Christmas Gifts to Soldiers: December 6

TOYS FOR TROOPS
Christmas Gifts to Soldiers

Sunday, December 6, 2009

VILLAGE INN PIZZA PARLOR

(corner of Springfield
and Mattis, Champaign)

Thanksgiving boxes are arriving to their final destinations—I just received a note from a Major saying "thank you for taking care of my marines!" We immediately turn our attention, to Christmas gifts for our guys & gals in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last year's event at Village Inn was so successful that we're working with the fine folks there this year also. There's plenty of space for our project, and plenty of good food to wind down to when all of the work is done.

We mean to send everyone on our list a box of great holiday goodies! CDs, DVDs, t-shirts, socks, games, letters, and gourmet foodies.

YOU can help by:

• Purchasing a gift for a soldier, and bringing it to the event or dropping it off before hand. If you need pickup service, we can arrange that also.
  
• Baking some cookies or other treats
• Showing up on the 6th with Christmas wrap, scotch tape, scissors, and a smile
• Clicking on the button on the right, and sponsor the cost of shipping 1 box

I have downloadable, printable flyers if you are interested in learning more, or sharing this information with your coworkers, church, scouts, VFW, or any other organization.

As always, if you're not from Central Illinois, you can still participate in the merrymaking: If you'd like to send a box of gifts to a soldier, we'll give you a name, address, some gift ideas, and shipping advice. Many have already started their boxes.

For more information, contact me: ljstewart@gmail.com

Veteran's Day Wrap Up

Wednesday morning found me, once again, at Lincoln Trail Elementary School.

It is becoming one of the most exciting days of my year. I worry this post may become rote, but these kids blow me away every year. They started working on this months ago, and it shows!

Diane came with me this year, and we got to be big shots and sit next to the Color Guard.


This year, the students honored, among all others, WWII Veterans.


I love this photo.


I wish I could tell it all. There was singing. And dancing.


I spoke in front of all of those people, plus millions you don't see. I never get better at this. The students talk like they've been in show business for 100 years, and I still have to hold the microphone with 2 hands to keep from dropping it.

The students collected and packed so many boxes for the troops that they ran out of wagons:




They packed Di's car until it looked like this, and our lives were threatened if she hit the brakes too hard on the way home:



One for the record books: Me and the student council (or is it"The student council and I"? I am definitely not smarter than a 5th grader, Mr. Foxworthy.)


I normally have the Post-care-package details done ahead of time, but the USPS delivered newfangled customs forms with newfangled instructions and I had to clear up a few issues at the last minute. Read: Wednesday Night: no customs forms.

I put out a Facebook call: Bring pen to the Esquire, and I'm buying. (For all of you sticklers, I respectfully note that beer and pizza was on my dime. Your tax-deductible donations go strictly to postage.)

We knocked out customs forms in 2 hours.

The next business du jour was to take all of those boxes to the post office. We're a polite organization, so we marched in ahead of time and said, "Post Office, we are coming in here on Thursday!"

Sidenote: You know I've taken to bringing brownies to appease the poor stamp-buying natives that get stuck behind us? Well, guess what? We used the self-cleaning feature on our new oven and 100-million degrees of heat shorted out some bamboozled wires in the doodly-housing. I had to commission brownies from Diana. You remember Diana:

Thanks for supporting the troops, girlfriend.
Raise your glasses to Diana!

The Post Office folks were prepared, and armed themselves against us with extra employees! Normally 2 against 1, with ample time to fill out last-minute customs forms, we found ourselves 3-to-2,

Unfortunately, the first cart-load of boxes was so heavy that we couldn't lift it over the divider thingy in the door, and our alphabetized customs forms went flying all over the foyer (Sorry, Chris, the Alphabetizer). We shuffled through gads of forms Atkins through Zoffman, in the interim leaving a post-office employees twiddling their thumbs a few times.

The beautiful thing?

It was, in the midst of this, festive.

One woman asked if we were really sending all of this stuff to the troops. When I replied, she hugged me. Solidly.

Another gentleman stepped up and asked if he could, himself, send 2 boxes.

And, when all was said and done....

Our clerk, Dawn, who has two (2!)(II!) (DOS!) sons in active duty, pulled out her own purse and handed me $20. The gentleman just behind her (oy, I did not get his name!) paid for a box of beanies to be shipped AIRMAIL (That's $27 vs. $14) to a soldier. How often do you see this: I just HAD to get a picture of the post office paying ME:

Really. She's not taking money, she's giving it.

And people, if this Veteran's Day honor should ever come to my kid when he is about the same age as the gentlemen honored on Wednesday,

(Jolley & Standish, 2nd tour Operation Iraqi Freedom)

It will be in the year 2067.

Gnightgirl will be 104 years old.

Bookmark me.

With my hand on my heart, I promise: If I'm capable, I'll be there for this one too.

Veteran's Day Eve

Toys for Troops is gearing up for Veteran's Day! I spent most of Sunday finalizing letters, forms, and various documents for the kids at Lincoln Trail Schools,


and gathering up military flat rate boxes and customs forms:

I met the kids yesterday to hand over their final supplies, and get a sneak peek at all of the items they've collected. OVER 2000 items donated to the soldiers on our list, for their Thanksgiving care packages. And letters from each child, to boot!


A few of the Student Council members got to join together for a photo op, and should be in the News Gazette today or tomorrow. Watch for them.

Tomorrow's the big day, their Veteran's Day Assembly. They are honoring WWII Veterans, and I must remember to take a handkerchief. There will be slide shows and singing, and readings, and I get choked up every year.

They will present me with all of their hard work, and we will finalize the boxes. Customs forms have to be finished out, and I've already forewarned the Champaign Post Office that we'll be coming in with a LOT of boxes.

Of course, I have commissioned some brownies for the folks that get stuck in line behind us there.

Ahhh...and then we will be done.

For one day.

The Christmas event will be December 6 at Village Inn, and we have to start hussling to get this ready!

Remembering a Beautiful Woman, A Grand Lady

My Grandmother, whom you've read about and seen pictured here numerous times, passed away last Sunday afternoon. You may remember that she turned 90 in March.



My God, she was fun and funny.



I'm so glad that Brian got to see her at Christmas, last year; though he couldn't see her much over the last couple of years, he adored her.


And my heart melts at some of my memories. She was always, always, her children's mother:

And Our Grandmother.

Memories flood me.

• As kids, we'd spend a week at a time in her country home. Fresh air, gardening, canning, and digging potatoes ensued.
  
• No TV!
• My sister and I would spend hours—hours!—in her apple tree. It was a great old tree that you could just lie back in, like a cheetah.
  
• We once spent a couple of hours in that tree with our eyes closed and ears plugged as Grandma & uncles killed what seemed like 100 chickens. They really do run around after you cut off their heads! We had no idea. We were mortified! Traumatized! Simply appalled!
• 1000s of hands of Gin Rummy and Crazy 8s.
• Rum Cake—my recipe is hers, and a winner every time.
• The smell of coffee brewing long before the sun came up.
• Her laugh—she'd take off laughing and I'd stop and listen to it, when I was 12 years old, and when I was 45. I wanted to memorize it— she laughed with her heart and her gut.
• Her no B.S. stance, no matter what the situation. Grandma didn't pull punches. I still laugh at her running over my uncle's foot with her wheelchair about a year ago, and saying "well, if a person doesn't have sense enough to get out of the way, it's his own fault."

I remember her almost when she was at the age I am now. I remember her strong and young, and bold and energetic.

And I remember her also, softer, aged, sentimental and lovely.

I love all that she was, and I feel fortunate to have had this lady in my life for so many years. She will remain in my heart forever.

The Holidays are Coming: Toys for Troops Kicks Into Gear

Thanksgiving Care Packages to Troops

It's November already! Thanksgiving is only 23 days away, and between now and then, we will be shipping care packages to every soldier on our list, which is larger now than it's ever been.

As in years' past, the students at Lincoln Trails Elementary School in Mahomet are grabbing the reigns for the Thanksgiving boxes: They've been gathering care package items for weeks now, as part of their upcoming Veteran's Day Project. This year, they're going one further: We're going to teach them to pack those flat-rate boxes and fill out customs forms on their own.

Toys for Troops will still be responsible for the cost of shipping all of these Thanksgiving boxes next Wednesday, a cost that will total between $900-$1000.

As always, you're welcome to participate!

The cost of shipping 1 box is $11.95.

If you'd like to sponsor the cost of shipping a box to a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan,

• Click on the PayPal donation button on the right, or at www.toys-for-troops.com
• Send a check for $11.95 to Toys for Troops, 1123 Lancaster, Champaign, IL 61821

(Remember, you donation is tax-deductible!)

If you, your family, your office, or your classroom would like to send your own personal box of goodies to a soldier, email me at ljstewart@gmail.com. I have names and addresses, and lots of ideas for you.

You may or may not know that my own son has just pushed North from Kuwait into Iraq. His tour is just beginning, and he will be there for another 12 months. Although I would never forget how much your packages and cards mean to him, having him there once again really brings it home. This project remains near and dear to my heart, and to all of those that are on the receiving end of your contributions and well-wishes.

Stay tuned! We will launch our Holiday/Christmas projects next week!

Breathless

I was walking back into my workplace on my lunch break last week, contemplating that it's been a few weeks since I've cried over my sister. A dull ache remains, but the constant worrying and heartache over her suffering has been lifted. I knew damned well that I'm not done, and thought to myself, "I wonder what it will be that will set me off." I imagine running into someone that does not yet know, coming across something she gave me, or being unable to talk to her about Mom. It will be something, I know.

1o minutes or so left on my break, I decided to sit down and see what my friend Becky had been up to, via her blog.

Becky and I became fierce friends when we worked together years ago. God, how she makes me laugh. It's been 10 years (or so) since she up and moved back to Tucson, but time and the distance hasn't changed the friendship one iota. I love her, I love her husband, her son, her parents, her sister and her sister's family. I love her aunt and her Grandma (Hi, Goldie!). Anytime we connect, it's real. If months or years go by, its as if it was yesterday that we last spoke.


You know the friend. That friend. Becky is that friend.

Ok, so you're all caught up, right? I'm thinking "what will undo me next?" followed by "I think I'll check Becky's blog." Last I checked in, she was planning on cutting all of this glorious hair off. Maybe I'd see a new do! Whoo hoo!



It was then that I discovered what would next undo me.

THIS IS WHAT WAS ON BECKY'S BLOG.

...

It's been a week, and I still cannot catch my breath when I look at this.

Tsk.

Becky.

Lufyu.

Brainwashable

As usual, I have a ton of stories to tell, but little time to sit down and edit all of the photos. In the interim, this should be considered a "side-blog," of sorts.

I hit on the fact that I dropped my camera at Oktoberfest in St. Louis a few weeks ago, and I killed it. It probably had nothing to do with liter-sized mugs of beer. If I could remember what I was doing in the photo below, I could probably remember how I came to drop my camera.


Thus, when MyFamousFriendMarkRoberts came into town last week, I had $1 to win, so I went out and spent a couple hundred on a new camera, to digitally capture this moment:

As you can see here, one of us won the bet. That's another blog entirely.

This blog really has to do with that new camera.

Sort of.

Clint and I went out and bought the new camera 1 hour before Roberts' show. As I am but 4 years old, I opened the box the minute we got back in the car. It's the same instinct that makes me want to wear new shoes out of the store. Shut it. I want what I want when I want it, and I wanted to see the new camera.

When we arrived back to the house, we discovered that the memory card and adapter (that was SOLD TO US SEPARATELY) did NOT fit this camera. 90 minutes before the show: no shower, no makeup, and a new camera with no memory! Gah!

HERE is the kicker:

While tearing the box apart in the car, I had pulled out a tiny, bright yellow adapter for the memory card for this camera. It was in a teeny, tiny envelope, and it made a bit of an impact on me. Yellow. It was YELLOW!

But!

• When we got into the house, no yellow adapter.
• Nothing on the box about including an adapter.
• Clint hadn't seen the adapter.
• We called Best Buy, and they told us that an adapter was NOT included with this camera.

I, now, frenzied and panicked to get ready, find a memory card, and get to the show, then stated, and believed, whole-heartedly,

There must not have been an adapter.

I swear to God, I said these words to Clint: "I must have imagined it."

In the meantime, we managed to get the card we needed (at WallyWorld, of all places), and make it to the show with plenty of time to spare.

FastForward to 2 days ago, Clint came waltzing into the house after his shift, and said "Guess what I found!"

He, of course, handed over the tiny envelope with the tiny yellow memory adapter that I'd dropped in the car a week ago.

So I hadn't made it up.

The thing is, what in the hell is wrong with me that I was willing to believe that I hadn't held an object in my hand, when I knew I had? Why on earth would I believe that I'd imagined this bright yellow object in a special tiny envelope:


I made that up? Of course I didn't! Am I losing my freaking mind? Do I even have a spine?!

So now I sit around and analyze my common sense and self-confidence, and wonder if I'm so brain-washable that I might someday confess to crimes that I did not commit.

Can you see it?

They'd insist, "No, Lori! The knife was in your hand!" And I'd be running around trying to iron my blouse and waiting for my eyeliner to dry before I put my eyeshadow on, and I'd respond, "it was? Oh, crap, it was! I did it, oh God, what was I thinking, how could I? I hate blood!"

What am I, stressed? Grieving? Exhausted? An idiot?

Show me a little love, people.

Share with me a moment that you've been convinced you saw or acted when you did not.

It can't just be me.

Right?

Right?!!