Birthday celebrations always include a fantastic dinner at Grammy and Grampy's home. They out-did themselves and I enjoyed one of the most tastiest dinners of at least 1/2 century! All the family (except Jacque because she had to work *sad face*) came to celebrate and everyone loved my "new glasses and very cute headband!"
I've been thinking about this "milestone" for quite awhile. I wanted to do something memorable that would require that I didn't sit around and really contemplate that I am now a one-half century old. So, awhile back (maybe a year of so), I found a blog about a young woman who celebrated her birthday with RAOK's - Random Acts of Kindness. WA-LA....an idea was formed. For my 50th birthday, I wanted to do 50 RAOK's on my 50th birthday. About 3 months ago, I started to prepare for this day. It has taken many hours and lots of planning.
Since I have school - and it was the end of mid-terms on my birthday - we had to plan around school. With the help of my amazing family and friends who wanted to be a part of such a crazy idea - we pulled this off. We started at the beginning of March 7th (around midnight) and ended at 10:00 p.m. We had so many spontaneous reactions, surprised looks and funny stories to tell.
This is our amazing day......
Jacque had to work the night shift before my birthday. We had planned to surprise the night and day shift nurses, the staff, and patient care tech's with treats and water bottles. They loved them!!
*Jacque's insert*: See that bucket right there? Pret-tee big bucket eh? Mom waddled out to the car loading it with hastiness because of its weight.
"phew that was heavy! Ok have a good night Jac!"
I drove into the parking lot and it dawned on me...The parking lot is at least 1/4 if not a 1/2 mile from my break room at work. GREEEAAATT . So I'm waddling awkwardly huffing, puffing, and turning pink from exertion, when someone says "Do you want help?"
FINALLY!
She slides her little hands over the blankets on top of the bucket (see below) and carries the feather-weight blankets for me. What an angel. I get into the break room, receiving stares all along the way, and slam the bucket onto the table. *...chirp....chirp* "Umm...what is that?" "My MOM is turning 50 and wants you all to have some freakin water!" Lets just say I was not in the right state of mind to tell them about this wonderful service for a full four minutes. After that, I told them what it was for, and my co workers were ranting and raving the rest of the shift!
After her shift, Jacque delivered hand-made quilts to "care-area 8" at Phoenix Children's Hospital. These were made by Jacque and me and turned out so cute - mini little baby quilts!
Meanwhile..... we handed out a few of these in the morning.....and I headed to school with a few boxes of donuts.
I took 2 boxes to my Education classes and told the professors that these are just "random acts of kindness".
One said: "What is that....an organization or something?"
"Nope....just a random act of kindness"
The students thought that was so cool and couldn't believe someone would "just do that!".
Aly and I worked hard to stack the vending machines at CGCC. It was very tricky considering that people were mingling around and we were trying to be anonymous!
During my break between class #2 and class/lab #3, I went to an elementary school where I am doing some service learning (or volunteer work) and delivered a few more boxes of donuts. The staff was pleasantly surprised and the teachers loved their "extra" thank you. It is so much fun to make someone's day better......it was going to be a great day!! I also took two packages to the post office to surprise our wonderful nephews serving the people of Florida and the Dominican Republic.
Meanwhile, Aly took donuts to the staff and class where she is doing her service learning. The class was so appreciative and the teacher really didn't know what to do. Spreading kindness was getting very contagious!
After school, we gathered all the rest of our RAOK's and picked up another helper. Kade helped by paying parking meters at ASU right before a "nice police officer" was ready to give those unsuspecting students a tickets. When he called, Kade couldn't stop telling us how "cool" it was to be able to do those RAOK's for others. He had reactions like "What are you doing?! ...No way man! That's sick!" Or a girl who had to leave her class to refill the meter caught him and he told her she could go back inside. "No way? You are awesome!!"
Or the cops...Kade said "Hey are you ticketing those cars?"
"...yes...unless you're going to pay them."
"I am!"
*blank stares*
We delivered pizzas to the fire stations on Guadalupe with Jade and Aly. The firemen were so nice and very appreciative. They invited us to see the firetruck, gave Jade a hat, and let us ring the bell!!
Then we headed to PCH Urgent Care in Mesa and Cardon's Children Hospital for baskets of books, coloring supplies, puzzles, and markers.
For our final RAOK's we went to Barnes and Noble and stuffed some books with gift cards, went to a laundry mat and spread some kindness there, had some friends (the Harris's) stick notes of appreciation on the cars at the temple, and ended the evening with more cookie deliveries and a Book of Mormon to the missionaries.
We ended our RAOK's at 10:00 p.m. There were many RAOK's that didn't get recorded in pictures. Some of the other things we did were :
Donuts to the Temple workers (Grammy and Grampy helped)
Gift cards to Boy Scout Shop for families
Big tip at lunch time
ROAK at Sonic
Not only was this day fun, but some of the stories will be told for a long time. In between classes and our evening RAOK's, I came home to a house full of gorgeous flowers (50 roses) and a super clean kitchen. It was so beautiful! I have Brad, Cindy, and Jacque to thank for such a beautiful surprise!!
I can't imagine a better way to spend such a milestone of a birthday. I think I will start planning now for my 60th!
