This is fun…
You may have seen it already because it’s been around since 2011, but I just saw it yesterday on a Facebook post.
It’s still fun and heartwarming to watch something lighthearted and lovely!
Matt Still tells his girlfriend Ginny he has to work on a Saturday and gets Ginny’s brother Charlie to take her see the Movie “Fast 5”. As the trailers begin to play, Ginny hears a familiar voice on screen. Watch the proposal that has now been seen worldwide!
In dog years, she’s 112. In actual years, she just celebrated her 16th birthday with a trip to New York City.
Fourteen years ago she and almost 100 other search and rescue dogs worked to find victims and survivors of 9/11.
DOG’S Bretagne’s (Brittney’s) BEST DAY
Giving deserving pups the best day of their lives, one incredible story at a time.
Meet Bretagne: the last known living search and rescue dog who worked at Ground Zero.
As members of Texas Task Force 1, Bretagne and her mom/handler Denise Corliss had an intense first deployment They joined nearly 100 other search and rescue dogs to find and save people trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center after 9/11. They’ve had an unshakable bond ever since.
After hearing Bretagne’s story and learning that her 16th birthday was coming up, there was no question in our minds that she deserved a Dog’s Best Day for the ages.
To celebrate her birthday and thank her for her incredible service, we were honored to team up with the dog-lovers at 1 Hotels to bring this New York City hero and her mom back to the city for the ultimate Dog’s Best Day.
Thanks to Lorraine for posting a link to this FaithTap story on Facebook.
I don’t even know where to begin or what to say…
Amy Pence Brown, a Boise artist, is simply and amazingly beautiful!!!!!
And so are the people who took the time to ♥ her.
A few weeks ago she went to the center of the Capitol City Public Market in downtown Boise, stripped down to her two piece bathing suit, put on a blindfold, grabbed two markers, and placed a sign in front of her that said,
“I’m standing for anyone who has struggled with a self-esteem issue like me, because all bodies are valuable. To support self-acceptance, draw a ‘♥’ on my body.” Over the course of an hour, she had dozens of hearts drawn on her and made hundreds of spectators think…
Read more about her Stand for Self Love. You’ll be REALLY glad you did. 🙂
Excerpts:
The dad who stood in front of me with his two young sons and knelt down to tell them to “this is what a beautiful woman looks like.”
…………….
And the twentysomething man who stood behind me and whispered, “The effects of what you are doing here are far reaching. It’s absolutely amazing. The power of this moment will go on and in ways you never thought possible. You are changing more lives than you know.”
Baldapalooza is a family friendly music festival held in the Treasure Valley in part to raise money for families with children battling cancer and to send those children to Camp Rainbow Gold.
This year’s event celebrated a a special connection between a young man who registered in the bone marrow registry and an young boy whose life was saved because of that.
What a gift!
This is one of the most beautiful love stories I’ve ever heard…
A man is paying tribute to his late wife with a stunning field of sunflowers that lines a highway 4½ miles.
The seeds will be harvested and sold to help support families with cancer and other illnesses.
To really experience how MANY sunflowers there are, go to the Babbette’s Seeds of Hope Web site and watch their videos.
Babbette’s husband chose the best flower to symbolize Babbette and his love for her:
Sunflowers symbolize adoration, loyalty and longevity. Much of the meaning of sunflowers stems from its namesake, the sun itself. These flowers are unique in that they have the ability to provide energy in the form of nourishment and vibrancy—attributes which mirror the sun and the energy provided by its heat and light.
Sunflowers are known for being “happy” flowers, making them the perfect gift to bring joy to someone’s (or your) day.
I was listening to ESPN radio this morning and heard a great story about how Western Michigan’s football coach, P.J. Fleck, talk about how he surprised one of his walk-on players with the news that he was now a full scholarship player.
Walk-on players are there because they love the game. They start with no athletic scholarships, and rarely do they get awarded one during the academic career.
So to get one is a very big deal.
I love how Fleck describes walk-ons: “These kids are our backbone. They’re the ones who row the boat more than anyone else.”
Fleck is the youngest coach in the FBS. His past includes working as a sixth-grade social studies teacher. He credits that time for teaching him how to understand people and manage his classroom. He also learned how to deliver the same message, but in many different ways so that each individual ‘got it’.
Read the blurb and watch the video below to see how Coach Fleck made a memory for one (actually all) of his walk-ons (players)! 🙂
Fleck wrapped a scholarship note with a rubber band around a football to be used for an onside kick at practice, with running back Trevor Sweeney recovering the ball and being told to inspect it. The entire Broncos roster, in on the ploy, surrounded the 5-foot-8 Sweeney before he could even read the whole letter, lifting the junior up and down as he pointed to the sky and struggled to contain his emotions.
“He’s from Mattawan (Michigan), which is right down the street,” Fleck told ESPN.com. “He’s probably the most popular kid on the team, and he’s a 4.0 kid and he plays. He’s full special-teamer for us. Just a kick-butt guy, tough as nails and a really good player.”
“These kids are our backbone,” Fleck added of walk-ons. “They’re the ones who row the boat more than anyone else.”
What an amazing and inspirational woman!
Emma Didlake, the nation’s oldest known veteran, died on Sunday, one month after visiting the White House and meeting with President Barack Obama.
Didlake’s granddaughter told the San Antonio Express-News that the 110-year-old had felt tired over the past few days and showed signs of failing health.
“It was a month ago today that we went to the White House,” said Marilyn Horne. “I think she felt she had accomplished everything and could take her rest.”
At the age of 38, as a mother with five children, Didlake joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps and earned multiple medals for her service. After leaving the military, she became active in the civil rights movement: She joined the Detroit chapter of the NAACP, and marched with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963.
“We are so grateful that she is here with us today,” Obama told reporters after his July 17 meeting with Didlake. “And it’s a great reminder of not only the sacrifices that the greatest generation made on our behalf, but also the kind of trailblazing that our women veterans made, African-American veterans who helped to integrate our armed services,” Obama said.
Monday afternoon, the president released a statement about her passing, saying she “served her country with distinction and honor.”
“I was humbled and grateful to welcome Emma to the White House last month,” he said, “and Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to Emma’s family, friends, and everyone she inspired over her long and quintessentially American life.”
Bend, Oregon
Here is a true story of something that happened this weekend while playing pickleball at a tournament in Bend.
It shows how we never know where our words will land…
************
When I first started playing pickleball at the local YMCA three years ago, I met a man named Don Zaph.
Don was a character – – with a joie de vivre that was both inspiring and contagious.
A former Olympic distance runner for Canada, Don literally ran at least a hundred miles a week, usually on the Boise Greenbelt.
Pickleball was just for fun and a way to meet people.
Wearing loud Hawaiian shorts and laughing with every play, Don made a great partner.
Sadly and very unexpectedly, just shy of his 70th birthday, Don died in his sleep from a blood clot.
Here’s the start of Don’t obituary :
Donald Allen Zaph 1944 ~ 2013 Don Zaph is on his longest run, but this time it won’t be on the Greenbelt. He left this world …
Rhoda, his ex-wife and forever best friend, held a memorial service at a park along the Greenbelt and served Don’s two favorite foods: Coca-Cola and Hershey Chocolate Bars.
I wasn’t able to attend the service, so a few weeks afterwards I sent an email to Rhoda, whom I had never met but felt like I knew because Don talked so lovingly of her.
I told her how much I loved Don and how much I would miss him. And I told her a few funny stories about Don.
Fast forward to this weekend…
I had forgotten that Rhoda lived in Bend until I heard her name announced for a match at the tournament of nearly 300 players.
I told a Boise friend, “That must Don’s ex-wife!” My friend had no idea who I was talking about.
A woman walking by quickly turned around and asked, “Are you talking about me?”
Turns out the woman was Rhoda, so we got the opportunity to meet in person and share some wonderful stories about Don. We laughed, we cried, and we hugged…
I learned that Don randomly took gifts to hospitalized children and war veterans. And when he took the gifts, he stayed and visited for a couple of hours.
One child’s parents heard their child’s first laugh in a year during one of Don’s visits.
And a veteran loved the huge stuffed dog Don bought to replace the vet’s recently deceased dog.
I miss Don, and I’m so happy that I got to learn more about him from Rhoda based on a chance encounter…
I’m in the process of reading Herman Wouk’s epic two-volume novel of World War II — The Winds of War (1971) and War and Remembrance (1978).
The books are amazingly detailed and full of history about World War II. At nearly 1000 pages each, I feel like I’ve been in a history class the entire time I’ve been reading them.
Absolutely fascinating. And I’m anxious to learn more about that time period…
On last night’s news, there was an amazing story about the discovery of a cereal box in a house in Tennessee that shows the goodness of people, from both America and Germany, during World War II.
Hundreds of letters stuffed inside the old cereal box recall the experiences of some of the tens of thousands of POWs who were sent to Tennessee during World War II. The letters show epic kindness and love of humanity during an extraordinary situation.
Lucas Hobbs received a lot of help in his battle against cancer.
So, when the 12-year-old’s cancer went into remission, he desperately wanted to pay it forward to those who helped him fight the illness.
When Lucas got a Make-A-Wish opportunity, he didn’t use it to take a trip to Disneyland or meet his favorite celebrity: Instead, the boy who loves to cook wanted to serve some special dishes for the patients and staff of the Children’s Hospital and Clinics of Minnesota that helped him get well.
“I am here to give back the kindness that everybody gave me when I was sick,” he said. “So I am here to return that kindness.”
He was initially diagnosed with stage-3 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and didn’t take the news very well, when he got it.
“When I heard my diagnosis, I was in tears,” he said. “I was like, ‘Am I going to die?'”
Lucas underwent chemotherapy for months. And the effect of that made him lose his appetite — especially when it came to hospital food.
“Because I had the chemo, it was messing with my taste buds and I just didn’t like it that much,” he said. “I just did not want to eat at all. It wasn’t fun.”
But Lucas is alleviating what can be a challenging ordeal for patients and their families, giving them good food with fun titles. A cherry flavored ice cone is what Lucas calls a “Blood Transfusion,” and he even named a hot dog after his oncologist, Dr. Joanna Perkins, calling it the “Perkins Dog.”
“I wanted these kids to get something different off the menu,” said Lucas. “I missed all those ribs, pulled pork, all that yummy stuff, while I was at the hospital.”
Lucas made sure that all of those things he missed from French fries to tacos were on the menu as he took orders from his food truck outside the hospital. And for those who couldn’t make the trip outdoors, he even took the food inside.
“They saved his life,” said his father, Matt Hobbs. “Just the compassion and everything, it ultimately resulted in just a little boy deciding to give some of that love back.”
For Lucas, the true payoff comes when he brings food to the staff that helped him and the young patients at the hospital.
” I see just a big smile on their face, just a big smile.”
