Summer News

Hi Everyone,

well, not much too offer you all but I do have some summer news. My office has moved to new digs. Unfortunately we've moved off campus. In my old office in Cramer Hall, we were right on the Park Blocks and I had a beautiful view of the park from my window. I could watch the seasons change and watch people at the same time. The new office is on the 8th floor of a building two blocks east of the campus. The building was formerly the AT&T Building but now called the Market Center Building. AT&T still has 3 floors of the 9 story building but the rest of it, with the exception of a few separate businesses here and there, is now almost exclusively Portland State offices. So my office, Academic Affairs has joined Human Resources, the Finance and Administration office, University Communications and the entire Theater Arts Dept in taking over the building. PSU has received permission from the State Board of Higher Education to buy the building eventually which makes sense. It will become the administrative building for the campus.

Here's a picture of my new office. It's quite large, in fact, I'm kind of embarassed about the amount of room I have when I compare it to colleagues on other floors in the building. The woman I work with publishing the catalog just moved to the 7th floor and her space is about 1/3 the size of mine. Hey, I'm not going to give it up. I love the view which looks west towards the campus and I look directly down on top of St. Mary's Academy.

The overall feel of the new space is very "professional". Our staff have always been very good and dress appropriate but we're still not requiring dress shirts or pants, thank heavens. That's one of the perks of working at a public university. We're very casual but still need to maintain a professional demeanor.

Dave and I gutted our tv room a couple of months ago, so we could recapture some space that will eventually be used in the bathroom remodel. The tv room is bare bones now with just the studs etc. showing. We were hoping to have the new sheetrock in by the time we have our summer party, but that may not happen. Dave and our friend Jon have been rewiring the room which has to happen before the sheetrocking, but they got sidetracked the last couple of weekends. They ended up rewiring the entire basement, which they figured was as important to get done as the rewiring upstairs. So now the basement is finished. But then they had to rewire our bedroom upstairs for a new air conditioner that we're installing. When we gutted the tv room, the vent that gave the heat and air conditioning from the furnace and heat pump was removed and not replaced. It never was strong enough to really cool the upstairs down or heat it up so we figured the new splitter (heat pump) that we're installing is the better way to go. So that should be finished by the end of this week. Then they can finish the tv room. I hope.

We're looking forward to seeing Deb and Ken in July when they come to Portland to visit. Deb and I and Gary will have breakfast together just the three of us so we can talk "family" without our respective other halves. That will be fun.

Dave and I don't have a lot of summer vacation plans this year. I'm taking a couple of Fridays off so I can have some 3-day weekends, and we'll be going on our annual "all boys camping" trip in July. We used to go tent-camping with our friends but as we got older we all decided that sleeping on the ground and not showering for four days didn't hold the allure that it used to, so now we rent a house somewhere and the only "camping" that happens is inside the house after some good drinks. We're going to the coast this year. We've rented a house that's directly on the beach and has a hot tub. It'll be relaxing and fun.

Well, I'd better get to work so I'll end now and will try to add more later this month.

Love to you all.

Summer Is Almost Here

Hi Everyone!

My goodness, we are not very good about posting info on the Blog!!! Shame on me, as with everyone, I'm sure, we are all busy. Annie, yikes, you make me feel old just reading your post. Congratulations on the paper job and the fact that you are making a concerted effort to get out of debt! What a great plan, even though, thinking about getting up at 3am and slinging papers isn't that pleasant of a thought, LOL :)!! Any news on the proposal front? I sure hope Eric is doing better it sounded like maybe he has carpal tunnel? I sure hope it isn't anything worse than that, carpal tunnel would be bad enough!

Suz your house looks lovely, absolutely adorable. Steve's comment was hopefully you can take some pictures and post them on the BLOG, before and after. I'd love to see more pics! I don't know why I say that, I have a beautiful home in Salt Lake and I haven't posted pictures, not even sure I know how to do that. I might have to get some training from Steve.

Ken and I just got back from Las Vegas and we had a great vacation. Boy did I need the time off. Work is very busy and you'd think with the economy it would be slow but not in Salt Lake. A lot of my peers in AZ, WA and OR and seeing a decline, while here I have more work than my technicians can handle. Matter of fact I am laying off a tech in MT and one in ID, no work there.

We are planning a trip to Portland, driving from Salt Lake City, in July. We will leave home on Friday, July 3rd (holiday for me) and arrive on July 4th to celebrate with friends. I've already talked to Steve and plan on visiting with him and with Dave while we are there. I need to get a hold of Gary and see if he can join us somewhere so I can see him. I know from talking with Steve that he is still struggling with no work and not being able to sell his condo. I will not be on vacation while I am there, so working during the day and playing at night with friends and family. That should be okay, I hope!

I won't even go into my family issues, suffice it to say that Sean has had my grandsons for over a year now and the State of WA is expecting him to adopt them sometime around September. Rebecca just had a baby girl on May 11th and her name is Mystery Raen Moondance Hynes. I have not met the father nor have I been able to see my only granddaughter! The State has already taken her from Becky and she is fighting to get her back. It is all very sad and very disheartening!

Suz, don't forget to send everyone your new address. If anyone needs ours, here in Salt Lake, it is 3110 Crimson King Cove, SLC, UT 84128. I expected a new home card in the mail, so I am hoping that the papers were signed; that you have moved in and are extremely happy with your new home! I can't believe the woman had the same birthday as Grandma Harmon! The house was definitely meant to be yours!

Please tell Aunt Bonnie that I am happy she didn't have to have another surgery, that was great news!

Everyone have a wonderful summer and post on the BLOG soon so we all know what is going on!

Happy Valentines Day!

Hello again everyone. I caught the motivation to blog again so I didn't want to let it go.

Everything is pretty steady in my life right now, but I have a lot going on. In late November I decided that I would like to earn some extra money to pay off debt and save, so I quickly picked up a paper route, surprising myself and everyone around me. It took me a couple weeks of nervousness, dread and sleepless nights to get used to it, but it's been about two and a half months now and I don't even have to look at the map! My positive points for doing it include:

• I will be debt free by next December if I continue to do it until then and put everything I earn from it towards that debt.
• I get the lost exercise I missed when the weather turned cold and I opted out of running in the evenings.
• Friends and family get a kick out of my "I accidentally hit their door and ran" stories.
• Eric helps me on the weekends and Wednesdays, which in turn helps him as he's lost hours at his daily job.
• If I continue to do it even after I'm debt free, I have my mind set on nice deposits into the IRA and new kitchen appliances for a future house. :)

So from 3:15 am - 5:15 am on a normal weekday, I am slinging newspapers and daydreaming about living in one of the houses I deliver to. After this, I come home and take a power nap before I get up and get ready for my real job at the bank, which I still enjoy going to. We are still not as busy as we could be and haven't started advertising to the general public, but I do believe that the branch we work at will be able to go the distance and represent as a reputable full service bank.

When I get home from my day job, I almost always check my school stuff online, which is the best thing ever for a student who wants to work full time. It's not for everyone, but I've found a good niche with it. I'm taking US History to 1877 and Personal Health & Wellness. I can't wait to get into some of my core Psychology classes though. May will bring Physical Science and in June is Business Law I.

Other than that, I like to catch up on my TV shows on the weekend, thanks to Hulu and YouTube. I still find time to play the Nintendo DS every now and then and go on a cleaning/organizing spree through the apartment. Mom and Dad buying a house will also make things interesting and Eric & I are planning on going to help sometime around or after the closing. Grandma Berner's birthday is coming up on the 2nd also and we'll have to plan something special for that.

As for an update on Eric, he is still at the same job doing data entry for Immigration. We both would like to see him leave as soon as possible, but due to the nature of the job, he has had hand/wrist, back and neck pain for a good three years now. He's seen a chiropractor and another specialist, but is waiting to hear back on a Workman's Comp claim that will allow him to see an orthopedist. I'm not exactly sure what they can do, but we're hoping for a miracle. I think this is his biggest worry because he is anxious to get on with his life that includes going back to school, finding a job he can be happy in and just continuing to enjoy his hobbies. To be completely honest, I am ready to get married, but he is the one in charge of the proposal and apparently it is in the works so I can't say much more. :)

I also had the pleasure of seeing Jason while he was in town a couple weeks ago. He was here for his job again and called me up. We had a great time over a few drinks with some friends of mine and friends of his. I also send and receive text messages with Staci every now and then, but need to make a point to go visit as she is not that far away!

Hope everyone is well and keeping busy. Auf Wiedersehen!

February Notes...

Happy 8th of February!


I still have intentions of writing notes and sending Christmas cards (whether or not that happens remains to be seen...) but we have news that will not wait and I wanted to share...

We bought a washer and dryer a week ago last Thursday. The best part is the house that came with it!

After discussions and the decision that we could stick it out in the apartment another year or so, no big deal, no hurry, don't need to look for anything different...I opened the newspaper the second Wednesday in January and there it was. Not exactly love at first sight, after all, it wasn't in the country, or even on the edge of town, but the location was good (kindof an inside out block with four little roundabouts and lots of trees and far enough away from the schools) and all the appliances were included for sale by owner. Ok, one of the best things about the computer is reverse look-up on superpages, so I find out whose it is and call them. I went and looked the next day, we both went and looked the next, next day, we took Mom and Dad to look the next, next, next day and walked away from it pretty sure that the other couple that was looking was going to snatch it up. Exit Mom, Dad and I to Rochester (more on that later). After we got home my curiosity got the better of me and I called to see what had developed. I was surprised to hear that the other guys had made an offer that the owner was going to accept, then the next day they called to say they had changed their mind. Oh boy. Another round of mortgage calculators and lots of figuring and laying awake at night and we decided we could do it for about the same expense as what we're paying in rent.

So we made an offer, accepted the counter and signed the purchase agreement. Whew! The closing date is set for the 24th, but will be able to do it as soon as the bank says the word.



(Wow, I got the picture, not in the spot where I wanted it, but I did it! See above.)

This is all pretty exciting. It's not a huge house and it doesn't have some of the things on my "master list" (like a basement) but the rooms are good sized and it just felt right. We just went up a little bit ago and wandered around outside and I think it will be great. I really don't think that one's living arrangements defines the person, but even thinking about having a house kindof gives you a sense of purpose. Makes me wonder what I've spent the last year doing??? Can't wait to paint and pound holes in walls and move light fixtures and plug ins and open boxes and put books on shelves and plant bushes and do dishes with a window in front of me!! (Do dishes? Did I really say "do dishes"?)



So it's good-bye having to punch in a door code, having to open the mailbox with a key, and waiting for the girl down the hall to take her clothes out of the dryer. Good-bye little girls upstairs who, while they are cute as can be, land like elephants. Good-bye overstuffed dumpster. Good-bye miniscule kitchen. My conclusion: apartments are great places when you are 20 something.

It's red brick in the front, circa 1947 and hasn't been updated much, but it has a fun little cubby in the front hall for the telephone? a statue?, two bedrooms, one bathroom, two fireplaces (who would think?), and my favorite parts...no ceiling fans, switched outlets and painted kitchen cupboards. The summertime picture shows the front covered with ivy and there's rose bushes in the back and lots of windows. There's only one garage, probably the biggest drawback, but think it'll be ok. There's two built in cabinets, one in the living room and one in the dining room, and lots of room for bookcases! It has only had one owner and the lady who lived there moved to assisted living in September. She has the same birthday as Grandma Harmon and will turn 104 this year. It must have a good aura!

Mom is feeling better after the doctors at Mayo Clinic established that her pain is a result of deterioration in her knees and possibly some from bone spurs and nerve damage from old surgeries. She was afraid that they were going to recommend another surgery, so was relieved to receive shots in both knees and prescriptions for physical therapy and exercise! She is seeming more like her old self the last couple weeks (we were there Jan. 18), has even been driving around town which she hadn't done for quite a while.



So after it is officially official, I have always wanted to send out those neat little new address cards, watch your mailboxes! And you are all invited to come visit!

Right now, I'm off to pack some boxes, I think that February is going to seem awfully short. Not having unpacked much over the last year has given us a jump on things though.

Love to all, Suz

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Well, it was a very cold and snowy Christmas here in Portland this year and unfortunately a very lonely one, too. Dave and I were expecting about 20 people at our house for Christmas Day dinner with both his family and mine but we ended up with 9 people instead. Debbie and Ken tried their best to get into Portland from Salt Lake City but the snow storm that hit the Pacific Northwest was so bad all departing and arriving flights into the Portland International Airport were cancelled. They could get out of Salt Lake City but not into Portland. So they had to cancel and spend Christmas in SLC without their family and friends. That was disappointing for all of us. Gary and Judy ended up not making it over. They spent part of their Christmas day with Judy's family but it was just too much to try to get through the city. Even if they could have made it over, there was no place to park at our house. 47th Ave was cleared but the side street where the parking is was still so snow packed it was impossible to park. If you could park there was a good chance you wouldn't get out again without being pushed.

All of Dave's family were snowed in. His mom and dad in Columbia City couldn't even get out of their driveway and the hill up to the main highway was impossible to manuever. His aunts were snowed in as well so they couldn't get to the house either.

So, for Christmas Day, my cousins Kimberly and Mike and Mike's two adorable daughters, Bella and Lily were able to make it to our house. Mike had a four-wheel drive truck and went to get Kim who lives in Vancouver. She was definitely snowed in and if he hadn't been able to pick her up she wouldn't have made it. Our friends Jon, Steve, and Kevin were able to get through either by sheer driving skill or by using mass transportation. Janelle, Jon's wife, had to work that day and couldn't make it. Thank heavens the others were able to make it since we had bought two turkeys for the dinner. Dave, Jon, and Steve worked kitchen detail while I entertained our other guests. We had a festive and fun dinner with lots of turkey, mashed potatoes, and the rest of the traditional Christmas foods.

To compensate for such a lousy Christmas Day, Dave and I took off for the beach for the weekend. I had promised Dave a stay at our friends Nena and Patti's beach house for his last birthday so it was a great time to go. Luckily the day after Christmas the weather broke and it was a lot warmer and rainy. It was great to return to Portland's normal wet and warmer winter. We were joined at the beach by Jon and Janelle and Steve for the two and a half day stay. Dave, Janelle and Steve, who are the cooks of the group made some great meals while Jon and I played on our computers. I have a great picture of the dining room table with five different laptops (all Macs except Dave's Viao). I had a great time playing with my new Kindle which Dave gave to me for Christmas.

The Kindle is an electronic book reader. There's some awkwardness with how you have to hold it but otherwise, it's a great invention. You can buy books directly from Amazon.com and they automatically download to your Kindle. And it takes about 5 seconds to download an entire novel. After the first 20 or 30 minutes, I actually forgot that I wasn't reading a real book. It's that fun and easy. Kindle editions of new books are cheaper than buying books and you don't have to carry around three or four books during a 2 1/2 day trip. It was wonderful.

I recommend Kindles to anyone. Not every new book comes in a Kindle Edition but Amazon.com says it has about 80,000 books available for the Kindle and the list continues to grow every day. You can also go to a number of other sites and get copyright free books for nothing on the web. I will never stop buying real books, but having the Kindle will let me be more selective and give me more flexibility for taking reading material on vacation or just sitting around the house reading. I like it.

I'm back at work today after 10 days of not working. The University closed two days the week before last and was closed the entire week of Christmas. So I'm catching up with my work and emails. This week will be very short because of the New Year holiday on Thursday. The state has closed all state offices (including the University) on Friday so I'll have another four-day weekend. I'm beginning to like this. It may be a first taste of retirement and it's not bad.

I hope you all have a wonderful and prosperous New Year. Take care.

Going to Seattle

Hi all, me again!

Whoops, I forgot, I am going to Seattle next Wednesday (December 3rd) to see my son, Sean and my two grandsons Dare and Patrick! Dare will be 6 on December 23rd, so I am going to Seattle to celebrate his birthday early and to make it special. I haven't seen the boy's since July when I was in Seattle for a training class. We'll also do some Christmas shopping for everyone. I am hoping that my children and grandsons will be able to join us at Steve's for Christmas dinner!

Love you you all!
Debbie

News from Salt Lake City

Hi to everyone again! I haven't posted anything since July, here we go again!

It is difficult to be in a far away city (Steve makes it seem like I am on the moon!), especially during the holidays and I can't believe Christmas is almost here! We missed everyone at Thanksgiving, but hey, just so you all know I COOKED! I know, no fainting out there. For those of you that don't know, my husband, Ken, cooks, I don't! Anyway, we had a nice turkey breast roast, dressing, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. It was good but again friends and family are what holidays are about!

We will be in Portland for Christmas and Steve and Dave have gracioulsy invited us to stay with them. We'll be there from the 22nd of December and coming back to Salt Lake City on December 30th. I have sent all of my Christmas cards. I don't have Suzie and John's new address, so if anyone can send that to me, that would be great! I did include a Christmas letter with the cards. I ran out of room (trying to keep it to one page), so just to let everyone know, we are in the processing of finishing our basement here in Salt Lake City. There will be a home theater, a game room, a computer area, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. We will have lots of room for whomever would like to come and visit! And it isn't that far, for heaven's sakes! It is beautiful here, although, I SUPPOSE, not the hot vacationing spot. Right now we have a guest room on the main floor, so come and visit.

We decorated (not a lot) today and everything looks lovely! We have no place to attach outdoor lights, so we have the Christmas tree framed in the front window, and outside, a string of snowmen by the front stairs and a string of candy canes. It'll have to do.

Annie, wow, psychology, that is absolutely incredible! Good for you, and I wish you the best in getting that Bachelor's degree!

Everyone have a safe and happy holiday, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Debbie & Ken

Remiss in Blogging

Well, like Annie, I too feel like its time to get back on the Blog and send greetings and best wishes to everyone.

Dave and I are going to Dave's parents on Thanksgiving Day then rushing home to host some friends, Geri and Kevin, who will spend Thanksgiving night with us. They are flying off to Cabo San Lucas on Friday morning for a week in the wonderful Mexican sun. It will be nice to see them but of course I'm quite envious of their vacation plans. Oregon is dismally wet and grey again. We've had some pretty awesome fall days with lots of sun and clear skys but now Oregon is back to being Oregon.

Debbie and Ken will be coming to Portland at Christmas time and stay with us. It will be nice to see them. Salt Lake City is a million miles away when your only sister lives there. Debbie keeps asking when Dave and I will come visit them, and I'm always hedging a little, saying hmmmm maybe some time in the future. They have a wonderful house that they say they've set up quite comfortably for visitors. Their offer to host us is very generous. We'll see.

I won't get into politics on the Blog either, but I will say, I'm very excited about the future with Barack Obama in the White House. A change in government is usually a good thing for all of us, whether you voted for the incoming president-elect or not. And heck he can't be all bad if even the State of Nebraska had enough votes for him that one of Nebraska's electoral votes went to him...

Dave and I had an absolutely incredible time in Italy this summer. We spent 8 days in Bologna, the heart of Emilia-Romangna (and the culinary capital of Italy) and then 5 days in Rome. I insisted on the Roman trip because I thought we'd get bored in Bologna if we stayed for the entire 15 days, but fact is Dave and I both fell in love with the city. We ate like there was no tomorrow and believe it or not, I only gained two pounds during the entire trip. That was due mainly to the fact that we walked everywhere. But the food was incredibly good and we ate some of the best pizza we've ever eaten. Really. I actually had one with french fries baked directly onto the pizza. Sounds odd but tasted scrumptuous. It was funny though, because it was the pizza joints where my feeble attempts at speaking Italian really paid off. Most of the trattorias that served pizza are family run and they didn't speak a lot of English. So those months of trying to learn some rudimental Italian paid off. I even had to use Italian one night to make a reservation for the next night and it worked. The lady at the front desk complimented me on my wonderful Italian after it was all done and I had to laugh. I knew all of the words and phrases I needed to make the reservations but that was the extent of my abilities.

One of the best things about Bologna was that there were very few tourists (American or otherwise). So we never had to fight big crowds at the good restaurants or shops. The weather was perfect and our accomodations were wonderful. We rented an apartment on Via Arienti. The apartment was nice and roomy with a separate bedroom, good kitchen and a lovely little balcony that overlooked a very nice interior courtyard garden. We sat outside often at the end of the day sipping some wonderful Italian wine and eating fresh cheeses and sausages we bought that day. Very nice.

Rome on the other hand was crowded. Even in mid-September the tourists were thronging to Rome. But even so, the weather was spectacular and we still had a ball despite the huge crowds everywhere. We were lucky and found a couple of very nice trattorias and restaurants with great food. Our apartment in Rome, however, was a bit cramped. It would have literally fit into one of the rooms in the Bologna apartment. But the saving grace was that it too had a lovely little balcony that had a gorgeous view of the Coleseum. At night the sight was just wonderful.

We did spend an entire day at the Vatican and by the time we limped back to the apartment we were dead tired. My feet hadn't hurt that badly in years. Dave was real game though and after a good nap, we got dressed and went out to a nice little restaurant down the street from us and a good bottle of wine restored our bodies as well as our spirits.

Sorry for going on and on about the trip. If you're interested in seeing some photos, you can go to my mac gallery here (http://gallery.me.com/schwuchtel) and look at the pictures. Beware though. I've tried to pare down the pictures to the best ones but there's still a lot. That's the problem with digital pictures; it doesn't cost anything to keep all of them whether they're good or not.

So, Annie, congratulations on your decision to go back to school. It will be tough to study and work but I know you'll never regret the decision. Psychology is an exciting field and your classes will be challenging but the reward at the end will be priceless. Good luck and keep posting.

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.