We had a nice rain yesterday. It is supposed to be beautiful today. Hope to start/finish planting flowers and probably pick a few weeds. Will let Sharon, our house keeper/gardener do the bulk.

This is Port William, Scotland, one of the places we hope to visit. One of my classmates lives in Port William. We can hardly wait. Now wish we had booked sooner. Something to plan for and dream about. We are working on the itinerary so that we can send contact information. We should still be available on our cell phone, hopefully with the same number. We'll let you know.

Talked with Amy earlier in the week. The Gray's had all been down with the flu. Hope you are all feeling better now. They were planting their garden a few weeks ago, So Mary Mary......How does you garden grow?

We haven't talked to Charlie and Cat. Need to give them a call today. I did talk to Steve, Connie was in Texas visiting her mother due to return this week. I also talked to Judie. She and Floyd doing fine and getting ready to make their move from Mesa to Lost Trail for the summer.

After all of my travelling last year it has slowed down enough that I am starting to look at what it will take for me to retire. Not yet, but at least starting to think along those lines.

Time to fix breakfast and get ready for church.

Pre-summer

No pictures this post. Just a note to let people know how we are doing. It is that time of year to start planting the garden. We moved plants that had wintered in the house outside over the weekend. We need to pick up some bedding plants, annuals and perennials, and fix the drip system and we should be set for the summer.

I had a nice visit with both my sister and brother. Both are doing fine. Steve's better was in Texas visiting her mother and will be back Thursday. Judie and Floyd finishing up doctors appointments and getting ready to head for Colorado for the summer. Judie may stop by Albuquerque to pick up Katrina when she flies in for the summer visit. We will try to get up to Lost Trail sometime during the summer.

We would like to go to Delta and pick up Jana's mother and aunt and bring them down to Albuquerque for a short visit and to see our church. We still need to start the process to encourage them to visit.

About all for now will add more the next blog.

Planning a trip

We are very excited here in the Crawford household. We are going to Scotland. We signed up for a tour and will travel to Scotland leaving Albuquerque Aug 14, 2009 and will return Sept 04, 2009. The tour is for 12 days and starts in Glasgow and goes to the nethermost island and back to Edinburgh viewing castles old towns, gardens, lochs and a distillery along the way. We will then pick up a car and drive back to Glasgow where we will stay at the Glasgow Grosvenor Hotel for nine days. we will use the hotel as a base for day trips to places not on the tour or that we want to visit on our own.

On the home side, we had a wonderful Easter Season in our new church. All of the services were wonderful and the altar beautiful.

The Nambe candlesticks and the processional cross and flower vas were all gifts given to the church by and really made a nice setting. Our church family has been truly blessed.

Not much else to report now. we will update family on travel details and i have registered the trip with the state department so that we can be reached in an emergency.

Back in Albuquerque

Hi all,

We are back in Albuquerque for the past week from a two week stay in Virginia. I went out for two weeks work. We used some of my frequent flyer miles on southwest to bring Jana out the second week and then we flew home together. Work was work, I walked my legs off so if I look shorter you will understand why! Jana and I had a great time when I wasn't working.

I picked Jana up at the airport in Baltimore on Friday of my first week there. Saturday we got on the metro and rode into Washington DC and toured the space museum and the new American Indian museum. I had never been to the latter so a great new experience. The outside perimeter of the American Indian museum is this fountain and reflecting pools that run the entire length of the building. This gave Jana the courage to ride the metro when I was at work so she was able to see some of the other memorials that are located on the mall.

We were to early for the cherry blossoms. but the gardens are beautiful and a few of the trees starting to bloom. These pictures are of a garden in front of the castle at the Smithsonian. The pink trees are the magnolias. Very beautiful and very fragrant.

Probably the greatest news we have from out trip is that Southwest has started flying into Minneapolis through Chicago.

Speaking of Chicago, Denver just traded their quarterback to Chicago. I was not overly enthralled with Cutler but I wish him luck with his new team. It will be interesting to see what Denver does with a new coach and a new quarterback.

Hot tub up and running

The final touches to the yard includes the addition of the canopy over the hot tub and of course getting the hot tub up and running again after being off line much of the winter. The canopy looks nice and ties the hot tub into the patio. All that is left for the summer is to start planting flowers. The last frost is historically mid April but it is probably safe to plant by the end of March. Will put pansies in the ground this next week as they can survive a light frost.

I am heading for Virginia tomorrow, Sunday and will be there for two weeks. I am doing some work out there on site that I can not do in the home office. Hopefully I will be able to bring some additional work home. Pending projects, however, will require extensive field time so will probably have to travel back out in the near future.

Jana will fly out on Friday, March 20 and stay until we both return March 28. The weather is supposed to be nice and we should catch at least part of the cherry blossoms. We will be staying in Alexandria Old Town at my usual and preferred hotel.

All the family made it home safe if not tired from their travels. Amy, William and Coleen managed to miss storms on their way home. They forgot to box up some of the warm in phoenix for use at home so have had some cold weather.

I have lots to get done today as I travel early Sunday morning and will arrive in Baltimore around 2:00 pm. It should allow a nice leisurely lunch at Baltimore Harbor before driving down to Alexandria. It is about a 45 min drive with normal traffic and has never taken more than75 minutes.

Family visit

Grandma and granddaughter having some fun in the kitchen. What a delight it is to have Coleen visit from Wisconsin.

And, of course, it would not be a family get together without a puzzle to work on . Charlie, Amy, and Don are the puzzle workers. That is Charlie and Amy in the picture.

Charlie and Cat were able to stay all week. It gave us a chance for a really nice visit, finished the puzzle and they even had time to visit with some of Charlie's friends. they left to return to Seattle Saturday around 2:00PM.

Amy, William, and Coleen collaborating on the construction of Coleen's loom. The loom was a birthday present for Coleen's 10th birthday. Coleen wove a scarf that she left hear for Toulouse. All in all we had a grand time and it was so nice to be able to get all of the family together if even for only a couple of days. I had also taken the week off so was able to enjoy all and not have to be at work.

Praise the Lord, that He, full fills so many of our wishes. and thank you, Lord, for safe travel for the Crawford's on their way to Seattle and the Gray's on their way back to Wisconsin.

Fence finished at last

Well, the fence is finally finished. It turned very nice or at least we are pleased with the outcome.

The next to last section is a gate that opens onto the golf course.








The butterflies were added for decoration. At first we were going to center them in the circle but decided they looked better randomly placed.

The fence and the gates at the front of the house all match in design. There are 18 pieces with 26 welds required for each section. The welds are continuous for each piece so we think the fence will be standing for a long time.

The exciting news for our family is that Amy, Coleen and William are leaving Wisconsin on their drive to Albuquerque this afternoon, in fact, may be on the road as I write this. They hope to spend tonight in Kansas City and be in Albuquerque late Saturday night. Charlie and Cat, meanwhile, are packing and getting ready to get on a Plane Sunday morning and will be here about 2PM Sunday afternoon. We are really excited.

I had a nice visit with my favorite sister today, Friday, as I took the day off to help get ready for our company. I will be off all next week also and am looking forward to showing Cat some of Albuquerque and New Mexico as she has never been to the Land of Enchantment. Judy and Floyd have been going like crazy and expecting more company this week. It sound like they are really enjoying themselves. Makes me want to start thinking about retiring.