TheREALTYgram Blogger

100 Things That Make Me Smile;Moving from Gratitude to Gladitude

This is another challenge from Real Estate Coach Joeann Fossland, but I am going to make this an organic post and just keep growing it instead of waiting to post when it is complete. I will keep this browser open and make notes here as I find myself smiling in the course of the day. (I am starting to feel like a Personal Development monster!)

1. A gleeful infant in her Daddy's arms.
2. Naughty e-mail forwards from select friends and family. Here is one I received today:
   

   A husband walks into Victoria 's Secret to purchase a sheer negligee for his wife. He is shown several possibilities that range from $250 to $500 in price, the more sheer, the higher the price.

   Naturally, he opts for the most sheer item, pays the $500, and takes it home. He presents it to his wife and asks her to go upstairs, put it on, and model it for him.

   Upstairs, the wife thinks, "I have an idea. It's so sheer that it might as well be nothing. I won't put it on, but I'll do the modeling naked, return it tomorrow, and keep the $500 refund for myself."
   She appears naked on the balcony and strikes a pose. The husband says, "Good Grief! You'd think for $500, they'd at least iron it!"

   He never heard the shot.

   Funeral on THURSDAY at Noon.   Closed coffin.

3. Making eye contact with a little hummingbird that hovers outside my window.
4. Watching two Danish expatriates sit alongside a fragrant mesquite fire wearing cowboy hats and looking like modern-day Gunsmoke extras ... living their cowboy fantasies in the Wild West environs of Central Tucson just doors away from the Tucson Tennis & Racquetball Club.
5. The thought of donning a borrowed, one-size-fits-all Hawaiian style moo-moo to wear to a Luau-themed Women's Council of REALTORS (WCR) party later this week in Scottsdale. (This one makes me smile and wince at the same time.) I should have posted this one after #2!
6. Hearing my sister, Theresa, talk about her weekend visit with her son, Greg, and the thought of his very special smile.
7. The sounds of sweet desert creatures ... like the voice of Bob Nachman in Scottsdale! The incoming AZ WCR Governor is one of the most sincere and engaging REALTORS I have ever met ... and he throws the BEST dinner parties at NAR events, without a doubt! When you find yourself on the phone with someone and you can't stop smiling, you gotta KNOW this man must be some kinda REALTOR!!  ... and some kinda GUY!
8. I smile at my husband's response to my questions sometimes. This morning, I asked him, "Do you know how to turn on the heat in this place?"
   His answer: "Just put on a pair of socks!"
9. I smile and sigh contentedly at feeling warmer on a chilly day. (I put on a pair of socks.)
10. I smiled broadly when I got a call a little while ago from a broker who called three home sellers today and got a nice appointment with an Expired Listing in Illinois. We play The EXPIRED Real Estate Game™ together first thing in the morning every day.
11. I smile a lot each morning sharing thoughts with other players in the game.
12. I smile each time I get a call from Denmark on Skype and I have a chance to speak with my inlaws and see them via webcam.
13. I smile about shared secrets. Shhhhh!!!
14. I smile when I think about the power of blogs and taking action on a good idea (like making a list of 100 things that make me smile).
15. I smile when I think of all the things I am grateful about ... I am STILL counting!!!
16. I smile that I have about 25 pounds of WONDERFUL tomato sauce on the stove and I remember that only two people live in this house.
17. I smile at the opportunity to share some Italian dishes that I can make with a large pot of tomato sauce made the old fashioned way.
18. I smile at the thought that something that sounded like a pretty serious cardiac condition is resolving itself toward good health for a new friend I gained this year in Florida. Whew! BIG smile!
19. I smile at a shared notion about starting life with a clean slate. I feel like I specialize in clean slates!
20. I smile when someone asks me about a price to charge for something I am happy to do for free!
21. I smile that I can create an online photo album the day after an event full of smiles!
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22. I smile even more broadly that I can add music to the photos and create an altogether different viewing experience with the same photos.
    
23. I smile when I think that I used to take film to a store or mail it for processing and wait days to see the results.
24. I smile even more broadly with a FULL SCREEN view of the same video!
25. I smile that digital cameras let me shoot hundreds of photos in a single day!
26. I am working with cyber tools today and embedding code in blogs ... and I smile with an impure thought when a friend misspells embed as imbed and I think about inbed.
27. I smile at the thought of my sister, Linda, who still thinks she is the boss (of the world!!!)
28. I smile at tender memories of my sister, Theresa, who is still my "little sister" at age 50!
29. I smile to think that my brother's son, Jeremiah, is so much like his Dad.
30. I smile at a young blogger's connection with a Real Live Princess about  loaves of bread  and lollipops.
31. I smile at the prospect of finishing this list today!
32. I am smiling for no apparent reason today ... my face is frozen into a smile ... this must be what they mean when they say, "Life is good," huh?
33. I smile at an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer today ... it also makes me blush!
34. I smile when I watch Susie feed the birds in the early morning hours and they do not fly away when walks around the yard.
35. I smile when I think, "I must remember to tell this to Father when I go to confession," and then I remember is has been almost 40 years since I have sat in a confessional but the thought still occurs.
36. I smile sometimes when I pass a church and I bless myself ... it still comes so naturally.
37. I smile when I think that my conversational Polish is limited to the sign of the cross, the Ave Maria, and some choice swear words taught to me by old Ciocia Anna.
38. I smile when a nephew calls me "Ciocia," the Polish word for Aunt.
39. I smile when I contemplate becoming a Babci (Polish for grandmother).
40. I smile when I toast a friend.
41. I smile when I see a Danish grandfather lavish in his grandaughter's glee.
42. I smile when I hear there is 4 inches of snow in New Jersey and freezing rain in Pennslvania because I am in warm and sunny Tucson.
43. I smile when I hear a friend complain about the cold weather in Tucson as she is driving in short sleeves in an air conditioned vehicle.
44. I smile when I hear old friends share memories.
45. I smile when I hear girlfriends' kiss-and-tell stories.
46. I smile when I have private memories I do not share.
47. I am smiling and laughing at a video Kim Ades just posted at Facebook.
    
48. I smile when I hear the latest Leonard Cohen CD.
49. I smile at the thought of a septuagenarian who is obsessed about sex. His girlfriend is 80 years old.
50. I smile when I think about playing The Expired Real Estate Game™ this week with a full head of steam.
51. I smile when I remember my stint as a cowgirl in Oregon 30 years ago. Seems like yesterday.
52. I smile in a space that is punctuated by so many chuckles and giggles in the course of a day.
53. I smile at a pair of dress shoes that are brought back to life despite the fact that I was ankle deep in mud yesterday.
54. I smile at the sight of running water in the middle of the desert after a storm.
55. I smile at the perfumed air in Tucson after a rain.
56. I smile at a refrigerator full of party leftovers and the thought of all the extra time I have for the computer this week because I do not have to cook.
57. I smile at a local cat who has adopted Thor.
58. I smile at the knowledge that there is a bobcat in the neighborhood who dances on the roof of the casita.
59. I smile that my tablet is back from repair and fully charged.
60. I smile when I think about my Dad, who turned 80 this year.
    
61. I smile at three generations of Jeremiah Flynns in our family and how handsome and wonderful they all are!
62. I smile at the notion that some sips from his aunt's breast as an infant helped make the brain cells that took Anthony Michael over the top to his Ph.D. at Yale and a Post Doc at Stanford. That's some kinda brain food.
63. I smile when I remember that my sons each nursed for two years and that their lips never met a rubber nipple.
64. I smile when I hear my older son tell me that information about rubber nipples is useless trivia the world does not need to know.
65. I smile when he tells me not to share that at parties with his friends.
66. I smile when I think that he will read it here and BLUSH.
67. I smile when I think of a man who is 6'6" tall who can blush so easily about rubber nipples.
68. I smile when I think I have made about 20 loaves of bread this week and we are down to nothing because we gave it all away.
69. I smile whenever I remember my mother's bowls of babka rising near hot air vents at home in Paramus, NJ.
70. I smile when I remember walking to the library, past farm fields and sprinklers.
71. I smile about memories of fishing with twine and safety pins and balls of bread at the Creek.
72. I smile when I remember Knock Hockey games at Morningside Park.
73. I smile when I remember Debbie Kautz, who lived a large life at the age of 10, who just passed away.
74. I smile whenever I watch British comedy.
75. I smile when I listen to All Things Considered on NPR.
76. I smile to think so much intense magic exists in such a tiny casita.
77. I smile when I proofread this and #77 is missing a smile ... and I find I am smiling, anyway! 
78. I smile that I have so many friends on Facebook.
79. I smile when I think about Tucson and I know that I have been here a few short months, but it feels like years and years!
80. I smile because I have learned to Just Say NO to a whole bunch of Facebook apps and because I have that whole crazy apps thing under control.
81. I smile when I think of some "sleeper" programs that have been around for awhile that have been secrets for too long, and the thought that I can help "out" them and that real estate agents will love them!
82. I smile whenever I have a chance to play Scrabble.
83. I smile at the chance to play bridge on a living room floor.
84. I smile when there is an extra King of Diamonds in the deck that appears when we are playing bridge.
85. I smile when everyone who is playing bridge has a different number of cards in their hands.
86. I smile when we decide it is not necessary to keep score when there is an extra King of Diamonds in the deck and heaven only knows what else is there if we decide to look!
87. I smile when I reflect on the fact that all the clothes are laundered, all the dishes are washed and put away, and there is such light housekeeping in this casita.
88. I smile about tiled floors and no basement when there is bread in the oven and people walk with heavy feet in the kitchen because it does not matter ... the bread will not fall!
89. I smile when I count 89 reasons to smile so far and I only have to find 11 more reasons and I can finish this post!
90. I smile when I think about 2008 and traveling to Hawaii next month.
91. I smile when I think about the upcoming Inman Connect conference in New York and remember last year's conference.
92. I smile when I remember Joeann's 10 Daily Delicious Habits. If you could not log on, don't sweat it, you can find it here.
93. I smile whenever I connect with one of the Really Awesome Women in Real Estate who attended last year's conference in Albuquerque.
94. I smile at the prospect of the next Really Awesome Women in Real Estate conference in April.
95. I smile when I think about grown ups playing with Tinkertoys.
96. I smile when I remember my good friend Lynn who died this year ... and I speak with her daughter and know that Lynn still lives in two generations who follow her.
97. I smile at the quietude of this Tucson neighborhood, and at the early dawn stillness punctuated by the song of a special bird I cannot name.
98. I smile at a joy that seems to know no bounds.
99. I smile with a happiness that is grounded and eternal.
100. I smile about a chance to share my smiles with you and hope that you are smiling, too!

My Thanksgiving List -100 Reasons for Gratitude

1. I am grateful for a large and loving family, the Flynns and Maliszewskis and Thorsens.
2. I am grateful to the core for two magnificent sons, Jens Holger and Andreas Holger. They swell my heart and make me very, very proud.
3. I am grateful for Ralf and a 33-year adventure that has taken us through blissful sunsets and some rapids that few other couples could survive.
4. I am grateful for Arizona, its warm and embracing sun, a new state to call home.
5. I am grateful for dreams that did not give up on me.
6. I am grateful for lessons learned in some sorry and stupid ass mistakes I have made over the years.
7. I am grateful for every single moment I have lived and I would not change a single second in my life.
8. I am grateful for the past and the memories attached to it.
9. I am grateful for the present and the memories we are creating today.
10. I am grateful for the future and the memories we will craft over time.
11. I am grateful for good health.
12. I am grateful for a precious and wonderful and politically savvy daughter-in-law who married my son despite his misguided political notions ;-)
13. I am grateful for Jens Holger's extended family in the Pangborns.
14. I am grateful that my little guy is wearing a new fashioned smile borne in a new relationship with a sweet nurse in Columbus.
15. I am grateful for my sister, Linda, who is the most perfect person I know.
16. I am grateful for my sister, Theresa, who is still a little flower in our lives.
17. I am grateful for my brother, Jerry, whose mere name makes my arms reach for a big hug every single time I think of him.
18. I am thankful for my newest sister, Joeann. Whoever would have guessed you could find a new sister at this stage in life?
19. I am thankful for my dear friend, Connie, and 22 years of real estate and discovery.
20. I am thankful for Ellen, my oldest girlfriend, who shared my youth, taught me to play chess, walked with me to the library, turned me on to Dylan Thomas, Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, and Bob Dylan, and traded Beatle cards.
21. I am grateful for my oldest friend, Robert, who shared my playpen when we were babies, walked with me to kindergarten, and who still calls me "Frances Flynn."
22. I am grateful for my grandmother, Frances Flynn, who took me and Linda to Radio City Music Hall and Coney Island, and who shared her stories with me over shared tea bags in her kitchen.
23. I am grateful for cousins Bobby and Franny, who share memories of Coney Island, running through subway turnstiles, and fishing and box turtles in Bordentown.
24. I am grateful for my Babci, in her hairnet and apron, making placki and babka and telling stories about the Baby Jesus.
25. I am grateful for my mother, who gave me life and showed me some secrets along the way.
26. I am grateful for my dad, who still shares a passion for words and who can speak with his eyes and his heart in synch.
27. I am grateful for my godfather, Uncle John, for trips to the Jersey shore as kids, for his love and shared wisdom, for his sense of history, honor, and country as it should be more than it is.
28. I am grateful that he found Gailann, and that he made her a part of the family ... and grateful that she is such a special part of my life.
29. I am grateful for my godmother, Reggie, and a very special connection, fractured as it may be.
30. I am  grateful to the Sisters who have touched my life in a special way, Sister Ursula, Sister Malachy, Sister Norma, Sister Declan, Sister Barbara, Sister Maura, Sister Timothy, Sister Helen Edward, Hermana Anita, Sister Charles, Sister Vincent, and the Sister in second grade who taught us the Hokey Pokey (sorry, I cannot remember her name. I know that Robert remembers her name and I will ask him the next time we speak).
31. I am grateful for Frances Loughran, who lived next door to us in Paramus since 1953 ... who is a lifelong source of love and inspiration ... I cannot even imagine what life would be life without her.
32. I am grateful for Rose Abrams, whose lyrical Irish brogue filled the air at dinnertime when she called her brood to dinner, "Sheeerrrrrryyyyy, Kathyyyyy, Donnnniiieeeee, Sheilaaaaa, Patttyyyyy, Maryyyyy" and who offered warm cupcakes after school.
33. I am grateful for my brother-in-law Tony, for musical memories at Lehigh and a lifetime of memories and three wonderful nephews ... for love and support.
34. I am grateful for my brother-in-law Juancho who remains fully vested in our hearts and lives despite some paperwork he and my sister signed that dissolved their marriage.
35. I am grateful for seven wonderful nephews and a gorgeous niece -- Anthony Michael, Nicholas, Joseph, Christopher, Gregory, Eric, Jeremiah, and Jessica.
36. I am grateful for my sister-in-law Gretchen, and for her friendship and hospitality.
37. I am grateful for my Polish heritage and a strong grounding in it ... and for a dream to visit Poland one day soon.
38. I am grateful for my Irish heritage and for the distant cousins I met there so many years ago.
39. I am grateful for Denmark and the rich heritage it has given my sons.
40. I am grateful for Mildith, my mother-in-law, who offered love and support and friendship despite some serious misgivings about her son's choice in a wife.
41. I am grateful for Holger, my father-in-law, who immediately recognized my potential to produce prize-winning offspring ... and was he ever right about that!!!
42. I am grateful for Ralf's eldest sister, Anna, who I hope will visit Poland with me the next time I visit Bornholm.
43. I am grateful for Birthe and Knud, who gave our Jens a home for a year and a chance to explore his Danish self.
44. I am grateful to Jens and Birte, who gave Andreas a home and two sisters for a year.
45. I am grateful for Gunver, free spirit and soul sister to her big brother.
46. I am grateful for Lily and Finn and a chance to touch pure innocence and joy.
47. I am grateful to find Blogging to find an emerging voice.
48. I am grateful for new friends and old friends.
49. I am grateful for new ways to meet friends and colleagues ... for an evolving community at RealTown.
50. I am grateful for the Internet and a New World to explore.
51. I am grateful for an opportunity to brainstorm and work with some of the most brilliant minds in the real estate industry.
52. I am grateful that I was able to make a contribution to "Going Where," an incredible book by Bernice Ross ... it offered transparency and revelation that is exhilarating and liberating. The book even spawned a blog!
53. I am grateful for lessons in gratitude from Joeann's blogs.
54. I am grateful that I have learned lessons about forgiveness.
55. I am grateful for the forgiveness of others and especially for forgiving myself.
56. I am grateful for advice, counsel, and direction from the best in the business.
57. I am grateful that Byron Van Arsdale is such an astute proofreader ... and such a wonderful new friend!
58. I am grateful that I have learned to give thanks ... and for reflecting on gratitude each morning and evening.
59. I am grateful for hummingbirds that hover outside my window at eye level.
60. I am grateful for a view of Foothills and skies that awe and inspire me.
61. I am grateful for warm weather and a searing sun.
62. I am grateful for the song of new birds.
63. I am grateful for joy that embraces me in every waking moment of my life these days.
64. I am grateful for the music of Danny Doyle and Judy Collins, my favorite songsters.
65. I am grateful for an Arizona sun that loves to rise my breads.
66. I am grateful for CARE and for the work that they do around the world.
67. I am grateful for Joeann Fossland's vision to create the  Web Women Giving Circle and the work we do for CARE.
68. I am grateful for Peggy Northrop's vision at MORE Magazine that was the inspiration for the Web Women Giving Circle.
69. I am grateful for a trip to Peru earlier this year with CARE and More Magazine and the Web Women Giving Circle that was the trip of a lifetime.
70. I am grateful for the National Assn. of Real Estate Editors ... meeting this group was like "coming home" and set me in a new direction.
71. I am grateful for 22 years of friendship with Lynn and an opportunity to share our lives until she left us in June.
72. I am grateful for the life-changing Business Planning Retreat in November, 2005, that brought me to Tucson for the first time.
73. I am grateful in advance for the next Business Planning Retreat, in Hawaii in January, and for being open to the life changing moments it is bound to create!
74. I am grateful for Annunciation School, Paramus Catholic Girls High School, and Paramus High School and the learning that happened there and the friends and people I met.
75. I am grateful for Saint Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, PA, and for Dr. Anna Niewiarowska and an incredible community of cancer health care providers, survivors, and caregivers.
76. I am grateful for the chance to learn about hunger.
77. I am grateful for abundance.
78. I am grateful for the small creatures of the desert.
79. I am grateful for Maryknoll as a lifelong source of inspiration.
80. I am grateful for Ho'oponopono and what it brings to my life each day.
81. I am grateful for a chance to reconnect with my inner child.
82. I am grateful for surrender to hope and love.
83. I am grateful for reconciliation on all levels in my life.
84. I am grateful for all the pain and confusion in my life that makes today's joy all the more delicious.
85. I am grateful for a lifetime of memories with Uncle Walter and Aunt Maureen and for their special brand of love every Sunday when they visited my parents in my mother's final days.
86. I am grateful for summers of love in Bordentown when Aunt Jo opened her doors and shared a house full of boy cousins with me and Linda.
87. I am grateful for Aunt Theresa and her John and her kids who share some special memories of visits by a pair of Frances Flynns over the years.
88. I am grateful for Jean Wohlers and Cristina Sosa and Maryann Cirner and Janet Saward and some other high school friends from my short lived hipped days.
89. I am grateful for many contemplative hours at early morning Mass at Annunciation.
90. I am grateful for the chance to kick up my heels in London, all over Ireland, in Rome, and around Spain as a teenager.
91. I am grateful for memories of slow dances at Paramus Catholic when girls had to wear dresses and boys had to wear jackets and ties.
92. I am grateful for my teenage jobs as popcorn girl and usherette at Century Theater, and as a waitress at diners and Jahn's ice cream parlor.
93. I am grateful for my first job as an associate editor ... and for all the jobs in magazine publishing that I had.
94. I am grateful that Annette Leahy is such an astute proofreader.
95. I am grateful that our REALTOR Joan Orlando referred us to Connie Glagola in Bethlehem when we decided to move to Pennsylvania.
96. I am grateful that we moved out of Pennsylvania and moved to Arizona.
97. I am grateful for each wisp of breath I take in this gorgeous new place we live.
98. I am grateful for the children that are the promise of future.
99. I am grateful for happiness and grief, and for joy and sorrow.
100. I am grateful for a cup that runneth over.
101. I am grateful for you, whether I know you or not.