Yikes, It's Friday already

Well it has been a very busy full week. I thought after the packing things would calm down a bit & I could get caught up a little around the house.......wrong.

Friday nite we met everyone at the storage container in Castro Valley to bring product to the hall & set up for the packing on Saturday morning. We had several people show up, we loaded various vehicles & then headed off to the Hall to unload & get set up.

This very nice gal, Mireya, showed up from Santa Clara County with donations & she had the coolest sign on the tailgate of her truck with had signatures to the troops on it.

We snagged it for the folks at the packing to sign & we put it in one of the boxes that mailed out.We had some boxes that they packed the week before at San Quentin that we added more goodies too & taped up so we had half the snack packages done & ready to ship. From there 8 of us went out to dinner. The company was good but I don't think I will be going back to La Victoria again.....not great service & everything is a la carte so a bit pricey for what you got. And they made us all wait a very long time before we were seated.

Home to finish up a few things & then to bed.

The packing went well tho we had less volunteers than usual it went very smooth......tho we were there a few hours more. I think the fact that school is out is a big reason as we usually get a good number of students helping. I was very happy that my invitations worked & we had our local Army Recruiter Station Commander & his wife along with the local Air Force Recruiter both come to pack boxes. Steve's friend from work Jim & his son, Jarod (I hope I spelled this right), who is 9 years old came to put a full day. This was Jarod's first outing into community service & he did an amazing job....we did wear him out tho. Mireya from Friday nite (the gal with the truck) came back & worked all day. We had a couple who are involved in the Flight 93 Memorial in Union City come too.

Bill Sperry who runs the Ultimate Sacrifice Memorial site & Steve Whittaker who is a photographer both took lots of pictures. Also there was Jean who is the Mom who got one of our Mother's Day cards from her son in Iraq along with a friend of hers. Then we have to remember our Scout David & his parents. And so many more.....lots of whom are Operation Mom members. We finished around 2:00 pm & then took the leftover hygiene products (we totally ran out of snacks) back to the container & headed on home. As we were driving down the road we saw a car with an "Army Strong" bumper sticker on it. Couldn't get their attention so drove past it so they could see all our stickers & magnets. At the light the young man rolled down his window & took off his hat to show me his bald head....I yelled Thank You & told him we were with Operation Mom & had just finished the packing. He was home on R&R. He said he had received packages from us & Blue Star Moms. Made the day complete. A very good tired we were. Sunday we pretty much vegged out around the house......didn't go anywhere at all.

On Monday 6 of us from Operation: MOM (2 Gold Star Moms, 1 Gold Star Grandmother, 1 Gold Star Sister, 1 Silver Star Mom & Me, a Blue Star Mom) headed out to Ma Belle Salon in Fremont, CA for a day of pampering. We met another Gold Star Mom who chooses not to affiliate herself with any group there. I got my eyebrows waxed, my hair colored & cut plus they had lunch catered for us.

Plus I got to spend the day with some awesome ladies who will be my friends for life I think.

The salon opened just for us.....and the stylists all came in on their days off......very kewl. Plus there was a reporter from the local paper & Mayor Bob Wasserman stopped by to say hello to us all. Was very special .......

and my hand was in today's paper. LOL! I scanned it for all to see.

Wednesday morning I tried to call "The Communicator" only to find he was 'in the hospital'. He couldn't talk much but sounded awful, said he had gotta a head laceration & would call me back. GREAT! He finally called about 3:30pm our time & said he had 10 staples in his head. One of the Drill Sgts had grabbed him that morning because he had handcuffs with keys to go after a soldier who was gonna go AWOL. "The Communicator" took off running after him, jumped a bush & ran headfirst into an awning (metal one) .......down he went. Said the DS was laughing til he saw all the blood. Off to the hospital they went. They didn't get their man either. He found out today their is some swelling of the brain so they are keeping an eye on that....he gets staples out on Monday.

Wednesday nite a few of us went to the Blue Star Mom meeting out in Danville. There was a presentation from Stories of Service .......they had 4 of the young people who worked on the project, 2 of which Blue Star Mom's had sponsored to go to DC Memorial Day weekend. I hope you will take the time to check out the website.....some of the stories are wonderful. This is history......we need to remember it.

Yesterday & today I went out & played with Jim & Bev......we went to Walnut Creek way yesterday to check out The Container Store.......pretty cool there tho I didn't buy anything.....& today we headed south to D&J Hobby in Campbell........plus we checked out Savers (a thrift store), an Army Surplus store & stopped in to say "Hey" to the Army & Air Force recruiters that were in that area. On the way home we stopped for a late lunch at Claim Jumper. Very, very good food. Jim ordered an I'Declair for dessert.........OMG! They set it down in front of him & he said "What's this?" I actually thought they were bringing it to just cut him a piece off. It's friggin huge. Bev & I just started cracking up. No way to eat it all......I even had some. So we had em put it in a to go container & raced back to their house to get it in the freezer. I just called Steve to pick me up there. Definately had a great couple of days.

So now it's time to get a few packages out myself......I've actually had a few requests for cards to be sent out to Iraq. It will be a pleasure. Will be in & out this weekend but will try to post some photo's. Hope ya'll have a great weekend.

Oh yeah.......here are all the cards that got sent off.