Whoa!

Lots of stuff today, including pictures, so you've been warned! :)

Last week involved us going to my dad's and helping to go through stuff at my grandmother's house. She's been moved into assisted living, so it needs to be sold - hence a big job for all involved. She built that house over 50 years ago - I didn't get through everything, but did get through most of what was really "necessary". I came home with an antique washstand, a garbage bag full of yarn (left one to donate) and another garbage bag almost 2/3 full of THREAD. Not yarn, thread.

We took a couple of pictures with her at the house - I don't think they'll be bringing her back, but we were trying to give her a chance to say good-bye to the house and to help her understand that this is a permanent change, she can't go back.



Top left: my dad, Justin, me, and Colin (my only first cousin)
Bottom: Brendan, Grandma, Betsy & Andrew

And this one is me with her in front of her house.



Ever want to amuse your kids but out of ideas? Buy a karaoke machine! I hate microphones, you couldn't pay me to sing into one of them, but the kids all loved it, especially Justin. He wasn't really singing the words, but he was trying to match pitches - very cute!



Today is the first day of school!

Here are my two school kids, very impatient with me because they want to get to their classes:



Here's Betsy in line - see the pretty lady in the black top? That's Mrs. D. Notice anything special about her? She's pregnant - with TRIPLETS!! And - just in case anyone is wondering - Betsy does indeed have a little bit of a black eye. She and Justin collided last week and that's her battle scar, lol!



And Brendan in line near Mrs. P (she's new to third grade this year):



And here's my sad Andrew, who really, really wants to go but missed the kindergarden cut off by just a month.



Just to keep things on topic - here's a crochet project. This is made of yarns from the Target "Dollar Spot" - I'm not impressed with it, it's very thin. I used four strands for this - two different "funky fringe" yarns (gold and a gold/orange/brown), a "fuzzy fur" (orange) and a strand of dark brown WW acrylic (HA I found a use for some of those 70s yarns!). I started with just the target yarns but ended up frogging and adding the strand of acrylic to give it some substance (it also makes the golds pop, which I like). I'm calling it my Halloween scarf, but I think it's good for fall. I think I would probably like it better if I hadn't added in the orange fur ...

If you use a Q hook (I used an S, so Q would be right for most people), and do rows of 6 sc, and use up a full skein of the fuzzy fur (there will be some of the other two left) you'll end up with a scarf about 5 and a half feet long. I haven't woven the ends in - I'm procrastinating, lol!



Here's a close up so you can see the individual strands ...