Guess Who's Nine?

Malia is another year older. Where does the time go? It seems like only yesterday I looked like this:



About a month later a beautiful little girl was placed in my arms:





We celebrated with ice cream at school:







Dinner with family and friends from Panda Express:





Cupcakes picked out from Cupcake Craving:





Wishing for...well, not sure because we all know if you say out loud what you wished for it won't come true:



And of course, blowing out the candles.



Happy 9th Birthday to my Malia. Now on to planning that birthday party!

Month to Month

I used to not have to write things down on a calender...now if I don't, I totally forget. Here's what my May looked like:



and June is filling up rather quick too:



I guess I should be grateful for the health and strength to keep up with what my calender says I need to do. One day, I am probably going to wish I had things to put on my calender.

Mother's Day

I want to make sure I blog about Mother's Day before the photos and memories fall by the way side.

I really enjoyed my Mother's Day this year. We didn't do anything crazy fun or really out of the ordinary. I enjoyed spending time with my family and my mom.

It was a perfect day to take some photos, so after church, Patrick and I took the kids to the Folsom Powerhouse (a location I frequent often for photos). I was able to take photos of the kids to update my wall (photos will be blogged at a later date). To my surprise, doors were opened and we were able to see inside the different "Mechanic" and "Superintendant" rooms. It was pretty cool.













Then we headed over to my moms house where we had a BBQ and I was able to see all my sibling's and both my parents. My aunt was even there. I ate and watched the kids play catch, climb trees, and eat dirt.













I was adorned with many lavish gifts from the kids and decadent chocolate from my husband. I love that the kids make cards and gifts at school and church to give to me.







Raya gave me a hand knitted scarf, a card with notes about me, and chocolates with a note that said "You are Sweet"

The above note reads:

(Raya's answers are capitalized and/or in red)

"My mom's name is RACHAEL DAWN DURLING

She is 20 years old

My mom likes to BE ON HER COMPUTER

My mom has 1 eyes

My mom weighs this much: 100 POUNDS

My mom's birthday is on JANUARY 13TH

My mom was born in: CALIFORNIA

My mom's favorite food is: HOMEMADE CHILI

My mom likes to: DO MY HAIR

My mom is best at: COOKING MY FAVORITE FOODS"

Malia gave me hand knitted scarf, a homemade bookmark, a card with a poem about me in it, chocolates with a note that said "You always know if something's on my mind.", and a cute note with answers to questions about me.

Malia's Mom Poem Reads:

"Mom,

Whenever I smell your food, I always think of you.

Whenever I taste strawberries, I always think of you.

Whenever I hear the wind, I always think of you.

Whenever I touch my bed, I always think of you.

Whenever I feel roses, I always think of you.

Mom,

You are so sweet, you will always touch my heart.

Love, Malia"

The above note reads:
(Malia's answers are capitalized and/or in red)

My mom's name is RACHAEL

She is 32 years old

My mom likes to PHOTOGRAPHY

My mom has BROWN eyes

My mom weighs this much: ?

My mom's birthday is on JANUARY 13, 1929

My mom was born: IN A HOSPITTLE

My mom's favorite food is: SPAGETTIE

My mom likes to help me CLEAN MY ROOM

My mom is the best at SINGING, PHOTOGRAPHY, SETTING UP BIRTHDAYS AND MAKING PICTURES LOOK BETTER."

Ethan gave my numerous drawings, letters, a very pretty paper mache pot with yellow flowers and a cute card that talked all about me.

Ethan's paper above reads:

(Ethan's answers are captilalized and/or in red)

My mom is special because:

SHE HELPS ME CLEAN UP MY ROOM. SHE HELPS ME FIND STUFF.

I like it when my mom : HUGS ME

My mom can do many things, I think she's best at: COOKING PANCAKES AND TUCKS ME IN BED.

My mom has a pretty smile, I like to make her smile by: SEEING ME COME HOME FROM SCHOOL.

My mom is as pretty as a FLUFFY BLACK AND WHITE KITTY

My mom is smart! She even knows I LOVE HER. SHE WORKS ON THE COMPUTER TOO

Carly gave me a cute smile and some chocolates too.

I love being a mom. It's all I ever wanted to be when I grew up. It's challenging at times, but by golly, it's the best job in the world!

Weekend Getaway

The weekend went by too fast for me, but I enjoyed almost every part of it! I planned a little weekend getaway for Patrick and I down in Occidental. It was very relaxing and fun...at least for the most part.

Our anniversary is coming up at the end of the month and Patrick's birthday was on Saturday, so we took this trip to celebrate both occasions.

The drive down was beautiful. Acres and Acres of green hills with grapes growing. Beautiful scenery. I kept thinking "now that would be an awesome location to do a photography session"...Lots of old barns, old cars, etc. It was pure country!

We drove through what seemed like a forest for many miles and then out of no where, Occidental was there. A very small town without a gas station. There were a few bars, some Italian restaurants, an organic market, another regular market and HOWARDS STATION CAFE. The best breakfast place in the world! The view from our hotel was this:



I felt like I was camping...well, without a tent which is they way I like to camp!

We only had one thing planned for our trip so most of the time we just explored the little cities around Occidental. That area was really hippyish. I can't really think of any other words to describe it. Very natural and maybe somewhat yuppy...



We even found this thing that resembled an ancient telephone. I think it was ancient because it didn't accept credit cards:



Patrick locked the keys in the car the first night we were there so we were grateful that our AAA membership had automatically renewed itself. Of course I didn't have my keys with me so that kind of sucked, but all worked out fine.

We went to Safari West. The closest to an African Safari that we will probably ever get to. Totally loved it! The animals were amazing, the weather was great, but a little on the chilly side, and the company for our 2 hour safari was very interesting!














We ate dinner at the lodge afterwards.





There were these birds. They were insane. Patrick got up to get a drink and I swear within seconds of him getting up, these birds helped themselves to his food with me sitting right there!





The drive home was lame. I don't know for sure but I think Patrick tricked me into driving up Highway 1. I get super carsick and this highway is nothing but a windy road. I was sick the whole ride. Totally sucked. I was able to get out of the car and take some pictures of the ocean, but that was basically it. We stopped at Fort Ross for what Patrick claims was for about an hour. I slept in the car the whole time. We stopped at another place where I took some Dramamine (motion sickness medicine) that really didn't help. The men at the general store there told Patrick a quicker way to get to the main rode, but we had to drive for 47 miles through a mostly one lane rode that reminded me of some horror movies that I've seen in my life. It rained too...but for the most part, I can't really remember much of that drive home. I was too sick to do much but sleep.

I had fun though. It was a much needed break for both Patrick and I. If I learned anything from this trip, I would have to say that according to this giraffe:



The grass really is greener on the other side...

Why I Blog

I'll be the first to admit that I am not the best blogger around, but I do have to say that I've been way better at blogging than keeping a journal. I enjoy creating my story into something interesting to read. Making a journey to the store to buy cheese and bread entertaining for you to read takes some mad skills. Some posts are better than others, but when it comes down to it, the reason I blog is for posterity.

Patrick and I went on a little mini trip this weekend to Occidental, CA. It's in the Sanoma county down by Napa. We were driving around and found this really old cemetery.







I would say that 98% of the people that were buried there were born in the 1800's and about 90% of those died in the 1800's. These headstones were so very old. Even the wording on some of them were not like they do these days. No birth date, just a death date and how many years, months and days old they were when they died. We came across this headstone:



As you can see, these people died in 1909 and 1918. On average, that was 100 years ago. Did you see that there are flowers there? Someone still thinks of this husband and wife and cares enough to bring flowers. Perhaps it was a family member seeking out their heritage, or maybe a grandchild with fond memories of these people. We will never know, but I'd like to think it has to do with memories...someone remembering them.

All those headstones really hit home. We start as babies, grow up, get married, have babies of our own, they grow up and give us grand babies, and if we are so lucky, our grand babies grow up and give us great grand babies...then we die, then our kids die, then our grand babies die, then our great grandbabies die and WE are completely washed from memory. No one else left on earth knew us, had memories of us. Can you tell me the name of your great great great grandmother? I can't and I definitely can't tell you anything about her. THIS, my friends, is why I blog. Yah, some posts are boring at times, but I'm blogging for posterity. I want my great great great great grandchildren to find my grave and put flowers on it because they knew me and knew of my experiences in this life. I may be grasping at straws here, but I feel like I am doing my part to keep my story alive by blogging and I hope that in 200 years, someone will read this post and say, Thank you for blogging. I'm glad to know you.