Bits and Pieces

DAN REMINDED ME, YESTERDAY, that had our Ireland plans worked out, we would probably have been overseas and trying to return home when the Icelandic volcano blew, leaving our flight stranded in Europe, along with 63,000 others (so far). Now that would have been a blog-worthy story!

OUR GRANDSON, ROBERT, made his first trip by air this month. Kelsey, Clara and Robert flew west to be with Kelsey’s family for the big, annual Easter egg hunt out on the family farm. What a trooper Kelsey is, taking an almost 4-1/2-year-old and an almost 4-1/2-month-old on the plane by herself!

AND, SPEAKING OF THE GRANDS, we’ll be driving down to see them in a few weeks. We’ve timed our trip to coincide with Clara’s spring dance recital. Clara is growing up so fast! We talked with her on the phone a couple weeks ago, and she wanted to tell us her memory verses. I sprung a couple tears while listening to her recite five Bible verses, slowly, precisely and accurately! Another verse – not one she recited – popped into my head at the time. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Prov. 22:6)

ON OUR TEXAS ROADTRIP, we plan to make stops in Lubbock to see our good friend, Keith; and in Belton to visit with friends, Darren and Stephanie and their children, who lived here in Albuquerque while Darren was in medical school at UNM.

TIM IS STILL IN TRAINING for his new HP job. Sixteen weeks of training is a long time; it’ll be completed on June 1. He’s still enthused about the position and eager to move on to the “real work.” In other news about Tim, he recently had his eyes evaluated to see if he could have Lasik done on them. Turns out he’s (in the doctor’s words) “a perfect candidate.” He hasn’t yet scheduled the surgery, but is seriously considering it.

TO ALL OUR TEXAS FRIENDS who hesitated coming to visit us in New Mexico because Blue Bell ice cream wasn’t available: Blue Bell has come to Albuquerque! Blue Bell ice cream, made in Brennan, Texas, is a Texas icon, and most Texans, it seems, think there’s no other ice cream worth eating. Y’all come! It’s here! I just might go buy my first half-gallon today.