Day 2 -
I woke up at 8:30 this morning, and really wanted to turn over and go back to sleep. However, remembering my duty, I forced myself to get up and take a shower. Dorcas woke up while I was in, and I got the girls up and going while she was in the shower. By 9:45 a.m. we were all ready to go.
It was our first chance to see Shelley's house, and boy were we impressed. It is a 4 story house. You come in on the main floor and to the left is a large parlor/family room. To the left is the dining room connected to the kitchen and a half bath. If you go upstairs there is the Master Bedroom and bath, a bedroom for their daughter Katie, and an extra bedroom Shelley uses for quilting, and for her son Adam when he visits (he is attending college here in the states). Up another floor is a bathroom and 2 bedrooms; one for their daughter Madelyn, and one for their son McKay. If you go to the basement there is a laundry room (tiny), a storage room (even tinier), a bedroom for their son Alex (he gave it up for Dorcas and me), a bathroom, a family room (they set up 2 air mattresses here for the girls) and an office for Shelley's husband, Paul. They have a huge backyard that is gorgeous! It is an amazing house!!! They are really lucky that Paul's company is paying for the house rental while they are living there. The company also pays for their car, and gas. Sweet deal considering gas was 15 dollars a litre!!!!!
We had some breakfast at Shelley's and then we were ready to get going. Shelley and Adam were going to spend at least the first part of the day with us. So off we went! First stop was at the tube station to buy a 7 day "oyster" card. It would give us unlimited tube and bus travel for the entire time we would need it. Luckily, the tube stop was a block and a half from their house, and the bus stop was half a block away. Talk about convenient! Luckily, for me, Katie is still considered a child, so she is free with a paying adult. That was a savings of about 45 dollars! We got on the tube and rode to Picadilly circus. We poked around there, found Lillywhite's sporting goods store (My mother's family started the store!), and meandered into Leicester Square. There are a ton of movie theaters there, and it is here where movies premier in London. Shelley's kids have come down quite often and gotten autographs from Toby McGuire, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett and others. Very cool!!! From there we wandered to Trafalgar Square. It is a beautiful place. It's quite close to the National Gallery. That was our first stop of the day.
Shelley comes here with her kids quite often, as there is no admission fee. It is a great way to see some of the world's greatest paintings. She took us on a quick tour of her favorite paintings. Katie especially loved the Impressionist section. Monet is her absolute favorite artist! As we left, Katie got her first look at Big Ben. She was thrilled, and even more thrilled to know that we are actually going to see it close up on Sunday.
Next stop: Covent Gardens. If you've ever seen "My Fair Lady" you have heard of Covent Gardens. Now, it's not so much a theater, as a marketplace. There are lots of permanent shops, and in the center people set up stalls and sell antiques, homemade items, etc. It's really neat. We stopped in at Thornton's toffee and bought a bunch of stuff there to bring home! I love Thornton's toffee, and was happy to see flavors that I can't get here. We bought blueberry/cranberry toffee, banana toffee, and treacle toffee. For my diabetic mother I bought diabetic vanilla toffee. While we were at Covent Gardens, we decided to get some lunch. There is a Cornish pasty shop there, and the girls were interested to try one. I had a chicken and vegetable pasty, Katie had a traditional (like a beef stew) pasty. Both Dorcas and Marina got a tomato and cheese and onion pasty. We all agreed they were delicious, and the girls declared them the new favorite food. I totally forgot to get any pictures of these, so I'm hopeful that Dorcas did! We were glad to have these warm pasty's, since it was a cool, rainy day.
After lunch, Shelley needed to get home to pick up her two youngest from school. I wanted to get a Paddington Bear for our new Peanut, so Shelley suggested we go to Hamley's toy store. Adam helped Shelley get to the tube stop with all her purchases, then met us at the store. It was AMAZING!!! 6 stories tall with lots of toy demos going on all the time. I found the Paddington Bear I liked most, and Katie found a teddy bear to cuddle at night since her bear, Taffy, needed to be washed after the episode on the plane. Then we explored all 6 floors! It would be easy to spend thousands of dollars here! They make everything look so fun! I did find a boomerang that I think Jacob will love.
We were beginning to wind down, at that point, and decided to head home for a rest before going to see "Gone With the Wind". We made it home, and Shelley had dinner cooking. Smelled wonderful. She let us nap for about an hour and a half, and then we began to get ready for the show. We ate dinner at her house, and then headed for the tube stop and off we went to the play.
The play was ok, but nothing wonderful. It just kind of fell flat! It tried too hard to be the movie, but you could really tell that the Brit's didn't really understand the Civil War. There were way too many songs in the show, and it needed to be trimmed down some. Scarlett was wonderful, as was Rhett, but the rest of the cast didn't live up to them. After the show was over, we got on the tube and came home. We all crashed by 11:30 p.m. feeling very happy with our first day in London.
For some reason, I can't post pictures right now. I'm going to shut everything down, and reboot. Stay tuned for pictures.
that the transition at work isn't as bad as you fear. I love Lizzy's dress.
I am not good with change, so I know how you feel.
Maybe it won't be as bad as you fear. 
Chico's is having an awesome sale. Talbot's is having a sort-of sale, and their sizes are picked over, but I found 2 shirts. Macy's is having a sort-of sale, but the stuff I bought wasn't coupon eligible (story of my life) so I may not keep the stuff I bought there. Nordstrom isn't carrying Lauren anymore 
so there's another one of my brands that will be harder and harder to find. 
She used to be a really good shopper, but now she's not so tolerant. We were in and out today in under 2 hours. 
I am sure you know this, but those AFP tests aren't terribly accurate. If it comes back funny I certainly wouldn't worry too much!
She wants the application sent so she can review it. Want to guess what that means? It means she will sit on that application and NEVER get the results, so the oncologist won't know what the risk of recurrance is. The lady from the genetics lab told Mom IF her recurrence risk was low enough that she might be able to skip chemo. That sounds kind of odd to me. Her node involvement is significant - chemo is DEFINITELY indicated. In fact, her insurance won't cover the test BECAUSE she is node positive. Node positive cancers require chemo. It's all rather confusing. 
