<p>I’ve had two nice “little” things happen to me today. Has anyone else had a small thing happen to them that made their day or provided a pick-me-up?</p>
<p>Here’s mine:</p>
<p>A co-worker of mine has been having a difficult time, so I’ve been helping him as much as I can because we’ve worked togther happily for many years. Of course I never expected anything in return because this is what friends do and I know he’d do the same for me if roles were reversed. So with tomorrow being Valentine’s Day, he came in with an exquisite jewel-box of a chocolate mousse cake. It’s got dark chocolate ganache coating, with beautiful candied flowers. So lovely and delicious. He said that he knew how much I loved chocolate and wanted me to have something special. Nothing inappropriate between us, just someone who knew how much I’d love a treat.</p>
<p>The next thing pertains to Zooserbrother. A local college donates tickets to its sporting events to local schools and the schools give them to their kids based on whatever criteria they set. At ZB’s school, the student who is the best citizen in his grade for the month gets the tickets and today ZB got them. So incredibly kind of the college to donate the tickets because the kids think they’ve been given the moon.</p>
<p>This may not mean much to those without grown or college-age boys, but both of mine have called me twice this week “just to chat.” Didn’t need anything, no problems, just felt like talking to mom.</p>
<p>What a difference between boys and girls, I have texted or emailed or chatted with all three of my girls several times this morning; everything from specific news to asking me to google a phone number to just saying hi. </p>
<p>Not trying to rub it in, just thinking how different ‘normal’ is for different kids.</p>
<p>The little thing this week has been that the sun has come out every afternoon this week, a real treat in the Pacific Northwest. Some days had rain or even snow in the morning, but still sun in time for the daily dog walk before sunset.</p>
<p>If my son called me just to chat I think I would pass out!</p>
<p>I attended a senior management meeting today and, even in the face of this horrible economic environment, our CEO kept his sense of humor and his sincere compassion for the employees. He said, “I don’t want anything to poison our culture. We can’t lose sight of that.” I find this gratifying even with no raises, no bonuses etc.</p>
<p>I was thinking of sharing a few nice things with all of you after a rather hard week at a company’s oversea offsite. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>My D2 was diagnosed with a possible case of pneumonia this week, but is feeling better.</p></li>
<li><p>Just got my bonus number, it is a lot better than I expected (don’t flame me because I worked really hard for it).</p></li>
<li><p>I had to give out bonus to my staff(100+ people) while I was away, got a handful of thank-you emails.</p></li>
<li><p>My D1 seem a lot happier recently in college.</p></li>
<li><p>My D2 just got into THE ballet summer intensive - I don’t have to take her to another audition this weekend.</p></li>
<li><p>I am going home tomorrow and I didn’t get into any confrontation with my colleagues.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Oldfort, that sounds like a great week! So glad your D is feeling better, there’s a lot of yuckiness going around. Super-duper congrats on the bonus!! I hope you will do at least one small thing just for you.</p>
<p>A poignant good thing, all three kids are in a really good place right now and truly preparing to embark on the next steps- </p>
<p>one applying for PhDs and got into one fun place this week, though funding info won’t come for another 6 weeks</p>
<p>one graduating this spring preparing med school apps and even though she is entirely average in her numbers, I have a good feeling that if she can get interviews, she will get in</p>
<p>one in second term of a transfer and already getting to know the head of the dept well and has been told this week that he will support her future apps for PhD etc</p>
<p>DH commented that it feels like all of our sacrifices to make education the #1 priority are paying off in seeing the kids find their passions and pursue them, at the same time it feels like they are all taking off and leaving him- sniff, sad, but glad ;)</p>
<p>S called to tell me of his first grad school acceptance. He was in a hurry, so no details. But he does not initiate calls often, so it was double good news. </p>
<p>Alas, no chocolate for me, as I’m allergic!</p>
<p>I was at a colleague’s house for dinner tonight. They have 2 Ds ages 11 and 8. They were complaining a bit on how the girls were getting a bit difficult. I told them to treasure the next few years, they will go by before they knew it. Sometimes I do wish I could turn the clock back a bit.</p>
<p>My H called me today and asked me out to lunch tomorrow for Valentine’s Day! We usually don’t go out on Valentine’s Day and tomorrow our oldest D has opening night of Les Miserables (she is Eponine).</p>
<p>Also youngest D (HS freshman) called to tell me she got all A’s for her first semester!</p>
<p>I made choc chip cookies and choc covered strawberries for the guidance office (who turned around a scholarship application overnight for my S2 as the office is closing for vacation week) and I brought some in also for the front office…where they have been so helpful all year as we parents work on Project Graduation. It wasn’t a big deal but I think they were all happy to be remembered…and I got a HUG!! I am glad I actually did it… sometimes my intentions are better than my actions…</p>
<p>I have worked for a large company for MANY years…my former manager died this week … many of our peers have retired or packaged out over the years and a bunch of us former coworkers have been getting together for breakfast every 6 weeks or so for about 3 years now… anyway, the former manager came to our Dec breakfast… we all knew at the time that it was terminal, with weeks to go… well today, his wife and 2 of 3 kids showed up at the breakfast too… the funeral service is tomorrow and his wife knew she won’t get much time with the “work” crowd, what with big families and all… so it was just a very nice morning reminiscing about our times together and the fun we all had. She did say that the breakfasts always served to remind him of the friendships we had built…and the sincerity of the caring was very special to all of them. </p>
<p>Also took my S2 for new glasses today…and we then did a quick stop in a jewelry store (high end unique crafts type of store) and he actually acted on my suggestion for a Valentine’s gift for his girlfriend… nice to have the maturation level reach “open” to ideas from Mom!! I definitely identify with Over30 who was celebrating receiving calls from her boys. My oldest almost never called when in college. Very valid to celebrate a random, just to chat call.</p>
<p>This was just one that I observed and I thought it was so sweet:</p>
<p>I was in an office and there were 2 co-workers and one was getting married. The other (male) coworker decided to make a homemade wedding cake for the office for the occasion! It was not elaborate, or tiered like a wedding cake, but it just resembled a wedding cake because it was a layer cake filled with strawberries and had white frosting on the outside. It looked like a real homemade cake that looked like it was made with a lot of love!</p>
<p>I really am loving reading these stories. What a great idea for a thread, zoosermom.</p>
<p>I swim on a master’s swim team in the mornings with my H. This is a really competitive team with several members holding national and world records for their age groups. Having never swum competitively as a youth like they did and having started just 3 years ago at age 43, I am one of the slowest swimmers. I was teasing my coach yesterday about a set he gave and so today for “payback” he announced in front of all of the team (about 30 swimmers as well as the high school kids) that I was going to swim a 300IM to try to beat a certain time. I was horrified because I’ve never raced and just barely learned how to do the other three strokes (fly, back, breast) less than a year ago. To say that I would have rather walked through fire than do this in front of these amazing athletes is an understatement. But thanks to peer pressure and chanting from the others, I agreed. It was torturous (75 yards of butterfly, followed by 75 of back/breast/free) taking over 5 minutes without rest. This was at the very end of practice, and the “little thing that meant a lot” was that they all got out and stood at the both ends of the lane to cheer and yell for me the entire time. The fact that I went out too fast and “died” after fly and limped to the end and did not beat the time didn’t really matter; it was just so nice to know they care about “the slow” swimmer at the end of the pool. :)</p>
<p>Wow, INCAmom, 3 laps of fly, plus the rest of the strokes, that is no small thing! My DDs are all long time swimmers, but mostly stopped in jr high and then as they dabbled in swimming for fitness later could not believe how difficult it is!!</p>
<p>Thanks, somemom. I never thought I’d ever be able to do the fly, much less three laps in a row, but somehow I’ve found the persistence to learn it (it’s ugly with a capital U but I don’t think it breaks the rules… ha ha). I’m actually more impressed that over30’s sons called her just to chat! :)</p>