Back to Reality

This is my new home for the next 10 months.  Well, at least for 8 or 9 hours a day.   When I was a student there, it was a boys dorm.  But for the past few years it has been the home of my office.   I'm up there on the 3rd floor.  There would be a great view...if it weren't for all the trees!

I've been back to work now for a couple weeks so the commuting exhaustion has begun.  It's such a transition from waking up at 8 a.m. and walking across the hall to my studio to waking at 5:15 a.m. and driving for an hour to work.  All summer I barely left my house and now I'm gone again for at least 11 hours a day.  Takes some getting used to!

The thing I miss most when I'm working (at my real job) is having time to scrapbook.  Sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day...or weekend.  But I've also noticed that sometimes I can get more accomplished when I have a limited amount of time.   I stay more focused.

The past few weeks have been a bit crazy....and also a bit of an emotional roller coaster.  I tried to spend some quality (and quantity) time with my girls before they headed back to college.  We love to play cards together so any time this summer that they suggested it, I put down whatever I was doing and played with them.  Sometimes we'd play for hours and it was always a great opportunity to have some girl time AND to talk.   They also turned 19 years old this month.  NINETEEN!  This is the last year that I will have teenagers!  As if that doesn't make me feel old...my son turns 21 in a few weeks.   (Couldn't resist this silly picture with the crazy ponytail sticking up!)

Speaking of Elliot.  He had an MRI this week.  (A little background:  Elliot was diagnosed in March 2004 with a juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma---translation:  brain tumor on his brain stem.  His initial surgery removed about 95% of the tumor.  He has had 6 surgeries with the last one being in the fall of 2007).   He used to go every 3-6 months but this time it had been 17 months since his last one.  I really didn't have any big concerns that something was wrong but as usual, the week or two leading up to the appointment I was tense and irritable.  I can't seen to keep my mind from going to the "what if" place.  But, as it turned out we had a wonderful, amazing, I-can't-believe-this-is-happening sort of experience.  The last remnants of the tumor are GONE.  Totally GONE!  He still needs yearly MRIs but this is a HUGE relief.  In February of 2006 he was told (by his first neurosurgeon---who we soon discovered had more ego than skill and compassion) that he had about 5 years to live.  Thank God we got another opinion!!!  The right doctor and facility can truly make all the difference in the world.  

I love reading all my friends' facebook status posts lately.  Seems everyone is dealing with back-to-school issues.  I wonder if there is a surge in the consumption of kleenex during August with all of us moms dropping our kids off at college!   In my experience, the first time is the hardest....then it gets easier!  How can you not just be excited for them when they're so happy to be writing the next chapter of their lives? 

Enjoy your weekend!