40 Days of Water

My wonderful mother is supporting Blood:Water Missions in their '40 Days of Water' challenge (it started on February 22 and lasts through April 7, so there is still time to participate!). The challenge involves giving up every drink, other than water, for 40 days and donating what you would have spent on those drinks to Blood:Water's efforts to bring clean water to Uganda.  For more information, go here.

To document her experience she has created a blog called Water Washers, check it our here. It is a very eye opening project so take a look!

When I was home last weekend we did a little photo shoot for her blog and here are some of the photos!

I have such a beautiful mom!

Happy Sunday
(I leave for China Thursday morning!)

Biltmore

This past weekend I headed home to catch up with my family and enjoy QT with some of my favorite people.  The most exciting part of the weekend was having the opportunity to visit the Biltmore Estate in Asheville and as a first for me, tour the winery.  My friend Phillip works at the Antler Hill winery on the estate and hooked us up with some free tickets, as well as an insiders tour! Being from the area, I have toured the house several times however it had been many years (being older made the experience more enjoyable).  It was a beautiful, cold, wintery day with wonderful light for photos.  I can hardly imagine a more enjoyable day! Sorry for the photo heavy post, I had a difficult time narrowing it down!

 

We ate dinner at Chai Pani, a restaurant that specializes in Indian street food. I heard about this place several months ago so it was great to be able to try it.  I would TOTALLY recommend giving this place a go, the food was delicious and very reasonable!

Plans

Since coming back to Boone and settling into the semester, I literally have not picked up my camera!

In my defense, I have done very few noteworthy things.  Most of my time has been spent in a seemingly never-ending stream of meetings, trying to stay on top of case studies/reading, and desperately trying to work hours for my job and internship.  Honestly though it isn't as bad as it seems!  I love my internship with Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture, I am so happy to have more hours at work, and I am EAGERLY awaiting my trip to China and Thailand in March!  Oh yes, my travel bug has finally found its cure!

For Spring Break (and a little extra) I am going on an MBA trip to Beijing and Hong Kong to visit businesses, attend lectures, and of course do some site seeing.  Afterward I am taking a little detour and spending a week in Bangkok and Phuket area of Thailand.  I have never been to Asia so I am pretty nervous about the cultural differences and language barriers however, I am so excited to have the opportunity to see this other part of the world!

The beaches of Phuket

Bustling Hong Kong

I CAN'T WAIT!

Pilot Mountain

Most of my Christmas vacation has been spent lounging around the larger than life houses I have been housesitting and watching sickening amounts of 'Brothers and Sisters' on Netflix.  For me Netflix is an awesome blessing and a horrible curse when it comes to time management, I simply have no self control.  Amidst my battle with lethargy, my dear friend Zack called me up to invite me on a hike with some old high school friends and knowing independent level of motivation, I quickly agreed.  I am so glad that I did take on that late afternoon hike, despite the chilly weather and the snow still on the ground.  Despite living in Transylvania County most of my life, I had never climbed Pilot Mountain but I did know that it was a tough hike.  There were a couple of times that I regretted my decision to come however the view at the top and the energy I had afterword made it so worthwhile!

The dusky light at the top of the mountain was ideal for taking photos, it also made lugging my camera around worth it!

You can subtly see the moon on the horizon

John's Rock off in the distance

Zack and I, enduring the sun!

Pretty Christmas Highlights

Here are some of the beautiful things I encountered over the holidays

This incredible garland was made by a friend of mine (if you're interested for next year they're for sale!)

Cute signs marking the stations around the apartment at a holiday party!

The santa snuggie that I won and unfortunately lost at a secret santa event!

I love the lighting through the condensation

Lucky number one!

Christmas 2011

After spending last Christmas away from home (though I can't really complain, I was in Rome), I was really looking forward to a traditional American Christmas with my whole family in WONDERFUL North Carolina.  I missed the Christmas trees, my favorite holiday tunes, and two wonderful feasts; not to mention the unmatchable comfort of being home!  Fortunately for me, this is exactly what I got (despite the complications of juggling house sitting jobs). 

 I tend to have a Charlie Brown like relationship with the holidays where I find myself looking forward to them well in advance only to find myself rushing around and missing the Christmas activities I have planned to participate in.  This year I think that I was too busy to fully delve into my typical Christmas melancholy but I did watch 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' 3 times!

Here are some highlights from this year...

We were all impressed by the incredible amount of presents under the tree! Makaela and I both received our requested reading devices and are completely obsessed!


My Grandfather reading the Christmas story, our pre-gift tradition



My not so little anymore cousin with her vintage camera



There were also plenty of unique gifts like human fly masks and a mop










Makaela received a slap watch, which we proceeded to have a lot of fun with! Watch the video to see, we got a lot of distance!

Winter Is Here/Thanksgiving

The below post is proof that I did attempt to update my blog over a month ago. I didn't...but I tried


I feel like I have fallen off of the planet!

The last couple of weeks everything has been sooo busy and my desire to tackle any of my tasks is waning.

Basically, I am in desperate need of my month long Christmas break.  I don't think I have ever been this ready!

A lot of exciting things have been happening, an internship possibility, future job interview, part-time job interview and one family filled trip to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving!

I know this is a little late, but a few weeks ago I woke up to discover my pumpkin, Jack, had become quite the little sot!

The neighbors clearly took advantage of my perfect little pumpkin!

In update, my pre Christmas/end of semester angst has subsided after several weeks of lounging at home, lots of friends and family, and the relief of passed exams!
I am overjoyed by the completion of my first semester and possibly rested enough to tackle another semester of B School.  I'm also just really looking forward to my upcoming China trip in March!!!!! YayYayYay a cure to the travel bug I caught a couple of months ago.


In the interest of avoiding wordy descriptions of the last two months events I will post some photos of the highlights, Thanksgiving first!



The first snow of the year made my day! I can't wait until the South East finally gets some real winter weather!



For Thanksgiving my whole family made the trip up to Pennsylvania to visit my Great Grandmother.  It is always nice and incredibly nostalgic as 3 generations of us have been making this trip for most of our lives!



There is also an incredibly beautiful B&B in Tyrone which belongs to the Riley's, it also happens to be the ONLY place to stay in the city!













The architecture is my favorite part of this old town.  The houses are intricate and unique but usually in need of serious repair.



 As usual, I was lucky enough to have two Thanksgivings however to my relief they were on different days this year. In the past I have partaken in 3 in a day and I can't recall how I did it, as this year I had to sleep off the feast I consumed at event #1!