We laugh so much in our house, in our everyday lives, that it is so difficult to pick a moment (or sometimes remember it!)

Day 29 – Ha ha – I remove wine cork from bottle (it makes that great sound!) and Owen yells ‘Opa!’

Day 30 – Checking out the hall with our friends Ivan and Dar (they are having a big party in a couple of months). Many laughs, but probably the most fun was me suggesting that we serve venison on the buffet. Ivan almost jumped out of his chair (he hates it!). Soooo funny!

Day 31 – watched Old Dogs … Robin Williams and John Travolta. I actually laughed out loud several times!

Thanks for playing!

Day 22 – Dave came to breakfast! It was his birthday after all. Our server Kendra got my laugh today when she said, ‘They talk about different stuff when you’re not here!’

Day 23 – Dinner at the inlaws – just us. How nice! Donut stopover at Mom’s and the Tony show was on.

Day 24 – Mike’s campaign launch at Liam’s. Laughs with mom Sadie … she was trying to figure out whether to have white or red wine, and I suggested since she already had a ginger ale and a water that she should have white so she wasn’t hung over the next day by mixing.

Day 25 – Dinner at Dan and Steph’s. Heavens. Well, Tony got a little full … ahem … and rolled around on the floor with Gracie and Tyson. We have pictures. Yikes. A week’s worth of laughs this day, for sure.

Day 26 – Boondock Saints two. Again. You look like you might have seen one up close.

Day 27 – Dinner out with Mom (big dinner week!), and plenty of laughs as she related her conversation with Richard, an old friend of Dad’s. 

Day 28 – much late night fun with Martine, who is probably going to slap me next time she sees me because I am not a big fan of the lobster roll. Ah whaddaya do?

Day 15 – Sunday morning breakfast with Mom and the sibs. Discussing a family friend who is on an executive committee for my ball tournament, and is also getting into broadcasting with my sister Lynne at Rogers. Sister Lynne gives him some great advice and tells him to bring the idea back to my committee. I say, ‘I’m going to tell him that’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard … who gave you that idea?’ hehe. Lynne laughed so hard she almost spit out her coffee!

Day 16 – Father in law has surgery to replace battery in his pacemaker. We go over for dinner to see how he is feeling. Neighbour walks in with a AA and hands it to him and says, ‘I brought you a battery so you can replace it yourself next time!’ Good one, Glen!

Day 17 – Oh did we laugh tonight – dinner and Mom’s and Lynne was telling us a story about a child she met at work who had a wish fulfilled by the Children’s Wish Foundation – he went to Walt Disney World and got the royal treatment (which was great) and she was listing all the things he got to do, and instead of saying Chip and Dale tucked him into bed, she said Chippendale’s … oops! No, it was definitely Chip and Dale!

Day 18 – Called our pest control company when we woke up to a scratching noise in the furnace … we soon realized it was our pet hamster, Carl, who had escaped from his cage and toured in previously uncharted territory. Had to call the company back and cancel the appointment when Carl surfaced in a bedroom vent! Man!

Day 19 – Driving Owen to Ultimate Camp for 8 am and Tony sees a guy standing beside his SUV with his arms in the air in front of him and announces, ‘What the ..? Is that guy a mime?’ and we get a little closer and realize he is actually fixing the line on the end of his fishing rod … not a mime at all!

Day 20 – Had the Blanchfield Road Blanchfields over for drinks and Tony was definitely on his game … telling the story of going to Helen’s Place and talking to Helen’s sister, all the while thinking it was Helen, and wondering why she didn’t seem to recognize him … and then Helen came out of the kitchen, and he figured it out!

Day 21 – still laughing at Kelly walking through our front door at 11:30 at night … just to locate her family! And a great phone call with Natalie too – she told me a story about some annoying locals who sat too close to them on their recent trip to Martha’s Vineyard, and then proceeded to complain that it wasn’t as great a vacation as Spain was (the names have been changed to protect the identity of the annoying tourists!)

Day 8 – Family Ball Tournament – cleanup day … retelling stories of the weekend while we cleaned up the site … Paul almost taking out Danny’s drumset is still one of my favourite memories this year.

Day 9 – Stress Free Monday here at our house – tough day at work so laughs were welcome –  watched Yes Man with the boys after dinner. Every girl deserves to go to a ball!

Day 10 – Family Dinner at Mom’s – Spencer went indoor skydiving and we watched his video – we all laughed pretty hard at Chicken Man – we still can’t figure out what the guy was doing, but he kept coming out with his arms bent like wings, and he looked like he was about to do the chicken dance! It was so great to hear all the kids laughing at him each time he came out!

Day 11 – out to dinner with my boys at Fiamma in Barrhaven. Don’t know how it came up in conversation but watching Owen do his impression of the Ab Circle Pro was truly hilarious!

Day 12 – waiting for Owen during his guitar lesson, got a hilarious text from Tony … sorry, unfortunately can’t repost here, but suffice it to say the people at Shoppers Drug Mart were wondering what was soooo funny!

Day 13 – cut out the centre of the lid for Carl the hamster’s new play area so we could be sure he was getting lots of air, and quickly realized we gave him a super easy escape route! One plastic lid, ruined – and now the big box is a supervised play area only!

Day 14 – Saturday. Aaahhh. Nice night for a bike ride. Owen and I visited Mom (geez, we spend a lot of time together!) and there is nothing more precious than watching him tell a story and see my Mom laugh her head off. He’s a great storyteller – he gets right up off his chair and starts, ‘No seriously, this is the way it went…’ and then he goes into his story. Precious for sure! What a kid.

The rules are simple: make a point of laughing every day for 31 days – and share it with those around you if you like!

I am going to share my daily laugh (well, one of them …!) here on my blog.

To learn more about how to incorporate more laughter into your life, and to take part in this fun little challenge, visit:  http://www.31daysoflaughter.com/

Tee hee! Looking forward to sharing!

Day 1 – sitting at Mom’s, having a couple of drinks, trading innocent insults with Tony, and all of a sudden Owen stands up, hands flapping, and hollers, “you’re tearing this family apart!”  OMG too funny!

Day 2 – watching Blue Collar Comedy Show movie – Jeff Foxworthy is giving redneck definitions of words: INITIATE (use it in a sentence): My sister ate two hamburgers … in-i-ti-ate some potato chips.

Day 3 – one of my clients and I were discussing how many people I know who have died in the last year and a half (four in the last couple of weeks, actually … that’s not the funny part, obviously). He asked, ‘Is it safe to know you at all?’ I actually laughed out loud. I don’t think he was joking, but it was my best laugh of the day (as I prepared to take the following day off for a very sad memorial service).

Day 4 – more laughs today than I expected, given the sad occasion … but had a good one with Sean for sure … purposely driving the wrong way down a one way street to get a parking spot … with a whole bunch of cops watching us!

Day 5 – watching GrownUps … Steve Buscemi was sooo funny in the body cast!

Day 6 – Family Ball Tournament – how can I choose just one laugh? hmmm … okay, then Carina and Brad Quinn singing Jesse’s Girl at our karaoke.

Day 7 – Family Ball Tournament – again, so many laughs … watching Terry Helem get down on his knees to pitch to Tommy Doyle in our alumni game (and Tommy hit it!)

Next week we’ll do it again!

I did come across an interesting article about napping though. It does in fact boost brain power and I particularly like the reference to the brain email inbox. Have you ever felt like you are on communication overload?

In any case, I am still focusing on ME time over the next couple of weeks. I am enjoying a lot more quality time with my husband and my son and we are even going on a ski trip in a couple of weeks. (Well, there will be people skiing around us, anyway.)

ME Time is really important in general, but when you run your own business and work from home, you can only be GREAT for your clients if you make sure to take care of yourself first. By taking care of yourself, you will be much more prepared to take care of others.

Note to self: book facial and pedicure (spring is on the way and if you know me, that means sandals!!) and maybe even a haircut and a massage. I deserve it!