Project Smile: February Edition

Alicia from A Beautiful Mess has a lovely blog filled with incredible photos and uplifting notes. But even she has some down days. And so she started a meme called Project Smile. I'm a bit late joining in as last fall I was self-consumed and missed keeping up on my blog reading. But I'm excited about participating. I'm really good at finding things to be thankful for everyday, but I don't always remember to find things that make me smile or feel warm and fuzzy. I thought it would be easy if I paid attention, but some days, it was tough to come up with anything. Here are the things that made me smile in February:

Feb 1 - The snowstorm made me smile. I know most people were dreading it, though some were in awe. But it reminded me of life in Colorado and visiting my mom's family in Manitoba. Good times.

Feb 2 - The Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow. Winter will be over soon! (Uh, Phil, did you hear we had a blizzard yesterday?) Still made me happy to think that.

Feb 3 - Girls happy hour with old co-workers. Laughed hard for the first time in a long time.

Feb 4 - Watched Hot Tub Time Machine - pretty funny!

Feb 5 - Baby R at Gymboree at neighbor's bday party playing alone taking the balls in and out of the buckets.

Feb 6 - The girls were both snuggling with Daddy on the couch - willingly. So cute!

Feb 7 - Rob's comment that a girl was hotter than donut grease. ??

Feb 8 - Bunko. The hostess had put a pork roast in the oven overnight. Her husband told her never to do that again because he couldn't get any sleep, he was hungry the whole night!

Feb 9 - Our neighbor posted on FB: Just heard the weather:"17, but feels like 8" and it got me wondering... Is there a wind chill factor on age? I could say: 37, but feel like 28. :)

Feb 10 - Heard this joke on the radio: "A young man goes into the pharmacy and asks for a 1 lb box of candy, a  2 lb box of candy, and a 5 lb box of candy, all gift-wrapped. The druggist puts them together and asks him what they are for. He tells him that he has a date that night with the cutest girl in school. They're having dinner at her parents' house and then are going to sit on the porch swing to chat. If she lets him hold her hand, he'll give her the 1 lb box. If she lets him put his arm around her, he'll give her the 3 lb box. If she lets him give her a kiss goodnight, he'll give her the 5 lb box.

So he goes to dinner and the girl's dad asks him to say the blessing. He prays like he's never prayed before, asking for blessing on every missionary he's ever heard of, every person he knows, all branches of the military and government until he can't think of another person to pray for. When he gets done, the girl says, "Wow, I had no idea you were so religious." He says, "I had no idea your dad was the druggist."

Feb 11 - The weather started to warm up - FINALLY!

Feb 12 - GNO with SPC. Playing Just Dance on the Wii and one of the girls and I both thinking the Fatboy Slim song was reminiscent of the African Anteater Ritual from "Can't Buy Me Love."

Feb 13 - DH let me sleep in, made me breakfast in bed, did laundry, dishes AND dusted the office! Heaven!

Feb 14 - Valentine's Day.

Feb 15 - While writing a memoir piece for The Red Dress Club, I relived my marriage proposal.

Feb 16 - I had lunch with my old roommate. He's moving to Boston, and though there is a get together planned for Friday, I wanted a little one-on-one time for a farewell. So good to see him!

Feb 17 - I took dinner to friends who just had a baby girl. The guy is a poster child for bachelorhood, even though he and his girlfriend have lived together for awhile. And to see how his baby girl has him wrapped around her finger at only a week old, definitely made me smile.

Feb 18 - The going away gathering for my old roommate. We had a bunch of the old gang together and relived some fun times. I laughed until I cried.

Feb 19 - DH rented the movie "RED" with Bruce Willis. It was pretty good! He's a retired CIA spy and when someone comes after him, he gets the old gang back together. There were some hilarious parts.

Feb 20 - It was unseasonably warm again today (70's), so the girls got to play outside. I gave Baby R an underdog on her baby swing, and she was giggling her cute little giggle. Adorable!

Feb 21 - We had DH's cousin and his family over for dinner last night. I took leftovers for lunch today. DH's special hamburgers with lettuce, cheese and sautéed mushrooms, plus homemade sweet potato fries and baked beans. YUM!

Feb 22 - After preschool, I dropped S off at my parents house, and she was extra emotional about me leaving. She was crying and wanting one more hug and one more kiss. Then as I got in my car, she yelled, "Mama!" And with tears streaming down her face, through her sobs, she held her arms wide and choked out, "I love you this much." I had been feeling guilty, but that was so pitiful, it made me smile.

Feb 23 - "Modern Family" was on tonight. I LOVE that show. It is hilarious. This episode was about a Wedge Salad.

Feb 24 - DH and I play Words with Friends which is a Scrabble app for the iTouch. He was playing against a friend of ours, and he beat her by 5 points. Yay! Then he started a new game with her and got to use all his letters on his first word for something like 50 points which is awesome and probably his best start ever. She accidentally declined the game! It was a wry moment.

Feb 25 - When I got home from work, I asked S how her day was. She put her hands on her hips, cocked her head to the side, and said very seriously, "Wellll...."

Feb 26 - Listening to S and her friend, E, while we drove to a birthday party. So many cute things in their conversation. The one that comes to mind first, though, was S asking E, "Did your daddy take 45 to get to my house?" (She meant I-435, the highway near us.)

Feb 27 - Today was a rough day. Knowing that God loves me even when I have a major Mom-fail day and remembering that he wants me to focus on the lessons learned in church, not on hurrying to get there and worrying about being late were reason to smile.

Feb 28 - Saw the end of an episode of How I Met Your Mother, and Ted met a "dancer". Future Ted (Bob Saget) said, "And that, kids, is how I met your mother." Then it flashed to the kids on the couch saying, "WHAT?!" (which is what I was thinking), and he said, "Just kidding!"