Tearin' Down the House

Let's tear this kitchen down.

Anywho... We are in the middle of remodeling our Kitchen. Anyone who has been to our house walks in and says "Oh what a pretty house, what a great patio etc." THEN when they see our kitchen they say "Oh..." You know what I mean when I say "Oh." It is the same reaction you make when you meet the world's ugliest baby, "Oh *hesitate* what a cutie." (Don't deny it! We have all had that experience.)

This is our Ceiling before: We think it is shower surround.

The walk is chunky plaster/cardboard mix. We really don't know. Not to forget, before there was an apartment sized stove.

This one explains its self.

So we tore everything out and started working on the walls. I know, WHAT ARE WE THINKING? PANELING? Mike and I have a vision and we're are going to see it through. If it doesn't work then we have paneling in our kitchen YEY!

Hopefully by late Winter when people walk in our kitchen they will say "Oh" like when you see a gorgeous engagement ring and wish it was yours. (Once again, we all have thought that)

Love me, love me, say that you love me

So do you love me or what? Cause I love you! You can tell that I love you because when you meet me, I will pee on your feet! It is true. Note to the wise: don't wear flip flops when you meet me.

So what is new in Gray's world? I love to play tug-o-war. I have an AWESOME new dog house with green shingles and it is painted gray/brown (so was I for a while because I wanted to help.) I have a new friend named Lola. She lives up the road from me and she is WILD (she knocks down our fence when she visits. It is very funny.) Maggie is traveling this week and next week and I miss her. Mike leaves me this weekend. So that is sad. But when
Maggie comes in this weekend we are going to go hiking alot! I am a good trail dog!

Things are good in Bluefield, the weather is starting to change and I am sure I will enjoy chasing the leaves that will be falling in a few weeks! So EXCITING this thing called Fall! That is all folks.

Later tators.

Give Me That Hot Stuff

Raku Firing is probably one of my top 10 favorite things to do. For those who don't know raku is a low firing pottery. You use low fire Clay and Glazes. You place your bisque fired and glazed pieces in the the kiln and light her up! It takes about 30-45 minutes to fire. Then you take the pieces out and place them in a trashcan. (As you can see in the two pictures below.) You let them reduce in the trashcans which are filled with sawdust, pine needles, newspaper and straw. Wait about an hour and remove them. You let them cool and then clean them off.

In my opinion the pieces turn out amazing eveytime. You never know what they will look like! For example the piece below was supposed to be WHITE. It is more amber than white!

And sometimes you get these beautiful copper pieces!

This is our Raku Firing Crew. Me, Walter and Brian.

They Call It Puppy Love

Hi! My name is Grayson, but you can call me Gray. I like to sleep, eat, and play. I like to play more than anything else. I especially like to play with Mike and Maggie. I am super cute and cuddly, but I am a puppy so I might nip your hand or nose or foot or pants or (you get the point.) I am learning to eat "easy" out of your hand, walk on a leash, and I kinda understand "no". My birthday is June 23rd. Did you know that my birthday is the same day that Mary and Wayne got married! Cool huh!?

I am tuckered out so I am going to go sleep in my GINORMOUS dog bed! Night.

This is the way I feel...

I feel like this sometimes

When I look at this

But that means I am moving and I feel like THIS!

Turtleman is Excited Too

She's a Brick House

So, here are some pictures of the house that Mike and I will be puchasing in the near future. We are super excited.

Our Living Room

The most amazing Patio EVER, it reminds me of a Secret Garden

Flip that House

I thought I would Share the Before and After pictures of the Flip that we did with our College Friends.

Main Bath

The Kitchen

The Living Room

The Den with Camo Carpet

It's a bitter sweet symphony

It is a beautiful Spring day. The temperature is high enough to make you thaw out from a chilly, wet winter. But it isn’t so hot that you think the sun is in route to impacting the Earth. There is a perfect breeze and enough pollen in the air to make you almost sneeze, but not have a full on asthma attack. I love pollen, even though it takes its toll on me, because it means life is about to burst out of brown dull plants.

Arbeit Macht Frei ~ Work Shall Set You Free

Bluefield College is hosting a Holocaust Symposium all the month of April. The month of life. There are speakers almost daily, the theatre department preformed The Diary of Anne Frank, the music department is doing a Holocaust Cantata and there are photographs of horror and sadness lining our halls. It is really hard to swallow all the events that are being hosted through out the campus. It takes me back to my trip to Poland when I visited Auschwitz and Birkenau. I just don’t understand humanity then and I don’t understand humanity now.

The Killing Wall~ Standing against the wall you could see a beautiful view of the Poland's Country side through the gate. Freedom.