The House

The moment you've all been waiting for! We've finally uploaded some pictures of the house. Here's the house on closing day.

Ok, now here's what we've been working on.

More to come as work continues.
Stay tuned!
-M

Readership

I know, I know, why should you come back after 14 months with nary a word from either Ashley or myself? I can't answer that. What I can do is start writing again and hope that people start reading again.
-M

A Walk in The Woods

No, not the Bill Bryson Book. Our own adventure!

A lot happened Memorial Day weekend, in addition to Anne delivering a new baby girl...

Saturday,
Ashley and I rode the motorcycle to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival. There's jesters aplenty, legs of fowl, shanks of beast, a jousting tournament, magic, shopping, a king and queen, and even a real castle! Oh yeah...and a TON of nerds.

Sunday,
we drove about an hour south of Murfreesboro to do a 2-day backpacking journey on the Fiery Gizzard Trail. The FG is a creek that winds from the Grundy Forest Day loop down to Foster Falls State Park, and through some very scenic parts of south central Tennessee. See?
The first day was great. We hiked along the creek's gorge over mossy boulders, dirt paths, and even some rock piles. There was a lot of climb and descend. On one of the lower points we spotted about 50 butterflies feeding on a creekside rock. I sneaked in among them to snap a few photos. The last 1/2 mile of the day 1 hike consisted of a 400 foot ascent to the raven's point campsite (ouch). We took a short rest before pitching the tent. After that we took a short walk to a stream to filter some fresh water. I had drank most of what we brought along. We also took another 1/2 mile walk out to the edge of raven's point.
Day 2 we woke up sore...but even after the 7 miles from day 1, we had 8 left to go. So, after brewing some coffee and eating breakfast, we grabbed up our gear and started off again. The trail was much more friendly, staying mostly above the ravine. There was only 1 point that descended back down, Laurel Gorge, but it was only about 200 feet down.

Near the end of the trail, we ran into 4 or 5 different sets of climbers scaling the wall of the gorge. Apparently Foster Falls State Park is something of a climbers mecca. We reached the falls minutes later, and relaxed in satisfaction of completing the hike. Also the PBJ's we had helped to increase the satisfaction substantially. Then we went for a dip in the blue hole at the base of the falls, but the water was SO SO cold, that we basically just got ourselves wet and said..."That'll do."
All in all, a great first backpacking experience!

-M

Woo-hoo!

One year and five months after graduation, I have paid off one student loan. One down, one to go!

-A

Brew-ha-ha

Another year came and went. I'm 27 now, and life's moving faster and faster. It seems like I remember a year taking an incomprehensible amount of time to pass, now they fly by like...well...flies. On my birthday, Ashley sent me on a scavenger hunt. Mom had done something similar for me at Christmas, and it was fun. I had to solve 9 riddles to find my present. The first 8 had a large construction paper cutout letter attached to each. The last riddle was to arrange them into a word or words.

I found it!


No she didn't get me a 6-Pack! Well, yes she did actually, but that wasn't the real present. I've recently (somewhat) been inspired to try my hand at homebrewing beer. It requires some specific equipment. I'm fairly picky when it comes to specific use items, and Ashley didn't want to buy me something that I wouldn't be able to use. So she sponsored a shopping trip to the local homebrew store. Well, what I needed was actually at home depot, but thats neither here nor there. Check out my setup!

the guitar has nothing to do with beer brewing, but what you see here is:
150,000 BTU Bayou Classic outdoor LP burner
10 Gallon brew kettle, made from 6mm aluminum
1 handmade immersion chiller. 50' of 1/2" OD Copper Refrigerant tubing.
1 5 Gallon "Ale Pail" Primary Fermenter.
There's more yet to buy, but these are some very key pieces.

\\\v///
(o) (o)

\___/
me, excited

-M

Bookworm

Sorry no updates lately. Probably because we haven't had time.
Matt - 12 credit hours school + 40 hours/week + 1 1/2 hour drive + very little Ashley time = no fun
Ashley - 50-60 hours/week + makes dinner while Matt does homework + very little Matt time = no fun

Life isn't all bad though.

-M

Homeward Bound

We finally set a date. We will be moving back home July 31, 2008.

Computer Woes = Papers For You!

I've recently had to replace the hard drive on my Powerbook. I had everything backed up at the time, so not a big deal. Everything seemed to go well during and after the surgery, however, just today I'm starting to get vibrations and buzzing from the hard drive. In an effort to save the school work I've most recently completed as well as some papers I'm particularly fond of, I've uploaded a backup copy for safe keeping. You can access them too if you like.

What a Tale, to Wag the Dog - my academic analysis of the 1997/98 film Wag the Dog.

How Sushi is Made - Pretty self explanatory I think.

The Musician's Musician - A concert review for a Martin Sexton show

Flatland: Parallels into Modern Scientific Discovery - A summary of the 1885 book, Flatland, and a short paragraph at the end concerning how this book relates to modern day astonomy.

The Essay Channeled, Yet Not Defined - A look at what literary nonfiction means.

There are a few more, but they're reading responses. They are only interesting if you've read a certain essay, article, or paper. I've decided to omit them from public scrutiny.

Happy reading!

-M

Not so recent events...

So what has Mashley been up to?

December:

Our lives were spent together at Painted Clay Studio working on Christmas ornaments for elementary schools! We have handled enough ornaments for a lifetime!

Christmas Day! It was beautiful weather in Tennessee and after we opened gifts we went letterboxing! It was about 50 degrees and the parks were swamped with people.

January:

New Years Eve - um in bed by 11:00pm. Can you say party animals....haha!

The first weekend in Jan. we traveled to Columbia, MO to visit the Volkmann/Abell residence. The trip was enjoyable and relaxing but went by quickly!

The second week or so in Jan we did have the opportunity to travel back home to celebrate Christmas with family and friends. We were gone 4 days and got a lot of visiting done in the short amount of time. It was accomplished by having every minute of everyday planned plus having great Iowa winter weather!

We attended our first letterboxing meet-up and took a cold, well needed hike! The meet-up was an experience. Lots of boxing in a short amount of time. Note to self, going to a meet-up will take the entire time allocated to it! We thought it was interesting that it was held in a shopping mall.

February:


Classes have started back up for Matt so he is trying to figure out the perfect schedule. Working full time and taking full time classes isn't an easy battle to accomplish. It's hard for him to give up his hobbies but he is doing a good job!

Tornado Damage!Tornadoes didn't actually hit Murfreesboro. We were pretty fortunate. Oh and our trash can blew over!

Valentine's Day. We have determined that Valentine's Day is pretty silly and a commercial holiday! So we didn't celebrate it. However, Matt did come to the studio to help me out with the couples special PCS had going on. It was the first event I did myself. It was fun and the event went over well!

-A

Ho, Ho, Holy crap Christmas is hard work!

These last two weeks have been especially busy. Ashley has been working 14 hour days and in order to even see her, I went to the Painted Clay Studio to help prepare Christmas ornaments, painted by local school children. Not really hard work, but definitely time consuming.
My Job has been going very well, I love customer service! I can separate myself from any problem the customer is having, and while I might not be able to tell them exactly what they want to hear, I can tell them exactly what I can do for them, and for that they seem grateful.
I've recently enrolled in another semester of fulltime Kirkwood classes. When moving down here, I had intended on taking classes at MTSU. I've decided to finish my AA at Kirkwood and maybe by that time next semester I'll know what to do.
Tiger has been a very lonely cat, he rushes to the door every time we get home, just to say hi. Thats all for now!
-M

Wow

Another month has slipped by without too many major changes. My Mom visited again, and she, Ashley, and I spent a majority of the time letterboxing. I can't remember how many we found exactly, but it was definitely in the teens somewhere.

I absolutely like my job, no not love, but it'll do just fine.

I'm in the process of enrolling in anytime/anywhere classes at Kirkwood, sos I can finally get a big boy job. I'll have one more semester to complete after this one for my AA, and another 2 years or so for my Bachelor's. Probably not a BA in time management though.

Ashley has a nasty cold, but still goes to work everyday, most of the time for the entire day. Wow

Thats it for now!

-M

Backpacking...

We have been talking for awhile now about investing in backpacking equipment. So, the other weekend we took a trip into Nashville to visit REI. After spending three hours in the store, we were driving home with backpacking essentials, packs, bags, and tent! Dying to use our new stuff we decided to go camping...

Yes, in our living room!
-A

The White Collar Amongst The Blue.

Our latest slow down of posting isn't due to a lack of subject matter, just a general flurry of other activity, which I will attempt to summarize now for any interested parties.
As many of you know, I hold a position with one of the largest companies in the world. When I interviewed for that position, I had dollar signs in my eyes. My options went something like this: Puleo's Grille, waiting tables on non-prime hour shifts barely making it, or taking a lucrative sales position with a fortune 50 company. Placed in that context the decision was a fairly easy one. What my mind failed to consider was my lack of TRUE sales experience. I'm new to the expectation of meeting quotas (although I have always been a hard worker). To consistently meet these quotas, though no one would ever say so, requires one to put aside their innate care for the consumer(Some have less than others). The idea preached there is, keep the customer's needs in mind when positioning a package, but don't forget about your own needs when doing so. To compound the issue your friendly computer sales representative can see, plain as sunshine on a summer's day, how much money the company stands to make in dollars or as a percent of the total value of the package. I'm sure anyone can see the conflict of interest this situation creates. After 3 months in my position there, I had had enough. I am not a salesman, and will never be again, ever. I'd like to meet a person that can, with goodness and truth in their hearts, and a solid foundation to stand on, rationalize the necessity of the salesman. Wow, am I ranting mad, or what? Please pardon my rant, I digress...
I was jobless for all of 3 hours, I took a position as a customer service representative with Waste Management. Yes, I'm a garbageman. OK, not really. I work in a call center still, but instead of being in a position that is always taking, I am now in a position that is always giving, and I feel much happier. To boot, I make nearly the same as I did when I was evil, er...I mean 11% less. Well worth peace of mind.
During training I was afforded the opportunity to ride-along with a garbage driver. I was in a roll-off truck We drove all around Nashville during a 12 hour shift starting around 5AM. We picked up and emptied 8 - 20, 30 and 40 cubic yard dumpsters, or as they say in the industry, containers. I've a new found respect for all of those on the front lines of carrying away our waste. The service they provide is taken for granted by nearly everyone, myself included, yet it is so incredibly important to our constantly consuming lifestyles.
I've said much about jobs, and maybe more underneath about society, and my head hurts a bit from thinking about it all. I hope that the next post will be much more light-hearted.

P S <--This is what part of the alphabet would look like if "Q" and "R" were eliminated.

-M

Yes...we are still ALIVE!!!

So what have we been up to for nearly 2 months? Good question, Matt and I are talking about what we should blog about. Anyways...

First, Rachel and Duane came down to visit us for a long weekend around the 24th of August. We showed them the usual tourist stops, painted pottery, and took them to Burgess Falls to swim at the base of the falls. This was apparently the first waterfall Rachel had ever seen in real life. Points for us! We enjoyed the weekend they were here but it was too short like always.

About 2 weeks ago, Matt's computer crashed and the hard drive had to be replaced. Luckily, a few days prior to this, he backed up every file on his computer to reboot the system. This is something that Matt hasn't done in years! So, the crash wasn't devastating at all. In fact, Matt found it to be quite enjoyable. He did all the repairs himself (with some advice from JD) something he hasn't had the chance to do on laptops.

Work? Matt is surviving day by day. He says his job isn't that horrible but the bad days out weigh the good days by a long shot.
I still love the pottery studio! It was rough for awhile because I had no employees. One of my employees took a break due to being 9 months pregnant and her due date approaching and my other employee quit due to pregnancy health reasons. I was glad to see the other girl go because she was calling in sick constantly! I would rather know I have to work all day everyday than have to work at last minute. So, I am left to run the studio with Teresa working most weekends. We just hired a new girl and things are looking pretty bright!

Other than working constantly, we have been keeping up with our Sunday hiking/letterboxing ritual, assuming that nothing else has taken up our Sundays. One Sunday was taken because I volunteered us to help move a studio from Atlanta and another was taken with Rachel and Duane's visit. We are up to 28 letterbox finds! Our plan for next Sunday is to hit Virgin Falls an 8 mile hike if the weather permits.

We have also been working on crafty Christmas presents. Of course we cannot tell you what we have been up to.

This past weekend, the Rila side of my family (Dad, Sherry, Grandma, and Grandpa) came to visit from Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Their visit was enjoyable consisting of a General Jackson night cruise on the Cumberland River!
-A

Swimmy Sweaty Sunday

Sunday, Ashley and I decided to combine hiking with letterboxing. We planned a route taking us about 80 Miles Northeast of Murfreesboro. Our first stop was a Burgess Falls State Park (one more to check off the list). The hike was short, only about 3/4 Mile, but was well worth it. Along the way we encountered 2 small-ish waterfalls, and at the end of the trail one gigantic one! We took some pictures along the trail, which you can see here. We didn't find the letterbox we were hunting at Burgess Falls. We descended the trail to the base of the falls. When we got there we were all alone, save for a family of 3 looking down from the observation deck 250 feet above. Looking at the falls, and the pool at the base, we were overcome with a sudden and overwhelming desire to jump in, despite not having packed our bathing suits! As we swam in the warm water, families and hikers began to arrive. We ate lunch and went for a final dip before packing up and hiking back to the car. How perfect!
We continued onward to the second letterboxing/hiking destination. The Bridgestone/Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area. I know it sounds kinda weak, owned by a tire company and all, but it was amazing! We hiked about 1/4 mile down the Polly Branch trail to find our 1st box of the day, before returning to the car.
We continued onward past our intended destination (bad navigating on my part), and arrived at Yellow Bluff Trail. After hiking in about 1/3 mile, we came to an overlook. We could see the Cumberland Plateau laid out before us. The plateau is broken here by a snaking valley 1000 feet deep. Cut by a river that has since run dry. We found our letterbox, stole a last look at the valley, and continued on our route.
We arrived at Virgin Falls Trail. We are intending to hike this trail in its entirety, but thats for another day. We set off to find 2 letterboxes on this trail. We located the first easy as pie, and the second minutes later. We were set to head home, but walking on the trail back to the car, Ashley spotted something lying on the ground about 2 steps off the trail. She stopped dead in her tracks, and looked at what appeared to be a big black leather wallet, which I then also saw. We looked at each other, confused for a moment. My brain knew what it was immediately, I'd seen one like it before, but my reasoning was getting in the way. How could we just find one sitting on the side of the trail? In disbelief, she reached down to pick it up. We had accidentally found another letterbox. We guessed it had been pulled from its hiding spot by a squirrel or raccoon. The outside of the case had a few small punctures in the shape of a tiny mouth. What's more, when we opened the letterbox to stamp our logbook, the stamp itself was beautifully hand-carved in the image of a raccoon.

And we finally have a...shower curtain!

Going on 4 months and its finally done! Pretty ridiculous. But I guess we'd rather wait 4 months than spend $20 plus on a shower curtain when I can make one for around $10.
-A

The past 5 weeks...

Once again, sorry for not keeping up to date with our blog.

The week of July 9th, Painted Clay held it's 2nd summer camp. It was insanity! We had more kids than we could really handle. So the 2nd camp didn't get through all the projects we did in the first camp and the projects didn't turn out as well as we would have liked. Oh well, we survived. I was very glad for the end of the week to come.

--------OH RION!--------

The Friday camp ended, I went home, took a 2 hour nap, and packed the car for my solo trip back to Iowa. I left around 8PM and by 3AM I was exhausted. So, I pulled over, reclined my seat, and took a 2 hour in a hotel parking lot. Despite the long lonely drive I couldn't pass up this opportunity! Rion, our foreign exchange student was back for a visit! Kate threw him a bash, inviting friends, family and teachers. Many of these people we hadn't seen since high school so it turned out being a mini reunion. I was in Iowa only 2 days but it was well worth the trip.

--------This and That--------

Matt and I have been hitting the trails as well! Sundays have turned into our hiking days. Two Sundays ago we went on a 6 mile hike that was amazing. I got the crap scared out of me by a turkey that flew out of the tall grass just feet in front of us. We got lost half way through the hike because we didn't know where the trial went. We went tromping through the forest on what we thought was the trail only to find nothing but poison ivy. We eventually found the trail again by back tracking our steps and we are still fighting the poison ivy today!

--------CRUNCH--------

Matt's car is finally getting fixed! He couldn't get his car in to get fixed for 3 weeks because they were booked. We thought this meant they were a good place to go but it seems like it just takes them FOREVER to get things done! The car has been in the shop for nearly 2 weeks now. Not that we know too much about body work but man, it was just a crunched door! Apparently, they got sent the wrong door and are waiting for a replacement. Matt has been driving a rental, a Kia Optima. It is not a bad car but he is ready to get his car back.

--------Knock, Knock....Who's There?....MATT'S MOM--------


Last weekend, Matt's mom came down to visit us. We showed her around Murfreesboro and Nashville, made pasta and sushi, and went letter boxing. Letter boxing is a scavenger hunt type game that Mary came across and introduced to us. We recommend it to anyone who likes small adventures and crafts. You get clues from www.letterboxing.org that tell you were a hidden box is located. The boxes contain a small notepad, a rubber stamp and maybe an ink pad. When you find the box, you take the stamp from the box and stamp it in your personal stamp pad. Then, you stamp your rubber stamp in their notepad and sign it with the date. Most of the stamps have been hand carved. We took a stab at carving our own stamps and surprisingly enough, it was very easy to do.


--------Painting with the STARS--------

On August 8th, I had a pretty interesting experience. I went to Amy Grant and Vince Gill's house for a pottery painting party. Their construction guy suggested the idea to Amy and apparently she really liked it. So we packed up what seemed like half the studio and held the party for them. The party went well but it was very exhausting. We arrived at the house around 3PM and didn't leave til 10:45PM. Amy and Vince are very gracious people and act like you and I.

You know your in the south when you see....(Part 2)

These pictures don't really scream southern but they are funny and we thought we would share some more laughs!


This picture was taken on our way back from our hike at Firey Gizzard. Sometimes you just have to wonder what goes through some peoples minds.


This is a really bad picture so you will have to forgive me. It was taken out the car window while we were driving but it cracks me up. It may not be funny to you but TN has some pretty funky alcohol laws and surprises us that they would let this fly. This was taken in the same town as the airplane picture.


Some people just have too much time on their hands. We came across this sight in a small mountain town on our way to and from Hiwassee State Park over Memorial Day weekend.

Hope you enjoyed some laughs.
-A

Our first Weekend together

During the first 3 weeks of July Matt and I have the same work schedule. Working Monday to Friday 8 to 5ish with weekends off. This past weekend we took advantage of these 'free' days. We woke up early on Saturday morning to drive to the Nashvile zoo. It was a blast! The zoo's set-up was great; with a majority of the exhibits having a path between them, making everything less crowded. My favorite were the super-star parrots that squakked at us as we walked away, as if to say "hey, get back here we're cute!" or maybe the meerkats. Matt's favorites were the poison arrow frogs or the red panda. We walked around all morning until our feet hurt, but we didn't stop there.
In the afternoon we decided to visit Nashville's biggest local micro-brewery, Yazoo. They give tours on Saturdays so we were in luck. We met Dan and Kim there around 2, had a beer in the taproom, and took a great tour through the old Marathon Motorworks building, which now houses Yazoo's beer making equipment. Yazoo....er..yahoo!

As if we hadn't had enough walking and excitement on Saturday, we took a road trip to Tracy City, TN to hike the Fiery Gizzard trail in the South Cumberland Recreation Area. The trail is a TN secret. It is a 13 mile trail one way but we only hiked a few miles. We would have hiked more had we went prepared. We decided that we should go hiking without any water, wow, how stupid. So we cut the trail short and hiked back and had a picnic lunch. The trail hugged the edge of the Big Fiery Gizzard Creek, which cut a ravine into the mountain 200 feet deep creating beautiful waterfalls and chimney rock structures.
-M & A

Failed attempt at basil, or is it?

Matt and I decided we would take a stab at growing basil. We thought it would be easy but apparently basil is a little stubborn. Matt did his studying on the internet and was confident it was going to work. So we ventured to Lowes and purchased, a planter box, soil, and two small but healthy looking basil plants. The internet told Matt not to water the plants unless they were dry. So a couple days after we planted, he took out some filtered water and gave them a good bath. Mistake number 1, the next day the leaves had brown spots all over them, hmmm, that water probably had chlorine in it....oops! Mistake number 2, supposedly basil leaves do not like getting wet when watered...oops again! We thought that the plants were going to die but they hung in there and started some new growth. The brown polka dot leaves never bounced back and eventually died. We were excited about the new growth and tried to keep the plants healthy but the new leaves remained small and the stalk started turning brown. So we gave up.
We didn't get around to dumping out the planter box before we left for Iowa and when we returned home, one plant had some green growth on it! We decided that we should keep the plant around and see what happens. Its our new experiment! Is it going to survive? This is the plant today.

-A