Fold, Fold, Seal, Dear Soldier

Well, well, well. I must say that I am a "master kitter" after learning the technique of tri-folding, sealing and addressing "Dear Soldier" on about 500 letters and cards in the past couple of days. I can officially say that I am caught up with all we have collected and will have it all boxed by the end of the day. I am, however, going to hold on to some of the letters and cards and distribute them weekly. This way there is a constant supply coming in to help cheer up our troops!

As for the box I was making to hold the cards and letters, it is done! I was going to hold off on sharing pictures just in case our contact in Kandahar sees it on Facebook, but if he does, hopefully it will just excite him. I'll hold off on adding them to Facebook though (for now!). Here it is!

I pretty much "doodled" it all when I had some down time, colored it, cut them out and then arranged them all around on the box. I then just covered it will clear packing tape. The inside and underneath of the box are lined with that good ol' priority mailing tape. Turned out pretty neat looking. Hopefully this will be a nice addition to their coffee shop. It can be set out and a soldier that is coming through can feel free to take a letter.

Update on the shipment of 17 boxes - they made it in a record 5 days! Was so excited to see an email in my inbox with the following picture. Jean was welcomed back to his office after a long day of flying, to find all of these boxes stacked around his desk. How awesome!

Off I go to finish off a couple of boxes I have to pack - and then to the post office they go tomorrow!

On a last note - if y'all could, please share the link to the blog! I would love to share our efforts to help support the troops, perhaps give some supporters some new ideas and even some inspiration. Thanks in advance!

Ahead or Behind You

Today was a very productive and rewarding day for me. After collecting cards from Treemont Retirement Community, and receive a huge batch of letters from Cy-Lakes High School, I was plenty occupied with the inspiring words of those both young and elderly. I like to pair up any that would go well with soldiers on my list. For instance, one may be in partly spanish while another may have a lot of hobbies in common with some in particular.

After arriving at Treemont I was able to talk with Alice, a contact there who coordinates the activities for the entire community. She collected many cards that the residents had written in to express their thanks and thoughts for our soldiers overseas. Alice pulled one of the cards out and was sure that I saw it. I will not give out any names to respect their privacy, but it was a very heartfelt card from a veteran.

This card brought both smiles and tears to my face upon reading it. He joined the Army at the age of 17, in 1946. He spent over 20 years in the military and over 10 of those years, he was overseas. He told a little about his past service and at the end he concluded with what I thought was so funny. He mentioned that he had "received a call in 2004 from the Pentagon. They told me that if there were ever to be a WWIII, I would be called back to duty. If I did not come, I would be court marshalled." Whether he was serious or not, I'll never know!

Now for the most touching part of my day. The Cy-Lakes High School took part in a letter writing project. Their National Honor Society has chosen to write monthly letters to soldiers. They submitted the first batch today and there are over 250. These are not brief letters with a thank you and God bless. These are very elaborate, "give it your all" types of letters. I was a bit sniffly on several occasions. Here are a few excerpts from them, ones that really warmed my heart.

"I hope you are having an amazing day, and if you are not, I hope my happiness, yes the happiness of a stranger who appreciates your efforts, makes you feel better."

""Progress is the activity of today and the assurances of tomorrow." I like this quote because its motivating, its a good way of thinking of all the obstacles that one must overcome today to be able to assure a tomorrow."

"I believe that every human being on Earth deserves to be free, and by you fighting you are giving others a chance to have that."

"I know you don't know me and I certainly don't know you but it is a thing of beauty the connection we really have together. You are the reason why I live in America with a peaceful state of mind and the freedom everyone deserves. You are the reason why we can call ourselves, American. Your heart and soul is in a time of wretched and evil, yet you stilld ecide to defend for what you live for, you hope for, and you would die for. Such heart deserves more letters like these, as you are the reason why I could write such letters in the comfort of my home."

"Whether or not you know it, you have inspired me to choose the path of a military life. Seeing the men and women that serve our country every day gives me such pride in our country. Your service can not be measured by words or money. The amount that you do for this country every day is more than anyone could ever repay. So with this, I salute you."

"You are my hearts reminder that I always have a choice."

"What I fear, is what you embrace, and for that I thank you."

"Beauty varies. In America, beauty is Jennifer Aniston or Leonardo de Caprio. In Asia, doll-like features are beautiful. however, I believe universally, beauty is from the inside. You, are a beautiful human being."

There are so many more, but I would be here for days. After all of my reading today, I have learned one thing. Whether you have many memories and experience ahead of you, or behind you, we all share one thing in common; patriotism. Both the high school students and the residents in retirement were both very passionate about their love for our country, and those that are serving to protect it. The residents are able to share all of their experience and memories with the world, to help us understand what our heroes have gone through. Our youth are able to share their aspirations and how much they long to make a difference, using our soldiers as role models.

Thank you Treemont Retirement Community and Cy-Lakes High School!

Post Office and New Idea

Looking back on a blog post from a few weeks ago, I expressed to you all that I had a horrible post office experience. I can now say that I have had a wonderful experience! On Saturday I was there as they opened the doors for business and was able to ship out 17 large flat rate boxes full of items. I was in the mind set that I would not let any comments bother me and would keep patient and thankful. The odds were unfortunately stacked against me. I was hoping for at least 2 clerks and no line. I was third in line, with about 5 people behind me. The first customer they took, they realized there credit card machine was down. That now leaves 1 clerk with many customers behind me, approaching 10 to 15 or so. I am now at the counter and although I had two boxes in my hand, my handy dandy father started bringing in the remainder. You could tell the people behind me were not very thrilled and during the whole visit, we only had one comment. At the very beginning, a police officer mentioned that we should be paying those behind us in line to wait (couldn't believe this!). My dad mentioned we were shipping every box to our boys and girls in Afghanistan and they remained cordial. The entire time I was at the desk, the other counters remained closed. All of those people waited patiently behind me for 45 minutes when I shipped all these boxes. The clerk was very friendly and thought it was so awesome that we were sending all these. Although it was tempting to tell the person behind me to, "go ahead," those of you who visit the post office often know that this can turn into everyone wanted to skip ahead since they just have one or two packages. I would end up waiting there all day if I was that giving. I kept optimistic and it was a SUCCESS! Hope you receive these packages soon Task Force Eagle Lift!

New small project I am working on. I am putting together a box to send over to our contact in Kandahar. Just a quick re-cap: this is a group of soldiers that built their own coffee shop to help boost morale and serve as a central location where the soldiers can "get away." I am using a little of my spare time to doodle something up. I am taking a regular cardboard box and pasting little sayings and drawings all over. I am then going to use either laminating sheets or a liquid sealer to cover it so that nothing will fall off. What will this serve as? A simple *hug* from home! I am going to send it and ask that they leave it on there in their shop. Every week I will be sending a batch of letters, cards, drawings, etc. collected here in Houston. They can then compile them in the box and if a soldiers is pouring a cup of coffee, he/she can take a letter or card to help brighten their day. Cheesy? Maybe. But I think it will go over real well :)

Here is the start of it!

Will update when I am finished here in a couple of days! I think it is going to turn out really neat.

I would like to end with a simple request. Do you have a DVD or two in your collection that you know you will most likely never watch again? Would you like to help support our troops? We are looking for DVDs that we can send over to the shop. Someone has donated a TV and DVD player, but they are in need of some movies that they can have available for viewing. I have already gone through my collection and pulled 10 or so out. Comment below or feel free to email me at projectfrontlines@gmail.com if you would like to donate some goods.

Goal for today: making it to Treemont Retirement Community in Houston Texas. All of the residents have filled out cards to send to our troops! They also mentioned that they wanted to cover some of the costs of shipping - huge hooray!

What's in Store for April

After a long absence from blogging...I am back! Have a little free time again, finally! Mark will be out of town for the next couple of weeks (*sniffers*), but I am hoping to not only get things done on the troop support front, but also in the weight loss and home preparation front. I'm going to have my hands full.

For the next few weeks I am buckling down and trying to accomplish a lot in our Adopt A US Soldier efforts. Mark and I have recently began a special project, after being contacted by a military wife. She expressed her concerns about our troops on the frontlines of Kandahar, Afghanistan. Her husband's battalion has built a coffee house which has recently been named "The First Cup." This establishment is a big morale booster for the troops at their location. It is serving as a central location where soldiers can pour a cup of coffee (or tea, hot chocolate, whatever their preference) and take a moment to relax and "get away." The way we see it, this is a great opportunity to help show those troops how much they are appreciated. We are arranging a mass collection of items to ship over to what we are going to consider, a trading post. All packages will be shipped to that specific location and made available to any soldiers in that battalion. While we are focusing on coffee, tea and hot cocoa, we are also welcoming many other items.

To further the success of Project Frontlines, I will continue a collection of items throughout my neighborhood. This consists of me leaving fliers at every door in hopes that they will like to participate by leaving a few items outside their front door. We have collected throughout about half of the neighborhood so far and have accumulated almost 20 boxes full of items. I am also contacting local and national coffee distributors or shops to see if they would be willing to donate some coffee to the cause. I have received two responses here locally and they are talking it over, keep your fingers crossed!

The second focus for the month of April is going to be an upcoming event here in Katy, Texas. The Home for the Holidays Spring Gift Market is a two day shopping event in which hundreds and even thousands of shoppers come out to visit booths full of crafts and other goodies. I will be manning a booth in which we are going to be handing out information on how you can adopt a soldier, as well as offering different military themed items. The types of things we will have available are paracord key chains, paracord bracelets, bows and one or two bra's. We will have an Army and/or Navy inspired bra that resembles their uniforms. These are always big with the military wives and girlfriends. I am hoping to also have a few other things available, perhaps aprons. I have always wanted to learn more about sewing and it would be a great opportunity to get some practice in, and hopefully gain some more funds for shipping.

Aside from the actual items we will have offered, I need to put something together in which we can display these items. From past experience, my advice to anyone manning a booth, keep your items upright and as visible as possible. In the past I have laid items out across the table and it results in a lot of the shoppers missing them. They see our banner and understand we are there to inform them, but unfortunately most people need more than that (which is okay!). I am going to be putting something together that the bracelets and items can hang from. It will also look more presentable!

Hobby Lobby trip is planned for tonight - hopefully I walk away with some really neat stuff, at a really neat price...updates to come!

Military Themed Crafts and Fun Stuff

Aside from supporting soldiers overseas, I have a full time (and lately, VERY stressful) job, I have started the process of having a house built, I am an Ambassador for Adopt A US Soldier and I am always looking for ways to fund the many packages that we send overseas.

I look for local events that welcome us to hand out information and offer items in return for donations. The items usually consist of paracord key fobs and bracelets, and recently I have acquired some very cute military themed bows from another volunteer, Misty. She's awesome!

One of the neat things I have started recently (with the help of my very talented mother), are military themed bras. I know, some may wonder why bra’s?

It all started when we made two bras for a local charity event that raised money for breast cancer awareness. It was only appropriate that the bras be military themed seeing as to how that is our main focus. The two themes were Army and Navy.

I am going to be making more of these bras as well as two more branches, Marine and Air Force. I would like to have one from each branch made in time for a possible benefit for AAUSS in mid to late May. We will be auctioning them off to raise funds for postage costs.

Sat{hurt}day

Saturday was the first day of the Patriot Walk Around Houston. I had the honor (although my body disagrees!) to join Mark for a day. It was about 17 miles, which to me, didn’t seem that catastrophic. I eventually learned that it is quite a bit longer than it “seemed.”

We set out from Clay’s Restaurant a little after 11am. The rain had thankfully passed but boy was that wind something else. We walked north for the better half of the day so were quite wind burnt by the end. It mostly consisted of walking behind neighborhoods and the typical suburb. As the day progressed, the sun began to come out and the puddles drained, so did I. About 2/3 of the way through I finally really started to feel it and tried my best not to drag. I think I did pretty well myself, for no training or experience with walking across America.

Thankfully Mark was there to motivate me, and even held my back pack for a while when I recuperated. Yep, he had two back packs on at once! Pros of walking behind Mark: he definitely kept me going. I had no choice but to keep up, plus I could watch where he was stepping. Cons: he is fast! With his experience, and obviously longer legs than me, I had my work cut out.

Any complications? One. Construction! For a good while there was construction on both sides of one of the streets. This meant that there was no shoulder and the space to each side of the road consisted of orange barrels and mud. This definitely caused a little pain in my butt (which is nothing in comparison to the actual pain I feel in my butt today!).

To sum it up; a goldmine of dog poo (don’t ask!), gang vandalism, a few mud scares, a duck feeding, kolache stop, brief VFW visit, neighborhood tour, creek crossing and a huge interstate later…we arrived at our final destination.

Lesson for the day: don’t lay down immediately following this feat.

John's Story

Part of the importance of this blog is to share my experience with adopting soldiers, and their stories. They are each near and dear to me. I will be sharing a story about each from time to time. I will of course use fictional names. Here is John's story.

After adopting John, I sent a quick email as usual, as well as a soldier survey that helps guide me as to what his needs or wants are. Luckily he had a private email and was able to respond within a couple of days. He told me a bit about himself and after filling out the survey I was surprised to see his requests. He listed a few snacks here and there but it all summed up to be about things he NEEDED, rather than wanted. He requested a pillow because he did not have his own. He also requested a twin sheet set as well as a few toiletries that they had not had available on hand lately.

I went to the store and started collecting the items he requested. About an hour and $50 later I was packing up his two boxes. $24 for shipping costs and then his two boxes were in the mail and on their way. He received them very quickly, only 6 days later. I received an email upon his receiving. This is what it contained:


"I would very much so like to thank you for the well appreciated packages. They
both made my day they were the first packages I recieved so that was one thing.
The sheets with the fabric softner was so nice I haven't smelled anyting that
smelled that good in about three months. My soldiers were begging me for the
brownies but I told them I would share. The pillow was so thoughtful I really
needed that the store was out of them and toothpaste. Again I thank you from the
bottom of my heart the package made me feel like a kid again at christmas.
Please keep in touch PLEASE."


It nearly brought tears to my eyes after reading it. These are things that we take for granted on a daily basis. Can you imagine not having your own pillow? How about running out of toothpaste and not having the access to buy more?

I love how he pointed out the fabric softeners. I washed all of his stuff before packaging it and was sure to add extra dryer sheets so that when he opened the bags it would smell wonderful!

Two days after he had received the packages I had another email in my inbox:

"i am sorry inform you that all the things you sent along with all my stuff were in a fire in my room i lost everything ...i am borrowing things from fellow ssoldiers until i find out what the army is going to do again sorry to be sending you bad news but i needed to talk to someone because it could have been my life instead of material things or both" I am so THANKFUL that John is doing okay. The most important thing is that he was not there when this fire took place. I am also very happy that he knows that I am here for him if he needs anyone to talk to. That is what this organization is about. Being here to support someone when they may need a *hug from home*. We need to help these soldiers understand that they are not forgotten while they are overseas.