new look & uncooperative dogs

well, i was trying to take a (timed) picture with me and the dogs. i don't know why i thought they would cooperate. anyway, here is my new haircut and the dogs. :)

new knitting vocabulary

i have added some new letters into my world of knitting terms. i have been pretty standard with the *k*, and *p*, and occasionally the *k2tog*... now, after some online demonstration, i can *s1 as if to purl*, *yb*, *yf* and make new, pretty patterns. :) here are a few pictures (and previews) of things to come. they still need to be *blocked* but regardless of that... i am also going to be brave, soon, and branch out and try an adult sized hat. i will share a picture of it, too, if it is worthy of such.

wet paint!

no, it's not wet anymore, and there are still plenty of blank walls in the house, but we have gotten some of the painting out of the way. with kelly and alicia's help, the kitchen, dining room, and office were painted. i painted the guest room and guest bath. it is so nice to finally have some color on the walls. so here they are......

grassy field

the dining room is green on top and white below

grassy field

the kitchen and dining room match

harbor blue

adorning the guest room

fresh wessel blue

in the office

sunset blush

warms up the guest bath

amy and lex came to town

amy and her dog lex trekked (well, drove) over from franklin to visit for the weekend. the dogs were so excited to have a furry visitor and we tried really hard to convince amy to just move on over here, too. (and she would if the ash. police dept. would not make her redo everything she has already done to earn her cop status. but anyway...) we spent some time on the blue ridge parkway and took her to dinner at the pisgah inn and on sunday we had brunch (and mimosas!) at mayfel's and spent a bit of time at the mast general store. the dogs enjoyed chewing on some new rawhide bones and playing with lex, who is just a sweetheart. unfortunately, i don't have any pictures of us with amy (amy has all of those), but hopefully i can post some after she shares them with us. we had a great weekend and enjoyed hosting our first official (overnight new) house guests.

the three amigos

sweet lex

looking glass rock

checking out the view

sunset

no trip up the parkway is complete without some wildlife (dead as it was)... a rattlesnake

gatlinburg...

we headed to gatlinburg in august for alicia's birthday. we split rent on a huge cabin and enjoyed our time there and in pigeon forge and downtown gatlinburg. on our saturday there, jay and i decided to hit the chimney tops trail. we thought we were in decent shape. well, our current shapes thought differently. we did hike about 1.5 of the 2 miles.... and when we were still staring at the mostly straight up trail, and the clouds enveloping the top of the trail, we decided to save our lungs, hearts, legs, etc. and head back down. but we got a few pictures from there. the next day we all hiked up clingman's dome and enjoyed some views on the way back. it was a nice, relaxing weekend with good friends.

still smiling post hike with "the chimneys" in the background

looking down the trail

very large tree. and me.

little waterfall and nice, cool water

old sign

steven & kelly, matt & alicia, jay & stacie

me and kelly at the top of clingman's dome

group shot

the parking lot... it is crazy that it is only 0.5 miles away

deliquency

i know it has been a few weeks since i have made a post. my work schedule has changed back to normal since then and we've hosted an out-of-town guest. i know... poor excuses. so, because of my lack of posting, you will be getting a super update! i don't even know where to start. of course, because they are so easy, we can always start with the pets. i know they are always happy to have their pictures posted....

beautiful barley

still bed buddies

cotton still has the habit of de-fuzzing her tennis balls

dave will sometimes keep his shedding contained to his own bed