Pop!!

That was the sound of me bursting, finally!

I've been holding silence for a week while *certain* things transpired in the background, but now I can safely post. Ahhh.

For those who had prayed for Alli, thank you. :) It was a very scary week as she was very ill, her neck was swollen larger than her head because her lymph nodes were so enlarged, and they had 5 different docs tell her parents that they thought she had lymphoma but would need to confirm with a biopsy. Somewhat miraculously, as soon as she was hospitalized and before the biopsy happened, she began to rapidly improve and all 5 docs reversed their initial decision and decided to keep testing for other things. We finally got a positive diagnosis and while she doesn't have full blown Mono, she does have Epstein-Barr Virus and had it in a very acute stage, which I guess can and does give false lymphoma diagnoses as many of the symptoms are the same. She's back home and will try to get back into classes and finish up the semester, but she still has extreme fatigue and has lost a lot of weight, and there's no way to know how long it will take to get better.

In other news the new piano is here (yay!) and we are getting used to each other and figuring out what she means for the rest of the room. I didn't think a new (old) piano would change the whole room, but it does. She's enough bigger and darker and of a different style that it's impacted the arrangement and furniture of the room. What used to feel cohesive suddenly feels awkward and out-of-place. Hmm. More on this later. ;) I do LOVE how she sounds. :)

This is a picture I took of everyone else in front of the house, exposed to daylight for the first time since it had been enshrouded for years in overgrown shrubbery and makeshift defenses against the outside world. Several neighbors came over to express their joy at seeing the house again or for the first time.

Also, I'm reminded of a phrase from the old Fame TV show, with a twist. "You want silver? Well, right here is where you start paying...in sweat!" We kept a set of silver spiral candelabras I thought were really cool (see picture below- only mine are BLACK with tarnish), in addition to 3 bowls and a floral frog, but they haven't been polished in about 50 yrs. I've spent about 3 hours rubbing my brains out so far and finished just the frog and one candelabra (4 more candelabras and 3 bowls to go). ;p

My other choices are turning out to be busts. :( We brought a set of beautiful teak craftsman-style patio furniture that was on the big front porch, but on getting it home, Mark declares he like ours better and others have said they don't think it "fits" our house. So, Mom and Dad might have some nice stuff for their back deck in AZ. ;) Failure #1. Then...there was the set of 4 dining chairs I thought would be great to go around a game table in the family room and double as extra dining chairs. Well, I nearly passed out at the quote we got last night from the furniture repair shop, including the quote for the table that had been in the LR (but now doesn't fit because new old piano is bigger) which I was going to turn into the game table but needed the big waterstain removed from the top. Suddenly, Mark and I are evaluating just how much we like those pieces. Not THAT much. Failure #2.

The one thing I think we will perservere with is recovering and restoring the chair we took from his grandfather's bedroom (the orange vinyl one) into a nice manchair. I think that's the only thing I'm going to be stubborn about. On the others, I admit defeat.

We were hoping for some honest-to-goodness rain here today, but it doesn't seem to be happening. I'm anxious for weather cold enough to light the fireplace. Hopefully by Christmas!

Love to all. :)