Happiness Project May

I am a little late in posting this one, but...

My May happiness project didn't pan out as well as I had thought as, we ended up having a very raining first part of the month and then we went off to the USA for two and a half weeks. So, I would say the gardening goal didn't go as well as planned. However, I was able to cut the grass twice. We also ended up hiring someone to put down weed killer while we were gone so that Anna wasn't around when we did it. She absolutely adores playing outside lately so doing it while she was here was not the best idea. The person we hired also cut the grass. Another attempt at gardening this month was taking care of a house plant I was given by a friend who is moving to Germany. I also was trying to grow some herbs. Someone had given me two herb sprouts to grow in a cup until they were big enough to transplant. The outcome? I have beautiful house plant that is now slowly becoming browner and browner. I think it started happening the day I got it. I have feed it, watered it, and now I am going to attempt to put it into a bigger planter in hopes that it will help. The herb sprouts alas, did not survive as they were diseased. So, gardening hasn't gone so well. However, grass cut 3 times and weed killer down, that gets at least a few points.

The month was not a completely loss by any means. I kind of consider my goal of gardening to have been taken over by my goal of reconnecting with family. This goal I did fabulously with as we headed out to see a vast majority of our family members. Our first stop was in Maryland, Drew was assigned to work at a conference so we went to go and see my parents. We had a great time. We were able to stay in Maryland for 9 days. My mother hosted a luncheon and we were able to see Drew's grand parents. We were also able to see my cousins whom we have not seen since Stephanie's wedding. My mom's neighbors were there as well. The next day we were able to attend church in the building where I went growing up. It was great to see people there as well. Afterwards we headed up to the church we went to when we lived near Baltimore and were able to have lunch with a friend and visit with some other people from the ward up there. We have not seen any of them since we moved out to England! It was a lot of fun.

For dinner, we were able to hang out with our dear friends Joe and Alissa. It was great because I was able to spend several days hanging out with them. Drew was able to spend quality time with them as well when he wasn't in his conference. Anna and I ventured out to the to both the American History and the Natural History Smithsonian Museums. I know that two hours is probably not enough time for most people to do one of them, but it was plenty of time for us to do both, we are not very thorough. In fact, the most interesting thing Anna found was a statue of a boy and his mother in the exhibit on the evolution of man. We also ventured to the Patuxent wildlife reserve and the play area for the National Children's Museum which is under construction. It was great fun to go there with my parents. It is also great fun that everything is free! On Friday night Drew, Anna, and myself headed to a splash pool and had a blast! We attended Drew's graduation for his masters' degree on Saturday. Yeah, Drew! Then we headed off to Utah on Sunday.

In Utah we were able to See Drew's sister and her family, my college roommate, and a friend of ours who lives out in Provo now. Funny thing was that our friend (Tasha) lives within a few blocks of my college roommate (Heidi). We had a lot of fun with Emily and her family. Anna was able to meet her one and only girl cousin (so far) and it was almost like instant hero worship. Everything Darcey did Anna found hilarious. Every place Darcey went Anna was sure to follow. Even though it was much requested Anna was not allowed to sleep in Darcey's room, neither of them would get any sleep nor would their parents. We were able to go swimming, eat at in and out burger, go on a school fund raiser walk, go to the children's Museum, Drew and some of the gang went out for Ice cream. Anna and Darcey also were able to have a photo shoot together. We ended up getting family pictures taken as well.

Then it was off to Detroit where we saw my sister Denise and her family. We were able to go play on a beach, eat Chinese food and Mexican food (which is hard to come by in England), watch Jackson play amazingly well during a baseball game, plan and host the first Cousin's party ever! Presents for everyone(Well at least the kids, anyway)!

June's Goal is decorating...