Everyday Live Happy

I am an optimist and generally smile and laugh often.  Not everything that happens makes me do my happy dance.  Sometimes things just make me smile - A LOT!!  Today one of those things happened.  My son is going into high school this coming school year.  He's a little nervous and excited.  Today his school packet came.  Along with the paperwork was his school schedule.  We finalized his list of classes last spring and thought we had it worked out.  Well apparently they weren't able to accomodate all of the classes he picked, because on his schedule was a class that he didn't choose.  My son was placed in an interior design class.  Now that would be fine if he was interested in it, but I had to explain what it was.  Let's just say that he wasn't impressed at all when I told him that it is basically making the inside of your house pretty.  That made me smile.  So I guess that we need to meet with a counselor before...

I don't know anyone who doesn't like getting a good deal on something they have to buy anyway.  I love a good deal.  It makes me do my happy dance:)   If your kids are like mine, back to school means all new clothes because they keep getting taller.  So those pants from last year are just not going to do.  I really do like a good bargain, however I don't always have time to find them.  The other day I opened my email and there was yet another "sale" notice.  I looked closer though and WOW!  It was a SALE!  Children's Place had all of their clothes on sale - even their new items.  And I don't mean a few dollars off.  It was 50% off of their clothes and 60% off of their denim jeans.  Yeah!  So with my daughter by my side, we started school shopping.  She was excited that everything she picked out I said yes to.  It's hard not to when you are saving so much money.  Seriously some of their shirts were ...

I love polka dots!  I don't know why but I'm drawn to anything with them.  You should see my closet.  The bigger the polka dot the better.  It doesn't even matter what color it is, you put polka dots on it and I will LOVE it!!  Of course certain colors will make me love it more.  On pinterest I pinned a picture of a wall that was hot pink with big white polka dots all over it.  I would love to do that in my daughters room.  How awesome would that be?  There was also a tutorial that I pinned of using a laundry basket piece as a templete for smaller polka dots on a wall.  Out of the two I loved the wall the the big dots the best.  It's a silly thing but polka dots really do make me smile and that makes me happy!

So my son is turning 14 this Saturday and will be advancing in the priesthood.  Our bishop called him this week to see how he was doing finishing up his deacon Duty to God requirements.  Happily he is almost done.  Yeah!  This was one of those "Mom Win" moments.  On his summer jobs list I added Duty to God because I knew that he still had quite a bit to do and not much time.  Well that awesome boy has been working on it almost everyday.  I am so proud of him.  Another "Mom Win" moment is that for his final goal is that he is learning to cook nutritionous meals.  He made dinner this week with only minimal help from me.  I see a new job ending up on his list.  That makes me VERY happy!

Since we try cooking on Tuesdays, my son has been wanting to make chocolate crinkle cookies.  We haven't had a chance to do it until today.  So my son followed the recipe with a little guidance from me.  He made the yummy chocolate treats.  They are very chocolately and rolled in powdered sugar.  YUM!  He did a great job and hopefully one day will be able to follow any recipe and make other dishes as well.  I know that he will be able to do it if he puts his mind to it.  That isn't always easy in this world of technology.  He acutally burnt the last batch of cookies because he got busy playing a video game.  They weren't burnt too bad, just a little extra crispy.  Overall a success.  And any success involving chocolate makes me happy!

We don't live near any water parks, but we try to go to one every summer.  This past weekend we went to one for the day.  My cute brother's family came with us and we spent a hot, summer day in the water.  We went down slides, played in kids areas, went down the lazy river and hit the wave pool.  It made for a lot of fun.  We stayed cool and thanks to lots of sunscreen, no one got sunburned.  Yeah!  Of course spending the day in the sun and water made everyone really tired the next day, but it was SO worth it.  And thanks to passes we will be going at least a couple of more times this summer.  That makes all of us - especially our kids - really happy.