Kayla and Brody

Kayla and Brody, a photo by ashliek on Flickr.

Did a prom session for Kayla and Brody. It was Kayla's senior prom.

It's pictures like these that give me delusions of being a great photographer one day...

:-)

For the moment

Dear Bubby

Dear Bubby,

Just a note to say hi. This was the sunset just before we buried you. I thought you'd like it. We used to sit in the road together just a few feet from here and watch the sun set. 

I missed you when I came home from work today. And it was strange not having you follow me up to Mom & Dad's house and bark at us while we ate dinner.  :-)

Mom planted some daffodils at your grave today. I can't wait to see them bloom. And I'm on the lookout for a blue climbing rose to plant at your grave for you as well.

Anyways, that's all for now. We miss you and love you. 

The bathroom ant

My dear tiny friend,

How came you to live in my bathroom? Aren't ants supposed to leave scent trails to follow? If so, how is it that your friends led you so astray?

I have seriously considered washing you away; I thought of putting you out of your life of lone travels through my bathroom, which I first interpreted to be a miserable existence, but I feared His Holiness the Dalai Lama would chase after me in nightmarish visions with a rolling pin. But then I soon realized that would be unlikely given what I'd done to all the cave crickets in the other end of the house. But I digress...

Where do you go besides between the shower and the sink? And why is it that I only see you, no matter the hour, on weekdays except for Friday? Do you work only four days a week?

Since you have been here for several weeks now, I take it that you have moved in. I hope you have a lovely apartment in the shower windowsill. I will not charge you rent, as I can't do math that small, and you probably don't have money anyways. But please don't get a mate and start having children. This is a single family home, you know.

Well, thanks for the company in the shower. I'll see you bright and early Monday morning.

For my cousins

Hi folks,

Long time no type. Sorry about that. We've both been busy with life, as I'm sure you've been too.

We're in the process of remodeling the "pink" bathroom. This was my project and my bathroom, and having a 1950s pink tub presented quite a challenge. Since this bathroom faces our brown bedroom, I decided pink+brown+white= neapolitan ice cream. Covering up the tub wasn't an option to me, as I saw it as a nod to my late Grandmother.



We got the shower part of the bathroom fixed up about a month ago. Two big delays were finding a vanity I liked and would fit (we're talking a 5' x 6' bathroom here), and finding the flooring I had pictured in my mind. Now that both of those are accomplished, we're moving forward.

I guess any time you do construction or remodeling on a home that was hand built by someone you're bound to find neat little surprises. For us, these surprises have a lot of meaning, because they're things done or left by my late Grandfather.

So I wanted to do this post to share with my family, and especially my cousins, so they could see all the neat things we've found. Why my cousins? Well, we've heard family stories, and I don't know about them, but I feel like there's a lot of the family's history I missed out on. Sharing this stuff makes me feel like I'm getting to live a little bit of that history, and I hope my cousins feel the same.


Take for instance this pattern. This is the adhesive he used to stick to the tiles to the wall. Our Grandfather placed each one of these by hand. (And the tiles were numbered, which helped.)


And even weirder than having carpet in the bathroom are both of the layers of tile we found under the carpet. The white pebble-y kind isn't so bad, but that marbled blue? With a pink bathtub? I don't get it. It certainly was a technicolor world back then.


But to me, at least so far, the best surprise has been this one, hidden behind the toilet paper holder:


It looks so much like my own Dad's handwriting, I had to ask if it was his. It's our Grandfather's.

I'll try to post more if we find more.

Hopefully I'll have some finished bathroom pictures up just after Thanksgiving.
All for now,
akc

Long weekend

Man, I'm sore. Being a homeowner makes me feel like how Grandy's truck looks.

Ian and the bear

The following was a discussion that happened this morning after breakfast. I thought it was too funny not to share.

Ashlie: I want to bike the Cade's Cove loop.
Ian: I don't! There are bears there.
Ashlie: There are bears, yes, but it's safe to bike there.
Mom: Ian, families bike it.
Ashlie: ...with little kids.
Ian: But I don't want families to look at me and say, 'hey look at that fat guy trying to bike.' And the bears will see I'm fat and think-
Dad: Mmmm....cheeseburgers!