Milsupport Impact on the Family:
I took the kids to the pool at our YMCA. It's hardly a pool really, more like a veritable water park.
Padded deck for the splash pad areas, slow slopes into the pool to ease the littlest swimmers into play on slides or under a giant bucket dumping well timed water on their maniacally delighted little heads.

Bedecked in brightly colored swimsuits with their hair plastered down around their ears from the last dousing, they made a science of finding the perfect spot to stand in for the next deluge and still jumped up as if it was a huge surprise to be gasping for air and grabbing at their shorts to keep them up.
I loved all the


"Look mommy!",

"Hey take a picture of this for Dad!"


"Watch me!"s


Enthusiasm like that is contagious and almost expected. If any of those exhortations are said repeatedly at you at an eardrum splitting decibel, it can even be perturbing...
Yet, what made this mama's heart burst was watching them pause once in while in their joyful noise to remember one or another of our friends in Iraq or Afghanistan.(Course, I'm thinking Matthew, America's 1st Sgt.'s arch brownie nemesis is gunning for Mike in this one, Wanna chip? Psyche!Wanna chip? Psyche!Wanna chip? Psyche!Poor Little Guy, come R&R, there'll be hell to pay...)


While there (hopefully, mom thought) wearing themselves out in the water, one of my progeny would smile and hold up three fingers.(In this case, family code for "hey send this picture to 3rd Bn, 3rd Marines. Each unit, shop or company we work with has some number we like to use when we say hi, so they know we are thinking about them in whatever picture it is.)

I won't gush, I swear, but I really was proud of my little otherwise sibling teasing, wedgie giving, How-come-I-never-get-to-and-what's-for-dinner, toads.

My kiddos don't really know the reasons we are over there in more detailed terms aside from: the "Mahweens and soljurs" as my littlest calls them. Warriors, as my older children hear their own father call them, are faaar away over the ocean at war. Thekiddos know these men and women have families they miss, that they can't have ice cream or chips anytime they want and that it's HOT there a lot of the time or very cold. These are simple child perspectives that measure a circumstance in what ways children would identify as sacrifice.

JOHN HART: One Person's Sacrifice
I didn't think anymore of the pool outing until I got an email tonight from Coffeypot, which discussed what befell each of the signers of the Declaration of Independence in the aftermath of putting their name to it. The preface of the piece was:

"They were men of means, and well-educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured."

The quote struck me, perhaps because of the carefree time I had with the children yesterday. Seen in a new context where much less was assured for the citizenry there, I read this:



"John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished."



I thought about his 21st century peers at the pool yesterday with the Lexxus SUVS parked out front, hanging shingles here in the Clear Lake area as engineers, attorneys, physicians or business owners and living in their own suburban fiefdoms. Texas is a state known for a tradition of philanthropy. Like Hart, many families here of means,whether great or small participate heavily in the building of churches, schools and groups like United Way and other relief efforts.

I wondered if any of the men or women sunbathing or enjoying their kids that day took the next step or would if called upon like Hart had been, to take another step into public service to help lead their community? Would any of them have been willing to risk their reputation and everything they had built to maintain their way of life on their terms?

Would they leave their spouse on their death bed to continue their service, have their home and business ransacked and burned, only to return and find their spouse dead and their children gone? In their midsixties, would they hide in a cave and the woods for a year and emerge from there still so fully convicted in their cause they would welcome Washington's rebel troops to use their fields during growing season to prepare for battle and then die soon after penniless?

I wonder.

I feel blessed to know that this man did.
I would hope that in similar circumstances I would as well.

I honor his sacrifice and those that with him, signed this blueprint for our fledgling country. I hope my family will always be willing to perpetuate our forefathers' efforts.
Sage said all this pretty darn well, too.
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LETTTERS TO LEATHER NECKS:
Saturday Sitrep

Someone from Sage's blog sent me a box of great stuff, but there was no note...just this. Thank you much. I have about a dozen letters here going out and each will have some drink mixes in them from the box you sent.

Ally has been busy just dubbing her little heart out from regular old TV shows commercials and all. I know the guys and gals will love it! It felt completely weird to be on the receiving end of two priority boxes these week though...lol

I also received money from @TerriLPN on Twitter, Ally, T, two anonymous donors and Red. (more on the Crockpot project later today)
I am so not ready to put a a complete list of folks who bought a toaster or a crock pot or both or who sent money.

I can't seem to access Twitter and I know I have new people to acknowledge.

In the meantime, I'm still reeling from the shopping. lol. So here's the low down so far, after getting haircuts with the kiddos and Dad...I had him stop at a factory outlet on the way home "just to run in and check". Five minutes later I'm motioning for Tony to park the car. JACKPOT!

Woohoo! not only did we find crock pots-- I found crockpots that also roast, slow cook, bake, steam and reheat. They aren't breakable, slightly lighter and offer a lot more versatility.

When the clerk said they were 20% off I grinned and said "COOL! I need six! They are going to Iraq!"

Her response was basically a slow smile and a , "Oh,did I say 20%? I meant 30%.." I love these little kismity moments. From the fluke of finding better than we need for less than I planned to Tony being able to get them all into that trunk, I was high for hours. Even cooler, Sharon, the lady in the picture with Tony, said to come in today and see if they can gather up the toasters for us, too. She was happy to help our Marines she said.

It's gonna to be a great 4th of July here.

I hope everyone else has a great weekend, too!

Brownie security was breached at approximately 1830 and annihilation complete by 0030 on Tuesday evening/early Wednesday morning.

I looked for the telltale signs smeared across my five year old's sleeping face and bow lips when I got home, but was informed by my Significant Other that the assault was clearly unit wide. Instigation of assault was never clearly assigned to a particular perpetrator. I don't blame them. I blame me for unsuccessfully hiding the pan of brownies from the rabble band. Picture above was sent to intended recipient and was met with a number of suggested creatively punitive retaliations.

I sent a lot of smaller packages this week. Letters are the backbone of support. I can swing them budget wise at anytime and I generally have something to rant aboutsay at a moment's notice. Yes. I know. That IS hard to fathom.

I was one heavy in the kid department this week. So I put her to work with the rest of the brownie pilferers packing nacho kits, pizza kits, cheese and crackers. When it's hot most of the time not only is dehydration an issue, but my adoptees aren't too hungry. It's too hot to eat and the food available doesn't do much for the appetite.

Sending protein dense food and anything that has a high caloric count is a good thing. Usually more pricey, but I have to say when I need more funds they tend to just show up. I refuse to worry about how I will be providing. As far as the fat content of some of what gets sent this time of year, I have never heard of a Marine or soldier coming back from Iraq or Afghanistan heavier than they were when they went so I make a point of getting food out that is palate enticing to them even if it is fat laden. Any kind of change of pace is generally the ticket. Nothing worse than getting pictures of adoptees thoughout a deployment and watching the weight drop. I'm sure it's estrogen related on my part, but I hate it anyway.

I think pictures like that motivated the whole kit type food sends I try to swing from time to time. When I told one adoptee I was sending pizza, they were really surprised. They couldn't figure out how that might happen. Frankly, I didn't either at the time I started making these kits, but yes, you can send pizza to the Sandbox. Bertolli makes great pouch sauce, pepperoni is shelf stable, as are the jars of grated parmesan cheese and the cans of olives or Portobello mushrooms. Finish it off with vaccum sealed ready to eat pizza crust and there you go. Pizza.

Nachos are a fun thing as well. I prefer local Texas tortilla chips and cans of Rotel. You vacuum seal the box of cheese though to prevent seepage. It's hot. Things might get runny, but a seal will keep it usable. Most of the time they just put the cheese in a fridge if they have one. Though I have had a picture or two of a Marine digging right into the box of cheese with a knife and chip and then smothering it with some K-bar opened Rotel right on the spot. It's not surprising. My own rabble here isn't much more dainty when it comes to food consumption, though I don't let them use a Kbar. lol.

I also had my rabble laminate whatever smart ass piece of art I could find for box or envelope alike this week.

Mail adornment started a long while back and noticed I caught hell when mail went out that didn't have a graphic on it so now it's kind of a tradtion for a lot of the adoptees. As with anything else though I do sometimes forgo that step if I'm slammed for time and instead my kiddos will go to town on the packages with a marker.

Here's pictures of half my rabble helping me get all of the packages to the post office. They were pretty darn proud of themselves it sure seems like.

These clerks are used to me and my horde descending down from the steppe several times a week. I can write custom forms in my sleep at this point. Even the five year old will ask me like he is asking down below very autoritatively, "Mooooooooooooooooom, do you gots the custuhm fohms? You do wiiiiiiight?" It gets him a lot of laughs with the clerks.

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 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. ;)