Letters to Leathernecks

Never forget. Then and now.

2009-09-12T11:40:00.001-05:00

I didn't post yesterday, even though it was one of those days where I think a lot of people will have posted thoughts about the Global War on Terror, 9/11 and speculate as to whether or not what the US is doing now on the worldfront is right or wrongheaded.

Shrug.Frankly, I'm not sure. Blogs like Afghan Quest, CP, Sgt. Grumpy. Lt. Nixon or CI Roller's, I think they, and those like them, would offer more insightful ideas about what is or was done there and what impact it has had and will have. I cannot form as educated or experienced-based of an opinion. Figuratively, I sit at their feet, listen and try to learn.

I can say that it's easy to feel patriotic or righteously indignant when you see countryman falling out of burning buildings or planes being turned into giant, fuel laden missiles. I like millions of others did experience that. I feel terrible for those people who died and for those families whos' lives will never be the same. I can't imagine what they have had to live through in the eight years since. It's unfathomable.

I remember standing in my living room with Joanna, cherubic at four months old and riding my hip, while I answered the door to the Fedex lady with a smile that morning and watchimg her face change as she simultaneously looked over my shoulder at the TV behind me and morphed her face from a smile of equal measure to one of unequaled horror. I turned and we both stood on the threshold of my home and watched the television camera train on a plane as it cut through a tower. My facial expression then mirrored her own.

Time stood still.
It did.But it was an illusion.The continuum is never really broken.
Time moves us.It had to.It still has to.None of us still drive the roads with shoe polish sentiments on our car windows and flags or yellow ribbons flying off our antennaes.At the time there was nothing we collectively wanted more than retribution.

Outward exhibitions of such patriotism were seen which we as a nation hadn't experienced since the last World War.It was heady, visceral, but unsustaining.

Time has brought us to a point where now we need sustainment and the opportunity to maintain an awareness and a sense of focus on the matters at hand. Awareness reminds me of all the other sacrifices by those who serve our country in quiet, in obscurity, off camera.

There are clear and present matters at hand which should demand the same focus and passion, but do not come replete with the natural, communal shock and drive of the images and impact of that day, but I hold that they are of the same import and have the same lasting effects on our country and citizenry.

Families fragmented for months on end because of multiple deployments, marriages which struggle with the demons of fear, loneliness and infidelity and those that end in divorce.
Single parents who live day by day and fight these demons with often no one to talk to. They love their warrior so much they don't want to worry them of struggles at home so they just try to keep it together as best they can.

Those warriors who believe that they have no respite from the stress of combat for fear of the stigma of counseling and shame of not bearing up under the natural strains attached to serving their country.

Homes of Reservists which are lost because of foreclosure when the family income is cut in half--an Army engineer and a private engineer just don't pull down the same kind of income.

Children who only know their father or mother because of a picture or a voice on the phone and who struggle with attachment issues.

Guard members who come back and find that while they may have a job, they have lost seniority and payraises getting lost in the shuffle.

Airmen, sailors, coastguardsman, soldiers and Marines who wait for letters or mail out on edges of civilization-- who need to feel remembered and not forgotten so far from home and reminded that what they contribute has inherent long-affecting impact.

Warriors whos' bodies and minds come back irrevocably changed.
9/11 was one of those days where discord and tragedy were distilled into a couple of hours with a mind numbing Doppler effect. God rest all those souls who's cries were almost palpable due in part to the horrific scenes now burned into our minds. May they rest with the angels.

For those still alive and dealing with the aftermath whether by choice or circumstance, I believe we owe them the same ongoing awareness and whatever support we can offer.

It may not be as dramatic or palpable a rise in consciousness these more mundane sacrifices I have pointed out. Surely 9/11 represents a perspective of violence on innocents and an obvious psychic tearing of our country unparalleled in the 21st century thus far and may it continue to be so.

Still, let none of the struggles each human touched by this Global War on Terror eight years ago and through the years since be in vain. These struggles are just as collective and impacting on our country as those experienced on that September morning.

Never forget.Then and now.

Toasters and Crockpots: the Aftermath

2009-09-07T13:03:00.003-05:00

Have been madly jobhunting and trying to keep up with my guys and gals flung all over. Not the best blogger. Lots of boring reasons BUT suffice to say I will be kind enough to not bore you and will give you this link so you can go check out the whole story behind the big toaster and crock pot drive. It starts with this pain in the ass 1st Sgt who I love like my 5th kid and often want to kill like one of my own, too.

)i vey!
and I'm not even Jewish!

Check it out over at Castra Praetoria.

Sorry it's been so long...

2009-08-21T11:54:00.002-05:00

I've been busy and then not so busy.
I'm here, but looking for a job,
taking care of my guys,
my kids,
getting into a school routine
and well, that's about it.

Saw a bunch of old homeschool friends recently,
been totally bad about any kind of social media save admining Mike's Castra Praetoria blog and posting for World on Terror News.
I hired a personal trainer even though I can't afford it and because I don't want to buy a size 8. Thighs kissing ever so slightly was a smack to the back of the head like no other. For me, I mean. Don't bust my ass.

I've been a bit of a lazy sow since the cruise and Taji falling through.

Still waiting to hear back from Lima Company, but the 1st Sgt in that battalion's H&S Company said Lima did get all their supplies. Thanks and as soon as I get pics I'll put them up!

hope

Going postal

2009-08-05T09:31:00.003-05:00

My house is trashed... boxes, custom forms, labels, bubble wrap everywhere. It's postal, I tell ya! Postal!

Remnants of a four day weekend and a visit from one of our friends we made during his deployment you will find in my room since I haven't actually unpacked from the resort, yet.

There's bag of flips flops hanging on the doorknob for Kanani and my dining room table looks like a Stop and Go covered in jerky, cigarettes, dip, snacks and magazines.

What I need is for Tony to call me up and say, "Hey honey, the principal from Jake's new school wants to do a home visit for his interview. She'll be over for dinner tonight."

Ohmyhell.
THEN I'd move my ass.

Maybe.

Capt. Speicher Home at Last

2009-08-02T15:24:00.004-05:00

Marines recovered Captain Speicher's remains.

World's finest, indeed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/world/middleeast/03speicher.html?_r=1

Kanani Update and 'Afghan Quest'

2009-07-27T22:00:00.006-05:00

I've been shopping for Kanani's husband here lately. (see previous post)Seems you can find flip flops, shower shoes whatever you want to call them are a dollar at craft stores like Michael's and Hobby Lobby. I'll post more about what has been collected thus far, but in the meantime I have a blog I want you to go take a look at. It's one of those start at the a beginning blogs...well it is for me. The pictures, his prose, his ability to convey deployment experience makes his writing almost palpable.

Blogs like this give me the eyes and ears I don't have being a civilian trying to assist my adopted troops the best way I can. I want to know the environment, the mindset and the experiences, social, political and military in order to be useful. Blogs like Afghan Quest written by an deployed Army NCO are a touchstone for that.

Here are some stark, captivating and poignant excerpts from some of his work in late winter/early spring 2007.

On the Taliban:

It has been written that the people are the water that the insurgent fish swims in. Part of our job is to separate him from the water. I’m sure that I’ve looked right into Taliban eyes by now. I just can’t be sure which ones. I won’t take action against someone I’m not sure is an enemy. But to ignore them is to court
disaster.

On navigating the emotions of deployment:

So, to re-center myself for now; I am getting to spend time with my kids. I am getting to enjoy them, and spend time with them, and let them know that their dad loves them so very much. They are enjoying the sense of peace as much as I am. There will pain when I leave again, this time for a bit longer… but there is time for that when it is time to feel it. It will be a rich emotion, too. It is life, and thank God that I can feel anything.For today, I am enjoying being in my home city, being with my children, being with family and friends. I am grateful for all of this, and for all of them. We are alive.

Here's a piece on a crescent moonrise a few days ago:

I noticed tonight that Kabul twinkles at night. I don’t know what it is, but the lights of Kabul twinkle much like stars embedded in a fabric that climbs up the mountains like a Christmas tree blanket over a tree stand. They are not all the same dull yellowish color or blue-tinted white of American city lights. There seem to be many colors, from bright white to bright red, muted greens and yellowish glares. It almost seems festive, and I ponder the many lives being lived next to the twinkling points; the children growing up in this dusty city heaving itself slowly out of the quagmire of war’s rubble, barely daring to hope for a future with a bit of liberty.

It’s too much to consider.
I notice an almost ominous glow behind one of the mountains. Back home such a glow would signal some sort of large event. Here, as I forgot, it heralds the coming of the moon. What I see is the bright light of earth’s largest satellite glowing like an approaching car’s headlights. The far side of the mountain is already bathed in its light, but here on the other side, I stand in shadow, slowly realizing that it is the moon and not some great social event or impending disaster.
A bright, unblinking light appears atop the mountain. It is the tip of the crescent which momentarily becomes apparent; a triangle, its sharpened tip growing taller at a surprising rate. Within seconds, it begins to resemble a shark’s tooth breaking free of the mountainous jaw, jutting skyward. This effect grows and is not lost until the moon is nearly free of the grasp of the mountain. Finally, the nearly half-moon rests for a few seconds atop the mountain, seemingly paused there as if resting from the effort.
The illusion is broken; the moon separates itself from the mountain and resumes its climb. The moonshadow begins to retreat towards the moon, slowly racing across the valley towards the base of the opposing mountain as the moon literally shines like a muted sun on the glittering city of Kabul. The moon is risen.
I think it took less than two minutes. Some things just leave me shaking my head slowly and muttering about beauty to myself, alone in the dark.

See?

Go visit Afghan Quest.

Forward Surgical Team, Afghanistan Children Need Your Help

2009-07-24T11:51:00.010-05:00

Hello!
This is a shout out for all of Hope’s friends. I’m a writer, and am also a pain-in-the-neck easily distractible Army wife. I’m here to drum up support for the Foward Surgical Team. (Pictured at left: Trauma ambulance)

My husband is a surgeon with 23 years of experience. Awhile back, he gave up his private practice to become a fulltime active duty surgeon for the military community. Right now, he’s in a country with one heck of a lot of sand. Like many a men, it’s both beautiful and dangerous! (I would love to send photos of him, but for security reasons, I can’t).

The world armed forces healthcare teams, the Special Forces and Navy Seals take care of the local population. When kids are seriously sick or injured, they’re brought into the trauma unit and their clothes are cut off. Many times what they have is threadbare, and often they have no shoes.

He’s requested replacement clothing such as plain t-shirts (without brand names, slogans or flags), pants, long skirts (for girls), shoes (for winter), underwear and socks. So many of us have kids who have too much clothing, and if you have stuff they’ve outgrown, this is an easy way to put it to good use. Underwear, socks, flip flops and shoes should be new. If gently used, all clothes should be free of stains.

The kids are small -- they don't eat much. An 18 year old is the size of a 12 year old. So we're looking at toddler, children’s and youth sizes.

(Pictured at left: A box of supplies for ten children)

In addition, they need notebooks, rulers, pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, and chalk (not sidewalk chalk but for boards).
It’s best to choose a themed box, such as school supplies or a box of flip flops, long skirts, or underwear. The Forward Operating Base can stock it more easily.

Use the “Large, Flat-Rate priority mail box” available at the post office (see the photo above) for free. You can send up to 20 pounds for only $10.95. Also, enclose a shout out to the Forward Surgical Team (FST). I can’t guarantee they’ll write back, but I’ll ask my husband to take a photo for my blog, The Kitchen Dispatch. I appreciate your support. As my husband has said, “We’re just in the sandbox to offer them an alternative.”

Thank you! Kanani Fong, easywriter101@gmail.com

Hey folks make sure you go read Kanani's latest article on Afghanistan girls. Good stuff! She has a milblog, too!

If you live in my area I will come and pick up whatever you have to offer. Also, if you are an old homeschooling friend I would appreciate you posting this to our GHAH and GCHS board and to any work bulletin boards you can. We could really use whatever help in shipping donations or items off the list below you can manage.

Kanani makes light of her and her husband's efforts, but I know that where he is and what he is doing is phonomenal and her support of him is second to none. He works in a unit in Afghanistan, from which, if you look carefully, you can see enemy outposts with your naked eye.

I hope you will consider this campaign and do what you can for this surgeon, his team and these children. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

-Hope

Article originally published at Blogcritics.orgKhanday schoolgirls carrying new uniforms, Pakistan. All images from the Central Asia Institute.

Kanani's Need List one more time:

plain t-shirts (without brand names, slogans or flags),

pants

long skirts (for girls)

shoes (for winter)

underwear

socks.

Remember: The kids are small -- they don't eat much. An 18 year old is the size of a 12 year old. So we're looking at toddler, children’s and youth sizes.

notebooks

rulers

pencils

erasers

pencil sharpeners

chalk (not sidewalk chalk but for boards).

It’s best to choose a themed box, such as school supplies or a box of flip flops, long skirts, or underwear.

CJ, Starbucks and Five Bucks

2009-07-23T17:39:00.005-05:00

CJ at A Soldier's Perspective , a fellow blogger and Army 1st Sgt currently stateside in body, but mostly boots on the ground in mind when it comes to his brothers, was given 100 pounds of coffee from the venerable Starbucks. He'd like to get it out, but coffers are low on his end. This generous donation was something he hadn't expected.

While I'd like to give him the money outright, coffers are low on Letters to Leathernecks as well...we have a few things sitting here at the house that need to go out as well, but I did throw in a few bucks of personal money and hope some of you will head over and hit his PayPal button, too.

He's asking for five bucks and I'm thinking that really isn't that big of a deal for anyone. Anyone who has bought a value meal at the drive through has probably spent a little more with far less impact other than the fat and carbs in said value meal to ones backside. Hell, yes, I'm speaking from experience.

So what are you still doing here? Gooooooo. Help that soldier out.

Tell him in comments Hope sent you and get in on the automatic raffle for some cool things, like a signed book from Gary Trudeau.

Go do it, cause if you were dug in on some crappy outpost far from home, your family, the net, decent food and a comfortable bed with assholes waiting in the mountains near your house to blow your head off, you'd be ecstatic to get something so familiar from home. You'd be comforted to know that people here give a rat's ass about you and yours in the suck.

Link this if you don't do anything else. Okay? Okay! :)

Thanks. xox- Hope

P.S.

Come back tomorrow.

I have some news about a surgeon in Afghanistan.

He needs your help, too.

"Tropic Thunder" steps up for "America's Battalion"

2009-07-22T10:31:00.010-05:00

The toasters for Lima came in.Sheila didn't mess around. Just after we left with the first haul of crockpots she called her boss Karl on the way home and let him know what we needed.

The follow through was such a surpirse. When I called to confirm, Karl already knew my name, had made the shipping changes and had a pick up time for me to come back. I think I got as far as, "hi my name is H--" before on that phone call before he cut in and said as much.

His take-charge, matter-of-fact attitude over the phone had some origin. Turns out he served in Korea with the Army in the 25th's "Tropic Thunder". Guess where he was based? Yep. Same place Lima is now. Hawaii.
He and Tony traded stories as he fussed over packing things just right. Naturally, there was some good humored smack traded between soldier and Marine. But like he said, "Gotta take care of my brothers. You tell them to take care of themselves. Okay?"

Okay Karl. I will.

Drive On!

2009-07-10T08:14:00.001-05:00

For Jolie
I'm sharing my song with you.

Drive on, mama!

Wednesday Interview: Blogging Bouhammer

2009-07-08T00:51:00.001-05:00

In April of this year I attended a military blog conference in Washington, D.C. as I began America's 1st Sgt's blog. One thing I remember about the conference other than feeling surrounded by milblogosphere rockstars like Troy, and his counterpart, CJ, to be interviewed here next week; wass how engaged they were with all the milbloggers at the conference.
I sat directly behind these two and from that vantage point saw that there wasn't blogger there these men didn't treat as respected colleagues. They took the time to ask and answer questions when approached, offer encouragement and simply listen to other conference participants during each session. Their active engagement and enthusiasm within the milblog community represented there made a lasting impression on me. Meet Troy of Bouhammer's Afghan Blog , YouServed, Military Pundits and AfghanLessons.

How long have you been blogging? I started blogging in 2005 on my family website. I ran a blog about our family in general, travel tips (since I travel so much) and military topics i general. However in 2006 when I was mobilized for my deployment to Afghanistan I migrated my general military blog to be specifically about my deployment.

Why did you start? I started the family blog in order to get away from the end of the year family letter we always put in Christmas cards. I usually could not remember everything that happened over the last year so I figured I would write up blogs as things happened so family and friends who cared could come read it when they wanted to. As for the Afghanistan based military blog, I wanted to keep a better journal of my deployment than I did during the Gulf War. There was so much I had forgotten from that time that I did not want that to happen again. I figured the blog was the best way to capture all that happened during the deployment. Also, I did not want to mass-blast friends and family with emails so I figured this was a good way for them to come read when they wanted to.

Was it a easy decision to make? It was very easy decision as I wanted to capture this history as it was happening and I thought it might be therapeutic during the deployment. I work in IT in my civilian occupation and I can type easily enough so it was not a big deal for me to type out a blog every once in a while.

Are there aspects to your participation in the milblogging community for which you weren't prepared? Yes, I was never prepared for it to become as popular as it did. When I first started the blog it was meant for family and friends like I had stated. By half-way through my tour the number of people reading it that were complete strangers outnumbered family members and friends 10-1. I had more people that were getting ready for an Afghanistan deployment and people with family members in Afghanistan following my blog than anyone else. I was not prepared for Doonesbury creator, Garry Trudeau becoming a fan and later becoming a friend. I never thought I would be a regular contributor on BBC's "World Have your Say" Radio show or that I would do all the other interviews and things that I have been so lucky to be part of all because of my blog.

Can you tell me how your service impacts your world view and vice versa how your world view affects(ed) your service? I think I am much more worldly than most in this country because of the things I have seen and done in my service. I am an Army brat, having been born at Ft. Bragg and lived all over the world. I myself have lived in many places in and outside of this country. As with any time that I travel to another country, especially a 3rd world country, I am very appreciative of all that we have in the US and can easily see how gluttonous and spoiled we are in our country. I think that is a good and bad thing. I feel that I look at the world and what is going on in the geo-political climate with a whole different perspective than someone who has not served, and especially not served in combat.

As a follow up how has your world view changed, if it has.Yes it has, but i am not sure how exactly. I only have my experiences to base my views on and seeing that I lived in places like Panama as a kid, and then as an adult was stationed or deployed to many areas of the world, especially the far east I am not sure what my view was like before military service as I have always been around the military. Also, having first experienced combat 18 years ago, anything prior to that and my views on things have kind of faded from memory.

What's been the most rewarding aspect of blogging? Getting the comments, emails, phone calls that I get from people who up until that time were perfect strangers and then they tell me how much my blog helped them. How it made them feel closer to their loved one or friend who is deployed (particularly in Afghanistan). Just the other day someone forwarded an email to me from someone else (that had no idea this first person even knew me) stating how my blog kept her sane while her son was deployed. To read or hear something like that is truly a humbling experience and motivates me to keep spending the long and late hours in keeping up the blogs I run or write. So many times during and after my deployment I would get emails from family members telling me how appreciative they are of the blog and how it helped them through or is helping them through a deployment. Not that I need those accolades, but as a First Sergeant and a leader of soldiers for 20 of my last 22 years it it nice to know that I still am helping soldiers and their family members, even if I don't know them. Also, the communication I get from other service-members that are getting ready for deployment who reach out for information. Supporting soldiers to be successful is what I do, so when they tell me how much the info I share with them to get ready for their deployment helped, it is really nice. What is also nice is that my blog has been credited with others starting their blogs and that means my impact is on more than just my readers but all of those other readers too. Blogs like Afghanistan Without a Clue, Bill and Bob's Excellent Afghan Adventure and Afghanistan Shrugged have all told me that they were reading my blog and it motivated them to start theirs. That is a huge compliment, because I was a fan of those blogs once they popped up and it wasn't until later after making contact with the authors that I found out they credited my blog. Last but not least are all the awesome friends I have made from blogging. Being an Army brat, in the Army myself and traveling the way I do with my civilian job I already know a lot of people and consider many dear friends. However the blogging world has opened me up to so many new friends that I am constant contact with. I know and am pretty close friends with the writers of all the major blogs in the milblogosphere. JP, CJ, Matt B, Jimbo, Morgan, John, Cory, Wendy, Eve, David, Greta, Blake, Marcus, Doug, and so, so many more. They are some of the best, unselfish, and most patriotic Americans you will ever meet.

Any regrets so far about blogging? I wish I had more time for it, and it would be nice to do it full time as a day job. Oh, and more readers of course, because you can never have too many readers. Overall in hindsight I wish I would have written more about Afghan culture and the people, but at the time that was not my focus.

What are the pitfalls for you? Hmm, well it takes a lot of time. A lot of time trying to keep up on what is going on in country, to formulate my ideas and then to sit down and write them. Especially with four different blogs that I write on. The time has to come from somewhere and that is usually sleep or family time.

Talk a little about your radio show. I co-host the show with my good friend, fellow milblogger and fellow First Sergeant CJ Grisham. We also recently added Marine SGT. Marcus Penn as the Producer and additional host when needed. Currently the show is on every Thursday evening from 7-9PM EST at www.blogtalkradio.com/youserved. It is an online radio show that can be listened to over the internet or people can call in to the guest line and listen. Our listeners can either call in to ask questions of our guests or they can login to the chat room that we are logged into during the show and ask questions that way. The show is also archived on the website, or can be downloaded as a iTunes Podcast after the show. We average about 5,000 listeners a week with most of them listening to the archive version after the show has aired. CJ actually started this show out, working with the great people at VAMortgageCenter.com who are the YouServed.com blog and the Radio show sponsors. CJ was solo hosting the show for the first few months and since I was usually called in to listen and we would talk a lot on there, he asked me to guest host one week when he was traveling and couldn't. Since he and I both write on the You Served blog it made sense. It was such a success that after the guest-hosting I was asked by CJ and VAMC to come on full-time as a 2nd host. We then increased the show time to two hours as we had to in order to accommodate the guests and our show talk in general. The You Served radio show has been a lot of fun. Talk about meeting great new people. Of course we are usually meeting them over the phone, but still. Some of the guests we have had have been Geoff Tate from Queensryche, Tom Neely from the band Bridge of Sighs, many Medal of Honor recipients, several Generals to include Marine MG Haynes who was on Iwo Jima and most recently the Army Vice Chief of Staff, GEN Chiarelli. We talk to a lot of musicians, authors, etc. but more importantly we talk to every day plain old Americans who are or have been in the service or are using their skills, talents, gifts to someone support our military. They are the true stars of the show. They are people who could go on with their lives and be content, but instead they feel led to something more, to giving back in appreciation of the freedoms we have in this country.

What prompted this platform for you? It is what was selected when the show first started and I think one of the few that is out there which is conducive to how we run the show. We have been courted by 4 other media outlets to move our show over to their platforms/stations and we are currently in talks with two of them. The first two didn't work unfortunately.

Do you prefer producing or being behind the mike in an interviewer's role?I like doing both, but it is extremely stressful. This is why we added Marcus, because there was too much to do. CJ and I usually trade off on who leads the interview, and via a chat window where he, I and Marcus are talking we are able to pass off to each other relatively easy. But during a show we are running the show chat room, paying attention to the guest, formulating our next questions, and we are also running a live blog via twitter which feeds the You Served blog. All of that plus spinning up soundbites or music to play can be a bit much. Marcus is new to the mix, but he has helped a lot already. Since it is all on our computers, there is only so much screen space and we can miss things, so being able to back each other up is great.

What would you say have been the pivotal moments where this podcast is concerned as platform for impact in the military and veteran community at large? I think last week, having GEN Chiarelli on talking about how the Army is trying to educate and fight the suicide problem has to be one of the most impacting. Also, our Veteran's day special show where we teamed up with a terrestrial radio station on the west coast. They broadcast in 11 states and have over 15 million listeners. We did what we think is the first ever terrestrial and online show featuring a veteran from every war since WWII, to include two Medal of Honor winners, talking about what Veteran's Day means to them.

I notice your twitter as well? What do you get from that vehicle which your website doesn't offer? Free Marketing that is viral and has a reach like no other. There is a huge population of Twitter users out there and it is growing every day. I use it not only for my main blog at www.bouhammer.com, but also for www.militarypundits.com and of course for the www.youserved.com blog and Radio show.

Talk some about your newest blog and how it came to be.Well the newest one is A.L.L. which stands for Afghan Lessons Learned. It is located at afghanlessons.blogspot.com. It came about through several conversations between myself and Old Blue from Bill and Bob's Excellent Afghan Adventure Blog. I have been getting hit up for information about Afghanistan, what to bring, what to expect, what life is like, etc. since I was there in 2006. Old Blue found himself getting hit up for info recently from units that are surging into Afghanistan this summer. So we talked through it for a little bit and decided to bring in the authors of War on Terror News and Afghanistan Shrugged since they were both Afghanistan vets themselves. Between the four of us we felt we had enough knowledge and experience to create this site to be a central knowledge-base of information about all things Afghanistan. So that is what it is about and how it came to be. Army leaders wanting to pass on our lessons learned and not make others re-invent the wheel.

Any advice for those thinking about supporting military? Do it, do something. People were quick to mount an American flag on their car or put a magnet on their bumper after 9/11, but such a small percentage of them have actually done something real and tangible. They don't necessarily have to support the military, but do something to give back to your country. Do something to repay the debt that I feel each of us is born with by being born in this great country. However, if supporting our military is the way someone wants to repay, then tap into whatever it is you have. For some that is a wallet, for others it is their talents, skills, gifts, etc. that they have. I am amazed every week when we talk to people on You Served Radio about how they just step up and do whatever they can. It is not always giving money, sometimes it is just giving time.

What advice would you give milbloggers who have slowed down their writing since they have been back? Whatever you do, don't remove your blog. Old Blue and I have talked about this several time. We call it the bogger's post-deployment voice. Many lose it, heck I almost did. When you blog while deployed you write about what happens everyday. Whether it is mundane like "I went to the gym today, and hung out watching TV" or exciting talking about firefights or getting blown up by an IED. However when most bloggers come back they (and I think all) find themselves thinking "what do I blog about now?" I almost stopped by blog after coming back, but the thing that kept me going was seeing the amount of website traffic on my blog and the continued emails and comments I would get from people. I knew when I came back I would run it for a few more months to at least blog about the reunification, but then the number of visitors to the site stayed up and I found my post-deployment voice. In reflection I can see my blog went through several phases. First it was for family and friends, then it was for family members of deployed members and those getting ready to deploy who were thirsty for information. I then found it being for everyday Americans who may or may not had a family member in country, but felt that the MSM was ignoring Afghanistan and wanted to know what was really going on. The final phase is a morphing of all of them that want to know how I am doing, that look for info to help their family members and good old plain, red-blooded Americans who care about our military and care about what is happening in the place that started all of this off.

What advice would you give those who are thinking about blogging? Get on good platform. Wordpress is my favorite and I think is hands-down the best. You never know where your blogging will lead, so plan for the long-haul. You can ask any of the bloggers that started in country and they will all tell you that they never thought it would last past deployment or turned into what it has. So come up with a good and easy name, buy some cheap hosting space (My favorite is go-daddy.com) and then start getting it setup. Also, think about your audience, which by the way will be the world. Always pay attention to OPSEC, and follow the rules. But know the rules too. Some commanders may try to tell a soldier what they can and can't do with blogging, but there is a Army regulation, AR 530-1 that governs it. Be smart in your blog an be mature. Don't use it to just take cheap shots at leaders as you will find much un-wanted attention really fast. I was always very public in my identity, etc and have had no issues with it. Others prefer to keep their identity secret and that is fine for them. To each their own. We are all different.

What message do you have for civilians who read and frequent military forums, blogs, websites etc? Read more! Read Often, and tell your friends. If sometime sounds fishy or not right, try to validate. Just because someone is or claims to be in the military does not mean they are or they have the best intentions. History has shown we have had plenty of dirt-bags, sickos, and idiots in the military. Raising their hand to defend this country does not mean they are upstanding citizens. Oh, and be sure to check out www.bouhammer.com, www.militarypundits.com, www.youserved.com and afghanlessons.blogspot.com. I mean if you are new to blogs, they will give ya a good start. ;-)

Do you have any advice for non military folk who are trying to wrap their heads around our place as a nation in the bigger world? determining our role as American citizens? Wow, that is a zinger. I guess if there are non-military people out there who are competent adults and they don't know what their role is as an American citizen or our nation's role in the world, they may want to start reading some books, a newspaper, some blogs and maybe even watch some nightly news programs. If someone is walking this country of sane mind and they don't have an opinion on this, then they are definitely in debt to this country and need to start paying back quickly.
Having been on both ends of the mil support pipeline, what do you think or how do you think support from home affects troops on the front line the most? Any tips for civilians in being better at reaching out to our men and women overseas? Are there common mistakes well meaning folks do when supporting which troops understand, but perhaps wish they didn't face because it wasn't as helpful?
Support from the States is a great morale boost for the troops. Even though some stuff is not always needed or wanted, it still means a lot to the troops. Many if not all know how the Vietnam vets were treated and are very appreciated on how well they are treated. Having positive morale all the time while in combat and away from family and friends is
hard to maintain. Mail call is and always has been a huge morale boost for troops. The top 3 motivators are hot chow, time off and mail call. Getting a box of goodies makes every day one of those come in like Christmas. If anyone wants to support troops all they need to do is search the web or better yet pay attention to You Served Radio. We always have people or groups on that are doing great things to support troops. There are lot of really good organizations out there, but I am sure there are some bogus ones so research and validation is crucial.

Many people clean our their old magazines, old books, old games, and almost old or expired food products. I know times are tight and they can't afford to buy all brand new stuff, but I think troops would rather get nothing then a 3 year old copy of Sports Illustrated or food that expired by the time they got it. They should try to strike up a dialog with the troops and find out what they really need or want, and not what the supporter thinks they want. There are good sites out there that list some of the more popular and commonly needed items. One of those sites is my main blog and more specifically the posting here of a comprehensive list.

fyi from HR
Check out their podcast Thursday night from 7 to 9 EST, or download it for later listening. Check out the You Served archives as well. Link to You Served Blogtalk Radio in center column. --->

Lights Will Guide You Home: Cool 3AM music

2009-07-07T02:03:00.001-05:00

I am at a loss for words.
heh.

No, we don't have Haley's comet streaking across the sky in the wee hours of this morning, but we do have Hope with no sound emanating from the hole under her nose.

I get after someone close when they complain of the same thing. I tell them to quit their whining and just write.

blink
blink

maaaan, how insensitive is that?

Dunno.
Got nothin'.

Well.
'Cept this.
I liked this.

Letters to Leathernecks: Saturday Sitrep and Remembering John Hart

2009-07-04T02:28:00.001-05:00

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!

More celebrations...

2009-07-03T13:15:00.001-05:00

My sis hit the big 40 on Tuesday. She's got more dirt on me than anyone else in the Free World so of course I took her out for lunch. Well and 'cause I kinda like her.

Three days before that my parents gave Tony and I a night out for our anniversary. Yep. As of June 19 when we met we have been aware of each others existence for 20 years. As of June 27, 1992 we have been married for 17. That's seven thousand nine hundred and six days as of today or 140 in dog years. heee.

Realignment

2009-07-02T10:26:00.001-05:00

I alluded to some potential trouble with an organization because I accidentally sent a personal email to someone within the organization that shouldn't have received the email. (If you are reading and going WTF is she talking about go here).

In a nutshell, they didn't' break the saber across their knee or strip me of my epaulets and shove me out of the fort. I did it myself. Seems no number of apologies were enough and the recipient felt the need to comment on my ethics and morality so in response I asked to be removed or placed with a more forgiving contact within the organization since her initial response had been to accuse me of making a crude joke and admonishing me to not let it happen again...Tempting though it was to have someone use one email to determine my worth or moral character again or offer to put my character up for a Ethics Review, I opted out of this organization. I knew then I was in the wrong place with the wrong people.

As you know Letters to Leathernecks is a small grassroots organization of one letter writer/package sender and a lot of people willing to trust me with their money to take care of my milfolk. I have no 100,000 dollar a year salary or desire to sell a care package service as an extension. I deeply love my troops. That's why I do what I do.

It's just me, Hope and my family, mailing care packages, getting to know our adopteds, writing letters and listening in IM to people overseas who need an ear. It's pretty plain and simple.

One thing I will say is that I recently read a book called In Due Season and in it the author wrote about purpose. As you all know, if you have read my blog in the last few months, I have been working really hard to find mine, seemingly to no avail. In the last few years I have lost my sense of religion or faith or their definitions anyway and have stumbled a bit as I sought both.

What I have come to conclusion thus far is this:

God, a higher power, the Universe, whatever you choose to call it, has said, I'm not meant to be in Iraq right now training Iraqi officers, I'm not meant to be sweating my ass off at Ft. Benning doing OCS. I know for certain, because I did my damndest to do both. What most don't know is that day I lost my slot to OCS because of a timing issue, I had my first email concerning a young man somewhere in Iraq who needed some mail.

Shortly thereafter I got a bug in my ear that some Marines were eating for crap and needed appliances. What could I do? Didn't know. What could I do? I obviously wasn't going to Iraq and the Army did not need me enough to waive a four day commission gap. What was my purpose?

Frankly, my first instinct was to say no to taking on Marines or soldiers again. I had wrapped up shop in January thinking I would be in Taji, but I couldn't say no for I had no good reason to.

One led to another led to another.
"Thank you for listening."
followed by multiple
"You are easy to talk tos."
Trust manifested with questions like,
"Do you think you could?" or
"my buddy needs X, would you...??"
and all made me realize where I was needed and what my purpose must be.

At least this is what I percieve.

One day shortly after milsupport found me again, I had 200 hits on my analytics from the aforementioned organization, so I went and signed up with the group so I could see the forum and figure out why so many were coming my way, Hope Radio, I mean, from this message board.

Turns out I gave a "gritty, but with "some language" explanation of how to mil support that most on that forum there were in approval of. I was surprised at the comments as to my accuracy where milsupport was concerned and only slightly amused at being called 'gritty' or 'rough'. Meh.
To each there own.
Typically, I am more comfortable in a group of men and they seem more comfortable with me than a group of women might be.
*shrug*
Again I am sure some can commiserate with me and some won't.

Still what I am trying to say here on a hot, lazy, summer day with four kids shouting in the background, making stellar arguments for time by the pool, is that I am glad I was misjudged and that my character was impugned by these women at this other group for the last few days. It made me remember why I stay in milsupport. What's important and what is just noise.

It's not because I know more about a zip code than anyone else.
Or because I know how to pack cupcakes so they don't get squished .
Or because I seem to be quite adept at a reply from a troop or staying up all night with a Marine who is stuck on a problem or just plain sad.
Those are all ridiculous, insipid reasons.

I do it because I'm so damn of proud of our troops's spirit and their passion for doing their job. They may not even see themselves in this way, but it has to be there to do what they do day in and day out. Its a hot unforgiving, foreign in all things, groundhog day experience.

I mourn, in a way, the loss of perspective we here are cocooned in by living here in this country surrounded by oceans and a sense of adolescent invincibility because those for whom an ocean doesn't part, will come back different people, good, bad and indifferent. These sacrifices they make of body and spirit should be honored.

So I'm saying in a long winded, impassioned way, for this is my nature, is that people can question my integrity and passion for my men and women for as long as they care. There is great comfort in knowing that it in no way has a bearing on the tasks or life and life commitments I make for myself and for my family.

Had they not been cruel and judgemental these last few days, the fruits of this knowledge and being subjected to their unkind, unforgiving natures, would not be balm and for that I am grateful for their ignorance for it realigns my own purpose where my military endeavors are concerned and only steels my resolve to continue, understood or not.

It Is and I am

2009-07-01T00:54:00.001-05:00

Blog post later, but I can't say this still isn't one of my favorite quotes of all time or that I'm not just completely exhausted.

Nope.

I can't.

It is and I am.

Saturday Support: Yes, You Can Send Pizza to the Sandbox

2009-06-27T10:13:00.001-05:00

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 about~~say 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.

Wednesday Support: Introducing USMC 81

2009-06-24T07:00:00.001-05:00

As most of you know, Wednesday and Saturday posts on Hope Radio are now military or military support-related in topic. Recently, I've decided to take this one step further and begin interviewing milbloggers who I have been encouraging all of you to read (in header links just above) and post the interview on Wednesdays.

It occurs to me some of you may wonder why military related topics would be important to me, especially if you haven't followed this blog for very long or are only able to read sporadically.

Military support, service and tradition has been a part of my family's life for a long time. My husband served, uncles on both sides of my family and my sister have all worn a uniform from grunt to general. At one point even I was OCS bound in the mid 80s.

Alas I met a dashing Marine and gave up my slot to be around when he asked me to marry him. What? I assumed telling someone I had only known for a few weeks that I was sticking around so it would be more convenient for him to tell me he couldn't live without me might not go over extremely well at the time. It gave the whole "information on a need to know basis" thing a whole new meaning.

I believe the milblogging community at large is a rich source of information and insight into our world which is not afforded us in mainstream media. I noticed, as I began to participate in it that sometimes information was so good or fleshed out, perspectives more out of the box or opinions uninfluenced by advertisers or sponsors that even my military contacts overseas would say, "Hey, where did you hear about that? Are you stalking me?" heehee..."No," I would say, "It's all over the milblogs, Marine. All you have to do is look."

Which is what I'm asking and hoping to encourage you to do. The milblog community is a vibrant, friendly, rich source of information, support and camaraderie. Evidence of this is most recently found in my search for a Letters to Leathernecks blog badge to give my supporters in recognition for donations and links. Within a few hours of saying I had this need for a graphic, USMC 81 got on board and sent several choices he designed right into my inbox. I was blown away, but then I realized this is typical of a milblogger. I've never known one not to have my six when I needed something for those we support or for Hope Radio. Frankly, in the Blogger community at large I often find this to be the case as well.

Given this, I'd like to introduce my first first milblogger, USMC81 and offer you this interview.

Interview with USMC 81

How long have you been blogging?

I started my personal USMC81 blog site toward the end of 2006. In 1997 I started a website for the USMC Combat Helicopter Association (popasmoke.com) where for the past 12 years, have been bringing Marines, who served with each other in combat, together again. Blogging in a sense, that effort requires a lot of posting, correspondence, follow-up, and forum maintenance.

Why did you start?

In 1995 I started a website called "The Marine Guest Book" where former Marines could log their boot camp and tour details and be found by others. I believe that site was one of the first ten Marine Corps websites ever created. I initially started my blog as a place to archive good material for quick reference. My objective then, as now, is to facilitate information sharing for Marines.

How did you come up with the name?

In California, my jeep license plate was "USMC81" which means I became a Marine in 1981. When I moved to Connecticut in 1993, I ordered the same Veteran plate "USMC81" for my truck, which I still drive today. I also own usmc81.com and use usmc81 for my login wherever I can.

You were a former Marine as my husband Tony is, can you tell me how your service impacts your world view?

I believe I joined the Marines because of my views, not the other way around. I believe in America and that freedom isn't free. I also believe if necessary, I will be one of the last standing Patriots somewhere, some day. (Pic:USMC 81 as a young Lance Corporal in Japan)

Your role as a parent?

I think the discipline you gain from military service plays a big part in how you parent in general. The respect and responsibility experience also has its place in parenting. As a parent, I want my (six) kids to be well-mannered, patriotic, courageous, educated, successful, and loving. Many of those qualities are tied to military experiences for sure, but as an adult, we all grow mature in our thinking and actions as we drift far away from active military service. (Pic below: USMC 81 with 5 of his 6 children)

Your role as a husband?

That's a tough one. I'm pretty sure my role as a husband is based on disciplines I gained pre or post-military. In a partnership, you need to be open-minded, maintain a 30,000 foot view, be very humble, emotionally mature, and realize your job is to make your spouse happy. Well, that's my view.

Your kids' attitudes?

My kids have very little exposure to anything military other than myself. I always try to set the right example and ensure they have appropriate life lessons, which sometimes have a military story or tone. They are awful proud to have a Marine Dad though.

What's been the most rewarding aspect of blogging?

Witnessing from the driver's seat how the Internet and a few good people can positively affect the lives of so many.

Any regrets so far?
No Ma'am.

USMC81 flying over MCRD San Diego in a restored Vietnam-Era USMC UH-34D Helicopter.

What are the pitfalls for you?

Time is a pitfall. I also think proper content management and archiving limits potential. Most of us know what needs to be said, but the ever-changing technologies tend to fragment efforts. Short-term projects have short-term results. Improving on technology and content management is an ongoing struggle we all face.

I notice your twitter as well? What do you get from that that Blogger doesn't offer?

Part of understanding WEB 2.0 and now WEB 3.0 is knowing the social networking components well enough to utilize them effectively. Each of these new tools have strengths and weaknesses. What I get from Twitter that Blogger does not offer is the ability to bring a message to the people instead of bringing the people to the message. Folks like the convenient short-message core functionality of Twitter, which is like a maintenance-free limitless opt-in subscription service. Listen to who interests you and ignore the rest. It's very interesting to see how communities form on Twitter auto-magically.

How do you participate in mil support?

For active-duty troops, I coordinate the "Adopt-A-Shop" program (through popasmoke.com) where care packages are sent to deployed helicopter units. For veterans, there are many opportunities to assist families and loved-ones of vets through knowledge, support, or sometimes, just listening.

Any advice for those thinking about helping out your brothers?

My advice is to do what is within your means to do. Take a look at your skills and determine how those skills might be used in support of active duty military members or veterans. If you have technology or web skills, perhaps you can help create an online community to facilitate others to help. Many people want to help, they just don't know how.

What advice would you give milbloggers who have slowed down their writing since they have been back?

I think everyone needs to do their own thing at their own pace. Just know that there is interest in the content milbloggers have to contribute. People are very interested in military content. Real-time experiences of deployed military members or information in the heads of our veterans need to be shared. Sharing this information is educational for civilians and therapeutical for those sharing.

What advice would you give those who are thinking about blogging?

Do it for the right reason. If you're heart is in it, it will be productive.

Saturday Support

2009-06-20T12:44:00.001-05:00

IN THIS POST:

1. Mail updates.

2. Hope box wrestling and creating.

3. Batman and water gun reviews

4. A new request

5. The blog badge unveiling.

This post should have been up this morning, but I had a last minute call for some things to Afghanistan and I wanted to get them to the post office before noon.

Does it matter if it got mailed Monday instead of today in the grand scheme of things? Probably not, in a general or logistical sense, but it does matter to that Marine or soldier in the email I send of a picture of what they requested being packed or one of the kids holding it up and smiling with a thumbs up.

Yes, it sure does to them. A sense of time and space is something we here take for granted.

Good milsupport is Communication 101 and anyone can do it. I want to encourage anyone with a little time to not sell themselves short. Just taking on one service member through an outfit like Any Marine, AdoptaPlatoon or SoldiersAngels can have an impact. Mail is what matters-- not what kind. When they hear their name at mail call, or find something on their bunk when the come pack from a mission or long hours in a shop or guardpost, that envelope or package reminds them they are appreciated. You don't have to wear a uniform to value appreciation. It's a basic human need intensified when you are tired or far from home and all thing familiar.

So what have I done with your cash you ask? Well let's see. I bought a tower fan for one outfit. They are AC less in a 100-125 degree heat most days. I was pretty jazzed. Fans have remote controls now. Did you know that? Neither did I! I'm older than dirt for being so surprised. I didn't realize how old until I told my Marine about it and his reply to that was joyful and ended with "Dude, that is soooo SICK!" My 12 year old informed me sick is good. Noted.

Heee...well my box for the fan was sooooo NOT sick. I had to make one 'cause the size was so weird. I used a science board from this Spring's science project debacle and cussed cardboard and right angles all night Tuesday I think...I forget.

The mail clerk, who knows more about me than my family practitioner...laughed her ass off. "What. is. THAT!?" she said looking at my cardboard creation.

"THAT is going to Iraq. SHIP IT! I never want to see it again!!!"I said holding up a hand covered in bandaids. She just shook her head at me. She does that alot.
Another thing I did this week was stuff a full size Batman comforter into a banker box. That thing is in there so tight it'll double as ordinance when the recipient cuts the tape. Yeah...I warned him already. "Dude, I had to use my feet to get that thing in the box..."

Another box held bulkier stuff...This Marine wanted water guns and I had a lot of random room after I taped the H20 weaponry into the box so it wouldn't shift. With the careful application of wads of Walmart bags and various bracings I added bags of chips, stuff for nachos and magazines.

Little Guy REALLY recommended the double barrel, red, white and blue number with repeat action and extra resevoir.

My older boys are tradionalists and wanted to send Super Soakers, nothing fancy, but highly accurate and dependable, I was informed.

Now Michael has been requesting a Batman comforter--though I'm told as will he that he did nothing of the sort...and I'll be darned if I have not been able to find it. When I did this week, the collective oos and aaahs of my progeny clearly showed they were satisfied with my choice in commercial textiles.

A little birdie...er-- sorry, I mean enormous raptor with gleaming, razor sharp talons, sent me some pics of how some of his fellow Marines are getting by on UGRs (utililized group rations). ...a lovely repast guaranteed to plug you up or clean you out on a regular basis according to some in the field.

UGRs are like individual MREs (meals ready to eat) only for a group of people. They come with special chemical paks which create heat to warm them up. They are used in areas where large DFACs or chowhalls are not available.

Platoons or squads who are out on patrols or at smaller outposts guarding entry points, checking in with Iraqi police in more remote villages, following up on weapon cache leads and what have you, tend to have less access to the quality and comfort of a decent meal which as it does anywhere in or out of uniform, compromises morale.Just think about coming home from work to a good meal and what that does to your pysche. Now throw in heat, sand, the stress of basic survival and the vigilance levels which the job requires and how it would be to not find that same kind of respite and in it's place preboxed food.

So this leads me to my next request. Since the Coalition turnover, rules have changed such that supplies Coalition Forces still incountry need, must be provided for by Iraqi vendors. Thing is the price tag on a 4 slot reataurant grade toaster or a crock pot is 250 dollars. Did I mention that they want another 250 a pop to deliver them?

Yeaaah...so. I was hoping that I could enlist some people to help me get 10 toasters and 10 crockpots sent to my little bir---er I mean one of my lethal birds of prey post haste. Other appliances in outposts like this mean the Marines there have better access to a greater variety of meals and can use these appliances for what foodstuffs they are being sent from family and friends as well.

Email me or leave it comments that you are interested and I'll fill you in. It doesn't matter if the equipment is used or not. If you have a contact for me in the toaster or crock pot getting business that would be cool, too!

Barring that, if you can link this post I'd be grateful. If you can't help personally, it may be you know someone that can!

Now...for the unveiling and created by a blogger friend of mine, USMC81. Here is the new badge he made for donators and supporters of what Michael named Letters to Leathernecks.I needed a name for my Paypal account and "What the Hell Has Hope Got Herself Into This Time?" wouldn't fit in the little name box thingie.

Throughout today I'll be forwarding the badge to the people on my list from our June drive. If I missed you, puuuuhleeze forgive and give me poke. It's Little Guy's birthday weekend and so I have several irons in the fire.

Pretty damn cool, eh? And geez this man was fast! He jumped on the project in nothin' flat and had several versions to choose from. Needless to say I heart USMC 81.

Wednesday Support: A birthday, some Iranian politics and a badge

2009-06-17T03:01:00.001-05:00

<--- I crashed Dark Stormy heres meme today...though I could have actually been an odd numbered comment in his comments and so thereby legitimate in my meme anointment...not sure. See, I didn't actually count. First, I just noticed that this meme fits great with doing a military support blog post for Wednesday--not really--first I noticed holy cow that guy gets a lot of chick comments and THEN I jumped on the post idea.

Anyway so the meme says to go to the first folder in your pic file and post the tenth picture in it.

It would have it that the first folder in my pic file is 'Burke'. All the photos that go into Castra Praetoria, or that he sends in general, go in there. Here's the tenth pic.

I posted a blown up version too, so you could see the expression on his face...You know how extra funny something is, if you know the person in the story so you can flesh it out with the expressions, curses and exasperated sighs which ensue? HAHAHAHA!!! When I got this pick I was howling I tell ya!! He probably heard me all the way on base in Iraq...I hit dead center from 7000 miles away? Hey! Where's my expert marksman badge?! Huh? Huh? I want it! It's mine, dammit.

*deep, satisfied exhale*

If I smoked, I'd need a cigarette right now.

Ok. I'm through ~~gloating~~ reminiscing, I'm supposed to explain the photo..HeeHee. Gladly. Seems Marines, my own at home did this when we were dating, incidentally, are reluctant to share the date of their first arrival into the world for fear of public reprisal and or good clean fun at their expense.

I learned this the hard way during the early months of milsupport, but that is for another post. So anyway, being the warm, generous, thoughtful human I am, (notice I did not strike through any of those), I post to Castra Praetoria, I have keys to the blog being it's architect, wishing America's 1st Sgt many happy returns. I thought it would be nice if we could get an online party for the birthday boy in comments from his readers, too. I know. *SIGH* I'm such a giver.

Well turns out his Sgt Maj, the senior non-commissioned officer for his Battalion, (read here: about 1,000 to 1200 of his closest friends), reads Michael's blog and decides to share the news in a well worded, early morning, all hands kinda greeting which went like this:

To: AA_TFMP_3/3_ALL_HANDS
Subject: America's 1stSgt's birthday: 4 June

UNCLASSIFIED

Yes,

Contrary to public belief and rumor (most started by the 1stSgt), he was actually born of mortal woman on the 4th of June. He did not just appear in full combat gear with sharp objects in his hands.Remember to say Happy birthday to the legend in his own mind!

SgtMaj, Task Force MP (3/3)Al Asad, Iraq

Then there's the ~~ambush~~ birthday greeting party that awaited Burke outside of the chowhall after lunch replete with bullhorn, singing and much commentary on his ~~impending decrepitudes~~ special place in their hearts.

The aftermath you can read here.

I did get a very nice email which, when translated to civilian went something like this"Gosh, sis, that was so thoughtful and hey, thanks for all the presents, too. My loving Marine family went out of their way to make it special. Really. You do TOO much.

Here's the untranslated version of thanks from my favorite 1st Sgt:

"You will pay."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you haven't been reading much on the election aftermath in Iran and want to catch up, hit here for how to help, especially if you Twitter. Precautions for keeping Iranian tweeters safe are included. Hit here for an opinion of what the US should do next and here for a piece on thinking past the emotion of events unfolding and taking a look at the two men who vied for the Iranian Presidency. I have no opinion yet of Abadinejad or Mousavi, but I do believe, the people of Iran had a right to an honest elective process.

I left a bunch of links from the weekend and the Iranian election in this post.

USMC 81 is working on a blog badge for supporters who sent in donations or supplied links for the last drive for shipping donations to get things out to our Marines and soldiers in Iraq. I should have it ready for unveiling on Saturday along with pictures of what's been going on this week.

Susan, thank you for the box of goodies, it is labeled and headed out soon to Afghanistan. Lisa and Chris, the magazines are headed to Iraq. Hey Amy and Mel, I found the twenty you slipped in my desk drawer for a couple of boxes. I used it today to send popsicles and bedding. Love you guys!

hope, out.

Iran: A momentous time

2009-06-14T00:38:00.001-05:00

This post is definitely a compilation, but the night has gone so fast it was the best I could do! lol. I've been watching things unfold all night via Twitter, Facebook and numerous military and political blogs and so prose gave way to getting the information I have come across out to others. Please take a look at this and watch the people of Iran lift their voices and demand what is their right: A vote and self determination.

You will find articles, links, pictures, video footage and dialogue as well as access to real time dialogue from those experiencing the Iranian election and aftermath.

Last night, while CNN covered the threat of disgruntled vets flocking to bell towers; the family dynamics of Orange

County Chopper and the OCC gang's take on John and Kate; the drop in the porta potty business and whether the Right really is out to get Obama as the night's great debates, other news outlets like the BBC and Washington Notes
turned east to the history making events in Iran as protesters took to the streets in response to suspected ballot count misrepresentations.

This was the first time I truly understood the impact of social media on political movement and resistance. A little while ago (it's about 4am now on Sunday) one Tehranian on Twitter named Hamed wrote:

"the Internet speed is too low that practically it's impossible to do anything but tweet."

another Tweeter, IranNewsNow wrote: As an Iranian, I want to thank all tweeters that stood by my compatriates today. Thank u. Your voices have touched our hearts.

I and the owner of World on Terror News have been sharing what information and links we have found tweeting since dinner time last night and it occurred to me as MSM sources ran in the background on TV here, how much more I learned about this rapidly unfolding event simply tweeting and following my normal blog sources versus hoping MSMs like Fox could stop gushing about Carrie Prejean long enough to give such a monumental time in Iranian history the attention and in depth reporting it deserved.

Instead CNN paid out the big bucks to four attorneys for their scintillating analysis of just what depths of caca David Letterman was in for his Palin family jokes. Was he in fact an ass or just cad? Let's get in asharing circle and discuss.

But enough about MSM letting the public down...there's certainly no news in that.

My friend at World on Terror News put it fairly succinctly without the spin and with far less minimization than our government did as they "closely monitored the situation".
Says WOTN: "Iran is at a major crossroads. If momentum can be maintained, freedom. If it stalls, oppression."

And I do contend that if this momentum can be maintained it will be in part because of social media. Iran went to great lengths to cut communication, be it internet, cell or land line phones as the rest of this blog post will show, but her citizens were still able to tweet as the first quote demonstrates.

I'm a little sheepish as to how little acknowledgement I gave Twitter even a few months ago. I thought it technological frippery. If you want to look at what is going on in real time via twitter with Iranian citizens and how the election is impacting them just hit the bold face. NO frippery there.

Twitter, I stand corrected.

And because I am corrected, here are items and resources I was able to find or that were passed on to me which helped widen my perspective. I was especially taken with the two Twitter dialogues I post at the end of this piece which show the progression of thought and realization for two Tehranians experiencing, as my WOTN friend described, "a momentous" time.

Also take a look at Amir Sadeghi, who blogs daily photos from Tehran at his blog Tehran 24 His work gives windows to the rest of the world into Iran with striking clarity.

This posted at 10:39 last night (as the elections aftermath progressed) at the site for Washington Notes. Concern for what is or could be happening to Ahmadinejad's opposition played out much during the night as was described.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Stealing the Iranian Election
Top Pieces of Evidence that the Iranian Presidential Election Was Stolen

http://tcoverride.blogspot.com/ Great bunch of links and a refutation for those who insist on comparing the US 2004 elections with what is occurring in Iran right now...

If you want to look at what is going on in real time via twitter with Iranian citizens here's the link.

Young Iranians Tweeting History: Their Dialogue:

Name Abdul-Azim Mohammed
Location Tehran
Bio Student living in Tehran
It is 4:00 am here and people are filling the street. about 5 hours ago from web

The TV has been reporting a national victory for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. about 5 hours ago from web

I'm filming the street with my camera about 5 hours ago from web

I'll post it when I can. about 5 hours ago from web

Several other cities are reporting voter fraud. about 5 hours ago from web

The police are telling people to get off the street and go home. about 5 hours ago from web

On my street, the crowd is pushing the police to the side. about 5 hours ago from web

My brother just got home and he told me riots are starting in northeast Tehran. about 5 hours ago from web

Right now things are peaceful in my street. about 5 hours ago from web

The people and police are just talking. about 5 hours ago from web

Normal internet access and phones are still out. about 5 hours ago from web

My uncle tells me that throughtout most cities Mahmoud Ahmadinejad people had ballot boxes burned. about 5 hours ago from web

They were told to do their jobs and speak nothing. about 5 hours ago from web

sirens are now heard....now sure what they are. about 5 hours ago from web

The government has turned the power off in many locations claiming we need to fix some grid ??? Yeah, right! about 5 hours ago from web

The TV is still playing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad victory clips. about 5 hours ago from web

Holly shit, be back in a second. about 5 hours ago from web

My Father has a truck load of ballot boxes that were to be burned in the back of his truck. about 5 hours ago from web

I'm looking out my window and people are starting to fill the street.I have to shut down for a bit, the police are looking for satellites.
about 4 hours ago from web

Name:Farhad (assumed to be Tweeting from Tehran)

@LovLesmile Internet access in Iran is based on land lines not sat dishes!about 4 hours ago from web in reply to LovLesmile

Major General Jafari, commander of IRG said he will not let mousavi's green movement to harm Islamic revolution's ethics #iranelectionabout 4 hours ago from web

Ahmadinejad & his supporters will celebrate their victory today at 5pm local time in Valiasr square & we will try to ruin his party!about 4 hours ago from web

@matthew951 we're using twitterfox! thanks for the note!about 4 hours ago from web in reply to matthew951

6:47 am, police is speaking with students inside dormitory buildings of university of Tehran with speaker. #iranelectionabout 4 hours ago from web

all cellphones now read: Emergency only - No Service! #iranelectionabout 4 hours ago from web

7am news, still nothing about protests & clashes on TV. #iranelectionabout 3 hours ago from web

black riot guards with black vans, it's my first time seeing this people, no badges! probably Intel ministry #iranelectionabout 3 hours ago from web

they are joining with police motorcycles in front of student's dormitory buildings firefighters are leaving the area right now #iranelectionabout 3 hours ago from web

Internet barely works, Speed is near 2kbps #iranelectionabout 3 hours ago from web

no reports from any other part of Tehran, we're all waiting for a move from mousavi or karoubi. #iranelectionabout 3 hours ago from web

there were more troops inside the vans and now starting to create a line in front of the only entrance of the building #iranelectionabout 3 hours ago from web

I'm currently on rooftop with my laptop, most of the city is now looking calm except university of Economy building. #IranElectionabout 3 hours ago from web

I guess the Intel ministry guy is trying to convince university's security to open the gates #iranelectionabout 3 hours ago from web

my brother thinks they are after a student council activist. the council known as Tahkime Vahdat and belongs to president era. #iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

they are starting their motorbikes now. I can't see where they are going. #iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

just receive http://bit.ly/17SDk4 from a friend. can't check it out myself. hope it's not fake. #Iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

http://twitpic.com/7c85l #iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

Police is trying to stop people from gathering around while Intel guys still holding a line in front of the gates #iranelectionabout 2 hours ago from web

from the looks of it they are waiting to arrest all the students! it's also explains the vansabout 2 hours ago from web

some people are now parking their cars in middle of the street trying to block the vans. #iranelection about 2 hours ago from web

police demanding people to move their cars and start crashing car windows. more people are coming. I will try to get a better viewabout 2 hours ago from web

police demanding people to move their cars and start crashing car windows. more people are coming. I will try to get a better viewabout 2 hours ago from web

Down with the dictator! Mousavi, Karoubi; support us! #iranelectionabout 1 hour ago from web

tear gas #iranelectionabout 1 hour ago from web

my eyes are burning hard to keep them open #iranelectionabout 1 hour ago from web

I'm dizzy but ok. some people are getting shelter in the nearby unfinished bank building. police arresting a middle aged manabout 1 hour ago from web

@ahmadinejad no wonder you are OK Mr president 24.5Mabout 1 hour ago from TwitterFox in reply to ahmadinejad

it's 9:54 AM -Amirabad street near Pasargad bank and to be honest I don't have the courage to leave the roof right now #iranelection32 minutes ago from web

still no working cellphones here and wireless speed is awful #iranelection12 minutes ago from web

there is a rumor now in Farsi twitting community about mousavi being seen after 12h of no known location #iranelection9 minutes ago from web

according to rumor mousavi requested all people to gather near his office at 12:30 pm today.4 minutes ago from web

I guess we should all go, after all he is the real president #iranelection2 minutes ago from web

Mousavi's Youtube page.

http://www.youtube.com/user/khosravi2500 Hours old footage of citizen and state clashes on the streets of Tehran.

Saturday Support

2009-06-13T01:46:00.001-05:00

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. ;)

Runnin' and Gunnin'

2009-06-10T12:44:00.001-05:00

I'm still working on resetting this blog. The idea is to run both types of post milsupport and regular HR on one site. We'll see how that goes.

At the moment I am trying to eat a salad, deafen my ears to the shrieks of children who are watching Discovery Channel series called 'A Haunting' from under the covers.

"What happened?!

What happened??!

Did you see it?!

Move over!

You're squishing me!

It's your turn to look!

Is not!

Is, too!

What happened!?

Omigosh!!!

Did you SEE that?!

NO.WAY!!!"

For the love of God and everything holy, somebody LOOK already, I'm trying to work!!!

and I'm wondering if I said yes or no to my oldest when he came in here asking for...what was he asking for?? ice cream I think. Geez. I wonder how much he ate?

hmmm wonder if I should eat some...I'll have to come back to that.

Where was I?

I was formatting an article.

That's right.

Trying to load it on a site.

On Tuesdays, I contribute to a blog called War on Terror News. Don't let the name frighten you off. On this blog we crawl public access news sources and put them onto one platform so people that want to objectively inform themselves, can. Every once in a while the owner will write an editorial, but his philosophy is one that allows for multiple opinions.

I don't know much more about him than his first name and I'm told that is more than most. I do know he is highly dedicated to bringing news from Afghanistan and Iraqi (among other places) to the public and making it easier for people to make up their own minds about our part in the Global War on Terror. Given that, I give him a day a week and dig for articles on various sites.

As for the donations and mailing, I have been REALLY busy packing and gathering supplies. I'm double posting today and will put up pics of what I have on hand going out.

Things that are already out, some anyway you can see Mike holding in his post about mail. Heehee...when he opens that big box with Samurai Jack all over it, those two pillows I used my entire body weight to shove inside, will come flying out of that box at a a high rate of speed I expect. Little Guy had a blast watching mom insert the aforementioned pillows and then used forty pounds of tape to laminate cartoon characters all over it. Can't have enough of those, he thinks.

So let's see prior to deciding to offer some way of accounting for where the donations have gone; movies, Monster Milk, freezer pops, and what else? brownies! Can't forget THOSE...as well all manner of other snacks, clothing and gadgets have been making the beaten path between Texas and Al Asad.

I have been job interviewing these last few days and schlepping children everywhere between the rest of the time left. I have some stories--oh man, but they'll have to wait until I get this big push of mail out.

Come back today and I'll have pictures of the "push" up.
Children need lunch and I have forms to fill out for some of their classes, a mail run to make and insurance and thank you notes to address. ack.

heehee. I keep thinking of Hammy in that movie Over the Hedge. The animals call the hedge "Steve" and are overwhelmed by the size...Hammy, the squirrel takes one look zips down comes back and exclaims, "It never ends!" Then he takes off down the other side and tears back again and says "It never ends that way, too!"

I am Hammy.
Hammy is cool.

DOH. Comments when was the last time I answered comments?

rats.

need to go do that, too...

June 6, 1944

2009-06-06T15:31:00.001-05:00

I had 'puter problems most of the day yesterday so I finally gave up having not completed a single productive thing and went to bed in digust. About 4 this morning I'm up since I was in bed so early the night before and I hear an email hit my inbox all full of love and concern:

"There's something wrong with your email. Fix it."

Looks like I did, but hit me up, if you were emailing and nothing went through, it bounced back or I didn't answer you. skyblue812@gmail.com

Those of you that donated, big hugs and kisses, but not on the mouth.
Those that didn't I'll give you another chance to redeem yourself. Promise. ;) At some point in the next 24hrs barring any html glitch this blog is being reformatted so bear with me, I'll have all those that didn't ask to be anonymous up with links and pictures of the first mailouts. I have some graduation festivities and shopping to do today.

Happy Sunday, blogpeeps!

On with my D-Day post.

From the video: "A lot of people gave their life so that (the generations) who are living in our country today realize they're free and what would have happened if this had not been a successful war. I sure hope that the people in this country realize what these WWII veterans--any veteran in any war they were in-- what they have done to protect this country so they could enjoy all the things that we enjoy in this country...Every year it gets harder to talk about this...but I feel it's very important that I talk in schools and to people so that everybody realizes that freedom is not free."

Given what this vet in the interview said regarding the retelling of this day--the difficulty of it, I would expect that it would be easier for us to listen to it then it is for him to recount. I hope you will take the time to look at this segment in light of that.

Oldest Blogger in the blogosphere...

Some refer to Solomon Fein, the oldest military blog in the blogosphere.
Normandy Vet If you haven't been you should head over.

Had you been alive in 1944 and living in a small town America you would have read an article much like what you se here from a small town in Virginia:

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, JUNE 6
(AP) - Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower the supreme allied commander, went on the air this invasion day telling the people of Europe the grand assault on the continent had begun and "all patriots, young and old, will have a part to play in the Liberation." He pleaded against premature uprising saying, "be patient, prepare. Wait until I give you the signal."He was followed by King Haako nof Norway who broadcast special orders to both organized and unorganized resistance groups in Norway , but warned his people not to rise against the Germans prematurely.It was announced that Gen. Charles De Gaulle, who had just arrived in London , would broadcast a message to the people of France later in the day. Earlier in the day the BBC had broadcast Communiqué No. 1 from Invasion headquarters, first in English and then in French and immediately thereafter sounded an "Alert" to the peoples of Norway, the Netherlands , Belgium and Denmark .French people were told additionally to stand by in 14 minutes for a special announcement.

NORMANDY INVASION WEATHER LONDON, JUNE 6 -- (AP) The sun broke through heavy clouds at times in the Dover Strait area this first day of the Allied Invasion of Western Europe. After a daybreak shower there was sunshine, but later banks of heavy clouds swept up from the Northwest. There were further sunny periods, although the outlook was less settled.The wind had blown fairly hard during the night, but lost some of its strength after dawn. A moderate sea was running.

Other D-Days
August, 7, 1942, Guadalcanal
April 1, 1945, Okinawa
November 23, 1943 Tarawa
January 22, 1944 Anz io
Before Normandy, D-Day was a term generally used as a term for the day of any invasion. I only knew the date for Normandy by heart. These above I had to look up and like these dates, I realize that these are only a few of the great battles from this war. There were many our troops in World War II as well as other wars, as the veteran in the video mentioned, who woke up to the longest or last day of their life. In either situation, these men knew going into it that it would be one or the other.

Another quote that struck me.
"We shot at everything that moved. The beach was soon covered with the bodies of American soldiers." - German soldier Franz Gockel, writing to his family on June 10, 1944, about the landings on Omaha Beach four days earlier.

On Uncle Lucian...

I was readying my Uncle's book on the campaigns he took part in in World War II and I came across a passage referring to a drive he took with General Marshall when they met in Algiers after Uncle Lucian left the Italian Campaign in early 1944. Marshall told my uncle that General Eisenhower had asked for him to be a part of the Normandy invasion given his experience with the difficult and costly invasion at Anzio, but General Clark, his superior had insisted that my uncle prepare instead for a secondary landing the following August after the Normandy invasion at Toulons in the south of France called Operation Anvil initially and later named Dragoon. Of that conversation, Uncle Lucian experessed great gratitude to have known his expertise had been requested for the cross channel invasion, but was gracious and replied to Marshall that it was his desire to do the best job whereever it was his superiors believed he was the most useful. He also said he was touched by the generosity of Marshall in conveying this information for he had not obligation to make my uncle aware of Eisenhower's regard for him.

I hadn't read his autobiography in a very long while and this was the first I knew of what role he played in this part of the war in Europe.

One last thing...I'd be remiss if I didn't post this last quote as I have often been centric, as many of us, surrounded by great oceans tend to do.

"I often hear the phrase, 'When the Americans liberated us,' in conversation. No. The Americans were with the British, the Canadians, during the landings and it was, after all, Britain that suffered the crux of the struggle for several years."- Louis Mexandeau, a former war veterans minister on how some overlook the contribution made by other Allied nations

I came across this blog link . It's interesting to have perspectives other than what you normally are presented with. If anyone has blog links for Britsh or French veterans, let me know. I looked , but I didn't find anything of the up to datea nature. 'Course I was pressed for time.Canadian vet.

How and what your money helps buy :)

2009-06-04T17:59:00.001-05:00

If you want the original gouge go here.

If you would like to see who has supported for this Summer Shipping Drive and doesn't mind me saying so go here. (I will be updating supporter and link lists tonight.)

Here's how the money you have donated so far helps:

A first class stamp and a .17 stamp will usually send a DVD, letters and or pictures.

$1+ can send a letter with pictures and a burned CD or sports drink powders or anything else you can think of that would fit in a small manila envelope.

$2+ sends magazines, insoles, flat candy, bubble wrap (just cause popping is a stress buster), DVD in case, small book, calendars of their favorite topics, personalized stationary--(I create it with a graphics program) in a regular large manila envelope.

$4.95 can send a flat of brownies, foot care stuff, or anything I can wrangle into a Priority envelope. You'd be surprised. They are also coming out with a box this size, soon at the same price.
$10.95 can send a priority box care package of hygiene items or food items...they have to be separated or the scent of non food items, if they have a scent of any kind will bleed into the food$11.95 sends bulkier items like boxes of Ice Pops they can freeze and eat, and or everything that I would send in a flat box above. It's especially good for sending a dinner in a box for a birthday, or other kinds of kits for a bday party or other special occasion.

There you go.

That's the whole story.

The intricate interworkings of HopeRadio milsupport.

Cool eh?

The post below covers how all this came about, wrapped up and then got started again. I decided to break this day's posting into two. It was long and I was distracted with a few other things going on around here. So here you go: One for the left brained, one for the right brained. You're welcome.

Who, Where, Why, but 'How' and 'What' is next post

2009-06-04T09:51:00.001-05:00

If you want the original gouge go here.

If you would like to see who has supported for this Summer Shipping Drive and doesn't mind me saying so go here. (I will be updating supporter and link lists tonight.)

You are probably overcome with a burning, all consuming curiosity about how I wound up in military support. I know. I get that all the time. Everyone is just dying to know about me. It's embarrassing really. *laughing hard!* I can't even type that with a straight face.

But hey money is involved. That is. I'm asking for money, so you have a right to know what this is all about. I've been milsupport, medium and smaller scale for so long I forget those who aren't, might be interested in the details--what with the aforementioned, cold, hard cash some of you just put up.

Milsupport started for my family in 2007. Getting cut out of a car and being laid up for a while afterwards ~~drove me street rat crazy~~ helped me think about what I had accomplished and not accomplished with my allotted stint on the planet thus far. It ~~violently rearranged without my permission~~re-prioritized some elements in my life which I hadn't realized needed re-prioritizing.

Military support was one of those Gee, if I ever have the time I think it would be important to do that kind of things that came up while I sat in my bed or chair and became amused at how quickly the two year old recognized the reach range of mom's crutches.

At the time of my accident I ran a home school and a couponing group. The latter born of simply having too many coupons to use myself, so I turned to my members asked who wanted to learn about this stuff and started giving them the coupons I wasn't using.

This is Sarah, at left, Coupon Queen. I taught her everything I knew and before long the Grasshopper became the master. Hence her user name at Blogger.hee. She's my TV show, music, brownie connection. The man I ~~stuck~~ left the homeschool group to run, Michael, is one of my movie connections.

It was a good network. We all, as families, had a huge surplus from couponing, we initially had donated to local shelters and the like, but when the topic of military support came up it dovetailed nicely with the community service and so we adopted supporting the military as our primary philanthropy. As now, we always had the supplies, we just needed to work on shipping. Which we did, then with fundraising homeschool projects and now, like I am doing with my blogging friends and when teaching last year, I did through my school.

Incidentally, I am completely surprised at the number of people linking this drive. We've collected about 450 dollars which will buy whatever it is not in stock and necessary or pay for shipping, printer ink, blank DVDs, and vacuum seal plastic for about a month.

Milsupport has always been an exercise in faith, whether I was at odds with the Big Guy/ Universe or not. I just trust what I need will be there for them when I need it and it always has. There's nothing like some stranger at a car show pressing a fifty in your hand for his brothers, or getting a check out of the blue from a past adoptee or even a certain irascible blogger who has an uncanny radar for picking up this sort of thing which will carry me through to my next package or letter. He has from the start even when he barely knew me. That's how he rolls.

But back to my story...

Time moved on. I went back to work and continued the military support on my own in a scaled down version until January of this year. At that time thinking I was on my way to Iraq, I finished my current deployments with shops and units in Iraq and Djibouti and got ready to go to work at the Taji Vocational Institute training Iraqi Army officers to be instructors. A passport, vacation cruise and a going away party were had and then two days before I was due out the contract fell though.

I was out of job, the kids were in school and suddenly I was home with no groups to run, no Marines to take care of since the plan was I'd be over in the sand box with them, and a half pissy attitude, if I have to be honest. Back up plan after back up plan fell through until finally, hallelujah!! I thought there was some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

I was going to Officer Candidate School. I was healthy, fit, age qualified and gung ho. Alas, each turn in that road had some sort of family or timing roadblock. Pursuing OCS was one long obstacle course. I kept facing a family or timing challenge, muttering oh shit under my breath, overcoming it, seeing some open track, feeling optimistic only to get hammered with another challenge which always seemed to pop up out of nowhere.

In the end I would have not been able to graduate OCS before my 42nd birthday. I was short by four or five days.

Ticked off and on my butt in the dirt, I couldn't find a soul to feel sorry for me. So I had my ~~tantrum~~, fine- tantrums, amusing my friends unmoved by the whining and merely ready to point out with metaphoric commentary ranging from "Heh, you know you can see right up your skirt when you flail around on the ground like that" to flat out "shut your piehole, get up and work the problem."

They totally ruined my midlife crisis for me.

Shortly thereafter, when I wasn't quite so whiteknuckled about everything, I heard from some old adoptees who, you guessed, had this friend and did I think I could..."

So here I am.

Doing what I can't seem to stop doing.

It's like flicking a booger really.

Only not as boogery.

Laughing.

Inhaling...

There you go.

I have more story to tell.

Man are you people going to drop a jaw.

For now I'll leave you to absorb my awe inspiring tale thus far and to wait with bated breath for my next post or to recover from this one. Whichever. ;)

Update

2009-06-03T14:14:00.001-05:00

**Keep checking back on this post for new supporter's links.**

Go here, if you just arrived and want to see the original post.

Thank you to Red , Nytebird , Southern Insanity, Hubman, and Sage for the donations and to my local mamas: Sarah for the dozen boxes of brownies (those will be inhaled in short order) and Lisa for slippin' me that ten here the other day. I sent Mike's bday present with it yesterday morning. Oh! and Coffeypot, the Monster Milk you sent is like gold over there! Also thank you to Marsha/Ally, I just got something in my email regarding your donation. Send me your blog addy and I'll link it to your name. :)

Trav and T, Nytebird, Hubman, Sage and Southern Insanity for the blog pimp was (is) much appreciated, too. I just got back from the post office and put two more packages in the mail with more sitting here to go out by Friday. I hope, if anyone else is considering offering some support, they realize what a big impact they are helping to make on these young men and women. I make sure I name all the folks behind the postmark.

I really appreciate the support and so do they.

MUAH!!!

Some notes from last deployment:
Thank you for the letter and the stories. Not to mention the "BrainDamaged" picture was pretty funny. We all know what you mean about"Family" vacations. They can be fun and horrible all in the same moment, but they will always be in our hearts as the best of times. Please keep them coming. You are one of our regular writers. Have you ever thought about writing a book of short stories about family vacations?.... You have a way with words. We love to hear the stories. well thank you for your support and the prayers are always welcome.Thanks, SSgt X & The Airframes Division at HMH-XXX, Djibouti

Hope,

Once again, I have to tell you that you are the greatest and that you are awesome. I got a few more packages and letters from you today, and among them was the 2nd most motivating piece of mail I have got the whole time I have been out here. (the first being pictures from my wife and I'm sure you understand why she takes first place).The guys are really jealous of the cheerleader picture. (I have a connection with the Houston Texan cheerleaders, they sign 8X10s for me each season)I think that I am going to put it up in my office to make others jealous. I'll see what I can do to get you a picture from us. Seriously Hope, I have to thank you for all that you do for us. You really to help make life better out here. I know your going to say that you should be thanking us and so on and so forth. But seriously, for all the time, effort and money that you put into us, you deserved to be told thank you and take it without any argument. So that being said,thank you to you and your family. You all are awesome.
Sgt. X, Fallujah

We interrupt this program...

2009-06-02T11:46:00.001-05:00

Mounting up, Karmah, Iraq 2007

Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines Karmah, Iraq 2007-2008

May 2009, Al Asad, Iraq

HopeRadio interrupts the current thread of whining, self discovery, tech addiction,parental angst and general narcissism to say: Basta!

Enough.

So.

Here's what I need:

MONEY.

Money for shipping care packages and mailing letters with little things like drink mixes, flat kinds of candy, stationary I make with my printer for them to use for family and friends, pictures/funnies I find online, DVDs of things I and mamas like Little Grasshopper, one of my commenters and her husband dub for me from television or radio etc.

Couponing has in the past made it possible to gather stuff like this:

To send boxes out like these at left.

I try to have fun stuff in there as well as necessities. Yes, many have access to a PX, but it depends on where you are as to how good of one and how much time you have to stand in line that day or whether you are in the vicinity and like many, many of my adoptees say: It's not what's in the box or letter. It's knowing someone knows your are there and cares that you are as well. Luckily, half the battle is won. Couponing is what gets me what I will need, but the shipping is what really gets hamstrings me sometimes.

Summer is upon us.

For us it means rushing in from the hot parking lot as fast as we can to get to inside the nice cool mall or the supermarket bulging with whatever it is we think we need.

It means picnics, BBQs and vacations.

It means grouchy kids hungry for lunch, but refusing to get out of the pool.

It means in-law angst about the reunion trip you swear this year you weren't going to as you pack for it anyway.

It means counting down til it's back to school and things get back to normal.

Well-- that's what it means for some of us anyway.

Basra, Iraq

For my milfolk it means, 130 degree heat with 0 humidity, insects that insist on treating every human they meet like a Golden Corral, all-you-can-eat-buffet. It means 80 to 100 pounds of gear on patrols in long sleeved uniforms, working in hangars to get planes and helos back up and running and in garages to keep vehicles doing the same with NO A/C. It may mean dragging along supplies and working out of hot Bradleys or HMMVs or whatever other vehicle I'm not well versed in enough to mention and never being in the same FOB or outpost for more than few days. It means banging down equally hot, dangerous roads to to gather information, track down the worst of the worst or to repair the special equipment that helps keep our troops safe.( above pic from Sgt. Grumpy)

Insurgent activity is higher in the spring and summer. The operation tempo in general is crazy. Longer hours, extreme conditions, heat I'm told you really cannot fathom unless you have been there. I'll take their word for it.

Bottom line is had you ever considered hitting that PAYPAL button up there in the past, TODAY is the day to do it.

Sand fleas, flies and beasties will be biting them and possibly leaving more than scars from shrapnel or ordinance. Illness from just being there is also an issue. There's some diseases these folks catch from bites or inconsequential scratches which cause treatments like chemo to be needed when they get back or long periods of antibiotic therapies.

Alot of these folks get rashes and acne exacerbated from constant states of perspiration and irritation from wearing their Kevlar vests. The acne and or rashes get infected and cause all sorts of pain and trouble for them. Not to mention scarring. Even when it's not to the extreme of facing serious illness, I know of young men who refuse to go swimming without a shirt on now because they are ashamed of how they look when they get back. The soldier pictured above is a mechanic who as the caption cites, was not in a vest. I only wonder what the friction, weight and additional heat of a vest and other heavy gear would have done to the cysts on his chest and back?

They come back with an array of possible maladies tht can be avoided if they are able to protect themselves. Here's a list of issues, the military tries to make it's personnel aware of post deployment.

Bottom line is this:

I need you.

They need you.

Here's what I send in the summer:
Tea tree oil, Like I said, its great for everything from keeping bugs off to dealing with infected bites and scrapes. Iraq is not known for it's sanitary conditions.

Lots of rehydration powders like Gatorade and Powerade.

Cooling pillows--when they need to cool down quick this little pillow can be placed at the back of the neck or under armpits to get body temp under control. Heat stroke is a major enemy for our troops there. It can cause organ damage and failure.

Well made socks-- Walk a 5 mile patrol in socks with poor seams and you wind up with nasty blisters.

Peppermint lotion--cooling on the feet! It's amazing to realize how something so simple can do so much for someone's morale and performance.

Moleskin--to cover up owies already acquired.

Good boot inserts--remember, gear for these folks is generally from the lowest bidder

Blank CDs and DVDs to dub TV, radio and music. Easily sent and personalized, inexpensive and the can share it and trade it for other things when they are done.

Good pillow cases and sheets. The guys we take care of are in their second month of deployment at Ramadi and Al Asad. The laundry has officially destroyed any soft factor to linen by now. I buy irregulars at a factory outlet so I can get a really high thread count. Irregular usually means a color issue or a little longer sized situation. Most of the time I can't figure for the life of me why it's less expensive. They don't care, either.

Hard candy and gum--the good stuff--Jolly Rancher and caffeinated gum.

Good quality foot powder and antifungals--read up, if you forgot what I said about the heat. Or read this.

Magazines- Susan ordered some for me last year and they still come to the house, I would like to get more though. Best place to buy is Half Price Books I'm finding. I can get them for pennies on the dollar.

Wipeys and hand sanitizer-The cleaner they can get the less chance of illness and infection.

Sunscreen and insect repellent- NO explanation needed here. lol

Batteries and battery operated fans- Even Mike , now on a less physically demanding deployment will soon see what happens when everyone on an FOB tries to use their AC at once. We've all heard about the KBR electricity issues. All the AC in the world is pretty useless if the power grid is down.

and yes, brownies, lots of brownies...ha.

Okay I'm done.

I need some help, folks.

See what you can do.

Blog linking this article would be humbly appreciated. On average about 10 percent will respond to this post and 3% will donate, so if you are one of the 90% or 97% and have to keep it that way, I would love it if you could spread this message. That would be helpful and not cost you a cent.
See if your friends will be willing to link for this drive on their blog.

Let's see what we can do from the comfort of our home and nation for these folks not home and taking care of of our nation.

It's not politics, it's about people.

Our people.

Live, love, breath.

Oh yeah and DONATE or spread the word!!!

They sure need your help.

(ps. Red, Smitty and T, I'm in the middle of setting up a small blog to report reciepts and purchases from the donations you all made in early May. I'll be doing the same thing for this drive.)

Crackberries and Clerk Carcass

2009-05-31T12:47:00.001-05:00

So I went out with my sister the other night and promptly lost my phone.

Man am I glad I took off all the semi-nude pictures earlier in the week.

So now I have one of these:

I can email, text, IM, take pictures, voice record the children saying things I'll throw in their face later with no compunction whatsoever and video--THOSE implications are far too many for just one post.

Oh yeah and you can TALK on this sucker, too.
Hold on, I'm blacking out a little...

ok, where was I?

Oh yes, my sis and I went out to eat and we shopped. She was on one of those maximum damage in short amount of time modes. Watching her go at it is jawdropping. She leaves clerk carcasses and smoking debit cards in her wake.

I like her style.

Turn it up

2009-05-31T10:24:00.001-05:00

Thanks J...
I have to put this up here, too.
I keep hitting replay.

Btw when are you going to tell me about getting out of your ticket?hee

Giving and getting

2009-05-28T11:22:00.001-05:00

I figured a way to get a blog up there^^ so those of you who don't read milblogs a lot have the opportunity. Go ahead. Take a look. As time permits or I'm able to make some semblance of a mini header I'll keep switching them out. What? Did you think that was Mike's permanent real estate? lol. That's what you get for thinking.

On my job:
I'm taking a break from planning on the next twenty years of my life to watch a movie, heckle people on freeways and cheat at pool.

On kids:

They are about to descend from the steppe like so many Huns. I am not dug in yet nor have I any kind of logistical support established. Most work a firmer beachhead...notice how I muddled all those metaphors??Wait are they metaphors? I always get my figures of speech messed up.

On working out:

I have been a lazy, disgusting pig lately. Lays, brownies, booze and chocolate have not put the weight on at all, but I still feel yucky and squishy. Tonight I swear I'll be in the gym.

On milsupport:

Been using the donations Red, T and Smitty put in to get out all manner of movies, brownies, magazines and pogeybait out. This is one area I have managed to handle in an unclustery like manner. Tony thinks its cause I'm inherently good at spending money. Thanks again for what you sent, peeps. We took care of four folks for a month on it including some birthdays.

On blogging:

I got award from Linda, she and I have been bloggie friends from waaaaaaay back. I still get surprised when someone feels compelled to single me out for something related to this blog. Normally I just sit here with one foot on the desk and one tucked under and hammer out what ever is in my head. Most of it scares the hell out of me, so anyone else bothering to read my bi-polarish fare is rather strange, but welcome.

Recently, I find my blog on a message board. I went looking when I noticed I had like triple the number of hits I normally had on a day. Seems they like my how to milsupport post even though some thought me a little rough. heee. I gotta say it's bizarre to go on a board and look at yourself being talked about. It's the proverbial fly on the wall thing.

So anyway, I needed to pick a couple of folks out to pass on the award to, but I couldn't narrow it down as well as I wanted. One of the three I am waiting on 'cause his new blog "house" is not ready, yet, and I thought it would make a nice blogwarming present. *grin*

This award recognizes the following attributes:
1) The Blogger manifests exemplary attitude, respecting the nuances that pervade amongst different cultures and beliefs. This I try to do, but of all of them I prolly fall short here the most. I'm impatient, but really do find people fascinating so I suppose my shortcoming is balanced out by this fascination.

2) The Blog contents inspire; strives to encourage and offers solutions. I'm with Linda on this one, I'm not sure how well I have outwardly offered comfort to another, but if sharing my foul ups, whinings and angst makes it easier for someone else, then all is not lost right? If you aren't reading Linda, regularly you really should. This is one of her best things as far as I'm concerned.

3) There is a clear purpose at the Blog; one that fosters a better understanding on Social, Political, Economic, the Arts, Culture, Sciences and Beliefs. If my purpose is to find my purpose I guess I meet this criteria right? lol People that already have theirs really ass me off though so maybe I need to work on number one more than I thought...

4) The Blog is refreshing and creative. Hmmm. I've been called artistically minded before...wait, maybe they said "autistic".

5) The Blogger promotes friendship and positive thinking. Well while I don't feel I have done much lately for anyone, what with all my sniveling, I really appreciate how much help having this blog has been lately. Friends and their perspective have been invaluable. Anything I can do to pay that forward will always be important to me.

The only thing I haven't done is say what I think this blog has done so far. What has writing Hope Radio achieved? ohmyhell. I don't know. The one thing I have figured so far is that HopeRadio and what other people's perspective is where it is concerned keeps me pretty darn surprised and generally humbled. Links after 600+ posts would be a really tough thing to cite. Ummm maybe use search words like milsupport, parenting, Tony, children and you'll find something!

Man Overboard is this blog written simply with great photographs and little snips of wisdom in the most everyday of subjects. I don't often post there, but I do try to visit every time he posts. He has no guile, is curious about the world around him, great with his family and lame as it sounds just a really decent human being.

The other blog is a milblog. CI-Roller, I have known since I started milblogging. Anytime I neeed perspective or when someone I was working with got ~~rough~~too military on me, he was there to translate and put the bandaid on the booboo so to speak. He served his country overseas twice and serves his country here as part of a police force. You want the straight skinny on something or just be there with an ear and he's your guy. He's hardcore, but a big softie, too.

The other two you should go look at, I know I said two and one other, I just couldn't pass this other one up. She really fit the criteria as well.

Go see T .

I am always in awe of how she just lays it on out there. I'd like to think I do, but no...not really--not like this mama. She moves through life sharing her experiences and doesn't ride the short school bus nearly as much as me. Though I guess that's not saying much. They have a monogrammed nameplate on my seat

So yep I blew the rules and did 3 instead of 2. ANd I plan on two more instead of one here coming up soon. Sigh.

I'm such a rebel.

I hope you like the links!

Have a good day everyone.

Those of you who receive this award are required to do the following:
1) Create a post with a mention and link to the blogger who presented the Noblesse Oblige Award to you.
2) The award conditions must be displayed in the post.
3) Write a short article about what your blog has thus far achieved preferably citing one or more older post to support:
4) The blogger must present the Noblesse Oblige Award to blogs in concurrence with the award conditions.
5) The blogger must display the award at any location on their blog.
So, there it is, the reason behind blogging and the values it represents.

Developments...maybe.

2009-05-27T07:22:00.001-05:00

(Update Edit at end of this post...7:20 pm, 27May)
Your comments last post were hilarious, poignant, kind and well, CI Roller-- a little concerning! I didn't know they even made Underoos that size...

So there have been developments , but I won't bother to give the blow by blow until things stop blowing--this afternoon I think. By then the latest will have settled down and the proverbial "word will come down". I'll post again today if it does.

In the meantime, Mike sent this over this morning. It cracked me up and laughing is a good thing! I left what the original sender put at the end of the funny. It's not funny as much as a truth and pretty dead on for me in terms of how things have been progressing lately. :)

Yesterday I was buying 2 large bags of Purina Dog Chow at Walmart for my dogs. I was about to check out when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog. What did she think, that I had an elephant?

Since I had little else to do, on impulse, I told her that no, I didn't
have a dog, and that I was starting the Purina Diet again, although I
probably shouldn't because I ended up in the hospital last time. On the
bright side though, I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive
care ward with tubes coming out of every hole in my body and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that
it works is to load your pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one
or two every time you feel hungry and that the food is nutritionally
complete so I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that
practically everyone in the line was enthralled with my story by now.)

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog
food had poisoned me.

I told her no; I had stopped in the middle of the parking lot to lick my
butt and a car hit me.

I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack, he was
laughing so hard!

WAL-MART won't let me shop there anymore.

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. God determines who walks into your life. it's up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go.

**************************
Well like those movies where the surgeon comes out all grim and tells the family in what ever words he's sorry, but he's done everything he can...I got the word. I kept my expectations low so it wasn't a shock, but I can't say I wasn't a little disappointed. I got the idea to try the Guard from some bloggie friends. My general compulsion to serve in some way had been ailing for a little while if you've actually suffered through the last few days of HopeRadio, I'm sure you are aware and while I still love the idea of being of service, I hate to see anything suffer--the idea or my patient readers.

Seems while I still seem to be quite appealing to recruiters, the timeline for bootcamp and OCS before my 42nd birthday is going to keep me from even a shot at National Guard. They don't have a slot available that will get the whole shooting match done before I light 42 candles on my cake.

Sooooo...

Every door has been knocked on that I am aware of.
National Guard would have been a pretty good deal in terms of keeping a family balance and compared to most State Guards, Texas rocks benefits and pay wise. It just wasn't meant to be.

At least I have had the opportunity to check each type of service and give it go. The process was not one I recommend for the faint of heart not that my heart is any more buff than the next human--just sayin'...I'm sure this is a your mileage may vary kind of a thing. I will say I'm glad I looked down this last avenue and it was nice to have a direction with which to align my compass one last time.

No worries.
Apparently Patience is the biggest lesson here and since I prolly suck at that one more than most virtues, I can see how it's the one that keeps stepping back in the ring to have another go.

Fine.
*smile*

Bring it.

Drive On

2009-05-26T01:25:00.001-05:00

Thursday I was asked by the station commander to come into his office and as I got up from my recruiter's desk to walk that way I noticed the second in command as well as my recruiter were following me.

Great.

Right away I knew it couldn't be good. The air was thick with apology before words ever got uttered. It was explained to me that given the unique situation I was in they had done some further digging and they had come to find out that a few weeks ago a woman from Garland, Texas, a year younger than I am now, 41, was in the same situation as I was about to be. Ready to take on Officer Candidate School, her recruiting station submitted a waiver to their battalion, it was approved and off she went to Fort Benning where she completed the program and was then summarily discharged.

No, not because she didn't do well, but because the battalion at Benning disagreed with the waiver the recruiting battalion in Texas had given her which allowed her to attend OCS in the first place. Since she was a candidate and not enlisted, she was discharged with the Army's apology.

Gulp.

We talked-- the station commander, the 1st Sgt and my recruiter.
They could go ahead with the waiver, hope my old Army family name would carry some weight and we could all cross our fingers, but things didn't look too good.

At some point the recruiting cadre relaxed, our conversation, my family background and general interview impressed them and so they gave me their best recruiting schpiel. I'd be a great asset to the Army, why didn't I enlist and backdoor the OCS packet or even a warrant officer packet once I was in? It would only be a year or so of working as an E4 (specialist in the Army, Corporal in the USMC) It would work, I'm athletic and my test scores were in the 90s percentile wise.

Now anyone who spends any kind of time with me (god love'm) knows I can get a little stiff necked when I have made up my mind about something. Whiplash where necks are concerned these last 8 days is NOT EVEN THE WORD.

:::rolling tape:::

Sitting here last Sunday night I discover I can still serve in the military.
ohmyhell.
A couple of hours later I read I have too many kids so no I can't.
Then I get an email that says oh yes you can if you have a waiver and did I know I could get one for OCS as well?
ohmyhell again.
My head swims with the implications and I call a recruiter the next day.

Than spouse gives me the are you out of your mind face and tells me he'd rather I not, but won't stand in my way, then lays low in hopes that all this will just blow over without any kind of conversational engagement.
Fine. I won't go.
After a couple of days the spouse and I suck it up and have a conversation resulting in a spousal ok I'm good to go if you are.
Then more tests and plans at the recruiting station.
Then another day and more paper work documenting and proving my heartbeat and respiration and lack of any known sociopathic tendencies.
Then the Garland woman saga hits followed by the interview with the recruiting station head and the okay you should enlist and backdoor this pitch.
After that I came home to ask the million dollar question: Hey honey what do you think about my enlisting cause OCS is too damn risky?

Then the real way the spouse felt about this whole Army matter really surfaces and well since one of my biggest complaints about my beloved is how he rarely speaks or gives an opinion, it would be pretty freaking wrong for me to give him a reply which would convey: Thanks for the input, I'm enlisting anyway.

Yes, as a matter of fact I did say all of that just now without inhaling.
Nauseous, yet?

Insert expletives and tantrums here.

I had some that would inspire awe in any one of my kids.
Captured on tape and they could have held it over my head for years.
I couldn't believe how gut wrenching the last week as been.
It was akin to one long, fast, tummy-plummeting ride over the top of multiple sets of hills on a country road. Only nobody ever mentions the bugs you get in your teeth flying down the road like that.

ew.

The final blow came in the form of a four year old wearing Mike's latest pan of brownies on his face and his Lightning McQueen underwear on backwards so he can see the picture, crawling into my lap, patting me on the cheek and saying he likes it when I rock him. A MIRV or TOW didn't have the blast radius on my active duty dreams that Little Guy did.

Checkmate.

Game over.

It took two days just to stop hearing the death rattle.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
A word to those who had front row tickets to the angst. I'm humbled you took the time and as trite as it may sound, I learned a great deal through this process. Lessons on faith, leadership, self efficacy and patience hit dead center. I liken them to those gifts you get to keep even if you send the infomercial item back "no questions asked, just pay for shipping and handling".

Oh I got handled all right. I feel like one might expect to after coming out of a mental biker fight.

While the lessons weren't what I wanted or sought, they were very much what I needed. When are they ever not,really?
*tired smile*
So. Thank you.

I haven't ruled out grad school, the Reserves, government work or contract work overseas, but a career full fledged would be too hard and unpredictable on everyone except me and unlike that group of infomercial items you buy, have shipped and later pick through to choose what to send back, I'm a package deal. Picking and choosing aren't mother friendly verbs at present.

I couldn't tell you how I feel right now much less what I think more than preserving and protecting my family. There's no nobility in it so any comments to that would be awkward. I suspect that impulse is a fruit of sound genetic imprinting and the evolutionary process so taking credit for that would be like taking credit for hair color, being able to roll my tongue or pulling my thumb back just so.

Best way I can see it right now with little time to set this all in perspective, I need to be patient and grateful for breathing in and out and still possessing the temerity to assume another day will be there when I open my eyes.

I'm good to go.
Like some of my milfolk say, "Drive On!"

We remember.

2009-05-25T00:00:00.001-05:00

This video above was recently added to Youtube for Memorial Day. I know the poster would love to know people had seen it. The two videos below describe the men my great-Uncle Lucian led during the invasion of Anzio in WWII.

Today is not, after all, really about the slab of cow we all probably have marinating or laying out on the grill right now. The bottom line is this:

Some came home.

Some didn't.

Many are gone.

All are remembered.

Sulking

2009-05-20T06:35:00.001-05:00

I've been sulking.
A prepubescent had nothing on me.

Seems I qualify.
If I am so inclined, I can show up at the hotel tonight and go in for my physical in the morning.

But no.
After mindfucking myself to death I've decided I'm not going to go.
I'll have to call in a little while and let the recruiter know.

I'm good to go for the most part.
I really wanted to accept this opportunity. Packing up and joining the fray, pushing myself, seeing what I could do if I took myself out on the highway and opened her up a bit. Pretty damn enticing especially after believing for so long that a career in the military was no longer an option after giving it up the first time.

Great idea for me.
Not so good for the fam.
Seems I have one of those.
A big one.
One I was in on the making of, so having been yanked around the country close to twenty times myself growing up and in the interest of protecting a somewhat fragile marriage, I'm standing down on the Army.Again.

I'm not happy about it this time.

But if I did it,they would't be happy about it.

So.
Grad school?
Contracting?
Porn star?

Today, I have no idea--
Maybe I will tomorrow.
Porn star is prolly out though.
I think I'm allergic to latex.

Turns out.

2009-05-18T19:28:00.001-05:00

I talked to a recruiter today.

Driving home I realized it was almost 20 years to the day since I came home for the MEPS station in downtown Houston the first time I was considering OCS. Actually, at that time it was more than a consideration. One last signature and I was good to go.

Then I met my husband.

Turns out there's a waiver I can use this recruiter informs me.
Turns out I did exceptionally well on my initial tests and on paper I may qualify for OCS again.

Turns out Tony and I have some things to discuss.

Whoa.

2009-05-17T22:31:00.001-05:00

Holy crap.

I didn't know the age limit for recruitment in the Army was 42?

I thought it was younger...

Follow up:
Standing down.
Seems I have two too many children for Uncle Sam.

Armed Forces Day

2009-05-16T14:35:00.001-05:00

In honor of all veteran and current military personnel and their families.

A very Happy Armed Forces Day!

It's one of THOSE Fridays. Play it Loud and Hard, People!

2009-05-15T11:22:00.001-05:00

What?
It's been a couple years since I put this up.
Humor me.

It's got all your basic food groups:
loud music
guitar solos
formations
fly bys
acceleration

Then there are other things which need no commentary OR introduction...

A parting gift for my female readers disinterested in things that go "Vroom" or "Boom"...well--the inanimate ones anyway.

My God, I love my country.

Brownie Blasphemy

2009-05-14T10:42:00.001-05:00

The first person who can point out the inherent blasphemy in baking brownies in a round pan gets a batch sent to them post haste.

No, that these were meant to go to a knuckle dragger, but now well into a baking heresy cover up which will cost me 500 squats to pull off brownies is NOT IT.

hmmmmm

*thinking*

Though props for laying my ass on the line for my country wouldn't be so bad. *clutching pan of brownies* It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

Rude, Crude

2009-05-11T18:23:00.001-05:00

There is nothing to see here today, but an effort to lighten up from the last post-40, angst ridden noise from yesterday. (If you leave nasty comments, I won't be answering so be forewarned before reading on.)I pre-apologize for any emotional agitation which might be instigated by my going straight for the rude, crude,cheap, unladylike,trashy, absurd, sarcastic, unpolitically correct, in poor taste, offensive, insensitive, immoral kind of fare we all get in our inboxes from time to time and never put on our blogs.

Well...some of us do and those that do, feel free to share it with your own readers.

Yeah, yeah.

You're welcome.

I have to say these last two seriously cracked me up.
Enjoy the rest of your Monday!

live, love, breath, hope.

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T10:52:00.001-05:00

Why babies have mothers.

I thought I'd put up some old posts for a laugh or two. Well also to mitigate the drivel below. Happy Mother's Day!~ Live, Love, Breath and Hope.

Translating the mommy speak

Testosterone 1 Mommy 0

Mommy HAZMAT training

Perils of Mommydom

Woman's Work

Been mothering for twelve years now. My siblings, family and friends may beg to differ. My name and the word 'mother' were often put into the same sentence long before I had my first Easy Bake Oven.

Serious, world on her shoulders, earnest-- I have heard them all.

I had dinner the other night with this mama friend in my old home town. I grew up babysitting her kids. It's a friendship where we meet every few years and make massive downloads into one another's brains. We relay what we are doing, have those nfw that kid is that old?! Tell him to quit growing THIS instant conversations. We talk about what inanities can drive us us to drink, put our fists through drywall, make us laugh beverage through our noses and assess just how much damage that last pass through the atmosphere did to our heat reflectors. You know, mama talk.

She asked what I had been up to and so I told her of the projects and interests I have now and her eyes never wavered as she looked at me from her seat across the table.

"So working with warriors eh? I'm not surprised. You've been a warrior since I met you."

She's right. And yet, I wasn't sure how to take it. For it meant I must admit with no equivocation I have been taut and vigilant ever since I can remember and that I own the mother lion, the OCD angst ridden, I'll-never-fit-into-his family-I-wonder-how-much-therapy-the-kids-will-need-if-I-can-just-fix-that-or-bring-the-right-dish-to-the-potluck-everything-will-be-fine-who am-I-kidding-I'm-so-full-of-crap role I share with a great number of the population on the planet.

One thing I've come to understand through age, fatigue, discomfort all necessitating an eventual need for understanding, is that any of those traits are all are bearable in the absence of second guessing. In it's presence all bets are off. It's the one rock that when you put it in anyone's wagon, lifts the donkey harnessed to said cart, straight into the air.

So I've been turning off that second guess switch--a little I mean. I think it comes with age. One hits that forty mark and the sticky, thick Self Conscious vaccine some of us self administrate in spite of our loathing of sharp, shiny, painful needles all those years becomes less of a given.

I have now found the nerve to throw that stuff right into the bio-hazard container. I'm glad, too, cause if I threw it in a regular trash can, I'd dive right in to get it bacl after an hour.

Bio-hazard containers have those little doors that you can't pull back out, see. Once your crap is in, there's no getting it out. I've seen other more well adjusted mamas with one mounted on the wall and I kept lusting theirs from afar. Thinking I did not have the emotional currency to invest in one, I never put it on my Christmas list.

Alas I scraped the human cash together.

My bio-hazard container was telling my mother in law just what I thought and then repeating it to her offspring less there were any issues with translation. It was also pursuing passions and realizing the kids would survive if they ate cold cereal for breakfast every once in a while. It's in the gym, this grad school app sitting at my desk, the priority boxes my feet are resting on here under my desk waiting to be mailed across the pond and in the friends I've kept as well as the friends I remember fondly.

Without the vaccine, dongivafukitis is beginning to flourish.It feels like any condition would especially as your body and mind get the first flush of its little beasties. Nothing is particularly better or easier, but the viral load is shifted so it feels less heavy despite of the fact that when I look in my wagon all the good and the bad is present and accounted for--the same but loaded differently, less awkwardly.

I know this is true. It is because even now after all this time, motherhood is not a role I feel extremely confident in and I'm not so freaked out by that. I'd even go so far as to say it's a role that keeps me pretty frustrated at my lack of grace or clarity most of the time, but again I have begun to expect that time will change that.

I know motherhood is not a role you can ever put down or in my case would want to put down. Leave in personal storage while I renovate...well maybe--but I digress.

How you shoulder the role is something you will answer for one way or the other as it marks your mind and your body, indelibly and ephemerally and as it marks those you love in some ways.

I often joke I'd prefer to have been born a man. Only sometimes, I'm not really joking.

Given the inherent, sophomoric humor of the Universe, I understand why I wasn't.

------

Blogging Milsupport here and here (scroll halfway down on this post. I may have been having a moment. *eyes looking up innocently*) Go have a look if you haven't. Trying to gather a few things for some guys in Iraq.

Takes Crazy to Know Crazy

2009-05-08T11:31:00.001-05:00

I've been pulling the technological equivalent of balling up posts and using them to make free throws into the trashbasket where this How to Support your Adoptee post is concerned. I was trying to watch my tone and not offend, but people if I keep it up I'll develop a rash!

I'd tell you I have been driven to drink over it, but I've been on too many OTCs and monitoring my kiddos' OTCs this week to pull that hallucinogenic stunt...not to say I haven't entertained the idea a couple of times.

Science project potentialities aren't the only thing which should be taken into consideration when you and your Significant Other family plan. One should also consider the impact of illness on one's psyche. Namely the mommy's pysche. She's the only one not allowed to get sick. Read here: It's been ugly 'round here.

Combine that with the dreaded monthly hormonal fluctuation, fluctuating waaaay early and with deadly-for-my-husband vengeance, I might add, and I have to say I'm ~~relieved~~ pretty damn proud of staying out of the nearest bell tower with high powered weaponry. A MIRV had nothing on me these last few days. All I needed was a target--not really I would have improvised, I'm sure.

Yes. You saw that right. I just turned drinking, overmedication, ordinance and the curse of womanhood--nay, one curse of womanhood, into a happy thing. Hormones are multifaceted you know. How do I know? I know because now we are going to throw in Marines and philanthropy and me bossing you around in here 'cause this post isn't twisted enough!

Speaking of twisted. Let's talk Marines.

I have found in doing milsupport, that Marines, or any outfit out on the tip of the spear actually share some commonalities. (Gimme a break Mike, I said SOME. Don't get your cammies in a bunch.) I'm more reluctant to talk about other service branches since I have far less experience with those particular animals. I was probably drinking and on some sort of OTC concoction when I thought to myself. "Self, which branch should we pick to lay our good graces on?" Course, Dad being a Marine and all kinda made it a no brainer though there was my own Army family background to consider. But again, I digress.

I'm steeped in female hormones remember? Whaddaya want from me?

Here are some commonalities as I see them. Your mileage may vary.

They aren't going to tell you much. These folks out sweating their asses off in 80 pds of gear and sand it will take several years to divest themselves of completely won't tell their mothers much more than they and their buddies are ok and good to go most times so don't expect them to say more than that to you. Self/unit reliance is interwined and hammered into their brains at their Marine birth. All other births are immaterial. If they say anything at all if you get into contact, you are one lucky supporter. In the three years I've worked support I have half a dozen people I still stay in contact with. With this project we have taken care of over 300. I leave you to do the math. It was my worst subject.

They live in a kind of groundhog day situation and have no sense of time the way you do. Day of the week, holiday, weekend are not relevant where they are. Date your letters. Just because you send them chronologically doesn't mean they get them that way. Which reminds me. Learn about where they are. It's called the internet. Use it. It's amazing what you can learn about your adoptee, even if he or she never mutters a written or electronic word. A couple of lines on a message board about how power strips were a big ticket item for a particualr FOB made for some well received packages with a Heavy Mechanic Marines shop.

They already have their friends at home and their buddies there. Help if you like, but it doesn't make you best friends.

Things falling through, not going as planned or blossoming into the standard issued clusterf***s are expected by most in the military. Their expectations are fairly low, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do what you say you will do. If you don't follow through throughout their deployment, congratulations, you just helped lower their expectations even further and that they didn't sign on for.

Don't wait to do the perfect letter or package!!!

Put a box under your desk at work or on the counter in the kitchen or by the table where you dump your keys and cell.Wherever. When you see something that makes you smile get it and throw it in box. Don't overthink it. What if they think you're weird?

Two thoughts on that. One, you probably are. So what? Two, if you weren't you wouldn't be worried about what a stranger 7000 miles away who will prolly never stop what they are doing long enough to say hi anyway thinks about you anyway. Keeping themselves and their buddies alive, staying hydrated, unblown up or shot and focused on the mission at hand kinda takes precedent over them forming an opinion about you.

Okay I know there's more, but I think I'll leave it go and step down off my soapbox. I'd like to address one other thing though.

Poor you say? Don't know if you can afford it?

Half-Price Books and stores like it sell magazines for pennies on the dollar. Your adoptee won't care if the magazine is a couple of months old, they care if it's a magazine about how to store breastmilk. Just pick stuff with guns, hot chicks, sports, fighting, martial arts, cars, hunting or fishing on the cover and your good to go. What? Worried about the stereotyping here? Get over it. Keep your audience in mind. Mostly men, between 18 and 25 who said to themselves one day. "Hmmm I think I'll join the service. They'll let me play with ammo and wear camouflage."

Dub morning radio or some TV. Jackass, Girls next Door, Battlestar Galactica,Heroes, Southland,Pimp My Ride that late Saturday night airing of Road Warrior, UFC, MMA, anything on Versus or any other man channel for that matter. For what you buy a Starbuck's Chai Latte Grande you can drop a burned DVD in a gift card-letter sized envelope, throw in some smart ass rendition of the top reasons why a kid and terrorist are alike into a letter four times. And the DVD at the very least is the kind of thing they can share with their buddies and trade for other things after they have watched it a hundred times.

Be consistent.

Be Persistent.

Keep asking them to tell you what you can send even though you probably won't hear about it unless you get lucky with some outfits and some ~~irrascible~~ congenial Point of Contact ~~shows some mercy~~ caves and gives the gouge out of ~~desperate need for peace from a pain in the ass supporter~~ love for his men.

When they don't, just send them a nice fluffy Big Bird sweater or some Hello Kitty shower shoes.

Sooner or later you'll hear back or about what you sent.

And if you never do, it won't make the stories they tell about their crazy milsupporter any less likely.

One thing is certain. Takes crazy to know crazy.

Edit: Just heard from one of my former adoptees. Evidently, he reads this blog, because my Paypal account has more dollars in it than it did this morning. Thanks Smitty. It was a generous donation. Mostly I'm glad to know you are still around and thanks for the cash! I'll make sure I take good care of your brothers with it. xo Hope.

Sanctuary

2009-05-06T20:32:00.001-05:00

Three folks answered the call yesterday to support 3rd BN 3rd Marines. I really appreciate your commitment to these Marines. Paypal hangs onto the funds for a few days before they are released into my account so I'll contact those who's generosity was so gratefully recieved and let you know the details. I wasn't sure about mentioning you here without permission. I'll post more about where they are and what they might like tomorrow. Sarah, thanks for offering to help dub TV. Yes, I don't think they mind commercials, at least my Marines didn't last deployment. Anything that smacks of home... (Picture:LCpl Samuel Mincey, one of my former adoptees from Kilo Co, 3rd BN 3rd Marines, on patrol in Karmah Iraq 2007)

Speaking of home, I drove through the town I lived in while in high school last night. Having attended 18 schools growing up. Yes. 1-8. No typo-- this town was special in that the last 3.5 years of growing up, we stayed in one place. It became the first place I would call home with a straight face.

Alone for the daytrip, I also found myself driving past the house we lived in to see that time had carried it away and replaced it with a new one. As I slowly rolled through the neighborhood instigating at least one or two neighborhood watch entries I am sure, I also found my spot. Every angst ridden, painfully intense teenager has such a place. (whom am I kidding I still have these spots...remenber the picture in my old header?)

My thinking spot,

if you will,

unlike my home,

looked exactly the same.

Had I had the time

I would have climbed up

on my perch

out over the water

to draw a few breaths,

but there was no time to be had.

It was here I

planned the demise of siblings,

went to cry unabashedly,

laugh hysterically,

plot vengefully,

and be dumped by a very short-sighted Senior,

It's where I shredded my first university acceptance letter, and found Sanctuary after I came home from school to find very angry parents asking why said university had called to offer an applicant they rejected a last minute scholarship. So. completely.busted.

It's where I often

journaled,

read

and sometimes just disappeared for an afternoon away from adolescent trials and tribulations to count the ripples stones made as I dropped them into the water.

I even remember sometimes wondering what it would be like when I came back one day all grown up to see, if my tree was still there. Moving so often, I often made promises to the child I was in each place to come back and claim a particular space; to acknowledge my history and somehow give it a credibility hard won with so few roots ever setting deep into any particular soil.

Getting out of my SUV and walking down the creekbed was like opening an old box full of letters and keepsakes kept on a shelf for twenty odd years. Memories rustled in the feel of the grass under my feet, the smell of the creek, in the echos of calls to supper brought to life in the muffled sounds of children playing in a nearby yard. It was even in the feel of the air about to bring rain like all Mays then seemed to do growing up along Oyster Creek .

Clear thoughts escaped me.

Clarity came from senses gifting me with a subtle, fleeting poignancy.

Taking a coastal road back, all the same senses were useless save sight later that evening. The night wrapped around my car in an inky fog shrouding and pulling back with it the evening's reverie as I drove towards home.

Critical Mass

2009-05-05T10:31:00.001-05:00

I've reached critical mass on the homefront.

Kids are on some kind of parent hating crack.

Insurance company is about to bend me over the couch on a claim. Fine. It's insurance I won't rank on that. But I will insist on picking the guy, and demand he bring me flowers and buy me dinner first. Damn it.

I have GOT to get back in the gym. I've been slacking in the worst way. A good pounding is in order. Physical, I mean. State Farm is taking care of the rest.

I could give one hairy rat's tookus what Michelle Obama's favorite food is. How does Pakistan and nuclear security, Holbrooke's testimony or the Taliban spokesperson, Zabiullah Mujahid's, interview this morning rate following that kind of noise on CNN? I don't think I will ever wrap my mind around the fact that we as a people are such sheep, news directors can pull this crap. WHO CARES? If you felt just as dirty watching that, go look at one of these blogs and bring yourself up to speed-- maybe save a few brain cells. Registan.net Ghosts of Alexander Or check out the link at the top of the middle column called War on Terror News. Go ahead. I dare you.

Okay.

**Deep breath**

In an interest of regaining a semblance of composure and giving this post some sort of legitimacy, let me end it in a different tone. Whining, pissing and moaning will only take me so far. (Granted, the drink at lunch will have helped with my attitudinal re-direction.)

I need some sheets for twin beds. Three sets actually. Four, if I can get them. Laundry service in the Sandbox is pretty tough on fabric and sleeping on rough is not so fun, especially when you've worked in rough all day. Any kind of super hero type sheet and or comforter sets would put some big grins on a few jarheads faces I know. If you don't want to send and just feel like throwing money at me, that would be completely cool, too.

I can also use macadamia nuts, a protein called Monster Milk (look for link in middle column) some Amazon gift cards, coffee beans and good socks and undies (no, not for me. gheesh.)

Let's fix it so someone can have a good day OKAY? ok.

Oh yeah, before I forget.

Travis and Gman, here's your present.

Finding My Inner Smartass

2009-05-04T13:46:00.001-05:00

I am in the midst of building blogrolls from memory, comment lists--oh yeah, those who left evelopes with money/naked pictures I'll certainly get right on your picture link or be sending a note right after I stop laughing hysterically.

In the meantime, I came across this list on one of my mil/political blogs and it gave me a laugh speaking deeply to my own inner smartass.

Happy Monday, peeps!

I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.

Gardening Rule: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it.

If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.

The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.

Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead.

The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?

Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

In the 60’s, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.

How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, “I think I’ll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?”

Who was the first person to say, “See that chicken there? I’m gonna eat the next thing that comes outta its butt.”

Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?

If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?

If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?

Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog’s face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him on a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

BACK! Didja miss me?!

2009-05-02T13:03:00.001-05:00

I have been a very bad blogger on Hope Radio.

NO.

No spankings necessary.

I have lots of reasons.

Wanna hear them?

No?

Good I'll tell you anyway.

One: Been busy building Castra Praetoria for my bro, Mike. He's a ~~pain in my ass~~ the perfect little brother. Go see though. It's a great site, if I don't say so myself. Of course, I will say so, but go anyway. Leave comments. He ~~whines if he doesn't get them~~ likes those.

Two: Wound licking. Plain and simple. Not going to Iraq to work, quitting my job, being home with waaaaay too much time on my hands...you there privy, just shhhhhhhh, k? The money was supposed to buy your silence. 'Member? Don't make me use my mean face.

Three: HTML hell. Where this abomination of man is concerned, I am one glasslicking, helmet wearing, short school bus riding individual. Throw in forty-one year old hormonal fluctuations and you have the making of a miniseries or a lawsuit for my gross lack of political correctness by description.

Four: Four words: Science fair times three. I've trademarked it as the next chemical free form of birthcontrol. "You want what, honey? Here let me show you these clever display boards..."Yep. Feel free to thank me now. When I'm famous I won't have time to accept your gratitude. So. It was ugly. We as parents managed to avoid felony convictions. We solaced ourselves with plans to make it all look like an accident.

Well and we drank.

Heavily.

Then just 'cause so the Universe likes to keep us honest, two of three brought home first place ribbons. ~~Little fu...~~

Five: Gearing up on the milsupport thing again. I had closed up shop on that and while I don't have as many people to ~~shake down~~ ask for help as I did before as a homeschooler, I did put up a Paypal button. I'll be writing more about this soon. There are telltale signs up on the blog as to the who and what we will be doing, but I'll save that for tomorrow.

Six: Jay and Dana. I've been all cracked out on social media. It's their fault, the pushers! Jay introduced Twitter and Facebook and Dana delivered the death blow a few posts later. It you haven't, you oughta. I won't even try to explain Tweetdeck, but duuuude--you gotta check it out.

Seven: I was in D.C. at a milblog conference. Talk about FUN. It was really awesome to meet people I had read or talked to online for in many cases at least a couple of years. At one point a video website, pulled me aside to do an interview regarding Castra Praetoria. Ugh. If I knew I looked and sounded like that I'd never leave the house. Blech. Still though it was like hanging out with rockstars. I also got to see an old university doormate/friend who lives in DC. The only down side to the whole thing aside from the video mugging was that I didn't get to really look around. I was in the hotel most of the time attending sessions.

There were other ~~excuses~~ reasons I had, but I accidentally deleted this post and I have to get going around here. My girl is getting her First Communion today. Sigh. Yet ANOTHER post. Still not sure how I'm going with that.ha.

I'll leave you with an exchange between Mike and my Littlest Guy. They have a brownie rivalry now going into the end of it's second year. Notice this picture in the header? Yeah it was taken post, "I'll just take a little of Mike's brownie he'll never notice" assault. All manner of threats and saber rattling ensued when I sent the pic and short note in regards to the delay in brownie mailout. It's been on ever since.

Present Day: Seems Mike was having a less than stellar day yesterday so I sent him a picture of brownies coming out of the oven. This sort of thing gives him warm fuzzies copious amounts of testosterone will cause him to deny publicly. Which of course, I am always compelled to exploit. Therefore, I then had to send him this picture shortly thereafter.

It was met with a loving reply imbued with the spirit of jarhead sharing and generosity:

"If that little troll eats my trash, I'll down him."

PS. There was a casualty when I switched templates--well aside from font size and bolding issues I put in for help on...if you comment...would you comment and leave me your URLs for my blogroll? Pretty please? It will make things a little faster to put ya'll back up. TIA! xo

Conference Update.

2009-04-25T06:28:00.001-05:00

Conference is going well. It's been nice putting names with blognames and faces with words. It seems there aren't a few who don't know who Mike is. He isn't a rock star but bigger blog owners recognize the name and the feedback has been positive.

Not a lot of time to post. I sat next to a guy on the plane named Osama and had a drink at the airport with a Stryker soldier out of Mosul coming home for R&R. It's been interesting. More later when I'm not paying 6.95 a minute to post.

Take care

Online and Flying Out..

2009-04-24T10:45:00.001-05:00

Back online here.
Will post later on tonight.

Been busy at Castra Praetoria.
If you haven't been in a while you should head over.
Headed to D.C. for a milblog conference.

Will keep you posted.
Maybe by text, if I can remember how it works!

Have a great weekend!
------------
edit:
Nope--just checked phone, looks like updates are already set to go to Castra Praetoria by phone. Check there. If I can get here by computer, I'll do that tonight.

I'll miss you, too, Fumanchu Dad.

2009-04-10T08:38:00.001-05:00

If you come and read comments any, you'll see a very kind one from one of my blog friends today. Actually, I guess that doesn't narrow it down much for I have made many good friends in the blogosphere--if my definition for friend is in fact accurate--well it is for me and that is what matters, yes?

On the other hand, there are a few who I don't remember as fondly, like the humanfare you find in real life, some are liars or manipulators-- some just want to live vicariously, but by and large, I feel the nature of this environment can as easily enhance the positive qualities in people as the negative. As in real life, behavior in the end is an act of the will. Semi-anonymity enhances candor and self expression unbridled by self imposed pride, consciousness, propriety or percieved correctness. Blogging is a living thing, a new blogger I know said that and it resonated. Living things are not static nor are they of one stuff.

Recently, I had a dear friend ask me, what and who were some of you on my blog. What brought them to me or me to them? They were pretty perplexed. I even went so far as to make a list...a Who's Who for Hope's Radio, if you will and a Who's Why, if I were to get more specific. I got far more out of it than they would as it turns out.

True my blog choices are pretty diverse. The reasons for that are many.

Honestly, I hadn't planned on posting, yet. I have a blog changeover to do, but the loss of a stalwart friend without the selfish benefit of a goodbye on my part compells me to spill my thoughts now. Partially, I am sated by this. For in a way the spilling of thought has been staunched of late and replaced by rants, innuendo or insinuation whether conciously or unconsciously--which is an entirely different post.

My friend's departure reminds me there is great value in blogging for if there wasn't, I wouldn't feel a profound loss in not being able to say goodbye. Blogging though virtual is still concrete in thought. You are deliberate in what you post and in what you choose to divulge and to a certain extent to whom you divulge it.

I think the first thing I'll do is get all left brained and answer some questions I found over at another blog. I'm not interested in too much chest heaving, sucking chest wound emotionality today. And truth be told, I have never been know for a conciseness of speech unless I am very angry or wounded in some way. In those cases concise speech is the kindest thing one might say of me. Still I feel like it's time to take a survey as much for myself as for those readers who have been around a while or for a short time.

See? I digress already.

1. How did you come up with your blog title OR what does it mean?
Ann LaMott, an author called all the You suck, you'll never be good enough, what the hell is a matter with you?! I mean really? voice in your head, KFUK radio...I totally get that. Like I'm pretty sure I have subwoofers in my head 'cause the bass in there can rattle my teeth sometimes. The most annoying part of that is I don't even get to mutter, "damn kids!"

2. What are your general goals for blogging?
Initially, after my car accident in 2006 it was just to vent. I WAS PISSED. So pissed it scared me-- so I stopped...but I came back to it. I have always been a writer. It's therapy. It's narcisstic. **sigh**. It is what it is.

3. Do people “in your real life” know that you blog and do they comment on your blog OR is it largely anonymous? When I first found out about blogging three years ago, a friend heard me questioning what it was and I remember her exact words and intrigued expression, "OH! Hope, if you EVER decide to blog you HAVE to tell me!" I didnt' know this mama very well at the time, but we ran in the same circles, she was a member of the homeschool group I founded. Her enthusiastic response was pleasing, but, like any self respecting neurotic, after I filed her reaction under C for compliment, I headed straight to the W's as in:"WTF did she mean by THAT?" and filed it there, too. But yes, some who know me IRL do post, some bloggers I have met once or twice and some I feel I have know for two or three lifetimes and have never laid eyes on.

4. How often do you post (x per week)? How often do you read other blogs (x per week)? I usually post everyday, but not posting is usually a baromerter of some sort of mental constipation...meh...Sometimes I post more than once a day...**thinking to self** well, that makes sense, I have been accused of the inverse malady as well. I usually read my blogs everyday.

5. How do you select blogs to read (do you prefer blogs that focus on certain topics or do you choose by tone or…?) It's usually not topic, it's writing style, or voice. It's level of candor. For instance, I'm not too crazy about diary blogs, but then if there's a mama who just lays it on out there about where she is and it's in the context of Cheerios and trips to the grocery store...well so be it. I read the astronomy, cop, Marine, soldier, sex, tech, academic, family, faith, spiritual,art, writing, curmudgeon, morbidly intense,I'm floating in the ocean for 1000 day blogs...Really no rhyme or reason topic wise.

6. Do you have any plans to copy your blog entries in any other format, or do you think that one day, you’ll just delete it all?I always feel Ike a hypocrite for riding Mike's ass about writing when I haven't done so much myself...still I think some people who blog really should write books or take it to larger platforms for expression...and no, I'd never delete...I might move my prose maybe.

7. What are the things you like best about blogging? Insight, plain and simple. Mine and others. Sought, offered and stumbled upon.

8. What are the things you don’t like about blogging?
Nothing really. Trolls, getting stuck in my head, trying to balance it with real life duties...they are all parts of what blogging is about. I accept them all. Notice I didn't' say I LIKE them all of the time or even once in a while.

9. How do you handle comments? I do what my friend Sage said once: if someone takes the time to read much less comment you should try to do the same.

10. Do you have any burning thoughts to share on blog etiquette?Not one damn thing...'cause somewhere out there I'm sure someone sees me as peeing in the proverbial blogging sink myself. Yeah, I don't even have the proper equipment to pull that off gracefully...still I like the imagery.

11. Any desired blog features? No...not really. I don't want to control everything...though you'd hardly guess that sometimes, eh?

12. Have you suffered blog addiction?I am an addictive personality by nature. Luckily, I have managed to avoid most chemicals and habits save occasional alcohol and--well let's just leave it at alcohol shall we? I think overall I try to balance as best I can.

So there it is. I'll miss you, too Fumanchu Dad. You gave some great advice and a nice ear for a long while. I'm changing this blog over myself. I have wondered about balance and for what and whom I write. I suppose your departure somehow impressed upon me a need to bring everyone including myself up to speed.

Hope Radio will focus on military blogging and my family. I have friends I no longer see save here on my analytics page and I assume, if they still lurk they'll want to know how things are. I'm glad. I have family who knows enough about me without any additional ammunition being necessary. *grin* 'Sides they get me live and in living color...bless their pointy little heads.

I still want to write all sorts of things, but I'm not comfortable doing that here for the same reasons ironically, enough. Why? I don't know--lots of reasons, and I'm sure these reasons will continue to change so I'll save myself from the temtpation of over analyzation. (Don't say I never gave you people anything. This takes at least 6 column inches off this long ass post already. You're welcome.)

So instead I'll still hope to use this platform to help my peeps in the Sandbox and keep everyone I love and care about in or out of my present life in the general loop.

I don't know much about what else I'm doing right now, having had to switch gears so much in career and mindset this last couple of months. But I do know I need to be busy and I need to keep writing, so this seems like the best avenue to take unless you have heard otherwise. ;0)

**yes, I editted about 4:30 CST.

and the randomness continues...

2009-04-06T10:52:00.001-05:00

Saccharin truth like this is what gets everyone's expectations hopelessly skewed....pretty words tethered with satin ribbons to heartrending song ??--shit it's even more egregious to the human spiritual palate already desecrated by a diet of white picket fences and sitcom endings.

Still it is BG-- so that is something redeeming I suppose...

Yeah, yeah...ignore the intro, it won't be about that.

On hiatus

You'll see soon enough...

If you don't think so, give me an email: hstrueby@aol.com or not. Peace.

Marine speak Lesson # 1

2009-04-02T09:09:00.001-05:00

Stark and Noelle and the discussion of the Burke pedagological effect on offspring called to mind a recent video from America's 1st Sgt sent to my offspring in reply to a video said offspring sent to him in Oahu a week ago.

The kids' video, which I inadveratantly deleted-damn- has all four kids lined up like a scene out of the Sound of Music saying hello to Burke.

It went something like this:

Kids: (dressed for bed and waving madly)Hi Buhk!! Hiiiiii!!!

Dad: (former Marine Sgt.): Hey that's 1st Sgt!! How many times do I have to tell you?

Kids: (nonplussed by paternal dressing down, giddy with the general just before bed high and further spun up with the novelty of sending a video.)

***sing songy**Hiiiiii! 1st Sgt.! Hi. We love you!! Hey whatcha doing?Then, Matthew, my littlest guy, breaks rank and gets nose and cheek deep into the camera phone, grinning like a loon and says..."Hiiiii Uuuuuuuuuncle Mike!!" before covering his mouth with his hands, falling out onto the couch in four year old convulsions and laughing like that was the funniest thing he had ever said.

After few minutes, my cell phone sounds and they get this from "Uncle Mike" All I can say is the children have memorized every line and gesture. I first realized this the next morning when I walked past the dining table and all of them are gnawing on whole pieces of sausage speared onto their fork at breakfast. I briefly paused, stretched my neck out to one side and then moved on through the room, lip bloody from biting it.

***eyeroll***There is no escape from this person...

So. In an effort to illustrate Marine speak, this is our first translation lesson. Here 1st Sgt is saying, "Awww love you all, too, sweethearts. Be good!!! Talk to you soon..."

Comment Requests and Self Infliction

2009-04-01T17:55:00.001-05:00

For Sage, hurry up and eat while it's hot. (I bet you get that alot.)

For you, Mike.I know. You don't have to say anything. The look on your face is thank's enough. When you get home tonight send me a picture of paradise will ya? No. **exasperated sigh** Not you. Oahu, dork.You're leaving pretty soon and those'll be scarce. That'll be thanks enough.

CAAAH- RAPPY day...at first then it imporved significantly, then I went to the gym and took it out on the rower. Now my hiney hurts. Well, I'd rather pains in my ass be self inflicted and personally optimizing in some way. Had some of my favorite tunes for the aforementioned thrashing.

U And Ur Hand Video

The Cure - hot hot hot

Randomness

2009-03-30T19:25:00.001-05:00

I'm going way random here for a while--blog dates, topics and posting schedules be damned...so many things in my head...yeah...freaking scary right there.

I should stop. RIGHT. NOW.

nah...

Like this song...it's gotta pretty guitar line I think...the guy's kinda a weinie. I mean, if you want your woman freakin' take her, quit yer whining to music, you're ruining it for me.
While Iraq is out of the question, I was on the horn to some folks with work in Afghanistan today...hmmmm.
Thank you bloggers who went over to see Mike and say hello, Muchas Gracias. I owe you a Margarita. Since you aren't here, I'll drink it for you and think warm thoughts. R at Southern (In)sanity and Ann at Transitions. Huge pitchers of Margaritas and nachos for you peeps. Nice to write the 1st Sgt. up on your blog.

I know.

Please.

It's just me.

It's. who. I. am.

*sigh*

I'm a giver.

Those blogging buddies/IRL peeps who showed up there , (yeah I saw ya) read and never said anything? Quit being weinies and freaking say hello! It's not gonna harelip ya.
edit: Hey you lurking bitches! I see you. Quit being pussies and say hi at least. Yes YOU!"

**eyeroll**

ok ok

not harelip you permanently.

but if it were me, I'd be more afraid of being a permanent pussy than temporarily, facially disfigured.

Mike and Castra Praetoria. Go see it!!!

2009-03-27T04:23:00.001-05:00

I'm back!
I know.
My absence left a giant sucking hole in your life.
I'm sorry.

I've been busy this last week helping someone put their new blog together. I spent a great deal of time cussing html code and doing all the other things you do when you set up a blog, which I will mercifully, not be boring you with at this time. Though I do reserve the right to bore you in the future.

While I'm determining when that time may be I'd like you to head over to Castra Praetoria and welcome this Marine to the blogosphere. Leave a comment, heckle, tell him how great I am...you know, whatever... but if he says anything like:

"I wrote this blog because Hope would never ever have forgiven me. If it gives me just a moment of peace, I will blog."

Don't believe him.

Well maybe I sometimes don't give him a moment's peace, but it's not because of the blog. Chewing him out is something I do on general principle. Again I'll save those stories for another time.

'Course Mike dishes it as well as he takes it. This is a picture from last year, when he came for a visit and more specifically just after my oldest chewed the 1st Sgt out for giving him man boobs. As you can see Mike dished it back quite nicely in the form of chair behavior modification therapy. My favorite thing about this shot is my opportunistic, then three year old with the shovel and a clear shot at his older brother's immobilized head. To this day the children still admonish each other to "man up!" or "shut your piehole" Not that their own jarhead father didn't pass on a few color colloquialisms himself.

I digress...

The first post is a longer than his usual stuff will be and lends some insight into his blog and about what he will be writing . He's already got quite a few pieces in the can and they, if I don't say so myself and will most likely pay privately later on for saying, are pretty damn good!

I found Mike on the www.anymarine.com site and my old homeschool group and I supported a few of his "ninjas" during his last deployment. I remember choosing him even then because of how he wrote that first post. I sent him a letter offering support and my first response was this crazy email to which I responded, "Oh god, I knew you were a character." To which I recieved a reply reading, "Character? Me? Oh, it's on now!" and the hell, if it wasn't.

In a few days he will be headed out again to Iraq with 3rd Bn,3rdMarines. He'll be writing about this deployment as well as other topics as they present themselves.

I'd say other things about his stuff, but he'd just get a big head or be mortified so I won't.

Nah.

I'm lying.

Here's some more:

He's a finalist for 2008 6 Word Memoirs at Smith magazine and has a piece featured for another one of Smith Magazines writing competitions. It is hilarious! Go see!

Okay.

That's all I've got.

Don't sit there looking at me.

I'm tired.

It's 20 minutes before the hubs and kids wake up and my butt hurts from sitting in this chair.

Go on!

head over!

Say howdy and tell him I sent you, puuuuhleeez!!!!!

Do it for me.

He thinks all my friends are imaginary.

I tell him at least I have those.

Ahhhh, it's like having the brother you never wanted.

Good Blog Source

2009-03-19T02:31:00.001-05:00

Found this out on the web and thought some of you might like to know about it. I'm not through poking around on it, but Blog U is a site which has code for everything from adding fonts to your blog to converting link lists to a drop down menu, to all manner of other blog template conversions.

I have been reading and reading these kinds of sites lately and she seems quite good at communicating in easy to follow directions as well as answering follow up questions in her comment section. So check there for your questions first...someone prolly already asked it.

Most of her info will be in 5 drop down menus on the right hand side of the page so just scroll down a little and look for light, slate blue boxes with a plus/minus next to the titles.

Not much else to say right now.
Sleep, food and PT have been out of whack lately.
Though I saw some pics today of another Crossfitter and it did kinda kick me in the ass a little.

I'm restless.

Spring Breaking Off.

2009-03-17T04:09:00.001-05:00

Whew!!!
The sun finally showed up today!!!

I gotta tell ya, something was going to break off, if I didn't see some sunshine soon.

Over the weekend, I mentioned as much to a friend in my climate induced melancholy and being the warm sympathetic friend he is, in reply he sent me this text:

and this one:
oh yeah and this one, too:
Yup, that's freakin' Hawaii, people, Oahu to be exact. My texts back concerning my personal sentiments for him at that moment were obvioulsy no end of a source of entertainment for the man. He finally showed some mercy and stopped sending gorgeous 'Look what I have right outside my back door' pictures and just laughed at me instead.

He's such a giver.

It's a good thing, I don't walk on water on the weekends 'cause it would take waaaay longer than five days to get across that part of the Pacific, hunt him down and embarrass him, mercilessly for his picture cruelty. No, I don't know what I would have done in retribution, but I would have had a lot of time to think about it on the way over and it. would. have. been. good.

As it was for the last few days, I have read, parented, watched testosterone ridden movies and checked text and email a bajillion times for that "Hey you just won 100,000,000 dollars" or at the very least "Hey you just won time on the beach listening to the waves" message.

Sigh.

No luck.

As it was, my windows looked more like this:

My face often looked like this, buried in a bag of Lay's chips. (Yes, you are seeing that, correctly.) That first whiff when you tear them open...YUM.

I have come to a few conclusions though.

Spring Break is a big lie fabricated by teachers and administrators with eyes glazed over by the big TAKS test push, because, it is neither Spring or a Break when it comes. It's still winter, people! And the only thing breaking around here is my head on the edge of a coffee table from repeated banging.

Who'd a thunk I would get used to solitude so fast? I mean for twelve years I have been around, nursed,coslept and taught four kiddos 24/7. You'd think I'm of hardier stock, but noooooooooo. By 2:30 this afternoon, a mere 6.5 hours into our official holiday, and after a mere month of being home alone, I was already checking the school calendar, googling summer sleep away camps and considering a how well Jack and 7 would go with tater tots.

I. need. a. job.

I'm assured it's coming.

But's it's not soon enough!! ::stamping foot petulantly::

In the meantime I can't be too mean to my text torturer from the weekend. He gave me a project to sink my teeth into, which my ass was happy about 'cause I'll I had been sinking my teeth into lately were foods of no nutritive value as is photographically evidenced above. This project got my obsessive/compulsive juices flowing and so the coffee table concussions have abated somewhat.

Which brings me to further news.

Well news I mean. I haven't said anything you didn't already know so far.

I have two blogs I need to post about, but I am doing them one at a time. Puhhleeeez make sure you go see them when I put them up. I think you are going to LOOOVE both of them!

Well they were funny at 4 o'clock in the morning...

2009-03-16T03:43:00.001-05:00

Appaloosa

2009-03-14T23:58:00.001-05:00

This is the third day of cold rain and gray skies.

I'm about over it.

Over it I tell ya!

The sun better be out tomorrow or I'll have to get nasty.

I worked on a new blog for a friend of mine, caught up on some of your lovely blog posts and email, put off writing my blogpost, never got out of my pajamas and fuzzy socks, dragged my woobie around all day, ate crap and watched Appaloosa.

Sigh.

Two of my favorite actors are in that movie.

Ed Harris and Viggio Mortensen.

Next to Last of the Mohicans and Tombstone,

this may be my third favorite movie of all time.

It's a movie about the frailties of the human spirit and the strengths as well.

Loyalty

Integrity

Friendship

and like any self respecting Western it has the cowboy riding off into the sunset at the end.

I mean really.

What's not to love?

'Sides that 8 gauge Viggio is packin'?

Pictures and Websites

2009-03-13T01:36:00.001-05:00

Okay Readers, FMD reminded me the import of squirreling digital data away to be used on offspring as leverage, for retributive purposes and general parental amusement. I think I may make this a weekly Friday post.

This is Littlest Guy with his Aunt Spoil-Them-Rotten when he was about four or five months.

Any takers with coming up with a caption?
Come on, you know you wanna. I just checked my reinstalled Sitemeter so I know you're coming round--what with that and my obvious general irresistibleness and all...