Catching up

Catching up with the last few weeks:

Christmas in July was a successful summer-time show with more than 1,500 unique visitors and over 170,000 hits over the two-day period of the actual show. The "Oh Bears Show" is scheduled for November 15 and 16, 2008. It's not too early to mark your calendar.

Ashley was laid-off from her teaching job in the desert earlier this year because of budget cuts. Good news: she's been hired by the Corcoran School District in the Central San Joaquin Valley. She'll be staying with her good friend, Adrianne, in Hanford while looking for a place of her own. Ashley was about 11 when we moved to Corcoran and spent 5th - 12th grade in Corcoran schools and Adrianne has been her dear friend ever since. Ashley previously taught middle school in Corcoran before moving to Alameda so she has a sense of coming home as she looks forward to this move. Corcoran is a small community; everyone knows everyone and she's been welcomed very enthusiastically this past week.

During a long weekend at the first of the month, Allyn and I attended a Waggle family wedding in the San Diego area. Our nephew, Greg Waggle, married the lovely Andi Whitaker in a beautiful ceremony at Orfila Vineyards in Escondido. The backdrop of the mountains behind them as they recited their vows at 5 pm was just lovely and the dinner that followed was delicious. Greg and Andi very graciously invited family members from both sides to the wedding rehersal dinner on Friday night. This weekend gave us an opportunity to reconnect with family members that we don't very often have the chance to see. We had a wonderful time.