Waiting to open presents on Christmas morning.
Reading the book Grandma Rose wrote for Silvie about the Little Girl Who Loved Shoes.
Helping Papa build the IKEA play kitchen.
We had a mostly happy (except for a few toddler temper tantrums) and relaxing Christmas day at home this year. Here are a few of our favorite photos but there are more on Flickr for the grandparents and the curious.
Love across the miles,
Deb, Nathan and Silvie
Posted in Dog's Life, Family, Home, Sprout
In the last week it’s like Someone took the “color” nob for the world and cranked it up to ELEVEN.
Physocarpos "Diablo"--Ninebark
Tulips and Hyacinths
"Grandma's Mint Tea" --actually Apple Mint?
Spirea--Goldflame?
I love color. Almost every color except pale pink. So, how, you ask, do we happen to have a brand-new PALE PINK rocking chair sitting in our dining room? Well, it’s a bit of a story.
We’ve been committed to not spending a lot of money on baby stuff that would only get short use. We don’t have a lot of space. We’re trying to keep it simple. But I did want a really good rocking chair. I love rocking chairs and I have fond memories of sitting beside my great grandmother in a rocker and being read to and singing “The Old Rugged Cross” with her.
But I digress. I wanted a rocking chair both for the early days of snuggling and breastfeeding as well as for later days of reading books. However I think most rocker/glider options out there are just plain ugly. I wanted something clean-lined and modern but comfortable with padded arms. I searched Craigslist repeatedly but came up empty handed. (Oh, Craig, you and your list have never failed me before!) I searched the internets to see if I could find a new rocker that fit my criteria and was a price I could stand to pay.
At last I found the Sleepytime Rocker and it was ON SALE! It has clean lines that work with our other furniture both in the baby room and in our living room. It is microsuede which is marvelous for repelling stains and dog slobber. We talked over the pros and cons and finally decided to buy it. Originally we talked about buying the nice brown “mocha” but at the last minute I decided that since I was trying to keep all the baby stuff light and bright I wanted to order the “lamb” color. On my computer monitor “lamb” looked like a soft off-white. The wise and very-bearded one asked “are you sure you want white with a babay?” Yes, I did.
So we ordered and the rocker arrived very quickly and in great shape. The wise and bearded one ripped into the box then suddenly halted. “Deb, um… did you order PINK?”
Oh dear, it appears that Nurseryworks is not familiar with “Mary had a little lamb, his fleece was WHITE as SNOW”. Apparently “lamb” is pale pink in Nurseryworks-speak. Perhaps they are more familiar with the less popular “Mary had a little lamb, its tasty flesh is PINK as this dang chair!”
Because we bought it significantly on sale and due to a lack of remorse for poor color name choosing by this company, we can not return it . And so, we have a PALE PINK rocking chair sitting in our dining room. We’re trying to figure out what to do with it: a. resell it on Craigslist for a small loss, b. live with it as a constant reminder to always get a fabric swatch from the company first or, c. find a creative way to disguise the pink.
Any ideas out there?
Posted in Home, Life, Etc., Sprout
Nate says I look like a sine curve in this photo. It’s all baby, folks. There’s not much space left in there and the Sprout is squirming a lot trying to stretch out her arms and legs.
I’m still feeling remarkably good compared to the complaints I’ve heard from other women in their 39th week. Up through this Friday, I was working full-time. I had enough energy to do my job every day but I pretty much collapsed every night when I came home from work and had no energy for basic household tasks, baby preparations or even blogging. I decided to start my maternity leave a week earlier than I had originally intended just so I have some time to sleep, work around the house and take care of myself. I hope I don’t regret it. I’d hate to burn up an extra week of maternity leave sans baby if she decides to be late. I’m taking the 12 weeks permitted by federal law but then I have to go back to work for the last couple of weeks of the school year or else I would have to pay our health insurance for the summer. Since all 3 of us will be on my insurance, that would be an expensive move.
When I go back to work, Nate will take part of his leave to stay home with the Sprout so we won’t need to find childcare just yet. We do think we have a good lead on a neighbor who takes care of a few wee ones in her home, but we’re glad we don’t have to make that decision until later in the fall.
Nate’s been doing lots of the work around the house since I’ve been pretty much completely useless. He cooks, he cleans, he rewired the living room and is putting up trim, he installed new fire extinguishers throughout the house. So far, I think he’s done more “nesting” than I have.
I have been working some on the nursery and organizing baby stuff. I’ll try to get some pictures on here this week since I hope to have the luxury of time to do so.
Corrections: Nate has installed new SMOKE DETECTORS through the whole house, not fire extinguishers….what was I thinking!? And he also wants me to note that, along with being an all-around handy husband, he has been working hard to grow out a full Amish beard.
Posted in Home, Life, Etc.
December 21. Winter Solstice. The Shortest Day. The Longest Night. Our 13th wedding anniversary. The middle of the snowiest December in 40 years of Portland history. And the night we ‘d decided to host a party for our good friends here in Portland.
We haven’t done much entertaining in the last six months and I really wanted to have some friends over. Plus, nothing motivates us to clean our house like company a’comin’. So we cleaned and decorated and baked dozens of cookies and made hot cocoa. And outside it snowed and it snowed and it snowed. Oh well, we lit a fire and decided that even if it were just the two of us we would have good winter-y evening together.
And then, four brave souls managed to make it through the snow to our party. Amy walked 20 blocks through the snowstorm. Steve and Amy cross-country skied down Woodstock Avenue to our house. And the ever-intrepid Stacey simply hopped into her 4-wheel drive and plowed through the drifts over here. Everyone was wet and rosy-cheeked and ready to hang out with other people for a while. We had a pleasant conversation and enjoyed the company. And then they wrapped themselves back up and headed home.
That would be the end of our story except the lovely Steve and Amy, after skiing all the way home, realized that they had locked themselves out of their house. Not a great position to be in during “Arctic Blast 2008”. Fortunately, they had their cell phones so they called us. We agreed to dig our car out of its drift and help them get to their friend’s house who had a key. It took Nate at least 45 minutes to dig out and de-ice the car. By that time Steve and Amy had skied the 30 blocks back to our house. Steve and Nate took off on wild wintry drive to retrieve the keys, then we all piled into our car and took Steve and Amy home.
It was a beautiful night with the most snow I’ve ever seen in Portland. Nate took some great pictures that he’s posted on Flickr. There were people skiing and snowmobiling all over the place even at 11:00 at night.
Since then, it’s just kept snowing and snowing and snowing. I don’t even know how much snow we have. We didn’t even try to dig out the car today. We did go for a walk with the dogs and gave away some of our dozens of left-over cookies to our neighbors.
I’ll have to say that I don’t mind being snowed in with Nate and the dogs. It’s not a bad way to spend the long winters nights, snuggled up on the couch with the one you love. Happy Anniversary to us!
Posted in Friends, Great Outdoors, Home
It’s not a deck, it’s not really a porch, so for lack of a better word, I’m calling it the “perch”. Our old wooden steps were in disrepair, plus the city didn’t like that our new electrical box was not adequately accessible for maintainance, so some problem-solving was in order. The result is a 3 foot by 10 foot shallow deck with steps that will eventually wrap-around on all three sides (once the fence is moved, but that’s another story).
Designer + Carpenter
Keegan sees the perch as the place to wait for an Adventure. She is sure an Adventure is always just around the corner.
but the chickens have been making quite a fuss.
Isabella Bird decided that it was time to end the suspense and produce the first egg.
Originally uploaded by ndmiller
We set the alarm clock for 5:30. Arose from the depths of slumber to finish backing our bags so we could catch a cab to the airport at 6:15. We got to the airport at 6:35 for our 8:30 flight. We tried to check in at the curb but the United guy told us our plane was delayed and we’d have to check in at the desk inside. We stood in a long line for a long time.
The flight was delayed for 10:37. And then it was delayed until 10:39 (make up your minds, people!). The plane was slow to board. We stood in a long line for a long time.
The plane pushed off from the gate and headed down the runway. Just as the engines revved up, the plane turned around and headed back to the gate. Problems with the air pressurization system. Take off delayed until 11:45. The United mechanics jiggled things and the pilots took the plane out to try again. Once more the engines revved, the air pressurization system failed and the take off was aborted. The United mechanics giggle things some more. They need a new gasket or some sort of whatchamacallit that is in San Francisco. They’ll fly it to Portland and fix the plane. Maybe. Meanwhile please deplane and try to work with the travel agent to figure out your connecting flights.
We’re still at PDX. We’ve been standing in a long line for a long time.
so far its been a rainy and a little windy.
we did find some damage when we came home from church today..
it was quite a mess
we’re not sure how it happened…
maybe we can ask the dogs.
Posted in Dog's Life, Home
it’s quiet again around the house……. too quiet
couchfest 2007 is over, the dust has settled and the dogs are moping…
pictures are here…
Posted in Dining, Dog's Life, Friends, Great Outdoors, Home, Life, Etc., Portland
barkdust 
