#PimpingPositivity Soldier Style~March 2016

This month's care package was St. Patrick's themed so all items were GREEN!!! It's kind of harder than you think to come up with ONLY green things! We had a little issue this month. Our eyes were bigger than our box. Here's what we planned to include:

This is what actually fit inside:
Knorr Side
Lays Sour Cream-n-Onion
Halls Cough Drops
Crossword Puzzles
Box of Mike-n-Ikes
Box of Sour Skittles

Krazy Glue
Apple Cinnamon Instant Oatmeal
Taco Bell Salsa Verde Packets
Irish Spring Soap
Gum
Shampoo
Tortillas
Floss
Spearmints
Razors
Left, Right, Center Dice Game

The rest of the stuff will just have to be included in next month's package. The Lays chips can size it what through us off.

AR and I cut out some shamrocks.She also colored a pot of gold that we taped to the bottom of the box along with some of the smaller shamrocks. I always forget to get a picture of the bottom until after I have everything inside the box.

We visited five different Taco Bells, raiding their sauces and then sorted them out... while she ate her lunch.

Then we glued down our decorations, AR wrote her name, and we closed 'er up!

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day, soldiers!!!

#PimpingPositivity Soldier Style~January & February 2016

On December 27, my stepfather unexpectedly passed away. On December 28, we boarded a plane from MO to FL to be with my mom. On January 2, we flew back to STL via ATL. It must've been deployment day because military men and women were everywhere in both airports. I'm doing the best I can to teach AR about the sacrifice our service people  make for our country so she was busy telling each of them "thank you for your service" and distributing high fives.

When we got home and back into our routine, those young men and women dressed in camo were weighing heavily on my heart. I saw them say goodbye to their loved ones, tears were being shed by both family members and soldiers, and so many of them were so young with no idea what lay ahead of them. One night on Facebook, I saw that a fellow author was adopting a soldier that had reached out to her about one of her books. It hit me hard that this was an excellent opportunity to teach AR about gratitude, appreciation, and paying it forward. In a long line of seven degrees of separation, a soldier's address was given to me and hence, he and his unit were adopted by us!

Our goal is to send a package once a month. Every week at the grocery store, I grab a few extra things to throw in the box. Here's the information that was provided to me:

"His unit is only on MREs to eat so they love receiving food supplies they can cook over fire i.e. canned meats, bacon that doesn't have to be refrigerated, flavored noodle and rice packets, pizza crust, sauce, tortillas with seasoning, canned beans, pancake mix, etc..."

I was also told that we should decorate the inside of our package to make it more fun and brighten their morale. Some units do not allow decorations on the outside and so the soldier may never get it if you do that.

We sent our first package in January. After that first time at the grocery store, I found myself thinking about the soldiers as I ran to McDonald's for lunch or ate my pork chop for dinner. Here these men and women were thrilled to get Ramen noodles and canned beans! We really take for granted the things we easily have on hand here in the States.

So for our first package, I winged it and it included:

Ramen Noodles
Real Bacon Bits
Knorr side dishes
Packets of Taco Bell Hot Sauce
Packets of Advil
Jalepeno Tortillas
Packets of ranch, sloppy joe, au ju, spaghetti sauce mixes
Instant Oatmeal Packets
Boxes of hard candy (Sprees, SweetTarts, and Red Hots)
Mints
Drop-in Drink Mixes
Razors

AR and I used crayons and decorated the flaps of a plain cardboard box, sealed it up, and shipped it off. The cost to send was $27.

THEN, I did a little research and realized I was doing it all wrong! Seriously, go search "military care packages" on Pinterest and your mind will be BLOWN! So, in true Type-A personality, I searched and searched and I have a whole list of themes for each of our packages for like the next two years! I don't think our soldier's deployment is that long so we'll have to find someone to adopt once he comes home.

I also found that you can get a flat-rate first priority box for free from the post office. No matter the weight, it currently cost $17.50 to ship the box. The only problem is, it's kinda small so you have to get real creative in how you pack your box. It's important that you individually package certain things. For instance, put all soap, shampoo, etc... in one bag because if it leaks, it would really suck if it got all over the food in the box. Plus, take things out of the boxes to save room and fit more!

I've got all my friends, family, and co-workers saving any kind of sauce packets for me because the word on the street is those are in high demand to flavor up those MREs.

Moving on to our second month, February, we were much better prepared! We decorated the flaps for Valentine's Day, stuck an inspirational quote on the bottom, and AR really wanted to cut some paper so we have random paper stripes and shapes taped to the bottom. AR was a great glue helper!

Once it all dried, we made some conversation hearts. AR did most of the writing with some guidance of my dots or just looking at the word I wrote on the bottom. Our words were: HERO, BRAVE, STRONG, U.S.A.




This month's package included:
More spaghetti, sloppy joe, and au ju mixes
Seasoned salt
Just add water instant mashed potatoes
Packets of tuna in various flavors
Spaghettios (one giant can and four individual cans)
Cans of chili
Beef Ramen noodles
Kool-Aid Mix
Packets of sugar and creamer
Bottle of hot sauce
Granola
Monopoly Card Game
More Advil

This box is HEAVY (almost 19 pounds!) so we're definitely getting our money's worth with the flat rate shipping on this one. Without the box, it would've been $50!!!

So far, we're having a blast with this project! We're hoping to get a picture of the guys in the unit soon so we can do a Flat Stanley-like project with them so I'll keep you updated.

My niece is selling Girl Scout cookies and so far, she's sold over 60 boxes for these guys! My goal is to spoil them as much as possible to let them know how much we appreciate everything they do for our country. I'll keep you posted on each month's packages to let you know what we come up with. If there's any military men or women reading this, we truly appreciate all of your dedication and sacrifice for our country!

"Why My Dad?"...

...Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! I hope that you are all celebrating with your favorite dads out there. There are some kiddos whose fathers are serving our country and unable to celebrate with their family. Ms. Lisa Bottorff is a USAF Veteran who has written a book that is designed to help military children understand why mommy or daddy is gone. It is titled Why My Dad? She is planning on this to be the first in a long series that addresses the difficult issues our little military members face.

Lisa Bottorff, author of "Why My Dad?", is a United States Air Force Veteran who is from the St. Louis, Missouri area.  Lisa comes from a military family, following her brother, Steve, who also served and retired from the Air Force.  Even before our current state of war, military members are often gone for long periods of time due to missions, deployments, TDY's, etc.  Our children are left behind to deal with the pain and confusion of loss. 

Lisa's inspiration for "Why My Dad?" came from her lifetime desire to not only write and publish a book, but to publish a book that had meaning. "Why My Dad?" does just that.  Its goal is to provide a source to assist military parents help their children not only deal with the emotional issues surrounding an absent parent but try and help them understand and make sense of it.  If it makes a difference in at least one child's life then it has met its goal.  

*I received a copy of this in exchange for this blog post.

Support Our Troops!!!

...Veteran's Day is right around the corner. Shutterfly is making it VERY easy to support our troops and show them our appreciation. Head over to their Facebook page, click here, select and personalize a card for one of our many soliders and they'll mail it to them at no charge. I know I'm very grateful for all the men and women who defend our country so that we can live in this great nation! Thank you to all our soliders and veterans for all that you've done for us!

Ten Years Ago Today...

...10 years ago today, our nation was forever changed. Where was I? It was my freshman year of college and the day before was Bid Day. I was excitedly getting ready and chatting with my roommate in our dorm room, ready to proudly wear my new sorority letters to class. Suddenly, our door flew open and our senior roommate, Jo, said, "A plane just hit the World Trade Center!" She turned on our tv and my roommate and I watched. All I was thinking was, "Wow! How in the world did the pilot accidentally do that?" Then we saw the other one hit and again, naive me, thought, "Wow! Someone is not doing their job correctly!"

In my 18 year old mind, terrorist wasn't even a word to me. We live in the USA, no one would ever attack us, this was just poor piloting, right? As I walked into class and saw the panic of my teacher who turned on the tv and informed us about the other flights, I started to get an uneasy feeling that something wasn't right. She, of course, cancelled class and I headed back to my dorm room. When I got there, I had like 4 messages from my dad checking to make sure I was okay. I called him back and we talked. He explained things to me and I was in awe. How could this be happening?

That night, my sorority sisters and I headed to the vigil in the gym. Over the next week, I realized many of the familiar faces were gone from campus. When I asked about it, I found out that they were in the National Guard or some branch of the military and had been called to duty. For an event that was hundreds of miles away, this was suddenly hitting very close to home.

The following summer (2002), my mom took me to NY and we visited Ground Zero. It was the quietest place in New York other than the sound of tears. Putting the images you saw on television and then seeing nothing in person really put things into perspective. These are just a few pictures I took that day (and could find 10 years later) of Ground Zero and the memorials surrounding.

Ten years later and I still remember who told me about 9/11, what I was wearing, what class I had, who the professor was, heck I even remember what tv I watched it on (it's in my bedroom now). I hope that I never have to witness something like that again in my life time. Ten years ago and I still remember the people who lost their lives that day. I pray for their families and for the men and women who protect our freedom daily. God Bless America!

Tell me, what were you doing 9/11/01.

More Recipes from Other Bloggers...

...so Fourth of July weekend, Mattie and I were both stuck working. Since we obviously weren't going out of town, I decided I would try out some recipes that you fabulous bloggers have been posting. First up, Cheesey Jalapeno bread from Julie over at The Ordinary Days, and it turned out awesome (or so Matt tells me because I don't do hot stuff so I didn't actually eat any of it).

I think she got the recipe from her local newspaper but here it is:

Jalapeno Beer Bread
Victoria Advocate
3 c. flour
3 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. chopped pickled jalapenos (that means chop before you measure)
1 c. shredded cheese (I used cheddar)
12 fl. oz. quality beer (Bud Light is considered quality, right?)
1 stick butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Stir in jalapenos, cheese, and beer and mix just until everything is incorporated. Pour the dough into prepared loaf pan and smooth to edges of pan. Pour entire stick of butter over the dough. Yes, the entire stick - do it. Bake 1 hour. Let rest in pan 10 minutes before turning out.

I used fresh jalapenos from our garden and 1/4 of a cup only turned out to be two good sized ones. Note to self though: wash hands thoroughly at least five times before rubbing eye-ouchie!!!

I also attempted to make the so-called "easy" Key Lime Pie from Hilary over at The Tale of this Newlywed. Here is the recipe:

Easy Key Lime Pie
1 prepared graham cracker crust
1 8 oz container of Cool Whip, thawed
3 tbsp. lime juice
1/2 tsp. lime zest
1 4 oz. lime gelatin package
Boil 2/3 c. water. Mix in lime gelatin until it desolves. Add lime zest and lime juice. Add in cold water and ice cubes until you have 2.5 cups. Mix lime concoction with thawed cool whip until blended smooth. Poor mixture into pie crust, sprinkle lime zest on top and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Mine was a big fail...well, kind of. I'm pretty sure I know where I messed up. See where is says "...until you have 2.5 cups"? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I probably botched the measurements and when I poured it into the crust it overflowed!!! I had Key Lime all over my counter (good thing Matt was still at work when I made this!!!). So I poured it back into the bowl and put it in the fridge for a couple hours. It finally jelled and then I stirred it putting it back into the pie crust. It tasted good, just wasn't pretty to the eye. Luckily, I took it over to Tom's on Saturday and when everyone was finally ready for dessert, they were all outside shooting fireworks so no one actually SAW what they were eating but they all commented how fabulous it was!

So thanks ladies for passing on this great recipes!!!

PS
Got a phone call from Dusty at 2:45am-he's officially back in the USA!!! WOOHOO!!!

Fourth of July Fun...

...we spent our Fourth of July weekend like we do every Fourth of July...working! It's part of our jobs, we know it so we just deal. We try to make the best of it that we can, some year's we just chill at home and are in bed before fireworks go off, other year's we make an effort to see fireworks and this year, we spent Saturday evening hanging out with some friends.

We headed over to Tom's house where the boys bbq-ed some chicken-yum!!! Kim and Tom had a nice spread for us and we were sooo full!We played some washers...in which the girls DOMINATED!!! (at least in the first game!)Mattie and I chillin' and waiting for dinner (FYI-I stained the stairs that we are sitting on and I have to comment how good they look every time we go over to Tom's!)Tom was very excited about this roll of 4,000 fire crackers......and I didn't have to heart to tell him that there were really only 3,999...So it was a pretty fun evening, nice and relaxing. I told Matt that I had a lot of fun because unlike other times when we hang out with large groups or his family, I actually got to play the games and talk! Sometimes it's hard to get a word in or to call next game, so it was a lot of fun to hang with just another couple and enjoy the Fourth of July! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

And OH! Dusty will be stateside for GOOD this Friday, July 9 then back in MO for good the last week of July!!! We're so excited to have him home. Thanks for protecting us Dusty!!!

Thank You Dusty!!!

...as Memorial Day is upon us and we're all enjoying our time at the lake and BBQing, our soldiers are in much warmer places fighting for us to be able to do the fun things we love to do on Memorial Day weekend.

Our good friend Dusty (middle in the picture) is serving his second tour in Iraq and will be home for good in less than TWO MONTHS!!! We're so excited to have him back in the States. Dusty has really matured and turned into an exceptional young man.

We're so proud of you Dusty and appreciate everything you and your fellow soldiers do for us. The countdown is on until you're home and we couldn't be more excited!

Sittin' Around on Sunday...

...so here I am just sitting around on Sunday enjoying a day in my pajamas and just chillin' with my hub and pups. So here are some of my random thoughts for Sunday...

*I started the workout this and my body is sore! It feels GREAT!!! I'm hoping the scale reflects it tomorrow.
*Can someone answer this question about unions? I've been seeing lots of union workers protesting outside places that have already been built and in business for awhile...why?
*I bought these 100 calories milk chocolate pretzels and they are DELICIOUS!!!
*We went to dinner with friends last night and were planning on going bowling at Brunswick in St. Peters, we got there at 9pm and there was a TWO HOUR WAIT!!! We passed and ended up going to this new couple's house, that we'd just met, who happen to live right in our neighborhood. They had built their own bar and she finished it was paperbags and it looked really cool!
*Matt has finally decided (7 months later) that we need a plumber for the bathroom (UGH!) so we're waiting to call our friend's neighbor so HOPEFULLY this will be done SOON!!! Have I mentioned that I can't wait to take a bath?
*"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" was on tv last night...love that MOVIE!
*Don't forget to buy Girl Scout cookies!!! They are yummy and delicious and make great gifts especially for anyone you know that is serving our country overseas!

Enjoy the last part of your weekend!

Turkey Day...

....well, two turkeys down and one to go! I'm exhausted, we've been up and running since 6am today. We had our first Thanksgiving at my dad's in Cape. This Thanksgiving even more than usual, I am so thankful to be able to give my daddy a big 'ole hug! This week some crazy stuff went down (sorry not allowed to blog about it and don't really feel very comfortable blogging about it either) that had our whole family counting our blessings. I love my Butchie!!!

Here's a pic of me and my grandma. If you saw a close up pic of my grandma, my dad and I then you would know that we all three look exactly alike!

On our way driving to Cape, we got a surprise phone call from our friend Dusty who is serving our country in Iraq!!! After a little bit of confusion, we figured out it was him and he was just calling to wish us a Happy Thanksgiving (how sweet and thoughtful is that??? It was a major highlight of the day). He said that he had lamb for his Thanksgiving meal and he'd eaten camel just the other day. It was so good to hear from him and to know that he was safe and able to celebrate with his military family. We love you Dusty and are very thankful for all that you do over there. Come home safe-less than a year!!!

After my dad's, we headed back to the STL where I dropped Matt off at his aunt's and ran over to my sister's real quick to say hey and return a CD (they leave less than a mile from each other). Then we ate...again. I'm seriously so stuffed its not even funny. After dinner, Matt and his fam started to play Trivial Pursuit circa 19??. The questions were off the wall and only Matt's cousin Paul knew any of the answers so most everyone bailed. I played it safe and I was just the question reader. His other cousin who is a high school sophomore was there and had borrowed a formal dress of mine to wear to a school dance. I told her that she could only wear my dress if she promised to take pictures. I'm so excited to see her in it, it was seriously my favorite dress ever next to my wedding dress. I knew I'd held on to it for a reason!

OMG! Almost 10pm already, alright, I'm off to bed. I have to work my PT job at the mall tomorrow from 7-11 (YIKES!) then home to pack then back on the road again to Cape. New Moon tomorrow night (so excited!!!) then Thanksgiving/Christmas on Saturday with my mom!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I am thankful for each of you who take the time to read about my crazy, random life. You guys are the best!

Support Our Soliders...

...Saturday afternoon, I went to Jess' Matt's Going-Away party. He is leaving in October to defend our freedom for one year. Thank you Matt and all of our soliders for everything you do for us.

Here is Matt and Jess
Then I jumped in for a picture with the happy couple...

Be safe Matt! We'll be thinking and praying for both you and Jess. You guys are awesome!