www.kuraoka.org
Us, up to now: We met in 1996 through a personals ad in the San Diego Reader, if you can believe it. We got engaged about a year later, on a daytrip to the Anza Borrego Desert. We were married in 1998; our wedding day in Balboa Park was made especially memorable by the first recorded hail in the park in more than 100 years. We were the very first wedding held in the Granada Room, which was the original chapel, next to the big ballroom in the restored House of Hospitality; many of our wedding photos were taken posed in the beautiful space that is now the Prado Restaurant. Our pre-kid(s) life was one of relative indulgence - season tickets to the Old Globe Theater, camping, last-minute travel to Germany and England, weekends and evenings to ourselves. Now, our home in a suburban San Diego neighborhood is filled with a joyful chaos of our own making. We have two boys. We still travel, only differently. Life is good. You can stay up-to-date with what’s going on in our lives by visiting our current Weekly Journal, an online diary of ordinary family life.
Meet the Kuraoka family:
Ondine: turned 40 this year. She was a social worker (MSW, Smith College),
and is now a freelance writer. She works
from home, writing articles for family-oriented
magazines, business profiles, and the occasional travel piece. She also writes
fiction. Her hobbies include reading, gardening, crafts, and travel.
John: turns 46 this year. He is a freelance advertising copywriter who works out
of his home office/cave. He has been writing ads for about 25 years. He maintains this
website and writes most of our journals. His hobbies include history, reading, re-reading,
cooking,
and travel.
Roy: turned eight this year. Come September, he’ll be in third grade at Gage
Elementary. He’s in the Cub Scouts, a Bear. He likes running, science, math, reading, and writing.
He is also developing a real knack for casual pick-up games of baseball.
Leo: turned six this year. In September, his entire Kindergarten
class will be reunited in a first grade class; a new approach for Gage. He
enjoys reading, writing stories, and art. He is into
ghosts, pirates, Halloween, dinosaurs, space, and pinball.
Buddy: is about three years old. He’s a Jack Russell Terrier mutt. He likes eating,
walks, and chasing flashlight beams.
Other Very Important People:
Barbara and Bill: Ondine’s parents, John’s in-laws, Roy’s and
Leo’s grandparents.
And, our next-door neighbors. Believe it or not, we all get along very well!
Frances: John’s mom, Ondine’s mother-in-law, and Roy’s and
Leo’s other grandmother.
She lives in La Cañada, near Los Angeles.
The Playgroup: Individually and as a group, we help each other stay sane
through the challenges of raising children. When the playgroup started, all the kids were
roughly Roy’s age. Now, what with growing families, there is a new batch of kids, of which
Leo is a part. The families in the playgroup (besides our own) are:
Friends and Family:
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