I have one blood niece, one nephew who was adopted by my sister at about age 4, and a niece and nephew who are foster kids (not related to me by blood, not adopted). We only see each other at big family gatherings--and not even all the time then. I have a daughter who does communicate with and get together with her cousin regularly. They're very close. Partly, I agree that geography plays into it. None of the nieces and nephews live too close to me. Nearest one is going to school about 45 miles away, the farthest lives 1000 miles away. Partly, it's a lifestyle thing. Of mine--one is married with 2 children, working long hours to support his family; one is going to college, taking a very difficult and time-consuming major and has little free time at best; other two are expecting, and are very busy with just getting by on a day to day basis. And lastly, I think it's a generational thing. I don't hang around with people who are 30-40 years older than I, and I can certainly appreciate that my nieces and nephews probably don't see a lot of common ground between us As to my aunts/uncles? I see one aunt a couple of times a month--I'm basically her support system, and in charge of her affairs if anything should happen to her. But I haven't seen any of my other aunts/uncles for many years, except at funerals/weddings (and not always then--the ones who live half the country away didn't make it here for Mom's funeral last month) Not that I wouldn't like to see them, but our lives have diverged, and we all have so many responsibilities on our plate that sometimes there just isn't time for visiting back and forth.

Darn it! Meant to say "congratulations" to both stoneybaloney and pplantlady. And this insert from the link... Granduncle/grandaunt and grandnephew/grandniece are equivalent to great-uncle/great-aunt and great-nephew/great-niece. Both great-uncle and granduncle refer to an uncle of one's father or mother. Neither form is definitively more correct than the other.

Ditto with Dave - this is a first I've heard that "forks" killed a tree. Maybe several dozen that severed ALL the roots? Oh well, bummer. I'd give it a chance to recover if the branches are still green. Recovery takes time, so be patient (6 months - 1 yr). Cori Ann, you can grow ANY Grapefruit in Livermore. you have the warm nights in mid summer that will sweeten the fruit up. And that is the key... where south Texas has those warm nights early on that sweeten the fruit by February March, our cooler spring delays the ripeness until late June/July or even August. Having said that, I just had an Oroblanco for breakfast yesterday morning.. and a Redblush this morning. the OroB has sweetened up and NICE (first decent crop - took 3 years). The OroB doesn't get ripe until late February / March in Danville. The Redblush I had to harvest because there were too many on the branch (looking like a grapevine) pulling it to the ground. The Redblush in years past has not colored up until July so I am waiting to see if this years' crop is the same. An alternate to the Oroblanco is Melogold... I can report back on those over the next week. Costco had dozens of Oroblancos last month... I might check their Concord Garden Center later today and report if I see some. BTW: I scored with a Rio Red on C35 earlier this week in Danville !!!! : - )

I know a woman who is in a similar situation. Her daughter was murdered by her estranged husband who then committed suicide. The children were in the house at the time and were about ages 8 and 12. They have a grandmother who is probably in her late 70's and an aunt who is single, by choice, and who has no desire to rear children. They have hired a nanny, are sending them to summer camp, and will send them to boarding school when old enough to go. Frankly, I think it would have been better if they had been put up for adoption as they have to know they are not wanted. They've really had quite enough trauma in their young lives.