SharivilleLife stories from Shari

What a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  We are having a lovely Indian Summer here in Northern California.  Today we pulled a double.  The day started out with breakfast at kalico Kitchen, steak and eggs with some of their great salsa, Jerry with his very tasty American cheese omelet. Forgot to mention Tom and Joann Husa joined us.  We then drove up to Dairyville for their annual farm fiesta.  I usually always get Angie some special sauces they sell there every year.  I was not disappointed.  Angie is big on cooking chicken breasts, so I got her 4 different kinds of sauces, apricot, raspberry, blackberry and pomegranate….. We taste tested our way thru the festival, all kinds of nuts, flavored prunes, several different kinds of olives, and of course here in the north valley we are becoming quite famous for our olive oils. They really are fantastic, esp the Meyer lemon olive oil…….The craft booths were esp. good this year.  Seems each year there are more and more varied craft booths.  I looked, but bought only the sauces.  I just really cant find anything else in the world that I need.  More like I need to get rid of a bunch of stuff I already have to much of.

On the way home the 4 of us stopped at a new yogurt shop here in Chico.  Angie and I liked to go a similar shop in Keller.  You serve yourself and put whatever toppings you want on the frozen yogurt and then they sell it by how much it weighs.  Kind of fun,and definitely tasty. From there it was home to let Teddy out for a run and then on to our next event for the day.

Our next stop was over to Almond Blossom home where Kathy lives now.  It was their annual fall spaghetti feed.  It was all sooo good. Homemade sauce and homemade french bread.  Friends and family brought salads and desserts.  My contribution was my just baked oatmeal raisin cookies,  baked the night before. Jerry and I always like to attend the festivities  at Kathy’s home base.  There was a good crowd there, good entertainment, there was the Chicken Dance and the Hokey Poky along with lots of songs from times past, pertinent to the age group at the home.  It was really nice, and Kathy enjoyed it a lot.  George was there of course and his sister Carolyn and husband Ron.  They had just returned from a cruise up the east coast into Canada. Kathy was esp fond of the dessert bar, she has quite a sweet tooth.  She really enjoys her visitors tho.

……So we have a wonderful  and exciting new development in kathy’s life. She has just been granted, via a wish foundation locally, a fabulous trip to Hawaii.  Cory, who owns the care facility where Kathy is,  is on the board of the wish foundation and he presented her case.  She was chosen and her wish had been a trip to Hawaii.  Now everyone has to get it all together to make it possible.  It will be a challenge due to her care.  George of course will accompany her. And take lots and lots of pictures. They will either fly over and take the cruise around and visit all the different islands, which will be 7 days of wonderful pleasure and sight seeing or a 14 day cruise over , all around , and back.  All expenses paid. Kathy is very limited in her ability to get around and is now unable to walk. Although she is wheel chair bound she is still fairly alert and able to enjoy life with what she has left.  It will be a life time dream come true, to bad its so late in life for her.  She and I are very excited about the trip, it really makes her smile when we talk about the trip, so I know she’s looking forward to going.  It will leave wonderful memories for George going forth into the future. Kathy has always had a yen for travel. That was our plan in our “golden years.” At least she will have one dream come true…More to come.         Hugs,  Shari

We chose a family day trip to celebrate our 38th anniversary.  It’s so funny because we remember back so clearly some of the people who said it would never last.  Guess we got the last laugh. I admit, I was a risky, wild child, and led him a merry chase, but Jerry never wavered.  We have had the most wonderful life and raised 2 kids together.  He was a brave man and a good man to take me on plus my two kids. They both turned into productive, responsible, citizens.  Hooray!!!

When I say family day trip, our family is Jerry, me and Teddy.  We wanted to take Teddy up to a lake somewhere in the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada’s so he could swim.  Teddy has not seen big water since he accidentally fell in Angie’s pool when he was about 4 mos. old.  It was practically an all day ride.  We went up past Clipper Mills and Strawberry Valley, Forbstown to a lake, called Little Grass Valley Reservoir.  The weather was perfect, clear and warm. 

We drove up through the golden grassy rolling hills of the valley, up through the scrub oaks and Manzanita,  and up into the piney woods.  The leaves are just barely beginning to change on the deciduous trees.  This is a truly beautiful drive.  We got to the lake and Teddy was so funny.  First he stuck his nose into the water up to his eyeballs and proceeded to blow bubbles.  Then he very carefully waded into the water, then back out, then back in.  Going a little deeper each time.  After awhile he felt safer and began going faster through the water. He never did get to the swimming stage.  Had it been warmer at Angie’s, Casey would have taught Teddy to swim.  But Casey did teach Teddy to counter surf, which has absolutely nothing to do with water.  We rolled the windows down and Teddy stuck his nose out the window and so enjoyed the day.  At one point we turned the car around to take a picture of some garden art, Jerry is so good about turning  around to indulge me and my pictures, and we got attacked by 3 big dogs.  I couldn’t get the windows up fast enough, Teddy was going crazy, so we drove off, and never got the pictures.

On the way home from Grass Valley Lake, we got some directions from a camper there.  We went up over the ridge and down into Feather Falls.  I warned Jerry that in the spring we would be hiking to Feather Falls, something I have wanted to do since forever and now with my new knees I can do it.  It was  of course interesting descending on a curvy road, as Jerry has a lead foot.  It was difficult to catch the lovely scenery and stay in my seat, Teddy included, going 50 MPH around those curves.  I had to keep my thumb on him.   Oroville Lake is really down and looks like we will need some rain this winter. I had just bought the record collection, from Time, you know the ones, called The Golden Age of Pop,  esp for Jerry.  It starts in 1950 . Has some really great oldies.  I had to remind him in 1950 I was about 8 yrs old.  We had the cd’s on and enjoyed a beautiful peaceful ride, listening and singing along with the music.   Music like “Autumn leaves,”" Theme from Picnic”, “Love is a Many Splendored Thing.”   We have decided to take Teddy on more day trips, he had the time of his life.

We came home dropped Teddy off and went to the Roadhouse for dinner.  It was a great way to celebrate our anniversary.  I had a ceasar salad and pork chops with a sweet potaoe with butter and cinnamon, cooked apples  and a glass of wine.  Jerry had his ever popular cheeseburger with a salad, and a beer.  We spent some time reminising about eating at The Green Barn and The Almond Tree in days gone by, oh my, where have the years gone.  We have so very many memories together, we‘ve had so much fun and done so many things.  Cant wait to see what this next year brings for us.  We have some plans, we always have plans, keeps us young.…………. More Later.      Hugs.       Shari and Jerry.

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