Day 212

It brightened my day when:

J: H climbed into my lap to watch the Olympics with me
K: the car driver in the parking lot moved through the space so I could go through without backing up--very nice indeed
P: P came outside--even though he was super hot--and played catch with us
J: G asked me to make cookies for everyone--all by myself
H: P and P came outside to play catch with me

Day 211

It brightened my day when:

J: G brought me a cup of tea while watching the Olympics
K: the worker at the store was laughing and smiling and genuinely happy to be doing his job and making others smile
P: H smiled at me when I told him I would play dress-up with him
J: everyone laughed when I came down in my gymnastics outfit and mimicked the USA team
H: G asked me to go feed the deer and take care of them

Day 210

It brightened my day when:

J: Kevin came to meet us at Church today
K: Sophia finally allowed me to carry her around today
P: the son of my parent's friend came up to me at Church and was so chatty about baseball
J: Sophie wanted me to ride with her in her car
H: Eliot asked if he could ride with me in my car

Day 209

It brightened my day when:

J: my mom and bro were able to come by to spend the evening with us
K: P made us a surprise cup of decaf to go with our peaches
P: Uncle J came with us to the baseball field to hit some balls
J: Uncle J told me he thought my hits were "money"
H: Uncle J came with us to play baseball

Day 208

It brightened my day when:

J: K brought something to me just because she thought I would like them
K: the girl at the store was so excited to find out there was tofu at the store and she was super chatty about that with me
P: H was interested in having me coach him on his golf swing
J: Gi took me to Sams so I could see if they had the book I have been wanting--and they did
H: mommy got up to turn the light off for me because I was too tired to do it myself

Day 207

It brightened my day when:

J: the waitress was so friendly and helpful to our rather large table
K: the man at the restaurant kept reminding us that he was there if we needed anything
P: J and K let me listen to their book on tape with them during the trip home
J: my cousins wanted me to read to them during our road trip
H: my cousins asked me to ride with them in their van

Day 206

It brightened my day when:

J: P told me to watch how much progress H was making in the pool
K: a cashier at a crowded store opened a new line for us
P: a "smart" looking 8-yr old held the door open for all of us at the Go-Kart track
J: the waitress gave me a bit extra in my milkshake
H: P told me how good my swimming was

Day 205

It brightened my day when:

J: G had a delicious spread ready for us all when we returned
K: H was so proud to show us he learned how to tread water
P: the guy at the hat store asked what position I play
J: B wanted me to take him around the bouncy castle
H: P got to let us do all those things

Day 204

It brightened my day when:

J: someone started a conversation with me because I was wearing my Orioles cap
K: my sis-in-law trusted me to give her a haircut and loved the results
P: Darius came up to me a gave me a high-five after the show
J: Ben wanted me to hold her for our family photo
H: P told us we could go on a late night family beach walk

Day 203

It brightened my day when:

J: the group of boys were so helpful to us in solving our "wet" phone problem--they had all the answers
K: the man at the island came over to help us get our pontoon boat out of the dock easily
P: a boy named Jacob came over to my cousins and I and asked if he could play with us at the beach
J: B said, "I go in car Jula go in"
H: S told me I was so good at flipping a coin

Day 202

It brightened my day when:

J: the cousins were so excited to have me throw them the ball in the pool
K: my bro went out and did something so sweet just because he had heard me say something about needing something
P: my cousins wanted me to play all these games with them
J: a lady on the beach came up to me and told me she liked my suit
H: daddy encouraged me to just jump in

Day 201

It brightened my day when:

J: a little boy with an Oriole cap quietly asked his mom to check out my Oriole cap and we proceeded to talk about the O's
K: J was very excited to ask my kids and I to do his exercise routine with him this morning
P: the lady at the pool threw a ball and it accidentally hit me and was so sweet and apologetic
J: daddy surprised us all with tickets to the Pelicans game
H: the game people surprised us with end-of-game fireworks

Day 200

It brightened my day when:

J: H trusted me enough to jump to me in the water finally
K: the cashier told P and J (while laughing) to do rock, paper, scissors to decide who would pay rather than fight over the bill!
P: H was eager to have me help him learn to swim
J: P was playing around in the water with us and let us splash him
H: daddy let me jump to him without dunking me under

Day 199

It brightened my day when:

J: P brought home a NY Times newspaper for everyone to read
K: the young waitress from Steak n Shake brought out our family's crazy order with incredible memory and friendliness
P: P rode the waves with me
J: Gi dug in the sand with me at the beach
H: Gi dug in the sand to find a sand crab for me

Day 198

It brightened my day when:

J: the lady offered us one of her lawn chairs
K: the man at the desk offered the kids a coupon for a free drink!
P: P and J took us to the bucket pool
J: H went down the slide with me
H: P encouraged me to go down the slide on my own

Day 197

It brightened my day when:

J: I heard singing this morning at 5:30 am
K: I was able to get a hold of Jackie, or neighbor in France, to wish him a happy birthday (76 years old, I think).
P: J, K and I sat in the car to listen to the end of the great book-on-tape we got
J: J and K helped me get some new things for me at the store (I forgot my entire suitcase at home this morning).
H: P played with me in our vacation house.

Day 196

It brightened my day when:

J: P and H asked me to throw some pop flies up to them in the backyard
K: M came to DD with us and we got to catch up a bit before leaving for vacation
P: P taught me how to check the oil in his car
J: Gi thought it was funny when I did a trick on her
H: uncle J gave me a fist pump after his hockey game

Day 195

It brightened my day when:

J: K and J asked me to go along to the DreamTheater concert with them
K: the little girl waved to me from behind the table
P: P shared salmon with me
J: P stopped off at the ice cream stand for us
H: P took us to the science museum

Day 194

It brightened my day when:

J: Kevin was so kind to our kids and made them feel at ease
K: H told Gi she was a good hitter
P: Kevin was so friendly with the older man who had Alzheimer's Disease
J: the old man looked over at us and gave us a big head nod
H: mommy came out to pitch to me and stayed out for extra time

Day 193

It brightened my day when:

J: P set me up for an appointment that is highly needed (a haircut)
K: P pitched to the kids and to G and me
P: daddy showed up to play some ball
J: everyone came to play some ball
H: P said I was learning so much about baseball

Day 192

It brightened my day when:

J: the man at the restaurant was so friendly and offered extras for our take-away meal
K: the lady from Verizon was able to help my dad with his phone problem
P: J suggested we all go play ball at the local field
J: J told mommy that I was becoming so great at catching and throwing
H: Poppop and mommy came out to play ball in the backyard

Day 191

It brightened my day when:

J: my family gave me the time to complete a lot of my written work today
K: Gi made us such a delightful meal
P: J took us to the batting cages
J: my brothers told me I was great at playing catch
H: everyone played catch with me at some point today

Day 190

It brightened my day when:

J: my bro told me to come watch his hockey game
K: the Target employee went out of his way to be chatty and friendly with us
P: Uncle J came outside to play catch with us
J: everyone let me sleep in this morning
H: mommy came out to throw the ball with me while we were waiting for Patrick

Day 189

It brightened my day when:

J: the cashier made a funny joke to H when he was buying his airplane
K: J took J to Church
P: H asked me to catch a few of his curve balls before bed
J: Mommy said I could do a few rounds of "sporcle" before bed
H: Eliot came over and played a lot of things with me

Day 188

It brightened my day when:

J: P took us to the batting cages
K: Gi did our laundry for us!
P: H threw some great pitches to me
J: Poppop wrote out all 50 states for me to name the capitals of during dinner to keep me from being bored!
H: P told me I was great at pitching

Day 187

It brightened my day when:

J: my kids were so thrilled to play a game of ball on a real field for the first time
K: Gi told the BGE men fixed the neighborhood wires and their electricity came on finally--thank you BGE
P: my cousins introduced me to their neighborhood baseball field and played a bit a bb with me for the first time
J: everyone cheered me on when I made an awesome "down the 3rd base" line hit for a double
H: my uncle took me bowling and to play tennis and to play baseball

Day 186

It brightened my day when:

J: my bro-in-law got us some corn on the cob and hamburgers for a proper 4th of July spread
K: Cha/duh took us around their town and showed us their favorite ice cream parlor
P: my cousins took us to their fireworks display
J: B came to sit on my lap during the fireworks display
H: my cousins asked me to sleep in their room for a slumber party

Day 185

It brightened my day when:

J: the 2 frenchmen in the store had a brief conversation with me
K: the man at the front desk offered us 2 hot cookies
P: the waitress at Bertucci's was super friendly
J: G made me laugh at the restaurant
H: mommy let me run back and forth between our room and P and G's

Day 184

It brightened my day when:

J: my whole family was at the airport to greet me
K: I got an email from J letting me know he made his connection flight and was on his way!!!
P: daddy said he loved my outfit
J: P let me drive his car
H: I got to see daddy

Day 183

It brightened my day when:

J: my colleagues asked me to play the violin for a farewell number for another colleague
K: Paul offered all of us the use of his shower
P: P took us all out to Cheeburger Cheeburger
J: P took us all out to see Avengers
H: S sat next to me at the movies and at the restaurant