How Awesome Is This?!

A tire place saw the USMC plate on his truck, fixed his tire and said "No charge....and thank you." Pretty cool.

Much as people like to think opposite, there really are good people left in this world--probably more good than bad!

I was at Menards last weekend with my 4 year old. I put her in the car first and then went to put the 6' board and shelf I bought in my stationwagon. An older lady in her car asked if I needed help. I told her I didn't, but thank you anyway. She parked her car and said, "Oh, I see you got it! Can I take the cart for you?" Wow! I was blown away. I had my kiddo in the car and didn't want to push that cart back up to the store and that lady just saved me the awkward, "how do I do this?" She did it out of the kindness of her heart.

Great question, btw!!!

oh honey!! YOU and Jo - you both have been sooo wonderful to me this week with the boys being sick, my legs being swollen - even from a distance - I am feeling the love!!

this is GREAT!! I'm sooo glad that God was taking care of you guys today!! I think it's WONDERFUL!!!

My daughter left her purse at the lookout point at the Golden Gate Bridge. We didn't realize it until we were about 50 miles away. Among other things, the purse contained her military (dependent) ID (which sported my husand's SS#), her driver's license, a debit card for her account, a credit card for an account that is mine and my husband's, iPod, cell phone, camera and some cash. Our biggest concern was that she had no ID and we were flying home. I called the park ranger's office and asked if someone had turned it in. When they stopped laughing at me, they told me that about 95% of the time it is gone. I was kind of shocked by that. I mean 95%?!? Wow. So we went to some trouble to get a temporary ID for her from a somewhat nearby base and on our way back to the hotel, my husband called and said he just arrived home from work and heard the messages on our machine. Blockbuster had called and said that someone called them to find Whitney because they found her purse. I called the woman, who spoke very little English. She was calling for a co-worker who didn't speak any English. Her co-worker is the one who found the purse and enlisted her help to find my daughter!!! I told them where we were staying and asked if it was far from them (wondering if we could go get it or should have them mail it) and she told me that she could probably come by in the morning. !!! I was amazed, but of course I insisted that I come to them. They had gone to so much trouble already. We met the woman who found the purse and the woman who made the phone calls. They were genuinely worried about my daughter being in California with no money. (Aww!) I tried to give them some money to thank them. They emphatically declined. I know they could have used the money, but they would not take it. There was absolutely nothing missing from my daughter's purse. We got a chuckle out of the fact that the woman's kids (she had told us their ages) had obviously been listening to her iPod (the battery was dead and the earphones were wound differently - definitely NOT a problem!) We figured the kids were heartbroken when their mom located the owner. :( I really wanted to buy them an iPod!

I came to two conclusions: 1. There are many good and honest people in the world. 2. This is the reason the park ranger said what he did. They don't hear about these stories.

A friend came over about two months ago and my grass needed mowing in the back yard. I can't go outside when it is above 85 degrees for more than 15 - 20 minutes. I get overheated real quick. Then I have to come back in and sit in front of a fan to get my temp back down. On a really hot day it takes about an hour to get to where I can go back outside again.

This man, Dan, got 3 other people together and came over to my home and weed eated and mowed my grass and put the weeds in a large stack and filled all my trash cans and helped me haul them up to the street for the trash man. They worked from 7ish or 8ish to 2 pm.

They wouldn't even let me start my BBQ grill and make lunch. They brought their own water jug, cups, gloves, tools, lawnmower, donuts, snacks, etc. I was amazed. They got more done in those 5 or 6 hours than I was able to get done all summer. Still makes my eyes mist over.

A cashier at the grocery store just finished checking out two families that had separte carts, but were obviously related or next door neighbors. Their kids were horribly behaved. They seemed to delight in giving the cashier a hard time. When it was my turn I only had two or three things and I appologized for the two horrible behaving families in front of me. I paid with a $10 bill. She gave me change for a $20. I told her thank you for her genersoity and gave her back a $10 bill. She looked at me funny and so I told her I gave her $10 and she gave me change as if I had given her a $20. She was so happy. She said I was the first person to do that in over 2 years.

Good luck to you and yours.

when we were down & out, last year this time (hubs came back from teaching overseas to find no permanent jobs at the time; I had been caring for my mom and also job-searching to no avail).... a colleague from Shanghai sent us a check for $500. And a former pastor friend I had found on facebook came through town... he had spent the night a couple of times since reconnecting....well, HE surprised us with $500 as well. God is good!

We live in a small town so people do things like this all the time. Our gas gauge is broken and ocassionaly my hubby will run out of gas on the way home from work. This happened last week and someone called the local station and they brought him $5 worth of gas and said that it would be no problem to stop in and pay tomorrow. Another time this lady picked my hubby up when he was walking to the station and he asked he could stop by our house (which is right next to the station) so he could get a couple bucks. Well she handed him a $20 instead! there are great people out there.

It doesn't happen enough anymore. My A. and uncle are the "stray keepers"...that is human strays. Teens with no family, adults w/ children (me, hubs and kids)...down on our luck and no where to go we moved from Colorado to Missouri. They took us in and gave us a home, we tried to pay them, they wouldn't take our money. So we saved and now have our own place.

We are able to now take in my sister and nephew...it's such a good feeling to pay it forward. I wish we could take in more "strays".

Another one and I'm so proud of my first grader...she had two snacks in her backpack the other day and one of the boys in class didn't have one. She gave him her extra...so friendly and helpful.

Well, I didn't have anything done for me. BUT, my boy made someone's day. I'm a proud mama, so you gave me a chance to brag ;)
We have a plot in our community garden. There was a little old lady I'd never seen there before. My son (2 1/2) just loved her and followed her around the whole time. When she was going to get into her ride, my son walked her back and gave her a big hug. She got tears in her eyes , and said "You remind me of my son over 50 years ago." It was so sweet and touching. Kids are amazing. They know just what people need sometimes. Thanks, for letting me share!!

No one's done it to me lately, but a guy just came through my line at Wal-mart the other day. He gave me a $100 bill and said 'this is for the next customer/customers that come through your line'. He paid for 3 people's groceries! Everyone wanted to come through my line after they heard that I was giving away free money. Lol!

Earlier this week, a younger man in a wheel chair was waiting to order deli food, but they couldn't see him because he was in a wheel chair. I got in line behind him, they saw me and came over to help me. I told them that he was first. He was so happy. Then once he got his food, he couldn't reach it, so I grabbed it for him. He told me that he had just gotten out of the hospital the day before and wasn't used to being in a wheel chair yet. He had fallen off of a silo (Those really tall things next to barns). OUCH! Lol, then he kinda ruined it. He asked me out, I said no because I'm taken, then he gave me a guilt trip and said 'You aren't gonna turn down a cripple, are you?'. Men!!!

You better make sure your husband brings the money over there tomorrow!

I once had to help my nail salon artist with a car sale because they don't speak a lot of English. They're Vietnamese and wanted someone they trust in the office with them. Their family speaks less English than they do. :-) I've been seeing them for my nails since I was 20 and I'm 37 now. OMG, wow. Anyway, they did my nails free of charge that day and even though it was years ago they still cut me a break now and then. We also each have two children that are the same ages... and we each have three daughters. They're such a wonderful couple.

We have some really great neighbors and people around here. We all try to look out for each other. I'm always surprised at the kindness of strangers even though I try to show kindesses all the time myself.

That is awesome. We use a specific service station only because I like the bond of knowing them.

I am very particular about who I do business with so those that I do are the kind to do stuff like that. What is great to me though is that they have stayed in business through all of this economic what not because I am not the only person who appreciates what they do. :)

My best friend back home sending me Peach Nehi that she had special ordered for me for my birthday. It cost more to ship it than the soda was worth, but she went to the trouble to find it online and order it for me because she knows it's my fave. It was way above and beyond. But then she's like that, that's one of the many reasons she's my very best friend.

One night my husband and I went on date night and he had to get up and leave right in the middle because of an emergency back at the base. He just left me there. He wasn't thinking, this had never happened before and he just went into "fix it" mode and rolled out. The waiter took care of me for over an hour. He kept checking in, talking to me, making sure everything was okay. He even gave me free coffee and dessert. He was so precious. My husband came in over an hour later and was embarassed because only after the crisis was over and he said, "I have to go, because I've left my wife at the restaurant," did it dawn on him what he had done. The waiter was still gracious, heated up his food, brought him fresh bread. It was so sweet to see someone to more than just what they were paid to do and take care of a stranded girl.

I don't know if this really counts but..... we were in Ocean City last weekend and paid for 6 hours worth of parking. We still had 3 hours left on our ticket (which you put in the windshield) when we were ready to leave. While we were all getting in the car I took the ticket and walked back to the car that was waiting for our parking spot and gave it to them. They were thrilled!

I don't know if this counts either, but when you said "who does this anymore?!" it made me think - there is a state park near the beach we go to, with lots of bike trails. We drove up there one day just to walk around, only to discover that there's a nature center with a TON of bikes just lying around. You can just pick one up, ride off into the sunset, and bring it back when you're done. Doesn't look like anyone is stealing these nice little beach cruisers. We took 4 bikes, enjoyed them for one hour, and then dropped them back off. Like you said, who does this in this day and age?!?!? I loved it.

Seriously, this happens to me all the time. My letter carrier always blesses me, my pharmacist went out of her way to find a solution for my mom-in-law, and the lady in the art store volunteered to fully mount my painting in a ready-made frame, hardware and all, no extra charge. But the most unexpected was a parishioner, who brought me a gift while I was conducting CORI checks for our volunteers. She just thought I should know my volunteering was appreciated! Wonderful!

My brother-in-law is one in a million. A few months ago he called me one afternoon, told me, "Kate, make sure you are home tomorrow morning. I am bringing my handyman and we are going to rip out your wetbar and build that office you've been wanting. No questions asked, just get a dumpster."

WHAT? Sure enough, 9 am they were there, they tore out our nasty 1980s bar that was taking up a huge chunk of our family room, and built a nice office nook in its place. He knew how much we needed a place for my husband to sit to type his patients' notes, but that we didn't have enough money to hire someone to do the work, so he and his handyman did it for us. Yes, I cried a lot at his generosity. It was very humbling and heartwarmning.