Ok, first of all a big thank you to Zartemis!
I finally got this working. But it was a royal pain. I'll include the steps for those who may want to do this or something similar. This might save you some time.
1. download terminal emulator app
2. download ADBWireless
3. download Android SDK on notebook
4. download Java SDK on notebook
5. set windows PATH environment variable to point to adb folder:<Android Install Directory >\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools
6. Enable ADBWireless from NC
7. connect to NC from Windows command prompt using adb connect <NC IP>
8. adb shell
9. remount the system mount point read/write (see link above)
10. cd system/app
11. chmod 777 LatinIME.apk
12. cat LatinIME.apk > LatinIME.apk.Orig (this backs up the original)
13. rm LatinIME.apk
14. cd to the directory with the sideloaded LatinIME.apk file
15. cat LatinIME.apk > /system/app/LatinIME.apk
16. Go into nook tools and reselect the keyboard
Derek