I found a couple of kodak photo cd’s while looking for something else this afternoon. They were both from spring 2004. Right before Izzy’s accident. Here are a few…

Today was Emelia’s awards assembly at school.

She got several awards.

A medal for following life principles, honor roll, honor choir…

You can tell from her smile she was proud of herself.

Whew… what a night. I took Emelia to her honor choir concert at her school. I heard a noise that sounded like heavy rain or maybe … hail.

It was hail. So loud it was hard to hear the singing. A boy brought in a piece of hail the size of his palm.

They kept singing.

I texted Amanda and asked what the weather was doing.
She said, “tornado warning.”
I said “where?”
She said, “10th and Hiwassee.”
That is where the school is at. Exactly!

They are still singing.

Finally someone from the audience went to the front and told them the sirens were going off. They told all the students to find their parents and get in a hall. It was really frightening. We stayed in the hall until the storm passed. I called Matt and he said it was in our back yard. It actually did damage in the mile behind out house. What an experience!

This is the cloud after it passed the school.

Emelia is on the back row on the far right.
(I removed the video because it knocked my sidebars off!)

Again I’m sitting here, eyes half opened wondering, “Is it really Monday, already?” I do know that it is really Monday, but it seems like they come so fast! It was a busy weekend, busier than most. Now it’s Spring break! I was so glad Jenny was okay, you know she was at the Georgia dome thing when that tornado hit? Very scary! I heard (on Matt’s XM radio) early Saturday morning that a tornado had hit there and I knew she was there even though I didn’t.

Annie was great. Crowded, but great. There was not an open seat in the entire place. It was a little too crowded for my taste, but it was really good so I suppose it was worth it. My favorite character was Ms. Hannigan. She did such a great job. The song “Little Girls,” was great! The lead did a great job as Annie. She had a strong voice and was enjoyable. Me & Emelia got red “Annie” t-shirts and wore them to church last night. Fun stuff.

Yesterday morning at church (Palm Sunday) there was an Easter egg hunt planned for the children. Before services were over I was called out to find Izzy crying (hysterically) in her class. I am really not sure what the problem was. I took her out of her chair and she seemed to calm down. They had taken the Easter bunny in to see her and found her upset. I really don’t think she was afraid of the bunny because later she was taking pictures right beside the bunny and not afraid at all. Not a great pic of Iz, but she had been so upset. She smiled when Miki took the first pictures (while I was waiting for my camera) so hopefully I’ll get those too.

They had a fun time hunting eggs. Me and Izzy were slow, we only found one egg by the time all the others had been picked up but we decided one egg was perfect for us. I stopped to let her hold the egg and to help her put it into her basket. That took a few minutes!

There’s so much more that happened this weekend, from the training from my old friend Jacki and seeing Clayton (who was a near drowning and completely healed around the time of izzy’s accident). He’s so cute. She had an oil company and wants me to do topos for her. I’ve never done topos? but I guess I will now! Then there was the trip to taco bell with the whole youth group… fun times! I’ll spare all those details and be back later to (hopefully) post a menu.

One last thought… Amanda is getting all four wisdom teeth cut out at 1 p.m. today.

Okay… updated because I thought of something else! Stacy send me a box of truffles! She was having a truffles book giveaway and I was so surprised to find chocolate in the mail! Thanks Stacy!!! ALSO I got a huge box in the mail on Saturday and it was full of the new bathroom stuff I ordered for the hall bathroom. It says believe on it and it is so pretty. Little fleur de lis shower curtain hooks even! cute!

Emelia came third into our family. She was different from the very beginning. I remember the day she was born, ten years ago, she had the most black hair I’ve ever seen on a baby.

The first two (amanda and bailey) were both born with light hair and not much of it. I would not have believed she was my child if I hadn’t seen her come from me! I literally sat and laughed for at least an hour… maybe too much medication? I just couldn’t believe she was mine. She was so beautiful. (still is.) The nurses would take her during the night so I could sleep for a little bit and she would come back with a new hairstyle. I don’t think many newborns had enough hair for the nurses to fix with little doggy ears and bows. I breastfed her for too long in my opinion.

I realized it when it was a little too late. Matt had to help get her to sleep for almost a month so that she could be weaned. It was tough, for us both! She had a case of RSV when she was about a year old. We had to use the nebulizer. It was scary. When she was about three she came out of her room to show me she had cut her hair. She had the most beautiful hair I had ever seen and I loved it! She had cut a complete doggy ear off. To the nub. Let’s just say I was creative with her hairstyles for the next year or two. We did a lot of side pony tails until I could even it out. I refused to cut it short!

She was so excited when Isabelle was born. Finally a playmate! Amanda was eight years older and although Bailey was a playmate for her, he was a boy and wouldn’t play dolls. She was in kindergarten when Izzy had her near drowning accident. When the accident happened, Matt and I were right outside the back door on the ground doing cpr on izzy. We told the kids to go inside (and pray) as we worked on her waiting for paramedics to arrive. They took Izzy around the side of the house and away in the ambulance. When we talked to Emelia on the phone later that night she thought we were burying Isabelle in the ground. She just didn’t understand. It made me so sad that she thought that. I guess she had seen animals buried and just thought that was what you did when something died. (of course you know that Isabelle was resuscitated and is alive - praise God.)

Emelia is a stubborn little girl who doesn’t take no for an answer. She is smarter than most, but will argue for 2 hours about doing something that will only take her five minutes. Creative parenting has been very useful for Emelia. She has a huge heart and would give away everything she has, without question. At church they are raising money for a missionary group called speed the light. She had $8.00 in her purse. She gave all she had. Without thought. Tonight was her bible school teacher’s birthday, she made her jewelry with the beads she received as a gift. She tucked money into the card (money she had been given for her birthday) and I told her I thought the jewelry was enough. She shrugged and said, “okay.” She’s never selfish and always thinking of others.

She is on the phone 24/7! While it might appear that I am a “cool mom” by giving her a cell phone at ten, truth is I just wanted mine back. She always had it. She is the epitome of a social butterfly! Happy tenth birthday! It’s been a fun 10 years and I look forward to what the next ten years bring (please be a sweet teenager, please be a sweet teenager…)

After church last night, and after I had my pj’s on… Emelia tells me she wants to take cookies for her class.

I told her if she got up extra early we could go to the store. She did, and we did. It was weird going out while it was still dark!

We found the exact cookies she wanted and she was happy!

All’s well that ends well huh?

Whew, what a day! Take a bunch of 10 year old girls and have them for a whole afternoon and you will be left with… exhaustion! Fortunately I am better. I got all my errands finished for the party yesterday. Emelia called home around noon to tell me she hurt her wrist during gym. She went with me to get the cake etc.

When Matt came home he decided we should run to Mardels (fav. store!). Matt bought me this awesome Bible cover!

Miki texted me on the way and we ended up meeting her & Kenny for dinner at McAllisters. I wanted some sweet tea ya’ll! It was pretty good, considering I can’t taste ANYTHING! We had a fun time eating with M & K and the conversation was great too! I love when things just work out with out a lot of planning.

Anyway, today was the big 10th birthday party for Emelia…

Here is the cake.

We had the crafts I mentioned… making flip-flops and beaded things… Here are some pics of the girls busy making their flip-flops…

here is a picture of Emelia with McKenzie and her flip-flops she made…

Emelia had a great time… here she is with her friend Madison and cousin Brooke:

 blowing out candles…

Opening presents!

She loved her  new pink CELLPHONE!!!

It was a fun party.

It’s almost Sunday (10:54 p.m. to be exact).

Today I started by picking Emelia up from the Embassy Suites Hotel. Matt’s cousin (and my friend) Jana had her daughter Brooke’s 9th birthday party there. They had a suite, close to the pool (indoors) and had a blast! Emelia had such red eyes even with the goggles that were part of her party favors! Brooke loved the bag of goodies we sent which included a huge stamping kit (she’s very crafty) and some little pet thinkamajigs that all the little girls like I hear. I also got a bunch of the cute stuff at Target’s one spot and saved some things to tuck in Emelia’s luggage for late night activities… like the black felt art projects and fake leopard print fingernails. They had so much fun!

After a quick lunch at chickfila, we then got ready for party #2 & 3! These girls (Erica and Taylor) had a Hannah Montana bash at the local skating rink. It was great fun. I even skated for a bit with Emelia. There was a HM cake, singing balloons and everything HM you can imagine! Emelia was running out of steam before this party was over.

While we were gone, Matt and Bailey were doing something to his PSP which has resulted in a broken battery. They are so into taking things apart and hacking systems… very computer smart these guys! I just try to stay away from it all!

I put on a HUGE pot of stew! I started with sirloin steak. I cubed it and sprinkled liberally with salt, pepper and flour… browned in canola oil along with a sliced onion… added two cans of diced tomatoes, one can of rotel, and a can of crushed tomatoes… give or take a quartish of hot water, quartered a pound of new red potatoes, one pound bag of baby carrots, a bag of frozen veggies (white & yellow corn, asparagus, and more baby carrots), and a bag of cut green beans. I add in about a half package of williams chili seasoning and then more salt. It just simmered on medium for a couple of hours! DELISH! Dad came down for a few bowls because mom was out of town for her father’s birthday party. I made cornbread and picked up jiffy because it was on an end cap in the front of the store close to the register and I didn’t want to go all the way back to that aisle (it was a busy days, come on!) AND anyway, started making two boxes realizing I only had one egg. I added a touch extra milk and everyone said that it was the best cornbread ever! Who would have known eliminating an egg would have a good affect? I have to admit there was one more difference, I keep kosher salt in a small bowl and use it instead of a shaker (mostly) I dusted the unbaked muffins with a pinch of the kosher salt right before putting them in the oven.

Well, that’s all for this day. Emelia fell asleep really early. Bailey is asleep too. Amanda is sick but a little better and hopefully not talking on the phone, but sleeping! Goodnight!

P.S. My sweet special funny friend NANCY FACE is having a birthday in about an hour!!!

Happy Birthday Nancy!

I took Emelia shopping yesteday afternoon.  JCPenny had really really good sales!  She got boots regularly 150 for 7!  My receipt said “you saved 419!”  Emelia said, “This was my best shopping day ever!”