Weekend Plans? Free Starbucks?

Our weekend plans include a whole lotta R&R and maybe a few projects. Which brings me to this. 

My husband even thought that it was funny.

Oh and on a completely unrelated note, but one that definitely does have to do with happiness, Starbucks is doing a "Buy one, get one free" on their fraps in their Target locations thru July 2nd. Don't worry if you don't drink coffee, they have strawberry, chocolate and my fav (it's not on the menu) Carmel Cream frap. Pro tip- make sure you say cream or you will get coffee. 

Keep smiling

Remaking the Classics- Beauty and the BEAT

Classics are classics often times because the are timeless. But what if they brought somethings into our time? Hilarity in sues. This is a MUST watch. 

Keep smiling... After you stop laughing.

Need a Blow Dry?

Maybe it's funny, maybe it's not, but it is somehow mesmerizing. 


Keep Smiling! 

For the Nerd in All of Us

For all of you that "loved" math as much as I did.

Keep smiling!

We live in the future

We live in the future. Seriously. They are growing body parts and even replacing stem cells in donor organs as well. I didn't believe it either. You should read about it.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/06/19/155301289/med-student-rescues-body-part-from-airport-security

Have a great one!

21 Pictures That Will Restore Your Faith In Humanity

This is worth a few minutes of your time. It will restore your faith in humanity, I promise.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/pictures-that-will-restore-your-faith-in-humanity

I'll admit it. I cried. Something about the cake just made me tear right up.

Have a great day!

What I want to be when I grow up...

I've seen this floating around the Internet for awhile now and I've had it pinned for at least a few months now. I'm not sure if Lennon ever said this but I really do love the message. What would happen if we encouraged children to focus on being healthy and happy throughout life instead of being so career oriented? Do you think that the general population would be better off or is it just a little too touchy-feely? I'm sure that we would not suffer for lack of successful individuals; some people will always be motivated to excel and succeed. And we have to admit that Lennon was successful by almost anyone's standards.


And it brings up another good point- Happiness is a choice. So for today I'm going to make a commitment to be actively happy. 

Think you're unique? Think again...

This has been going around the internet for awhile.

I apologize for the smallness of the pictures- my internet skills are limited. The full sized images are here.


It's got me thinking though- How original are we? How many thoughts or actions are inspired or are even just imitations of others? Its inspired me to be more creative and more spontaneous. Sometimes its easy to get into a rut, to be focussed on the day-to-day. I'm totally guilty of it. But at the end of my life, when all of my adventures and experiences are totaled and summed, I want my life to have been uniquely mine. So I challenge you to do something crazily and authentically "You" today. I promise, it will be worth it.

A Little Laugh for Your Monday

This is why we have Oakley...

Have a great Monday and keep smiling!

TGIF & Father's Day

Thank goodness it's FRIDAY! WE have lots of adventures planned for this weekend down here in Austin. Since it's Father's day on Sunday, I've got our whole day planned out which includes watching Husband's favorite movie:

No lie, we saw it in theaters 3 times and I think he laughs harder than anyone else when we watch it. Oh, and I absolutely love him for it. 

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Confessions: Chocolate Chip Cookies

         
        I have a confession to make. I have never-ever-ever made chocolate chip cookies by myself. Or even really helped in making them. Not ever. And it's not like I don't cook, because I do. Husband and I follow a "strange" diet for health reasons, so I cook. A lot. And even though we try to eat fairly healthily, I still make a mean sugar cookie or my famous Almond-cake cookies (thanks Mrs Jenkins for the inspiration), and don't forget my brownies and cakes. And it's not like I don't love chocolate chip cookies, because I firmly believe that there are few things better than a few (or several) right out of the oven. Even though I will readily admit that sugar is basically a slow poison, it's delicious poison. Mmmmmm... Anyway, so today I am going to make a whole HUGE batch of chocolate chip cookies. If any of you are wondering what cookies have to do with happiness, please just stop reading my blog now. For those of you out there that enjoy a cookie or two every once in awhile, got any favs?
         

Taco Bell

Had and "interesting" day. Not bad, not great. But I'm keeping up the grateful spirit. 

Here is a thought to make almost everyone grateful:

Yes. Hope y'all had a good one.

How a Terminally Ill man's life was changed

 Here's a quick story on how the Internet can change lives.

      Reddit featured a man who is 23 in late stage kidney cancer who doesn't plan on seeing his 24th birthday. A woman who was on the site started a fund for him to travel the world and strangers donated over $30,000 and multiple other gifts and experiences around the world. 

I'm having trouble imbedding the link so i'll just post it for you to watch the video. It's definitely worth watching for 3.5 mins. 

http://news.yahoo.com/video/interview-terminally-ill-young-man-065000241.html

This video and others have really got me thinking about how really great my life is. Yesterday's feeling of gratitude has definitely carried over into today and inspired me to do something great for someone. Have you ever helped or been helped by a complete stranger?

Simple things

Getting old is hard. Getting really old is really hard. And so is watching those you love experience it. I'm only 25 so I'd like to think that I haven't even hit my prime yet but witnessing my 84 year old grandma make it day-to-day can be rough. I thought that I'd take a vacation last week and spend some time up north in Dallas with family to let my husband get some serious work done. 
         While it was great to see everyone, this trip was very sobering for me. You see, my grandmother was always a woman who helped others, she was always volunteering to help with food pantries, started a clinic for children with no healthcare, on the Salvation Army regional board, etc. She was always so capable. She has slowly stopped participating in these activities because of a degenerative eye disease that has left her practically blind. Even with the loss of most of her sight, she was still able to do many things on her own. When I would come to stay, she would always to help me with "this" or try to so "that" even though I was perfectly capable by now of doing it on my own. I usually never let her, but she always tried. 
        This trip was different- it marked a new chapter for me. I'm not sure that I could give this chapter a name that wasn't a paragraph long because of all of the complex feelings. And I won't go into specific details out of courtesy, but simple daily functions that each of us do without thinking have become belaboring or impossible for my once super-human grandma. She needs assistance in almost everything she does and in many instances this trip, I felt the shift towards a role reversal. For example, much like she would insist on holding my hand in the store when I was a child, I insist on holding her arm walking through the aisles. It must be more that frustrating to be so capable for so long only to now need so much help. I've asked her about life many times and she says that the years seem to run by faster and faster, almost as if time slips away from us. 
         There are so many things that I have thought about after this trip, but the main thing that has stuck out to me is to be grateful. I know that my body will not always be able to run multiple miles at a time or lift heavy things or even remember special memories. I know that these things don't last forever, but today I'm grateful that I have these simple things as I've witnessed that they might not always be that simple.

"How to be Happy" according to Google pt 2-Follow your Gut

         So, after yesterday's hiatus we are back to our article on being happy. I was actually quite surprised to read that Follow your Gut was the second thing listed. While I probably wouldn't have originally listed that myself, the more I thought about it, the more I felt like it is right on the money. Call it your "gut" or "inspiration," "sixth sense" or "intuition," we all have had times where we just FELT something rather than THOUGHT it. In our heads (or hearts) there was no explanation, no logical reasoning. How many times have we followed that inner prompt and how many times have we pushed it aside? While I firmly believe that you should think about every major and even minor choice, what if your inspiration and your logic are squarely at odds? In those moments, I try to clear my head and listen, even for just a moment to myself. While I can't honestly give you a real statistic on the number of times I chose my head over heart or visa versa, I can tell you that overall, when I go with my heart, I'm happier. 

I saw this the other day and thought this summed up perfectly how I feel about things. Don't be afraid to think and don't be feel. Have you ever followed your gut only to be wrong? Maybe your brain over-thought something?