Just drop me off here...

Happy Anniversary Journal! Three years together today!

I can't believe I started this journal 3 years ago today, even though I don't use this journal much anymore since I started the new one I still do browse through and relive the pages. I can still remember the day I started the journal, how aol journals had already started a few weeks before and I had been spending so much time looking through all the aol journals I could find. They were so different back then! Then finally I started up my own journal, and Ann did the same thing the same day with me. We always continued journaling together through these 3 years.

So many memories, I'm so glad I joined aol journals. So glad I have these 3 years of memories to look back on!

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Having a really, really bad day. It always seems when something is going right, there is always ten things going wrong at the same time bringing me down, and this time i'm trying so hard not to let that happen. So i really needed this.

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.

Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much." were most of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

Last year one of the students was killed in Iraq and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.

The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. "Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "yes." Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot."

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.

"We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it."

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

"Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it."

All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home."

Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album."

"I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary."

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. "I carry this with me at all times," Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we all saved our lists."

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again. The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.

Please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late. Remember, you reap what you sow. What you put into the lives of others comes back into your own.

May Your Day Be Blessed And Be As Special as you are.

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ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.

THREE. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.

FOUR. When you say, "I love you", mean it.

FIVE. When you say, "I'm sorry", look the person in the eye.

SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.

SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.

EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much.

NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.

TEN. In disagreements, fight fairly.

ELEVEN. Don't judge people by their relatives.

TWELVE. Talk slowly, but think quickly.

THIRTEEN. When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, "Why do you want to know?"

FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

FIFTEEN. Say "bless you" when you hear someone sneeze.

SIXTEEN. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R's:
Respect for self;
Respect for others;
Responsibility for all your actions.

EIGHTEEN. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

NINETEEN. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.

TWENTY ONE. Spend some time alone.

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Come visit me at my new address http://journals.aol.com/jfourb/SetMeFree/ and leave a comment to let me know you stopped by!

I'll probably come back here sometimes to update, but i'll be over there for a little while for now.

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I took my younger son and my daughter to the allergy doc today. My son's asthma has flared up again (it's been dormant for awhile) and his allergies are crazy. My daughter officially has asthma too and is going back to be allergy tested in two weeks but meanwhile they gave us a whole buncha meds for the kids to help. We're up to our ears here in flovent, albuterol, nasonex and a few others. At the pharmacy we filled over 10 scripts and we still don't have all the meds. I don't think i've ever filled so many at one time, but hopefully it will nip all these coughing and breathing problems in the bud and the kids can finally feel healthy again.

My older son is having a test tomorrow on pollination, the parts of the flower and bee. I've been quizzing him on the answers and all i keep thinking of is the song from the movie Grease2. Remember the pollination song? LOL I keep wanting to sing it, but not very appropriate so i've had it in my head all day now. I think i'm gonna have to pull the video out and watch it while the boys are at school tomorrow.

Thanks to Amanda i finally got my beta journal up so i may be going there mostly. I've seen what some have done but i haven't had a chance to play with it yet, i just did one entry. So here is my new beta journal if you want to come visit me there. I haven't had the chance to add any links or anything, hopefully soon i'll have some time to do that.

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This has been one crazy week. My husband is at the mri place now, the doctor gave him another month off of work, and depending on the mri results he may have to have surgery. My mother-in-law recently had knee surgery too, though she had her whole knee replaced, and is happy with the results but frustrated with the recovery. So if my hubby does indeed need the surgery i don't know which way he'll go with it.

My daughter is coughing all night again, so this allergy med they gave her doesn't seem to be helping anymore. She's fine all day but as soon as she falls asleep she just starts coughing and can't stop. I haven't been getting much sleep until the early morning hours when the coughing tapers off a bit, and then i have these strange dreams. All these people in my house that i don't know, lots of candles and music, and it all has this really strange feeling to it. When i wake up i can still smell the scents from the air in my dream, and i'm uneasy i guess though i can't exactly explain the feeling.

We watched the spy kids 3d movie last night, and that was pretty neat. I haven't worn 3d glasses in a very long time so we had lots of fun playing with them. I really liked the other two movies and i think this one was good too but i didn't care for the ending. The whole 3d thing was really neat and the effects in the movie were great. The kids haven't seen it yet and i know they will just love it so i'm sure i'll be watching it over and over.

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