Dear Kids,
          Sadly, Xena made her journey to the Heavyside Layer on Monday morning. We took her to the Arcadia Veterinary Clinic north of Heber, and they were very kind to us. I was with her to the very end, but Dad had to go outside and walk around. Xena has been his special girl for a long time. We brought her body home in a size 14 shoe box, and we buried her out by the playground, alongside the unknown cat I buried last year (in place of Oreo.) We’ve missed her a lot this week. But Tina is very proud to be our only cat now. She sits on Dad’s chest with her paws tucked in and smirks at me. I’m hoping we’ll find a new cat soon, or a couple of kittens, to knock that smile off her face.
            But, looking ahead to brighter things, Easter is next weekend! The picnic is at Nora’s house, starting at noon, and we’ll eat about 1:00. You can call Nora for food assignments, or maybe she’ll call you. (When I talked to her yesterday morning, they were leaving Las Vegas, on their way home from their cruise. I was surprised she could shift gears into Easter so fast.) We’ll have our usual Easter egg hunt! It should be a nice day. Sunshine. No snow. I’m really grateful for all the rain and snow we’ve had, but that white stuff’s getting me down.
          Thursday afternoon I stopped in at Tom and Kim’s to see baby Blake. (Not Frederick Barbarossa!) They had just brought him back from the hospital, for his bilirubin check, but they didn’t have the results yet. I carried him around for a while, and admired his pleasant little face. Every grandchild of ours is a wonderful blessing!
          While I was there, Tom was making sushi, with several kids watching. I watched, too. I wondered how he learned to make it, and he said he’d had samples at Smiths lots of times, and he always asked what they put in it. A roll of sushi at Smiths costs $9.00, but he can make it home for a dollar a roll. Go, Tom!


         Life is tremendously good! Love, Mom