I just wanted to put a quick post to let everyone know that Grant's back from Puerto Rico. He beat us home by flying into Raleigh yesterday and driving back here. We pulled in tonight around 11:00p after driving about 975 mi. in the last 2 days! I will post pics tomorrow (later this morning). I'm headed to bed. I didn't sleep in the car for the entire trip and I drove most of the way today, probably about 9 hours.
Last night, I took Ryan to Nashville for a surprise. We waited in Barnes & Noble for 45 min. for a table at Macaroni Grill in Opry Mills (notice my table artwork). I think we went through at least 4 loaves of bread. =) Some of it did come home with us, though. After eating, we drove to the other side of the mall to the Gaslight Theater. After paying for the tickets, we were handed huge blue parkas and we headed inside.
The theater houses Ice!, a bunch of sculptures and formations entirely made of ice. The building was about 12 degrees Fahrenheit last night, but they advertise 9 degrees. Anyway, it was pretty cold.
The igloo Ryan's standing at is the beginning of the exhibit. I liked the "forest" with deer and bears ice fishing. There was even a waterfall!
After going through this tunnel of trees, we had some fun going down the ice slide on the other side. From what I can tell, there wasn't any other structural support for the slides besides the ice blocks. What was really interesting was the wiring for lights that went through the ice walls. It looked like real walls with electrical outlets in them.
The slide wasn't very tall, but it was fun to slide down. I never went very fast because I was taking pictures while i slid! They had carpet at the bottom so you stop pretty fast once you're there. I had to stand behind a barrier to get this picture of Ryan coming down the first time. The guy at the bottom thought Ryan would knock me over. =)
I snapped a self-portrait on my second time down. The guy at the top was laughing at me for doing it.
By the time we left Ice!, it was about 8:45p, so we walked to the Opryland Hotel to look at the Christmas lights for a few minutes.
We probably weren't inside for more than 10-15 min. at the most. The water show wasn't really doing much and we never left the Delta area. We used the timer on my camera to snap this picture by the huge Christmas tree.
Tonight is the staff Christmas potluck dinner at Cornells' (former faculty). After that's over, I have to pack and get ready to leave tomorrow!!!
When I pulled my laundry basket out of the closet yesterday, this beautiful spider was crawling along the back wall. I knew what it was right away, even without flipping her over.
But, if you need any proof, I have flipped her over for your benefit. Don't worry Ryan, this is one spider I squished without hesitation!
The faculty family vespers was tonight, so my very diverse group came over for pizza, cookies, brownies, and ornament painting. I think they had a good time. Toni even did my dishes for me! Another group stopped in to sing a carol outside, then begged to be let in from the cold.
Austin concentrating hard on his ornament
Allie blowdrying her paint to perfection and her finished ornament
Candace and her finished ornament - Candace and Allie are my student workers.
Toni's ornament - it says "Faculty Family Vespers 06-07"
Davin's ornament said "Holiday Inconspicuousness." I don't get it.
The painting project
Ask me how I'm doing at 5:30p on Saturday - after vespers tonight and after the Christmas concert. Do you think anyone will notice if I wear earplugs?
Right before Jaclyn jetted back to Happy Valley.
Boys' Club came up with the Country Christmas theme. After cooking their food over the fire, the kids came back in to watch The Apple Dumpling Gang.
Boys' Club officers, plus the deans.
The girls' RAs hold dean Jifer Proctor hostage and demand a pay raise.
Cooking hot dogs outside over the fire
My all-time favorite picture of the night. This is probably why you didn't recognize Andy Wade as the dean in the Boys' Club picture. Roy Rogers looks awfully friendly for holding a redneck at gunpoint. Becky wouldn't take a picture with Andy while he had his gross teeth in his mouth!
This is kind of a before picture. It's a timer shot from Jaclyn's camera sitting on the furniture. We watched 4 movies during the course of our painting experience: Love Actually, Elf, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Finding Neverland.
Fun with primer. Jaclyn contributed her name and an "S" to make this 2-for-1 message.
This morning, we rolled out of bed and got right to work, sort of.
These pictures are from tonight, when I cleaned up and put things sort of back together. I still have to put the curtain back up and the wall plates.My Sabbath morning nature post got delayed a bit by Jaclyn's arrival before church. I got up around 7 and went for a walk on campus and up to the field that used to have soybeans in it. The frost was very fuzzy looking. The birds were out in full force, despite the 26-degree temperature. The ones close to my house were glad I finally rememberd to feed them.
To show you how tall my tree is, here's a picture of me standing by it. I'm not exactly standing up straight, but it should give you an idea of the height. My camera was just sitting on the back of the chaise, so that's why it's crooked.
I'm currently searching for a new scratch art picture candidate. So, if you have something that looks like it would be good (or a request), send it my way.
Happy Sabbath! I know mine will be, since Jaclyn's coming to visit!
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