19 Months

And he is another month older...and still growing like a weed. He's 31lbs 2 oz and 35 inches tall.

He loves to throw items over the baby gate and down the stairs, read books, try to pick up the cat, climb on the couch, play outside (run around, go down the slide, and swing the best), push buttons, open and close anything that will open and close, clap his hands, point to your finger, give you (low) five and then get it back, and just make you smile.

He sleeps great - about 12 hours at night and a good 1 1/2 -2 1/2 hour nap a day.

His favorite foods are peas with dill, chicken nuggets, any fruit, yogurt and cheese. He'll drink his milk but he'd rather have juice. He'll eat almost anything if you can get him to try it.

He knows where his head, ears, nose, mouth, fingers, belly, knees, toes, foot, teeth and tongue are. He seems to recognize the colors red, yellow, and blue but that could just be him guessing correctly...?

I think he is getting a new tooth because he has a majorly runny nose these last two days and his gums on the bottom back right a very tender. (According to the baby book,) He only has 4 more teeth to come in, those back 4 molars. Aside from the runny nose, he doesn't seem too bothered. Good thing, love that he is so easy going.

Right now, he is trying to lift his toy box so he can throw it over the baby gate. :) Love him so much!

(sorry for the lackluster post, just stretched too thin to put more into it)

Thankful

We are so blessed and thankful.

Isaiah is all back to healthy. We're praying his second cousins and friends can also start to feel better too.

Nathan is home from his class/certification. He got the call today - he is officially a Certified Welding Supervisor! Nathan Moyer, CWS. :)

Our drain is clear, both ours and the neighbors. And he was very fair it what portion of the bill he charged to us. Being neighborly is what it's about.

We've settled into our new space. We're still WAITING FOR STATE FARM (we are starting to regret switching to them last fall) to send an adjuster out to look at our damage but it's all cleaned up and we've started to look at options for putting it back together. And we're hiring someone this time! I'm way over elbow grease! :)

We've been incredibly blessed by the family and friends who have watched Isaiah, or just had him over to play, fed us, let us do laundry and take showers, cleared out the debris, been an ear to listen, and prayed for us. Thank you.

In another dramatic turn of events...

We just found out today that for the past week our sewer line has been draining through our neighbor's house. We share a sewer line, comes in off the street and Ys out to each of our houses. He has been having sewer back up for the past week and BELTZ ran a camera and could not find the problem. Today BELTZ asked if they could run a camera from the clean out in the front of our house...they found the problem is beyond where our lines come together and that our neighbor's portion of the line is lower than ours so our sewer has been draining fine because it's been backing up theirs....So in good conscious, we can no longer use the drains in our house...Bring on the paper plates. And don't say anything if we smell...just offer the use of your shower. Lovely.

Isaiah doesn't seem to be impacted by this whole situation at all, and loves his new playroom. He did today, while trying to walk in the front door, fall flat on his face. His first nose bleed. He cried for a just a bit then was fine and wanted to go play despite the blood still slowly dripping.

God Doesn't Give You More Than You Can Handle

It's a saying you hear most often when you are facing handling more than you think you can. You look at the situation and you hear that phrase play incessantly in your mind. After this week I feel like I have a new understanding of this statement, beyond what I felt it meant before.

This week I learned more about myself, what I truly can handle mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I looked at my situation, I cried, I allowed myself to fall into deep self pity and really hit a low spot. I cried mor and he answered with an inner strength I indeed had not knowledge or comprehension of before. I felt lifted but even at this I felt like the situation was beyond what I could "handle". This is when true light and understand came about. I realized "God Doesn't Give You More Than YOU Can Handle" doesn't mean that you won't face situations bigger than yourself. But when you face those situation, it's not about what YOU can handle or even what You can handle with Him guiding you but what You can handle with Him and those people around you that He has put in place. The two major keys to this statement are realizing your need for Him to give you the strength you don't fully know exists or hasn't yet fully developed but second that He will put people in place who will hold out their hand and it's up to you to give them a brick (or wet carpet, or an 18 month old in my case).

I have a much deeper appreciation for family members who have been here to help this week. I've felt needy taking help offered. But with a new understanding of "God Doesn't Give You More Than You Can Handle" I realize now that by not reaching out for help when needed, I'm defying God's full plan for how to handle life situtations. I thank God for those who have been there both physically and in prayer.

And some new pictures....

Bananas...

These last few days have felt like a dream. Saturday night as I sat in the kitchen with Nathan talking about his trip, I looked at the bunch of bananas sitting on the counter and thought to myself, will it be weird from him to come home and the bananas be gone, for items around the house to have "rearranged" themselves. Now I wonder, will he even feel like he is home when he walks into a house turned upside down. I'm starting to adapt to the new "normal" that will be for at least a month or so. He will have to start that process of coping and adapting when he returns. I felt sad as I looked at those bananas, about what he might miss while he was away. A new word or action by Isaiah, an interesting news story, a funny thought, a beautiful sunset...but now as I look back at the dream of these last few days, I'm incredibly thankful at some of the moment he was able to miss, though I know he has experianced many of the same emotions and some extra anxiety from afar.

The water has completely receded. There are still wet spots around downstairs and a small puddle in the crawl space but we are coming out of it now. The road is back open for all vehicles and we're back to seeing our speedy neighbor fly down the street several times a day. The paper arrived as normal and the crisp morning air reminds me that today is a new day full of promise and possibility.

My big world is a little smaller today....

Isaiah and I slept pretty well under the circumstances. I didn't even get up once to check on things.

The water doesn't appear to have come much closer to the house from the outside and the water inside appears to only have risen a small amount. The sump pump is working, as it sit here and listen to is pouring the water out the window behind me. It is running non-stop at least keeping the water level where it is at.  The back patio is a pool though so as fast the sump pump pumps, water flows back in from the patio.

It's a very odd sight out. There is a very thin layer of ice over all the water and it looks, well, kinda pretty?  Nothing exciting has really happened yet this morning. I'm assuming more "action" on the part of officials will happen now that we are returning to daylight. One family, that tried twice last night near midnight to leave, finally made it out this morning. They have a high profile SUV and it was up to their floor boards as they crashed through the ice. I've watched numerous people on sixth street get to the end of our road and have to turn around so I'm only assuming that we are the edge and probably will be among the first to drain out?  The neighbor across the street is attempting to load a boat twice as long as the bed of his diesel truck into it and just about slipped and fell on the ice. And I hear loads of air traffic - helcipoters and planes overhead.

Alright, here they are the most recent pictures including those of the "pretty" ice covered lake I'm in. Thank you again for all the prayers. At this point, it is the only action we can take. My plan today is to watch the water level (hopefully recede) and try to keep a 18 month old from going stir crazy in his smaller world.