Valerie Grace Disher,
Born Saturday, December 19, 2020

Joel Sitte drove Thomas to Evergreen Medical Center at 4:00 PM on the 19th.  Annie had gone in for a test earlier that day and it was decided that a C-section delivery was needed that evening.  Baby Valerie's due date had originally been pegged for the 29th.  Later, a delivery was scheduled for the 22nd.  Annie's last day of teaching was the 18th.  Valerie arrived the next evening.

Valerie Grace Disher was born at 7:07 PM, weighing 9 lbs. 11 oz., and was 21.25" long.

Annie, Thomas, and Valerie stayed at the hospital until Monday evening.  Nancy and I had been applying the three coats of oil-based floor finish on the new floor from Thursday night to Sunday night (see story below).  But when Thomas left, I took over Charis care.  Jean stopped by on Sunday afternoon so I could finish the last 30% of coat #3.

The night Valerie came home, we got our first snow of the season.  In fact, the day she came home, the 21st, was the first day of Winter. 

Bob and Kim Disher had planned to greet Valerie at our house, but their visit was delayed.  In her first week, Valerie has been the perfect infant.

Christmas 2020 

The great gifts this year were Valerie and our new floor.  We knew the hectic lead-up to the holiday would limit much of the traditional elements.  Our "tree" was an art piece, one Annie purchased on her study-abroad trip to South Africa.  I opened only two gifts. 

Visits were brief and did not include a meal.  Joel and Jean arrived first, mainly to move the two Hsu sofas from the garage to the new room.  Randy, Susan, and Julie Adams stopped by to see Valerie and the new floor/room where we held our brief masked and socially distanced gathering.

On Christmas Eve we had virtual church and Charis and I baked a fourth batch of my chocolate chip cookies to give as gifts to our visitors the next day.  It was our largest batch yet, an eight-egg one.  We have cookie dough for when the Dishers visit from Oregon and the Auburn Sleights stop by.

Nancy Gets Her
Dance Floor

Twenty-seven years ago, Nancy bought the oak and maple flooring for our big house.  The maple was specifically bought for our "exercise room."

When our children were growing up, we had a 14' trampoline in this 31' x 15.5' south-facing second floor room.

These first two photos show well the five layers of the sprung wood floor that rest below the maple.  First, 4.5" pieces of fir lath were screwed to the original sub-floor. Then a grid of three layers of specially milled oak were screwed down.  Finally, a layer of 3/4" plywood was screwed down to become the new sub-floor.

We hired "Tiger" and his Vietnamese crew of USA #1 Hardwood Floors LLC to install and sand the maple. They came on 14th, but we were not quite ready for them.  We'd worked an all-nighter.  Tiger got a chance to examine the job site and agreed to return on Wednesday the 16th.  I worked another all-nighter before his team arrived and Thomas and Nancy did nearly the same.  On Wednesday, they finished the installation of the maple.  The next day, "Mike" did the sanding, and that evening Nancy and I put down the first coat of oil-based finish in 2.5 hours.

These photos show the progression of the project.

The final result is elegant and functional.  It provided the venue for our Christmas festivities, and a new huge playroom for happy toddlers.

Annie calls this the Mountain Room, since it provides our Mount Rainier view.

And in the end, the room was Shadow approved.

Waiting for Grandchild #4 

I know that I will grow close to Charis and Valerie. But it's sad to consider that I won't have the same opportunities watching Jonathan and Reuben grow up daily.

I was relieved that Charis and Jonny did not drop Reuben while I took their picture at the right.

I'm especially happy with the photo of the three kids in the trolley, named after the trolley from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.

Since the 19th, I've gotten to sleep in the trolley (Charis's bed), so that when she wakes up, which she does 3 to 4 times each night, I assure her that I am there.  She instantly stops whimpering or calling for "Momma" and goes right back to sleep.  She won't demand Annie's attention when Annie is so busy with Valerie. 

Some nights Annie has needed to change Valerie's diaper three times!

Neighbor Troubles Continue

Neighbors to our west blame our trees for flooding in their yard.  This despite the fact that their home sits at the foot of Clyde Hill and receives its runoff.  We hired Insta-Pipe of Tumwater, WA, to video the private 10" drain pipe running through their yard, and to retrieve any root samples.  These are the same difficult neighbors who insisted we trim our trees last year.  (See October 2019.) 

The video showed only a single blockage.  And its location did not indicate that our trees were to blame.  But the expense of gathering this information, and retaining a lawyer, has been a burden since we received an intimidating letter from their lawyer on Halloween. A summons arrived on December 28th.

² My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. ⁴ But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

 James 1:2-4 NKJV 

Charis is Three

We don't remember our own toddler years, but we will remember those of Charis. 

This was the first birthday party I've seen where decorating the cake was the party game.  Charis poured on the sprinkles. 

Social distancing kept the party to those who live here.  Others joined via Zoom.