My Letters

Dear Monday, please be kind. It's going to be a crazy week and I would appreciate your cooperation. Dear Jack Bauer, I'm glad I finally introduced you to Matt and I'm glad to see you two are getting along really, really well. We love spending time with you and are excited to see you in London this summer. Dear Time, feel free to pick up the pace a little for the next 11 days (we're almost to single digits people!!!) Dearest Matt, I miss you when you're gone, even if it's just for 24 hours. I love your little notes. And also you.

Heaven is here.

"Heaven is a place, but it is also a condition..."

"it is home and family..."

"it is understanding and kindness..."

"It is interdependence and selfless activity..."

"It is quiet, sane living;

personal sacrifice, genuine hospitality, wholesome concern for others..."

 "It is living the commandments of God without ostentation or hypocrisy."

"It is selflessness.

It is all about us."

"We need only to be able to recognize it as we find and enjoy it."

-Spencer W. Kimball

Come on, get happy.

Summer-time and crazy cousins make this girl real happy. 

When Matt and I started dating (again) in September he asked me to write him a list of 100 things that make me happy. 

I used to write short lists of things that make my happy in my personal journals, but it had been a while.. 

I'll admit, I thought the request was a little weird and that it might be difficult to do for some reason. 

Turns out, I loved coming up with that list. Tapping into the things in my heart that truly make me happy was a great reminder of how blessed I am. 

Although I originally thought it might be difficult to come up with 100 individual things, I wrote down way more than 100. 

It was more of a service to me to write it than for Matt to have it.  

In what feels like an endless winter, it's easy for me to get into a little funk. This girl needs some blue skies and Vitamin D! How better to keep the winter funk at bay than to remember what brings me happiness.

10 things that make me happy:

1. Getting sucked in to a really great book you almost literally can't put down. (Any suggestions for my next read?)
2. Really chubby babies.
3. The sound of a live orchestra tuning before a performance.
4. Christmas lights. All year long. 
5. Listening to Jim Dale's reading of the Harry Potter books. Books on CD can be insanely boring, but Jim Dale is absolutely brilliant. 
6. Sunday family dinners.
7. My 5th graders already calling Matt my husband. 
8. Seeing my voice students conquer their fears and believe in themselves
9. Learning new repertoire.
10. Renee Fleming rocking my world at the Superbowl. 
11. 18 days.

Ok so that was eleven, but it's hard to stop once I've started!

So tell me, what makes you happy? 

Really, I want to know :)