Keith and Nellie Adventure

Around Here

2012-02-01T21:15:00.000-08:00

Baby blankets adorn furniture, the swing, the carseat, the pack-n-play. Burp cloths can be found in all major areas of the house. Grocery sacks are filled in a day and a half with itty bitty diapers. Desitin is under my fingernails. We've got a baby in the house!

Baby Dreams

2012-01-02T20:39:00.000-08:00

Sifting through some pictures on our computer, I came across this favorite:

I am reminded of all the baby sweetness that comes with a newborn and, more than ever, can't wait to meet our little girl!

Christmas Newsletter

2011-12-19T10:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Christmas and a Jolly New Year from Spokane, Washington! Indeed, as many of you know, we are now Washington residents. This move has been the biggest part of our year and will, of course, influence most of our memories as we reflect on God's goodness to us in 2011.

We found out about our move well in advance. Last fall, in his last year of grad school, Keith applied, interviewed and accepted a job working for a national accounting firm with a branch in Spokane. This seemed ideal, if we had to move, because it was still so close to our beloved Moscow, ID. Miraculously, we found future renters for our house as early as January. At the end of May, three days after our fourth anniversary, we packed up and moved 90 miles north.

But moving wasn't the only big news in our lives this year. A few weeks before we moved, we found out we were expecting our second child! And so we settled into Spokane (me feeling the queasy benefits of early pregnancy) over the summer. We have joined a lovely sort of "sister" church to our church in Moscow, Christ Church of Spokane. The fellowship of the saints here is sweet and we are enjoying the smaller church body, even if it is spread out a lot farther than we are used to! Distance doesn't seem to stop this congregation from being absolute party animals. We have been to more fellowship meals and picnics and hoppin' church functions in the last seven months than we would normally attend in Moscow in a year. We did not think this was possible! Aside from church parties, we went camping, to theme parks, visited family nearish and far, explored lots of playgrounds, shopped, and otherwise mastered the general layout of the city of Spokane.

Among other fun events, Keith got to go hiking in the Wallowas over Labor Day weekend, a yearly hoped-for highlight. He currently spends lots of time tickling Charlie, watching shows with me, rides the bus to and from work, and does a good job of being "our man," as Charlie would say.
And on top of all this, Keith has been diligently studying for the CPA exam, a four part test qualifying him to be a public accountant. He's already passed the first two sections! He must pass two more within the next year, and we hope to be done, Lord willing, with all the studying by June of 2012.

Charlie-boy remains the delight of our days with his wit, insanely clear verbal skills and enthusiastic love of life. He absolutely loves to play mini-golf, jump off the bed into a pile of pillows, really take his time eating meals, and ask me endless questions. Among his current favorite questions is, "What are we gonna do?" following my answer with, "And after that?"

For instance:
C: What are we gonna do?
Me: Go to bed?
C: And after bed?
Me: Have breakfast.
C: And after have bressick?
Me: Play.
C: And after play?
Me: Go to the library.
C: And after go to the library?
.... And so on. The list can extend as far as three days in advance before I try to deter him. (And woe is me if I don't know what is coming up next.) It is not uncommon to repeat the daily list about five times on the ride home from the grocery store. Sometimes, usually about the fourth time through, I'll answer with, "Go crazy!" This answer typically isn't good enough for Charlie.

While Keith has been studying, I've gotten to know some wonderful ladies at prayer group, met and hired some good babysitters, tried to keep up with my crafting, juggle pregnancy with potty training, and generally tried to adjust to life in a new city.

I'm currently three weeks from my due date and anxiously waiting to hold our little daughter in my arms instead of my belly! We thank God for a healthy pregnancy so far. And while I'm a little anxious that we'll be spending our first tax season caring for a newborn, it seems we have no choice but to trust God's timing, since we certainly wouldn't have planned it that way!

We are well-fed, warm, in good health, and learning daily what gratitude and cheerfullness really look like. God's goodness truly crowns the year!

Much love from Keith, Nellie, Charlie and (soon-to-be) Olivia Marie

More Summer Adventures... in October

2011-11-30T09:50:00.001-08:00

The great thing about having in-laws in Florida is that I don't have to pack up my shorts until after our Fall/Winter visit! This year we decided to plan our visit to include Halloween. We originally were planning to go between Thanksgiving and Christmas and do a sort of combined holiday thing, but Baby Girl prevented that. And of course, we don't mind her interference at all. All this to say, I'm finally getting around to posting about our vacation. (I don't know how people with children manage to post so frequently, sometimes daily, without going to extreme measures. For instance, I am, at this time, sitting next to Charlie on the couch while he watches one of his favorite movies, and I type on the laptop. I'm using 8-month-pregnancy-fatigue as my excuse for doing this at 9:53 am. There. I said it.)

As I said, we decided to go to Florida over Halloween weekend, not because we particularly value that "Holiday" but because I thought it would be pretty cute to see Charlie trick-or-treating for the first time in his life around his grandparents' neighborhood. And it was cute. But more on that later.

Okay, so this first picture isn't in Florida, its Charlie with our punkin'. Looking through all our recent picture downloads, I was shocked at how grown up he looks! And I wanted to share... Anyway, this was early October.

Our biggest concern surrounding this trip was the plane ride. Actually, plane rides. The trip to FL included two stopovers, which equals three plane rides to get there. Our previous experience with Charlie-boy and planes included tension. I mean, how would you feel if you were a little person with lots of wiggles and nowhere to go? But praise the Lord, Charlie did great! He loved the air and light buttons, the armrests, the seat belts, the juice from the flight attendants. He surprised us with a nap during the second flight. He even cheered loudly at the end of two landings "Yay! We landed!" and "There's the control tower." And brought chuckles from the people around us. And can I just say we LOVE our portable DVD player? If you are attending a baby shower and have some extra cash, bring one as a gift. I'm just saying.

Moving on.

Once in Florida, we soaked up the humidity, hugs and kisses from Granny and Grandad and settled in for some relaxation and fun. Lakeland has some fun parks, a must for us.

And aside from city parks, Florida of course has theme parks. This year it was Legoland! There was a lot of hype in FL building up to the opening of Legoland because the park was meant to be specifically for toddlers to twelve-yearolds. For the Dimelers, it did not disappoint. And thank you Granny and Grandad for the early Christmas present!

If you read my last post, you'll see that Charlie was more than ready to tackle rides. And he really did! Every ride that allowed for his height/age he got on with enthusiasm. The funny thing is, he always forgot to smile! But he must have had fun, because he wanted to do all of them. The capstone of this park for Charlie was the rollercoaster. Indeed, there was one coaster that allowed my two-yearold to ride (with an adult). It wasn't without some nervous flutters that I watched him walk with Grandad to the line. Charlie has watched a video about rollercoasters, so he knew all about what you are supposed to do. He lifted up his hands, I think before the ride even started, and with quite the serious expression on his face, enjoyed his ride! Attaboy!

Sometime in the mid-afternoon it started to rain, but we were not deterred. Keith, and later I, joined Charlie on the last two rides of the day. And they were wet. The look on Keith's face might convey something like "Wow. That's a lot of water." He was quite tough about it, actually. I'm the one who cringed as I sat down. All for the kids.

While waiting in line for the fire truck ride, Charlie surprised us with another nap. He fell asleep right there in the middle of Legoland in the rain.

We also had the chance to visit Keith's brother and sister-in-law and their daughter, Carli. Just check out those curls! We told Charlie to give her a hug for the picture. She wasn't sure what he was doing.

Here's a picture of another early Christmas present: the Tornado Tee. Or, as we've come to call it, The Golf Machine.

The other big adventure we had was riding on a seaplane. This was more of a feat for me than anyone else, as I don't like heights. But I was only a little nervous and tried not to act startled everytime we hit a little "air" up there. The pilot didn't say anything.

And here are a few shots of our trick-or-treating adventures. Charlie got a little braver at saying "Trick or Treat" as the evening continued and collected quite a nice little bundle. He was dressed up as a train conductor. And Keith was... Gandalf?

It may seem that we didn't have a moment to rest, but truly we all got plenty of naps and relaxation time. We were quite ready for the big leaf clean-up that awaited us at home!

Proud Parent Day

2011-09-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer, we spent a day at Silverwood theme park. They have rides, food, and a water park. After Keith spent some time on the coasters (I don't do heights), we decided to see what kinds of rides Charlie might like before we headed to the waterpark. Charlie had already mastered the carousel at the park, so we felt sure he'd have some fun on the kiddy rides at Silverwood. We couldn't be more wrong!

Flying elephants? No! Butterlfyer? No! Froghopper, Red Baron? NO NO NO! Hmmm. So much for family day at the park. Finally, we put our foot down. Our feet, I guess. Antique cars. Surely Charlie would like that. All you do is sit in an antique car, ride around a track at 2 miles an hour for about 5 minutes and get out. Charlie knows all about riding in the car and this time: no carseat! When we got to our car, it was like trying to put a cat in a bathtub. He screamed, fought, pushed, pulled. And then he sat down, and SNAP, he was a happy kid. What?! I kid you not, the transformation was instant. He was smiling, talking about the color of our car, the car ahead of us and how we were "drivin." Whew! Fun at last.

Well, after that experience, we began to seriously doubt our upcoming trip to Florida this fall, which includes a visit to Legoland. Would every ride be a battle? Should we even try to push him? He's only two after all.

Later in the summer we received a tip to visit Riverside park downtown to see a real live, close up Fire truck. As we could have guessed, Charlie wasn't actually too interested in sitting up in the cab like the other kids, but he accepted a sticker and waved at Smoky the Bear. What we didn't guess, was that actually the whole park was alive with booths, games, food... and rides. Kid's day. We wandered around, eating up our hour on the meter. When we got to the rides, Keith asked, doubtfully, if Charlie wanted to ride the Airplane ride. "Yeah." We asked him if he was sure. "Yeah." We must have asked him half a dozen times, pointing out that Mama couldn't ride with him and that it might be fast and a little high. "Yeah." Ok we thought, he'll get on and then we'll get to witness a melt down for the duration of the ride. Spending far too much money, Keith bought enough tickets for three rides. "We'll just see what happens. But we've gotta try it."

And what happened was, we were the Proudest Parents of a Toddler that day. With astounding calm, Charlie was placed in a plane, by himself and left there. And once the ride started, he smiled, laughed, forgot to pull the lever to go up, but who cares? He was having FUN! And, so were we. We were elated. Sounds so silly to think so. I mean, for goodness sake, if we're this proud over a carnival ride, what happens when he graduates from high school? And Charlie went on to use up all the tickets. "Driving" a train and riding the bumper boats. Our son. A ride rider. So proud.

And so, some of you may be asking, why can't Mama set a good example and start riding the roller coasters? My response to that is, "Don't make this about me. This is about the kids."

I Found the Camera

2011-09-08T14:15:00.000-07:00

Well, okay, Keith told me where it was. But, that means I have lots of pictures to show you as well as lots of new ones we've taken since I last posted. I should warn you that you'll see some untidyness. What can I say? People live in this place.

These two are of the "master bedroom." That just means its where Keith and I sleep. No bathroom attached.

And here's Charlie's room, a shot at the other window. Check out the cool cars on his wall. A gift from Keith's past. Thanks Mom-in-Law!

Here's the living room. I have since put up valances, or "curtain toppers" as I've dubbed them, to soften up all that brightness. Like the brightness, just needed some color. And we now have white slip covers on those chairs and I have big plans, people, big plans to get pretty pillows on them, say next fall some time...

And finally a shot from the living through the kitchen into the dining room. Follow the cabinet line on the right and you'll notice a lovely fade up from light to dark in color. That's a real nice feature. (Thank you for smiling, Brian Regan fans.) You can't tell, but the piece with the microwave on it is Charlie's old changing table. My idea.

And here's a peek into the dining room. Its quite cozy with our NEW used table from Craigslist. We heart it very much, but it adds some bulk so recently we've pushed it under that window on the left. Makes it much easier for Charlie to run straight from the dining room into the living and throw himself on the slipcovered, pillowless chair. Whew. Glad we got that one figured out.

And then a lovely shot of the backyard. This one was taken fairly early on in summer and those two ornamental cherry trees were just gorgeous. Of course, Charlie calls them "mental cherries" but at least he knows he's not supposed to eat them.

Here's a look of what I see right outside my kitchen window. The picture below is a little more clear. Sometime in June this huge rose bush put forth the prettiest yellow flowers. They didn't last long but they made washing dishes much more fun. We are very fortunate to live next door to an avid gardener. There isn't a day she isn't outside tending something. And the results are lovely.

I thought I had better pictures of the basement, but I don't! And right now isn't the best time to snap a shot. Boxes, toys, stripped beds. I've been trying to purge this week as well a sort through what we have and don't have for baby girl. Due in about 4 months. Gulp.

Tune in next time for a story about the afternoon we spent as "Proudest Parents of a Two-Yearold." And no, unfortunately, it does not have to do with potty training.

I. CAN. NOT. FIND. THE. CAMERA.

2011-08-09T16:17:00.000-07:00

Arg. And that camera has so many pictures of our new place that I took specifically to show you all. At any rate, we have a few from Keith's iphone camera that made it to the computer, so I can show you those for the time being. The quality is, well, what you'd expect from an iphone, but I wanted to leave you with some proof that we are in a different house! And doing well. Above is our front lawn. Below is Charlie kickin' it with some lunch, in our dining room which you can't see at all. Behind him you can sort of glimpse our backyard.

Here's the length of our kitchen. In the background is the living room.

These two shots are of our downstairs "finished" basement. It encompasses our guest room, office, and sewing room as well as plenty of floor space for Charlie to play. And the last pic is Charlie's messy room. I wish I could say its much more organized than that now, but it rarely is.

All these pictures were taken before we'd really gotten settled. And we're settling still. Maybe soon I'll show you better pictures and more. But for now, this is it!

Excuses, excuses...

2011-07-16T18:34:00.000-07:00

I will give you none! I have perfectly legitimate reasons for not posting recently. Morning sickness for one. Oh, wait! Forget I said that because "No excuses!" So. To show you we are all just fine and Charlie is as cute as ever (maybe cuter), I will appease you for now with some of his most recent remarks.

As I made lunch, Charlie came into the kitchen and said "Look! You found lunch!"

As we got out of the car, it started to rain. Charlie said "Its rainin' again. God turned on the rain!"

Charlie doesn't miss much. At the playground, every once in a while he will overhear a mom calling to her child. She might say something like "Come on David." Helpful Charlie often chimes in "Come on David! Come on David!" The mom usually smiles. I'm not sure how David feels about it.

Strangers at the park beware. If you so much as smile at Charlie, he will start pontificating. He will lecture you in his semi-gibberish language about fans, generators, the slide, ladder, whatever. Its best to smile again, and walk slowly away. He won't stop until you do.

We are currently working on getting Charlie to ask for things nicely/politely instead of outright demanding them. It's not sticking so far. Last week at the grocery store, the change slid out of the cash register. As I picked it up, Charlie loudly and clearly said "Give me some money!"

Lately, when we get into the car, it can be rather warm if not hot. Before I say a word, Charlie pipes in with "Its not hot. Its warm." Which I can only take to mean that its hot.

When Charlie likes a particular food item, he'll say, while eating it, "I'm so hungry, hungry for yogurt" Or, "I'm so thirsty, thirsty for juice."

We often remind Charlie that Mama has a baby in her belly. The other day I ate something and Charlie asked me where it went. I told him it went in my belly. He said "The baby's eating it!"

He is a little confused about the baby in the belly. He really thinks he has one in his belly too. I hope this clears up when I start to show more.

I guess with early verbal skills come the early questions. Charlie wants to know how everything works. While we drive along, or walk along, or just sit around, Charlie will find something, anything, even if he already knows what it is and ask "Mama what's that?" My answer is promptly followed by "What do's wiff it?"

For instance: "Mama, what's that?"

"Those are trees."

"What do's wiff it?"

And then there are often the reptitive questions:

"Where's my hammer?"

"Downstairs."

"Where's my hammer?"

"Downstairs."

"Where's my hammer?"

"Downstairs."

"Where's my hammer?"

"Charlie, Mama said DOWNSTAIRS."

"Where's my hammer?"

(Me cluing in) "Shall I get it for you?"

"Yeah."

Ahoy there!

2011-05-17T21:02:00.000-07:00

Yes we in Moscow are still alive and chuggin' along. We've been busily packing, cleaning, and finishing up school (yay Keith is done!). At this moment, every room in the house has at least one packed box. Actually, we've worked a little too hard, and are now coasting along waiting to pack more. Because, as Keith pointed out, if we pack anymore, we won't be able to live here!

Charlie's been a peach. He really has been pretty patient as I've been running to and fro, scrubbing this, boxing that and just generally appearing very unorganized.

For those of you reading who might not be aware, we're moving to Spokane next Saturday. New house, new friends, new church, new job, new town. Oh my. Even a new state! God's provision in giving Keith a job, providing us with renters for our house here and planting us in a new rented home up there has been abundantly evident and we are grateful.

Well, I hope that's caught you up. I'll leave you with a story about Charlie, because really, that's why you read this blog anyway, right?

The other night, after finishing up dinner with my aunt and uncle, we all sat chatting around the table while Charlie played in the other room. At one point, he tripped and fell. From the beginning we could clearly see this was no big deal and encouraged Charlie to "be tough." He lay, fake crying and said "Mama picks you up!"

"You want me to pick you up?"

"Yeah!"

"Ok, I'll hold you if you come here."

So, he gets up, comes over to my chair, lays down on the floor in the same position, and asks me to "picks you up." What could I do? I picked him up amidst tears of laughter!

A Little Trip

2011-04-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Charlie and I took a little trip over the mountains to visit my family, while Keith stayed home and hunkered down with his studies. (One month to go!) We had a great, relaxing, fun time. The timing was perfect for us as it was spring break for some of my nieces and nephews. Oma (my mom) ended up babysitting four of those rugrats, and so Charlie had some quality time with his cousins. One thing I discovered about Oma is that rules have changed since I was a kid in the house. An option for lunch was chocolate sandwhiches. Yum!

Here's Charlie with cousin Johnny. Surprisingly, Charlie wasn't too fond of his chocolate sandwhich, but peanut butter cookies made up the rest of lunch, so it all worked out.

Chillin' with Uncle Dawit. The way to a toddler's heart? Let him play with your cell phone.

This picture with the bad lighting is of my niece Emma. She's nine and plays a mean game of Monopoly. My brother Dawit had to take over for me. The competition was just too intense! (And Charlie's messy diaper might have had something to do with it...)

The next day, we had a playdate at my brother's house, where three of the same cousins live. Charlie had a great time with their amazing train set!

We took a couple of trips to Opa's farm. Charlie gets very excited about trackers and cows. He kept saying "Hi cows. How are you well?"

Once we spotted Opa, it was all over for me. Charlie wanted to be wherever Opa was and even coerced him into playing in the fabulously big mud puddles on the farm. Charlie also go to sit in one of those amazing trackers he admires so much.

Unfortunately, trackers make loud noises once you turn them on and the charm was a little lost for Charlie after that. Oh well! Maybe when you're bigger, Char Char, you'll have fun riding, and not just sitting, in that good ol' John Deere.

Thanks Oma and Opa for a great visit!

More Charlie Charm

2011-03-09T11:47:00.000-08:00

Charlie's latest thing is to make whiny sounds, stop and ask himself "What's wrong?" Especially, if I don't ask him first.

He also asks himself, "That fun?"

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He sure knows how to make us laugh. When we put him to bed at night, we used to get him calmed down by saying, "How about a song?" He has now taken the responsibility upon himself to encourage us to sing more songs, thus delaying our inevitable departure. We'll sing one song, and then he'll pipe in with "How 'bout again song?" Lately he's been so pleased with our laughing response he just says it over and over "How 'bout again song?" Until he's worked himself into a fit of giggles. We think its pretty cute, so we laugh too, and pretty soon everyone's laughing at everyone laughing but nothing funny actually happened!

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Charlie's beginning to understand the concept of "later" and "not right now." So, when he asks me a question and I say no, he get's a big grin on his face and says very cheerfully, "Later maybe!"

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Last month I took some coins to the Coinstar machine and let Charlie help me deposit them. When the jar ran out, I told Charlie we were finished and it was time to go. He erupted, very loudly with "I want more money!"

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My social butterfly called out to some friends on our walk this morning, "Hi peoples!"

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Charlie is very affectionate with his stuffed animals and will often get on a roll with kissing each of them smack on the lips. The other day he kissed his truck too.

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Charlie is dilligently working on figuring out colors and is convinced that almost everything is blue. Or orange/blue.

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Does your toddler narrate? Because at the park the other day, Charlie was so excited he described everything he was doing as he was doing it. "I jump on that. I climb up this! Charlie go down the slide! I'm jumpin'. My reach it. Dat blue!"

Charlie turned 2!

2011-02-07T14:02:00.000-08:00

Boy oh boy! We have a two yearold. And we love it! Charlie's official birthday was last Friday, so on Saturday we invited some special people over to help us celebrate. Charlie was showered with love and some groovy gifts. We all ate cake (stylishly shaped thanks to some pans from Granny and Grandad). Charlie held up pretty well considering all the commotion. And of course, his favorite part was opening presents! Here are some pictures that need no explanation. Enjoy!

Charlie also received a toy kitchen for his birthday, but I have yet to retrieve those pictures from Keith's email (someone else took them!). I'll try to put them up soon. And just as proof that he's enjoying that particular git, he has been making coffee and pizza pretty consistently for the last two days.

Charlieness

2011-01-13T19:36:00.000-08:00

Tonight at dinner we had a little battle. Charlie refused to eat his chicken and wanted to be excused from the table shortly after we sat down. Oh boy. Keith set aside one small bite of chicken and told him he had only to eat that and he could go play. After lots of tears and pleading we were in a stalemate. Charlie wasn't complaining but he also wasn't eating. We did our Bible reading and things were starting to look bleak. What, I thought, if he doesn't do it and we're still here at 7:30? I should mention that I was not having a good attitude. I was down right grumpy and silently excused myself from having to take very much responsibility. Out of nowhere, Charlie held his hand out to us and asked to "pway." So Keith prayed as we all held hands. During the prayer of course, I realized I needed to confess my uncheerfulness and apologized to Keith after the amen. Not one minute later, Charlie ate his lonely, cold piece of chicken. And do you know what he said once he swallowed? "I want more."
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And here's some other bits of Charlie-ness for you to chew:

Lately Charlie has been putting his toy kitty down for a nap on the bathroom scale, complete with a little fussiness from the kitty. I guess it is universally understood that naps should not go unprotested.

Charlie also likes to ask questions which he helpfully answers himself. Questions like, "More cracker? SURE!"

Whenever we get to a destination, he always very cheerfully calls out, "OKAY!"

The other day I said, "Charlie, you're so cute." He responded, "Mama cute." Bestill my heart.

Oh Taste and See

2011-01-07T16:17:00.000-08:00

Today I decided to bite the bullet, stop being a wimp and let my toddler mess up my kitchen. Charlie is always intensely curious about everything I do up on top of the mysterious counter. And sometimes I'll create a little space for him to stir and pour imaginary food. But generally, it's hands-off the real stuff. Until this afternoon. I knew it would be messy but, really, it had to be done. We were out of cookies.

Charlie surprised me. I'm not sure what I expected, but he was really rather engrossed in his task. He painstakingly put sprinkles on the dough and experimented to his heart's content. It really wasn't that bad. He didn't even try to sample anything. The only hard part was getting him to keep the cookies on the cookie sheet after they were sufficiently rolled. They kept ending up back the in the sprinkles bowls. And of course the sprinkles all wound up in each others' bowls, and eventually (at the bitter end) all the sprinkles were poured (twice I think) onto the cookie sheet. But Charlie was very good about helping clean that up.

The cookies ended up ridiculously huge. They're supposed to be three times as small, because two cookies get glued together with (woweee sweet!) filling.

I think I was in a bit of a hurry and not caring much about size because I was hoping to avoid a complete deterioration of the process.

But Charlie doesn't care, so why should I?

Tickled Pink

2010-12-22T15:55:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-12-03T12:09:00.001-08:00

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)

2010-10-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-08T15:23:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-24T09:51:00.000-07:00

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.

Finally feelin' groovy.

2010-07-05T19:32:00.000-07:00

We all came down with the crud about a week ago, starting with Charlie. I got over it fastest, but Keith's cold developed into a hacking cough and Charlie developed a fever which lasted for almost four days. On Saturday morning, the fever finally broke and Keith and I felt as if the fog was lifting. So we decided to celebrate with Popsicles. They were a big hit.

Our $100 Upgrade

2010-06-24T10:12:00.001-07:00

So, we've been working on sprucing up the kitchen. That's our "big" project this summer. It mostly involves paint, but we also decided to replace the cabinet hardware. For that I am most grateful. Thanks to my sweet husband for letting me pick it out. I will be posting before and after pics of the whole project (hopefully soon... or at least, before August?), but here's a sneak peak at our fabulously chunky new drawer pulls next to our old, boring, worn stuff. Quite an improvement, no?

And the WORDS are...

2010-06-09T19:14:00.000-07:00

Mama, Papa, outside, hot! (everything is "hot"), uh-oh, bye-bye, nonononono, I know, oh no, e-llow (yellow), boo (blue), gahbay (we don't really know what that one means, but it sure is popular), and (drum roll...) Charlie!

Get your craft on.

2010-05-25T21:48:00.001-07:00

It seems that lately I have been simply thirsting to do creative projects. I have a list called "Want to Do." Unfortunately, I seem to be stuck in some strange gear between desire and ability. Ability: covering the areas of time and in some cases money. Getting my craft on with my little guy hanging around is a big challenge, though I did manage to cut out some fabric for a big boy church suit today. Whew. I feel a small need has been met in my being. At any rate, I did manage to get this done a few weeks ago (I'd been working on it since February):

Please ignore, or rather excuse since I'm pointing them out, the untidy nightstands. It is rather difficult to keep up. I am very happy with how this quilt turned out. It looks just like I wanted it to. However, its too small! It barely covers the sides and when two people try to sleep under it, well tug of war has taken on a whole new meaning. So very soon I'm going to have to put a white border around it. I really don't want to, but I usually win the tug and I want my husband to get a good night's sleep.

And because I know most of you log on just so you can get a peek at the super-cute kiddo, here's a little video of him going down the stairs all by himself, and with a sippy cup in tow, no less. Enjoy.

I hope you won't think less of me.

2010-05-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

And I hope you pork-lovers will even come to forgive me someday. But I bought Turkey-bacon. Yes, I know. I can hear you now: "But that's not even bacon. It's turkey disguised as bacon. Come on!" I know. But when real bacon disagrees with a loved one's tummy, something has to be done. I mean, I can't give up the idea of bacon all together. That would be absurd! Let's all just calm down and look at the facts. This isn't a permanent switch. I'm not going to swear off succulent, fattening pork products for the rest of my life and have my son grow up never knowing the taste of real food. I'm not going to pretend it isn't some fowl meat ground up and shaped to look like an important ingredient. And I'm not even going to substitute turkey-bacon for the real thing in recipes. (At least not right away.) But when breakfast rolls around, and you can easily microwave (yes, yes, I know) a few slices and do without that heavy smell of fat in the air and forego the tummy ache later the day, I think this purchase is excusable once in a while. There. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Life around here...

2010-05-01T17:04:00.001-07:00

Well, I can see that its been a while and of course, I know all Charlie fans are wondering-- how IS that awesome kid? Well, I'll tell ya! He's awesome. More details? Ok, he walks everywhere now. And Keith and I just sit around and watch him in amazement. He can also now say "Mama" with much certainty and clarity. We know he knows what he means. He loves to look out the window (he's doing that right now). Even more, he loves to play outside, so much so, he can say it: "Ow sigh?" That means, "can we puh-lease play outside now?" Unfortunately, its been raining a lot, so not much ow sigh time. He can't say "Papa" yet, but looks hopefully at the front door everytime I say "Papa." Oh yeah, and we walks right to Papa when Papa gets home from work. That makes someone very happy.

Charlie's sippy cups have built in straws, so he'll bite down on the straw and wrap his little arm around the cup so he can walk and drink at the same time. Sometimes, if he needs both hands, he can just use his teeth to hang on to his cup. He loves his sippy.

The other day, Charlie saw me washing windows. He picked up an extra rag and started wiping the window he was closest to. Then the next day, at a babysitter's house, he used up all her kleenexes wiping down whatever surfaces he could reach. If he spills milk, I hand him a napkin and he wipes it up. He also helps me load the dryer (he gets to put in the dryer sheet and press "start"). I haven't taught him to iron and vaccuum yet, but we're definitely on the right track. Oh, and he takes to resetting Keith's alarm clock almost everyday. Wants to keep us on our toes, I guess.

He's still blond, still has a sweet, generally cheerful disposition. We like him.

Um...

2010-04-09T18:04:00.001-07:00

...huh?

Lillies

2010-03-30T18:38:00.001-07:00

Look what my smart husband brought home today!

And besides, I felt like it.

2010-03-19T19:00:00.000-07:00

This week was my Mother-in-Law's Birthday, Keith's Birthday, my sister came to visit, AND Charlie's blood test was so good that we don't have to get another one for a whole month. All very good reasons to make (and devour) an apple pie.

What we've been doing lately.

2010-03-12T20:11:00.000-08:00

Mama got a hair cut! Charlie has this "thing" about getting into stuff. As I'm sure most babies his age do.

He as another "thing" about cuddling up on our bed.

He doesn't stay in one place for very long,

but will move around and snuggle for a good fifteen minutes.

And don't worry, he's very good at getting off

the bed without hurting himself.

And I'm never very far away.

Now there's a handsome fella!

Unfortunately, I don't have any good recent pictures of Keith,

probably because he's so busy!

School, work, homework, play with Charlie, kiss the wife, back to homework.

What a trooper!

Party Pics!

2010-02-25T16:58:00.000-08:00

We're finally celebrating!

2010-02-16T15:32:00.000-08:00

I know. I got skills.

Flying Feathers

2010-02-13T19:52:00.000-08:00

Well, it has happened again. The Dimelers have had another Adventure, charting new territory. About a year ago, we had a big adventure when we had Charlie in the hospital. Strangely, our New Adventure brought us to... another hospital!

But let me back up... On Monday, I found myself sitting in a courtroom among some 30 or so other prospective jurors prepared to accept my fate, give up a week of my life and a small bundle of cash to a babysitter, when our gracious Heavenly Father miraculously freed me from my patriotic duty and I was "excused." The next day, I was able to take Charlie in for his one-year well-child checkup. I'm so glad I was able to do that! Our wise doctor noted that he looked a little pale, too pale, and suggested we do a blood test to see if he was anemic. So, I went straight to Gritman and Charlie got a poke (he didn't even cry!). The next day, our doctor called to tell me that Charlie was definitely anemic, in fact, he needed a blood transfusion and that he was referring me to a pediatric hematologist/oncologist in Spokane. Um... what? I thought anemia just meant low iron? Well, no. In fact, anemia is caused by about 100 factors; 90 of which are no big deal and 10 of which are, well, a big deal. Well, all right then. I packed a bag in a hurry and whisked Charlie up to Spokane, about an hour and a half away. Keith was able to come up the next day, and brought a lot of good cheer (along with some shampoo) and took over chats with the nurses and doctors, much to my relief. He also had fun playing Wii and chasing around other children in the ward. Let us hope they recover (from Keith AND their illness).

So, after a couple very long nights of pokes and prods and countless sleep interruptions, Charlie's levels are back up to normal and we are home again. His cheeks are rosy and his disposition matches. But we still don't know what caused his anemic state, so we are now playing the waiting game. At this point, the hematologist is leaning toward some of the less serious possibilites, and the scary ones (cancer-related) are off the radar screen (for now). Once a week we'll do a blood test (at our local hospital) to keep an eye on his levels as we pray and wait for test results. Praise God for good doctors who follow their hunches, for release from jury duty, for good traffic and weather for driving, for kind and attentive nurses, for coffee, for a son who was able to bounce back from a lot of invasive and uncomfortable procedures, and for being able to come home so quickly. We are grateful for our Father's profound and pervasive care of us and for our sweet Charlie.

Florida!

2010-01-01T20:54:00.000-08:00

Ah Christmas!

2009-12-07T11:49:00.000-08:00

We've been having a grand time at our house, doing all the Christmas fun stuff: posting Christmas cards, decorating, shop-shop-shopping, drinking hot buttered rum, listening to carols, wrapping presents, getting over our colds and learning to drink from a sippy-cup... wait. Well. Anyway, later this week we'll bake cookies and drink hot apple cider. Somewhere in there I might clean the house... We finally have our woodstove back, so its off with the space heaters (hooray!) and on with the cozy fires. Charlie will be learning the word "Hot!" this week along with "No fuss" and "That's enough whipped cream for you young man." Can you guess which one we think is most important?Did you know that Safeway sells little green plant things that could pass for very small Christmas trees that come with their own little set of twinkle lights and lightweight ornaments? Well, they do and there's nary a pine needle in sight that little Master Charles could gum down. Yup.

Gu.Or.Jus.

2009-11-08T18:27:00.000-08:00

Thank you Carlton Builders!

Long time...

2009-11-01T15:22:00.000-08:00

no post! Yesterday we went to our church's Harvest Festival for the first time. All the kiddies (and some adults) dressed up and acquired lots of candy. We even won a pie! I made Charlie a costume. Can you imagine? Me spending countless hours making my son a costume that he would only wear a relatively short time. I felt a little guilty as I'm sure it wasn't particularly comfortable and the gym was quite hot, but he was so cheerful, you'd never really know...
He went as the Phillie's mascot, the Philly Phanatic. Got quite a few laughs!

This is how Charlie and I spend a lot of our time these days: me doing housework and Charlie peering over my shoulder inspecting my work. (And also drooling so that I usually end up a little damp. Small price to pay for mopped floors I say.)We also took him to his first Vandals game. He loved all the people and enjoyed helping "make noise" during "thirrrrrrrd downs!"

Whew.

2009-09-26T20:04:00.000-07:00

Hiking. Enterprise, OR. Camping. Wedding out of town. Surprise guests. Fall Jolly. Charlie learns to crawl. Parents come to visit!!! Wedding out of town. Bachelor party-Rehearsal dinner-Wedding in town. Done.

Mealtime with Charlie

2009-08-26T18:30:00.000-07:00

Whenever Charlie has a meal (solid food), he likes to hold his spoon as soon as he finishes. I'm guessing he's "practicing" for the future. Today, for some reason, he was in a particularly good mood after each of his meals (probably because I decided not to serve "Garden Vegetables") and we got some fun shots.

We have also noticed that he is starting to love the camera and seems to want to put on a good show whenever I pull it out.

Blank

2009-08-20T20:33:00.000-07:00

I just logged on to write a post, and realized I have nothing to say... Well... we are heading to Wallowa this weekend. Keith will hike, while I stay in town and do various "town" things. Next week Keith starts school. Charlie has five teeth and weighs 16 pounds 11 ounces. Um... we're getting new woodfloors? So, we have a lot going on, but still nothing blogworthy on its own.

Here, have a picture.

This is from when Keith's parents visited in March. Goodness Charlie looks little! These brave Floridians withstood the uck winter marvelously. Way to go you two!

Scootchin'

2009-08-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

Stuff and Things

2009-07-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

Charlie loves to look at himself in the mirror. And really, can you blame him? Here's a still from one side and some action from the other.

And here are a few other things we've been up to.

Camping! And would you believe he slept the whole night? If only we had been able to...

"Did someone say mashed bananas?"

Golf is hard work.

They're here!

2009-07-11T14:41:00.001-07:00

After months of fuss, Charlie finally has two little ridges on his bottom gums that we like to call... teeth!

Charlie's Greatest Hits 2

2009-07-08T15:29:00.000-07:00

Well, here's another update on that little guy we love so much. Charlie can now sit up without support, eat solid foods (if you can call pureed pears "solid"), suck his thumb, grab his feet and suck his toes (blech!), hold out his arms to be picked up, throw mini-tantrums when I don't pick him up fast enough, roll over, giggle and laugh, sleep six hour stretches (!) and continue to break his own daily spit-up records.

Vacation! AKA: A lot of driving and picture taking. :-)

2009-06-20T15:53:00.001-07:00

We started off by heading to Cedar Springs, WA to help my grandparents celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. We stayed at a lovely little "retreat" center, complete with swans and very loud bull-frogs. It was wonderful to see my family again and Charlie got to meet several aunts, uncles, cousins and even his great-grandparents!

(this last pic is not Charlie, but his cousin Johnny)

Then we headed south to spend the weekend with my parents on the farm, where we relaxed and, aside from Keith getting the worst allergies of his life, generally had a very pleasant time soaking up the abundant green of western Washington and trying to convince Charlie that sleeping at night, even on vacation, is something we are in favor of. Then we packed up again and drove down a portion of the Oregon coast, starting in Astoria (hooray Goonies!), through Cannon Beach, stopping to see friends staying at "Family Camp" on Rockaway Beach, toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory, and finally ended up at the Dodson's in Portland for the night. Whew!

On Wednesday, we visited a park in Portland that is home to a volcano, stopped by Powell's book store (which should be one of the Seven Wonders and could have sucked us in for hours had we not had the meter running) and finally headed back to Rochester (where my parent's farm is) after catching a glimpse of this enourmous ship called The World which looked like a floating aparment building. Once we got to Rochester, we picked up a brand-new trailer, loaded it with a freezer my parent's gave us, and settled down for one last night of Vacation.

On Thursday, one week after leaving home, we nosed the Pathfinder eastward. Charlie, who really did handle most of the driving quite well, had finally had enough of his carseat by the time we were halfway home, and really let us know his feelings on the situation for the rest of the trip. Poor guy. But I will say, the day after we got home, you never saw a more cheerful baby. Good to be home, eh Charlie boy?

Specs

2009-06-18T20:51:00.000-07:00

Love love love this picture my sister took at our "Family Reunion" last week.

Fun in the Sun

2009-06-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago we took an I-can't-believe-what-a-semester-its-been-let's-get-out-of-town-and-besides-its-our-anniversary trip up to Coeur d'Alene Resort. Keith played on their amazing golf course and Charlie and I perused the shop, lounged in the hotel, and walked along the "beach." The next day we took a cruise around the lake and took the scenic drive home to get some yummy "famous" ice cream. All in all, a really nice way to start the summer!

When baking a pie...

2009-05-26T19:12:00.001-07:00

always, always, always put a tin sheet underneath. And maybe cover the sheet with foil.

On the up shot, I learned how to clean an oven. :-)

He's... laughing?

2009-05-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

Trying out his Bumbo seat.

Or should I say trying to get out of his Bumbo seat?

Two Milestones

2009-05-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Charlie successfully took a rattle from my hand and put it in his mouth, and I fit into a pair of pre-pregnancy jeans. Good day.

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T21:02:00.000-07:00

Ten Things I Love About Being a Mom.

1. When Charlie can't keep his binkie in his mouth because he's smiling at me.
2. Little boy hats.
3. The butt pat.
4. When Charlie holds my finger.
5. "A-gooo."
6. Sorting through adorable baby boy clothes and picking which ones to dress my son in.
7. Walks with the stroller.
8. Tummy time.
9. Nap time!
10. And this...

Random Shots

2009-05-09T13:49:00.000-07:00

Farewell Friend

2009-05-09T13:36:00.001-07:00

After many tense and stressful weeks of juggling a baby, school, work-overload, sleep deprivation and a sweet-but-needy puppy-dog, Keith and I came to the reluctant conclusion that we simply could not keep Pepper. Sniff sniff. So, through various and sundry means, Pepper landed a great job as the cheerful pet of a couple who owns a farm out on the Palouse. She gets to run and wrestle with another dog and get really muddy and even still moonlight as a lap-dog, we are told. This is good news for everyone! And the best part? You know how sometimes parents have to get rid of their pets, and they tell their children "Oh yeah, we sent Fido to live on a big farm, where he'll have lots of room to run and play and wonderful new owners who love him" but what they really mean, of course, is that Fido is sleeping with the fishes? Well, when Charlie gets older, we'll tell him the same thing but it will be truth! :-)

Meet Roger.

2009-04-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

Since we've finally been getting some Spring around here, we've also encountered a few robins who've decided our back yard is a great place to hang out. Our first real sighting was this very fat robin.

But yesterday morning, after getting up with Charlie, I heard a sort of scratching coming from the laundry room. A little creeped out, I cautiously took a peek and discovered a handsome, somewhat thinner robin, trying to fly through our side door window. He's been trying to get in ever since! Since it seems he's here to stay, I decided to name him. This is Roger the persistent robin.

A Day in Charlie's life...

2009-04-10T10:44:00.001-07:00

Ok, so its been a while since I made a post and I know all my relatives out there are probably wondering what Charlie's been up to lately, so let me tell you.

He's been reading.

Making friends.

Swinging in the sun.

Exercising.

And of course, "talking."

Because I can't help myself...

2009-03-27T10:14:00.000-07:00

Here's one for the grandpas.

Joseph II

2009-03-23T22:12:00.000-07:00

Joseph

2009-03-23T22:07:00.001-07:00

We had a great time down in Wallowa county this weekend. So good to get out of town and visit dear friends!

Aaaaah.

2009-03-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

Wha? A open window? In Moscow? In March?

Guh-lorious weather today. Nearly 60 degrees! These pictures may not look like much, but can you see where the signs of spring are? That, my friends, is a little sunshine.

For the Grandmas

2009-03-17T10:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Granny!

And just for fun... Hi Oma!

You asked for it.

2009-03-13T17:44:00.000-07:00

Someone complained to Keith that there weren't enough pictures of me on this blog...

A quick shout out to...

2009-03-13T17:36:00.001-07:00

Jamie Soles, whose tunes have helped Charlie fall asleep after midnight feedings for a week now.

And... Peter and Claire for giving us his fabulous CD. Thanks guys!

We've given in...

2009-03-09T20:11:00.001-07:00

We are now "paci" parents.

And here's some shots of the baptism yesterday. We had a rockin' party afterwards. My apologies to all who attended that may have tried to converse with me--I'm afraid I was a bit of a zombie!

Domesticity

2009-03-03T20:56:00.001-08:00

So we're coming out of the fog a little at our house and I'm able to manage some housework from time to time. Hooray! The vacuum cleaner missed me. I'm only writing this because I'm very excited about being the new owner of a Swiffer-Vac-- sweeper and vacuum in one. Why am I excited? Our dog has been shedding- a LOT. That's all the news over here I'm afraid.

I love fat babies...

2009-02-25T13:52:00.000-08:00

Just look at that belly!

Lovely pretty things

2009-02-20T20:11:00.000-08:00

Ahhh... the good life.

2009-02-19T21:32:00.000-08:00

In the last twenty-four hours, I've officially been pooped on, peed on (twice), spit up on (more than twice) and snuggled on (much more than twice).

Ok, adorable pictures are here. I can't stop clicking!

2009-02-16T10:56:00.000-08:00

Babies

2009-01-29T08:26:00.001-08:00

While we wait for our baby to arrive, we have a substitute to console us and fill our laps. :-)

Pepper, what will you do when you have competition?

The Nursery is Ready!

2009-01-22T17:49:00.000-08:00

Nothing super special, but some memorabilia and (hopefully) lots of functionality. Come on kiddo! We're ready for ya!

No, we haven't forgotten a bed. This cradle will be downstairs with us for a while.

Big Snow... Again!

2009-01-05T13:42:00.000-08:00

This is our street.

How's my car look?

Pepper's First Christmas

2008-12-25T12:54:00.001-08:00

Banket (bahn-KET)

2008-12-25T12:49:00.000-08:00

Trying a new tradition. Dutch Goodies!

Wood

2008-10-20T21:51:00.000-07:00

Wood. Warm. Ready for Winter. Here we have about 3.5 cords. This year we have all kinds...some maple, tamarack, red fir (not much), white pine, white fir, and birch.
Here is some cottonwood from our neighbor's tree across the street. Once seasoned, it will be interesting to see how well it burns.
This is October 18th. Our burning bush is just turning red.
Down the street though, is a full red burning bush. I don't know what the actual name is, just how I remember it from growing up.
Sunset from the crest of the 6th Street hill.

2008-10-20T21:42:00.000-07:00

Fall 2008 has been good. Only one rainy day in September (I was camping) and the colors are exuberance once again. Here is my backyard, new fence, new neighbor's cars and three colors.
My new shed. Purchased from Ziggy's, built by my friend and me. Just got to put on the door and caulk the trim.
It's 10 x 16. Should be big enough for all our mammon. We don't have a garage so this will be a big help. We'll paint it in the Spring.
From the street, it looks the right size. One project down, two thousand to go.

Pepper the Dog

2008-10-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pics of our dog Pepper. She is a pretty good dog for being only 6 months old. She knows how to sit, lay, roll over, and fetch. We have a good time with her this summer.
She likes to look out the window.
and sit on the back of the couch.
And sleep on the couch.

2008-10-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

My wife is amazing. This is a piece of furniture she bought and refinished.
She resurfaced the floor, painted it white, installed new knobs, and added some colorful oil cloth.
She plans to use it as a baby changing table.
This fall, she has also been busy with a drama class she is teaching and keeping the home, baking pies, cobblers, goodies, etc. She has made numerous curtains for our windows as well as decorating the walls. And she has to put up with me. What a great wife!

Fenced In

2008-09-16T21:46:00.001-07:00

This summer, my big project was building a fence. This pic was taken in May, it shows the terraced dirt in the corner of my backyard with no fence. Seeing as we wanted a dog, we needed a fence.
So here is an early stage pic after we put in the posts and rails. On the north side of the yard, one slat at a time.
Start to look good.
I made a retaining wall in the back corner and built the fence there as well. I realized that I needed to continue the fence that far because as soon as I completed the wall, our dog Pepper shot up the wall and chased after the world. Now she is fenced in. I have enjoyed working with bigger equipment this summer as well. I rented an augur for the holes, a Bobcat Loader for removing the dirt, and an Excavator to help my friend eliminate juniper bushes. I understand now why men love big equipment. Beats office work.

What have we been doing all summer?

2008-09-16T14:07:00.000-07:00

There will be more posts soon. One thing we did, as we always do, is gather wood for the winter. Here is a pile of White Fir and White Pine before it was split and stacked.
Here is the first new addition to our family. Our dog Pepper. She is friendly and energetic, as most puppies are. She is a mix of Border Collie, Australian Shepherd, and Hound. She is bigger now, but this is when we first brought her to our home.

Its JUNE!

2008-06-10T09:06:00.001-07:00

Yes, that's right.
It was snowing when I got up this morning. Sigh. The date? JUNE 10th.

Our first nearly tragic but exciting major (ok medium) emergency...

2008-05-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

When we arrived at our cute little condo for the weekend, before the Mount Baker Quest, we were happily unloading the car, grateful to finally be there. Northwestern Washington is FAR from Moscow. Keith was getting the heavy stuff. (I love being married.) And I was unloading smaller things and putting them here and there. Our first task had been to turn on the heat. So it didn't even register when I smelled something funny. "Oh, that must be the heat kicking in," I thought. And so, though Keith or I wouldn't normally have put the cooler, or anything on the stove top, I didn't think anything of it because it wasn't turned on... right? After all, the kitchen was rather tiny. The next thing I new, as I was returning from the car with another load, Keith was running out of the condo with the cooler, saying "Honey, we have a fire. I need you help, NOW!" A fire? What?!?! But we just got here! I hurried inside and sure enough, flames on the stove and Keith throwing water on it. I remembered seeing baking soda when I opened the fridge earlier, so I grabbed it and tossed a whole bunch on the flames. (I'm not sure the baking soda really did any good, it wasn't a grease fire, but its the only thing I could think to do...) The fire died but the beautiful ceramic stove top was a plasticky, baking soda-ie, wet mess. Oh dear. Also, the kitchen was carpeted. And Keith, in his haste to remove the cooler from the hot stove, placed it on the floor and burnt a hole in it!

To make things worse, we happened to be staying at the condo of a man that neither of us had ever met in person. He'd done some business with Keith long distance and sort of owed Keith a favor. We both felt a little, well, a lot horrified at the fact that we'd nearly burnt down not only his condo, but eight or ten more that were connected to it.

While Keith called the owner, I set to work trying to srape off "cooler plastic" from the stove before it hardened into a permanent fixture. You can be sure, I felt a little anxious that it couldn't be done. Graciously, the owner didn't care about the carpet, (it was ancient and hideous, thank goodness) and he was more concerned about our comfort and liking of the condo than the little fire that did almost no damage (except to our nerves) and said little about it. Eventually, by keeping the stove warm, we managed to scrape off the plastic and amazingly, the ceramic top looked as good as new! God was very gracious to us!

When we had settled down a litte, we reinacted the whole thing to see just how it had happened. Either someone had left the burner on or else Keith had accidentally turned the knobs when he put the cooler on top of the stove. Unforunately, it was the latter. The fire was our fault. Oops. Our only consolation is that now the owner has more incentive to get rid of that ugly carpet in his kitchen.

Mount Baker Escapades...

2008-05-29T08:34:00.000-07:00

Keith and I spent the weekend of our first (1st!) anniversary in a cozy condo near Mt. Baker in a glorious, woody, mountainy area of the Cascades up by the Canadian border. It was only for a couple days, and we both felt we could have stayed longer, but did enjoy the spectacular scenery and a few of the condo's 800(!) laser disc movies. Saturday, our only full day there we went for a drive up into the mountains in search of Mt. Baker herself...

But first we had to stop and see these incredible Nooksak falls.

I told Keith to look amazed. He's such a good actor.

But... it was cold here because the water is all snow run-off (of course) and there was still PLENTY of snow on the mountain adding to it. Plus it was really shady and wet. Pretty, but time to move on...

Could that be Mt. Baker? No no, far too small and not nearly enough snow on top. We heard it was snow-capped. Hmmm...

After that we drove and drove and always the mountain eluded us. We knew we were headed in the right direction but... Wait! Could that be it?

We weren't sure. Finally, after straining around every windy bend of mountain road, we found ourselves looking over the tops of trees to see this beautiful mountain! We found her! Didn't we?

We consulted the map yet again and found that we were actually looking at Mt. Shuksan.

Mt. Baker is supposed to be HUGE and yet we couldn't see her. If that isn't some kind of major contradiction... Finally, the road we were on dead-ended at this wall of snow that was blocking us from our ultimate destination. Sigh.

We weren't to be daunted. We traveled another road that would take us to a open and perfect view of several mountains.

We drove past (and through) streams and mondo pot holes...

We even caught glimpses of the shy Lady far off.

But, alas, that road ended in a dead-end of snow as well. And we weren't wearing the proper shoes for a snow-hike, you know. No, only the next morning, several miles away, as we were leaving could we see her shrouded in morning mist. Our quest was ended only half-fulfilled. But golly it was fun trying!

Long time no post...

2008-05-15T22:13:00.000-07:00

This post is for all you wild, avid fans out there hoping for exciting news from the Dimeler Household.

Well, a lot has happened in the last few months.. well, not a lot. Actually, a lot of the same thing, except that I (Nellie) did graduate last weekend. Woohoo. MFA-ville here I am.

Oh, and we got some flowers finally. We have more besides these crocuses, but I'm too lazy to download them just yet. :-)

Wintry Winter in Idaho

2008-02-10T13:37:00.001-08:00

Snow removal is what we do a lot these days. We have had over 10 feet of snowfall this winter here in North Idaho.

But it can be a lot of fun....neighbors all hanging out in driveways, kids playing, and adults too.
Here is my wife, Nellie diving over the deck rail into some plush snow.
Everything is white.

Palouse Falls

2007-10-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

Palouse Falls in Southeastern Washington. In the middle of sagebrush and nothing, lies the powerful 198 foot waterfall.
Looking South after the Falls, the Palouse River continues til it meets up with the Snake.
The park area in the Fall.
Here is the water just before it descends.
After walking around the river and over the rocks, we see the Falls from the other side.

Ice Lake 2007

2007-09-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

On the way home, away from the cold.
Gabe and Joel, just before things got interesting.
Curious deer.
Our 3 colorful tents.
Ice Lake with Matterhorn in the background. The lake is frozen most of the year.

Waterfall
Ready to go. Keith, Hans, Greg & Joel. Gabe Ealy is taking the picture.

The top is Matterhorn. We never made it. Conditions were a bit too risky.

Ice Lake
On the trail.
Brrrr! It's cold in the morning.

New Look

2007-09-26T21:49:00.001-07:00

Eagle Cap 2007

2007-09-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

All geared up.
Twopan trailhead.

Me and my honey.
Jason and Liz.
Rambling brook.

The Valley from Eagle Cap.

We made it!
The valley we traversed.

Our tent.
To the top!

The Reception

2007-06-14T21:58:00.001-07:00

The Ceremony

2007-06-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

Before the Wedding

2007-06-14T20:36:00.001-07:00

Comfortable with his... ahem... Red Walls

2007-06-14T20:26:00.000-07:00

How to Milk a Cow

2007-06-14T18:53:00.000-07:00