32 for 32

So, it's been about a year since I last posted on this thing... it's the only way I could think to compile an easily accessible list for the Random Acts of Kindness. As most of you know, RAOK started for my 30th birthday (as a way to not be depressed about getting old, ha!) I had such a great experience with it, that I decided to make it a yearly tradition.  Here are the 32 things for this year.

1. mail Valentine's Day cards to military hospital
2. mail Valentine's Day cards to children's hospital
3. Donuts/kolaches to police department
4. tape coins to vending machine
5. tape coins to coke machine
6. recycle newspapers/magazines at Try 2 Recycle
7. recycle water bottles at city recycling center
8. cookies to firemen
9. thank you note w/ candy left for mailman (he left me a sweet note!)
10. clothes to pregnancy care center
11. cookies to university police department
12. tape coins to washer at laundry mat
13. Valentine's Day cards for nursing home
14. cookies for nurses at nursing home
15. pizza to Huntsville State Park guard shack employees (they were awesome and remembered us   from last year!)
16. cookies to a neighbor
17. clothes to the C.O.M.E. Center
18. Starbucks card to random person
19. left money prepaid on gas pump
20. coloring books & crayons to hospital
21. flowers to hospital
22. cookies for nurses at hospital
23. scratch off lottery ticket to random person
24. dog food to Rita B. Huff animal shelter
25. food to the mission
26. pay for the next person in line (I did this at Starbucks)
27. diapers for Parent's Day Out at the church.
28. leave a large tip
29. cookies to EMS (he was super nice and gave us a tour of the station :) )
30. senior center donation (I did this Friday at lunch- dropped off a bunch of snacks)
31. clothes to Goodwill
32. cookies to Veteran's Museum

As per last year, there are several items that are pretty much consistent from year to year. I'm trying to branch out, it's just hard to come up with stuff being in such a small town. If you have any ideas feel free to let me know! I could not have done it without my mom baking cookies for me on Friday and Isabel and her awesome niece Bren helping on Saturday, so thank you!! I really enjoy doing this each year and hope to continue it for many more to come.

Hopefully I've inspired you to start your own RAOK project! It doesn't have to be anything huge, just whatever you have time/the means to do. It's a very rewarding way to give back to your community, I know you will love it as much as I do!

Have a great week!

xoxo,
kris

31for31

Birthday weekend has come and gone and with it, my random acts of kindness project. If you aren't familiar, read about how this started last year for my 30th birthday HERE. Since this wasn't my first rodeo, everything went by much more quickly than last year. I forgot to take any pictures to document, but that's ok, it's about doing it, not proving it. Here's the list of 31 things (some are the same as last year...)

1. deliver donuts & kolaches to the Police Station
2. tape money to vending machine
3. tape money to coke machine
4. recycle newspaper/magazines at Try2Recycle
5. recycle water bottles at the city recycling center
6. drop off dog food to the awesome husband & wife team that run a no kill shelter in Point Blank (they're at Tractor Supply the first Saturday of everything month!)
7. deliver cookies to the fire station
8. left thank you note and candy for mailman in the box
9. deliver cookies to EMS
10. drop off clothes at Goodwill
11. deliver cookies to University Police
12. left quarters taped to a machine at the laundry mat
13. mail Valentine's cards to the VA hospital
14. deliver Valentine's cards to the nursing home
15. deliver cookies to the nurses at the nursing home
16. Pizza to the State Park staff (the huge race was going on again and they were very happy for lunch!)
17. deliver cookies to a neighbor
18. return shopping carts (in the rain...)
19. give a Starbucks card to a stranger
20. left $20 prepaid at the gas station
21. deliver coloring books and crayons to the hospital
22. deliver cookies to the nurses at the hospital
23. deliver flowers to the hosiptal
24. give a stranger a scratch off lotto ticket
25. drop clothes off at the pregnancy care center
26. dog food to Rita B. Huff
27. deliver food to the mission
28. paid for the next person in line
29. diapers and wipes for church daycare
30. leave a large tip
31. Charity Water Page: http://my.charitywater.org/birthday-bash  - Donations can be made through March 31st. 100% of the proceeds go to fund a water well :)


I had a blast getting everything done and then spending the rest of the weekend with family and friends. Again, a huge shoutout to Isabel for waking up super early on her Saturday and doing all this stuff with me. Also, to my mom who is awesome and baked 17 dozen chocolate chip cookies for me on Friday. I couldn't have done this without them!

So far, 31 has been a fabulous year! I had supper Friday night with my sister and then went out with some old friends Saturday night- good times were had by all. Sunday, my actual birthday, was the Super Bowl so that was just awesome. I was going for the Seahawks (since my boys were out) and they win. I watched the game at my fav football watching spot the Prater's with Candy and had some yummy food! I even did a little work clothes shopping on Sunday afternoon before the game. This weekend was like the trifecta- birthday, Super Bowl, shopping. :D

I'm just really glad to be making the random acts of kindness a tradition. Hopefully I can influence some of you to start your own random acts of kindness as part of your routine.

Have a wonderul week!
xoxo,
kris

ideas.

Ok y'all, I've decided to make the birthday volunteering a tradition! If you haven't read my post about the 30 for 30 challenge, check it out here, it may inspire you to do something as well! I will have to keep adding on each year, obviously, since we grow older with each birthday UGH. So, this year I will be at 31. I know some of the deeds will be the same, but I would really like to find some new and creative ones to add. If you have any ideas, please let me know, I would love to hear them!

What already got me thinking about this is I saw a link for the Charity Water page via Twitter last week and they do a birthday campaign. PERFECT! If you haven't heard of Charity Water, you should definitely check them out. http://www.charitywater.org/ They raise funds for clean drinking water and allow anyone who wants to be a part of it to do so through their birthday. 100% of the funds raised through the birthday donations go to fund clean water projects. After the projects are complete, you can see the exact project you funded through photos and GPS. It's a pretty great organization and all you have to do is pledge your birthday and round up some donations.

This will fit in perfectly with my goal and is already #1 on my list. Hopefully I can impact a lot of people this way and inspire many more to get out and do some Random Acts of Kindness in their community - or just create a Charity Water page on their birthday and raise funds online! Man, I'm already super stoked about this and I still have another 10 months before I really need to get down to business. haha!

Hope everyone is having a fabulous week and looking forward to a wonderful Easter weekend ahead. And seriously y'all, send me any suggestions you have for my list!

xoxo,
kris

30for30!

For those of you that don't know, I turned 30 this weekend (GASP!) and had an absolute blast doing it! I decided back in December I wanted to do something really awesome to commemorate this event and really couldn't come up with anything. I had always thought about going to Vegas, however, it was Super Bowl weekend and airfare to the gambling capital of the U.S. was pretty pricy. I would have paid it to celebrate, but I definitely did not want to ask someone else to spend a ton of money just for my birthday- and who wants to go to Vegas alone right?

Like I said, this was in December and right around the time we started hearing a lot about people doing good deeds for random strangers. For example, paying for the person in line behind you at the drive-thru or something similar to that. This gave me an idea about doing some random acts of kindness for my birthday. I then remembered one of my fav celeb activists Sophia Bush used her 30th birthday last summer to do a project raising money to fund a school in another country. She called it the 30for30 project and raised $30,000 for her 30th to build that school. (well she actually had so many donation contributed to her fund that she raised $60k and built 2 schools!) Anyway, I decided to make my own 30for30 project. Let's be real, I don't have quite the following that a celebrity has so I opted to continue in the random acts of kindness direction and just make it a total of 30. And with that my 30for30 project was born. Over the month of January I compiled a list of things I wanted to get done, and with the help of my family and friends, I was able to come up with 30 things. I wanted to keep it local, to help the community here rather than venturing out, this proved rather difficult when coming up with 30 things, but by the end of January I had my list. Part of the mission was the complete all 30 random acts of kindness within that one day, 30 acts for 30 years. This meant the entire week before I was a busy bee getting things ready and then Friday night finalizing to make sure I had everything and the list was mapped out.

So, here are the 30 random acts of kindness! 

1. leave thank you note and candy bar in mailbox

2. deliver donuts to the police station

3. pay for the next person in line (we did this at a drive-thru)

4. recycle plastic bottles at the city recylcing center (next to the dump)
5. give donuts to the lady in the weigh shack at the dump (she sits out there all alone, so boring!)
6. leave money prepaid at a gas pump
7. tape money to vending machine
8. tape money to soda machine
9. recycle newspapers at the Try2Recycle by campus
10. took dog food to Rita B. Huff (the animal shelter)
11. a cookie package to University Police (Thanks for this one Mandy!!)
12. took dog food to an animal rescue shelter out of a home in Point Blank - they have 42 rescue dogs at their house! They are at Tractor Supply the 1st and 3rd Saturday of every month if you're interested in adopting.
13. a cookie package to a neighbor
14. a cookie package to EMS
15. a cookie package to the fire station
16. a cookie package to the sheriff's office
17. crayons/coloring books to the hospital
18. a cookie package for the nurses at the hospital
19. homemade flower bouquets in mason jars to the hospital
20. valentine's cards for a nursing home
21. a cookie package for the nurses/staff at the nursing home
22. made a monetary donation at the SAAFE House resale shop (they dont accept regular donations on Saturdays)
23. donated clothes to the C.O.M.E. Center
24. dropped food off at the Mission
25. returned shopping carts at Kroger (I thought this one might be pushing it, but they were actually out of carts and several ladies were waiting for them when I brought them in!)
26. a Starbucks gift card to a random person (gave it to the hospital receptionist, she was very sweet!)
27. left quarters at a laundry mat, tapped to a washing machine
28. donated diapers/wipes to a church that has a daycare program
29. took pizza to the State Park for the guard shack employees. (there was a HUGE race going on they were swamped and loved the pizza)
30. delivered school supplies to an elementary school teacher for her classroom and/or to share with other teachers.

I am so glad I decided to do this, maybe it'll become a tradition.. although coming up with more things could prove a little difficult. I could start the list now I guess! I had grand intentions of taking a ton of pictures but the day flew by and with getting everything to each place, I just plum forgot!
Here are a few that we managed to snap:



The cookie packages all ready to go in the car!

Flowers from the grocery store to make the arrangements Friday night. 

My parent's living room filled with SOME of the stuff for Saturday. 

Getting ready to take the flowers, cookies, and crayons/coloring books (Isabel had those) to the hospital! 

The vending machine with some change taped to it, for a yummy snack! 

 

My totally awesome friend Isabel came along for the ride and to help. I most definitely could not have done it without her, so thank you so much Isabel!! Also, a HUGE thank you to my wonderful mama for slaving away and baking 17 dozen cookies on Friday. I seriously used all the cookies, I didn't even eat ONE! Y'all Rock!

Hope y'all had a fabulous weekend and are feeling a little inspired to help out in your community, even if it's just a little. Think about all the good we could do if everyone did one random act of kindness a day!

xoxo,
kris

 

What the cool kids are doing.

Let me preface this by saying that I'm definitely all for donating to charities, especially those that help children. However, when you're deciding which charities/organizations to give your hard earned money to, you need to at least do a little research about them - and by research I don't just mean watching this J Kony 2012 video on Facebook. Anyone can post videos to Youtube and Facebook and Twitter etc. There are always two sides to every coin, if you don't believe me, check out this article also about Kony. After watching the video and then reading the article you will definitely see what I mean.

Any charity should be more than willing to show any and all tax/monitary records. Most reputable organizations have these documents available on their website, so you can easily see anything you might have a question about prior to making a donation. I know that one of my favorite organizations Love146 (who's missions is to end child slavery/trafficking) has their tax information available online. I was actually a little skeptical of them when I first encountered their information, but then I researched their stuff and made an informed decision that was not based on my best friend's facebook status or my favorite celebrity's tweet. Now there is a difference between spreading a message and blatant misguided propaganda. Many Americans I'm sad to say are stuck in their own little bubbles and are ultimately oblivious to the rest of the world. So, the viral spreading of videos like this are doing a great job of spreading the word about the mistreatment of people in other portions of the world, however we need to be very careful when these videos are also asking for monetary donations. Don't just blindly follow, learn something first!

Hope everyone has a great spring break if you have one and if not, sucks for you! ;)

xoxo
kris

Sacrifice Saturday

Since I was late with last week's post, I decided to be uber punctual this weekend and post a day early.

On Wednesday, mom and I went down south in search of provisions for my new project. We stopped at several stores along the way, the second of which being Joann's Fabric. I had an AH-mazing coupon and was really hoping to find what I needed there, but alas, no such luck. I did however find a cute little family that was shopping for a ton of fabric and gave them the fantabulous coupon. So, even though I had not found any of the supplies I needed after 2 hours of searching, I felt good about sharing with those peeps. (More about the project to come after the weekend)

I've been doing the usual daily/weekly chores of recycling and whatnot and realized while at Walmart yesterday we need reusable bags. I have a large, canvas Fossil Eco bag which I take on shopping trips to the mall or just for quick errands at Kroger. However, I do not have a set of reusable grocery bags for actual grocery shopping. Mom was with me at Walmart too, and we had a discussion in the car about how we BOTH need reusable bags (although she's a little hesitant to commit to using them religiously). The big task at hand was finding ones we liked that were machine washable and not $20+ each. I remembered one of my fav ladies Sophia Bush did a blog post about eco friendly gift ideas around the holidays, so I searched her site and found the post. She listed two brands, one of which was super cute and definitely looked the part of an eco friendly grocery bag but was rather pricy. The second option was terrific as well and perfectly priced! 

Let me introduce you to BAGGU. These guys are amazing! They're made of ripstop nylon so they are not going to stretch out/tear and after you send them through the washing machine they will dry extremely fast hanging on the line. The bag itself comes in a teeny tiny little 5" by 5" pouch, so you don't have to lug around a bunch of empty bags before you start your shopping trip! The little pouches will fit nicely in your purse/handbag or even a pocket for small trips. The Baggu itself opens up to be 15" wide by 25" high by 6" deep. About 5 Baggus can pack up an entire cart filled with groceries! The best part is, they can each hold up to FIFTY POUNDS! Now, I don't know what kind of groceries you're buying, but I know I would not need that much weight in each bag. But it would most definitely be useful for many other things, the possibilities are endless. They come in a variety of colors and have several patterns as well if you want to be a little different (I love the polka dot and stripped patterns). As I mentioned earlier, they are perfectly priced. One regular Baggu is $8, however to encourage everyone to use the bags more often, the price goes down as the order increases. If you order 6 or more Baggus, they're only $6.50 each! The company also has a great shipping option - standard flat rate shipping within the U.S. is only $5, and you will receive the Baggu within 5 business days. For those of us who know we want several bags, they offer the "X5" pack. The "X5" comes with 5 Baggus in a nice little drawstring pouch. I think this is a great way to always have reusable bags with you, just leave the pouch (and the 5 Baggus inside it) in your trunk, that way no matter what your plans are, you will always have reusable bags handy. 

Other than the regular Baggu, they also make several other sizes and models that very in price, color, and  pattern. I will definitely be getting one of the Baby Baggus, which is only $6, because it will make an excellent lunch sack. Baby Baggu would also work great for a last minute trip to the store for the 3 items you forgot to buy misplaced for tonight's supper.  What's even more great about Baggu is they really encourage local business, you can call their 800 number (or send an email) and they will be happy to tell you any stores in your area that sell Baggu so you can support local vendors. I called in yesterday and spoke with Joe (who answered right away, no "Press 3" business here!) who was extremely nice, and found out there's a store in Houston who carries them. I've sent my pal Melissa on a mission to check them out this weekend so I can decide if I want to order or just go visit the store. Baggu also offers a recycling program. Once your bag is "old" you can return it for recycling and they will give you a credit toward a new Baggu! 

And did I mention they are machine washable?! So, after you bring home all that meat you're going to grill up you can just throw that bad boy in the washer and not worry about germs.

Sophia is the one who introduced me to the Water Bobble, which I absolutely LOVE, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to dig Baggu as well. I will definitely keep you posted once I have one in my possession. But in the meantime, you should at least check out their website and hopefully get a couple Baggus of your own! 

Let me know what you think!

xoxo,

kris

slacking this week...

I'm definitely lagging this week with posts, oops! Last week was a little busy. I spent Tuesday afternoon filling out and dropping off an application for a second job at my gym. I'm actually really excited about this idea and hoping I get a call soon! The gym was recently sold and the new owners are making some great changes that are going to really benefit the club. The first order of business which I'm really excited about is a cycling club. I CANNOT wait for the weather to cool off a bit so I can start riding again... When you can feel the heat rising off the pavement on your legs as you pedal, it's just too damn hot. I think this venture would be awesome since it would not only put some extra cash in the pocketbook, but it would also let me continue to do the things I greatly enjoy every afternoon/weekend.

Wednesday was a much needed hair day. I left work at 12:00 and hauled it down to The Woodlands for my 1:00 appointment with Raymond. I love him! He got me all colored up and trimmed with a little flare in the front (face framing). I had some delish Freebirds for lunch, at 3:00, and then headed back home. I spent Wednesday evening making cake balls. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of eating a cake ball, They. Are. Delish. One of the girls from work was having a birthday lunch Thursday so I made her fav flavor *chocolate* for the cake balls. I also spent late Wednesday night getting ready for an interview on Thursday. We shall see what comes of it!

Thursday was a crazy day at work, but Candy, Dana, and I had a fun lunch in the conference room with pizza, cake balls, and some serious chatting. All in all, I think it was a good birthday celebration for a work lunch! Friday was crazy with errands, and then Saturday I got to go visit two of my favorite people - Jolene and Daniel! I saw some projects they're working on (which are turning out fabulous!) and can't wait to see the finished products. We had a yummy lunch at Chipotle (LOVE!) and then headed to Daniel's parent's house for some pool, relaxing, friends, and food. Jo's parents came down for a while as did my seester and her hubby, Joeann, and couple of Daniel's friends- it was great fun! Daniel cooked up some meat and we just enjoyed the nice (although a little warm) evening. Can't wait to do it again, and more often especially in the fall.

So, I'm sure you're wondering why I am chronicling my week... well, this week's Sacrifice Saturday post is a little lacking because of the busy week/weekend. I know that's not really an excuse, but there ya go. I have been doing my usual recycling and trying to cut back on energy (lights, AC, etc.) but there are no big "I did ____ this week"posts. Sorry! I did finally get to sit down and catch up with Heather and in the midst of gossiping, chatting, and playing with Miss Ellie we did talk about Thanksgiving Meal Deliveries. I'm very happy to report that the church is doing this again and I am most definitely going to assist! She also mentioned a few other things her mama is doing with the church and I am going to try and help out in some way. Obviously Sacrifice Saturday, just like any form of philanthropy, is a constantly evolving scenario and needs constant attention. Hopefully this week brings some new opportunities!

Feed A Child

In case you don't know, I love Twitter. It's like Facebook, but without all the unnecessary stuff. Twitter is also a great medium to get the word out about anything. I follow a few of my fav celebs who use their Twitter power for good (#1 Sophia Bush and #2 Ian Somerhalder). Those of you that use Twitter and actually care about things, should definitely consider following these cool kids. Yesterday Miss Sophia Bush tweeted about the famine going on in the Horn of Africa and added a link to a great way to help the World Food Programme. It's an excellent way for the average person to make a small contribution. Here's how it works, you take a quiz. That's. It. Literally, it takes less than one minute, and I actually did it from my phone! CLICK HERE to take the quiz and feed a child. The quiz is only 5 questions and all they ask at the end is your name and email. The WFP doesn't share you info, they simply send a "thank you" email with a link to share with everyone else. They have also added a nifty link to Twitter and Facebook in the email as well, so if you would like to share the quiz information via one of those routes you can. I hope you all take one minute of your time to participate and help feed some kids in desperate need, and then take one extra minute to pass the link on to any and all people you know.

As for this week's Sacrifice Saturday post, I've been doing some major research all week! I knew it was going to be hard to find things worth while, that also fit into my areas of interest, in this little town, but I had no idea it would be THIS HARD. I do have several plans in the works for future tasks, and am currently working on getting some help from friends or anyone else that would be interested. I will hopefully have more information in the next few weeks. A couple years ago, I helped a friend and a few of her family/church members deliver boxed meals the weekend before Thanksgiving (basically a kit to make dinner for their family). I thought it was great! The recipients of the boxes were so appreciative and it felt amazing giving someone the ability to make a Thanksgiving meal who would not have been otherwise able to do so. I'm not sure if Heather and/or the church will be doing it again this year. I definitely want to! So, I have to get with her and see what the plans are. I really want to get organized with it and try to have a lot more meals than we did two years ago. I will definitely keep you posted on this one!

I'm also thinking about doing something for Halloween. Has anyone ever used it to collect for charity before? I was thinking about collecting canned goods for the Good Shepherd Mission. If you have done anything similar, let me know how it went!

Earlier in the week, I spoke with my good friend Cori about getting involved in the community. Through her work, she is very much involved with child safety - battered women and children especially... Which is amazing! She told me about CASA (CLICK HERE), which is a national organization founded to help children in the foster care system. Please check out their website by clicking the above link! I would loooove to do this, however, since I am currently on the job hunt and not sure if I will be in the area for an extended time (they ask you to be able to commit to a year and half) it's not a good time for me to join CASA. If you have the time and are able, you should definitely look into it!

That's all for this week. Get out. Get involved. Help someone or something!

xoxo,
kris

and the winner is... Sacrifice Saturday!

(I'm leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow to watch Candy's daughter Caitlyn perform at a cheer competition and not sure what time we'll be returning, so I'm loading Saturday's post today..fyi.)

As you know, I have been wanting to work more on my philanthropy, reading the article about Rachel on Wednesday, and having one of my fav vamps (Ian Somerhalder) testifying in front of Congress today on behalf of some endangered animals, finally sent me over the edge into "do mode".  Before I get into this weeks Sacrifice Saturday deeds, I want to give you a little insight into where I stand on the whole saving the world thing, just so there’s no confusion with these posts. :) 

We all know there are several different categories people fall into when it comes to do-gooding. Tree Huggers, Heartless Bastards, and then there's me, somewhere in between. Obviously, we all have insane visions of the "hipster tree hugger" - some of which are most definitely true! And then there’s the heartless bastard who seems to actually be trying to ruin the world on a daily basis. Most of us average gals and guys fall somewhere in the middle.

Here’s what I do/don’t do on a regular basis, Sacrifice Saturdays will be in addition to these little guys:

I recycle most things I use that are in fact recyclable; bottles, newspaper, regular paper, and if I buy magazines or anything like that those bad boys get recycled as well. I use my awesome Fossil Ecological canvas bag for shopping trips; not just to the grocery store, but Christmas shopping and whatnot as well. I LOVE shower loofah’s that are made with recycled material! They are a tiny bit rougher and leave your skin feeling soft and smooth. I do not have a compost bucket (although I think they are totally amazing!) living in the country affords me the opportunity to simply through my “trash” pieces of fruit, veggies, breads, meats, basically anything except garlic, out for the deer and other cute animals to chow down on. I try to buy organic when possible (although again, small town living makes that hard at times). I’m not able to save in the form of walking to/from places or even biking to the store, country living does have some drawbacks. Annnnnd biking 10 miles to work in 100+ degree Texas weather is not an option, and public transportation here is severely lacking. However, I do have a Honda Civic, which gets great gas mileage! I always turn off lights, TV’s etc. when I leave a room. I turn down the AC before I leave the house so it doesn’t run as often. I do not liter, and can’t stand people that do.

I figure you can get a pretty good grasp on how I feel about things from this list. If you want to know something else please feel free to ask. Now, on to Sacrifice Saturday!

I only came up with the idea of Sacrifice Saturday on Wednesday so hopefully future weeks will include a few more good deeds. A big shout out to Candy for the name suggestion! Here are the deeds of the week:

1.  Took all plastic bottles and newspapers from the stockpile, aka recycle bins, to the recycle facility.
2.    Cleaned out some work clothes and made a sizable donation at Elite Repeat. I love making donations here because the items are not only sold to people who really need them, but the proceeds benefit the SAAFE HOUSE – an organization to help battered women and children in the surrounding area.
3.    I helped mom take some of dad’s old clothes to the COME Center. Which is another organization that resells clothing to underprivileged people in our community.

I believe a little research is needed to delve much further into helping out in this community. You would think that living in a small country getting involved would be super easy, like just walk down the street and see a sign or a person that will point you in the direction of someone or something needing your immediate assistance. This. Is. Not. The. Case. So, these first few weeks will definitely be a bit of an experiment on figuring out how to accomplish my philanthropy goals. Again, feel free to leave any suggestions or awesome deeds you’ve done (especially you small town folk) in the comments! I will totally give you credit, I’m no thief ;)

Hope you all decide to try a little philanthropy in your community as well!

xoxo,

kris