New Host Domain

I'm having a ball over at my new website: 

http://seeker-of-happiness.com

Come check out my blog over there! 

Seeker of Decent Customer Service

It's a short story really. 

We wanted to go see a movie on New Years Day. We went out to brunch with family and then headed to the theater for the first showing of Walking With Dinosaurs. We arrived to the ticket office 10 minutes before the showtime. But when we went to buy the tickets, the man behind the glass said "here's the deeeeal..." 

Apparently, a group of people showed up for the movie we wanted to see 45 MINUTES EARLY. Their proagative, right? Then, they DEMANDED that the theater START the show early because they were there. And THEN, the theater DID JUST THAT. 

So when we arrived on time with our kids in tow, we were told that the movie was actually already 25 minutes in but don't worry you can just pay for one ticket if you want. 

There are so many things wrong with this. So many. The least of which is that they wanted us to pay ANY money at all to see about half a movie. And what kind of manager says "ok horrible group of people who are here early, I'll just give into your demands" 

AND WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE DEMAND THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Selfish people. People who have no thought of the families that would show up on time and be told they will have to come back in a few hours. Part of me wanted to pay the money just so I could go in and interrupt their stupid movie and do sign language for shame on you in each of their stupid faces. 

I didn't. I asked for complimentary tickets to the next show. They said I could have $4 off and I laughed. Then they gave us complimentary tickets to the next show.

And you know what? It wasn't the greatest movie. 

C'mon 2014

So anyway, 2013 is finally over. And don't get me wrong, Ruthie was born and Scott graduated from college, and those were good things, but I'd be dishonest if I said OMGbestyearevah. So I'm just gonna roll the dice and cross my fingers and pray really hard that 2014 will bring with it my modest dreams and that I can find a little more contentment and patience and hope and stability. 

Did you hear that, 2014? S.T.A.B.I.L.I.T.Y.

The house that our little family was living in sold within 48 hours of being on the market which has left us moving backwards to the same city we had just left and now we are in Scott's parents basement. It's temporary and it's been a bit hard on the old ego, but my mother-in-law cleans the kitchen before I can blink and my father-in-law makes really good fried chicken at 10 o'clock at night.

So while I'm trying to not loose my sanity and stay grateful and positive, I read the book The Eternal Journey that was highly recommended by my sister-in-law Heather. It's all about the similarities between years of recorded near death experiences and I liked the research-y feel to it. It's good for perspective. It's good to remember that it doesn't matter that my baby is sleeping in a laundry room as long as I show her how much I love her. And in the end, it doesn't matter that my two year old has regressed in potty training as long as I am patient and kind to her.

So while I'm honestly doing my very best to live in the moment and be grateful for what I have, I am also itching for 2014 to get kicked into gear.

(If you follow me on any other social media site, you're sick of seeing this picture of Ruthie. But I'm obsessed with it for obvious reasons). 

Merry Everything, Happy Always

Where there is a lot going on for our family this holiday season, I don't know how often I will be blogging (like I do a ton right now anyways amIright), so I thought I would quickly shout out Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

This year has been a weird weird year for our family but a few undeniably happy things happened that I'm so grateful for. Because I like lists, here's some happy moments had by the Chapman family in 2013:

-Scott graduated from college (!) and continues to hunt for a job in his field. While he's looking, he works full time at Inked Wear and still manages to print tote bags and have enough energy to play when he gets home. We love how dedicated he is to us and how hard he works.

-Ruth Pearl was born and has touched our lives with a subtle, warm sweetness every single one of us appreciate and love. Ever since she could smile, she has done so with a wrinkled nose because she tries to smile as BIG as she can. Ruthie sure can make a heart leap.

-Georgia's your girl for impromptu dance parties in the middle of the grocery store aisle. She just became potty trained and started saying hilarious things every day. She is a bright, sparkling little thing who is naturally joyful and buoyant. While she is very very "two" (if you know what I mean), she  keeps our lives active and fun and we wouldn't trade her for anything. She loves her sister fiercely and always wants to "play." Ruthie has just now begun to tolerate (enjoy?) it.

-Seeker of Happiness reached over 1,000 orders and continues to be something Scott and I deeply enjoy doing together.

-We had the blessing to see lots of family this year because of Scott's family reunion, trips to see family, family visiting us and living close to family. I try really hard to not take this for granted. I do miss my little sister who is serving a mission in Texas right now, but we pray for her every day and that helps us feel closer.

It's amazing how many blessings you can come up with when you start to count them.

May your holiday be filled with gratitude and love!

Currently

Reading: The Host by Stephanie Meyer. It's fitting my needs perfectly. For a while there, I totally replaced reading with television

Watching: Next to Normal by UVU. Okay, so technically I watchED it, but I saw it twice so it feels worth noting here.

Eating: a combination of really healthy, organic, fresh foods... and chick-fil-a. Balance, right? ;)

Constantly: putting babies to sleep. They don't ever overlap and it feels like at least one of them is always crying. It's good, but it's... tricky. My girls are really different from one another so trying to keep them both happy at the same time is something I'm still trying to figure out.

Loving: packing up tote bag (and t-shirt!) orders for Seeker of Happiness, the way Georgia says Christmas, Scott's willingness to help me around the house, my hair cut, and the above dining set I scored on KSL. Sometimes, when I'm stressed, I walk into the room and see it and I calm down.

Recovering From: a bad cold. We all got it but Scott and Ruthie are the last to have sore throats. Ruthie's squeaky squawks are both adorable and heart breaking.

Looking Forward to: Thanksgiving, family, Boise

P.S. Brandilyn- I swear I wasn't trying to copy you exactly! Great minds just think a like and I didn't see your post until after this one was done

Chapmans vs. Chapmans

We were so lucky this weekend to have the Chapman's visit us. Liz and Jacob are such dear friends of ours! I do love living close to the airport. I feel like I see so many friends I may not have otherwise.*

Liz came last weekend because she loves us. We went on a girls night out to see the play Next to Normal at UVU. I had never seen it and I didn't know what it was about. I bawled through the whole thing and driving home we were both so emotionally raw we could barely speak. Not exactly the ice cream and movie night most girls only outings are like but I'm grateful for a friend like Liz who I can be so myself around. However, we agreed that our husbands HAD to see this show so we bought another round of tickets and went all together on Saturday night.

Sunday was spent taking naps in shifts and telling stories and laughing at Georgia and eating food that is good for the soul and food that is good for the body (not necessarily at the same time...). Liz had started teaching Georgia some yoga the week before and Georgia had said: "that a fun game." I had been doing some with her through out the week- mostly to settle her down when she gets too wound up.

Liz was doing it with her and was trying to help her remember who we thank.
Liz: "We thank God and..."
Georgia: "Cupcakes and Christmas!"
Which, personally, I think is a great answer.

Later, Liz was teaching her some stretches. They had their legs spread out and she was telling Georgia to "make the pizza" and move her hands all over the floor in front of her. They "spread the sauce" and "sprinkled the cheese" and Liz asked Georgia what else she would like on her pizza. With no hesitation Georgia responded: "I want eat it."

After the mini yoga/stretching class we put Georgia to bed and we played a little Head's Up. We played Chapman vs. Chapman which meant we all just ended up playing together and not keeping score. Just the way I like it :)
Oh, and during the game, Ruthie got tangled up in her blanket so it looked like she was wearing a toga. Liz could not get over how funny that was. Ruthie was too tired to really appreciate much of anything.

*While we are shacking up in this huge condo any visitors get their own room AND bathroom downstairs. So, you know, COME VISIT!

All photos stolen from Liz... but because they had my children in it I figured it'd be fine

Totes to Tees to Thank You GIVEAWAY

Some exciting times around Seeker of Happiness! First off, we passed 1,000 sales in our Etsy shop! This was a big milestone for us and we are so grateful! Second, we have almost as many favorites as we have sales. This is just as meaningful to us as we love our customers. It's nice to know we can be "hearted" back :)

To celebrate and to say THANK YOU we would like to announce that we now have a few t-shirts available in our shop! We took some of our most popular designs and tossed them on a comfy v-neck just in time for the holidays.

Mean Girls: On Wednesdays We Wear Pink

Seeker of Happiness

I Miss Seattle

We would like to giveaway a t-shirt and tote bag combo to THREE lucky winners!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Again, thank you to all of our customers, Facebook fans, and overall supporters :)