Erica’s Blog

On Monday, Thing Two started the two-week summer school for incoming kindergarteners.  She’s having a blast.  I’m so lucky that the Things have never had issues with crying when I drop them off at school, etc.  The first day, three or four different kids were crying.  The number of crying kids goes down every day, but there are still some tears.  Thing Two just lines up, lets us kiss her good-bye, then as they parade into the room, looks over her shoulder at me and waves.  I think it helps that she’s seen Thing One do the line-up thing for three years.  It also doesn’t hurt that she knows the kindergarten teachers.

Rest of the pictures here.

Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.  We’ve been having nasty intermittent DSL & phone problems.  [FYI, if you're trying to call us and run into the problems, call me on my cell phone or email Hubby at work.  Don't email me b/c I have to come to the library for the wireless hot spot to get online right now.  Feh!]

Now, as long as I’m here in the kids’ room at the local library, and the Things have their noses in books, here come some updates…

KNITTING:  I made scarves for Mrs. C & Mrs. R as their end-of-year gifts.  Actually, Lisa’s (she’s only Mrs. R when she’s working) didn’t get finished till this morning as I sat on the couch in her family room, but it’s done now.  Didn’t take any pictures, I’m afraid.  Mrs. C’s was an elongated garter stitch scarf from just under one skein of the fall colors yarn from Sandy.  She loved it and said she’d take it to Norway with her this summer.  Lisa’s was a loose multi-directional scarf out of that pink/grey Katia Ingenua (on US 10.5’s).  She loved it, and I was quite pleased with how it turned out.

On Friday, the Things made Hubby open some of his Father’s Day gifts b/c they just couldn’t wait.  Just as well b/c today Thing One’s sick (would it really be a special day around here if we were all healthy?).  We thought she had “iwantowatchtvitis”, but when I took her temperature to placate her, it was over 100.  Gosh, I would have felt bad if I’d made her go to church today when she really was sick!  Swell guy that he is, Hubby let me stay home with her this morning instead of staying home himself b/c I was working on a migraine.

On the way home from church, Hubby & Thing Two stopped at the store to buy milk, creamer, Cheetos, and some $1 frozen things for lunches for the Things/snacks for Hubby.  He even called me a couple of times to see if there was anything I wanted him to pick up, but I didn’t hear the phone ring.  After he got home, he fed the girls, then went out again to get me some migraine medicine.  Since we had to cancel on going to Poppa & Nana’s house, Hubby got to go hit the golf course this afternoon.  No idea when he’ll be home b/c he had to do a walk-on as a single at whatever time he could get, but that’s OK; it’s his day.

Click for the pictures from Friday.  (He did open the rest of his presents this morning — slippers from Grandma and quick-drying underwear for our trip from me, plus a naughty card from me — understandably, no pictures.)

Biopsy results came in earlier than expected.  Good news is that it’s not cancer or hyperplasia.  Sooooo, now we schedule the hysterectomy.  Looks like we’ll be going for the Monday after school starts so that I can do all the pre-beginning-of-school stuff and be there for Thing Two’s first day of school.  Hubby doesn’t have to be back at work till the 11th, and I’ll be somewhat up on my feet by then.  Nana will be available to help some, Sandy will probably help out some, and Michelle says not to worry about meals b/c people from church will help out.

Hubby was really concerned about my needing a lot of help, wanting to rest, the Things going stir-crazy, and his getting caught in the middle (not to mention the disappointment anyone would feel about having to spend part of sabbatical playing nursemaid).  Sounds like it won’t be so bad, though — more like recuperating from a c-section than like when I was on strict bed rest.  I’ll keep ya’ll posted. 

Today was Baby Sedona’s “Coming-Out Party”, aka a fancy baby shower at the restaurant at Harding Park Golf Course.  It was so special to be there for Mark & Gabi.  When I get a copy of the picture of Gabi, Sedona, Heather, Mansour, Suzanne & me, I’ll post it. 

As you can see, the Things enjoyed the fabulous spread (and this was after a lot of it had been eaten).

If this were the only kind of baked goods I kept in my house, I’d be a size 8 (well, maybe)….

PATTERN:  Cupcake hat by Chile Con Yarne with mods by Wool Winder.

YARN:  Filatura di Crosa Zara & Karabella Aurora 8

NEEDLES:  US size 5’s

Finished last night, just in time for Baby Sedona’s “Coming Out Party” this morning.

PATTERN:  Baby kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting. 

YARN:  Sugar & Cream, color Playground, 3 balls plus a partial ball from the lovely Lu (Grazie, Bella!)

NEEDLES:  Uh.  Um.  7’s?  I think.  Hey, I finished the knitting a few days ago, and you expect me to remember?

Pattern mods:

• CO 50 instead of 40, increasing up to 118 instead of 88.
• Continued the eyelets all the way down the front.
• Used crocheted chains instead of ribbon.

There are two things I’m disappointed with:

• I had to throw it in the dryer b/c she just wasn’t drying after her bath.  When I did, the color faded (it’s not as bright as these pictures make it look).  Feh!  I’ll take faded color over musty, mildewy, damp sweater, though.
• My seaming on the sleeves stank.  Musta gotten cocky after that raglan.  Also could have had something to do with my doing the increases via knitting on instead of backward loop cast-on.  May have made for a different edge.  I dunno…Naaaah, I think I just stink at seaming.  I hope there are no other knitters at the shower tomorrow.

OK, OK, you’re tired of seeing pictures of the blue raglan, but now it’s finally FINISHED FOR REAL.  Ends have been woven in, he had a bath, and he’s all wrapped up and ready to mail. 

Ah, the first day of summer…time to sleep in…have a jammie day…let them rot their brains by watching TV all morning…all chip in together to clean both Things’ rooms (big “spring cleaning”, washing even their quilts)…and have “Tea Party Lunch”:

[Add music by overly-made-up strange-looking band favored by middle school boys, music known in our house as, well, "penis music".]

Yupp, yesterday was the last day of school for Thing One.  I managed to avoid any responsibility for stuff related to the second grade’s barbecue/picnic on the grounds that I put on the end-of-year teacher luncheon sponsored by the PTA on Wednesday.  Lunch for approximately 50 women and one biker dude.  It turned out well.

Oh.  Right. Yesterday.  So, all 60 of the second-graders trooped up to a park to hang out for the last couple of hours of the day yesterday, along with a few parents, Thing Two, and me.  Here are some highlights (the rest is here).

Thing One with Mrs. R (she was there as teacher, not as Ben’s mom, so she was Mrs. R, not Lisa that day) and Mrs. C, respectively.

I cannot believe this kid is going into the third grade!  Good news on the final report card: She’s doing much better at math after all her hard work.  Yippee!  We saw the results of some of the standardized testing, and her reading level tested out at 5th grade, 8th month.  Last night, she fell asleep reading a Nancy Drew book sometime after 10:00.  Bwa ha ha!  Fruit don’t fall too far from the tree, do it, Nana?