the birthday project.

so awhile ago..i got wind of the birthday project.

i don't know about you...but i hate my birthday. i dunno why. but i do.

and thirty is one of those that hits hard...(for me)

so i thought on my birthday i could either
a. lay in bed all day and think about how crappy 30 is and then get mad at my husband for not catering to my every unpractical whim that i have. (like having an entire bowl of marshmallows maties (minus maties) for breakfast...it's a dream of mine)

or b.
I could go around and spend my day doing 30 acts of service.

a was tempting...but i choose b.

I have actually been planning it out for months...MONTHS! i got my kids involved and we made numerous list of things to do (they really got into it)

(you should know something about me...i'm super shy in real life. okay. not shy..let's try..socially awkward. i don't do good in settings with people i don't know. in involves a lot of awkward silences--so this whole idea is really going out of my comfort zone)

so the two weeks prior to my birthday we are really cracking down and trying to get all 30 things to do (we came up with 20 pretty easy..the last ten were difficult)
and i would pull up to the taco bell drive through and the girl that took my money was so stinking polite....and i would think, oh..if only this was my birthday I could tell her manager what a fantastic job she is doing.  which is dumb. i totally should still do it. birthday or not. it's kinda an eye opener. so many simple opportunities to spread some love.

so without further ado...my 30 acts of niceties:
1.
I bought a bag of suckers (and made them cute...) then we took them around walmart (my kids were soo shy and wouldn't give any out) so i had to be the weird lady that was handing out suckers. basically if we saw a kid we asked them if they wanted a sucker (and no one turned us down!) my kids hate walmart (and joanns) so we thought the moms would appreciate a little treat for their kids!

bought some cute notecards to
2. write a few (way overdue) notes of thanks
and 3. i gave a package to a lady that always gives the sweetest thank you cards (she even mails them old school way)

4. I got my skirts all ready to mail to the foster program it was a saturday so i couldn't mail them..but i did get them off on monday!

5. for my mail lady.....I get loads of packages and when i do i spy swaps i get at least 9 packages a week mailed to me....this sweet lady always brings it to my door. i secretly think she hates me!

(i got a card back from her)

6. hope your day doesn't stink (these candles where only a dollar at walmart)

i left one on our table when we were done at panda express and handed one to the lady at the maverick

7. I got a pile of these ready and left them in shopping carts...(luckily we went all over town so we just left one everywhere we went.....)

random sidenote: i was going to return all the carts to the store...and no carts were running around stray. so  i didn't get a chance!

8.

see this poor sucker with the sign against his head? most time you pass those people who are throwing the sign and dancing...and i passed this guy (ashley's furniture is  have 30% off sale) and i thought, well he sucks at this. but then i thought. i would suck too if I was out in 93 degree weather on a corner...with a giant sign. so we (my 4 year old actually walked over and gave him some candy) (he had a giant water jug) and told him to have a great day. (he said thanks and looked REALLY surprised)

9. luckily someone at church just had a baby so i was able to make them dinner ....

10. i made these i love you note cards and snuck one in my husbands lunch bag for work..

(which he wrote back a love note)

and I put one on my best friends car while she was at work

(she is a 911 dispatcher so i was at  the police station and i was nervous that it would look suspicious if i was cruising the parking lot and then stopping and leaving a package on someones car (it was redvines) 

no arrests though so we are all good.

11. holy. this one was my personal favorite. i was trying a shirt on at shopko dressing room and the girl next to me was school shopping with her mom and was having a hard go at it. like 15 shirts. and i thought..this is where you need some encouragement the most....

i think i will do this for every dressing room i'm in!

12. so don't let this picture fool you. I went in this quiet little play area at the mall with a roll of quarters..and i swear those kids smelled them cause they came from miles around...(this was one of my  kids suggestions...such a good idea! i hate wasting money at this place!)

13. and since we were at the mall we left quarters in the all the gum ball machines...

14. and a pile of money at the weird twisty thing..(does your mall have one too?)

15. gave this "old fart" (his sign said help an old fart) my last $3 (in my wallet...)

16. weird picture i know..

while we were in walmart passing out suckers, my husband went to get a new steering wheel cover (mine is melting...really) and there was a tan and gray one..and i said i think the gray matches and he says...the tan is closer....so he buys the tan.

and when we get to the car i say, You were right, it is closer to tan"

and he tells me, "did you just say i was right? you need to add that to your list of good deeds.

so i am. lol.

17. we also spend the day at the ballpark cause he had a softball tournament..all..day..and it was hot.

but i got to pass leftover suckers to the poor kids that were dragged there! (and when the suckers ran out we started with gum!)

 18.

left some lottery tickets on the gas pump...i totally wanted to sit and watch to see who would get them but we had to go to husband's next game...

19. i took a pile of stuff to the thrift store (and if you know me...this was hard as i'm a hoarder!)

20. this one was a super fun one....we took some dollars and hid them around the dollar store...my kids ALWAYS ask for stuff that i never buy...and if they found a dollar they would be in heaven!

21. at the dollar store we bought some crayons and coloring books and left them in the waiting room at the hospital. no picture. cause i forgot. sue me.

22. AND while at the dollar store i picked up a few balloons (my intention was to give them to some one at the hospital...but i didn't make it out of the store with them...we passed them out to a few kids that were looking at them like they were the last food on earth....i don't know what it is with kids and balloons!

had to google this picture...i thought i would get a picture of the balloons before we dropped them off!

23. happy hour. paid for the truck's order behind me. it took the sonic girl a little while before she understood what i was trying to do. still fun

24. i made a bunch of printables

and basically left them around stores.. i wasn't brave enough to hand them to people...

25. I'm a quote nut...so i made some of my favorite quotes and saying and just basic have a great day ones....

and here i was right by the movie theater ....and i was thinking of what happened in colorado..and it made me sad..so i thought i would put these on the windshield of the movie goers cars....maybe restore faith in humanity kinda thing...

26. so. i get home...and animal control is there. (happy birthday right!) turns out our dog *may* have bitten another dog from down the street. (i say may cause our dog is super sweet and is so animal/person friendly and i've never seen her aggressive at all....) and since i wasn't there to witness the "biting" i don't know if it was instigated or not....(spiel over)

the people where SUPER awesome about it...didn't want to press charges and they covered the vet bill..they just wanted animal control to be aware of it. so we haggled the super nice guy at animal control to give us the guys name and address and we took him some banana bread and apologized....

27.when the sun was going down...we took off with our rubber gloves and picked up some trash...each of us filled a walmart bag full!

28. redbox! ( i saw this somewhere and i loved the idea...)

got together a little movie night package (popcorn pop and candy) and left it on the top of the redbox

29. as i'm driving down the road this guy has a box of crap fall off the top of his car..good karma for me. bad karma for him.

i put on my hazards and helped him pick it all up...he kept saying, this is why i love pocatello, people are just so nice here.

and 30. 

quality time with my kids...

on my birthday i usually pawn my kids off on whoever will take them so i can go on a "date" with husband.

this year i hung out with them and played games...

mission accomplished. it wasn't as hard as i thought...the hardest part was remembering to get pictures of it all.

but really..it's an eye opener to all the little things we could do through out the day that would hardly take any time or effort that would make someones day extra special!

Psst...i've got all the printables available to you HERE!!!!

and if you need anymore good deed ideas...you can go here--cheri keeps things in check at her blog and gives us weekly things to work on!