operation hi honey! from canvas on demand

a while back i was flipping through the coupon saver from the commissary and found this and nearly started bawling like a baby. canvas on demand is doing a program where you (actually your hero) can have your favorite picture of you, your hero, your family, printed on a canvas and delivered to you, for free on a 16"x20" pixelpainted canvas.

check them out at: http://cool.canvasondemand.com/2009/operation-hi-mom-honey/announcing-operation-hi-honey/

the little things that help

so this is deployment #3 for me, deployment #2 for lil man and deployment #4 for hubby. and along the way, we have found little things that have helped. here are a few we are using for our current deployment:

i filled a jar with 'kisses' for lil man and for our hero. there are the same number of kisses in each jar, counting down until our hero is home again.

after reading paper hugs, we all traced our hands and wrote special messages on them for each other. our hero left his 'hands' with us and took our 'hands' with him. every evening, our lil man gets a 'hug' and a 'kiss' from daddy.

to help our hero remember how loved he is, we wrote little 'love notes' and stuck them in his gear so as he unpacked, he would be reminded just how much we love him.

daddy recorded himself reading bedtime stories for our lil man. not only does it help having daddy as part of the bedtime routine still, it has helped lil man with his literacy skills.

and nothing beats snuggling up with 'daddy cheetah' at night. daddy made a build-a-bear for our lil man and recorded a special message for him. we did the same for our hero to take downrange with him.

recordable books have been a big hit this go around too!

lil man has a 'daddy doll' from operation give a hug. it's been great to have 'daddy' to take with us everywhere in a small version. www.operationgiveahug.org

milawear bracelets and more: feeling closer so far away

so i found these bracelets one day some time back and never more have they helped me feel a little closer to my hero when he's so far away.

these bracelets are made from para cord (the stuff they use to make their jump beads on and tie up their gear and a million other uses) by veterans. so not only are you helping employ vets, you are able to personalize your bracelet (or if you want a dog collar or lanyard) and for me personally, i feel like i'm getting something that keeps my hero close to me when he's so far away.

check them out at: www.milawear.com