I have a mountain of stuff to do before our trip tomorrow. So what do I do? Of course I get on the computer. Ha ha! So this will have to be short so I can get busy but I wanted to update and post about my RAOK things I've done lately.

I've found that people seem to be doing the nice things for me instead of the other way around. :) People see that I have 2 little kids and go out of their way to be nice to me which is SO appreciated! An older gentleman saw that I was pushing Audrey in the stroller and attempting to hold Easton's hand and carry 4 boxes to be mailed and my purse and kindly offered to carry my boxes for me. He opened the door for us, carried the boxes all the way inside and talked to each of my kids for a minute. SO nice! And what a life saver that was!

So since people seem to be doing the nice things for me my list of things I've done isn't all that impressive. Or maybe it just feels weird talking about it. Like "Hey, look at this nice thing I did!" and I'm definitely not doing it for that. Just because it makes me feel good to do nice things.

Other things I've done lately:

• gave out sparklers, glow worms, poppers and glow sticks at our neighborhood 4th of July get together.
• mailed some goodies to 3 different places. (Can't tell more about that yet...not everyone has received their stuff yet.)
• bought my kids "surprise ice cream" for my birthday. (Does this count if it's for my own kids and I got ice cream too? It WAS before dinner and not something I let them have very often.)
• emailed case studies to several fellow classmates (which I'm not too sure is all that ethical now that I think of it. They were supposed to buy the cd and didn't. Oops!)
• handed out Kohl's coupons and Kohl's cash to people waiting in line to check out at Kohl's. I won't be near a Kohl's to use them and why not help other people save money. I've been THRILLED when people do this for me! (50% off coupon when I left mine at home!)
• held the door for people or let them into a long line of traffic at every chance I get.

And that's all for now. I find myself thinking of things I'd like to do for people but am on a limited budget so I just do small stuff that doesn't cost much. But boy if I had more money I'd be sure to share the wealth! :)

Are you joining me? I'd love to hear about it!

Oh, I almost forgot! Today I started my Random Acts of Kindness celebration for my birthday! I was so crazy busy that I didn't get as many things done as I would have liked but I definitely enjoyed what I did get to do!

Today I:
*Used my change ($6) at Subway to buy a gift card for someone who needed it
*Dropped off a ginormous garbage bag full of stuffed animals to Healthy Families
*Way overtipped the guy who served us dinner tonight

OK, so these things aren't gonna bring about world peace or anything like that but they were unexpected things and they made people feel good. Tomorrow should be less hectic here and I'm hoping to think of some better and more fun things to do.

Are you joining me? I'm doing 32 random (or sorta random) acts of kindness to celebrate my 32nd birthday on July 7th. If you decide to join me, I'd love to hear about it!
P.S. I am totally bummed out that Jason will be out of town for my birthday. This is totally selfish of me I know but now who's gonna bring me my cake?! Ha ha Only kidding. Well, sorta.

P.S.S. OK, I am aware that that last comment about how bummed I am that J won't be here for my birthday at the end of a post about doing good things for others seems a bit shallow and selfish. Don't judge.

****Warning**** I've got homework due tonight and am frantic to finish but took a minute to write this post. I am not at all going to swear it will be gramatically correct, have the right punctuation, etc. because I'm just gonna type it up quickly and redo it later if necessary. Here we go!

So much to talk about so little time! As always I've got homework due so the pressure is on to get it done by midnight. I ALWAYS wait til last minute no matter how much I swear I'm not going to. Whatever. It works for me. Most of the time. :)

I have got some BIG plans for my birthday. It's not until July but man oh man I'm gonna have a great one! Now the explanation of how I stumbled upon this amazing idea is a long one. Here's the short version. While looking on one of my favorite craft sites (One Pretty Thing), I came across this: http://www.sowonderfulsomarvelous.com/2010/04/34-random-ish-acts-of-kindness-birthday.html. It's an amazing and inspiring list of 34 "randomish" acts of kindess that Michelle did for her birthday. She was inspired by a post by Robyn over at Mix Mingle Glow http://mixmingleglow.com/blog/?p=1358. Go ahead and read some or all of these posts. I'll wait.



SEE?!!! Aren't these amazing! I cried reading them and hearing other people's reactions to the kindness of strangers. I am definitely doing this on my birthday.
I've already started, though not with a stranger exactly. Yesterday I bought flowers for my new neighbors while buying plants for my garden. Today I decorated a flowerpot to put them in and am taking them over tomorrow to introduce myself. I mean they're practically in my backyard so I could at least go over and say hi, right?

Oh yeah....where did I get the idea for this neighbor gift? From One Pretty Thing and JesseKate desings. (http://jessekatedesigns.blogspot.com/2009/05/teacher-gift-idea-with-applique.html) And the cards in the flowers came from Amanda Joy at http://joyeverafter.squarespace.com/blog/2010/2/23/love-your-neighbor.html. Tired of all the links to other sites here? Sorry! Just want to share these great ideas with you! And no, I don't really spend all THAT much time on the computer. The fine folks over at One Pretty Thing do that for me. I just read that and man oh man do I find some amazing stuff!!!

Sorry this last one is blurry! It was getting dark and I had to hustle. I had a sweet little boy who was WAAYY late getting to bed and was trying to help. :)

And I am posting this not to toot my own horn or say "oh, look at this nice thing I did" but because I want to see how many people will do this with me. I want everyone who reads this to just do one nice thing for someone you don't know. Then come tell me about it. Email me, leave a comment here, send me a text or a message on Facebook, whatever. Just please do. Consider it my birthday present this year. :) Let's see how many nice things we can do for someone else this year.

Linking to Just for the JOY at Good, True and Beautiful.

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