shopping & eating on day 10

You may be asking yourself...what does shopping and eating have to do with kindness?? Well, it's simple. Today my entire family...Elliott, Cody, Ellie and I went to the Huntington Mall to celebrate the ending of my Counseling and Psychotherapy class....WHOOO HOOO!!! Where did I want to celebrate? The Huntington Mall and eating at Cracker Barrel. Truth be told, we went to the Huntington Mall on a mission, to find a probability and statistics book for my next class. I was in luck, I did find a book.

Okay, back on track. After leaving Borders at the Huntington Mall we went right across the hall to Old Navy....zoinks scoob was it crowded!!! I of course, found items that I needed to buy. (or at least I thought I did) I stood in the check out forever. I simply wasn't moving or going anywhere....No movement at all. I was determined at this point...there was NO turning back..I was leaving with the items in my hand. I can do it....I can do it!! A young man got in line behind me and I just felt compelled to let him go in front of me in line. So, I turned around and said, "you can go ahead of me." It wasn't just the look on his face that was priceless but everyone around him. He said, "are you sure?" I said, "yes, I'm in no hurry please go ahead of me." He said thanks and got in line right in front of me. After he completed his checkout he turned around and thanked me again.

I came, I shopped, now I was ready to go to Cracker Barrel and eat. Before leaving our house, for the Huntington Mall, I picked up a cute thank you card..one I already had at home. We all had decided on this kindess act and we all wanted to do this....we wanted to give a tip twice the amount we normally leave and leave a hand written thank note inside of a thank you card.

When we made our way from the Huntington Mall to Cracker Barrel on a Saturday night I was certain we would be waiting a long time for a table. Guess what? as soon as we walked in we were seated. No waiting at all. We were recipients of kindness when we walked into Cracker Barrel someone held the door open for us. (this was NOT a Cracker Barrel employee either) This was heartwarming.

Our waitress came, she took our drink order and we were sure to listen to her name and scope out her name tag for the correct spelling of her name. As we ate I just felt that this act of kindness was the one we were meant to do. About 5 minutes before we left I got the thank you card out and Elliott served as the "watch out" person. He would alert me if our waitress was coming. We wanted the card to be a surprise to her. We simply left the card on the table with her name on the outside envelope and inside we wrote her name and simply thank you for giving your time to serve us. thank you for your attention to detail, thank you for being a blessing this evening to our family....something to this effect anyway (you know when you hit a certain age the memory just isn't there anymore) ha! We ALL signed the card! The 4 Gollihues'. When we were leaving Cracker Barrel someone held the door open for us as we left. (again, this wasn't a Cracker Barrel employee)

I enjoyed this kindness act with my family of 4. I felt that our actions tonight were hopefully and prayerfully a blessing to the person at Old Navy and the waitress at Cracker Barrel.

God is soooo good to me! Thank you God for my family of four! Thank you for allowing us all to do this act of kindness today. God loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.....oh, he is sooo kind to me....thank you God!!! Thank you!

Where will we be tomorrow? Stay tuned! Until then.....

On your mark, get set, be kind.

Love ya to the moon & back,
Annie, Elliott, Cody & Miss Ellie