Things That Made Me Happy in September

Here are the things that made me happy this month:

• Ordering take-out from a local BBQ restaurant
• Winning another prize at ukulele night
• Getting my first credit card
• Going to thrift stores, and getting good finds
• Seeing chipmunks on my way to work
• Checking out a new local bakery, and getting a couple cupcakes
• Buying merchandise from one of my favorite YouTubers (and recieving it, too!!)

What made you happy this month?

Yes, I know this was, yet again, a short list, but at lease I had some things that made me happy this month.

My Michigan Bucket List

Things I would like to do in Michigan:

• Detroit
• Lansing
• Ann Arbor
• Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum
• Detroit Zoo
• Potter Park Zoo
• Matthaei Botanical Gardens
• Tahquamenon Falls
• Binder Park Zoo
• Lake Erie
• Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
• SS Badger
• Holland
• Holland State Park
• John Ball Zoological Garden
• Sea Life Michigan
• Kensington Metropark
• Pictured Rocks Cruise
• Turnip Rock
• Michigan Central Station
• Kitch-iti-kipi
• American Museum of Magic
• St. Agnes Church and School
• Detroit Children's Zoo
• Hamtramck Disneyland
• Mackinac Island
• Heidelberg Island
• Earl Young Gnome Houses
• St. Ignace Mystery Spot
• Bell Isle Aquarium
• The Bottle House
• Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry
• The Dequindre Cut Greenway
• Curwood Castle
• Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School
• The World's Largest Stove
• Sleeping Bear Dunes
• McCourtie Park
• Michigan Space and Science Center
• Grand Army of the Republic Building
• Tulip Time Festival
• The Mackinac Bridge
• Giant Boxing Arm of Joe Jouis
• Giant Cow Head
• Uniroyal Giant Tire
• Mbad Museum and Dabl's African Bead Gallery
• Eight Mile Wall
• Wave Field
• Lakenenland
• The Cross in the Woods Shrine
• Oswald's Bear Ranch
• Rarity Acres Zorse and Zonkey Farm
• Iron County Historical Museum
• Bishop Baraga Shrine
• Windmill Island
• Henry Ford Museum

My Massachusetts Bucket List

• Boston
• Freedom Trail
• Fenway Park
• Boston Common
• New England Aquarium
• Martha's Vineyard
• Public Garden
• Boston Harbor
• Plimoth Plantation
• Boston Museum
• Paul Revere House
• Old North Church
• Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area
• John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
• House of Seven Gables
• Bunker Hill Monument
• Salem
• Southwick's Zoo
• Plymouth Rock
• Minute Man National Historical Park
• Old South Meeting House
• Canobie Lake Park
• Wachusett Mountain
• Boston Public Library
• Franklin Park Zoo
• John Hancock Tower
• Massachusetts State House
• Danvers Hospital for the Criminally Insane
• Mapparium
• The Witch House of Salem
• Forest Hills Cemetery
• Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast and Museum
• Singing Beach at Machester-By-The-Sea
• The Mysterious Witch Bonney
• Dogtown & Babson Boulder Trail
• Museum of Modern Renaissance
• Salem Village Witchcraft Victims Memorial
• Bash Bish Falls
• Glacial Potholes
• Eyrie House Ruins
• Harvard Museum of Natural History
• Walden Pond
• Lobster Mickey
• Crane Mansion on Castle Hill
• Cambridge
• Bancroft Tower
• Mount Greylock
• Skull Cliff
• Mount Auburn Cemetery
• The Bulb River
• The Bridge of Flowers
• Copp's Hill Burying Ground
• Kelleher Rose Garden
• Dighton Rock
• Hood Milk Bottle
• Fort Standish
• Salada Tea Doors
• Harmonic Bridge
• Old Powder House
• Worcester State Hospital
• Pooh's House
• Dr. Seuss Sculpture Garden
• Purgatory Chasm
• Longfellow House
• Statue of Elizabeth Montgomery
• Quincy Quarries
• Poet's Seat Tower
• USS Constitution
• New England Peace Pagoda
• Natural Bridge State Park
• Hut Of Refuge
• The Titanic Museum
• Adams National Historic Park
• Madonna, Queen of the Universe
• Jaws Bridge
• Herb Mackey's Metal Sculpture Yard
• The Oozing Whale Skeleton of New Bedford
• Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
• Site of Boston's First Bell
• The Dutch House
• Tremont Temple
• Rose Kennedy Rose Garden
• Classic WWII Chapel
• Birthplace of Johnny Appleseed
• Redemption ROck
• Westford Poe Marker
• Somerville Round House
• Make Way for Ducklings Statue
• Buttonball Tree
• Boston Lighthouse
• Rock House Reservation
• Burnside Fountain-Turtle Boy
• Faneuil Hall Weathervane
• The Legs of Myles Standish
• Bancroft Castle
• Mary Had a Little Lamb Statue
• Profile Rock
• Captain Edward Penniman House
• Bicentennial Chair
• Eunice Williams Covered Bridge
• Abigail Adams' Grave
• Heath Hen Sculpture

My Fall Favorites

I am more of a warm weather person, but I do like fall weather, too. There are things I do like about each season, and in this post, I am sharing what my favorites are for fall.

Here are my fall favorites:

• Pumpkin carving/painting
• Pumpkin pie
• Leaves changing color
• Seeing all the different costumes children wear for Halloween
• French silk pie (I know this can be an all-year food, but I usually have it during the fall)
• Raking (and then jumping into) fallen leaves
• The smells associated with fall
• Fall scented candles
• Blankets and warm brim hats
• Hot chocolate
• Crisp fall air
• Baking pumpkin seeds
• Caramel apples
• Hay rides
• Fall fests
• Scarves

What do you love about fall?

**Thnks to Sarah Jo Burch for the idea for this post!!!**

Accept

I am lining up with Kate Motaung for this week's Five Minute Friday.

This week's FMF is: Accept

Why is it so hard for people to let others live their lives the way they want? To accept them for who they are?

 

Why is it so hard for us to accept ourselves as we are? It's not as if one life is worth more or less than another.

 

There are many things that we cannot control about who we are as a person, and we should not be judged, ridiculed, or otherwise made to feel inferior.

 

No one is meant meant to be exactly the same as anyone else. We are meant to be different, unique.

 

Acceptance of who we are as people, acceptance of who others are, leads to love, kindness, and hope. Which leads to some amazing things. If only we just take the time to understand that everyone has their own unique journey, that is meant to be lived to the fullest.

 

Every life is worth living, if we just take the time to see the worth, and to accept each other for the beautiful, flawed beings that we are.

 

Accept people for who they are, and the world may just be a better place to live in.

My Maryland Bucket List

• National Aquarium
• Fort McHenry
• Assateague Island National Seashore
• American Visionary Art Museum
• Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park
• Baltimore
• Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
• Geppi's Entertainment Museum
• Maryland State House
• Trimper's Rides
• The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore
• The Baltimore Basilica
• Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo
• Great Falls
• Swallow Falls State Park
• Meadowlark Botanical Gardens
• Delmarva Peninsula
• Capital Wheel
• Billy Goat Trail
• Druid Hill Park
• Scott's Run Nature Preserve
• Watkins Regional Park
• Cunningham Falls State Park
• Lexington Market
• Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum
• Enchanted Forest Theme Park
• Hell House Altar
• Edgar Allan Poe's Grave
• George Peabody Library
• The Book Thing
• Ladew Topiary Gardens
• Vanadu Art House
• Grave of John Wilkes Booth
• Maryland Gold Mine Ruins
• Fort Carroll
• Holland Island
• Graffiti Alley
• Calvert Cliffs State Park
• Catoctin Furnace
• The Arbutus Oak
• Nipper, the RCA Dog Statue
• Underground Railroad Experience Trail
• Phoenix Shot Tower
• Remains of Truxton Circle Fountain
• The (First) Washington Monument
• Acorn Park
• Mr. Trash Wheel
• Annie Oakley House
• Herlong the Carved Dragon
• Washington, D.C. Mormon Temple
• War Correspondents Memorial
• Annapolis
• Earthoid Water Tank
• Transpeninsular Midpoint Marker
• George Washington's Headquarters
• Elijah Bond's Ouija Board Grave
• Kayak at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center
• Ferry Ride
• Explore NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
• Smith Island

My Maine Bucket List

• Acadia National Park
• Casco Bay
• Portland Head Light
• Portland Observatory
• Pemaquid Point Light
• Park Loop Road
• West Quoddy Head Light
• Eartha
• Schoodic Peninsula
• Two Lights State Park
• Jordan Pond
• Owls Head Light
• Thunder Hole
• White Mountain National Forest
• Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
• York's Wild Kingdom
• Bass Harbor Head Light
• Nubble Lighthouse
• Cape Neddick Light
• Crescent Beach State Park
• Stephen King's House
• Mount Katahdin
• Wiggly Bridge
• Wire Bridge
• Eagle lake Tramway
• Boon Island Light
• Devil's Footprint
• Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies
• Bartlettyarns Mill
• Paul Bunyon Statue
• Fort Knox State Historic Site
• The Wedding Cake House
• Maine Solar System Model
• The World's Largest Telephone
• Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory
• Mount Desert Spring Blues Brothers
• Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
• Maine State Building
• Bailey Island Bridge (Cribstone Bridge)
• Small Town X Fisherman Statue
• Table Rock
• Gulf Hagas
• Moxie Falls
• Baxter State Park
• Cadillac Mountain
• Allagash Wilderness Waterway
• Screw Auger Falls

My Favorite Quotes

I have lots of favorite quotes/quotes I love. When I am having a bad day for whatever reason, I like to read encouraging words to help me get through the day.

Here are some of my favorites:

A family of God is a family of love.

When you know who you are, and what you stand for, you stand in wisdom.

Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everryone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.

Don't judge my path if you haven't walked my journey.

If you are always trying to be NORMAL, you will never know how amazing you can be.-Maya Angelou

 Once you choose HOPE, anything is possible.

Dreams don't work unless you do!

You were given this life becauseyou are strong enough to live it.

Live simply. Dream Big. Be grateful. Give love. Laugh lots.

People who think they are crazy enough to change the world, are the ones who do. 

Hope is the one thing stronger than fear.

Push harder than yesterday if you want a different tomorrow. 

Life is so much brighter when we focus on what truly matters.

 You only fail when you stop trying.

We have all got light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are. 

Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light.

 Be kind, fore everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.

 *Thanks to Sarah Jo Burch for the idea for this post!!!*

My Louisiana Bucket List

• Baton Rouge
• New Orleans
• Mardi Gras World
• The National WWII Museum
• Aquarium of the Americas
• Oak Alley Plantation
• Audubon Butterfly Garden and Insectarium
• Audubon Zoo
• Jackson Square
• Audubon Park
• San Francisco Plantation House
• St. Louis Cathedral
• Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve
• The Cabildo
• Lake Pontchartrain
• Frenchman Street
• Preservation Hall
• Baton Rouge Zoo
• The Historic New Orleans Collection
• The Presbytere
• City Park
• Blue Bayou and Dixie Landin'
• Alexandria Zoological Park
• Cafe du Monde
• Honey Island Swamp
• Laura Plantation
• The Houmas
• Royal Street
• Lafrenier Park
• Destrehan Plantation
• Lafayette Square
• St. Joseph Plantation
• Louis Armstrong Park
• Woldenberg Park
• The New Orleans Treehouse
• Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop
• The Gates of Guinee
• Metairie Cemetery
• The Singing Oak
• The Luling Mansion
• Ruins of Fort Macomb
• The Tree of Life
• The Myrtles Plantaion
• Fort Pike
• The Rosegate House
• The Cats of Jackson Square
• Fort Proctor
• Tomb of the Unkown
• The Faerie Playhouse
• Confederate Civil War Museum
• Fort St. Philip
• Labyrinth at Audubon Park
• Musical Legends Park
• Kenny Hill Sculpture Garden
• Jungle Gardens
• Doullut Steamboat Houses
• Laura: A Creole Plantation
• French Quarter
• Rip Van Winkle Gardens
• RTA-Streetcars
• Historic New Orleans Collection
• Louisiana State Capitol
• The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at NOMA
• 1850 House
• Jungle Gardens
• Avery Island
• Christmas in New Orleans
• Venice
• Avery Island Bird Sanctuary
• Chauvin Sculpture Garden
• Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge

My Kentucky Bucket List

• Mammoth Cave National Park
• Churchill Downs
• Kentucky Derby Museun
• Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory
• Creation Museum
• Muhammad Ali Center
• Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park
• Lost River Cave
• Newport Aquarium
• Red River Gorge
• Kentucky Kingdom
• Louisville
• Belle of Louisville
• Mary Todd Lincoln House
• Louisville Zoo
• Ark Encounter
• Kentucky Down Under
• Louisville Waterfront Park
• Mega Cavern
• General George Patton Museum of Leadership
• Falls of the Ohio State Park
• Smale Riverfront Park
• Cherokee Park
• Daniel Boone National Forest
• Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal
• Dinosaur World
• E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park
• National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
• Big South Fork Scenic Railway
• Old Fort Harrod State Park
• Cumberland Falls
• Wigwam Village #2
• Vent Haven Museum
• Castle Post
• Mantle Rock
• Funtown Mountain
• Troublesome Creek
• The Strange procession Which Never Moves
• Colonel Sanders' Grave
• Kentucky's Stonehenge
• Lexington's Biblical Miniature Golf
• Black Mountain
• South Union Shaker Village
• Shrine of Saints Magnus and Bonosa
• Tri-State Peak
• Dixie Cup Water Tower
• Heigold House
• Harriet Beecher Stowe, Slavery to Freedom Museum
• Kentucky Floral Clock
• The Grave of Harry L. Collins
• Schmidt Museum of Coca-Cola Memorabilia
• Florence Y'all Water Tower