Friday, February 28, 2014

I think this is one of those "you had to be there" situations. Sorry. But essentially at work today, my boss found an excuse to come out of his office to put this delightful fountain on my coworker's desk. For about a minute. Then he took it back to his office. I think it's great. 

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

Thursday, February 27, 2014

I can always tell it's gonna be a good batch of bread when the dough feels just right!

Oh, and it was. A good batch. Yum!

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

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Remember how I love ice cream? Well, Ben and Jerry's is my favorite if I'm getting a carton of ice cream from a grocery store. So, when a friend of mind shared this link on Facebook, I was pretty excited! Oh. YUM. These new flavors all sound incredible!

Click Here.

Pick one of those pictures to be the picture for today.

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

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

I'm a student again! I registered for two online classes today. It feels really good to be moving toward my life goals again.



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

Monday, February 24, 2014

I love hand sanitizer. I have a friend who jokes with me that I should buy stock in two things: ice cream (Coldstone) and hand sanitizer. So Bath and Body Works frequently sends me coupons via snail mail and email and I always have to refrain from buying more hand soap and hand sanitizer. But when they sent me a coupon for a free no purchase necessary PocketBac hand sanitizer, you better believe I took them up on that. This is the one I picked. One of the yummiest smells ever! It's Pink Vanilla Macaron, in case you can't see from my awesome phone picture...

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

Sunday, February 23, 2014

I pulled out my viola to play for a bit this evening. I miss being in orchestras. I really enjoyed that. 

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

Saturday, February 22, 2014

My roommate I so sweet. I stepped out of my room for two seconds and came back to find that she'd snuck in and left chocolate on my desk!

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

Friday, February 21, 2014

Remember how I love watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!? Well, tonight was the last episode of this season's college championship tournament. It was a good game, but my favorite part was definitely when the category was "Johnny Gilbert Performs Today's Hits." (Johnny Gilbert is the announcer you hear at the beginning of the show. He says "This. Is. Jeopardy! Let's meet today's contestants." Or something like that.) Pretty much the clue was a line from a currently popular song. Johnny Gilbert would read it. Hilarious.

For your viewing pleasure, I found a YouTube video:



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

Thursday, February 20, 2014

I have a few happy things to choose from today, and that feels really good. But the one I'm going to pick is this: I made a cake today! I think it's beautiful. I haven't been doing much baking lately, which makes me sad because I love it so much and it makes me so happy. Anyway, I found this recipe on Pinterest and finally had a reason to make it. But since it's for a work meeting tomorrow, I haven't even tasted it. I hope it's good! The peanut butter glaze is incredible. I'd definitely use that again. 

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

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

I love cherry tomatoes! Tomatoes are probably my favorite vegetable. 

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

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

I had set aside the day after my vacation--aka today--to catch up on to do stuff, like running errands, sleeping, cooking, and tidying up. But I was asked to work today instead. I wanted the hours so I just had to hope I got enough done to make it to Thursday. And I'd say I did. I managed to run all the errands I needed to and I made food, so I think I'll survive.

One of the errands was to get my windshield replaced. I had a crack that was really in the way. I was able to get that done, and it's so much easier to drive my car now. And, the technician vacuumed the floors, so I have a clean car again! I love that!

But I didn't remember to take a picture until after dark... So maybe I'll edit this post tomorrow with a picture... Maybe.

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

Monday, February 17, 2014

Today was the last day of my vacation. I definitely recommend vacation! I feel a little worn out, but I feel ready to take on my average, predictable life again. Today we did some sight seeing around San Diego area. We visited the Mormon Battalion Historic Site. That was very well done. There's another historic site near there called The Whaley House, which is apparently considered the most haunted house in the United States. I'm not really into the paranormal stuff, but it was interesting to see the old house.

Here's me and my aunt at the Mormon Battalion.



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

Sunday, February, 2014

Day two of vacation was amazing! We got bagels for breakfast. I don't think I've ever purchased a bagel, except the cheap ones you can get in bags of six, so maybe this isn't saying much, but that was the best bagel I've ever had! 

Then we went whale watching. Whale watching has a bad reputation, I think, but from my limited experience is say whale watching is pretty neat if you have the right ship captain and you go to the right place. We saw a whale and TONS of dolphins. I'd definitely do that again. 

We spent the afternoon walking through the touristy shops in Laguna Beach. Saw some fun, interesting things. 

We had dinner at home, which was really nice. 

So the boat had a viewing area called a pod that was under the water. You could go down and check out the dolphins. Here's a picture I took down there. 

Ps. This is the 200th post in this project. That is mind boggling to me. Here's to 165 more beautiful days of looking for the  beautiful things that happen every day. (Actually a lifetime of that... But for this project... You know...)

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

Saturday, February 15, 2014

I'm on vacation!!! Yay!

Here's my view out the window on the plane at 10,000 feet. 

Here's the view flying through the clouds.

And here's the descent into San Diego. So pretty!

We spent the day at Sea World, then went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. Such a fun day!

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

Friday, February 14, 2014

I was so excited to receive this awesome valentine today! While I was working at my new job, one of my coworkers from my old job brought this to me. It was so nice to see her! I haven't seen her for over a month now. I just wish she'd had time to stay and visit. Pretty sure I didn't stop smiling for the rest of the shift!

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

Thursday, February 13, 2014

I got a package from my mom today. She sent me cookies she had made! That was fun to receive. 

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

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

I bought new music last week, and I'm loving it! This is Vertical Horizon's latest album--one of my recent purchases--and I am very pleased with it. Vertical Horizon is one of my favorites. 

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

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

I love these!

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

Monday, February 10, 2014

I love Mondays because that's the day Loveduck emails me! Last week she was so sad and discouraged and I was so worried about her. But from her email today, things seem to be looking up for her. That's relieving to me. I was so thrilled about what she put in her blog post. Basically she said that she's been reflecting a lot lately on my blog project and the message I share here. She decided to start looking for things that were happening each day that made her feel better, and then she shared a list! I love that once again this project had made a difference for someone!

Oh, and she said the package was awesome! I'm pretty much the best sister ever. 

No picture today. 

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

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Today is another day where I'm wrapping up my day and I still don't have a picture for the blog. Today wasn't a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I did feel sad and alone for a lot of today, so it wasn't the best day I've ever had.

So, I guess the thing for the blog post tonight is this: I'm grateful for honesty and vulnerability. I think it can be difficult to be vulnerable, but there are times when saying the honest, hard things can really make a difference for someone else.

I think I'll share a TED Talk with you. I love TED Talks. This one is, obviously about vulnerability. A friend shared this with me about six months ago. I love what she has to say.



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

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Remember how cribbage is my favorite card game? Well, my second favorite is probably Fluxx. Look it up if you haven't heard of it. Anyway, I have wanted that game for a long time and finally ordered it from the interwebs. It came today! I played something like ten games with my roommate this evening! That was so much fun!

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

Friday, February 7, 2014

Happy National Fettuccine Alfredo Day!

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

Thursday, February 6, 2014

So, Tuesday, I finally finished Loveduck's awesome Valentine's care package and was able to take it to the post office. I was given a tracking number. Did you know that when you go to the usps website to track a package, you can get e-mails whenever your package moves up until it is delivered?! Interesting, huh? So much easier than checking the tracking website every day. (Am I the only one that does that when I'm expecting a package/sending one? I guess I just like seeing where it is.) Anyway, it looks like the package was delivered today! It only took two days! I didn't even pay for super fast shipping. When I got the e-mail that said it had been delivered, I was so excited! I can just imagine that she got home this evening from a long day of missionary work and was so happy to find that box filled with love waiting for her! Aw man, I miss that girl!



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

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

I went to go visit a good friend of mine this evening, just to play some cribbage and catch up. We had a really good chat about life and everything going on in it. Lots of laughs tonight, which is good. At one point, he mentioned that he found a new "motivational" song, and he played it for me. I only heard the song once, so I'm surprised I was able to find it via google search! But this is it... And also the "picture" for the day, even though the song isn't really the happy thing. Visiting and laughing with a friend is the happy thing. (PS I just think the song is a little bizarre... I don't know that I'd describe it as motivational... You don't have to listen to it all the way through to get the gist.)



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

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

I finally got my car fixed today! It looks so good!

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

Monday, February 3, 2014

I had to hurry from work to Family Home Evening tonight, and even though I was a few minutes late I'm glad I went. We played this card game  I'd never played before and I really enjoyed it! The game is called Cover Your Assets. 

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

Sunday, February 2, 2014

I tried a new recipe today! Chicken, Bacon, and Artichoke Pasta with Creamy Garlic Sauce. You can find it here. I really liked it, but a whole can of artichoke hearts is too much. I think I'll make this recipe again, but not too often because some of the ingredients are expensive. 

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

Saturday, February 1, 2014

I went on a tie date this evening. That's where the boys all take their ties to one apartment with a note that says where and when to meet. Then the girls all go pick a tie and go on a blind date. It was a  fun activity. There were three couples in our group. We went to Walmart and had a little scavenger hunt race. Of course, my team won! 

This is the tie I picked. 

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