As I mentioned in some of the other first 10 things that make me happy besides money, there are several common themes in my 100 Things list, friends being one which is already obvious. Nature is another theme that will continue to pop up here. Sometimes it happens in a place I’ve been a million [...]
Just like Deanna and I, Beth and I have been friends since we were 10. I think the card playing started when we were 12. See, Beth and I took piano lessons from the same (awesome!) teacher, which meant that one of our mothers took us to the various piano competitions that we participated in. [...]
I have known Deanna since I was 10, can you believe that? And now, 15 years later, we are still the best of friends. I don’t really want to limit what makes me happy about Deanna to this one thing—meeting at Cielito Lindo on Campbell for salsa, queso blanco, and margaritas—but that is the last [...]
I know, I know, this topic is intimately related to #6, but I still feel that it deserves its own spot on my 100 Things That Make Me Happy Besides Money list because I get a happy, satisfied feeling when we reach a solution. Quite often we talk about our fighting patterns and how we [...]
This one seems kind of obvious, doesn’t it? We haven’t been married that long, only a little over 3 1/2 years, but we’ve dealt with enough to know how strong our marriage is. Before we were married, I had a lot of debt. Rob didn’t have money, but he helped me in a more intangible [...]
Okay, for the sake of full disclosure, I have to tell you that I did not figure out how to solve the Rubik’s Cube on my own. Mac taught me my junior year of high school on a bus on the way to a dam near St. Louis at a science fair trip. That little [...]
There are many reasons that taking good pictures make me happy. I think the main reason that taking pictures is so important to me is that memories are encapsulated in those images. Photos are a way of memorializing my life: the places I’ve been, the experiences I’ve had, and the people I’ve met and who [...]
Few things are more fulfilling in life than helping other people. Because it is so selfless, it is deeply beneficial to the human soul. Because my dear Aunt Linda almost died in 1989, save for blood donations, I knew before I even knew what I wanted to be when I grew up that I wanted [...]
As several of my other items will reveal, I like a challenge. And overcoming that challenge, whatever it may be, makes me happy. I think I like sudoku because it gives my logic muscles a work out. In middle school, I was in the gifted program and our teacher always had us do logic problems. [...]
What can I say? I’m a girl! I think there are many reasons why fresh flowers bring me joy. My grandma has an amazing green thumb. She can grow or revive anything! So there were always beautiful things, like red geraniums, growing around their house. Also, in the yard of the house where I grew [...]