Naylor Notes: Brookings

It has been a long time since I've blogged because I didn't have a computer this past year. Now that Brian has started his first job and his school laptop is free to use, I'm out of excuses! Seriously though, I've missed it. I want to record my personal and family history and I think it will be therapeutic as well.

So, we now live in Brookings, Oregon! It is a small town of 6,000 people on the southern most coast of Oregon, just across the border from California. It is isolated... 2 1/2 hours to Medford where the temple, Costco, and real shopping is. The weather is mild with temperatures in the 50-60's year round, only getting up to 80, maybe 90 further inland in the summertime. We are thrilled that Brian graduated from dental school and has a real career and, to be honest, will finally be making money! But it is also a very weird transition leaving our school years behind and especially our Indy home of five years. We moved across the country at the end of May and spent two weeks setting up our home in Brookings. Then we were gone for a month traveling to Redmond, OR for Brian's work training and conference, and to Washington and Utah to visit family and friends. We returned home Monday night and Brian started work on Tuesday. Brian's company still hasn't gotten some of his paperwork sorted out so he was bored and exhausted having to shadow the other dentist all week. Super frustrating! Hopefully he can begin seeing patients this week; this waiting game has been driving him crazy!

As I navigate this new life there are many positives and many things that I am still trying to figure out. First, I really like our house and the area is beautiful. It is wonderful having a big yard (an acre) and so much privacy. I love having so much more space to spread out in, a garage, a built-in dishwasher, better functioning washer/dryer, two full bathrooms, an extra living space, the huge mudroom, lots of cupboard space in the kitchen, big bedrooms, nice lighting, cool paint colors and bright white trim, nice blinds, beautiful green scenery. We are all unpacked but are still doing a lot of rearranging and some things will simply not have a good place to go until we buy more furniture. A bigger home plus leaving behind some broken and worn furniture in Indy means we have a decent list of purchases to make and will have some empty space for a while. Our big empty living room is great for cartwheels, massive train tracks, and building houses/forts right now. Little by little we are rearranging, hanging pictures, and turning our house into a home. Some of the things I am still adjusting to are no garbage disposal, distance to neighbors, distance to town (20 minutes), no cell service (we have a landline and I can text people with iPhones or through whatsapp and facebook messenger), finding things to do outside of our home and nature, and meeting people/making friends.

This week was a good week. We stopped in Medford on our way home and bought Brian a Toyota Corolla... we are officially a 2 car family! It feels like we have arrived now that we no longer have to worry about carpooling and such. haha We also bought Maybrie and mattress and got a nice stock up load of groceries at Costco. Back at home we caught up on sleep after our trip and got everything unpacked and put away. The kids and I checked out the library in town, and though the selection is sparse compared to the city we just came from, there is a decent kid area and a few programs and activities, including weekly story time that I plan on embracing. It will be one place we can enjoy on rainy days when we need to get out of the house. The weather was nice all week so the kids were able to play outside and ride their bikes a lot. I started feeling more like myself and actually cooked dinner every night! Yesterday was especially warm and after a productive day of cleaning and organizing we headed down to the beach. We went and explored where the Winchuck river we live by enters the ocean. The kids wished we brought their swimsuits... Henry and Thomas ended up soaked anyway. They had fun throwing rocks in the river, flying kites for the first time, and sticking their toes in the water. It was a nice and pretty deserted beach, but it is more of a hike to get to from the parking lot, so I may not attempt it by myself very often. It was gorgeous and just the way we needed to end our week. I just kept smiling looking at our children playing and laughing. I kept thinking how grateful I am for them, that I have them to keep me company and that they have each other through this hard transition. Brian and I keep thinking, "Do we really live here?!" It's a new adventure for sure!