The "run" down

Maybe you noticed I changed the name of the blog. Oh, and I changed all the decor as well to match the new family photo (which if you are like me and read a blog through a reader, you don't get to see the "decor" anyway). I have no idea why I changed the name, I just felt like it. I find it a very odd thing to keep a blog anyway. I feel the same way about journals and I figure this is my equivalent of a journal. Why do I do it? I have no idea. LOL! But for the 3 people who actually read it (and likely look at Facebook, too) at least I have photos to share.

In a fit of insanity and not a little peer pressure from my lunatic friend Lynda, I participated in not one, but TWO, activities at Disneyland. The first was a 5K run (I didn't actually run, I just walked) and the second was a 1/2 Marathon (again, mostly I just walked . . . for 13 MILES!!!) Here are two pictures. You can see in the second one this is long after I have showered all the sweat off (what you can't see is the wheelchair I needed to get to this bridge - well okay, not really, but I was REALLY hobbling).




This next photo illustrates just exactly how you feel by the time you are at about mile 9:



You really, really appreciate all the people who take the time to stand out there and cheer you on: cheerleaders, high school bands, hula dancers, mariachi bands, spectators, neighborhood residents, police officers, etc. Many of them will call out your name (because it is printed in big letters across your front) and when you are at that stage of exhaustion and just going on pure willpower, it is very touching and motivating to be encouraged on by random strangers. I finished in 3 1/2 hours. And I doubt I would ever do it again! It took me 3 days and a vat of Bengay to recuperate. And many tolerant friends and family had to listen to quite a lot of whining afterward.

I'm still jumping through hoops with my research project. I heard today from the Kaiser regional nursing council that they approved my project (to now move on to Kaiser IRB for approval). The nice thing is that they really liked my project and want to hear back from me about my results. They also encouraged me to consider publishing the results. Right now I just want to get started on data collection which I can't do until I get Kaiser IRB and then GWU IRB approval. (I know that sounds like "blah,blah,blah" to all of you. That's what you get for reading this thing!)

Martin and I are planning a vacation in October. Actually Martin is doing all the planning. Looks like we are going to Roatan Honduras to do some awesome snorkeling! I can't wait.

And speaking of my sweetheart . . . he bought me an iPhone 4! And I already had a chance to "Face talk" with Andrew. Oh yeah, it's all about the babies.

That's it for now. Everyone is fine and we're hanging in there. We're all in this together.

Summer's End

This has been a summer of both joy and sorrow. Since last I wrote, a number of things have transpired in the Onken clan. First, at the beginning of August, our dear little Sadie was blessed. Both the Onkens and the Doolans were fortunate enough to have their entire family gather for this event (as well as Lindsey's baby Jonah's blessing). Skyler and Sarah flew in for the event and we had a lovely gathering at the Doolan's after the blessings. It also gave us an opportunity to have our Chelsea take some family photos.






The following week I left for a trip to Washington, DC for a reunion with some of my Rhein Main friends and also for an opportunity to meet with my professors at my university (George Washington University.) The good news there is that I really am in the last year of my program and am in the process of getting the necessary institutional permissions to conduct my research project. I'm hoping it is all pretty much "downhill" from here with graduation next May. I also spent some time in the museums while I was in DC - most notably the Holocaust Museum which is beautifully done but also very depressing/sobering. It is frightening to think how quickly totalitarianism and oppression of thought can occur in the wrong hands in a democratic and free society.

Then, all too quickly, Nick, Jamie and the babies left our home on August 16th to return to Boston for Nick's second year of optometry school It was really such a lovely few months having them here - not just the babies which were of course such a joy to have, but we so enjoyed Nick and Jamie's company and the opportunity to spend more time with them. I know they are happy to be back in their own place, but it sure seems lonely here without them.

The sad news is really about Chelsea and Trenton and the sorrow they are undergoing. As I hinted in my previous post, they found themselves expecting a baby, due January 24th (which happens to be my father's birthday.) Almost immediately, however, there were problems. The baby was diagnosed with a cystic hygroma which in turn led to further testing and a diagnosis of Turner's Syndrome. The odds were stacked against carrying the baby to term and yet we all remained hopeful and prayerful that we would be blessed with this tiny baby girl into our family. Unfortunately Heavenly Father had other plans. This past Thursday, after feeling no movement for two days, Chelsea went in and received the sad news that the baby's heart had stopped. Since she has not gone into spontaneous labor, she will go into the hospital this coming Wednesday (the 25th, the day before her 26th birthday) for a procedure to take the baby. If you are reading this, please take a moment to say a special prayer for her and for Trenton. In many ways we all see the hand of the Lord in what is happening, and know that he is aware of our needs. For that, we are all very grateful.

July already?

Yikes, time is sure flying fast. Here's a quick update on the goings on . . .

Nick, Jamie, Andrew and Sadie continue to be a joy to have here - lots of gooey hugs and kisses from the babies and both Nick and Jamie are very fun to have around. Nick has been helping Martin with various technical things at work and has been a great help to him.

Martin completed the purchase of another RV rental company down in Irvine called "First Choice." He's very excited about his expanded business. He's also branching out to booking some rentals out of San Francisco as an experiment.

Chelsea and Trenton have news as well . . . an event which will interfere with her plans for next spring's semester :) She's figuring things out in terms of her academic program - graduation in the fall vs. delaying her credential program . . . but they are both pretty excited.

Skyler and Sarah are enjoying Provo; Skyler's internship with the church actually turned into an extended temporary job with benefits and better pay. Fortunately his professors are letting him start next semester a few weeks late to accommodate this new development. I'm hoping they can come down here one more time for Sadie's blessing on August 1st before the end of the summer and before Nick and Jamie head back to Boston.

I spent 5 days in Phoenix at the end of June at a nurse practitioner conference - it was very informative and I was fortunate to run into a colleague who is in my program at GWU so we got an opportunity to compare notes and give each other moral support. I have a few weeks left of a summer class and then from here on out it should be strictly about working on my capstone project until next spring when I finally will be done! I am looking forward to going to the Long Beach International Quilt Festival at the end of July with my friend Lynda. We'll be camping out in a hotel suite sewing our little hearts out. It will be so nice to actually do some sewing again!

Dancing Boy

After the holiday

Naturally I didn't take any photos! I just never remember.

Skyler and Sarah have come and gone and we feel so blessed to have had them here for a few days. Their siblings made huge efforts to spend as much time as possible with them while they were here - so we had Chelsea and Trenton and Natalie, too, hanging out here, and of course Nick, Jamie, Andrew and Sadie! It was a fun weekend and over too fast.

I am loving waking up in the morning and coming down to knee hugs and wet kisses, and coming home from work to much the same thing. I know it's an adjustment for Nick and Jamie to be here, but I think it really is a blessing for me!

School, yuck. That's all I have to say.

I'll see if ANYONE took a photo from the weekend that I can post. But I doubt it. :)

Whirlwind

Things have been C-R-A-Z-Y here and I will try to sum it up in a snapshot:
Discovered we had a slab leak about 2-1/2 weeks ago (I think). Plumber came and tore up a wall and the floor to find it, but find it they did. Insurance company came and said "we'll pay, and, by the way, you have more water damage under the hardwood floor than you realize, and since we can't match it, we have to replace the entire floor." Of course we said - yikes, but can you do it and have it all done by the 26th when our kids get here? They said they could and the fun began. Packers came and hauled away most of the downstairs furniture (not the carpeted area of the living room, but everything else). Demolition crew came the next day and tore up my beautiful hardwood floors. It took a few days to finally get the crew out to lay the new floor (and while it's fine, it is not as beautiful as my old one, but I couldn't find anything like it - I'll adjust). That took two days. And then yesterday (the 26th) the packers came and unloaded everything just in time for us to go pick up Nick, Jamie and the babies. Things are still a bit crazy. But to add to the overall drama, when all our furniture got packed out, we noticed water damage to another wall and part of the floor in the family room behind where the big TV hutch had been. On closer examination we discovered that the satellite TV installer who had put in our new receiver two years ago had installed his cable directly through the black PVC pipe that was the waste water pipe from the upstairs bathroom!!! Fortunately a call to Dish Network brought quick results (and I'm sure they were happy that they escaped paying for a new hardwood floor because it was definitely damaged). So while it created new and additional drama, it was also a blessing to discover something that was a nightmare waiting to happen (or was happening already in secret).

Anyway, it is for this reason I have had limited computer access at home (no internet) and so I sit this morning in a Starbucks (free internet) having breakfast on a day off while Nick gets me back on line at home. I have a couple of hours of homework to do before I can really get down to the business of getting the house ready for everyone. I have grocery shopping to do and some cleaning to do and bills to pay. Skyler and Sarah surprised us with the announcement that they were coming to spend the long weekend with us (although I know it's mostly about playing with Andrew and meeting Sadie!) So I am planning on selfishly monopolizing my entire family for a few fun days to get my fill of having the entire family together.

And yes, school has started back up. Yuck! On to homework . . .

One more down

Semester that is. Have to take one course over the summer AND I have to rev up on my research project so I don't get to rest much. But the light is definitely at the end of the tunnel. After this summer course is over, I will have no more didactic courses - it's all just my capstone project!

I actually sewed this weekend. First time in I can't even remember when. It felt great. I do have a "to do" list I need to work on: pack up Skyler's bedroom in preparation for Nick, Jamie and kids, and rearrange the sewing room to make it safe for "ditto."

Kitchen is still not quite done. Undercounter lighting still needs to be done, still waiting on the end panels (false fronts), and there are a few little finishing touches that need to be done - a paint dab here and there, things like that.

Skyler and Sarah are in Provo right now for Skyler's internship. He let me know today that he has been offered a 6 month contract! He is trying to see if he can make that work with his school; it would mean some good money and benefits, not to mention a good resume builder, so he is hoping he can make it work.

Natalie has been getting quite a bit of massage work lately. Chelsea and Trenton are close to the end of their semester and already planning their summer school schedules. Working hard!

Boston and Back - the wonders of being a grandparent

Last Sunday I caught a midnight flight to Boston to meet our new grandbaby Sadie. Martin didn't think he would make it, but fortunately he was able to come out and spend a few days, too. I had such a great time playing with Andrew and rocking Sadie. It was also very special for me to be able to "help" a little bit in the house, cooking and tidying up for Nick and Jamie. I found myself reminiscing about those early years of motherhood when I'd cook and clean with a baby on my hip, one at my feet, and others playing somewhere. Always trying to juggle the various sleeping and eating schedules, not to mention the diaper changing. It all passed in a blur! It was so exhausting, but sweet nonetheless. I enjoyed reliving those memories.

It's hard to express exactly what makes being a "Nana" so special - Martin says it's about having all of the fun and none of the responsibilities. I suppose that is part of it, but not really. You don't have the day to day worries and stresses of being a parent, but you still have responsibilities and a role to play. But maybe part of it is that since you've been through it and come out the other side, you don't worry about quite so many things anymore. You recognize that after all you can do, it's still about what Life and the Lord have in store for that child. You know enough now to just enjoy the journey.

One of the things I really enjoy is watching Nick as a father. Of course he had a tremendous role model, so it doesn't surprise me that he is such a wonderful dad. I remember when I first became a mother and suddenly really comprehending how much my own parents must love me. It's a love you can't really understand until you experience it yourself. Watching Nick I can see that he is also growing in his appreciation of his own father. From a gospel perspective, becoming a parent really helps you appreciate the depth of Heavenly Father's love for us. The love a parent has for a child is total, unconditional, and eternal. Grandchildren are somehow an embodiment of that love returned to you, like a gift from your own child, to bring you joy and complete that circle of love.

Thank you Nick and Jamie for that gift and for allowing us to be there to share these early days with you. And thank you especially to our Heavenly Father for these rich blessings of family.

Introducing . . .

Sadie Hart Onken
Born April 13, 2010
8 pounds, 8 ounces
19 1/2 inches long

A working kitchen!

The kitchen is finished with just a few exceptions: still need the under cabinet lighting installed; there's a switch complex that needs a plate (but first needs to be tweaked a bit to get the plate to fit); and all the decorator panels that Kraftmaid and Home Depot are paying for to fix our end panel issues are not yet here/installed. But as of this afternoon, all the boxes are unpacked (I am giving three large boxes of "stuff" away and two large boxes are going into the trash) and I am moved into my new kitchen. I love the way it looks, and I will just have to adjust to some of the weird size issues and storage issues that I've discovered, (including things like I can't really put my pots and pans away with the dishwasher door OPEN and I have to lay my big stock pot on it's SIDE because no single place is big enough, and my drawers are too shallow for the baggie box to sit upright . . . well you get the idea.)

Sneak Peak

Well I can't report things are going SMOOTHLY - we've run into a few snags. Mainly the fact that all the end panels are unsatisfactory. While the cabinet fronts are gorgeous, the side/end panels, including the refrigerator panels and the back of the peninsula, are veneers that have virtually no grain and are slightly off from the color of the cabinet faces. Fortunately, the Home Depot designer has a solution for us (they will order new veneers), but it means adding some time to our project . I had my melt-down last night and this morning, but I'm feeling a little calmer today. Here's a sneak peak of the work so far (look closely and you can see the problem I described):

Plumbing

I neglected to post photos of the sink and faucet I selected. (I bought a garbage disposal, too, but I won't bore you with that.) The sink is Franke and the faucet is Grohe (mine will be in brushed nickel, not the chrome you see here.)

Today Martin is putting all the baffles on the new light cans, and I've been cleaning up dust and dirt as I am hopeful that the dirtiest of the work is finished and that whatever mess the cabinet installers make, they will clean up as well. My zen is slipping a bit. Tarrik Daou found a taker for my gas range (it's a really good Kitchenaid Superba) so I won't feel quite so much like white trash with a range sitting on my front porch. Still need to find a home for the dishwasher sitting out on the back patio. I think I have a trip to DI in my future.

Now that I'm cleaned up, I need to get started on my RS lesson for tomorrow. And do laundry!

Kitchen update

Just a quick photo update of the progress. And actually I guess I'm lucky that it is in fact progressing. Installation of the cabinets takes place on Monday and Tuesday. Still not certain when granite and tile work will begin - but hopefully not too long after the cabinets are put in. Stay tuned while I stay zen . . .

My life in a comic strip . . .

Finally, someone has described my doctoral program perfectly: (click on it to see the full strip, couldn't figure out how to make it smaller)

Work in progress

So we started the demolition of the kitchen a couple of weeks ago. Martin took all the wall cabinetry off and starting tearing out the soffit (that's the overhead dropped ceiling thingy). Things are getting kind of yucky with our office turned into an impromptu "kitchen" with our fridge and microwave and paper products there; the "dining room" filled with boxes; a gas range sitting on the front porch; and the rest of the house covered in a thin layer of dust. When we demolished the soffit we discovered a mare's nest of wires and weirdly placed pipes! Uh oh! But here is the good part of the story:

Monday night I went with two friends from work to have dinner at Wood Ranch in Northridge - really outside of my usual area. Suddenly, my nephew TJ shows up at the table! He tells me that his girlfriend Lisa recognized me from my photo in Facebook and told TJ "I think your aunt is here." As I am chatting with him and enjoying this rare treat, it strikes me: TJ does construction management!! Ah ha! Maybe he can advise us on the weird pipes and wires and what we need to do. I am so used to TJ living in Northern California that I completely forgot he was living and working nearby and knew about all things construction! He came by on Tuesday and before we knew it, he had agreed to help us. What a relief to have someone we know and trust on the job. So this weekend TJ spent the entire weekend working on the aforementioned wires and pipes and putting in light cans and, miracle of miracles, a light in my pantry (that I've needed for 20 years!) Meanwhile on Saturday Natalie and I finished demolishing tile counter tops and together with Martin we got the base cabinets out. She and I loaded cabinetry, sink, and plumbing "stuff" and hauled it to Oxnard to donate to ReStore, which is the building supply thrift store operated by Habitat for Humanity. It took two trips, but it saved us $80 worth of dump fees and it all goes to a good cause. The cabinets were worn but still very serviceable. Then we filled up the truck again with drywall and lumber and tile and general yucky stuff and I went on my first visit to the Calabasas landfill. Chelsea came over and helped Martin make space in the garage for the new cabinets which will be delivered this coming Tuesday the 9th. It was full day.

To chronicle this dust-filled adventure, I am trying to remember to take photos. Here are some before and "during" shots. I'll post more as time goes on.





I'm trying to stay very "Zen" about the whole thing and remember that it will all be worth it in the end.

When I should be doing homework . . .

We got notification that our cabinets will be delivered about March 9th, so suddenly we're in high gear to pick out our granite and to get started packing up the kitchen so we can do the demolition work. We're going to do it ourselves because the quote was astronomical; we will also be hiring our own drywall/sheetrock guy and our own electrician. We have a lot of work ahead of us (and a lot of mess). So Saturday we spent most of the day driving around looking at granite. I thought I knew what I wanted, but it's much harder when you are actually looking at stuff. I fell in love with this, called Greenpeace:

It was a lot more green than what I thought I wanted, but it was gorgeous. Until I found out it is $27 a square foot and the most expensive piece of granite in the place. Oh yeah, leave it to me.

After visits to a few other places I came back with these samples:



Okay, this is a lousy photo so it's hard to see the colors, but I will proceed. First, I found the really dark one, which is an extremely dark green called Ubatuba. I was pretty sure that was what I wanted. But Martin pointed out how dark the kitchen would be especially given how small it is. Good point.

Then I found the other two - the lightest one is a nice sage-y green called Typhoon, very pretty, but maybe too gray for me. I tend to like warmer colors. Then I found that medium green. It's a "golder" green, a nice medium tone, neither too light, nor too dark, called Katana Pearl. We thought we'd take them home and see how we felt about it. We'd been spending our time also thinking about the backsplash - tile? granite? if tile, then what kind? No clear picture. The salesmen showed us travertine, nice, but nothing really speaking to me. On our way out the door at the last place, I saw this display of slate:



It was perfect. I pulled out the sample of Katana Pearl, the middle toned green and knew these were my choices. I wish these photos did justice to the colors, but you'll just have to take my word for it - it's beautiful!

In other news: it was a long and stressful work week and I am behind in my school work. Last night we double-dated with Chelsea and Trenton for dinner and a movie. Sundays are busy days for Martin with his High Council calling and so I have little excuse for not getting my reading and writing done.

The weather has been gorgeous this past week, the hills are absolutely vivid in limes, emeralds, and hunter greens, and the sky is clear and blue. It is a great reminder of how breathtakingly beautiful this area of God's world is and I'm grateful to live here.

Time Flies

I realize it's been awhile since I've posted and now it seems pointless to try and play catch-up. But this much I will say: Christmas was terrific! We were fortunate that last minute changes allowed Skyler and Sarah to join us, and that meant a full house for the holidays. We had our usual big Christmas Eve dinner and the more intimate Christmas morning and when it was all done, we were tired but happy. New Year's Eve was a quiet evening with dinner and a movie and the first day of 2010 was spent taking Christmas down and just enjoying the day.

All too soon school started up again for me with a vengeance. I wish I could claim that the semesters are getting easier, but I find they are just more stress provoking. This semester should result in me producing my formal proposal for the capstone project which will consume the next year of my life. I have to take some type of elective over the summer, but the Fall and following Spring should be entirely devoted to the project. I try to remind myself there is light at the end of the tunnel. I would explain my proposed project to you, but it would probably bore any readers silly, so I won't. At least not at this post.

Martin and I decided that our Christmas gift to ourselves this year was to do a long wished for kitchen remodel. It's exciting but also anxiety producing, especially as the costs involved keep going up. It's always scary to do something like this without knowing for sure if you can trust the contractors, too. We've put money down on a new set of appliances - the GE Cafe line:



And the cabinets have been selected and kitchen designed by the Home Depot designer. We're keeping the same footprint of the kitchen since our floors were redone only about 4 years ago and since there really aren't a lot of options in our small kitchen anyway. The cabinets are from Kraft Maid. The wood is a rustic birch, color praline, and door design "Dillon":



Now that obviously isn't my kitchen, but it's a great photo of the cabinets. We won't be getting the five piece drawer faces though so my drawer style is a bit different that shown. I haven't picked out granite yet, but I'm thinking black with a lot of green in it or very, very dark green. Depends on what I can find. The backsplashes will be tiled and we will be adding under cabinet lights. I haven't quite pictured in my mind what kind of tile I want. I'm a "know it when I see it" kind of person anyway. The nice thing will be that the fridge we bought is cabinet depth and we will have end panels added to our kitchen so that the fridge will appear built in. We are also removing the soffit from the ceiling which will open up the room to make it feel a bit larger and allow for taller cabinets and some nice molding up around the top of the cabinets. Most of all, we are adding pull out shelves and things to help make the blind corner cabinets more accessible. I'm getting too old to keep having to get down on my knees and fish around in the cabinets to find things. Of course all of this is getting much pricier than we initially anticipated, especially when we saw the ridiculous estimate from the cabinet guys for some of the work. We're hoping to find someone who can do some of this work at a better rate.

Today I'm home from work babysitting for Andrew, which is such a pleasure. This will be the last trip out for Jamie and Andrew until the new baby is here. But they will be back out in May to spend the summer with us! Yeah! I hear Andrew stirring from his nap . . .

Andrew was sharing his cheese with Scooter: one for you and one for me, one for you and one for me: