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 mailed off 4 generic care packages with the funds raised, and have enough “stuff” that I bought on our last Sam’s Club run to put together 6 or 7 more.

However, I have $44 and change left in the Troop Support Account, which is only enough to mail 3 large flat rate boxes. So I’m going to have to Raise MORE Dough for the Troops. Right before Christmas break, several people at Ashland City Elementary and the Annex Building discovered I was baking bread and placed some last-minute Christmas orders. They’re putting the word out to others, and I’m expecting some orders when school starts again in January. I even got a phone call from a lady who had some of my rolls at her cousin’s house on Thanksgiving who wanted to know if I could bake some for her to serve on New Year’s Eve. Of course I can!! She placed a small order; $8 worth, but that $8 put together with what’s left after mailing 3 large FRB’s will enable me to send an additional package – woo-hoo!! (Okay, so it doesn’t take a lot to excite me…LOL!)

I’ve gone through my Support Rolodex and cleared out all the contacts who are due to come home within the next 30 days. Their mail gets cut off about a month before they redeploy, so if you send anything after that point, chances are good that they’re not going to get it. I need to figure out which of my contacts are due for a package so when I have the postage available, I can go ahead and get one sent. I’m going to go ahead and pack boxes, and fill out customs forms, but not address anything until I know I can actually send it. I need to get started writing letters again, too. When I can’t send packages, I write letters so at least our Warriors know they haven’t been forgotten.

I got a message from one of our Soldiers who got a Christmas package. He was originally due to redeploy in March, but is actually going home in just a matter of days. So it’s kind of a miracle he got it. His unit will still be there, so I’ll just address anything else to one of his other Soldiers. I can’t recall exactly what all I put in that package but he mentioned the Nerf football and how much fun they were having with that…Yay, I made some Soldiers smile!!

Thanks for reading my ramblings. Feel free to leave a comment; it’s always good to see a comment on my blog, otherwise I can’t tell if anyone is actually reading this stuff or if I’m just writing for myself. If any of my Warriors are reading this – Y’all know the routine…blah blah blah, nag nag nag, STAY SAFE!! Don’t make me have to come over there… (No, seriously, don’t…I refuse to fly, and I don’t believe I can drive over in my little red Mazda – neither I nor my car can swim…) LOL!