The Yellow Car

I have been reminiscing. I just found this picture and had to scan it to share with you all. This is The Yellow Car (A.K.A. Turbo Girl): the first car that I ever drove. (In the front here is my adorable nephew Coleman. This was a several years ago). She is no longer with us. She lived a long and productive life, transporting us around town, learning how to drive, getting us back and forth to college, impressing my guy friends when I would need a jump start after leaving my lights on, with her Turbo engine…

I still have my keys to The Yellow Car. One is still on my key ring, and the other (this particular key that you see) is in the hide-a-key magnet that used to be under the bumper (we won't talk about how many times I actually used that useful invention). It is a particularly good magnet for holding recipes on the vent hood when I am cooking. I can’t seem to get rid of these keys. The Yellow Car passed away when Jack and I were living in Vancouver. That was well, so many years ago. Mom and dad purchased the car when I was 12 years old. That was, well, so many years ago, I will let you guess at the math. I first drove The Yellow Car when I was 13. I will never forget that day. It was a Sunday and we were coming home from church. Dad pulled into our alley way and stopped the car so I could drive it up behind the garage. I remember exactly what I was wearing. My pink and white store bought dress that I had picked out for my 13^th birthday. It had shoulder pads (what didn’t have shoulder pads in the 80s), and the leaf design on it made me think of deer tracks. I had on black heels. How did that happen? A light pink dress and black heels? I digress (that one is for you, Dani).

I was recently reading about Learning and Memory… and it mentioned episodic memory (dang, well, I think it is episodic memory) when trying to recall where you last left your keys. The author wrote that unless you have an emotional attachment to your keys, you are not likely to use emotional memory to find them. I would argue that I do have an emotional attachment to my keys. Goodness, I still have the Yellow Car key and no Yellow Car. Plus I have a Snoopy key chain I bought in Sendai, Japan (or was it Fukushima City?) that I have been carrying around for the last ten years… anyway.

My car that I have now still has no name. I am close to picking one, but nothing seems to fit yet. Brady calls my car “mommy’s car.” But then, every PT Cruiser he sees is a “mommy’s car.” I will let you know if I ever come up with something. It seems a shame. We have had this car since 31 December 2004... anyway.

When my sister and I used to drive this car to school guess how much gas cost? You might want to hold onto your chair. We complained repeatedly about it. If we had only known what we know now, we could have stocked up! There was a time we could fill the tank for $10. Then it went up to $1.32 a gallon and well, we would have to break an extra $5 or, heaven forbid, a $20. I am *gasping* for breath. Jack told me the other day that now, when he fills the tank, he stops at *gasp* $50. whether or not it is full.

Title

I think I have finally settled on an actual "title" for this blog. The editor hidden deep down inside me couldn't allow "Untitled" as the title much longer. It just didn't fit. So for now! I like the song, "Give Thanks" from which I derived the title.

Give thanks with a grateful heart
give thanks to the Holy One
give thanks because he has given Jesus Christ, His Son...

And as a grateful heart is what I am trying to cultivate, it is fitting.

Everything else could fade away and the one thing I am most thankful for will still remain. I am so grateful for the salvation that my Jesus brings to me. With out God I am just nothing. I am thankful that God sent His son to take my place so that I can go to heaven when I die and be with him.
Not only does He grant me salvation from hell, he gives me here in the present, peace, contentment, and joy even in the midst of the craziness of life. I still need to make a conscious effort to be joyful and thankful, but He has given it to me, so I want to experience it! It is in reach. This blog is a tool to help me be more aware of being thankful for the blessings in my life as well as just being thankful for the little "stuff." I think it is helping. There are times when I think of things I can write about for which I give thanks, but don't have an opportunity to write. I am thankful for so much more than what you see here.

Sorry for the lavendar. I have a headache today (it is almost gone, for that I am thankful!) and so lavendar is supposed to help in that area, right? hahahah.

I have this friend who has deided to do short daily blogs rather than letting time go by and writing long blogs. I have been enjoying reading her daily posts. She is studying in Rome at the present and she has such adventures. Makes me almost envious because I love to travel and see new places. But I am truly not. I am having my own adventures and opportunities. Sometimes it doesn't seem so adventurous, since this is now "home" but there are days when I can truly appreciate the absolute beauty of this island. Then there are days when I wish roaches weren't part of the adventure! thankfully we haven't had one of those for awhile.

I am thankful that I have friends who keep in touch regularly. I have friends who miss me (and I miss them too). We are all in this big adventure of life in different areas of the world and the US and I am OK with it.

This is all sounding rather random. My apologies. I am going to go now because of the next thing I am super thankful for. BOTH. MY. KIDS. ARE. SLEEPING. oh yeah. It is nap time for me too.

It rather makes me chuckle to think that this is my first blog entry on Blogger...and yet I have been "blogging since June of 2007" (or thereabouts). Since no one will probably read this, I am not sure why I am writing. Most likely because I have nothing to say, I am tired, yet can't sleep, and there is something about having an empty blog with no actual entries that is bothersome. Like having a new journal with shiny clean pages that is just waiting to be filled up with thoughts and ideas.

I have a freewebs site. It isn't like I am not already blogging, I just do it somewhere else and for a specific audience. I post stuff there for my family and friends so that they can keep up on the growing grandkids...and I complain about bugs a lot there. I think I really need to stop complaining about the bugs. There is more to Hawai'i then bugs and roaches and bugs and roaches. There are lovely rainbows: which we got to see several on our rainy trip to the northshore on Saturday (which wasn't all rain. We actually did get some sun and had fun!). I have been thinking that I need to start counting my blessings and focusing on the positive aspects of living here.

The thought has also entered my head that my vocabulary is suffering. I am constantly with my kids who are 16 months(my girl) and almost FOUR years old (in two weeks: my son). My opportunities to use large words are not often. I have rather lost what I used use. I DO use "big" words for my kids, I can't help it, but I am still a far cry from college. yeah anyway, what did that have to do with this post? Oh, that is right. Doesn't help to journal in ones head and not write it down. I am trying to think of a purpose for this blog. And my writing seems so simple these days. Not a bad thing, since the point of communication is communication and being understood.

Well, I will leave you on that thought. Can't promise when I will be back, but I am sure the cry of blank pages will bring me back sooner than I expect. And maybe when I return I will have ideas and a purpose.