What Makes You Happy?

This question was posted the other day in a forum. While it seems like one of the easiest questions to answer, I always hate "Why" questions when they apply to me personally b/c they are hard for me to answer. I think I realized today that it's because I usually have more than one answer, and can't give a single concrete reason. Like Jon asking me a bazillion times "Why do you love me?" My answer for the last 7 years has been...."I just do." And that's it...I just do, but for a ton of little reasons, not just one big one. I'm digressing....so I attempted to answer this and surprised myself when I came up w/ a bunch of little things in just a minute or two. I looked at my list and thought....well those things would make most people happy....and I'm lucky! I've always been a big "It's the little things that count" kind of person, and now I know why: There's a lot more room in your life for a bunch of good little things, than a few big ones!! W/ that said...here's my list of what makes me happy:

My daughter and husband

My dogs

Naps

Reading

Cooking

Travelling

Italian food and red wine, or mexican food and a margarita

The beach

Fall and Spring

Talking to my long distance friends, who I miss like crazy (Tiff and Ang....love you)

Having friends over for dinner (2 or 20!)

Music...especially live.

Doing new things (especially ones that I didn't know if I'd be brave enough to do)

Driving anywhere that's got a good view.

Visiting College Station...especially in the Fall.

Holidays w/ family and food.

Decorating for said holidays!

All the kiddos in our family, especially when they are all together.

My house, b/c no matter how messy it is, or how many things need to be fixed....it's HOME!!

My Sister

I know I could come up w/ so many more things, but the list would be a mile long.

Having too many good things to count is a good thing itself :)

What a Slacker ;)

Yep, I've been horrible about updating this this the last few months...but I have an excuse, I promise!! My camera crapped out and I couldn't download anything. Tiff to the rescue....she put all of my pics on CD's for me to download! I heart you Tiff!!

Anywho, our lastest news is that we got a new puppy, Piper. She is super sweet, but is definitely in that hyper-crazy puppy phase! She's almost 3 months old, and is some sort of mix (The shelter's guess was Beagle/Chihuahua, and the vet couldn't come up w/ anything better).

I'm sure you all know that we lost Yoda a few months ago and it really just sucked not having a little dog in the house. I had a cuddle buddy for the last 13 years, and couldn't really get used to not having one. I stole the puppy neice, Stella, about once a week to fill the void until I was ready for a new one. I think Piper came along at just the right time!

Here are a few pics:







More fun news:
Ava started Mother's Day Out last week! She's just going one day a week for now, but maybe 2 in the Spring. So far, she's liking it. I'm thinking this will be good for both of us, since she's been seriously attached at the hip lately. Her teachers said she did great, except for naptime. Not only did she not want anything to do w/ naptime, she felt the need to wake all the other kids up as well. Apparently she would go over to their mats and tell them "UP, UP!!!" Sounds about right, huh!

On her 1st day: