Things Aren't ALWAYS as they appear (or how we were told they were!)

This house......we love it, but ever since we purchased it 8 years ago, we find more things that were not "quite" the truth about it.  Like the giant picture hanging on the landing wall going upstairs.  It was there when we looked at it, and there the day we moved in.  It wasn't til I moved it that we realized it was covering a moldy wall and the water pipes behind the wall were leaking.  Or all the light switches and outlets that seem to go to nothing!!  Anyway, we knew that the house had been added onto in 95 and that the original part of the house had been completely redone at that point to.  We had been told the walls had been gutted down to the studs and then sheetrocked!  Well, we had to get a new furnace in November.  We discovered at that time that we didn't have an adequate cold air return (we had no idea) and needed to put a new one in.  So Jason finally got around to it this weekend.  This is what we found when he cut the sheetrock off

Isn't that wallpaper lovely!!  Guess maybe the walls weren't gutted, huh!  Anyway along the way Jason did aquire is own assistant in the project...

Carter had a lot of fun helping daddy!  Jason held the screwdriver while Carter hit it with a hammer to knock out the lath behind the plaster!  In the end the two of them did a really good job and we now have a correct cold air return!!



The Sky Is The Limit!

We are going to my niece's 2nd birthday today and that got me thinking about Carter's 4th birthday that was just 2 months ago!  He amazes me every single day.  How far he has come, how hard he works at it.  It was just a year and a half ago that the Dr. in Iowa City told us about his speech disorder, and only a little over a year since it was "officially" diagnosed!  18 months ago he was labeled as "nonverbal", he was 2 1/2 and had less than 10 word and several of those were made up words that only we knew.  Such as he called all food "nana".  I truly believe that fall that the Lord had a hand in us finding Denise, Carter's angel!  She is his private speech therapist and they have an amazing relationship.  He is always excited to see here and she gets him to work so hard and try so many new things!  Before I "accidentally" found out about her, the only place I could find that had openings was Childserve in Ankeny. I remember getting off the phone a crying thinking how hard it was going to be to drive him to Ankeny 2x a week, for a half hour session each time, and try to manage the other 3 kids, their schedules and a husband who works 18 hrs a day 5 days a week. I cried when I was battling BC/BS to help us get his speech covered! I prayed for something better and then there was Denise.  I also have to thank the wonderful teachers and aid at his preschool.  Miss Deb, Miss Dee and Miss Marilyn have been so wonderful, patient and encouraging to him the last year!  I know there could be much worse things than him not being able to talk, but at the moment I found out what was wrong, my heart was breaking for my child.  My child who couldn't tell me when he was sad, or happy, or if he was hurting!  Fast forward to today and he is my little miracle.  I couldn't even begin to tell you how many words he knows.  He can put together sentences and for the most part most people can figure out what he is saying.  He is so eager to try to learn new words, something he wouldn't even attempt 18 mos ago.  Although he is still over a year behind other kids his age, I have complete faith that he will eventually catch up.  He is an amazing, bright little boy who brings so much joy and laughter into our lives! Thank you God for helping us help Carter and getting him to where he is! And here's to our baby boy, who was the greatest unexpected blessing we ever could have received!