Good morning everyone! I hope you all a great weekend! I know we sure did. With the time slowly running out, we are getting busier and busier! There have been a few times that I wanted to write, but I was just so tired that I didn't. I made sure that I would do it first thing this morning before I got started on anything else. So here's a summary of everything we've been up to...
Friday: First we took 3 more boxes to the post office for Project Frontlines. Two of them were more coffe and one was miscellaneous things like travel toilet paper, wipes, drink mix, calling cards, etc. It has been taking about 8-10 days for them to receive our packages, so when I hear word that they have been received, I will let you all know. Again, thank you to Mike Nist, Kristi Allen, Katie Ewell, and Earlene Jackson for your donations for shipping the boxes. While grocery shopping, Meg picked up two HUGE boxes of popcorn for our soldiers in the 3d ID. They were on sale for an awesome price. Beyond that, our Friday was mostly filled with kids and dogs.
Saturday: Today we started to decorate the bags that we will be filling for all the single soldiers. The bags are white paper gift bags, and that was just too plain for us. We decided to spray paint them red, white, and blue. How appropriate, right? Well, because they are white, we decided to only use red and blue with a layer of spray glitter. We took them outside, layed them in the grass and went to work. We weren't doing any type of patterns or anything so it only took a few minutes, but they turned out really good! What do you think?
After doing the bags, we were talking about a shopping trip that we took earlier in the day and the pricing we did for towels and washcloths for our soldiers. The towels we priced were on sale, so we decided to go and get them before the sale ended. They also had ice pops on sale and we thought that they might like them, especially because it's just so hot here (right around 100 degrees), so we got a bunch of them as well. By the time we got to the check out, it was about 8:30/9:00 and boy were people testy. We had three carts, and three differnt transactions. Meg got in one line and I got in another. First we both did our personal small transactions. Then next up was ringing up the soldier's stuff. I had half of the stuff up on the belt and a cart full of towels and washcloths. I don't know if the people behind me didn't see all the towels or what, but they started putting their stuff up. I just looked at Meg in amazement. I try not to be rude and keep my patients, as is required in today's society. The lady ringing me out stopped the belt (after seeing that the lady behind me was already stacking her stuff up) and left me some room to put the towels up one stack at a time. All in all, it was a good trip. I was just a little surprised at the way some people are.
Sunday: Sunday was a day and a half...or at least that's what it felt like. First thing's first....coupons and sales ads!!! Yep...we are definitely couponers. Still a bit new to the game, but most definitely in!! We cut our coupons, scowered the ads and compared prices from store to store to find the best deals to shop for the remaining stuff for our soldiers. We got it down to 3 stores; CVS, Kroger, and Walmart. CVS was first up. From there, we were getting cases of soda and Dawn dish detergent. At 4 for 10 for soda and .99 cents per bottle of Dawn, we couldn't pass up these deals. Beyond the things for the soldiers, we also had a few things to get for ourselves, so we were there for a while. We brought all the kids with us, plus an extra, and it was hectic. Meg's son was at the register looking at the camcorders behind the register while we were stocking the cart full of soda and the next thing you know he is running up to us with a camcorder in a bag and a reciept. Yes, he had $10 cash in his pocket, but this was a $60 camcorder! Before we could ask, he started screaming that some lady bought it for him. Sure enough, some lady had heard Ryan saying he wanted the camera to record his dad coming home from Iraq and she bought it and asked the cashier to give it to him after she left. Who does stuff like that anymore?? I didn't know people out there still existed!! I was amazed! Meg literally sat on the floor and cried. It was pretty cool! So anyway, from CVS, we got the soldier's soda and dish detergent.
Today we will be meeting with the manager at Walmart to see if they are willing to help with sheets and laundry baskets. If not, we will make do. Hopefully we will be doing the remainder of our shopping so that we can get the bags ready. When we do the bulk of the shopping, I am hoping I will be able to take pictures in the store while we shop. I will update later tonight or tomorrow! I hope you all have a great day.
Michelle & Meg
