Letter to a soldier

I just signed up to adopt a soldier. This means that a soldier has been assigned to me. I write to him once a week and send care packages twice a month. I believe it is a worthy cause. I am happy to bring a little comfort to someone willing to put their life on the line for my freedom. If you are interested go here http://www.soldiersangels.org/



March 2, 2009

Hey Christopher!

You are the soldier that I have adopted though Soldiers Angels. My name is Kim and I am 37 years old. I am married (to a man named Christopher) and we have three beautiful girls ages 11, 5, and 3 years old. I am also a full time college student at the local community college. Everything here keeps me very busy.

A friend of mine from school told me about Soldiers Angels. I really like the idea of being able to send care packages to a specific person such as you. I have done some projects in the past collecting and sending supplies. I try to do what I can when I can to support soldiers. You risk your life every day to protect my freedom. Every soldier is my hero. You fight for the freedom of the greatest country in the world. I thank you.

I cannot begin to imagine what life is like being so far away from home and the people that you love. I hope that you are comforted with the knowledge that you will one day be reunited with the people that you love. Are you married? Do you have children? I do not know how military wives stay so strong. I mean I guess you do what you have to do for your family and all but I do know that I would be a crappy military wife. My husband is out of town two weeks a month and that nearly drives me insane. Just like soldiers, military wives also get my respect. I’m very disorganized and I’m not the best housekeeper/homemaker. Yes, I would be a horrible military wife.

I’m a biology major in school. I’m transferring to SUNY Upstate Medical University in the fall. I’m going to be studying radiation therapy. I’m very excited about it. The program only accepts 14 students a year from all over the world. I’m honored to have been chosen.

Do you have any plans for when you come back home? Are you making the military a career? If not, do you have a job waiting for you or do you plan on going to college? Actually, quite a few of my friends in school are veterans. I’m sorry if I ask too many questions. As much as I would love to hear from you, I realize that you may not be able to write back to me.

I will be sending out a care package within the week. I will be sending things that Soldiers Angels recommend. If there is anything specific that you need or want please let me know. If I am able to get it to you, I will.

If you do have access to email you may have been sent my email address by Soldier’s Angels. I don’t use that one for regular correspondence, just to sign up for things. It really does reduce spam emails in my regularly used email. I hate spam. The email account that is best to get correspondence to me is _____________@gmail.com. This is the email that is connected to my phone so I would get it immediately.

I really hope that any correspondence, emails or care packages that I send make your days a little brighter. It would be worth everything to know that I can put a smile on your face even if it’s just for a little while.

I hope you don’t mind that I type your letters. I did honestly sit down and try to write a letter. I thought it would be more personal. It just seemed so messy to me. I didn’t think you wanted to decipher my handwriting. I’m just so used to typing everything that I do that this seems natural to me. I also think that if I do this then the letters will be much longer. I get frustrated with hand writing my letters or work. I kept making stupid mistakes when I was trying to write your letter. I would start over then make another mistake. I’m a little bit of a perfectionist is some ways. By the time I had started my fourth try at a letter to you I knew I had to get the computer back out. It has become an extension of me. I can’t seem to live without it.

Where are you from? How long have you been deployed? Regardless of how long, I’m sure that you miss home very much. I’m also sure that home misses you. Do you have others that write to you on a regular basis? Soldiers Angels asks that we write to our soldier at least once a week and send two care packages a month. That will be my minimum. I am going to try and write more than that. Some weeks I have more time than others and you might get more than the one letter.

So I guess that I will tell you about my day. Today is Sunday. We went to church this morning. We don’t always go to church and haven’t really found a “home” church. Our friend Eric (an Iraq War veteran) is in college studying to be a minister asked us to go to this church because he was asked to give the sermon. The regular minister was out of town. It was interesting because it’s just some people who get together in a recreation hall and have a church service because they don’t want to drive the 10 miles to get to the nearest Baptist church (it doesn’t matter that there is a Methodist church DIRECTLY across the street). Because it was held in a recreation hall there were pool tables and foos ball tables on the other side of the room. Now I know my husband was thinking he would much rather play pool or foos ball than sit and listen to a sermon. It was actually kind of funny. The sermon went well. Our friend Eric is very passionate and I know that he will one day make a fine minister. Today was his first sermon so it wasn’t the best I’ve ever heard but his passion for what he does was very clear.

We went out to eat after that to a restaurant that had the smallest bathroom I think I’ve ever been in. It was funny too because there was a constant line out the door. The bathroom was so small that you couldn’t even sit on the toilet straight. If you did then when you stood up the sink would hit you in the gut. I don’t even begin to know how a pregnant woman would use that bathroom. To top it off, it was hot as hell in there. There was a heater in this little bitty bathroom. I was in there with my two little girls and it was like clowns in a Volkswagon. Then when we tried to get out the people would not move to let us through. I had to say that if they wanted to get in there then they had to let us out. When I went up to wait in line a woman came out of the men’s bathroom. She was like, “I wasn’t waiting!” Crazy huh?

I live in ******, NY which is near Syracuse. It’s about smack in the middle of New York. Now if you are from somewhere far away or if you’ve never been here, you probably think New York City. Well it’s not. I live in a small city (I really wonder how it can be called a city at all) and there is a lot of rural area around us. Today we drove through a rural area called Montezuma, NY. There is a wildlife sanctuary there. Bald eagles nest there. They like to nest on the top of the power line towers. I’ve never seen nests this big in my life. They are absolutely huge. We didn’t actually see eagles today. I don’t even know if they stick around during the winter. We do see them a lot in the spring and summer though.

It’s so cold and snowy where we live. We get a lot of lake effect snow from Lake Ontario. I love it for the first snow. It’s always so pretty. After that, I hate it for the rest of the winter. We have actually thought about moving somewhere warmer when I get out of college and look for a job. I don’t know though. My husband grew up here and I’ve been here for twenty years. I’ve lived in other states. I was born and raised in the suburbs of Baltimore, MD. I lived in southern Pennsylvania. We moved out to Missouri (Springfield) and then to New York.

Okay so I have to end this for tonight. I have a pre-calculus test tomorrow at 9am sharp. I have a chemistry exam on Wednesday at 10am. I must start studying. This is one of the weeks that my husband is gone so it is more stressful than usual. It doesn’t help that I am a master procrastinator. Not only am I a procrastinator but I am also a perfectionist when it comes to school work and exams. Not a good combination let me tell you. I seem to put a lot more stress on myself than need be.
I will leave you with some quotes:

"Battles are sometimes won by generals; wars are nearly always won by sergeants and privates."
-F.E. Adcock, British classical scholar

My favorite is the one that I live by. It came from a fortune cookie last year. I have it taped to my blackberry case because that’s what I look at most in a day. It says:

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.

I will write to you again within a week and get a care package sent out. Good bye for now. Stay safe, stay warm and be as comfortable as possible where ever you are. Email me if you get a chance. Write me if possible. If anything at all write or email any special requests for care packages you may have to me if you can. Regardless if I hear from you or not, this is what you can expect from me.

Your Biggest Fan,

Kim

Close of the Summer

I'm trying to adjust my mental thought dials from "on vacation" to "back to school". There's a lot of change going on around here right now.

I just had my gall bladder out on Thursday. It wasn't near as painful as I thought it would be. I haven't had any problems and have enjoyed the pain medication. I still can't sleep on my bed because it is too firm which causes pain. I've been camping out on the couch watching the Olympics every night. Michael Phelps' gold medal sweep has kept me thoroughly entertained.

Monica is going back to school. I will not let her go to the public school here so she will be attending a private school. It was just a high school but they aquired a new building and have added grades 6 - 8. I'm very excited for her. She wanted to go back to a "brick and mortar" school. We've been homeschooling for the last two years. She's not excited about having to wear uniforms but I know that this school will be the best for her. They have thirty children enrolled in the middle school grades and six teachers dedicated to those middle school students. That is an excellent ratio if you ask me. I loved homeschooling Monica and will miss it so much. I just don't want to force her to do it if she doesn't want to right now. Who knows what the future holds? She may decide that she wants to homeschool again. I would take her back with open arms if she hates this new school. I don't think that will be the case though.

Alexandra and Lucianna will be going to daycare full time. Alex has done this before and is excited. Lucianna has never been in daycare outside the home. Everyone keeps telling me she will be fine and it may even be good for her. I hope they are right. I'm always very skeptical about daycare.

I will be starting school with a heavy course load. I am also vice president of the student body. I still chuckle everytime I say it. At first I became involved in school to prove my leadership abilities and be a good role model for the girls. Now I'm having a blast and I like being involved in extracurricular activities. I also hold offices in the Non Traditional Student Club and Phi Theta Kappa. It's a lot of work but a lot of fun.

Alternatives

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It Happened!

Okay, so it happened and I don't even know when. I am officially old! I just looked through a "fashion" magazine and did not see one single thing that I liked. Not that I've ever been into fashion or anything, but not ONE SINGLE OUTFIT was even remotely appealing.

And I Thought that I've Had Bad Days.....