Painting on the Wall!

But first, Kid Art. I put some notes on the flickr site.
And next, I had to go to the office on Monday to help transition a project from a manager who is leaving to another manager. While I was there, my work status came up, as it does nearly every time I'm in the office. So, you're not ready to come back full time? In my mind, I was laughing hysterically and thinking, "no, it'll be about 14 more years before I want to come back full time". But I simply said, no, not yet. Then on Wednesday, I had another work meeting and this time, someone else says, "Are you coming back full time?" Uh, no, where did you hear that?

I've tried to write about all my thoughts about work a couple times, and it always sounds whiny and annoying. So, I scrapped it. Suffice it to say that all this is on my mind, my choices and priorities, and that same yucky feeling I've had since Sofia was born that I'm not giving work what they want.

Then, I found out today that the daughter of a principal at work has several autoimmune diseases. Her mother (my co-worker), wrote me to offer support in response to something I had said about Maia. It was very nice of her, and a little surprising since I haven't worked with her much. She mentioned that she and her daughter's doctors feel environmental triggers are causing a rise in the incidence of autoimmune diseases.

Even though our focus and Maia's doctors' focus has been on her treatment, I think and wonder a lot about the "why" of all this. What triggered her body's immune system to go haywire? What are we going to find out in 10, 20, 30 years from now that we didn't realize? Is it the non-stick cookware? The flame retardant bedding? Something in the water? Is it some random food allergy? Or a weird vaccine ingredient? All of the above? I wonder if anyone's researching this.

So anyway, about painting on the wall. I painted the chalkboard (big mess now cleaned up) and now I'm working on a faux gold frame around it. It's a little tongue in cheek but I like it so far. And painting on the wall is fun. But shhh, don't tell my kids, they might get some crazy ideas. I'm also practicing my chalkboard writing a la Trader Joe's. Hopefully it'll be done soon, so go ahead, hold your breath.
And finally, I'm having a little autumn envy. Many in the blogosphere are basking in their autumn wonderfulness. I used to love autumn, the cooler weather, the crisp air, putting on a sweater... granted, where I grew up, it was not the traditional northeast autumn and we had a spell of "Indian Summer" as it was called, but it was a different season for sure. But here? Autumn is all about blazing hot, dry, hills on fire. So I'm having a little autumn envy. I know, it's only the first week, quit complaining. Ok.

Moving On

We seem to be past the worst of the pneumonia with small improvements every day. Maia is back at school, although I had to bring her home early yesterday because her chest was hurting. Despite that, her breathing has been improving every day (less gurgling) and there has been less coughing at night. I just don't want her to end up in the hospital, so we're taking one day at a time.

This has been my first week with some child-free moments in quite a while and I'm determined not to get bogged down in the depressing under-employed state of things. I took on a small job at Maia's school doing the newsletter and other paperwork. The hours are minimal and the pay low, but there is a generous tuition discount that makes it worthwhile. It will give me some structure to my week and if my other job picks up (can't get any slower for me), I will still have plenty of time to get it all done.

My mom visited last week so that we could work on a top secret project together. It's going to be *great* but I can't share it - yet. While she was here, I was cringing at the state of her room. It is our guest room slash sewing stash slash Chris' cycling gear slash art supplies slash knitting stash slash what ever else doesn't have a place - you get the picture. So after she left I tackled the clutter, organized the closet, and hung a couple pictures. The result is several bags of giveaway, a couple boxes of books to donate, much fabric to give away, a box of cassette tapes to record digitally, and a much. cleaner. room. Now my mom has to come back before it gets cluttery again.

Well, I'm going to wrap up this boring no pictures post and run off to work on my kitchen wall chalk board. I spray painted chalkboard paint directly on the wall yesterday (bad idea, too messy, don't do it, use the brush-on paint) and now I'm figuring out some sort of border.

Maia's Off to School

Maia's first day of school was yesterday and went very well. She immediately ran off with her friends without a kiss or goodbye. Oh well, that's fine. I'm glad she's happy there. Unfortunately she's home today with possible pneumonia - yep, that's right. Goodness, we're having fun. Hopefully, the antibiotics will kick in soon and she'll be back in the swing soon (haha, literally). Other than the nasty sounding chest and cough, she's in good spirits.

Bike MS

We did a little Bike MS photoshoot this weekend. Maia can be a bit of a pain about photos, especially when you really need her to smile for the camera. I won't repeat here what we were saying to finally get her to laugh and smile, it was on the verge of potty talk (the things we'll do for a picture!).

Chris will be riding the Southern California Bike MS charity ride October 3 and 4 put on by the Multiple Sclerosis Society. It's a total of 160 miles. This is his second year and this year he'll ride with his cycling club, Fast Friday. Last year at this time, we didn't know that Maia had an autoimmune disease. We were still wandering through the red tape at Kaiser trying to figure it out, although we had pretty much given up on our doctors and had decided to move on. Now that we know, we have found that Maia's treatment is similar to that of other autoimmune diseases. It seems even more fitting to try to raise money and awareness for research that may eventually help Maia and people like her. For more information on how to support Chris and the MS Society, check out Chris' Bike MS page.
Ahhh, I love it when I have an idea and I'm actually able to get it done in one day. I made this tote today for Sofia to carry her ballet stuff. It's lined and cute and just what I had in mind. It's made of scraps from recent skirt and dress projects. She had her first ballet class last week and she really enjoyed it. Now she's all outfitted with a blue leotard, pink tights, pink slippers, and a really cool tote!