I’ve moved…

Hello everybody-Just wanted to let you know that I have moved my blog! Here’s the new website where you can catch all the latest Klinkner happenings: www.shawnklinkner.blogspot.com Hope to see you there!
Shawn

Where has the time gone???

Wow. I have seriously been out of the loop as far as blogging goes. Sorry for you who are faithful readers! The last couple of weeks have been extraordinarily full. Like many of you, we have been in the midst of school preparations. Dara just began her 2nd grade year at Kingsway Christian School here in Vancouver. She had no anxiety about school this year and couldn’t wait to join all of her school mates for another year of adventure and learning!

Dara on the 1st day of 2nd Grade

Dara settling in at her desk in Mrs. Wold’s class.

Dana is 22 weeks along as of yesterday. We have had a couple of significant doctor’s appointments lately- most of them revolving around our ultrasound. We found out a couple of weeks ago that we are going to have a baby boy (hooray!!). We were pleasantly suprised and blessed to no longer be in the dark about who was growing inside Dana’s tummy! For those of you who may not know- we already have his name picked out. We are going to name him Josiah Seth Klinkner. First- I will say that there aren’t many boy names that sound good with my last name, “Klinkner” so that ruled out some of the names that we were initially drawn to. But after some reading through baby name books- we picked Josiah Seth for a couple of reasons. The meaning of his name was particularly significant to us. Josiah means “God supports” and Seth means “God has appointed”. Why is that siginificant you ask? Well, when Dana went in for her first appointment with Dr. Nakamura, our OB/GYN, he after taking her health history, began to ask some pointed questions about Dana’s health over the last 15 years and came to the conclusion that he suspected that she had poly-cystic ovary syndrome. PCOS has many symptoms, but one of the primary ones is that women who have it have great difficulty conceiving. Dr. Nakamura explained in detail to us how the fact that we have 1 child already and that we are pregnant with another is a miracle considering she has PCOS. Also, many women who have PCOS, will actually miscarry during a pregnancy due to their hormone levels being insufficient in progesterone. So our choice of names reflects our gratitude and praise to God, because not only did He appoint that we should have another pregnancy, but God has actively supported our pregnancy and is helping Dana to carry it to term. Hence Josiah’s name (God has appointed & God Supports). We feel like it was an inspired name.

So there you have it. We’re having a boy! I am pretty excited to have some testosterone in the house to keep me company with Dana and Dara! In fact we just finished painting the nursery this week. We did a really fun color scheme of blue, chocolate, khaki and white in Josiah’s room. You can see below:

Stripes Phase 1

This is the west wall of Josiah’s room. So fun- and totally boy. Cool project. Our friend Katie Stilwater coached us on how to make those wonderful stripes! (Thanks Katie!) It turned out better than we could have imagined.

So working two jobs, having a baby, back to school- and being also apart of a church plant in Portland have kept us very busy. Our church, Current, is having its grand opening on Friday, September 28th at 6:30pm. You can be expecting me to be blogging more about our adventures with Current very soon. Suffice it to say that we recently leased a building in Southeast Portland off of SE 49th and Division- right in the neighborhood God was leading us to. Our website will be going up here shortly and you can read more about us and our focus and vision as a church family. Our services are Friday nights from 6:30-8:30pm. If you want to come visit, we meet at 2407 SE 49th Street- we would love to have you join us!

Well my friends, I am heading off to bed. Thought I would touch base and tease you with an update! A little follow up on my mad scientist work… my daylily seed pods have opened and I harvested all my hybridized daylily seeds! Pictures and details to come! Ciao for now!

Peter Pan & more from my garden…

At the beginning of the summer I promised pictures of my Agapanthus, Peter Pan. I purchased this small discarded little plant from Lowe’s last year because its bloom stalk broke, and it was only $2. Well this year Peter bloomed and I promised pictures so here is Peter Pan:

All of my daylilies have bloomed, so my yard is a bit in transition- getting ready for its fall color. My black-eyed susans are blooming:

and, today my Rose of Sharon bloomed- the blossoms are just exquisite- they are so delicate and beautiful. When we got back from our Midwest trip- all my planters had died from lack of water (SAD!!), but a sweet reward was my clematis “Ville de Lyon” had its first bloom:

So- its time for transition. My brain is already percolating with what plants I need to divide and propogate, what plants I need to move etc… I love my garden. Its amazing how little things can bring so much joy. Hope you enjoyed the mini garden tour!

Make new friends… and keep the old

You know the old song, “Make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold.” Well the end of our Midwest trip finished with leaving Kansas City and traveling northwest to Sutton, Nebraska. Sutton is home to our “old” friends Kurt and Danelle Andres. We met Kurt and Danelle when we first moved to Vancouver (actually a little prior to moving). Dana and Danelle were pregnant at the same time. In August of 2000 we had Dara and a week later Kurt and Danelle had twin boys, Nate and Ben. For four years we spent time together, raised our families and enjoyed taking turns watching the kids while we alternated having date nights. In 2004, Kurt was offered an executive position at his brother’s lumber treatment plant in Sutton, Nebraska and after prayerful consideration he accepted. So Kurt and Danelle packed up their family and moved to the midwest to start a new adventure. We missed our friends tremendously and they have come back to the Northwest to visit Danelle’s family a few times; but since we were in Kansas, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to step into their part of the world and see where their adventure led them! Here’s a pic of Kurt, Danelle, Nate, Ben and their daughter Karis outside their home in Sutton:

Sutton is in a very rural part of Nebraska- it boasts a population of 4000 people, many of which are farmers and do not live in the immediate city limits. Its neighborhoods are lined with farmhouses and a handful of country churches. We stayed at the Fox Hollow motel and got to venture over every day to see our friends and hang out, go swimming, and catch up. It was a refreshing way to end our vacation. Dara loved seeing the boys, and hit it off with Karis, their little sister. Karis and Dara busied themselves with dressing up, painting fingernails and playing Polly Pockets. We took all the kids to go swimming too- Sutton has an amazing pool with TWO giant twisty slides and a small third slide that goes into the deep end of the pool. That place was packed! Here are some picks of the kids swimming:

Dara, Nate and Ben

Dara and Karis

Everyone out of the pool for a candy break!

Kurt took me on a tour of the lumber treatment factory- which was very interesting. I think he has been very successful at adapting to his new responsibilities and with his faithful management I am sure that the family business will do very well! Dana and Danelle got to hang out too, talking about kids, motherhood, stamping, family and more. We enjoyed a special birthday dinner together in Danelle’s honor at Olive Garden in Lincoln, Nebraska and some great time just catching up and reminiscing about old times.

Finally, Saturday, we said our goodbyes, loaded up our car and made the trip to Omaha where we flew out. After a long day- we finally got home to Portland. We cheered when we landed knowing that our inviting home and comfy beds were waiting for us. Sure enough- Pop Pop was waiting to pick us up with our minivan to get us home. We loved our trip to the Midwest and were grateful for our special times with Dana’s grandparents, parents and our friends, the Andres!

More from Kansas City

Hello Friends-
A midday report from the Klinkners in Kansas City! We are in the midst of a midday rest time after having spent the morning at the Hallmark Visitor’s Center. Kansas City is home to the Hallmark Company. They have a fascinating visitors center, which is also apart of a large mall and activity center called “The Crown Center”. The Visitors center chronicles how JC Hall came to Kansas City, from Nebraska with a small briefcase full of picture postcards and a vision to start a greeting card company. It shows how Hallmark became a internationally successful company and their leadership not only in greeting cards, but giftwrapping, media with the Hallmark Gold Hall of Fame Movies, toys and other merchandise. It also showed how Hallmark’s artwork and greeting cards reflected what was going on in national history and world history. Here is a picture of Wayne, Elaine and Dara in front of a metal mural just inside the visitor center:

In the visitor center they also showcased 17 christmas trees that were given to JC Hall by his employees. Each tree was symbolic and was pretty neat- reflecting some of the values of the Hallmark company and the founder, JC Hall himself.

Wayne looking at some of the Christmas Trees

Dara enjoyed the Hallmark Visitors Center- especially the parts where you watched a live demonstration of how foil embossing is done on the cards, and how giftwrap bows are made. You got to push a button at this machine and watch your very own souvenir bow being made:

After having lunch at the Crown Center we went to head back to the hotel. Dana was pretty tired because I kept her up all night snoring . Dara was begging to go swimming too. On the way home though- Wayne drove us through Mission Hills, a famous development on the Kansas City Missouri, Kansas City, Kansas border. This is an immaculate development of mansions and homes that just blow your mind. You can check it out online at: www.misssionhillsks.gov
Mission Hills is a pretty amazing place- and you just can’t imagine how beautiful these homes are. You have everything from huge English Tudor-style homes, to southern-style homes with large front porches and majestic columns, to stately colonial homes. We oohed and ahhed for a good half an hour looking through the development.

So far I have thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. There is something about the midwest and the south that is very charming. History isn’t so out of reach here. What I mean is- in Europe, there is so much history that its almost too hard to wrap your mind around. But here in America- history isn’t so far out of reach. You walk through the foothills of the Ozarks and you can envision some of the battles of the Civil War having taken place there just 140 years ago. You can see Westport (apart of Kansas City), the last port to the west and people rolling into Kansas City from the East coast, purchasing their covered wagons and moving all their earthly possessions into them for the trek to the West. There is definately a romance to the Midwest and the South- there is the trappings of American History that beckon to your soul and call you to chase and capture them for your own, even as you would a firefly at dusk. Don’t get me wrong- I love the Pacific Northwest, the ocean- but there is something very captivating about this area we are visiting. Its very cool.

Arkansas Adventures & The City of Fountains!

Hello Friends!
Well, we finally have internet access (hooray!). Tonight we have arrived in Kansas City, the City of Fountains!

This is a picture from “The Plaza” a famous outdoor mall in Kansas City. We are staying in a nice hotel close to the Plaza and this picture was taken from the Plaza looking out into the city at twilight.

Now, before I go on to extol the virtues of Kansas City, Missouri. I am going to recap some of our adventures from the past few days that we spent in Bella Vista, Arkansas with Dana’s paternal grandparents, Grandma & Grandpa Wright.

Day 1- Saturday:
Wake up 3am. OUCH. Miraculously arrive at the Portland Airport on time and manage to pound a Triple Grande Vanilla Latte from Starbucks while we are waiting for our flight. The first leg of our journey takes us to Las Vegas. Now Dana has been to Vegas for a convention and stayed at the Mirage. As of yet, I have yet to experience Las Vegas, but I did get a glimpse of the strip as we landed. After a 1 hour layover, we boarded for our next flight to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Nothing exciting to report about that flight except looking out the window on the plane was fascinating as we flew over Arizona and New Mexico. I never knew the desert could be so barren.
OK. So we land in Tulsa, collect our luggage and we get our first experience of Midwest humidity. Now, mind you, I’m not complaining because actually the heat and the humidity have been very mild while we have been here. Nevertheless, it was just under 90 degrees and 65% humidity which is much more humid than our Northwest climate. We then drove two hours to Bella Vista, Arkansas to Dana’s grandparents home on Lake Rayburn.

Now Arkansas is a bit different than some of the other midwest states for several reasons. One, it is technically considered apart of the South. Two, Bella Vista sits in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains and is filled with hills of limestone and oak trees. So it is not as flat as the rest of the midwest. When we arrived in Bella Vista, Grandma Wright had fixed us a nice dinner with several cold salads including: homemade potato salad, a fine jello salad with cottage cheese and pineapple (much to our horror), a broccoli caulifower salad, honeybaked ham and bread and butter. Side comment: After tasting Grandma’s jello salad- Dara exclaimed, “I don’t really like this jello Grandma, I like Mrs. Branchflower’s Rainbow jello salad much better! Oy vey- children and their honesty! But kudos to you Briana!! After dinner we retired to our 3 bedroom condo for a much needed good nights sleep!

Day 2- Sunday:
Wayne and I start our day off by making a trip to Bentonville, which is 10 minutes away from Bella Vista to get coffee at Starbucks. Ok, you know it’s a small world when the barista who rings you up says, “Oh I know Vancouver, Washington! My grandparents live there and I visit there all the time.” Also, little did I know that Bentonville is the home of Wal-Mart and its founder, the late Sam Walton (more on this thrilling part later…). After having a nice drive and conversation with Wayne, we drove back, picked up the ladies and drove to G&G Wright’s for our morning adventure. After a short visit and some storytelling, Grandpa and Grandma took us to Monte Ne Chicken in Monte Ne, Arkansas. Monte Ne Chicken is a famous restaurant in Arkansas known for its family style dining and… Fried Chicken.

There is only one menu item they serve at the restaurant – their famous fried chicken and all the perfect side dishes- fresh bread and applebutter, fresh coleslaw, fresh corn & green beans and mashed potatoes and gravy. The restaurant is decked with old farm equipment on the walls, pictures of the founder, and other nostalgia. The chicken was awesome- and they keep bringing as much of anything you want until you are finished for a meager price of $8.47 per person!!

Afterwards we returned back to the house and Wayne began to teach me the game of cribbage,

a favorite pasttime of his and Grandpa Wright’s. It is a multi-dimensional game, with a lot of ways to strategize to gain points. It has been fun to learn the game- and nice to share a fun pastime with Wayne. Here we are playing cribbage at the table:

We also got to take Dara swimming at the condo swimming pool- it had a slide, which Dara loved. Dana and Elaine napped while Wayne and I went swimming with Dara. Then after a few hours of swimming we picked up the rest of the womenfolk (yes, the midwest is starting to affect me) and headed back to Grandpa and Grandma’s for dinner and bluebirding!

What’s “bluebirding” you ask? Grandpa has been working since 1983 to help rebuild the populations of the Eastern Bluebird. He and some other “birders” have set up nesting boxes all around the golf course and monitor them. Normally bluebirds nest in the cavities of trees, but with housing developments going up and other species of birds competing for nesting areas, the bluebird population has been dwindling. Well, Grandpa took myself, Dara and Elaine on the route of bluebird houses that he monitors. He checks them to see if they have nests, to see how many eggs were laid, when the eggs hatch and the birds fledge, and to keep sparrows from nesting in the boxes. Dara became Grandpa’s “Bluebirder in Training” and Elaine and I were just helpers. Here are a few pictures:

Grandpa and Bluebirder in Training- Dara

This is a nest of 3 bluebirds that had hatched. The mother was away catching food for them. The birds were burying their little heads hiding from us, but we could pet them with our fingers and it does not deter the mother from raising the chicks. You can imagine how excited Dara was to pet these little baby birds.

It was a neat experience. We had a great time learning about bluebirds and Dara and Grandpa bonded. We then retired back to the house for homemade peanut butter pie, stories and Dara and I’s first experience catching fireflies. Right at dusk- the fireflies begin to blink and come out- Dara had a hay day catching them and putting them in a jar. They are fascinating little bugs – for those of you who also have never seen them, they fly around at dusk and their butts light up intermittently to attract each other. Here is Dara admiring her jar of fireflies after she caught them:

Day 3 – Monday:
More hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma. We took a trip to Bentonville to see the Wal-Mart Museum and the home of Sam Walton’s original 5 and Dime store. The museum was closed unfortunately, but we hung out in the town square of Bentonville and Dana, Elaine and I got coffee at a local coffeeshop on Main Street – can I say HALLELUJAH for some espresso and deliverance from a tour that we didn’t really want to take. I mean how much history of Wal-mart can a person really do? By the way, let me add that in lieu of the trip to the museum we instead drove by the late Sam Waltons house and Grandpa insisted on stopping by the local courthouse for Wayne to say hello to his childhood accordian teacher’s ex-husband….we couldn’t figure this one out either.

Outside the Five and Dime Store and the Wal-Mart Museum

The Bentonville Town Square with a 100 year old monument to the Confederate soldiers that fought in the Civil War.

We returned home for some more swimming, a nice dinner out at Panda, a great chinese buffet and more cribbage. Oh, and Dara lost her 3rd tooth!

Day4- Tuesday:
Our last day in Bella Vista. We checked out of our condo and met over at Grandma and Grandpa’s. Dara proceeded to make a whopping $10 for her lost tooth from the great grandparents (in addition to the $3 she already got from Pop-Pop and the toothfairy). Hello? This child is spoiled!! We also got a neat picture of 4 generations of women in the family:

Our last adventure was with Grandpa and Grandma driving with us to the Precious Moments factory in Carthage, Missouri- where we took a tour of the museum, chapel and gift shop. It’s an amazing and suprisingly touching place. Here are some pictures:

A Picture of Hallelujah Hall inside the chapel

Dara standing next to a Precious Moments Girl

Tearful goodbyes and pictures with Grandpa and Grandma. We love you!

We then took off for Kansas City, singing the old song by Wilbur Harrison, “We’re going to Kansas City, Kansas City here we come!”. When we first got to KC- Wayne drove us by where they used to live in Indian Creek Estates. It was fun to watch Dana and her family reminisce as they recognized their old neighborhood. After a walk down memory lane, we drove to our hotel- the Hampton Inn. Wayne spoiled us with a Deluxe King Suite as a late anniversary present. Can I say- we are in the lap of luxury? We have a two room King Suite with a kitchenette (we even have our own ice-maker, Dana is in hog heaven about this), separate living room, dining room table, huge bathroom with a whirlpool spa tub and a top story view of Kansas City!!!!

We love it. If there weren’t so much to do- we’d probably hang out in our room the whole time! We’ll take some pictures of our palace and the view and post them tomorrow! For now- here are some pictures of our evening:

Wayne, Elaine and Dara at a fountain in the plaza.
We had just eaten a fantastic meal at Houston’s Restaurant in the Plaza then we walked down in the dusky temperate air to a Italian Gelato ice cream place. It was so yummy. Here we are eating ice cream:

We had quite a full day and a full weekend with Dana’s grandparents but we are having a wonderful time. More thoughts and updates from Kansas City tomorrow!

Kansas City Here We Come!

Well it’s Wednesday night and we are in full swing getting ready to take off for the midwest. For those of you who don’t know, we are flying out Saturday (early in the morning) to go to the midwest for 7 days with Dana’s parents. While we are there we will be spending 3-4 days with Dana’s grandparents in Bella Vista, Arkansas. After that Wayne, Elaine, Dana, Dara and I will drive to Kansas City (the City of Fountains) and they are going to take me on a tour of the areas where they used to live and show me around Kansas City. Did you know that not only do they have incredible BBQ, they have more fountains in Kansas City than Rome, Italy? And did you also know that Kansas City is home to Hallmark Cards? We are planning on taking a tour of the “Crown Center” the home of Hallmark and doing some of the fun activities there. A fitting venture for my sentimental, card making wife wouldn’t you say? Ok. I’m looking forward to it too- I’ll admit- I’m a softy and have been occasionally known to send a sappy card…

After a couple of days in Kansas, Wayne and Elaine are flying out and we are going to drive up to Sutton, Nebraska to visit some dear friends of ours, Kurt & Danelle Andres and their kids Nate, Ben & Karis. Yeah! They used to live in Vancouver but moved to Nebraska when Kurt was offered a great opportunity with his brother’s company. Since then, we have seen them at holidays- but we are pretty excited to see what their world is like in small town Sutton. We might even eat at Grandpa Jake’s Restaurant More on Grandpa Jake’s later…

So we are rabidly trying to clean and get things packed for our week away. I just got Dara in bathed and in bed. The laundry is started and as I am typing this right now- some Ultimate Fudge Brownies are baking in the oven. Yup. Comfort food. Imagine hot fudge brownies with a cool scoop of vanilla ice cream melting over it. That’s where I’m headed- oh yeah. In fact- the timer is going off. Ciao for now!

Promised Garden Tour

OK-
So I have promised some pictures from my garden- and I do have to say that this is really a first fruits of my garden because my backyard blooms a little later due to the shade from the evergreens around our house. But here goes!

Fun foliage: Variegated Hosta, Peony foliage and Palace Purple heuchera

Daylily “Caprician Fiesta” – I bought this last year from a vendor at the Vancouver Farmer’s Market. I haven’t been disappointed!

Daylily “Bonanza” – fun colors

Echinacea “Harvest Moon” – I love this coneflower- the color really stands out in the garden.

Daylily “Catherine Woodman” – I was suprised at how tall this daylily got. I used this daylily as one of the main ones I hybridized. I am anxious to see how the seeds from the hybrids come out.

Daylily “Elegant Candy” – This is a very striking daylily that I just planted this year.

Daylily “Pandora’s Box” and Crocosmia “Lucifer”

Daylily- Don’t know the name of this one, but it bloomed all around the 4th of July- it was amazing! Just like a fireworks show!

Hope you enjoyed the tour! Look forward to another one a little bit closer to September-

Gardener or Mad Scientist?

Hello friends!
So I don’t know if this is happens to anyone else, but right now I am pretty much obsessed with my garden. A lot of my spare moments are spent walking through my garden- trying to decide if I am going to move a plant here or there, what plants I still want to get, asking myself how could I develop my garden more, etc… Every where I go, my eyes are peeled looking for plant sales. A couple of weekends ago I found out about a special shade gardening society that was having a plant sale in Portland. Not only was there a plant sale, but a specialty Hosta nursery out of Oregon City was going to be there and they were discounting some of their plants because they were closing. How could I resist? Then I found out about the plant sale that was happening at the Firstenburg Community Center two weekends ago- how could I not go- it’s just 5 minutes up the street. I found 2 echinacea coneflowers “Sundown”
,
was the variety, from the big sky series. Now this is a special variety of coneflower, sometimes hard to find. I totally scored a deal on it! I got 2 of them for $6.99 each. Normally they range from $9.99- $14.99 depending on where you get them.

I also recently went shopping for a bird bath with Dana’s grandmother, Odelia, more affectionately known as “Grams”. We went to The Concrete Shop over in Hazel Dell to check out their inventory of bird baths. Grams had been looking for a bird bath for the last 2 years and I had been wanting one myself, but a concrete bird bath that is well made can often cost $100-160.00 depending on the size and where you get it. I must say that the Concrete Shop had a nice selection and both Grams and I found birdbaths and got them for under $65.00. Yahoo!

So as you can see- my eyes are peeled for deals! I am having a lot of fun with my yard this year. Actually, I have also embarked on another more “extreme” endeavor. I have several daylilies in my yard- and I am seemingly finding more all the time. Daylilies are wonderful perennials. Hemerocallis (their latin name) literally means Hemero-”Day”, Callis-”Beauty” = “DayBeauty”. Most daylilies have a beautiful fountain-shaped grassy foliage and in the summertime send up several stems of blooms. Each bloom is magnificent and only lasts a day. Well, I have a creative side to me that really enjoys making things- I get that from both of my parents. It’s also got a mad scientist sort of tweak to it. Suffice it to say- the mad scientist part of me has emerged and I have been hybridizing my daylilies as they bloom. What is hybridization? Well, its basically where you take 2 different cultivars of the same genus (ok, in laymens terms, 2 different kinds of the same plant) and you cross pollinate them in hopes that they will produce seeds possessing characteristics of the parent plants. Any of you who have done some biology know that with different sets of DNA you can come up with all kinds of different combinations. So, I have successfully hybridized a few of my daylilies and I am anxiously awaiting the maturing of the seed pods so I can prepare them for planting. Eventually, I will plant the seeds and nurture the new daylilies and once they bloom I will get to see how they are different or similar to the parent plants. Its sort of my own little weird experiment. Because daylilies hybridize easily, many people experiment with it- some make a profession of it. Me, I’m just a tinkerer- a gardener with a wild hair. To me its exciting. I’ll keep you updated on my experiment. Talk to you soon!

Are you drought tolerant?

In the gardening world, if you were to ask someone what the ideal plant would be- they might say something like, “Well- I would like a plant that has nice foliage… something that is easy to maintain, with pretty and fragrant blooms, something that is drought tolerant, and looks great in every season.”
That is a pretty ideal plant. In fact, if a plant even has two or three of those virtues, gardeners will flock to it. Is it realistic to find a plant with all of those qualities though? Probably not.

In the Bible, God compares the person who delights in and meditates on His word and who trusts in Him (see Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17:7 and following) to a tree planted by streams of water. This tree never fails to bear fruit. It doesn’t fear when the heat comes, it’s leaf doesn’t wilt or wither, in fact- its leaves are always fresh and green. It’s disease resistant. It flourishes.

So maybe there is a plant with all those qualities after all. What kind of plant do you feel like you are? Are you feeling a little sun scorched? Not feeling like you are blooming the way you should? Fortunately- each one of us has the potential to be the kind of plant the scriptures above describe. God says he is a rewarder of those who seek him (Hebrews 11:6). I know I have been feeling a little stretched and dry of late… why don’t you join me in stretching out your roots into the stream of God’s word and take in some of His living water? Come on in- the water is just right!