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“The Bartered Bride,” an opera, had tryouts in 1985. I tried out for a chorus part and Kali was in the children’s group. It was fun to go to practices together.

Jennifer suffered with numerous ear infections the first nine months of her life. I told the doctor "no more antibiotics" and asked if there was another remedy to the problem. We agreed to let the doctor put tubes in her ears and the infections disappeared. When Jenny took baths, I could not immerse her under water to rinse her hair. That was a small price to pay for no further infections!

A couple of summers I worked at the local strawberry cannery on the assembly line. We picked out the strawberries that were bad. Frank worked one year with me. Eric also worked lifting the boxes off the trucks onto the assembly line. Another summer Frank and I delivered telephone books. We loaded our station wagon and set off for an adventure trying to find the unknown addresses. It was fun in a way to work together on different projects. These were all creative ways we found of supplementing our income to support our family of seven.

Frank took a part-time job as a basketball referee for high school boy’s and girl’s basketball. We were disappointed when we found out he received all his pay at the end of the season. We had to front the cost of the gas until he was paid two months later. He did not referee again because of that.