I am Rae, mother of nine wonderful children....but you already knew that! So, let me tell you a bit about me before children (BC!)
I was born in Wendell, Idaho. It's a little town near Mountain Home. The Walker family ranch was built by my grandfather--my Dad tells how his dad dug many of the waterways by hand. We left Idaho and moved to California when I was about 3 years old. My maternal grandmother died and was buried in Arroyo Grande (pronounced Grandee). My mother returned from California and told my Dad about the opportunities in the area (remember this was 1952!). They sold the ranch and moved to Grover City (later in 1992 the name was officially changed to Grover Beach). The area is a group of 5 communities--in fact, our house was right on the border of Grover City and Arroyo Grande. The five communities are Pismo Beach, Shell Beach, Arroyo Grande, Oceano,and Grover Beach.
I attended elementary school in Pismo Beach (K-2), Grover City (3-6), and back to Pismo Beach for middle school (but it was still elementary school up to 8th grade back then!). The only high school in the area was in Arroyo Grande. My good friend Evelyn and I have known each other since first grade...we recently got reacquainted through the internet--I'm so glad to have found her again! Another friend I found (actually she found me!) through the internet is Cheryl Cint--we were on the High School newspaper staff and in other activities (many of which I've forgotten....)
Check here for pictures of a couple of my famous (infamous?) relatives...
My best friends are the sisters I never had: Two of these best friends are Michele (on the left) and Hannah (on the right). Michele and I have been friends since we walked our babies (Megan & Danelle) in the lobby during church when they were being too noisy. Hannah and I have known each other for about 16 years now. We keep moving further away from each other, but we know the miles don't matter to old friends...
This is my mother, with Sharona and Samantha when we lived in Auburn. July 1991.
Sand Dunes on Grover Beach
Watching the surfers on the south side of the Pismo Pier was a popular activity when I was a teenager!
Pismo Beach is on the north end of a 25 mile stretch of white sandy beach and sand dunes. A few miles down the beach is the site of the famous 1923 epic spectacular The Ten Commandments, by Cecil B. DeMille. After finishing the movie, they just left the sets in the dunes rather than cart them back to Hollywood. The winds have since pushed sand over all the leftover sets, but there is a group of local people mapping the area and carefully looking for them. Read more about it on the San Luis Obispo archeology page and on the Lost City page.
North of the beach and dunes is the start of more rocky beachs--see the picture of Shell Beach below. And even further north is the community of Morro Bay. Morro Bay is known for the gigantic rock in the bay. The picture is on the right.
Shell Beach has lots of rocks that make the tide pools fun to look through. The beach area is actually small gravel mixed in with small shells. We used to go there for a picnic dinner on Sunday evenings.
Morro Rock rises 576 feet out of a bay full of small fishing boats. It was first sighted by Juan Cabrillo in 1542. It is an extinct volcano peak--the first in a line named 9 Sisters, going inland toward San Luis Obispo.
Movie sets from the first Ten Commandments were built right on the beach and in the dunes. The plaster sets were left to be buried forever in the shifting sands of the dunes.
I don't usually offer advice unless asked, but I just couldn't resist these...
Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt
Dance like nobody's watching....
My brother, Lee, came to visit in October. Here we are looking at an old photo album I made back in the early 60's. Click on the picture to go to a whole page about his week-end visit!
Sometimes there just are no words...
This is a picture of me when I was 18--the summer of 1967. Times have certainly changed, haven't they?
Kyla and Mariah (Saffron's) help me celebrate my recent birthday: November 2003
Hayley (Erin's) and me 5-25-03
My main interest is selling on eBay--I always have fun thing listed. I sell mostly books, but often offer t-shirts, games & puzzles, and anything else I think someone else will like. You can find my listings by searching under my ebay name: raeosenbaugh. Lately I have been busy selling for other people on consignment.
This page was last updated on: April 22, 2009
This is a page I've recently added that has a lot of cute pictures, etc that I've found on the internet. They are free for the taking if you have a use for any of them.
My daughters have encouraged me to write little vingettes about my life...
My passion is eBay. I discovered eBay when I was home with breast cancer. I started buying old postcards from our local area. Then I discovered I could sell things, too (which helped pay for my postcards).
