Studio711.com – Ben Martens

My room during my senior year at Purdue overlooked the rec fields. After a snowstorm I looked outside at the huge field of white and had the idea to go write a message. A quick AIM chat (hey, it was 2002) with my friends didn’t reveal any great ideas for what to write. The best we could come up with was SPACE FOR RENT. We of course came up with a lot of great ideas the next day. It went over pretty well. I heard a number of positive conversations about it on campus.

There’s an artist named Simon Beck who really takes trampled snow to the extreme. He creates works of art on a huge scale in the snow. Check out this post for photos of his work.

On the Saturday before Christmas, Tim, Chelsea, Tyla and I made our annual trip to the Bavarian tourist trap of Leavenworth on the other side of the mountains. There was a lot of snow which made the Christmas lights of the town even more beautiful. We perused some shops, bought bacon themed Christmas village pieces, and ate dinner at Gustav’s.

Around 8:15 we hopped in the car for the trip back across Stevens Pass. As soon as we got to the end of town, we saw a police car blocking the road. A quick check on our phones indicated that the pass was going to be closed all night. Surprise! That meant that instead of a ~1.5 hour drive home, we’d have to take the long way down to Snoqualmie Pass. It took us about 3.5 hours to get home, but a trip like that goes quickly in the company of good friends.

But what closed the pass? On Friday night, two people were killed on Stevens Pass when a tree fell on their car. A lot of heavy, wet snow fell over a relatively short period of time and created a lot of stress on trees. On Saturday night while we were in Leavenworth, it happened again. This time, nobody died but four people ended up in the hospital. WSDOT ended up closing the road for three days while they investigated the incidents and figured out how to make the roadway safe. It must have been an incredible challenge to look at thousands of trees along tens of miles of road to try and guess which ones might fall down.

The road is now open and the 3500 residents of that stretch of road are finally free to leave their homes. Cliff Mass has also posted a theory about why this is one of the worst Decembers for fallen trees that we’ve ever seen.

I recently filled up at the Costco gas station in Issaquah. They have done some major improvements since the last time I was there, adding 8 new pumps and improving the parking situation. An impromptu chat with the attendant revealed some interesting info.

Before the upgrade, they were the 25th busiest Costco gas station. After the upgrade they moved to #2. They increased their fill-ups by about 300 per day. The busiest Costco gas station is in Hawaii. However, during the week of December 9, the Issaquah Costco station sold 5000 more gallons than the Hawaii station, but the Hawaii station still won for total money since the price of gas is higher out there.

It would be very interesting to see the revenue numbers behind the operation. How much cheaper can they buy the gas for than other gas stations? Could anybody open up a gas station and sell gas for that price and be successful as long as they sold enough? Who knows, but I do like getting my gas for ~$0.20 cheaper than other stations!

No matter what I write in the following paragraphs, the one thing I’ll remember from this year will undoubtedly be that Tyla is pregnant! Baby Martens isn’t going to arrive until next summer but is already shaping a good portion of our thoughts and daily activities. From doctor appointments to baby classes and baby books to nursery decorating, we’re gearing up for full baby mode. I’ve been told by many parents that I can’t imagine the effect this baby is going to have on our lives, so I’m not even trying. If I’m going to be shocked no matter what, why stress out about it? We’re doing our best to prepare and then we’ll enjoy it as it comes and learn as we go.

The baby isn’t the only news of the year though. Early in 2012, I wrapped up a major project at church as the property deacon there. We hired a contractor to do a major renovation of the parsonage on the property and after a few months of work, the contractors finished up. It didn’t end there though as we took on the landscaping portion of the job ourselves. It took a lot of time and effort, but the end product looks fantastic. For a volunteer organization, getting anything this big done is a major accomplishment. During the spring and summer the work at church continued as I oversaw the installation of a new fire alarm system. Once that finished up I started helping out with our new church sign project. It’s great to see this major improvements happening at church, but it also feels good to get them out of the way before Baby Martens arrives and my attention is diverted.

The year started off with some fun ski trips. Tyla came out with me a few times and we also got to ski with Andy and Stephanie for the first time. The highlight of the ski season was going out with a ski photographer for a day of photography. This was my second time doing that and he got some fantastic shots that make me look a lot better than I really am!

Ever since our honeymoon, Tyla and I have talked about going on another cruise. With hopes for a baby on our minds, we decided to go for it. We spent ten incredible days in the eastern Caribbean and memories of those wonderful, sunny days still hijack my thoughts on a regular basis.

Tyla works out quite a bit and this year she ran both a 5k and her first 10k. I happily watch from the sidelines with my camera in hand capturing her accomplishments.

Mom and Dad came out twice this year. The first visit was over Easter to celebrate the holiday with us and also to see our new house. Usually when they come out we end up traveling all over the state, but this time we stayed pretty close to home. The one big outing was snowshoeing around Stevens Pass. We found the perfect spot for lunch in the pristine snow with an incredible view high in the mountains. Their second trip was over Labor Day and the bid adventure from that trip was a hike around Crystal Mountain. It provided a great view of Rainier and also showed them where I love to spend my time in the winter.

There were a few camping trips with Tyla’s family to Lake Chelan, Fall City, La Conner, and Bay View State Park. They have a great camp trailer which makes is very convenient. They were always great hosts and welcomed us into their campsite for random nights during their stays.

At home we were busy with lots of projects. The home theater was the most fun for me. I mounted a projector and a 120” screen and then ran all the video and power cables inside the walls. The speakers also got wall mounted with their wires run inside the walls. A paint job really gave the room a nice finishing touch. We spend a lot of time enjoying movies in the comfort of our own home.

2012 was Tyla’s second 29th birthday and I planned a weekend full of surprises for her. On Friday night, we drove to a local bed and breakfast that has tree houses for guest rooms. On Saturday we headed into Seattle where I had reserved us seats with a great view of the SeaFair airshow and hydroplane races. On Sunday afternoon, I told her that her family was coming over for dinner. That was true, but what she didn’t know is that a big group of our friends were coming too!

I opted in to some medical procedures this year which had me going under anesthesia twice. The first was to remove one of my wisdom teeth. While it wasn’t pleasant, that turned out to be a lot easier than I had imagined. The second was sinus surgery to correct some stuff inside my nose. The end result is fantastic, but the first few days after the surgery were miserable. Both have proven to be good decisions so far and I’m thankful for good health.

The motorcycle got a good workout this year. I took two long rides with friends Doug and Frank from church. The first trip was a three day ride through British Columbia with some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen from my motorcycle. The second was a long one day ride out to Dry Falls and back through an enormous active forest fire area. There’s already talk of going on another ride next year so we obviously all had a great time.

Last year, friends AndyD and StephanieW climbed Mt. St. Helens in the fog and wanted to do it again in sunshine. They got us forest service passes, organized the whole trip, but then had to bow out at the last minute for personal reasons. Tim, Chelsea and I decided to carry on without them, and though it would have been nice to have them along, we still had an amazing trip. It was the hardest hike I’ve ever done and I couldn’t walk for a day or two afterwards, but it was completely worth it!

But as I said at the very beginning of this post, all of that plays second fiddle to the moment that Tyla walked into our bedroom with a positive pregnancy test. Since then we’ve had a number of doctor’s appointments where we get to hear the baby’s heartbeat. I find myself staring at Tyla in awe of the life that God has created inside her. We are so excited to meet our new child!

As first time parents, we were super excited to share the news with everyone. When the doctor said it was finally ok to tell people, we told a few local people and then flew out to Indiana to share the news with my family in person. In retrospect, flying with your pregnant wife in her first trimester isn’t a great idea, but Tyla did great on the trip and it was worth all the miles to see their faces when we shared the news!

For the next six months, we’ll fill our time with various projects knowing that after June we won’t have nearly as much time to paint rooms, remodel the bathroom, or fix up the yard. We’re really just killing time as we anxiously await the arrival of our child! It’s a pretty helpless feeling for both of us knowing that so many things can go right or wrong with very little input from us during pregnancy, but thankfully, it’s all in God’s hands, not ours.

Previous Year In Review Posts: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011

Every year Tyla and I try to pick up a new ornament that from a big trip or event during the year. This year we decided it would be from our Caribbean cruise earlier this year. Unfortunately the ship didn’t have any ornaments that we really liked so we ended up buying a paper holder and clipping it to the tree!

	This is the makeshift ornament from our cruise this spring on the Celebrity Equinox.
	Last year we got the Hallmark “New Home 2011” ornament as a gift for Christmas so it didn’t get to spend much time on the tree. This year it’s proudly displayed.

You can find our past ornaments here and here.

It has been one week since my sinus surgery. The first few days were really miserable, but on Monday I saw the doctor again. He said things were healing normally but I had more swelling than average. He is trying to combat that with some new meds. At the appointment he also cleaned a bunch of stuff out of my nose. I don’t know if it was that cleaning or the meds, but the last couple days have seen some big improvement. I’m still not allowed to blow my nose and I haven’t breathed out of it for a WEEK, but it’s draining a lot less now. I bet it will be another week or two before I’m done with all the symptoms, but I feel like I’ll be ready to head back to work on Monday.

If all goes well, I won’t remember at least an hour of today. After a lifetime of sinus infections and being unable to breath out of my nose very well, my ENT doctor has recommended sinus surgery. They’re going to knock me out for about an hour, straighten my deviated septum, reduce the size of my turbinates (parts of your nose that help warm the air as it passes but in my case are blocking sinus cavities), and clean out some of my ethnoid sinus cavities. It’s going to be pretty unpleasant for a few days, but hopefully going forward I’ll be able to breathe better and have fewer infections.

I wonder what the doctors would say if I tried to wear the GoPro on my head all day.

For the second year in a row, we’ve had our annual church picnic at the Trenkamp home instead of in the back yard of church. They have a wonderful setting for the picnic and it’s so nice of them to host us all! This year was the first cloudy day in almost two months, but the rain held off and we had a wonderful time. There was plenty of food, cornhole, horseshoes, Kan Jam, and socializing. We hope you can make it next year! Instead of doing photos, I tried to put together a little video.

After putting the acrylic cover over Tim’s incredible paint job, I decided to give them a few more upgrades. First I drilled two rows of 22 holes (0 – 21) in the back of the board to use as a scoring system. You just move the golf tees along as you score points. It’s quick and easy and there’s nothing extra to carry along with the boards. I put some black paint in and around the holes, but it doesn’t match the rest of what Tim had there already so I might sand it down and redo it the same way he did. The paint makes it look like my holes are way more uneven than they really are. I need to get some white paint and draw a couple numbers or markers on there for easier counting.

My boards have foldable legs on them so they don’t take up as much room in the car. They’re a great feature, but they can be a little difficult to slide in and out of the car as the legs are dropping down. Dad suggested some magnets. We picked up some cabinet magnetics latches and those are working quite well.

I don’t have any more immediate plans for them, but I have lots more ideas of things I could do. I’ve seen people add lighting around the bottom of the hole for when it gets dark, and I also think I could whip up a nice digital scoreboard that would attach to the back of a board for even easier scorekeeping. That can probably all wait though.