It's a Double

Double because I did not post yesterday and I'm posting double positives for Monday and Tuesday.

Positives for Monday - I enjoyed some peace and quiet. My mom arrived home safe and sound from her trip. My son talked to his academic advisor and he is passing classes he wasn't doing so well in.

Positives for Tuesday - I finished rewriting a paper that needed revisions and resubmitted it so I'm hoping it passes this time. I also started another paper and am now a bit ahead of schedule.

Positively Sunday

I managed to catch the beginning of the Nascar race on FOX yesterday. I was able to hear the last "Boogity, boogity, boogity, let's go racing boys," from Darrell Waltrip for the season. Sometimes I think that's my favorite part of the race.

I was off to Walmart and couldn't watch the entire race, but I alway root for Tony Stewart. I love his attitude! And speaking of Wally World, I was able to return some clothes I had bought my kids and found a replacement pair of shorts for my son.

We came home and ate some great chicken purchased at Save-A-Lot along with some yellow beans straight from the garden. You've got to love garden fresh veggies!

Dehydrated Meows

I drove two hours with my hubby yesterday to my brother's house to check on his cats. He'd been gone a few days and was afraid the meows would run out of food and water. The poor babies, their water bowl was empty when we arrived. I put out a second water dish and both kitties went to town, sucking down water as fast as they could. I have never seen a cat drink so much. I just hope they didn't get sick after we left!

They were quite happy to see us, especially since they hadn't had wet food in a few days and their water was gone. We left them with fresh water, food in their tummies, and a clean litter box!

I'm glad hubby agreed to take me to my brother's house since my poor van is dead and the kitties obviously needed a visit from their favorite aunt! :)

We didn't get hit on the highway

My daughter and I headed to my brother's house yesterday afternoon, about a two hour drive. We were cruising along when the RPM's shot up in my van. I quick turned off the cruise control, put on my signal light and headed for the side of the road. As I did this the battery light came on, the power steering left - My poor van was dead on the side of the road.

I called my hubby, who was at work about an hour away to come rescue us. So there we sat in 90+ degree weather on the side of the highway. Luckily for us quite a few really nice tractor-trailer drivers moved into the left lane when they saw the hazard lights on the van. With them in the other lane we didn't get rocked around too much.

Unfortunately I don't know what is wrong with the van and it is trapped at the mechanic's until next week. So much for my quiet weekend babysitting my brother's kitties!

Thanks to all those drivers that saw us on the side of the road and chose to move over a bit so we didn't get hit!

Cool Desktop Theme

I love anything free as I'm sure most people do. I have two blogger blogs that I use Leelou Blogs free backgrounds for. One of them is this blog, the other is Success in Bloom, my teaching blog. Yesterday I discovered her free desktop backgrounds and the one for June is oh-so-cute!

Anyway, if you're looking for a really neat background you should really go check out her blog!

This is a crazy one!

Positive for the day - Dad is A-okay!

So my dad has been left home alone with 2 cats and a dog for nearly a week. Mom calls today to ask if I've seen him - nope not since Saturday. My hubby calls to say he's going to check in on dad after work. Hubby later calls in a panic, can't get dad to answer the door. He's been knocking and ringing the doorbell for about five minutes. I tell him he's probably napping or otherwise occupied (in other words in the powder room). I tell him to come home and I'll call dad in half an hour.

I call, dad was otherwise occupied and didn't hear the doorbell or the knocking. He's fine, even on his way to the American Legion for a meeting. Then my brother calls about half hour later - Have I talked to dad recently because he's not answering the phone.

Boy that man sure can send people into a panic! Thankfully he is just fine!!!

Zippidee Do Da

Thanks to my neighbor my 16yr old was able to experience a zip line today. He had a great time hanging out with our neighbor while experiencing a new adventure. Thanks to the neighbor's wife for inviting our 12yr old over to swim with a new friend while our son was zipping along!

Another positive - I didn't have to cook today! My husband grilled a roast, made some yummy summer squash he bought at a farmer's market, and made some cheesy mashed potatoes.

Great Memorial Day!

I won a giveaway!

I am a teacher blog stalker. Sounds creepy, but it really isn't. Basically as I search for a teaching job I am also searching out wonderful teacher bloggers and learning as much as I can. Many teachers offer their experiences so generously and I really enjoy living vicariously through them!

Anyway, when I see a teacher blogging about a giveaway, I just have to enter it. Much to my surprise I won one of the giveaways I entered!!! I'll be receiving some really cute mini file folders, a great book to add to my collection, and a math & literacy center packet.

You can read all about my positive moment on my teaching blog here - Success in Bloom.

Surprise Deal

It's sometimes the little things that can make a person's day.

I bought a pair of swim trunks for my 16yr old today. I was thrilled to find some for $8 because even finding shorts for him under $20 can be a chore. Even worse is trying to find something he will like and actually wear in public!

Imagine my surprise when the swim trunks rang up for $6!!!

That positively made my day!

Able to Laugh

Today was the last day of work for the school year. It has been quite a stressful year and my coworkers and I were glad to have it coming to an end. Although the kids were trying to break every rule and totally ignoring us, we were able to laugh. Okay, so maybe we were laughing because we were so stressed out, but at least we were laughing!

What a kind son I have

Life with a teenager can be a bit crazy at times, especially when dealing with moods that change at the drop of a hat.

Imagine how thrilled I was when my son asked me if I'd like some eggs and bacon this morning when he decided to cook some for himself. He would just die if he realized I was blogging about him!

But how nice of him to think of his mom once in a while and offer to cook for me instead of asking me to cook for him! Thanks to him for making my day start off so good!!

No Mopeds Today

Positive for the day - There wasn't a single moped to slow me down on the road today.

Yesterday I had two in my way at different times. The one that mad me crazy was in the left lane, in front of me, going 20mph in a 45mph zone. Of course all the cars behind us moved to the right lane and kept passing us. I was not pleased with this moped driver. I'm sorry, I have no problem with them being on the road, but they need to get out of the way when they become a hazard to other drivers.

Another positive - I wasn't happy with a paper I turned in to have graded and 24hrs after submitting it it still had not been picked up for grading so I was able to cancel it to work on it some more.

Tune in tomorrow to find out what positive moments I have!

Tuesday's Positive Moment

Okay, I debated as to whether or not to even blog about yesterday since it was a Murphy's Law kind of day. It seemed that anything and everything went wrong and blogging about it would have gone against the whole reason I started this blog.

Instead of boring you with all the details of my really long day yesterday, I will highlight the positive! My daughter had her last concert chorus of the school year last night. It's held in the middle school gym and dad and I sat close to the 6th grade chorus. They sat in the bleachers when they were not singing. Now I know kids like to talk, but these kids should know better than to talk while others are performing. The majority of them were talking the entire time the 7th and 8th grade choruses were performing. Needless to say I was quite annoyed because I was having a hard time hearing the music over their incessant chatter.

Highlighting the positive: Every time I looked over at the bleachers to glare at those chit-chatters, my daughter was never talking. She was respectfully watching the other performances! So thanks to her for giving me a positive and proud moment to blog about!!

Purpose of this Blog

Being an early childhood teacher I understand the need to be positive with children. However, one of my memories from childhood involves someone who knew me well (and who shall remain unnamed) calling me "Colleen the Chronic Complainer." That stuck with me throughout my life. It was sometimes years before it resurfaced in my mind, but sometimes it felt like it never left.

Am I a chronic complainer? Well I don't think so. Sure I complain, who doesn't? Do I complain all the time? I hope not! I try not to anyway. Yes, I know I've always been a pessimist. I don't know where that came from, but being optimistic actually takes a huge effort on my part. I have to consciously think about what I'm saying, feeling, and thinking in order to "turn that frown upside down" and think positively.

That's where this blog comes in. I recently saw a clip on a morning news show about a man who has written two books about the awesome things in life. I've seen challenges on and offline about people paying it forward or being positive, etc.

The goal for this blog is to remind myself that the small things all add up and can equal a positive if only I let them. I plan to post at least one positive moment every day. That is my plan, but just know that I am a procrastinator so I may just not get around to it. I don't think that's a bad thing, just something I've had to work on my entire life!

So here's to being positive every day!