Dana Burland

There’s no bucket of toys at my great aunt’s chalet up north. No cabinet of push cars, no closet of art supplies. Just a few board games yellowed with age from the 70’s, a couple decks of cards and a set of poker chips. When we were growing up and family vacationing at the chalet us kids would find ways to entertain ourselves. We built forts by tucking extra sheets under the top bunk mattress to wall off the bottom one, we wrote “novels” in notebooks, organized our Petoskey stone collections and made elaborate potato chip/ranch dressing/deli meat sandwiches for lunch. And we played for with the poker chips. What does a kid do with a ton of plastic chips, you ask? Who knows but we busied ourselves for hours stacking, sorting, organizing, trading and carefully putting them back into their wooden holder in colorful patterns. This past week we were up north at the chalet again. I spent the week there with my mom and C, while more family joined on the weekends. We had some beautiful, ...

Well here we are-- two trimesters down , one to go. This pregnancy has been different than my last in so many ways. This second trimester a second time around too, different than the second first one. I could sum up, and end, the blog post now by saying it’s been achy. Very achy. My hips, back, stomach, all of it aches daily. I’m trying to stay active, which is harder to find time for while parenting a 2-year-old, while also reminding myself parenting a 2-year-old IS staying active. I’m trying out kinesio tape to support and distribute my belly weight. I’m taking almost nightly baths to loosen my back which feels locked up by the end of the day. I’m trying to stretch more, stay hydrated more, sit properly more and whine less. While dealing with the daily aches I don’t have any major pregnancy related complications. I’m healthy and baby is healthy. We’re growing the family we’ve always dreamed of. I’m so lucky and grateful for that.

Last week marked our two year anniversary of living in this house. Here’s the first picture we took, when we took possession of the house, two Octobers ago. October 11, 2017 When I see that picture, I see someone else’s house. Everything from that picture, from windows to fireplace surround is new-to-us now, with the exception of the carpet. We’ve changed so much about the house--made every room feel like our own. We’ve grown as a family here. There’s no unidentified plant growing in the yard or house creak or crack noise we aren’t familiar with. We now have all the bedrooms filled. The basement is still a mostly unfurnished indoor gym for an active 2-year-old, but it’ll soon get more attention. We have a bit more space to grow, but mostly we have just enough room to stick together. Across the street is a pond lined with trees. They’re all changing colors. They glow in oranges and yellows, and remind me of when we first took possession here and marveled that we would get t...

I totally forgot to blog about the user experience training I attended! This is training I’ve attended before , but had a recent opportunity to go to again and sit in on new-to-me sessions. I was in Chicago for the conference for three days, each day in a different track. Here’s a little about what I learned in each one: Measuring UX & ROI To over simplify, this session was about how to track how website changes made in the name of better user experience are worth their cost--and their association to the overall business objectives. We talked about using website analytics to tell the story of positive change or increased sales. A basic example is We were only getting X% of users to click “buy now”. Based on user testing we determined it was located in the wrong spot on the page. After moving it we’re at Y% of users clicking “buy now”. If you multiply that increase across our average sale we can confidently attribute this change to a $Z increase in profit each month. ...

After two shampoos I got all the dry shampoo, hairspray and wedding bliss washed out of my hair. Last night we celebrated one of my oldest friends as she got married. Tori and Matt had a beautiful fall day in downtown Detroit for a church ceremony, pictures around town and celebrating. I was one of seven in the bridal party, which was a huge honor, especially after getting to meet the other girls in the party, and extra especially because I got to walk down the aisle with Tori's brother Patrick, who I also grew up with and am a #1 fan of. Being in a wedding is a weird thing. After a year plus of excitement, prep and waiting, finally the one day it's all lead up to comes. Last winter Tori had us pick out our bridesmaids dress style from an online shop, as long as they matched in color, length and material. I wasn't pregnant , but thought by her October wedding I could be, so I ordered a forgiving style. When it arrived in early Spring I was shocked at the handfuls ...