Ten Things of Thankful: A Trip Down Memory Lane

 

My granduncle, Theodore Kimes, dressed in a suit and cap, leans out the passenger window of a brand-new 1923 Ford Model T

I'm still in Oregon. My dad is doing well in his recovery from knee surgery (thankful #1). My brother drove home last Sunday (totally unrelated to the photo above!). He had an uneventful, safe drive (thankful #2). As my dad's recovery progresses, my mom now has mental energy and time to think about other things (thankful #3). Mom has had a desire to visit Arkansas on a family history vacation, to see the sites that were so familiar to her mother. We've talked about it for a while, but this past week we put in on the calendar for this fall (thankful #4). We've started planning where exactly we will go and what sites we will visit. My grandma kept detailed journals and photo albums (thankful #5), and my mom has them now (thankful #6), so we were able to take a vicarious trip down memory lane as we read about the old places we've never seen and saw photos of people who died before our time (for example, Theodore Kimes, who died 9 years after the photo above was taken). We've also seen old photos of my mom taken in Missouri when she was just a toddler and my grandpa was stationed at Fort Crowder during WWII. One of the photos was of a group of little girls who were all living in the same apartment complex. My grandma wrote down all their names and where their families were from. Because of her detailed notes, my mom was able to track down one of her little friends from the past and send her a copy of the photo yesterday (thankful #7). I managed to complete a game of Scrabble without cheating. (thankful #8). For some reason, I discover once per game that I have filled up my tray with 8 letters instead of 7. I would like to suggest that the makers of Scrabble make slightly shorter trays for those of us that seem to have a hard time holding only 7 tiles! Yesterday, my sister flew to Oregon (thankful #9) and we were able to go out to lunch with our cousin (thankful #10). We had a great time reminiscing! My cousin remembers a time when we were little girls and she spent the night at our house. She and I got into a big discussion over the correct way to brush teeth! We don't remember how the conversation ended, but given both of our personalities, we suspect that we each continued to brush our teeth our own way. 

Of course, I can't end a Ten Things of Thankful post without mentioning John (bonus thankful). It's been a long time since we've been apart for so long, and it will be good to see him again this coming week. 

How was your week? What are you thankful for today? Be sure to check out the other posts on the Ten Things of Thankful blog!