Greg & Barb: The Tale of a Settling Family

my life = great

2010-11-24T21:55:00.000-08:00

Why carve when you can paint?

Well, maybe there's a reason we carve after all

I love my beautiful wife and the lovely babies she makes

ha!


("surprised face")

happy contentment

I love these little bonnet-style knit baby hats sometimes...

I can't describe how happy this picture makes me

little BeaBea's a happy camper


my life = great

Mona's Kitchen Remodel

2009-07-09T22:22:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I posted an ad on Craigslist that read something like: "Woodworker available for custom furniture, cabinetry, entry doors, etc. Visit http://gregklassen.com/ to learn more..."
A week later, a nice lady named Mona called me and said, "We are remodeling our kitchen and we're looking for someone who can create cabinets in a style that compliments our home. Are you interested?" Of course I was interested! I've never done anything like this before. I've built cabinets here and there, but nothing of this scope. What a great challenge! I immediately went to the library and checked out all of their books loosely titled "How to build cabinets." I love the library. The library is my Superman cape. What can't you do when you have all those great books there to teach you stuff?!

So, for about 2 1/2 months, starting with a set of simple 2D drawings, I drew all new, detailed plans for the whole kitchen, made cut lists, designed each individual box, drawer, door and pullout. I made a procedural plan, approached the whole project systematically, ordered my stack of lumber and plywood and dove in. The project was a nice, new excuse to buy lots of tools I'd been longing for! Unlike other cabinet shops, I made each and every part of the kitchen, by hand, one piece at a time. That includes the doors and drawers. Most cabinet shops outsource these parts. (Don't ask me how many "spare" doors I have leftover). Because I made them all myself, I was able to control the wood's grain patterns, use single-width boards where possible and so on. Yeah, I know, who cares about any of this besides me?? Well, almost no one. But, the purist in me forced me to do the very best job I could. I'm glad I did. It was a satisfying project and I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Here is the house - an old Craftsman in Bellingham.

Here are a few before pictures of the kitchen. Your typical dark brown, run of the mill prefabbed cabinets of the era.

Now, here's the after.

Farmhouse sink, handmade in England. Don't lift this puppy without an extra set of manly hands. I speak from experience.

My nifty idea - a nested drawer above the garbage pullout, for storing garbage bags and the like.

Where it is open above the countertop, there used to be a wall prohibiting light from entering from the living room. We knocked the wall out and added a breakfast bar. Under the breakfast bar was just a drywall half-wall. I replaced it with custom paneling that matches the existing trim in the house - and the doors provide access to the deep corner cabinet on the other side - the perfect spot for board games, don't you think?!

I think the hardware and light fixtures really compliment the Craftsman character of the home.

My other nifty use of a small space. A 4" wide spice pullout door next to oven, providing easy access to your favorite spices when you are cooking!

I wish this Viking gas range was in my house! What a beauty...

No title needed

2009-07-03T17:23:00.000-07:00

Some pictures do not require explanation

Joining the Circus

2009-06-22T19:14:00.000-07:00

This weekend I did, in fact, run away and join the circus. Yes, that's how another artist that I met described her and her husband's existence as festival attending artists. They travel around the country, selling their art at outdoor art festivals. This past weekend I participated in the 3-day Edmonds Arts Festival (outside Seattle)- described, on the festival website as showcasing "the work of nearly 240 carefully selected artist exhibitors, offering oils, watercolors, pastels, drawings, mixed media, photography, sculpture, fiber arts, jewelry, glass, metal, pottery/ceramics, toys, collectibles, and furniture. " Most of the artists at the festival skip around the country selling their craft/art at festivals like this one. When the show is over they pack up their art into vans and trailers, like circus animals, and head on to the next show.

In Edmonds, each artist displayed their work under 10x10 white canopies. The artists I talked to each had different expectations from their weekend. Some, more experienced artists, expected to take home $10-15K in sales, while others, had more modest goals, like making enough to pay for their booth fees, travel expenses and hotel stay. I, on the other hand, came just to dip my toes into the water and get a feel for what it was like to do a summer art festival. I'd say I had a good experience. I learned a lot about how to present my work and have some good ideas for changes at my next show.

I applied to 3 shows this summer - Edmonds, the Bellevue ArtsFair and Portland's Art in the Pearl. The two latter shows are considered two of the very best art festivals in the nation. I figured I would just apply to the best shows and it turns out I was accepted into each of them. Each time an artist asked me what shows I was doing next, I would tell them and then they'd do a double take, like "Really?! Wow, I've been trying for 10 years to get into that one." Then, I would feel embarrassed and explain that I was surprised to have been accepted.

I brought a mix of items to the show this weekend, from boxes and Leaf Cutting Boards to coffee tables, Bird Lamps and a Mendo Bench. I received a lot of interest in custom orders and expect to get follow up inquiries this summer. The Leaf Boards were by far my best seller and were popular wedding gifts.

Now it's time to get ready for the Bellevue ArtsFair (http://www.bellevuearts.org/fair/index.htm). I am excited about this show. Here are the vitals for Bellevue:

Dates: July 24-26

Location: Bellevue, WA (blocks from Microsoft World HQ - $$$ cha-ching!)
350,000 attendees in 3 days (that sounds like absolute mayhem!!)

Booth fee: $1000 (gulp)

300+ artists, literally, from around the world

I am hopeful. I think it's going to go well. At the Edmonds show I sold cutting boards, etc. At this show I am going to dive in and just showcase my furniture designs. I think its important to send a strong message that "I'm a furniture maker and this is who I am," rather than trying to be all things to all people. This weekend I dipped my toes in the water, but in just a few weeks, I am going to walk to the edge and dive in. Here's to hoping I can swim!

Cheese Rolling

2009-06-06T16:37:00.000-07:00

While Spain has fools come from around the world to run in front of bulls, and the USA plays host to the World Pillow Fighting Championship and Japan sees bare men run through the streets as part of its Naked Festival, Gloucestershire, England is home to a spectacle that tops them all.

I stumbled upon this video and felt it was worth sharing with a wider audience. Enjoy.

Congratulations to me

2009-05-27T20:02:00.001-07:00

There have been many moments in our history that are noteworthy, newsmaking and memorable. Gandhi's march to the sea, Martin Luther King's "Dream" speech, Barack Obama becoming our first non-white president. Well today is another one of those days. A day that redirected the course of history; a day that fosters hope for the masses. A day to celebrate.

Today marks, for me, one year of being a self-employed furniture maker. There isn't an exclamation point or symbol great enough to follow that line. A big sigh and a pat on my own back is just how I am celebrating today. Oh, and I also bought myself a book online that my furniture has been published in - it's called "Fine Woodworking Design Book Eight: Original Furniture from the World's Finest Craftsman." I really like that last part.

If you Google, "Foolish people who start a business on a shoestring" immediately my picture pops up and you can read how I started my business with very very close to no money at all, after two years of school, without a business plan, without a permanent shop space, and no business contacts to speak of. On top of that, it was my sole responsibility to immediately be supporting my sweet wife and lovely daughter, who stay at home together because that's the way we want it.

So, what did I learn in year one? Put simply: a lot. Here are only a few of the things I learned.

A supportive spouse is key above all. Barb supports me wholeheartedly, every day. She is intereseted in my work and encouraging.

Gotta have a website. http://gregklassen.com/ It brings credibility and is a sales tool.

People talk about having "irons in the fire." I say, fill that fire with every freaking iron you can find. When you are busy, don't sit down and be happy. Rather, market yourself and look for more work so you can stay busy.

People always ask me what sort of stuff I make. Well, here's a list of some of this last year's projects.

Kitchen cabinets

A conference table (made from recycled Teak desks)

Poker chip trays

Toys (inspired by Ruthie)

Cutting boards

Lamps (my Bird Lamp has been a top seller, having success in 5 different galleries!)

2 custom entry doors and a screen door

A custom cedar fence and gate

4 benches

A breakfast bar

A front porch

2 workbenches (for another woodworker)

A sweet shoe cabinet for a daycare

7 wall sconces

A toy chest (for Granny Best)

And what I am working on now?

2 more custom entry door projects

A custom clock

Making lots of furniture for upcoming art festivals in Seattle and Portland

A custom lamp

A built in bookcase

Working on a back porch

A tree swing

And, I am currently a weekly craft vendor at the Bellingham & Fairhaven Farmers Markets, locally. The Market serves as my one day a week storefront, where I can take orders, gauge interest in my work and try out new products.

Recently I was interviewed by a local TV station at the Bellingham Farmers Market.

The Bellingham Farmers Market - Greg Klassen Furniture from ENW with Deb Slater on Vimeo.

It's been a great year. It hasn't been easy, and there have been very low moments where we needed a helping hand to get back up and keep going. In my personal history, this is a really big day. I hope for many more years of living life just the way we have this last year.

Thank you to those of you who have supported me. And, lastly, congratulations to me! (This is where I pat myself on the back and get back to work)

California Vacation

2009-05-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we left for a California vacation. The plan: drive to visit my family in central California, and on the way stop for a couple days in Fort Bragg. Our first travel day brought us to Grants Pass, Oregon. Grants Pass is our usual stopping point for the 20 hour drive to visit my family (or, in this case, 16 hrs to Fort Bragg). We've become acquainted with the town. We know exactly how to get to the luxurious Motel 6, and where to get croissants for the early leg of our 2nd day. Day 2 returned us to the northern California coast - Ruthie's birthplace and where we spent two great years of our life, making furniture, friends and memories that have sweetened our lives. If heaven has a coastline, it will surly be patterned after this one. The air was so fresh, the ocean so active and the smell of the Eucalyptus trees made us very nostalgic. We arrived in Fort Bragg just in time to meet our friends Evan, Lundy and Josephine (who generously hosted us for 2 nights), and go for dinner at Mama Ricarda's - our favorite place for a burrito. Then, Evan and I went to the Spring furniture show at the school and Barb and Ruthie stayed back to play with the girls.

> Ruthie's first time playing in the sand

> Ruthie & Josephine were fast friends. Ruthie has an adoring, follow-them-anywhere, feeling towards "big" girls right now...

After a couple days in Fort Bragg, we left for Reedley (for those who don't know, Reedley is where I grew up and it's in the flat arid valley of Central California, known for growing much of the world's produce, and not to mention, the world's best peaches). We had a great few days spending as much time as possible playing with cousins and visiting with family.

> My great little nieces, Molly & Rebekah

> Family photo. Hey, who's that bearded guy with no neck in the back row?

> Sweet and petite little Karis. Karis is 5 weeks younger than Ruthie (they had the same due date).

> Barb and Gracie

> Casey and Gracie in action in the back yard...

> Proud Grandpa.

> And Proud Grandma. Ruthie loved Grandpa & Grandma's swing in the backyard.

> This is Rudy. He's even cuter than this picture and he could fit in a woman's purse. Ruthie giggled each time he licked her. They were fast friends.

> Each visit home must include a ride through the orchards on the Polaris. We drove up the road to a strawberry field and bought a flat. They were dark red all the way through and sweeter than you can imagine! Ruthie liked them so much, that I just kept giving them to her at every snack and meal time. She woke up the next morning covered in a nice medley of puke and strawberries. Ooops! Can we say, everything in moderation? Next time.

> Ruthie playing doctor. That's Dr. Ruth E. Klassen M.D. to you.

> Ruthie is in a big animal phase right now. She knows all the sounds and likes to point them out when we're driving. So, we took her to the zoo. She loved it! I have never seen her so happy and content for such a long period! Her cousin, Rebekah, insisted that she be the "big cousin" and push her around the zoo the whole time and Ruthie was a big fan of that.

Forty-eight hours of driving in the span of 9 days. A visit to the Redwood forest, the ocean, a stop in San Francisco, lunch at In N' Out Burger (twice), a visit to the zoo, date night at the movie theatre, separate beds at Motel 6, going to Molly's baseball game, going for breakfast and a superspeed power walk with my Dad and his friends, Rudy, several family dinners - all highlights from a short and sweet vacation. I look forward to the next one.

- Greg

A series of videos

2009-04-30T16:22:00.000-07:00

Ruthie is an amazing dancer!

Ruthie has learned to fake cry! Even though it seems like something awful happened, she really is faking...yikes!

Our little walker

Ruthie learned to cool her food this week...

Ruthie's new hairdo! So cute...

My (Barb) personal favorite.

Tulip Festival

2009-04-18T17:24:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. Because it's been such a cool spring the tulips are just starting but the daffodils are in full force! It makes me wonder if Ruthie will always think there is a magical place where daffodils grow as big as your head!! We had a great day.

On the move...

2009-02-13T13:56:00.000-08:00

Our little girl is on the move... slowly! Yesterday she all of a sudden figured out how to crawl! The very funny thing is, I don't think she realizes it yet.

Other exciting news in our lives (well mostly Greg's business) right now:

* Greg is a featured artist in a gallery show in Bellingham for the month of February!

* He got a job making a custom desk and shoe rack

* The biggest news is that Greg has been hired to do an entire kitchen cabinet job! We are so excited, this is a huge deal for us.

* I have started working very part time for www.melodydavisphotography.com

Ruthie's first birthday!

2009-02-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

Our little girl is one! It doesn't seem possible! We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Ruthie, first with friends and then family. She had a great time and especially loved her chocolate cupcake!! It's truly a miracle how far she has come in one year! I can't wait to see what happens in Ruthie's life this year.

Watch one of the best moments in Ruthie's life so far!

Growling

2009-01-15T15:15:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of this at our house lately.

BIG NEWS....

2009-01-13T09:07:00.001-08:00

Ruthie has a tooth!! Her first tooth made it's appearance last night. It's very cute and I will try to get a picture of it soon.

In other news... the Klassen family is now the proud owner of a black 1998 Volvo wagon!

Sick Baby

2009-01-09T08:59:00.000-08:00

This is evidence that we will do anything to make our sick baby smile! Ruthie has an ear infection and bronchiolitis which we hope goes away soon.

White Christmas

2008-12-30T13:06:00.000-08:00

Here is a glimpse into our White Christmas! It was beautiful and is almost all gone already! It was a wonderful way to celebrate! Especially for Ruthie's first Christmas. We headed to Mom and Dad's on Christmas afternoon and had a wonderful time shoveling, playing in the snow and especially going on the crazy carpet! My big brother John and I made a track off of Mom and Dad's back porch and down their sloping lawn. It was an incredible short but fun ride!

Mom and Dad's new house in Aldergrove covered in snow!

Pigtails and Critters

2008-12-26T20:56:00.000-08:00

Ruthie sure liked her first Christmas! Can you tell?? She got lots of great toys and we got lots of white snow. There is a 4 ft high snow drift in our front yard right now. Here is the view from our living room window right now.
Here is the view in our bathroom at cousin bath time.

And here is a table I made, called the Critter Table...

I was in a month long holiday art festival in Bellingham. It was great. I think I will continue to do art shows in the future. The Bird Lamps were popular...

And here is the Critter Bench, #1 and #2...made from Sapele wood

I hope your Christmas was as merry as ours!

Visit from California

2008-12-09T09:24:00.000-08:00

We were so happy to have Grandma and Grandpa Klassen come visit us for American Thanksgiving. Ruthie warmed up to them in record time and spent some good time bonding. Here are just a few pictures of our visit.We made a HUGE Thanksgiving meal with a gourmet menu of... Roasted turkey with ginger butter and pan gravy; rustic bread stuffing with dried cranberries, hazelnuts and mushrooms; mashed potatoes with caramelized shallots; maple-tangerine cranberry sauce; cauliflower with brown butter, pears, sage and hazelnuts; green beans with lemon vinaigrette and parmesan breadcrumbs. Needless to say, it took ALL day! Ruthie supervised the preparations from safely under the table.Before we ate we took a break and went Christmas tree shopping. It didn't take Ruthie long to realize we were about to do something fun. It's so fun to share our traditions with Ruthie, we found a beautiful tree!The nice man at the Christmas tree place gave Ruthie her first candy cane...It didn't take her long to figure out what to do!Ruthie got lots of rides from Grandpa.Merry Christmas!

Halloween Pixie!

2008-11-11T10:55:00.000-08:00

Just thought you might want to see Ruthie in her first Halloween costume. She was a Pixie and attended a Baby Halloween Party! It was very cute. Enjoy!

Greg is such a proud Daddy!

Kat was the hostess of the party and a very cute Lady Bug

Amelia the scarecrow

Paria the pumpkin

There was also a Duck, Butterfly and Dog!

Apple Farm

2008-10-22T19:51:00.000-07:00

Isn't fall beautiful?! Fall, in the Northwest this year, is perfect. The weather is crisp and clear. The evenings have been met with the smell of that great early season chimney smoke and the light fog that hovers above the wild grasses. I don't mean to get all poetic on you, but it's so nice it is worth trying to describe. We took advantage of one of those beautiful fall days in Washington last Sunday - we went to the local apple farm...again. Bellewood Farms. We love it there. We went with John, Christy, Alexander and Mom Best. We took their complimentary golf carts for a joy ride around the farm, stopping to pick the ripest, biggest apples at our leisure. Mmm...a Honeycrisp apple in season has no competition. And when you dip that Honeycrisp in the apple farm's homemade caramel dip, GOODNIGHT! That's the stuff sweet sweet dreams are made of. If ever there was a reason for your mouth to water and drool!

[Okay...Focus...Must finish blog.]

Yeah, fall is great up here. I have been struggling in my business the last few weeks. I haven't been finding much work and it has been really stressful. But, things took a positive turn in the last couple days. I have received a couple jobs. One of them is making wooden "canvases" for a local fine art painter who paints big, colorful abstracts. Interesting. The other is doing some odd jobs for a local coffee shop chain. Also, I am building a church pew style sitting bench and possible a dining table. In about 30 hours I went from wondering where the rent check money was coming from to wondering whether we should go on the Mexican or Alaskan cruise next spring. Well, that may be an exaggeration. But, I am happy to have work, doing what I love.

Below are photos of a toy chest and my new kid's chair, called the "Giraffe Chair."

Life goes up, life goes down, life goes up

2008-10-11T15:41:00.000-07:00

While mom had a nap today, me and Ruthie had a little photo shoot.

She tried on mom's glasses...and dad's hat...

and one of her toys. (As you can see, sometimes moms get so tired, they can sleep right through playtime)

What a cutie!

Here is a lamp a made last week. I call it the Bird Lamp.

And here is a box that I made for a box show in Seattle...

One of my bigger goals as a furniture maker was to have my work sold in the Northwest Fine Woodworking gallery in Seattle. I had the opportunity to take my work there this week and have it reviewed by a jury to see if it was acceptable to be in their showroom. I brought my bowfront sideboard cabinet and a pair of side chairs I made in Sweden.

There gallery is the best fine furniture gallery on the west coast and can be difficult to get in to. In fact, at their last jury, they did not accept any pieces. I am proud to say the gallery took both pieces and they are now for sale in their showroom! I am really excited about it. It was just the encouragement I needed after an otherwise rough week. I won't tell you that on the way home my truck broke down and we were stranded on the side of the highway for hours, waiting for help and that now we are a one car family. Uh-oh. Ruthie seemed to think it was a special 4 hour snuggle and play date in the car. She even got to steer for awhile. She was perfectly happy the whole time. It didn't cross her mind that we were stuck on the edge of the interstate during rush hour.

Finding it hard to imagine a baby happy to be stuck in a broke down truck on the side of the road? Well, we took this picture a couple hours in. If only we could all handle life's challenges with a look like that on our faces.

Trip to Alberta

2008-10-04T17:57:00.000-07:00

We recently took a trip to Alberta to visit family and friends. We drove through the Okanogan Valley and the Rockies. It wasn't the first time we had done this drive, but it was the first time in fall. The golden aspen and birch trees dotted the forests to make every view picture worthy. We went across lakes and along rushing rivers and enjoyed the Rockies without their usual snow. It was also the first time we traveled with a baby who had a cold. Try an 11 hour drive, that becomes a 14 1/2 hour drive with the addition of a detour, with an uncomfortable baby in the back seat who is also trying to have teeth pop through her little gums. Yeah. Not always pleasant.

Well, besides the hellacious long traveling day, our trip was great. We stayed with our friends, the Klagers in Calgary. They were fantastic hosts. Ruthie got to play lots with her buddy Toby and I got to play with my buddy Jeremy. Amanda and Barb got to do their mom-talk as much as they wanted and we were all happy. You know what I mean when I say "mom-talk," right? It's like a lot of discussing the best ways to mush up cooked vegetables, how they would improve the functions of their diaper bags, and how they really truly can't remember what it is like to feel rested. It's good for moms to have this. No one wants to feel like they are on an island.

We had a great trip and enjoyed our visit with some of our favorite people.

Nana's 89th birthday party...

Our little trooper in her carseat...

Driving break & snuggle...

The Klagers took us to the zoo, and what a great zoo it was! We got to watch hippos swim...

...and giraffes dance,
..and even a baby elephant!

Comments are good

2008-09-27T19:40:00.000-07:00

Can a man breathe without air?
Can a woman bake without flour?
Can a bird fly without a sky?

Answer: no.

And neither can this blog survive without your comments.

I need them. I need them!

C'mon people! You don't have to say something profound, or even original. Just say something! Is anyone reading this? Is there anyone out there that can hear me??

Contemporary Design

2008-09-17T19:40:00.000-07:00

Go to your newstands or bookstores at the end of the month and buy the special
issue magazine that looks like this.

You will find my furniture in it!

Six Years Later

2008-09-16T20:06:00.000-07:00

Six years ago today (September 14) at this very moment we were walking up the aisle in a little white church, holding hands, just married, in a big field in the Alberta prairies. Now, here we are, eons later in northwest Washington playing with our 7 month old daughter and wondering where 6 years went. Time goes a little faster every year, but this last year went by like a fart in the wind. Maybe all of the moving around had that effect on us (?). Now that I think about it, we lived in a lot of different places. Besides living in 3 vastly different places –Sweden, California & Washington- we lived for a week or more in 8 different homes! Eight!!! I didn’t realize it was so many until I tallied them up. Isn’t that ridiculous?! Eight different places. We are vagabonds. Nomads! But not anymore. We’re settled now. Like the roots of oak tree – completely grounded. For a while. I hope.

(anniversary family hike, up way to steep of a mountain)

Well, for those of you who were not at our wedding, you really missed out. It was the most beautiful day there has been. Ever. Warm sun shining, cool breeze blowing. The horizon was dotted with just enough clouds to make you wish you had your camera. Nearly everyone important to us was there, helping us celebrate. It was a great way to start.

A lot happens in six years. It’s a bit overwhelming to try to think about all of those happenings. So many trips to here and there. So many jobs. So many good days and so many bad days. As if it’s not hard enough to remember what you had for lunch yesterday, remembering all that has happened in six years is a great task.

I wonder where we will be and what we can remark on 6 more years from now. Now that's a big question mark! With Ruthie & Barb in my life, I know at the very least, I'll be a happy man.

------------------------------------------------

Ruthie would like to show you something new she has just learned how to do this week!...

-------------------------------------------------

Here are a couple of my recent projects that I have been working on.

For Barb's parents I designed and built an entry door.

It is made from Sapele wood with beveled glass windows.

And, near the front door, I built a cute little porch for them to sit on at their leisure. I anticipate a lot of coffee being sipped and toddlers jumping up and down the steps!

(Door BEFORE)

(Door AFTER)

(Door & Porch)

Recently, I was a featured artist in Bellingham's ArtWalk. Here are couple pictures of my display. (My sideboard and side chairs just returned from a national furniture design competition in Atlanta, Design Emphasis, where I won 1st and 2nd place awards.)

Bonding

2008-09-08T21:17:00.000-07:00

Having a daughter is the very best thing in the world.
Like almost every other dad, I secretly wanted my firstborn to be a boy. Isn't that the way it's supposed to happen? Why is that? Maybe it's because dads quietly fear they won't be able to relate to a baby girl. Relating to a baby sounds hard enough when you've never had one. But a baby girl?
Well, I wouldn't have it any other way. I didn't just get a girl. I got Ruthie! I wish you could all see her everyday like I do. I wish you could be the one to walk into her room in the morning and see her gleaming smile after she wakes up. She gets so excited about life. I wish you could see her talk and talk and then laugh with herself when left in front of a mirror. She's as big a fan of herself as we are!
We had a little mini family vacation this weekend at a cabin in the Canadian wilderness and I spent as much time as I could holding my little girl. Call it father-daughter bonding. I'm so glad I got Ruthie.

Rootie

2008-08-29T17:12:00.000-07:00

Each day Ruthie is becoming more and more fantastic. I wish there was a way to share all of the expressions and sounds and snuggling. I guess a few pictures on a blog will have to do...
Here's Ruthie in her new crib. She loves sleeping in it!
Our girl loves avocado...WE like steak and garlic fries. Mmmm...
Here is a simple gate/fence that I made for a customer this week...

We went for a picnic at the beach and Granny bought ice cream for everyone...

I love putting Ruthie into places I can no longer fit. This is her new cabinet - it used to be purple and green, and now it's chocolate brown.
How do you occupy a 6 month old while you get stuff done around the house? I don't know. But this is what we did...turned a garbage can lid upside down, put baby in middle and surrounded her with blankets and toys.

Pixie!

2008-08-12T19:27:00.000-07:00

Our sweet little Ruthie went to her friend Charlee's birthday party this week. All of the girls were dressed as pixies, wearing white with thule skirts, crowns and waving wands. Ruthie was the littlest pixie of them all - very special.

The photo was taken by our friend Melody Davis.
If you are interested in seeing more of her great work, go to www.melodydavisphotography.com

Drinking Water

2008-08-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

My Problem With Wood

2008-08-03T13:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, with the help of my brother from a different mother, Kevin Buhler, I moved everything out of the attic at our old house in Lynden. Yes, the house we lived in 2 years ago before our jaunts to California and Sweden. The people we rented from were nice enough to let us keep an inordinate amount of stuff in the attic. If you've been to that house, you know you have to disjoin your neck in three places to get your body through the pint size door. Up in that attic was everything we used to "need" but have learned to live without for 2 years. Yes, 8 boxes of "china", inventory from my days of selling at the farmers market, a really heavy bandsaw, pots & pans, and an assortment of other things. When I first walked into the attic I was confronted with a serious personal problem: I am a wood hoarder. And I have since taken the first step to recovery: admitting I have a problem, saving wood. After step 1 I didn't know what the next step should be, so we just piled every piece of wood we could fit into the back of Kevin's truck and took it to the dump.

I imagine this experience is a lot like pet owners taking their dog to get "put down." In any case, it wasn't easy.

As we were throwing the wood into his truck, Kevin said, "I think I can now understand why Barb calls wood your "mistress."

So, now we have all of our belongings in one place. That's good.

I'm sure you all are somewhat familiar with the phenomenon that is CraigsList. Well, let me tell you how CraigsList has made my life better. Last night we decided to take pictures of all the stuff we didn't want. Since yesterday evening we have sold my old Nintendo, a couple of bike racks that came with my Montero, and given away 2 enormous wood crates that transported my furniture. It doesn't cost you anything to post items, and people line up to buy it. Not bad. I think I'll stay home from work tomorrow and just sell more of our stuff. I should probably ask my boss first. Just a minute.

Okay, yep, my boss said that should be alright.

Here's Ruthie, yesterday on her 6 month birthday, exhibiting some top quality bed-head.

Rainbows, Doors and a Lethargic Stander

2008-07-29T20:30:00.000-07:00

If you are finding it hard to keep up with us and our rapid blogging, understand this. As of last week, this is the first time ever that we have actually had internet access in our home. We have always made special trips to upload blogs, but now we simply sit down at our desk and do whatever we wish. It's great. But it might make your life a little busier. I'm sure you'll find a way to cut out the less important things (ie. watching the evening news, exercising, napping) to make time for our blogs.
I just wanted to drop some quick pics of what's going on in our lives. I just completed a couple of doors (a back door and a screen door). I also sent a dozen cutting boards to a fine woodworking gallery and a gift store in California. And lastly I made a giant letter "R." (Guess who that is for??). A couple weeks ago we went around looking for some things at garage sales. One thing we needed: a crib. We found it. Twenty dollars got us an old wooden crib. In need of some TLC, I bought some John Deere green paint at the hardware store, thinking Ruthie could use some color in her room. The "R" will be attached to the footboard, so Ruthie knows that it's her bed. I'll post pics when it's done.

Breaking news:
This just in...a storm system has moved through our town and left behind a spectacular rainbow in its wake. Just in the last 5 minutes. (This is the view from our front door)

Talk to you later.
Greg

The "jolly" jumper, looking more like the lethargic stander.

Great Grandmothers!

2008-07-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

Ruthie is blessed to have three great grandmothers. As of this week she has met all three! She met her Great Grandma Penner and Great Grandma Unruh in May when we went to Reedley, CA and this week she met her Grana in Abbotsford, BC!

Ruthie with Greg, Greg's Dad Don and his mother Grandma Penner

Ruthie with Greg, his Mom Sharon and her mother Grandma Unruh

Ruthie with Me, my Dad Brian and my Nana

We feel so thankful that Ruthie is growing up with so much family love and support.

Laughter

2008-07-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

Ruthie has learned to laugh! It is the most amazingly adorable sound I have ever heard. Both Greg and I have made her laugh but today she started it on her own! It was awesome. She was bouncing away in her new Jolly Jumper and all of a sudden lost it, laughing like it was crazy fun! She's incredible. I am so in love.

Driving lessons & Mt. Baker

2008-07-04T10:51:00.000-07:00

Our parenting philosophy is all about getting Ruthie on the fast track. So, naturally, being 5 months old now, it's time she get some experience behind the wheel. Her first driving lesson happened this week and I've gotta say, it went pretty well. We didn't want to push her too far too fast, so we started with fundamentals. First lesson: hand positioning. "Okay, keep those little hands at 10 & 2," I told her. As the picture below shows, she has textbook form. Needless to say, I'm really proud of my little girl.

Our very good friends Jeremy & Amanda Klager came for a visit this week and we all went to Mt. Baker one afternoon. We all got to meet Toby, the littlest and newest Klager, who is 3 months older than Ruthie. They were fast friends, of course. Though, I should add, their new friendship was briefly tested when Toby (an avid thumbsucker) reached for and obtained Ruthie's soother. Fortunately "Dad" was there to police the situation and return the sacred artifact to its rightful proprietor. Disaster narrowly averted. I think Ruthie and Toby will be little buddies for a long time.
It was the perfect day to be out and about in the mountains. Sunny, warm and fresh as can be. We did some good hiking and took a lot of photos (a hobby that Jeremy and I share). We went to waterfalls, glaciers and raging rivers. It was a beautiful day and very good to see our friends. In fact, it was a perfect summer day.

(untitled)

2008-07-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

Summer has finally come to the Northwest. I started wearing shorts this week. Ruthie has started sleeping naked - too cute for words!

So, I bought an SUV. How American of me. (You know, they almost don't even exist in Sweden - no one had ever heard of a Hummer?!) It looks a heck of a lot better than it runs. But...it runs...when it's not stalling. It gets the job done.

Hope summer is treating you all like friends.

Bellingham

2008-06-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

Well, the three of us have moved to Bellingham and we are getting on with a new chapter in our lives. I have moved into my woodworking shop and started my business. Barb and Ruthie are still friends and staying at a condo in Bellingham. Our housing situation is just for this month, so we are looking for a long term place to move into. Lots of things to think about when relocating to a new part of the country and starting a business on a shoestring and raising a 4 month old. Challenging, but not impossible.

The end has come

2008-05-17T16:20:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy last couple of weeks. I wish this blog would have come to you all sooner.
Well, my education has come to an end (for now, anyways). I completed my sideboard cabinet last week, we had our spring show opening at the gallery in Mendocino last weekend, my tools are packed up and we just came back from our end of the year party. Our party was at our instructor's acreage in the Redwood forest about an hour away from Fort Bragg. It's the most beautiful, idyllic, perfect slice of heaven you have ever seen. Sunny, open and green in a forest of giant redwoods and madrone trees. We (me, Barb and Ruthie) stayed in a little cabin on the property. It defined romantic. (Not that romance exists in the home of a newborn). Ruthie was a champion. She slept great, was happy and fun the whole time.
Tomorrow is graduation. Monday we go down to visit Klassen family before a few days in Vermont to have a little summer vacation with the Best family and cousins. Then we come back to Fort Bragg, pack up and move to Washington. Then I start my business, have a great summer with our little family and live happily ever after...I hope.
We had a heat wave here this week - up to 85 deg! I know, it's not crazy warm, but a big change from the usual 60 deg.
I added pics of my sideboard below. I have been working on it since Ruthie was born. She's 3 months and 2 weeks old now. Wow! She's getting cuter everyday. She has the cutest, most subtle and wonderful laugh. I hope you can all hear it soon. It makes your life better just to hear it once.
Fun with mom & dad at her 1st campout.
The heat has been like a sleeping pill for Ruthie!
My sideboard cabinet.

Blur

2008-04-25T07:52:00.000-07:00

So, the last couple of weeks have been a little bit of a blur. Separating one day from the other in my mind feels like an impossible task. Life has felt fuzzy. Blurry. Or, something like that.
Our little daughter is testing our patience. She has been really fussy.

We feel incompetent as parents, at times. Ruthie cries and there is just nothing that we can do to fix it. Not every moment is like this, though. Early in the morning, she has come to really like to play. I can’t resist, so every day I get up and hour before my alarm is set for and I play with her. She smiles and coos and makes these precious sounds that only a perfect little baby could make. What a great way to start the day. Then, when I come home for lunch, she wants to play again, so I hold her while I eat my lunch and we do the airplane game (this is me holding her with one hand, as high as I can and walk around the kitchen/dining room/living room, whilst her mouth hangs open and her eyebrows are up). Sometimes we do the kissing game too. Though, that’s usually in the mornings around 6:30. That’s where I kiss her on the cheeks and then give her a big smile, occasionally surprising her with a lips kiss. This morning she was being a rascal and she stuck out her tongue when I surprised her with a lips kiss. We had a good laugh. It’s amazing how much Ruthie loves smiles and laughter.

Today I came home from school, walked into the bedroom where Barb was feeding Ruthie and said “Hi buddy” and she gave a big smile to Barb as if to say, “Hey Mom, look, Dad’s home!” You can imagine how good that made me feel. Being a parent is such a strange combination of challenges and rewards. Some days we talk about taking Ruthie back to the hospital and saying to the nurses, “Here’s the baby you gave us. We’re all done with it.”
Before I started writing this blog at 8:00, I bounced Ruthie to sleep and put her to bed. And since I started writing, I have gotten up three times and so has Barb. It’s 9:15 now and she has been quiet for 10 minutes which means she will probably stay asleep.

I started writing while I was feeling frustrated because I couldn’t help her. Now, she’s asleep and I am listening to a baseball game. Barb’s reading her book next to me. Life suddenly feels blissful. (sigh)
In a recent blog I told how we were facing big decisions for life after school. We have since decided to move back to NW Washington and I will be renting a woodworking shop for the summer months. I am renting a fully equipped shop in Bellingham, assuming the bench space of a former classmate while he spends the summer fishing in Alaska. I hope to make furniture for clients and for galleries. I have a couple requests for work and hope to start working on them the first week in June. If any of you reading this are interested in having me make you some furniture or cabinetry or wedding gifts or anything, please tell me. I’d love to talk about it.
As our time on the northern California coast comes to an end, we look forward to “settling down.” I hope we are capable of doing that. It’s time for us to live normal lives for a while. To take care of ourselves, focus on our basic needs and enjoy being in a place where we have friends and family who really know us and can help with Ruthie. Being in California and Sweden has been great, but we haven’t had that peaceful feeling that you get when you are in a place that is your home. We have spent the last couple of years looking ahead. It’s time to slow down and live in the moment.
We continue to have nice visits from family. My parents were here all of last week. They brought their trailer and camped near the ocean. We had a great time with them and enjoyed having Ruthie bond with her grandparents.

Dress #2

2008-04-06T17:05:00.000-07:00

We have the cutest girl in the world. Hands down. I think you would all agree. Unless you stop by on one of those nights when she screams inconsolably. Then you might hesitate to agree.
That's what she has been doing for the last week: screaming. Loud. Like instant headache loud. Barb sort of reached a breaking point this week with Ruthie. She wanted so badly to help her but nothing worked. She would cry really hard for hours at a time. Finally, we decided to go the the doctor and get the professional opinion. The doctor was sympathetic (sympathy might have been what we needed most) but she was also encouraging. She reminded us that this is a stage and will not last forever. She also gave some practical advice. Well, that appt. (on Friday) was a turning point. Since then Ruthie has been the most pleasant agreeable girl. She has slept great, eaten great, been happy. What a relief. We are much happier (and much more sane) now.

Today was a first for us. We got an invitation for lunch solely because we were parents. It's like we are in a new club now. We were four sets of parents who chatted in a garden with tuna sandwiches and fresh baked cookies (thanks to me, of course). We talked about crying babies, choosing names, and nursing while the kids played (or sat in the bassinet, in Ruthie's case).

Here are some recent pics of Ruthie. She wore her 2nd dress today (from Great Aunt Marcy). I think you'll find that adorable is an appropriate description. Needless to say I am in love with my little girl. She is just fantastic. I can't wait for you all to meet her if you haven't already.

Look at those cheeks! Ruthies gained 11 ounces in the last week!! She's officially chubby.

Easter

2008-03-23T19:26:00.000-07:00

The weather on the northern California coast this Easter weekend has been nothing short of divine. Today we went to a packed out Easter service at our church. Ruthie wore her first dress today. That was pretty exciting. Barb said, “She really is a girl,” as if the dress finally made it official. I can tell you what is official: Ruthie being the cutest. She created quite a fan base at church today. Especially with the “new grandma” age women. They loved her.

After church we took a picnic down to the beach. Barb’s brother John and Christy and little Alexander were with us this weekend. (They came for a last minute visit!). We’ve loved having them here. So we laid in the warm sun for a couple hours. Now we are just relaxing at home after a great Easter dinner of ham & yams. After bath time we are having apple pie and ice cream. Mmm. It’s like dessert for everybody – Ruthie gets her warm bath and we get pie.
This week has been spring break for me. I spent part of most days at home, going for walks with Barb and Ruthie but I also worked on a special box that I made as a side project. My big project for the year - a large sideboard cabinet – feels like it’s going slowly. I am having a nice time at school though. I have been thinking a lot lately about what I will do after the school year. Where will I work? How will I manage to keep making furniture? Another big question we haven’t answered – where will we live? That’s a big one. Anyone have any suggestions?? We’re considering all options.
Hope you all had as nice of an Easter as we did. I’ve gotta go. It’s bath time.

Our first "family picture" (that's our church in the background)

It think sometimes Barb thinks Ruthie is a just a doll that she can play dress up with. Everyday this week she reminded me how much she looked forward to putting this Easter dress on Ruthie!

"Playing" with her cousin, Alexander (10 mo.)

Due Date

2008-03-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

March 17th was Barb's due date. That was yesterday. And we already have a 6 WEEK OLD. It's amazing how not in control we are of our lives. Six weeks ago I was just beginning to think I should start mentally preparing myself for an early arrival. Before I could do that I was holding a sleepy baby. Life, I guess, moves forward without our permission.

I'm glad it did. We love our little girl. Like every other new parent we can waste away every evening just staring at her and marveling at the most simple gestures. She's giving us about one smile everyday now. And, her mom insists I tell you, she is up to a hefty 6 lbs 6 ounces (as of a week ago). Her knees are even beginning to feel chubby!

Yesterday we took her to the beach in the BabyBjörn. It was cozy for Barb to have her snuggled up against her. Today I get to carry her in it. It was a great day to visit the beach. Nice light.

My brother Donny and his family visited this weekend. They love Ruthie.

How my life has changed

2008-03-02T18:36:00.000-08:00

Guess who is 1 month old today?

Yep, our little Ruthie. She is gaining weight (5lbs 5oz a week ago), she slept 4 hours straight last night and she likes going to the beach. Today we went to church in Mendocino and after a soup lunch we walked down to the beach, found a great big log to rest against, lay down our blanket and cozied up in the sun for a couple hours. It was magnificent. Just what we needed. The sun was warm and the ocean breeze rejuvenating. Sundays are my only day off, so we try to make the most of them. This one was perfect.

My life has changed quite a lot in the last month. Today I took a moment to think about those changes and I wrote a short poem about it. Here it is...

How my life has changed.
By Greg "Dad" Klassen

Oh, how my life has changed.
I have a baby girl now. Before, I didn’t have one.
Sleep used to be sound. Now sleep has a sound.
I buy diapers now.
I now know soothers are one of God’s great gifts to mankind.
I don’t like snaps.
Bath time is now the most exciting part of my day.
I have a strong preference for Pampers over Huggies.
I now use the word “onesie” almost every day.
My baby girl is the sweetest thing in the world.
I’m so glad my life has changed.

The end.

Between going to the beach, changing diapers and writing poems - don't worry - I have been doing some woodworking.

After Ruthie was born I decided to make a small, manageable box - a break from the large cabinet that I had started on. Here are some pictures. It is made of teak and mendocino cypress and took me 8 1/2 days to make. I call it "Ruthie's Box."

Bathtime with Ruthie

2008-02-24T11:59:00.000-08:00

Ruthie

2008-02-20T09:13:00.000-08:00

Ruthie is home from the hospital now.
She loves being held. She loves taking baths. She loves to scream at night.
And we love Ruthie.

IT'S A GIRL!

2008-02-05T13:20:00.000-08:00

Our baby is here! The sweetest little girl in the world was born at 8:20 on Saturday morning. Her name is Ruth Elizabeth Klassen. We call her Ruthie. She came into the world in a swirling storm of drama. Barb woke up Saturday morning at 4:00 am and told me “I think my water broke.” “Uh-oh” I thought. The baby couldn’t possibly come this soon. (The due date was March 17th!). So we called the hospital to ask them what they thought we should do. “Come in and we’ll take a look” they said. So, we came in and I was expecting to be sent back home and told to not be alarmed. Instead they said to stay and they put Barb in a hospital gown. Still not sure if this was real, I began to take notice when they gave Barb an IV and called the doctor. Then they called the doctor again and told him to come in sooner. It was now about 6:00 am. This was the first time I met Dr. Wright and the second time for Barb. He calmly informed us that he was going to stop Barb’s labor and send her to San Francisco by plane because the baby was to early to be born here. But before he could make the plans to send us off, Barb’s labor made a big leap forward. She all of the sudden passed the point of no return and the doctor quickly made it clear the baby was going to be born here and SOON! By this point I had already lost it. I was so worried about my wife and my baby. I was crying and felt like we were very alone in all of this. Then Barb started having strong contractions and they were coming close together. This development sent the nurses into a frenzy. They were running around the maternity ward and Barb was put in a birthing position. I could hear the doctor and the nurses whispering in the hallway. It was becoming very clear that our little girl was racing into the world. Barb did so well. She made everything look easy and natural. I think she was made to be a mom. After a few big pushes and a lot of encouragement from me and the nurses she pushed little Ruthie out of her body and into the world. It was magical! Defying all the odds, I thrived throughout the birth and even watched my little girl come out. I surprised myself. The doctors whisked Ruthie over to a special bed for premature babies and they told us that there was a 90% chance she would have to be flown to San Francisco by herself and be given special breathing help because her lungs were undeveloped. All of this time I was praying like I have never prayed before. God answered each and every specific prayer. Before they took her to the nursery for monitoring they gave us a moment to hold her and be a little family. It was the best. Over the next couple hours we were preparing ourselves for the possibility of being apart from her. Instead they gave positive reports that she was doing well in every respect. Ruthie was a champion in those first hours.

Fast forward 48 hours…it’s a sunny day in Fort Bragg and our little girl has moved into our room to be with us. Barb has successfully fed her several times. Her weight, blood pressure, breathing, everything is good. While I write, mom and baby are having a nap next to each other, both tired from all of their hard work to get to this point. I am just so happy to have her with us now. She is the most beautiful girl there has ever been and we just love our little family.

Ruthie had to be in phototherapy for a while. She was under a blue light and was given some fantastic sunshades!

All the nurses agree that our little girl has a big temper. Yikes!!! She has cried several times to the point of turning purple. What are we in for?!

Mom and baby eye-to-eye for the first time.

Ruthie's got the hook-ups.

Just precious. Perfectly precious.

Hard at Work

2008-01-26T15:13:00.000-08:00

Greg and I are back in the swing of things here in Fort Bragg. I have started back to work at the glass job which feels really good. It's the perfect job to have when you are very pregnant and mostly tired. Cynthia, my boss, sends me home with work so I can nap when I need to, which is often these days. I am currently feeling very full of baby but only have about 6 weeks to go if the baby is on time!! January has flown by. We are settled into our little cottage and are going to bring our bunny Cece home tomorrow!

Greg has been working like crazy. He finished his chairs and has presented them to the class. They turned out beautiful. The school is having their Midwinter Show starting next weekend which will be a really neat time for Greg and I as we haven't seen the projects the other people have made. Now Greg is working on a sideboard cabinet and is really flying along. I advised him, and was backed up by his instructors, that he should try to get as much done BEFORE the baby comes as possible. I think he is taking that advice seriously!

Update on life in Fort Bragg

2008-01-11T14:36:00.001-08:00

So far our time in Fort Bragg has been full of excitment and activity. A day after we arrived there was a HUGE storm that took out the power for all of Mendocino County. We got power back after about 30 hours but there are parts of the county that are still out! Greg and I had an appointment the morning after the storm, in town. We headed out in the dark and rain. Greg saw a powerpole leaning and was looking up at it right at the same time I saw a tree in front of us. Thankfully we have just put in new brakes because we were able to miss the tree and continued on to the appointment. I have never been in a storm so fierce, the winds got up to 72mph which is about 120km! Here's a picture of the tree that fell.

We have had a very busy first week back in Fort Bragg. First let me say we have found a place to live! It's in town, not far from the school so Greg can ride his bike. It's tiny, about 360 square feet but after 7 months of living with other people it will be great and is a lot bigger than our room in Sweden. Well, a little bigger! We are really excited and will be moving January 15th. It will feel really good to set up house and finally fill my need to nest!

Other exciting news is that we have found a doctor! His name is Dr. Wright, I haven't met him yet but a friend from last year had him deliver her baby and she said he's great! It's such a relief to know that someone other than Greg will be there to catch the baby!

Greg has gone back to school and has been extremly productive this week, his chairs are almost complete and he is already formulating ideas for his next project. It's really nice to be back and see friends from last year and meet all the new students. It seems like a really great group of people.

It feels really nice to be somewhere that we already know and like. I am hoping to start working next week and work as much as I can before Baby K comes. That time is coming very quickly which is really exciting if not terrifying! We are so excited to meet this active little person.

We are doing well and feel like Fort Bragg is home for now.

Pictures of Christmas

2008-01-11T13:53:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas vacation. We had a really great time in Canada and California!

Gibson finger painting Adorable Ellie
Liz and Gibson decorating the Christmas tree
Cousin time!
One night we had Christmas baking night with John, Christy and Alexander. The result were way too many shortbread cookies, peppernuts and chocolate toffee bars!
Alexander is a real charmer!
Gibson and his new "Fork-a-lick" that Greg made.

Active Alexanders mandatory cuddle time with his AuntiesWe love Ellie's chubby cheeks!

Rebekah was really curious about the stockingsThe Klassen family! Greg modelling his new PJ'sThe ever growing baby bump!Mom Klassen was so happy to have all her kids home for Christmas.

Our car was as full as it possibly could have been driving to Fort Bragg!

Back to Fort Bragg

2008-01-03T10:58:00.000-08:00

So, where to begin? We left Sweden one month ago and we left all of you wondering what has happened to us. Let me catch you up. We flew back to the west coast and stayed in Abbotsford, Canada for 3 weeks. We stayed with family - Kevin, Liz, Gibson (2 ½) & Ellie (4 mo.). We had a fantastic time with them. I got to baby-sit the kids a couple times and even changed a poopy diaper. It was a 2-yr-old’s diaper (extra stinky) - I’m glad I get to start off with a newborn. I hear they’re not so bad. Barb spent 4 days at home, in Alberta, with her parents and her Nana. She tried to say goodbye to her home there, since her parents are planning to move to Abbotsford. I think it was a bittersweet visit for her. While she was gone, I ran errands, took care of some business, worked on the car, baked cookies and muffins, watched TV, babysat, wrote emails and read a book. It was nice. I also drove down to visit a friend in Bellingham who was a classmate of mine at the College of the Redwoods (CR) last year. I had a really good time catching up with him and his wife.

During our three weeks in Abbotsford we had the chance to see family lots and visit our close friends. Barb even had a baby shower. One day I offered to make dinner for our friends at their house, so I drove down to Washington, bought everything I needed for a meal of shredded pork enchiladas, Mexican rice, refried beans, chips and salsa. We had a feast. The enchiladas were really nice. The night before I served them, I woke up at 3 am to stir the pork and turn off the crock pot. What a committed cook I am!

We left Abbotsford on December 21st and stayed the night with Scott & Chaline Brown in Canby, Oregon. They too were friends from CR last year. They offered us great hospitality and we got back on the road recharged. After a 14 hour drive the next day we arrived in Dinuba, California at my parents’ place. We were there for 3 family Christmas gatherings, a baby shower, and visits with several friends. I watched way too much TV and ate far too many oranges. We had a nice visit with family. I was sick most of the time with some type of flu/cold hybrid - not nice. Unfortunately I didn’t have an appetite most of the time, so I had to pass up a lot of good food. I would be remised if I did not tell you about our car problems. Yes, car problems. Every time we go to California there is something that our car demands we do for it. It’s like it’s saying, “If you want me to make that long trip again, you better do something for me!” This time it demanded new brakes. I learned that our car needed new rear brakes during an oil change in Abbotsford. The mechanic said there was no way he would drive the car all the way to California with brakes in such poor condition, and when I said I didn’t have the money to replace them, he gave me this convicting look and said, “Well, God bless you then.” Well, we left with our terrible brakes and yes, God did bless us. We made it home where I had all of the brakes on the car completely replaced. It took several days and a lot of running around, but our car can now brake with the best of them.

We left my parents place this morning with our car packed full to the brim. It was packed so full and tight that when we finally got to Fort Bragg this evening and opened the doors and trunk they just popped open and stuff came spilling out! We used every square inch of our car. We even had stuff on top. Our stroller and my chair box were on top, strapped down. But we are here now. We were greeted warmly by our friends, Russ and Kathy who are letting us stay at their home until we find a place to live. Russ is another woodworker who was also in the program with me last year. And tomorrow the search for a house begins. We are hoping to find a nice small place close to the school. Also we are searching for a doctor for Barb this week. I imagine we will also drive by the hospital, since Barb doesn’t even know where it is! If all goes well this week, we’ll find a doctor to catch our baby and place to bring it home to.

Last Week in Sweden

2007-12-06T16:13:00.000-08:00

I am feeling sad as I write this blog. Barb and I have left Sweden. We left behind more than an experience. We have left our close friends, who became like family. We have left a countryside and a peacefulness that we had grown to love. We have left our school family, who we lived and learned with every day. While we feel like we have left so much behind, we take with us more than 900 story-telling pictures, of course, our memories, which we always cherish. Coming back to North America hit us with a bit of reverse culture shock. After living in a small, remote island village we got used to the absence of certain things that are commonplace in North America. For example, car traffic (esp. SUV’s, which really don’t exist in Sweden), English signs, and slow-paced living. Barb mentioned another thing the other day that we did not experience in Sweden - gossip. In fact, we didn’t really hear as much as a single negative comment while we were in Sweden! I think that is quite spectacular. Why didn't we hear any gossip? Well, I don’t know exactly, but I think there is a certain amount of energy that is required to speak in a second language, and when communicating takes extra effort, you leave out the useless talk and only say what is important.

Right now I am sitting alone in an Italian restaurant in Canada and I find myself listening in on three conversations that are happening at three other tables in the restaurant. Two women behind me must be lawyers or daytime talk show addicts, because they are jumping from one scandalous story to the next, while the group of businessmen in the far corner are impressing each other with their loud confident statements about seemingly unimportant things, and the table next to me is a soft spoken father-daughter tandem who are probably out for their once a month lunch, but the daughter is sitting patiently while her dad is on the cell phone, with his mind still at the office. And here I am sitting in a corner booth listening to each of their conversations...just because I can. I missed this. In Sweden, the only English conversations were the ones we were apart of. We never understood what others were saying, so their conversations with each other were like background noise.
I’ll take a break from analyzing to tell you about our last week in Sweden. I worked really hard all week to finish my chairs and to pack them into a box, disassembled.

I took a break from working on my chairs to participate in a model drawing class. Mom Best was visiting all week, so I invited her to join our class. We sat on opposite sides of the room (for no particular reason) and were ready to try our hands at drawing a nude model. Imagine how we both felt when the model’s clothes fell off and we’re sitting there with a blank sheet of paper in front of us. Has the word “awkward” ever been more appropriate? No, but really, it wasn’t that bad. In fact, I was surprised by my own maturity. I didn't even blush or giggle.
Each of our classes had very nice going-away parties for us. Barb’s class took her and Mom out for evening Fika and they gave her two children's books and her teacher, Kennet, gave her a very special cup and saucer that he made for the baby. My class gathered and we had cake together and they presented me with a beautiful sheepskin from the island of Gotland. It’s beautiful - I really love it. The headmaster of the school also came and she gave us a cookbook that was made by the students. On top of all of this several of our friends very graciously gave us many other gifts that we will always have with us to remember them by. We felt very loved in our last week.
Friday afternoon we went to the castle in Kalmar, fulfilling one of Barb’s early goals. The castle was open all night and was host to a Christmas market full of local art, craft and food vendors from around Sweden. We enjoyed the experience and had fun sampling the chocolates, cheeses, meats and breads from all of the vendors. The fours of us (me, Barb, Mom Best and our dear friend, Luca) missed the bus we wanted to get back to the island, so we sat in a McDonald’s for two hours. (Did you know their Happy Meals are served with meatballs?!) We had a good time anyways.
Saturday morning soon came and it was time to go home. Between the three of us we had 4 large suitcases, a wood box, built specially to transport my chairs, and our really big baby stroller with bassinet. In addition to this, we had about 5 carry-on bags. How on earth would we get all of this stuff home? This was a question we continued to ask ourselves until we actually made it home. Luca came with us to the train station to help us along. Then, as the train readied to leave we had the sad experience of saying goodbye to Luca. Luca is a very special friend. She became part of our family and a fixture on our movie nights. We will miss her very much.
After a 9 hour flight we were greeted with a snowstorm in Seattle. Barb’s brother John rented a van to pick us up because we had so much luggage! We stopped on the way home to have dinner with some family in Seattle. We all went to a Vietnamese restaurant that served only soup - it was the perfect meal for a cold night. Delicious.

We are now home physically, but we are both wrestling with the need to come home mentally. Our hearts are still in Sweden. We made a life there, even if it was for little more than three months. It was hard to say goodbye.

Pictures from the Copenhagen Airport...

A family of potters?

2007-11-29T02:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Mom was able to fulfill one of her life goals! I gave her a private throwing lesson. She did great. I didn't know when we started that this was one of her dreams and thought it was really special when she told me.

Throwing...

Trimming...

The finished products...

Here are a few of the things I've made this year as well...

Julbord, Going Away Party, and Mom B Visits!

2007-11-27T13:35:00.000-08:00

The last couple weeks have been full of action here in Sweden. After the Klassen parents visit, I began to make a serious push to finish my chair. My chairs have been a difficult for me. My design is pretty untraditional, so the construction process has also been pretty untraditional. the back legs of the chair curve in all directions and there really isn't a reference point to build from, so there has been a lot of adapting. But overall, I am happy with them. I am going to return home with them disassembled and packed in a small box.

On Saturday night our friends Luca and Sara had a going away party for us at their place. Our friend Egla also came. We had dinner and spend the evening chatting around a warm fire. The five us represented five countries - USA, Canada, Holland (Luca), Sweden (Sara) and Lithuania (Egla). Two others also in the house made it seven as they were from Japan and Denmark. It has been really nice to make friends from around the world. We talk a lot about visiting each other.

Our friend, Egla (whose name means Christmas Tree!)

We brought Pumpkin and Chocolate pies.

On Sunday, Mom Best came to visit. It has been great having her here. She's living in our house for the week. We picked her up in Kalmar on Sunday after we took part in a very Swedish tradition - Julbord (or Christmas Table). Our friends from church invited us to a country hotel, where we experienced a true Swedish smorgasbord. The meal consisted of many trips to a buffet. The first trip we filled our plates with different dishes of herring. The Swedes take their fish very serious! There must have been 30 different herring dishes! After the herring, came a trip to the hot and cold meat bars, complete with fantastic meatballs, kropkakkor (remember that story?), delicious bacon (mmm...) and many sausages.

On this night I partook of the meat of 5 different types of animal - fish, cow, pig, bear and moose. Yes, moose. It tasted moosy. After a few trips to the meat buffet, we finished with a careful, studied visit to the spectacular dessert table. Custards, cakes, pies, parfaits, fresh fruit and candies. All very good.

Monday night Luca came over and we all sat around the table eating popcorn and chatting while my brownies baked in the oven. When the brownies were ready we moved to the movie room (our bedroom), where we sat in our special movie seats (our bed), and watched Ratatouille on our big movie theatre (our 15" laptop). This is a typical evening for us and Luca. She has become our special movie watching friend. We were happy Mom Best could join us.

In the morning we woke up to fresh falling snow. The last couple days have been very clear and crisp, with just a little snow. Great weather for short walks.

Oh, I must mention a couple other things that are newsworthy. Being parents-to-be as we are and living in Sweden, where the baby strollers are ridiculously nice, we have long been wishing to have a Swedish baby stroller of our own. Of course we couldn't possibly afford such a nice stroller...or could we? With new ones going for $600-900 we began looking on Blocket, the Swedish version of Craig's List. We found a used one for a fraction of the new prices and made contact with a really nice lady named Agneta Gustavsson. We were not sure how we would get to her house, because the bus didn't go there, so she offered to drive a 1/2 hour to the island just to show it to us. Of course, we loved it - it's the perfect stroller - than she suggested that we pay less than she was asking. What a nice lady! So, to honor this nice lady, our firstborn, if it's a girl, will be named Agneta.

Also in the news: I have decided to come home early, with Barb and Mom Best. We will leave here Saturday morning and fly out from Copenhagen in the afternoon before arriving in Seattle 9 hours later. We will stay in Abbotsford a couple weeks before going to Calfornia for Christmas.

Baby update:

Christmas at Capella

2007-11-23T05:35:00.000-08:00

Last night we got to experience a traditional Swedish Christmas party. The most exciting part for me was the candle making. Apparently most Swedes have a tradition of making candles for advent. If their families don't do it, they know of some that do or have fond memories of making candles in school. I was so excited, never having made my own candles and want to bring the tradition home with me.

Here are a few pictures of what a Christmas party in Sweden is like.

The beginning of the process, can you see my excitement?

You just keep dipping until the wax builds up to the size of candle you want.

The traditional Swedish Christmas drink is something called Glug. It is like a very spicy cider that you put nuts and raisins in. It is either made from apple juice or a mixture of wine and rum. Glug is always served with the Christmas cookie Pepparkokar (gingerbread).

Along with candle making there was also wreath making. Today all the houses on campus have a fresh wreath on the doors.

Calle, Greg's teacher.

We also make hotdogs in the dining room fire place. It was a really cozy evening and a nice time to be together.

This is our good friend Luca who is from Holland. She made this walnut pie for Fika today which starts in 5 minutes, so that is where I am headed!

A Visit From Home

2007-11-19T11:51:00.000-08:00

After 30 hours of traveling our Klassen parents finally made it to Vickleby for a 4 day visit. We had a nice time being together and relaxing in our cozy little village. We spent some time touring the countryside on the island, finding a great nature reserve with a bird sanctuary and lighthouse.

This day was bitter cold, though, with strong winds and below freezing temperatures. Periodically, we would optimistically stop during our drive to go for walks, but would quickly return to the car and its highly coveted seat warmers. The next day we walked around the castle in Kalmar.

The castle's construction began 800 years ago, originally a medieval castle, it's onetime ruler decided to transform it into a renaissance masterpiece. Being closed to tours, we made a nice, leisurely walk around the castle grounds in a thick fog. When we were walking through the heavy fog, Barb said "This would be a great day for a ship to make a surprise attack!" After that, we made sure to be on the lookout.

The Klassen parents left for Copenhagen Monday morning, where they will spend two days before flying to Tallinn, Estonia for a visit and on to Stockholm to conclude their tour. It was really nice to have them visit. We are now really beginning to feel like our time here in Sweden is wrapping up. Barb leaves for home in 12 days (Dec 1) and I plan to leave on the 19th.

Baby K at 23 weeks

2007-11-14T03:49:00.000-08:00

Some of you have been asking how Baby K's growing so here is a picture for you. I am 23 weeks and feel great, despite a week long very bad cold that won't seem to go away. I am amazed at the fact that my belly grows more and more everyday! This baby is an active little critter, it hardly ever stops moving around. People tell me that it is common for the baby to sleep while you are awake and up and then to become more active when you go to sleep. Not this baby, it is active all day long, and all night too!

Snow in November!

2007-11-12T08:21:00.000-08:00

Late last night we walked outside and were amazed because it was snowing! We were both so excited and went for a long walk, despite Barb's cold. Everything was quiet and beautiful and cold! Winter has arrived in Sweden. When we got back to our room we turned on Christmas music and had a very cozy evening. By the end of today most of the snow has disappeared but it sure was beautiful.

How does a young American couple unknowingly end up on a nude beach in Spain?

2007-11-08T09:35:00.000-08:00

Well, let me tell you how…
A couple months ago I was considering travel ideas for our fall holiday and found airline tickets from Malmo, Sweden to Barcelona for 1 Swedish Krona (or 15 cents). Hard to pass up. And, then, I found return tickets that would take us to London for a day before returning to Gothenburg, Sweden. So, we booked our trip.
Before I continue, let me tell you how this young American couple “missed” the only bus that could take them to their train, that would take them to their plane, that was to take them to Spain (rhyme not intended). The morning that we were to leave for our trip, out of sheer enthusiasm, we got to the bus stop 20 min. early. So, we waited, and waited, and still waited for 30 min. after the bus was scheduled to come. Uh-oh. And the school grounds were almost empty because everyone had gone home for the break. Double uh-oh. We started to panic. We're we going to miss our entire vacation because the lousy bus didn’t pick us up? I got my Klassen high-speed walking shoes on and bustled around the school looking for someone to give us a ride. Finally, I found the headmaster, who asked what time the bus was supposed to come, while checking her bus schedule. I told her 10:15 and she said, “But, it’s only 9:45.” And then, there was a pause and she began laughing and said, “Didn’t you know the time changed?” “I guess we forgot to tell the foreign students.”
Well, of course, we made it to our train on time and eventually our hotel, very late that night. We rented a car in Girona, Spain. It was a Ford Ka and it looked like a big, red gumdrop.
Then next day we went on a driving tour of northeast Spain. We were like leaves blowing in the wind, with no idea of where we might land. We just went where we felt like and followed signs that sounded nice. It was relaxing. I had fun in the car - I think I missed driving. We wandered through the countryside, where we once had to stop because a shepherd was guiding his flock across the road.

And for lunch I had a vision of finding a restaurant that was full of working men on the their lunch breaks, enjoying a meal so delicious and hearty that they had to undo their belt after. It just so happened we found that place. The restaurant was in a town called Bisbal, and the restaurant only served one meal. It was 4 courses and we were so full after, we practically rolled out the door. The rest of that second day was spent in Girona, where they were celebrating All Saints Day with a big festival and more roasted chestnut vendors than you could ever imagine. We also walked through a medieval village and drove through another.

On out third day, we went to Barcelona. What a beautiful city! On the drive in, you are not sure if you have found Barcelona because there are no American-sized skyscrapers. But when you get to the center of the city, it’s clear you have arrived. The architecture was unbelievable.
Every street had buildings that you wanted to stop to photograph. We followed the signs to city center until there were no more sign for the city center and we figured we were there. We parked and went on a walking tour of the city. We were the quintessential tourists: camera draped around our neck, walking at a sauntering pace, making repeated confused glances at our map and pointing into the distance. We loved it. Our highlights of Barcelona were Antoni Gaudi’s architectural masterpieces (especially Park Guell, on the outskirts of the city).
Our fourth day was beach day. The weather was about 70 F (21 C) and sunny. We asked at the tourist office where the nicest beach was. We followed the directions we were given and it took us to Boadella, a remote beach outside the town.

When we got to the beach, I noticed that an older woman, among several others, sitting in a chair, sunbathing…without a shirt! Okay, okay, that’s new for me, but we’re in Europe after all. Maybe this is normal here? Just a good place to hang out, I guess. We walked on a little further, nothing really out of place, until we turned the corner and…bingo!! Jackpot! Naked people everywhere! Helloooo nude beach. We immediately got the giggles and found a nice sunny spot, away from the excitement, with our clothes fully intact. We spent most of the day at the beach, losing it in laughter every time a naked person decided to go for a stroll past us or bend over for a seashell in front of us. After some sunbathing we got up the courage to go for a swim. The Mediterranean was a shimmering aquamarine color. We had a great day at the beach.

The next morning we caught an early flight to London, where we bought an all day rail pass and headed into the city. We did everything you’re supposed to do in London - we saw Big Ben, London Bridge, Westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace, Harrods, Piccadilly Circus, ride the double-decker bus, and go on the Underground.

We had lots of fun. We just hopped on and off the train as we pleased. We had a delicious American meal at TGI Friday’s in Piccadilly Circus and watched the sidewalk traffic as we ate. Mmm, how we have missed French fries.
The next morning we flew back to Sweden, before taking a train across the country and back to Kalmar. We had a great vacation. In fact, it was our first vacation longer than a weekend where we were not visiting family.
Baby update: Baby K has now traveled to 6 countries, visited 9 airports, is approximately 10.9 inches long, and never ever stops moving!

Planes, Trains & Automobiles...and a bus!

2007-10-29T00:38:00.000-07:00

Today we are going to take a bus to a train, then take that train to a plane and then that plane takes us to a car before the car takes us to a seaside resort on the coast of Spain. Yes, we are going on a little European trip. Look how excited we are!

We'll tell you all about it when we get back!

The Legend of Fica

2007-10-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, it’s time for a brief lesson in Swedish culture. I want you to imagine something that you do everyday. Something you do ritualistically. Imagine something that, if you were to somehow not do it, your whole day would fall out of stride. To everyone is Sweden, that thing is “Fica” (fee-ka). Each day of the week, at 10:00 am everybody at the school (and throughout Sweden) stops what they are doing and sits down for half of an hour to drink coffee and relax. Then, at 3:00 in the afternoon they repeat this with more coffee and more sitting. It’s almost a sacred word hear. It is an act universally revered and practiced. And it is not something that is just made to fit in with the larger things of the day…rather, the important things of the day our made to fit around Fica. For us “work, work, work” fast lane Americans it can be a real momentum killer. Though, our attitudes are slowly changing about Fica. It used to be for us like getting a red light when you expected a green. But now, we see it more as a roundabout…somewhere where you can just smile, slowly drive around it for awhile and then ease back into traffic. Maybe that’s not such a good analogy. Sorry. But some days, the kitchen staff bakes breads and cakes for fica. I like to think of this as SuperFica. SuperFica can be really nice.
(Below are a couple pictures of a model house that I made as part of an exericise in design. It's a "Friggebod", a 15 sq. meter Swedish summer home.)

Family & Stockholm

2007-10-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend my brother, Donny, and sister-in-law, MaryAnn came to visit. They arrived late on Friday night after a full day of travel. They stayed here at the school in a house a stone’s throw away from ours.

Saturday morning we hopped in their rental car - a brand new Prius - and drove to Kalmar, where we walked around all morning, had lunch and walked some more. Then we drove back to the island and toured the south of the island. We explored Stora Alvoret, a great barren limestone plain that covers most of the island. We discovered ancient Viking burial grounds and even found an ancient fortified village.

On Sunday we left for Stockholm. We stayed outside the city in a nice hotel that served a stand-out full breakfast buffet. Mmm. Sunday night we took a train into the city and Donny led us on a guided walking tour of Old Town from his Rick Steves’ Scandinavian Tour Book.
It was quite informative. We had a nice Greek dinner in the evening before retiring to our room to watch the most recent episode of The Office. The next day we thought we’d try to drive into the city rather than take the train, even though Rick Steves said “only a Swedish meatball would try to drive in Stockholm.” Well, it didn’t go so well. We got completely lost, trying to follow directions that were in Swedish. We felt like meatballs, alright. Finally, we gave in and returned to our hotel, only to take that train back into the city. We visited the Vasa Museum, which holds a wooden warship that sank in Stockholm Harbor during her maiden voyage in 1628. It was really cool. Here’s a little history on the Vasa ship that I learned: The Vasa was built during the 30 Years' War of 1618-1648, when Sweden had lost a dozen ships and needed vessels to support King Gustav II Adolph's military campaign in the Baltic. The ship was the largest in the history of the Swedish fleet, with an extra cannon deck that the king himself had ordered during the Vasa's construction (which turned out to be not smart). On August 10, 1628, the vessel departed from her mooring in front of the royal palace with some 130 crewmen and wives on board. As she sailed slowly through the islands that separate Stockholm from the open sea, a wind caught the sails, and the top-heavy ship unexpectedly began to go under. Water poured through the open cannon ports (thanks a lot, King Gus), and the ship sank in the 105-foot (32-meter) channel.

Although most of the crew and passengers escaped, some (including the ship's cat) went down with the Vasa. Sporadic salvage attempts took place over the next 50 years, but the ship was all but forgotten by the end of the 18th Century. Then…in 1961, the ship was found again and raised out of the harbor before it was placed in a museum very close to where it was found.
After the Vasa Museum, we visited a grand outdoor museum and zoo, called Skansen.
In the evening we went back to Old Town and found a nice Italian restaurant, lit by candles, for dinner. We had a fantastic meal. After dinner we walked the old, very narrow cobble stone streets of Old Town, before we found a spectacular ice cream place, recommended by our new friend, Rick Steves.

I had 2 scoops chocolate and 1 scoop Raspberry gelato in a fresh waffle cone. Dee-lish! Props to Rick.
It was great to have our (English speaking) family come for a visit. We had a great time together and laughed a lot.

The Ultrasound

2007-10-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

Today I saw my firstborn. It was special. There I was, the supportive husband sitting next to my cute wife as a Swedish doctor rubbed her belly with a camera and showed me my firstborn child. He (or she?) is a cute little shaver. He was squirmy and active and gave Barb a couple strong karate kicks while we were watching. I just sat there and looked up at the TV screen that came down from the ceiling with a big smile. Today my belief in what we are getting into arrived at a new level. Up until now, to be honest with you, I sometimes wondered if maybe Barb was just having a spike in her weight gain, mysteriously confined to her belly. Well, I can say goodbye to my strange doubts that Barb has been faking a pregnancy to get attention. It turns out there’s a person in there and I saw him. A very little person with an adorable little spine and fantastic little fingers. He has a normal size head and his crown to rump length is within the expected parameters (12.5 cm or 5”). So far, he’s healthy and we are happy. It hadn’t crossed my mind until just last night that today we would find out if there were any noticeable problems with the baby. We talked about it last night and did what we could to prepare ourselves for the unexpected. Fortunately we only had good news today.

It is amazing how much we love our baby already. We worry about it, we dream about it, we have conjured up names for it, and we’ve imagined who it might be friends with. Today Barb said to me, “This is one of the most exciting days of my life, seeing this little critter!” I would have to agree. I love our baby and I am really excited to meet him or her.

The strange & the beautiful

2007-10-01T01:37:00.001-07:00

Here are some snapshots from the walks we have taken.

Harvest Weekend

2007-10-01T01:28:00.001-07:00

This weekend was Skordefest, a harvest festival celebrating the farm and art heritage of the island. Friday night every artist and gallery on the island had their places marked with burning lanterns. We drove around the island with our friends Luca and Sara finding visiting painters, ceramicists, and textile artists. Capellagarden was also involved in the festival. Barb and the other ceramic students tended to a Raku kiln and demonstrated how to fire pottery. And in the garden they offered juice squeezed from our apple orchard, the kitchen chefs served apple and turnip soup (tasty!) in the dining hall with a cozy wood fire and live music. All the while, me and the other woodworkers made pizza in a wood-fired oven. It was fun.
Saturday was a quiet day for us. We went on several walks throughout the day. On one of the walks I came up with a great idea for a game. I call it, “Catch the Falling Leaf.” Basically, you stand under a very tall tree, wait for the wind to release a colorful leaf and then run around like mad trying to catch it before it falls to the ground. I caught two. I’m pretty good at it.

In the evening we downloaded and watched the first episode of The Office, season 4. We laughed so hard it was silly. We’re just really happy that Jim and Pam are finally dating. (Oh, for those who care, I met a guy this summer who was childhood buddies with Jim).
Today we went back to the church in Kalmar. They had a translator for us and we were supposed to listen to him through headphones, but the battery wasn’t charged so it didn’t work! Oh well, we’re getting used to understanding very little. We’ve even made up this game that we play during school meetings and classes, where we pretend to interpret for each other by listening for the Swedish words that sound like English words. “Good morning” in Swedish is pronounced good moron so we always laugh that people are calling us morons in the morning. But not just morons…good morons! And the other day we were in a meeting and we heard “The Sikhs are coming to eat hot dogs.” We both looked at each other and burst out laughing in the middle of the meeting.
This afternoon a couple from church invited us and several other twenty-somethings over for lunch and we had a nice time. We met some interesting people and also got to see our Lithuanian friend, Egla, again. She’s really sweet.
This week Barb and the first year ceramic students are having a guest teacher come to teach how to make things with molds and plaster. She’s excited. I have found the wood for my chairs and I am going to begin this week. I am planning on doing something experimental with steam bending the wood for the back legs. I hope it goes well. It will be my first time trying to bend wood with steam.
Fall has come with full force to Sweden. It is beautiful here right now. There is a new chill in the air and the leaves are a colorful blanket on the ground. It feels like fall is supposed to feel – it’s great.
Baby update: Barb is starting to feel the baby move! I can’t wait till I get to feel it with my hand!

Celebrating Five Years in Sweden

2007-09-19T09:44:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was a great weekend. We celebrated being married 5 years. We had always imagined we would make a trip to Hawaii on our 5th anniversary. Being on a warm beach surrounded by tourists watching sailboats go by might have been nice, but instead we went to a Swedish museum and perused treasure from a sunken 17th century battleship. It was really cool. We also walked through Pippi Longstocking and Jenny Nystrom exhibits. After the museum we visited another 17th century relic, the Kalmar Cathedral. The architecture and decor was classic European cathedral –high arching ceilings, mucho cherubim and a ridiculously large pipe organ. We found a really nice café, called Mama’s & Papa’s, for lunch before we did our weekly grocery shopping (where we buy sugary cereals, non-rye bread and way too much chocolate). The chocolate bars here are super good. Oh, and I also stocked up on baking supplies. Here at the school there must be 300 apple trees scattered about (all different varieties) so I have been thinking of endless ways to bake them. So far I have made apple sauce, but I have plans for a three-apple crumble, apple coffee cake, hot apple cider, and candy bar stuffed baked apples. Yes, your eyes did not lie…candy bar stuffed baked apples! I’ll let you know how those go.
Another big event over the weekend was a big Swedish tradition called Kraftskiva. The whole school was invited to a night of singing, dancing, and eating something called Krafta – basically, a mini lobster. We sat around long tables by candlelight laughing and chatting before someone would start a song (imagine Irish pub songs, sung in Swedish). It was a lot of fun. And everyone who saw us made certain that we had eaten one of their fishy things and were having a good time. It was fun.
This week I am finishing up my chair mock-up and Barb is building a firing kiln (for Raku, an ancient Japanese open-fire glazing technique) and experimenting with sculpture. Barb is doing really well learning pottery. Last week a guest teacher came and taught the students “throwing”, which is how bowls and such are turned on a wheel. This teacher was very good – in fact, he was once the 10th best pottery “thrower” in the world. Today my class had a meeting. They are always in Swedish and I just sit there like I know what’s going on and usually doodle pictures in my sketch book. And then afterwards the Japanese student and I get a translation. Today, the Swedish student who recapped the meeting, said we are all going to spend a day fencing (yes, the sport with white outfits and lots of poking) together, and another day we are going on a class trip. I asked, “why are we going to be fencing?” He just looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. I have been trying to imagine why we are all going to go fencing, but I just can’t make sense of it. So, then I asked him where and when we will be going on this class trip. To both questions he answered, “I don’t know.” (Sigh). This is how it is for us lots of the time. We don’t understand what has been said and then all the sudden one day they’re dressing you in a white suit and asking you to poke people with swords.

Have you ever seen a happier church?

Pictures of Capellagarden

2007-09-10T10:42:00.000-07:00

Here's where we live. It's beautiful. You all should come and visit!

Here is a picture of my workshop and a dining chair I am designing...

A Bike Ride to the Grocery Store

2007-09-09T10:18:00.000-07:00

Today we made of list of the things we wanted to do on our last day off before another week of classes. At the top of the list was buy groceries. Trying to conserve cash we decided to ride bikes in place of taking the bus. I found an old bike missing a foot pedal, that I repaired, and Barb borrowed a bike from a friend. It was another stormy day today, but not as wet as yesterday. We decided to go to a new town for groceries, south of us on the island. It was a 10km trek that took us through a couple charming villages and through a great beautiful forest. It was fantastic. Biking through the pine forest with a view of the horizon dotted with windmills and a grand church to our left and farm fields that rolled toward the Baltic on our right. It was great. After we bought our groceries we found a 7ft high pile of potatoes in a field. They were fresh and dirty and I just couldn’t resist – I stole four potatoes. I hope you’ll all still be my friends.

It was a long, satisfying ride. We are really enjoying our weekends here. Exploring, laughing lots, making new friends and seeing the beautiful land. Then in the evenings coming back to our cozy little house where we lie around, read, listen to music and watch movies. Ahh…good times.

Body Cookies

2007-09-09T10:01:00.000-07:00

So I told you last week that we had met some really nice people in Kalmar when we visited a church. One of those nice people, an older lady named Kaarin, invited us to join her and her husband for a traditional Swedish meal. Well, little did we know that she was offering so very much more than just a meal. Yesterday (Saturday) she picked us up at Capella in the early afternoon. It turns out, she had an entire afternoon and evening of sightseeing on the island planned for us! And then, after that, she would feed us (there were 11 of us) a meal that takes 5 hours to prepare! This kind of generosity is awesome, but it so uncommon that it almost feels alarming when you encounter it.

So she took us (me, Barb and our friend Sara) and another young girl named Egla, an exchange student from Lithuania, to the biggest town on the island, Borgholm. I stepped out of the car when we got to Borgholm with a simple, very clear mission: find ice cream. It’s been about 2 weeks since I last had a taste of my favorite milky snack – far too long. So we found a shop, gave the lady a handful of funny money, she handed us 2 ice cream cones and we were happy as can be. Now I was relaxed and content. What’s next? We walked around the city (pop. 2000) for awhile and then we went to the Swedish royal family’s summer castle for a tour, where we met the rest of our group. We took a tour of the grounds just before a massive thunderstorm came pounding down on us. Barb and I ventured out into the storm, hoping to get a glimpse of the royal gardens. Instead we got a glimpse of a lightning bolt that flashed directly above us, in sync with an angry clap of thunder! Barb screamed a sound only the fear of death could produce. We looked at each other with frightened faces and then ran for our lives back to the museum entrance. And let me just say that Barb ran like a track star. I was behind her and I couldn’t catch her. Some strange mix of adrenaline and “gotta protect my baby!” I guess.

After our visit to the museum we went to Kaarin and Jan’s (her Viking-esque husband) summer home on the island. It was a cozy little cottage lit only by gas lamps. It was there that we were introduced to Kroppakakkor . Literal translation: Body Cakes. Yummy. We kind of wished we could have gotten this flattering translation after we ate. Even still, we approached the meal with some anticipation and I must say it wasn’t all that bad. Kind of a Swedish version of “Veranika” or Perogies. A big ball of potato that had a meat and spice mixture hidden inside. It was one of those meals that the natives seem to love talking about…at great length. It was served with a delicious lingonberry sauce and butter. I must say, Swedish lingonberries are absolutely delicious. After dinner, our hosts brought us back to Capellagarden, where we gave them a tour of the school. They were thrilled. We also were thrilled. We met several fantastic, generous Swedes who we will probably now consider friends and see again. It was so nice to be in someone’s home, too, and to experience such great hospitality. I’m sure we’ll mark this as one of our favorite memories in Sweden.

A Chair, A Bowl And Some Other Things

2007-09-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

On Monday morning the woodworking students were given an assignment: go into the forest, cut down as many hazel (nut) trees as you need, and then create a chair from your imagination. And, do it all in a week, working with a partner. My partner was too busy with his project, so I proceeded on my own. I sat down and thought about chairs. What role do chairs play in human culture? I decided that chairs are about status. When I was a kid, there were two armchairs at our dinner table…they were for my parents. They are the heads of the house, so they are distinguished by using the chairs with arms. Another place chairs represent status is the king’s throne. The king sits in the biggest, most ornate chair. The chair, really, defines the man. So with these thoughts in mind I decided to make a chair that the king of the woods might sit in. It sort of looks like an “ent,” like maybe it might just walk back into the forest and disappear. I think it belongs in fantasy and less in reality. Kind of strange.

While I was off making my fantasy chair, Barb was impressing me with all things clay. For only being a beginner, I was pretty impressed with her creations. Here they are…

Barb thought you all might like to see her baby bump. She is now 13 weeks and our baby is the size of a peach (or a jumbo shrimp). She has been a little tired but mostly is doing great. We go for lots of long walks, which is good exercise for us both, and it is a great time to talk about our day and connect. Yesterday we walked south of Vickleby (our village) and found Alvaret, a huge open area of limestone, covered with 1 ft of soil. The area is miles and miles around and nothing grows on it – it’s wide open. It really explains why all the old buildings on this island were built of stone.

Crossing the Baltic

2007-09-05T09:34:00.000-07:00

After four days of classes last week, we took to the weekend break with arms wide open. Saturday morning we went on a walk with our friend, Sara. It was a really nice day – sunny, cool and a little windy (it’s always a little windy here). We were in search of the Baltic Sea, said to be a mere 3km away. The entire walk was through the countryside – open fields of potatoes and strawberries, with the occasional windmill dotting the horizon. After a few scenic detours and three hours we had made it to the Baltic sea. We dipped our feet in and completed our ocean trifecta – touching the Pacific, Atlantic and now, the Baltic. After sunning at the beach for a while, we walked back, this time walking through farmer’s fields. Sound strange? Well, in Sweden there is no such thing as “No Trespassing.” They actually encourage it and they call it “Yes Trespassing.” No, I’m just kidding, but really, it is perfectly acceptable to walk anywhere you want here accept maybe through someone’s flower bed. It’s nice.

On Sunday we ventured across the bridge and into the city of Kalmar. Kalmar is the closest big city to the school. Kalmar has the shopping centers, the train station, and the beautiful character of an old European city. The city has the weathered cobblestone streets, the colorful Scandinavian buildings, and a giant castle standing guard over the city. We went to a church service while we were there. Our friend Sara joined us on our trip and was able to translate a little. We met some really nice people at the church. One lady quickly offered to have the three of us over for a traditional Swedish meal at her house next weekend. She even offered to come to the island and pick us up! I’ll tell you how that goes. And another family gave us rides around the city after church. We spent the afternoon walking through stores and doing some shopping. The big fall fashion this year in Sweden is to wear skulls and crossbones. It’s on shirts, hats, pants, underwears - look for it in the States. Maybe it will come in time for Halloween?!

Pictures from Copenhagen

2007-09-05T09:11:00.001-07:00

Sorry...I haven't learned how to rotate pictures! Enjoy

A Note from Barb

2007-09-01T10:15:00.000-07:00

I thought it was time you hear about Sweden from my perspective so here it is...
Öland, the island we are on, is beautiful. It looks like a mix between the Prairies and the Pacific Northwest. There are beautiful fields and a huge blue sky with white puffy clouds but also green, lush forests and rocky beaches. Capellagarden is an amazing little campus, old buildings, beautiful gardens and quaint little cottages. More than one student has told us this isn't really what Sweden is like, that this place really is very special. Some how Greg and I keep finding ourselves in these unique and beautiful spots.

We are officially enjoying our first weekend at the school. This week was kind of exhausting, so much Swedish, so little understanding! We had three days that were basically orientation days, everything in Swedish, by the time we got back to our room at night we were so eager to hear English that we talked and talked and talked to each other! Other than the language barrier we are really enjoying ourselves and already making some great friends.

Yesterday I got to go on a field trip with all the ceramics students. We went to the very North part of the island of Öland. It was refreshing to leave Capellagarden and see some more of the beauty of this island. All over the island there are old windmills, they put the ones in Lynden to shame!! There are also stone fences everywhere which are really beautiful. I was told that Öland is the place to come if you want to see what Sweden used to look like. There are many old houses and barns still standing. Down the street from the school there is a church that was built in 1776 and I am not exaggerating when I say it looks new compared to some of the other buildings which are from the 12th and 13th centuries. It is really a neat experience to be somewhere that has such amazing history that is so well preserved.

One of the places we stopped was called the Troll Forest. Apparently there is a legend about Trolls inhabiting this forest which I had gotten from the name, however the rest of the story I didn't hear. Next to the forest is a beach, as we were walking we came across an old, old shipwreck. It was easy to tell that the all wooden boat was at least one hundred years old, it was absolutely beautiful and still very intact, for being a shipwreck! I'm really enjoying seeing things that are so foreign to me.

I think our time here is going to be amazing. Very short but amazing. Hopefully on Monday we will start making things, both Greg and I are feeling like it is time to be productive! I'm really excited about being in the ceramics program, I'm realizing it is a really big privilege to be in this particular program which is kind of intimidating but mostly really exciting. We are doing well and love hearing from all or any of you!!

Capellagarden

2007-08-28T11:16:00.001-07:00

Yes. We are here. We finally made it to Capellagarden!

Today was our second day in Sweden and our first day of classes. They speak Swedish here. As obvious as that may seem, we never really truely understood that they would ALL be speaking Swedish ALL THE TIME! We each traveled through a day of orientation spoken entirely in Swedish. Crazy. It's comforting for me right now just to see the words I have typed and to go back and read them and understand what I am seeing. While the language has been a strange new thing, the people are more kind than I could have imagined. The school is a collection of like-minded artists and craftspeople and there is a strong sense of community even now, on day one. Everyone is very helpful. We have begun settling into our house that we are sharing with three other students- Luca, from Holland, Emeri from Japan, and a Swedish girl we haven't met. Last night was very cold. It turns out our house is a summer cottage so it is not insulated, and while it was sunny and warm during the day, it got really chilly in the evening. Okay, so listen to this crazy story: Yesterday, we arrived at the school in time to have dinner with all of the students who had already come. While we were walking back to our house after dinner, Barb said ''There was a girl at dinner who looked really familiar.'' I listened to hear and nicely nodded, thinking to myself ''yeah, right, we're on the other side of the world.'' In fact, I didn't even give her comment that much credence. I simply followed up her comment by talking about something else. So that's how we left it. Then after an all school orientation this morning the girl that Barb thought looked familiar walks up to us and says, ''You guys look familiar.'' Oh, crap...what's going on?! We were taken aback and unsure of how to proceed to making the connection. In a moment of pure genius, I asked ''Have you ever been to Canada?'' She replies, ''Yes. Have you heard of Abbotsford?'' ''Of course!, that's it...we all went to Columbia Bible College (a small school of 500 students). She was at the school for one year while we were there. We had never really met, but had seen her enough for Barb to recognize her. Amazing. Some might think, ''What a small world.'' But others would be quick to say, ''It's amazing how God works!'' We came all this way, hoping and praying that there might be another person sharing our beliefs.

So, I should provide some relief to those of you who joined us in being completely stressed out about having nowhere to stay in Copenhagen for 2 nights. When we got to the airport, we approached the customs agent at his booth riddled with tension (expecting the usual interrogation we get from those US Border Cowboys). Instead, he looks at our passports, smiles, and says, ''Did you know your name, means classy?'' ''Oh....gee...that's nice'' went through my head, fully expecting him to tear apart our luggage, find my tools, ask why I was visiting his country with a bag full of chisels and then demand to see the student visa that I never applied for. Instead he said, ''Welcome to Denmark.'' We smirked at each other as we walked through security and on our way to what we were beginning to think would be a cold, shivering night on the streets. After taking a train to the city, we arrived in a most beautiful old station. Walking out of the station and into the city centre we were met with sights of Copenhagen that were everything we hoped they would be- beautiful buildings and beautiful people, many of them riding old bikes. It was afternoon, and our need to find a place for the night became absolutely necessary to maintain our sanity. We went first to a 1000 room hostel, expecting to have the choice of either a queen or a king size bed. Fully booked. Uh-oh. A little nervous, I tried to maintain some confidence as I spoke with Barb about it. The hostel was really my first and last idea. How could 1000 rooms be booked...in a hostel! Isn't that were troubled youths stay when they go on their after-high school backpacking trips across Europe? How could there be a thousand of them in this one city?!! Anways, we moved on. The lowly Astoria Hotel (every city seems to have one of those) had a room but it cost almost $300/nt. Finally, we went to an information kiosk in the city that helps visitors find rooms to stay in. We were connected with a lady who we were supposed to meet by taking a train out of the city to a small village where she would pick us up in her car and then take us to her apt. Okay. The adventure continues. So we do this and we meet her and she is the nicest, trendiest middle aged woman who picks us up in her car and zips us over to her apt. (which she rents to vacationers) which looks like it was cut out from a Modern Home magazine. It was very nice and we stayed there both nights. We had a great time.

So now we are here. The adjustment to living in Sweden might take awhile, but we are doing it together. Being here together is great. We can be lonely together. We can be hungry for ''normal'' food together. But we are together and it's a lot of fun.

The Night Before

2007-08-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

It is the night before we leave for Sweden. We are packed (2 suitcases and a carry-on). We are rested. And we are excited! Excited is the word I have been using and nervous is the word Barb has chosen to go with. Maybe I am nervous and she's excited? Well, to be honest, I am a little nervous too. We are flying into Copenhagen where we will be staying 2 nights before we take a train to Kalmar, Sweden where we are eventually picked up by the school headmaster (Agneta) and driven to the island of Öland. Soooo, we are going to Copenhagen for 2 nights but do we have any place to stay when we get there? No. Why not?, you might ask. Because I am not smart, that's why. Amidst all of details that I have gotten in order this summer and all the lists I have made in preparation for this trip, I overlooked this "detail" until 2 days before we leave. Yeah, so, I'll let you know how that goes.

(Insert your prayers here)

For those of you who are still trying to zero in on the path of our zig-zagging lives, I am returning to the College of the Redwoods Fine Woodworking program for a 2nd year. During the first semester I will be part of a student exchange program with Capellagarden school in Sweden. While we are there, Barb will be a guest student in the school's ceramics (pottery) program. It should be a great year for us. We spent the summer living in Canada. Oh, and we are not traveling alone to Sweden. Barb has a baby in her! Yes, we went to the doctor yesterday and an ultrasound showed me our little baby's beating heart! It was wild. The baby will come out around March 10. Our baby will have lived in 3 countries for 3 months before it is born.So, as we begin our adventure I hope that you will all stay tuned. Until next time.