How I Spent my 30th Birthday Weekend - Birthday 2012

I know, I know this is kind of later than I had wanted but other things got in the way.

If you remember, my birthday was October 21 and I was doing 30 random acts of kindness in honor of my 30th birthday that weekend. Below is a list with pictures (when I had them) and a little bit more about exactly what I did. As I'm sure you'll notice when you get to the end of the list, I didn't quite make it to 30. That's ok though! There were still many, many great things done that weekend.

1. Let someone go ahead at the store

2. Gave caramel corn and a card to the neighbor to thank her for being such a good neighbor - She was very appreciative of it!

3. Gave directions to someone who asked

4. Slowed down to let someone cross the street in the rain

5. Avoided a puddle so someone wouldn't get splashed

6. Held the door for multiple people

7. Took my husband homemade tortillas at work

8. Offered my seat to someone waiting at a restaurant - She declined, but I still offered

9. Let someone go first in traffic

10. Gave a cart to someone at Walmart

11. Left pennies heads up to give good luck - I left these in random places while walking from my car to the wedding reception I went to on the 20th. On the way back after the reception several of the pennies were still where I left them, but some of them were gone.

12. Got cake for someone at a wedding reception

13. Mailed a card for a friend telling her how amazing she is as a friend

14. Picked up an application for someone

15. Bought a doughnut for my aunt

16. Left cards on cars - The cards said things like "Have a great day" and other encouraging messages. Most were left on cars at the local hospital that had been there multiple days in a row.

17. Moved a smashed candy bar so someone didn't step on it

18. Left coupons for free McDonald's items on a pop machine - I left a couple on one of the pop machines I left an envelope of change on.

19. Gave coupons for free McDonald's items to kids at church - They were really too little to understand what it was but the parents were quite excited

20. Left money on pop machines - There was $1.25 in quarters in the envelope and it says "Random Act of Kindness - Enjoy a drink on me." One was left on a pop machine near a local walking trail and another on a pop machine at a local park.

21. Stopped to let a squirrel cross the road

This squirrel seriously sat there for about 5 minutes. He didn't flinch at all for a friendly honk. We waited until he finally moved to keep going (we were at a stop sign).

22. Asked someone if they needed help at the store

23. Bought coffee for my mom/a cop

24. Genuinely wished people to have a good day

25. Handed out cards at grocery store

26. Stopped to let a farm truck pass on a country road

27. Made copies for my aunt

28.

29.

30.

As you can see I didn't quite get to 30. While I was initially bummed out a bit, I made my peace with it and it's ok. I still made a difference in the lives of more than 30 people - there were many cards handed out and many people wished a good day even though I counted them as 1 act each. I'm thinking about maybe trying to do something like this every year. I probably won't do 31 next year and 32 the next, but I will probably try to make an effort to help out others on my birthday each year.

Birthday RAK Weekend - Birthday 2012

In case you're wondering what this is all about, you can read my original post about it here. Once you're up to speed, just continue reading this post.

First, I want to thank you so much for helping me celebrate my 30th birthday. 30 (and anything above it) tends to be an age no one really wants to be, but I've decided to take what some consider a depressing birthday and find the good in it. How? By doing random acts of kindness (RAKs) for others all weekend long.

How can you help? By doing a RAK or two yourself! My goal is that I will do 30 RAKs by myself or with my family and if I could get 30 other people to do just one RAK, there would be 60 good deeds done in the world in honor of my birthday.

Here's the "official invite" to my birthday celebration and below it is the form you'll need to fill out to tell me all about the great thing(s) you've done this weekend to help others!

This form will be available through Wednesday, October 24 so that I can compile a list of all the great things and get them into a blog post to share with everyone.

Also, sorry if the form appears a bit large, I wasn't sure how to resize it.



Thanks again!

Just 1 week left! - Birthday 2012

I hope you've all been thinking up some great RAK ideas - I know I have!

You may have already seen my last couple of posts asking for help with my birthday this year. If you have, you can just skip this post as it's pretty much just a reminder. If you haven't, keep reading to find out how you can help me celebrate my birthday this year.

A while ago while on Pinterest, I saw a pin with a link to this blog and this particular post about a woman who celebrated her 38th birthday with 38 (mostly) random acts of kindness. Simply put, this lady is amazing. I know there are others who have done similar things before and since her post, but hers was the one I found first. I was really taken back by the generosity of others and to be quite honest I was inspired to want to do this for my birthday this year (and really, what better way to celebrate a milestone birthday so many get sad about).

And now here is where you come in. I need your help to get to 60. 60? Yep, 60. I will be doing 30 myself and I'd like to have 30 more random acts done by others as well - not 30 each, just 1 or 2 if you're feeling so inclined.

So how will this work?

It should be very easy peasy to be honest and if it's not, you're trying too hard.

All I'm asking is that at some point during that weekend, you take a moment out of your day to randomly help someone who needs it. If you're really wanting to help a lot, you may want to have a "plan B" in case no opportunities present themselves randomly. If you want some ideas, a quick Internet search for "random acts of kindness" or even "birthday random acts of kindness" will give you plenty of ideas.

During that weekend, I will have a blog post up explaining all of this again. The post will also have something (I'm not sure exactly what yet) that will allow you to fill out a little form telling me about the random act(s) of kindness you did over the weekend (and maybe include a picture if I can figure it out). At some point during the following week I will have a post up sharing all of the wonderful things we were able to do for others during that weekend.

If you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to ask them here. Hope you're already getting ideas and I can't wait to see how you help others!

An update to the last post, which I mostly just copy and pasted here as a reminder: I have figured out a way to make a form for people to submit their RAKs for that weekend. It will be included in a blog post that will go up Friday, October 19 at 12:30 am EST (the time all my previously scheduled posts go up). You will be able to tell me about the RAKs you do that weekend using that form and I will compile them into a nifty blog post (maybe 2 if there are enough) to share with everyone the following week.

I'm so excited to hear about what everyone does to help someone else!

Just 2 weeks until my birthday and I still need help!

You may have already seen my post a couple of weeks ago asking for help with my birthday this year. If you have, you can just skip this post as it's pretty much just a reminder. If you haven't, keep reading to find out how you can help me celebrate my birthday this year.

A while ago while on Pinterest, I saw a pin with a link to this blog and this particular post about a woman who celebrated her 38th birthday with 38 (mostly) random acts of kindness. Simply put, this lady is amazing. I know there are others who have done similar things before and since her post, but hers was the one I found first. I was really taken back by the generosity of others and to be quite honest I was inspired to want to do this for my birthday this year (and really, what better way to celebrate a milestone birthday so many get sad about).

And now here is where you come in. I need your help to get to 60. 60? Yep, 60. I will be doing 30 myself and I'd like to have 30 more random acts done by others as well - not 30 each, just 1 or 2 if you're feeling so inclined.

So how will this work?

It should be very easy peasy to be honest and if it's not, you're trying too hard.

All I'm asking is that at some point during that weekend, you take a moment out of your day to randomly help someone who needs it. If you're really wanting to help a lot, you may want to have a "plan B" in case no opportunities present themselves randomly. If you want some ideas, a quick Internet search for "random acts of kindness" or even "birthday random acts of kindness" will give you plenty of ideas.

During that weekend, I will have a blog post up explaining all of this again. The post will also have something (I'm not sure exactly what yet) that will allow you to fill out a little form telling me about the random act(s) of kindness you did over the weekend (and maybe include a picture if I can figure it out). At some point during the following week I will have a post up sharing all of the wonderful things we were able to do for others during that weekend.

If you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to ask them here. Hope you're already getting ideas and I can't wait to see how you help others!

An update to the last post, which I mostly just copy and pasted here as a reminder: I have figured out a way to make a form for people to submit their RAKs for that weekend. It will be included in a blog post that will go up Friday, October 19 at 12:30 am EST (the time all my previously scheduled posts go up). You will be able to tell me about the RAKs you do that weekend using that form and I will compile them into a nifty blog post (maybe 2 if there are enough) to share with everyone the following week.

Can't wait to see how everyone helps out!

It's almost my birthday...and I need your help

In just one short month (on October 21) I will be 30. The big 3-0. No longer in the 20s. I trust you can keep this a secret, right? So next year when I'm magically 29 again no one else will be any the wiser?

Thanks.

Now that we've got that out of the way, on to the "real" point of this post.

I need your help. Yes, you (and also anyone you care to recruit to help in this project of sorts I'm about to explain).

A while ago while on Pinterest, I saw a pin with a link to this blog and this particular post about a woman who celebrated her 38th birthday with 38 (mostly) random acts of kindness. Simply put, this lady is amazing. I know there are others who have done similar things before and since her post, but hers was the one I found first. I was really taken back by the generosity of others and to be quite honest I was inspired to want to do this for my birthday this year (and really, what better way to celebrate a milestone birthday so many get sad about).

And now here is where you come in. I need your help to get to 60. 60? Yep, 60. I will be doing 30 myself and I'd like to have 30 more random acts done by others as well - not 30 each, just 1 or 2 if you're feeling so inclined.

Here's your official invite to help out:

So how will this work?

It should be very easy peasy to be honest and if it's not, you're trying too hard.

All I'm asking is that at some point during that weekend, you take a moment out of your day to randomly help someone who needs it. If you're really wanting to help a lot, you may want to have a "plan B" in case no opportunities present themselves randomly. If you want some ideas, a quick Internet search for "random acts of kindness" or even "birthday random acts of kindness" will give you plenty of ideas.

During that weekend, I will have a blog post up explaining all of this again. The post will also have something (I'm not sure exactly what yet) that will allow you to fill out a little form telling me about the random act(s) of kindness you did over the weekend (and maybe include a picture if I can figure it out). At some point during the following week I will have a post up sharing all of the wonderful things we were able to do for others during that weekend.

If you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to ask them here. Hope you're already getting ideas and I can't wait to see how you help others!