240: a beautiful celebration

I think it was everything that Aunt Lynn would have wanted it to be: A beautiful day, lots of family and friends, tons of love, her favorite foods, drinks, and treats, ladybugs to release into everyone's gardens, and lots of stories and memories. I know she was there enjoying it with us all.

239: family to drive with

It took me roughly 8 hours to get from Brookings to Portland yesterday, with a stop in Eugene to pick up a few things. We have 6 hours in the car today with our trip to and from Seattle for the celebration. .I am thankful that I don't have to do the actual driving, but can sit and relax a little and have some good conversation with family on the way. I'll be making the 7ish-hour drive back to Brookings tomorrow so it's nice to have a little bit of a focus-break today.

238: The chance to get up to Seattle

Aunt Lynn's celebration of her life is tomorrow and I am so thankful that I'm able to go. Kevin is staying with the girls - we thought 20 hours of driving in one weekend would be a bit much for them to handle. I'm sad that they can't all come up - I know everyone wants to see them - but Kevin is really taking one for the team on this one and I am so grateful to him that I do get to go and spend some time with family and celebrate the amazing woman that Aunt Lynn was in her lifetime here.

237: jumper cables

I know. Another material THING. But really. Whoever thought of making a way to get a car battery up and going again without having to hassle with a tow truck and going to a shop and getting things checked out and fixed ... hats off. A little on the distracted side the other day (imagine that) trying to get Kinsley's car seat out of the Aveo and back into the Saturn, I somehow didn't quite get the door shut. The light stayed on for however long it takes to completely drain a battery to the point of absolutely zero life. None. Nothing.

I am thankful not only for the jumper cables themselves, but for the fact that we happened to try to start the car before tomorrow evening when I am supposed to make the trip to Portland by myself. Had we not, we would have been stuck with no battery, no cables, and then likely no car for Kevin and the girls for the weekend as I would have had to take the Saturn. You see, we had no cables yesterday. We haven't had cables for years. My plan right now is to leave for Portland when Kevin gets off of work, which will likely be around 5ish and too late to start the process of buying cables, getting the car jumped, etc. Not to mention the car needed gas. Had I had to stop to get gas, chances are the battery wouldn't have been charged enough to start again. BUT ... we DID check it. So today the girls and I walked down to Freddy's and got ourselves some cables and jumped the battery. Kevin drove it down to the gas station and we followed behind him knowing that we would likely have to jump it again.

We have the cables. Tomorrow when he gets home we'll jump it again as I'm sure it will be dead after sitting all night and having only charged for about 10 minutes. Then I'll take off for Portland and hope that it charges on my way up. If not ... I'll have those trusty cables right there with me to get me going for my trip back down on Sunday.

236: DOMA is struck down

I don't even know what words to use to express how happy I am with the supreme court decision to strike down the Defense Of Marriage Act. I do realize that there are still many steps that need to be taken and that this battle is not over as there are still way too many states that do not recognize gay marriages, but it is such a HUGE step in the right direction. It makes me SO so happy. Nobody should be judged for who they love. Nobody should be discriminated against because of who they love. It should not matter who we love, it should only matter how we love. I'm thankful that this country is maybe starting to become one that agrees with that.

235: friends

We've only been in Brookings for a little over a week, but I miss my friends like crazy. I've always known that I'm thankful for my friends, but it is much more apparent right now since I'm away from them. I feel like I have made some of the most amazing friendships since being in Eugene - I can't quite put my finger on what is different about them, but there's definitely something. And I am thankful that I get to see them so often in our little community - I know I say it a lot, but it is like none other. Right now I miss being able to walk out my front door and get a smile from someone or a wave or a walk over a visit. I am missing being able to let the girls play out in the grass and run around the apartment with their friends.

We're only here for a couple of months, but I know I'm going to keep missing my friends while we're gone. I'm thankful that I have friends that I really really miss.

234: Chetco library

We have already spent three days at the library here in Brookings. I wasn't planning on having to come up with so many days worth of rainy day activities for the girls being that we're AT THE BEACH FOR THE SUMMER. But we found the library and it has been a lifesaver. It's small and quaint, but it's cute and fantastic. It has a kids' section that has toys and a play house and a train and they even have live animals! There's a bearded dragon (my favorite), a pond turtle, and a whole bunch of little birds. The book selection is much smaller than we're used to, but the girls couldn't care less and don't even notice - as long as we get to bring books home with us, they're happy. And we've brought tons of books home with us already. The ladies that work the desk are so so sweet and seem to know every single person in there by name. I feel like I'm in a small town movie.