Happiness Week 43

We are counting down the days to Halloween. As always there is too much going on and I am left wondering why I do this to myself.  Really it is mostly self inflicted. I know I should keep things simple but I just can't stop myself even though it makes me miserable during the process. I'm going to try to write this week's post quickly so I can get back to my craziness.

In case you missed it here are the pictures from Ainsley's birthday "party" last week. We got the call on Ainsley's birthday that she got a coveted hippotherapy spot at Little Bit. I'll write more about this later but we've been on the wait list for over a year. I first heard about it when Ainsley was 2, so we've been wanting to do this therapy for a very long time. Steve has his last day at work tomorrow so then we will be officially unemployed. Yikes! The timing couldn't be worse to start an expensive therapy (this one is not covered by insurance) but that's life. She had her evaluation Tuesday and starts riding tomorrow. Let's hope Steve gets a job and quick so we don't have to quit before we even get started! Ainsley had a dental appointment. No cavities again, YAY! We got an ortho referral now that she's lost so many teeth. We know she will need braces or surgery at some point in the not too far off future. Adrian finished off his soccer season.

This week Evie turns in her Reflections Art Contest project, Ainsley starts hippotherapy, we have pumpkin carving, decorating and costume creating to do. Adrian is worried that kids will tease him over his costume and refuses to wear it to school (this makes me so sad and mad on many levels) so I have to have a Plan B costume. Have a safe and wonderful Halloween!

Daily Happiness Photos - Week 43

 

10/22 Making Someone Else Happy 

***

Do you remember when you were young and how exciting it was when your favorite band was coming out with a new album? Evie's been counting the days until Taylor Swift's album Red came out. She didn't quite have enough money saved since she spent $10 of her own money last week to buy Ainsley a birthday gift. She knew it would mean she would have to wait to get her beloved CD. I thought it was so self-less of Evie that I went to Target while she was at school and bought the CD for her anyway (and got the special Target only edition with extra songs) and surprised her when she got home. She will have to pay us back with her allowance but she doesn't mind. She and Adrian did their homework in her bedroom listening to the CD. It was so cute. She was so happy! Somebody once said the best way to make yourself happy is to make other people happy and I think there is something to that.

10/23 A Rainbow

***

I was out running errands on this blustery fall day, when the rain settled there was the biggest most beautiful rainbow in the sky as I drove across the valley.

 

10/24 Giant Bee

***

I love it when I find weird things at the thrift store, like this giant buzzing bee. It's eyes glow red and it vibrates which makes it move around like it's really alive. The kids and I debated if it was creepy enough for Halloween (I say YES).  Ainsley had so much fun pushing the button and loved it so much she wore the batteries down and now so it no longer moves.

10/25 Plan B

***

It's terrible when I get a "great idea" and then what it seemed would be simple is so NOT. I'm not even sure where the idea came from but I decided to add a haunted dining room scene to my Halloween decorating this year. I wanted a simple black lace spider web table cloth. Easy right? Not so if your table is ROUND. After spending hours looking at local stores, calling more local stores (when I realized it was a wild goose chase) and then scouring the internet I had to give up. But I found a large sheet in my blanket chest (the matching fitted sheet has holes) so I'm going to make my own creepy table cloth and it's free.

 

10/26 Crazy Ideas

***

I read on the internet how you can use tea or coffee to stain fabric to make it look aged. So I ground up coffee grinds in my Blendtec to make a sludge to soak my table cloth in. It looked like it was going to work perfectly and I had so much fun and was so pleased with myself. (But then you can't have your tablecloth smelling horribly like coffee so the next day I washed it and damn that Tide! It works too well and removed most of my stains that I worked so hard to make. So now I'm not so happy.)

10/27 ONE Rainy Soccer Game

***

Today was the last soccer game of the season so we all had to go support Adrian even though it was raining buckets. We've been so lucky and had uncharacteristically beautiful weather all season so really we have to be grateful. In a weird way I enjoyed it anyway. It was so sweet to see Evie hold an umbrella over Adrian and stand with him whenever he was on the sidelines. At the end of the last game when he didn't score a goal he was so sad and she gave him the sweetest hug which I caught with the most precious photo, but I didn't think he'd appreciate me sharing that with the world. I really hope they will always be so close. 

10/28 Soccer Trophy

***

The end of soccer season party was planned for today. There had been no mention of trophies so I was really happy when we showed up and they were there. Adrian loves his trophies. It's pretty standard custom that the kids all get them just for playing but his basketball team didn't do them last year and he was so sad about it that I went to the thrift store and bought him one for $ 0.99. I knew Adrian would be really disappointed if that happened again. We all had a great time at the party. It was a great group of families this season. 

**********

To view a slideshow of the entire Happiness Photo Project click here. Confused about what this is or why I'm doing it? Click here for an explanation of what it's all about.