Monday, November 2nd, 2009
My son’s teacher heads up this great cause and I wanted to make you all aware of it. This is the letter she sends home at the beginning of her classes:
My name is Jacky and I am an early education instructor with the Oak Lawn Park District. I started mailing boxes when one of my student’s only parent was sent to Iraq. Now, boxes go out weekly to each soldier on my list who shares the boxes with their units. I know first hand from the soldiers who return stateside that these boxes mean so much more than their contents; they mean people care. The families back home also appreciate the moral booster their loved ons are receiving each time a box arrives. These boxes may be small, but they are mighty with support and positive thinking to bring our soldiers safely home. All my soldiers have relatives, friends who live in Oak Lawn, or are residents of Oak Lawn. It is a local support of our community. Below are item lists of some of the things that have been sent out since March 2003:
Shampoo
Baby Wipes
Soap
Toothpaste
Hard Candy
Juice boxes
Snack food
Lip Balm
Combs
Sunscreen
Gum
Tylenol
Food Bars
Toilet Paper
Foot Powder
Small botthle of hand “no water” soap sanitizier
Band Aides
Canisters of presweetened Kool-Aid, Tea, and Lemonade
Mouthwash
User Paperback books
Toothpaste samples or floss
Sunday Comics
Extra condiment packets (sugar, ketchup)
Toothbrushes
Children’s drawings
Extra item in a pack (example: 6th gum free in a 5 pack)
Encouraging letters
Hotel shoe shine kits
Hotel small shampoo
Hotel small soap
Hotel small lotion
Hotel sewing kits
Hotel small conditioner
Hotel small mouth wash
As you can see, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to help the soldiers out. We donate things every week and it doesn’t cost me a cent extra from what we already do. Also, she will take ANY leftover Halloween candy you have!!!
They will also take any donated stamps or funds for stamps. Items and postage can be dropped off at (or mailed to) Oak View Center, 4625 West 110th St., Oak Lawn IL 60453. I’d just put a little note on there that it’s for the soldiers.
Tags: candy, education, food, halloween, iraq, shopping, Sugar, Trick-or-treating
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Monday, November 3rd, 2008
How was your Halloween? Here is Chicago we had a beautiful day. The last two Halloweens it was so cold that we have to dress the kids in layers of berghaus clothing, and they were still cold after about an hour. Not that they wanted to quit trick or treating or anything, but I was worried about how cold it was. However, this year, we didn’t have that problem. I think it was almost 70 degrees out. I definitely had the kids and myself overdressed. I actually found myself sweating at times. Isn’t that crazy?
We went with my neighbors and their kids and ended up trick or treating for about two hours. About half way through, we went back to our houses and got a wagon. Will was getting super heavy a that point. Bill would have been here to help, but he got stuck in a huge traffic jam trying to come home (obviously, everyone had the same idea to leave early). After the third house, I quit walking Will to the door. His 27 pounds gets quite heavy when you have to walk up porch steps several time. However, Madison made sure he was taken care of. She asked at almost every house for candy for her little brother. Then she would run to Will and put it in his pumpkin. It was cute, but highly embarassing for me.
After two hours, Bill ended up getting home, and we went to his brothers house. We were suppose to trick or treat over there, but the kids were pretty much done (which was fine with me, because I was beat). We just ended up ordering pizza, and the kids just played together.
All in all it was a pretty good day. How about you? How did you spend your Halloween?
Tags: Anything, Bill, brother, candy, Chicago, clothing, day, everyone, halloween, Halloweens, hour, house, idea, madison, Madness, pizza, porch, problem, pumpkin, sweating, time, traffic, trick, wagon, way
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Thursday, October 30th, 2008
Yes, we have already started celebrating Halloween. That happens when you have a little one in preschool. Since I have to dress Madison up anyway, I threw Will’s costume on too.
This would win any 2 and under cutest costume contest, right? I love this costume. It does come with a cute little hat. However, no matter how hard I try, he won’t keep it on. Madison came home already with an entire bag of candy from preschool. She’s already figured out how to sneak some of it already too! They trick or treated in her preschool building. Plus, all of us parent brought candy too! I do feel the need to smack the parents that brought pure sugar candy. Trust me, Madison does not need sugar to bounce off walls. You can only imagine how she is with sugar.
Madison would win for cutest costume 3 and up, don’t you think? I love this costume. It sucks that I caught the window glare in her glasses, but she looks super cute in her Cinderella costume. It is suppose to be in the high sixties tomorrow, so we shouldn’t have to wear our coats out trick or treating. We then are meeting at my sister-in-laws and going trick or treating by her house. We also have a Halloween party on Saturday. We have quite a busy couple of days just to celebrate Halloween!
Though I’d have to say that the best photo I took so far, I took at her preschool today:
She looks so excited and happy! What are you doing for Halloween?
Tags: bag, building, candy, cinderella, contest, Costume, couple, cutest, glare, halloween, hat, house, madison, matter, need, Parent, party, photo, Plus, right, saturday, Sugar, today, tomorrow, trick, Trust, window
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Sunday, May 18th, 2008
I saw the weirdest thing while I was checking out at Walgreens today (needed spaghetti sauce and didn’t realize I didn’t have any until I was making supper). There was a long line to checkout, so I was looking at the stuff that they had sitting there that they want to you to buy heading out. Normally, you see things like candy (which I ended up buying – lol). What surprised me was to see a pregnancy test among all the other stuff. Seriously, who is standing there checking out and goes “oh yeah, I need a pregnancy test”. It would be just as weird finding an ad or book about North Padre Island rentals. It is just not something you would think would be a high demand item checking out. Have you seen anything weird when checking out before?
Tags: candy, checkout, lol, north_padre_island, north_padre_island_rentals, pregnancy_test, spaghetti_sauce, walgreens
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Friday, April 25th, 2008
I am so bad. I have been so busy since I got back, I am finally now writing about this awesome event. I was contacted about this the day before my birthday (I know, what a great birthday present!!!). Sony wanted to talk to 15 mommy bloggers and give us some cameras (I didn’t know this last part till the day before I left for the trip!). All expenses paid trip, how could I say no?
I flew out on April 16th to San Diego. They got me an a flight through Midway (which I seriously needed since Midway is only 15 minutes away and Ohare is about an hour). Sitting in the airport always sucks, but I made due. My plane flight there sucked. A little girl screamed the whole way. This is why I don’t fly with my kids. I am terrified that is going to be me. The mom was by herself, and she walked up and down the aisle for the four and half hour flight. I felt so bad for her.
We then got to San Diego and I had a limo driver waiting for me. He had my name on a sign. It was super cool. I know I’ll never see that again. He took me to the La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla (it was about a half hour drive). The hotel was awesome (I’ll be writing about it on my travel blog, so I won’t go into too many details here). Sony had boxes set up in our room (to use to Fed Ex our cameras back). They also had left us headphones for our kids, a rose, and two chocolate candy bars. They obviously know the way to a woman’s heart. We were on our own for Wednesday night (though we did have a $50 certificate to use at the restaurant). I met up with Deanna and Anne Marie , and we went to dinner. I had filet mignon. It was super yummy. It was one of those steaks that you didn’t even have to chew it — it just melted in your mouth.
The next day we had to be at breakfast at 9:00. We had a buffet breakfast (which was awesome). This is the view we had from the room we were in. Beautiful, isn’t it? We spent the first two hours after that introducing ourselves. We then had lunch out in the beautiful sunshine. We were only out there for about an hour eating some of the best food ever and I got sunburned!!! Here’s a list of all the awesome ladies who were there (if you have more blogs that I haven’t listed, let me know and I’ll get them added):
After lunch, we got to learn about Sony and the impact of women on their business (Let me tell you, we have a huge impact!!!). We then got to start playing with the cameras we got. Oh wait, I didn’t show you the cameras yet —-
Camera #1: Sony Cybershot
Camera #2: Sony DSLR-A300K
Camera #3 – Handycam HDR-SR10
Yes, Sony gave us all three cameras! They also set aside time for us to work with their trainers so we could learn how to use them!
We then got instruction from photography expert Me Ra Koh. She gave us shooting instruction and tips of how to get specific results. She was really nice and she’s a blogger too!
We then got to go out to the beach and play with the cameras!
We then got a little bit of time to run up to our room and get ready for dinner. I took these pictures from my room!
We then met up with Sony and went to dinner at the Azul Restaurant. I got back to the hotel between 10 – 11 and went to bed.
On Friday, (April 18th), we met again for breakfast. Me Ra took some of our photos and critiqued them for us. She told us how to make our photos better. We then had a presentation from Rocket XL (the advertising agency who helped pull this all together). Us mommy bloggers ended up taking over that session with our opinions and thoughts.
After this session, we were able to do whatever we wanted till we caught our plane. Sony also gave us certificates for the spa, so I went and had a deep tissue massage. I then ate lunch and then had to get on my plane.
And that was my trip to San Diego!
Tags: 30, 300, 4d, ack, adi, Advice, ady, aisle, amazon, ava, babies, bed, bet, birthday, bling, blog, blogger, bloggers, blogs, blogspot, busines, cameras, candy, celebrity, certificat, chocolate, contact, cooks, dd, dsl, eed, eft, eta, eve, flickr, flo, fly, geek, girlfriend, headphone, heart, home, hose, ied, images, imo, ing, ins, ip, kids, ko, logs, lunch, mak, map, midway, mom, mommies, mommy, moms, mp, ot, pens, phone, photo, photograph, photography, photos, picture, rain, ramblings, rant, readable, sag, scream, smack, smackdown, sony, spa, stat, sun, sunburn, target, tea, ted, ter, terri, time, tina, train, umm, vent, wh
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