smiles – We Only Get One Chance

ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS

From the beginning of our time spent together, the one thing that I told Mike is that I didn’t want normal engagement photos taken. I didn’t want to take time out of our busy schedule to prepare our wardrobe and have an “engagement photo” session.

Some people have asked “What? What did you want then?”

Right from the start I had asked Mike to “just be sure there is a photographer standing by close for when the engagement happens and we can have some candid photos taken on the spot.”

Of course for a woman, this makes a lot of sense. For a man, this can be a difficult situation to maneuver. Poor Mike got stuck in the middle of it…and though there was a photographer right there for the actual engagement, the photos are not what I was thinking, not because of the photographer though, he was great. For many other reasons…let me explain.

You see, the proposal was a total surprise. I did know he was going to ask me to marry him but I didn’t know when or where or how.

I remember along the way we had been talking that he was going to go in and get his haircut just prior to the engagement…but WHAT ABOUT MY HAIR!?!?!?! My hair appointment was schedule for 4 days after the day he proposed.

I asked him to be sure that when he is going to do it that I at least know enough to wear an outfit that I would want photos taken in. To make a super long story short, it happened at a western themed winter party. Not ideal as western wear is not my normal. Now mind you, Mike and I get dressed up every single week and go out on a date night. We make a deliberate effort to change out of our ordinary work or day clothes and get a little bit fancy and go out for the evening for dinner and dancing.

I don’t know (as I shrug my shoulders) maybe one of those nights would have been a good option???

Our lives are filled with work, personal and family obligations and it isn’t the easiest thing to carve time out for a photo shoot and I was a little bit annoyed that it had to happen this way…that is until I got the pictures back.

The day was fun-filled touring all around Frankenmuth, Michigan, hugging and kissing and getting our pictures taken. We have a second home right downtown Frankenmuth and we have many sweet little place that we scoped out for great backdrop to our hugs and kisses.

I will be quiet for now and let you scroll through some of the other engagement photos…

PAY IT FORWARD

We have one of the greatest “Pay it Forward” campaigns going on in and around my town but spreading far and wide.

Nash Schupbach lived a way too short 5 months. The grief and pain of losing a child is, as everyone can imagine, incomprehensible. A very sweet family here in town has had to endure the loss of their sweet smiling little bundle of joy. Shelly, Nash’s mom, has a blog (caffreshe.wordpress.com) that she has been gracefully sharing her story. Not many would have the strength to share the details of such an event. I commend her for talking about something that people do not talk about. I have been following them throughout their journey. Todd, Nash’s dad, is one of my youngest brother’s best friends. Though I do not know Todd and Shelly well, this story is a little too close for comfort.

What this family has done with their grief is absolutely astounding. They have taken their long tear-filled days and exchanged them for heading out into the community to spread random acts of kindness. I think it was just a day or 2 following the funeral, Shelly went out into the streets of our precious town and stopped people to give them flowers and other small things just Fenton Chiropractor Nash Day August to spread smiles around.

These small gestures of kindness caught on like wildfire and newspapers, television and other media picked up and shared their story.

“What we give, we get.”

This did not put an end to the grieving of their sweet little boy, but it gave a new purpose and increased awareness in and around our little community…and has spread to different parts of the country and trickled out around the world. We are lucky to have these kinds of people in our community.

Nash was born on the January 9th of this year. They have made the 9th of each month a day for random acts of kindness. I just love that idea and am hoping after you read this, you think of the 9th a little more sweetly.

“Have a Nash Day!!” is a line that has caught up with this movement. To have a “Nash Day” means to spread a smile a little further than what you would usually do and smile a little bit more yourself. It means to go out of your way to make a loved one or a stranger smile; someone already in your life or someone you simply pass on the street.

One month ago, I was at Machu Picchu on this day. I was traveling with one of my team members that I served with on my Chiropractic Mission Trip to Peru (clicking RIGHT HERE will take you to a slideshow of the trip) I was trying to figure out how to do a complete random act of kindness but I also don’t speak the language (so many different nationalities visit Machu Picchu) and couldn’t come up with how to express the story to a stranger. So I bought a bus ticket for my teammate, Dr. John for Nash Day in August and added a smile to his day.

Today, as I am writing this, we are having a Nash Day at my chiropractic office Cafe of LIFE. For the first 20 people that come in for their adjustments today, we are doing scratch-off tickets from the Michigan Lottery. Just for fun. Just because scratch-off tickets are fun and make people smile.

So get out there and Pay It Forward! Something big, something small, even just a smile and a free hug…spread a big of kindness into your day today and Have a Nash Day!!!

THE SIMPLE THINGS

The joy in life is found in the simple things. This past weekend I accompanied a girlfriend to a party on the lake. Besides my friend, I wasn’t going to know a single person at the party but it seems that when hanging out around the lake, everyone is so friendly that I was sure it was going to be a good time. Something about the lake makes people happy. My understanding of the reason for the party was this couple got married and bought a house without telling anyone until it was over so this was a celebration of both of those things.

My assumption was correct and the party was a blast. The people were fun. The food was good. The house was beautiful. We stayed well into the night. Around 11pm were all chatting around a fire down by the water and Bob, the host of the party, arrived with a small cardboard box of stuff. It turns out that he had a bunch of Chinese lanterns.

Have you seen the movie “Tangled” the animated story of Rapunzel? Someone had recommended it to me so I watched it a few months back. Rapunzel finally had a day outside of the tower and her only goal was to go towards the lights. Every year, on her birthday, when she looked out the window in the evening, the sky would fill up with small lights. Though it was just an animated cartoon, the scene was really, really beautiful. She spent her free day in search of the source of those lights. Those lights were Chinese lanterns released from the people in the village. Fast forward to the happily-ever-after end of the movie is a beautiful scene filled with these lights, so beautiful I got a little choked up.

So you can imagine my delight when I realized that Bob had Chinese lanterns and that I was going to be able to light one and let it float up into the sky. I had no idea those lanterns existed in real life (though now that I googled it, I realize they are not THAT big of a deal) I don’t know if it is the fairytale-like scene that I am delighted by or what but it completely made my night to be able to light one off, actually it made my entire weekend! Its a really simple thing…but finding the joy in the simple things is what life is all about right? Have you found ridiculous joy in something so simple lately?