35 Things

Tomorrow I turn 35.
So exciting, right?
Talk about total mom jeans.
Turning 35 is kind of a bummer (only 5 more years until 40. AAAAAHHH!).
So, I decided to do something positive...more precisely 35 positive somethings.
I jumped on the Random Acts of Kindness bandwagon and decided to do 35 nice things before my birthday tomorrow.


Amazingly I was able to fit most of them into this week...though there were a few good deeds I counted that happened a week or two ago. I freaking saved a big ole' snapper turtle. I had to put that on my list...especially since it bit my toe, and I stopped traffic in both directions.

A bunch of the nice things involved people I know and love, but there were other completely random deeds. (I got a lot of the ideas from The Birthday Project. A Florida woman started the whole idea on her 40th birthday and blogged about it.)

Here are some highlights.

• Left a handful of quarters at the local laundrymat. The two woman in there looked at me a bit bewildered, but thanked me before I left.
• Gave water bottles to two construction workers, who kind of acted like this had happened before.
• Paid for the guy behind me at Starbucks. This was hilarious because the cashier asked me if I thought the guy was cute. "Umm. No. It's just my birthday."
• Donated a bag of dog food to an animal shelter. Scott said this one shouldn't count because I gave the kids false hope about getting a dog. Ooops.
• Left a note to the mailman about how much I appreciate his service. Cheesy? Yes. But, maybe it made his day?
• Gave a McDonald's gift card to a family at McDonald's. Considering we don't eat at McDonald's it was fairly easy to give away the gift card Johnny had received from preschool and it made the family happy.
• Taped money to the vending machine at the YMCA with a note. This was kind of funny because at first no one really wanted to open the note, but it was gone when I came back the next day.
• Returned all the wayward carts at Trader Joe's. Why the heck do people just leave carts haphazardly in the parking lot and in handicapped parking spaces?? Drives me nuts.
• Handed water bottles to trash collectors on a super hot day. They were the most surprised and thankful of everyone.

The best part of my little project was getting the kids involved. Julie loved thinking of ideas and decided to write beautiful notes to her teachers and a family friend who was diagnosed with Cancer.
Just shows turning 35 can be positive, right??