OPERATION: MOM BLOOD DRIVE

SPAGHETTI FEED IS TONITE!!

Well the day has arrived....Operation: MOM's big Christmas for the Troops Fundraiser. Will be held at the Moose Lodge, 20835 Rutledge Rd Castro Valley, CA from 6:00 PM to 10:oo PM. Tickets are $10. for adults & $5.00 for children. We will have a raffle with some awesome prizes along with a silent auction. 2 Grand Prizes will be 1)1 night @ Rancho Caymus in Rutherford, Wine Train w/Dinner for 2 plus dufflebag & wine, 2) 1 nite @ Harvey's or Harrah's Tahoe w/dinner & show for 2 plus overnite bag & wine. Soda, water & coffee included. Other drinks available at the bar. Bring an unbreakable ornament for a free raffle ticket. Items for the Holiday Packing will be collected also along with CHRISTMAS & WINTER HOLIDAY CARDS.

Hope to see you there!!

CHRISTMAS CARDS NEEDED!

This will be a real quick post as I am off to the airport to welcome home some service members from Iraq which is something we love to do.

I am in need of more Christmas/Winter cards to put in our packages for the troops to send home to their loved ones. If you are interested in helping out please email me at pfcrensmom-cardsfortroops@yahoo.com for more information. These can be store bought cards or you can make a donation at the box on the right column & specify Cards for the Troops. Thank you so much!

Getting the word out......

Today we took a break from Fleet Week to get the word out about Operation: MOM & meet some wonderful people. We set up at WalMart on Albrae Street in Fremont & handed out flyers about the Organization plus the Spaghetti Feed & wish lists for our upcoming Holiday Packing. We had such a wonderful response that we stayed an hour plus longer than planned. We will be back next month on November 4th if you are in the area. In case you would like to help with items for the packing here is the Troops Holiday Wish List.

Steve, Debbi & Leslie

Tom

Our Information Table

Some News to share.....

Thought you all might like to know that some of the service members that we have been sending cards to over the past few months have returned home with a few to return soon. Some have given me the names of their replacements so that the hospitals will continue to receive cards for several months to come. The emails I have shared here show how important this seemingly simple project has been to our men & women serving overseas. I will be collecting cards at Original Rubber Stamp Convention in San Jose this weekend & hopefully will continue to get cards mailed to me by those who have been with us since the beginning & many new card makers. Also please remember that we do take store bought cards also so if you wish to participate & do not make cards then you can send ones you buy along too. Maybe you have Christmas cards from past years laying around? Just please make sure that you have envelopes to go with the cards & that the glue is still good. We also need Cards written out to them, thanking them for their service......words of encouragement....plus Holiday cards to them are also needed. Remember........they aren't going to be spending the holidays with their families & friends.

Also.......Operation: MOM is doing a fundraiser for our Holiday Packages to the Troops. We are having a Spaghetti Feed & are looking for donations to use for raffle prizes. All the proceeds from this event will go for the Holiday Packing. We will also be collecting items to put in the boxes for this packing. You can see what is needed on this Christmas Wish List......thank you in advance for any help you can give us.

POW/MIA Recognition Day Cermony at Lone Tree Cemetary

This was a wonderful ceremony......much more emotional than we expected it to be tho. I have been to ceremony's on Memorial Day in the past which touched on honoring these hero's but I must say this ceremony really affected me. I will be there every year for this ......we must never forget.

Sgt. Michael L. Emerson, from the Castro Valley VFW, Marine 1982-1992 (Desert Storm) was master of ceremonies for this event.

Standing room only in the Mausoleum after plan b had to be used due to the rain.



Members of Operation: MOM were in attendance.

Vietnam Veterans were present & accounted for...... finally getting the praise, recognition & support these deserved 30+ years ago (please lets not do this again now).




VFW Honor Guard Post #9601....also Vietnam Vets.

Sonja, Col. John McPartland (retired) & me


The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial at Lone Tree Cemetery in Hayward, CA.

You may see more photo's HERE & HERE TOO.

Another week has started.....

I'm so sorry that I didn't do anything again this weekend but Saturday I went to an Open House & did some sightseeing/shopping over in Livermore which may have netted some raffle .prizes for Operation: MOM's upcoming Spaghetti Feed. I took some photo's around Livermore to share with you all later.

Last evening we went to pay our respects to the family of Cpl Carlos Gil Orozco, a 23 year old Marine, who was killed last Monday, Sept. 10th in Iraq. The funeral is this afternoon. If you wish to leave your condolances you can do so at the Guest Book on Legacy.com.

Last Tuesday, Sept 11, 2007, Diane & I had the honor of going to watch the Marine Silent Drill Platoon during filming of the new commercial for the Marines which will air in 2008. It was very amazing & what a great group of young men. Truly made me proud to be an American. For more information on them go to Our Marines.......if they will be near you then you MUST try to go see them. Here is the slide show I put together of all the photo's Diane & I took plus a couple from the Our Marines site.......enjoy!

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.

CHARITY FOR CHARITIES

Charity for Charities Voting has Begun! VAJoe Will Donate $2,000 to the Winners Vote for your favorite military charity in the VAJoe Charity for Charities event. VAJoe will donate $2,000 to the charities with the most votes. Vote August 5–20 . Encourage friends to vote. Continue to nominate charities for the event. Here are a few recently nominated charities:

9-11 HelpAmerica Foundation
American Military Family
America's Wounded Heroes
Independence Fund
Midwest Shelter for Homeless Veterans
Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation
Operation Give
Operation Helmet
Operation Mom
Paralyzed Veterans of America
Retired Enlisted Association

Help VAJoe help your favorite military charity. Vote and ask your friends to vote.

Thanks,

Debbi

PS....please vote for Operation MOM!!!

ALSO CHECK OUT THEIR FORUMS....and you get a Free TShirt for 12 posts.

I AM BACK.......DID YOU MISS ME?

It really was a busy week for me.....sorry I didn't get a chance to post much. Will try to catch up a bit on my wayward activities. Last Thursday Dotty (co-founder of Operation: MOM) & I delivered some food to Alice.....she got out of the hospital & recuperating. She was in alot of pain but she did show up last nite at Operation: MOM's meeting. I can't believe she was able to get up & about so soon. Was great to see her. On Friday I spent the day with our dear Diane to help her learn a few things on her computer. We got her to send photo's in email & uploaded pictures to order prints plus a few other things but we made plans to do again on Tuesday of this week. She did great.

Our weekend was nice......Saturday was pretty quiet. We had planned on going to SF for the day but changed our minds as we didn't really have any solid plans & didn't want to just go over to spend money. That's a first for me. On Sunday we went to the Balsley's to help with enlarging their patio area (concrete work). . Actually Steve did that...I don't do wheelbarrows. I worked with Bev on teaching her how to do a few things on her computer. We also got her learning how to upload photo's to order online. Notes were taken & all went well. We finished up the day & headed on home to watch "Army Wives" & then off to bed. Steve was exhausted but he was planning to take Monday off. Steve went back over on Monday morning & helped remove the forms from the concrete job. He then came home & got our new patio set together. Now that it's up we can get rid of the old one. Maybe we should hang on to it for when we can have some parties. That evening The Balsley's took us to Harry's HofBrau for dinner.......Jim's most favorite dining establishment in the whole world. It was our first time there.....very good too. If there is one in your area I recommend you give it a try.

Tuesday was spent with Diane again.....first we stopped to deliver some gifts for all the lovely ladies at the salon who gave us our pampering. From there we headed to Grocery Outlet to purchase more of the wonderful Chocolate Covered Cream Puffs & that wonderful Verdi Raspberry Sparkletini that they had served us at the Salon.......we both bought 5 bottles of that each. Then back to Diane's home. More computer lessons were to be had but problems arose when I tried to uninstall her expired Norton Anti-Virus. Her ISP comes with it's own online protection but couldn't finish that install until the Norton was gone. Well then they both had a conflict so computer could no longer go out to the Internet. She was so calm......I of course was freaking out that I had broke her computer. Plans were for me to return on Wed to see if I could figure it out. Later that evening we stopped by to help Bev order more photo's online as I had a code for Winkflash for 6¢ that expired that day. She should have all her pictures soon.

Wednesday I started out trying to do system restore & checking Internet options for changes that may have needed to be changed.....nothing helped. I then called her ISP & they said they couldn't help until the Norton was uninstalled then suggested I call Norton for help. After 45 min plus on hold I finally got a tech to talk me thru this uninstall. She had me opening folders all over the computer to delete Norton files. I went down into the bowel of her computer. After I got off the phone I checked to see if I could get out to anything & low & behold Diane's email opened! HALLELUJAH!! I had her check some of her mail for a bit while I jumped up & down for awhile. Then I see her sending an email to someone who's email addy is that of the company who makes Norton! OMG! They prolly could have gotten this taken care of much easier than I did but I'm thinking it's all fixed anyway so that's ok. After she got done with email I figured I better get the ISP online protection installation completed so I sat down to finish up the virus portion when it tells me I have to uninstall Norton first. WHAT??? I was on the phone with them for over an hour working on that earlier. So she will be asking her friend for help as this is beyond me now. After we finished up with that Dotty arrived & the 3 of us went to visit the grandparents of another Fallen Warrior.....this time a Marine. They are here with no other family in the area. We visited with them for awhile & offered our help with anything they needed. They plan on having a Memorial Mass locally in his honor.

Yesterday I did a few things around the house & tried to get caught up with my email & such. Lots more to do for sure. Then last nite we had Operation: MOM meeting which we had planned a surprise party for Bev & Dotty. Was a great evening for sure.....good cake too! I put this picture of Jim here because I told him I would. This is him wearing the butterfly hat I got for Bev's party hat. Cute huh?

Now the weekend is here....hopefully will get some more items off that to do list that is ever growing. Will post some pictures of cards I have received too. Hope ya'll have a great one.

OPERATION MOM @ HAYWARD STREET PARTY

Tonite we made our presence known to the community & were overwhelmed by the support. We had a booth during this monthly downtown event where we let people know about what we do & sold some products (car magnets, tshirts, hats & pins) to raise money for the postage needed to ship the packages we send to our troops. We also had a little table for the kids to color some pictures to send to the Soldiers.....what pride they put in those pictures. Signed their artwork too. So kewl. The Marines had a booth also so that was nice to see plus they had 2 recruits with them who ship out on Monday....gonna have to call our Army Recruiter and ask why they didn't come too. At the end of the evening a young man with 2 little boys came up......he had recently returned from Iraq.......A SOLDIER IN THE US ARMY. Well I had to give a few hugs....after all that's what Army Mom's are for right? Before he left the tears were flowing as he kept telling us how wonderful we were and that we were Angels....OMG. All they do for us & so much appreciation for the little bit we can give back. These guys are just so amazing......the best!!

On Saturday I will head over the hill to Stamper's Warehouse for their annual flea market. Haven't missed one in all the years they've had em......except the first one I think as I hadn't started stamping yet. If you're in the area you really should stop by.....lots of deals to be had that day. I'm gonna try to get something to do Halloween & Thanksgiving cards....don't have to many of those stamps.

Now for an update on "The Communicator". He called on Monday to say they were gonna take the staples out on Tuesday but they may have to surgically remove some as he was healing so fast that only 3 could be taken out the regular way. We tried to call Monday nite to get more info but no answer. I didn't hear from his Tuesday ... I had my IV treatment & Steve had appointment with eye Dr so we figured he'd call when he could. Yesterday morning he called from a different number to say phone got stolen the night before.........YES AGAIN....but he would be getting new one later that day. He gets insurance on em when he buys. Is anyone keeping count on how many phones he's gone thru because I have lost count now. We got home & there was a call from a RI area code but no message so don't know if he called while we were out. Havent' talked to him enough of late to keep him up to date on our schedule & he keeps loosing the cell number when he looses the phones. Oh well...... I did ask him if he has checked his AKO account to see if he has gotten his orders & he hasn't ......will he go to Ft. Leavenworth if he doesn't get his orders & therefore doesn't report to wherever? That's the place right? Anyway......that's the update.

Don't forget to vote for Melissa if you haven't already....1 vote per email address.

Operation Mom Member having surgery

One of our members, Alice, is having surgery on her back today........10 hours long. Please keep her in your thoughts & prayers please. She will be in the hospital for 5 days. Thank you.

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.