Birthday-ness and More Acts of Kindness!

My birthday week finally got here!!!!!!!! Yay!!! On Monday I turned 22 and had a blast with some friends getting some food. I've been celebrating all week long by doing different things. I love all these people I have in my life :)

Today is sweetest day (a made up Hallmark Holiday that I don't like at all) but Kevin still got me a rose and some chocolates. He's the best.

I've been hard at work on my random acts of kindness. Here are some more below!

8. Helped a worker at the supermarket clean up someone else's mess.
I worked at Meijer, though I wasn't a stock person or anything. But I know through my work there that people are messy. And half the time they don't want to fess up for the messes that they make and walk away...leaving them there.

These people are rude.

Anyway, the other day I was shopping at Meijer and noticed that someone had knocked a bunch of soup cans off the shelf and that someone was rushing to the aisle to clean them up. I hunched down and helped him restack them onto the shelf. He had an appreciative smile on his face as we joked about people not cleaning up after themselves.

9. Renewed my membership to Gift of Life
So, when I renewed my license, I hadn't gotten my heart on it as I had before registered for gift of life. So, I renewed my registration and once again got my heart. Just the small things but you never know, when I pass away, they may be able to use some organ of mine...and save a life.

10. Brought donuts back to the people on duty last weekend.
Saturday evening, I met some friends at Past Tense in Lapeer, a cider mill. I love their cider and donuts and grabbed some. A couple of my fellow RAs were on duty and had a rough Friday...so I brought them back a donut to brighten their day.

11. Congratulated a newly engaged couple.
So, I'm at the age, everyone is either getting engaged, married or having babies. One of my friends got engaged over the weekend, and I took the initave to personally congratulate them on the next step towards their new life together.

12. Adopted a soldier
This is something that I've wanted to do for awhile now. But I used this as a reason to actually do it! On Thursday, I went to the website and registered to adopt a soldier. This morning, I got my email with the information of the soldier I adopted. Though I can't say much as to where my soldier is stationed and such, I did just email him to let him know that a letter and will be in the mail soon!

13. Bought a drink for a friend
It was my friend Cass' birthday this past week also so I bought her a drink at the bar when we went out the other night.

14. Wore pink and donated to breast cancer!
One of our local fraternity houses had a Thursday night party to save the boobies. SO...I donned some pink, donated to the cause and had a nice night out with friends :)

In memory of my beautiful mother! 

15. Shared my food with everyone.
Today, some friends and I went to our local Buffalo Wild Wings and watched the big Michigan/Michigan State game (spoilers: Michigan won!!!) and I got some food that I shared around the table...including an amazing dessert nacho. Seriously, get it in the next time you are there!

btw...those are cheesecake balls in the middle. Rolled in graham crackers and deep fried....

16. Gave our waitress a nice huge tip.

So normally, as a college student, we can give the 10% tip but not much more. Today at Bduds, we were there for like 5 hours watching the game, and our waitress was nice...even giving us a fresh refill of pop after we had not paid attention to it when I was drinking my cocktail. So I gave her a nicer than normal tip. She was very thankful when I got up to leave that she came over to thank me in general. Always nice to make someone smile!

Fall Bulletin Board

Here's a cute idea for residents/students for a fall bulletin board.

Make  a tree out of paper/poster board.

You can get apple cut outs at JoAnn Fabrics/Hobby Lobby. Write healthy tips like "use the stairs, not the elevators." "Drink more water," "Get plenty of rest," "Cook you own meals," etc. 

Some More Kind Things, Happy October!

So I haven't been updating recently....SORRY! It's been a busy month! But here are some of the nice things I've done for people so far this month:

3. Helped a lady at Olive Garden With her dropped boxes.

So, A few of us went to Olive Garden for lunch last Saturday. It was a windy, October day just like it really has been lately (Mother Nature is doing her job this year). When we were leaving, one of the workers was carrying out a bunch of boxes to the dumpster when a wind hit her and she dropped most of them. Jasmin and I helped her get them back into her hands so that she could go on her merry way since she had others in her hand that she didn't drop...and would have dropped them if she bent down. With a quick smile, and a thank you, I made her day a bit easier.

4. Donated to a Children's Hospital.

After Olive Garden, we went to Spirit of Halloween to get our costumes for this years upcoming halloween events. After looking around the store, finding what I needed, we checked out. At the register, the lady asked if I wanted to donate $1 to a local children's hospital. Of course I did, it was just a dollar, but adding my name to that wall with others who also pledged the same...made me feel pretty good. Tanisha and Abijah also donated with me!

5. Held the door for everyone that needed it one day.

On Monday, I spent a few extra seconds holding the door for people around campus. It's not a big thing, but people really do appreciate it. Plus, I got to share a smile with people on a Monday...which we all know aren't everyone's favorite days!

6. Gave one of my residents a piece of pie for his birthday.

One of my residents of my floor had his birthday this week. On Monday, I went shopping for food and such and grabbed a caramel apple pie from meijer (because I wanted to give it a try of course!). I remembered it was his birthday, so when I sliced it, I grabbed a paper plate and took him a piece too. He was thrilled and thoroughly enjoyed it.

7. Brightened one of my coworker's day

One of my coworkers was having a bad day yesterday, poor thing. So I gave her my ear and some pudding and helped her feel better. All in a good days work!

2 Random Acts

So it's giving October. And it's been an interesting few days. But I did catch up on a couple acts of kindness!

1. Caught up on birthday posts.

So as I know it's my birth month, I know how awesome it feels when your friends fill up your wall with well wishes that you have lived another year. But these past few days I have had internet issues, little time and such to get on there. One of my ongoing acts of kindness will be to make sure to tell every other October baby to have a happy birthday. This includes those I missed. So I wrote a quick apology, wrote a nice happy birthday and went on my merry way! I hope that even my late message will bring a little smile to their face.

2. Random Wall Messages

So, I also know, as an avid Facebook user, just how awesome getting a random message from a friend on your wall. You log on, see that little red "1" and wonder what's going on. Then you see that someone you did expect has written on your wall and you light up with a smile. Sometimes you continue a conversation with that person to see how they are, sometimes you just give them a nice thank you. Either way, you both get a smile!

I went to my friend's list and just picked 10ish people at random. Feels good!

Month of Giving

I know I'm a tad late getting this up and going...but it's been an interesting couple of days.

So I got this idea from a fellow blogger and I tweaked it to make it my own. 

In my family, we have what are called birth months. Basically, the month that you are born during is a cause for celebration. For me, I spend the month of October getting together with friends, going out to dinner and just having a lot of fun. 

So back to this idea. The blogger stated that for her 33rd birthday she decided to do 33 random acts of kindness on her birthday for people. So, for my purposes to make it a bit easier in general, I plan on doing 22 random acts of kindness throughout the month. AND I am going to be taking photos and talking about it all month on here! Be ready for some new posts!

Why 22? Well, I will be 22 on October 15th! And well, 22 isn't one of those exciting birthdays like 21, or 25. But I AM alive and I think that is a reason to celebrate! I am inviting anyone who wants to join me to do it. Basically, being nice to your fellow man makes you feel good and we all need some feel good this time of year. 

Want to join but don't have any idea what to do? Here are some ideas:

• Donate used books to the local library
• Give Blood
• Buy someone lunch (better yet, give a homeless person what may be their one meal. It doesn't have to be anything expensive.)
• Visit a nursing home for an afternoon
• Bring some balloons/stuffed animals to sick kids
• Help someone whose car broke down on the side of the road
• Rake leaves/do yard work for an elderly neighbor
• Hold the door for someone
• Let someone cut you in line
• Write (and mail!) a letter to someone who made a difference in your life. If you know their email and want to do that instead, do that! It'll bring a smile to their face.
• Call a family member you haven't talked to in awhile
• Volunteer at some kind of community agency (animal shelter, soup kitchen, etc.)
• Write a letter to a soldier! 

There are a bunch of ideas on this website to get the juices flowing! 

And if you have a facebook, you can join the event here. It's public, share it with your friends! Feel free to share stories all month long!

And have fun! I plan to. Hope to hear some great stories!