Moody, with a chance of cheer

I was awakened by loud, stomping footsteps over my head. This is one of the things I don't understand about the Y chromosome. Why do my boys (yes, all of them) have to be so loud about life? Why can't they walk quietly or close doors quietly or speak quietly? (Okay... Yes, it's a bit hypocritical of me to want them to speak quietly, but I can dream.)

The loud, stomping footsteps were, predictably, followed by loud knocking on my bedroom door. At 6:54 a.m., I don't take well to this. It makes me grouchy. I was dreaming that I was in Disneyland and the lights were on inside Space Mountain and then suddenly I was awake and dealing with Male Loudness. Who wouldn't be grouchy?

When I'm pregnant and I wake up grouchy, it's hard to shake it off. I don't know why, but no matter how much I try to choose happiness, it all ends up as grumpiness instead. It's very annoying. A while later, when I was contemplating the inevitability of a day filled with guilty grumpiness, I had almost lost hope of cheering up. Losing hope by 8:55 a.m. is a bad sign--a sign that the day is, indeed, not going well.

Then something strange happened. I was in the car, driving my kids to preschool. I was staring off into space ... err, at the road ahead of me ... and a new mood flew in through the window and blanketed me with hope. It may sound strange, but the cheerfulness was tangible and came from the west. It just plopped itself down and decided to stay a while.

I laughed out loud. Who wouldn't laugh out loud when happiness flies in the car window from the west and settles in for a stay?

It's been a few hours and I feel as chipper as ever. Life is good. Life is great. And the greatest thing about it is the great gift I've been given: happiness when I least expected it.