I’m Already Home…Again

About an hour ago, I came back to the office from participating in an amazing event. It was called “Stepup Wellness Bag Program.” It’s designed to benefit female cancer patients. Step Up Women’s Network is a national non-profit membership organization dedicated to strengthening community resources for woman and girls. I joined about 200 other women today at my local shopping mall to help pack bags full of wonderful donated “comfort” products to be distributed to women battling all forms of cancer. After we packed the bags, there were booths set up to give us massages, makeovers, food, music, etc. It was a blast! I met a couple really interesting women while I was eating.

My sister passed away 7 years ago from lymphoma and I watched a strong amazing woman try to keep everything together while fighting a simple loss of dignity. I wish there had been a program like this for her back then. I think it’s a national effort so if you see it pop up in your area, please take an hour or two to participate. It will change your day - at the very least! I’ll have some photos of the event up on this blog in the next couple of days…just as soon as I learn how to do it! I do know how to put photos up on my website (have someone else do it) so always check www.ImAlreadyHome.com for the latest Flat Daddy photos and newsletters. As always, thank you so much for what you do for each other as caring women. I promise to be better at posting to this blog, so check back.

I just wanted to share something really cool that happened this morning. A friend of mine, Kris O’Shea asked if we could go out for lunch today and she would pick me up at 11:00. The bell rang and I opened the door to find Kris, 3 wives (friends) from the Colorado National Guard and a television crew! Mitch Jelniker was the reporter and he presented me with the 7 Everyday Hero award from Channel 7 for the work with the free Flat Daddy project! I’m more honored than I can say and so proud that others thought it such a worthwhile project. I found out that the nomination came from Kris and Judy Sabah and Kris got ahold of my friends from the Guard who made the day just that much more special. They were here interviewing and filming for over an hour and were SO nice. It was a blast and I’ll admit when I first opened the door I’m thinking I won the Publisher’s Clearing House sweepstakes!   And yes, Kris and I DID go out to lunch after they left.
 
Anyway, I wanted to share that with you because I knew you’d all be pleased too. Here are the times (MST) that it will be airing in the Denver market and then will post to the Channel 7 website.
 
10pm  Sunday, Dec. 9th
5am   Monday, Dec. 10th
11am  Thursday, Dec. 13th
4pm   Friday, Dec. 14th
5pm  Saturday, Dec. 15th
7am  Sunday, Dec. 16th
 
I hope you can catch one of the broadcasts. Have a great rest of the week!

Happy Thanksgiving…or at least a couple of days past Thanksgiving. I like this holiday because of what it stands for: Giving thanks and finding ways to reach out to others. This time of the year finds many of us looking for ways we can help other people by sharing what means most to us. You know I’ve been involved in the free Flat Daddy project through SFC Graphics in Ohio (where they have given away over 4,000 free Flat Daddies so far this year) and have been honored to be asked to help with a cookie baking project in Ft. Collins, Colorado. The idea behind Flat Daddy was on the news today in North Dakota and you can watch a 30 second video all about it (with pictures) at the KFYRTV news station. I hope it makes you smile. Now for the cookies: Becky Helzer and her family are making 175 dozen cookies to be sent to our Colorado troops over in Iraq. Click here to read a short article about what the Helzer’s are doing and see a picture. I’m so proud of all that everyone is doing. So now is the time for you to think of what you can do in a small way for someone who needs you right in your own neighborhood. Think about it. It doesn’t have to be much. Maybe take a homebound neighbor out to do Christmas shopping. Can you baby sit? Offer to sit so a mom can get out and shop without the kids around. See how easy? Give thanks for all you have by giving of yourself to others…and have a wonderful Christmas season because of it! 

On September 11, I attended a remembrance ceremony. At noon, a Marine who had just returned from two tours in Iraq, approached the microphone to address the group of about 50 people. He looked so distinguished in his dress blue uniform. He took out his notes and started his speech. And then it happened: he began to shake. It started with his hands, then slowly took over the rest of his body. It caused his notes to shake and he tried shifting them from hand to hand to somehow calm his nerves…but to no avail. A part of me wished I could just stand next to him and put a calming hand on his arm but of course that would have been inappropriate. He had written a great speech, but was petrified to deliver it in front of others. It seemed so incongruent that this big strong Marine who had fought for over 3 years in Iraq could possibly be sidelined by a speech! It reinforced to me, how many of our fears come when we are thrust into unfamiliar circumstances outside of our zone of comfort. Dress him in his fatigues, give him his rifle and stand him in front of a seven-ton Hummer and he would be right at home – strong and unfailing. 

Every morning (or at least those when I get up early enough) I walk a few miles to start my day. This morning as I turned up the street towards home, I saw a mourning dove fluttering furiously around the street and lawns only about 3 inches off the ground. Her wings were flapping so hard and I could see that she was struggling to get airborne…but just couldn’t seem to. I thought that maybe she was hurt and I felt so bad as I watched her futile attempts to fly. All of a sudden a 2nd dove flew down from a nearby tree and began to fly all around the bird as she struggled. They were now both flying close to the ground and I thought they would get hit by a car! Then something amazing happened. After the 2nd bird flew around and around for about 10 seconds, the first bird who was having trouble all of a sudden started to rise up. Slowly and carefully she began to gain altitude right behind the dove who came down to lend a helping hand. Within moments, they were both flying gracefully through the sky to land high in the tree in our back yard.

I’d never seen anything like that before in the animal world: the encouragement of another doing all it can to help the struggling one soar. It was a beautiful show of support. I think of you in military families and the struggles you go through when your loved one leaves on a long…or even short…deployment. Sometimes it’s so tough just to figure out how to make it through a single day. And you feel so alone. I want you to know that you’re not alone. There are others around waiting to support you and help you back on  your feet. Don’t hesitate to accept anything offered to help you find your wings. Search out support in your FRG or FAC and please let others know what they can do for you. We’re here and will do anything we can to give you a lift. Please don’t ever be afraid to ask for help, or to accept it when someone swoops in to help you find your wings.

Every once in a while, just to unwind, I like to watch a few favorite old “classic” TV shows. One that I like is “Little House on the Prairie.” Yeah, I know, that’s really cheesy! The episode I saw yesterday was when the Ingalls family had just moved into their house on Plum Creek and were getting settled. Mary and her sister, 7 year old Laura, were making their new beds and loving how soft and comfy they were. Laura looked up at her Pa and said, “Home is the nicest word there is!” I have to say that brought a big smile to my face and here’s why:

Laura is absolutely right. I realize that right now, with the largest number of troops ever in Iraq at 162,000, many of our loved ones are NOT at home; they are just wishing they were. That’s where this posting comes in. If “Home” is the nicest word there is, then we need to always be doing our part to make sure that we are somehow bringing a piece of “Home” to our service members every day. Until they can be snuggled into their own soft beds back with you, what can you do to be sure they never feel far from home? Focus some thought on the simple ideas of webcams and emails, always send photos of everyday activities and be sure connections bear a bit of their favorite colors, sports teams, or scents – like baby wipes or perfume. Maybe it’s putting a piece of them in your home with a “Flat Daddy” or “Flat Mommy.” That will reinforce in their minds that they will always be in yours! Think – what can I do to send part of home to Iraq…or Afghanistan…or wherever those I love happen to be. If you’re looking for ideas, remember that the book “I’m Already Home…Again” has over 220 of them. If you need to find out more about Flat Daddy or Flat Mommy, go to http://www.flatdaddies.com/ for help. Take care everyone, and remember: “Keep family in your heart. They are the little bit of home you carry with you wherever you go!”

My husband and I are finishing our basement and we were painting the new drywall – yes, we actually CAN do jobs like this and not kill each other! My husband was a teacher and for extra money he painted houses professionally during the summers so he had all the right tools and equipment. We were doing a great job. Sometimes I was getting impatient because he was taking so much time to tape and cut and refused to spray…only roll the walls. I mentioned to him that painting seems to be a job that lot’s of homeowners do for themselves and THEY don’t take so long! His response to me, without missing a beat was, “I know…everybody thinks they can paint.” At first I thought it was kind of a smart-mouth comment, but I realized he was right. You can only do the best job when you have the right tools to work with and have the skills to know how to use them. That’s what makes the difference between a professional and amateur paint job, because everybody can’t paint.
 

I think it’s the same thing when it comes to thinking that we can take care of all of our problems by ourselves. Lot’s of times returning home after deployment can bring problems to the surface, or present new ones. Don’t be so quick to keep everything in and figure you can do it all yourself. We just might be amateurs at that and someone else will have the right “tools” and professional experience to help. Know that you have people and resources all around you who are there to help get you and your family through rough times. For instance, www.militaryonesource.com can help with everything from tax preparation to counseling. Remember…not everyone can paint, and not everyone can get themselves through challenges alone. Let someone with the right tools help you out occasionally.

I was listening to the radio yesterday when the morning trivia question came on. The question was: “76% of all teenagers have never used one of these.” What is it?  Of course my mind went to lots of things I used as a kid that have since gone the way of the horse and buggy so to speak, like a record player or a transistor radio. It was none of these. In fact I was way off track. The answer…a watch! Wow, all those young people have never used a watch. Hard to believe. So what DO they use? Their cell phones. I guess that does make sense. When I was growing up, I remember having a watch to match just about every outfit I owned and couldn’t imagine going anywhere without one. Now that I think about it though, I don’t have a watch on now, nor have I had one on all week. I use my cell phone for the time too.  Watch manufacturers are actually worried…with good reason…that they are making one more product that is soon to become obsolete.
That makes me think. Are we ever going to be able to “catch up” with where technology is taking us? To me it’s kind of scary. We no sooner have something than it’s out of date or style. It’s hard…no impossible…to keep up. I have a digital camera in my closet that’s perfectly good, but has been replaced by a new one because of new capabilities and size. It’s small enough to put in my purse so I always have it with me. My other one is just too bulky and inconvenient. Inconvenient…what a terrible reason to get rid of something! And what about those cell phones. We can’t get a new service plan on our old phones, we must buy a brand new phone whether we want one or not! So guess I should quit bellyaching and head out to buy a new MP3 player. After all, I need one that’s smaller than the one I’ve got!

The coolest thing happened last week. I’m sure you already know how popular “Flat Daddy” has become with military families missing someone due to deployment. It’s becoming even more popular since I partnered with SFC Graphics in a program we set up under OperationConnectAFamily.com to provide a “Flat Daddy” for FREE to any family who wants one. How great is that? Anyway, while I was at a conference about a month ago, I got a call from a reporter in New York wanting to do an interview about “Flat Daddy” – not so unusual – except that this reporter was from Tel Aviv, Israel! And here I thought that “Flat Daddy” was going to stay stateside. We talked for quite a while and when I asked why he was interested in this concept, he mentioned that Israel is always at war, and he felt that their families would love to find creative ways to stay connected too. Missing your family members fighting in a conflict is not exclusive to us, that’s for sure!  Well, last Friday an envelope arrived in the mail and inside was a hard copy of the Tel Aviv article – a full two-page spread – complete with “Flat Daddy” pictures! It looks great, and how weird it is to be written about in an article that I can’t read! I recognize the photos and have no idea what’s said. Since then I think I’ve found someone to translate it, and when I get a chance to see what it says, I’ll find a way to put a link to it in this blog so I can share it with you. In the meantime, know that “Flat Daddy” is now international having been written about in Israel and also in Taiwan. Way to go! Write me a comment and tell us if you’re using “Flat Daddy” and some of the places you’ve gone together.