In My Own Words

I am shutting down my website. The visitor count is pathetic – over the past month the weekly counts have all been below 5. The last “signature” in my guest book was a “spam” from China. There have been ZERO comments since over a year ago. When the web hosting is up for renewal, I’ll let it die a natural death. To everyone who has visited http://helpmstracysupportthetroops.com since the beginning, thanks. I’ll continue to support our deployed warriors and spend every spare dime I can get my hands on to provide comfort items, wants, and needs for the men and women “in the trenches.” I’ll just be doing it without the web page and blog.

In a matter of just a couple of days, we’ll be waving goodbye to 2011 and embracing 2012, praying for a good year to come. It’s kind of hard to believe that this year has gone by so quickly. It’s had its ups and downs, for sure, but we’ve made it through and are ready to tackle whatever comes our way.

Many of our adopted troops will be coming home from Afghanistan in January and February; unfortunately there will be others deployed to take their places. As long as there are troops in harm’s way, we’ll continue to do whatever we can to let them know they are appreciated. I will continue to request help from friends, co-workers and family; bake bread and rolls to help “Raise Dough”; and trust God to provide. He always comes through just in time.

Thanks to a lot of good people, the Christmas project was quite a success. We wound up sending a total of 44 Christmas specific packages to 10 different groups of Soldiers, Marines, and Airmen, and when I say “we,” I am including not just the Roberts family but everybody who helped, near and far. I am afraid to list names because if I inadvertently leave someone out their feelings will be hurt. The “we” does include a friend in Afghanistan, one from Ft. Hood, a new friend in New Hampshire, an anonymous Veteran in Kansas, folks in East Tennessee, students from Harpeth Middle School, several folks at the Central Office and the Educational Annex of Cheatham County, kids from “Story Time” at the county library, AO Smith manufacturing, and everybody who bought cookies and other goodies at the bake sale in October.  I was disappointed that the two schools that specifically promised to help with the Christmas project failed to come through with anything at all, but we managed without them.

One of the Marines we sent Christmas packages to is at Bagram Airfield, which is where my friend Bonnie (who helps with care packages year round but went all out at Christmas) is. I had included a card in each package sent, giving credit to the folks who helped and including their e-mail addresses, and our GySgt sent Bonnie an e-mail to say thanks. They wound up getting to meet for lunch one day, which I thought was pretty cool. His group had requested protein powder and protein bars, and Bonnie ordered some to be shipped to them. She is awesome; having been deployed herself more than once, she knows just what the troops need and want.

I also have a friend at Ft. Campbell who has been deployed before, and she sends care packages to one of our Marines in Afghanistan. We take turns baking cookies and brownies and such for him and his Marines and pretty much spoil them rotten. We should probably send them a treadmill and a universal gym to work off the goodies…LOL!!

I’ll try to keep this blog updated better in 2012, but I’m not going to make any rash promises. I don’t think anybody reads it anyway unless I nag them to go check it out, so it probably doesn’t matter much if I don’t keep up. In any case, I’m out of words for now, so I’ll catch y’all later.

Here it is, November 8th (Big & Rich have been singing in my head all day, “The 8th of November.”) and Christmas is sneaking just a little bit closer every day. Jack and I went shopping Saturday for Christmas-specific stuff so I can get started on the care packages. Hobby Lobby had all their Christmas stuff except lights marked down to 50% off, so I may have gone just a tad bit crazy… or not… LOL! Got a lot of “bang” for my buck there. We also went to Dollar Tree, and Bass Pro Shop. My latest order from JC Penney arrived yesterday; all stuff for Christmas packages. And the last three items I was waiting on from Amazon.com came today. I’m going to start assembling boxes and get some of them filled this weekend.

I sold some bread, dinner rolls, and cookies yesterday & today and wound up with $31 to add to the Troop Support account. Then today when I walked over to the board office to pull some purchase orders, Katrina called me over to her desk and handed me $20 to help with postage. I can remember when I first started sending care packages, and the first two Christmases trying to get friends and co-workers to help out, to no avail. It was like pulling teeth to get anybody to contribute anything, whether simple items to send to the troops or help with postage. The next three years after that were better – folks would bring in a box of Christmas cards, some candy canes, gloves, hand warmers, stocking-stuffer items, and even pitch in a few bucks to help cover postage.

Last year was an AWESOME year – four of the county’s twelve schools got behind the project and collected boxes full of all kinds of great stuff, from puzzle books, gloves, hats, games and candy to hot cocoa, marshmallows, Little Debbie seasonal cakes, even a dancing Christmas Tree hat. Students drew pictures, wrote letters, and made Christmas cards to be included in boxes. It was great! We wound up sending 37 Christmas care packages last year. Sharon & Mike Kinnard donated $100 for postage, and Lynn donated (if I remember correctly) $200 for postage.

There are at least two of the high schools that are collecting stuff this year; I don’t know if any of the elementary or middle schools are or not. I reckon I’ll find out when they drop stuff off at the office (or not)… Two of our former adopted Soldiers have helped out immensely, though – Bonnie, who is currently in Afghanistan, has purchased lots of cool things to send our troops, and Dana has sent a couple of boxes to me as well. Bonnie has also donated a huge chunk of money to help with postage and the purchase of more “stuff” to send. Another of our former adopted Soldiers donated $50 last week, a fellow troop supporter donated $100 via my ChipIn site, a military Mom gave $50 via my troop support site. My bake sale netted $174 to add to the support account – I’d have to say that so far, this project is going pretty well. If I don’t buy a lot more stuff, I should have the postage covered for at least 30 boxes this year, and that’s using the APO/FPO large flat rate priority boxes at $12.95 each.

Jennifer has put the word out at Harpeth Middle School about Raise Dough for the Troops, and hopefully that will bring a few orders for bread and dinner rolls before Thanksgiving. We’ll have to see how that pans out. I know last year the teachers and staff at HMS were my best customers. The economy being what it is, who knows if folks are going to be willing (or able) to fork over some dough for our troops…Things always have a way of working out, so I’m going to remain positive.

When I checked my e-mail this morning, there was a message from our Soldier, Bryan Vann, with “A gift for Tracy & Jack Roberts” in the subject line. I clicked to open it, and it was an e-Gift card from Restaurant.com. The message said “Dear Jack & Tracy, I first want to tell you both Thank you so much for all your support. You guys are so awesome for all the things you’ve done for me and my soldiers. This is a small token of thanks. Enjoy dinner on me. Love, Bryan” Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. Bryan is in Afghanistan; hopefully he will be home by Christmas and will get to spend the holidays with his wife and children. I posted on his wall on facebook that he didn’t have to do that, but Jack and I both appreciated it very much. He said he wanted to do it, and for us to enjoy; I assured him that we will indeed enjoy, as normally “eating out” involves taking our plates out on the front porch and fighting the bugs for our food…LOL!! That was just an awesome gesture, no matter how you look at it!

Well, it’s past my bed time and I’m sure I’ve bored y’all quite enough for one sitting, so I’m outta here! Feel free to comment; good or bad, you’re not gonna hurt my feelings! I’m doing what I feel called to do, and it makes my heart happy to know my efforts make a difference to someone far away that I most likely will never meet face to face. And nobody can take that away!

Sometimes I feel like I’m chasing my tail and I just can’t catch it. I guess that’s why time seems to be flying by. This time next week I will be winding up three days of baking bread and cookies, getting things ready for the big “Raise Dough for the Troops” bake sale and praying for good weather on the day of the sale. If y’all wouldn’t mind sending a few prayers up as well, it certainly can’t hurt! Susan Scholma assured me that God never allows it to rain on the day of the Fall Festival, but you know He does have a sense of humor…

Here in the midst of rounding up funds and items for Christmas Care Packages, I adopted another group of soldiers this morning. Yeah, I know…but I just happened to click on a name at AnySoldier when I logged on to check an updated status (I don’t know why I chose that particular name, it just happened) and I couldn’t help myself. They’re on a remote outpost with no access to a PX, and are requesting socks, t-shirts, boxer briefs, basic hygiene gear, dsiposable plates, bowls & eating utensils. I’m a sucker for a troop that is asking for such basic items instead of video games and computers and such. So of course I had to request their address, and I’ve already got one large box ready to drop in the mail tomorrow for them. I’ve recruited a couple more friends to help with their request, so we’ll have them taken care of in no time.

A friend and fellow troop support junkie in East Tennessee made a $100 donation on my ChipIn site for Christmas packages this morning, which is a great help. Thank you, Patricia – you’ve got a heart of gold! I have pointed out before that my most generous donors have been Vietnam Veterans and troops I have previously supported when they were deployed. I need to add “family members of active duty troops” to that list; Patricia’s brother is stationed in Vicenza, Italy with the 173rd Airborne and has been deployed to the sand box in the recent past. I can only assume that since all of these folks have been there, done that, from either standpoint, they understand the necessity of supporting our Warriors more so than the average person who has neither been there, nor done that, nor experienced the worry and fear that goes with having a loved one in a battle zone. God love ‘em all – Bonnie Roach, Dana Courtney, Andy Bailey, Randy Grailer, Alicia Guiliani, Larry Thompson, Mike Apelu, “My Joe” Keller, Patricia Cooper Simpson, Faye Wilson, Lynn Seifert, Sharon Kinnard, Michelle Galipo, Doyle Pritchard – I couldn’t do all I do without ‘em!

I’ve got Paul & Jennifer’s three girls for the night, and it’s time to get them settled onto pallets on the living room floor for some sleep (or for some giggling, wrestling, tattling, and what-not) because I’m a tired old lady and I need my rest. LOL!! Thanks for reading my ramblings. Catch y’all later; maybe by then I will have caught my tail…

How in the world did it get to be October already? Time is flying by, and that means it’s time to really buckle down and get this Christmas care package project rolling. I’ve had a couple of generous donors that gave money to help purchase some good gift items and to help with postage. (Thank you Bonnie Roach and Anonymous Veteran – y’all are my heroes!) Also, Bonnie (who is in Afghanistan, by the way) went shopping online and sent a lot of great gift items to include in the Christmas packages. You’ll forgive me if I don’t name the items that either of us have bought, since there is a possibility, however remote it may be, that some of the intended recipients might actually read this blog, and that would just spoil the surprise. Then one of our previously adopted Warriors made a $50 donation on my website this morning and specified that it was for Christmas care packages. Thank you, Randy Grailer! You’re a stomped-down good’un!

The bake sale is coming up at the end of the month. I’m going to bake dinner rolls and bread for the bake sale, as well as the usual suspects – an assortment of cookies, rice krispy treats, brownies, stuff like that. Any leftovers are going in the mail, to such far-flung places as Colorado, Afghanistan, Kuwait, North Carolina, maybe Georgia… The fall festival at the library only runs two hours, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I sell a lot in a little amount of time. I’m hoping for at least a couple hundred dollars. I’m going to post on facebook and try to get as many of my friends to come buy some goodies as I can, and maybe they’ll ask their friends, and their friends’ friends… I know, I’m dreaming. But if you’re gonna dream, might as well dream big, right?

I’m the co-captain of a Relay for Life team to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Cheatham County’s relay is scheduled to be held June 8th, and some time between now and then we have to come up with some good fund-raising ideas. I’ve already designed a T-shirt for Team Archie; we’re walking in memory of Archie Cannon, a Vietnam veteran who died in January of this year after a long battle with cancer that was caused by exposure to Agent Orange. His wife (it’s hard to refer to her as “his widow”) is the other captain of Team Archie. I ordered each of us a Team Archie t-shirt so we’d have them in time to wear to the first Relay planning meeting, and she loved the shirt. She wants to order for family members, and the Lion’s Club expressed an interest in buying them in support of our team. So I created another one that doesn’t have the words “Relay for Life 2012″ on it, since we aren’t allowed to raise funds by selling anything with either the logo or the words “American Cancer Society” or “Relay for Life” on it. This is the “cleaned up” version:

Team Archie Supporter T-shirt

The original I made for Carol and me has “Team Archie, Relay for Life 2012″ above the picture; that’s really the only difference. I’ve also ordered a banner for our booth that has the same photo on it. Between care packages for the troops and Relay for Life, I’m gonna be a busy old lady until about June of 2012 – and then it’ll be time to start planning for the next year’s Relay. Good thing I like to stay busy, isn’t it? LOL!!

It has been a whole entire full month since my last post; guess I’ve kind of had writer’s block… No, I take that back – I have been following the journeys of several wounded warriors; there is a lot to read, then a lot to ponder about what I have read, followed by specific prayers for each warrior and their loved ones. That kind of keeps me busy.

Our Marine, David Parker, is home from Afghanistan. It’s good to know he made it back, safe and sound, to his loved ones. He came to the office a week ago and brought me a flag in a display case along with a framed certificate that states the flag was flown over Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan on July 6th (David’s birthday), 2011 as a thank-you for the support provided while he was deployed. How ’bout that:

I will treasure this forever!

Our friend and (s)hero, Bonnie Roach, has done it again – I have received 4 packages this week containing awesome items to put in Christmas care packages. I won’t mention what those items are, since it’s possible that one or more of our deployed warriors might read this, and that would totally spoil the surprise element. Suffice it to say there will be smiles on faces over in A’stan when Christmas packages are opened, thanks to Bonnie. Another friend and (s)hero, Dana Atkinson, has been purchasing items for Christmas care packages, also, and will be mailing them to me when she has picked up the last couple of things she wants to add. She, too, has chosen some awesome items. Isn’t it something that my biggest supporters of the Christmas project so far have been a couple of Vietnam veterans, a retired SSG from the Army who is currently in Afghanistan as a civilian contractor, and an active duty Soldier at Ft. Hood who we adopted during two deployments? Okay, so they have been there, done that, got the t-shirt… but what will it take to get the average citizen who has NOT been there, done that to support this project? We shall see…

I made some fliers about supporting the troops, and Christmas care packages, which one of our friends handed out at the table they had set up at the 9-11 Memorial. I don’t know how many they handed out, and I haven’t gotten any results from the fliers yet. My e-mail address and phone number were at the bottom of each flier.  There’s still a good month and a half before we reach the deadline for getting everything together to be able to mail off packages by Thanksgiving.

I’m still planning to have a bake sale to raise dough for the troops at the end of October. I was offered an invitation to set up at the Cheatham County Library Fall Festival on October 29th, and have even had an offer from my boss to provide some cookies and brownies for the sale. I am going to request the last three days of the week preceding the 29th as vacation days so I can get a variety of goodies made and packaged into Ziplock bags. Whatever I don’t sell, I will put into boxes and ship over to one of our Cookie Monsters. No need to waste them…or try to eat them myself…

I know, this isn’t much of an update, but I’m tired, and it’s bed time.

I follow several wounded Warriors on facebook, posting encouraging words and prayers on their walls. Most have lost limbs to IED blasts; one young man lost both legs and one arm. There are two in particular that need all the encouragement and prayers they can get. One of those is Sgt. Jamie Jarboe, who was shot in the neck by a sniper in Afghanistan on April 11th, 2011; the other is PFC Derek McConnell, who was injured by an IED on July 23rd, 2011.

Jamie is paralyzed from the chest down, with limited use of his arms. He is breathing on his own now, but his trachea and esophagus have been badly damaged and he has a feeding tube. The doctors at Bethesda just admitted to his wife that Jamie’s injuries are beyond the realm of their experience, and the family is trying to get him moved to Craig Hospital in Colorado where there is a medical team that has experience with the type of injuries he has sustained. His wife Melissa has been by his side since he transferred from Landstuhl in Germany, and she’s been a rock. She keeps a journal on CaringBridge; please visit and leave a word of encouragement in the guest book. All prayers are greatly appreciated! click here: Sgt. Jamie Jarboe

Derek’s Mom is at his side, also at Bethesda. He isn’t out of the woods yet; there is a lot of infection in his body, and things are still touch-and-go. He has lost both legs and part of his pelvis, among other significant injuries. His mother, Siobhan Fuller, also keeps a journal on CaringBridge. Please visit and let Siobhan know that she’s not alone as her son fights for his life. Prayers are greatly appreciated for Derek, as well. Click here: PFC Derek McConnell

How did it get to be August already? Yeah, I know it happens about this time every year – still, it doesn’t seem like it should be so late in the year yet. Great merciful Heavens! To top it off, I haven’t updated my blog since July 11th – what’s up with that? I guess I need someone to poke me with a sharp stick and remind me I need to write a new entry once in awhile. Any volunteers for that job? Speak up now or forever hold your peace!

I’ve sent out several boxes in the past couple of weeks. Brownies, cookies, pocket-friendly snacks, cool ties, drink mixes – all the usual suspects, LOL! One of our adoptees who never asks for anything specific and is always appreciative of whatever we send actually posted a wish list on his facebook page, and I jumped on it. He wanted 4 pink flamingos, 2 bobble-head dolls, a 3′x5′ piece of astro turf, and enough brownies to feed a platoon of Marines. I asked for specifics – any particular bobble-heads? How many brownies would that be? He said they wanted a bobble-head Jesus, and the other one could be anything. As for the brownies, if each Marine got one, that would be about 60. And it didn’t HAVE to be brownies, it could be anything homemade.

I went to the AS Chat Friends page and posted the request, and asked if anybody would be interested in making sure the entire request was fulfilled; got several responses and the game was on! Before we got a chance to get the flamingos, Kenneth posted on his page that he had found them at Amazon.com and he went ahead and ordered them. I scolded him; told him it wasn’t nice to post a challenge then pull the rug out from under me. He said he hadn’t (and wouldn’t) order any of the rest of it, so I let the AS Chat Friends know the flamingos were already taken care of but I was still trying to find a Jesus bobble-head that didn’t cost $30. I’m on a budget, ya know!! And I was still searching for the astro-turf.

I finally found a “Buddy Christ” bobble-head, so I ordered that. Then I couldn’t help myself – I found a talking Achmed the Dead Terrorist bobble head, and I had to order one. When they finally arrived, I went ahead and put a box together with the two bobble-heads, a bunch of freezer pops, some individually packaged honey roasted peanuts and hot & spicy peanuts, some orange TicTacs, and a note that said “Hopefully Achmed and Buddy Christ can make the trip without getting in a big tussle. Otherwise, I can’t be held responsible for any havoc they may wreak upon the contents of this box.” I did pack the peanuts between the two of them; maybe that will keep them from fighting on the way over to Afghanistan…LOL!

My friend Christina from Ft. Campbell baked a whole bunch of brownies and cookies (all of it from scratch) to send to Kenneth, and I baked a bunch of brownies (Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate, from a box) and made some no-bake cookies to send, and between the two of us we more than met the request of “enough brownies to feed a platoon of Marines.” I had enough to send two boxes to Kenneth, a box to Lettsi, and a box to Jerry. I think Christina said she had sent two boxes to Kenneth as well. Christina asked if I thought Kenneth would mind adding her as a friend, so I asked him and he said “I’ll add anybody who is willing to feed a bunch of Marines over here.” So now they’re friends, and Christina has adopted him and his Marines too, so I’ll have help spoiling them.

A friend from the AS Chat Friends found a company that was willing to special cut a length of AstroTurf and donate it since it was going to our troops in Afghanistan. That was pretty awesome, because all the AstroTurf I was able to find was outrageously expensive, and you couldn’t just order a 3′x5′ length. And the shipping cost was ridiculous. Yesterday the donated AstroTurf arrived, so I got out the brown kraft paper and wrapped it up in a nice neat bundle, with about half a roll of packing tape holding it all together, and I got it mailed off today.  That finished off the request – I hope Kenneth takes pictures I can share with the AS Chat Friends group; it was quite an amusing project and generated a lot of interest.

Our local Marine, David, will be coming home soon. I see his Mama every day; she’s been walking on air the past few days, knowing he’ll be home some time soon. He sent me a message that he has something for me and will bring it to me when he gets home. I told him he didn’t have to do that, I’d have settled for a big ol’ hug when he makes it home safe and sound. He said he knew he didn’t have to, but he wanted to, and that I could still have a hug as well. I know his whole family is excited to know he’ll be back soon – his Mama, his wife and children, his brothers, and his friends. I wish ALL of our troops could come home, doggone it! I told David “Nothing personal, but I’m glad I won’t have to send you a Christmas Care package.” He replied “LOL – I’m glad I won’t need one!”

I have a goal to have $1,000 by the end of October specifically for Christmas Care Packages. I’m going to do a collection drive for items to go in the packages, and hope to be able to make up the difference by reaching the $1,000 goal. I don’t remember the cost exactly, but I know last year I spent between $450 and $500 just for postage for the Christmas packages. I’d like to be able to send at least as many as I did last year, and to be able to buy some nice gifts to include in each one. Nothing fancy, just something that lets the recipients know someone is thinking about them so far from home and wants them to have a nice Christmas in spite of being thousands of miles from their loved ones.

I set up a ChipIn page (Check it out by clicking here) to accept donations for the Christmas Care Package drive, and right off the bat our (s)hero, Bonnie in Afghanistan, made a $200 donation. Then a veteran & friend from Cookeville made a $10 donation. I’m posting the link to the ChipIn once a week on my facebook in hopes of drumming up more donations; either I’ll make it or I won’t, but if not it won’t be from lack of trying. And one way or the other, I WILL be sending as many boxes over as possible to make sure our deployed warriors have at least a marginally Merry Christmas.

Gotta get up from here and get ready for bed. Y’all take care, and thanks for reading my blog.

SGT Joshua W. Yarbrough lost both legs in an IED blast in Afghanistan on June 16, 2011. His family would like to see him receive 1,000 cards from all over America to help show him that his sacrifice is not taken for granted. They have a blog at this address: http://www.sgtyarbrough.blogspot.com where you can follow his progress, as well as keep up with the number of cards he receives. Currently he is at 46, but I am quite certain that we can meet (and exceed!) the goal of 1,000 in a fairly short amount of time. Mailing a card is such a small effort, with the potential to make a huge difference in the life of one of our Heroes who has given so much for his country! Let’s keep his spirits up and show his wife and their young son that their Hero is our Hero as well! Mail a card to the address below:

SGT Yarbrough, Joshua W.
Ward 5
c/o Naval Medical Center
8901 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20889

SGT Yarbrough will be moving to a hospital in San Antonio, TX within the week. His family will share his new address when he moves and I will repost it here at that time. Any cards that have already been mailed after today will be forwarded.