In My Own Words

My day started with my Warrior Randy, who is currently in Iraq, buzzing me on IM as soon as I turned on the computer, to tell me his wallet was $20 lighter. I replied “$20 lighter, huh? What happened?” He said “It’s the darndest thing; $20 fell out of my pocket and landed in this PayPal Account. It was downright shocking, I tell ya.”  I told him he needs to secure his pockets a little better…He made some remark about trying to find a needle and thread but the rain and mud made it difficult. LOL!

I’ve told him before that he’s not allowed to make donations on my site, because he is one of the troops we support, and his reply was that I couldn’t tell him what to do. This time, before I could even argue with him, he said he figured since he’ll be home in 46 days, and out of the Army in (I don’t remember how many…79? 94?) days, he might as well start supporting the troops himself, and he figures the best way to do it is through Help Ms Tracy Support the Troops. God bless him…

I spent the morning at the office monitoring two teacher assistants while they were taking the ParaPro test online, which took 2 1/2 hours and wound up running through my lunch time. So an hour later than usual, I put my lunch in the microwave to heat up, and while it was cooking I checked my mailbox. There was the usual junk mail; catalogs for stuff I’m not gonna buy, invitations to attend workshops that aren’t relevant to my job, etc. There was also an envelope addressed to me in handwriting I thought I recognized, from a PO Box in Idaho. I laid it aside while I went to the kitchen to get my lunch out of the microwave, and since I was eating at my desk, I decided to open the envelope while I was having lunch.

That almost turned out to be a bad idea, since I nearly choked on the bite I had just put in my mouth when I pulled a check for $100 with “for the troops” written on the memo line out of that envelope. That’s all – no note, just a check. It was from Lynn Seifert, who was the Director of Schools for several years and now lives in Hailey, Idaho. (Hailey is where Bowe Bergdahl, our POW, is from. Lynn goes to church with his family.)  I e-mailed her a big thank you and told her I was speechless. She e-mailed back and said she doubted that, and if I was, she wished she were here to see it… *giggles!* She also said she couldn’t think of a worthier cause than supporting our Warriors.

These two donations came just in time to help with the Christmas care packages. I think I’m going to go to Dollar Tree and buy AAA, AA, C, and D batteries for the electronic games I’ve bought to send to our Warriors for Christmas. That’ll make my dollars stretch farther; they sell Panasonic brand batteries, which is at least a brand I’ve heard of. I haven’t gotten any donated items yet, but Katrina asked me at work today when I was planning on sending stuff, which tells me she may be planning to bring something to include in the packages.

Well, I have to wrap this up and get moving. Jack and the hellhounds are harassing me about going for our routine after-supper walk in the dark woods…if I don’t come back, somebody call out the National Guard, okay? LOL!! Hugs to all {{{{{{family}}}}}} and {{{{{{friends}}}}}}.