RAOK (Random Acts of Kindness)

    

We finally were able to finish our ROAK project.  This was such a fun project for us to do.  We've enjoyed Cory having Saturdays off this month and completing this project was such an added blessing during our time together.  Enough with the words...let's get to the pictures.

Part #1:

Making PB&J's for the homeless packages

Making the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies for the Fire Department

Total of 10 homeless packages that include:

2 Sandwiches, 1 Gospel Track, 1 Granola Bar, 1 Pair of Socks, 1 Oatmeal cookie and 2 bottles of chilled water = 8 items

We did change our list a little bit from our last blog after we talked with a few people from our church that give away homeless packages more regularly.  (I would never have thought to include socks!)

Here is the items from Day 1:

80 items for the homeless packages

72 cookies for the fire department

We weren't able to take any pictures of us giving out the few homeless packages we gave out that day.  As I'm sure you can imagine that would be awkward but mostly inappropriate.  We wanted to show love to those individuals, not exploit them.  However, it was a blessing to hear the Thank You's and God Blesses. 

We WERE able to take pictures of our delivery of the cookies to the fire department.  In fact, this experience has been one of our most favorite memories we've had since being married.  When we went to deliver the cookies, there were only two fire fighters there.  There was a man and woman who were currently working when we went by, the rest of the shift were "out running errands."    I also feel so badly because I can't for the life of me remember the names of the fire fighters we met, should have written it down!

The lovely fire fighters warmly accepted the cookies and actually invited us into the station.  We also got one fantastic tour!  Just look at the pictures!

Yep...they showed us all of their equipment in the truck.  This very nice gentleman was such a great teacher about all of the instruments and gear they use.

Cory got to try on all of the gear.  In this picture he was trying on the air mask that firefighters use.  The firefighter went through all of the different levels of air flow with Cory, even the one when he was out of air.  Cory managed perfectly, much better than I would have done.

Yes, we will be making a calendar!  ;-)

Kinda funny that right after this picture was taken, the station's emergency alarm went off.  The firefighters loaded everything up, said thanks/bye to us, and were heading out within about 90 seconds. Needless to say, this experience was so much fun! It was informative and something that we didn't even know was on our bucket list until after it was over.

 Thank you Fire Station 25!  Also, thank you to all the service men and women for giving of yourself to allow citizens to maintain safety, security, and emergency services. Wish we could have baked enough cookies for everyone.

Part #2

 Today we gave out more homeless packages, donated our unused dog supplies, gave to the food bank, and gave away some coupons.

 The Humane Society gladly accepted 20 cans of canned dog food, 35 puppy pads (for house training) and about 20 mini chew bones.  It was most impressive that we were able to leave without getting another puppy. 

If you know me, you know I have developed a new passion for couponing.  I thought it would be fun to turn a passion into an act of kindness, well 33 acts actually.  I clipped some coupons for cereal, coffee, baby food, diapers, pet supplies, over the counter medications, and hygiene items.  

An unexpected blessing was the day after we couponed Wal-Mart with acts of kindness, Cory and I went to the same Wal-Mart for our own groceries and we saw woman actually take one our coupons.  We were surprised at how many of them were gone.  The picture above is for women's razors...all of them were gone the next day. 

  We also tried to give our donations for the local food bank, but it was closed so we'll have to do it Monday or Tuesday.

  We were able to give out all but 2 of our homeless packages.  We used about 1/2 of a tank of gas driving around looking for homeless individual.  It was a bit rainy on the day we went out, so we're thinking that might have had something to do with it.  We're gonna try again on Monday or Tuesday to give out the remaining two.

 Conclusion, after Monday/Tuesday evening we will have given out the following:

80 items to the homeless packages

72 cookies to the Fire Dept

33 coupons taped to items at Wal-mart

75 dog items to the Humane Society

20 non perishable food items

Grand Total=280 Random Acts of Kindnesses for El Paso!

Random Acts of Kindness

 

"Wherever there is a human in need, there is an opportunity for kindness and to make a difference."

- Kevin Heath / Ceo More4kids

Its almost July.  Normally that would mean BBQs, fireworks, family gatherings with water balloon fights, water parks, and lots of hot dogs!  Now that I'm married to a Veteran and work at the VA, my perspective has changed a little bit.  I now think...how can I give back during the month when our beautiful country received her freedom.  Then it hit me....the United States of America will be 236 years old, why not do 236 RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS!  Cory and I are going to spend a few weekends completing this goal, but we will complete it in July. 

"Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end."

 - Scott Adams (1957)

Here are our thoughts for what we will do to give back:

1.  Make 10 care packages for the homeless in El Paso.  We're counting each item as an act of kindness.  Our bags will include: 2 water bottles, 2 PB&J sandwiches, bag of cookies, hand sanitizer mini container, bag of veggies (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower), and a Gospel Track.  As part of this kindness, we're planning on parking and walking to the homeless person on the street.  We simply don't want to just "drive by" but put a little more effort into it. Yes, this is why Cory and I are going together!                            
        10 X 8=80 acts of kindness

2. Take coupons to items at wal-mart.  I love couponing!  This is taking a passion and making it even greater!  For the last few weeks, I've cut out coupons for items I don't use or need (diapers, cat food, beauty products, food items).  We are going to take about 30 coupons to    wal-mart and tape the coupons to the items.  I made sure that every coupon didn't expire for several weeks so that they can hopefully all be used.  Don't think this breaks any law, so hopefully wal-mart won't mind us doing this!  
      30 Coupons  = 30 acts of kindness

3.  We're gonna bake some yummy cookies and give them to either the fire dept or police department on the east side of El Paso (that's the side where Cory works).  Oh, when I say we're baking...I mean Cory's baking.  I learned and was utterly shocked, amazed, and proud that his chocolate chip cookies whoop mine...even on a good day!  
      5 Dozen Cookies =  60 acts of kindness

4.  Donating canned food and other non perishables to one of the local food banks.  Yay for couponing which means we can afford to give even more of canned food.  Pretty sure the food bank won't care if we didn't pay full price for the donations
       26 cans of food = 26 acts of kindness

5. Giving away the unused canned dog food to the local pet shelter.  Our Indy developed an allergy to the canned pet food we gave him and we had stocked up on it before we realized this.  So we have about 3 cases of wet food that they can hopefully use there.  We also have several raw hide bones that Indy was allergic to that we'll be giving to them.  Hoping they can use them even though the box of 20 was opened.  If not...guess we'll have to come up with some more kindnesses!
      40 dog items = 40 acts of kindness



What can you and your family do in the month of July to make a difference?  It doesn't have to be 236.  Need ideas...here you go- Random Acts of Kindness Ideas! One act can change a life. This "project" of ours has really changed my regular thinking and has allowed me to see the world as a place that needs more kindness, with me as a giver of that kindness!


So if you have some Acts of Kindness ideas that you have thought about for the month of July, leave a comment!  We think it would be so great to get a chain reaction going with our friends and family.

"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

- Apostle Paul in Philippians 1:21-22

To the best of my knowledge, unless you have a blogspot, you can leave a comment under anonymous profile. But please do leave your name in the comment so we know who you are. :-)

The Finished House

This weekend, Cory and I went to town on a good old fashion cleaning of the house.  Thus, since it is all neat and tidy, I snapped some pics while it lasted. 

                Master Bedroom
        

                                  

   Cory's Bathroom

                               Emily's Bathroom



Dining Room



Kitchen


 
                                                                                    

 



2nd Bedroom- yeah, guess we need to add more decoration other than a dog on the bed!





Dog's Room/Office
                                                                                         





    The Living Room



So what does our back yard look like you ask......

Yep, this just about sums it up!

We're loving life right now, despite it being blur speed busy!  We're looking forward to July when Cory has Thursday, Friday, AND Saturday off!  We always count our blessings when we both have the same day off togther.  Also, Cory will complete 1 of 2 of his summer classes the beginning of July, so he'll have some much needed free time.

That's all for now. Thanks for taking the time to catch up with The Gadras!



All Things Indy

In celebration of our Indiana's 5th month being born...we decided to let you get to know him a little bit better.  Hey, what are we kidding...we wouldn't posted about our cute little horse/dog anyways!

This was the first time he played in his little baby pool.  He has so much fun in that thing!  The only bad thing is that he drinks half of the water and then can't control his bladder for the next 3 hours!

Here are also some funny quotes from the kids next door.  They love when Indy's outside.  They try to get him to come to the fence by pretending rocks are treats.  A few times I've had to remind them that Indy will eat a rock thinking its a treat cause, well, he's cute, but not that smart.  :-)

• I was telling the kids (ages from about 5-9) that Indy had to come in and eat his dinner.  The older one turned to Indy and said "go eat your dinner so you can grow big and strong like your Dad."  Well his Dad's in the Army...pretty sure he might have heard that at his house a time or two.
• A few days ago I was out there with him and told them that Indy had lost one of his puppy teeth.  The youngest asked me what the Doggy Tooth Fairy was going to bring him...so creative!

Also, don't know if other large dogs do this, but Indy's favorite place to sleep is on the back of the couch, just like a cat.  However, his 45lb frame isn't condusive for this position.  It makes us laugh nearly every time as we see the couchion sink under his weight. 

Not too much has changed though since he was a puppy. He still loves to sleep right by your head!  

                

Indy also really loves Cory! Its certain that if Cory is trying to do anything productive, Indy is RIGHT there, usually barking in Cory's ear!

Cory and I joke pretty regularly if we LOVE Indy or if we TOLERATE Indy...most days, at least for me, its pure puppy love!

   

                   

Intro to The Gadra's

Hello There!

    Welcome to the Good To Be A Gadra blog!  We decided to start this blog to remember what life was like newly married and full of adventures.  Granted we have been married 234 days today and boy has it been a whirlwind so far!  Here's what's been going on in our household:

We MOVED!  Yeah, that's right.  We had only been married for 7 months before we took on address #2.  We went from an apartment to a rental house.  Despite it being a little bit of an added commute for the both of us...its a house and we LOVE it!

Oh, What's that you ask?  The black furry thing in the picture?  Yeah, well that's our little Indiana or Indy as we call him.  Just another incentive for us to move out of our 2nd story apartment.  He's a lab mix...or so we think.  We got him when he was just 5 weeks old, weighing 5.4 pounds.  Check out the pictures below for the before and after.  All we can say is that he gets plenty of sleep, love, and food in our family!

He was only a Gadra for a few minutes in this picture. 
This is him snoozing in the cart at Petsmart right after we
got him.  We had to get the "essentials" + a whole bunch of
other stuff.  He was a hit in the store!

Maybe even more adorable is the pic from his first bath. 

He was so tiny!!

This was him about a month ago...as you can see he's a horse 

but appears to be well adjusted! At 4 months he weighed about

33 pounds and is eating about 4 cups of food a day!

In other exciting news here are some pictures of our first 6 months of marriage:

We went on a fabulous honeymoon in Hawaii for a week!

  

Yeah, we even did the tourist matching
shirt thing! 

Did some sight seeing while visiting
the Renfro parents over Christmas.

Cory got to see the St. Louis Arch
for the 1st time on the Christmas trip.

We had our OWN first Christmas and New Years
as a Married Couple!
It was fun to decorate our little apartment...tree and all!

We took a little trip to
Ruidoso, NM in January.

It was great to get away and have some "us" time. 
With our work schedules being opposite,
we value the time we get!

In March, Emily had a work conference in LA and Cory got to come along.
After the conference, we rented a convertible Mustang and drove from LA to San Diego to see Emily's sister. Talk about a fun adventure.
We now understand why dogs hang their heads out the window in a car!

Well folks, that's a run down of life in our family for the last few months.  We did just take a recent fantastic trip up to Washington/Oregon.  Pictures and stories of that adventure coming soon!

Until Next Time.

Love,

The Gadra's