Busy week!

Isaiah playing with a hose at the VIP cookout

Hey everyone! I can't believe it's been almost a week since I've posted. Isaiah and I seem to be finding much more to do outside the apartment this semester, which has been good. I think things seem to be moving along a lot more quickly, which we like since we're excited for when we'll finally be able to be back in the states with Isaiah in 2 years! I have also been reading the Twilight series since shortly after we got back this semester. I think I read Twilight and New Moon last week and then read Eclipse and Breaking Dawn the end of this week. I read Eclipse from Wednesday to Thursday, started Breaking Dawn Thursday night and finished it last night! I got through 630 pages yesterday!!! They were really great books with a really great ending and now I'm kind of sad that I'm done! :( I was starting to neglect my duties around the house (dishes, laundry, etc) so I'm sure Josh will be happy to put me back to work now. He was very supportive though of me reading and having a little time for myself. He also read the books and knew that I would love them, so I think he was glad that I finally got the chance to! Anyway...so that's part of the reason why I haven't posted this week!

Isaiah hanging out at the Royal St. Kitts pool on Thursday

Let's see...where to begin. On Monday, Kristen, Brody, Isaiah, and I went to Jessie's to visit with her, Beau, and her sister Abbey who is visiting from home. I think Kristen and Jessie got to have a nice visit while I spent most of the time chasing Isaiah around the lawn!!! He's definitely 'on the go' these days and sometimes hard to keep up with! Monday afternoon, Josh went and got 2 new tires put on the car...continuing our quest to put Dorothy back together again! On Tuesday, Isaiah and I just hung out at home. They had a public election on Monday with the results announced early Tuesday morning and it was also a public holiday. We'd heard some stories about how crazy it would be, so we just decided to stay in and stay out of any messes! Isaiah and I had a nice day and it was a nice change to just be here all day!

One of the Royal St. Kitts pools and a view of the rooms

On Wednesday, Isaiah and I took the car to get the tires realigned. The guy at 'Wheels and Brakes' was really nice and took care of it for us in less than a 1/2 hour. Isaiah was well behaved and let me hold him the whole time we were there too. We stopped and got a few groceries on our way home and Isaiah fell asleep in the car. Once Isaiah woke up, we got lunch and headed to a nearby apartment complex for the VIP cookout to spend some time with other spouses. Isaiah, Beau, and Damon were the only kids there, but Isaiah and Damon enjoyed chasing each other around quite a bit! We got to spend some time in the pool and Isaiah got to burn off lots of energy! I went to the community choir practice on Wednesday nights driving the carpool and picking up our friends Long and Jakki on the way! I'm really enjoying choir...it's definitely nice to be singing again!

The Mommy crew with their baby boys:

Isaiah & Me, Kristen & Brody, and Jessie & Beau

Thursday, we went to the Royal St. Kitts hotel where we heard a group of Mom's were meeting up for a weekly get together. It was really nice. The activity for the day was hanging out at the pool there and we got to meet Carla, whose family runs the resort. She was amazing and invited to go use their pool anytime and also told me that I could take the stroller down and take Isaiah for walks if I wanted to through the grounds, which is great since I haven't found a good place to take him for walks! Thursday evening, Isaiah and I headed to Jakki and Joe's for worship team practice and pizza for dinner before. Rehearsal was good and Isaiah behaved very well, although he got tired by the end. He actually fell asleep in the car on the way home around 7:30 and slept until 6:45 on Friday morning!

Isaiah ready to head to see Jen and Ava

Yesterday we just chilled here. I had an alto section rehearsal for community choir at 5 and was only gone for about an hour. We had dinner, Skyped a little bit and put Isaiah to sleep around 9:30. I stayed up to finish reading Breaking Dawn (which I LOVED...have I mentioned that?). Josh headed to school this morning around 8:30 and plans to leave there around 5. We went with Jakki to hang out with Jen and Ava for a few hours today which was fun. We don't get to see them as much because Jakki and Jen both work at the prep school on Ross' campus. When Josh gets home, we're planning to head back to Jason and Jen's for a cook out for Elena who is taking a leave of absence for the semester to go home and spend time with her fiance, Jim before their wedding in May and then she's going to come back to us! That about wraps it up. I'll try to be a little better with my posting this week since I won't have my nose stuck in any books! Love to all at home! We miss you!

Lazy Sunday afternoon

Well...I meant to post sooner than this, but we've been quite busy the last few days! Isaiah and I have been getting out a lot more this semester during the week with friends, which is really helping pass the time more quickly and is much more enjoyable for both of us! Our friend, Elena, is taking a leave of absence for the rest of the semester to go home and be with her fiance before their wedding in May, so while she's here tying up loose ends, we've been getting to spend a lot of time with her, which has been fun! On Wednesday, we met Elena, Jessie, and Beau at the Marriott Pool to hang out. The boys both loved the little fountains they have in the shallow section of the pool and Isaiah spent most of the day chasing other kids around and running from place to place leaving me in the dust trying to run after him! After some pool time, we got lunch at the Pizza Shak and ate there before heading home. Isaiah was pretty worn out and fell asleep on the way home and slept for over 2 hours!

Beautiful Boy!

Wednesday evening, Isaiah and I headed to Jakki and Joe's for Worship team practice. We went a little early and Emily brought Pizza for everyone, so we got a little time to relax and fellowship with one another before practice started, which was nice. We sang some new songs that our friend, Long, picked out and I really liked them! Josh stayed at school to try to get ahead in some of his classes, so Isaiah and I went and picked him up at school when we finished practice. Isaiah was actually really good during practice just exploring and playing with his toys! The plan for now is for Isaiah to go with me to worship team practice since Josh has been watching him on Monday nights when I go to my other choir rehearsal and I think that will work out just fine!

"Cheese"

On Thursday, we were planning on going to the beach or pool with Elena and meeting up with Harley and Damon, but our plans didn't work out. Isaiah was up early and took his nap in the morning and Damon is an afternoon napper, so the boys' schedules threw a kink in our plans. It was a really cloudy day here though anyway, so we weren't too upset we didn't hit the beach! Isaiah and I just spent the day here. Isaiah has gotten really cute with entertaining himself and playing alone at times and on Thursday when we were home he did a few really cute things. First with his carseat, he somehow laid it down and when I looked up to see what he was doing, he was lounging in it like it was his little baby man recliner! It was so sweet and I started laughing and then he thought it was funny that I was laughing and I got some cute pics!

Relaxing in his makeshift baby recliner!

The second was in the afternoon and he was just walking all around and playing with different toys and picked up the stethoscope from the medical kit his Grammy Lynne got him or Christmas. I looked up from reading my book and he was just walking around the living room in his diaper with the stethoscope around his neck and he was just so adorable! He's also learning what "say cheese" means when I get out the camera and I actually get some smiles now without having to work SO hard!

Do I see a future doctor or veterinarian?

On Friday, we headed to the Marriott with Elena to the beach and met up with Jessie and Beau again. Jessie's sister, Abby also joined us since she's visiting with Jessie for the next couple of weeks. We had a lot of fun, but I didn't really feel very relaxed at the beach! Isaiah was going crazy walking all around and being nosy looking at all the people around us! I spent the whole time we were there chasing him around. He really liked the place at the edge of the beach where you can wash your feet and when I would turn it on, he'd pick up one foot at a time and put it under the water! It's so funny to see him learning so much without having to be taught! He just picks things up that he sees people too and he's learning so quickly now! Friday evening we had a quiet evening at home. Isaiah and I spent some time out in the yard with our neighbor Matt and his dog, Shelby. Isaiah loves to follow her around and chase her when she decides to play with him. We hung out there until Josh got home from school around 5:30 and came in and had dinner. We skyped a little in the evening and were in bed by 9pm. We're just crazy party people on a Friday night!

Playing in the sand at the Marriott beach

Yesterday, Isaiah and I were home in the morning and Josh left around 9:15 to head to school for the day to study. Isaiah and I went with Elena, Jen, and Ava to the beach yesterday afternoon. We went to Shipwreck's where they have some black sand and Isaiah was pretty much covered from head to toe. I'm telling you...this kid does not care if there is sand in his eyes...he's just happy as a clam! He kept hugging Ava and she'd get mad and cry because he got her all sandy and Jen would have to clean her off. He looked so bewildered everytime like, "What did I do? I just wanted to hug you!" Apparantly, Ava shares my aversion for the sand and Isaiah obviously does not! We had a nice time at the beach anyway, although I think I sat down for a total of 3 minutes the entire time we were there! Isaiah kept running straight into the ocean or taking off down the beach. Oh well...at least he had a great time!

Covered in sand at Shipwreck's

Last night, I got to go out to dinner for a girls' night out with Elena, Kristen, Autum, and Erin. We went to PJ's which has mainly italian food and it was really good. I had a nice time with all the girls since I don't get to see them very much! Josh was gracious enough to spend the evening at home with Isaiah and Isaiah was sleeping by the time I got home around 9pm. Josh and I watched a couple of Friends episodes on line together and then went to bed too.

He didn't care at all that there was sand all over his face!

We went to church this morning and then Josh headed off to school around 11:30. We aren't going to the beach today because Isaiah is taking a little later nap than usual and would make us really late getting back from the beach. Our church group is having 2 Bible studies this semester, one for women and one for men. I think we're going to try to go as much as we can, at least to start. I'm going to take Isaiah with me tonight to the women's Bible study and we might switch off who takes Isaiah along, but we'll see how it goes. I'm excited that we're getting more involved and hoping it will be fun and help us both grow in friendships with our church family and also grow in our relationship with Christ.

Look at all those teeth on the top!

That brings us up to speed. I thought I had a lot of cute pictures, so I had trouble choosing which ones to post today! I hope everyone is doing well at home. We miss you and can't wait to see you again. Let us know anytime you want to set up a Skype date! I'll try to write again soon!

...getting better

Now that we're a few days removed from the car burning fiasco I think we're finally starting to get back to feeling a little more normal! They towed our car to the garage yesterday and were able to fix all the wiring. It is hopefully getting realigned this morning and then we can pick it up. The mechanic didn't have any luck locating a replacement window for us, so I guess for now we'll be driving around without one until I can make calls to whoever I can get contact info. for and hopefully find a window! Ugh....nothing is ever easy on this island I have definitely learned in the short time we have lived here so far! I am happy to be getting the car back and that the repairs weren't as expensive as we had originally feared, although a little more expensive than our original estimate from the mechanic.

Isaiah after lunch on Sunday--COVERED in Ketchup!

We did get to go to the beach on Saturday afternoon as Jakki so graciously agreed to pick us up and take us with her. We went to the beach at the Marriott and I've uploaded some of the pictures to include them here. It was definitely nice to have Josh at the beach with us and I had forgotten how stressFUL it is to take Isaiah to the beach at times! Josh was studying and reading at first which left me in charge and now that Isaiah's walking, there is no use in trying to get him to stay put anywhere! So, we basically end up just following him all over the beach as he walks around and says hello to everyone around. He is so very nosy just like his father and can't leave anyone alone, always having to see what they're up to! Anyway....he doesn't share my aversion for sand, as you can see in the pictures, which makes it even more difficult for me to take him to the beach! He usually has such fun though, and I do too, so it's always worth it in the end. He's also usually very tired afterward, as am I, so at least we usually get really good naps out of him on beach days!

I swear...he dove face first into the sand without batting an eyelash!

Sunday was kind of a wash here because it rained almost all day! I've never seen it so overcast here and we got so much rain.....lucky for us we were also without a car window when all the rain hit and no way to be able to cover it up, thanks to the damage! (UGH again!) We went to church on Sunday morning...Kristen was nice enough to come pick us up and bring us home afterwards. Josh went to school then for a few hours hitching a ride with Lori and Jakki came over to our place to watch a movie since it was rainy out. We had been hoping to go hang out with Jen at their pool, but couldn't because of the rain! Hopefully this weekend will be better and we can hang out a little more! We had a nice time and Josh wasn't late getting home....I almost didn't remember how much more time he had to spend with us at the beginning of the semester! It's been a nice surprise. He'd probably actually have even more time at home, but he's had several "extra" lectures they added to be able to cover some extra material in class, which was taken up even more of his time! He's already studying for several hours during the day and it's nice when he comes home at dinner time that he just takes those few hours off to spend with us!

He wore Josh out with wanting to be in the water!!!

(He's just like his Mama that way!)

Yesterday was an interesting day. The guy came to look at the car and told me that they could fix it and then came back a few hours later to tow poor Dorothy away. Isaiah and I rode with Jessie to Ross then (she needed to turn in some daycare paperwork for her son, Beau, and I needed to get my paperwork to renew my VISA) and I was glad to have a reason to get Isaiah and I out of the house. It ended up only taking each of us a few minutes, so we each spent lunch with our husbands at school. It was so nice to see Josh for a little bit in the middle of the day. I'm thinking once the car is back in working order maybe Isaiah and I will start making it a weekly ritual to go eat lunch with Josh once a week!

We undressed him to take him to shower off and then he dove for the sand AGAIN!

Josh got home around 5:30 as usual and Isaiah was napping, so we got to make dinner together. It was a lot less stressful to cook without Isaiah being underfoot, which was a nice change for both of us! I went to choir rehearsal at 7:15 with Jakki, who picked me up. (I've joined a local choir--The Saint Christopher Chorale Society choir and am really enjoying it so far!) Practice was good....a little long, but good. It's so nice for me to be singing some challenging music again and also nice for me to get out of the house and do something for me that I like to do! I also like that Josh and Isaiah get some male bonding time and Isaiah seems to do fine with me gone and being at home with Josh. Both last week and last night when I got home from rehearsal between 9:45 and 10pm, Isaiah has already been asleep! Josh doesn't seem to mind having a little extra time with his favorite little man either!

Isaiah watching Elmo's Ducks

I think that gets us all caught up. I'm hopefully picking up the car this afternoon and then I guess my search will begin to try to find a new window for the bluebird. (Anyone with any ideas on where I might look, I'd appreciate the input!) I might even send Josh to a junkyard to see if we can find one there, or who knows...maybe I'll end up going to a junkyard! I hope you enjoy the video I took on Sunday afternoon of Isaiah watching an Elmo video on youtube.com titled "Elmo's ducks." It's his favorite and he's just so cute and gets so excited while he watches it. I hope everyone is well at home! We miss you! :)

Rude Awakening!

Isaiah, Shelby, and Josh outside in the yard Friday evening

I wrote this whole blog yesterday while I was uploading pictures, but kept having difficulty getting them to upload and finally gave up, so I'm hoping I can get it to work now. So this post is actually from Saturday, January 16th, 2010.

So....Isaiah woke up a little after 6 this morning and we were trying desperately to get him to go back to sleep, but weren't succeeding very well. Josh decided to head out to the kitchen to get some water and a binky to see if that would appease Isaiah. Josh came back into our bedroom quickly and said, "I think Matt's car is on fire!" I jumped out of bed to look out or window and sure enough, our neighbor's car was on fire right next to ours at the bottom of our yard! We grabbed Isaiah and I grabbed my cell phone and headed outside. Josh went to see if he could safely reach our car to move it away from the flames coming from Matt's, but the fire kept "popping" and we were too worried it was going to explode or something. While he was figuring all that out, I called 911, knocked on the door next door to wake everyone up, and then called Ross Security. A few minutes after talking with Ross Security, the fire truck arrived and it probably took them a good 10-15 minutes to put the fire completely out. As the fire crew was finishing up, 2 men from Ross Security arrived and got the info. from us about what had happened. Shortly after that, the police arrived and wanted to talk to Matt about his car. At that time, Josh went to see about moving our car and realized that someone had broken our driver's side window and had cut ALL the wires housed below the steering wheel and realized that our car wasn't going ANYWHERE! He told the police then and they took a look at things and took a couple of pictures. We originally thought it was probably just vandalism, but after the insurance adjuster took a look, we believe someone was trying to steal the cars by hot-wiring them and that they hot-wired Matt's incorrectly and started the fire. So...here we are again, less than a week after the flat tire incident with even worse damage done to poor Dorothy (our car's name) and aren't sure what will have to be done to repair it. A mechanic is supposed to be coming to survey the damage, but we haven't heard from them yet and it's now 6pm, so I doubt it will happen now before Monday! This morning was ridiculous and still seems completely surreal in our minds. At first I was a mess about what happened, but we are very thankful that no one was hurt...we are all FINE....and glad that our car wasn't damaged as badly as it could've been! Even so...prayers for us to get our car fixed and be able to afford the cost and also for Matt to be able to find a new car that he can afford as well!

Our car now with no window on the driver's side

Matt's roommate, Eugene, was kind enough to let us borrow his car, so we could do our grocery shopping for the coming week, which was much appreciated as we had NO food left in our house! We had a successful trip and then Josh headed off to school to study for a few hours. Isaiah took an early nap due to our early wake up this morning and I ended up meeting with our off campus housing director, Michele, who came to survey the damage and also was responsible for getting the insurance adjuster to come and look at the cars on a Saturday! She also helped to find the mechanic who can hopefully help us with the car, so she was a Godsend to me today!!!

Our wiring under the steering wheel (all cut)

Josh got home a little after 2 and we got ready and headed to the beach for a couple of hours with our friend, Jakki, who was kind enough to pick us up! The beach was fabulous and really much needed for a little relaxation after a hellish morning of worrying about the stuff with the car. I don't think the image of Matt's car burning less than 500ft away from us will ever leave my memory! Josh studied a little at the beach, but also took a turn watching Isaiah for about half the time, so I could relax a little bit and visit with Jakki. Jake and Alex also showed up, so it was nice to catch up with them and talk for a while as well.

Matt's poor car from the outside

Looks even worse on the inside

Now we're back home, Isaiah's is down for his second nap after being worn out at the beach, and Josh is making dinner for us. Isaiah is so crazy now at the beach and just runs around in the sand and has recently discovered that he loves the ocean, so he runs to the water now too, which is really cute! I took some pictures at the beach and a video today, so hopefully I will get to upload that and post it in the next day or so too. I think that's it for now. Like I said earlier, prayers for us, as well as Matt would be greatly appreciated! The insurance here doesn't help cover our cars since they are over 10 years old, so we will be responsible for the full cost of repairs, and in Matt's case, the cost of a new vehicle. Again, we are all safe and sound, which is most important, but hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!

Beach Day :)

Isaiah sitting in his box full of toys

Not much new going on with us here in St. Kitts. Yesterday Isaiah and I headed back to Sealofts in the morning and went to the pool there with Jessie and Beau. It's really nice to take the boys out in the morning before it gets too hot here and the boys seem to enjoy it. It's also nice having another mother here to talk to about things and also someone with her husband in vet school, so we have a lot of the same concerns and things to deal with. Hopefully it'll be a lasting friendship for Isaiah and I both!

Isaiah fell asleep on the way to the beach

After going in the pool for a bit, we took the kids inside to change them and let them play for a little while before we got ready to head to lunch. Isaiah and I stopped in the office at Sealofts to get some info. for the Troutmans when they come to visit and then we drove Jessie and Beau to the Caribe Cafe for lunch. We had a good time talking at lunch and Isaiah devouered his pizza as soon as it arrived at the table! Isaiah and I then headed home after taking Jessie and Beau back to their place and Isaiah was really tired, so I put him down for a nap and he slept for almost 3 hours!!! It's been nice that he's been taking longer naps not only because I can get more things done and relax a little while he sleeps, but he's also much happier when he wakes up, which makes the evening much more pleasant for both Josh and I!

Isaiah and Damon at Shipwreck's

Today, Isaiah and I met Jessie, Beau, and Biance (her fiance is also a new 1st semester) at Shipwrecks for a little beach time today! Isaiah fell asleep in the car on the way there and slept for about 40 minutes giving me some time to visit with the other girls and even read some of Twilight at the beach, which was nice and relaxing for a bit! Harley, Damon, and Harley's sister-in-law, Genipher, came then to Shipwreck's too, so Isaiah had a great time playing with Damon too! Isaiah was of course a busy little boy at the beach walking all over the place and walking straight toward the water again!

Isaiah, Jessie, Beau, and Damon

We headed home a little before one and I put our pizza in the oven while we got showered and cleaned up and then we both got lunch. I could tell Isaiah was getting tired, but he seemed content to play, so I let him play in the living room for a while before we headed back to the bedroom for him to take a nap. He's sleeping now and will hopefully take a good nap and be in a good mood for some family time with Josh and I this evening before bed!

Isaiah, Genipher, Damon, Harley, and Beau

That's all for now. Hope everyone had a good week and I hope you all have wonderful weekends! We'll talk to you soon! :)

Pool fun with new friends!

Headed to the pool to meet Jessie and Beau

Isaiah slept a little later this morning than he has been the past few days until about 7:45 which was nice. He hasn't been getting up through the night, but I still seem to be waking up a few times a night thinking that he'll still get up! I guess after an entire year of not sleeping through the night, I'm not quite sure I remember how to do it anymore! He is doing amazing since we stopped nursing and doesn't seem to miss it at all now that we're done. He really likes chocolate milk and we've been giving him some watered down juice too to make sure he's getting enough liquid and he's doing great with it!

Big man in his new clothes!

After breakfast, we got ready to head to the pool and went to Sealofts condos to meet up with Jessie and her son, Beau, who are new first semesters at Ross. We met on Monday at the VIP meeting and decided to hang out to get the boys together and also to keep ourselves sane! Beau is 7 months old and such a little cutie! You know how Isaiah is with other little kids....he just loves Beau and they make each other smile and laugh, which is so cute!

New friends :)

The boys had fun playing in the pool. We also took a walk through the grounds and up to look at the beach and Isaiah kept trying to climb over the wall to get to the ocean! It's really beautiful down at Sealofts and it was nice for us to get to go checkout someplace new! We went back in the pool for a bit and then headed inside to Jessie and Andrew's (her husband) place and hung out for a while. Isaiah liked playing with Beau's toys and Beau ended up taking a little nap. It was nice for me to have another adult and Mom to talk to and I'm hoping that we can make a regular thing of getting together to do things during the week especially!

SO CUTE!

We got home around 1pm and I got Isaiah some lunch. He was acting pretty tired and I wanted to get some food in him before he went down for a nap. He must have worked up an appetite because he ate almost a cup of pasta and about a half cup of broccoli in no time and then started rubbing his eyes! I cleaned him up and laid down with him and sang for about 4 minutes before he was OUT! Now he's napping, so hopefully he'll take a good nap and allow me to get some things done around here this afternoon!

View of the condos from the pool at Sealofts

Josh has an extra lecture today from 4-6pm, so Isaiah and I are going to pick him up at school and then pick up Jakki and Joe and we're headed to check out an Indian restaurant we've been wanting to try since we got here, so that should be fun. Jakki is teaching full time at the prep school now, so it will be nice to get to hang out with her since her days are filled now! Tomorrow we're planning to go back to Jessie's for a swim in the morning and then head to town to get something to eat with the boys, so that should be fun too! Sounds like things are still pretty cold back there in PA, but we'll try to send some warm weather your way if possible! Hope everyone is having a great week! I'll post again soon.

Back to Island life!

My little goofball!

Hey Everyone! I was glad to hear while we were home that people are enjoying the blog. I am enjoying writing it and hoping it will help us remember our time here in St. Kitts after we are back home! We had a wonderful 3 weeks at home with our families over the holidays and I think it was just what we needed to re-energize the be able to make it through Josh's second semester at Ross which he started yesterday. For this post, I decided to post some pictures from during our time at home, so I hope you enjoy!

Isaiah eating cake at his 1st Birthday party in Everett

We had a good trip back, although it was quite an early morning in Philly on Saturday. We called Friday and they recommended getting to the airport 3 hours before our flight, so we got up at 3:15 and left Kevin and Sara's place by 4 to get there by 4:30. Mom, Dad, Lynne, Kevin, and Sara stayed with us while we checked in, checked our bags, and headed to the security checkpoint. It was really nice having the extra hands while we got everything squared away, but was also really hard to say goodbye when they finally left us. I think we all kind of had the same reaction...we thought it would be easier this time. In some ways it was....Josh and I knew we'd be headed back to a safe place and nice apartment and already had transportation and they knew that too, which made it a little better. It was still hard to say goodbye....we will still miss you all terribly and will be counting down until we can see you again in April!

Isaiah, Me, Steve, and Ella

With all the snow on our first weekend home we took the kids out for a little sled riding...Isaiah wasn't a fan!

After we got back on Saturday and did a little unpacking, we headed to Jason and Jen's new apartment in Calypso Bay for a little "welcome back" get together. It was really nice to be reunited with all of our friends and we all felt in some ways like our "family" here was back together again! Jason and Jen had to move and their new place is AMAZING! They have a great view, good breezes, their own small pool on their deck, and it's beautiful inside too! Isaiah actually fell asleep in the car on the way there and slept on my lap and then Josh's for about an hour and a half during the party! He's such a good kid and he was worn out from his long day of traveling!

Josh and Isaiah at the Green Harvest

Sunday morning we decided to head out to the grocery store and try to get some food and things for a couple of days. Upon pulling into the parking lot, we realized that we had a flat tire!!! UGH! We called our friend Autum while we were getting our groceries and she came to help us out. We tried putting some air in the tire, but there was a pretty big hole, so that didn't work. Then we decided to change the tire to our spare until we could get a new one. We jacked up the car and then tried to remove the lugnuts, but our tire iron didn't fit them! We tried Autum's and a couple of other Ross students' we saw in the parking lot, but none of them worked, so we had to leave the car at IGA and Autum brought us home. I called the garage yesterday and they picked it up and got it taken care of, so Josh is going to pick it up today at lunchtime. After our car debacle, Autum came to pick us up and we headed to the beach at the Marriott for a few hours. It was a perfect day for the beach. It was warm, but not too hot. There was a nice ocean breeze blowing to keep you nice and cool and the scenery was absolutely flawless! Isaiah fell asleep on the way there, so for about an hour when we first got there I sat with him sleeping on my lap again while I read my book. It was so nice and relaxing. Once he woke up and Josh took him for a walk, he realized that he loved the water and would just take off running straight into the ocean and not stop until we grabbed him before the bottom dropped off and got too deep! He walked all over the sand too visiting neighboring umbrellas and inspecting everyone nearby! We all had a very good day!

Grammy Lynne and Isaiah on Christmas Day

Yesterday was a good day too. Josh had a good first day of classes and Isaiah and I went to the VIP meeting on campus in the morning. Harley came to pick us up since the car was still at IGA. The meeting went well and afterwards Harley took us to the garage to drop of the car keys, so Hanley's could go and rescue Dorothy! Then Isaiah and I came back home and they came to fix our internet that had been down since we arrived back home. Isaiah went down for a nap a little after 2 and I went to use the bathroom only to find that the door was LOCKED! I guess maybe Isaiah was playing with the knob, but I felt like James Bond or something as I figured out how to open it with a bobbi pin!!!

Isaiah all dressed up for church on Christmas Eve

That brings us up to speed. Isaiah and I are just hanging out at home today since we have no car yet and Josh has his long day today with parasitology lab lasting until 5pm. We're hopefully going to Skype with my cousin Kate later this afternoon and are excited that she will be joining us for a week in May to visit!!! :) I hope everyone else's week is off to a great start and remember that you're always welcome here if you ever need a vacation!