The thoughts you hold and the actions you take in the first moments of the day will have a powerful influence on how the rest of the day goes.

Flag Counter started April 3, 2008

Here’s the immediate family shots!

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I know there are places in the country and world who would give anything for just a little bit of the rain we have received this spring, and I really hesitate to complain about it . . . .

I hadn’t really been watching the radar today, I’d just glance outside now and again to make sure it wasn’t clouding up so I’d have time to run out and get my laundry off the line. I’m grazing the calves in the yard and had to go out and move the car so they could graze/mow under it when I heard the tornado “tone” on the radio station when the car turned on. I quickly came inside and turned on KTTS, the best radio station when there are storms, and hear there is a tornado warning for eastern Springfield, the city just about 30 miles from us. They are reporting storm damage already including roofs blown off and a funnel cloud called in by a trained spotter. At least it’s going the other way from us, for now. Other storms are building north of us, so we will see what happens the rest of the evening.

Richard, Garland, and I went fishing in Bennett Spring today. Garland is getting much better at dealing with the fly rod and waders.

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Jennifer, Jessica, Andy, and kids came over for Father’s Day brunch, and I took some more photos of the cute new kid!

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How often do you let other people change your mood? Do you let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss, or an insensitive employee ruin your day?

Unless you’re the Terminator, for an instant you’re probably set back on your heels. However, the mark of a successful person is how quickly she/he can get back her/his focus on what’s important.

Five years ago I learned this lesson in the back of a taxi cab in Denver. Here’s what happened:

I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport . We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver. slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.

So I asked, ‘Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!’ This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, ‘The Law of the Garbage Truck.’ He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they’ll dump it on you. Don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don’t take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so….. ‘Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don’t.’

It’s a girl! Emma Lou Jones (yes, her name was, first, Emme, but Jessica just called and said they changed it to Emma!) was born at 8:38 am on Monday, June 9, 2008! She weighed 8 lbs and was 20.5 inches long. Her apgar scores were 8-9. For my non-midwife friends, this is a score given all newborns taken at 1 minute and 5 minutes of age out of a possible 10 points. The story is, only the babies of OBs get a score of 10, so Emma did pretty good.

Jessica called me at 3 am letting me know she thought it was real labor this time. I was thinking of suggesting she call me back in an hour and let me know for sure, when the line appeared to go dead. I looked at my cell phone and saw we were still connected, and I waited and waited, and finally Jessica came back on the line. She had been unable to talk during a contraction. I knew what that meant, and I said I’d be right there! We arrived at the hospital about 4:30, am and she was 5 cms dilated. She labored so well without drugs of any kind and easily pushed Emma out without any tears.

Her doctor came in while she was pushing and said, “Good morning Jessica, what’s up?” and she said, “I’m here to cut your hair.” He said, “I should have asked you to bring your shears.” And she said, “I bet you’ve got some scissors around here somewhere I can use!” Then they got down to the business of having the baby! The doctor did need a haircut, but he was pretty busy that morning. I guess they had lots of babies lined up sort of like airplanes circling the airport.

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I apologize if this is copyrighted by someone. Richard got it on email, and I not only had to get it on my weblog, we will have this for dinner!