It's the little things

As I mentioned in my previous post, when I’m not constantly thinking about what I don’t have, I can appreciate the “little things.” Here are just a few of the little things I’ve had fun with recently:

S2H wristband: I’m letting you in on a big secret here, because this thing is really cool and I kind of want to be the only person who has one. But I’ll tell you anyway: I read about this wristband in a magazine a couple months ago that monitors your activity level. For every hour of activity you do (most kinds of cardio; has to include continuous arm movement), you earn a code that you can upload to s2h.com. The codes give you points which can be redeemed for gift cards at places like Amazon, iTunes, Sports Authority, Best Buy, etc. It basically motivates you to exercise, which is especially helpful when you’re recovering from a BMT and therefore periodically feel like you've been run over by a train.

Big Brain Academy: This is an awesome game for the Wii that I requested from Child Life (a.k.a. the people who keep you from being bored out of your mind during your hospital stay). As the title implies, it’s a series of mind/logic games and puzzles that test and improve your cognitive functioning. When offered a choice of any Wii game on the market, who requests one to improve her brain function? You don’t have to say it; I already know. I’m a nerd :).

Stickers: Using my mom’s coupon organizer, I started a sticker collection in second grade broken down into categories such as “!Things to do with a house!”; “!Miscellaneous!”; and “!Holidays!” No, those weren’t typos; I actually wrote the exclamation points on either side of each word, because as a seven year-old, I was cool like that. As the years passed, I slowly lost my sticker obsession and moved on to more “mature” hobbies like reading, playing sports, or collecting Beanie Babies (don’t judge). But as I’ve started scrapbooking these past couple months, I’ve rediscovered the joy of stickers. Lately I’ve been using them in my “Marathon book,” a guestbook which I’m having all the hospital staff and my visitors sign, and the stickers make the book so much more colorful and fun. My mom, a much wiser woman than I, never lost her love of stickers and has always used them on her students’ papers :).

What are the “little things” that bring you happiness? I’d love to hear...