Happy 101

My adorable cousin Mallory tagged me in a Happiness tag - even though I have a zillion other things to write about, here I am typing about being happy...

10. food. I love food. I'm not terribly picky, and have become more of a sugar-addict post babies (unfortunately), but most foods will do. I just enjoy eating.

9.reading. scriptures, a good novel, blogs, emails, magazines - its all enjoyable. I just wish I had more time to read.

8. chapstick. I'm addicted. I need chapstick on at all times. I can't sleep or drive or talk on the phone without generously applying chapstick. One night Chris said he counted how many times I ran my chapstick across my lips before I put the cap back on. Let just say it was somewhere between 30 & 40 layers!

7. lacrosse. This devotion has intensified at different times in my life and I am glad that I am still involved with this amazing sport. I don't blog much about the HS team I coach for the same reason I don't blog about my upcoming out-of-town adventures because I'm slightly paranoid about weirdo stalkers out there. But I love the girls I coach and I love coaching, I love holding a lax stick and running down a field and developing new plays and watching excellent lax players float around a field. Lacrosse is gorgeous.

6. museums. I have a passion for art - all forms. I love paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures and beautiful architecture, and I love admiring art in all sorts of places, hotels, offices, restaurants, churches, historical buildings, outdoors...but there is something different about viewing and appreciating art in museums. I can honestly feel a difference in my body and soul when I walk inside a museum. I feel at ease, peaceful, at home - like I was meant to be there. Museums make me happy.

5. the sun. Everyone loves the sun, and everyone/everything needs the sun for survival, but I am addicted to it. I remember watching a movie in elementary school about a school full of kids living on some planet with no sun, ever. It wasn't dark - but just gray and cloudy and blah. No color or life. The kids were all at school one afternoon awaiting this miracle of the sun coming through the clouds and they ran outside and jumped around and flowers bloomed and everything was beautiful. Then the sun went away again and it rained, and I cried. How horrible to live without a sun. The sun puts me in a good mood. I love standing outside soaking up its warm rays, or laying on the beach enjoying its brilliance. I just love the sun and when its sunny, I feel happy. Good thing I live in sunny South Florida :-)

4. sisters. All of them. They all bring happiness into my life. I consider many girls my sisters; my sis-in-laws, my cousins, my best friend Allison and my life-long friend Lekha, my mother, my mother-in-law, my aunts and Christopher's aunts, and my first sister Stephanie. I hardly have a memory from childhood without her it in. She always always always knew how to make me laugh and still can get me laughing harder than anyone to this day. And at my church we call all of the girls "sister" so I have tons of friends at my church that are truly my sisters. Sisters Rock. I am so grateful that my girls have a sister.

3. My faith. I don't know where I would be without my religion. Knowing who I am and where I came from gives me peace and literally I feel happy because of my religion. I love going to church, going to the temple and I love my calling.

2. My girls. They drive me wild but I love them to death and when they are happy, I am happy. Its contagious.

1. Christopher. Words can't describe the depth that one word means to me. Christopher = happiness.

I asked Jada what makes her happy. This was her reply, "Painting, drawing and painting, playing, sleeping, writing in my notebook. Going to Ohio and Disney World. Everything makes me happy. My family. And thats all."