Monceaux.org

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.

Well, we are waiting on Gustav to make his move. As most of you know, my sister, Kim lives in New Orleans (well, actually Jefferson/Metairie). She is working right now, and so far it isn’t too bad. They had some bad weather around 7, but she said the clouds were kind of neat looking. I cannot remember what floor she is on, but I know she is in an interior office along with several other people. She said the building must be safe, b/c several high officials are in there. Let’s all hope it is.

Wes finished Emma Grace’s swing set today with the help of Grammy and Emma Grace. She was so funny. She went out there and was using her Handy Mandy hammer she got last night at Walmart. She hammered a few times and said, “Aw, I am tired,” while wiping her forehead. She had been out there all of five minutes. She did that all day. She would hammer awhile and then say, “I am tired.” She came in the house one time and you thought she was dying. She was thirsty and needed juice, b/c it was soooooo hot out there. She is so funny and so dramatic. She starts dancing Tuesday, and I cannot wait to see how she does. She loves to dance, but she will probably just stand there.

Not much going on. I have been busy monogramming, which is good. Wes is still feeling good. He is slowly coming off both medicines, but he said he doesn’t think he will take the beta blocker anymore. He says when he takes it it makes him very tired. He has been taking it every other day. We have killed two snakes on our back porch the last two Fridays. The first one I discovered, and the second one, my mom discovered. The second one was being tortured by our cat, Amos, when my mom saw it. I had just went in the house with Emma Grace. I haven’t gone out much since the first one. I am TERRIFIED of snakes. Wes didn’t know what kind they were. We were guessing ground rattlers. Wes didn’t take a picture of the first one, but he did the second one. Wes said it looked just like the first one. We sent it to Tammy, and she asked several people over where she lives, and they all agree it is a copperhead. They said a VERY poisonous one too. They said since it is so small that it is more poisonous than a big snake. One guy told her to tell us to get more cats. Other people have advised us to get snake away or moth balls. I am not very fond of the moth ball smell. My grandmother used them like they were perfume around her house. Everything that came from her house smelled like moth ball, and she would deny using them. If she brought food, we would have to take it out of whatever she had it in and it would still taste like moth balls. Bless her heart. When she died, you should have seen the moth balls in her house. However, if they will keep away snakes, then I am all for smelling moth balls again especially since we have her swing set together. The guys Tammy showed it to said we probably had lots more and to be very careful. I actually went outside Sunday, but I was very careful. Oh, well, enough about that b/c I feel like they are crawling on me.

Well, since it is 2:30 am, I guess I need to go to bed. Just remember to pray for everyone that will be hit by Gustav.

As the last few post have read, I start typing but I never finish until later. I started on this the weekend we got back from Houston, which was August 2nd. I never was able to get finished, so I finally sat down today. I thought I would never get finished b/c some little princess tried to help me type or she was trying to rearrange her daddy’s office. If it doesn’t make sense in places, please overlook it.

But before I start recapping our last few weeks, today is 3 years since Wes had his surgery and the cancer was discovered. We have come a long way since then, and it has been a VERY LONG, ROCKY road, but I am EXTREMELY thankful we are where we are today. The outcome could have been so much different, and I thank God he chose the outcome he did for us. Like I said, it could have been so much different.

Wes is feeling much better. They changed his medicine and gave him some other kind and it all seems to be working. He did have a stress test done on Monday, July 21st, and it came back clear. He went back to work on Tuesday, the 22nd. We went to Houston the last week of July for his six month cancer check-up, and the PET scan came back clear. We don’t have to go back until next year. His dr said that he had had 60 patients with the same type of cancer Wes had, and only one had it come back after being clear for 5 years. He said, “So, you have a one out of 60 chance of it coming back,” and I said, “Oh, don’t say that.” Because we all know the luck we have with the odds game.

We took Emma Grace to the beach in Galveston on Monday, and she wasn’t too fond of it. After a while, she would let us take her out in it. However, if the water splashed her face, she got MAD and was ready to go back to the sand. She liked playing in the sand with her daddy, and looking for seashells. If we would have stayed longer, and let her, she would have cleaned the beach up. She picked up every shell she could. After we left the beach, we went and ate at the Rainforest Cafe. We were not sure how she was going to like it, since it has been a while. She didn’t seem to mind it. She would look around when the thunder started, but she seemed to like it. She loved when they would bring out Volcano’s, which is a dessert. They yell Volcano, and she would say there’s another one. When they brought our’s out, she tried to blow the sparkler out the whole time. Our waiter said she is going to pass out. She clapped when it finally went out (on it’s own), b/c she thought she had blown it out. The people around us were laughing so hard at her. After eating, we let her Build-a-Bear in the gift shop. She got a tiger and her name is Miley. We went outside to get one last look at the beach, which surprisingly wasn’t too bad looking. The times we have gone before it wasn’t that nice, but this time it was. They have games out front of the Rainforest, and Wes and I played them. He won the first time and got Emma Grace a blue dolphin, and I won the second time, and got her a pink dolphin. We named them Bluie and Pinkie. She was out before we made it to the interstate to head to Houston, which was only about five minutes. She had Bluie, Pinkie and Miley all around her. We took pics so hopefully Wes can put them up soon. We stopped on the way in to do some shopping at what has become our regular shopping area. When we got to the hotel, they didn’t have any double rooms left. This seems to happen that pass few times we have gone. They put us in a king suite at no extra charge, but we had to move the next morning or be charged for the king suite. We figured it would be later on in the morning, but at 9:00 they called saying our room was ready. It was a good thing I didn’t go with Wes to his PET scan, b/c Grammy would have never been able to move by herself.

After Wes’ scan, we went and ate at our favorite place, Saltgrass. It was good as usual. We didn’t see anybody we knew this time. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but the night before Wes had his bypass we ate at Saltgrass. I looked over and there was Kay Huff and her husband. For those of you that don’t know them, they live about a mile down the road from us. Her husband was their for a heart check-up. They always say that you never know who you will run into when you are out and about, so you better behave. After eating, we went to the wholesale stores. I got a few bags that I was needing, and then we came back to the hotel.

On Wednesday, we adventured to Katy, Texas to the outlet mall. We were not really impressed. Most of the stores there are not outlet stores. We did get Emma Grace some clothes. (big shock, huh) We ate at the Rainforest Cafe there too. When Emma Grace saw it, she went crazy. Go eat with the animals is all we heard until we came back around. It was kids’ night, and they had a clown, a princess, face painting and other activities for kids. The clown and princess went around to all the tables and made balloon figures. I have never seen anything like it. I have seen people make stuff out of balloons before, but these people were amazing. He made Emma Grace Ariel, and she was so excited. It was as tall as her. She wants them to come to her birthday party. Wes said I guess if you paid their way they might come. We were amazed at the stuff they made. They made a monkey climbing a tree, a butterfly, flowers, spiderman, lollipop, princess crown, and the list went on. Their writing was beautiful too. After leaving the outlet mall, we made stops at a few other places and then headed back to the hotel.

On Thursday, we saw his radiation doctor and cancer doctor. The radiation doctor knew that he had had the bypass, so she was happy that everything went well. The cancer doctor and his staff were surprised. Dr. Fayad, the cancer dr, said, “And, they tell us that radiation isn’t dangerous.” We knew this could happen, but just didn’t think it would happen so fast. However, everything has turned out great, and we couldn’t be more thankful for the great doctors that have come our way. We left shortly after the appointments, and headed to Shreveport. We stayed the night there, and got up Friday morning to go shopping at the Boardwalk. It was tax free weekend, well not exactly, you still had to pay city and parish taxes. We found some more clothes for Emma Grace. (surprise, surprise) It is hard to pass up a rack of clothes that are priced $1.99. Once again, we ate at Saltgrass. Most of you know probably don’t know, but we usually do not have a pleasant time at this Saltgrass. We have gone twice (when my cousin was in the hospital after her wreck) and both times we never got waited on. Also, both times, we got the same waitress. Well, this time we had a different waitress and it was great as usual. Well, headed home after shopping all day.

The week of August 3rd not much happened that I can think of. Emma Grace went to a birthday party on the 9th. All she wanted to do was play in the little girl’s room, and as always, she didn’t want to leave. Anytime we go anywhere there are toys involved, she doesn’t want to leave. She always wants to stay and play with the toys. After we left from there, she started rubbing her eyes and sneezing. We couldn’t figure out what started all of this. She was like that all weekend, and Monday night she started running a fever. We took her to see Dr. Stanley on Tuesday, and he gave her an antibiotic. He never really said what was wrong. He told us her count was up, so that meant an infection. However, we got to talking about Wes having surgery and several different other things and we forgot to ask. Emma Grace didn’t seem to mind this visit even though they pricked her finger. She was very good, and was even her happy, entertaining self. She told us when we were going over there that she was going to the dr and she was going to get a sticker. She said I need to call the dr and tell him. She was all about going to the doctor. I guess the past few months have helped her to know that doctors make you feel better. They put a band aid on her thumb where they drew her blood. She was a MAJOR drama queen with it. She couldn’t do anything that involved using that finger. We would ask her if she wanted to take it off and she would say no it hurts. It was MAJOR drama queening. On Wednesday (13th), Wes had a check-up with Dr. Burkett. Since Emma Grace was sick, she didn’t need to go with us. She stayed with Grammy at her classroom. Grammy was up there working since they start to school on Monday (18th), but I don’t know how much working got done. Emma Grace did put a United States puzzle together, and matched shapes to a work sheet. Grammy says she has some KGers who cannot do that. Wes says I need to take her up to Grammy’s room everyday and then she can skip Pre-K and KG. Grammy, and I think Wes does too, thinks Emma Grace should go to pre-school right now. I just cannot seem to do it. I am not ready for her to go. I know she will have to go next year, but I am just not ready now. I know she would enjoy it and learn so much. She wants to go, but mommy doesn’t want her to go. I have signed her up for dancing and I cannot wait. She is excited about it. She will probably not do anything, although she dances all the time around the house and anywhere she hears music. She even wanted down to dance at Joe’s Crab Shack in Houston. She kept saying, “Let’s get this party started.” Grammy asked if she wanted to get down and dance and she said yep. She put her down and the dancing started until she looked up at the GIANT shark they have hanging from the ceiling. Let’s just say the dancing came to a halt. Everybody around us was laughing at her. One of the waitress said, “You, go girl.” Like I said, she will probably not do anything at dancing, but hopefully she will enjoy it.

Well, back to Wes’ appointment with Dr. Burkett. It was the normal wait and wait game, but we finally made it back there. He was glad that the medicine was working, but Wes told him he thinks it might be working too much. His blood pressure is never over 110 and his pulse rate stays low, which is good but makes him tired. He also gets very dizzy when he stands up. Dr. Burkett agreed that he doesn’t need it anymore. He said as low as your blood pressure is and when you stand up it is going to make you dizzy, so he is gradually taking him off of the beta blocker. He said he can also stop taking the other medicine too, but slowly. He also said to drop the dosage of aspirin, and that he could stop taking it a year from the day of surgery. He said this is what I would do. He said I know I keep telling y’all that, but this is what I would do. He said he was surprised that he hadn’t seem him on the heart cath list, not that he wanted to do one. He said I was certain that we were going to have to do one. He said I never know what I am doing from day to day. They just tell me where to go, and he said I hadn’t seen your name come up. He said I called Woody, one of the nurses, and asked about you. He said he would check on you, and I was glad to hear that you were doing better. (Woodie called us last week to check on Wes. I was surprised when he called, but was thankful he did.) Dr. Burkett said I just knew we were going to have to cath you and I didn’t want to. He said most of his patients he sends to Dr. Lawrie have no problems. As a matter of fact, he has sent two down there since Wes. One man almost died, but Dr. Lawrie did the surgery and he is coming home in a few days. We told him we really liked Dr. Lawrie, and we liked how we were treated there. We were concerned how things would go down there being in such a big hospital, but it was great. Dr. Burkett said he missed being down there. He talked about a few other things. I told Wes I know why it takes so long to see him if he talks with every patient like he talks with us. Wes doesn’t have to go back for a year unless something comes up. I asked him about the other vessels that were small and he said that was nothing to do with radiation. They were just small. He said he shouldn’t have any problems with this since they used an artery to an artery. He said, however, we don’t have as much research on people that have radiation damage, so it is hard to say. I guess we will see.

Well, we finally got mirrors and accessories up in our bathroom. We also hung a few pictures this past weekend. We got Emma Grace’s room decorated except for one wall. I need to paint somethings, but it rained the first part of this week and I haven’t been able to get back outside to finish. Tammy came over and helped some. (when she wasn’t sleeping) We still have a long way to go before we get everything in order. Wes is able to do more things now, so hopefully we can get everything up. My mom and I were going to do it, but we weren’t too crazy about drilling holes in the wall. We didn’t want to mess it up, so we decided to wait until he was able to help. He is still sore from the surgery, but it is much better. I guess that is all for now. I need to get busy monogramming. Later…

This was originally typed on Wednesday, July 16th. For some apparent reason, it didn’t post.  Who knows what happened.  It was a LONG day, and I guess I didn’t hit enter.  I will try and update the latest soon, but right now,  I have tons of monogramming to do.  I will just say things are better.

Good news first. We FINALLY signed the papers on our house Monday evening. It didn’t look like we were going to be able to do it on Monday, but the law office got it done. It was yet another road block or miss communication, but it is too much to explain. All I can say is that it got done thanks to the law office, and we were able to sign the papers on Monday. On Tuesday, the insurance lady came out to take pictures and Wes had to sign some papers. As she was here, we discovered on our appraisal that the lady didn’t square footage wrong. She had our back porch being smaller than the front porch. The back porch runs almost the whole back of the house. She also forgot to include one of the dormers. We also noticed on the closing papers that they had the wrong amount for the appraisal and we were having to pay PMI too long. We took it down to the bank, and the loan officer said he would check on it. He called me today and said it had been taken care of. On Monday, they had us paying PMI til 2013, but it was suppose to be 2010. I don’t want to pay that longer than we have to, but it is now tax deductible. The appraisal lady called and she is going to come back out and re-do the square footage.

The man came on Monday to fix the whole in the upstairs tub. It did a great job, but the smell from what he sealed it will about killed me. I don’t know how he stayed up there in that bathroom with it. We still haven’t heard from the painter as to when he will be back to finish. Aaron will be coming back he hopes sometime soon to help us do a few things. He said if it would ever rain, he would be able to get back.

Now for the bad news. Wes hasn’t been feeling well. We had hoped that when he stopped taking the beta blockers that he would start feeling better. He says he felt a little better for a few days, but the last few days he has felt horrible. He cannot walk up our stairs without giving out and becoming winded. He takes the steps one at a time, so he shouldn’t be feeling that way. He also starts coughing when he does it. Also, if he lays back too much in the recliner, he starts coughing or get a rattling in his chest. He sleeps most all of the day, and will wake up during the night and stay up for a while. He isn’t as pale as he has been, but he still doesn’t have his color back. He didn’t do his cardio rehab today, b/c he just didn’t think he could make it. While she was checking his breathing, he felt like he was going to pass-out as he was taking the deep breaths. I called Dr. Burkett’s office and they said to head on that way. His appointment was at 2:15, but they would try to work him in. We got there about 11:30, and went back between 12:30 and 1. Dr. Burkett is puzzled as to what might be going on. He listed several things, but everything has checked out ok. He thought maybe fluid, but he didn’t hear anything and he had that checked with a chest x-ray and echo-cardiogram today. They also did blood work and everything checked out ok. They were still waiting on one test from the blood to come back when we left his office at 5 today. He was afraid there might have been a blood clot on the upper left part of the heart, but that checked out ok on the echo. He said that when you have heart surgery, the heart sac fills up with fluid and it usually all drains out on its own. However, sometimes the upper left part doesn’t and a clot forms, but that checked out. He said that is very dangerous and you have to go in and get the clot out. (He said he only sees this about once or twice a year. Wes started to ask him how many he had had already this year) Thank goodness that wasn’t the case. Another thing he said it might be is when you have surgery like this, one side of the diaphragm can become paralyzed and it will take months to fix itself, but that checked out ok on the chest x-ray. He asked us several questions about the surgery, b/c he hasn’t gotten the report from the doctor in Houston. He said he called him but Dr. Lawrie had been out of town. He asked which artery they used and he said usually those arteries last a life time b/c it is an artery to an artery. He said the next step would be what he didn’t want to do but to stress test him. Wes was afraid he was going to say heart cath, and he said oh no. He said I hate to do this stress b/c you have been through so much, but you have always been right. He said you have always told me something was wrong and when we would stress you we would see it. The only problem is they cannot do it til Monday. His tech is out on vacation, and there is no one else to do it. He could pull one from the hospital, but that happened last week and the hospital got mad. He could have it done at the hospital, but he wouldn’t be able to be there and a radiologist would read it not him. He said I would prefer you do it here since I am familiar with you, but you can have it done wherever you want it done. He was going to wait on the echo too, but when Wes told him he was having trouble focusing with his eyes he said ok we are doing this today. I just wish they could have done the stress test today. I hate this waiting and I hate seeing Wes feel this way. I will call tomorrow to check on the other result we were waiting on and maybe see if we can get it done before Monday. He just isn’t feeling right and I don’t want to wait longer if something is wrong.

Well, I need to try and get someone to sleep. Today has been a long day, and the bug man is coming early in the morning to spray for spiders. I will update when we know something with the test they were waiting on and to see if we can get the stress test done sooner. Later…..

The doctor’s office in Monroe FINALLY called back, and they said to stop taking the beta blocker. I just wish they would have called yesterday evening so he wouldn’t have taken it this morning. By 10:00 last night, he was up and moving around. He says he feels better at night, so we guess it is wearing off by then. He stayed up all night b/c he wasn’t sleepy b/c he slept all day. I told him if he had to keep taking it then maybe he should take it at night. He took it between 8 and 8:30 and by the time we got to Delhi for his 10:00 rehab workout session, he was zapped. We barely made it back home before he passed out. Dr. Burkett’s nurse said he should be feeling better by in the morning, and he would be totally surprised if he wasn’t. Wes has an appointment to see Dr. Burkett on Wednesday, and he said to call them back if he didn’t start feeling better.

Our loan officer called right after we got home from Delhi, and we will close on the house Monday. He thought we would have to wait three days, but they waived that for us. He is suppose to call us Monday morning to let us know what time to be at the lawyer’s office. I forgot to put in yesterday’s entry that we FINALLY got our certificate of occupancy on Tuesday. I called the inspector on Monday afternoon, and left a message for him to call me. He did at around 8:30 Tuesday morning, and he came about 9:15. He acted like he didn’t know what I wanted. This is the same man that I had talked to a week earlier and he said as soon as he heard from Aaron he would come. Aaron called him right after he put the windows in, and he said he would try to make it that afternoon, if not then the next day. It was almost a week and then he wants to act like he didn’t have a clue as to why I was calling him. Oh, well, who cares now. We have the certificate, and now we can finally sign the papers. However, I don’t know if we want to start writing that check every month.

Well, I better get to doing something. Wes and Emma Grace are both taking naps and I sure could join them, but I have too much to do. Later…

I started typing this on Tuesday, and thought I posted. However, I was going to make another post today and noticed it wasn’t there. I remember starting it and then going back and finishing it, but I guess I never hit publish. Oh, well, here it is two days late. I guess it is better late than never.

Happy birthday to the sweetest, most precious girl EVER, Emma Grace. It is hard to believe that it has been three years since you were born. In many ways, it seems like a life time ago, but in other ways, it seems like it was yesterday. Boy does time fly by fast. They say time passes by when you’re having fun, but the last few years haven’t been much fun. Don’t get me wrong, we have had a good bit of fun, but we have had a lot of not so much fun time. However, everyday with Emma Grace is fun. She can certainly brighten up your day. She has become a Hannah Montana fanatic. We will have to put up some of the videos of her singing. I laugh so hard every time she “perform”. She can hear the songs a few times, and she knows all the words. Truly amazes me how she can hold all that in that little head of hers.

Yes, we finally have our certificate of occupancy. I called the inspector Monday evening, and he called me back on Tuesday morning. He came shortly after talking to me, and he said we could go get the certificate that afternoon. Finally, we can close this house, and it can finally be ours. However, when it comes time to pay that note, we may not be so excited. We thought we were going to be able to avoid paying PMI, but the loan company wouldn’t take our new appraisal. We got a re-appraisal since we decided to finish the upstairs, and it added about $25,000 to the first appraisal. However, the loan company went with the lower appraisal because of the slumping house market going on around the country. Our loan officer said we shouldn’t have to pay it long and it shouldn’t be too much extra. The good thing about PMI is now you can take it off your income tax, so Wes isn’t too upset about paying it. We go on Monday to sign papers and then have to wait three business days to finalize everything. Hopefully, if everything goes according to plan (which it never seems to) we should have everything finalized by next week, and we can start writing that BIG check every month.

Instead of making another entry, I will just put what I was going to type under this title.

Wes still isn’t feeling well. I have called his dr in Monroe, who is out of town til Monday, and his dr in Houston, who is also out of town til Monday. I called the office in Monroe yesterday, they have yet to call me back. I called them today and they said they were waiting for the dr to call in. They assured me that he would call in this afternoon, and I would hear from them. Well, it is 5:20, and guess what, I haven’t heard from them. I called the office in Houston today, and was told someone may or may not call me back. I sure do love dr’s offices. They sure want you to come to them, but they never seem to want to call you back. I think it is the beta blocker making him feel so bad; however, I would like to make sure that is what it is. I guess we will have to wait til Wednesday of next week when he has his appointment with his dr in Monroe. Hopefully, he will start to feel better soon.

Oh, well, I have to go get busy monogramming. Later….

Wes had his blood drawn this morning, and I just called them.  They said it was a little low,  but not too bad.  His hemoglobin was 11, and it should be between 13 and 18.  The lady at the rehab place was certain, as we were, that it would be much lower than that.  I am now thinking that it is the beta blocker making him feel so bad.

I called Lowe’s this morning to check on delivery, and was told it was set to be delivered on the 17th, and I LOST it.  I told him to let me speak to a manager b/c I was tired of being told one thing and also tired of looking at the refrigerator sitting in the middle of my kitchen.  The guy told me to hang on and I could hear him typing.  He said I am putting it on the truck in the morning.  I am not holding my breath to see if it comes tomorrow.  Then, I called to see when the inspector was coming.  Aaron said he hasn’t been there this morning, and I said no and I haven’t heard from him.  I still haven’t heard from him, so who knows when he will decide to show up.  The painter said he would let us know a few days in-advance as to when he is coming back.  And, the man that was suppose to show up and patch the hole in the bathtub will be coming one day this week.  This is getting old, and I am about to lose it.  The bank man called this morning wanting to know what was going on.  I told him that we still didn’t have an inspection, and I didn’t know when he was coming.  He didn’t seem too happy about it, but neither am I.

Well, I guess that is all for now.  Wes and Emma Grace are taking naps  and I wish I was, but I have too much to do.  Until later….. Bye…

We had Emma Grace’s birthday party this weekend.  She had a blast.  She loved getting her Hannah Montana birthday cards.  Every time she would open one, she would sing and dance along with it.  She would also make sure everyone was watching her.  She definitely gets the present concept.  After everybody sang Happy Birthday to her, she said, “Open presents.”  She did so well opening them too.  She has to make sure all of the paper is off the present before she checks it out.  We did not let her open all her gifts from us and Grammy and Granddaddy.  She would still be opening.  She got to open one today, and she will open the rest Tuesday.  We had a beach/flip flop themed party.  It started out to be a flip flop party, but the more I shopped, it became a beach theme too.  I think it turned out cute, and I know Emma Grace enjoyed it and that is all that matters.

We are still trying to get settled into the house.  I have been working on her party since we got back from Houston, so now it is house time.  Hopefully, we can get someone to come and help hang mirrors.  We have one mirror in our house.  We were hoping to have them all up along with all the bathroom fixtures and most of the house decoration before the party, but that didn’t happen.  Lowe’s still hasn’t delivered our refrigerator.  I called them Monday to check on it, and it hadn’t been ordered b/c the guy had been off b/c of family issues.  I called back on Wednesday and spoke to a manager, b/c I hadn’t heard back from the salesman (who said he would call me back when I spoke to him on Monday).  The salesman called back and told us to come by Thursday and pick another refrigerator out b/c the other one was on backorder.  We went and picked it out, and they told us they would deliver it Friday or Saturday morning.  I told them I wanted to before Saturday at 1, b/c we were having a birthday party and I didn’t want the refrigerator sitting in the middle of the kitchen.  Well, guess what, it is still sitting in the middle of the kitchen.  Who knows when we will get the refrigerator?  We actually got a better deal b/c they haven’t delivered it.  We paid a little over $800 for the one we have (after discounts), and they let us pick out one for $1200 at no extra charge.  They are also going to bring us a new washer, since the one they brought us is doing crazy stuff.  It cannot decide if it wants to use cold or hot water, even though you know which one you want, it doesn’t know. 

We are still waiting on the inspector to come.  He told me he would come the day Aaron replaced the windows in our bathroom.  Well, he replaced them on Wednesday, and the inspector still hasn’t come nor have we heard from him.  A man was supposed to come Friday or Saturday to fix the upstairs tub that is cracked.  He never showed up, and we haven’t heard from him either. It seems like we will never close this house and it keeps costing us money.  The painter has to come back and finish around the stove vent hood, b/c it was so late getting here.  (Another Lowe’s product.)  The painter needs to redo lots of things and touch up in a lot places, but I am still debating on whether to tell him to.  I have never seen a paint job done this bad in a new house.  As much as we paid him, it should be done so much better.  I hate to fuss about him b/c he is an old man, and he needs the money, but I am sorry he SCREWED up.  Emma Grace’s room is mostly ok, but there are so many other places that are not.  I think he took his brush and dipped it in the paint can and just dripped it everywhere.  We can fix some of it, but we shouldn’t have to.  I don’t know what to do.  I guess I will decide right before he comes back, but we haven’t heard from him either.  I am going to call in the morning to see when and if any of these people are going to show up. 

Wes has cardio-rehab in the morning.  He goes to Delhi three days a week.  He still cannot drive, so I take him.  He did it one time last week, so this week will be his first full week.  He hasn’t been feeling well, so tomorrow I am hoping they will draw his blood and check his counts.  He had one unit of blood while he was in the hospital, and I am afraid he needs more.  I threatened to take him to the ER the other day, but he refused.  He told me today that he wanted them to check it.  His scar looks really good.  It looks like it did before he had this surgery.  They cut him right down the other scar.  They went a little lower, but you cannot really tell it.  It is hard to believe it has been three weeks since he had it.  It seems like it was yesterday.

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July.  I guess that is all for now. 

Although we have yet to actually close on the house, we are at least back at it.  We got home about 10pm Tuesday night.  We left Houston around noon.  The trip was pretty good.  We stopped a number of times for me to walk and let everyone else stretch their legs.  The GPS Grammy bought works pretty well.  Makes it nice to see the progress of the trip.  The weather held up pretty well for us…just some sprinkles.

So thanks to everyone that helped us during last week’s events as well as the many weeks/months/years before….we are now HOME!

Thanks,

Wes

Wes was released today at around 1:30.  He wanted to go get something to eat, and we went to Saltgrass.  He wanted to see how it would be riding in the vehicle, and it wasn’t too bad.  We will leave some time in the morning headed home.