Five years and 51 weeks ago....

It's hard to believe sometimes, but Mirinda and I are coming up on our sixth wedding anniversary, and come the end of the year we will have been together for nine years.
We've had are ups and downs over those years, but this past couple of years our marriage has really gotten stronger and stronger and I want to thank Mirinda for that.
I know that there is nothing that can happen that could happen to us, that we won't be able to get through together.
We are a great team, and are only getting better with each passing day, week, month, year and so on.
Thanks for being my wife, my lover, my friend, partner and team mate Mirinda!
Here's to the next anniversary and beyond!
You I LOVE!!
;-)

Home Visit, 1 Month Away

We are now down to two items on our to-do list:
Get life insurance – in process
Get new fire extinguisher (We are waiting on this one as we have one that we hope meets their requirement. The licensing specialist will let us know when she visits. )

The possibility of a child in our home is becoming more of a reality. We are now making plans for mid July and later and have to take into account that we may be a threesome at that time. For example, we went to a movie tonight and saw an ad for the new Harry Potter movie; we could have a little girl in our home by the time it comes out. We were talking about the Sharp Family Camp Out and how sad it will be to not have Ian there, and realized we may have a small one to keep out of the fire pit.

It is exciting and overwhelming. I am sure many of our questions are the same as any parent- will we be good parents, can we give a child what she will need, how will it change our relationship with each other, what will she like to do? But we are also afraid of the process. How many placements will we go through before we find ‘our’ child?

I am already feeling anxiety about cleaning the house for the home visit.
For those of you who are actually following this bizarre journey, we got a dog play pen and put it around the stove. I think it doesn’t look too bad, it cost under $100 (one of the cheapest options) and once it is no longer necessary to protect children, we can use it for chickens. (Cross your fingers, the city council is taking general comment)

Here it is.

Spring Garden Report

We have our garden planted- if you don’t have yours in, do it soon. It’s finally time for even the tomatoes.

We went to the Wasatch Community Garden Plant sell and followed it up with the Living Green festival and came home with all our plants. One day I will try peppers and tomatoes from seed, but I am not ready for that yet. Especially considering how easy and fun it is to buy heirloom varieties at the local plant sales. I ran into three people I know and met some interesting others. We waited in line with one of the new owners of Calcium Springs Farm. Check them out here http://calciumspringsfarm.com/default.aspx They are one of the newest CSA’s in the area, located in Parleys Canyon.

Unfortunately we lost one already- we forgot to put the bird netting up and they got the fish pepper. It was just small enough to be tempting, but apparently they didn’t like it as they spit it back out. We have never tried fish peppers- which are white and on the hot side when fully grown. We were planning to try a white version of our wedding day love salsa. We picked up a white tomato and with some tomatillos- but oh well, maybe next year. Or maybe if you get some nice fish peppers from your garden you will share? They are an heirloom variety and you can’t expect to find them at wall mart. We did try replanting the poor thing but it was too late.

One of our ‘experiments’ this year is dry beans. We are trying black beans and a mottled red that is like a pinto. The red- Vermont cranberry- sprouted quickly enough so we are feeling hopeful.

We plan to expand the garden again this year with a long box, about 4’X 12’ but we are not planning to have that one ready to plant for this season. I also want to make a compost box.

Our to do list for licensing is getting shorter:
1. Screen Wood Stove
a. Figure out how to screen wood stove affordably
2. Medication and Chemicals
a. Install magnet locks
3. Verification of Health, life and Auto insurance
a. Figure out how to verify Brian’s health insurance (in process)
b. Get life insurance (in process)
4. Fire extinguisher?

The biggest problem now is screening the wood stove. I have come up with three options, one is ugly, one is expensive and one is difficult. Wish us luck!

Can you survive the flue?

It looks like any true concern about the new swine flu can be shelved till fall. But you can still take this opportunity to check your preparedness preperations. Are you ready for a viral outbreak?

While I don’t claim to be an expert, I do believe I know a few things about dealing with viral outbreaks. I love zombie movies and I listen to Coast to Coast during my frequent nights of insomnia. Don’t laugh; you can learn a lot form crazies and science fiction.

In a true epidemic you need to be prepared to quarantine yourself in your home for 30 to 60 days. They say that even with a really bad outbreak you can expect your utilities to keep running for at least 30 days. So that makes the job of being prepared a lot easier.

The first thing you need is food. We have pretty good food storage. Not perfect, but we won’t run out of coffee and cereal. Our meals may get a bit unusual towards the end, but we should be able to eat. I did pick up some powdered milk this week. It only lasts a year and we don’t use it so I don’t usually have it. But I thought about eating all that cereal without milk and added it to my grocery list this week.

In this emergency you don’t need to worry about water, but you may want to make sure you have a water purifier anyway. While water should be available, if there is a problem it may take a long time to get fixed. No need to take any chances. We don’t have a water purifier but we do have bleach and know how to boil water.

The next thing you need to consider is entertainment. Don’t underestimate the destructive power of boredom. The last thing you want is a familial reenactment of the mutiny on the bounty. It is important to your immune system to keep your spirits up. It has been shown that fear and worry depress your immune system. As long as the Internet keeps running, I think we will be OK. We have books, games, movies etc. to keep us going. I think a new Wee game would be nice, but we could survive 60 days locked up together without it.

Once you determine that you can survive a quarantine you need to consider preparedness for the actual illness. I put this second on my list because there is less you can do. Unless you can score some Tamiflu the only thing you can really do is build your immune system. You already know how to do that, although few of us really do. Get enough sleep, eat at least 5 servings of produce every day, keep your stress levels manageable, and get regular exercise. By the way, going back to your quarantine plan, can you continue to eat 5 servings of fruits and veggies, and exercise while quarantined? There is some question as to how well and how long those masks you see in the newspaper photos work. If you are going to try them, stock up this summer, while they are available and affordable.

If you do get sick there is even less you can do. First and most important- don’t go to a hospital or clinic unless it is life and death. Your family doctor would be the best option for antiviral medicine, if it is available, if it is effective against whatever virus you are dealing with. A good first aid kit that includes your favorite cold medicine will help. This new swine flu affects the upper respiratory system so a humidifier will help as well. Again keeping your spirits up is important. Don’t underestimate the power of the will to live.

You can’t be prepared for every emergency, but every day the news offers us scenarios to consider. How prepared are you? Could you survive the latest threat? How would you handle what is happening over there? If you are prepared, you don’t need to fear.

There is good news and bad news in the Team Schiele Parenting category.

The bad news is that Ian does not want to come this summer. He is 15, has a girl friend and wants to get a job. He has decided to spend a few weeks with his Mothers parents (other grandparents) and then get a job. (To support his new girl friend habit?)

The good news is we have an appointment for licensing on June 29th. We are STILL not ready, but decided to set an appointment and hope that the deadline gives us the impetus to get it all done. This means that we can expect a placement between Mid July and Mid January.

Here is what we still need to complete:

1. Screen Wood Stove
   a. Figure out how to screen wood stove affordably
2. Outlet covers and stair gates
   a. Find cheep/free stair gates (need 2)
3. Medication and Chemicals
   a. Install new locking door knobs
   b. Buy magnet locks
   c. Install magnet locks
4. Verification of Health, life and Auto insurance
   a. Copy my insurance card
   b. Figure out how to verify Brian’s health insurance
   c. Copy auto insurance policy
   d. Get life insurance
5. Buy new fire extinguisher (ours is not big enough for code)

Thanks to Manda, I may have number 2 complete. The biggest problem is with number 4. Although Brian has a job, we are hoping it is temporary. He really does not like his job and it doesn’t pay what we want. We have insurance until July from the Army, and are hoping to wait for “the real job” to get new insurance. Also, I don’t have life insurance so I need to get some.

In other news- we are getting central air! Yeah! This will change my life. No more planning my day around the heat in the summer. I had over 8 estimates (a bit of overkill, but I am like that) and I feel like I was able to make an educated decision.

Also my computer crashed last week and I had to get a new one- but I am working on blocking out that memory. It was a very bad week. This week has been better.

Up in our Grill

Conversations we had many times in Cancun:
Where you from?
Utah
Blank stare
Salt Lake?
Oh yes, I love your Jazz!
Insert pithy comment about music from Brian
Blank Stare

Whats your name?
Mirinda
MirAAAnda?
No, Mirinda, like the soda
Oh yes, Mirrrinda, very nice.

You buy?
NO
How much you pay? Give me fair price?
X US
No, Seniority, this hand made! Worth XXX pasos.
How much US?
You give me fair price, I sell cheep.
X US
But Hand Made!

No gracias, no buy.

So I always thought it was so cute that every spring the Denos family got a bird’s nest in there barbeque. The kids got to see the eggs and the baby birds. How sweet! Not sweet at all I think now.

The problem is either I am cheep or they just don’t make good grill covers. It seems like every 9-15 months we have to buy a new cover for our barbeque grill. When the last one died I swore we would not just go to the orange box or the blue box and get another one that would fall apart. I decided I would find a good one that would last or make one myself. Like many of my good intentions, it ended up on the project list and I never got around to it.

A few days ago, we went to grill some burgers and found the beginnings of nest in the grill. Not seeing the actual birds or any eggs, we cleaned it out and made dinner. Two days latter the nest was back, bigger then before!

We went to the blue box and I made Brian pick out the “BEST” cover he could find. We will see if it lasts longer than a year.

First Aid Kit contents for Licensing:
Quick reference first aid manual
Surgical Soap
Sterile Guaze pads
Scissors
Tweezers
Assorted band aids
Flexible Gauze Bandages
Cotton
Tongue blades
Cotton swabs
Bandage tape
Thermometer
Rubber gloves
Ace bandage
Alcohol wipes
Safety pins.

I heard about this great place that sells cheep medical supplies. Not wanting to spend more then I needed on the above items not already in the house, I went to find it. I mean really, if any of you actually have ALL those items on hand, at this moment, I will make you a pie.
Of course I got lost and ended up coming across an accident. A motorcycle, a car and a van. The police had yet to arrive and the motercyler was lying in the road with his bike just off him yelling into a cell phone that he didn’t know the address, and no, he couldn’t look around. There were a few pg13 words added. The van driver was sobbing, and the car driver was directing traffic away from the guy in the road. Just as I was trying to figure out what to do the police showed up and took over so I left- to get my first aid supplies. Ironic.

But it got me thinking about not living my life by accident, living more intentionally. It is so hard for me to live in the moment. To live each hour on purpose. I am not sure how to change that. I often find myself lying in the middle of the proverbial road, on my back yelling that I don’t know where I am. First aid supplies for life are a bit more difficult to purchase.

Our little trip to Cancun......

It's hard to really come up with the words to say about our little trip to Cancun last week, so you'll see a lot of pictures. Needless to say, we had a great time doing a whole lot of nothing, a little bit of this and that and a good amount of stuff that only Mirinda and I will know about... ;-) ;-)
























The sun rising just above the Wasatch mountains, a great way to start out a trip by watching the sun rise with the one you love. I am more of a morning person and Mirinda isn't, so being able to enjoy this with her was special for me.

It's been a long winter here in Utah, so being out in the sun and nice weather sure put smiles on our faces easily.

One of the yummiest things we did was eat! The resort we stayed in had a gourmet restaurant, which we ate at twice, and really enjoyed it. I think each meal consisted of four or five courses depending on what you got.

This is the soup course of my meal, it was called a "Trilogy of Soups". Each was served in tiny glasses or cups. I don't remember much about them, but the first one on the right was served in a shot glass, and shot in the name. The second soup was a cold soup, and was a fruity soup with watermelon. The last soup was served in an espresso cup, and probably had some a little espresso in it too.
This was one of the soups Mirinda had one night, I don't remember what they called it, but there was a reason it was served in a champagne glass, it had something to do with what they called it, but it was really just a tortilla soup. It was yummy!

The next menu item was from the "hot starter" part of the meal, which was the last course before the entree. They called this a "seafood lasagna", the pictures don't do this any justice but it really looked like lasagna, and it was also delicious.


Another view of the "seafood lasagna"


















This was one of the appetizers I had, it's Beef Carpaccio, the picture doesn't do it any justice, but it was tasty too! It's basically raw thin beef tenderloin, with some greens of some kind, with a splash or two of a vinaigrette and some Parmesan cheese.



















One one of the nights we ate there, we both were in the mood for some meat, some each had the rib eye steak; it was such a huge slab we should have just ordered one and shared it.



















And of course no meal would be complete without desert and coffee, this was a yummy chocolate cake. I love the artsy touches they put on each meal, it's really cool!


















But of course Cancun wasn't all about food and drink, it was about relaxing and pampering ourselves. So for the cost of about two hours of time we got a couples massage and pedicures.



















How could you not relax with a view like this...


















Our cute toes after our pedicures! Which by the way is the only picture we have of us together on the whole trip!


















The view from the terrace around the lobby....


















A big reason I wanted to go to the part of Cancun that we went to was because I wanted to go fishing, so I booked a day of fishing trough Cancun Fly Fishing Dot Net. I was hoping to catch a tarpon, but they are easily spooked and are hard to land. I had a couple on the line, but I wasn't able to set the hook quick enough. I fished with a fly rod and a spinning rod, because it was very windy that day.

The beach where I started from:


















The boat I was on for the day:
























And me and the barracuda I caught that day...























The novice angler that I am, I am elated that I caught something; it was late in the day and the conditions were challenging to say the least, but man was it cool!
I was about an hour outside of Cancun in a rather remote part of the area, and saw some amazing wildlife that I had never seen before. I saw a number of saltwater crocodiles and even an eagle ray.

We did our part to stimulate the economy of Cancun too, we even stopped at the local Wal-Mart of all places because it was recommended to us by several locals.
One of the more interesting things we saw at the Wal-Mart was something called "acid cream", we never figured out what it was, but we thought it was sour cream, because we were in the dairy section.
Another interesting translation we thought was funny was "Salsa Inglaterra" which translates to English sauce, which we know as Worchire sauce.

We found out that Mirinda and I have something in common with Cancun, in that we were all "established" in the same year.

All in all it was a great trip, Mirinda and I had a wonderful, I would have never guessed 21 years ago when I first got into the military that I'd go on such a wonderful trip and have such a wonderful time with such a wonderful woman.