An update on the Lori-love (RAK)

I am happy to report that more Random Acts of Kindness have been spread as we count down the days leading up to Lori's 40th birthday! We are over half way through our 10 day count down to June 28th and having a wonderful time focusing on doing good deeds for others and spreading Lori-style love.  Here is what has happened in the past 6 days.

Day 1: Delivered 4 loaves of fresh baked banana bread (made by Abby) to neighbors, who were happy and surprised, although one loaf ended up being gifted on the front step of an unsuspecting acquaintance.  Hopefully it was enjoyed as well!

Day 2:  A large donation of clothing and household goods was taken to Goodwill.  Inside 4 clothing items I stashed Random Acts of Kindness cards with $

Don't you just love when you find surprise $ in a pocket?   I hope others feel the same!

Day 3: Kippy was a helper for Day 3 acts of kindness.  We went to Target and got 4 gift cards and planned to hand them out to random shoppers.  The first shopper gladly accepted the "Act of Kindness" and was so very grateful.  Kippy then went off on her own to give two more cards away, but had a little trouble working up her courage to approach a stranger.  In one case, Kippy had a kind woman actually refuse the gift card telling Angelique, "You just keep it."  Not to be deterred, Kippy finally found additional willing recipients while I browsed through many books and cards waiting.  Both Kippy and I have the "stranger anxiety" gene, but we both felt so good after delivering the gifts that we wished we had $MM more we could give!

Day 4: Kindness this day was centered all on supporting a family whose son has a heart condition and requires open heart surgery in the near future.  So, Lori-style love was spread on silent auction items as well craft items and free-will donations.

 Day 5:  I handed out Flower Packets to 4 mom's who were helping with concessions and selling programs at a swim meet in Alexandria. I told them it was a "thank you" for all that they are doing for the swim program.

These women were so excited about the whole concept.  I feel confident that they will be paying it forward in some way in the future.

Day 6:  We started our Random Acts of Kindness by picking up trash on the River Walk in Fergus Falls.  Steve, Kippy and I ended up with 2 bags of trash and we are ever so grateful that Steve had the forethought to wear gloves! (Let's just say there was some seriously disgusting items I am so happy are now properly disposed of). 

Additionally, I was able to give out Lipton Green Tea in citrus flavor to 4 random people.

I am looking forward to the next 4 days because spreading kindness is rather addicting!!  Lori, are you feeling the love??  Hope so!

Celebrating 40 Lori-STYLE with RAK!

 

My sister-chic, Lori, is going to be celebrating the big Four-Oh on June 28th.  Miss Lori shared her ultimate birthday wish with Heather & me several months back.  She wanted to have her birthday honored with Random Acts of Kindness.  I aim to please, so I am following her instructions and starting the celebrating EARLY to spread the love "Lori-STYLE".

Heather hooked me up with these super cute cards from Pinterest, so I engaged some help from my oldest daughter, who whipped up a batch of yummy banana bread.  Now I will get these delivered and begin plotting additional random acts of kindness to spread the love all the way to Lori's birthday.

Lori, I hope you feel the love surrounding you every minute of every day!  I'll keep you posted on other RAK done in your name.  I love you to the moon and back!!

If anyone else wants to join in on the celebration - please do!  The more Lori-STYLE love we can spread, the better this world will be.  I promise!

The 15 minute table runner

No joke.  15 minutes (maybe less) no cutting involved and only a minor amount of sewing!  My sister-chic, Lori, introduced the concept when we were visiting her house last weekend for our annual sister-weekend.  We whipped up 2 beautiful table runners in less than 30 minutes.  I couldn't wait to make one of my own.

 

The ingredients are really easy:  1/3 yard of fabric as the primary fabric (the fabric in the center) , plus 1/2 yard of a secondary/complimentary fabric (the fabric on the outside), plus 2 large buttons.  Heather helped me choose this fabric at our local Ben Franklin.  I was looking for something bright and "Spring-like".

Sew two long seems making a long rectangle and press the tube so that the primary fabric (peace sign print) is edged by the secondary fabric (purple stripe).  

Next fold the entire rectangle in half the long way with the primary fabric sandwiched in the center.  Sew each of the ends across, trim the seam and press.  This will form a triangle pocket at each end of the runner.  Next, sew a button to close each triangle pocket, press one more time and ta-da, you have created a 15 minute table runner!

 

These are the two adorable table runners created by JoyX3 (a.k.a. Lori, Heather & me) last weekend.

My peeps in our matching owl-tactic PJ's.

Pajamas, projects and p = Joy X 3

I went to another very.much.needed therapy session in Sioux Falls with Heather & Lori, who are so very dear to my heart. This time it was an overnight trip filled with matching owl-tactic pj's, Christmas projects and laughing so hard we cried, nearly peed and triggered my asthma multiple times. These girls are the bomb! They lift me up, advise me, teach me, encourage me, accept me and kill me with laughter.

Sioux Falls is going to miss us!  Especially Joey, the TJMax man, because he FAILED at pedicures; the four gray-haired ladies who loved our matching pj's at breakfast; the hotel attendant who received false license information from Liar-Liar-Lori yet gave us the fabulous recommendation to go to Carnaval Brazilian Grill; the gal at the Runner's Block who did our foot scans and gave us each shoe recommendations and introduced us to The Stick; the poor woman in the room next to us who coughed up a storm; the hotel cleaner who had to vacuum a lot of sawdust from our wood crafting escapades; the CherryBerry attendant who watched us sample and sample the deliciousness....  so many people, so little time.

I have to give a huge shout out to my hubby who allowed me to take flight while he manned the house plus 5 children between the ages of 14-2. He knows how important therapy is for me!

I love that we are able to mix serious with hilarity.  Can't wait until we launch our new greeting card company under our logo of Joy X 3!!

Until we get together again in February, know that you are always in my heart.

Therapy

A little over a year ago, one of my sister-chics moved away... f a r a w a y.... all the way to Papillion, Nebraska. Thankfully, the distance has never put a wedge in between us but rather made us more grateful for the time we are able to carve out for one another. We have discovered Sioux Falls is a great meet-in-between spot. Last week we met in SF and celebrated a three week belated birthday; laughed hysterically; had a miscommunication on our "meet-spot"; had a near-death experience by almost having a head on collision; explored Falls Park (nearly losing HH in the quartz quarry); shared our life challenges; encouraged one another; ate delicious iced lemon w/ raspberries; cried; hugged; shopped. It was the best 7 hours of therapy I could ever ask for.

Thank you, my sister-chics, you lift me up & recharge my batteries!

To the fairest of the fair...

Happy Birthday, Miss Lori!! You can rule all of land from your throne with your fabulousness today!

Instead of a GNO, Heather, Lori and I had a GAO (girls afternoon out) in Sioux Falls on Friday. It was an opportunity to meet Lori at a half-way point between Omaha and Fergus Falls as well as bring Lori her daughter who was visiting friends in Fergus AND we got to celebrate Lori's birthday a couple days early.

Armed with the advise from my BFF, Sherri, we decided to have a downtown adventure in Sioux Falls. It turned out to be a wonderful afternoon. We ate lunch at the Wild Sage Grille. It was a TAD bit windy dining outside. The wind actually blew away my credit card when I tried to use it!

But it really does give us the windblown model look, don't you think?

We went into lots of great little boutiques. When we saw this painting, we thought it looked like us in about 20 more years.

We had fun putzing around in a wonderful furniture store called DeWitt Designs where we picked out our future decor.

Lori's daughter was so generous with her photographic talents. It was so nice to have lots of pics of the three of us with three different cameras. Thanks JO! Just had to sneak in one pic with her and her adorable self!

We made sure to save room for dessert because we had already gotten a recommendation for this shop called Sinful Things.
We sampled each other's choices and they were all delish! Lemon cake, french silk, red velvet cheesecake & chocolate raspberry cheesecake... Sinful is right!
All in all, we all thought our DTSF adventure was fabulous. We loved that it was a reasonable daytrip with it just being a tad over 3 hours for each of us to get there.

Thank you for the wonderful GAO and I can't wait until we do this again!

I really hate goodbyes...

so I am trying to see this as a "see ya later" kind of a moment. The honest truth is that my heart hurts to have Lori move from Fergus Falls to far, far, away Omaha today.

I may not have biological sisters, but thankfully I have several dear sister-friends, of which I consider Lori. I feel so blessed to have been able to become friends with Lori over the past three years I can hardly remember what life was like before Lori. The salve for my heart is knowing through calling, blogging, Facebooking, e-mailing, texting & road-tripping, no matter the physical distance, I'll always have my bestie, Lori, to laugh, support, cry and share life with.
If only my emotional self could be convinced by this logical line of thinking. So for now, I am going to put on my pjammies, watch an old favorite movie of mine "Beaches", eat a large amount of chocolate and just let the cry out. See ya later, Lori!

Mad shopping spree

A couple of weeks ago, I sent an SOS out to 3 of my girlfriends with an invitation to take a weekday off and go shopping in Fargo. Balancing schedules between 4 people and their families isn't always very easy, but we were able rather quickly settle on a date... Monday, December 14th.

The only thing for sure was we were leaving at 8:30 AM with no definite return time. The schedule was purposely kept loose... as in, we had NO IDEA when we would come back! This was simply to keep the stress-level low and not have to be rushing around. Again, not always an easy feat considering everyone has kids and husbands and life to consider.

BUT.THANKFULLY.WE.DID.IT!

The day was low stress... lots of laughs... lots of sharing... and LOTS of SHOPPING!

Stops included but were not limited to:

• Barnes & Nobles
  
• Michaels
• Old Navy
• Hobby Lobby
• Lunch at Spitfire
• Kohls
• Office Max
• JCPenney
• Hallmark
• Victoria's Secret
• New York & Company
• Once Upon A Child
• Sam's Club
• Supper at Johnny Carinos

The trunk of my car was packed F.U.L.L. with a few items being stashed in the backseat between passengers. Needless to say, we didn't get back to Fergus Falls until 9:00 PM. I was exhausted, yet rejuvenated in only the way you become from being with friends who make you feel good. I love my peeps!!
Left to Right: Renae (the midget girl), Heather (the forgetful girl), Lori (the wisecrack girl) & Salena (the tall girl)

Happy birthday wishes...

To my fabulous friend, Lori! Hope your day is wonderful and filled with joy!! We need to schedule time to get pedis again at Sorrella's soon!

Thanks for being one of the "G's" in our GNO's!

The best Columbus Day ever!

It didn't think about Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492 one single time yesterday, but I still had the best Columbus Day ever! The kids had a regular school day... Fergus Falls school district does not observe Columbus Day. Steve had a regular work day... MSCTC doesn't observe Columbus Day either. Lucky me... banks observe Columbus day, so I had the day off! I don't think there has ever been a holiday where I was the only one in my family who had the day off. And I made the most of my "free day"! Here is what I did...

• I skipped my 6:00 AM Body Blast class at the Y, so that I could sleep in until 7:30 AM.
• I visited with the girls while they ate breakfast.
• I went for a 4 mile run and enjoyed all the fall foliage.
• I drove to Perham with Lori and we went to Sorella's spa, where I splurged with a facial and Lori enjoyed a pedicure.
• We browsed through an amazing quilt shop.
• We enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the Gathering Grounds... grilled ham & cheese with mushrooms and asparagus on corbetta bread with honey mustard dipping sauce... in a word... DELICIOUS!

• I made it home in time to meet the girls getting off the bus.
• I relaxed and watched Oprah while the girls did their homework.
• Steve made a wonderful supper of grilled montecristo sandwiches with homemade strawberry dipping sauce.
  
• OK - one not fun thing was the flu shots that we got after supper, but everything before that made it the Best Columbus Day ever!

What did you do for Columbus day?