It' s official. As a family we can't fit in all our activities. So I have quit my English as a Second Language volunteer job, for now, so I can take my 6 year old son to Scouts, because my husband is being assigned to work on a lot of week nights. I'm sure I'll be able to start again next fall. Hopefully my husband will have found a more appropriate job by then, with regular business hours.

Work's ok for me. Still working in the call center. No big trips planned for me. I had to miss 3 days of work last week. Two weeks ago my husband got a stomache flu, then strep. Then last week, my 6 year old son got a cold for 2 days, then my 12 year old daughter got it on Friday! Somehow, luckily, I never caught anything!

About a month ago, I sent a letter to a name and address I found on yahoo white pages. I searched the state of California for people with my great-granfather's unusual last name. I did that because I never really knew what happended to my grandmother's only brother. I vaguely remembered her mentioning that he had moved to California and had grandchildren, but I never met any of them. On yahoo, I not only found someone with his last name, I found my grandmother's brother's full name still listed! So I wrote him.

Last week I got an email from my second-cousin! Although my great-uncle's name is still listed in the phone book, it is because his widow keeps the phone in his name. She gave my letter to her grand daughter, very near to my age, and my second-cousin sent me an email reply! It's been so fun. We've been exchanging pictures and anecdotes. She met my grandma and uncle but I never met her grandpa. Our great granmother lived until I was 12 but my second-cousin never met her. We both had visits in the late 70's from our grandparents' cousins from Bergen Norway. It's just been great to hear from her.

My son's 7th birthday is in a week and a half!