My Happiness Project: Week Six

I had to be really secret this week. I had to employ like super secret agent moves.

Motherhood

For the record: NOT PREGNANT. Not even a little pregnant. Not even baby hungry yet.

But I did want to learn a little more about pregnancy and motherhood since the only things I know I learned from The Office and Baby Mama. I'm getting to the point where the baby aisles at Target don't make me physically sick, so that's good. But I still don't know anything about babies, ultrasounds, infant care, onesies, bath time, car seats... wow this list just keeps getting longer.

-Read up!
--So I sneak-attack put a bunch of books on hold and I wore my trenchcoat and sunglasses to go pick them up at off-hours at the library. I didn't really wear the trenchcoat but I was very sneaky and fast. I don't need to run into students or friends when I have an armload of maternity-info books. I also delved into a lot of the blog posts "348 Things You Need To Know As A Complete Moron Getting Pregnant For The First Time" that I've pinned over time.

-Watch up!
--I watched The Science of Babies on Netflix - fascinating. I even got The Beard to watch What to Expect When You're Expecting with me! He's probably less scared of babies than I am, actually. He's great with babies and little kids - unless they're our niece Lillie who is still terrified of his big black beard.

-Think about what type of mother I'd like to be
-- The biggest thing that I walked away with is "Take a breath, Danica. People have been doing this for thousands of years. Millions of people didn't read books, and watch documentaries, and ask every person on the street about pregnancy. Millions of people! And overall, pregnancy for them is still ok. If the idiots on 16 and Pregnant can do this, I'm pretty sure I can do this. Also multiple people told me that I'd need to drink a bathtub's worth of Diet Coke a day in order for it to hurt any baby I was carrying, so even though I drink an obscene amount, I'm not scratching that surface. That really helped my fears. I won't have to give up Diet Coke!!!

Blog

- Get a "real" blog URL
- Got it. Execpt The Beard got it for me on this weird site and we're still working on getting it linked up to host this blogspot. Get excited for that to come up.

-Make it look cuter.
-- Working on a new logo/name. Added an Instagram feed. Rearranged. I'm creating tabs and pages like a real deal blog. And I'm working on a few new buttons. There's not a lot to show for this right now. But it's still coming. Promise.

- Learn how "real" blogs operate.
-- No surprise - I checked out a bunch of books, read a bunch of posts (Especially Bon's. So helpful) and started mapping out where I want my blog to go. I really have never even TRIED with my blog. I've done a couple of things that friends have asked - giveaways, hosting, guest posts, etc. But I've never really done anything with my blog. But I'm ready to be more real. Blog more regularly, interact more in the blogging world, be a "real" blogger. Who knows. Maybe we'll even get to a sponsorhip phase. I still don't really know what that is. But it sounds cool. Dreamin big over here.

Coming Soon - my overall view of my Happiness Project. Acceptable social media posts when you're pregnant. Annoying stuff Bloggers do. More things that I realized/got bugged by when I did my Happiness Project.

My Happiness Project: Overview
My Happiness Project: Week One
My Happiness Project: Week Two
My Happiness Project: Week Three
My Happiness Project: Week Four
My Happiness Project: Week Five

My Happiness Project: Week Three

You guys this might be my best week yet. I'm fitter, more energetic, making some good life plans and feeding my brain. Don't let my tweets about watching tons of episodes of cheesy teen dramas let you think I just sat on the couch last week. I freaking got shiz done.

Physical

- Exercise every day and push myself.
-- It was hard some days to drag myself off the couch when I had a sleeping puppy in my lap, but I worked out every day but Sunday. Zombies! Run, gym rat lifting, Kickboxing classes, jogging in the park with Glen Coco and yoga - I'm feeling good. You seriously never regret a workout. There's something about that sweaty, weak, tingly feeling after a tough workout. You want two things

1. A high-five or pat on that sweaty back
2. A ton of carbs

- Sleep 8 hours
-- Since May I haven't slept well. I've been staying up late, tossing and turning all night, and getting up early. Even in Hawaii the jet lag had me sleeping so weird, then I came home to crazy packing, 5k training, Mitch's Farewell, Boston, moving and settling in. I tried hard to go to bed at a reasonable hour, do my meditation/breathing exercises before bed and hit at least 8 hours a night.

- Eat Right. I really do feel like a million percent better when I eat tons of fruits and veggies and kick the sugar.
-- There was a huge batch of my homemade chocolate chip cookies on the counter all week. I'll have you know I only ate like 2 of them and didn't eat a thousand calories worth of bread. And I ate like 8 bags of Steamables veggies. Straight up nutrition over here. 

Learn

- Apply for Grad School.
-- I did it. I applied. It still makes me a little sick to my stomach to think that I will have homework again. But if I get in, I'll be able to get a Master's in under 2 years. Then I can make slightly more than nothing as a teacher.

- Learn more about dog training
-- We never got Glen Coco as socialized as he should have been. He LOVES people, especially little kids, but he gets really nervous around people/places/things he isn't familiar with. And as The Beard puts it "He's a barky little doosh." I checked out a few books from the library and read up about it. We're trying a few new techniques and he's already less barky and more calm! It's like I always say - the library can fix anything.

- Figure out Education Plans with The Beard
-- This one is still in the works, so hopefully I'll have some good news to share in the next couple of weeks, but we made some huge progress this week. The Beard went to some meetings and found some really cool programs that we're interested in. We're getting all kinds of grown up over here.

This week I'm tackling Finances and Spirituality -Already hitting it hard with my 30 day BOM schedule! Join me if you like! :)

My Happiness Project: Overview
My Happiness Project: Week One
My Happiness Project: Week Two

A Real Hippie Wouldn't Hurt Bambi

I hope you're intrigued by that title. It's hard to believe, but it is actually relevant to my Saturday night.

On Friday one of my besties from high school - Mckensie crashed with me, and Gabi came over to hang with us. We stayed up late braiding our hair and watching puppy videos on YouTube like any other 14 year olds at a sleepover. We even played M.A.S.H. (no, we didn't.)

I slept in and read in bed until 1 pm like a really responsible adult. After breakfast and several Office episodes in my sweats The Beard talked me into showering and getting ready. (He bribed me with Target and the Library.)

Now comes the Hippie part. My bangs were not particularly cooperative. Plus Gabi had shown me a more effective way to fishtail braid my hair. The only option was this turban/bandana/wrap/headband that I originally bought to wear to Seven Peaks.

If you know me at all, you know I'm pretty much as far from a hippie as you can get. No one has and no one will ever describe my style as "Boho" or "Hippie Chic" because all of my clothes are fitted, black and not out of place at a funeral.

So it was kind of fun to wear an outfit my dad would call "hipster" and caused the Beard to look questioningly at my head. Gotta mix it up, you know?

After outfit photos and picking up my 6 items on hold at the awesome Draper Library, we were off to my second favorite weakness - Target. Those dollar bins are ALWAYS my kryptonite, but especially when they feature Star Wars items. Yahtzee.

Great day right? Going really well. Star Wars. Libraries. Outfit photos. Even a Sonic run.

Soon to be nearly ruined when I hit a deer on the way home. Now, I grew up in Mapleton so I've had my fair share of close shaves with deer. But I've never hit one. For once in my life I was not speeding, so we didn't hit him very hard. He got up and pranced away, and there was minimal damage to the plastic fender flare on my Jeep.

Traumatic damage to my emotional state, however. We're talking bawling and hyperventilating. I just felt so BAD. I didn't mean to hit you, little guy! I promise! I'm really sorry if you are bruised and sore! I hope your family took care of you and you warned all of them to stay off that winding, poorly lit road.

I'm sure the Beard was equal parts embarrassed and concerned about my reaction, but he was so good at remaining calm and reassuring. I'd have probably run into the woods to apologize to Bambi if he hadn't been there. He even took his crazy wife to the movies later to cheer her up.

Lesson Learned: if you dress like a hippie/gypsy while driving a gas guzzling SUV the universe will put you right back in your place.