Christmas Lights

I adore Christmas lights. I live in Kansas City and the prettiest lights in the whole world are right here. Two blocks from my house. See that picture? That's them. And they are BEAUTIFUL.

Purses, Purses, Purses!

PURSES! I Love to shop for purses. Kate Spade is my favorite but I don't ever go in a store without venturing through the purse department. I have some really cute bags; I don't know why I keep them though because once I'm done with a purse, they never come out of storage again. I only want new purses. Although my vintage Kate Spades are to die for. See the picture? That's one of mine......and I got it on clearance!!!! Even better. :)

Visiting Museums

I've been to some kick ass museums in my life. Off the top of my head, I'd say the top three are the Smithsonian (duh!), the City Museum in St. Louis (seriously....it's one of the best museums evah! See picture) and the Toy and Miniature Museum in Kansas City (it rocks plus I just know that those toys and dolls come alive at night).

There's also the Nelson Art Gallery and the National Gallery in London..... I could spend hours in both of them.

Kansas City used to have a cool museum that had a fake igloo that you could crawl through....we went there when we were little for field trips. Oh, yes, another good Kansas City museum is the Steamboat Arabia.

The Experience Music Project in Seattle is pretty fun but better than that is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Museums are not my first choice in filling the time when traveling but some of them are awesome and you always feel like an expert afterwards.

Unused Textbooks

This is seriously on the list! I.love.it! I have spent so much time hunting down textbooks for each of my classes for the last couple of years that if I never see another textbook, it will be too soon. I am brilliant though because I find the very cheapest prices and then either sell them to someone else for the same price or better at the end of the semester.

The best part though is when I don't even crack the book the entire semester. It makes me feel incredibly smart. So far, in this nursing school gig, I have barely done any reading at all. I find the answers to the objectives and skim right over the material. I'm doing fairly well so that's really all that matters.

Unopened textbooks....what a delightful concept!

Warm Cookies...Yes. Cold Milk....Not so Much.

I have all of about 2 seconds before I need to stick my head back in my notes to cram for my assessment test tomorrow but I couldn't let the day get away with alluding to the happy stuff. Next in line was warm cookies and cold milk. I have never been a milk and cookies girl but cookies by themselves.....yes, please. And I like almost every kind with the exception of anything with raisins or dates. I love chocolate chip cookies with nuts. Yum, yum, yum. And I need them like I need a hole in the head. In fact, as I write this blog, I'm thinking of all the things I can't wait to do after this stupid nursing school gig is over. Cookies.....warm from the oven....seems like a good choice. And, considering my poor Kitchenaid mixer is gathering dust, it will be nice to get it running again. Just 11 more months. :)

Carving Pumpkins

It's not quite Halloween although I'm positive it's in the stores already. In fact, there's probably Christmas stuff. Nevertheless, carving pumpkins does make me happy. I guess I should clarify that.....sitting with someone else carving pumpkins makes me happy. I don't actually care to do the carving; I'm always afraid I'll cut my finger off. BUT, here's what I do like......reaching into the pumpkin and pulling all the goop out. I LOVE that part!

When we were little, my dad did all the carving. I scooped out all the guts and then my mom put the candles in. My dad did a really good job on our pumpkin. When the kids were little, I attempted. Rich might have done it once or twice. Finally we got one of those kits that you can cut out on those fake pumpkins at Hobby Lobby and Tucker did it. Tucker is really good at it, plus I got to save the pumpkin he did.

Now that Tucker works at the pumpkin sales lot for Boy Scouts, I usually get good pumpkins and just leave them whole so I can have them on my porch through Thanksgiving. This year, though, I think we'll all carve pumpkins. Because it's a happy thing and we can never have too many happy things.

Dozens of Places To Curl Up With A Book

I have this little book that sits on my bedside table and it's called "14,000 things to be happy about". I don't know who wrote it but since this blog is supposed to be about good stuff, it gives me lots of good ideas. Glass is half full kind of things. So, sometimes I need a little help thinking of things....that's where this little reminder book comes into play.

Dozens of places to curl up with a book. I have always loved to read. We actually had a class when I was in grade school called Reading. I aced it every time. And, I got teased terribly by my family because in every candid picture taken when I was little, you'd see me in the corner of the couch, with my head in a book. I loved, loved, loved when Scholastic sent home book orders and begged my mom for new books.

I think one of the things I liked best about flying was that I had so much time while waiting for flights to read. When people tell you to visualize your "happy place" in meditation, mine is a big comfy chair at Barnes and Noble with a huge stack of books next to it. In fact, when the boys were attending St. Paul's but we still lived in Liberty, I could spend the entire day at Barnes and Noble, while I waited for them to get out of school, and never get bored.

I have several favorite books....."Eat, Pray, Love", "Beach Music", "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood". I'm also kind of embarrassed to admit that I like self-help books. I love to pick up books at garage sales for practically pennies. Libraries trip my trigger. And, I cannot wait for the day when this nursing school gig is up to have some free time to stick my nose in a good book.