This is the aftermath of a table crammed with supplies earlier in the week.

Prior it looked more like this: and like this:The kids loved the bounty at first.
Not because they got to pick out the requested water guns with the authority of a seasoned Range Master, or 'cause they got to lovingly caress bags and bags of candy, no, but instead because
if the table was covered in supplies, they assumed that meant they could eat in the living room. Dude.

Not.
a.
chance.
But thanks for playin'!

Give you the water guns back you say?
HA!
Guess what?
Not.
a.
chance.

Heh.
I have had corralled them in the kitchen and at the bar with their sustenance lest it would look and begin to smell like my house is overrun with ferrets.
They were not amused.

Yesterday morning Matthew woke up to the smell of brownies and was sure he was in some parallel universe where moms serve brownies for breakfast with a forty pound side of bacon and a can of frosting.

"MMMM Mom? you makin' browneees for bekfas? Yes?"he asks hopefully, in that I'm pretty much not going to get much more adorable than this in my whole life voice. He didn't wait for me to burst his bubble.

Instead, he, being the brownie "troll" (scroll down on that post) he is, lived his sleepy-eyed delusion a bit more 'til he saw the white chocolate and then he decided a Belgian waffle with a couple strips of bacon and a glass of juice would be an adequate substitute and I could get it all ready while he went back to bed if it was all the same to me.

"K mom?"

He took my whoop with him, too, the little.... Yeah, he wasn't sore about the brownie thing at all.

I had been makig brownies that early since a picture of the lip smacking goodness seemed in order given a morale related personal circumstance brought to my attention via email. Okay so it's therapy for me, too. It sucks when you really can't do anything to help the situation. When I can't do anything else about a problem over there, I bake.

I bake alot.

The rest of the loot aside from what went to Al Asad is headed out to some outpost in Iraq. My point of contact there is a 21 year old Marine named Byron. Seems he's been in the Corps since he was 17. He volunteered for this second deployment as he became very sick the last time he was incountry and left early. He said he needed to get it right. Him being there meant one of his brothers didn't have to be.

His treasured possesion, a guitar, is his relief in the "suck". He teaches it to other Marines when the have the time. He asked me via IM if I had seen "I am Legend" and did I remember the dialogue about Bob Marley and music keeping people human?

It took a little time and due to OPSEC, I'm still unsure of where he is incountry only that it is remote since there's no DFAC, (civilian cafteria and other creature comforts) found on bigger bases. He is a radioman and communicates over the unsecure airwaves so extra care is taken when we speak via IM. Anyway Michael talks about what I suspect it is like for this Marine too and about UGRs if you want a better idea of what the food and environment is like.

With some some "don't make me come over theres," I wound up with a pretty decent list of things he would like. A common thread in all of it wasn't the cost of the items as much as it was items that would help with monotony of tasks and in offering some variety in their diet.

It pretty much reaches in with a bare fist and removes my spleen every time one of our adoptees relates how much simply saying hello to someone at home and knowing mail is coming can lift their spirits. It just never seems like I am doing that much to warrant the appreciation, but I'm all for giving anyone something to look forward to.

Currently, fyi, at just at one milsupport organization there are over 800 Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen waiting for a sponsor here in the states. Seems like given the population of the US being over 300 hundred million, we could scare up .00026% of the population to cover these folks huh? If you are so inclined, go hit up http://www.soldierangels.org/

So here's what else was sent this month. Mind you I also sent some cooler PT gear in the way of moisture wicking socks, shorts, countless brownies, 4 for $20 movies from Blockbuster...(used first runs are a pretty good deal), nuts, specialty magazines and a blur of other stuff I didn't take pictures of because at the time it didn't occur to me to provide better accountability or that it might please other people to see how they are impacting lives there. Thanks also to Coffeypot for sending the Monster Milk to Michael, my sis for the peppermint foot lotion, toys and pillows, Sarah (where's your link mama?) for the brownie mixes and all the folks who linked up to spread the word:

Travis

Southern Insanity

Another Suburban Mom

Hot Dads

Bond

Nytebird

Sage

Hubman

Wishful Writer

(I know I'm supposed to link this, but I had to pick between leaving out the acknowledgement and putting it up without being late for a coule of other things going on right this minute. I'll fix the links asap though or you can look for them on my blog roll.)

I figured I was the only weirdo out there, but who am I kidding? You people know who you are.

On the horizon, planned or currently being facilitated:

Working out an email bug with AOL. If you are getting bounce backs when you mail to hstrueby@aol.com please let me know. try me at skyblue812@gmail.com

Seems a blog template with more than one text body (so I could milblog one side and personal blog the other, would code wonky so I've decided to blog milsupport a couple times a week (Wednesdays and Saturdays)to let you know what is going on. I'll keep a running total of the funds in one widget at left and and another one set up that tracks those who did not request blog anonymity when they sent support.

I also got in touch with some other bloggers willing to be privy via an oversite board to what we are raising so we have some, as Red called it, "transparency in accounting".

This morning I was shipping more stuff out, burning CDs and TV, talking smack on Facebook and mastering the art of loading pics from my Blackberry en masse. All of this is definitely NOT rocket science by any means, I know, but throw in assorted comments beginning with

How many times will I have to:

and ending with:

-ask you before those dishes are done? (5 it would seem),

-tell you to brush your hair before it dries in knots ? (my eyes glazed over aftr 7)

-yell in rapid succession: "Don't wipe that there! Don't wipe that there!(that remains undeterminded 'cause it GOT wiped)

and apparently a baccalaureate degree ain't cuttin' it. After I warned my significant other of their imminent demise casually suggested the children go along with him to his mom's house this morning, I wrapped this post up and got some stuff ready for the beginning of next week and took the last of these pics so you can see ongoing what happens here as well.

Some funds are used to buy supplies
Blank CDs and DVDs, colored paper to cut monotony--though if they are out in the sticks I tend to NOT send neon-- ha, sleeves to protect the digital media, tape to laminate silly pictures on the fronts of packages and letters, printer ink and assorted sizes of envelopes.

I like to get something out at least twice a week and bigger stuff about twice a month or more if there is a request. The heartbeat of support is in having something headed over consistently.

The donations help me get large envelopes with good boot insoles or music, or tv, silly pictures, drink mixes, gum, cheerleaders, a magazine or a paperback sent for usually less than a couple of dollars. Single letters in a greeting card are even less expensive about a dollar and will hold a 10 count of drink mixes, a pack of gum, pictures or

movies, popcorn,tv or music. With a scale here at home and the USPS website these types of mail I can usually measure and get out straight from my mailbox.

So there you go folks. This is what you have enabled me to do this month and I appreciate every last dime.

You did well.

Real well. ;)