THE MUGS ARE DONE

I'll show you pictures of the ones I made, but you will have to go to Rachael's blog if you want to see the ones she made. I emailed the pictures to her tonight, so it's up to her when she posts them.

It's Running Again. I'm Going to have a Stinky House

I'm running the kiln again. (It makes my house smell so bad when it's running glazed items.) Rachael worked me like I was her slave this weekend painting pottery. I think we painted close to 15 mugs in 2 days. Lori tried to help too, but she only got started on one cup and got bored before even coming close to finishing it. And Francie wanted to help too, but she got as far as sitting down at the messy table and clearing herself some space to work before she realized she just couldn't get inspired. Painting pottery is a lot of fun, but it really does require some commitment since there is a lot involved. I bought a new spray gun and glazed everything that way. It went way faster than painting the glaze on. It will also help to prevent the paint from smearing. I also got a new mold. The picture shows the shape it pours. It's pretty good size too, I'm not sure if the picture shows that or not. I'm really quit disappointed in the lack of blogging lately. You people need to get yourselves together so that I'm not the only one blogging. It's weird that I finally feel like I'm caught up on reading everyone's blogs. Give me more to read please. Shannon, seriously, what's your excuse now that you are done with school? P.S. Rach, for you I ran the kiln for the first time that it wasn't totally crammed full of stuff. I knew if I put it off until it was completely full, I would never have gotten it run. I'll be posting new pictures tomorrow of how everything turned out.

THE SUMO TUBE*

Anyone up for trying something new, a little scary and REALLY dangerous? (It's not really dangerous for all of you who keep telling me how concerned you are. I'm only kidding. It's perfectly safe at the recommended speed, which we will go.)
Click on the link and watch the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gar9bOlN0g
Yup, a SUMO*Tube! I ordered one today. I can't wait for it to get here. Anyone else brave enough to try it? It will be so funny to see someone roll around in it. I know Katya will be dieing to try it out. We went tubing the other day after work. I was having a great time until the giant tube I was on got caught in the wind and threw me into the air. Adam thought it was really cool that the tube and I were not really touching the water. I was screaming at the top of my lungs for him to slow down, and climbing the tube to try to put some weight on it. It was horrible when I landed. It knocked this wind out of me and flushed my eye sockets. And he did it on purpose because he thought it looked cool. Poor Sarah was on the second tube and I managed to kick her pretty good when I flew off. We were both a mess and really mad because we were just supposed to have an easy ride back to the dock. So much for that! That gives me an idea, when I get Adam on that sumo tube, I'll show him the time of his life... (not really, I wouldn't be reckless or stupid like that); but he's sure going to be hesitant when I remind him he has one coming!

FIRED! FINALLY.

I ran the kiln last night for Rachael. I spent the entire evening in the basement sanding mugs for us to paint this weekend. I had a few things that were already painted that needed to be fired. You have to fire green ware hotter than you would fire painted bisque. But I really wanted to fire Francie and Lori's mugs they painted when they were here a month or so ago and that little doll that goes with the matrioshka set that I forgot to fire the first time around. So I took my chances and fired everything together. They turned out beautifully! I love Francie's cup. I want to keep it for myself. We found the bisque for this piece at the pottery store, I didn't pour it myself so I can't just go make one for myself. Lori's turned out pretty cute too, but I forgot to carry it up from the basement, I wasn't ABOUT to go all the way back down there. I have to hurry and post this because Francie is on her way home. She knows I'm posting the picture, so I'm going to get a phone call any second now if I don't hurry up and hit "publish post". So I can't add any more to this post.

Ok... I went back and added more pictures because my family has a really hard time waiting, they're gonna want to see it now. I too have the same problem, I couldn't wait to show it to them, so I went back down to the basement and got the rest of the stuff to take more pictures. The cute little cup Lori made has her blog address on it. It's so cute. The adorable little cat dish Kristen made.

DID YOU LIKE THE BOAT RIDE GRACIE?

Gracie is so cute. She went on her first boat ride last week. I guess she didn't like it too much. She so sweetly admits that it was a good time, but when asked if she wants to go again, her answer was always 'no.'

It's That Time of Year Again

This weekend we went West. The forecast called for waves on Lake Michigan. It's officially surf season in Michigan. Adam insists on driving to Lake Michigan every weekend when surf season comes. He actually stops thinking logically as well. If I have to get in and surf too, this is my favorite time to do so; the rip currents aren't too strong, and the waves are small enough that I won't die, yet existent enough that Adam will get in the water. The water is still warm, actually warmer than the air, and once in awhile the sun will come out too. Typically, because it's a lake and not the ocean, if there are waves, it's either cold, windy or overcast. In about a month the waves will be too big for me, but Adam will be in heaven. And in about 4 months, he will be dodging ice chunks. Him and his friend Justin are crazy!

No Hands

Today I learned something new about my sister Lori that I thought was pretty quirky. I was telling her about how I just discovered not too long ago that I can crack the middle of my back by breathing in really deep. That's when she told me she could crack all her toes just by curling them. When she did it, she was of course driving, or should I say NOT really driving, because she was rolling through a stop sign. It was her turn to go, but she made the trucker wait while she slowly let off the break but not accelerating, because she was ... demonstrating her crazy skill. And it IS pretty crazy, they all crack at the same time. It sort of reminded me of that post we all participated in where we had to list 6 quirky things about ourselves. Lori, you can just add that to your list.

Camping in Holland

If you noticed my lack of participation in blogging/leaving comments, it's because I've been busy on vacation. Actually it wasn't that busy at all, but we had to drive to the park pavilion and pay money whenever we wanted to get on the Internet. We went camping, but in style. We had the best handicap spot, closest to the water and with the most space. We had a lot of stuff and a lot of people, so we needed it. At night, Sarah and David slept in the bed, Leah slept in the bathroom area in her pack-n-play, Grandma Lois slept on the table, Adam's dad aka Pops slept on the couch, his mom on the kitchen floor on an air mattress (she knows the advantage to sleeping alone on an air mattress) and Adam and I on another air mattress on the kitchen floor; oh, and we had Walter too. He slept in the little tiny, maybe 3sq. ft. of floor space that was not covered up with luggage or sleeping people. We had a couple days were there were pretty good waves. We went one day to a beach that you had to cross the channel to get to the other side of the pier where the waves were not so big and messy. Not a big deal, the channel is maybe 5yards wide. On the way back, some guy thought we were trespassing on his private beach, even though there is a law that says no one owns the water or the land up to the 100 year water mark. So because he was so drunk and rude, and threatening to call the police, we were forced to swim back to the other side of the beach by swimming around the pier. It was probably a mile worth of swimming. It was miserable because we all had stuff with us, including my cell phone because we needed it to get in touch the friends that were meeting us. I had to swim with it in my mouth. There were 4 of us and 6 boards, so the two guys had to paddle on one, and pull the other strapped to their ankle with the leash. I had to ditch my towel because it was such a dead weight. It was OK when it was all over though, because we had a really good day surfing some really good waves and there was a photographer there from National Geographic*, taking pictures of us because I guess not very many people know you can surf in MI. And...I found $20 bucks on the beach. My not so lucky, lucky day. My cell phone rang once while I was paddling, and my arms hurt SO bad that I sat up on the board to rest and answered the phone. It was Adam's mom, I didn't want to explain the predicament we were in, because she would have worried, but she worried anyways because a big wave was headed my way and I was like...um...I'll call you right back, then she said "no, wait, I wanna say something quick" and I said...."I really gotta go, I'll call you in 15" and hung up on her just before the wave came. My cell phone allowed calls when we got back despite how wet it got in my mouth from the splashing waves and slobber; but it's not working anymore, so those of you who tried to call me, I won't be able to answer. Call Adam's phone if you need me. Wish I had time to say more, but if I want to get this posted at all, I better do it now.

These pictures are not from the day we had to swim around the pier. We thankully did not take our camera's with us that day.

Adam (above), Me (below)

Sarah (below)
David cutting Adam off, thats Adams board in the air, Adam is under the water, probably trying to dodge David's fin...