House It Going?

It has been way too long since we’ve done a real update and uploaded pictures. So here's an update. Remember - you can click on each picture to see a larger version.

As I wrote earlier, we’ve moved! We’re still in Anaheim, closer to Kori’s side of the family, closer to Disneyland, and a couple of freeway exits closer to the office. We moved from our condo to a house - doubling our square footage - and are still settling in and working out the kinks. This has kept us very busy (and we got sick, too… nothing too serious).

Here’s Keelie a couple of months ago, packing herself for the move.

Our house has an attached garage, and plenty of parking space, too, so I won’t have to bother with finding a parking spot or moving the pickup to avoid getting a ticket.

There is a large room with a fireplace that was added on to the house, taking up some of the backyard.

When that happened, what had been the living room area, directly to the left once inside the front door, was walled off and given a door and became a smaller room with a fireplace.

Also when that happened one of the bedrooms lost its windows/outdoor access, so it is now like a giant closet with its own closet. That is my cave. Kori will retain control of the rest of the place, of course, like any wife. But I will have my cave in which to retreat and concoct my elaborate plans for world domination.

Look at that! Shelves already built in. Which is good, because we have more books than some bookstores. That was painfully obvious during the move.

Our bedroom has a bathroom with a shower. Hopefully someday, we can push the front of the house out a little (there is plenty of front yard) and give our bathroom a nice big bath. On the other side of our bathroom is another bathroom that does have a bath. However, it currently does not receive hot water (long story). Oh well.

Then there’s Keelie’s room and the baby’s room. Since there is no baby right now, it is storage space.

Before we actually moved ourselves in, we had the old heater removed, which gave us an additional closet, and we had a new HVAC system installed, extending it to the addition. Otherwise, the place was just going to be too hot on the warmer days.

We also had a lot of other work we needed to do, including getting a washer and dryer, and a gas range/oven. Kori’s father did a lot of work around the place (bless him!) but what he couldn’t do, the good folks at Rescue Rooter did, including taking care of several plumbing problems and installing the appliances. They were great.

The neighborhood is mostly single-family homes, and the way our street is situated, the only traffic is for the homes on the street.

Keelie has been enjoying the extra room. She’s fifteen months old now, after all. Both she and Shelby like having a bigger backyard. Also with the move, Keelie finally started to sleep in her own room. And to think some people with a fifteen-month-old already have another baby.

Based on the condition of the house and the finance history, it looks like someone tried to flip the place not too long ago. It also looks like someone wasn’t able to handle all of the costs of the place and stripped it (like taking shower heads) before they left. There are mostly new windows and carpeting, which is good. It is interesting to see what the house value was at the height of the market and compare that to what the bank ended up accepting.

In addition to Bill (Granddaddy) and Pam (Puma) helping out of a lot around the place, Kori’s siblings have all been of great assistance in doing such things as watching Keelie, helping with the actual moving, and getting the condo ready to rent out. Our friends Dave & Jenn were a great help with the actual move as well, and James and Chrissy babysat Keelie during a key day of the move, and Keelie had a great time playing with their son Isaac.

My mother (Nanny) has also taken Keelie to the Disneyland Resort at least three times now, making it easier for Kori and me to both work on the move. Before the madness really began, we’d all visited the Resort together and had a good time, though Keelie has a problem with experiences (like rides) that get dark and noisy – which is just about everything.

Whitewater Snacks is great. Now that I've said that here online, Disney will probably get rid of the place.

And here are the ladies at a very special place.

Speaking of madness, towards the end of July, our water heater in the condo decided to leak, and so we had to replace it. It happened at the end of a weekend that started with rushing Shelby to an emergency vet because we thought she’d broken some bones. She’s okay, but it sure took a lot of money to find that out. That was an expensive weekend.

Things got better though as August got into gear. We had a picnic with some of our friends that we hadn’t seen in a while. One of the families had been in Africa and was passing through town on their way to settle in another state, so we all got together. Jon and Jeni have two small children now, one older than Keelie (Gracie) and one younger (Isaiah). James, Chrissy, and Isaac were there, too, as was Dave, and Aaron & Cherise. Keelie had a lot of fun playing with the other kids and running around in general, and it was nice to see most of the gang again.

Here's Keelie leaning on Gracie.

And here's Keelie playing with Isaac.

And here's the group (Kori took the picture).

It had been too long since we’d seen Bob and Julie, and we needed to meet Katie, so all six of us had dinner together at the Disneyland Resort. Keelie had fun dropping crayons on the floor.

There isn’t much else to say. Life has been about moving and settling in to the new place and getting the old place ready to rent out. Hopefully, we’ll be settled in and squared away soon.

Thanks for stopping by and reading. Keep us up to date on that you’ve been doing. As always, you can reach us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com, and you can submit a comment to the blog as well. You can find us on MySpace and Facebook - the links are in the column here on the right.

Keelie, Weird Al, and Fires - Oh My!

Thanks for tuning in to the Los Angeles Pellmans of Anaheim. It’s time for another photo update. Remember, you can usually click on a picture to see a bigger version.

First of all, as I write, there is a “red flag warning” again as far as the weather conditions, but the fire situation was under control the last time I checked. Where we live, we get ash, smoke, and haze, but the fires don’t ever come close to us, thankfully. But here I am grabbing Keelie just in case.

Okay... so where did we leave off? Oh yes… on the 20th of October, we went to get Keelie’s “official” four-month photo. Unfortunately, the place was busy because everyone was taking pictures for their holiday cards. We arrived in time for our appointment, and Keelie was great for the hour we ended up waiting. Then, the moment it was time to take her picture, she got very upset. It probably had to do with her adorable costume.

We ended up letting some other people go ahead of us and then we got a photo of Keelie after she fell asleep.

Saturday also happened to be the last night of the “Weird Al” Yankovic tour!!! We went to my mother's for dinner and to drop off Keelie, taking along her swing and some other stuff. It was the first time Keelie would be without either of us. My mother and Kim were happy to babysit. Kori and I took off for the Greek Theater. The Santa Ana winds were really going, and the Greek is in Griffith Park, where there had been some fires earlier this year.

The concert wasn’t sold out, and given that it was the last night of the tour, that’s understandable. Al and the band had made plenty of other southern California appearances in the preceding months. Guess who was there, though? Dave, the creative Idea Guy I once interned under. He was being a cool uncle again and taking his nephew to the concert.

Al and the band were flawless. They always put on one heck of a show. It wasn't quite the experience I was used to, though, probably because I didn't have my friends with me who are also Al fans. It’s a long story, but Kori and I were never sure we were actually going to the concert until about a minute before we walked through the door, and that lack of certain anticipation also kind of subdued me.

It was the first time I didn’t linger after the concert. So, I'm no longer a Weird Al Die-Hard Fan. I'm a WANNA-BE Weird Al Die-Hard Fan!!! All of the Close Personal Friends of Al, Al-oholics, Al-lies, and Yank-ees laugh at me and mock me for my failure.

But we had to get back to our little cutie.

Keelie had been mostly good for my family. She was asleep when we picked her up and she slept on the way home.

The next morning, we woke up to find that Malibu was on fire, and for the rest of the week the fires would be on television and radio nonstop. We could hear the strong Santa Ana winds all day and for the next few days.

For dinner that night, we went to Puma & Granddaddy Keel’s.

Okay, here are some pics of Keelie on the couch.

Looks like she is so happy to be photographed. Yes, she is on her way to becoming America's Next Top Model.

"Hmmmm, covering my eyes didn't work. Maybe covering my ears?"

I ended up working quite late at the end of my workweek, thanks to the Medfly. Then, instead of starting my weekend, I was up early the next day and off to the Palos Verdes Peninsula to do news media work.

In the evening, the entire Keel clan met for dinner in Fountain Valley to remember Kori’s Grandmommy Keel, who had passed away after a long convalescence.

It seemed like everyone had some stage of a cold, which was okay because Keelie did, too.

There she is with Auntie Kendra and Uncle Steve, and below are Auntie Kirby, Uncle Troy, and Uncle Toby.

As you can see below, Puma is completely bored with Keelie now ;-)

Granddaddy Keel got his turn to hold Keelie.

We went to Steve & Kendra’s annual Halloween party, which was a lot of fun.

We were able to make it down to see Boot Hill in Irvine, which is getting better and better every year. Keelie wasn't scared in the least.

This past Tuesday evening, we went to El Cholo for our last fix of green corn tamales until next May.

Wednesday, we went back to my old apartment complex (where I still have family) and used it as the base of our “trick or treating”. Really, what we did was dress Keelie up in her costume and went around to show some of the gang in South Pas. We even ended up getting a tour of my childhood home, which I’d been in once since it was sold, but Kori had never stepped foot inside. I was glad she got the tour. The family that bought it keeps it immaculately clean, and they’ve really done a nice job with the place. I had lived there from about the time I had my first birthday until I moved out for my freshman year of college, and my family had continued to live there for a few more years after that.

Keelie was getting fussy, so we had to stop making the rounds.

Kori, mercifully, takes care of Keelie when I sleep, and usually doesn’t have me get up to tend to her. Keelie still tends to wake up a few times overnight, and on my days off, one of us is usually holding her during the day, switching off to let the other person get something done. As a result, we feel like were getting very little done and some stuff just falls through the cracks. I also feel like an old fogie, with cutting back on activities due to time, energy, or logistics.

But gosh darnit, Keelie’s such an adorable little girl, with her laughs and her smiles and her eyes, and it is so heart-warming to see Kori mothering her.

I almost forgot – Keelie really likes her left foot, for some reason. She’ll grab it with her left hand and hold on to it.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this latest update. You can always comment here or you can e-mail us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com.

No Screaming During the Bath, But Then Came the Shots

Last Sunday, Keelie hit the two month mark.

This week was the first time we were able to give Keelie a bath without her screaming her head off. Progress! I’m also enjoying the “Daddy & Keelie” time I get with her after working.

Changes have been afoot while we have been recuperating at home. We really enjoyed our friends from church that would meet as a group called Homecoming. The situation settled into six regular couples, three of us having young kids, and we’d meet weekly in homes. However, the group decided to go in a new direction and was basically absorbed into a larger group that meets on the church campus. One of the Homecoming families is about to move “permanently” to Africa, and they are expecting their second child. We're going to miss them.

Here's Keelie sleeping hard in a "nest" of pillows, Kori couldn't resist taking a picture!

Kori took these shots below when she noticed Keelie rising up off me during Daddy & Keelie time. Shelby couldn’t resist getting into the shots.

A kiss from Shelby?

"More pictures, Mommie?"

"Daddy, why does Mommie take so many pictures?"

Here’s Keelie reaching nine weeks of age on Tuesday, and raising her arms in victory.

Kori, Keelie, and I checked in with the lactation consultants again. Well, I didn’t need to be there, but I was. Things are looking good. Kori is doing a very good job and is producing a lot.

Yesterday, Keelie went to the doctor again so she could get her first shots. Four times, she had to endure needles being stuck into her thighs. Even though it was done as quickly as possible, Keelie was not happy about it. However, she’s doing well at gaining weight and getting longer. For her age, she’s at the 20th percentile for weight (as she was at birth), and 50th percentile for height. For hair, she’s off the charts. And she seemed to be in a good mood for most of the rest of the day. She was probably hoping that she could avoid more shots that way!

Kori ventured out for the first time without Keelie. She ran some errands while I stayed home and had some Daddy & Keelie time. Kori was happy to be fitting back into her “ultra-skinny” jeans. But then, she was looking like her pre-pregnancy self very soon after giving birth.

As you can see below, we’ve started to try out putting things in Keelie’s hair. You know - to get people to notice it. They seem not to see it, otherwise.

For dinner, we met up with Bob and Julie at the PCH Grill, located inside the Paradise Pier Hotel at the Disneyland Resort. They brought a present for Keelie - so nice! We hadn’t seen them in the longest time. The PCH Grill is where Kori and I ate on our first date, and look what happened to us! (Of course, we did go into Disneyland Park, too, on that date).

Finally, I’ll end this post with a picture of a gift that arrived this week for Keelie, sent by Adam, whom I consider a professional and creative mentor (even though he was never a PIO for a County of Los Angeles Department).

Meet Moxy. Now that’s a “stuffed animal”. Thank you, Adam.

As always, you can e-mail us at KEPellman at Yahoo dot com. A note to our less tech-savvy friends and family: By clicking on most of these pictures, you will see a larger version of the same picture.