For once, I'm speechless!

To all who said "get a blog Ann" (in the nicest possible way) here I am. You know who you are. Thanks to the (so far) anonymous person who set it up for me. I wouldn't have known where to start.

I'll have some pics up soon so anyone who's interested can get a look at the three great-granddaughters I talk about ad nauseam. They've just returned from the corner store and a yard sale and are wrangling over who got the best deal for their dollar. To all three, life is a contest. I think the girl who brought back a quarter won.

If you had told me a year ago I'd be doing this, I wouldn't have believed it. I had to google "blog" to find out what it was. I stumbled across Blogging Baby and fell in love. So much has changed since my own kids (youngest 32 - oldest 49) were little and the different perspectives are fascinating.

Small bit of autobiography. I'm 67, married for 16 years (this time), have 5 kids, 9 grandkids, and the three greats. My husband and I are raising the greats. The girls are 9, 10, and 12 (10 months between the 2 youngest) and I've had them forever, at first with their parents and then not. My oldest daughter lives with me and two of my sons and one grandson (the girls' father) are living in town as well, although the older boy may be Iraq bound with the Guard shortly. I'm keeping my head in the sand and thinking about everything but that.

We're in a small city in the CA central valley; a big change for me and one of the reasons I latched onto Blogging Baby like a liferaft. I have coffee-klatch neighbors but once we cover our kids, the weather, the Giants, and the news headline of the day, we're out of conversation. Lately, I've become more involved in local politics. No one thinks of me as a native, but I'm no longer the "liberal" kook from San Francisco.

I'd love to hear from anybody and if there are grandparents or great- grandparents who find themselves starting over with kids, please join in. I know you're out there.

As many of you know, I have lots of issues and opinions; mostly about the treatment of kids and the world we are bequeathing them. With that wide a spread, surely I can find something to write about. For now, I'm just saying hi to everyone and thanks for the encouragement.