4th of July 2019

This 4th of July was really fun! Bob gave us some tickets to the concert so we decided to go this year. Last year I spent over $400 on fireworks and the kids were like “eh” after the first 30 minutes lol.

Carie and I decided to go save seats ahead of time. We each had an extra ticket that we could use to go in and place our blankets. Then come back after grabbing the kids. The tickets are no re-entry so without the extra two, we couldn’t have done it.

We got there to wait in line an hour before the gates opened. IT WAS SO HOT! I’m just glad the kids weren’t there dying of heat too. We were able to get in the line that didn’t require bag checks (I ran my purse back to the car).

When the gates opened, we found the perfect spot and laid our blankets out. However, it was kind of windy and we feared that with both of us leaving, our blankets would blow away and we would lose our spot by the time we got back. We made a plan to buy water bottles and place on the corners of the blankets to keep it in place. The only problem was, I had just ran my purse back to the car with all my money. I thought as I was running, maybe I should just grab a $20, just in case, but then decided there would be no reason so I left all my money in my car.

We decided to see if any of the stands took apple pay, so we could pay with our phone, but they didn’t. So, next plan was to just ask someone at the gate, if we can run to our car and grab my money. We walked up to a young guy at the gate and I asked him if we could go grab my cash from my car. He said, “we aren’t supposed to let anyone out and back in, but if you hurry, that will be ok.” He handed us two tickets to use to get back in. We thanked him and headed to our car. As we were walking there, Carie and I said to each other, “ya know, we could leave and come back later and they would never know”… I mean, we did have these two tickets again. I said, “I could go back and buy the waters and you would still have this ticket too.” Then we walked only 5 more steps and said, “nope!” We both go back, we both give our tickets back, and we keep our word. So we did.

We wanted to thank the boy who gave us the tickets and re-assure him that we kept our word, but we couldn’t find him. So we just went to buy the waters.

We saw a Ford booth selling water. They said all proceeds were going to a charity so we figured that would be the best place to buy the waters. For every water they sold, they let you spin a wheel of prices. Well we bought 8 waters. I spun the first four… Now, this is truly funny… the people before us in line, won key chains and pens. I won, two car washes, a nice hat and a free oil change. Carie spun the next four and she won a keychain, car wash, hat and oil change. Like really? The oil changes alone more than covered the cost of the waters. We were super grateful. We both looked at each other and agreed, it must have been because we kept our word and honored the trust given to us, and in doing so, maybe it was the good karma coming back to us.

We went and placed our waters on the corners and headed to grab the kids.

As we were walking back to our car… parked in a supreme location at the street just south of the stadium, we mentioned to each other how crappy it will be coming back and having to park a million miles away.

As we approached my car, there were some college students playing ping pong in their front yard, the yard we parked in front of. I thought, “what the heck, I’ll ask them if they want to save our spot” lol. I said I’d give them $20 to hold it for me while we grabbed our kids. They said they would but didn’t even want the money. One of them went and got his car and parked it in our spot to save it. How freaking cool is that!?

So… as Carie and I were driving back to get our kids, we decided to pay the kindness forward. When I got home I ordered pizza and crumbl cookies to be delivered to their house. 🙂 I looked up the address on the county website, and ordered both to be delivered.

I put my number on the pizza order to make sure they called me if there was issues… I worried the college kids would get it and send the pizza guy away, thinking the order wasn’t for them. So I called the pizza place and told them that the kids might turn them away, but don’t let them… it really is for them. lol. Same with crumbl cookies.

I got a call from a weird number, I assumed it was the pizza guy, but it was one of the kids… he thanked me and said it was really awesome. 🙂 It made my day. Kindness had been shown to me and helped me and I wanted to pay it forward.

We all piled in my car to go back to the stadium since I had premier parking lol. They were so nice and actually made room for both of us (me and Darrin later) to park. So nice of them.

We went to the concert and ate dinner. Shortly after the concert started, they started blowing up beach balls to toss around. I think I got hit in the head 4 times lol. When I was finally on the look-out, one hit my mom and she tipped over into her food. We were cracking up. I had been hit 4 times and she got hit once and landed in her food. 🙂 lol

The kids liked the concert. Brooklyn especially. When it was getting close to dark, I took her and Chloe up to the stage to see if Brooklyn could touch Michael Ray’s hand. 🙂 lol. It was pretty packed but she worked her way up to the front and did get to touch his hand!

The fireworks were Aiden and Kason’s favorite. They were actually really awesome. The finale was awesome too!

Afterward, we thanked the college kids again and went home to do some sparklers. 🙂

Those kids text and said we have a parking space anytime we want at their place, even in the back. 🙂 It made me happy to make some new friends and to just find good people. Kinda restores my faith in humanity when things like this happen. Just people helping people and being kind.