Two days of shopping

It has been a hectic two days of shopping. Granted, it was fun, but it was hectic! Monday we did our Kroger shopping which included water, laudry detergent, fabric softener, and toilet paper. That wasn't too bad. We also did the dollar store for candy dishes for each room. While we were there, we found some cute candies that were wrapped in patriotic wrapping so we picked them up too. The rest of the candy, we got from CVS because it was on sale. On Tuesday night, we decorated the 50 bags we have to fill for the soldiers. I think they came out pretty cute! What do you think??





On Tuesday, we got up bright and early to go to Walmart to finish our shopping (well...bright and early for us). We met Christina (one of the wives of the soldiers who's been helping throughout this process) there and we went to work. First up were pillows. 30 pillows and three carts later, we were at the customer service desk. We left them three there and got 3 empty carts. To make things easier, we connected all 4 carts together using the child seatbelt. We loaded up the carts with paper towels, laundry baskets, air freshner, soap, and more. I can't even count how many sideways looks we got and how many time I had to say excuse us, and explain what we were doing. It was quite a scene, I have to say. Here are some pictures...





















After the shopping trip, it was time to drop it at the storage unit and work on stuffing the bags. We've decorated the bags, now it was time to stuff them with the red, white, and blue tissue paper stock them full with hygiene items (shampoo, razors, soap, etc.) and finish them off with some red, white, and blue curly ribbon. After working for a couple hours, the bags were looking good and ready to be put in baskets. The baskets we will be doing tomorrow along with signs. Then on Friday we will be going to the barrack rooms and putting everything together. Below are some pictures of us all and the kids putting together the bags. I will update more after we do the baskets, signs, and rooms. Hope you are all having a wonderful day.














Michelle & Meg

So Much To Share

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

Just had two REALLY good days...

Hey everyone!! Technically, it's Friday morning, but for me, it's still Thursday night, so that's how I am posting :) So here is how the last two days have gone...

Wednesday; First, we took 4 boxes to the post office that were filled with toilet paper, wipes, puzzle books, q-tips, cd's, drink mixes, and a few other various things. All four of these boxes were shipped using the donation made by Mike Nist. I wasn't sure how much it would cost, so I only brought four. However, there is enough left over to send over another 2, which will go out tomorrow. After that, we took the remaining 20 boxes over to the storage unit until we can get the donations needed to mail them out. While at the storage unit, we took all the bags and boxes that we have for the soldiers coming home and brought them back here to the house. We then spent about 4 hours going through everything and seperating it all. After cleaning it all up, we shut it all down for the night.

Thursday: After sleeping in this morning, I woke up and called a local dealership that I had been in contact with about a donation to help with our single soldier mission. It was the best news...they were giving us a donation!!! For several reasons, I will not disclose the amount received, but I will be posting pictures of us when we go shopping for the stuff for the single soldiers. You too will be able to experience the joy that we get out of doing for others, especially our heroes! After a trip to the bank, we had to stop at Kroger to pick up a few things for the house, and we found a great deal on some drinking glasses. They were only .64 each. They weren't the small ones either! After standing there and debating it for a few minutes, we decided to get some for the soldiers. We picked up a total of 48 glasses for only $34. I think that's a good deal!!!

Over the weekend, I don't think we are going to be doing much shopping. I think we will take the time to plan everything out so we know exactly what we're getting and where. We will be taking into consideration sales and coupons. If you know any good sales on the final things we need (which will be listed below), let us know!! I am posting just a couple pictures for you to get an idea of the stuff we have so far, but I will have more for you soon. For now, I am off to sleep to get ready for another day! Good night!

Items still needed:

Pillows
Sheets
Blankets/comforters
Bath towels
Laundry Detergent
Fabric Softner
Paper Towels
Toilet Paper
Groceries (a few snacks, drinks, etc.)





Setting the "stage" for the sort

After bringing everything in to sort


Michelle & Meg

The ball is rolling....

Good Morning/Afternoon everyone! Last night, Meg and I attended an FRG meeting for the 3rd ID's homecoming. We were able to meet with other members of the FRG community and we were given BOSS bags that had some toiletry items in them for the soldiers. We also got more information...we have female soldiers as well!!! This is news to us, as we were told that we had no females. Things are getting accomplished, just not as fast as we would have hoped. We are hoping to have final numbers within the next day or two of how many soldiers we actually have coming home. Unfortunately, we have yet to be able to find any sheets, pillows, towels, and washcloths, but we are still looking. We are also looking for as much groceries as we can. If anyone has any ideas, advice, or can help in any way, We would really appreciate it. We will update again soon with more information and hopefully more pictures :)

Michelle & Meg

A HUGE 'THANK YOU' to Mike Nist

We wanted to take a moment to send a HUGE 'THANK YOU' out to Mike Nist. Your donation will be sending 5 boxes overseas to our men and women. These boxes are filled with much needed items such as hygiene items, drink mix, wipes, snacks, batteries, toilet paper, etc. Not only are these items needed, but it's a huge morale boost for them to know that the people they are fighting for are behind them and supporting them. THANK YOU for helping us and supporting our troops!

Michelle & Meg

A day of packing

Good evening/morning everyone! It's about 1:30 a.m here and we are just finishing up packing for the night. Earlier tonight, we started to pack and seperate the donations we received last week. We packed 4 boxes for Project Frontlines and then we were off to the the FRG meeting to drop off about 5 boxes of stuff for the returning single soldiers of the 3rd ID. I have to say that AFTER the FRG meeting, we had a pretty productive meeting with some of the ladies. I have some more things that I want to get done for our returning heroes and some more things I would like to try to get. The following are things we are looking for; Pillows, sheets (twin size, no girl colors), shower curtains & rings, toilet paper, paper towels, and general groceries (condements, cereal, etc.). If you know of any resources to have any of these items donated, please let me know.

On another note, we have received two more donations to help ship out some of these boxes to project frontlines.
THANK YOU KRISTI ALLEN & KATIE EWELL
Your donations will help boost the morale of our heroes overseas as well as giving them a little bit of home.

Tomorrow will be a long and busy day. Lots on the schedule...LOTS of phone calls to make. Hope everyone has a great week!

Michelle & Meg

Happy Armed Forces Day!!

We just wanted to leave a quick note to say Happy Armed Forces Day to all of our heroes in uniform and their families. For all the great things you all do and the sacrifices you all make, you deserve this day & so much more. Please consider doing something to show your support and thanks to our troops for all they do for our country and for you!

God Bless You All!

Michelle & Meg

All of our new donations!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for not posting yesterday, but it was so crazy that we didn't get any counting done besides the care packages. We didn't leave for Hunter Army Air Field until much later then expected, so we were pretty rushed the entire day. After driving an hours to get there, we almost weren't allowed access to get to the warehouse. The warehouse that I needed to pick up the supplies from is right on the flightline, and they had some chinese diplomats coming in within the hour. Since we were really quick about it (with much thanks to a friend of Meg's) we were able to get in and out in about 15 minutes. Once we got off the flightline, we were able to reorganize all the stuff from the truck to the two SUVs we were traveling in. It took about an hour, but we got it done :) When we finally got it home, we were able to actually go through it and see what we had. The final numbers are below under the pictures. While we are still in the process of breaking it all up, we don't know how many boxes will need to be shipped. I can tell you that it will be a lot though because we have over 650 of the travel care packages to send. About 200 of them will go to the 3d ID soldiers coming home along with the razors and q-tips, but the remaining will be sent overseas to Project Frontlines;Kandahar. Well...I guess that is it for the night. We will update you all soon :)

Michelle & Meg



Large Towelettes (about 500)

Q-tips (about 420)

Razors(about 220)

Puzzle Books (about 300)

Travel Toilet paper (about 450)

Calling Cards (about 30)

Batteries (30 packs), Drink Mixes (several hundered)

Drink Mixes (several hundred), Hand warmers (about 30), Instant Coffee (30)

Beef Jerky(30), Bandaids(30 packs), Travel Scissors (30)

USO Travel Care Packages(850+)

The inside of the care packages(deodarant, toothbrush with top, toothpaste, shampoo, comb, 2 packets shave cream, 2 packets lens cleaner, sunblock.)

The front of the care package (these bags are made of fabric, so they are very durable and reusable.)

Day trip to Savannah

Good Morning everyone!! We are up bright and early today to get the kids off to school and to get ready for a day trip to Savannah to pick up our load of goods from Hunter Army Air Field. We were going to go yesterday, but it just didn't work out. Today is a new day, and time for another try. As of right now, we will leave in about 2 hours or so. I will update with pictures later :) Hope you all have a great day :)

-Michelle & Meg

Things are coming along for our 3d ID Soldiers

Ok...so yesterday I got a call from my contact at the USO and they have 12 cartons of supplies for us (toilet paper, qtips, deodarent, razors, etc.)! That's awesome! The only downfall, I have NOWHERE to put it all. I then decided to call some storage units in the area and see if any of them would be willing to donate one of their units for a couple months. I got the call just about a half hour ago...we got a 10x10 storage unit for as long as we need it :) I am very excited. To get all the stuff from the USO, we have to go to HAAF (Hunter Army Air Field) in Savannah, which is about an hour away. Right now, the plan is for us to head up there tomorrow. Meg will get the tags for the trailer first thing in the morning, and we will be on our way :) And as always, I will take my camera with us and take plenty of pictures for you all.

Michelle & Meg

Another box down...8 to go

First, I would like to thank Kristi Allen & her family for helping to sponsor the first box of coffee for our heroes at Task Force Eagle Lift. Thank you!! Your donation has helped to send 500 bags of coffee over to our heroes!

Today, box #2 went out. Yay!!! This box was sponsored by Earlene and Rob Jackson. Thank you for paying the shipping for this box. Your donation shipped 575 bags of coffee. Thank you!!

Besides the second box going out today, there is not much to report. We are still waiting to hear more about our heroes returning from Iraq to really go much further with that. We've also been hard at work making this to sell for donations. We've made some patriotic flower pots as well as some survivor bracelets. The survivor bracelets are for the soldiers, as they are made using between 8 and 10 feet of paracord (550 cord). As of right now, I do not make the colored ones. However, if you do want the colored "fashion" ones (which I LOVE), Kylie makes them and sells them. All her sales also go to help with shipping to our heroes. Please visit her blog (Soldiers & Folgers). The link is on the right of my blog. I'm including some pictures of the pots we've made and the survivor bracelets. Enjoy!!!

Michelle & Meg




They don't look like it because of the lighting, but they are black

Coffee is packed and ready to go!!

Today we finished packing all the coffee. In total, there are 10 boxes, with one having already been shipped yesterday. When we opened the second box, there was a different kind of coffee in it. The first box had an organic breakfast blend and the second box had Beach Bay Coffee, Irish Cream flavor. Both smelled AMAZING and so does the garage!!!! I'm just glad that it is finished being packed because it's getting hotter out, and I don't like to be out there when it's too hot. Besides, we are going to have some other stuff coming in for the soldiers coming home and we're going to need the room for that stuff. We've got some more pictures to share with you all. Hope you enjoy them :)

Remember, it's only about $35 to ship each box. Any donation amount is appreciated and I am sending a note with each box noting who supplied the shipping funds. If you would like your contact information sent along with it, just let me know :)

-Michelle & Meg


Yummy

Soooo much

One box about done, 4 more to go

9 boxes packed and ready to ship. And one box on top for the returning soldiers.

Mine & Meg's best helper, Clare.

A day of packing coffee

While the day is not over just yet, we have been spending the better part of it packing coffee, and I don't think we're done quite yet. In order to get the most coffee in the boxes, we are being pretty precise about it, plus we are keeping count on how many we are packing. I got 500 in each of the first two boxes, then Megan took over the packing part while I dug the coffee out of the big shipping box it came in, and (because she's a rockstar) she was able to fit 550 in each box. We've got 4 boxes packed, about 6 or so to go (I'm estimating). Because we wanted to weigh the boxes and make sure they don't go over the 70 pound weight limit, we took the box to the post office and got it weighed and shipped out the first one while we were there. Each box is about 50 pounds. I'm guessing the ones with 550 bags in them will be about 55-60 pounds. Each box costs about $35 to ship, so if you would like "sponsor" a box, let me know. You can add a note/letter to go along with the coffee as well.

On another note, I got a call today while I was at the post office from a USO representative and they have a bunch of stuff for our soldiers! YAY!!! Majority of it will be used for our soldiers coming home, but depending on how much there is, some will probably go to our troops in Kandahar :)

That's all the updating for now. Hope you all had a great day like we did!!!

-Michelle & Meg



Our first box. Packed and ready for shipping

Megan packing the boxes

Me packing the boxes

The box was so deep, we couldn't reach the bottom. Smaller helpers came to the rescue

Even the baby got in on the packing :)

DVD Request

Hey everyone!!

First, an update on the coffee...we still have not started packing it as we are weighing a few options on how to ship it. I will let you all know when I know more. Hopefully that will be at some point later today or tomorrow.

Second, I am hoping to hear from the rear d commander today or tomorrow regarding the welcoming home of 3rd ID. Again, once I know more, I will be sure to update you all.

And finally.....Do you have ANY (even just one) DVDs that you did not like, do not watch, have two of, or wouldn't miss if you no longer had it? If so, I WANT THEM!!!! Well...actually it's for TFEL (Task Force Eagle Lift). They have started a DVD library of sorts and any and all help would be appreciated. It seems to be a big hit with the troops over there. Let's help them enjoy a little down time with some DVDs. Movies, Television Shows, Comedy, etc. will all be accepted. Please...NO SMUT! If you have some you would like to donate, please send me an e-mail :)

Goodnight everyone!

-Michelle

It's here!!!!!!!!!!

The coffee got here around 1:00 today and it is A LOT!!!! I took some pictures of it's arrival, but many more to come while we pack it up and ship it out to Project Frontlines!! Enjoy :)

-Michelle