Musical Monday- Use Somebody & A Weekend Recap

It's another lovely Monday ladies. What makes this Monday particularly awesome is that I don't have to work! Woohoo! :-)

I hope you all had a fabulous 4th of July - filled with friends, family, BBQ, fireworks and fun! I had an awesome weekend.

Friday I ran around in the morning to gather stuff for JC's latest care packages, (you read that right - multiple packages. What can I say?! There's only one of him and if he wants it - I'll find a way to send it.) then went over Kirstren's house. I gathered her, her darling son, and a batch of cupcakes up for a fun filled Friday. We went shopping (it's one of our favorite activities...heeheehee) and then dropped said adorable son off to spend the night with his Nana. That left Kirstren and I to meet up with one of her besties (who I think is awesome too) and head off to a cook out. A great time was had by all...despite a wee little asthma attack I had!

Saturday I went to see "My Sister's Keeper" with my mom. Great movie; just don't go in there expecting it to be like the book, cuz it's not going to happen. Then since I live in the Boston area, met up with a few friends to watch the fireworks "in town" (yes, we really do refer to Boston as "in town").

Sunday has been a lazy day. Just hanging with the dogs; so relaxing! The highlight of the day was talking to JC! Unfortunately, I had to give him bad news - one of his good friends passed away. There is nothing worse than making him cry and not being able to hug him.

OK, on to the music. These guys came on the scene about a year ago, and are finally starting to make some big waves. They rock!!

Tell me about your weekend...and remember to enter my contest, mmkay?

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (Army Edition)

Ugh, I can't wait until this deployment is over.... So, right on to business.

The Good

• Saturday's volunteer care package event was an astounding success. About 200 volunteers, 2 hours and approximately 550 care packages that should be now winging their way to Afghanistan and Iraq. I am so proud of all the volunteers and our corporate sponsors.

• Last night I packed a personal care package for JC. He wanted a few CDs that he could load into his iPod via his laptop & I wanted to send him snacks (including a last shipment of chocolate before it arrives as soup for the next 6 months) and a few Red Sox items to make him smile. I always go to the same Post Office; they know my name. Well, behind me was this really gruff older man as I signed the customs form and promised I wasn't sending anything dangerous. All the sudden, he taps my shoulder and asks if it would be OK if he pays for JC's care package!! I was stunned; shocked; awed! Of course I said YES. This man made my day and restored my faith in humanity (This comment will make sense when you read down in a minute).

The Bad

• JC's MOS (Army job) is a Master Driver. He is trained to drive everything but tanks. Right before he deployed, he found out that because of his high scores at the shooting range - he was going to be the assigned Gunner for their truck. Even with this; I rationalized that not only do I the trust the men he's with...it's still safer than if he was Infantry. Mil chics - wanna guess what I'm going to say next????
• That's right! JC called me a week and a half ago and announced that they have WAY too many "transportation" people and not enough Infantry, so the approximately 150 people that deployed w/him and ended up at his FOB are all now patrolling villages. "Don't worry" he said; in a week I'll be back on my truck.
• He called yesterday (and texted me - SURPRISE, SURPRISE - I NEVER EXPECTED A TEXT FROM A'STAN. Wonder what that's gonna look like on my phone bill...) and said that even with consistent flow of new troops - his brigade is on foot patrols for at least another 3 months.
• One of my friends (bless her sweet, non-military informed soul) suggested that JC go to his C.O. and REFUSE to do it! He "didn't sign up for that". Uh...pumpkin?!?! Insubordination isn't going to help ANY of them and once Uncle Sam has your a$$, you do what he says.

The Ugly

• While Saturday's care package event was wonderful...there was a little "incident".
• The event took place at a rifle and gun club (queue Redneck jokes) and at the end of getting all this stuff packed up and labeled - we filed out to the parking lot to go home.
• Cars, SUVs, Trucks with military decals in all shapes and forms as far as the eye could see. As we left, a group of us (I'm going to say that there were about 7-8 or us) got approached by two random guys asking what we were doing. Of course - we told them.
• They went OFF on us. "How dare we support the war?", "Didn't we know that the President would bring all the guys home if we stopped sending supplies?", "Why do we want soldiers to die?". I couldn't help it; I just CRIED!! It was so upsetting that people feel this way about those that are sacrificing for us.
• I found out from a friend that these two men are POLICE!! I am so ashamed of them; and am glad they aren't police officers in my city.

A one woman USO

Wanna guess what I've done today? I made a big trip to Wal-Mart and bought out the store, then came home and started assembling care packages. I didn't realize how many soldiers I loved until I started sending care packages! I've put together nine today, and have to bake and pack up chocolate chip cookies before the boxes can be sealed. :-)

Truthfully, three of the boxes are for JC... He has stuff the he wants sent back so he'll have it a day or two after he settles back into his FOB. Hopefully it'll make the others smile to get some of the truly RANDOM things I'm sending them! Who knows what was going through my mind (probably lack of thought really...), but they're getting some off the wall stuff - Silly Putty, Febreeze, pens with their names on them, water balloons, magazines, temporary tattoos... the list goes on and on.

I know that some of you are military. What are you sending your guys? I can always use new ideas!!

Care packages

I send JC and a few of the guys in his unit care packages. It's fun for me, and I know that they all appreciate it. Some of these folks don't have the best support system, so it makes me happy that I'm able to bring a smile to their day from time to time.

This afternoon I had the most amazing experience! About a month ago, a girl I went to high school with mentioned that her parents are on the Board of a non-profit that sends care packages to deployed soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today was care package packing day. There were about a 100-150 of us packing about 500 care packages! Little kids from Girl Scout/Boy Scouts; high school students working on service projects; friends and family of soldiers from all branches of the military. I spent the afternoon with a woman who has no family or friends in the military, and was keeping an eye on her high school student. She was enthralled with everything I told her about the Army, and I quickly realized just how much I've learned about the joys of the military lately. In a time where I've had to defend my position on supporting our troops - to feel this sense of community - was utterly fantastic!! I can't wait for the time to roll around to do it again.

It may sound cheesy... but it felt SOOO good to do something little for the men and women that do so much for us each day.