I have no words...

My dad passed away on Saturday at 6:30 am. He'd been in the hospital since the previous Friday. And while last week was a rollercoaster ride, I'm sure this week will bring just as many dips and turns. It may take me awile to gather my bearings.

About the California Fires...

I've been getting emails about the fires. So, I thought I'd share this map and you can look for yourself. I've been checking back with this map to see the containment of each fire. We live about where Anaheim is. Home of Mickey Mouse (Disneyland) and the Ducks (Stanley Cup Champions). We're out of immediate fire danger. But because of the air quality spent 2 days inside. The kids were so excited play at the park today. We had the Pumpkin tour at the Arboretum, then went to a park to decorate faux pumpkins, picnic, and play.

As I try to get 2 down for a nap, I'm making phone calls for my mom. Things have taken a turn for the worse with my dad. We're all at peace though. It must be all the prayers.

Thank You Ursula

Ursula was my upstream partner in the FFBE. I had a great time emailing her...and look forward to getting to know her better now that I can read her blog too. I love the bag she made me. You should check it out on Ravelry. I finally get a new camera, and I don't want to head outside because of the ash in the air. So, the best daylight I could do was close to the windows.

I love the "flower theme" that I was spoiled with. Hmmm...maybe as there are fewer flowers in the yard I'll try to include knitted flowers for Friday Flowers. I'll definitely have plenty I can knit up...There's the Nickey Epstein book, a tulip kit, and a daffodil pattern. I just got the Holiday IK and I think the Nashua will be the Koolhaas Hat, it's worsted...so I'll just have to see if I get gauge. I like the photos on Brooklyn Tweed's page better than the ones in the magazine. And, I'm definitely a sucker for architecture inspired knits. I may have to come up with a few of my own one day.

And just look at how cute these flower kits are. I saw them online, but I'd never seen one in a store.
And the hat...it will be hard to decide if I should knit a hat for 2 or for myself first. I'm definitely a hat girl. And we don't really need them for warmth here...so it's all about fashion.

And I love the fireflies in the jar on the card. I haven't caught any of those since I was 10 and visiting family in the South.

My Dad...

He's doing better. Sunday afternoon they finally got his blood pressure and other numbers stable enough to move him to a room. Before that, he was in Critical Care which is sort of a triage area after the ER. He is scheduled for an angiogram this morning. But that can only happen if they've drained the fluid from his lungs. They've been working on that all weekend. It's hard to not know. My kids are doing OK with the information. 2 doesn't really know. 4 only gets it slightly. But 5 (almost 6) is concerned. He knows that Papa is diabetic. 5 will turn down fries at McDonald's for the apple slices because he wants to make healthy choices. He gets that some of this is genetic (both of Papa's parents died of heart health issues). And he gets that some of this is lifestyle related. That's quite a bit of information for a little one to take in.

My dad has been my greatest supporter Knitwise. My Memorial Day shopping spree. And then, these...

Miss Me talked about how the woodworkers at her office maybe liked the new Harmony needles from Knitpicks more than the knitters. I knew that would be the case. In the spring, my dad made me these. They are wenge wood. The nob at the end isn't added on...it's turned as part of the piece. Since these were a trial run, none of the 3 are quite the same gauge. Still, I'll probably knit a scarf of something where gauge doesn't matter. My dad is one of those wood workers that would be more excited about the needles than me. But, I purposely haven't showed them to him yet. Maybe I'll let him look at the catalogue that came. I need to look at my current needle collection to see what I need. I like the chart on Ravelry...just need to take the time.

More Backpacks

Backpacks are important to my kids. When I bought them new backpacks this summer, they wore them around the house for days. Often using them for their orange kitties. Before that, the boys had Bob the Builder backpacks that they used for their tools. As long as I gave them "jobs" they were "fixing" things around the house. This week, it's been all about Love Packs for Liberia.

We shopped Target and the 99cent store to fill these packs with notebooks, construction paper, coloring books, pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, markers, colored pencils, rulers, solar calculators, toothbrush & toothpaste, soap, washcloths, combs, hair rubber bands, jump ropes and more. The kids had so much fun shopping for kids in Liberia. I'm glad they like to give as much as they like to receive.