Robbed by Alzheimer's

I love this picture. That's my maternal grandparents in 1942, soon after they married. She was 14, and he was 21. It was a different time then. He went off to WWII while she kept the home fires burning. They wrote letters (and she still has them). When she was 18, they welcomed their first child, a son, into the world. Over the next few years, they had two daughters and another son. They weren't wealthy, but they were rich in what was important. They were married for 53 years and only had eyes for each other. They were in love with each other as much after all those years as the day they wed. She lost him right after breakfast one day in 1995. She put up a brave front for several years, but in truth, a huge part of her died with him that morning.

She's waited for 14 years to be with him again. Every year, she has deteriorated more and more. Now, she is weak, frail, and bedridden, and Alzheimer's Disease has taken her mind. Some days she doesn't even recognize her own children, but she knows him. She doesn't know that he's gone anymore. She sees him and talks to him. She's so confused and tormented, and it rips my heart out.

I know the day isn't far away when she will join him again. While I will mourn the loss of one of the greatest women I've ever known and be sad for myself, I will be happy for her.

My beloved grandmother is the fifth victim in my family who has been claimed this thing. With all of the medical advances and research, Why do we not know what causes it? Why do we not have a cure? WHY is this disease still winning??

Here we go again!

No, not actually "going" as in moving. We've begun chapter, oh what is it now, 432? of "Living in a construction zone". Having the house in chaos drives me nuts, but the payoff in the end is worth it.

First, the girls have switched rooms again. With Breeze going off to college, we opted to give Kat the bigger bedroom. So this is once again Breeze's room...remember the lilac walls with that black harlequin pattern on the accent wall? Yeah, that one. Carpet's gone, wood floors in. Walls repainted, new window, new baseboards, trim, etc. And this time, I chose all paint colors. I went back to Valspar's Shrimp Toast that I had originally used in the living room.

And now Kat's new room...

Here's a taste of what we started with when we bought the house.

Yeah, gross.

For a while it was like a dark cave, designed by a teenager.

Well, this is the same room now. I hadn't put the window treatments up when I snapped the pic.

And one last pic...

This is what I finally decided on for the living room. That huge wall unit is now gone, along the chair in the left side of the pic.

We now have ZERO carpet in this house. We've put down Pergo flooring in all 3 bedrooms. We've replaced all the windows, exterior dooors, and interior doors now. My craft room will be getting Pergo flooring this weekend also.

2+ years of work, and we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The house is *almost* finished!