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Give to the Max Day: Our Military Kids
A few years ago hubs was in Iraq and I was the temporary-single mother of three boys. I am now a sometimes-single mom of four boys and life has forever changed since Iraq for our family. There was a recent amicable discussion amongst friends about the needs of grants and scholarships and such when the soldier is off in a war zone. A lot of times the pay is a bit higher because of the danger they are in … so is there really a need for great organizations like Our Military Kids, or free YMCA memberships, or other financial support? My answer? A resounding YES! Life was busy. But American…
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Routine
First of all I want to announce we have a winner! Fellow Army Spouse, Sarah, is our winner. She is a Family Newsletter Subscriber AND as an added bonus she is a fellow Twitter-er. (Do you twitter? @MilAve_Leanne) Congratulations, Sarah! We hope you enjoy your new iPod from MilitaryAvenue.com and USAA. Our next drawing for ‘Rockin’ the Avenue‘ will be around May 1st. Join. Subscribe. WIN! And now back to our regularly scheduled reading material… Routine… it is what keeps me going. Two days a week my preschooler goes to child-care, two days a week he goes to preschool. Thursday is “our” day, we change sheets & do laundry and…
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Swim Lessons
We had our VERY first swim-lessons on Saturday. I was taking advantage of our new YMCA membership & wanted to get my water-loving, but non-swimming boys enrolled in swim lessons. *E*, 6 years-old was very excited. *C*, 3 years-old was a little timid but a little excited because big-brother was excited. Once we were to the Y *C* declared right-away he was “not going in the big-pool”. Sigh… I was glad that *E*’s lessons started 15 minutes before his, in hopes he would see his brother in the pool and get over his fear of non-baby size pools. They called *E*’s class to the pool. There were three boys, the…
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The YMCA is serving our deployed military-families
Yesterday while my oldest two were at school and my youngest was at the babysitter I made our way to our local YMCA. I was very excited to read that many YMCAs were giving free memberships to deployed families (about a $700 yearly-value for my family of five). Two weeks ago I contacted the Y here in Ohio to be sure they were participating and ‘JACKPOT!’ they were. I told them I would be in ASAP to fill out the paperwork and wouldn’t you know life happened! (Sinus infections, impetigo, and a knee that needs physical therapy … all in two weeks for my boys.) My ASAP took a little…
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Armed Services YMCA (ASYMCA) Operation Kid Comfort Program
I just received this information from our FRG leader and thought I would pass it along for our deployed-families out there: Armed Services YMCA (ASYMCA) Operation Kid Comfort ProgramThis program is designed to address the emotional stress that children of military personnel suffer during a parent’s absence from home. Operation KidComfort serves children of deployed Service members. ASYMCA volunteers collect photographs from military families to make “photo-transfer” quilts (for children 5 years old and under; pillows for those over 5) that bear the images of the deployed family member, alone or interacting with the family. Photographs of the deployed parent are scanned into a computer, printed, and then placed onto…