Christmas Day Dinner with The Rodger's

Family Christmas 2007

This is a picture of John's family.

Such a treat to be with them.

My most favorite picture

This is my most favorite picture of me and Reagan.

December 12, 2007

Kay Cothran told me that when we became Grandparents we would be forever changed.  I have to say she is right.  I will never forget the three weeks spent in England with Reagan, Meredith and John.  Reagan will not remember me, but it will forever be etched in my heart.  What a total joy to see the beauty of God's creation in this little bundle of joy.   I know next time will be different because she will be older, stronger and not as dependent on adults.  What a joy it has been to hold her, rock her, talk & sing to her and just be with her.  I am forever changed and I know John is too.

While here we got to tour the base where John is stationed.  One day while there they began playing Taps and the National Anthems for England and the United States of America.  Everything stopped, everyone stopped, and all military stood at attention.  It was a moment when I was very proud to be an American.  John's plane is majestic and we are so proud of him.    We would appreciate your prayers for him at this time.  Meredith and John found out while we were here that the house they are living in is going to be put on the market.  They will began the process of moving to another place this month.  Hopefully it will be a quick and painless move. 

Meredith and John gave us tickets to see Wicked in London for Christmas.  Wicked is a Broadway Musical about how the Wicked Witch of the West became Wicked.  It is a wonderful and comical story and really adds to the story of the Wizard of  Oz.  We both enjoyed it so much.  We spent two days there.  One day dreary and dark and one day sunny and bright.  We saw the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, The Victoria & Albert Museum, The London Eye, Big Ben, and Westminister Abbey.  It was a packed two days and I was exhausted because I was following John Wells.  Many of you know he doesn't walk around town he runs.  Fortunately for me there is the underground train so that saved me from being hospitalized.  = )  Being in England also allowed us to reconnect with Gary Seithel (A old friend from Clemson).  He graciously gathered John at the airport and brought him to meet us in Cambridge at the Chili's Restaurant.  It was wonderful to see him again, and catch up on his family andfor him to be our first friend to meet Reagan.  I recognized the accent of our Waitress and she was from Brazil.  I am amazed that there are so many connections to Brazil now.  It took me 22 hours to get back to Chattanooga and seriously thought I was going to be sick.  I hopefully will never have to go that long without sleep.

John returned to Brazil and I flew back to Mom.  John greatly appreciated the wonderful sunshine of Brazil after being in England.  It was certainly cold, dreary and gloomy for this Southern Girl.  I prefer lots of sunshine myself.  I have spent three weeks with Mom and return to Brazil hopefully until March.  John is going through many changes at work and he really needs for me to be there for a while.  The plant John works for has merged with Owens Corning so he has been reconnecting with many old friends from when he was employed by Owens Corning for 21 years. 

 

While here in Chattanooga over the last 7 months I have had many experiences.  I deeply appreciate the people at the Nursing Home.  While it isn't a perfect environment, it is the safest for Mom at this moment.  They have put up with me too and I have learned to be much more assertive.  I now realize how very important it is to visit people, write people, and call people who are in nursing homes.  It is a great encouragement to both Mom and me to see a familiar face or hear a familiar voice.  I also attended yet another Gaither Concert at UTC with my friend Susan Miller.  It was wonderful and we both were blessed.  At the concert a young lady from Brazil came up on the stage and sang "Because He Lives" in Portuguese.  It was very moving.  Yet another connection to Brazil.  I even understood a lot of what she sang.  I have worked on five rugs (big mistake).  Now I've got to finish them all.  Hopefully this will happen.  They are all different.  I have also enjoyed my Friday Dinner and a Movie with my friend from childhood, Sandy Barber.  We have seen many good and many not so good movies but they have sure helped to relieve the stresses of the week.

 

Finally, John was in Charlotte for the yearly meeting with Navigator friends from Clemson and elsewhere the first week of December so we arranged a family dinner with his whole family.  What a treat it was to see Jay.  We had not seen him since Meredith's graduation.  Betsy and Alan came from Wagram and Katherine and Jim from Columbia.  It was the first time we had all been together since December 2001.  We were all glad to catch up.

 

I leave here on December 18 and they are now discussing Mom's future at the Nursing Home.  She has come so far that they feel she is ready to go elsewhere.  I never thought she would be able to leave so this just shows how far she has come since moving in July 21.  Please pray for us as we make decisions as to what she should do.  These are heavy decisions for me especially.

 

Goodbye to Mary & Joe

It is with great sadness that we had a going away party for Mary & Joe.  Mary was the first American I met here so she will ALWAYS be special to me.  We have been through a lot here and have stuck close through thick and thin.  I was blessed to have her here with me especially in the same neighborhood.  These are pictures of the crazy 50's group and their party. 

September 1, 2007

I wanted to write all of you and thank you for your prayers, calls, e-mails, and letters.  It is hard to believe Mom has been sick for three months now.  I keep thinking it will get easier but until her leg strength returns she cannot do anything for herself.  This is very hard for her (and me).  Her cognitive has mostly returned.  Every once in a while we will have a blip but she isn't as confused as she was.  They have cleared up all the infections and now we are just working on strength and eating.  Her appetite is not good and she HATES physical therapy.  So this is just another request for prayer.  Pray for me too that I will have patience and not push too hard.  I just want her to be able to do some things for herself. 

 

I enjoyed my five days with Meredith.  She was a blessing and came at the perfect time.  She was also a good buffer between me and Mom and that was nice.  We ate out a lot and saw three movies:  The Nanny Diaries, Becoming Jane, and No Reservations.  We liked them all but they were all sad in their own way. Meredith's pregnancy is going well.  She enjoyed eating American food and shopping.  It is fun to look at little girl clothes.  My cousin and two friends came by and brought presents.  Mom got to watch her open them and this was fun.  Like I said little girl clothes are fun.  She is due October 30.  Ben continues to work very hard getting the new store ready.  He is also working part-time at an ice cream parlor.  I'm glad I'm not there.  You know how I love ice cream.  I'd be his best customer.

 

I will meet John in Miami to renew our Brazilian Visa on Tuesday, September 4.  It will be wonderful to see him again.  I just hope we have everything ready and it will be smooth sailing through the process.  It will be the first time I have not been with Mom all day in 100 days so it will be an adjustment for both of us. 

 

I am loving my first football Saturday.  I've been listening to the games on ESPN and it is great.  I can't believe Clemson is playing on Labor Day and at 8:00 at night.  There will be a lot of people that drink too much. It isn't fun when they have late games.  Right now Appalachian State isbeating Michigan State 27-14 and the broadcasters are about to swallow their tongues.  We saw lots of cars today flying their Georgia flags on the way to the Atlanta Airport.  We thought of The Bryant Family when we saw them.  There were some Oklahoma State fans at Cracker Barrel.  I hope they got out alive.

 

June 17, 2007

I want to thank all of you for your prayers for my Mom.  She is now in rehab and doing well.  After a month she is still pretty weak but continues to work hard to strengthen her legs especially.  She agrees with me that she can no longer live alone in her home and will be moving to assisted living when she is dismissed. Please pray for her strength, that her house sells for a good price, and that she and I will be able to say good-bye to our home of 52 years.  It will be most difficult.

 

I wanted to tell you that we had a wonderful 30 year Anniversary celebration.  John met me at Mom's and we drove with Mary Beasley to Philadelphia where we dropped her off at her daughter's house.  Kathy & Clinton are good friends from high school.  She was a patient traveler and put up with all our stories.  It was fun.  We visited the Historic Area of Philadelphia and got to see the Liberty Bell and many other wonderful things.  One very sweet moment there was when the officials at the Liberty Bell allowed a young blind boy feel the crack in the bell.  The only bad thing about the day we were there was IT WAS THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL and there were thousands of kids on field trips.  We finally just gave up trying to see some things. John and Meredith met us the afternoon of May 15 and took our car to visit his parents in Lebanon, PA.  and we rode the Amtrak to New York City.

 

We spent 4 days in NYC and had a great time.  We spent an entire day on the top of a double-decker bus seeing the sights and hearing the commentaries.  We spent time at the Twin Tower Sight and the church where the firefighters rested before they went back to the site to work.  We went to the top of the empire state building, ate at the Battery, ate at Little Italy (best lasagna I've ever had), went to China Town, toured Brooklyn's Guggenheim Museum and ate ice cream at Serendipity 3.  We saw the Broadway  Play The Jersey Boys, the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.  It was a sad story but the music was just wonderful.  When we came out of the theater is was pouring rain.  We had 10 blocks to walk and no umbrella or taxi in sight.  We walked and walked and got more and more wet.  We stopped for a red light and John told me to step back because the cars would splash me.  I looked at him and died laughing.  I was already soaked so what would a splash from a car hurt.  We watched as thousands of little girls were lined up to audition for The American Girl Movie.  The line was totally around a city block.  We were on the front row of David Letterman which was just so special and we got to see the set of The Today Show.  We met some Brazilians in our hotel.  I heard them speaking Portuguese and actually recognized the language.  My teacher, Marina, would be proud. 

 

We rode the Amtrak back to Philadelphia where John and Meredith picked us up.  Ben and his girlfriend, Wendy, met us in Washington, DC and we had a wonderful time touring DC with them and being together.  It had been a long time since we had been together as a family.  We saw as much of DC as we could before they all had to leave two days later.  While at the Lincoln Memorial a group of soldiers started walking up the steps.  Everyone cheered.  It was a very moving moment for me.  Meredith and John went to South Carolina where Ann Bryant and Shirley Reeves had a baby shower for her.  Ben and Wendy flew back to Los Angeles. (I have put some pictures on the blog). 

 

John and I attended the wedding of Amy, daughter of John's Sister, Katherine, and her husband, Jim.  We had such a good time again being with family.  Betsy and Alan (John's other sister and her husband) came too.  The wedding was at the wonderful old Catholic Church and it was beautiful and the reception was at an Officers Club in DC.  We especially loved Amy and Kevin's first dance.  They had practiced and practiced and it was perfect.  I like this new trend of the first dance being choreographed for the bride and groom.  The food was perfect and we got to meet Jim's family and see his other two daughters, Elizabeth and Peggy.  We had never met Peggy's husband or Elizabeth's fiance so this was a real treat for us.  I know Jim feels so blessed to see his daughters so happy.

 

We did get to spend one day in Anderson.  John had a business trip to South Carolina.  What a treat to see old friends and see the ever changing Anderson, South Carolina.  It is booming.  After all of this traveling John has promised not to even look at the Mastercard Bill.  I don't want him to become sick in Brazil. = )  He is back in Brazil and doing well.  He struggles with the cooking but is doing well other than that.  I miss him.  He took care of Mom and me while she was in the hospital.  Thank you for all your calls and cards.  They are encouraging to both Mom and to me too.