Thursday Thirteen and a whole lotta lotta...

First, my Thursday Thirteen.

The Top 13 Things I am Looking Forward to this Summer
1. My trip to North Carolina for a conference
2. Swimming at my parent's house
3. Camp Zoom
4. Not being as busy as last summer
5. Going to Kids Kamp as a counselor with Jordyn as my intern
6. Losing more weight
7. Continued SUNSHINE
8. not working on Sundays
9. the Waukesha Community Picnic on July 26th
10. It staying light out later
11. going to the zoo (I really like the zoo)
12. Brother Bob's visit from the Philippines
13. cook-outs!!

Next...

I have two situations with work where I see how God is working on me and honing my leadership skills. I am not someone who shys away from conflict. I do not have a problem speaking my mind and prefer it when people speak theirs. I like to express what I am feeling. Probably the most difficult people in the world for me to deal with are people who are reserved and not honest about what they are thinking for feeling. On two different teams that I am a part of...there is a person that is the TOTAL opposite of me. Each of these people shy away from conflict, don't like to say anything uncomfortable or negative, don't express their emotions easily and are very reserved. We've butted heads many times and in one of the situations I recently asked to have a 3rd person sit in with us because I could tell that our communication just wasn't jiving and that I might be overpowering the person. What has happened is that I am learning how to reach and communicate with that last person who drives me nuts...lol...and also learning how to not drive them so nuts! My friend and Pastor and confidant, Dave, is doing the mediation for me and the one person. He hit the nail on the head yesterday by saying that our personalities as well as our cultural background put us on totally different hemispheres and make it near impossible for us to see where the other one is coming from. So we need to always walk in the spirit and allow God to guide our conversations so that we extend grace to each other at all times. It makes total sense and I am so happy and relieved to have tools to help me communicate better with these people and in the process have less stress. :)

I have to go and give my Grandma her shot so I will have to finish later. Want to share about our special Teen MOP leader dinner last night and the Brewer game today.

ttfn (tata for now)