Hapiness Project October...

I was marginally successful, but yes I will say it was a success. I did actually enjoy London, a bit. I had fantasized about staying home right up until the day we left for the trip, but I made it. I threw up in the train station in Harrogate (in the bathroom thankfully) but did not throw up on any train or underground or bus the whole weekend, which I think was quite a feat. I mean I threw up on the way to the hotel after the train ride and in underground stations in between transfers etc. but not a train itself. The train ride down was pretty fun, with the exception that I was not feeling great so Drew was my complete hero taming the toddler. Our hotel was awesome. We had an adjoining room with Joan and Fred. So we could hang out in their room while Anna was sleeping.

We decided to go and see the Tate Modern Museum as they had an exhibit of 100 million hand painted ceramic sunflower seeds. Originally they were intended to be able to walk on the sunflower seeds but they learned that it was actually creating toxic dust, thus you could only look at it from a distance.




At this point it was getting pretty late after a train ride and museum we decided to head to Chipotle for dinner.



Then we headed back to the hotel.

Next morning, I had a huge struggle waiting to eat breakfast, as the "morning" sickness was pretty unrelenting. So whilst waiting in the cue I had to go down a flight of stairs to the bathroom and get sick. But during my travels I found the pool which looked like a lot of fun. So, Drew, Anna, and myself, went for a swim after breakfast. Then headed out to Windsor Castle.





Touring the castle was quite an experience. I really liked St. Georges Chapel where worship services have been held every day since the 1600's!

The castle itself had loads of fun stuff to see, but Anna was a tired toddler without a nap, so while we got to see most things, we did it quickly.


Here is Anna trying on a hat at one of the shops outside of the castle.

We headed to dinner at pizza express, which is a chain of restaurants out here, upscalish for pizza and pretty tasty. Then caught the hour long bus ride back to the hotel.

Sunday, we went to Church in the morning and I really was not sure I was going to make it. This was my sickest feeling day of the trip.



I spent a good portion of church in the bathroom. Drew was surprised by a conversation he heard in the nursery. The congregation was predominantly from Africa and one woman said she had just come back from Zimbabwe and that the church was flourishing there because people didn't have to worry about all the things they do here like jobs and what not. They can focus on spiritual things, interesting comment, kind of makes you think.

After church we headed to Trafalgar square for the big Dwali celebration.




We did not stay too long, but it was fun to watch dancing etc. It was very crowded and hard to see anything. So we headed back to the hotel for the rest of the evening. Drew and Fred went out hunting for pizza and we celebrated Halloween by knocking on Joan and Fred's door in costume. The only treat Joan had were mentos, which Anna loved and referred to as `trick or treats` for the remainder of the trip.

Next day we decided that wanted to go to see St. Paul's Cathedral and the Globe Theatre. Well, we went to St. Paul and then realized that it would cost us 50 pounds to all get in and kept moving. That was the first church I had ever been to that charged money to go into and we have been to churches and Cathedrals all around the world! Anyway, we moved onto the Globe Theatre. We were a little disappoint to learn its location. It was literally the building next to the Tate Modern Museum. So, had we thought things out a little better we would have had a bit less in commute. But, It was really cool. They also had a really neat museum and it was fun to see the exhibits.



Oh, and I did have to miss a portion of the tour in order to go get sick but I got the gist. After the Globe, we headed back home. All in all a decent trip, less the 5 + times of getting sick per day. But I we did have a good time, so goal achieved!

October Happiness Project - London

Well, I was somewhat successful with my October happiness project which was to try and enjoy London. I am just not such a fan and while I cannot

Happiness Project September - Education (Business statistics)

I'm late, again, I know, I know, but I have been busy. Also, Business statistics is well, hard. Sometimes. The first few weeks of the semester were a cake walk mathematically (more difficult learning the technology, excel, etc). Then last week hit. Wow! I was totally lost. Luckily our former Stake President, who lives near by, also happens to teach statistics on base. Unluckily he is moving back to the states in a few weeks. But, last week after a long tutoring session I was able to complete my homework. This week however, the homework has been pretty easy, so, I whisper very quietly, I like statistics. For instance it has already helped me financially and changed my view of some things:

After being frustrated that yet another house on our street was going up for rent for less than we pay for ours. In the time we have lived here all 5 houses on our street have gone up lease all of them for less than we pay. They are identical houses! Anyway, I did some statistics and of the know prices people are paying for their houses our price was more than 2 standard deviations away from the mean! Anyway, after a bit a discussion (it was pleasant) we now are going to pay 80 GBP less a month and will be getting our window fixed!

I don't like the news, sometimes it makes me a bit nervous, so I just don't watch it. Then Drew told me that he read in the news that there was an open threat of violence which was going to happen somewhere in Europe. I worried a bit, but not enough to really even research exactly what he was talking about and realized that the probability of being involved is like 0.00000000000 etc. So, not so worried.

I really worked hard and have learned so much.

In other news, on Monday I took a test and found out about another little tax exemption we are due for next year!

Next month Happiness Project, try to find something fun to do in London. We are going on the last weekend of the month and thus far, I am Not a fan. This will take a LOT of work!

August Happiness project...

Well, I have to say that I kind of blew August, which might be why it has taken me so long to write it up. But alas, here is my progress. On the menu box, I think I wrote up maybe 10 cards, so it is something. Thanks to my mother in law, I have index cards and a box. So that should make progression possible it is just doing it that is the problem. As for organizing the pictures on the computer. I did work on this pretty solidly for about 5 days or so. I made a pretty big dent, or so I thought. Then when Picasso told me I had about 9000 photos to sort, well, I don't think I got nearly as much done as I thought.

But, what I did get done was reading every single last Harry Potter. I LOVE it so much and It was so great to read. I knew I only had a little time left before I jumped into my class this month (by the way, education and school is my project for Sept). So, if I went back in time and revised my goal to be read all of the books in the Harry Potter series, I totally rocked that goal!

Overall, I haven't sewn anything in last few months, but I still know how to do the things I have done. I have gone to the gym almost every weekday in August! (Part of that motivation may have stemmed from the fact that Anna can play in the play pen area and if I use the stationary bike, I can read, she keeps herself pretty entertained). I also worked on eating well. Loads or fruits and veg still. I have also been keeping up with family. So I have been going on pretty strong with continuing some of my other goals. I know I will do well with the education goal next month, so here we go...

July happiness project

So, for July I have been working on a few things. One is prayer. I having been working on being more diligent and recognizing more answers to prayers. I have had a few really spiritual experiences and have learned a lot. One involved a prompting, being in the right place to help someone out, a broken down car and a prayer answered that it would be fixed. There have been others, it is really amazing to open up your eyes and your heart and see the miracles and blessings that surround you. I have also had several private spiritual experiences just feeling the peace and quiet assurance of the spirit. Knowing that Heavenly Father loves me, that he is there, that he sent his son to die for us, what bigger miracle can one ask for.

My second goal of the month was to work on learning what to do with our money. Last year we were able to get out of the debt we had dug ourselves into. It took a lot of work and a lot of prayer. But, we were blessed with being able to repay our debtors. Since that time we have kept saying and thanks to saving and a tax return, we were able to have some money. I realized that the interest rates were not good right now, so keeping it in the bank didn't seem like the best idea. So, I decided to step up to the plate and learn more about the ole stock market. Now, we didn't put all of our money into the market, but at least some of it has the chance to earn some interest. So, I choose some stocks and the week I happened to start buying stocks they all took a pretty big plunge, so I was able to do the buy low part of the ole saying rather quickly. So, with a little advice from my dad and google. I was able to find some good solid stocks. Granted there is still risk, but I think that the choices we have made are solid. Because of this whole experience I have decided to go back to school in Sept. I will take one class at a time and work toward getting a certificate in finance. The first class is business statistics, wish me luck!

Next month, I have two things I am going to be working on to prepare for the fall. I realize that I will not be having as discretionary time, with taking a class, so I have decided to get somethings in order now. I will be putting together a index card box with our favorite meal ideas, so that at the beginning of the week I can just grab 7 cards and have planned the menu for the week. Also, and now this isn't something needed for the fall, but for a long time now, I have been irritated with how we have our digital pictures stored. All of our pictures are saved in files named things like 'pics', 'pictures', 'big ole file of pics' etc. Each individual file only has the number it is given from the camera. There is no organization. So my goal is to try and label and sort them. Now, I am not so sure I will get through all of them, but, by small and simple things are great things brought to pass, as they say. So, who knows I may be able to put quite a dent in it!

June Happiness Project

June's happiness project goal of decorating our home has gone much more smoothly. Ever since the day it was pointed out to my blissfully unaware eyes that our home was, pretty much COMPLETELY bare. It has been a point of frustration. So, I had been thinking over ideas for a long while in my head on this one. Warning, I am not, nor have I ever been into decorating so don't expect too much, I was just going for things that are to our taste.

My first project was Drew's computer room. It was a graduation/ Father's day present. We had a budget of 100 gbp to complete the room. I sewed him a set of curtains. They were the first set I have ever sewn I didn't use a pattern but they turned out well, if I do say so myself! I think they ran us a total of about 15 gbp. We also purchased some picture frames from Ikea which ran us about 18 gbp. The pictures inside were purchased for family pictures but even if I include the price of the photos which was about 30 GBP, it puts us well under budget. Problem with the pictures and frames was that we had american sized pictures and british sized frames grrrr. Solution? a few crafty embellishments made from old craft material odds and ends, which I am not including in the price as I have no recollection of how much it cost. Another piece Anna and I added to the room was an abstract piece of art in a frame my sister gave us for Christmas. The artwork is made out of lipstick. I would have to say the project was a bit more of my work than Anna's as Anna was using the opportunity to put makeup on her feet, which as everyone is well aware of is where it goes. But when you think about it, putting it on feet or paper are both equally outside the box, so why not, right? Being a total of 63 GBP, result? Enough money left to buy a much wanted video game (bonus father's day gift!) and plenty to spare. I am also trying to figure out how to use some of the fabric from the curtains to make a light shade for the over head light, we shall see on that one. I don't want to start any fires, so I have been a little hesitant there. I was also a bit distracted by Anna's birthday!

The pictures of the curtains are not so great, they really do look nice.









Project two, our bedroom. Another budget of 100 gbp. We purchased a nice 3 sectioned picture of a rose, very large for 12 gbp. Then, we purchased a fitted sheet (8gbp) and a duvet cover and pillow cases (28 gbp). We put the cream colored blanket my mother had given me a few years back on the bed as well. We took out the large blue panda blanket we had been using. It is very warm and comfortable and now resides in Anna's room more or less folded up at the foot of her bed. Today I put up a picture project I had made after our trip to Paris last summer. It had been sitting around waiting for somewhere to go. I am not sure how much it cost, but it was well under 10 gbp. We took off one of the sets of curtains. I know that you are wondering why we had more than one set of curtains. Well, we are cheap, and we live in England. The curtains that came on the house we rent here fit alright but just about fit exactly to the size of the window. The problem? Last week sunset was at about 11 pm and sunrise was at around 3:30 (no joke). So we needed another set of curtains (our set from the states) that was long enough to block out some of the light. They were not wide enough for the window. So we ended up having a pair of patchwork blue curtains covered by a shorter and wider set of brown curtains. NOT attractive. Solution? We purchased some blackout roller shades from Ikea that you can cut to fit the window (23 gbp). We got rid of the blue curtains and the brown curtains remain where they were when we rented the place. I might add I did not make new curtains for this room because the ones that are here fit in very nicely with how the room has come together. Now, I want to get one of two more things for our other bare wall, but I have not yet seen anything to catch my eye. So far for this room totals 81 gbp.

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...