I finished the 100 days challenge a few weeks ago, but I’m a little behind on the record keeping. Towards the end the challenge kind of fizzled for me, and I don’t have accurate pictures for all of these last 9 days, but I’ve done what I could.

Day 92: Game Night! I love a good game night, and this was no exception. Great food, and great people. Plus, I found out that Cards Against Humanity is hilarious and fun even for people like me that don’t enjoy Apples to Apples.

Day 93: Cookie Butter Yeah, I’m a little late to the party on this one. I just couldn’t believe what all the fuss was about, until I tried it. I’m in love.

Day 94:A Walk + a Run I was in a bit of a funk, and thought I wouldn’t go running but after taking a walk, I realized that exercise was helping and I went for a run anyways. Afterwards, I felt better.

Day 95: Ordering Pizza No cooking dinner, no leaving the house. Just cheesy goodness. 

Day 96: Nailing a Goal Pace Run It feels extra good to do well at a run that I’m not confident in.

Day 97: Green Guacamole! I make guacamole every Sunday for taco night, and I always have leftovers. Finding a way to keep it green for an entire week is beyond exciting. Just cover the top with water. It looks gross, but I just pour it off, mix up the guac and I’m good to go. And honestly, it’s less gross than brown guac. 

Day 98: Tooth Tunes!  Do you know what tooth tunes is? It’s a tootbrush made for children (and teens?) that plays a 2 min song clip. Then you know you are brushing long enough. So, I brush my teeth to Dynamite by Taio Cruz every night now. It’s okay that it’s for kids because I have a small mouth. No, really, more than one dentist has told me this.

Day 99: Ice-Cream I don’t believe this requires an explanation.

Day 100: Long Run Accomplished! It was only fitting to end my 100 day challenge on a long run. After all, a Saturday morning long run was my first happy thing.  

So, there you have it – Challenge Completed! 

It was a good challenge. Taking a picture and remembering to post it to Twitter was kind of a drag, but the idea behind the whole thing is a good one, and I’m glad I saw it through. 

 

 

So. Close. To. The. End. 

I missed some posts and pictures this week; I’m so tired of the twitter posting. I can’t help forgetting to take pictures when I’m busy having a good time! While this is turning out to be a great challenge for recognizing happiness in everyday occurrences, it’s just annoying on the “obvious” days. Make sense?

On with the recap:

Day 85: Bunny Dog! 1st trip to Old Man River in 4 years. A bunny dog is a carrot, marinated and cooked up like a hot dog with all it’s charcoal grilled goodness. 

Day 86: Brunch w/ some Mounties High school friends are some of the best friends. By a lucky coincidence, two of us out-of-towners were back on the same weekend! The iced chai and apple brie crepe was pretty delicious, too.

Day 87:A Day-off with Jeffy One of our rules for life: always take a day off at home after a trip. 

Day 88: Hard Cider I like hard cider, and I tried out a few new kinds this week (thanks, Nana). 

Day 89: New Socks I got 50% off a pair of compression socks, and they arrived in the mail today! Of course, I took them out for a spin.

Day 90: Ironing This one is a stretch. I’ll just say this: lately I’ve realized that Ironing isn’t really all that bad. Kind of relaxing actually. 

Day 91: Grilled Cheese Club  It’s been a while since grilled cheese club met, and we were short one member, but it was a fantastically fun lunch. So fun, I forgot to snap a pic. The picture below is from our first meeting…it was so good that time.

9 days to go! Not that I’m counting!

 

I can’t believe I’ve been doing the happy days challenge, for over 80 days! I better start thinking about what I’ll be doing next when it’s finished!

I’ve been out of town for the last few days visiting with my family, friends, and brand new niece! I managed to write last Thursday’s post ahead of time and schedule it to publish itself (crazy!), but after that I was too busy hanging out and traveling for any others. I’m trying to get myself caught up; I’m sorry if I haven’t responded to comments, I’ll get there! Now, here are some happy days, although slightly behind my actual time line:

Day 78: Stocked up on snacks for our road trip It’s not a terribly long road trip, but we still need snacks! 

Day 79: Getting out of the woods The best part about trail run number 2 was getting away from nature! 

Day 80:Making Faces A lot of times, one of the happiest things I do all day is run, but it would be lame to have the same happy thing multiple times per week. Also, I don’t always feel like taking photos of my run. On these days, I end up with a somewhat “weak” happy thing. Like this one. I enjoy taking pictures of myself making funny faces and then texting them to my husband. His response is always equally (if not more) entertaining.

Day 81: Lunch w/ Friends for Christine’s Birthday Tried out the Latin Spoon food truck, and better yet some ice-cream food truck. Good times with Christine, Sara, and Kate. Oh, and free Nutella. Can’t forget about the free Nutella.

Day 82: National Running Day Celebrated with a nice long (it’s relative) 5 mile interval run. First time to Salem in quite a while.

Day 83: Finally met my Niece She’s amazing. But knowing her genes, I shouldn’t be surprised. 

Day 84: Running in Niawanda Park  A beautiful view of the Niagara river. Unfortunately, it was quite windy; the river was certainly moving faster than me! 

And that brings another week of happy days to an end. It was a good one. 

 

Another week on the happy days challenge, I’m really getting close.

Day 71: Replacement fitbit Look what came in the mail!  Now, back to tracking steps, and other things.

Day 72: My first trail run We got a little lost, but I still had a blast!

Day 73: Mini Golf We live near the best mini golf place. And, I won! And then Jeff got a hole in one on the last hole and won a free game.

Day 74: Knitting Juggling balls This is a fun, and quick little knitting project. 

Day 75: Running through Beverly Common It’s not huge, but it’s a nice little park to run through. The gravel paths are a nice change, too.

Day 76: Finished a set of 6 juggling balls I love them!

Day 77: New Jeans!  I don’t really like clothes shopping (unless we’re talking running clothes), but every once in a while I need to get some new duds or I’d be walking around with holes in my clothes. 

100 days is a loooong time to remember to take a picture every single day! And then post to twitter. I’m glad I’m coming up on the home stretch. 

 

 

Another week on the happy days challenge:

Day 64: Fancy Cupcakes There are perks to living down the street from the cupcake cafe. 

Day 65: Planning for my next knitting project What do I want my knit blanket to look like?

Day 66: I’m an Aunt (x2) My sister had her baby. Now I have two little nieces.

Day 67: Working on my board game Some day I might be finished with this one. 

Day 68: Nice day for a walk I like taking walks.

Day 69: Amy’s Mac ‘n Cheese This frozen mac ‘n cheese is so good. Better than what you can get in some restaurants.

Day 70: Finished a knitting project. It’s a little big, but I’m ready for winter (just a tad early).

 

 I forgot to post to twitter once/maybe twice this week, and I also forgot to tag happy days challenge once. You’d think I’d have this routine down by day 70, but apparently not.

 

 

One more week on the happy days challenge:

Day 50: Juice! That I made with the juicer! I used a recipe from runner’s world (sort-of – the store didn’t have pomegranate). Grapes, strawberries, blueberries, and celery. Since it was from Runner’s World, I’m expecting to be able to run faster, longer, and easier after drinking it. 

Day 51: Homemade pickles Sure, I’m using regular cucumbers (what is a pickling cucumber anyways?), and these will only keep for 10 days. But they’re ready to eat in a couple hours, and they’re easy and delicious.

Day 52: Cookie Dough Dip Yeah, all my happy things are food. I suspected this might happen. Who cares? This dessert is fantastic, and it’s made with chick peas so it’s healthy! 

Day 53: Reading Harry Potter out loud I like reading out loud. I can’t do voices like the audio books read by what’s his face, but sometimes it’s pretty entertaining when I try to. We’re on HP3, and read about 3 pages per night, so we should be finished with the entire series sometime in the next decade or two.

Day 54: Running In New Sneakers I think getting/running in new sneakers has been on the list before. These are different new sneakers though. Totally counts.

Day 55: I made baked beans and they taste like baked beans I’m not 100% sure why it’s so amazing to me that the baked beans taste the way they should. I tried a recipe a couple weeks ago and those beans were not good; technically that recipe was for barbecue beans (I thought it was the same thing). I gave it another shot with a different recipe and this time they came out great! And it was super easy. 

Day 56: Blog Comments It’s always nice getting comments on my blog. These ones specifically were pretty entertaining since I asked whether or not people would be willing to pee their pants to get a PR.

*Update on Day 51 – pickles. I mentioned how they “only” keep for 10 days.This is SO not a problem.  I made two jars and have eaten a jar and a half with 4 days to go. 

This week didn’t feel like quite as big of a drag as the last couple. I think I tried harder to enjoy it after realizing last week that I wasn’t having as much fun anymore.

 

 

 

One more week on the happy days challenge:

Day 43: Reese’s Peanut butter Eggs Better than a regular peanut butter cup; that’s for sure. I can’t believe this stuck around for almost a whole week after Easter before I inhaled it.

Day 44: Ran a sub 2 hour half. I did it!

Day 45: My avocado plant has leaves I haven’t killed the avocado plant yet! Maybe my black thumb is turning green?

Day 46: After dinner walk around town Taking a walk around the block is always fun. Always something interesting to see. 

Day 47: Fruit plate Fruit is coming back in season! 

Day 48: Foggy walk at the beach The beach is beautiful no matter what the weather. Oh, wait, are we at the beach? I don’t see a beach.

Day 49: Special feature on juice Just when I’m thinking I’ll break out the juicer, I find juice recipes in the runner’s world I’m reading.  

I’m getting kind of sick of this challenge. I keep forgetting to post when I take my happy picture. Oops! Does that mean this isn’t working like I wanted it to?

 

 

 

Day 36: I found a Butter Lamb! It’s a small Easter tradition, but one I always found amusing. As I’ve come up with my own Easter traditions, I’ve missed having a butter lamb. When Wegmans’ popped up in Massachusetts and I found Loganberry and Sponge Candy, I hoped a butter lamb would also make an appearance. I didn’t find one last year, but I checked again anyways, and this time – success!

Day 37: Easter Morning. A long run followed by chocolate chip brownie waffles. I like our Easter traditions.

Day 38: Meb winning Boston So awesome! Meb is amazing. All the people who ran Boston were pretty amazing (except the stinkers who crashed the party and banditted or stole/faked bibs – they are not amazing, they are losers). Some of my other favorites were: Shalane, Joanie, and Dick + Rick Hoyt.

Day 39: Tea I totally forgot to post to twitter on day 39, yikes. There was happiness on Day 39, I just forgot to photograph it. I resurrected the teapot (I technically only had to move the teapot one foot, but it really made all the difference) and enjoyed some tea. Now that the teapot is in it’s new spot, I’ve been having tea every day.

Day 40: Muppet Friends I’ve been to New York City three times in my life. The last two of the times, I made some terrific friends. (Emphasis on MADE). FAO Schwarz has something called the Muppet Whatnot Workshop. It’s like build a bear for Muppets. Mupbert and Princess Mupette are now valued members of our family.

Day 41: To Do list success Who doesn’t love checking something off a to do list? Ever put those easy ones on there (like take a shower) or ones you’ve already finished just so you can check them off? If the answer is yes, then you probably understand.

Day 42: Vegetarian Hot Dog I am not fancy, I love a good hot dog. Since giving up meat 6 years ago that has been something I’ve missed.  Most vegetarian hot dogs are not good, but this one was fantastic. Field Roast should be getting my love letter any day now.

I’m sometimes forgetting to post these on twitter. My bad!

 

 

 

Oh, hi there! Didn’t I just post one of these a few minutes ago? Why, yes I did! I’m all caught up now. Hurrah!

Day 29: Last Long Run Before Race Day There are a number of happy things about this run. First, that I made it through training, and the race is coming up! Second, that I felt strong and semi-speedy on the run; my goal time is looking like a possibility. And third, it was a beautiful day.

 

Day 30: Taco Night. Tacos make Sunday night something to look forward to. They’re so good.

Day 31: Last Book in the Series The Sookie Stackhouse series has ended, and after years of reading, I’m finding out how it all comes to a close!

Day 32: A Journey of Games At first, I wanted to cook every recipe in our Whoopie Pie cookbook, but Jeff correctly pointed out that we do not need to eat 30+ Whoopie Pies every week for the next 49 weeks. Instead, we’re going to play every game in our game closet. We also have a fun spreadsheet to evaluate them and keep notes and important information (like number of players).

Day 33: Crinkle Cut Cucumbers I have a knife that cuts things all crinkly. This is very unnecessary, but fun!

Day 34: Lunch Adventure with Christine It’s always a good time having lunch with a friend. We went to the “Dear Boston” Marathon Memorial exhibit at the Library after enjoying some fast food mexican at Qdoba. Yum!

Day 35: Friday night Ben & Jerry’s Although I think it would be terrific to eat an entire pint of Ben & Jerry’s every single night, deep down I know that I would probably feel terrible if I did that. Instead, I look forward to getting a special dessert on some most Friday nights, and the infrequency makes it taste even more delicious.

 

There you have it, I’ll try to keep it together from now on. 🙂 Happy Easter!