Ron's Little Princess

Who would have thought that Ron would have a Little Princess? He loves Abby so much (and so do I). She has such an expressive face and is quite the cuddler.

2011 Primary CTR 7 Class

Who would have thought that I'd be called as a Primary teacher for the 7- turning 8-years-old. And then to give me a class with four boys--not a single girl! I am one of four daughters, I have two daughters of my own, I was a Girl Scout Leader--give me girls! But I knew that that Lord had a purpose in mind for me. I was able to learn how to teach boys who will become the Priesthood holders of the future. My heart broke on December 18 when I had my last class with Cody, Daniel, Jaxon, and Logan. They will move to Valiant 8 and I will get a new class. I'll have five girls and one boy and a chance to learn to love six more of our Heavenly Father's sweet children.

Christmas in New Mexico

There is a special feel in the cold air of New Mexico at Christmas. We've already had our first snow of the year and the low temperature was 0°. It's been fun to decorate the outside of our house (considered a Spanish Territorial design) in southwest fashion with luminarias lighting the way for the spirit of the Christ child to your home. Ron found a way to weight down the luminarias on the roof so that they didn't blow away during the Santa Ana winds. The inside of our home is full of traditions from many years together. Laura was down the weekend we decorated the tree and it's fun to remember where each of the ornaments came from. They all have special meaning to us--the vegetable ornaments from Gordon's Nursery in Yelm, the German ornaments from the Davis Family, the woven hearts that Lucy made containing an English penny, and, especially, the ornaments the girls have made over the years. The speakers in Church last Sunday asked us to remember to put "Christ" in Christmas this year. We have tried to ponder more about what the Savior's birth means in our lives. We are truly grateful for his birth, life, atonement, and resurrection.

40 Years with the Forest Service

Although I actually hit the 40-year mark on March 9, 2011, the ceremony to award length-of-service certificates was held on December 15, 2011. The ceremony acknowledges the employees of the Albuquerque Service Center; I work for the Human Resources Management group. In addition to a pin and certificate, ASC awards Nambé giftware to employees. The 5-year piece is a small bowl and the pieces get larger with longer length of service. My 40-year tray is the 2nd largest piece that Nambé sells. Nambé is an eight-metal alloy whose major component is aluminum. It was developed in 1953 by Martin Eden, a former metallurgist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Nambé Mills, Inc., was founded in 1951 near Nambé Pueblo, about 10 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The alloy has the luster of silver and the solidity of iron but does not contain silver, lead, or pewter. There are five ASC employees who hit the 40-year mark this year, but I was the only one at the ceremony. As I told many people, it seems like just yesterday that I started work at the Olympia Forestry Sciences Laboratory. I figured it would be a good place to work for a few years. It was 38 years before I left the Olympia Lab to work in Albuquerque. There aren't a lot of 40-year federal government employees who have spent their entire career with the same agency and most of it at the same location. Emily told people that I started as a baby at the Lab--my Mom pushing me around in a stroller doing some filing. It's been a great 40 years and the ceremony made for a very special day.

This monument is dedicated to the Mormon Battalion, the only religiously based regiment in US military history. The monument is located off Interstate 25 between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The unit served from July 1846 to July 1847 during the Mexican-American War. 500 Mormon volunteers marched almost 2,000 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Diego, California. Many say the Battalion march and service was instrumental in helping the US secure much of the American Southwest, including new lands in several Western states, especially the Gadsden Purchase of 1853 of much of southern Arizona.

Praying Mantis

Ron found this praying mantis when he was cleaning out the garden today. I was surprised at how big the praying mantis is; it was at least 2 inches long. New Mexico has bugs that we aren't used to seeing in Washington--stick bugs, children of the earth, and lots of beautiful butterflies.

Just another day at the office

It's balloon fiesta time in Albuquerque. Some days it's even hard to drive to work because the balloons are right in front of you as you drive north on I-25. The balloon fiesta park is just a mile north of our buildings so we often see balloons float near our building. On Monday, October 3, we had a much closer encounter. My boss came out of his office and said that I had to look out his window. I went out onto the balcony near my cubicle and watched as the balloon floated between our buildings and landed in our parking lot. Our security guard went out and watched as the crew took the balloon down--maybe she was afraid that they might be terrorists who had come to invade the Forest Service.

I asked some long-time New Mexico residents if they ever got jaded seeing balloons all the time. They told me that they are always excited to see the balloons go up. It's a truly amazing sight to see hundreds of balloons floating over the skies. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't as good this year and Tuesday-Friday, not a single balloon went up. But I hope these pictures will entice you to make a visit to New Mexico in October!

Ron's First Watermelon

Ron's first watermelon from our garden is a 15-pounder. We'll have more to come.

Living the Life of Riley

The temperature was over 100 today and it was even too hot to sit by the pool to read. Luckily, Emily and I are great floaters and we could read while staying cool!

Smoke from a distant fire

Although the Wallow and Horseshoe fires were burning in Arizona, the smoke has blown into central New Mexico. During the day, the skies are fairly clear; the smoke comes in during the evening and completly obscures our view of the Manzano Mountains. I took these pictures early one morning--it almost looked like fog.

Rick and Terry visit New Mexico

Ron's brother, Rick, and his wife Terry came to visit us in April 2011. We had a great time showing them all the sights, sounds, and culture of New Mexico. We visited the Salinas Missions (who would have believed that New Mexico could be so green). Terry was our tour guide and we learned a lot about these ruined Spanish missions.

We visited Petroglyph Park and we all made it to the top! About half way up the mesa, you are at a mile above sea level (thank goodness we started at about 5000 feet).

We visited the Ventana Arch ("window" arch in Spanish). Unfortunately, because so many people have trampled the area, you can only walk partway up the path.

We went to the sandstone bluffs (Terry is on top of the world). I'm way too nervous to go to close to the edge; it's a long drop down.

I took a picture of Ron and Rick (yes, they are brothers! Ron says that if they could have averaged his 5' 10" and Rick's 6' 7", they both could have been 6' 2") at Sandia Crest. Rather than taking the tram, we drove to 10,678 feet above sea level.

Rick and Terry really enjoyed our visit to Sky City where the Acoma Indians built their village on top of a mesa. There are still about 50 people who call Sky City their year-round home.

We had a wonderful visit with them and look forward to having them come down again.

It was a tough winter

Lucy reminded me that it was time to update my blog. I still have trouble trying to figure out the spacing of text and pictures. We had a rough winter in New Mexico. We had several days below zero and people who have lived here all their lives said it was the worst winter they had ever seen. We lost a fair amount of plants although Ron is discovering new growth on plants we thought were dead. He is learning a lot about gardening in the southwest and is enjoying learning about the trees that grow here--pears, pecans, almonds, and peaches, in addition to apples. We are looking forward to all that fruit later in the summer.

It's spring in New Mexico. Although it's only mid-April, we are already swimming. The pool is about 70 degrees and will continue to get warmer as the weather improves. Emily's dog, Henry, and our Abby are usually the first ones in the pool; they love the water! The problem is that they leave their black hair in the pool and it's a constant battle for Ron to keep the filters clean. The only good part of their swimming is that they are exhausted afterwards and sleep really well.

Touring New Mexico

When Mom came down for Thanksgiving, we visited Abo. It's one of three Salinas Pueblo Missions in central New Mexico. The ruins date back to the 1300s. Fray Francisco Fonte building a small church at Abo in about 1622. In 1629, Francisco de Acevedo enlarged the missionto reflect its importance as the headquaters church of the Salinas district. This church was completed in 1659 and employes buttresses on the 40-foot high walls. It is one of the few remaining examples of medieval architecture in the United States. At Abo, kivas were built in the patios of the conventors. The presence of both Christian and Pueblo sacred buildings and symbols indicates that both belief systems were maintained at the sites.

New Mexico is twice the size of Washington State but has only one-third the number of people. There are lots of wide opens spaces. The documented history here goes back much further
back. The northern part of the state was conquered by the Spanish and people there still feel that the land grants they received from the King of Spain should still be honored.