like 255 rooms in it. it has a HUGE dining hall that could seat 65 members of a dinner party, but only ever feed 38. but it still… that’s amazing.

the stable house has unfortunately been converted to house tourist shops. which is really really sad.

but it was still very enjoyable to see the largest house in the entire united states.

and I got to drive the entire two and a half hours there. on the freeway. and I didn’t get into a crash. haha yipee!!

temple trip

this past weekend the youth went to the Nashville Temple. you talk about an amazing experience. we took about 43 youth plus a new member and we did enough baptisms to baptize an entire ward on the other side of the veil. I am so excited. we only did about 5-10 baptisms per person because of the amount of people we had as well as time constraints but it was spiritual none the less. I did a baptism for a woman who had been born in the 1890s. you take about so cool.

we left about 730 in the morning and got home around 530 that night. the best way to spend a saturday. I tell ya. six hours in the car and a neck crap from naps is totally worth giving to the people waiting for their work to be done.

childhood memories three and SNOW

memory three is riding in the car and being scared to death of never making it home. that was last night. tennessee got a little bit of snow and unfortunately a lot of people in this town DONT know how to drive in snow. thus making this town VERY DANGEROUS to drive around in especially when the roads are dry underneath the snow. fortunately for us, the road was warmer than the snow when it started to snow, so the road had to cool down. by yesterday afternoon, the road was wet, but the snow was beginning to stick. yippee!! by about 730, the snow was sticking to the road by the inches. thank goodness dad had put new tires on the subarban earlier in the weekend and that the focus has front wheel drive. the snow plows had been around to some of the scarier back roads and had salted and cleared those roads. kingston pike had had some heavy traffic that day, so it was relatively safe and clear of snow.

we took the road about way to get home because we thought it would be the safest way, but unfortunately it probably wasnt. when we drove by our normal entrance to loop, they had salted and cleared the snow from that hill. we decided to go around though. it was too late. we went on a road that was almost as bad as loop road at the beginning. it was whindy and very scary. a car had STOPPED in front of an entrance making it very hard for mom to make it over that hill. mom almost skidded, but thank goodness made it over. we passed by an accident because they had skidded and nosedived into a roadside ditch. soo nerve racking. we finally made it to the home stretch but the scariest hill and corner were around the bend. we made it around the scariest turn- a completely BLIND turn- and into our neighborhood. we pulled over and put the  suburban into four-wheel drive (with the help of my father, NOT THE OWNERS MANUAL!!) and made it up the treacherous hill safely.

thank goodness.

our home teacher was going to be valiant and come and see us, but abandoned mission about half way here. decided it was too dangerous. but we did end up having a visitor. a friend from church came and gave us cinnamon rolls for helping them move. they have jsut moved here from utah, so he showed up in shorts, flip flops, and a tshirt!! (keep in mind that its like literally 3 degrees outside.) he had walked up our huge hill because his wife didnt want to drive up it (smart woman). we watched him literally shoe ski down the hill. it was great. hahaha but not entirely safe....

driving update

as many of you know, i have had the oppurtunity to get my permit!! exciting!!! lol the last couple of weeks me and my sister have been taking turns driving to early morning seminary and to church. (we would drive to like school functions, but we hardly ever take the suburban around town...) but as of yesterday, the fact that we cant drive when we take the focus is about to change. yesterday after guard practice, my father surprised me and told me that he was going to let me drive for a little while in the parking lot, and then he was going to let me drive the stick home!! aah!! so exciting.

of course as soon as i got into the drivers seat, the heaven's unleashed a new bucket of rain, but that wasnt the hardest part of the drive. the hardest part was timing the clutch release and the gas engaging that was difficult. i had a hard time keeping the car running. in the ten minute ride home i had stalled the car not once, not twice, but SIX times... twice before i had ever left the parking lot!! lol but dont judge me! that car isnt the easiest stick to drive in the entire world. i am sure there are lots easier ones out there. lol


as for my automatic car driving, it is getting better. i have only had two really scary incidents: i over corrected on a turn out front of my house and almost hit the mailbox, and the first time i backed out of a parking space, i hit the wrong pedal (gas instead of brake) and ALMOST hit the curb, but slammed on the brake just in time. yeah.. needless to say, i dont doubt that my seminary teacher from last year thinks that i am a bad driver, and now my oldest younger brother is terrified to sit in the car with me while im driving. hes scared of another incident i guess. lol :) but im doing better (at least i would like to say that i am!) and i look forward to more time with the manual transmission!

the catch all posts of all catch all posts

i sincerely apologize for not keeping this updated! lol the last couple of weeks have been hectic beyond imagine, between school, band, church, and the naps i steal in between, i have had little free time. and thats partially bad time management on my part. but im working on it and i hope to keep up with the time and manage it better. lol

what has happened since the last post you ask?

well a lot of things lol

since then:
 i have been allowed to drive a good 12 times on the road. i was soo excited.

school started and i feel the consequences of having two honors plus an ap class in addition to band. friday     and wednesday nights are killer but by some miracle i make it all work.

the football season started and the team played three games: dobyns-bennett, oak ridge, and catholic. db was a blow out loss, oak ridge went into sudden death but we pulled it off and won, and catholic was a close game. with the catholic game we were up the first half, but going into the second we just lost it. a bunch of dropped passes and bad running. as you might have guessed we lost, leaving the team 1-2.

i started the Book of Mormon over again, and i am currently chugging along with 12 columns a day trying to read the BoM by the end of October. it is going to be close, but i think im going to make it.

my parents decided to take an anniversary trip (almost unheard of in my family) to dc. actually my dad was there for business, and he surprised her with an extra ticket to dc. she got the exciting courtesy of staying in an impressive 5 star hotel room, of course with a beautiful view of the potomac; or at least thats what ive heard lol

i went to Hoops for Hope and was allowed the privilege to help the team "managers" with the Down-Syndrome kids. such a neat experience. they are the sweetest things and i dont think ive been hugged so many times in one day. it was a really neat experience and i am soo excited for next year.

i went to a church activity with the entire stake plus one of the neighboring stakes. so i got to see my friend-boy that i really really like, and he likes me back. (: i know the hopeless romantic is coming out in me. but that night we added two more songs to our list of "our songs". we now cannot listen to hey soul sister, your love is my drug, and the only exception without thinking about each other. at least thats how i feel lol we cant really talk because he doesnt have unlimited texting (or i dont have the right phone service, either way) and i dont have a facebook. but im working on the facebook thing. mom and dad are contemplating it still.


that is really about it. my life has been sucked into the vortex of school, band, and the minuscule social life i  have. i barely have a life outside of that and any extra time i have is spend reading the Book of Mormon or sleeping. cuz i sure have not received the doctor-perscriped 9 hours of sleep in a LONG time. try more like 6-7 hours a night. it is really difficult to keep my eyes open during notes and videos and it really really stinks. but i guess thats high school. time to suck it up lol

legally licensed

watch out the world!! i took my number and waited for THREE (that's right, THREE) hours yesterday to finally get my permit!! aaaahhh!!! i almost didn't pass the test because i missed 6, but o my gosh!! i finally have the licence to drive around town!!!  i am soo pumped!! my dad took us yesterday to kind of drive around in an abandoned parking lot and kind of get the feeling for driving and turning. i am not the first girl to get a permit in my group of friends, but its still exciting to be able to join that club!! (: