Week 29 - Teach a Class...Success!

Growing up, I always said I wanted to be a teacher. A teacher in a school, besides a mom teaching her children as they grow. And this week, I had the opportunity to teach a class!

My class just before the photowalk.

Through the power of social networking, I ended up being asked to share my knowledge of photography this summer. I called it "Simple & Sweet Photography Basics." I decided to do a brief overview on aperture, depth of field, ISO, and shutter speed, with touching on night photography and ending with a photowalk at sunset.

I was astounded that so many people showed up! The class of 20 people filled the little room for my presentation. The photographers who came ranged in skill from beginners to advanced hobbyists, and I hope that I was able to share something new with each person.

During the photowalk, I had the opportunity to talk with most of the attendees and answer any questions they had while they took pictures. It was definitely a great benefit to be able to show them hands on what I had just explained during the presentation.

I am showing a new photographer how to get a good composition.

Self portrait at the end of the night.

The next day, I learned there were many others who had wanted to come but couldn't make it. Looks like I just need to start doing the workshops on a regular basis.

Week 28 - Give a Shower...Success!

Just knowing you are clean is refreshing to the mind and spirit. This week we were able to finally hand out one of our homeless bags.

We had decided that today was Noah day during vacation, and Noah chose to go to the Cardinal's baseball game for his special activity. We grabbed some nearly nothing tickets from StubHub, printed them off, grabbed snacks from Walgreens, and we were on our way.

When we arrived at the parking lot, there was no one there...we were too late to pay for parking. Sweet! A benefit of arriving at the bottom of the 2nd inning when the heat index is 111F degrees.

We had picked up some seats in the nosebleed section - on purpose. We were completely in the shade, with a nice breeze since we were in the second row from the top. It was actually pretty pleasant watching the game. All the boys love going to the game, and this was Jacob's first St. Louis Cardinals game.

It came down to the bottom of the 9th inning, with 2 outs, and the Cardinals made some fabulous hits to win the game. Quite exciting!

I still had my homeless bags with me, and we were on the lookout for someone to give one to on our walk back to our vehicle. This man looked like he had been blessed already, with a plate of food on his lap and others handing him a few things, but we gave him a bag anyway. The gentleman high fived the boys and was very appreciative of the items. When I asked to take his photo, he gave me a salute.

Week 27 - Share Some Sweets...Success!

We got all moved in to the new place - woo hoo! There is no way we could have done it so smoothly and efficiently without the help of wonderful friends and family, though. So to show them how much we appreciated their help, I ordered each family who helped us a package of handmade delicousness - gourmet flavor cupcakes from our local cupcake boss.

The flavors we chose were S'mores, Blueberry Cheesecake, Chocolate Passion, and Fully Loaded 2.0 (basically a Reese's Peanut Butter Cups). The cupcake boss even wrapped them in ribbon for me and added a thank you tag - she was just fabulous!

Then, we hand delivered each box of yumminess to the families. They were quite surprised when we showed up on their doorsteps with the sweet goodies. But now, I get cravings for the gourmet cupcakes (of course I had to sample some before giving them away to make sure they were good enough!)...tonight I had attempted to eat half of a Mississippi Mud...and ended up eating the whole thing.

Week 26 - Help a Proposal...Success!

How often do you get a chance to help a stranger propose to his girlfriend...in a flash mob?

We are halfway through the year, and this week, my sister Emily and I happily undertook the random act of kindness. We both think a well done flash mob is pretty awesome, so when I stumbled upon the Flash Mob America Facebook page, I signed up for their newsletter so I would know if and when there would be a flash mob in the St. Louis area.

The flash mob announcement was just a week from the event date, so there wasn't much time to prepare. I registered on the event page and was sent a You Tube video of the dance moves to practice during the week. Well, it was just a week before our move to the new house, so I spent a whole 5 minutes watching the video - it looked pretty simple.

So Saturday morning, we headed down the the Forest Park area for the rehearsal and spent several hours with nearly 100 people, learning the dance moves together. After a quick run to Taco Bell, we headed over to the secret location - the St. Louis Zoo.

Since it was Saturday, the parking was packed - we ended up parking on the far side of the Art Museum and hoofing it pretty quickly down to the zoo and across to the other side where the flash mob would take place. And, it was hot...REALLY hot.

We were there at the designated time and got into place...then waited...and waited...and waited for our cue. Thankfully, we hid out in the shade and sipped our Taco Bell drinks.

Then 5 minutes past 2:00 pm, the couple showed up, and the cue was given...here is a video of the event (we are both wearing blue tops):

And just like that, she said "yes" and we headed home.

Week 25 - Support Missions...Success!

So the next week was Vacation Bible School at our church. And one of the activities of VBS is for the children to bring in an offering. This year, the collection would go towards a local family headed to Mexico to take care of an orphanage.

Monday morning, when I picked the boys up from class, Joey was quite animated...he wanted to do some extra chores right away. This was a little unusual for him to be volunteering to do extra work around the house, though.

When I asked him why he wanted extra chores, he replied that he wanted to earn some extra money. So he wanted big jobs, like cleaning the windows, he said. Then he explained about the family that was going to Mexico to help the kids who did not have parents.

Boy, was I proud of him. Joey not only wanted to give money from his own savings, but he wanted extra work to earn even more money to give. So, I found a few extra chores that needed to be done that day. :)

Week 24 - Extra Tip...Success!

I realize I haven't been diligent in writing each week with the big move to a new house, but that doesn't mean we haven't continued the project. Thankfully, it hasn't been difficult in finding an act of random kindness to do while we have been going through a crazier time than normal. 

 

So, backing up to week 24, which is mid June...

On Father's Day, we drove into St. Louis to finish up a lot of our shopping we had to complete for the new house we were moving into in just 2 weeks. The biggest purchase for the day was two televisions...Mike's Father's Day present I guess we could say.

But for lunch, Mike had his choice. We were in a large shopping area that was surrounded by many, many restaurants. I knew he wanted to choose Chik-Fil-A, but it was Sunday, so they were closed. But the boys' favorite restaurant, IHOP, was open next door. The great dad he is, Mike surprised the boys and stopped at IHOP.

Since we had not done our random act of kindness yet for the week, I mentioned it to the boys as we were finishing up our lunch of pancakes and eggs. To my delight, Noah immediately suggested to give a little extra tip to the waitress.

I was proud of him - because he then pulled out his own wallet and withdrew a dollar of his own money. I had not asked him if he would contribute. Joey then immediately did the same and placed an extra dollar on the table.

I know an extra $2 tip in addition to our normal tip doesn't sound like much...however, if you had looked into the boys' wallets and seen that the $1 was 20% of Joey's cash savings, it becomes quite a bit. I hope our waitress was blessed that Sunday afternoon.

Week 23 - Give a Drink...Succes!

So this last week, I had a short list of ideas so I wouldn't forget about our project again. I wanted to do something simple that the boys would be participating in, not just me.

On Friday, we decided to "give a drink" to random people.

There are only two spots in town that I know of with vending machines (besides the community college and schools), one on each end of town.

First, we went to Wal-Mart to pick up masking tape and get some change. When we got outside, I pulled my Sharpie marker from my purse and wrote on the masking tape. Then, Noah stuck the quarters to the tape, and we pressed the whole thing onto the machine. Nobody noticed us.

20 oz. bottles for $1.25 each

Next, we stopped at a local pharmacy. We took care of our little routine, and again, no one noticed us. I was hoping to see someone walk up to the soda machine before we left, but no luck there.

12 oz. cans for 50 cents each

Today we stopped at the pharmacy to get a couple cans of soda, and the quarters were gone. I don't know if one person took all our quarters, or if they were used one by one, but it was definitely fun to stick them up on the machines!