Wintry Views from Our Treehouse Cottage

(Although, views since much of the snow has left.)

4-Wheel Drive Only, Please.

So the very smart technological side of me did not copy my NC snow photos onto my computer file before deleting them off our camera. Sorry but no picture updates with this blog. In fact, I've become completely lazy with pictures. It's probably the fact that I'm not a photographer and do not know how to take great pictures like my brother-in-law Jer. All my photos start to look the same, even the unique angled shots are all alike. So sad, but light is being shed on my non-giftings at the moment!

That and we are lacking internet again at this phase in life, which leads to the lack of consistent blogging. Some day... altogether though, we're doing well. We missed the big snow storm that I've heard would rival the Asheville storm in the early 90's. So thankful we don't have them often, but Brenton and I thought it would have been fun to get snowed into our home for a few days. It's still been a trek getting up and down our slippery, bumpy and muddy drive.

Actually, it was just earlier this week that I was trying to get up the grooves, which were still partly icy and embraced by lanes of snow. Brenton had headed out of town and told me to keep momentum so I would not get stuck or have to back down the mountain on patches of ice. Perfectly enough, my neighbor and baby were also in the car. I got half way up and stalled for a van that had tried to go up our icy drive in 2-wheel drive, but slid backwards down the hill a ways, half in a culvert and halfway on the road. Inconvenient, yes. My neighbor and I looked at each other and said, "What in the world was he thinking!" The poor guy was shaken up, but thankfully no damage was done. My neighbor walked up the hill with her baby and my wonderful friends at The Cove sent a husband of a fellow co-worker to get both of our vehicles taken care of. I was probably a chicken, but did not want to be the lucky individual to wreck one of our vehicles. I left with a guilt trip for not being too friendly to the flustered gentleman who asked what house I lived in... Poor guy, just not his day. I avoided his conversations knowing his work would bring him up our hill on a somewhat regular basis, and the fact that my husband was gone.

Thankfully Brenton made it home and we have not been stuck yet. Today is in the twenties but feels like four degrees and I can surely vouch for the bitter Michigan chill outside. We had wonderful holidays over the past few months. Due to my lack of blogging... we had Thanksgiving with Brenton's immediate family and extended family from his mother's side. We met up at his grandparent's farm in Kansas with over 80 relatives, and still missing some. This Christmas we spent up north visiting my side of the family and a number of Brenton's connections; friends, a recruit, a previous supervisor and had a wonderful end to 2009.

Life Changes... Or Well Ironically Funny

So I’ve noticed a trend the older I (Kelly) get, and I know many of you reading this blog would say that I’m not even “old”. It hit me this year as I looked back at the many changes in life and my preferences that went alongside those life changes.
What were those life changes? Well… in going back to college, when I first became an adult, I started to LOVE the channel TLC. You know, “What NOT to Wear”, “A Wedding Story”; I was not so much into the “Baby Stories” though I will say children are precious. Yes, I dreamed of meeting the right man… handsome, smart, a leader, a Christian… then I met Brenton. I had to do a little rearranging of that list for the guy… JUST KIDDING! He was that man and more. I am blessed.

Brenton and I got married 9 months after meeting and one of our hobbies soon became cruising for homes… and as follow up, we bought our first this year! I quickly found I was now bored with TCL and began watching the channel HGTV; one I thought was deathly dull before I was married. Now the exciting shows were “First Time How Buyers”, “House Flips”, (I’ve probably butchered these names, but you get the idea!) and all the other “home” shows. We planned out our dream home, took flyer after flyer, and still thought our first home was a ways away from happening. Then we found our dream home. Ritually, we visited it every weekend after breakfast in our pajamas… never even dreaming it could be ours, especially after accepting the Resident Director job at Montreat. Yet, low and behold, we got our DREAM home!

So the reality of this email “really” hit me this past month. Last year Brenton had the drive, this year I do… and by drive I mean a twenty minute trip to work. It’s not bad. We’ll I started this never ending game of channel surfing this year as I got bored with our Asheville stations. You know those days, weeks, months, where nothing seems to hit the spot. This was one of those months. So I succumbed to a talk show one afternoon and found it fascinating… it was on the “Japanese mafia”, for lack of remembering specific names and titles. Slowly I found myself channel surfing for this one channel.

At Thanksgiving I was talking with a relative and we were discussing how much storage in America is growing. About how we find ourselves with more and more; with smaller families, larger homes, and yet the amount of storage in the states is growing tremendously. It was an eye-opening statistic. I said to this individual, “I wonder where I heard that.” He said, “Could it be NPR news, I remember hearing it too.”

So now, I can openly admit that I really enjoy something I loathed growing up. I hated radio talk shows, thinking they were so boring. Now I find I’m more aware of what is going on in the world… where did this come from?! Their accents are even awesome. I love the personal stories when they have people interviewing on air. And yes, I look for this station when I’m on my way home from work. This is amazing, different, weird; I don’t know what you call it other than a life change and ironically funny.

Benware Visit

(A Little Delayed!)


One benefit to living in the mountains, a little further from civilization... well, really family... is the amount of visitors we have received! We love it; not the being far away from our love ones but the amount of guests who've come our way. Recently we had the chance to spend a week with Brenton's parents. They made it in time for two home soccer games, both rainy and viewed from inside the car. Good for bonding time, that is except for when the ball came too near our net.

Unfortunately, their visit was at the end of August before my work schedule slowed down, so I missed out on some of the fun. The beautiful courtard of flowers is from their visit to the Biltmore home. Transition time at the Biltmore home; from flowers to garland.

The pups always love visits from the Benwares who give them good lovin'. Lexi has always perked up a little when Daddy "B" is around. The two both fought for attention most the time; loving every bit of their play dates and walks.

So This Is Christmas...

I would make a slight argument that it is "that time of year"! Christmas music in on a number of stations in the Great Smokeys... and by the way, on my way to work this past Friday, I was listening to a Christmas classic when I saw Christmas right infront of me! There was a huge truck loaded down with Christmas trees. Can it get any better? Let me answer that for you; "NO"!!!

Brenton and I had our first free day in weeks this past Saturday. We slept in, had a free meal in the cafeteria, went to Biltmore, and got our Christmas tree. Biltmore has all its Christmas decor up and the most massive lit tree I have ever seen. Brenton and I did a speedy tour of the inside, bypassing all the guests with headphones.




















I can almost guarantee we were the first to get our tree from the tree lot on Tunnel Road this season. The poor family camping out while selling trees; they were bundled up as Asheville's temperatures have been dropping. We decided to make a "classy" tree this year, to match our main floor decor. Got my tree topper idea from some artificial flowers I had sitting around and from my in-laws (mother and sisters) tree toppers.























After hopping back in the car from a movie that was sold out; we decided to stop by Duncan Doughnuts which just happened to be closing... SCORE!!! We asked for a few doughnuts and walked out with a dozen and a half, plus a bag of doughnut holes for $2.69. My advise; go to your neighboring doughnut shop right before closing. You might find that they're extra generous at night. Brenton, just about, took a bite of every doughnut before our next stop.