Heavenly!

We had a great weekend! The Westin was a very nice hotel and I was glad for the recommendation! Their beds are appropriately called "Heavenly Beds." Now, now...don't get worried. I'm not going into too much detail with this post! The duvets are just simply the softest things...like sinking into a cloud. I have to admit the pillows were a little too soft, but the duvet made it worth it. In the shower, they have two shower heads that are simply the most amazing thing! I'm not sure it's actually the shower head itself or the fact that there are 2 of them that you can move & turn to hit wherever you want it to! Truly something I would want in my dream house! Of course, I want the kind of shower with shower heads on the 3 walls surrounding you. *sigh* I can dream! This website makes it easy to do so!

Downtown Greenville has some really neat shops and we walked around alot just browsing. Our favorite was called 'Mast General Store.' In searching for it online, I found that there are alot of them around. They just had really neat stuff. We had the most amazing dinner Friday night. Oh goodness! I took a bite and about melted! It was sooooo good! Restaurant O is definitely a place I recommend if you're ever in that area. Definitely not a place you'd want to take your children, but we all need a couple of those places don't we? I got Salmon and Chris got the filet. Yum! Too pricey for us to go very often, but not too bad for a very special weekend.

Alison Kraus was great! She sounds as good in person as she does on cd. You know how some singers sound awful in person? Not her! She has such a pure singing voice....but sounds a little funny talking, though. Kind of funny. I personally prefer to listen to music while I'm doing something else like surfing the Internet or cross-stitching, so I wasn't just blown away by sitting in a coliseum listening to her, but Chris loved it and said he'd go again in a heartbeat and it was a gift for him so that's what's important!

We walked to the concert & back that night. It was cold but not miserable by any means as long as we kept moving. We stopped for a "coffee" (I say coffee b/c I have to have the mocha type coffee not just regular coffee.) I actually was disappointed in what I got, but that's okay. We sat in the lobby of the hotel for awhile just enjoying that we were guests in this fancy place! We ordered a movie, Flightplan, with Jodie Foster. I'd been wanting to see it, and it cost less than it would cost the 2 of us to go to the theater. It was really suspensful & good!

Saturday, we slept late and Chris got some time in on the exercise bike. We ate lunch and went back to the General Store to get some things then left downtown and found a mall for a little bit. Then, we headed back home in time to go with my parents & the girls to a Christmas parade in a neighboring town. It was awful! Seriously, it was horrible. Large gaps in between parts of the parade. Rude people. Nasty dancing by the high school dancers in the bands. I was appalled and very openly told Gracie that those girls were not dancing appropriately and that she shouldn't dance like that. (She's very into being 'appropriate', so that's a good word to use with her.)

It was a fun weekend and the girls did great with Mom & Dad. Katie got fussy when we got home, and Mom said she hadn't fussed like that the whole time we were gone. *sigh* What did I say last week? "This too shall pass." She did pretty good in church last night. I took her out once to "talk" to her then she did really well when I took her back in. One point for us! Yea!

I'm heading up to Gracie's school in a little bit. Chester Drawers is coming! Honestly, I'd gotten the flyers about him coming but hadn't thought too much about it. However, we had a visitor at church yesterday morning & evening and I happened to overhear him telling someone that he visits elementary schools and writes children's books. I turned around and said, "Are you Chester Drawers?!?!?" He was! So, now that I have a connection with him, I want to go watch his presentation. It was neat for Gracie to be able to meet him and of course I told him about her being quite the author herself. *Update after watching Chester Drawers perform: He was really funny and the kids all seemed to enjoy him. The part I liked best was that he "threw" out God references! I had heard him talking to one of our elders last night about how this (speaking at schools I guess) was a good opportunity for him. He said he couldn't "preach" to them (the kids) but it was still a good opportunity. Well, he certainly took the opportunity to do something positive! At one point, he was saying something about not doing drugs or using alcohol and he mentioned something about the kids should be happy that 'God made me.' Later, he said something about being proud to be an American and that "we are one nation, and we're still under God......" He emphasized the word 'still.' He also mentioned about the troops and how we should pray for them when we say our prayers. I saw a couple of the teachers look at each other and whisper when he would make these references, but I'm super sensitive about things like that, so they may have been talking about something totally different. Who knows? He may have offended some and he may not get asked back, but then again, that may not be the case at all. I just think it's great that he went ahead and said those things and took the chance that he would positively impact someone! I'm glad to know that there are still those out there who aren't afraid to speak up about God...even in public school!
I've also got to call some parents again today about that PTA program I'm trying to coordinate. I called 7 parents last week and left a message to please call me. I got a return phone call from 1! I'm not happy!

Have a good Monday!