In My Own Words

Christmas is behind us now, and between donations of items from some folks at work and raising $600 through my “Help Raise Dough for the Troops” efforts, I managed to mail off 17 Christmas-specific care packages to Warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan. (That equals $203.15 in postage, using the large flat rate boxes.) I’ve also [...]

It’s Christmas Eve at my house, but in the sandbox and the ‘Stan, it’s Christmas Day. I wish our troops were all back home with their families, as I’m sure they wish the same even more than I do! I was chatting with one of our Warriors over there, when in mid-conversation he said “Mortars [...]

In today’s mail there was a letter from one of our Warriors in Afghanistan who will be going home before long. He included his home address (Ft. Richardson, Alaska) so we could continue to correspond when he gets home; that was nice. We lose track of about 99% of our troops once they get back [...]

I baked bread today (one small order for Raise Dough for the Troops) and decided I’d send some to my Mom in Florida. She loves rye bread toast with grape jelly on it, and she also likes cinnamon swirl bread. I was already baking cinnamon swirl for an order, and there was going to be [...]

We’ve received three Christmas cards so far – one from a retired Army SSgt we adopted while she was deployed to Iraq, and the other two from troops who are currently deployed. All three are proudly displayed on the mantel above the fireplace, of course, and will be added to the collection of cards, letters, [...]

It comes in several versions – Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine…

Today, Tennessee’s largest National Guard Unit, the 278th, headed for Mississippi for additional training before deploying to Iraq for the second time. There were send-off ceremonies in several locations across the state – Knoxville, Maryville, Jamestown, Covington, Springfield, Ashland City, Cookeville. Since we’re so close to Ashland City, we went to the one at the [...]

Seems like every time I turn around, postage is going up. As of January 4th, the cost of a large Flat Rate Box goes up to $12.50, and the small Flat Rate Box goes up to $10.95. This time last year they were $10.95 for the large, and $9.35 for the small. They went up [...]

We got an e-mail yesterday in response to the packages we sent to the Soldiers in Afghanistan whose belongings were destroyed during a 12-hour battle with insurgents. There were a lot of folks all across America who answered the call to send these Warriors the things they needed, and I am sure each of them [...]