Care Packages Galore

We are in full support mode with Soldiers' Angels and care packages are flying out of Chateau Sgt. L left and right. BG has become quite the little helper when it comes to putting the bags together. We did about 200 goody bags while the inlaws were here. BG packaged about 1/3 of the bags. She was a little rough on the NutriGrain bars but hey, they can lick 'em off the wrapper, right? By the way, her car is in the living room because she won't drive it outside. This day it was ready to go to "Tah-get" in case we needed more soldier stuff.

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy

"Me Help! Me Help!"

One blue, one green, one yellow...

What's been going on....

It's been almost 45 days since my last post. Boy, have things at the Sgt. L household been crazy, crazy, crazy. I'm in benefits change-over season at work, getting employee folders in compliance, and just general work mayhem. BG has been sick - into our 3rd week now. We're on our second round of antibiotics and a new decongestant. She'll go from absolutely wonderful to spiking a 102* temp in the blink of an eye. When she's sick she wants to be held and the only person she wants is "mommmmeeeee." I've averaged about 3 hrs of sleep a night for almost 3 weeks and I feel like I've been beaten within an inch of my life. The inlaws are on their way into town and will be staying at Chateau Sgt. L. We live in a constant state of CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome). My living room is a staging area for Soldiers' Angels care packages. BG and I packaged 19 up a couple of weekends ago and I figure what better way for Sgt's mom and BG to bond...tape boxes and stuff with treats. Thru SA I got word of a chaplain who has 1,100 soldiers whose morale is down. I can't possibly write 1,100 letters by myself in a reasonable amount of time and I like to handwrite and not use a standard letter with a signature so I got the wheels a spinning. I have emailed every school principal in my state requesting letters from the students for the soldiers. I put a similar request out to a few family and friends in the spring and got 2,500! That was from 7 people with basically just their kids' classes participating. BG goes to a private school with about 300 students and they all participated for me. So, I figure with just a quick note to 7 of them and that great of a response, I could only imagine what an entire state can do. So far not as much of a response as I would have hoped but it's still early and I have about another 1000 emails to send. One thing I learned with my first 500 recipients....schools have kick azz spam filters and kicked about 2/3 of them back to me. Hard lesson learned. I've also emailed state superintendents of 2 other states hoping for participation. 47 states to go. Cross your fingers...I would love for this project to take off and I want enough letters so that given the opportunity I could send one to every soldier. Sgt. asked what was I going to do when these letters came in. My response: WE will sort them, fold them and send them to those who need them. His response: "Oh." I want to be overwhelmed with troop support. Will post an update to see how things go.

I took up golf lessons in mid-June. I offered them to Sgt. for his birthday but he didn't want them so I took lessons for his birthday. Nobody was gracious enough to tell me I was insane for starting an outdoor hobby at the onset of hell summer. With the July 4 holiday, summer travels and temps in the upper 90s and low 100s, I didn't make it back for another lesson until last Tuesday...I played in a tournament this past Saturday. My company was a major sponsor and I was put on the team. I spoke with the captain and was going to back out so I didn't embarrass myself in front of "everyone." He looked at me cockeyed and asked who everyone was. I told him the people who watched. He tried not to bust a gut laughing at me when he reminded me it was a local Police/K9 charity tournament, not the PGA. Hell, I didn't know...the only tournaments I have ever seen have been on television and there are always spectators - even for the little local ones. Well, not little as in the town this was in has 3 stoplights and half the townspeople share a last name. Since it was captain's choice and I'm a gal, my partners loved it because I don't "swing like a girl" and I consistently drive 150-175 yards and they wanted me for the par 5s. We didn't win - not even close but I didn't suck as bad as I thought I was going to and they didn't play as well as they had hoped so we balanced each other out.

The Sgt. L family lives and breathes; I just need it to calm down a little bit. I know there's more I just can't remember it all right now...

Hope everyone is doing well and one of these days I'll catch up on the 367 feeds on bloglines to see how you all are doing.

Happy Tuesday, friends.