Weekly Happenings - Sunflowers, Open House & Helene Anniversary

Hi everyone! It's a strange time in Asheville as the anniversary of Hurricane Helene is Friday night into Saturday. Everyone I've spoken too is a bit anxious and can't believe it's been a year since our community went through so much.

My heart goes out to our friends and neighbors who lost family members in the storm. Our community lost 108 people that night. We cannot forget them.

I'm also keeping those who lost their homes, property and businesses in the storm in my prayers. Even those that fared ok like myself, are still heartbroken for the losses in our community. So much progress has been made, but there are still signs of the storm everywhere you look with trees still knocked down in the woods, the riverbanks completely changed in terrible ways, closed businesses and homes that haven't been able to get repaired yet. The lack of people visiting Asheville is scary, because everyone needs the business to recover from all of it.

In many ways it will never be the same as it was. I think we've all to come to terms with that and mourn the loss of something. Even the boys seem to talk about life before and after the storm, which makes me so sad for them.

The forecast for more tropical weather in the Carolinas next week, is not helping the unnerved feelings either. Please remember our community in your prayers as we get through a hard weekend. I don't think any of us will ever look at a tropical forecast without fear again.

But I am so proud of how strong our community is. With brave faces and mountain grit, everyone has picked up, worked together and moved forward one day at a time. The humanity shown after the storm is something I hope we all can remember and get inspired from. I feel like what happened here, with neighbors helping neighbors was truly special. We are so strong and I'm so proud to call these mountains home.

On a brighter note, the sunflowers at Biltmore were in bloom this week. It was the just the bright spot I needed!

We stopped by to see them and enjoy dinner at the estate.

We took the boys and it's always a good time for all of us.

Another highlight of the week was the boy's Open House at school. They were so excited to take me into school and show me around.

I loved seeing their classroom and my heart was so happy to see how excited they were. The Open House last year got canceled due to Helene, so it felt wonderful to be able to do this finally.