Happiness

So one of my dearest friends posted challenge on instagram. The challenge is this: Post something that makes you happy every day for 100 days. I accepted this challenge. But I am taking it one step further. Under her instagram challenge someone had posted a comment telling her to watch a TEDtalk called 'The Happiness Advantage' and since I love TEDtalks I jumped right on it.
Pause.
First let me go back to about 2 weeks ago: Andrew and I don't argue or fight. We agree on almost everything. I know that is hard to believe but Im being totally serious right now. We spent the early years of our marriage arguing and fighting about just about everything you can think of. Which sucked. But Im glad we got it out of our systems back then because now days we are on the exact same page reading the exact same words at the exact same time.... about 99.9% of the time. About two weeks ago however we were having a disagreement. We had a bit of a blow up and then later when we were both more calm we had a mature adult discussion about it (which mostly consisted of me crying and being frustrated) The conclusion I came to was that the blow up we had didn't actually have anything to do with what I was really upset about. Andrews comment to me was that I never seem to be happy with things. Im always looking for the next thing. I know I do this and it frustrates me to no end because although I am conscious of it... I don't know how to change it
Un-pause.
This TEDtalk was like an answer to my prayers. He spoke about how as a society we base our happiness on success "as soon as I .... I will be happy" whatever that may be it could be "As soon as I eat a banana I will be happy" or "As soon as I get a raise I will be happy" But in reality we don't stop there because once we reach that goal of happiness we never take the time to be happy. We just change the goal. So once we get that raise, we need a new office. So as soon as we get that bigger office we will be happy. Make sense?
I DO THIS!! This is an exact description of what I do. Now don't get me wrong. Im not unhappy. I love my life. I love my kids and my husband and our adventures. They make me happy but Im always looking for that next level. I never sit an enjoy things. And because of this, I feel like Im missing out on life.
Lucky for me this TEDtalk gave me 5 steps to changing the way I think. To breaking that ridiculous habit in order to change my idea of happiness and enjoy the here and now. And so I am accepting this challenge as well because I want to enjoy these years to the fullest and even more importantly I want my kids to learn that its ok to be happy with what you have. To truly find joy in every day life. Not only is it ok but I believe it is what our Heavenly Father wants for us.
Step 2 of the 5 steps is to write for 2 minutes everyday (for 21 days) describing one positive experience that you have had over the last 24 hours.
So for the next 21 days, you guys (if you so choose) get to relive my happy moments here on this blog.
And so without further ado, here is my happy moment from the last 24 hours.
AnDee has been working her little tail off for the last couple months. She babysits and cleans and does just about anything she can do to earn a little bit of money (I pay her in quarters. Usually about 50 cents a day on average) She is a good worker too. As I have previously mentioned in other posts she babysits everyday so I can work out and she seriously keeps my house in livable condition. Such a hard worker. Her goal was to by a Princess Anna dress (and cape of course). The deal was that if she saved half of the money plus a little extra to pay tithing, Andrew would pay the other half. Well last night the big moment finally came. We went to the mall to the disney store (giant bag of quarters in hand of course) in search of our Princess Anna dress. We entered the store with such high hopes and excitement and then... There was not a Frozen item in the store. Every ding dang thing was sold out. (ok thats a lie... there were about 3 giant t-shirts with Anna and Elsa on them) So then AnDee started to rationalize. She just wanted a dress NOW. It didn't matter what dress, just a dress! But then my cheapo mentality kicked in and I just did not wanting her spending her money on one of those dippy little dresses that are flimsy and rip apart if you look at them wrong. On our way in to the mall we had passed by a dress shop that had some pretty fantastic dresses in it for prom and whatnot but I happened to see that they did have a few little girls "princess" dresses too. I convinced AnDee to just go look at them and see if we could find something a little more sturdy that she would like. Boy did I make the right decision on that one. SHE. WAS. IN. HEAVEN. The best part is that they had a clearance section that had the most adorable little girls princess dresses for half price. The price just so happened to be the exact same price as the flimsy little disney store dresses only these dresses are SO not flimsy. I think you would have to set it on fire to destroy it. She looked and looked and looked and finally settled on a gorgeous blue one (YES!! something NOT pink!) So we went in to the dressing room to try it on (She has never got to try anything on in a dressing room before. She felt so grown up and important) Before I helped her slide in to the dress she looked at me with that dreamy/ecstatic  look that little girls look and said "Im just SO excited!" and then she jumped up and down a few times. Once we got it on she had to model it for her dad and we all decided that it was the perfect dress. So (and this was the best part) we took it to the counter. She reached up and handed it to the lady and then pulled out her bag of quarters and dumped them on the counter top (which was well above her eyesight) I quickly apologized the cashier and explained how she had worked to earn the money for a dress. All the girls at the counter were so impressed with her and explained that by the time she got old enough for prom she would be a pro at saving up her money so she would have the most beautiful prom dress ever (Please bless she doesn't actually care about prom that much)
It was SO fun and I was so proud of her and she has been just beaming ever since. Im pretty sure she would wear this dress to bed if I would let her.
It is pretty adorable though. She looks like a little Scarlet O'hara. I told her she has the perfect southern bell name "Miss AnDee Lew" So it fits perfectly!