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Once again, I started typing this a week-and-a-half ago and I am just now posting it. I am going to try and get better…. We have pictures posted and I hope to get videos posted of her dancing. I hope it makes sense and doesn’t repeat itself.  I am not reading back over it, because I have to get busy..  Hope you enjoy, and there aren’t too many mistakes…..

Poor Emma Grace dropped a can of tomato sauce on her right big toe. I had told her several times not to go into pantry, and if she did, to be careful and not drop one of the cans. She LOVES to rearrange the shelves. I heard a thump and I called her name but didn’t get an answer. I went to the door and tears were just flowing, but she wasn’t saying anything. I grabbed her and she started crying. She cried for hours until she fell asleep. It started swelling up and was bruised. She wanted to go home with Grammy, so we let her. About 1:30 our phone rang, and this little voice said, “Momma, I wanna come home.” It was so sweet and pitiful sounding. Wes went and got her, and she tossed and turned all night long. Neither one of us got much sleep. She would roll and say my toe, my toe or my foot, my foot. She finally went to sleep around noon on Tuesday, but she had dancing at 2:30. I got her up in just of enough time to get her dressed and get there.

She had fun at dancing; however, I think her thoughts on dancing are not the same the teacher’s. She went up to the teacher and asked when could they dance to Kids’ Songs. She told her that they were dancing to kids’ songs. Emma Grace would not stand still on her tape. She would sit still, but not stand. She kept going up to the teacher and asking her stuff. Emma Grace thinks dancing goes to the music of Hannah Montana, Sugarland, Cheetah Girls, etc. She wasn’t into the slow stuff. The teacher probably said Emma Grace go stand on your tape in her sleep that night. She would look back at me and wave and blow kisses. It was so cute. When it came time to tumble, she REFUSED. I knew that was going to happen because have tried it here. Her toe didn’t seem to bother, but she would walk on the side of it. When it came time for a piece of candy, she was all for that. She kept going up to the teacher wanting her candy, but she would tell her to go sit back down and wait until she got the bag open. Emma Grace did and she was called up first. It didn’t take her long to pick what she wanted, and that was a sucker. It took some of them five minutes to decide. When we left, she said I am tired. She was a little troublesome, but this is the first time she has ever been to anything like this. I know several of the girls in there took last year, because they knew what was going on. I also think she might be the youngest one, but it doesn’t matter as long as she is having fun.

Back to the toe… Tuesday night (9th), we put her in the whirlpool bath to see if that would help with the swelling. She wanted to go home with Grammy again tonight, and she actually stayed all night. Grammy brought her back the next morning and she never woke up. When she got up, her toe was swollen so bad. I called Dr. Stanley’s office and left a message. His nurse called me back and said she would leave an order at the front desk to have an x-ray done. When I got to the office, I told the receptionist that I thought Dr. Stanley needed to see her after the x-ray. She said I don’t know if he has an open this afternoon. I told her I would bring her back there after the x-ray. After they finished the x-ray, I took her down to the office. She took one look and said oh my goodness. She said I am going to get the nurse. The nurse came out and said, “Oh, take a seat in the well baby area. Dr. Stanley is going to have to look at that.” She then said, “He will probably have to drill holes you know that,” and I said, “Yes, I do.” After seeing all of his scheduled patients, he finally got to us about 5:15. He was afraid the drilling might not work since it had been over a day, but he decided to try it anyway. And, it worked. It took three of us to hold her down, so I am glad I didn’t go by myself. Grammy went with me and then Wes came over from work when he found out they were going to drill it. She didn’t like them wrapping it up, but she also didn’t like seeing the blood. Dr. Stanley gave her two suckers and two stickers, so she was happy.

The toe has gotten better, but still looks horrible. Last Monday(15th), I called and talked with them about it still being so swollen and bleeding. They called in an antibiotic to make sure there was no infection. It has finally stopped bleeding, but is still swollen and looks terrible. She didn’t learn her lesson that we had hoped she would. I caught her in there Saturday playing with the cans. I told her don’t you remember what happened and she said, “I dropped on my toe and hurt it.” She did remember, but just isn’t remembering how much pain she was in, I guess.

Lots things having been going on. Mostly I have been monogramming and monogramming. We have a show this weekend in Vidalia. As a matter of fact, the next few weekends will be busy with shows. Lizzy spent the night with Emma Grace last night, b/c Amber had a dr’s appointment in Shreveport early this morning. Emma Grace had so much fun. She also had dancing class yesterday, which she wants to do everyday. She did really well last week and this week too. She still will not tumble. Wes is still doing his cardio rehab in Delhi. I think they like to have killed him Monday or maybe it was Friday. He was so sore. He is having to lay down when finished to make his heart rate go down. His blood pressure is also high when he gets there, but eventually goes down. If that keeps up, we might have to call Dr. Burkett. They are not too worried about it right now, but they said it is something that needs to be watched. We took Emma Grace last Friday night to Build-A-Bear workshop in the mall. The other night she kept saying I want Hannah Montana bear and we didn’t know what she was talking about. Finally, the commercial came on and she said, “See, it’s at the mall.” Granddaddy gave her money, and $64 later, we have a Hannah Montana bear. When it got time to pay, she handed her money to the checkout lady and said, “It’s a THOUSAND dollars.” That is her biggest thing to say when concerning money or paying something. Everything cost ONE THOUSAND dollars. As we were walking in the mall, she spotted the Build-a-Bear store, and started screaming “There it is, there it is.” We have NEVER taken her to a Build-a-Bear store (she built a tiger at the Rainforest Cafe in Galveston, but it wasn’t the store.. they just had a set up in the store at the Rainforest….) and she could only see it from the side. She could only see the top of the outside of it and she knew that was it. She knows her shopping… Target, Walmart, Rainforest, and now, Build-a-Bear. She also knows the mall and that the merry-go-round is in it.

It was then time to eat so we asked her where she wanted to eat, and she said, “Charlie’s”, which is O’Charley’s. She loves that place. When the waiter came, she said, “I want mac n cheese and bread.” We have been there so many times, she knows what to order. Aunt Tammy came to visit Sunday. She was suppose to have come on Saturday, but slept all day b/c she had worked the night before.

EMMA GRACE TIDBITS: Emma Grace’s favorite thing or one of her favorite things to say is “Oh pickles.” We don’t know where she heard it, but we are thinking a Disney show. She is growing up so fast and has such an imagination. She LOVES her daddy too. She wakes up in the morning looking for him. She calls Lizzy all the time on her play phone, and she is starting to talk more and more on the real phone. She talks so fast sometimes you cannot understand what she is saying. She still doesn’t eat much; however, she did eat some of her wienie in her corn dog yesterday. She still REFUSES to eat meat or peas. She will eat some fish, and still loves hush puppies from the cafe. She will also eat cole slaw from the cafe. She still will not use the potty. Her answer to it is, “I’ll do it tomorrow, or I am never using potty again.” She tells me after she has used it that she needs a diaper change. I guess she will be the first college graduate to still be wearing diapers. She still loves Hannah Montana. She also likes the Jonas Brothers, Cheetah Girls, and Camp Rock. She can sing most of their songs, and she can sing all of Sugarland’s songs. She amazes us when singing those songs. She is so into them. As a matter of fact, we are taking her to see Sugarland in November in Shreveport. We have 8th row seats. She wants to go to Rainforest Cafe and see big tall buildings everyday. I have told her that the Rainforest isn’t open because of the storm and she says oh no the storm. For a while, it was “Oh, poor Kim and the storm.” Now, it is poor Rainforest. She still loves to play with FisherPrice Little People. She has just about everyone that we can find, but there is one that Santa is going to bring her. (that is if he can beat Grammy to it…. ) She can name all Disney characters and name all the characters on most of Disney channel shows. She also know the shows theme songs. She can tell you if you have it on Disney, Sprout or Noggin. She can count to 12, sometimes 13, and knows all of her colors. She still mets no stranger, and is very outgoing.

I guess is all for now. I need to get back busy getting ready for this weekend. Until next time….

Well, we have been under more tornado warnings (from 5:30 to 6:45).  We sat out on the back porch and watched it go by.  It is so nice to go out and sit on the back porch, except when there are snakes out there.  You could see the cone coming out of the sky.  It went back behind the house like last night.  We are in the clear for right now, but there are a few more storms headed this way.  Hopefully, they will not have spinning activity in them.  Have I said that I am tired of Gustav.  Well, if I haven’t then I am saying it now.  I didn’t go to bed until 5:30 this morning, b/c we had warnings going up all around us.  Everybody else was asleep, so I stayed awake to watch the weather.  Emma Grace woke up about 4:30 and got on the couch with me and Grammy.  She went right back to sleep.  Tammy woke us up at 8 something.  Wes decided to work from home today, because it was FLOODING and it would have been that way all the way to Vicksburg.  Emma Grace wanted him to play with her all day, but he had to work.  She is amazed with all the water across the road.  Wes took pictures, so maybe he can get those up tonight.  Guess that is all for now.  We have some more weather headed toward us.  I will update later….

I am ready for Gustav or what is left of it to go away.  It has rained for the last 6 to 7 hours non-stop, and we were also under a tornado warning.  We could hear the roaring to east of the house.  Not a sound I like to hear.  It was the typical freight train sound, but you could tell it was not close.  At times, it seemed close.  The only other time I have heard that noise was in April of 2005, when we still lived in Vicksburg.  I was six months pregnant with Emma Grace, and we got in the closet in our bedroom.  I had the phone in my hand telling my mom and dad that a tornado was going over.  Wes and I thought at any moment the roof was coming off.  We could hear the hail beating on the windows and the roof.  We ended up with hail damage to our roof, car and truck.  It was a good thing we waited until November to get our roof fixed, because four months later Katrina hit and did more damage to it.

Now back to tonight, we cleaned out the room under the stairs and put pillows and blankets in there.  Emma Grace had gone to sleep, but I had gotten her about 30 minutes before we got the warning.  We had been watching it come out of Enterprise, which is around Harrisonburg.  The direction they said it was traveling, I knew it was headed this way.  We put Emma Grace on a her sleepmat, and she never woke up.  We just left her in there until everybody decided to go to bed.  I, on the other hand, am not sleepy, and it is 3:20 am.  I am looking at the radar, and it looks like it might be moving on out of our way.  There is still more down south, but I don’t know if that will get us or not.  I just know the wind is getting it out there right now, because our wind chime is taking a beating.  I thought it was starting to let up, but WRONG.

Emma Grace enjoyed going out in her rubber boots yesterday.  It was the only time it wasn’t raining.  I believe it stopped raining for maybe an hour.  Wes was also able to snap some siding that was blown off last night.  However, it got blown back off during the night.  Back to Emma Grace… She played in the puddles, but wasn’t too fond if it got too high up on her boots.  She went out to her swingset, and kicked the boots off to climb the little rockwall thing.  She wanted to swing, but it was too wet.  Her dancing class was cancelled today.  They never called to tell us, but Karri called them and they told her it was.  I wasn’t too happy about them not calling, but at least it gives more time from her tap shoes to come in.  They were suppose to be in today, but they didn’t come.

Kim is still without electricity, so she cannot go home.  She is still staying at the command center she was stationed at during the storm.  She is working tonight, but I am not sure where.  She said even if her power did come on, she still couldn’t get to her condo because of flooding.  Tammy was without power for a little bit yesterday.  She doesn’t know how long it had been off, because she worked all night last night.  She came home to a dark house, but it was back on not too long after she got home.

Well, I am going to try and go to sleep.  Oh, and by the way, it is still FLOODING.  I thought it had let up, but I was wrong.  I looked out before I started typing this, and we had a mini lake in our yard.  I am calling it Lake Emma Grace.  Oh, wait, it has stopped FLOODING.  It is still raining, but not like it has been for the last four to six hours.  I have NEVER seen it rain this much for so long.  I am just glad we live high upon Emma Grace Hill, so from high atop Emma Grace Hill…. Goodnight.

Update:  It is 5:15, and it just stopped flooding again.  It started back about an hour ago.  I tried to go to sleep, but about the time I started, they issued a tornado warning for the parish south of us.  The last time they did this it came this way.  Right now, they have canceled it, but it is still moving this way.

We are getting pounded right now.  The wind has pretty much been blowing all day, but after lunch it got worse and the rain came.  It has been doing this all afternoon and night.  Our poor cat doesn’t know what to do.  She wants to come inside so bad, and every time we open the door she shoots in.  Wes and Grammy put a box out there for her. 

Emma Grace wanted her rubber boots on so she could go out and play in the puddles.  We told her she had to have a raincoat, so she made Grammy go find one.  She came in with her boot and coat on zipped up with the hood on.  I said and what else do you need.  She point her finger on her cheek and said hmmmmm.  I figured she would say her “umbrala”.  Instead, she said, “I need my skerf (scarf).”  I laughed so hard.  She prissed in there and came out with her boa around her neck.  Wes took pictures and I am hoping he will put them up.  After that, she and her daddy headed out.  It was not raining as hard as it is now or like it had been, but the wind picked up about the time they stepped off the back porch and she wasn’t too fond of  it.  I just she was going to be blown away.  She wasn’t too happy with getting her pants wet either. 

 Last night, Kim called to tell us to watch CNN because they were located at where she was stationed at.  Later on, I had it on CNN and Emma Grace came in and said we need to look for Kim.  We need to look for Kim.  How she knew it was CNN I will never know.  It was showing the news anchor just talking, but somehow she knew it was CNN.  She then said, “Oh, no, Kim is where the thunder is and she needs to come up here.”  She knows that when we say storm that thunder is involved, but there hasn’t been any thunder so far.  We have just WIND and RAIN. 

Emma Grace was able to swing on her swing this morning before the rain set in.  She woke up before 10 and came into our room and said, “Go outside and swing.”  She was basically pushing her daddy to his clothes and out the door.  She wasn’t fond of the wind.  She would run to the back porch and then head back.  It is funny to watch her try and swing from the monkey bars.  She just doesn’t have it all figured out.  She is going to have so much fun on that swingset. 

Before I go, I must say there are some not so intelligent people in this area.  We have been watching our local CBS station, and they have been taking callers about storm damage.  Let me just say they need to screen their callers.  I do believe some of these people have been hitting the bottle.  You know, they say the qualification to be on TV after a diaster is to have most of your teeth missing.  Even though, we couldn’t see these people, I could only imagine what they look like.  I know I shouldn’t make fun of them, but why do these people always seem to be attracted to the news media.  Guess I will go for now.  Thank goodness we still have electricity.