Hello, again!!

I was just reading my 1-1-11 posting, and I am sorry I haven't written in the meantime. But these things just get away from me.

Granddaughter Esther and her husband had their baby, Wesley Philip Varner, II, on January 20. He weighed in in excess of 8#, and was over 20 inches long. Quote a bit bigger baby than Jenny's little Keeley. A couple of posts back I mentioned that with these two babies, and now Ruth expecting in May, I would probably not have any more babies in the family for the rest of 2011, and then just a few days after I made this comment, I learned that my stepgrandson Vinnie and his wife are expecting again in June. So you see, it just doesn't stop.

Our winter got off to a good, wet start, but then it went on vacation. We have had very little rain for the last several weeks. It has been more like spring. Beautiful sun shiny days, temperatures in the 60s and even the 70s, with very little rain. Now, they tell us this is all going to change. I believe starting tomorrow it is supposed to rain every day for the rest of the week. Beyond that, who knows. All I know is, I am sure glad I live in this part of California. It seems the rest of the country, even southern California, has really been having some severe weather. I'm glad I don't have to put up with that.

I subscribe to a bunch of magazines (11 I believe) and really enjoy them. Nothing to do with current events, sports, fashion, etc. Mostly they are home magazines and memory magazines. By this I mean Country, Country extra, Reminisce, Reminisce extra, Family Circle, Women's Day, Reader's Digest, etc. You may not be familiar with the first ones, but they are the kind that just never go out of date. I am often reminded of things from my youth by what I read in these magazines. In fact, in the Deember/January issue of Country I found an item that brought back some very vivid memories of not too long ago. It was just a short item called "A Lame Duck" and I quote - " A hunter stopped by the butcher shop to buy a duck. 'I'm sorry, but we have no ducks today' the butcher told him. 'How about a nice leg of lamb?' The hunter replied 'Don't be silly, I can't tell my wife I shot a leg of lamb, can I?'

This reminded me of a story about my husband, HRR. He was not a "typical" man, in that he was not one for any kind of sports - athletic, shooting, fishing, etc. One year the fellow he worked with at the county print shop talked HRR into going for a weekend fishing trip with some other guys. Well, when they came home, HRR was the pround possessor of three or four of the nicest fish - chinook salmon, and a couple of trout. I was so proud of him. We even made a bed in the grass to take pictures of his catch. Everything was fine until the next bank statement came in the mail, and there was a cancelled check made payable t a FISH FARM where he had purchased the fish he "caught". I don't remember being upset with him, but we sure had a lot of laughs over this situation thru the years, and this note in the magazine reminded me so much of this particular incident.

Most of the years since I have had a family I have bragged about how they all lived within 15 minutes or so of me. Well, that has sure change the past few years. Now my daughters are scattered - one in Marysville, one in Yuba City, one in Roseville, one in Nevada and one in Texas.
I have a grandson in Seattle, a granddaughter in Natomas (Sacramento) two grandkids in Texas, one in Oroville, a step in the Bay Area, a step in Virginia, a step in Seattle, and great grandchildren as above plus one in Tennessee. Sure not all close together any more. So, when I brag about 17 grandchildren, and 31 great grandchildren, it sounds like I am surrounded by family, but really they are pretty well scattered around and I don't get to enjoy them as much as I would like. Oh well ----

Well, it's getting late, and I'd better call this quits for now -

Later