News

	News from Guam Updated 6/07/08
Home Pictures News South Side Tour Feedback	June 7, 2008 Almost a year since the last update; what a slacker I am! I hope the new look is working for you. Since our last update, we have been busy. We are both Basic Open Water Divers and Enriched Air NITROX divers and will soon be Advanced Open Water Divers. We are so irritated that we didn't do this right when we got here! Diving has opened up a whole new world and a whole new drain of the wallet but it is amazing and fun. Yes, all of the underwater picture on this site either Erin or I took here in Guam. We have dove the reefs at the local beach, the Tokai Maru / HMS Cormoran wreck in the harbor, a night dive where we were greeted by a White Tip Shark (so cool!), and have swam with some amazing looking fish and a Hawk-bill Sea Turtle. I have been selected for orders to Afloat Training Group Pacific North West and we will be moving to the Everett, WA area around December of this year. Work has been treating me well with positional promotions and very good evaluations. Erin has such a social circle now that she needs a day planner to avoid double booking her time! Many of our friends have children around Aiden's age so he is having a blast too. June 22, 2007 Aiden's new obsession.....BOB THE BUILDER! He loves Bob the Builder. He is also getting into The Land before time Dinosaurs. It's quite annoying when he comes home begging for one and then immediately changes his mind and then again changes his mind and then again changes his mind.....yes it goes on and on like this for as long as his attention span allows. It's quite annoying. But he is still too cute for words. I recently brought home a bunch of his artwork from school, I'll make another page to display for all to see. My kitchen wall has a bunch of it up. I like the decor :) Mike IS DONE! With his ESWS that is! (surface warfare qualification) He is now REALLY eligible to make chief. We won't find out the results of chief advancements until the first week of August though. Mike is excited even though he tries to pretend he's not. He is also going to Japan July 8th for 3 weeks for a class. I'm just glad it's only 3 weeks. My first cross-stitch is almost done. No I'm not putting pictures of it up yet because it's actually a gift for someone :) So the picture will go up after that person receives it. (Most of my cross-stitch projects will be gifts) No new pics this time but give me a couple of days and I'll have some of Aiden and his best buddy Josiah. We are probably going to the pool Sunday so that ought to make for some cool pictures. LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL :) May 28, 2007 Sad news to share with all. Mike's older pepper plants are about dead. The roots were savagely attacked by cut worms. Those nasty creatures should be exiled to a deserted island......oh, wait a minute. DOH! Good news...Aiden still loves Mommy! :) Ahh...just warms my heart . (When he's not screaming bloody murder) We have a new resident on the back porch. Odds are he won't be around very long, Mike just spotted 5 baby lizards on the back porch. That's not counting the adults. Can we say Lunch? Aiden's ear infection is gone now, and my hearing has returned to my right ear, finally. Although I think the infection is still there because it does hurt from time to time. I don't care...I'm just glad I can hear again. Mike is the scratching post for Abby now. heeheehee. She constantly jumps on him, out of nowhere and tears into him, hanging on mind you, not caring how far off the ground she is or what part of him she is clinging to. It's quite funny when it's not happening to me, heeheehee. We plan to get a cat tower in the next month or so. This is all dependant on whether or not the local pet store gets a shipment in. Hopefully this will help deter Abby from using Mike as the tree. Unfortunately she has to make do until it arrives. (Poor Mike...LOL) In conclusion, nothing too extravagant to report. Time to cook dinner! May 19, 2007 For those of you who don’t know, we have adopted two new members into our family. Abby, a black long-haired kitten, and Ginger, a tortoise shell colored short hair. They are very loving attentive female kittens that Orion gets along with quite well. Orion is learning that he has to be gentle with them, I think that part is frustrating for him. Abby and Ginger are only about 9 weeks old and Orion is a year and a half. As you see in the pictures there is quite a size difference. Aiden is definitely going through the terrible twos. If he doesn’t get his way he screams bloody murder and hits things. (Right now I’m sure all of the family members with grown children are chuckling and saying “I remember”). Needless to say we have had to hear this quite frequently, teaching him he can’t get everything he wants. However, right now thankfully, reverse psychology works on him. If he tells me “No, I don’t want that!” I reply “Okay, it’s mommy’s then!” His response….”NOOOOOOO!!!!! AIDEN’S!!!!!” ahhhh…..terrible twos. Mike is doing well at work, as always, whether he likes it or not. He is having a blast growing peppers out back. My pride and joy in the garden are my yellow roses. They are growing quite beautifully. We will be doing our best to keep up with this as we can. We love and miss you all. Only ~ 480 days left on the island J ! Erin 5/5/07 I hope you all are enjoying our new web site. This is something I've wanted to do for a long time and procrastination had been getting the better of me. As I learn more about the ins and outs of webpage editing and design (and FrontPage 2003!) you should see fairly regular changes to this site. Let me know what you think! I love feedback, including constructive criticism. I'm already aware of the large file sizes of most of the photos; bear with me as I tweak the site's design. As for the advertisements in the corners, I like my web hosting service and found it fit to advertise. Check out their prices, it seems too good to believe! For those poor depraved souls living in third world conditions trying to see PIECKIEL WEB over a dial-up connection, umm, well, uh, well,..........sorry! I'll see what I can do about making a "speed-of-smoke-signals" friendly section. UPDATE: I've started reducing the picture file sizes for the displayed photos. For the zipped collections I am leaving the files as originals. Only the new photos conform to the new format so far. If you would like to provide feedback please email Mike at michael@pieckiel.com. Mike

News from Guam

Updated 6/07/08

June 7, 2008

Almost a year since the last update; what a slacker I am! I hope the new look is working for you.

Since our last update, we have been busy. We are both Basic Open Water Divers and Enriched Air NITROX divers and will soon be Advanced Open Water Divers. We are so irritated that we didn't do this right when we got here! Diving has opened up a whole new world and a whole new drain of the wallet but it is amazing and fun. Yes, all of the underwater picture on this site either Erin or I took here in Guam. We have dove the reefs at the local beach, the Tokai Maru / HMS Cormoran wreck in the harbor, a night dive where we were greeted by a White Tip Shark (so cool!), and have swam with some amazing looking fish and a Hawk-bill Sea Turtle.

I have been selected for orders to Afloat Training Group Pacific North West and we will be moving to the Everett, WA area around December of this year. Work has been treating me well with positional promotions and very good evaluations.

Erin has such a social circle now that she needs a day planner to avoid double booking her time! Many of our friends have children around Aiden's age so he is having a blast too.

June 22, 2007

Aiden's new obsession.....BOB THE BUILDER! He loves Bob the Builder. He is also getting into The Land before time Dinosaurs. It's quite annoying when he comes home begging for one and then immediately changes his mind and then again changes his mind and then again changes his mind.....yes it goes on and on like this for as long as his attention span allows. It's quite annoying. But he is still too cute for words.

I recently brought home a bunch of his artwork from school, I'll make another page to display for all to see. My kitchen wall has a bunch of it up. I like the decor :)

Mike IS DONE! With his ESWS that is! (surface warfare qualification) He is now REALLY eligible to make chief. We won't find out the results of chief advancements until the first week of August though. Mike is excited even though he tries to pretend he's not. He is also going to Japan July 8th for 3 weeks for a class. I'm just glad it's only 3 weeks.

My first cross-stitch is almost done. No I'm not putting pictures of it up yet because it's actually a gift for someone :) So the picture will go up after that person receives it. (Most of my cross-stitch projects will be gifts)

No new pics this time but give me a couple of days and I'll have some of Aiden and his best buddy Josiah. We are probably going to the pool Sunday so that ought to make for some cool pictures.

LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL :)

May 28, 2007

Sad news to share with all. Mike's older pepper plants are about dead. The roots were savagely attacked by cut worms. Those nasty creatures should be exiled to a deserted island......oh, wait a minute. DOH!

Good news...Aiden still loves Mommy! :) Ahh...just warms my heart . (When he's not screaming bloody murder)

We have a new resident on the back porch. Odds are he won't be around very long, Mike just spotted 5 baby lizards on the back porch. That's not counting the adults. Can we say Lunch?

Aiden's ear infection is gone now, and my hearing has returned to my right ear, finally. Although I think the infection is still there because it does hurt from time to time. I don't care...I'm just glad I can hear again. Mike is the scratching post for Abby now. heeheehee. She constantly jumps on him, out of nowhere and tears into him, hanging on mind you, not caring how far off the ground she is or what part of him she is clinging to. It's quite funny when it's not happening to me, heeheehee. We plan to get a cat tower in the next month or so. This is all dependant on whether or not the local pet store gets a shipment in. Hopefully this will help deter Abby from using Mike as the tree. Unfortunately she has to make do until it arrives. (Poor Mike...LOL)

In conclusion, nothing too extravagant to report. Time to cook dinner!

May 19, 2007

For those of you who don’t know, we have adopted two new members into our family. Abby, a black long-haired kitten, and Ginger, a tortoise shell colored short hair. They are very loving attentive female kittens that Orion gets along with quite well. Orion is learning that he has to be gentle with them, I think that part is frustrating for him. Abby and Ginger are only about 9 weeks old and Orion is a year and a half. As you see in the pictures there is quite a size difference.

Aiden is definitely going through the terrible twos. If he doesn’t get his way he screams bloody murder and hits things. (Right now I’m sure all of the family members with grown children are chuckling and saying “I remember”). Needless to say we have had to hear this quite frequently, teaching him he can’t get everything he wants. However, right now thankfully, reverse psychology works on him. If he tells me “No, I don’t want that!” I reply “Okay, it’s mommy’s then!” His response….”NOOOOOOO!!!!! AIDEN’S!!!!!” ahhhh…..terrible twos.

Mike is doing well at work, as always, whether he likes it or not. He is having a blast growing peppers out back. My pride and joy in the garden are my yellow roses. They are growing quite beautifully.

We will be doing our best to keep up with this as we can. We love and miss you all. Only ~ 480 days left on the island J !

Erin

5/5/07

I hope you all are enjoying our new web site. This is something I've wanted to do for a long time and procrastination had been getting the better of me. As I learn more about the ins and outs of webpage editing and design (and FrontPage 2003!) you should see fairly regular changes to this site. Let me know what you think! I love feedback, including constructive criticism. I'm already aware of the large file sizes of most of the photos; bear with me as I tweak the site's design. As for the advertisements in the corners, I like my web hosting service and found it fit to advertise. Check out their prices, it seems too good to believe!

For those poor depraved souls living in third world conditions trying to see PIECKIEL WEB over a dial-up connection, umm, well, uh, well,..........sorry! I'll see what I can do about making a "speed-of-smoke-signals" friendly section. UPDATE: I've started reducing the picture file sizes for the displayed photos. For the zipped collections I am leaving the files as originals. Only the new photos conform to the new format so far.

If you would like to provide feedback please email Mike at michael@pieckiel.com.

Mike