Expectations: The Theives of Joy

     Expectations; we all have them. We have them about pretty much everything. And that is not a bad thing... necessarily. Expectations can cause us to strive to go above and beyond. They can be exceeded in ways that impress us. However, expectations can steal our joy if not used properly. Think about it. We have expectations about how our day is going to go and if it doesn't go right we get upset. We have expectations about how people will behave and when they don't behave accordingly we get angry or hurt.
     This is something I struggle with alot. Where it manifested itself in a way that caused me to stop and take stock of how my expectations were killing my joy, was in friendships. I had/have expectations of how my friendships should be. If I care this much then shouldn't they care at least that much? If I ask them how they are doing shouldn't they honestly answer and tell me what's going on? Can't we both be comfortable with sharing what is on our hearts and minds? The list goes on. When I feel like the friendship isn't living up to my expectations I am really bent out of shape about it. I second guess myself and them. I feel like somehow our friendship is second best. Here is the deal though, what am I measuring the friendship up against?? The answer is simply my own made up expectations. So it is literally my own fault that I am unhappy.
      When we let go of our expectations for our friendships, days, etc. then we can't be disappointed. We can fully appreciate what we have and take it for what it is. We can't get bent out of shape when our day doesn't go as planned because we had no expectations that it would. People can't disappoint us with what they do when we didn't have a previous expectation for what they were going to do. We can be truly happy in our friendships if we aren't constantly comparing them to the expectation in our mind.
      Now I am not saying, have no expectations for anything anytime. I am merely saying that we need to reevaluate our expectations. Are they reasonable? Are we placing expectations on the right things? Or are we placing them on things that really shouldn't have expectations placed on them?
Don't let unnecessary or misplaced expectations steal the joy from your life. I saw a quote somewhere once that said "Expect less. Love more." and that is how I want to live.

Musical Monday: I See the Light: Claire Ryan

Most of you probably know about my obsession with Tangled so combining Tangled with this adorable little girl made for the cutest thing I have seen in a long time!!!:)

Musical Monday: Always There by Emmet Cahill

The First Day of School

Yesterday was my family's first day of school!! Mom has always tried to make it a special and fun day for all of us and as is tradition, I take lots of portraits to commemorate it :):)

 Elianna Age:3

 

Nathan Age 6

Brendan Age 10

 

Tobin Age 13

Sean Age 17

Scott Age 17

Hannah Age 18

 

Lex Christi Regit Academy 2016

And I leave you with the traditional jumping picture. I won't mention how many tries this took ;)

 

Have you all started school yet??

A Best Friends Photoshoot

A week or so ago I went up to Yosemite with some of my favorite people. Our purpose was to do a "best friends photo shoot" with Hannah and Lacy. We had a grand time with bubbles, sunflowers and Coca Cola :) Afterwards we had an old fashioned, all American picnic complete with fried chicken and apple pie!:)
Anyways, here are my favorite pictures from our time.

Musical Monday: I Will Love You (Everytime): The Fureys

Wednesday's Words to Remember: Cheerfullness: Martha Washington

Summer Happenings

Happy summer everyone!! Ok, so I know it is not officially summer yet but here in California summer weather has officially arrrived. Also school is out, graduation time is over and it isn't getting dark till 8 o' clock.

Speaking of graduations, I have attended 5 this year! I think that is probably a record!!

Anyways, it has been busy here at the Cox house.

We had some good friends come and stay with us for a few days. We had so much fun with them. We had an epic water balloon battle,two super competitive games of our version of Careers, and lots of laughs as we shared stories:)

 We also all went on a run together:)

Later we attended the aforementioned five graduations. We had alot of friends graduating so it was fun to support them and cheer them on:)

 Two weeks ago I took pictures at a wedding in Yosemite. It was my first wedding where i was the main photographer. It was quite a learning experience!! It was fun though:) I am going to post some of the pictures I took once I give them to the family:)

 Voting day in California was Hannah's first time getting to vote!!

 

 Hannah got Herman a castle so now he gets to live in a place fitting for his princely station ;);)

 

 So that is what we have been up to. 

In closing; What is this a picture of???

Wednesday's Words to Remember: What People Remember