chivalry

today was not as beautiful as yesterday or monday, but still relatively beautiful nonetheless. i sat on a rock for a while and watched the river...it was beautiful until the clouds covered the sunlight, and it was still beautiful but i liked the sunlight.

anyway, as i was coming back, i sad a middle-aged slash elderly couple. the man walked over to the door on the lady's side, opened it, and made sure she got in and comfortable. it was sooo cute.

i smiled as i walked by. :)

hehe

so i'm gonna be in huntsman for a relatively long time tonight. because i knew this, i decided to go to wawa and went to go get food. i got a pretzel, a salad and a banana (an odd combination...but anyway.)

i was pretty hungry so i was eating my pretzel as i was walking back. as i was getting swiped back into huntsman by the security guard, he looked at me and said "where mine at." i giggled (cause everything makes me giggle) and said "oopsies!! sorry!!" haha.

there are people out there who treat their jobs as menial tasks, things they really don't want to be doing, and this attitude shows on their faces. but then there are people like tonight's security guard who, just by one simple sentence consisting of three little words, can put a smile on someone's face.

the world is beautiful sometimes :)

sleep

apologies for my absence!

this is kind of cheating, since this is just gonna be about something that happened that just REALLY brightened my day, so excuse me for being self-centered :(

childcare sunday is always fun because the kids are so freaking adorable, but this sunday was a little different. one of the little boys (he just turned two years old) likes worship time (which i think is absolutely ADORABLE) and he likes clapping and he will say (or babble/mumble): "i wanna go sing." SO cute.

so he and i went to the doors as the worship band was playing. but then a friend noticed that he seemed to be getting sleepy - he seemed tired and his eyes droopy.

so...i cradled him and watched as his eyes kept fluttering, and he fell asleep peacefully.

i've NEVER had anyone fall asleep in my arms before, let alone someone soo freaking adorable. the beauty and serenity and pureness of the way a child falls asleep in your arms...is one of the most beautiful things in the world.

xoxo,
ss

can i have a rag

so i'm like half asleep...therefore i will keep this short.

soup kitchen tuesday again. today, someone came in late, and so we served him food separately from everyone. he ate at the table, finished and came over to the counter where we were standing.

"can i have a rag, please?" he asked.

we wondered why he wanted a rag...most people asked for aluminum foil so they could wrap up extra food and save it for later.

"i need to wipe the table," he said.

once we understood his intent...wow. i was amazed. i mean, maybe to some of us it's common sense to want to wipe the table after a meal, and maybe some of us are thinking, "well, he should, because he came late" or "well, he should, because the people at the soup kitchen are doing him a favor by feeding him anyway."

but the fact of the matter was, 99% of the people who go to soup kitchens go, listen to the prayer, eat, and then leave. granted, it's not their job at all to clean - that's what WE'RE there for, right? but it was just so nice that this man asked...

i don't know why. it just seemed so nice.
god bless...

xoxo,
smiley sunshine

sportsmanship

i hate competition, but at the same time, there's something about sports that just makes it so appealing and exciting. any sport.

flag football tournament today up in mercer county, new jersey. six teams of girls, ages ranging from college students to young adults (some of them were even moms!). competition got intense, yeah, and everyone wanted to win.

but i saw some cool things there.

like a little kid dressed in a finding nemo costume.
like a frog prince mascot for the team that had moms on it.
like girls playing their hearts out, regardless of the score or the likelihood of wins.
like coaches being patient with refs who didn't always make appropriate calls.
like players who kept asking, "are you okay?" if they knocked someone over.
like the continuous emphasis on fellowship at the tournament, not competition.
like a certain team wearing yellow who wished the opposite team good luck with smiles and handshakes before the game.
like two teams coming to circle up on one of the teams' sides, all so they could include an injured player in their circle of prayer before and after the game.
like teammates supporting each other through good plays and bad(this sounds so corny, but it is SO true).

i guess maybe sometimes i love sports and competitions :)

xoxo,
smiley sunshine

when they have "nothing"

this has happened to me so many times now that i can't even keep track.

it'll be an ugly day, or i'll be having an angry day, and there will be some stupid volunteer gig that i signed up for that i won't want to go to anymore, but since i signed up for it i HAVE to go, and so i go.

and then after i go, i always come out so happy and blessed. every single time this happens, i just think: "the people who you think you're going to go and help are always the ones who end up blessing you."

there's a soup kitchen at a lutheran church on 37th and chestnut that is there every tuesday. it's cool because they'll have bible study first, then dinner for everyone, then worship. bible study and worship are for whoever wants to go and stuff, and in all three times i've gone so far, there's always been people there listening to bible study.

today was pretty similar to most days, except for two things:

one, after the normal announcements guy, frank, was finished with his announcements, another man came and started talking. it sounded like he was usually there but had been gone for a while for some reason. anyway, he ended with, "thank you! i love you guys so much." and it sounded so sincere, and it was just SO cute. ahhhh. so so so cute.

two, a different pastor than usual prayed over the group today - a church came to prepare/serve the food, so the pastor from there (rather than the pastor of the host church, like normally) prayed. anyway, as he prayed over everyone, the "AMEN!"s and "YES!"s that could be heard were so frequent and so loud and enthusiastic and meaningful.

it's so amazing to see how people who go to soup kitchens - people who don't have the means to get their own food, people who have to beg sometimes, people who are going through just hard times in their lives - it's so amazing to see how these people are often the ones most enthusiastic in their prayers and in counting their blessings. it always opens my eyes to how little i have to complain about and to how much i have to be thankful for.

so to the people who were at the soup kitchen today:
THANK YOU!!!!

xoxo,
smiley sunshine

yum

disclaimer: this is not a deep, meaningful entry about someone who did something super nice or something that really touched my life.

but, this is just a blog to write about little things that people do that have brightened my day, and this is really all too fitting.

so on wharton spike, which is the main homepage for everything wharton, there's a marketplace. normally, people will post up apartment subletting information or furniture sales and stuff like that - just people trying to sell and buy stuff from other people in wharton.

today, however, there was this:

"Found Cheesecake in Computer Lab."

This is the description that followed:

"OK, sounds weird but I found a box of gourmet mail-order cheesecake in the Forum Level Computer Lab.

Following the instructions on the package, it is being preserved in my freezer. If you believe this is your lost cheesecake, let me know."

wow. all i can say is - whoever found this cheesecake is one honest person. and i must say that this is by far my favorite post that i have ever seen on wharton spike's marketplace.

so to whomever lost their cheesecake - shame on you. HOW COULD YOU TREAT SUCH AN AMAZING PIECE OF FOOD LIKE THAT???

xoxo,
smiley sunshine