A smile appeared upon her face as if she'd taken it directly from her handbag and pinned it there. - Loma Chandler

Every year at Christmas time my family and I go to see Canadian Brass in concert.  For me, it's really the signal that the holidays are about to start, and a time when I can find real peace within myself.  Listening to the music as it fills up the hall, following the different instruments as their sounds move around.  I consider it to be an almost spiritual thing for me.  I just feel so calm, relaxed, and content during it.  So of course, my heart was smiling during another amazing concert today.

Also, I wish everybody a very Happy Hanukkah!

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. - Mark Twain

I crochet for two reasons.  The first is because I find it super relaxing, and I like being able to do it while watching television so that I don't feel like I'm wasting my time.  I can actually hold something tangible that I've done while sitting in front of the tube for longer than I should.  The second reason is because I like to know that what I'm making can bring a smile to someone's face.  While I'm crocheting, I like to imagine what the person's face will look like when they see what I've made, even if I won't be there when they see it.  That's why I like donating what I make because I know that the person will truly appreciate it.

Back on Thanksgiving I made a bunch of Halloween decorations for my family members.  Each person at the dinner table was given something.  At the end of dinner, some people ended up leaving their decorations behind, but one of my Aunts picked them all up and took them home with her.  Fast forward to this morning, I got a phone call from her telling me that she handed them out to all the babies out with their older siblings for trick-or-treating.  It made my heart smile to hear her tell me about this.  It's nice to know that they were able to bring a smile to others and to know that she "gets" why I crochet for others.  It's all about passing on a smile.

Thanks!

It takes seventeen muscles to smile and forty-three to frown. - Author Unknown

Today is Halloween!

My heart smiled seeing all of the kids dressed up in their costumes, and then my heart really smiled when all of the trick-or-treaters were super polite!  I love it!  Now I can't wait to go out and buy Halloween chocolate on sale tomorrow.

Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open. - John Barrymore

I don't have a lot of patience.  If something looks like it's going to take a really long time, I have to do it in stages.  So while it might take a month to finish, it ends up taking me years to finish.  Case in point, the blanket I've been crocheting for about two years now.  It's been a bit of a pain.  I made some mistakes that are rather obvious, the reason why I started it no longer existed, it's hot to make (the blanket has to lie on top of you while you're crocheting it, making it really uncomfortable to do in warm weather), and it just takes a lot of time and patience.

But, my heart smiled when I finished it twenty minutes ago!  And it's just in time for the cold weather.  Also, Forest loves it, which is probably the most important thing.

This is the blanket all nicely finished!  It's the perfect length for cuddling up into.

This is me pushing Gump off of my blanket because he started to try and dig it up (it's how he makes himself comfortable, but I don't want him to rip up the blanket the first day I finished it).

A laugh is a smile that bursts. - Mary H. Waldrip

I felt absolutely horrible last night.  I couldn't look at the television, couldn't look at my computer, and any light just made it unbearable.  My sinus' started feeling a bit clogged.  I set my alarm, crawled into bed, and had an awful sleep.

Alarm went off in the morning, I looked at the time, and realized I meant to set the clock an hour earlier.  Which meant I had a total of 15 minutes to get out of the house and catch my bus.  I rushed around like crazy, ran to the bus, and thought that I had made it in time because there was a bunch of people standing around.  Five minutes later the bus shows up, and it's a high school special.  I missed my bus.  So I quickly called my mom at work to see if she had any money in the house that I could borrow for a taxi.  Found out all she has is some spare change.  Called and woke up my sister, who told me she had none.  Started walking home from the bus stop thinking that I was screwed, when my sister called me back up and told me to stay at the stop, take the bus to the GoTrain station, take money out of the ATM there and taxi to work from there because it'll cost less.  I followed her advice, the bus came about ten minutes later, and, to my surprise, made it to the GoTrain station early so that I was still able to make my connection bus to work!

So, while my day started off with everything going wrong, it made my heart smile when I realized that it was all going to work out in the end anyway.

Your attitude will always determine your attitude. - a sign posted in the girl's washroom at work

Something that always makes my heart smile is when my work and/or work ethic gets recognition.  I'm the type of person that puts everything into my work, regardless of how small the task is, and sometimes it gets tiring and I feel unappreciated.  Of course, when I feel unappreciated for a long time, I start to just not care anymore about what I'm doing.  

Well, today was a bit of a tiring day at work.  I'm not sure if it was the weather or what, but customers were just in bad moods.  One customer was looking through a rack of girl's shirts, and I asked if I could look for the size for her, and she said, "I'm just browsing.  I don't know what size."  It was obvious that this was a lie (I really don't see the point in looking through a rack of all the same shirt, unless you're looking for a specific size), but whatever, I walked away.  A couple more customers were weird and flat out rude, and work was just not looking fun.

I was asked to stick around for a bit after the time that my shift was supposed to be over to finish off my training.  I agreed, though a little grudgingly since I wasn't enjoying my day and couldn't wait to get home and read (I'm almost done a really good book!).  In the end, I'm glad I stuck around.

It was nice to be told that I'm doing a really good job and that it's obvious I'm working hard to the managers in the store.  After a day like today, I needed something like that to stop myself from just not caring.

So my heart smiled when I realized that I am appreciated at work, even if it doesn't always seem that way.

The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it. - C.C. Scott

You won't imagine the type of things you'll see when working retail.  Yesterday at work there was a surprise visitor for all of us working.  It was Santa Claus!  Well, a three year old boy who was dressed as Santa and walking around saying, "I'm Santa.  I'm Santa."  It made my heart smile to think how confident and comfortable he was pretending to be Santa.  I only wish that confidence stuck with all of us through life.

I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else. - Winston Churchill

I woke up today, and the first thing I thought was, "It's going to be a good day."  I always try to wake up in the morning and think something positive, but it's not always easy (like when the alarm clock goes off, it's still dark outside, and it feels way too cold to climb out of the sheets).  But when I realized that that was the first thing I thought, it made my heart smile.  How can you have a bad day when you start it off like that?

You're never fully dressed without a smile. - Martin Charnin

My day was definitely not what I would call the most exciting.  I was working today as a poll clerk for the Provincial Election, and let's just say, it's a pretty boring job.  It required sitting in a school gym, without any windows, from 8am to 10pm, with no breaks.  And most of that time, I was doing nothing.  Without all that being said, my heart smiled at the end of the day when all the ballots at my poll balanced out on the first count.  Less counting means less time spent in the gym!

Good fortune shies away from gloom. Keep your spirits up. Good things will come to you and you will come to good things. - Glorie Abelhas

It always makes me sad to see missing posters for family pets.  One of my biggest fears is that Forest or Gump could one day go missing, and so my heart always breaks whenever I see that another person or family is living my fear.  Recently there's been a ton of missing posters for a family dog named Buddy hanging around my town, and there's a sign on our mailbox right now for a missing black and white cat.  It just breaks my heart to think about those poor animals.

So, obviously it makes me happy to hear about a story where the family and their pet is reunited.  Today I read an article in the Toronto Star about a cat that was found after being missing for five years, 2 500 km away from its home.  Reading the article made my heart smile, and I hope that Buddy and the black and white cat are just as lucky.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1054908--cat-that-went-missing-5-years-ago-found-2-500-kilometres-away?bn=1

Laughter is an orgasm triggered by the intercourse of sense and nonsense. - Author Unknown

Today my heart smiled when a friend that I haven't spoken to in two years asked me to go onto Skype and chat, which resulted in lots of laughter!  It was such an unexpected surprise and a great chat.  I will be going to sleep with a smiling heart!

Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy. - Cynthia Nelms

I just have to say, I LOVE this quote.  This is the first time I've read it, but I think it's incredibly true and is how I try to live life sometimes.  In fact, I remember having a conversation with someone recently where I was trying to drill this into him.  But that story doesn't belong in this blog!

Today my heart smiled when I found out that my amazing cousin gave birth to her beautiful baby girl!  I know that her and her husband will be amazing parents to Olivia Grace, and I hope that she has a long lifetime of smiling heart moments.

Normally I wouldn't try to overshadow the news of the birth of a baby, but I have been preparing to update my blog with this picture for three days now, so I kind of have to do this (technically I could pretend that I didn't finish my project until tomorrow and update this then, but that would be lying).  For some strange reason on Thursday night I decided that I was going to crochet little Halloween ornaments, found a bunch of patterns, and went to work!  My heart smiled when I put the finishing touches on the last little guy and posed them all for a picture to share with you.

A thank you goes out to Lisa for letting me use her little deck garden.

Carry laughter with you wherever you go. - Hugh Sidey

I'm not a huge shopper, but when I do buy things, I buy lots of things!

Today my heart smiled when I went to not one store, but two stores I love and found out that they had sales!  So I now have lots of body lotions and lots of books (which I already had, but there was a sale on, so buying more is understandable).  For those curious folks out there, book wise, I bought Game of Thrones, Book of Negroes, Virgil and Beatrice, and East of Eden.  All books I've wanted to buy for a while, and all books I've been hearing good things about!  My heart will probably smile again when I crack their spines.

The best things in life are unexpected - because there were no expectations. - Eli Khamarov, Surviving on Planet Reebok

I love buying gifts.  Christmas is my all time favourite holiday because I love buying gifts for everyone.  I just love thinking about what will make people happy and excited.  What just screams, "I need to buy this for [insert name]," but that they probably wouldn't buy for themselves?  I just love it!

So today was my cousin's daughter's first birthday, and for years, even before she was born, we knew what we would give this cousin's daughter one day for her birthday.  When I was born, my cousin's mother gave me a doll cradle that was made for my cousin by her grandfather.  By the time I had entered the picture, my cousin was no longer playing with dolls, so it was handed down to me, and then my sister.  Even after my sister stopped playing with dolls, we had to keep this cradle just in case, one day, my cousin had a baby girl.

To be able to finally wrap the cradle (more like put it in a huge bag), give it to her, and see her reaction... priceless.  My heart smiled when I realized just how much this gift meant.

Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations. - Edward de Bono, Observer, 12 June 1977

I had a really stressful day yesterday and just felt all tense all day.  When bedtime finally rolled around, I was carrying Forest to bed when she started growling at me.  Forest growling at me is nothing new, and is in fact a bit of a family joke.  But what I really love is when Forest makes this noise that I can't really describe, but I do like to mimic.  The best example I can come up with is this (it's not the best quality youtube video, but it's the best I could find to show this):

Anyway, when Forest started growling, I started making that noise, and then Forest looked at me, stopped growling, and returned the noise right back at me.  It made my heart smile to have Forest respond to my "Ffft Ffft Ffft-ing."  (She's now sitting on my lap purring, but she wasn't too happy when I played the clip from Aristocats).

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come. - Chinese Proverb

I've been having a rough couple of days.  I've just been going through the blahs, and it's really starting to get frustrating.  I've been doing everything I can to not let them get me down, but it's still not really all that fun.  But just a couple minutes ago I came across a moment that really reminded me about why I started this blog to begin with.  Sometimes we have bad days, but that doesn't mean those days completely lack small, little moments, that bring a smile to our heart.  It doesn't necessarily make the bad day turn into a good day, but we should still recognize those moments.

A little bit of background on why this moment made my heart smile.  I have two cats, Forest and Gump.  Forest hates Gump, and Gump is always annoying/play attacking Forest.  So our family lacks cute pictures of the two cats cuddling together like you see in calendars and those animal emails.  On top of that, Gump seems to hate my new room lay out since I moved my furniture from school back home.  He used to always sleep on my bedroom floor, but now he doesn't.  In fact, the only proof I have of him sleeping in my room is a picture that my sister took with her phone when I was in Swaziland.  Because apparently my room is ok for him when I'm not on the same continent as him.

So, with all of that in mind, my heart smiled when I ran into my room to quickly grab something and saw this:

As soon as I saw this, I quickly ran downstairs to grab my camera which incidentally was already in my bedroom.  So I ran back upstairs, found it, took this picture, and then lay down on the far side of my bed with my head closest to Forest (because Gump doesn't always like being touched, so I decided to not push my luck and cuddled with Forest) and rested for about five minutes before Gump got up and left us.  And my heart was smiling the whole time.

If you want to be happy, be. - Leo Tolstoy

I meant to update yesterday, but was way too full to do anything.  Which is what I want to write about.  My heart smiled while eating the most amazing Indian food I have ever eaten at Bombay Palace.  I didn't eat anything off the buffet that I didn't love!

Today while I was working out, I got onto one of the weight machines that I've used several times before.  After only a couple reps, it seemed incredibly harder than usual, and I was beginning to get a little down thinking that I had somehow lost strength between the past two days.  After I finished my three sets, I wrote down the weight that I was using... and realized that the weight was ten pounds more than I'm used to.  Suffice to say, my heart smiled to realize that I wasn't getting weaker!

A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles. - Washington Irving

It was pouring rain today!  I couldn't believe it.  It's so strange to go from so many dry days, to that much rain.  Our pool almost overfilled due to it all.  During part of the real downpour, I was walking to meet a friend for some delicious Jamaican jerk chicken.  As I was crossing the parking lot to get to where I needed to be, a guy pulled up beside me and asked if I was walking far in the rain.  I told him I wasn't, and pointed to where I was heading (a ten second walk, easily), when he said, "Good.  If you were going much further, I'd offer you a lift.  I'd hate to be out walking in that!"  Now obviously this could've been a creepy guy looking to pick up some unsuspecting and naive girl before he raped and killed her ala Criminal Minds style, but my heart smiled to think that maybe this guy really was a genuine guy who just wanted help someone out in the rain.  We need decent folks like that, and I'd like to think he's one of them!

(The amazing jerk chicken ((for only $2.75!)) and the great company I had while eating the chicken also made my heart smile, but doesn't make as great of a story)

Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise. - Alice Walker

I am horrible at keeping up with these things!  I apologize and will try harder, but I'm not making any promises.

Today my heart smiled twice.  Earlier today I received an unexpected text message from someone that I really wasn't expecting to get one from.  It was such a nice surprise and it was great to get to update one another on our lives.  My heart definitely smiled when I saw their name flash on my cellphone!

My heart also smiled when I was coaching today.  I get such a kick out of watching those kids play their hearts out.  They have such a great spirit and energy, and it just made my heart smile!

The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: if you pursue happiness you'll never find it. - C.P. Snow

Yesterday was my birthday.  And everyone who knows me should know my birthday weekend rules.  For those who don't know them, the rules are as follows:

If your birthday falls on Monday or Tuesday, you have the weekend prior to your weekend for your birthday.  If your birthday is on Thursday or Friday, you have the weekend that follows your birthday.  If your birthday falls on the Wednesday, then you've hit the jackpot and get both weekends.

This year, my birthday fell on the Friday (and yes, I know that next year it'll be on the Saturday, so I get even less birthday days, but the rules are the rules, and it's worth waiting till it falls on Wednesday again), which means that this is my birthday weekend.  And I'm sure anyone who knows me and is reading this, knows how much I love birthdays.  Anyone's birthday.  For that reason, just because it's my birthday (weekend), my heart is smiling.  It really is that easy.

A friendly look, a kindly smile, one good act, and life's worthwhile. - Author Unknown

This is the first summer in three years that I haven't worked at the fire hall, and I have to admit, it almost doesn't feel like summer because of this.  I miss the place, and I struggled with deciding whether or not I should go when the camp was running or just stay away.  Then, two weeks ago I decided that it wasn't worth fighting against wanting to go and see everyone again, and waterball is the perfect day to go.  So I bit the bullet and went in during a camp day, and I'm glad I did.

It was nice to go back, see everyone, share my pictures, see waterball, and talk with some of the new instructors.  Also, I didn't feel out of place, which was a huge relief.

My heart was smiling today when I went to the fire hall and got to sit in the kitchen with some of my favourites from there, and just talk, show off my pictures, and joke around.  It's not something overly exciting, but it was just right, and sometimes that's all it takes to get my heart smiling.

Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that. - Michael Leunig

I know I didn't post yesterday after just saying that I am going to post more frequently on here.  But, I have a good reason for that!  I had to go to my cousin's wedding.  And while I could've posted before the wedding and said that my heart was smiling because I was going, I figured I'd wait until after and say that my heart was smiling during the ceremony.  The weather held out, the location was beautiful, I got to see family and friends that I haven't seen in a while, but most importantly, I got to see two people who so clearly and obviously love one another get married.  It was really an amazing and special ceremony, and my heart was smiling the whole time.  I wish Tiff and Paul all the luck, happiness, and love in the world!

Now as for today's entry.  The weather outside is awesome.  So sunny, warm, and just all around great.  After getting back home from the hotel where we stayed the night, I put on some shorts, some sun tan lotion, and grabbed David Copperfield to read while lounging out on the deck.  Boy was my heart smiling!  It's so nice to be able to literally and figuratively put your feet up and just chill out.  Also, being that David Copperfield is so extremely long, it makes my heart smile every time I finish ten pages.  However, I want to make sure that no one thinks I don't like the book, because I really do!  It's probably one of my favourite Dickens' novels, and I'm at the part where Copperfield is returning to his old home and neighbourhood and trying to figure out what profession he wants to enter, which I can really relate to right now.  It's just that the novel really is a long one, and I can sometimes get a little impatient.  But I'm getting there!

I wouldn't let someone take my Canadian citizenship from me for anything - Jim Kale of the Guess Who

I know I've been horrible with this, but I do have an excuse.  At the time I seemed to drop off the face of the planet till now, I was finishing university, moving back home, volunteering in Swaziland for a month, and now settling back into life.  So it's been a bit busy and hectic for me, and some things were forgotten, and other things were simply put to the side for a little bit.  But I'm back now, and most likely to stay!

And what better day to be back then July 1st?  I woke up in the morning and my heart was smiling for the simple fact that today is Canada Day!  It's not every day that we really sit back and think about where we live and what that means for us, so it's nice to have one day a year where we can do just that.  And trust me, we have a lot of things to be happy about!

Whenever and where ever I travel to, I'm always proud to say that I am Canadian.  I have been incredibly lucky to have been born into such an awesome country with such great things such as health care and (free) education.  I'm incredibly lucky to live in a country where I feel safe to say in public that I'm not happy with all of the policies and politics that have been going on.  I can discuss my dissatisfaction in public, can petition and protest for change.  I live in a country that encourages free speech, freedom of religion (including the freedom to be nonreligious), open dialogues, peace keeping, and even same-sex marriage.

At the end of the day, I've been very lucky.  Canada is an awesome country.  A place to be proud of coming from, and I only hope that this country continues to be that way.

Today my heart smiles to see Canadians out in the streets of their own country being proud to say that they are Canadian.

Every day you spend without a smile, is a lost day. - Author Unknown

I have been horrible at this lately because I have had a ton of things come up.  I finished school, I moved back home, had a yard sale, and am getting ready to go home Swaziland for a month!

So I've decided to start with Tuesday and work my way to today.

On Tuesday, my heart was smiling when I met up with a friend that I haven't seen since December.  We had delicious (and cheap!) Caribbean food, and was able to catch up on each other's life.

Wednesday was a simple day, and my heart was smiling when my sister watched television with me even though she wanted to go to bed.  It was nice to know that she was doing something that I knew she didn't want to do just because she knew I wanted her to.

Today my heart was smiling when I was sitting outside in the sun with my sister while she was potting some plants.  I also had a smiling heart when my mother and I watched videos of where I'm volunteering.

Beauty is power; a smile is its sword. - Charles Reade

My heart was smiling today when I put down my pen at the end of my last exam of the year!

Books had instant replay long before televised sports. - Bern Williams

After graduating in April, I will no longer be able to work at my part-time job since it's for students.  I've worked at the same place for four years now, and have become really attached to the people I work with, so leaving will be difficult.  I've decided that I want to thank each of the classes by buying them a book (or in some cases, books), but it was a bit hard to decide what to get the toddler and junior rooms.  Today, while wandering around the book store, the idea finally came to me: Curious George!  My heart was smiling today while I was looking through the Curious George section and picked out two of my favourite Curious George soft covers and my favourite Curious George hard book.  It'll be nice to share with the children one of my favourite characters in literature.

Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book. - Author Unknown

I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but I love reading.  There's nothing like a good book to get lost in, to temporarily put reality on hold while I read about another world.  Last weekend I bought a book that I was waiting to come out in soft cover, and have been loving it ever since.  My heart was smiling this morning while I was reading Jasper Ffordes "Shades of Grey" in bed with my cat curled up beside me.

Nothing is interesting if you're not interested. - Helen MacInness

I have one last paper to write for my undergraduate B.A.  I'm having a hard time with it, partially because it's my last one, partially because of the weather, and partially because I'm far more interested in my trip in May and planning that than anything related to school.  So, while it's really too early to say and I hope I'm not jinxing anything, my heart was most certainly smiling when things started to fall into place, a rough outline was formed, and I wrote a page and a half.

Hopefully on Tuesday I'll be able to say my heart was smiling when I handed it in!

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind. - Seneca

I've been waiting a while for this day with excitement and trepidation. Today my heart smiled (and my wallet cried) when I booked my flights to Swaziland!

When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels - Unknown

Today we had clear blue sky and lots of snow on the ground. In the morning I was outside at work playing with the toddlers and one of them walked into a snow drift. My heart smiled when he called for help because he was stuck, not because he had fallen in the snow, but simply because the snow was too deep for him to walk in! It was just too cute!

Soup is liquid comfort. - Author Unknown

The weather outside today was awful. What made it even worse was when I walked, against the wind and snow, to work only to find out that it was closed for the day. When I got back to my apartment, I decided that I needed some kind of pick-me-up and lunch. That's when I remembered that there's nothing better on a cold and miserable day than comfort food! My heart smiled when I opened my fridge to find leftover homemade mac and cheese from my mom that I had forgotten about (but it was still good, so I hadn't forgotten it for that long). My day quickly turned around when I was eating that mac and cheese, and got even better when I was lying in bed with a nice hot chocolate while catching up on television shows.

A characteristic of the normal child is he doesn't act that way very often. - Author Unknown

My heart smiled today when a two year old boy wearing a woman's white straw hat came up to me at work and said, "I'm a pirate! Arrrr!"

Beauty is power; a smile is its sword. - Charles Reade

Today my heart smiled when I handed in the paperwork for my new passport because I know it means I'm a step away from buying my plane ticket to Swaziland!

Children make you want to start life over. - Muhammad Ali

Today at work a four year old boy was wearing a black buttoned up shirt. My heart smiled when he proudly told everyone that it was his "Johnny Cash shirt" and when the teacher asked him who Johnny Cash is, he answered back with, "A singer, but he's dead now."

The purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved. - Kurt Vonnegut

I know I haven't updated in a while, but the reason for that is because I've been volunteering in New Orleans with Habitat for Humanity. I went down with a group from my school, and the experience was absolutely mind blowing and mind opening. I'm still coming down from the trip and wish I was still there.

Obviously too many things made my heart smile during the trip, and this post would be incredibly long if I were to go into each individual thing, so I'm going to do this mostly point form, and then expand on two of the things that really did it for me.

My heart smiled...

• when we were given homemade Jumbalaya
• eating sno balls
• when I learned how to hammer, and smiled even more when I finally became a better hammer-er
• when I got to explore the French Quarter
• during our mixer with students from the University of New Orleans
• when we were at a smaller Mardi Gras parade
• when we finally got to New Orleans after our 20 hour bus drive
• when we finally arrived back from after our 20 hour bus drive
• during my showers after working at Habitat for the day
• every time we met a local

So that's the basic break down. There were more things that made my heart smile, but those are some of the more big things. But like I said, I want to expand on two of the smiling heart moments.

Working at Habitat for Humanity made my heart smile. The vast majority of people in our group didn't know how to even hold a hammer, let alone hammer down a nail, but the staff from Habitat who were on our site were patient, willing to teach us, and never gave up on us. The sheer amount of encouragement that we all received day after day was amazing, and I truly believed helped us stay motivated and positive. Also, when we arrived the house was nothing but a frame. We filled in the frame with joists and boards, added the floor, raised all the walls, and put in place the stairs for the front of the house. What originally appeared to be a daunting task, quickly turned into a recognizable house. While we all wished we could've stayed longer and seen it completed, I know that all of our hearts smiled when our last day was over and we were able to look back at all that we had completed.

We were a large, diverse group filled with strangers when we went down, but quickly we all got to know one another, work with one another, and ultimately become friends. We kept each other motivated, helped each other on the build site, and entertained one another when we were back at our lodgings. I still find it amazing that we all came together, were willing to open up, and become what I consider to be my "New Orleans family." My heart smiled each time I remembered a name, got to know someone new, and when I think back to all the great things we did together. I really hope that we will keep in touch and our friendships will grow, leading to more smiling heart moments!

The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different...

... and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found? - J.B. Priestley

It was 6:30am when my phone rang this morning. I was groggy and too tired to worry about why someone was calling me at such an ungodly time. However, when I heard two magical words come out of their mouth, my heart smiled. Those words were: snow day.

Optimist: Person who travels on nothing from nowhere to happiness. - Mark Twain

January has flown by! I've had to start looking at what I have planned for February, and unfortunately the tests and papers that are due this month. But, something that I'm looking the most forward to is my trip to New Orleans at the end of the month. Well, today I started packing! My heart smiled when I realized how quickly my trip is approaching and started putting aside some clothing items and toiletries.

Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos. - Don Kardong

Today I went and saw Barney's Version in theater (great movie and a great book!), plus got an ice cream sundae afterward. I'm sure I don't really need to say this, but my heart was smiling through both.

There are few things in life more heartwarming than to be welcomed by a cat. - Tay Hohoff

It made my heart smile to wake up in the morning to my cat purring down by my feet for no apparent reason.

Peace begins with a smile. - Mother Teresa

I was feeling pretty sore and tired today, and had rather convincingly talked myself out of going to the gym. However, just as I was about to walk away from the gym and head back home, I remembered the feeling of guilt I would have for the rest of the day. So, I turned around and worked out. At the end of the workout, I was sore, tired, and sweaty, but my heart was smiling because I knew that I had made the right choice.

Every day you spend without a smile, is a lost day. - Author Unknown

I've been spending many hours crocheting lately as a fundraising effort for my trip to Swaziland. However, I haven't necessarily finished everything I've started. Today, my heart smiled when I finished the doll and ninja that I've had sitting on my desk waiting for their finishing touches (I'll try to add pictures later).

Edit: I picked this specific quote because the doll was missing, of all things, a smile.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. - Dalai Lama

As I said in my last post, I've not been feeling all that great. I've come down with the flu and an ear infection (apparently just one wasn't enough). I had to take the last two days off of work, and today was my first day back. I only had a short shift, and as I was leaving, my boss came over to see how I was doing. It made my heart smile to know that even though my being off work would've been a hassle for her and I wasn't gone all that long, she still cared enough to see how I was feeling.

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms. - George Eliot

Today was a nice lazy day as I am getting over my flu. Of course, my cat Forest loves the fact that she has someone to cuddle with all day. So today, my heart was continuously smiling while Forest was curled up on me and purring away. I'd like to think her heart was smiling too!

Most smiles are started by another smile. - Author Unknown

I've come down with the flu the last couple days, but that doesn't mean there isn't time for a smile! Today my heart smiled when I received a message from a friend I haven't spoken to in a while. It's always nice to reconnect with people.