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“Generally speaking, the most miserable people I know are those who are obsessed with themselves; the happiest people I know are those who lose themselves in the service of others...By and large, I have come to see that if we complain about life, it is because we are thinking only of ourselves.” 
― Gordon B. Hinckley

 Some people are good at making and keeping resolutions. I've found that if I sit down and make a list of everything I need to get better at, my list ends up REALLY long AND I can't just pick one thing on that list to work on. I want to fix it all at once. Then I get overwhelmed and fall to pieces. So, I have made myself a few simple yet very important new years resolutions.

One of those is SERVICE. One of my favorite hymns reads:

Have I done any good in the world today?

Have I helped anyone in need?

Have I cheered up the sad and made someone feel glad?

If not, I have failed indeed.

Has anyone's burden been lighter today

Because I was willing to share?

Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?

When they needed my help was I there?

Therefore, I have set new goals to be able to answer those questions in the affirmative every evening. I want to look back at my time at the end of the day and be able to point out SOMETHING that I have done that has helped out another one of God's children. I know that I will be happier and God will be happier, and hopefully whomever I was able to serve will also be happier.

I have been doing this for a week and so far I have LOVED it. Every night before I fall asleep I get to think about people that I know and who could use a hand or a pick me up. The next day, I get to act on it! Awesome!

My favorite so far has been the old lady at Walgreens. I took the time to talk to her in line and wish her a Happy New Year. As I walked out of the store, she was unloading her cart and putting all her bags in her car. I helped her with the heavy stuff and then brought her cart back into the store. Simple, but she was pleasantly surprised for the assistance and I was beaming. Fun, huh? And I get to do that every day for a whole YEAR! How amazing is that?

: )

Today...

I know. I have totally neglected this blog as I went off and made my own happiness. I apologize. I'll try to be better.

Today was a really crappy day from the beginning. From BEFORE the beginning. Up with Little Man for hours during the night and then both of us waking up with a cold. No fun to start out what you know will be a very long day with a sick, grouchy boy, especially when you too are sick and grouchy.

Well, after a tough morning, I was about to quit. Did not want to do this mother thing for the rest of the day. I tried to take a nap when the Squirt did but just couldn't. I'm not good at falling asleep when I am unhappy. So an hour later we were both up again and I put on my brave face and we left for a walk.

And my wonderful neighbors walked out just as I did with their adorable little girl just months older than Nathan. We were soon joined by another apartment friend and her 2 cute girls and we wandered the complex for an hour in the gorgeous weather. Just when we were going to turn in, our other good friend dropped by with her 2 little boys and we played outside for another hour.

It seriously saved us. We went from crazy grumpy to energetic and smiling.

I love to smile.

And friends make smiling all that much easier.

Thanks friends.

Making memories

One of my happiest things to do is look through old photos and reminisce about the happy times I have had. The trick is, you can't be SAD because those times are over, just happy because you HAD those times and be grateful for them. I have been blessed with LOTS of happy memories. Each year gets better and better, but each year has been AWESOME.

This weekend, we worked hard to make some new memories for Nathan.  One of those things that we have started doing is biking together as a family. Over the last couple of months, we have purchased 2 bikes and an infant seat. We all load up and take off! This weekend we went to a beautiful park just ten minutes from our home. There are miles and miles of bike trails. There also is an amazing playground. Memories GALORE!

Go make some awesome memories. And smile about them : )

Toxic

"Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." -- Carrie Fisher

On Saturday, my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, had their semi-annual General Conference, where we get to hear from all of our prophets, apostles, and other leaders of the Church. It was MARVELOUS!!! There were 5 two-hours sessions over Saturday and Sunday. At the first session on Saturday morning, our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, stood up to make some announcements. One of those things announced was that the age for missionaries going out would be lowered to 18 for males and 19 for females (previously it was 19 for males, 21 for females). Everyone was so shocked, including myself! I mean, it makes a lot of sense, and I think those boys and girls that are spiritually mature to go out early will be a tremendous help to the mission work.

Well, when the change was announced, I cried. Not because I was excited, but because I was jealous! One of the rules in the Church states that the daughters of Mission Presidents can leave on their missions when they are 19, instead of 21. For YEARS during high school and early college, I prayed that my parents would be called as mission presidents so I could leave on my mission early. No luck. And then, when my application was complete and I was almost 21 years old, I was prompted by the Holy Ghost not to go, but to marry Dave instead. So I did! No mission.

So, when President Monson made 19 the new line for sister missionaries I was green with envy. "Not fair!" I thought. "I prayed for this for years and it came too late! Do these young ladies now how LUCKY they are?" Yep, horribly selfish thing to think (I am a very selfish person. I try not to be, but sometimes that weakness shows a little stronger than I'd want it to...). And then, THEN, I remembered that if I had left on my mission at 19 years of age, I never would have moved to that one apartment building for my sophmore year with all my freshman year roommates. Therefore, I never would have met the funny, handsome, and frankly awesome red-hed guy that had just moved in too. And I wouldn't have married him.

Or had this adorable carrot-top dirt eater.

The Lord was answering my prayers all along, just He knew that the RIGHT answer for ME was to say NO. And I am so grateful. My life is beautiful.

Here's a Splash of Sunshine!

I don't remember too many things clearly about my years in primary and secondray schools growing up. I remember teachers, friends, some big assignments, but not too much about the day to day stuff. Most of the stuff I DO remember all happened in science class (makes sense if you know me. I am a HUGE science lover.) like learning about the eye, or all the bones in the body, how an airplane flies, and what happens to your hand when it gets bitten by a Brown Recluse spider (yuck). 

One of my strongest memories from school, though, was a day where we had a substitute. She put on a video about the Amazing Human Body. In that show, it was teaching us about the ear and showed us a clip of a young woman getting a cochlear implant and hearing for the first time. They played a little segment of Mozart. The woman was SO happy. She was crying. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. What an awesome thing to be able to bring such joy to a person. I realized just how BLESSED I was to have my hearing. 

I heard today that my good friend from high school's daughter is finally going to get a cochlear implant. She is 2 years old and adorably mischievous. I am SO excited for them. It is my happy thought.

There are tons of videos nowadays floating around on youtube about cochlear implants. Every single one makes me cry. Here are some of my favorites though. I couldn't choose just one. See if they don't make you smile and be a little more grateful for the gift God gave you; sound, and the ability to hear it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDD7Ohs5tAk (little baby)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjU9U81O1n8&feature=related (29 y/o girl)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmU2JSZzpLI&feature=related (young girl)

Oh my goodness. SO SWEET! I cried all over again. The BEST.

Break in the Clouds

On Saturday it rained all day. As you know, those of you who have been following my posts over the last month, I LOVE the rain, to go play in it and watch it wash all the filth away. We spent the morning outside again, splashing in puddles.

Once Nathan had enough of the rain, my husband told me to go for a run. He knows how I REALLY want to get back in shape, it's just tough with a little kid who is so active. Dave essentially shoved me out the door, saying he had it under control. Bless him.

It was a marvelous run. It was so much easier to run for a long period of time because the misty rain kept me cool. I just ran till my legs started to give me the heads up that the next day they'd be sore. It felt awesome!

We will be moving who knows where when The Hubs graduates next spring. We've been looking at the Pacific NW and I've worried that maybe it would be TOO wet there for me. Saturday's run was a conformation to me that I'd be happy there.

ESPECIALLY if I got to buy some freakin' sweet galoshes : )

Sperry

Dansko

Burberry

LAUREN

The Tacky Galoshes Girl :  ) a.k.a. my friend Melissa Condie. I WANT THESE! : )

And don't get me started on all the adorable choices for little boys!

Oops!

Part of being happy, I think, is learning to laugh at yourself. Luckily, there are AMPLE reasons for me to laugh at my self, so I'll be getting lots of practice and hopefully be extremely happy!

Here is an example:

A few months ago I decided to try to be thrifty and purchase a large box of baby boy clothes off craigslist. To pick up the box, I had to drive to a shady area of Arlington. I met with the lady, a friendly African American, took a quick peek inside the box to make sure it really was full of clothes, and high tailed it out of there. When I got home and unpacked it, I discovered a lot of really awesome clothes in really good condition, but frankly, they were all outfits that would look adorable on a little black boy, but extremely out of place on my white as milk, curly red-headed boy! You know, things like FUBU and Rocawear. All really good looking clothes, but all my black friends and neighbors would just shake their heads and laugh at me and my wannabe gansta son : )

Well, I kept some of the clothes anyways. They were just too nice. I always laugh when I put Nathan in them ; ) One of them in the pile was a high quality onesie with the letters RUN DMC on it. Since we live here in Dallas, I figured it was some logo for Dallas Marathon Company or something. That was, until my walking buddy saw it one morning and started laughing, amazed that Nathan would be sporting a onesie about a legendary and groundbreaking hip hop group from the 80's. I had NO idea. Wanna hear one of their songs?

RUN DMC- It's Tricky

Yep, that's who Nathan has been promoting on his belly for a couple months. My son, the rapper. Now all his jabber makes a little more sense.

Isn't life awesome?