A Hero's Welcome

We staged with the Patriot Guard Riders at Harley dealership in Oakland where the parents, Peggy & John stopped by on their way to the airport to say hello. KSU (Kickstands Up) was at 1630. Bikes lines up & we followed em on to the airport. We had a very large group to welcome him upon his return from Iraq. Was he ever surprised when he stood at the top of the escalator & saw us all...salutes & cheers. Handshakes & hugs followed. Then we all headed out to line up for the escort our Hero home. 25 bikes & 8 cages escorted his Parents vehicle the 14 miles home. What a ride!! When we got there the Lafayette Flag Brigade had done there best to decorate the place & the East Bay Blue Star Mom's of which Peggy is a member had a wonderful spread set out to feed everyone. It was a great celebration. Welcome Home Matt & Thank you for your Service to our Country!!

Below is a video of Matt being welcomed at the airport....

WHAT A WEEK

Well this has been an interesting week for sure. This past Wed. we had a busy day planned & it got even busier. It was to start out with Diane & I going to lunch & shopping at Jack London Square....a nice girls day out. About the time I was getting ready Steve came home from work with bad case of heartburn. He felt he would be ok but was supposed to meet us later in Oakland for a photo exhibit by a friend of ours....he would let us know. When Diane arrived she tried to get Steve to go to Dr. but he said he was fine....we took off.

Arrived at Jack London Square...it was a gorgeous day.

After we wandered around a bit we had a fabulous lunch at Kincaid's....complete with Margarita's of course. I had a Hot Crab Sandwich which was to die for & Diane had French Onion soup & Salad. We finished up with Key Lime Pie at the suggestion of our serverAfter lunch we did a little more sightseeing & shopping & decided to stop in to Cocina Poblana for a final Margarita before we needed to go to the photo gallery. The Restaurant was very nice tho not the best Margarita I've ever had.

After we finished up at JLS we headed up Broadway to the College of the Arts for the first gallery showing of Sean Donnelly's photo's. There was absolutely no parking so we had to park in the lot of a nearby shopping center & walk up the hill to the college. Steve met us there. Also attending were 2 members of East Bay Blue Star Mom's...Tami & Michelle. The show was great...we loved his work. After about an hour or so we need to leave as we still had to stop off in Fremont to pick up Sonja & then head to to San Jose Airport to welcome home the daughter of one of the South Bay Blue Star Mom's. We said our goodbye's to all and left.

We flew down the freeway...making a quick stop in Fremont to pick up Sonja & got back the freeway & headed for the staging area...a Chevron station near the airport. A nice group was there when we arrived...some of the usual attendees plus a new Motorcycle club from the area. They asked me to take their photo. Time came to head out...

Shortly after that last photo was taken Diane grabbed me & told me that Steve was down....at first we thought he was having a sugar drop (he's diabetic) ....luckily we had 2 nurses in the group that took care of him til the EMT's arrived. After the EMT's did their thing they said he was most likely having a heart attack & needed to go to hospital. They started getting him ready for transport. When all this started happening the Patriot Guard moved the flag line to shield the view of Steve so that the soldier would not see him when she arrived.

When the SSgt arrived everything went off without a hitch....lots of hugs from Mom

Got a pix of her with Diane & gave her a Challenge coin before Diane & Sonja took me to the hospital.

More to follow....

7th PYSOP Group Homecoming

5 Army Reservists returned from Iraq this evening. Couldn't think of a better way to spend my birthday/Valentines Day than welcome ing home all these wonderful Guys & Gals I love so much. Pretty good group being there was two filights...first at 10:05pm & second at 10:53pm. We headed home after I coined them all & some of the others escorted them to Moffett Field.

Navy Lt Christina Ortega Comes Home

8 Bikes, 2 cages, lots of South Bay Blue Star Moms members, plus friends & family turned out to welcome this Hero who was returning from deployment to Iraq where she served as a PIO with the US Marines. We participated in the escort to the family home also...about 20 minutes away. Neighbors up & down the street had yellow ribbons tied out front & many had Flags waving. Very Awesome. Welcome Home Christina & Thank you for your service.

Fun, Fun, Fun

95.7 The Wolf, which is our local Country station, sponsored a free lunchtime concert with Luke Bryan as the performer. Diane asked if I wanted to go & check it out. A good day to have some fun....the weather was beautiful & the music was good. We kicked back......enjoyed......and took pictures.




Diane took this shot below! LOL!



Luke Bryan & I.....


And me hiding behind the sign......


After the concert we headed across the street & had lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory.......I hadn't been to one in awhile as they closed the one in Oakland. Very good food & great company as always.

Headed home to change & then back out to Blue Star Mom's South Bay meeting.....it was their 3rd Anniversary & they had a pot luck too. Great bunch of people......we will go again.

Blue Star Mom's/Operation Mom Picnic

Fun was had by all who attended this first ever event. It was put on by San Francisco East Bay Blue Star Moms , San Francisco South Bay Blue Star Moms , Pacifica Military Moms & Operation Mom & held at Ed Levin County Park in Milpitas. It was a smaller group than all had hoped but we had alot of fun.....good food.... & we all got to meet some very nice people. Different groups but we all have a common goal...to SUPPORT OUR TROOPS & each other while our sons/daughters/husbands/wives/sisters/ brothers etc. Serve Our Country. Here are some photo's I took of the day.

Here is a photo of all who made it to the end of the day.

These are our Gold Star Families......

And this was an uninvited guest......a rattlesnake who 2 of the little ones found. This along with all those yellow jackets was the only bad thing of the day. Can't wait to do this again next year!

TGIF!!

Hello there! We have come to the end of another week. Two days until "The Communicator" becomes totally 'legal'. Interesting part of it all is that I received an invitation from the hospital that he was born at for a reunion for all teh Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) graduates next month. WOW....where did the time go? (insert sniffles here) He is supposed to have finally taken a new photo so I will have it enlarged & then enlarge a premmie photo & make a sign up like in a parade to take with....that will show those new parents they do grow up & all will be well. Should be fun.

I spent all day with Diane yesterday & I finally got the Norton Anti-Virus out of her computer completely....I did the happy dance for sure. All is up & running wonderfully. Did some more lessons & she is being a great student.......takes notes & everything. LOL! Steve came out after work & we headed out for dance lessons. Definately lots of fun & a good workout. Gonna keep this up for sure. We got home about 10:30 or so last nite....a long day. This is Diane in first pix & Me in the second.

Today is catch up day & I have to play Betty Crocker too. We have a joint picnic tomorrow with Blue Star Mom's & we need to bring desserts. It's cupcakes for me. Will take lots of pictures to share. Have a great weekend everyone as I'm not sure how much I will be here.

Middle of the week update

Hi there......just got home from a Blue Star Mom meeting with Bev. Was a nice evening & met some very nice ladies again this month. Diane didn't go with us this time as she was off seeing Tim and Faith!! We will be having a joint picnic with Blue Star Mom's groups this Saturday....should be alot of fun.

"The Communicator" will be 21 in 4 days.....I sent him his card that I made but I still wanted to get a funny 21 card too. Went into Hallmark at the mall ....we checked out some of the musical ones but nothing hit me. I then headed back to the YEAR cards. Well as soon as I saw that 21 the tears started flowing. Salesgirl came up & asked if she could help me........I asked her if she could bring my son home while I was crying. Poor thing.....she won't be asking anyone if they need help for awhile. I want to say thanks to all who have sent him cards. I know he will appreciate it alot.

The girlfriend left today.......she was having problems with the classes & decided that maybe this was not the Military Occupational Specialty (MOS)for her so she had herself reclassified & is now going off to become a mortician. From Network Communications to Mortuary.......??? Anyway, he was pretty bummed & she emailed me yesterday to say she was going to miss him. Maybe they will take some time to get to know each other better? NAH....he's already talking about a few new ones. I keep telling everyone........short attention span. Still not sure what is going on with him but he thinks they will be moving him to another company & he may end up being permanent party there.

Will be off tomorrow.....gotta go see if we can rid Diane's computer of Norton Anti-Virus again. Wonder how long I will be on the phone this time. Then tomorrow nite we are gonna start dance lessons. It's been over a year since we publicly humiliated ourselves so it's time. Will try to get photo's for ya'll to laugh at. Have a good Thursday!

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.