The seventh seven days.

June 29: Today my coworkers and I met for lunch to say goodbye to my friend Laura, who is retiring. I am sad that Laura is leaving, because she has been a part of my library experience since I was a small child, and she was even the one who told me about the open position right as I was finishing up my junior year of high school. I hope that she is able to come and visit us pretty frequently. Today I am happy that I have such good relationships with some of my coworkers, and that I got to go out to eat (I took my mom as my date since Brandon wanted to stay home!)

June 30: A letter from Tasya arrived today! It was a nice surprise in my mailbox- and I'm thankful that the letter got to me, because it had been written 4 months ago! After that long, I guess it's lucky that it didn't get lost in the mail! Tasya lives in a very remote area, so I always expect her letters to take a while to get to me- they have to travel on boats and planes and more boats and everything else. So each letter from her is extra special!

July 1: Someone stole my antenna topper over the weekend- which is a really dumb thing to steal. I really liked it because it was cute and pink and Disney and cupcake-shaped. I posted on facebook asking if anyone was planning on going to Disney this summer, so maybe they could pick up a replacement for me. My cousin's wife found a link to buy them online, and my father in law ordered one for me! I got it today, and was able to put it back on my car. Now I can find my car in parking lots again. It was really thoughtful and I'm happy to have it!

July 2: I don't know that "happy" is the precise word I should use to describe this, but I am thankful for a prescription today. I am having some problems with my mouth, where my wisdom teeth used to be. This is part of the reason I've been to the dentist so often lately. They said I had a few spots of infection back there and last week I had it all cleaned out and got some antibiotic shots. Things have only gotten worse since then, and it's so bad that the pain wakes me up in the middle of the night. I called yesterday begging for a last minute appointment, and they saw me this morning. Unfortunately, it looks like something a little more complicated than an infection may be going on, but I did get a prescription for pain pills. They worked really well for a few hours. I'm happy to have them (even if they aren't providing total, constant relief- it's definitely better than it was) and the medicine was very affordable, too!

July 3: A friend of mine came by the library today with her daughter, her friend and her friend's granddaughter. This friend of mine used to be my Sunday school teacher, and I don't get to see her too often anymore- and visiting with her is especially fun since she has an adorable, sweet daughter now! It was a really long day, but I was happy to have a visit from them!

July 4: We had such a wonderful day today!! Since visiting the Jones family farm back in late May, we have had the intention of spending Independence Day there...Brandon planned to have the day off and everything! I made a cake the night before to share with everyone, and we packed up our backpacks and hit the road not too long after a late breakfast. The ride down there is over an hour long, but Brandon had the fun idea of bringing along our world atlas and quizzing him as he drove, to entertain him. I had my doubts at first, but it was actually a lot of fun! Unfortunately as we got close to the farm I started feeling a little car sick (apparently I can read in the car, or talk, but not both) but I recovered quickly after we got there. We had fun talking about different countries, and I also threw in some questions about our sponsor kids ("What is the capital of Brazil? And how many kids do we have there?") Several family members were able to make it to the farm- Brandon's parents and two of his brothers had been staying there all week, but we were also joined by a few aunts and uncles, some cousins, and Mamaw Jones. I brought bubbles and sidewalk chalk and had fun drawing a gigantic (like, 8 feet long) brachiosaurus on one of the driveways. We also had an Uno Attack tournament (I won, for the first time ever) and Brandon played lots of games like badminton and basketball. My mother in law grilled up a bunch of stuff for lunch, and everyone loved the cake that I brought (which made me happy because it was a recipe I hadn't tried before!) We made a journey down to a creek on the property and looked for geodes- we didn't find any (after cracking open several sparkly, promising-looking rocks) but did find one rock with two fossils in it. Then we went back to the house and I watched some classic TV (the only thing the antenna picks up) with my youngest brother in law before we ate leftovers for dinner, followed by a walk down the road, and then a popsicle break! When it got dark, some of the guys set up a little fireworks display, and we all sat outside to watch. I was a little nervous because I am extremely sensitive to the noise, but Jonathan found some noise-cancelling headphone things he uses for shooting, and that really helped! The fireworks were so pretty- I was able to get a few good pictures with my phone, some of which I attached to the letters I sent to our kids talking about the holiday! We got home a little after midnight and were really tired, sore, and a little sunburned, but it was a wonderful day. Here are some of the pictures I took!

Out in the middle of the woods, I looked up and it was so pretty! The sun was gorgeous in the trees. 

We headed out for a walk just before sunset. 

July 5: Since we were at the farm all day yesterday, we missed my family's informal Fourth of July celebration (a KFC dinner at my grandparents' house.) With my cousin out of town and my mom at work, we weren't the only ones missing. Tonight, we went to my aunt's house for dinner- my dad had fun playing with her new grill, and fixed up some barbecued chicken and grilled corn on the cob (which is my go-to food this summer, for some reason!) And my aunt made homemade vanilla ice cream and extra chocolate-y brownies for dessert. My mom was able to be there, too. The food was really good and I was glad to see my aunt and spend time with my parents. I also came home with quite a few cards and stickers for my kiddos- my aunt is a very generous person, and is involved with many charities. So she gets tons of those free greeting cards, address labels, notepads and stickers that those organizations send out. She has quite the collection of stuff to share! My mom and I both picked out a whole stack of cards, including Christmas cards to save for the fall, when Compassion collects them for the unsponsored kids!