The Biltmore Estate

We visited the Biltmore Estate on Saturday. The 250 room home is the largest in the U.S. It took 6 years to build and it opened in 1895. George Vanderbilt lived there with his wife and daughter. It still belongs to his daughter's family, but of course is open to the public now. The estate originally consisted of 125,000 acres, but now is 8,000. They have a winery and gardens. You can read more about the history here.

If you have ever seen the movie "Hannibal", it was Mason Verger's house. Much of that movie was filmed in Asheville, where the Biltmore is located.

Here are some pics from Saturday. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in the home itself:

Friends and a recital

I had a great time today with my friends Nicole and Trenda. I have known them both since high school, and we don't get to see each other often. They live in Virginia about 2 1/2 hours away. We met halfway today for lunch and then we went to the mall. One of our good friends Kristin usually comes with them when we meet, but she couldn't today. We missed you Kristin!!!

Here are some pics of us today. I couldn't resist taking the first one. There was this crazy family of mannequins in Old Navy, so I begged Trenda and Nicole to go stand with them. :)

Trenda and me

Nicole and Trenda

Nicole and me

Tonight was Casey's piano recital. She did a great job!! I almost didn't make it though. I left the mall with a lot of time to spare in order to get to Casey's recital on time. I even allowed for traffic. What I didn't allow for was a 1 hour and 40 minute delay, because of a wreck. I literally went 5 miles in that amount of time. I then had to drive 80 all the way to the church in order to make it on time. I hate driving that fast, but I didn't want to miss it. I was 3 minutes late. :)



Don't forget about the Twilight Drawing. It's happening on Monday night, so don't forget to put your entry in.

Guns and Labs

Duke called about my labs. My kidney function is doing better since lowering the Prograf (anti-rejection med), so they were very pleased about that. My hemoglobin is still pretty low, but that's probably due to the fact that I'm not eating that great because of the nausea. They are switching one of my anti-rejection meds to a different brand that's supposed to be easier on the stomach. I've tried it before, and it didn't help the nausea, but that was when I was in kidney failure, so that could have been the reason. My potassium is still low, but a few days of eating a couple of bananas a day will bring that back up.

Balin is running around like he has nothing wrong with him!! We have stopped all the meds, and he is still acting like he is fine. i guess it wasn't as bad as they said it was. It's so hard to keep him from jumping on things, because he's back to his hyper little self.

We finally made it to the gun range today. Casey's allergies were really bothering her yesterday, so we didn't attempt to go spend hours outside at the range. We went after we picked her up from school today. She is very accurate at shooting and really enjoys it. Here are some pics we took today...










Check this out everyone!! It's a friend of mine, who's a fellow CFer/transplant recipient, who just ran her first 1/2 marathon, AND it was only 8 months and 21 days after her double lung transplant! You will be amazed! What an inspiration you are to all of us Sara!

Today

....my new toy is coming in....

We decided to get this which not only has Photoshop CS4 extended, but tons of other programs too. Jason has always been interested in web design, and since we could get this program for 80% off (the student version is missing a few fonts and other small things, but I was told we wouldn't miss it), we decided to go for it.

So... Jason's and my night will be spent trying to figure all of this out. My friend Amy is sending me a book and CD on Photoshop, and my friend Kelly, who is a graphic designer has given me tons of advice and has recommended this website for Photoshop tutorials. I have found a lot of tutorials out there, and it is a bit overwhelming to say the least. Baby steps....

On a health note: My sinuses are still hurting in the morning. This morning was especially bad, and I'm not sure why. I still have a lot of Tylenol 3 left, even though it doesn't help much. It does do more than just plain Tylenol though. I am also down to 5 mg of prednisone as of today. Yay!

I'll get to my Q & A tonight or tomorrow night, so feel free to keep asking. Casey is staying the night with a friend, and then tomorrow, we are going with some friends to the mall. Casey and one of her friends are also going to get make overs tomorrow. I'll be sure to take pictures. :) I've not been very good at the picture-taking lately. I keep forgetting my camera. Ughh!

Have a great weekend everyone!!