Just 40 Days

I need to upgrade my phone.  My entire cell phone experience has been with Motorola.  Some names I remember are: Rokr, Karma, and Atrix.  I had few if any problems with any of them. I even bought their tablet, the Xoom.  In four years, I have had zero problems with it. So I went to the att store...my current cell phone provider...with intentions to upgrade to a MotoX Within 15 minutes I learned that my research was not in depth enough...I wanted an app called "Drive"...and it no longer came on a Motorola product.  I was forced to switch to a Samsung Galaxy S5 Active.  

Today, I am happy. Did you know that school starts in three weeks?  This is a good thing because I am really busy at work.  When I'm really busy, I don't have time to think about sad things.  So that makes me happy! I don't feel like cooking today so Carly and I will head to Olive Garden to celebrate - 3 weeks left in summer vacation.

I know that I've said this before, but I really, truly, have been blessed to be born into the family I was:  Quinn->Grote->Herman->Brandt.  Today was the funeral Mass of my mother's 1st cousin, Robert W. Donnelly aka Bishop Bob. The Cathedral was filled with family, friends, and clergy.  It was a beautiful sight and tribute to a great man.  I am so blessed to have known him. I like the picture to the left as the letter 'l' looks just like Bishop Bob's staff.  How fitting!

I try to think about positive and meaningful topics over negative ones.  Some days, this is SOOO easy to do, and other days, not so much.  Today was a 50/50 kind of day.  I've been in a frump for over a week.  I thought I got my joy back, but I was mistaken and I'm sad that it's gone. So when I think about being sad I am...go figure. And when I stay busy ... I do better.  Tomorrow is the funeral for Bishop Bob.  All day I've been thinking that he's up there in heaven, visiting with all of his relatives and listening to my Haylee tell a silly story.

It's not always easy to stay true to myself.  I am constantly surrounded by people or things that give me a cause for reaction.  I have to continually remind myself that I ALWAYS have a choice. I get to choose whether to fall into the trap of reacting without much thought, usually meaning that I become like who/what I am responding to OR I can take the high road, and do something different - the right thing.  Admittedly, I am not very good at the latter.  I am getting better though. As a child, I remember many encounters with my mom.  We were alot alike and butted heads over most things.  As a parent, I see that pattern repeating itself with my son Derrick.  I know that my mom only wanted what was best for me and for me to grow...the same wish I have for all of my children.  I want them to be happy and to be the best they can be. I find that certain people or triggers always get me to react the same way which usually means poorly.  It...

At a family gathering today, I watched as my dad held and played with several of his great-grandchildren.  I think there were nine of them present.  He smiled, laughed, and talked 'baby-talk'.  He was so full of joy.   Both of my grandchildren were with me, seven year old Carly and five month old Skylar.  Carly was running around playing with the others while I rocked a fussy Skylar to sleep.  Life is good around grandchildren.

That's all the buzz of today...Christmas in July.   What does this mean?  What I know for sure is that I really have never gotten into it...the retail version, the party in Put-In-Bay, the only thing I know for sure is that it is fun to say: Christmas in July.  It kind of reminds me of another saying: It's a long long way from May to December. ...So life goes on.  Why rush it?  My entire family is here, sleeping in my house tonight, that makes me happy.  I don't need Christmas in July.