Let me start off by saying, I am NOT a positive person. Matt always said that and it's true. However, I prefer to think of myself as a realist or a positive pessimist. I don't know, I've always had the mindset that if you expect the worse then you'll be pleasantly surprised when anything better happens. Ever since last August when my life got 'turned around, flipped upside down,' things were really put into perspective for me. It was like every random Facebook post was speaking to me. You know, the ones that say something like "smile because it might make someone's day" or "you never know what the person next to you is going through." I started thinking about that because that was my life. Inside, I was falling apart. I was walking around very precariously with this fragile outer shell but no one knew. One wrong raise of the eyebrow by the cashier at the grocery store and I'd find myself in my car crying my eyes out. You can ask my ex-boss and co-worker all of the crazy things that ran through my mind and how ridiculous they all were. Side note: Thank you, Amy and Holly, for listening to my never ending rambling and worries.
Friendships from years ago to people I'd only just met came out of the woodwork to see me through this hardship. On a whim, I went to an Advocare meeting at a preschool mom's house in July and BAM! Friendships that I NEEDED were dropped into my life. Seriously, these women were put into my life at that precise moment on purpose. My girls from high school were checking in on me, sending short texts saying they were praying for us. I'd read that text and sit there crying for the next few minutes. At an Easter event, one of my co-workers checked AR in for me, her daughter was sure that AR had a golden egg, and if I were a hugger, I would've been hugging them, instead I cried for their generosity and help. And let's not forget the guy at the recycle center who helped me with the giant TV I was recycling and had already dropped on my leg getting it into the car. There's been countless other acts that friends, families, and strangers have done for us and while I can't list all of them out, THANK YOU to everyone.
These small acts of kindness made a HUGE impact on me and somehow, some way, I wanted to pay it forward. Here are a few things that AR and I have done over the months to pay it forward. This is in NO WAY to brag what we've done but to give ideas of how you can pay it forward and please, leave any ideas because I love new, fun, creative ideas.
*We bought items for the Adopt-A-Family we had at work.
*We made cards thanking people for decorating their house for Christmas, picked out our favorite houses in the neighborhood, and left the note with a lottery ticket on their door.
*I had a coupon for a buy one, get one free burrito so I took the "free" burrito to the nice man at the recycle center who helped me with the TV.
*We adopted soldiers! And therefore have raided every Taco Bell we see for sauce packets!
*Any time I see a mom with a kid having a meltdown, if I'm close enough, I tell the mom, "Hang in there, Momma. We've all been there."
Showing posts with label Pimping Positivity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pimping Positivity. Show all posts
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
#PimpingPositivity Soldier Style~March 2016
This month's care package was St. Patrick's themed so all items were GREEN!!! It's kind of harder than you think to come up with ONLY green things! We had a little issue this month. Our eyes were bigger than our box. Here's what we planned to include:
This is what actually fit inside:
Knorr Side
Lays Sour Cream-n-Onion
Halls Cough Drops
Crossword Puzzles
Box of Mike-n-Ikes
Box of Sour Skittles
Krazy Glue
Apple Cinnamon Instant Oatmeal
Taco Bell Salsa Verde Packets
Irish Spring Soap
Gum
Shampoo
Tortillas
Floss
Spearmints
Razors
Left, Right, Center Dice Game
The rest of the stuff will just have to be included in next month's package. The Lays chips can size it what through us off.
AR and I cut out some shamrocks.She also colored a pot of gold that we taped to the bottom of the box along with some of the smaller shamrocks. I always forget to get a picture of the bottom until after I have everything inside the box.
We visited five different Taco Bells, raiding their sauces and then sorted them out... while she ate her lunch.
Then we glued down our decorations, AR wrote her name, and we closed 'er up!
Happy St. Patrick's Day, soldiers!!!
Saturday, January 16, 2016
#PimpingPositivity Soldier Style~January & February 2016
On December 27, my stepfather unexpectedly passed away. On December 28, we boarded a plane from MO to FL to be with my mom. On January 2, we flew back to STL via ATL. It must've been deployment day because military men and women were everywhere in both airports. I'm doing the best I can to teach AR about the sacrifice our service people make for our country so she was busy telling each of them "thank you for your service" and distributing high fives.
When we got home and back into our routine, those young men and women dressed in camo were weighing heavily on my heart. I saw them say goodbye to their loved ones, tears were being shed by both family members and soldiers, and so many of them were so young with no idea what lay ahead of them. One night on Facebook, I saw that a fellow author was adopting a soldier that had reached out to her about one of her books. It hit me hard that this was an excellent opportunity to teach AR about gratitude, appreciation, and paying it forward. In a long line of seven degrees of separation, a soldier's address was given to me and hence, he and his unit were adopted by us!
Our goal is to send a package once a month. Every week at the grocery store, I grab a few extra things to throw in the box. Here's the information that was provided to me:
"His unit is only on MREs to eat so they love receiving food supplies they can cook over fire i.e. canned meats, bacon that doesn't have to be refrigerated, flavored noodle and rice packets, pizza crust, sauce, tortillas with seasoning, canned beans, pancake mix, etc..."
I was also told that we should decorate the inside of our package to make it more fun and brighten their morale. Some units do not allow decorations on the outside and so the soldier may never get it if you do that.
We sent our first package in January. After that first time at the grocery store, I found myself thinking about the soldiers as I ran to McDonald's for lunch or ate my pork chop for dinner. Here these men and women were thrilled to get Ramen noodles and canned beans! We really take for granted the things we easily have on hand here in the States.
So for our first package, I winged it and it included:
Ramen Noodles
Real Bacon Bits
Knorr side dishes
Packets of Taco Bell Hot Sauce
Packets of Advil
Jalepeno Tortillas
Packets of ranch, sloppy joe, au ju, spaghetti sauce mixes
Instant Oatmeal Packets
Boxes of hard candy (Sprees, SweetTarts, and Red Hots)
Mints
Drop-in Drink Mixes
Razors
AR and I used crayons and decorated the flaps of a plain cardboard box, sealed it up, and shipped it off. The cost to send was $27.
THEN, I did a little research and realized I was doing it all wrong! Seriously, go search "military care packages" on Pinterest and your mind will be BLOWN! So, in true Type-A personality, I searched and searched and I have a whole list of themes for each of our packages for like the next two years! I don't think our soldier's deployment is that long so we'll have to find someone to adopt once he comes home.
I also found that you can get a flat-rate first priority box for free from the post office. No matter the weight, it currently cost $17.50 to ship the box. The only problem is, it's kinda small so you have to get real creative in how you pack your box. It's important that you individually package certain things. For instance, put all soap, shampoo, etc... in one bag because if it leaks, it would really suck if it got all over the food in the box. Plus, take things out of the boxes to save room and fit more!
I've got all my friends, family, and co-workers saving any kind of sauce packets for me because the word on the street is those are in high demand to flavor up those MREs.
Moving on to our second month, February, we were much better prepared! We decorated the flaps for Valentine's Day, stuck an inspirational quote on the bottom, and AR really wanted to cut some paper so we have random paper stripes and shapes taped to the bottom. AR was a great glue helper!
Once it all dried, we made some conversation hearts. AR did most of the writing with some guidance of my dots or just looking at the word I wrote on the bottom. Our words were: HERO, BRAVE, STRONG, U.S.A.
This month's package included:
More spaghetti, sloppy joe, and au ju mixes
Seasoned salt
Just add water instant mashed potatoes
Packets of tuna in various flavors
Spaghettios (one giant can and four individual cans)
Cans of chili
Beef Ramen noodles
Kool-Aid Mix
Packets of sugar and creamer
Bottle of hot sauce
Granola
Monopoly Card Game
More Advil
This box is HEAVY (almost 19 pounds!) so we're definitely getting our money's worth with the flat rate shipping on this one. Without the box, it would've been $50!!!
So far, we're having a blast with this project! We're hoping to get a picture of the guys in the unit soon so we can do a Flat Stanley-like project with them so I'll keep you updated.
My niece is selling Girl Scout cookies and so far, she's sold over 60 boxes for these guys! My goal is to spoil them as much as possible to let them know how much we appreciate everything they do for our country. I'll keep you posted on each month's packages to let you know what we come up with. If there's any military men or women reading this, we truly appreciate all of your dedication and sacrifice for our country!
When we got home and back into our routine, those young men and women dressed in camo were weighing heavily on my heart. I saw them say goodbye to their loved ones, tears were being shed by both family members and soldiers, and so many of them were so young with no idea what lay ahead of them. One night on Facebook, I saw that a fellow author was adopting a soldier that had reached out to her about one of her books. It hit me hard that this was an excellent opportunity to teach AR about gratitude, appreciation, and paying it forward. In a long line of seven degrees of separation, a soldier's address was given to me and hence, he and his unit were adopted by us!
Our goal is to send a package once a month. Every week at the grocery store, I grab a few extra things to throw in the box. Here's the information that was provided to me:
"His unit is only on MREs to eat so they love receiving food supplies they can cook over fire i.e. canned meats, bacon that doesn't have to be refrigerated, flavored noodle and rice packets, pizza crust, sauce, tortillas with seasoning, canned beans, pancake mix, etc..."
I was also told that we should decorate the inside of our package to make it more fun and brighten their morale. Some units do not allow decorations on the outside and so the soldier may never get it if you do that.
We sent our first package in January. After that first time at the grocery store, I found myself thinking about the soldiers as I ran to McDonald's for lunch or ate my pork chop for dinner. Here these men and women were thrilled to get Ramen noodles and canned beans! We really take for granted the things we easily have on hand here in the States.
So for our first package, I winged it and it included:
Ramen Noodles
Real Bacon Bits
Knorr side dishes
Packets of Taco Bell Hot Sauce
Packets of Advil
Jalepeno Tortillas
Packets of ranch, sloppy joe, au ju, spaghetti sauce mixes
Instant Oatmeal Packets
Boxes of hard candy (Sprees, SweetTarts, and Red Hots)
Mints
Drop-in Drink Mixes
Razors
AR and I used crayons and decorated the flaps of a plain cardboard box, sealed it up, and shipped it off. The cost to send was $27.
THEN, I did a little research and realized I was doing it all wrong! Seriously, go search "military care packages" on Pinterest and your mind will be BLOWN! So, in true Type-A personality, I searched and searched and I have a whole list of themes for each of our packages for like the next two years! I don't think our soldier's deployment is that long so we'll have to find someone to adopt once he comes home.
I also found that you can get a flat-rate first priority box for free from the post office. No matter the weight, it currently cost $17.50 to ship the box. The only problem is, it's kinda small so you have to get real creative in how you pack your box. It's important that you individually package certain things. For instance, put all soap, shampoo, etc... in one bag because if it leaks, it would really suck if it got all over the food in the box. Plus, take things out of the boxes to save room and fit more!
I've got all my friends, family, and co-workers saving any kind of sauce packets for me because the word on the street is those are in high demand to flavor up those MREs.
Moving on to our second month, February, we were much better prepared! We decorated the flaps for Valentine's Day, stuck an inspirational quote on the bottom, and AR really wanted to cut some paper so we have random paper stripes and shapes taped to the bottom. AR was a great glue helper!
Once it all dried, we made some conversation hearts. AR did most of the writing with some guidance of my dots or just looking at the word I wrote on the bottom. Our words were: HERO, BRAVE, STRONG, U.S.A.
This month's package included:
More spaghetti, sloppy joe, and au ju mixes
Seasoned salt
Just add water instant mashed potatoes
Packets of tuna in various flavors
Spaghettios (one giant can and four individual cans)
Cans of chili
Beef Ramen noodles
Kool-Aid Mix
Packets of sugar and creamer
Bottle of hot sauce
Granola
Monopoly Card Game
More Advil
This box is HEAVY (almost 19 pounds!) so we're definitely getting our money's worth with the flat rate shipping on this one. Without the box, it would've been $50!!!
So far, we're having a blast with this project! We're hoping to get a picture of the guys in the unit soon so we can do a Flat Stanley-like project with them so I'll keep you updated.
My niece is selling Girl Scout cookies and so far, she's sold over 60 boxes for these guys! My goal is to spoil them as much as possible to let them know how much we appreciate everything they do for our country. I'll keep you posted on each month's packages to let you know what we come up with. If there's any military men or women reading this, we truly appreciate all of your dedication and sacrifice for our country!
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