Days 150-152 The Abridged Version

I do apologize in advance for this keyhole view of the past week.
As mentioned in my post earlier tonight, Day 148 and 149  I've been so busy living I haven't found time to be typing!
That is the goal of this blog afterall, isn't it?  Still, we are on this journey together, and I enjoy sharing it with you and receiving your feedback; thanks for all of the support!

Just so you know, I finished baking all the chocolate chip cookies before my friend Nichole arrived.  And I managed to lick the spatula and beaters and get most of the dishes done before she knocked on my door.  After a fun night of chatting, munching on cookies, and watching a cheezy chick flick, I'm back to finish telling you my recent claims.  So here we go...

Day 150 A Small Gesture

Part of the reason I went to Milwaukee over the weekend was to do wedding planning and pick out bridesmaid dresses with Ashley, a close friend who asked me to be her maid of honor! We shopped successfully and then decided to continue planning over "fine dining" at Olive Garden.  Soup and salad for two, please. When the bill came I decided to claim it.  She smiled brightly at my offer to pay, which of course made me all smiley, and somehow doing that small gesture helped me to feel better (I was still fighting off the stress of that speeding ticket from the night before!).

Lesson: a small gesture can be a bring a big smile to both people involved!

Day 151 Unsocial Shower

Have you ever woken up in an unsocial mood?  That was totally me today!  Still in Milwaukee, I went to visit Ashley and her fiance's church, and let me tell you--I didn't want to talk to anyone.  Normally, I'm bubbly and outgoing.  But today when they wanted to introduce me to several people, I was able to avoid it by using the excuse of having to get to the BIG EVENT: the last baby shower for my brother and his wife.  On the 45-minute drive there I knew what my claim for the day needed to be: change my mood and reach out to people! We (my mom, sister, and I) got to show up for the shower and just enjoy it, as it was being thrown by my sister-in-law's side.  My sister was already feeling social and seemed to want to go chat with people.  I explained my present mood, but went along.  A short time later, after catching up with a girl who I'd met a year before in my brother's wedding, my sister congratulated me for being so social.  When she brought it to my attention, I realized how making the choice to act social really had changed my whole mood.  For the rest of the shower, I enjoyed catching up with acquaintances and meeting new people.

Lesson: sometimes our feelings follow our actions   

Day 152 Gram
Today's claim was to write back to my grandma, affectionately known as "Gram."  As you know, she sent a handwritten letter (scrawled on flower stationery) in response to my Christmas card.  Since I also needed to take my car in for an oil change, I decided to fulfill my claim while waiting for my car to be finished.  I took some elegant daisy stationery with me and wrote her a long response (front and back) filling her in on my life and asking questions about her and grandpa ("grampa") and their love for antiques.  Unfortunately, Dr. Phil was playing on the public T.V. in the lobby and I had a hard time concentrating.  What I'd hoped to be a reflective, reminiscent experience turned into a lesson on disciplining my attention and tuning out the loud, gossipy story on the television.

Lesson: save the letter-writing for home