Sharon Vale:  

Life I have worn many hats during my life. My main accomplishment has been raising my four sons. Family is the most important thing in my life. I have been a professional nurse, a baker, a sales person, a fast-food worker, a personal secretary, and an office assistant. They were paying positions outside of the home. I have been married to Christopher for over 40 years. All of my sons are married and have presented us with eleven grandchildren. I am now retired and my husband is semi-retired. Our passion is travelling by train. We have done a cross-country trip, some local jaunts, and many excursions to Texas to see our son who lives there. Our grandchildren keep us busy. One or the other is always into something and Nana and Grandfer try to keep up with them. The key word is try. We travel all over to see them. Only one son is local. Two others are an hour away, and the other a train trip away. We also have three "honorary" grandchildren, giving us a total of 14 young ones to love. We have two dogs and one cat keeping us company in our "empty" nest. They are our new "babies." I volunteer at the local animal shelter. Both my husband and I are nature lovers and try to keep our environment safe for everyone. We are animal advocates, friends of the bay, belong to the local zoo, and also have memberships in numerous environmental groups. Our home is on a wooded plot of four plus acres. We have a stream that runs through our backyard. Our yard is an official "backyard sanctuary". We have many species of wild life here and the stream attracks a lot of them. We recently saw the great blue heron. At night we can hear the foxes that nest in our backyard. What a thrill we got one cold winter's day when we saw the foxes playing "tag" with each other on our frozen stream. They deliberately slid across the ice trying to catch one another. The birds here are to numerous to name. We have seen deer, groundhogs, rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, raccoons, and other assorted creatures. We even have pheasants around. We have recently been disturbed by the amount of building going on around us. More and more of the habitat of these animals are disappearing. More and more are seeking o...Expand for more