Almost Gypsy Soul

I've got a special treat for you guys today. Jaron was my soldier when I volunteered with an organization called Soldier's Angels. I gained as much from our friendship as he has and I am truly honored to call him and his wife, Maggie friends....even though we haven't yet met in person. Please take time to read Jaron's story and check out the Clayton's dream of  Running Dogs Brewery, the brewery for Vets by Vets! Thank you Jaron for sharing your story with Almost Gypsy Soul! And I can't wait until you are up and running, I'll be headed West for a visit and a big tall beer! Dear Almost Gypsy Soul Readers, My name is Jaron Clayton and met Jennifer in 2008 in a letter received while in Iraq explaining that she was my Soldiers Angel. This surprised me to say the least I had no idea that there were people that would care enough to write a complete stranger asking what we needed and wanted while we were away from home. The care ...

Grab the button (at the bottom of my page), link up and share what feeds your soul! This week so many things feed my soul. The fact that we live in a free country, thanks to so many who have sacrificed so much. Friends that really come through. Friends of friends that come through. Thankfulness, gratefulness, honesty, creativity, love, kiddos and Duck Dynasty! We are thankful for the many, many soldiers past, present and future that selflessly serve our great country and protect our freedoms, and that's a fact, JACK! After the initial Duck Dynasty edition of Letters to a Solider , I received a request for DD care packages for a whole unit that had been deployed. I was a little nervous about "adopting" a whole unit, even if is only for one project, so I "enlisted" a bunch of friends to help me. I knew I had good friends, but this Operation Duck Dynasty proved to me that not only do I have good great friends, but the friends of my friends are great! ...

I had a little surprise on an old Letters to a Soldier blog post a few days ago, a comment from an anonymous user. Now I've had some spammy comments so I was a little unsure as to the validity of the comment, but decided to check it out.  I tracked down the FRG of this particular unit and asked about the validity of the deployment, names given, mail stop date etc. I quickly got a reply back that yes they were a real unit, those are real names and they were just deployed not too long ago. So this is the comment that I received (with a little editing) MAY I PLEASE HAVE SOMEONE SEND MY TEAM AND I SOME DUCK DYNASTY CARE PACKAGES TO AFGHANISTAN WHERE WE ARE DEPLOYED. I included there sizes just in case. I didn't tell any of these people that they would receive a care package just in case it doesn't happen. You can also find our address on face book. Now since I am currently without an adopted soldier I decided to take on this request and I'm asking you to enlis...

What better trip to revisit to than Washington D.C. to celebrate Memorial Day. Washington D.C. is rich with history and memorials remembering the fallen ones of our country. Past, p resent and future military...... THANK YOU! Happy Memorial Day! Did you thank a veteran today?

"I can rise and shine, but not at the same time" ~ Maxine but hopefully this little care package will give my adopted soldiers a shot at rising and shining at the same time!   The rise and shine package included some yummy Dunkin' Donuts coffee for those days where there is time for real coffee, some on the go Folgers singles for those days where there isn't time for a cup of Joe, lots of breakfast snacks like poptarts, oatmeal and donut sticks. All these treats will be after Morning Burst face wash, given the teeth a good brushing and a shave. Any no care package would be  complete without some homemade cookies....oatmeal of course because after all it is a "breakfast" theme. And to top off my week, I got a little shoutout on the Facebook from my second adopted soldier. Thanks jennifer dutton for the care package. It always feels good to know people still care. God bless and thanks again.

This is pretty much the most amazing theme care packages ever (I might be a little biased, but lets just ignore that for now while I revel in my genius). I present to you..........  Y OU TOLD ME TO BRING STUFF. STUFF IS A VERY BROAD TERM. ~SI I covered the in side of the boxes with camo duck tape and filled it to the top with some wicked awesome goodies like "Duck Dynasty makes me HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY" ~Phil, Duck Dynasty Season 1 "If you put camouflage on anything it automatically makes it cool" ~Jace, camo cupcakes "Fear the Beard" costume beards "Help me! I falled and I dropped my tea" ~Si, tea bags "Eatin' squirrel brains is where you get your smarts" ~Miss Kay, "squirrel" summer sausage "If you are too busy to hunt ducks, then you are too busy" ~Jace, nerf guns with rubber duck targets "So now that I have my permit, I know I can't eat a donut and keep my hands at 10 & 2...

I hope that my soldier enjoys celebrating holidays well after the day that they actually occur as his Valentines Day care package is currently sitting on my kitchen counter....still not even boxed up! [In my defense, I did get them in the mail approximately one week ago, so they won't be a whole month late!] If I do say so myself though, he will be so excited about the yummy treats that he won't even remember that the Valentines Day box didn't make it in time for Valentines Day! I attempted made these cute little valentine pretzel buttons ,  made jars of cupid kisses , changed up at little bit. Mine had both M&Ms and pretzels in little ball jars, included the ingredients for one of my favorite childhood treats, graham cracker and frosting (with valentines sprinkles) sandwich cookies, some 2-in-1 men's shampoo and AXE that I had some really great coupons for. I also picked up another soldier. A friend that I met a while back was deployed about 5 months ago....

Did you know MREs can have a shelf life of up to 60 months? That is 5 years! longer than it took me to pay off my car (well the first time.....but thats another story). Not to mention that even if soldier is lucky enough to avoid MREs a majority of the time, they will still eat in a "cafeteria" on base.....can't imagine this is that delicious either. So I put together this little MRE Survival Kit to send to my adopted soldier. And I hope that it is useful, but honestly.....who can't use Taco Bell sauce? MRE Survival Kit I may or may not schedule special trips to Taco Bell just to re-stock my Taco Bell sauce stash at my house. Looks like its time for a Taco Bell run!

I was on a flight somewhere sitting in DFW on layover where there was a group of soldiers leaving for deployment. Many leaving had wives/husbands, kids, friends there to see them off. As I sat there "reading" my book, watching the various interactions, fighting back my own tears I noticed the one soldier who was sitting one row over with his head in his hands. There was no one there to see him off, to give him a hug and a come back safe. Was it his choice? maybe. But I couldn't stand the though of him being over there and not having anyone checking in on him, sending him letters, telling him how much his sacrifice was appreciated, sending him corny care packages. As I took my seat on the flight and we took off, I found out that the guy that was sitting next to me was a Blackhawk pilot, heading back to the Sandbox for the 2nd half of his 2nd deployment. He was an amazing guy. As we were landing all the passengers participated in a round of applause in tha...