2013 - the year of the lack of blogging

Wow! Did 2013 just come and go?

Thank goodness!

It wasn't one of my favorite years. In fact, in many ways it was one of the worst yet.

Health challenges, furlough challenges, work craziness, house repairs and selling challenges, death of loved ones, and even some despair about just about everything going on.

Yet, some good things happened along the way - relationships are intact, marketing skills are improved, awards won, and I felt closer to family along the way.

So, what will 2014 bring?

It started off with a disturbing phone call and the water heater breaking down. Oh, and feeling like a sick zombie in bed for a week.

Unbelievable.

But, I'm in good spirits. Secret happinesses have already come this week. I'm closing out a ton of projects at work and will be able to focus on 2-3 big priorities. Plus, I've got BIG goals.

It's not all bad. It's half good.

There will be challenges this year, but I'm ready. The blogging might not increase. I'm shirking back a bit and not listening to what everyone else is doing. I need to re-find myself.

Here's to 2014!

Secret Happiness - surprise gift

So, I can't share details, but someone unexpectedly gave me something for something I worked on a few months ago. It isn't much, but it is greatly appreciated.

Completely out of the blue.

This was not even within the hour of having one of those little five minute crying moments where you just have to allow yourself to do the ungrateful prayer asking "why am I going through (fill in the blank)" knowing full well it is the wrong question.

Makes me want to be this person for someone else.

Made my day.

Secret Happiness - More to do books

Today I made a special trip to Barnes & Noble because I was ready for my next to do/idea book. The one that I've been using for the last four months (to the left) is almost complete, though sometimes I decide to end my use of a book far before the paper runs out. The design is "OK," and the paper is sub par. Obviously, I got this one in the Target store school section instead of in the Barnes & Noble journal section that contains ONLY books with thick white paper. And, the paper often has the side perk of being acid free or claimed to be "green" in some way.

I do like good paper!

This round of books, I decided I'd go for the smaller size since I've decided (again) to separate out weekly/daily "to dos" and notes from work from the "Personal Ideas/Other Info important to me" book. We'll see how it goes.

The reason: when I finish the to do book, I often have to go back and weed out all of the personal ideas, goals and such that I want to carry on with me to the next round of books.

I'd have this all electronically in one spot if I could just use the same laptop for personal and work. But, I cannot. So, it is 1/3 in these books, 1/3 on the iPhone and 1/3 online.

So, in the meantime, I'll indulge myself in fancy little books to make jotting things down a bit more fun and personal.

Bros come to visit

So, this weekend I was lucky to have a couple of my brothers come in to town. I've been a lucky a few times this summer. One flew in from Chicago and the other rode a bus down from Manhattan. And yet another person (brother's girlfriend) drove for hours from southern Virginia to come for the visit.

I offered a cramped condo (storing 1.5 rooms of furniture for someone for one month), little tidbits of food, and driving without a chauffeurs license.

We never did meet up with different cousins, as it always seems to coordinate more than 2-3 people nowadays.

Craig offered never ending meals at the Silver Diner.























We took a walk at Manassas Battlefield Park, if only to experience Virgina with fewer people. Perhaps I should sign up to be a tour guide since I frequent it way too much!



















It's always great to catch up with members of the family. Plus, they forced me to open some gifts that I received over two years ago - Monopoly and Clue. Craig won Monopoly and Amber won Clue, but does it matter that I was a close second on Monopoly?

Ahhhh well. I was comforted that one night all the youngins feel asleep before me ....and I'm 11 years older than the oldest of them.

That counts as a secret happiness in my book. More later. I'm catching from four days of visitors and long hours of lost work....but I'm not complaining.

Secret Happiness - stray M&M

 

Don't you love when you find a stray M&M in a trail mix when you thought there was no more chocolate left to scavenge?

These are those little moments that bring joy...and a little extra fat.

Secret Happiness - spying a secret happiness occur

Today a woman I work with walked by my cube. I looked up and she had this little gleam in her eye.

Many years ago I deemed this the "secret happiness" gleam. Unfortunately, we don't have that gleam all the time, and thus a name for it.

Anyway, I called her out on it. She started to laugh. She did indeed have a secret happiness. It also happened to be an actual secret.

It is fun catching people in those moments. For some reason it spreads a little secret happiness of joy the minute it occurs.

These are things you can't make up. These are the times that we realize how amazing our emotions are, and at times uncontrolled in a good way.

Right now I don't have too many secret happinesses. But, I'll be sure to share when it comes. It will be after the moment, but I'll capture what I can.

Like Mastercard, those moments are "priceless" and difficult to document. Perhaps they shouldn't be.

Secret Happiness - paper and primary mail

Those who know me well from past days know that I am a paper junky. Or, at least I was back in the day. I spent quite a few thousand at Staples and Office Depot on computer desks, filing cabinets, folders, pens, computer stuff and....lots of different types of paper.

Though I've only purchased the basic printer paper the last few years, the remains of past paper overdoses still grace my home office. Some paper I've put to good use and some I've given away.

This year I've had the great opportunity to utilize my paper inventory for meaningful endeavors through the form of "primary mail." I didn't have the idea for primary mail, but I do get to implement it. Primary is where the children go during two of the three church hours for instruction. Part of that time is singing time, with a small teaching moment from one of the primary leadership and then there are a few minutes for the kids to do the prayer, share a scripture or give a little talk.

So, in walks me - the secretary. Secretary is an odd word for me, since that is the last job on earth that I should be doing (too many little seemingly unimportant details - over and over again), but I must say that it has been a good experience. I get to create the primary mail each week.

Up to this point I've been using white paper and using bright markers and stickers to make fun envelopes. But, this weekend I found more paper treasures! So, this month the kids will be getting the cool striped paper and September will be the pastel yellow and lime green paper.

We'll see about the rest of the year. I am finally getting low on the stash.

Not all the children like primary mail. Like Pavlov's dogs, they have associated it with an assignment. Some of the kids throw out the envelope after they open it and read their assignment. Some of the kids get a huge smile on their face and show everyone around them their bright envelope (this tends to be the 3-5 year olds). Others discretely save the paper and envelope in their scriptures or notebook and over time I see a flash of old envelopes when they access their materials each week.

It gives me a little secret happiness. After all, it was all just sitting there at my house gathering dust. It is amazing to see what a little paper can do when put to good use - primary mail, a letter, a special note, a picture, a drawing, etc.

If this were an analogy, it would be safe to say that we have all been given the materials to work good. Sometimes it just takes a while to realize that fact and put the materials to good use. And, over time, we sometimes find other uses for the materials that we never knew existed or just surfaced at the right time.

I imagine a lot of us have some "unused paper" in the form of personal talents. But, luckily, just pursuing one of those talents typically leads us on to many others.

Hmmm. Deep thoughts. About paper of all things.

Presidential Challenge - Bronze Medalist

Congratulations to me! I am officially a bronze medalist in the President's Challenge. (http://www.presidentschallenge.org/)

Now, let me explain a little more about this great race.

Really, you just log in the points for whatever exercise you did each day and when you reach 20,000 points you hit bronze medal status. At this point you can keep going to 45,000 points to get a silver medal and then on to a gold medal for even more points.

The funny thing is that you have to order your own medals if you want them. So, being a little needy in the feeling rewarded department, I decided to send the $15 in to receive the conglomeration of medal, certificate, ribbon and lapel pin shown below. I do have to say - it is worth every penny! Soon I shall be donning an exercise outfit and going to stand on the Lincoln Memorial steps for a photo shoot just so I can look like I'm some kind of Olympic medalist.

Sad for me, but high self-esteem builder for everyone else, I have not lost a single pound through all this exercise. However, it has provided much needed stress relief. Plus, I get to feel a sense of completion on something which I rarely get to feel nowadays.

Note: I was pleased to see that the Presidential Champion medal was at least "Made in the U.S.A." Of course, who knows where it was really made, but at least they got the stamping right. I've seen these blunders on presidential type things before and this was a smart non-blunder.

Having enjoyed many an intramural sport in my college years, I have somehow bypassed the joy of getting medals that hang around your neck. I will admit to wearing this around the house for an hour or so.

Who would have thought that such a cheap ribbon and piece of metal would make one feel so good?

Again, it's the simple joys that bring out the secret happiness in all of us.

So, congrats to me and hope you take on the challenge too!


Of special note is the fact that they didn't even put my name in the "Presented to" field of the certificate.

Ah well, I will conduct my own signing and photo shoot for this endeavor. One must create their own false media frenzy at times.

Secret Happiness - Wood Flowers

On Monday (yesterday) a high school friend of mine came into town. I don't look fondly on high school and so I had a little anxiety when she said she would be in town. After all, this year is my 20 year class reunion and it's been ....a long time! But, Rungludi was my locker partner and we met because she was from Thailand and I lived there when I was a little girl.

It was so good to see her. We talked for four hours and went to one restaurant for dinner and another for dessert. Ha. Kind of like a progressive dinner reunion style.

She was in town for an art show that she attends every year to sell her wood flowers and vases.

She surprised me with a gift at the end of the evening. Some wooden flowers! They are so beautiful and vibrant. She designed each of these and it sounds like a lot of hotels and restaurants by them to provide low maintenance and beautiful color.

Here's her website - http://www.dmwoodart.com/

These will definitely go in my "good gifts" file. I love when people share their talents in their gifts. And, I love getting back in touch with people from the past (thanks Facebook). I'm always amazed at the success of my friends and hope that some of it rubs off on me one of these days. (-:

Secret Happiness AND Memory Lane - Reader's Digest

Typically I have either a secret happiness or a memory lane experience, but this time it is both.

My boyfriend brought over six recent issues of Reader's Digest for me the other day. He doesn't know how he started getting them, but figured I might like to take a look.

Yep, I did take a look and pretty much kept reading until I had finished all six. He couldn't believe how enthralled I was in them. Honestly, I couldn't tell you why either, except for the fact that it has little articles about health, finances, politics, life and jokes sprinkled between it all. In this day and age it is always good to break up information with a few good jokes.

So, here are some things I learned in this little endeavor:

• Missing Money - http://www.missingmoney.com/ - go to it and see if someone owes you money. Someone owes me! We went and put in my name and someone in the state of Virginia owes me. I submitted my information and we'll see what comes back. It should take a few weeks. It could be $5 for all I care. It has instilled hope in me that money can come out of nowhere.


• The BBC recently asked its online readers to send in their "best worst examples" of office jargon and management - speak. A few winners (the rest are at news.bbc.co.uk) - going forward, incentivize, loop back, low-hanging fruit, conversate, 360-degree thinking, not enough bandwidth, granularity, drill down. Why do I share this? We use EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE WORDS AND MORE AT MY OFFICE. Yes, that font was meant to be large.


• Joke - This was from Nancy Pelosi (speaker of the house - Dem) - One day, out of the blue, my daughter, Alexandra, said, "Mother, I'm really proud of you because you are a pioneer." I said, "Because I'm a woman member of Congress?" "No," she replied."Because remember when you used to cook, and then you stopped? Well, now hardly anybody cooks, but you were among the first to stop." *Loved this because I haven't even started to learn to cook and maybe I can just put off that goal indefinitely.


• Tuesday Nights/Wednesday morning - a good reminder that these days/times of the week are the best time to buy airplane tickets. Try travel search engine aggregators like Kayak.com for great deals or the airline sites themselves.

Memory Lane - I realized while reading these that we used to read Reader's Digest growing up. My mother had an aunt that would buy us all kinds of magazines...and I mean ALL kinds. Here are a few:

• National Geographic
• Yankee
• Ranger Rick
• Vermont Life
• Reader's Digest
• Owl
• Chickadee
• Highlights
• Arizona Highways - I loved this one - beautiful photography
• Probably others I can't remember

All of us used to sit around the house reading from these magazines, as well as our parent's old college books and Encyclopedia Britannica collection. This was, after all, pre-internet. And, we didn't have a tv. So, these were a big part of our awareness and learning outside of school and church of course.

Good memories and there are still some good magazines out there. They even have online versions and I should probably start referring to those. I always have these little piles of pages that I've ripped out that I want to remember or refer to later. As a result of this post I can now throw out a couple of those ripped out pages.

Good memories and glad that a little magazine like Reader's Digest can still provide secret happinesses, awareness and laughs.

Memory Lane - Treat Plates

Growing up we always made treat plates to take around to families and friends at Christmas. They included all types of cookies and it seemed like we always received just as many plates as we gave.

This year I received some wonderful chocolate, a little cookie bag and some tasty homemade pumpkin bread with chocolate chips. Can you tell I ate the cookie bag before I got home from church? There is no way to re-create the picture.

Anyway, I dropped off some little Christmas bags (ok, so mine contained TickTacs and a picture CD) to my primary students last night and it was pretty funny to see a treat plate or two in some of the mailboxes. Since I'm single I have a feeling I'm not part of this holiday phenomena, but it's good to see that it is still going on amongst a lot of the families. Even up until I went to college it was always exciting to find that plate of goodies on the doorstep and pick out that one favorite before the entire family swarmed upon it.

It's just a reminder that sometimes it is those little things that create a secret happiness and ....sometimes we think we have to make such big sweeping gifts to let people know we love them. It's just plain not the case. For me, it's knowing that someone thought of me while I wasn't in their presence and wanted to do something. That's all it takes for most of us.

Merry Christmas!

Secret Happiness - Taco Bell Bucks

We decided to go to Taco Bell after doing a few errands this evening. Part of me would have rather gone to the IHOP nearby, but I ended up taking a survey on a new product that Taco Bell might start to offer. It was something called the "1/2 pound burrito." If I filled out the survey after eating the free 1/2 pound burrito, I would also get $2 Taco Bell bucks. It tasted pretty good, but nothing earth shattering. Plus, it sounded so huge, but it was the size of a regular burrito. That was actually fine with me. I don't like big gloppy burritos. We'll see how it turns out.

As we ate, I saw multiple people turn down the option to complete the survey. It was a little long, but sometimes I do it just so the person can say they met the quota.

The cool thing about the evening - as we walked out there were four teenage boys that came in the store. They agreed to take the survey with the enthusiasm of someone who had just won the lottery. I mean, free dinner PLUS $2 Taco Bell Bucks? Jackpot!

This in turn generated giggles from the survey lady (she was in her 40s) and so there as an all around secret happiness going on in Taco Bell for a few moments as four teenage boys grinned ear to ear waiting for their free dinner and the survey lady was four more surveys closer to her quota.

I'm betting that they called a few more friends on the way out the door and generated some more visits to Taco Bell this evening.

A little secret happiness can go a long way...

To Do Lists - little books

I just purchased my next little to do book. It's the orange ship with light lime green cover.

For the (my) record, I've taken a picture of the books I've used over the last couple of months. I combine both personal and work "to dos" in these and since I'm completely electronic in every other part of life , it's nice having one little book to carry with me at all times. Plus, it's fun to buy the ones that have creative covers.

Now, that I've taken the picture they can be scanned into the computer and....thrown out.

Like I said...I'm keeping it electronic.

At some point I'll dump them all into one of those online publisher type books and get it bound. As far as I'm concerned, it's a supplement to the regular journal and the blogs.

Just a little secret happiness to have a new little books for note taking and to dos.

Secret Happiness - typing

I did one thing right today. I will admit to taking the typing test on Facebook about 10 times because my average was 88 words a minute with about 90% accuracy. I wanted to go until I got to 100.

Perhaps it's time to get back to playing the piano and organ again...though the organ tends to take away the speedy skills.

Secret Happiness - Happy Dance

So, right after writing about my secret madness, I clicked on the latest blog to be updated in my blog roll.

Haaaaa.

On Erin's blog ( http://erinannie.blogspot.com/2008/11/hmm-its-drive-by-dance-posting-i-think.html ) and saw this dance.

Fuh-ney.

Now, I'm feeling like I want to get up and dance despite not being able to stock up on cheap laptops.

Secret Happiness - One

Today I saw a man that has a hard time coming church engaged in deep conversation with a new friend. It was a reminder to me how important we each are in the lives of others. This man just wanted to hide and not be seen. But, others attempted to be a friend. "Others" means two people tried to be friends. As a result, the man that wanted to remain hidden has two friends.

Yet, even more amazing is that he has no idea what a difference he has made in the lives of the two people that be-friended him. They have expressed gratitude for the discovery of such a wonderful, quiet and caring person. They run up to see him after each meeting to find out how he is doing, what new ideas he has and what interesting piece of research about history, politics, technology or space that he has to share. In the process, he is learning from them how to enjoy the lessons and the knowledge that come from participating in the meetings each week.

I enjoy watching from afar. It gives me a secret happiness.

Secret Happiness - photo book

Yea! Today one of my photo books came in the mail. I created another one through http://www.mypublisher.com and as usual...I'm happy with the product.

This was the smaller version which I think is about 8 inches X 6 inches and softcover. Typically I get the hard cover versions and they are beautiful coffee table book quality.

I will be trying out a few other sites on my next projects and will determine what the best option is for me. I want to try out http://www.smilebooks.com as well because you can do full page views (like My Publisher), but you can also overlap photos on a full page photo. I haven't found a template in My Publisher that does that, but perhaps it will come out in another version.

These companies are also great for making wedding albums. Some places charge you a few thousand to make wedding albums, but you could really make your own for a couple hundred on these sites with similiar quality.

Anyway, it's always great to see anything of your own in a professional binding.

I'm going to use one of the publishers that allows for more print and fewer photos soon when I finish re-typing old journals.



I just put my hand on the book to prove that these weren't just photographs, but rather a real book.

Secret Happiness - Sunday afternoons

Perhaps I'm a bit old-fashion, but after attending church in the morning I spend my Sunday afternoon writing notes, taking walks, writing in my journal/diary and reading. Sometimes even a nap, but then I can't sleep at night and so I haven't been doing that too much. I don't shop on Sundays, partly because of my religion and partially because I understand now why it's a good thing to take a day away from the normal day to day hustle and bustle. And, it's one day that I can actually hear my own thoughts.

Today I wrote in my really personal journal (the offline one) and went on to Facebook and wrote about 10 people notes. Times have changed, aye? Though I should probably send some snail mail, it is kind of nice to glance through the pictures and choose a few people to communicate with each day. It may not mean much to some, but whenever I get a note on my wall, I might as well have gotten a personal letter in the mail. It doesn't even matter if it's a "Hey Becca, what's up?" type message because it's all the same to me. There is this little secret happiness that takes place when I realize someone somewhere thought of me for one moment and did something about it.

Now, knowing that it gives me a secret happiness, shouldn't I do this for others more often?

I think so.

Back to Facebook to write on a few more walls....

Secret Happiness - composition book

I seem to have a lot of secret happiness entries lately, but there are some simple things that make me happy. I went to Target the other day and was looking for my next composition book. I use these to take notes and compile offline "to do" lists for work. I also buy these for the kids I teach at church so they can take notes during the lessons and tape/staple the handouts into them before leaving class.

Anyway, I found the coolest composition book.

Plus, there was a matching pad of paper next to it. So, I had to buy it, but still don't know what I'll use it for... Either way, I'm happy to have something festive to write in everyday.

Secret Happiness - Secret Compliments

I just had one of those moments. It was when I decided to go write a note on a friend's Facebook wall this morning. I had written on her wall about a week ago and there was only one comment after mine. Apparently, the person was surprised my friend was still in contact with me.

The comment after mine said:

"Rebecca xxxx... As in... 6 foot tall Rebecca xxxxx who was way cool and used to stop by when we were in CP? Am I remembering this correctly?!"

Ok, I'm not posting this because I wanted to feel "cool" about myself. I wanted to post this because seeing that one little comment made my day. It wasn't written on my wall. It was written from one friend to another on another wall. It's too bad I'm not the cool person they were talking about right now, but seeing that made me want to be the "cool" person again even if I am in a different part of life.

Either way, it was a good reminder of all those little things - thanking friends for friendship, passing on compliments, sharing moments instead of rushing around with our unimportant tasks, and finding the good in others.

It looks like I need to write a few notes now that I'm feeling special. (-: It is true that a little compliment can go a long way, aye?