Saturday, December 24, 2011

RACK 18,19,20 & 21 ~ all in one day!

It's been a busy week and a busy day!  We got caught up a bit with our RACKs though.  I finally (after 3 days) finished the baking and that meant that we could start delivering!  Our first RACK of the day was a bit rerouted so to speak.  I was planning on giving blood first thing in the morning.  I gathered up some rather groggy kids and headed out.  We stopped and picked up some Peppermnint mochas/hot cocoas (noticing a theme here?) and headed to our local blood donation site.  We got there just in time for them to open.  Except they didn't open.  Huh.  We hung out for a while and waited until the main office for our area opened in a nearby city so I could call and find out what was going on.  Come to find out, there was an organization wide training that day and all the sites were closed.  Foiled in our pepperminty plan!  Well, now we had all this peppermint goodness and no one to bestow it upon.  The kiddos got to thinking as we headed back through town.  We ended up stopping at a pharmacy and taking it in to the workers there.  Wow, were they shocked and so very appreciative!  I couldn't help but think that maybe God knew that the workers at that pharmacy needed it more.  After all, He wasn't surprised that the blood bank was closed!
So with one RACK under our belts by 9am, we moved onto RACK #2 for the day.  We put together a platter of cookies (all the cookies we had overflowing our home after nearly 3 days of baking!) and bee-dopped on up to our chiropractor's office.  They were super excited.  They didn't even seem to mind that some of the frosting on the some of the cookies got all smeared in the travel while the kiddos held onto the plastic wrapped platter.  I have this thing about "presentation" being part of the gift, but our grateful chiropractor people seemed pleased as punch with the less than perfect presentation.  WooHoo!
Later that day we set out to complete another RACK that was long in coming.  When we first made up our RACK list, we knew that we wanted our local Police Department at the top of the list.  Well, we were getting down to crunch time and we had not made it out there yet.  So since we were on a RACK roll, we made up another platter of cookies and put together a quick fruit basket (they need more than just frosting and chocolate to do their job after all!).  We loaded it all up and headed in to town for a second time that day.  We walked into the station and the officer behind the counter looked at us, looked at the goodies in our hands and with a bit of a confusing countenance, asked if he could help us.  I quickly explained that we just wanted to drop off the goodies for them.  His confusion quickly turned into a smile from ear to ear.  He quickly left his window and went around to unlock the door to accept the yummies.  He asked me who we were and why we were doing this.  I hesitated, but gave him my name (despite the my anonymity desire, no matter what question a police officer asks, you answer!) and directed him to read our little RACK card we placed in the fruit basket.  He said thank you several times over and we scurried out the door.  Yay!
At that point, I thought we were done RACKing for the day.  I took Isabella to her ballet lessons and remembered that I had forgotten to get her ballet instructor a little Christmas gift.  Thankfully, right below the dance studio is a delightful little coffee shop that offers all sorts of goodies from pastries, soups and sandwiches, breads and of course yummy flavored coffees to enjoy!  I ran down there to pick a little something out (they were so very smart and had little gift baskets already made up!).  I quickly found something for Isabella's instructor while amazingly avoiding the temptation to buy myself something equally delightful.  When I went up to the cash register I was greeted by a cheerful but tired looking young lady.  She quickly and politely rang me up and wished me a Merry Christmas.  As I started to put my cash back in my wallet, I noticed the little tip jar there.  I hesitated for a mere moment before dropping a five dollar bill into the jar.  The tired yet still cheerful girl's eyes just lit up.  She sputtered, "Did you just put a five in there?  Did you really just put a five in there?"  I simply nodded and the sputtering continued, "I have made like (her words not mine!) two dollars all day!  You have made my day!  You really made my day!"  I wished her a Merry Christmas and skipped my way out of the delightful coffee shop.  Okay, I didn't really skip.  I'm not quite that confident in my lack of clumsiness, but I was skipping in my heart.
All in all, it was a very enjoyable RACK-filled day!

No comments:

Post a Comment