Friday, January 31, 2014

Friday, January 31, 2014

I normally don't care for Milky Way bars, but my coworker brought these to work today and they are yummy!


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Today was probably the best day I've had so far this month. That isn't an exaggeration, either. January has been hard.

I slept in a little this morning because today is my day off. I ate homemade bread with homemade jam for breakfast. While I was eating, I sent a quick Facebook message to my aunt in California and asked if I could come visit for a few days. Of course, she said yes! I've been thinking for a while now that I need a vacation--a real vacation where I go somewhere besides my parents house--and I think this will be the perfect thing. I can't wait for my little trip!

I spent the majority of the day working some more on Loveduck's Valentine's care package. Sometimes it feels good to be crafty!

Dad called me during his lunch. I love it when he calls to check on me like that.

About lunchtime, I got an e-mail from Loveduck! It scared me at first because in the subject line, she put "I'm on! 911!!! If you're on please answer!" which made me think something bad had happened. Turns out she was just being dramatic to get my attention :). Mission accomplished. We e-mailed back and forth for about half an hour.

I had time to watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! this evening. With my new job, I usually only get to watch twice a week, which is a bummer.

Then, as I was getting ready for bed, Charwhal called me! We haven't seen each other for a few weeks now. It was good to catch up with her.

The picture is of some of the valentines I made for Loveduck. They are Twinkies made to look like minions from the movie Despicable Me. I made one for Loveduck and some for her companions and some for my younger siblings. And the little pink/red stones are magnets.


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

I finished Loveduck's lucky stars tonight! They are so awesome!  I'm so excited to finish her care package. It's going to be fantastic!


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

I'm putting together a valentines day care package for Loveduck. I'm so excited for it! One part is going to be a little jar of lucky stars. They're little origami start that have a little note written on the inside of each one. They're so easy to fold and so fun to look at! The red ones have jokes, the blue ones have quotes from general authorities of the LDS church, and the green ones have scripture references. I'm trying to think of something else to put on  another color, but so far I'm drawing a blank. 


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Monday, January 27, 2014

Monday, January 27, 2014

At work today, I was telling my coworkers about Loveduck's letter--today is P day--and one of my coworkers was reminded  of the funniest story from her own mission. We had a really good laugh about the story. I love that we get on so well. 

No picture this time. 

Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Sunday, January 26, 2014

I reread this book today. This is one of my two favorite books. It's called The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. It's a story about learning how to love, losing love, and finding it again. It is an easy read; it only took an hour or so to get through. If you haven't heard this story, you need to!


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Saturday, January 25, 2014

I love this pasta. It is the best pasta for homemade chicken noodle soup. Which I made for dinner tonight! So yummy. 


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Friday, January 24, 2014

Friday, January 24, 2014

Today, I'm grateful to be able to go to bed early. I've worked so much this week, I'm completely worn out. When I got home from work, I ate dinner and put in my Netflix movie, but then I fell asleep! So I already slept for an hour this evening. I'm exhausted. I never go to bed this early. 


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day.  

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Thursday, January 23, 2014

I felt pretty frustrated for a lot of today, so when the evening came and I was still in a low mood, I realized I needed to find something to take my mind off things. A few games of cribbage with a good friend did the trick!


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

At work today, one of my coworkers started chuckling to herself. I gave her a questioning look, and she instant messaged me a link to this story that our company once used as a training on initiative--doing your part so other people don't have to do more than they should have to. I was a little hesitant about it at first because bathroom things are just gross so please don't talk to me about that. But I read it. It was a slide show/picture book about how no one would clean up the mess, and the mess got in everyone's way, but it stayed that way until someone finally took the time to clean it up. Anyway, my coworkers and I had a good laugh about it.



Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

This ice cream actually has fish-shaped chocolate chunks in it! 


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Monday, January 20, 2014

Monday, January 20, 2014

I came in to work at my old job this afternoon and was greeted by this delightful bacon man on the fridge. It's a magnet that's about a foot and a half long! I thought that was funny. 


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Sunday, January 19, 2014

I honestly wasn't sure I'd like this movie, but Netflix said I would so I gave it a shot. I actually enjoyed it. It's got a really good moral, which is probably the only reason I liked it so much. 


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Saturday, January 18, 2014

I got my hair trimmed earlier this week. I asked the stylist what to do about a few problems I've been having with my hair lately and she suggested this product. I love it! My hair is so soft lately and looks much healthier, and that makes me feel a little more confident. 


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Friday, January 17, 2014

Friday, January 17, 2014

Today, the maintenance worker came to finish repairs in my kitchen. In so excited that my faucet isn't broken anymore and I'm so glad that the light works. But that isn't the happy thing for tonight's post. See, this maintenance worker has come to fix things in my apartment a few times since I moved here and I just think he's great. He responds to maintenance requests quickly, he's polite and professional, and he does a really good job. Today, as he was leaving, he took a moment to tell me how great it is that I always smile. He said he does work in a lot of apartments in the area and no one smiles anymore, so it's nice to have someone smile. Wow. That made me feel really good! 


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Last Saturday, the light in my kitchen went out. I had some guy friends help me replace the bulb, but apparently that wasn't the problem because it still didn't work. Fortunately I'm a renter, so that means someone else gets to fix it for me. Unfortunately, there seems to have been some confusion between roommates and I don't know for sure that maintenance even got emailed. So, today  I was pretty fed up with having a dark kitchen so I emailed them myself. They came to look at it today and said the whole thing is worn out. I'm so glad we'll have light tomorrow! They're also going to fix our kitchen faucet, which will be nice. 

Here's a picture of the exposed wires in my kitchen ceiling. 


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 



Wednesday, January 15, 2014

I put in my two weeks notice at my old job tonight. 

Yep. 

I don't know exactly why, and I'm still really really hoping it was the right thing to do. I've spent lots of time thinking about it lately, and it just felt so ok and so fitting with the goals I have for my personal life right now. So, I met with my supervisor, gave her the shocking news, and now I feel sad. Just cause I have really lived the time I've spent there and I will miss it. 

This calls for ice cream. The good stuff, too!


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Monday, January 13, 2014

Monday, January 13, 2014

Monday is Loveduck's P-Day, so I always look forward to Mondays because she emails on those days. But since I got my new job I haven't been able to check my email during the morning when she emails. Today during my lunch break, I checked my email and, I kid you not, one minute before Loveduck had sent this email. We spent the rest of my lunch break emailing back and forth. That was the best thing that could have happened today. I always miss Loveduck, even though I know what she is doing is important. 


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Sunday, January 12, 2014

I think tonight has been the first time midnight has come and I don't really have anything for the blog post. I've had a lot on my mind today--the kind of stuff that you think about and think about but nothing really gets worked out no matter how much thinking you do. I did work a shift at my old job today; I don't really love doing that on Sundays, but with the field I'm in, there is no break, no weekend.

Anyway, the purpose of this project is to prove that every day, there is SOMETHING to be happy about, something to be grateful for. So, today, I am grateful for humor. Laughter is the best medicine. Sometimes it just feels good to laugh at something silly. We did a lot of that at work tonight.

Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Saturday, January 11, 2014

I spent my morning getting some repairs done on my car. Not fun. But I was able to spent the afternoon making food for a little party-ish I threw this evening. A few months ago, a friend posted on Facebook that he had just read The Little Prince and really enjoyed it. Well, I thought that was neat because that's my favorite book. And the book has been made into a movie, which I own. So I commented on said friend's little Facebook post that I love that story and there's a movie and blah blah blah. Longish story short, we planned to have a movie night and watch the movie with a bunch on friends. That happened tonight. I think everyone enjoyed the movie, and my food stuffs were definitely a hit!


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Friday, January 10, 2014

Friday, January 10, 2014

One of my uncles shared this link with me quite a while ago, and for some bizarre reason I remembered it yesterday. I wanted to try it out today. At my new job we frequently have a lot of down time during the shift, and it's ok to find things to keep yourself occupied, but we have very restricted access to the interwebs.  I spent lots of time and almost a whole sheet of paper trying to figure out how to do this today. I didn't ever figure it out. So when I got home, I sat down and watched this video and finally made it work! I'm too tired tonight, but tomorrow I'm definitely going to try to make a better one. I'm so excited to go back to work Monday and show my coworkers what I was talking about all day. Here's  two sides of my first hexaflexagon:



Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 


Thursday, January 9, 2014

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Today was my first day off work this week. I wish it were more relaxing; somehow I'm more tired than I was yesterday. I spent a good portion of the day working things out after yesterday's car accident. Things seem to be moving along, which I appreciate. In the accident, the cover of one of my tail lights (remember, I don't speak car) was damaged, so there was white light showing through half and red showing through the other. I didn't want to delay getting that fixed. I was pleasantly surprised when my mechanic was able to order the part this morning, have it arrive this afternoon, then install it in less than half an hour. 

Here are some before and after pictures:



Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 


Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Today easily could have been a terrible horrible no good very bad day, and I am so so proud of myself for being optimistic and handling it well. 

I got in a car accident this morning. 

This was the first accident I've ever been in, so I was pretty scared. I was rear ended by another driver who couldn't stop because of the snow. No one was hurt, thank goodness. But this is a pretty big inconvenience. 

I finally got to work an hour and a half late. My coworkers at my new job are so awesome. They were so concerned about me and making sure I was doing ok. Part way through the day, one of my coworkers had a lightbulb moment (you know that look people get when all of a sudden they remember something or figure something out) where she remembered she'd brought me a treat! See, Monday I was craving chocolate so bad that I mentioned it more than one time. She remembered that, so she brought me chocolate covered pretzels today! Yum! She didn't even know I would be having such a tough morning, but that treat definitely helped. But you know what else? My supervisor also brought chocolate to share today! I'm telling you, my coworkers are the best!


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

I tried a new recipe for dinner this evening and it was really good! It's called Chicken Enchilada Pasta. I found it here. I pinned it on Pinterest a while ago on my board of recipes I want to try. It is easy to make and makes plenty so I'll be able to eat it for a few days. I love finding recipes that I'll definitely be making again. Next time, though, I'll leave out the bell pepper. I used a green bell pepper this time just cause they are about half the price of the red ones. But it didn't add anything to the dish, so I figure there's no point in spending money on it. 


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Monday, January 6, 2014

Monday, January 6, 2014

Since I got my new job, I'm finding that it's difficult to find the happy things to take pictures of because I'm at work for ten and a half hours of the day. I come home and grab a quick dinner, and pretty much crash cause I'm so tired. But beautiful things are still happening! There's no picture today, but a story Loveduck shared in her email to me this morning (her p-day is Monday.)

"So here's a really fun story for you this week. While we were tracting yesterday, we reach this trailer, and I can hear the TV going on inside so I figure someone's probably home. So I knock on the door and wait for them to answer. They didn't, but we have a "knock three times rule", so I stepped forward to knock again, didn't see a stool that was right in front of me, tripped on it, and fell. INTO THEIR HOUSE. Yep. The door burst right open. I don't even know if they were actually home cause I jumped up so fast and shut the door I didn't have time to look! So that happened. I later decided that if they had seen me I just would have told them I was so desperate for them to get this message that I was willing to break the door down :P"

So, I read that story during my lunch break at work. I laughed so hard!

Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Sunday, January 5, 2014

I love music. A lot. I pretty much always have music playing and I'm always on the hunt for new music. I've been wanting this album for a while now and I finally got it! I've been listening to it off and on all day. (Since you can't really see in the photo... The album is BYU Vocal Point's Lead Thou Me On.) 


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Saturday, January 4, 2014

I was so excited for this little gem I found on Netflix, and it didn't disappoint! Ellen Degeneres is so funny! I definitely laughed the whole hour. 


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Friday, January 3, 2014

Friday, January 3, 2014

In the mail yesterday, I received a reminder that my car's registration expires this month. That means getting the safety and emissions tests done. I figured that I should get it done today because 1) today was pay day at my new job so I have money, and 2) in the unfortunate but possible event that something was wrong, I would need to find time to get it fixed (which could be complicated given how much I work and consequently need to drive my car.) So, on my way home from work, I visited the same service center where I regularly get my oil changed. I don't really like going there because it always feels dirty, which makes sense given it's a mechanic. But I always go back because the manager remembers me every time and he treats me really well. He usually gives me discounts just cause. I don't actually know if he's allowed to do that... Anyway, the technicians finished the tests and low and behold, my car failed the safety test. My heart sunk. They told me what was wrong, and of course I didn't understand. I don't speak car. But then the manager came out and saw me. He said something like, "Oh! Was that your car we did the safety and emissions tests on?! Let me tell you what to do!" He sent me to their other store location just a block and a half away where they have the equipment to fix breaks. He instructed me to tell them he sent me and said to be good to me, then give me a $20 discount if they do any work. So, I drove off. At the other location, I tried my hardest to explain what was wrong, but ended up just giving them the paper work. When I mentioned who sent me, I had to laugh because the technician knew exactly who I was talking about. He yelled to his coworker to put my car in the front of the line, then he didn't charge me to... fix whatever he fixed. To be honest, I feel a little guilty about that... But, here's the happy thing: In the space of--I kid you not--half an hour, I learned my car didn't pass the safety test, had my car fixed, got my car to pass the safety and emissions tests, renewed the registration, and only paid what it cost for the tests and registration. I imagined it would take lots longer and a lot more money.

Here's a picture of that reminder that came in the mail:



Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Today was one of those days where I took my time getting ready, then felt rushed to get all my errands done before going to work. Every once in a whole I would remember that I needed to find something for tonight's post, but then I'd move on to the hex item on the to-do list and put off finding the happy thing for the blog. Next thing I knew, it was 11:15 and I was driving home from work, still with no picture for the blog. 

Which is when I remembered that I've owned my car for exactly a year today. I am so so grateful for my car. It was a gift, and it couldn't have come at a more perfect time. It was given to me just days after an unfortunate collision with a snow bank (in the middle of the road) damaged the axel in my previous car. Repairs were going to cost more than the car was even worth! I feel so blessed every day that my aunt had just purchased a new car and was willing to just let me have her old one. 

So, no picture tonight, but life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day. 

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

My mom made me these pajamas for Christmas. She pretty much always makes a pair for each of my siblings every Christmas, but this year I asked for two because I needed them. There's nothing like a pair of homemade pajamas. They are so comfortable!


Life is beautiful, especially when you are looking for the beautiful things that happen every day.