Tickled Pink

This morning as I was making breakfast, Charlie stood in the kitchen, looked me in the eye and laughed a big, fake laugh. Then he stopped, shook his head and said "It's so funny."

At lunch today, Charlie was working on his second helping of jam and bread by dipping it into his applesauce. He said "Mm, mm, mm. It's so good."

As I did some chores this afternoon, Charlie was babbling to himself. He suddenly noticed what I was doing and said "Good job, Mama."

I can't wait to see what happens at dinner!

A whole lotta Christmas around here!

I've pretty much been thinking about Christmas since August. And that's because I decided, unequivocally, that I wanted to make an Advent Calendar. And since making things always takes more time when one has a Charlie around, I had to plan early. Still, I'm not as far ahead of the game as you might think, even for having been thinking about Christmas as early as I was. I've got about half my shopping done, but I haven't sent out a single card yet. Anyway, that hasn't stopped us from celebrating around here. We've got lots going on!

First of all, we've got lots of snowing going on. White Christmas!

We have a lot more than the pictures above show, but this was Charlie's first experience in his snowpants.
Here are some iceicles hanging next to our wood stoop. These formed in just two days of snow!

Charlie listening to Christmas music on Pandora. No, I wasn't drinking wine in the middle of the day, the bottle was still there from the night before... Yes, I'm a slow housekeeper...occasionally.

Here's a shot of some of our decorations. I try to center my "seasonal" decor around the hutch. That's our homemade advent calendar on the left there. Unfortunately, our beautiful orange dining room isn't very photogenic. The result is much brighter and more cheerful in person. You'll just have to come by for coffee and see it yourself!

And Keith's parents sent us this one specially for Charlie, along with a whole bunch of other pre-Christmas goodies!

Like this train! I know what you're thinking. How can you keep that out when you have an almost-two-yearold in the house? Well, in fact, the train scares him! Silly boy! But it is rather festive and as long as we don't turn it on, everyone is happy!
Here's our crazy tree topper.

This is my "red remnant cheater Christmas quilt." Basically, I bought remnants, fat quarters (only on sale) and big chunks of red fabric at garage sales, besides mining my own fabric "stash" to put this baby together (Mom? Margaret? Recognize anything?). Its a cheater because its actually a duvet cover, not a quilted quilt. I really want to make matching pillow shams, but I'm still panting from the effort to get this thing done in time for the Advent season, so we'll see.

One more of the sweet pre-Christmas gifts my in-laws sent. Aren't these salt and pepper shakers just the cheerfullest little guys?

Hope you're having fun preparing for Christmas!

Christmas in July (and the other way 'round)

This Christmas we decided to stay home. Travel during the holidays can be messy for us, especially with Charlie. And besides, we spent a lot of time away from home this summer. Staying put for a while has its appeal.

Knowing they would be deprived of their only and cutest grandson during the holidays, Keith's Floridian parents took a chance on our flighty Idaho weather, and hopped a jet to visit us in the middle of July. You can see from their expressions below, they were very happy they took that chance. They came for the most perfect five days of weather the Northwest has to offer.

We met them in Spokane the morning after their flight, stuffed ourselves at Perkins (or was it IHOP?) and then drove to Coeur d'Alene to spend the day. We visited downtown and had to stop in FigPickels, er, PickelFiggels, er, well this really cool toy store. If Charlie had been any older, this could have been very unwise. But we had a great time.Yes, that's me picking the moose's nose. No one else realized I had done this, but the moose appreciated it. ... Okay moving on. After walking about a bit, we hopped on a ferry to take a tour of Lake Coeur d'Alene. It was a lovely ride, the same ride Keith and I took on our second anniversary. And I got sunburned then too. And Charlie slept when he wasn't giving me a heart attack by leaning and standing on the railings. The end of our ride wasn't so serene though. In fact, we felt like we were in an episode of Bay Watch, minus the scantily clad rescue team.

Here's what happened: Just as we were nearing the shore, we were all watching the fancy moves of some windsurfer. He had his big parachute thing that was pulling him around. Everyone on the boat oohed and awed for a while. Then there was a lull. And then a woman behind me said "Oh no." Just "oh no" but in a voice that makes you realize something very very bad has just happened. And I heard and felt a sort of "bump bump" under the boat. Keith ran to the back of the boat and peered around. People were saying "Where is he? Where did he go?" What?!?! Did we just hit someone? Well, yes actually, we had.

Somehow, or other, a windsurfer (a different one) and our boat met up. Our boat cut off his wind supply and he was dead in the water (so to speak). Then he collided with the boat and just... went under. Our boat was going slow, but still had the propeller going. Are you following? You can guess what I was thinking, what we were all thinking: The guy's a gonner. But then, he popped up! Yes, there he was floating in the water and yelling something. At first I thought he was saying "I'm okay!" But then he was holding his leg up and repeating what he had said. "9-1-1!" And then we all got a look at his leg. (Insert shudder here.) His calf muscle was flayed open in a long gash, six inches at least. Keith said he saw the white flash of bone. Oh my. To end this story quickly, he got on an ambulance (finally) and we all got off the boat after leaving our "information" with the police. I don't remember exactly, months later, but I think we heard about it on the radio and he was alright. Whew. Welcome to Idaho, Dimelers!The rest of their visit, thankfully, was much less eventful. But we did have a lot of fun! We went to the farmer's market, watched the neighbor's house get all kinds of work done on it, basked in the sunshine and shade of our backyard, went to the pool, took a stroll through the arboretum, ate a lot of food, and drank a lot of wine and beer (responsibly, of course). And then is was Christmas in July. After watching Charlie endlessly "digging" with a trowel I picked up at a garage sale, Granny and Grandad decided it was absolutely necessary to get Charlie an early Christmas present. A sandbox! Ooooooooh, does Charlie love it. And we do too, even if I am occasionally surprised to find sand pouring out of his pockets during a diaper change. Hey, that's what vaccuum cleaners are for, right?

Keith also sent his dad out on a motorcycle ride. Looks like a natural, don't he?

And of course, Mom-dime needed to feel the Idaho wind. Go-Granny-Go!

Their last day we drove up to Spokane and had a delicious meal at Luigi's Italian Restaurant. Everything that was ordered was scumptious (I know, I ate the leftovers... later that is. For lunch. The next day. I'm not a pig! I even shared with Keith.) And then we sent them off.

So here we are, nearing Christmas, remembering July. Thanks for Christmas in July Mom and Dad Dimeler!

The Sans Final Installment

On Saturday, Mrses. Atwood and Farley took me to a fabulous fabric store while our husbands generously stayed home with the kiddos. Oh what fun it was! I could have stayed all day of course, dreaming up projects and excuses for spending far too much money on incredible prints, but we had a lunch date to get to. We drove a bit and wound up in the middle of a beautiful garden surrounded by orchards and teeming with burly dogs (ok, so they were actually two very enthusiastic golden retrievers). There we met up with our Moscow transplants, the Davises. In the picture below you will see Josh and Kristen's, erm, house. Yes, it's a water tower. Yes, it's where they live. And I must say, they are very creative with negative space.
They treated us to a lovely lunch in the Garden of Eden, followed by a tour of the gardens and ending with a photo shoot of Charlie.

Once Josh got his camera out, it was all over for Charlie. He realized his super-model abilities and the snapping went on for... minutes.

I like how his dirty face makes this picture all the more a "don't mess with me" kinda pose.

Okay, I'll stop now.

After the photo shoot, we all drove to the beach. Aaaaah. I love the beach and mourned my neglectfullness in leaving my suit at home. Sigh.

Keith, however, remembered his and into the water he went, after much debate. The water wasn't exactly hot-tub temperature. While he was bravely swimming, we all watched with growing wonder as, first, we saw seals not too far off leaping in the water. And then... dolphins! Yes, my husband swam with the dolphins. He said he saw something out of the corner of his eye, about 30 or 40 yards off, and realized, with a little trepidation, that it was indeed, Flipper.

Look very closely at this picture and you will see a black dot in the distance. Seal, dolphin, JAWS? Who knows.

We spent one more night with the generous Atwoods, one more delicious breakfast and the best coffee Santa Cruz could offer (thanks to Christina!), worshipped and fellowshipped with the saints down there, and then zoomed off to the airport.

California is beautiful, but this sunset welcomed us back to the Northwest and we were glad to be home.

The Sans Day 2

Friday morning, after various tedious errands which are not worth your blog-reading time, we headed to the Redwood Forest. We took a self-guided tour of the most ancient trees in that area and then headed to "Roaring Camp Railroad" for an open-air train trip through the woods. When we got to the camp, Charlie seemed to know that this place was just for kids. He was so comfortable walking around, he even posed himself in this pumpkin, with absolutely no prodding from us. What a poser.Fortuitously, Charlie was already wearing his conductor cap and so was all set for the ride.All through the ride, Keith couldn't help but observe that he would only need to cut down one tree from that forest to keep us warm all winter. And then he started to hypothesize just how we'd get it out of the woods and into our back yard and there we hit a snag.When we got to the top, Charlie chopped down a tree. But there was no time to load it into the train.

After our forest adventure, we hopped back in the car and headed over to Santa Cruz where we caught our first glimpse of their beautiful beaches. That night we had delicious homemade pizza with a wonderfully raucous and rowdy crew, the Farleys and the Atwoods of Santa Cruz, and spent the night with said Atwoods. It was so nice to be with our extended church family so far away from home. We felt most welcome and at ease and grateful. The end of Day 2.

The Sans (Francisco/Jose/Ta Cruz) Days 1 1/2

When we traveled to Florida for Christmas last December, we had a somewhat trying time, ending up with a three-day delay. But in return, we received a voucher flight to anywhere in the US so long as we used it within the year. With time running out, and a strong desire to avoid flying during the holidays again, we decided to make a whirlwind trip to San Francisco and the surrounding area before Keith had to start school again. We just got back and have loads of fun pictures to share with you all.

We flew into San Fran on a Wednesday afternoon, picked up our rental car and immediately got lost. But it turned out all right because Keith has relatives in San Fran and they directed us via a lot of dropped phone calls (cell service in that area is sporadic due to the hills) and we ended up taking Market Street straight (almost) to their house. Market Street, apparently, cuts right through downtown and so we got to see a lot of the city right then and there. Aunt Peggy and Uncle Gil live on a high hill that overlooks a large portion of the city and just a short drive up Twin Peaks ends in some spectacular views.After a lovely evening of wine, cheese, dinner, and homemade pear crisp, Peggy and Gil led us to our hotel. We got to drive down Haight Street and see the ornate, beautiful old houses that cost gargantuin amounts of money to live in. Once we got to our hotel, we were surprised to find that our room was not cleaned. It was twenty minutes to 8 in the evening! The poor hotel clerk was all alone (housekeeping had left long ago) and he quickly gathered up linens and started getting our room ready while we went on a walk to kill time. When we finally got into our room, we noticed that indeed the linens had been changed, but that's all. The bathroom was not cleaned, nothing had been vaccuumed, and we were pretty tired. I was tempted just to let it go, but left-over soap and hair in the shower stall convinced me otherwise. I requested a bottle of cleanser and some rags and cleaned the bathroom myself. Once that was taken care of we actually had a nice night. Charlie, proving our fears futile, slept wonderfully right next to us in a pack/n/play and we drifted off to a better night's sleep than we anticipated.


The next morning, after getting lost some more, we decided to drive down Lombard Street and across the Golden Gate Bridge while Charlie took his morning nap in the car. (A lot of our planning surrounded Charlie's naps. We had to time it just right so we could do something, and then drive around so he could sleep. Fortunately, a lot of places took a while to get to because we'd get mixed up or confused by one-way streets, so Charlie got decent naps. :-) ) We drove over the Bridge in the fog, which bummed out Keith but I liked it, got a coffee on the other side in Saucelito, and drove back over (still in the fog and still with Charlie asleep).
See how the fog makes it look like the bridge is just suspended mid-air? Or as if the cables go up forever? Makes it rather mysterious and eerie. At least, I thought so. Keith still wanted the fog to lift.

We finally stopped at Golden Gate Park, which is huge, and found some fun things there for Charlie (including a carousel which, according to the guy at the hotel, is the second oldest one in the world). We also found a picnic table that gave us a close up of the wild-life: namely a bold blue bird that ate some of our goat cheese and a gopher that fearlessy popped in and out of his hole, hard at work making things difficult for the park groundskeepers.

When we'd had enough of San Francisco nature, we tottled on down Fisherman's Wharf. We'd been warned it was a tourist trap and that was no foolin'. Yikes! (We heard later that American Idol auditions had been held in SF that day, so that might have made things worse than normal.)Crowded beyond belief, we managed to walk down a good portion of the area and ended up in a sweet little arcade with odd games and, well, I don't know what you'd call them really, but we spent a few quarters there. My favorite part of the wharf.

After grabbing some chocolate at Ghiardelli's, we made our way to San Jose to visit some former Moscovites and spend the night. Sadly, we realized we'd taken no pictures of our time there. Perhaps because we weren't wholly impressed with Silicon valley... Still, dinner was delish and the company most welcoming. So ended our first whole day in California.