Memories

I like to think that I have a pretty good memory and to tell you the truth I love replaying memories in my head, reading old journal entries, even reliving the time that my husband of over seven years and I were just beginning to know each other. I will sometimes lay in bed on a seemingly sleepless night and try to remember each of the houses I lived in growing up, what my childhood room was like, etc., for my sake and to be able to answer questions that always come up from my five year-old concerning when I was her age. However, for how good I think my memory is it doesn't hold a candle to one of my friends. Jack's memory is almost infamous in our circle of friends. She was looking at pictures from my family's vacation and pointed out that I had had one of those beach towels since high school. How does she fit such a minute fact in her brain? Because of her memory she does an excellent job of remembering names of your relatives, friends from college that she has maybe met once, and it always has this incredibly endearing affect on any conversation you are having with her. I love this trait (along with about a million other things) about her and have really tried to follow her lead of attempting to remember and learn more about my friend's friends and their family.

P.S. I think this is my last blog on the topic of relationships for a bit. I had my minister say something to the point that God must be thinking "how many miracles must I perform before you will see and believe?" and this quote has stuck in my head on a daily basis while seeing miracles around me. My blog will now turn in that direction and it can because it is my blog, how wonderful. Here's to hoping through my blog others will start to see the everyday miracles around them.

Friends are the Family we Choose

So this week is off to a much better start than last week. The car is o.k. (just some corrosion from the battery cables for all of those who were intensely awaiting to hear what was wrong with our car) and we made it to and from our happy place a.k.a. gymnastics with no problems. As I sat and watched our oldest doing her tricks today I had a moment to reflect on last weeks debacles of the car trouble and another incident at gymnastics where the owner of the gym was kind when she didn't have to be and went out of her way to make sure our time at her facility was nothing less than enjoyable even in the midst undesirable events. As I found out today, last week for her was swirling with an irate costumer which almost lead to the cancellation of a much deserved trip for herself this past weekend. I found this all out today and would have never guessed it last week.

The owner of this facility is the kind of owner you want of any operation you or your child is a part of. When my car was broken down, she was literally walking up and down the lanes in the parking lot to see what I needed. As I mentioned in the last blog she invited my oldest into another class while we awaited help. And the list goes on. Two days after the car fiasco, was my mommy/me gymnastics class at the same place with my youngest. My husband couldn't get out of work he had to do, so I ended up toting along my oldest to the baby class. When she was told (by me) it was not her time to do tricks, etc. she was left in tears. I was not prepared and didn't have a back up plan of how to keep her entertained while giving my youngest her deserved attention. Again, the owner, lovingly, patiently, took my oldest aside, and offered her crayons and some activities to do, and, all the while the owner never missed a beat of teaching our mommy/me class. She is just this good.

At this point, I must interject the fact that she really has no reason to go out of her way for me. I am not from this town, and we don't "go way back," by any means. This is by far the best thing about this owner and this gymnastics place; she would have done the same for anyone in a heartbeat.

When I approached her and thanked her again and again for her kindness she simply stated that there wasn't enough kindness going around these days. What an amazing everyday example she is setting for myself and my children.

Pursuit of Happyness

What an afternoon! It was yet another Little Gym afternoon (always a good thing). We got to the car on this hot first day of September to realize not only did my keyless remote not work, but the entire SUV was D-E-A-D (not good). At this point I could have taken one of two paths: stress out, sweat more, or, follow the lead from a great movie I watched again on TV the other evening.
"The Pursuit of Happyness" is honestly more sad than happy and I told my husband this was probably be the last time I would watch it for awhile because of the amount of swelling my eyes do after crying through the duration of the movie. But the lessons on positive thinking and keeping yourself in positive attitude stick with you and can't be missed. There is a scene where the father and son (Will Smith and real-life son) are homeless and in a train station. Will Smith's character convinces his son that an item he is trying to sell is actually a time machine. At this most dire moment, the father puts on a happy face, puts his son's happiness first and makes even the most unbearable of situations not only bearable but fun; amazing.
I pulled upon Will Smith's character traits today for the hour we sat waiting for my husband to show up with the jumper cables and in that hour got the girls a treat of Smoothie King, and our oldest even got to participate in the older kid's advanced gymnastics class (she was grinning from ear to ear as the instructor let her try some of the "big kid tricks.") The day could have ended with a migraine and tears (from myself or the girls), but thanks to this re-run of a great movie on TV my mind was in the right place and my children were a bit happier because of it.
*Side note* The jumper cables still didn't help to revitalize the car, BUT, I'm staying in a positive state of mind and know tomorrow will bring better things :)