December 7, 2009

Well, today was a PEO companion day.   This morning Emily drove herself to her PEO book club across town on Mountain Creek Road.  They had read The Professor and the Mad Man.  Emily didn't find the book and so she had not read it, but the group all said that it was a really good book and gave her the assignment to read it. After book club she came home and another of her PEO sisters picked her up and took her up to a late luncheon date on Lookout Mountain at the home of yet another PEO sister.  They enjoyed a hot chicken salad and a fruit and cheese salad as well as a dessert and some good companionship.  It was after 3 this afternoon before she even got back home.

Emily spoke with both boys today.  It's a great comfort to her to have regular communication with them.  Steve reported on his pancreatitis.  The doctor had done an ultrasound thinking that his gall bladder might be a part of the problem.  Since that didn't show anything, he ordered an MRI which Steve had done today.  Of course, he won't get any results until his doctor's appointment. He did tell her that he's feeling pretty good.  She had a good visit with Russ on the phone as well.  He gave her a good progress report about Emerald Beach Property Management.  She was really pleased to see some of the day to day working of the business when she visited over Thanksgiving.
 
Emily's days go by very quickly she says - and often at the end of the day she says that she can't really see what she's done.  She has committed to working on her personal organization, and becoming more disciplined.  She is working every day on clearing some of the clutter out of her house and organizing her personal things.

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Sixty eight years ago today the Japanese Imperial Army launched surprise attacks on the United States.  The primary target was the Phillipine Islands and the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor.   Lieutenant Ben VanSant (1918 - 1945), the oldest brother of Emily, Frances, and Joyce was in the Phillipines training native troops. He was shot and left for dead before becoming a POW.  He survived the Bataan Death March and died on a Japanese ship that was transporting POWs to the Japanese Mainland near the end of the war.
                                                         courtesy Bob Edwards

December 6, 2009

Emily had a busy day today.   She attended church, where she was the elder of the week.  That means that she was responsible for reading the announcements.  She had not remembered that it was her week and said that she was not ready. This evening she had soup and cheese toast with Alan and Lynn - and some of Joyce's pecan pie for dessert.  As she talked about her upcoming week, it appears that she has a very heavy social schedule coming up.  She thinks she may have to get a calendar to write down her various appointments and engagements!  She may have depended on Gene to keep up with the things they were going to do together, so she only had to remember the things that she was doing by herself.

Earlier this afternoon, she called Gene's cousin Mia (Maria Hansford) to come over and help her with the star that Gene built for their house/yard.   She has it up now, but hasn't checked the lights yet.  That will happen sometime this week. One of the Christmas carols that Gene really loved is below:

There's a Song in the Air

There's a song in the air!
There's a star in the sky:
There's a mother's deep prayer
and a baby's low cry.
And the star rains its fire 
while the beautiful sing, 
For the manger of Bethlehem 
cradles a King!


There's a tumult of joy 
o'er the wonderful birth, 
For the virgin's sweet boy
is the Lord of the earth. 
Ay! the star rains its fire
while the beautiful sing
for the manger of Bethlehem
cradles a King!


In the light of that star
lie the ages impearled; 
and that song from afar has swept over the world
Every hearth is aflame
and the beautiful sing
in the homes of the nations
that Jesus is King!


We rejoice in the light, 
and we echo the song 
that comes down trough the night
from the heavenly throng. 
Ay! we shout to the lovely
evangel they bring
and we greet in his cradle 
our Savior and King!

December 5, 2009

Today Joyce and Daniel Judge were on their way through Chattanooga going from David's where they saw Allison as Alice in Alice in Wonderland.  They were driving almost straight through to go to Berea to hear Gaelyn in a Christmas concert.  They stopped to see Emily and had lunch and then went to the cemetery for a visit.  Emily made a beautiful arrangement using a dozen roses she bought and holly and nandina berries that she had at home.  It was cold and crisp at the cemetery with a bit of wind.  The ground was wet and muddy, and there have been a good many graves added.  It is a beautiful place, and each season will have it's own beauty.

This evening she made a lovely dinner for Alan, Lynn, and Liga. She bought lamb chops and made baked potatoes and peas.  In addition she got that shelf hung in the hall bathroom.  Plato has been hanging around the house the last couple of days.  This evening he was curled up on Gene's recliner.  Emily has put a rug there to make it comfortable for him.

December 4, 2009

Emily got her new glasses ordered.  She is suffering greatly from sticker shock!  She wanted to use her same frames again, but the bridge piece was broken.  When she asked if they could use her old frames and just replace the bridge, they said they could no longer get parts for those glasses.  She's used the frames about four times and even skipped getting her prescription filled a couple of times.  Anyway she's got them ordered and they should be in one day next week. 

Today, Plato came and spent some time with her.  It was good for her to see him and know that he escaped the ravages of the stray dog that was in the neighborhood the other day.  It's good that he's still around.  Patches kind of put him on the run; she didn't really want to share Emily and Gene with anyone, so he may hang around a little more now.  Although it might be hard to compete with his day job.  About 5 houses down, on the main road is an attorney's office - during the day, he goes down and plays lawyer in their office. They are especially taken with him and at one point wanted to adopt him.  At any rate, these days he's splitting his time between Emily's and his work with the attorney.

This evening Emily went to dinner with Lynn and Alan at I-Hop.  It was a nice evening.  She tried the chicken florentine crepes, and ended up taking home about half for a lunch tomorrow or the next day.  Lynn and Emily both remarked that had Gene been there, the next thing we knew, he'd be making his variation of chicken florentine crepes!

December 3, 2009

Today was a sad day for Emily.  Her calico cat, Patches, was killed in the early morning hours by a stray dog in the neighborhood. 

This morning, Emily woke early to get ready for a doctor appointment.  She said that she wondered to herself why Patches wasn't sitting in the window to greet her as she did nearly every morning.  She had a call from the doctor's office telling her that her appointment needed to be rescheduled and so she didn't go out quite as early as she had planned.  When she did venture out to get the paper a little after 8, the bench that sits under the kitchen window up on the front porch had been knocked off and was down partly on the steps and partly on the grass.  Her first thought was that someone had tried to break in or was trying to vandalize the house.  Her neighbor told her that a big brown dog had been on the loose in the neighborhood.  She had heard some noise on her front porch about 1:00 in the morning and when she went to the door to investigate and opened her door, the dog ran inside and tried to get to her little tiny dogs.  She was able to get it out of her house, and this morning found Patches in the side yard between her house and Emily's.  Late this afternoon Valdis and his friend Geoff, went by and buried Patches for her.  She's awfully sad about this and very concerned about Plato.  Plato often goes down to "work" at the lawyers office on the corner and often stays gone for a couple of days, but with this dog on the prowl, it's a big concern that he's not been home. 

At lunch today, Emily went out with some women from the church.  It doesn't seem to be a formal thing, but a few of the ladies who like to hang out together go to lunch sometimes.  She is also going to begin attending a Hospice group on grieving at her church next week.  There are several women in the church who have recently become widows, so it will be a group who already know one another and it will be in the comfortable surroundings of her church home. 

This evening Emily and Lynn went to Elmcroft for a Holiday Dinner with Mommy Anne.  Alan was planning to go as well, but he was running a fever this morning and decided it would be best not to go and take the chance of bringing germs in.   It was a lovely buffet dinner with entertainers to provide music.  The couple called themselves "That man and Robin"  They were very entertaining. All in all it was a lovely evening.

December 2, 2009

Emily spent a rainy day at home organizing and working on her business.

She worked on files, made some business calls, and continued working on some of the things that have to be attended to pertaining to Dad's finances.  I know it is sometimes overwhelming for her.

She still is searching for her "new reality" as she calls it - and this is the time when her support system really is kicking in.  Her church activities, her PEO sisters, her neighbors, friends, and family have all managed to spend time with her, invite her to various activities and spend time with her. 

She also enjoys getting those old fashioned letters and cards from folks.

Tomorrow she has an appointment with her primary care physician.  It will be good to get a check up and get news about that. 

December 1, 2009

Emily had a very full day today.

She said that she didn't sleep well last night and she was up really early.  She thought that she had a doctor's appointment with her primary care physician early this morning, but when she called it isn't until Thursday, so she had some morning time at home.

Later in the day she had a Women's Ministry Meeting at First Cumberland and seemed to enjoy that group.  The women that she has met at church have become good friends.  They never fail to comment on how sweet she is or how much they think of her.

This afternoon she had an appointment with her dermatologist - well, she thought she did!  When she got there she discovered that her appointment was really tomorrow, but the doctor saw her anyway and she had a few places on her face "burned off".  

Tonight Emily was a guest at the Ladies Annual Christmas Tea at Silverdale Baptist Church. It is a big church and she said there were about 150 or 200 women there.  She enjoyed her evening out and didn't get home until a little after 9:00 o'clock.