Being Happy

Photo by Sarah

Today has not been a good day. I spent all day staring at my computer trying, really trying, to get homework done, and failing miserably. I went back and forth feeling hopeless, and depressed, and blah, and mad at myself. Then I went to yoga (I'm taking prenatal yoga- which is wonderful) and everything the instructor reflected on made me weepy and emotional.

 Yes, I know, part of these emotions are due to my hormones being crazy and out of whack- but some of them are because of my depression. Depression is something I have coped with for the past ten years of my life. One of my close friends asked me how I "got better". I don't think I really got better- I learned my own ways to keep going and keep smiling. Depression may be a part of you, but you cannot let it define you.

Martha Stewart has a magazine called Whole Living (which I stumbled across while doing research for my homework assignment). I picked one up while I was at the grocery store- the March 2011 "Happiness Issue".   The whole issue discusses way to live happier, I haven't finished reading the issue yet, but it made me think about my "happy things". 

Every day there are some things I try to do, I take a shower with my husband in the morning, I make sure I play with my cats, and I focus on the pretty things in life. Some days I need a little extra help being happy and I use little things to help me cheer up- painting my nails, wearing happy colors, making the bed, actually putting on makeup. 

Today I am having my hubby paint my toe nails (they are getting hard to reach), I'm catching up on this week's episode of NCIS, watching my cats play fight, and focusing on the happy things by writing this blog. Its helping. 

Whether or not you deal with depression, everyone has down days; what do you do to cheer you up on your down days? 

A Happy Day

Today I wasn't feeling my happiest so I was trying to focus on happy moments of my life, and the one happy moment I kept coming back to was the day I got married. I was married on October 11th 2008, we said our vows in the same room that my parents did (except they did so 30 some odd years before us). We had a magical and homemade wedding. 

This is me in my dress, which I made, I made two wedding dresses that year and the one came together so easily, and mine went terrible! but I like how it turned out. I wore my Grandmother's (Nanny's) Necklaces, which was "my borrowed". 

This is the back, I wanted color in it (because all white makes me feel like a marshmallow). I wore my Grandmother's (Nana's) 1950's rhinestone hair comb in my hair (my "something old"), and one of my Grandfather's pins on my waist clincher (in the back by the laces) because they had both passed away recently and I was sad that they couldn't be there.

I loved my shoes, I had them dyed to match the fabric of my "waist clincher", to be my something blue". Getting them done was a nightmare because the shop I got them from messed them up and was very rude 

(I wont mention the name but if you are in Kensington Maryland don't go to the Bridal shop that starts with a P and is located on Fawcett street, I had to enlist the Better Business bureau for help solving our differences)

Me and my dad, my dad isn't very healthy and part of me was always worried that he wouldn't live to walk me down the aisle, so this is my favorite picture. It also shows my lovely bouquet, made by my sister!  

My MOH Bacon, he was amazing and wonderful, we re-invented his suit coat and he was the talk of the night (so was the fact that my MOH was a man for that matter)

We had cupcakes, oatmeal pupcakes as we call them in my house. My mom had bought a huge amount of oatmeal when we were kids only to find out that we refused to eat oatmeal, so she searched for a way to make it in a way we would eat it- to get rid of it- and she found this cupcake recipe, my brother  couldn't say cupcake tho, so he called them pupcakes, and it stuck.  My mom and sister baked and iced the 300 or so pupcakes served at the wedding, and my sister made the cake toppers as well. The cake toppers are a little girl cat, and boy pig dressed in Kimonos.

The Top picture is my my sisters and I, and the bottom is my mom (sneaking food before the ceremony) without them I never would have been able to have such a beautiful wedding, and I never would have been sane afterwards. They made invitations, did all the arrangements, made all the food, decorated, did the flowers for the wedding party, were endless sources of ideas, and worked damage control when things didn't go smoothly. I love my family so much and I am eternally thankful for their contributions. 

(and I can't help but brag, my sister on the left made the outfit she is wearing, and my other sisters top, and my mom made her own dress and my sister's skirt)