The World According to Leslie

Back in September, I think, we went to visit the University of North Carolina at Asheville.  Chasity has decided, for now at least, that this is her first choice school. We will not know until February if she has been accepted or not. The only way to find out sooner was to apply with a binding Early Decision application, and she did not want to do that. This is the view from the library. Chasity and I love the library, of course. This is the view from the front steps. I'd never get any work done with that view, and Chasity probably won't either!  But, she WILL be able to send me thousands of pics of this view (and others from campus and around town).   This is the Bulldog mascot. The legend is that if you touch this statue while you are a student there, you will fail!  We told Chasity not to touch it that day.... just in case! :)  The other legend is that the student who built it wore the same outfit every time he worked on it. Then he put those clothes ins...

As you turn left onto Main Street in Banner Elk, you see a quaint little building labeled "Chamber of Commerce" with a sign out front inviting you to "Race Your Wooly Worm"! Banner Elk, North Carolina, is the home of the Annual Wooly Worm Festival , but it is also home to Lee-McRae College.   Just a couple turns of the tires later, you see this sign saying to "Turn Here" to park for Open House. At check in, they gave us Lunch Vouchers. Three of the four places on the voucher were within walking distance of the campus. The other was only a couple blocks away, so we could have walked there.      Just about every school we have visited has given Chasity a bag and a t-shirt. She's never going to run out of t-shirts!!  At Lees-McRae, they had the bag customized. It had her degree plan in there. It gave information specific about the art program. Most schools just give you a generic bag and let you collect information from your specific program as you make t...

 Today is one of those days where I may flood the world with pictures. I really wish we would have had time to stop at some of the overlooks on the way up and home on Saturday.  Around 6:30am, we left home for Banner Elk, North Carolina. I love going to the mountains, and I am sure you ALL know that already! I go to the mountains to be able to clear my head and breathe deeply. It doesn't matter what time of year it is; I love being at a higher elevation. These are just some of the pictures I took on my phone as Tony was driving. I love taking pictures of nature.  The leaves were at peak color or very close to it. It was beautiful.  These pictures are all after we hit the deer. You can read about that here .  There were times we thought we were going to get rain, but we didn't. It was just foggy. I guess this is why they are called the Great Smoky Mountains .  I know that God made all things, but sometimes I think He put a little special something in the mou...

On Saturday morning, Tony, Chasity, and I were headed to Banner Elk, NC, to check out Lees-McRae College (a separate post about that coming later!)!  According to GPS, it is about 2.5 hours to get there. We left about 6:30am for a 9:30am start time for the Open House event.  We were about 35 miles away; Chasity and I were both sleeping, as usual. Tony hit the brakes, and it woke me up. I opened my eyes just in time to see and feel a deer hit the side of my van.  Tony said it came from the woods on the right side of the highway, and he slowed down and moved over. The deer sped up and CRUNCH! This is what my van looks like now. We are waiting on the insurance people to call us and set up all the fixing information.  Tony had to pull that really bent part off of the tire so we could drive and not split a tire!  Yes! That is deer hair on the car!!!  Once we got pulled over by the guardrail, Tony got out and checked the damage. He was about to call 9-1-1 when tw...

About a month ago, September 22nd to be exact, Chasity participated in her first Court of Honor. She has been in her Boy Scouts of America troop for a little over a year now. She is part of the Scouts BSA program; it's for youth 11-17 years old. She is loving it.  In February 2020, she went camping for the first time ever. It was raining. It was freezing cold. She loved it! Now she has all her own gear, and it currently occupies a corner of my living room.  In September, the all girls troop she participates with partnered with the boys troop at the same location and held a Court of Honor. Chasity was awarded a couple of Merit Badges, but she also was awarded her First Class rank that night. She is only three ranks (and a lot of work) away from achieving Eagle.  Did I say that she's loving it? Chasity in full uniform for the Court of Honor Technically, full uniform is just the Scout shirt, but Chasity loves the pants. They zip off at the knees to become shorts. If I got he...

Back in July Chasity and her scout troop went camping and hiking in the Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia.  I dropped Tony and Chasity off and drove to a near-by hotel to stay with my parents. Seriously, if you know me, you know I camp at the Holiday Inn. :)  When I dropped them off at the campsite, I stopped at the overlook. I used the panoramic feature on my phone to take the picture. It's pretty awesome, I think!   ONE of the awesome things about Grayson Highlands State Park is that they have wild horses. There were a couple of horses at the intersection, but a couple of them wandered off before I got to the stop sign to take a picture.   

A couple of weeks ago, Tony, Chasity and I went to tour Brevard College. It is one of a few trips we have taken for college tours lately.  After the tour, the Admissions Counselor told us to check out the town and be sure to stop by Looking Glass Falls.  The falls were full because it had been raining for a couple days during the week. This picture may be better than the ones they have in the brochure.  Chasity's application for Brevard is complete. She is awaiting her acceptance letter.  We are going back in December for Scholarship Day to see how many scholarships she will be able to get in order to pay for her schooling.  She has at least 4 acceptance letters already. She is waiting on a couple more. Next week is college application week, so she will be submitting a few applications that week (since the schools are waiving the application fees that week)!!   Send good thoughts and prayers for her to be able to make the decision for the school she ne...