More Birthday... 

 Last Weekend was the birthday wrap-up.

 Cole is holding Baby Lillie.  He was fine until she let out a squack.  Then he was DONE.

 Summer is lighting the candles and Cole is dying to get his hands on that tool.

 get ready to sing...

It was a joint party since it was right between my birthday and Jon's birthday.

Jon's favorite is Lemon Meringue Pie.  I caught Cole just as he tried to blow out the candles.

 The H party was on Saturday.

On Sunday, I hosted the R family for dinner at my house.  

It was one week after my birthday, and one week before my brothers, so it was to be a joint party as well, but (surprise, surprise) my brother didn't show up.

Everyone else came and it was so much fun.  

I love hanging with my family.  

Too bad we don't get together more often.

Thanks Everyone!

a RAOK for me (among other RAOKs) from a friend

And then I have to mention the RAOK's.

We started this a few weeks back.

I was trying to do 38/42 Random Acts of Kindness before my birthday and invited anyone who wanted to join in to do so.

At first I was keeping a list and trying to do something different each day.

But, then it got hard to be original and I just started resorting to writing thank you notes when I couldn't find anything kind to do.

My list includes (but is not limited to)...

playing trains with Cole when I had other things on my to-do list

taking cookies to Larry + others

just waving to random people as we spent nearly all day in the car

gave a small quilt to the homeless shelter

put some change in a cup at a gas station in Idaho for a family who lost their father in October

wrote lots of Thank You notes (some were anonymous, some not)

cancelled YW on Valentines Day (you are welcome, Amara)

took bread to 6 different people

and the list goes on...

The best part about it was including the kids and having them help find things to RAOK.

We use that word all of the time now.

Cole responds more to the phrase "soft hearted" because of a past FHE lesson.

So, we have used both phrases.

Rick isn't the warm, fuzzy type but he would always look for opportunities to pay for a drink or leave a tip for someone.

Here is my favorite thing that we did (probably because it hit close to home for me with the whole 13 year fast food career of mine, and all...):

We were in St. George on President's Day and we told the kids that we would go get something to eat.  I warned them that it was a notoriously busy day in the fast food world in St. George with about 100,000 people in town for soccer games and holiday traffic.  But, we all agreed that we weren't in a big hurry and that we could handle a long wait if necessary.

We decided to go to 5 Guys Burgers & Fries.

It was packed.  But, they were moving fairly quickly.

Once we ordered we tried to find a place to sit down and we ended up outside because there were no empty tables.  We watched for a table to open up and found one just as our order was ready.  There was a young man that was taking care of the dining room.  He was hustling around wiping tables, emptying trash, and sweeping the floor.  He was so polite.  It drives me crazy to watch other customers when it's really busy in a situation like this.  

People will grumble and complain.  

They'll send their burger back to the kitchen because it came with pickles and they ordered it WITHOUT pickles when it would be much easier and faster to just lift the bun and remove the darn pickle.  

People complaining about dirty tables or long waits.

Clearly, people who have never been on the other side of the counter.

I recognize the looks on all of the worker's faces, like "how can I move any faster?  will people please stop complaining. STOP time for just a minute so I can finally get caught up!!!, etc."

Our food was served relatively quickly,

it was hot,

it was correct,

and everyone that we had contact with was polite.

So, I finished my lunch and wrote them a note.

I asked the dining room attendant who was the "person most in charge".

He pointed out Steve, but Steve was in the back and not close enough for me to give the note to personally.

So, I asked the dining room attendant if he would pass the note along to Steve.  I stayed around long enough to see that my note made it to Steve.  

He didn't open it immediately.  Having received my fair share of letters from customers on super busy, crazy days, I'm sure Steve was expecting that it was surely a letter of complaint.

I had written a fairly detailed note of thanks and praise to everyone and everything that we could think of.  I surely hope that Steve eventually opened the letter and shared it rather than sending it to File 13.  

Rick was so impressed with the attitude and service and hard work of the crew that he wanted to go out and get all of the employees a gift card or something but I told him that we still need to fund some college savings plans and such so he decided that the letter would have to do this time.

This was my favorite ROAK because we all wrote the letter together.  The kids (my 3, plus a friend)  helped point out all of the good things that we experienced and how hard everyone was working to make our experience pleasant.

And also because experience tell me that for every one complimentary letter that these people receive, they have probably already gotten about 20 negative letters or complaints.  Who knows?  Probably more.

I also hesitated to write about this whole RAOK thing because I didn't really want it to end and by writing about it, it seemed like the project would come to a close.  But, I hope the opposite is true and that this is just the beginning because what goes around comes around.

For example, I taught a combined YW lesson in February about being happy.

This topic of Random Acts of Kindness, as well as writing notes of thanks, came up in a round about sort of way.

And what do you know, but 2 days later

I got some LOVE mail from one of the YW.

It was the cutest thing ever.  Made my day.

I think I might frame it.

And another friend noticed my post on FACEBOOK about my decorative flower planter bike being stolen out of my front yard.

She reported to me that she was on the lookout for my bike.  And she also texted her dad who works at a metal recycle place to be on the lookout for this bike because it was stolen.  I guess they see a lot of stolen things come in that people have stolen and try to turn in for cash. :(

And how sweet is this...

another friend emailed me a poem to go along nicely with my romantic trip to Canada:

Walt Whitman's "Song of the Open Road":

AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good fortune;
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road. Let the RAOKs continue...Bake more Cinnamon Roll Bread Everyone!!