Finding Inspiration...

Last night, I had the pleasure of finally meeting Mrs. Emily Grosvenor of Desperately Seeking Salem fame.  I'm not really sure when I started following Emily's blog, it was shortly after she started it, but have thoroughly enjoyed her take on Salem as a newbie.

While attending Emily's blogging class at Clockworks last night, one of the things that stood out to me was the need to have a blogging direction.  My current blog direction has been more of the personal nature and will continue to include some of that.  And of course there will be cats - if I can't get away from them neither can you.  But, I've also tried to keep it local, with photos of our city.  This is the area I want to expand, including thoughts, opinions and reviews of what is going on in my city.  I've lived in Salem since I was four.  I'm not going to do the math, but that's 30 years.  Wait, I said no math.  Grr. Anyway, I've got a lot of thoughts on where we've been and where we are going.  Stay tuned...

Kids...

It's interesting how much something can effect you when someone tells you you can't.  We always knew we wanted kids, we were just never sure when.  We wanted our financial situation just right or our house just right or have enough time off from work.  Mostly, we just wanted to have time to be married before the kids set in.  We were so excited by the first pregnancy and so very bitterly disappointed by the miscarriage.  The second pregnancy may have been worse, because we heard a heartbeat and miscarried 4 days later.  And 2 years later, we've got nothing.  After months of Clomid and taking my temperature every morning at 6:00 am, the doctor thinks it's not going to happen.  There's a small possibility of getting pregnant if we spend a lot of money we don't have on a fertility expert.  At this point, we've talked about adoption and need to get enrolled in the adoption classes with DHS, but we're both feeling pretty helpless.

The worse thing for us both is how very hard it is being surrounded by all of our friends, family and neighbors who have children.  We aren't resentful of them, just resentful of not being a part of it.  It is so hard for us to do something as simple as going to the park and seeing all of the families with their kids.  We both get so frustrated when we see someone with a herd of kids they don't even seem to like, never mind enjoy.  Even our closest friends and family have no idea the deep seated pain in causes for both of us.

Frankly, we don't talk about it except for an occasional private cry in bed late at night.  People don't know how to respond to it, don't know what to say.  That's okay, we don't know what to say either. Just do me a favor... remember that you never really know what is going on in someone's life, behind their closed door.  Just love them and support them and honor them the best you can.

Twitter...

I swore I would never do it.  I couldn't imagine that I would have anything interesting to say to post status updates.  For pete's sake, I rarely do the Facebook status updates.  But, when I started hanging out with a great group of ladies once a week for Happy Hour, I took the plunge.  They were all on Twitter and they are such a fun, hilarious group of ladies, I felt like I was missing out.  So, I jumped in.  I am not a hardcore Tweep, mostly I Tweet funny things that have happened throughout my day and respond to other Tweep's Tweets. I'm pretty selective with who I follow and who follows me: I mostly follow local Salem Tweeps and local Salem businesses.  It keeps me connected with my community.   We've had a few Tweet-ups, which has been great fun, meeting new Salemites and hanging out.  Twitter has offered a great opportunity to get to know local people who really just want to support our city and our local businesses.  Thinking about twitter and are a local person? Look me up!  Join the fun.

I have Smart Phone Envy...

There, I said it.  I am envious of all my friends who have smart phones.  I personally have an "average intelligence" phone.  Yup, if my phone took an IQ test, it would score 100.  If not for the touchscreen, it would have scored around 85.  We're due for new phones in August and I had been counting down, licking my lips and drooling over the Droids.  I polled my Tweeps (Twitter People), who told me which one to go for.  I was set, counting down the days.

But, then something changed.  First, I started researching costs.  Do I really want to pay an extra $30 per month to have internet access on my phone?  If both hubby and I got smart phones, we would pay more for internet on our phones than we do for the high speed internet at our house.  Second, one of my Tweeps recently took a hiatus from Twitter, citing it was too much of a distraction, always staring at his phone.  I realized that maybe having an average intelligence phone IS a good thing.  I can't spend my day playing on my phone, distracted from real life.  I can only tweet by sending "blind tweets," text messages from my cell phone, without seeing a response immediately.  I can only check my email, my facebook, my twitter, and all my other internet obsessions (I'm talking to you Cute Overload, I Can Has Cheezburger, and Itty Bitty Kitty Committee - can you see a pattern?) while on the computer.  And I really don't like to sit in front of the lap top for long periods of time - it's hot and not that comfortable.  In fact, now that I am out of grad school, I rarely turn the computer on over the weekend.  It's a great break and it keeps me from getting to obsessed.

In this age, I think we have lost some of our civility.  A friend showed me a book she's been reading last night called "Choosing Civility: the 25 Rules for Considerate Conduct" by P.M. Forni and it got me to thinking.  It use to be (back in my days, kids...) we didn't answer the phones or the door during dinner.  If you were out with friends, there wasn't the distraction of a cell phone ringing.  We weren't instantly available for anyone and everyone to reach us.  That has been totally lost with all of this new technology and I miss it.  For me, I try to make it a general rule of thumb: if I am with another human being, I don't answer my phone unless it's an emergency or information I've been waiting on.  Everything else can wait.  I don't expect this from anyone else, just something I do for myself, because I don't want to get lost in a world of technology.  I want to balance it with real life experiences. 

Kung Pao Chicken...

I love Kung Pao Chicken.  It's my favorite Chinese dish.  I have never cooked Chinese food before, it's always intimidated me.  But, for some reason, this week I decided I was going to try to make Kung Pao Chicken.  After considerable internet research for a good Kung Pao recipe, I decided to go with a bottled Kung Pao sauce.  The homemade sauce recipes I found required Chinese wine and I didn't want to send the time or money searching for it.  I got a bottle of Panda Express Kung Pao sauce at Safeway and I stopped at Freshmart, the new fruit and veggie store in Salem to pick up the veggies.  It turned out to be a delicious and healthy dinner.  I served this with a quick "fried" rice recipe I threw together.

Kung Pao Chicken

• 1 pound chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
• Panda Express Kung Pao Sauce
• 1-2 tablespoons Vegetable oil
• 8-12 dried Chinese peppers
• 1 Zucchini, diced
• 1/2 Green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 Red bell pepper, diced
• 3 green onions, diced
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 4 stalks celery, diced
• 2 tablespoons minced ginger
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 can sliced water chestnuts
• 1/2 cup Peanuts

1. Marinate chicken in Kung Pao sauce, enough to coat, for 2 hours.
2. Heat large, deep skillet on high with vegetable oil.  Add dried Chinese peppers when oil is hot.  Cook peppers until they turn dark in color.  Remove peppers from the oil.
3. Add chicken in marinade to oil and let cook through, approximately 4 minutes.
4. Add all vegetables and cook 2-3 minutes.
5. Add 1/4 - 1/3 cup Kung Pao sauce and stir to combine, cooking until sauce thickens slightly.
6. Add peanuts.
7. Serve and enjoy.

A Vacation, Day 2...

Day 2 of our vacation was really still just me.  For my own graduation gift, I decided I wanted to go to a spa.  I had exhaustively researched spas in the Bend area and finally landed on Shibui Spa.  They told me I could come early and soak in their soaking tub and I took full advantage of this.  Then I had the Three Sisters Fix Facial and a pedicure.  It was amazing.  What a relaxing place.  One more reason I wished I lived in Central Oregon.  I then wondered a very empty Sisters (no one's around on Mondays) and had lunch at my favorite deli, Depot Deli.  I headed back to Eagle Crest and Cesar arrived around 5pm.  We ordered pizza in and spent the evening relaxing and watching movies. 

A Vacation, Day 1...

On our 5th anniversary, we went to Seattle for a long weekend and stayed downtown.  It continues to be one of our most treasured memories.  At that time, we swore we would do something big for our 10th.  Well, the 10th anniversary was in February, when I was in the middle of student teaching (read: no paychecks!).  So, we compromised our plan trip to Hawaii in June and settled for something more reasonable (and appealed to my fear of flying - near plane crash - that's a story for another post).  We booked 5 days at Eagle Crest outside of Redmond, OR.  Its always been one of our favorite spots and it seemed like a nice, relaxing place to celebrate both our 10th anniversary and the completion of my master's program.

Since Cesar had to work both Sunday and Monday, I drove over Sunday by myself.  This drive proved to me how much I really am my father's daughter.  Growing up, we took lots of road trips.  Mom always wanted to stop at every little place along the way.  Dad, who always drove wanted to just get there.  It was about making it to our destination.  And I found myself fighting this very urge all the way to Sisters.  It was a gorgeous day and drive and I had to fight that DNA every time I pulled over to take a picture.

Detroit Lake from Mongold Day Use Park

The road to Detroit is full of very fond memories for me.  My dad painstakingly restored a jet boat when I was a kid and our family time was spent driving to Detroit either for the day or to camp many times throughout the summer.  The drive reminded me of some wonderful times with my family and had me smiling with memories of my dad.

A not quite full Detroit Lake with Mt. Jefferson in the background.

The boat dock, in Detroit.  Docked at many times in my youth: