Day 1

Dear Stevie,
I'm only two days in to my little '30 days of doing good' challenge, in honor of your first birthday next month, and I'm already having so much fun! Here's a little recap of day one.

Day 1: Friday, April 8th
I had planned on doing something big and exciting to kick-off the month, but life got in the way and it ended up being pretty low-key.

There were a couple movies Dad and I really wanted to see that weren't streaming on Netflix yet, so we decided to head over to the grocery store and see if Redbox had them. Side note that has nothing to do with the rest of this post: I HATE Redbox with a passion. For responsible people who are able to remember things like returning movies, I'm sure it's a great system. But for us, the seemingly cheap $1 per night rental fee always turns into about $70. Literally. I don't even want to take a guess at how much money we've given to Redbox over the last few years. Once you pass a certain lateness, it's pointless to return the movie at all, so we now have a crapload of Redbox movies in our home DVD collection. And of course, they are all the super horrible movies we've rented, never ones we'd actually want to own. 'Grizzly Park,' '17 Again,' 'New In Town,' and 'Doll Graveyard' are some of the titles we can watch now over and over again to our hearts' content whenever we please. Awesome.

Anyway, before leaving for the dreaded Redbox, I decided to google some promo codes for free rentals. I figured even if we ended up never returning the movies we got, at least it would only cost us $69 per movie instead of the usual $70. I found some codes and off we went.

Another side note: The other thing that really sucks about Redbox is that there is always a huge line. People like to casually peruse the Redbox like they would a Blockbuster store, clicking on every single title available to read the synopsis, adding and deleting choices from their cart, calling their boyfriend/girlfriend/roommate/mom to get their opinion on each movie choice, and just generally taking FOREVER to make up their freaking minds. Then finally, when you've made it to the front of the line and it's your turn at the Box, the stress and panic sets in as you feel the impatient looks and long exasperated breaths of the crowd behind you, slowly closing in on you as you desperately click 'next screen' over and over again, looking for that one film that calls your name.

Friday night was no exception, and there were about a million people in line when we arrived at the Redbox. So here's where we finally get to the part of about my good deed! After waiting for at least a half an hour for my turn, I let the person behind me cut in line. I said, "do you know what movie you want? I have no idea what I'm looking for (which was a lie!), so you can go first if you want." Then, after I took my turn and saw that those promo codes I found online actually worked, I told the rest of the people still waiting their turns about the codes. They were all really happy and thankful. I even saw a couple smiles, which I think is pretty huge considering they had been standing in that god-awful line for a very long time. One lady and her daughter even found me later, in the ice cream aisle, to tell me that the codes had worked. "Thanks for the free movies!" She said. And she looked very responsible, so her movie night probably will in fact, cost her zero dollars. :)

From Jo, Southern Australia:

Hi Kristin,

My name is Jo, Im from a tiny town is South Australia.

I have been reading your blog for sometime and just wanted to say im so so sorry for the loss of your precious Stevie. My heart goes out to you as her first birthday approaches. I have been through the first birthday and due dates. I have lost 3 babies. My son Hayden, an angel and baby Sienna.

So anyways i love the idea of a good act... and i wanted to donate some things to a newly started group for miscarriage, pregnancy and infant loss...so after reading you blog i thought that is what i will do and i will think of my own babies and your little Stevie while i do it... so today me and my living child went on a little girls day and decided to buy somethings to donate.

Just wanted to let you know that even though i dont really even know you personally your little Stevie has touch my life and her life is def worth celebrating.

I did a big fundraiser for my sons 1st birthday and celebrated in style, it was hard but it was such an achievment. we raised over $530 dolaars and around 70 teddy bears for the teddy love club here in australia. knowing i had done that for him, made his birthday seem so special, instead of me in a teary mess...(i still did this later..haha)

So i included a little photo of some things we brought today (below). 

Thank you for your blog, its lovely to read. xx

Thank you SO much, Jo, for doing something so lovely and for thinking of my Stevie as you did it!

Remember, if you decide to join me in doing something good or kind in honor of Stevie's first birthday, please please please let me know about it! I'll be forever grateful.

Thanks again!

Xoxo,
Kristin