Dale Chihuly, Fall Storms, and Family Life

Hello all!  Are you having a good month?  Today it finally feels like fall here in our part of North Carolina.  What a month it's been.  We got the effects of Hurricane Michael here yesterday, and oh wow!  I told Mr. Forest Manor that I spent almost a whole week worrying about Hurricane Florence (which was a disaster for the N.C. coast) because there was so much hype about it beforehand.  I barely gave Hurricane Michael a thought, until yesterday that is, but Michael was actually worse for us in the Piedmont area than Florence was.    So what have I been up to since I last posted here?  For starters, spending time with family.  On Friday, September 28th, Hal and I took his parents to see the Chihuly exhibit at Biltmore Estate.  We had a beautiful day to travel up there, the exhibit was amazing, and we had dinner at the Stable Cafe on the estate, which was a lot of fun, too.  

  

   Hal's parents smile for the camera.  📷  😎     The week that my father went into the hospital for the last time, we were supposed to spend some days in the mountains with my in-laws at a house they had rented for the week.  We weren't able to do that, so we thought we'd try to do something special when things calmed down a bit.  We've always been close to our family, but we'll be spending even more time with them in the days to come.   

    My mom came over here last week, and we worked in the guest bedroom to clear out some things and arrange the closet more efficiently.  We had a good day together.  She's trying to stay busy on her own, and we're all trying to help her out with that, too.  She's attending a fall festival with my sister and niece today.     You may remember last year I showed you our den (with the new carpet) and decorated for the fall season?    

      I also shared in that post that I wouldn't recommend Stainmaster® carpet purely for the stain resistant factor.    

     We like the look of our carpet, but it's definitely not resistant to stains, especially in a high-traffic room like our den.  My solution (which I mentioned last year) was to get a good-sized area rug to cover a portion of the room so that I wouldn't have as much to try and keep clean.  It took me a whole year, but I finally got that rug, and we are thrilled with it.  I'm looking forward to sharing our new, more "grown-up" den  😉  with you next week.    Finally, if you click on the Facebook badge for House at Forest Manor on my sidebar, you can see where I've posted a video of a mill house and dam about five miles from us.  The volume and speed of the water is something to see.  People actually live in that house, although it was on the market about a year ago -- not sure if it's currently occupied.  I tried to put this video in my post, but Facebook isn't good about sharing anywhere but other Facebook accounts (another reason to dislike them IMHO).   Thank you so much for visiting today and have a wonderful weekend!!