happiness is the new black

#10 “You have it all…I’m so glad, babe” Wonderful words excerpted from an email sent to me by a special someone who is only starting to realize what “all” really is. And what it isn’t.

# 9 i just got a text message from my “significant other” that said “we’re twins”.

#8 Watching my 6 year old daughter walk out the door this morning with a big plastic dinosaur sticking out of her backpack for share day at school.

#7 Yesterday morning, my husband and I went out to our monthly breakfast with our elderly neighbors who live across the street. I have found myself dreading this “task”…I have lot’s to do on Saturday mornings (who doesn’t??), it takes up half my morning, and while we take seperate cars (ostensibly because we have to “do errands” afterwards”), driving behind them to the restaurant makes me a little crazy.

We get there, and as we walked in the door, we heard a loud thump behind us. My neighbor had tripped over the edge of a step, and fell face-forwards into a wooden railing. As she lay there, face down, blood streaming from her face, moaning in pain, arm at an unnatural angle, time stopped briefly. She was no longer a task…this was my mom-away-from-home (ours live 3000 miles away). This is the woman who puts funny Marmaduke cartoons in our mailbox for us. This is the woman who makes sure we have a place to go every holiday. This is the woman who tucks red velvet cake in to a leftover plastic container, and carefully negotiates the busy street to bring it to us – just because she knows we’re working late.

But while she is my mom-away-from-home, she’s much more than that to her husband of 60-something years. As we all stood waiting for the paramedics to arrive, he knelt down beside her, told her how much he loved her, and that everything would be alright. He reminded her of funny stories from their past, like the time she drove his favorite old Chevy truck into the barn…in reverse. Or the time their son declared he wanted to have a pet skunk. And as Kristen’s husband told her, my neighbor told his wife that she was his world. He couldn’t get up when he was done, and I know he was in pain himself, but it was a special moment that all of us will never forget.

#6 Last night I attended my Uncle’s 65th birthday party. He is a very special person, and I love him very much. He is not related to me by blood, but that does not matter at all. As we were getting ready for the great cake cutting, my Aunt put on a song to tell him how much she loves him. There was not a dry eye in the room, and it was just fantastic to see how much they love one another, and how much everyone in the room loves him.

#5 Happiness is beautiful, just like my Rose.

Even though she is only one and has but two “words” in her vocabulary to date she is very expressive when it comes to her happiness. She wakes from sleep and smiles a big toothy grin at me, which truly melts my heart. Today she giggled as I sprayed her little tiny piggy toes with the water hose. It was simply too much. She seems to be at ease around us and doesn’t pull the little temper tantrums like she does with her parents or other grandparents. She loves to share with us. She shares with whatever may be in her hands. Pacifiers, bottles, magazines, blocks…simply…whatever. I like that as her Mama walks to her car, Rose hip hugging the whole way, that Rose will watch me until she no longer is able. So I will smile and wave. Prayers for their safety as they drive away. I love them and they are my beautiful happiness.

#4 Happiness is delicious peace

#3 Happiness to me is seeing my children’s faces in the morning and when they come home from school. My heart just melts over and over again

#2 My heart did a little leap when my bookworm, socially awkward little boy was approached by two other little boys to climb the fence by the golf course and collect bugs in the high grass. They wanted nothing more than to have him join them. And he did. And he caught a grasshopper. And the look on his face was priceless.

#1 My husband just told me that I am the most important person in his life… I am amazing and he is sorry if he sometimes lets me forget it…I am in love