Month: November 2007

Without really going into any detail, Kelly and I are facing some issues and are expecting to hear either really good news or bad news later this week or early next.  We’re both staying really positive, though.

So anyway, thinking about that, I started thinking about all of the things that we’ve gone through this year, and since we’ve been together over the last several years.  It hasn’t all been roses.  In the last 13 months, we’ve both lost jobs.  We’ve had some struggles financially due to a declining real estate market.  My grandma died earlier this year.  I’m sure if I tried, I could think of a number of other things. 

And now this!

It’s so easy to get caught up in the "and now this" mentality, and just keep piling more things on.  It’s so easy to get discouraged, frustrated, angry, depressed, or whatever.  But for every bad thing that has happened, one or more good things has happened.

When I lost my job last year, within roughly a week, I had four job offers on the table, and I could take my pick, each better (in so many ways) than the job I lost.  Now I work with my childhood best friend, building a company doing things I never thought I would do.  There are struggles and stress to be sure, but it’s an amazing thing to be able to be in this position.  I never imagined that I would have been involved in designing and creating a product like this.  Or that our first client would be a company in the top 150 of the Fortune 500.  Or that it looks like our second client will also be a company on that list.

After losing her job earlier this year, Kelly now has three jobs (aside from the "mom thing"), and they’re all perfect for her.  She works a few hours a week at a place that loves having her and gets her out of the house to interact with adults.  She is also a work-from-home executive assistant to one of the top real estate brokers in California’s Central Valley, so she gets to see Charlie all day long between her tasks.  And to top it off, she is starting her own business.  (Buy something now!)  I can say, without a doubt, that I have an amazing wife.

We never did sell our last house.  But we found renters.  Good renters — a young family who pays their rent on time and takes good care of the place.

My grandma died earlier this year, and that was hard for me — especially since I live so far from the rest of my family.  Sometimes, being so far away, I forget, then I remember and feel sad all over again. 

Then I remember that just a few months before she died, before she even knew she had cancer, my grandma had a chance to meet and hold my daughter, Charlize.  I can’t imagine anything that has ever happened — or will ever happen — to me that could be as life changing as having Charlie.

And now this!

See, the thing about the "and now this" syndrome is that it works both ways.  You may have heard it described as being "on a roll", "on fire", "in the groove", or a million other phrases.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve added a few photos to this post.  As you might have guessed, those are the things I am most thankful for this year.  For that matter, for the rest of my like those are going to be the things for which I am most thankful.

I love my wife.  I love my daughter.  They both love me.  That alone make any struggle or loss seem almost trivial.  I’m blessed and I don’t believe it’s coincidence.  To that, add the rest of my family, my close friends, my faith, my job, my new home, all of my opportunities, and the fact that, through it all, we’re happy.

And now this!

We don’t yet know what "this" is, and it may prove to be a painful process to find out.  But I do know that there is a "this" and when we find it, it will be amazing.

If you pray, please keep us in your prayers this week and next.  Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving from the Isaacs family.

Many of you know that I have a little 14 month old daughter, Charlize (we call her Charlie, and she has a website).  Some of you are aware that 14 months is around an age that is not an uncommon age for first steps.  A few of you may also know that our house is largely covered with wood flooring.

See where this is going?

Charlie has been walking here and there for almost two months, but is just now starting to really take off.  She’s finally at the point where she walks more than she crawls.

Tonight was no exception, and she was taking a few laps around the living room.  The center of the living room is carpeted (roughly 15′ square) and there is a 3′ perimeter that is wood.  Also, with the "open concept", the wood extends into the surrounding entry way, dining room and kitchen area.

You can always tell how tired she is by one or more of three indicators:

• She rubs her eyes,
• She pulls her knees up under her and lays her head on the floor for a minute (really cute by the way), or
• She gets a little clumsy

Tonight she took a tumble in the entry hall and clocked her head on the wood flooring.  Basically, it went like this:

• Smile, happy, walking around.
• THUD!
• Calm before the storm.  This part seems like an eternity, but scientists have proven that, in reality, it is only 1-3 seconds.  Somehow babies instinctively know how to mess with the space-time continuum.
• Crying that makes you wish that pulling your fingernails out with pliers and then pounding them into your tear ducts with a hammer would make her feel better.

Nothing would calm her down.  I picked her up and held her for a minute and tried to soothe her.  I have no idea why I thought that would work, by the way.  Kelly took her and gave it a shot.  She tried the pacifier, which normally helps if she’s more tired than anything else.  She tried talking to her.  She tried singing.  None of the normal things were working.

Then my brilliant wife started saying, "1 + 1 is 2.  1 + 2 is 3," and Charlie started to calm instantly.  Even though she was completely calm by the "mid 2s", Kelly went all the way up to the "10s", and Charlie just watched her the whole time.

Is it possible?  Could it be?  Have the stars aligned?  Is this cutest little girl in the whole world really a geek at heart?  Let me tell you, it made this geek dad smile.  [:)]

By the way, if you have a little girl, or if you want to be really mean to your young son, Kelly is starting up a little side business making accessories for girls.  Buy something so we can send this genius kid of ours to Harvard or MIT in a couple years.