Day 7: My Brother

My brother, Adam, and I are actually good friends.  I'm thankful I have that relationship with him.  I thankful I have a brother at all!  I know a lot of people don't have good relationships with their siblings, and I'm thankful my brother and I are close.

Adam is even close friends with Bryann.  He comes over several times a month and they disappear into the back room to play board games.  I'm thankful that they are friends, and have a good relationship, too.  Again, I know a lot of people don't necessarily get along with their in-laws, and I'm thankful that our respective families get along so well with each other.

Adam, you rock!

Day 6: Bryann's Mom

Bryann's mom, Cherie, also gets a big Thank You!

Bryann and I are a lot alike.  We come from very different types of families, but we were both essentially raised the same way.  Cherie did an amazing job raising Bryann.  She put him in every sport imaginable, she expected the best from him, and she raised him to be a strong, generous, and genuinely good human being.

Thanks, Cherie!  He turned out splendidly!

Day 5: My Parents

I often marvel at how my parents raised such amazing children... Not to brag or anything, but I think I turned out pretty well.  I'm responsible, educated, employed, and self-sufficient.  The most trouble I've ever been in was in 8th grade when I got caught shop lifting, and got drunk off tequila at a friends house.  Not surprisingly, both incidents were with the same friend, and we didn't stay friends for very long...

My parents encouraged me to explore the things that interested me, told me I could be anything or do anything I set my mind to.  They let me play five different sports throughout my years in school, let me try out two different instruments, and let me sing in choir.  They never MADE me do anything (except clean my room.)  They only encouraged me to pursue the activities I wanted to.

They taught me the importance of education.  They made sure I did my homework, that I could spell and use grammar correctly, that I stuck with the math until I understood.  I never even considered not trying to do well in school because education became important to me as well.  Somehow, they instilled intrinsic motivation in me.

They were strict with me and punished me appropriately when I deserved it, and they showered me with love always.  They took me on awesome vacations, and whether we were off in the motor home, camping, sailing, or skiing, we always had a great time and I wouldn't trade those memories for anything.

They've always been supportive, and they only want me to be happy.  I love hanging out with them, I look forward to visits, and I talk to them on the phone every week.  I don't think a lot of people have the same relationship with their parents, and I'm thankful that I have such amazing parents that I actually WANT to be around them.

Thanks Mom & Dad, for raising me right, for always being there for me, and for being cool people.  I love you.

Day 4: Our Paid-off Cars

Bryann's 2001 Chevy S10 Extended Cab pickup with Canopy

Today we went down to Oregon Community Credit Union in Salem to make the final payment on the truck in person.  We brought the $940 left on the loan in cash, closed the account, did a celebratory blow-up high five, and went to dinner at Mongolian Grill - one of our favorite Salem restaurants.

We bought Bryann the truck last November as an early Christmas present.  His old GMC was starting to go... the breaks sounded like a Velociraptor from Jurassic Park, and the truck wasn't worth the money it would take to fix the breaks.  We are both really happy with it - it's an extended cab so we can store stuff behind the seats, and the canopy acts as Samson's personal space.  It's also 4WD so we can take the truck to the mountain or down to Klamath Falls in the winter.

I bought my 2004 Subaru Impreza TS with cash in 2009, and now we are the proud title-holders of two paid-for cars that are in great condition and suit our needs perfectly.

Day 3: Our Home

Opening the door to our new home for the very first time!

Last summer, we bought our first home.  It comes with a little bit of back story.  In 2009, Bryann and I moved in together to an apartment and got engaged two months later.  I called around to friends and family and let them know the good news!  I got in touch with Steve, my mentor teacher from Salem, who I dog sit for occasionally. During the visit, he said that since we were getting married, now was the time to buy a house!  I laughed at the thought because we had no money and had some pretty huge student loan debt.  He said we MUST buy a house because the prices and interest rates were so low.  Maybe in a few years, I suggested.

He sent me an email a few days later saying that he'd mentioned me to one of his friends who worked as a real estate agent, and that the agent had told him that since I was a teacher, I could qualify for some special teacher loan.  I got in touch with Sue, the agent, to figure out what this special teacher loan was all about.  She explained the Good Neighbor Next Door program, which essentially offers HUD owned houses to teachers for half the price of the home.  We jumped at the opportunity, and a few months and some really awful houses later, we found an absolute gem in SE Portland.  We wouldn't have been able to afford a home at this stage in our lives if not for this program, and I'm so thankful it exists.

It isn't our DREAM home, but it is a wonderful house, exactly suited for our needs right now, and our mortgage is only $750/mo which includes homeowners insurance, PMI (since we didn't have a 20% down payment) and property taxes.  The bills are ever so slightly higher, but all things considered, we couldn't have asked for better!

We talk about things we'd like in the next house - a 2-car garage, walk-in closet, larger master bath, and a larger yard, but there isn't anything we're lacking right now.  We have all the space we need, and then some.  We are so happy (and so lucky!!) to have this house.  We have to stay for at least 3 years in order to have the silent 2nd mortgage (the other half of the cost of the house) forgiven, but we aren't in a hurry to move after the 3 years is up.  The low mortgage is allowing us to pay off a lot of debt.  Our house is an easy drive to Oregon City, where we both work, and I really like living in SE Portland.  I love the camaraderie of living in a neighborhood like this, and I get to explore parts of town that I wouldn't otherwise have visited.  I love our home and the lifestyle it has provided us.

Day 2: Our Pets

Today I'm thankful for Samson and Snickers, better known to some as Puppy Woof and Kitty Meow Meow.  They are cuddled up next to me right now, as shown above.

Bryann got Snickers for me as a Valentines present in 2009, and she is the most cuddliest ball of fluff that ever existed.  I spend a good chunk of my evenings petting her and making up songs to sing to her.  She has a lot of nicknames, as any awesome cat should.  Snicker Doodle Doo, Kitty Meow, Mrs. Purzalot, and most recently, Meowza Minnelli, just to name a few.  Snickers enjoys day naps in the closet, batting pens or pencils around on the floor, cardboard boxes, and sleeping upside down with her paw over her eyes.  She also enjoys peeing on towels, and scratching at the carpet.

We got Samson when he was 8-weeks old the summer we moved in together.  We've raised him from a puppy and he's essentially our child.  I watched a video on the science of dogs, and the relationship between dog and owner is similar to the relationship between mother and baby in that they both stimulate the release of Oxytocin, called the "love" or "bonding" hormone.  Samson enjoys playing tug, playing fetch (on land and in the water) and playing "Go find Daddy/Mommy."  He also enjoys stealing food off the counter, barking at everything that goes by the house, and eating cat litter.

 A rambunctious evening at home

 Guard Animals

 Snickers enjoying a box left on the table

Samson waiting to play fetch

A Month of Thanks-Givings

With all the stress and sorrow of re-homing Riley, October was not an easy month on me.  I started getting a really bad headache towards the end of the month, and it lasted for two weeks.  Since I never get headaches, this one was especially disconcerting to me.  I had to stay home sick from work one day because the headache was so bad, it made me nauseated.  I went to the doctor, who said it was a severe tension headache and sent me home with a drug RX and told me to get a massage.  The massage therapist asked me if anything was going on in my life that might be contributing to the headaches and tension, and I couldn't think of anything at the time.  But then I realized how traumatic it has been to be without Riley.  I hadn't thought a loss like that could give me headaches, but I guess my body expresses pain and stress through neck and shoulder tension.  Who knew?

Needless to say, I've been pretty down in the dumps lately.  And when I feel down, I find other things to feel down about.  We owe too much money on student loans, we don't have enough or our things aren't good enough, or we don't do enough.  I'm not sure who is judging the "enough" part about our lives, but I find things that other people have and get envious and unhappy with the things I have.  It's one of my greatest faults, and I think envy is the one thing that makes me unhappy.

So it's time to turn my thought patterns around.  It's not about things, it's about people and experiences.  And it's not about comparing our lives to other peoples lives.  It's about creating our world to make us happy.  When I stop to think about the things that make me happy and the things that I'm thankful for, my life seems so much better, more complete.  Some of my friends have been doing a Thanksgiving countdown on Facebook or on their blogs, listing things they're thankful for on each day of November until Thanksgiving.

First and foremost, I'm thankful for Bryann Turner.  I think in this wedding photo, you can see how much he loves me.  I've married the most generous, loving, giving man in the entire universe.  He is a phenomenal husband, and he'll be an amazing father.  I'm incredibly blessed by this man, and all of the joy he brings to my life.