Soldiers’ Angels

Have you ever thought about volunteering with a group or an organization, but couldn’t really commit to anything due to your schedule? I’ve thought about volunteering at a local nursing home, or at the animal shelter on several occasions in the past. However, our schedule is usually pretty packed. I can’t commit to showing up on the same day/time every week. And so, I normally choose to just donate money or help with fundraising. With Halloween around the corner we normally go trick or treating at one or two of the local nursing home facilities before hitting the town. We try to do this every year. It makes me so happy to see the looks on the residents faces when we are able to stop by. This is why I started looking into other ways of helping out. Something that I could fit into my schedule. And that’s why I wanted to talk to you about this organization called “Soldiers’ Angels”.

When my brother was at boot camp we did everything to find out how to stay in touch with him. We were told via the unit Facebook page that letters were really important because hearing from home was a huge morale booster. So we wrote letters all of the time, and from what I was told he was one of the few men in his unit that received them almost daily. This got me thinking about how many soldiers there are out there that may not get letters from home regularly. And so the search began for ways to help. After some research I came across Soldiers’ Angels. They provide support for veterans, deployed troops, wounded soldiers, and their families in various different ways. From writing letters to sending cards. From sending care packages to hosting virtual baby showers. And they also have hundreds of in person volunteer opportunities for those that can dedicate the time. These range from food drives, outreach programs, and lending a hand at local VA hospitals. And that’s just the beginning. If you want to know more about the various volunteer programs they offer you can visit their "Program Support" page here, or their “Ways to Give” page here to learn more about monetary donations and how they’re used.

Today, I just wanted shed some light on the program I decided to join through them. First, in order to become a member they ask that you donate a minimum of a dollar per month. For me, this was super easy to say yes to. Once you sign up, and have been approved you are able to choose one or more programs to participate in. I chose to join the “Letter Writing Team”. You are given the option of writing one letter a month, or up to two letters per day. The minimum required is once a month for at least three months. You then write a one-time letter to a service member that’s been assigned to you. You see, sometimes there is a wait time before a member has been adopted for the duration of their deployment by someone in the "Deployed Adoption" team. They are the ones who send letters and care packages once a month to a service member for the entirety of their deployment. So, as soon as these service members sign up, their names/information are added to the wait-list. These names are then given to the volunteers in the L-W-T. Once they've been adopted by an angel their information is removed from the list. After you've sent your letter you log how much you spent, and if you wrote to a certain assigned troop more than once. That's it! I normally write between two to four letters a month depending on my schedule. It normally consists of some information about myself, my family life, our community, some words of encouragement, and just letting them know how grateful I am for the work that they do. It’s that simple. Sometimes you hear back from the person you wrote, and other times you don’t. But that’s basically the point of being on the L-W-T. You are sending out some positivity to troops who may not be hearing from home that frequently. It’s meant to help them pass the time, or be a bit of a distraction while they wait for their long-term angel volunteer.

Now as someone who has a very inconsistent schedule I found that this organization is a perfect fit for me. It’s a way for me to give back, a way to support our troops, and I’m able to do it whenever I have the free time. This was the major selling point for me. My experience with this organization  has been great so far too. They have Facebook groups for each team that you can join, and they send out emails a couple of times a month to just check in or let you know about certain events going on. When I first started I was a little clueless about the procedures, the do's & don'ts, and everyone was really helpful. I’m hoping that by next year I’ll be able to join the Deployed Adoption team, but right now I’m on a pretty strict budget. For the time being, I’ll stick to writing letters or sending cards. So, if this sounds like something that you may be interested in I highly suggest you check them out, and if you have any questions feel free to reach out! 

A Few Things I Want To Address

Okay, so this month is going to be all kinds of mixed up. I normally have the "scheduled" posts for the month ready a few weeks in advance, and the book reviews are normally already written up within the same time frame. Here we are already into the second full week of the month and as of right now the "currently" post hasn't even met it's first outline. And I haven't even finished the book for July either. So, I'll leave both of those to be published towards the end of the month. Fingers crossed that I can get them done by then. I also have one more product review that I'd like to get posted, but I'm not forcing that one. If I have to wait until August, I will. I'm completely out of my comfort zone guys, and I feel like this month is just a lot more chaotic than I had hoped. I've tried to establish a schedule, and I have this weird thing about consistent patterns that I liked to stick to when posting. All of that went out the window for July though! Yup, I dropped the ball. That'll teach you to trust me when I say "I'm hoping to be more consistent, and bring more content" doesn't it? 

Last week when I wrote this particular post I was babysitting a Dos XX bottle as I typed it up. I was feeling this sense of "I don't give a fuck, bring it" to whatever had been bothering me that day. I was tired, agitated, and my anxiety was kicking my ass. So, I had myself a beer. And it helped with turning my thoughts of anger into this hazy ball of mush that I could address on another day. So, here we go. Another day. I finally decided that I wanted to go back to school, sooner rather than later. Since Tarleton screwed me over I can't resume classes there until what I "owe them" is repaid. I was able to get my government loans deferred until the end of the year so I'm saving money right now to be put towards that large ass sum. In the meantime I'm going to try and attend the previous college I received my Associates from. I want to take a few catch up classes, and take as many courses as I'm allowed before having to transfer over to the university again. I plan on stopping by their office, and speaking to an adviser before the end of July to get that in order. 

Next up, marriage. Mine is a huge mess about 30% of the time these days. And I won't lie to any of you: the majority of it has to do with addiction, mental health issues, & a big ass dose of denial. We've been down this road before y'all, and I was told that it would be something we'd have to battle or deal with for the rest of our lives. Some years will be better than others, but I have to either be in it for the long haul or remove myself in order to not make things worse. Now, I know some people don't believe these are valid excuses, and they think that we should all just "man up". But just know that I'm doing my best to figure out what we need to do as a family right now. It's not easy to go through this, and to have these issues within a relationship. Even worse when it's a relationship that's created a family. I know there's a lot of bad that's happened, and people have definitely questioned my sanity. Some of the stuff that was said, that I was put through, or that I found out about are still very much on my mind. But like I've stated before I feel like I'm doing my best to be supportive, and helpful. My family always comes first, and that includes my marriage. Regardless of the state that it's in. However, in order to not bring on so much confusion and to focus more on our families recovery, I'm going to limit how much/how often I post in regards to my marriage. I don't want to sound like a broken record, and I just feel like this is something we need to take on privately from here on out. Of course I'll update from time to time, but it won't be in the same way I had before. 

And finally, I've been doing some soul searching in regards to what/who I want to be when I grow up. I've started to write down some goals, and really stepped back to see what's been causing me a lot of anxiety/stress at work. I've noticed that there's some unhappiness in other areas of my life that left me feeling very unfulfilled, and drained by the end of my workday. I've known for awhile that I wanted to graduate with a specific degree and I'm still aiming for it, but what then? What happens when/if I achieve that goal? Do I want to stay where I'm at or do I want to explore other options? Are there even any other options for me? I know people talk about the things that they want to do, and what makes them happy in their careers but I've never really truly taken a closer look into mine. I live paycheck to paycheck, and it's never been about anything else for me. I do my time at an 8-5 job because I must. So, what happens if I were to be offered something else? What would I do if I were able to have enough stability to decided what I wanted to do in the future? Would it be the same, or would things change? I'll tell you guys all about it in my next post so stay tuned. 

#RedBalloonsforRyan

Today, as I checked my instagram feed I saw that several people within the blogging community were sharing these pictures of a beautiful, fiery red-haired, little boy. A smile that I could just hear the giggles coming from even though I had never actually heard them before in my life graced my dashboard. In fact, up until this morning I had never seen him, or read his mother’s blog. However, all of these posts were asking for support. For prayer and words of encouragement as these two parents grieved for the loss of their precious baby boy. They asked the readers and followers to wear red, to release red balloons, or just share words of comfort for the family. So I will, and now I pass this on to you. 

To read more about this story please visit Alissa Circle's blog, Diary of an Addict. If you would like to help the Saldana family by making a donation you can go here, or through this blog directly. To make a purchase in Ryan's honor, with proceeds going to the family, you can go here, or find a list of other stores here. Alissa has asked that any words of support & prayer spread through social media be tagged #RedBalloonsforRyan.  

I cannot imagine the pain this family is going through. This story breaks my heart, and I couldn't possibly put into eloquent enough words the pain I feel for them. Instead, I'll just put them in my prayers tonight. I'll wear red tomorrow, and I'll do something to pay it forward in honor of Ryan, the wonderful little light, gone far too soon.  


p.s. The photos of the family were taken from Jacqui's instagram (Ryan's mom). You can click the pictures for the source. The #redballoonsforryan banner was taken from a repost on instagram, so I am not sure who originally created it. 

Hello :)

I've made it a rule to not post on weekends because that’s our family time. During the week I have a full-time job, go to college, attempt to keep my house in order, and try to find time to write. So weekends I dedicate myself completely to my family and friends. My “listen” posts are scheduled on Friday’s. Well, this morning I logged onto my dashboard because I realized that I only posted once last week and I believe you guys deserved a lot more than that. Unfortunately, a lot of things have been going on lately so May turned into a pretty busy month for us. But when I logged in my page view counter had skyrocketed! 

Now, I've stated before that this blog is for me. I don’t advertise or promote my blog like many of you. I wish I had the time to do so, but I just don’t. Nor do I feel like I have that kind of energy or dedication. I mean, I went a whole week without posting so what does that tell you? Anyway, those that find me usually do so by accident and I’m truly grateful for their support. So to go from 20 views a day, to 160...well, that grabbed my attention. So, instead of writing down my normal post, I felt like I should say hello!

So...hello!

I just wanted to welcome all of y’all to my little blog. I know many of you are probably coming over from Erica’s blog. A big THANK YOU goes out to her for giving me a shout out on her blog when she didn't have to. I've been following her blog for over a year now and she’s just down right awesome, isn't she? Had I known sooner that she had mentioned my blog I would have posted this yesterday. Instead, y’all got a half assed post put together by yours truly while suffering from a severe case of esophagitis. Sorry, about that! Lets hope that wasn't your forever first impression of me. :)

Anywho, for those of you that are visiting my name is Raquel. I’m a 25 year old mother and wife living in central Texas. We currently live in a small town where the cows outnumber the people. During the summer we get a kick out of the local volunteer fire department as they try to find there way around during drills. It's a lot funnier than it sounds, trust me. As proud as I am to have been born and raised in Texas I fell in love with Murrieta, California after living there for a year. I hope to one day make it back to the west coast. Family means everything to me, and they're also a pretty big reason why I found myself back in Texas. Now if that's not enough information for ya, or if you're just dying to know more about us feel free to click here.

This blog contains everything and nothing at all about us. I use it to write about my every day life which more often than not is pretty boring. That said, I put my heart out there. I’m pretty uncensored, and at times a little random. I write with myself and my daughter in mind so everything you read is 100% me; no sugarcoating. So to all of you that are coming through, thanks for checking us out! And for those that decide to follow along, thank you for your support! I’m really honored that you found my life interesting enough to want to read more.

And again, I just want to say THANK YOU, to the lovely Erica for her support. 

You're one awesome lady and such a great mom! 
You've definitely been an inspiration. 
I'm glad I came across your blog over a year ago!