Day 6: Things that Make Me HAPPY!

I am several days behind on the blog. I have to do a blog blitz in order to catch up...so I hope you're ready. Put your reading eyes in, because I'm sure this is the first of several blogs you'll see from me in the next day or two. I'm so far behind that I'm not sure I'm doing the topics in the right order!

Anyway, according to Courtney at Cowboy Cookies, I think today should be about things that make me happy. She did 3 things but I'm going to write about more than that...how many, I don't know. I'll write until I get bored, which will probably be at least 15 minutes after you've gotten tired of reading.

A disclaimer before I start...these are "THINGS" that make me happy.This is not about the people in my life that make me happy, so don't get upset if you don't get to read about my wonderful husband and baby girl. There will be more about them, later. This blog is about the other things that make me happy. The superficial, concrete items that make me smile.

1. Dunkin Donuts Iced Mocha Lattes. Oh, DD...what did I do before you came to Lebanon? How did I exist on McDonald's iced mochas and Starbucks alone? I do my grocery shopping primarily at Publix, with a side of Kroger thrown in for good measure. Both, much to my happiness, are on the DD side of town. After a hard afternoon of grocery shopping and power couponing, it's my treat to myself to have an iced mocha latte. It doesn't matter if it's -20 degrees or 110 degrees...I love the cool, chocolately coffee goodness. Once, when I drove through, Lily was having a total meltdown in the car. I pulled up to the window and said "Someone is mad because they haven't had their coffee today." For a split second, the cashier looked like she wasn't going to give me my coffee. Then there would've been TWO of us in the car, having a meltdown. But, I digress. Dunkin Donuts...how I love thee....

2. Coupons. Who doesn't love saving money? I mean, that's a no brainer. If there's money to be saved, *I* want to be the one saving it. My sister in law started couponing...she carries a big binder filled with baseball card sleeves full of coupons. At first, she was my only coupon mentor. She got me started. Then, as word of ME carrying a big pink binder with baseball card sleeves full of coupons spread, I found out I had more friends than I thought who couponed. Meredith, author of The Woman With You, is also now one of my coupon mentors. Now I can go to the store and know, without a doubt, my grocery bill will be at least half of the total once they're done scanning my coupons. Once, I cut my bill from $157 to $53...I was so happy I danced in the checkout lane. I like the challenge of looking for matchups, the best deals, competitor coupons, etc, and now that I have it down to a science, it doesn't even take that long. My only regret is that I didn't start couponing when Lily was a newborn (or even before she was born) but, as Meredith says, "Be thankful for the deals you got, not the ones you missed."

3. Shoes. Generally, the most impractical, highest heeled, treacherously dangerous shoes you can think of are the ones I gravitate to. Luckily for our bank account (and my ankles), I don't own many of these types of shoes. But I still secretly love them, and if I ever had reasons to be dressed to the nines somewhere that would require no walking whatsoever, I'd have more pairs of them. But, even now, I still have a lot of shoes. Boots, flats, sneakers, moderate heels...I have them. But ask me what I wear, and chances are I will point out about 4 pairs of shoes out of about 40 in my closet. Habits are hard to break.

4. Eye makeup. Over the years, I have dwindled my make up collection down from about a million items down to the necessities plus a lot of different types of eye make up. I like being able to change my whole look by just what color shadow I put on. Changing my look often soothes the Gemini in me.

5. The fact that my Grammy arrived here, in TN, today, and plans to stay until after Lily's first birthday (which is in a month and a few days...*gasp*) makes me very happy. I love that Lily is able to spend time with her great grandmother. My grandmother is the only great grandparent on both sides that Lily has so it's really wonderful for us all to spend time together. It's a great thing to have 4 generation of women together.

6. Thirty-One stuff. Until my friend Shelley and I had our party, the only Thirty One item I owned was a lunch tote. Now I have an assortment of stuff, and I just love it! I love being able to be organized, yet stylish! It makes being organized, cleaning and straightening up, more bearable, when you can put items away in cute things instead of boring plastic totes and stuff like that. I guess I could expand this to not only include Thirty-One products but any kind of cute, practical organizational item-- baskets, bags, hooks, whatever. If you know where I can find any, please let me know.

That's all I think I'll bore you with in this entry. Until next time...