(received this from the Serra Project, a group we helped this last Sunday...whew! I haven't gardened like that in a Long time! :) :) the women at the Serra Project were so welcoming and kind. it was quieting to think of the reality that they live with each day...)

Last weekend, dedicated volunteers from the countywide Big Sunday effort put in their time, energy and home-improvement skills at The Serra Project’s four group homes for destitute persons living with HIV/AIDS. The volunteers scrubbed, painted, weeded, planted and beautified the exterior of each house—all tasks a non-profit such as ours just doesn’t have the resources to do on a regular basis.

Best of all, the event brings with it the possibility that one or several of our residents can pitch in right alongside the volunteers, getting to know them through a shared act of giving. For clients, it is a wonderful respite from the medical struggles and other issues they face on a daily basis.
From the beginning, The Serra Project has benefited from the enthusiastic commitment of the Big Sunday organizers, and we are sincerely appreciative of their efforts on our behalf.

To learn more about how The Serra Project assists AIDS-impacted individuals and families who are homeless, please visit us at The Serra Project
To make an electronic donation, Click Here
Thank you!

tomorrow is big sunday. i can't wait. i'm so thankful to the guy who dreamt up this city-wide event. i think it's the perfect chance to break out of the spheres of only helping the people we know and reach out to the people we live near to.

this city just seems to be so hungry for love.

what am i going to do when emma outgrows onesies?!?

it's so fun to draw out these designs and then stitch them onto onesies...i'm making a bunch for a show in mid-may. hoping that are lots of new or almost new moms there to snatch them up!

(the l.a. river by john humble...nice, huh?)

my mom came down for a visit last weekend. i'm still reeling from it, i think. that's the one problem about family visiting. they leave and i remember how much i really do miss them. :/

it always takes a day or maybe half a day ;-) to get used to each other again--we do talk on the phone and email each other but that is completely different from being with a person 24/7.

but anyway, like a good trooper, she came along on saturday morning to my group run. i trotted off with the team and she walked around collecting leaves and odds and ends to sketch later (that's my mom, hehe). at the end, i was walking down the hill to the car with a mouthful of bagel and i looked up just as she was taking a picture of me.

"oh, that's perfect!" she said.

oh sheesh. and that picture is how all of her friends at home will see me. ha

we stopped at henry's to pick up snacks, went home to get ready and then drove off to the getty for the afternoon. it was so fun. just being there with her...on one hand, this woman could give you a detailed history on most of these artists and the eras they lived in (she has this amazing memory...even though i've been to the getty a ton of times, i forget everything as soon as i leave. :/), so there's the part of mom where we go through each gallery and read every single sign and pause and look at every detail. but then there is the part of her that makes a comment which had me giggling so badly i had to leave and walk outside.

at one point, we were looking at a painting and mom was so into it i thought she might touch it and out of the corner of my eye i could see a guard ready to pounce on her. in fact, he had his arm out, ready to push her back or something, but she nonchalantly moved away just in time. in fact, moments later, the same guard was about to push her away again when she turned to him and started up a charming conversation. this is my mom.

another point in the weekend which can only be described as surreal (though, i know, i know, i use that word too much) was going up to oak glenn for the day. we used to go there all the time in the fall as kids. we'd pay a quarter for the 'petting zoo' to see real live peacocks up close and feed handfuls of corn to goats. i just remember the amazing caramel apples. and the apple pie. and the ice cream. anyway, we went up there in a fit of nostalgia and i think we both forgot that april is about as far away from apple-picking season as anything. the 'town' was completely deserted and everything except one diner was boarded up and closed. we ate chili and had pie anyway and it was so delicious. then we walked up to the petting zoo and i've never laughed so hard in my life. it was so kitchy it made kitchy look upscale. faded plastic flowers were planted in the flower beds...a lone rooster strutted around one cage and next to him was a lone pot-bellied pig (remember when those were the pet to have?) we took pictures of the three deer in their pen for my sister, jo. she always liked those deer.

then it was off down the mountain, following our ever-worn trail back to hemet. except we haven't been on that road for 15 years. i drove through lamb's canyon in beaumont and there was hemet in all its glory, still nestled in the valley. except it wasn't really hemet anymore. the streets were wide, there was a target and a home depot, our friends' farms were gone, laura's house that was so far out in the country butted up to the main freeway...it was weird.

i thought that only happened to people when they turned 80 or something. the ability to say, "now i remember when there was NOTHING here!"

granted, i live in southern california...but still.