Dear Blog, Long Time No See!

Boy, have I been busy over the last few months.  I am trying to finish writing the last substantive chapter of my dissertation and have written approx. 90 pages of this one chapter over the last 2 months.  I am not sure how it got to be so long but apparently I did have something to say about the identity of the rulers of Dynasty XXV!?!?

My daughter has been growing like a weed over the last two months and is now talking non-stop!  I know that is surprising given who her father is! (amused sarcasm)  Since we speak German exclusively at home and speak English when we are visiting with my family, she is using both German and English and has recognized from context which of the languages she should use at any given time.  At less than two years old, Nuria recognizes that there are two words for every object and oftentimes will give the word for an object in German followed immediately by the phrase “in english…..”.   It took me years to get to the point in German where Nuria is right now.  It will not be long before she is correcting her poor father’s German!

It seems to be so easy for young children to pick up new languages.  I am so happy that we have decided to raise Nuria speaking German from the start.  Although we speak German exclusively at home, we do speak English when we are out in public or with my family.  Nuria seems to be picking up both languages very easily.  Many folks are frightened that using two languages will confuse the child, but in our experience that has definitely not been the case.  The only danger seems that you might facilitate the development of a pidjin-type of language development if you start to mix the two languages within the same sentences.  We have been working very hard at speaking exclusively German or exclusively English, depending on context, to ensure that she learns each of the languages properly.  Sometimes it has been hard on the members of our family that speak exclusively English, but in the long run it was definitely the right idea.  Nuria amazes us every single day.

Living Memorial for Princess

Claudia and I decided that we are going to put together a little living memorial in our garden for Princess.  We had Princess cremated and are planning to bury her in the garden under a pretty flowering plant that we are planning on buying this weekend. 

We are not sure what kind of  plant we will buy.  We are just going to head out to a few of the big nurseries in the Simi Valley/Moorpark area and see if anything catches our eye.  Claudia and I were thinking that if there was a pretty flowering plant that repelled cats, that would be the best plant to buy.  Although Princess was a cat, she HATED other cats and I mean with a passion!  She liked her peace and didn’t like many living things other than Nuria, Claudia and me!  There were a few friends and family that she took to over the years, but generally, she just wanted to be left alone to live her life in peace doing her own thing around the house.

Princess Died

Princess

Our beautiful little kitty that brought so much joy to our lives has died.  She has been struggling with Diabetes for the last 8 or 9 months and finally passed away yesterday morning at 4:14 am.  She had been not doing well over the course of Sunday and I had made the sad decision to put her down on Monday morning.  As you can tell by the timeline that she did not live to make it to the Vet.

She has been a part of our lives and a member of the family for a long time and we will sorely miss her.  She had a pretty rough first part of her life as a stray living in a citris packing plant.  The workers there had abused her and she was rescued by a family friend that worked there.  She lived with my parents of a short bit but given her HATE for other cats, we adopted her shortly after Claudia moved to the United States.  She really came out of her shell while living with us and brought us great joy every day. 

We will miss her.

Missing My Ladies

My two beautiful ladies are currently in Germany for a bit of a visit with Oma (grandma in German) and have left a big hole in my life!  Our house is very large without my daughter and wife running around.  The good news is that I have plenty to work on with my dissertation.  I will be taking a summer staycation and use the time to write a bunch of my dissertation. 

I’ll let you know how productive the vacation is when I get back to the blog after my little staycation.

Long Holiday Weekend

Over the long holiday weekend, we were able to fit in a little bit of fun with my dissertation writing. I got the last portions of my lit review very close to submission to my advisor over the course of Saturday and Sunday which freed up Monday for a little bit of family fun.

The first thing that we did on Monday was to head out to Moorpark College to see the last day of the California Cup, an annual field hockey tournament that includes teams from both the US and abroad. This year included teams from as far as Argentina and Taiwan. Nuria was in heaven, running around yelling “Hockey, Hockey, Hockey!” as she saw each person walk by with their field hockey sticks. After spending a few hours out in the gorgeous weather, buying one flourescent pink and one flourescent yellow hockey ball for Nuria and a set of shin guards for me, we headed for home.

After lunch and getting Nuria to bed, I headed out for a quick mountain bike ride (zoomed view) that I was able to turn into my typical mini-epic that consists of Las Llajas Trail to Rocky Peak Fire Road and down the Chumash Trail. If you are interested, follow the two previous links for a few photos of the scenery along the route. The photos are all taken with my phone so please excuse the lack of sharpness in the images.

“But how was the ride?”, you might ask. Well, I like to say that “sometimes you beat the mountain and sometimes the mountain beats you.” Well, on Monday afternoon, I was on the receiving end of a mild beating by the mountain! The steep back side of the Rocky Peak fireroad turned into a little bit of a hike-a-bike section for me. The weather was perfect for my outing, not too hot and not too cold. But it still took a while to complete! I slept very well that night.

“Hockey, Hockey, Hockey”

The title is a direct quote from my daughter Nuria.  She seems to be quite the field hockey fan.  As of a few months ago, she has been grabbing my field hockey stick (which is twice as tall as she is!) and trying to hit the field hockey ball with it.  This had been going on for a while by the time that I checked online and found out that I could buy her an 18 inch field hockey stick of her own! 

So now I when I walk in the room and ask her where her hockey stick is, she will run over and pick up her stick while yelling “Hockey, Hockey, Hockey!”  (She is starting to show signs of being quite the talker, I know, big surprise given who her father is!)  She loves to go out to the grass behind our house and attempt to dribble the hockey ball around with her new stick.  It is very cute! 

Here are a few photos of her with her new field hockey stick.  She still has to work on her grip as you can see in the photos, but, hey, she is only 17 months old!!!   

We have relearned so much about the joys of life from our little bundle of energy!

Grandma has “Left”

This post is a bit of a bitterweet one for me to write.  My maternal grandmother, Eleanor Alma Fransen, passed away yesterday, December 18th, 2007 @ approximately 2:50pm.  She was about 2 weeks short of her 91st birthday.  She was a wonderful woman that will be fondly remembered by all and will continue being loved by everyone in my family. 

Her “leaving” (as my grandma used to always call dying) is bittersweet.  She had been in constant pain for quite a number of years.  This did not seem to slow her down until the last 3 or so years, when she suffered macular degeneration and lost the majority of her eyesight.  For this reason, her “leaving” means that she is in a much better place and will no longer struggle with the pain that has constantly plagued her for the last number of years of her life. 

My grandma was born in 1916 during World War I in Wisconsin, where, in Superior, she met my grandfather.  After moving to Evanston (now a northern suburb of Chicago), Illinois, they were actually married in private unbeknownst to both their families.  They married publically a couple of years later.  Their parents never knew of their first marriage.  While in Evanston, my mother was born.  Shortly thereafter, in 1947, they made the very big move out from Evanston to El Rio, California, where my grandfather built the house that they settled in on Collins Street.  My grandparents were founding members of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Oxnard, CA and helped to build both the congregation and actual physical parish church and buildings.

After the death of my gradfather, Leonard Carl Fransen, in 1972 from brain cancer, my grandmother continued living in the house until she sold it in about 1979 and moved into the granny cottage behind my parents’ home in El Rio where she continued to live until my parents moved to Simi Valley in February of this year.  After the move, my grandma lived in a bedroom at my parents’ new home in Simi Valley. 

 We had a long and wonderful relationship with my grandma and can truly say that she enriched our lives in more ways than I could ever ennumerate in a blog entry.  We Love Her and Will Miss Her With All of Our Hearts and Souls! 

Godspeed Grandma.

1 Year Photos

Claudia, Nuria and I went this past Saturday to get our pictures taken in a portrait session at JC Penney.  We thought that we should go in for a portrait session to get a few, more formal photos of Nuria at one year of age.  We have not gotten the photos back yet, but can tell you already that there were some very good photos of Nuria and Claudia.  This is in spite of the fact that Nuria, my daughter that smiles 24/7, refused to smile for almost every photo and decided that the portrait session was a good time as any to stick out her tongue. 

Now that I think about it, maybe it wasn’t a mistake and that is how she really felt about having her photo taken by a stranger in a strange photo studio! 

Tell Your Loved Ones that You Love Them Today

My best friend has just lost his father very suddenly and I just wanted to take the time to remind all of you to let your loved ones know how you feel about them the next time that you see them.   

Unfortunately, we don’t get to choose the day and time of our separation.  Death has a way of creeping up on us when we least expect it, whether it is your own death or that of a loved one.  Don’t wait until later to let your family and friends know how much you care about them, you can never be sure that you will get another chance. 

Nuria is Nine Months Old Today!

Happy nine month birthday to my wonderful daughter Nuria!  She is starting to get her teeth.  She currently is working her first, one of the middle lower teeth.

We have had quite a bit of excitement over the course of the last few months.  We have sold our townhouse in West LA and bought a house in Simi Valley.  We were able to buy a 4 bedroom house in East Simi down the street from where my parents moved to earlier this year.  We loved living in West LA but with the birth of our Nuria we were looking for a slightly slower lifestyle with a few more family-friendly things to do on the weekend.  Speaking of which, Nuria had her first swim lesson last Saturday and absolutely loved it.  She was like a fish in the pool with her Papa!

The only drawback to our new life in the suburbs is the long commute to West LA.  Claudia and I are both getting up at 5:00am these days to make sure that we can get out of the house and on the road for our ~35 mile one-way commute by 6:20am.  That makes for a long day, let me tell you!  But, that having been said, it is all worth it to us.