Turning Negatives into Positives

The Happiness Project post is a few days late, I've been meaning to hammer it out, but I'm suffering from some sort of doppler effect of writing where the words sound good in my head, but when I go to type them out they sound trite and immature, so I have decided that this post is probably going to suck, but I'm writing it down anyway.

We've been having a rough go in regards to Isabealla's sleeping, if you're interested in that don't worry there's an entire post dedicated to it and it's coming soon.  So basically she wants me to sit in the room with her for a few minutes before bed.  So instead of being all disgruntled that I'm losing some of the few precious minutes I get to myself at the end of the day, I've decided to sit and meditate when I'm in there.  It's dark, it's quiet, and it forces me to actually do it, since meditating was one of the things I sucked at in my project.

Also, instead of moping around that I hardly ever get to see my girlfriends I planned a dinner out on Thursday.

Turning negatives into positives, yup I'm working on it.  Although I still haven't figured out how to find anything positive in the massive amounts of traffic I find myself in.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

So usually St. Patrick's Day is just a giant excuse for me to get drunk with my friends and act like a dumb ass, but le sigh, this year Andy was working midnights and my mother had weekend plans with my aunt, so I dodged the day of drinking for a little at home fun with me and my best girl.

We had green bagels for breakfast and that mischievous leprechaun turned Isabella's milk green!  He did the same thing to her pudding at dessert.  She loved it.  These little holidays are so much more fun when you make them special with kids, even sans alcohol.  Then we met up with some friends and went to the Staten Island Zoo.  It was a beautiful day and Isabella loved feeding the animals.  Is it weird that her favorite was the bats? Hmmmm.....

May your neighbor's respect you
Troubles neglect you
Angels protect you
and Heaven accept you!

Hope you had a fun one, maybe yours even included beer!

My Unpopular Opinion

I have an unpopular opinion about apparel with characters on it.  I think it's super tacky.  I cringe when I see kids decked out in T-shirts with princesses on them or when there room looks like Rapunzel threw up in it.  I realize that I'm probably in the minority here and I totally renig when it's a kid who is actually asking for the stuff, but generally I hate crap with characters plastered all over it.

My mother, on the other hand does not share my sentiments.  Bathing suits with Sleeping Beauty, towels with Minnie Mouse, pajamas with Cinderella and it makes me want to vom.  I know she's just being nice and she helps us out so much, but once she brought me a big Minnie and Mickie yard decoration for Halloween and I brought the hammer down.  Toys I don't mind, but unless she's asking for a specific character adorned outfit, which she hasn't because she doesn't care, if you see her in it...I didn't buy it.

Wedding

This past Saturday I was able to stand and watch my cousin Christie get married.  It was such a beautiful wedding and she looked like she just stepped out of a Vogue bridal spread.  I've been pretty vocal whiney about my relationship with my friends, wanting it to be how it was, but knowing that it's not.  All of that melted away when we were all there together this day.

Christie, her sister Nicole, my sister Meaghan, and I grew up more like sisters and Christie and I got especially close about 5 or 6 years ago right before I got married.  We would go out for dinner and drinks just the two of us and talk on the phone all the time and even though it's not like that anymore we still hang out in the same circle and I was so proud to watch her on her wedding day.

There's something about weddings that just fill you with hope and I wish them a lifetime of love.

What I'm Good At and Where I Suck

Happiness Boot Camp is in full effect and the first step to realigning myself to my original goal is to really reflect where I excel in this project and the areas that I blow in.

I'm really good at...

Taking care of myself physically.  In the 11 months that I've started this project I've really made exercise, eating healthy, and taking care of my skin a big priority.  My weight has gone up and down this past year, but currently I'm at a big time low and I feel great, skinny, strong, and healthy.  For the most part because I still have my fat days.

Organizing and decluttering.  Since my original closet/dresser purge I've kept it up by doing a mini sweep about every other month.  By sticking to my one minute rule (where I never put off anything that takes less than one minute) I've really cut down my nagging little things to do.

Praying.  I've made it a part of my routine to pray in my car every morning and talk about what I'm thankful for and ask for help if needed.  I look forward to the peace it brings.

Not fighting with Andy.  Not to say that we never fight, we do argue and bicker, but our relationship is stronger than ever because it's a priority.

Creating happy memories with Isabella and keeping my cool.  It's not always easy, especially on days where I just want to lounge around with a book and take the day off, but I try and give her as many quality experiences as I can.  I've also been really committed to keeping my patience.  I'm not always successful, but it's always in my mind.

Where I suck...

Keeping in touch with my friends.  OMG I suck at it.  I can be really close to my circle of girlfriends or I can be really close with my work friends or I can be really reclusive and not talk to anyone.  But it's been really inconsistent.

Showing proofs of love.  I never remember to do anything extra nice until like 10:30 at night.  Not even something little.  I'm sure I do things without realizing I hope, but I never realize.

Money.  I suck at budgeting.  I suck at saving.  I'm a big money spending suck fest.

Being Mindful.  Sometimes my mind still wanders and I get restless and dissatisfied.

Making time for my own leisure.  I tend to fall to the bottom of my to-do list.

Everything else kind of falls on a somewhere-in-between spectrum, so it's time to hone in on the areas of weakness.

Toddler Bed

It's happening.  After Isabella keeps climbing out of her crib and we were planning on transitioning her from her crib to a bed in April anyway, we've decided to just do it now.  Plus she's been asking for a big girl bed just like the pig Olivia.

We've decided not to convert the crib because we'll (hopefully) need to be using it for an infant and I don't want to have to switch her twice.  So I have some questions and I'm hoping you have some answers:

1.  Recommend one for me!  Where did you get yours?  How much was it?  Was it a pain to put together?  What kind of mattress?  Bonus points for links!

2.  Did you buy a toddler bed or a twin bed?  Box spring or no?

3.  How was the switch?  Any tips.

4.  How do you keep them in their room?  Lock 'em in?  Put up a gate?

I think this is the last big transition we're going to have to undertake.  It'll be nice to be done with it.  Until we start it all over again.

Monsters

This is a very real fear in our household now a days.  Isabella is terrified of monsters, ghosts, bats, and foxes.  I spray them with anti-monster spray and I cast banishing spells, but apparently those besky buggers don't get the hint.

She's fine just so long as I'm in the room with her.  Even though my living room and kitchen are about 3 feet apart, if I go into the kitchen to make a cup of tea less than 2 minutes later I hear, "Mooooommmmyyyyy where are you?  Save me from the ghosts."  If I run up the stairs to grab laundry, there's my shadow not far behind.  Solo showers and privacy in the bathroom have also fallen by the wayside.

The thing is...I totally get it.  I'm pretty much scared of my own shadow.  Like I run up the stairs really fast at night so people don't kill me.  I'm convinced that there's some sort of demon just lurking around the house.  And I bet if I saw a fox or a bat it would freak me out too.  So I'm right there with her on this one.