Thanksgiving Visits

November 17-24, 2018

We finally got a picture of Elyse and Grandma Brenda at about lunchtime on Sunday Nov 18. Usually they make it in on Friday night, but were held up and arrived about 9:30 pm Saturday night. Sadly, that involved the death of one of the Slidell Police officers who had been hit while guiding a funeral procession and had died after a couple of months of desperate efforts to save him.

We had gotten home from church and Elyse was active with helping in the kitchen.

We were delighted to finally have them here for the Thanksgiving visit. We relaxed with the lunch preparation with Darla and Elyse helping Brenda, and Jeff pitching in as well.

Having not seen them since our Labor Day trip, we were delighted to just have Jeff, Elyse and Darla here and just relaxing. We had a light lunch since we were going back to the church for the Thanksgiving Around the Table dinner this evening.

Mark was able to come out and join us for the Thanksgiving Around the Table at the church. We got Jeff and Mark together with Becky Ridgway, who had lots of memories of them when they were teenagers at the church.

We enjoyed our thanksgiving meal with Darla, Jeff, Mark, Elyse, and Brenda around the table and visiting with a full fellowship hall of folks.

Darla took this picture so we could get Rod in with Brenda. We had an enjoyable evening with the church family around the tables.

Monday, November 19

On Monday morning we got a scary call from April in Dr. Andrews' office saying that Brenda's blood count had dropped further and that she needed to go to the emergency room. After a hemoglobin of 12.4 in February, it had dropped to 7.7 on November 14 and they had called us to repeat it and got an even lower number 7.3 on Friday Nov 16. They feared some kind of hemorrhage. The emergency room visit led to hospitalization, cessation of the coumadin, a treatment of IV iron, and finally a transfusion.

Tuesday, November 20

Darla and Elyse took over preparation for Thanksgiving at home, and Jeff and Darla got to spend some time with Marty while Rod was at the hospital with Brenda. Mark was in the process of changing shows, so he could come out some, and he spent some time with Elyse. That involved the drone aircraft and also the pellet guns, so they had a good time together.

Mark had set up targets in the back yard

Mark also brought along a fancy airsoft gun which would fire single shots or automatic bursts. Elyse seemed to have enjoyed the process a lot, and I'm sure Mark did.

With all those projectiles sailing around the back yard, there was a noticeable absence of squirrels in their normal playground. Even the few squirrels that traveled across high in the trees were not completely immune. The airsoft pellets had good range and accuracy.

While all this was going on in the yard, Marty was taking Jeff to the airport to fly back to Louisiana to participate in the funeral of the Police Officer who had been killed in the line of duty. He came by the hospital to visit Brenda before he left for the airport.

I was mostly staying with Brenda at the hospital she had an infusion of iron last night, and today she was given a unit of blood and had other diagnostic tests.

Wednesday, November 21

The funeral of Police Officer Jason Seals was held in the Harbor Center in Slidell. There was a motorcade of about a hundred and fifty motorcycles.

Jeff and Pastor Larry McEwen of Northshore Church in Slidell participated in the service. Jason attended Northshore Church. Jeff is Chaplain for the Slidell Police Force and Minister of Counseling at Northshore Church. He had worked with Jason for some years.

Jeff flew down on Tuesday evening to participate in the Wednesday service, and flew back to Atlanta on Wednesday night.

Wednesday was a day of uncertainty for most of the day as the hospital staff looked at all the test results, which ruled out a major bleed and were mostly positive. Ashleigh and Jordan had flown in late on Tuesday night, so Darla brought all three girls up to visit Brenda. We couldn't tell them whether Brenda would be home for Thanksgiving dinner because everything was still in flux with the many tests. One doctor wanted her to stay until Friday for a colonoscopy, but partly in light of the fact that tests for blood were negative, the Hospitalist overruled that and wrote her a "May go" late in the afternoon so we rejoiced at being able to launch for home. That surprised everyone and the girls were scrambling with a bouquet of flowers that they were putting together for Grandma Brenda. That scramble all turned out beautifully and we were able to get this delightful picture of Elyse, Ashleigh and Jordan with Grandma. We all praised the Lord for being able to get her home for Thanksgiving.

With the uncertainty about Brenda's homecoming, Darla and the girls had already taken over the process of preparing Thanksgiving dinner. Brenda had traditionally made two special salads for Thanksgiving dinner, and Elyse and Ashleigh had taken over one of them each. Elyse is working on a salad with a pretzel base and strawberry jello and fruit and cream cheese. Ashleigh is making Brenda's special Thankgiving green salad. Marty is standing by to go pick up Jeff from Marta after he arrives from Louisiana after the funeral which he helped celebrate.

Brenda was very appreciative that Darla had taken over the preparation of Thanksgiving dinner, and the girls had enthusiastically pitched in to prepare the special dishes. Ashleigh and Elyse were busily working on their special salads, and Brenda was pleased to be home to watch and have fellowship with them.

When Elyse finished with the mixer for her salad creation, Jordan was ready to take over for her major project: the making of a four-layer cake with icing.

Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 22

With the major Thanksgiving preparations done, we had a relaxed morning. Jeff had been retrieved by Marty after his flight back from Louisiana, and we were all able to relax with breakfast and workouts.
Some things had to be heated for lunch, so Darla and the girls managed the cycling of things to the oven. Marty had provided the turkey, so things were shaping up nicely for dinner.

Jordan's fancy layer cake with icing had turned out to be a major project, so she was still working on it.

Jordan with her finished product.

Finally Jordan could celebrate the beautiful finished product with Grandma Brenda!

With some relaxing time about midday, the girls decided to have a photo session in the front yard.

Of course, I had to get in on that.

With the efforts of Jeff in cooking the turkey and with Darla and the girls having prepared the food and set the table, we were ready for Thanksgiving dinner. There was time to sit and relax and watch part of the Thanksgiving Parade and the traditional dog show.

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