Fast Forward

The Duncan Divas are enjoying summer immensely. We spend a lot of time at the pool where Siena is becoming more and more like a fish every day. When we're not at the pool we flee to somewhere with AC because it is crazy hot and humid here in the summer. We frequent grocery stores, museums, libraries - anywhere it's cool inside.

This is a picture I took last week after I took Talia to get her hair cut (because I tried to do it myself and, WOW, did I do a bad job). They braided her hair and I thought I better document it since it may be the only time it happens in her lifetime. She announced proudly, "I'm lookin' good Mama" while they were cutting her hair - the girl is a hoot.

Speaking of libraries (we were, weren't we? I think my brain is melting), Siena has taken to reading chapter books. I'm not sure the library will be able to satisfy her appetite for reading this summer - we've been four times in the last two weeks! We love having a response to "I'm bored!" Talia doesn't always love it though. She's gotten into trouble multiple times because she swipes Siena's book away from her while she's trying to read. Talia is very subtle when she wants attention.

We bought a house! I never thought it would happen but the first-time home buyer tax credit roused us from our renting comfort zone. You can see pictures of it here. We close on July 23rd and will move in by the 31st. This has definitely been an eye-opening, all-consuming experience. We've learned a lot and I have no desire to do it again for a very long time. We're excited about the house though and the girls are especially excited about the yard.

The Southern lifestyle is slowly creeping into the Duncan home. When I offered Siena some yogurt today she replied (completely unprompted and without a thought), "Yes Ma'am". And I LIKED it! I also love it when her friends refer to me as Ms. Karen (which really bugged me when we first moved here). Talia has the strongest accent of all of us and we can't figure out where she's picked it up from since most of our interaction is with non-natives. Our best guess is that it comes from her nursery teachers who are VERY southern and whom she adores.

And now for the show . . .



So there you go. Was it worth waiting 9 months? I hope so. I also hope to be a better blogger, but no promises.

September was a blur . . .

I'm a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad blogger. But I have excuses. Tons of them. Siena's school starts early. SO early (I'm tired). I started a new job, part-time, from home. And, it turns out, I like it, mostly. But it doesn't leave me with much spare time. Except for watching Gilmore Girls on DVD. I have OODLES of time for that. We've had the cold from H-E-double hockey sticks. Snot is flowing freely around here. I'm the primary president in our ward (translation: I'm in charge of the children's organization for our congregation) and the program (45 mins. of talks and songs around a theme on Sunday) is coming up. Excuses, excuses - I got 'em.

So, I repent. AGAIN. Does it count if you have to do it more than once? Enough babble.

This was our September:

We went to Lazy 5 Ranch with Shelley, Maddie, and Matthew. It's a wild animal park where you can ride on a wagon and feed the animals. It was fun and definitely an adventure. Now, if someone asks me if I've ever fed a giraffe I can say, Heck Yes!

I love the look on Shelley's face in this one.

The girls loved the petting zoo too. There were tons of baby goats and they sat and talked to them in high-pitched cheesey voices. I wonder who they learned that from?

September is festival season in Charlotte. We went to the Greek Festival and enjoyed greek style donuts (here's the recipe), watching the talented dancers, and the all-important bounce house. A couple of weeks later we went to the Festival in the Park, Charlotte's "grandaddy" of festivals. Lots of fun rides, bounce houses, performances, booths of local artists, and fair food. Ever had a funnel cake? You really should. Mmm, mmm, mmm. We found some cute "fairy crowns" (Siena's term) at one of the booths and the girls had fun with them until they discovered how much fun pulling your shirt over your face is. There were non-stop giggles that came from that one. I'm pretty sure it will never get old.

The weather has cooled to the perfect temperature - 70 degrees. So we've been spending lots of time at the park. Talia insists that she is a big girl and can swing like one. I oblige as long as I can keep chanting "Two hands Talia, hold on with TWO hands!"

We collected rocks.

And drew on the sidewalk with chalk while wearing mom's running shoes.

On a more practical note, I joined the PTA. I did. I can prove it (Siena's favorite new challenge to us - PROVE IT!) - I have an official card. I went to a meeting and joined some committees. I felt old and responsible but happy to be involved. I'm going shopping for denim jumpers tomorrow (ha, ha, ha).

Something unusual I've decided to record for posterity: Charlotte ran out of gas for a week (because of hurricanes Ike and Gustav). It happened right around the time of the bail-out debacle so it felt like the world was quickly going down the toilet. It was really strange to drive around and find that station after station had bags over their pumps. We stayed home, conserved, and went stir crazy. On a reckless run for take-out, the gas light turned on so I got up super early one Saturday and hunted down the only station around that had anything to sell. Two hours later they were out. Crazy times we're living in.

September was fun, event-filled, stressful, and over way too fast. Slow down, October, s-l-o-w down.

First Day of School

She couldn't sleep. She was anxious and excited all at once. When she did sleep, it was filled with fitful dreams of school - things left behind, buses missed. When she woke and thought that it surely was time to get up she couldn't believe that it was only 4:00 a.m. The kindergartener, you ask? No, just the mother. The kindergartener slept like a rock and was hard to rouse at 6:15 a.m. this morning. That's right, we had to get up in the 6's because the bus comes at 6:50 a.m.! It's brutal and I'm sure I'll be cursing this school business not far into September, but today it was pretty exciting. She looked very cute, though a little like a flight attendant, in her uniform (public school). We have full-day kindergarten in Charlotte so she's gone from 7:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. I was worried about how she'd do but that was totally unneccessary. Siena had no trepidation and ran into school without looking back. If she had, she would've seen her crazy-tired mother choking back some sentimental tears.




Talia was not happy about being left behind. She decided, as a protest, to wear her shoes on her hands all day.





Not really, but she does like to take them off in the car and use them as a microphone while she sings. She missed her sister terribly and was glued to her side when she got home this afternoon.


Siena had a great day. When I asked what her favorite part of the day was she said "going to the school library." Her least favorite part was when the bus didn't show up this morning (mine too). We've had some flooding here, causing a lot of traffic jams, so the bus actually did come but not until a half hour after it was supposed to (we gave up and drove her to school). She is very excited to go back next week. I enjoyed playing June Cleaver and had milk and cookies waiting for her when she got home.




True confession: I actually made the cookies so I could give some to her bus driver. I know, I'm a suck-up, but a girl's gotta look out for her peeps.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

Being gone for an entire month made coming home especially sweet. We were all excited to see our beds (me especially - I don't think I went to bed before midnight the whole time we were gone), the kids' toys, different clothes (we could only take 5 changes of clothes in order to avoid paying for additional luggage), and most of all good friends we had missed while being gone. Siena started a summer preschool camp and we started living at the pool.



Siena has become quite a little fish since May when she started lessons. She wouldn't put her head under the water at the beginning of the summer and now she has perfected the under water handstand, floating on her front and back, diving for toys, and has started doing the front stroke. I love seeing how fearless she has become. I have to drag her out of the water when its time to leave. Talia loves the pool too. She thinks she's a big kid and has jumped in the deep end when I wasn't watching a couple of times (that girl was born fearless). She wears her arm floaties and cruises around the pool. She also loves hanging out in the spray park area of the pool and isn't ever fazed by the gallons of water that are being dumped on her little head. She is very entertaining to watch.



We've filled the rest of our summer with fun trips to the Discovery Place, the North Carolina Zoo, hiking (when it's cool enough) and parks with friends.



One sad thing however, we had to say goodbye to our little white Civic the end of July. We were in a car accident and it was totalled. No one was seriously hurt. The airbags deployed and gave me a good shiner. This picture was taken before the black and blueness really set in.




Luckily the kids weren't in the car with us when it happened. I'm still pretty sentimental about Lily White (named by my brothers back in '98 when we got it). We had a lot of good memories in that car (bringing home both girls from the hospital, fun road trips, etc.) After a late night negotiating with the car salesman (I had to do most of it because Mike had a big deadline. My jaw still hasn't completely relaxed) we purchased a Toyota Camry. Siena named it Blue Jay. It's nice to have a bigger car with all its new fangled technology that we didn't have in the civic (power windows and locks).


I can't believe we've been in Charlotte a whole year. It was a hard transition, leaving Berkeley, but it finally has started to feel like home here. I've come to appreciate the beauty of the South, the blessing of new friends, and feeling a part of a place that was so foreign a year ago. I've even started to adjust to the heat - who would've thought it possible?!

Leg Three - I LOVE July!

Last March when we were in Utah for Spencer's wedding, all the siblings sat around one night talking. Our conversation turned to the family reunion and then, out of nowhere, my sister Melissa shouted "I LOVE July!!!" It was very funny. For us. At the time. Really, we couldn't stop laughing. Ok, I guess you had to be there. But Melissa really does love July for all the holidays, no school (she has four kids), swimming, picnics, and everything else that goes along with that middle summer month. We were able to partake in her joy when we flew to Utah on July 2nd. We enjoyed the 4th of July with a morning neighborhood parade, evening bbq and water fight, and finished it off with Sandy City fireworks. The kids did great. Siena thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her cousins (she refused to sit next to us during the fireworks Is she 5 or 15?) and Talia was obsessed with the glow sticks that are my mom's favorite 4th of July tradition.

We spent the next week with family and friends in Salt Lake. We went to the Children's Museum of Utah, went on a breafast picnic up Millcreek Canyon (my dad's favorite spot), out to dinner with friends, a girls' night with my high school girlfriends, and to Liberty Park to let the kids run around the spray park.

We stayed with Mike's parents while we were in town. Siena had a lot of fun watching the Star Wars movies with Mike's dad in the evenings when we would take advantage of the free babysitting and went out with friends. Thank you Duncans!

At the end of our Utah trip we headed east for a Larsen Family reunion to Camelot . The name is cheesey but the location is really great. It was tucked into some sandstone cliffs and formations east of Kamas, Utah. We had a large lodge (each of my seven siblings and their families had their own room/bathroom) and access to a picnic pavillion, tire swing, swing set, hammock, large lawn, and a creek that was perfect for tubing down. The kids all had a great time together running free during the day and the adults played games at night. I had fun teaching my family to play our latest game obsession, Ticket to Ride - Europe. It was nice to get away and enjoy each other's company without the demands of work, church, and every day life to get in the way.

It was a great, month long, vacation. We saw so many friends and family and loved catching up with everyone. Thank you to all who hosted us and made the trip possible. We love you and would love to make seeing you a Duncan family summer tradition.

* My camera battery died half way through the Utah part of the trip so there aren't nearly as many pictures of this leg of the trip as the first two.

We'll return after this commercial break

Talia has mandated that I take a break from blogging for a few minutes. She's climbed onto my lap and is laughing hysterically as she pulls at my face while I make different animal noises. It's a million times more enjoyable than changing a poopy diaper - which I've done FIVE times today (more volume, less often please!). I love this age.

Back Home in Berkeley

** WARNING: There is a lot of gushing in this post. I can't help it, I love Berkeley that much.***



On June 17th we left San Diego and drove up to Berkeley. This was our first time back "home" since we'd left the previous August. It was so good to be back.

Our excellent excuse for traveling west was the Marostica wedding. Sara was my first Marostica love (her sisters and parents soon followed). She was the lone student in my seminary class the first year I taught and we have been good friends ever since. We were very honored to be invited back for her wedding. I've never seen such a beautiful, unbelievably happy bride. Her dress was incredible. She sang to Tyler at the reception and had many of us in tears. Sara, Tyler, and her parents did a great job with the wedding - it was gorgeous, completely color coordinated, and delicious.

One of the best things about the wedding was all the great people it drew. Several of our old friends from Berkeley made the trek across the country. The night before the wedding we had a bachelorette party, sans bachelorette. All the "girls" got together for Cheeseboard, Khana Peena, and delicious Meghan Busse chocolate cake. We ate on the deck (unusually warm Bay Area weather) and stayed up late talking.

After the wedding, the party kept going with swimming in Lake Anza, getting together at the Marosticas', Muir Woods, Point Bonita Lighthouse, and a bbq in the park the following Monday. As our friend Adam put it, "If heaven isn't like this vacation I'm going to be sorely disappointed."

Because of the generosity and hospitality of our friends the Ritzmans and the Marosticas we were able to stay in Berkeley for over 2 weeks. The Ritzmans let us stay at their place while they were off discovering Alaska. It was really nice to have our own space for a few days. Siena's reunion with their son Nathan (they are four months apart) was very sweet. She was trying to spit out a parent prodded "thank you" for using his bed and before she could finish he gave her a big bear hug. It was like they had never been apart.

Our "rent" at the Marosticas (we stayed in their cottage for 10 days) was to play Settlers of Catan for every night we were there. We gladly paid up. Julia was very sweet with Siena and played gypsy/spy/princess with her for hours on end. Talia took to calling Pamela "mommy" and would go to her over me. She loved yelling to "Mahht" wherever he was around the house and playing with their dog Merry. Laura was as beautiful as ever and was so nice to give up her room for us.

Berkeley was all we wanted it to be. We hit all our favorite spots - both food (a lot of food) and play (Oakland Zoo, Little Farm, Bay Area Discovery Museum, playground at Yerba Buena Gardens, Lawrence Hall of Science, and on and on).

Our favorite part was spending time with people that know us well and love us anyway. I know its cheesey but I can completely understand why Tony Bennet left his heart in San Francisco.