I have a new man in my life, he's a charmer!

It seems like it's been longer than a week since my last entry, but the calendar tells me that's really all the time that's gone by. On Monday morning our daughter still hadn't gone into labor so she went into the hospital to be induced. 24 hours later, our new grand-son, Jaedon, made his appearance in the world. It was a long night and we had some tense moments. She finally had to have a c-section, but both of them are doing great now!! They came home from the hospital yesterday and I am totally in love with this little guy!!

The experience has brought back a flood of memories from when Steve and I were starting our family! It's been an emotional roller-coaster the last few weeks! With his dad in and out of the hospital, and the 2 of us in the process of buying a house, and then the grand-baby coming - shwew! Let me catch my breath!

I'm so glad that we're living in close proximity to them right now. I remember how I felt with a new baby. I was only 20 and it made me feel like I was all grown-up, until something out of the ordinary happened, or he was fussy all day after a sleepless night, or I just wanted to take a long, relaxing, hot shower, but every time I laid him down, he'd start crying! Then my mom would appear and I didn't want her to know that I was relieved she'd shown up, but I WAS kinda relieved. And I'd take my shower, or a nap and then she'd start getting on my nerves and I'd be ready for her to leave us alone. My mom never had a clue when to give me my space. I don't think she understood the concept because she was the kind of person who LOVED to be around people!! She hated being by herself. So she just really had no ability to realize that sometimes I wanted to be by myself. I wanted to "do it myself." I have this really strong, independent streak. It gets me in trouble half the time! Occasionally it comes in handy.

I think Megan may have inherited that gene (and I wouldn't want it any other way!) I'm trying my best not to be "too" helpful. I do have a life of my own, believe it or not! So I try to make sure that she actually wants us to come over before we go, and when it seems like she's ready for us to leave, I try to take the hint and not feel offended. I think we're figuring it out.

Being a grandma is every bit as fine as I imagined it would be and I just can't wait til he's a little bit older so we can start reading books and playing games and making him laugh!! It won't be long, it goes so fast!

So as another Mother's Day approaches, I find myself feeling wistful about my mother's absence, feeling nostalgic about my early mothering days, and feeling joyous about my daughter's entry into the realm of motherhood. There's nothing like it!!

Here are a few pictures of the little guy............it's been confirmed by everyone who sees him, he's about the cutest baby in the world!! We got some pictures developed at Walgreen's and the photo guy thought he was so cute he didn't even charge us for them!! Seriously!

These were taken when he was about an hour old!! He was so wide awake! Look at those teeny little fingers!!

These were taken the very next day!

And this is my favorite!!! Can't you tell he loves his Nana already?!!!

We are gonna have some good times!!!

To blog, or not to blog..............

Sometimes I wonder about what sort of things are appropriate to blog about. We've had lots of things going on and while some of them were happening, I had the urge to blog about them, but I wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not because of the "public" aspect of a blog. I think that aspect is probably partially responsible for the popularity of blogs, and I don't think that there are really all that many people who are taking the time to read my blog, but it is "out there" for people to see, so I find myself wondering whether or not I want to post certain things.

So, at least now I probably have managed to elevate the curiosity of both people on the planet who do occasionally check in on my meanderings! And I think that I will mention the occurrence that I'm alluding to because it has had a happy ending (so far.)

We spent last Sunday afternoon hanging out in the emergency room of Bethesda North Hospital because my father-in-law had a stroke. It's not a pleasant way to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon, but I'm thankful that if this had to transpire, it happened in close proximity to a place that was equipped to deal with it. I'm pleased to report that my father-in-law is now in his own home with no apparent side-effects or damage from the whole ordeal. Steve spent a couple days with him to make sure he was truly doing ok, and to talk to his family doctor and get him set up with a medic alert system.

Steve reported to me that the medic alert system is pretty amazing regardless of how dumb the commercials make them seem. When you're talking about maintaining independence and dignity for a relative who's going to be 80 years old this summer, it's nice to find an alternative to a nursing home or assisted living that's inexpensive and sensible. Steve says that when they installed the system and checked it out, they told his dad that he could use it if he just wants them to call one of us for any reason or if even if he's just feeling lonely and wants to talk to someone. I suppose it could make you feel a little paranoid, almost like you're being spied on, but I think it's definitely going to give Steve and his siblings some peace of mind regarding the well-being of their father.

I have a couple other pieces of news to report. The first thing is that we're still not grand-parents. Apparently "baby Stuie" is unaware and oblivious to the fact that he was supposed to have made his entrance into the world by now. I suppose he's going to take after his Uncle Dan, who was 2 weeks overdue and required surgical coaxing to see the light of day. And to provide yet more evidence that it must be genetic, I have to submit that Danny's lack of motivation can be traced directly to his father, the guy who put the "pro" in procrastination!! So it appears that we will have become official grand-parents by Monday (or Tuesday at the latest) because as of right now, the plan is for Megan to be induced if she doesn't show any signs of going into labor over the week-end.

In the midst of all this excitement we somehow managed to buy a new home. Well, technically, it's not a "new" home, it's actually a rather old home! But it's new to us. We bought an 18 acre property near New Castle, Indiana with a lovely old farmhouse and a beautiful 3-car garage that will serve as a wonderful pottery studio!

As I mentioned in a previous post, we had been looking in the Brown County area and weren't finding anything that looked extremely promising. I had also been having some concerns about the distance between Brown Co. and Steve's family in Ohio. So, I had started searching for properties between Indianapolis and Troy, rather than south of Indy. We came across this place a couple weeks ago, went to see it, liked it, made an offer, and it was accepted. Now, barring any unforseen issues cropping up during the inspection, it looks like we'll be moving in the last week-end in May! And with everything that's going on with Steve's dad, I think it's good that we didn't end up in Brown Co!!

I'll attach a few photos of the place since I haven't included many photos lately.

Here is the exterior of the house..........

It has a verrrrrrrry long lane! I won't need a Y membership, getting the mail will provide daily exercise!

The living room. I love the natural woodwork! That window will be the perfect spot for this year's Christmas tree!

No sliding down this bannister without a little reinforcement!!

I think it's going to be a fun place to live and have the grand-kids come and visit us! It's a little more house than we were thinking that we need, but this way we'll have plenty of room for family to stay in!! I'm pretty excited!

On Tuesday we have an inspection scheduled to determine whether or not there are any issues that may require attention (and money) in order to live in this house. Hopefully they won't find anything serious. We already have some fears about the septic system and some parts of the roof. We'll know more next week.

Also, next week, I will hopefully have some news on my grand-parent-hood status. And maybe I'll be able to post a few more pictures of the farm.

Until then.........keep on bloggin'! (that sounds lame!)

A Meandering Train of Thought

We are adjusting once again to new surroundings. This time we're parking our home in Indianapolis, well technically at the KOA in Greenfield, which is only about 15 minutes from The Sprawling Metropolis that is the home of the Colts and the Hoosiers, which apparently refers to both IU's mascot and natives of the state. I've tried to discover where the term was derived from, but the details are pretty sketchy.

As seems to be typical with KOAs, we're once again being lulled to sleep by the constant whine of traffic on the interstate. I would much prefer living near a train track!! I can make that statement with a level of confidence, since I grew up with a train track in my back yard. Our house was probably a couple of hundred yards from the train track and I never found the sound annoying. I actually enjoyed the clackety-clack rhythm of the train on the tracks. Sometimes our windows shuddered a bit, but even the whistle blowing had a somewhat romantic, lonely sound to it.

Our dog, Ginger, LOVED to chase the train, and whenever one went by while she was in the back yard she would race back and forth barking at it frantically! Luckily our yard was fenced so she wasn't in any danger.

Living near the train even provided some opportunities for adventure when we were young. I think we talked about putting a penny on the track but we were afraid it might cause the train to derail! We also discovered a "short-cut" for walking to school thanks to some neighbors who lived "on the other side of the tracks" (literally.) At first my mom didn't want us going that way, but she eventually realized it was pretty safe. It's not like you can't hear a train coming and we had to cross the tracks at some point to get to school!

In the early 70s, my neighbor, who was MUCH older, probably in high school or college (and who I might have had a little crush on) decided to experience the hobo lifestyle for a couple days. So he and a buddy hopped a freight train and rode it to some point up north. I don't remember how far, probably only a couple hundred miles. I also don't remember how he got home, possibly another less adventurous buddy picked them up. He must've been in college and maybe home for the summer. I seem to remember that his folks weren't too happy about the situation, but they apparently felt he was old enough that they couldn't stop him. (I can't believe they didn't use that tried and true parental stand-by, "As long as you're under my roof, you'll abide by my rules.") I guess they figured there were worse things he could be doing. I remember my mom talking about it, but nobody seemed extremely upset. He was a good kid and I think his parents viewed it as a sort of "rite of passage" into adulthood or something. Of course, I didn't have all this figured out back then, I was probably only 8 or 9 years old. But looking back on it now from my own parental viewpoint, I think that might have been what was going on.

I remember that the neighbor boy's adventure caused my mom to do a little research about hobos. (I'm sure that I inherited my inquisitive nature from her, she would've LOVED the Internet if only she'd been born a little later.) There's nothing more fun to me than googling some obscure topic, but since that wasn't an option back then, she opened our well-worn set of "World Book Encyclopedias" (which I think had been purchased from a door-to-door salesman. Either that, or she had bought them with S&H Green Stamps. We got a lot of products that way!)

She found it interesting that hobos developed a method of communication between themselves. They would draw symbols on a tree or fence or rock in front of the house or establishment that they had just visited that would let other hobos know whether or not the residents would be sympathetic toward transient types. I think that I even wrote up a paper about it for school at some point.

By that time, the era of hobos had pretty much played itself out, but we would occasionally see people hitching a ride in a boxcar. According to wikepedia, hobos also had a lingo of their own. Here are a few of the more colorful phrases:

• Barnacle - a person who sticks to one job a year or more
• Bone polisher - A mean dog
• California Blankets - Newspapers, intended to be used for bedding
• Catch the Westbound - to die
• Chuck a dummy - Pretend to faint
• Reefer - A compression of "refrigerator car".
• Sky pilot - a preacher or minister
• Stemming - panhandling or mooching along the streets
• Tokay Blanket - drinking alcohol to stay warm
• Yegg - A traveling professional thief

Up until I was probably 8 or 9, there was a passenger train that ran from our town to Wapokenta, OH (if memory serves.) One time my cousin's cub scout troop took a ride on it and my mom made signs for my sister and me to hold so we stood out in the back yard and holding those signs and waving to him when the train went by. I don't remember if he said he saw us. I would doubt it, the train was obviously going pretty fast.

So why did I even start this "train of thought"?? Oh yeah, I was saying that I wouldn't want to buy a house that's close to a busy highway but I wouldn't mind living near a train track. I also wouldn't want to live near an airport. Having jets constantly flying low overhead is pretty annoying. And I always worry that one of them will crash!

I wouldn't mind living next to a cemetery or funeral home though. Again, probably because the house I lived in when I was a child was located near a funeral home and a cemetery. We actually lived "2 doors down" from the funeral home and one of my schoolmates lived in a house behind it because her dad owned the funeral parlor. (She later went to school to be a mortician and took over the family business.)

The funeral home wasn't there when I was first born. Up until the time I was about 3 or 4 years old, there was a field with horses there. That seems so strange to me, because we lived almost downtown!! I have a feeling that having horses next door when I was growing up probably contributed to my love of horses.

But living next to a funeral parlor also provided some benefits for kids. They put in a HUGE paved parking lot, and as long as there wasn't a funeral or visitation going on, we were allowed to ride our bikes and rollerskate all over the place! We spent many, many hours over there taking advantage of that vast amount of blacktop!

On the other side of the funeral home were 2 or 3 houses, then a little church and then a cemetery. We actually never spent any time playing in the cemetery, I admit I was a little weird, but not completely morbid!! I do remember that every 4th of July, the city would shoot fireworks from the stadium which was just around the corner from our house and we would walk down to the cemetery and sit on the rock wall to watch the fireworks. One time piece of firework shrapnel landed on the roof of a house across the street (a huge old mansion where a local rich widow lived, now the Troy Board of Education.) It began to smolder and our neighbor went up and knocked it off and made sure the roof didn't catch fire. 4th of July excitement!!

After Steve and I got married and the kids came along, we would drive into Troy for the fireworks and park in the funeral home lot and put our chairs or a blanket in the grass and watch the fireworks from there. The people who owned the funeral home were very supportive of the community and never seemed to mind ('cos we weren't the only ones who took advantage of it!) I'm sure they never scheduled any funerals that would coincide with the 4th of July! And anyways, the fireworks never started 'til 10 pm.

So, I guess I must be feeling a little nostalgic right now. I'm sure it has a lot to do with this upcoming grand-baby! Yesterday we took Megan out for breakfast at a little cafe near their house. While we were eating, that old Loggins and Messina song, Danny's Song, was playing in the background . That song was one of my favorites when I was pregnant with our son, Danny (and yes, even had some influence on the choice of his name.) I almost got a little teary eyed while we were sitting there (luckily no one noticed!) It just doesn't seem like it could have been all that long ago that Steve and I were in the same situation that Dustin and Megan are in right now, awaiting the birth of our firstborn. I started remembering the feelings of wonder and excitement and even fear, that they're probably experiencing right now!!

And I also started thinking that it's pretty amazing in this day and age that her dad and I are still married and still pretty happy!!

Like the song says:

Even though we ain't got money,
I'm so in love with ya honey,
Everything will bring a chain of luh--uh-uh-uh-uhv....
And in the mornin' when I rise,
Ya bring a tear of joy to my eyes
And tell me everything is gonna be alright.

(sigh....)

A busy week!

I just can't get over how quickly the time passes. Here it is almost the middle of March!!

First, I should mention that the Baby Shower/Reception in Indianapolis for Megan and Dustin seemed to be a success. We were so happy to see family and friends that we haven't seen for awhile. There was a good turn-out, Steve's whole family made it!! We got to visit with everyone and even play a few hands of Peanuts, what more could we want?

Also, besides new baby congratulations to Dustin and Megan, we have to congratulate Dustin for getting accepted onto Pike Twp's Fire Department. He starts training in a few short weeks. He's going to have his hands full with a new baby and a new job!

Here's a couple of pictures from the shower (and I promise not to hold animosity against Curt for dropping my crock pot full of weenies! I'm just glad no one was injured!!)

The Shower Cake......

Another shower cake.......

Dustin's ready to eat some of that cake!!

I like all of Steve's family in the reflection of this one!

After a fun week-end with friends and family we came back to Asheville and met up with our geocaching friends, the Flip/Flop Girlz from Cincy. They decided to pay us a visit while Jan is recovering from double knee replacement. She seems to be healing pretty quickly because we went hiking with them at Chimney Rock and also broke a record for the number of geocaches we've found in one day on our drive back from Chimney Rock with the help of the Girlz!! It was an exhausting, but fun day!!

Here are the 4 of us on Chimeny Rock using the timer on my camera!

I took this one from the observation deck above Chimney Rock...the little specks are Karen, Jan, and Steve!! That's Lake Lure in the background.

After spending the morning site-seeing, we geocached the whole way home and managed to snag almost 30 caches along the way. Up until then, our record for one day had been 7!! The Flip/Flop Girlz have found over 2,500 caches and were willing to share their expertise with us rookies!!

Yesterday, Jan, Karen, and I visited Thomas Wolfe's family home. Wolfe was an author in the early 1900s who wrote an autobiographical novel about growing up in Asheville. It's called Look Homeward Angel. I read part of it when we first arrived down here but hadn't finished it. His family was rather dysfunctional and it got to be a little depressing! HIs mother owned and ran a boarding house downtown for many years and that home is now a museum dedicated to Thomas Wolfe. After our visit, we managed to find a few more caches too!

Earlier in the week we unloaded the salt-kiln at the Odyssey Center. It was an excellent firing!! I wish they had been able to fit more of my work in the kiln, but I had to share space with the other students! To see pictures of most of the work, visit my picasa site.

Here are a couple pictures of my favorite pieces! This has certainly been a wonderful opportunity for me to improve my pottery skills and learn about new glazing and firing methods!! The experience has been UN-believable and I'm so thankful that we were able to live this life for the past 12 months!!!

This is a lidded, oval shaped box I made for Steve to charge his R/C helicopter batteries in. It has a hole in the back for the cord to hang out of. I put fish on it to make it more manly than my pieces with leaves.....



This is an oval shaped platter that I put a horse figure on with black slip. I was pretty pleased with the result!

Down south again (in the nic of time!)

Our trip up north went by so quickly. We've been back in Asheville for 2 days now and it sounds like we "got the heck outta dodge" (aka Ohio) just in time!! Snow, ice, cold.......................WINTER!! It was nice to see a little of the white stuff, but today as I was walking around outside in my jean jacket enjoying the 52 degree temperature, I wasn't too upset about leaving Ohio when we did.

We had a great time visiting friends and family while we were there. I was so happy to spend some time with our kids and celebrate a late Christmas. It was also entertaining to watch the kids play some new wii games. I never realized how dangerous those games can be until Danny somehow managed to punch his own nose while participating in one of the Olympic Events. It was something like a combination of the shot-put and the discus throw and we were watching Danny's little wii-man on the TV, spinning around in circles before throwing his device when I heard a loud "THWACK!" Apparently Danny got a little carried away and somehow his nose got in the way of the wii control! Had to leave a mark. No blood though, thank goodness!! Only DanWray could manage to clean his own clock!

The most fun, though, was getting together with the whole WrayClan (sans Holly) and having our 3rd Annual Cookie Decorating Contest! I am posting the whole array of photos to my Picasa site, but will include a few with this blog entry.

I have to admit that even though I think the winning cookie was well-rendered, I am just a tad bitter about the judging since my cookie was not deemed a winner. As demonstrated last year by Steve's loss, the judges demonstrated a definite lack of knowledgeable appreciation towards those of us who like to add an "extra dimension" to our cookie decorating. Some of us just aren't satisfied with the flat, 2-dimensional bla-ness of "painting" icing on the cookie surface. No, we try to "think outside the box" and in essence "raise the bar" of the art of cookie decor. Apparently cookie decorating suffers from the same preconceived prejudices that exist in the arena of "fine art" where artists who work in 3-dimensional surfaces, such as POTTERY, are shunned by the conventional art elitists who only want to see one side of an object!! Apparently Steve was so psychologically wounded by last year's judging that he reverted back to traditional 2-D cookie decor. It has yet to be determined how far-reaching the repercussions of this year's judging will be!

So without further adieu, The 3rd Annual Wray Clan Cookie Decorating Contest..................

The line-up of entries...........

The Winning Entry and its creators...........

My entry.........

c'mon, it's a helicopter.

Headin' up north

The big plan is that we're heading north tomorrow to spend some time in Ohio with the family and celebrate a late Christmas. Hopefully we won't run into too much snow.

We'll drive as far as Lexington tomorrow night after my pottery class and spend the night at Danny's place, then we'll head for Ohio on Wed. We'll probably make a stop in Cincinnati to visit our friends who turned us on to geocaching, the ladies known to geocachers as the Flip/flop girlz.

I'm really looking forward to seeing family and friends. I'm sure it will go quickly 'cos we have visits scheduled for almost everyday! I want to hook up with my pottery buddies and visit Bear's Mill of course, then we want to visit our previous workamper bosses at the Richmond KOA and I hope I get to visit my pseudo-mom/neighbor form West Milton. Too many friends, too little time!

On Sunday we're going to get together with Steve's family for the 3rd Annual Cookie Decorating Contest. It will be our late Christmas celebration. I think it was Christmas 2006 that we somehow got started having a cookie decorating contest.It was originally an excuse to bake cookies for the youngest niece and nephew. Somehow, last Christmas Steve got in on it and designed and "built" a 3-D cookie that looked like a lunar lander. Unfortunately, in the voting process, Steve's lunar lander was not given what he deemed "proper recognition" and the grand champion honors went to our niece, Monica. (In my opinoin, she deserved the win!) However, Steve has been bitterly awaiting the contest this year for a re-match to redeem what he perceives as his stolen title. I can't even imagine what kind of creation he'll come up with, but I'll try to get some pictures to post.

Then, hopefully, we'll all play Peanuts (aka Nertz.) It's a Wray Family Christmas tradition!! It sounds like we might even get some snow! Hopefully we won't have to deal with it on our drive, but if it's bad we'll just have to take our time!

I'm sure looking forward to seeing everyone!

Sunny Day in Tennessee

Today started out foggy and rainy, but soon became warm and sunny. The temperature "soared" up into the high 50s/low 60s so we decided to take a little road trip "up north." We have been wanting to pick up a geocache in Tennessee so we could add that state to our repertoire and decided that today was the perfect day to do it!! Tennesse is only about 20 miles north of here.

We took the dogs along even though Shelby usually gets a little carsick when we're on the curvy back roads. She didn't get sick this time, but spent most of the trip with her face next to ours, licking her lips and swallowing non-stop!! Ah, the sweet smell of dog breath! Twiggy, as usual, fell asleep.

I took my camera along, but the sun goes down behind the mountains so early this time of year that the lighting was never really good enough to warrant a picture so I never even got it out of the case. You'll just have to take my word for it, the scenery was beautiful! Even with the leaves off of the trees, the mountains are still majestic. The silvery trunks of the trees stand out in contrast to the darker branches and every so often patches of towering pines added a hint of green to the gray, reddish-browns of the hillsides. Most of the roads we chose traveled right along beside wide, rocky creek beds with cascading waterfalls and always on the banks were the deep green leaves and twisting trunks of the native azaleas. I am looking forward to traveling these roads in the spring when the flowers come into full bloom. Then I will definitely take pictures!!

We had a great New Year's Eve and Day down here. We spent the evening in one of the cabins with new friends: our boss, Ande, the maintenance man, Matt, and a couple who camp here frequently, Bob and Karen. We had take-out chinese food, which was delicious!

Then, on New Year's Day, we spent the afternoon at a piece of property in Weaverville, north of here, that Bob and Karen own and are planning to build a house on someday soon. It's a lovely hillside property with a beautiful creek running through it. I did take my camera along and took some pictures of our visit.

We also visited with their neighbor, who they had bought the property from. He happens to be the half brother of the man who owns our campgrounds!! He and his wife had us in their home and were extremely gracious hosts! We enjoyed seeing Janice's Christmas decorations, and the guys certainly enjoyed taking a peek at Dave's replica Shelby Cobra kit car. It was a little 2-seater convertable stick shift and looked like it would be a blast to drive on the wind-y roads down here!!!

When we got back to the camper, I fixed pork chops, sauerkraut and smashed potatoes for Steve and I. It was very tasty!

Here's a picture I took of our little party keeping warm beside the campfire on Bob & Karen's property. Ande's on the left, then Karen, Bob and Steve.

Next is a shot of their creek with the little shed they've built up on the hill. They put a covered porch and a swing overlooking the creek. It's very relaxing to hear the sound of the creek babbling over the rocks!

This is a picture of the neighboring farmer's barn that I thought looked old and interesting....

Yesterday was my birthday and after doing a little cleaning in the morning, we took the dogs for a hike at the Arboretum. I think everyone in Asheville who owns a dog or a bike had the same idea!! People around here LOVE the outdoors and never miss an opportunity to enjoy it! The weather started out fairly nice, but we did walk through a little sprinkle the last 2 miles back to the parking lot. We were thankful that it never rained hard because we weren't prepared for it!

For my birthday dinner we went to an old historic place downtown called the Charlotte Street Grill and Pub. I thought it sounded rather interesting and it was. We had good food and good service!! It was a great place for a birthday dinner and we'll probably go back before we leave this area.

So far, 2009 has started out to be a pretty good year! Steve's fortune cookie on New Year's Eve said, "Any day above ground is a good day!" I'd have to agree!

Celebrating Christmas (etc!!)

Christmas has come quickly yet again. It's going to be our first Christmas spent away from family members. (Not counting each other, of course!) I think we're going to get to be with them vicariously thanks to technology. Skype: the next best thing to being there!

On Sunday we had a small gathering with some of the other campers here. There are 2 couples who are here for extended periods. One of them suggested we have a small carry-in. We were able to use the Cliffhouse so we didn't have to cram ourselves into someone's camper. It was quite enjoyable and fun to get to know some of our "neighbors" a little better. The lady who organized it is from Colorado. She said she doesn't really celebrate Christmas, but likes to celebrate solstice so she brought a poem about it which she read for us. I also tried my hand at fixing a vegetarian soup option for one of the guests. I used tempeh for the first time, and I think the result was pretty tasty. I'm still eating the leftovers!! Asheville is definitely a diverse place, which I can find somewhat annoying at times, but I'm a lot more laid back than I used to be.

Here's a picture of our little Christmas/Solstice group in front of the cozy fireplace......

We had way more food than we could eat and even some home made wine that was quite delicious! Our group, from left to right is David & Sandra from GA, myself with the bulbous head (and body,) Tim & Krista (who are both almost completely overshadowed by my bulbous-ness, they're from CO) Steve (my Ohio co-hort,) Garret, and his grandparents, Barbara and Michael who all live several hours from here, but I can't remember exactly where. They were a fun group and stayed and visited for several hours after stuffing ourselves.

Getting back to the "diversity" of Asheville. I believe I feel a tangent coming on. Here are a few observations of things I've noticed about Asheville and its residents.

For one thing, there seem to be very few actual, full-time residents. Many folks seem to have vacation homes here and only reside here temporarily. There seems to be an extremely high number of people from Florida and among these, are a high number of people originally from NYC. I dunno what's up with that.

And those who are truly "locals" (as in living full-time in the area) most are generally not natives. Again, there's a large number of NYC/Florida people who have chosen to live here for some reason. I've met very few people who actually grew up anywhere in NC, let alone Asheville!

The car of choice down here is the Subaru. (At least we fit in somewhere!) Unfortunately, we still stand out because we don't have the back of our car plastered with bumper stickers. The Bumper Sticker Phenomena is worthy of mentioning as it's extremely prevalent down here. The most common BS sighting right now would be various forms of "Pro-Obama" stickers. Second on the list would be the anti-war stickers followed by various envirnonmental and "buy local" type of stickers, followed by all kinds of new-age, athiestic, and finally incoherent ramblings. There is a mini-pick-up down here with the front hood and fenders completely plastered with "Ron Paul for President" bumper stickers.

People down here seem to enjoy proclaiming whatever is important to them, whether on a bumper sticker, a t-shirt, a sign, a form of dress, or any combination of the aforementioned. I came across the perfect t-shirt, which I may have mentioned in a previous post that said, "If you're too werid for Asheville, you're too weird." I've also spotted a bumpersticker proclaiming ..."Asheville, where weird is normal and normal is weird." That pretty much sums it up for me!

It does keep things interesting!!

This is also one of the most pet-friendly areas I've visited! Dogs are allowed almost everywhere. Some of the restaurants allow patrons who are dining outside to have their dogs with them. I guess the health department down here doesn't consider themselves to be the self-appointed Nazis of public health like they do in Miami and Darke Co. Ohio!

I hope I don't sound overly cynical; I think it's been a good experience for me to see what it feels like to be somewhat of a "minority." I suppose that being stared at incredulously when I was the only person in my pottery class to turn down the offer of a free Obama pin doesn't really qualify me to classify myself as down-trodden. It could be rightly argued that what little I've experienced down here is NOTHING in comparison with what the member of a true minority is subjected to, but at least it's caused me to think about things I say a little more carefully. Maybe on occassion I'll weigh whether or not a careless comment I make might actually offend someone or hurt their feelings. I'm sure I'll still manage to be offensive to someone, but maybe I'll begin to becom a little more aware of my speech and actions, maybe I'll leave a better impression than I would have before.

I do find it somewhat ironic that even though the people here seem to think of themselves as progressive, diverse, open-minded and forward thinking, you might find yourself in heap o' trouble if they discover you happen to be a right-wing evangelical. I suppose it could be argued that this fear (which is basically a form of peer pressure) might make me so self-conscious of what I say, that I actually water down my beliefs to the point that I'm afraid to stand up for the things I do believe in. That's a legitimate concern also. Is there such thing as striking some kind of balance between having a belief system that you're not afraid to live out, but not shoving it down other people's throats? It's a question I constantly 'rassle with!

My, this has become a rather deep, rambling post. I think I had better sign off for today!

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukuh, Joyous Solstice, Merry Kwanza, don't forget that Dec. 27 is National Fruitcake Day!! Here's a link to a daily holiday guide for the month of December. Enjoy!!

Thanksgiving, etc.

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone already!!

We had plans for the annual Wray Thanksgiving Vacation to take place down here this year. Steve's dad had rented a house for the occassion, and we were planning on 18 family members converging on Asheville for the holiday. However, Steve's dad was still on the mend from the by-pass surgery, so only 4 came down, consisting of our 2 kids, one kid-in-law and one possibly future kid-in-law.

It was a lot of fun! Dustin & Megan brought their wii game. We played the games on it, plus did some exercises on the new "wii fit." They had borrowed it from a friend. Getting weighed in front of everyone was rather depressing, especially when the little voice told me I'm obese and have the balance of someone who's 64 years old!!! I think it's a little screwy! I'm not fat, I'm just short for my weight!!

The weather was gorgeous on Turkey Day. Danny and Ainsley got here Wed. evening, Dustin and Megan on Thusday evening. We mostly hung out, cooked, played games, and visited. We took the trolley tour of Asheville on Sat. That was fun and interesting.

Steve fixed a new chicken dish he concocted while taking care of his dad for Thursday evening's meal. We fixed turkey with smashed potatoes & gravy on Friday. Megan and I made a pumpkin pie. Steve fixed donuts one morning and his famous pancakes another morning. We also ate at ihop a couple times, and Mellow Mushroom, and 2 Guys Hoagies and the Fiddlin' Pig. (No wonder I'm obese!!)

I discovered my talent as a ski jumper on the wii fit game and managed to somehow become a yoga master due to my flexibility and balance. (Wait, it told me I'm obese and aged beyond my years - I told you something's screwy!!)
It was a fun holiday that went by too quickly, as always! Danny & Ainsley left early Sunday morning and Dustin and Megan left on Monday. I went to my pottery class Monday afternoon.

I have uploaded some pictures from the most recent salt-firing for my class at the Odyssey Center. Here's a link to where they can be viewed. http://picasaweb.google.com/lorettawray Click on the Salt-firing Album. I also have some pictures from the class. The album's entitled "Suze Lindsay Class..." There are also lots of pictures of Asheville and some of our other camping adventures.

I'm going to add a picture or 2 here from the firing just so this entry looks more interesting! This is a shot of my favorite piece, it's a tumbler, it holds almost 12 oz..........

And these are a grouping of yunomis that I threw from one lump of clay. (The tallest is under 3 inches tall!) The method is called throwing off the hump..................

I certainly have a heckuva time getting photos where I want them! When it looks just right in the preview, I publish it and everything's all wrong!! It's very frustrating! Whadya expect for free???

I think that it's time for me to sign off for tonight.

Back in the Swing of Things

It finally feels like Steve & I are getting back in the swing of things. He returned from Ohio a couple days ago. His dad is recovering quickly from the triple-by-pass surgery and our son, Danny, is staying with Papaw until he's able to take care of himself again.

Later this week, Danny and his girlfriend plus Megan and Dustin will come down here to visit with us for Thanksgiving. The original plans included Steve's dad, brother, sister and their respective familes, but since his dad's medical problems, it has dwindled to just our immediate family. I wish we could go up to Ohio to be with his dad but it just won't work out. We're very thankful that Steve got to spend as much time up there as he did the last couple of weeks. We're also extremely thankful that his dad is doing so well!! We have much to be thankful for as the season approaches.

I've been enjoying my pottery class. Today we unloaded the kiln from our first salt-firing. I will add pictures soon, I'm having some camera problems. I was pretty pleased with my results. Only a few pieces were in in spots in the kiln that didn't get much action from the salt. I have decided that I need to get more proficient at brush work. That's what I'm going to work on with my next batch of pots.

Last week, one of the other students did a hand-building demonstration of a very interesting form. It requires the use of some blocks of wood and thick foam. It's a fun process and I like the results. Here's a picture of the small tray that was made in the demo.....

The weather down here has been extremely cold!! It feels like Ohio! For several nights (when Steve was gone) the temperature was down in the teens - brrrrrr!!!! Fortunately our heat tape is working properly on our water lines and we haven't had it freeze up! We've certainly been going through the propane! I had to have the tank filled twice while Steve was gone. We actually had several tent-campers when the weather was so cold, I couldn't believe it!! Crazy young 'uns!!

We have all the rentals clean and ready for the Thanksgiving visitors. We had some extra cleaning to do over the week-end because the pipes froze in one of the yurts and the occupants ended up in one of the cabins. It's been keeping us busy, I'm glad Steve's back!! Once Thanksgiving is over things will slow down and after Christmas we'll be extremely slow.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and gets to spend quality time with family and friends over the week-end.

Whirlwind week!

It has been a busy and eventful week and a half!

On Nov. 4 I headed up to Ohio to help Julie get things ready at Bear's Mill for the upcoming art exhibit. I thought I owed it to her since I'm one of the featured artists! I stayed with Meryl Tues. night and had a nice visit. Wed. morning I received a phone call from Steve to tell me his dad was in the hospital!!

Apparently he'd been having chest pains and had called his doctor to schedule a stress test. He flunked the stress test and they immediately admitted him to the hospital. I visited him that morning and he was in good spirits and actually feeling pretty well. The doctor wanted to do a heart cath, but wasn't sure when he could schedule it.

I went to Indianapolis Wed. evening to visit Dustin and Megan after spending a couple of hours at the hair salon getting my locks dolled up for Friday! I stayed with the Canfields (Dustin & Megan) that night and we did some shopping for baby stuff on Thursday morning!! I still can't believe I'm going to be a grand-ma! I discovered the awesome baby store, "Once Upon a Child" where you can buy "gently" used baby clothes and furniture. We bought a little bassinet and are on the look-out for a "Pack-and-Play. I've never heard of this contraption but I've been told by 2 reliable sources that I should have one myself for when I'm baby-sitting!!

I came back to Ohio on Thursday and helped Julie get things ready at the Mill. We worked until 11:30, it was just like old times!! We got up early and finished things before the reception from 6-9. We had a great turn-out!! There were 3 of us who had our pottery on display. Julie, our friend, Rita from Indianapolis, and myself. We had paintings by Evie Mahrt from Piqua, OH. She's a phenomenal painter who does impressionistic landscapes. We love her work!

We had a great turn-out for the exhibit and I got to see some folks I haven't seen for quite awhile. Dustin and Megan came over and brought us Maid-Rites for dinner, yum!! It was so nice to get to visit with old friends!! Julie let me sleep on her couch both nights.

Saturday was spent at Miami Valley Hospital waiting for Steve's dad, John, to undergo triple-bypass surgery. Steve drove all night Friday to be there. He picked Danny up on the way. That was a long day and when we finally got to see him, he was very groggy and sore. We spent Sat. night at Steve's parents house. Steve and Danny slept like logs!!

Sunday we were amazed to see how well John was doing! He was talking a blue streak when I arrived and smacked me on the arm several times. (He always does that when he's in his "story-telling" mode! I thought my arm was gonna be black-and-blue but I was tickled he was feeling so well!) All the kids and grand-kids were there to see him and even though we hate that he had the surgery, I'm so glad everyone was able to be there and we got to spend lots of time together!

I headed out that evening after we all went to dinner. I took Danny home and spent the night at his place so it broke the drive up a little for me. Of course, Danny was no company at all on the drive down 'cos he slept the whole way, but I know he was pretty tired from the whole ordeal. So I figured out I slept in 5 different beds/couches in 6 nights on this trip!! Danny said I should be careful who I tell that to!!

Steve followed me because he wanted to come back to the campgrounds for a few days so we could get caught up with the cleaning. Then Wed. he headed back up north to be with his dad when he got released from the hospital. That happened today but he had a little set-back and had to go to the local hospital to get a temporary catheter. Steve will stay with him until late next week and then Danny will have some free time and is planning to drive up and be Papaw's nurse-maid for however long it takes for him to get back on his feet.

Judging from the way he's bounced back so far, I don't think it will be more than a few weeks!! He's a pretty amazing guy for 79 years old!!

So now Steve's back up north and the ladies are in charge of the campgrounds. Our maintenance man had some vacation days planned to visit family this week, so Ande and I are taking care of things. Ande does 95% of the work altho I did have to help a couple late-comers check in this evening and was standing in the rain helping a guy back his big ol' honkin' motor home into his spot!! Things should settle down now.

Last night she and I went out for sushi!! That was outstanding!! We also visited a little consignment shop in town, what fun!

Here are a few pictures from the reception at Bear's Mill. My pottery will be on display for the month of November. I'm excited about the work I'm producing in my class down here. We're supposed to fire the salt-kiln next week and I need to make sure I get some pieces glazed this week so they make it into the firing!

This is a picture of several of Evie's paintings and some of my pottery displayed on the table. The piece on the pedestal was made by Julie.

Next is a picture of one of Julie's vessels and 2 of Evie's paintings. I think they looked very nice together!

And here's a shot of the 4 artists, pretty hot for ol' ladies if I say so myself, which I do, 'cos I'm probably the only one who will!!


From left to right are Rita Wiley, potter, Indianapolis, Julie Clark, potter, Bear's Mill, Evie Mahrt, painter, Piqua, OH, and Loretta Wray (yours truly) potter, Asheville, NC (well, technicaly, Troy, OH!!)

It was definitely a whirlwind of a week! It felt like so many things happened that it should have been longer than a week!! I believe I put over 1200 miles on my car!! The best part was when I paid $1.76/gal for gas in Indy!! It's still over 2 bucks/gal down here.

I believe I better sign off for now. Keep Steve's dad in your thoughts and prayers, we're thankful that he's getting along so well and that we were able to spend time with family and friends!