9/28-30: happiness is...

30 visiting friends we haven’t seen in a while
29 a smiling baby
28 palapa azul

See more progress on: find at least one thing each day that makes me happy and record it everyday for a year

spending time with my boys

playing soccer with carter, reading books together, laughing with max and seeing him becoming more aware of what’s going on around him

See more progress on: spend time with my son each day

9/27/08 happiness is...

9/27 being with my family and making breakfast together
9/26 the crazy chaos of coaching kindergarten soccer
9/25 good company, good food
9/24 medieval music manuscripts and making music together
9/23 lunch with a friend at a place i hadn’t been in a while

See more progress on: find at least one thing each day that makes me happy and record it everyday for a year

9/22/08 happiness is.... or why i hate mondays

so today i thought, “i’m not even writing a “happiness is” entry because besides mondays suck in general” and because my day started off with: dropping off Carter at school and realizing he left his backpack at home; dropping off Max at daycare and realizing i forgot to bring a check to pay for this week; getting gas and discovering that the auto shut-off…ummm…DOESN’T, as overpriced gas pours down the side of my car then splashes off the ground on to me; followed by realizing, once i made it to work and parked the car, that i forgot to leave Max’s bottles with him at daycare. UGGGH! HOWEVER, after a little bit of reflection (and maybe gas fume intoxication), i discovered the following. At least our home isn’t too far from Carter’s school, at least there’s a grace period on daycare payments, at least i have a car to drive and money to buy gas, at least i have a way to return to daycare and a handful more reasons to think about my kids during a busy day. and about mondays…at least i had an enjoyable weekend and made it to another week. that’s the beauty of this exercise….you can even find good things to ponder on a monday.

See more progress on: find at least one thing each day that makes me happy and record it everyday for a year

9/21/08 happiness is...

church at the lake followed by catered BBQ lunch, seeing old friends, lots of people wanting to hold Max.

See more progress on: find at least one thing each day that makes me happy and record it everyday for a year

9/20/08 happiness is....

so i really love the idea of the “thing” on 43things.com of finding at least one thing each day that makes you happy and record it everyday for a year. looks like the last time i made an entry was over a month ago though. that sounds like i’ve been unhappy lately, but it’s not that at all. it’s just been so crazy busy that i haven’t had time to do it. i do think it’s important and when done daily, is a good practice of looking for the good in things and the good in each day. it should only take two seconds to do, and i’m on the computer what seems like most of the day, so why can’t i be successful at this goal? i’m not sure, but like i’ve said before, at least no one is grading this! (i think???) so here’s to a new start.

things that make me happy right now—-
my wonderful wife and wonderful sons
the sleeping baby next to me
that ann is actually getting to sleep in right now
visits from family this week
carter’s curiosity and watching him process what he encounters
that i’m going to work on a habitat for humanity build this afternoon

may you find the little things that make you happy and ponder them for just a minute…maybe you’ll begin the practice of finding at least one thing each day and recording it too.

See more progress on: find at least one thing each day that makes me happy and record it everyday for a year

Sha's Photo Mosaic
























My friend Ellen pointed me to this fun diversion. See below for more details on how to join in on the fun.

Type your answer to each of the questions below into a Flickr search. Using only the first page of results, choose your favorite image, then copy and paste each of the URLs into the mosaic maker (3 columns, 4 rows). Let me know what you come up with!

The questions:

1. What is your first name? (Sha)
2. What is your favorite food? (Panang curry)
3. What high school did you attend? (John Marshall, San Antonio...and yes, sadly someone posted a photo of those horrid band uniforms!)
4. What is your favorite color? (eggplant...so this isn't really eggplant the color, but a cool photo OF an eggplant the vegetable!)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (Ashley Judd)
6. Favorite drink? (coffee)
7. Dream vacation? (Scotland)
8. Favorite dessert? (creme brule)
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? (astronaut)
10. What do you love most in life? (family)
11. One word to describe you. (introspective)
12. Your Flickr name. (sha_towers)

8/11-13/08 happiness is...

the whole family in the same room (sometimes!) :-)
random nuggets of wisdom from my five year old
cooing baby
just a tiny hint, maybe for only a few minutes, of cooler weather (it won’t last, but it was nice!)
watching Ann and Max sleep

See more progress on: find at least one thing each day that makes me happy and record it everyday for a year

8/13/08 spending time with my guys

tonight Carter and i watched some olympics together, played wii, and then he helped me give Max a bath.

See more progress on: spend time with my son each day

8/10/08 spending time with my guys

sitting outside with baby Max watching him quietly look around in wonder at everything…soaking it all in. also watching him fall asleep in my arms.

playing ninja turtles with Carter and baking coffee cup cakes (they were actually gross, but a lot of fun to watch growing up out of the mug like those snake fireworks!) also enjoyed reading books to him before bed.

See more progress on: spend time with my son each day

8/10/08 happiness is...

rearranging furniture
making dinner together
visit from friends
getting to watch a movie together (rare occurrence with a 5 y.o. and a 2 month old!)

See more progress on: find at least one thing each day that makes me happy and record it everyday for a year

dissecting a macbook

today i disassembled the spacebar on ann's macbook because it was sticking. after i had it all apart, a local five year old confessed to spilling yogurt on it and not telling us because he didn't want us to be mad! after a handful of pieces (who knew a spacebar could be so complicated?) and lots of cleaning, it's back together and functioning as good as new. so i'm thinking about opening up a side business specializing in macbook spacebar repairs for yogurt-based offenses. don't worry, i'm not quitting my day job....yet.

8/8/08 spending time

so i guess i should title this spending time with carter and max now that i have two sons! though the time is pretty different, as one is five and one is two months!
the three of us are hanging out this morning while mom gets some much needed sleep. huh…just realized, all the guys are in the kitchen awake, and all the girls (including our two great danes) are asleep in the bedroom. not sure what gender the hermit crabs are, but they’re probably asleep too!)

See more progress on: spend time with my son each day

8/9/08 happiness is...

a pleasant saturday morning with my two little guys
a happy baby
good coffee

See more progress on: find at least one thing each day that makes me happy and record it everyday for a year

8/8/08 happiness is...

time with friends
a good night’s sleep
fridays (the day!)
discovering new music

See more progress on: find at least one thing each day that makes me happy and record it everyday for a year

so i was grocery shopping last night and i see Christi Proctor, designer on TLC's "Trading Spaces, slogging her cart around just like me (did you know people on tv actually buy groceries?). So i'm thinking, if she shops here, and she's famous, that must make the store a famous grocery store, and since i shop there, that must make me famous...by association, ya know.  (i bet she knows Kevin Bacon, too). :-)

43 guilty pleasures #7: staff meetings

ok, that sounds ridiculous, but my staff is a lot of fun and a super great bunch of people!

See more progress on: List 43 Guilty Pleasures

8/5-7/08 happiness is...

getting a lot done
learning new things
brainstorming
temps below 100

See more progress on: find at least one thing each day that makes me happy and record it everyday for a year

#13 pet peeve: vehicular pride

list 43 pet peeves and then try to forget about them:

this is related to pet peeve #12, but what drives people to be so excited about the brand of their vehicle that they put super dumb stickers on their car, for which the whole point is to argue that their make is better than another? prime example is that stupid Calvinesque character peeing on another automaker’s name or emblem. “here’s what i’m all about…telling everyone that [ford] is way cooler than [chevy]!” (MORON!!!) who cares about this??? and is that really the best you can do? is there NOTHING else you feel strongly about that you could stick all over your car i think even nascar stickers on your car is a step up from this.

See more progress on: list 43 pet peeves and then try to forget about them

#12 pet peeve: redundant advertising

list 43 pet peeves and then try to forget about them:

why do some people feel the need to add stickers, etc. to their vehicle which tells you what kind of vehicle it is? “hey, i know there’s a chevy symbol on the back of my car/truck, but you know what would be really cool? if i put a gigantic chevy emblem decal in my rear window!”

See more progress on: list 43 pet peeves and then try to forget about them