This and That

These last couple rounds of chemo have been difficult for my mom. She hasn't been sick; she just hasn't had any energy for the week following each treatment. This has caused her to miss work during those weeks. The doctor told her that her hemoglobin might be low and if so she would possibly need a blood transfusion, but when she went to the doctor the other day, they told her that everything is good. They also told her that the end is usually harder than the beginning. She just has one more round of chemo, the day after Thanksgiving, and she'll be done.

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I got a jury summons in the mail a couple days ago. *sigh* They send me one every couple of years. So far I haven't had to serve. Hopefully I won't have to this time either. I don't understand why they summon me all the time, but they've never sent a jury summons to my husband or my mom or my brother. :-/  I'm supposed to call Sunday night, December 15th, after 6:00 PM and they'll let me know if they still need me to come in the next morning. (I have to be there Monday, December 16th at 8:15 AM, if I'm needed. Too early for me.) Last time I was told that my services weren't needed. I hope I get that same message this time.

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My husband is still in Oklahoma. He's been there for 3 or 4 weeks. He should hopefully be home by next weekend. We miss him.

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I took the kids to see Thor: The Dark World last Saturday. Really good movie. I liked it more than the first one, which I thought was okay, and nearly as much as I liked The Avengers.  My favorite character is Loki, even though he's a bad guy. He's just so cool and funny. :-) Tom Hiddleston is now one of my favorite actors. Funny how all my favorites are British - Orlando Bloom, Jude Law, Tom Hiddleston, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch (can't wait to hear him as Smaug in the next Hobbit movie), Henry Cavill. My two favorite actresses are Cate Blanchett (Australian) and Kate Winslet (British).

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I'd heard about this movie that's coming out this year that's based on a young adult book called How I Live Now. The trailer looks cool, so I read the book (it's very short) and planned on seeing it, if not in theaters, then whenever it would be in Redbox. At the time when I saw the trailer, the movie didn't have a rating, but I figured it would be PG-13 because it takes place during a war and because it's young adult. Nope. It's got an R rating. *sigh* smh. So much for that. I do not like R-rated movies. Blech. I hate all the profanity, the nudity, the sex. No, thank you.

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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is coming out next Friday. I'm really excited to see it. Catching Fire was my favorite of the books. I'm also looking forward to the second Hobbit movie, which comes out on December 13th. I can't wait to see Legolas, Tauriel (I don't care if she's not in the book), Thranduil, Smaug, Bard, Mirkwood, etc. It's going to be good!

A Day in the Mountains

Thursday, October 31st, my kids, my mom and I went to the mountains for the day. (Charlie has been in Oklahoma working for a couple weeks now.) It was nearly 10:00 AM when we left Greensboro, but it only takes just under 2 hours to get to Boone. It was lunchtime when we arrived in Boone, so we went straight to the Dan'l Boone Inn Restaurant to eat. We love their food (my favorite are their country ham biscuits) and eating there was one of the things we were most looking forward to doing while in the mountains.

After leaving the restaurant, we went to the Mystery Hill House in Blowing Rock, just a few minutes down the road from Dan'l Boone Inn Restaurant. This was the place Kelly, and maybe Sean, was most looking forward to going. It was a cool (around 60°), windy day in the mountains and those winds seemed to be especially high at Mystery Hill. We felt like the wind was pushing us across the parking lot.

Anyway, we had fun at Mystery Hill House with its crazy sloped room (kind of messes with your head and throws you off balance a bit) and other little things to check out. There's also the Appalachian Heritage Museum next door (old furniture, toys, and books) in an old, white farmhouse, and the Native American room full of arrowheads in glass cases. I hope someday they have more than arrowheads on display. I reckon we'll have to go to Cherokee if we want to see and experience more of the Native American culture and artifacts.

Kelly on the left, guide in the middle, Sean on the right.

Shoppes on the Parkway (near the Blue Ridge Parkway) in Blowing Rock was our next stop. My mom wanted to go to the Coach store (she loves their purses) and see if she could find anything she liked. She bought a purple, sparkly toboggan (what you non-Southerners call a knit hat) and a purse.

Sean wanted to go to the Blowing Rock next, but unfortunately we were running out of time and I really wanted to go to Grandfather Mountain. So, we made our way there, got our tickets at one of the booths you drive up to, and headed up the mountain. On our way up, we stopped at the museum and animal habitats. It was cold and windy up on the mountain and I was very glad that I had brought my coat and scarf.

In the animal habitats we saw deer, cougars, bald eagles (they can't fly; one of them only has one eye), and bears. There used to be a couple golden eagles, but they died not long ago, and the otters, which I've enjoyed seeing in the past, weren't out at the time that we were there.

Female cougar playing with a ball.

Male cougar.

One-eyed eagle.

 After leaving the animal habitats, we quickly made our way to the car (cold and windy!) and went the rest of the way up the mountain. Mom got out with us and walked to the edge of the parking lot, but then went back to her car, because it was so cold, while the kids and I went up to the Mile High Swinging Bridge.

The view from the edge of the parking lot.

Sean and Kelly on the bridge.

Part of the view from the bridge, obscured a bit by clouds.

Taken from the other side of the bridge, looking towards the parking lot and gift shop. 

There weren't a lot of people up there (no surprise), but those who were there had ventured out onto the rocks beyond the bridge. Sean and Kelly wanted to go out there too, but I didn't think it was a good idea on such a windy day to be walking out on uneven ground near the edge of a mountain. It's not really a good idea on a good day, let alone on a day when the winds are so high. So, naturally I said "no".

The winds were so high that the suspension cables hummed and sang as the winds blew against them. It was also a cloudy day and we had seen a few drops of rain when we were down in Boone and Blowing Rock, but up on Grandfather Mountain we saw a few snowflakes or sleet. Despite the cold and wind, we enjoyed being up on the mountain.

It was close to 5:00 when we came down off the mountain. We stopped by a produce stand on our way back to Boone and bought some apples and honey. We made one more stop, at a gas station in Boone for snacks and drinks, before heading home.

We had a good time in the mountains and hope to go back to see the places we didn't get to visit on this past trip - Linville Caverns, the Blowing Rock, Rough Ridge (a friend recommended it), Hickory Ridge (a living history place) in Boone. I'd like to go back in the spring.

I'm hoping to make another trip up to the mountains before Christmas so that we can take my mom to Biltmore Estate. It's so beautiful there at Christmas (well, all the time really) and my mom has never gotten to see it.


Speaking of my mom, she just has two more rounds of chemo and she'll be done. The last round she did was about a week after her final radiation and that combined with the shot they gave her the next day really wiped her out for the whole week prior to our trip to the mountains. She didn't have the energy to do much of anything. She's feeling good right now though. Hopefully the next round of chemo (this Friday, I believe) won't be as difficult.