More catch up

We were so happy to have my parents come for a week. Unfortunately, all the kids were in school. Aubrey even started preschool while they were here. Still it was nice to have them here. Dad likes to come to the Steel Guitar convention. We're just glad for any excuse to have them here.

A bittersweet day... this was the last time the girls got to go over to the Gardner's house to make cookies. It's been a tradition over the last couple of years for the girls to take turns on Sunday afternoons (when Viv's in town without 50 million other things going on) going over one at a time to make cookies & play games with her & Scott. Vivian even made aprons for the girls a couple of years ago. Now, after living in O Fallon for many years, and talking about moving for at least the last few, they sold their house before even putting it on the market and really did it. A shock for all of us (even them). I was especially sad when just as they were packing up to go, we found out that Brent was leaving.  Gardners have been our family here. They have been the ones to come to the kids things and help & support us.  The only plus is that they will be back occasionally. They have so many ties here.

Summer is under way... Ooop's forgot to publish this in June when it was written:)

School has been out for about 3 1/2 weeks now and time is flying by.  I always think we'll just have so much free time - and we do- but we seem to fill it up pretty well.  We've been swimming, to the splash park several times, the kids play with friends non-stop, went to the Y potluck, and the list goes on. The biggest thing though was Brent & I went to Florida for a job interview and then had to decide if we wanted to move there. It was a harder decision than we thought it'd be, but we decided no.

Some of our Summer activities

                                                     Durland Family July 2012

                                                              Sarah's 7th Birthday

                                                                  Sarah's cake

                                                         popsicles on a hot day

                                                                     Aly & friends

                                      Aubrey saved her money & bought her own Build-a-bear

                                               Backyard marshmallow roast

                                                            one of our peach trees

                                                             Aubrey likes to "build"

                                                         the cottage - a fun place to play

                                                 I canned peaches from our very own tree!

                                                         Raging Rivers Water park

                         We got a pass to the Magic House. Here we are with several of our neighbors

                                                              Family trip to Nauvoo

                                                      Aly likes to do different hairstyles

                                        Free lunch at Chick-fil-A after one of the free movies

                               We got free Orange Leaf frozen Yogurt once a month for a year!

                                                       




We love the Muny!

trying again...

Well, I fell off into blog oblivion the past few months. Life was just too crazy. Summer came & was super busy as summers seem to go  Biggest thing this summer was the Durland reunion - at our house. Yep 43 people came & over 30 of them slept at our house. Fun, crazy, busy, exhausting times! I thought when school started, things would slow down. It hasn't happened yet and we have already finished the first quarter. We were excited to have my parents come for a week at the end of August. Then we had a big life change squeezed in there & lots of stress associated with that. Brent quit his job to take a 1 year contract position in Dallas, Texas. He is doing software work for AAFES (Army/Air force Exchange Services) at their headquarters. The down side, HE moved to Texas and the girls & I stayed here. The up side, he's much happier with his work & now he can pursue clients of his own to start his own business in a year. He has a couple of people who feed him side work, and without the distraction of family, he is able to do a lot more of it. (more work = more money, so that is a plus, though transitioning has been a little tight) He plans on coming home about once a month. We just hit the one month mark this week and he has already been home for a visit - the weekend before Halloween.  Since he's missing so much, I'm going to try post pictures, etc. Of course, with him gone, I have all the more work to do, so it'll be tricky. but I'll give it a try. Pictures to come...

Early Morning conversation with Sarah

Sarah came & crawled in bed with me when she woke up this morning.  I was still very sleepy, so didn't even open me eyes.  After rustling around a while, she asked
"Mom, do I HAVE to have babies when I'm a grown up?"
Me "no, why?"
Sarah 'well, maybe I'll just have one or two, because that's just a big mess to clean up from them"
then she added " Can I have this house when I'm a mom?"
me  "I don't know.  We'll probably live somewhere else, so you can see if it's for sale"
Sarah "Well, what will my phone number be?"
Aaaahhhh, the concerns of a 6 year old!

"Real" Glasses

Recently, I went to get an eye exam.  It's been years - in fact, I don't know if I've actually ever had one other than the ones at school.  I was over due.  My eyes have been getting worse & after Mom's eye problems, decided it was finally time to just do it.  Good news, I don't have any signs of mom's eye disease.  Bad news, I'm far sighted & my eyes don't focus like they should.  It's not a muscle thing, so can't be corrected with exercises.  So far I just need them for reading & detail stuff, but he predicts I'll need them full time by the time I'm 50.  So, I got my first pair of "real" glasses.  I can't believe that as a kid I actually wanted these!  It was kind of funny though because he put the stuff to dilate my eyes then sent me out to pick frames.  By the time I sat there for a few mins, I could hardly see anything so just picked whatever.  Don't really love them, but oh well.  I think they are a little wide or something, can't quite put a finger on it. It's not that big of a deal.  Next time I'll pick when I can see!

last 2 weeks

May is such a crazy busy month!  Last week, I posted through Cinco De Mayo.  Since then we've had Aly's "skip" day (they were having a carnival during school hours & long story short, I picked Aly up instead of her doing the carnival. Her, Aubrey & I went to lunch & shopping.)  Carlie's second grade "round up" (I helped with - outside games, relays), Aubrey's last day of Preschool, some projects - glass etching on 9 goblets & 10 glass mugs for my neighbor's sister's wedding (as a trade) & b-day presents, more birthday parties to go to, Mother's Day, I got called as Activity Day leader & we had our last one before summer break, field day at the elementary school (I helped with it), school registration, Aubrey's preschool picnic, elementary school awards assembly (Carlie & Sarah both got awards for straight A's),  tried out the new splash park, Sarah's last soccer practices & games, & more birthday parties.  I'm sure I've left several things out, but you get the idea.  This photo was as good as it got for Mother's Day.

Cinco De Mayo

What a crazy day!  I had agreed to do a garage sale with my neighbor before realizing all that was going to be happening, Sarah had her regular soccer game and a make up game, Aubrey had a birthday party to go to (at her age, they aren't usually drop off parties), Carlie had a birthday party of one of her best friends  held about 25 mins away (at the pool we went to a couple weeks ago), and Brent & I went to a Cinco De Mayo party.  That's just the stuff we did.  There were other things going on that we'd normally be a part of, but couldn't fit them in.  As it was, many of those overlapped, so we couldn't even get everyone where they needed to be and had to arrange a ride for Carlie.  I spend so much time getting the kids to all of their parties & activities, it was fun for us to go to an adult party that evening.

Adventures in Exercising

May 2, 2012       Aubrey & I were at the YMCA.  I go pretty regularly to a water aerobics class on Wed mornings.  Class had finished & I had just gone in to the sauna along with some of the other ladies, when the fire alarms went off.  We assumed they were working on something because we'd seen them working on the emergency doors during class.  After a minute or two, I noticed that Suzy, one of the ladies in charge, was waving people out.  Everyone had to get out of the pool, sauna, locker rooms, etc. and leave through the emergency exit doors on the side of the building.  We were told that this was NOT a drill and it wasn't because of the doors.  Nobody really knew what was going on. Suzy ran back in & grabbed a bunch of towels for us as we stood outside barefoot & wet in our swimsuits.  I was grateful for the sun & unseasonably warm weather!  We had to just wait until the Fire Chief came and inspected everything. After the initial surprise of it all subsided, it occurred to me that the kids were outside somewhere too, so I set off in my bare feet to find Aubrey.  They were in the front right of the building (diagonal from where we were).  None of the kids seemed too bothered by it.  First thing Aubrey says is "Mom, I need to go potty".  I reply, "Yeah, me too, but we can't go inside right now, we have to wait"  Minutes go by and she tells me again that she has to go & can't wait.  I notice a worker walking across the street with her kids and it occurs to me that we could go across the street to use the bathroom at the police station.  It's not bad enough that I'm hanging out outside in bare feet and a wet swimsuit, now I have to go to the police station like that.  Across the street does not necessarily mean close, as they both have big parking lots and the buildings are facing different directions.  Just as we get to the police station doors, I look over and see that they're allowing people back in the building.  Drat!  Oh well, no turning back now.  After all that,  we were both ready to get home!

Sarah sings at the Cardinal's game

May 1, 2012    The first graders here are given the option to go and sing "God Bless America" at a Cardinal's baseball game as a night field trip.  Sarah wanted to do it, so she and Brent went.  It would have been fun to take the whole family, but since you have to buy the tickets, it was a weeknight, and it was Activity Days for Aly & Carlie, plus, mom had been asked to help with AD, it was just too complicated.  The weather called for thunderstorms & after the crazy one the other day, Brent said they weren't going if the rain started.  Even though it threatened all day, nothing came of it.  Luckily, it turned out to be a perfect night to be outside.  All the first graders go out on the field and sing before the national anthem.  Then they wait while the national anthem is sung before returning to their seats to watch the game. Unfortunately, they don't televise the kids singing part.  Still, how often do you get the experience of  singing in front of thousands of people.  Sarah thought it was great fun.  She said her favorite part was the ice cream she and dad bought as a treat, because it came in a plastic baseball helmet.  Since they had to ride the bus (kids & 1 adult were required to ride the bus there but could go home another way if they had other transportation), the buses had a set time to leave or the end of the game whichever came first, so the missed the end of the game.  Sarah wants to go again when she can stay the whole time.  (Last year the 1st graders didn't go for some reason, so the were going to an earlier game this year.  Carlie chose not to go because she didn't want to miss Activity Days for it)

Hail Storm

Yesterday afternoon, we had a huge storm, thunder, lightening, & hail.  Luckily, it didn't hit us as hard as it hit other places here and in the surrounding areas.  Many people had damage to their cars and homes.  The thunder & lightening continued off and on for several hours, getting extremely intense at some points, but there wasn't any more hail.

 Average size that were coming down

 backyard

 out front

 There were several dozen this size & a little bigger (they were starting to melt at this point)

 Aubrey gathered some from the backyard

Aubrey couldn't resist the puddles, but it was short lived, since the thunder & lightening started up again pretty quickly.

Spring Fling

Waiting for the swings to start

 Aly & Megan

 Carlie & friends

 one of the several bouncy houses

checking out the fire truck

"I love this ride!"

About 45 mins after getting home from T of N, it was time to go to Spring Fling, the carnival at the Elementary school.  Usually I love to go on the rides with the kids, but my stomach wasn't feeling that great after 3 days of cafeteria food and not enough sleep, plus I had a headache.  Somehow, at the last minute, I ended up going on the swings 2 different times, when kids didn't have anyone to go with them.  Then, my stomach really wasn't happy!  Fortunately, I didn't throw up, though I felt like it:)  It got very windy and chilly, we were wishing we'd brought warmer jackets, especially when the sun went down.  At least, it wasn't raining.  It's an event the kids look forward to all year.

6th grade camp

I got to go with Aly to "Touch of Nature" this week for a 3 day "field trip".  It was about 2 hours from here, near a state park we like to go to.  It was a lot of fun.  There were 8 of us in our cabin.  We hiked, canoed, the kids got to rock climb, had a campfire, a skit night, did team building activities, swam in the lake (brrr, too cold for me!), played games, etc.  Good times...