Meet Josh!

Here are a couple pictures of Josh that I ummmm borrowed from his sister's facebook :)

Josh and his sister, Amy:

Josh and his other sister (and my good friend) Angie:

Doesn't he just look like the nicest guy?

The Spirit of Giving

Each round I am continually amazed by the generosity of everyone involved. I've received many emails, from people on both teams, telling me about everything they have/will send. It is just blows my mind.

Eventually Matt will be my brother in law so basically, he is my family. Josh's sister, Angie, is a good friend of mine that is more like family than a friend. Therefore Josh is family by association. Follow me? I hope so ;)

I want to thank all of the members (past and present) for taking care of my family. I know the men/women that are deployed appreciate it far more than words can say but don't forget that those of us that have loved ones over there also appreciate your generosity. It is comforting to know many other people, from all over the United States, are doing everything they can to take care of our family. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Ok.. Now I am getting all mushy. I need a tissue.

Cookie Ideas

Each round I try to find a new cookie recipe to try out. I myself am a good ole fashioned chocolate chip cookie lover. And avid cookie chocolate chip cookie dough eater. Now, before you get on my case about salmonella and all of the nasty things associated with such an illness, I want to assure you I do not eat bucket loads of raw dough. We are talking about is the smallest of small itty-bitty tasting of the dough. I am just as scared of salmonella as you are so I resist the urge to plunge my face into the bowl of raw dough and eat up.
What I cannot resist? The fresh from the oven, piping hot, barely removed from the cookie sheet and put onto the cooling rack perfect chocolate chip cookie. But that addiction is a whole other story for another day and another blog.

This round I am going to try out two recipes I found on the Pioneer Woman blog. Have you ever heard of her? If not, take some time to check out her blog. It is amazing. Life changing really..
Just a warning: Your baking time may seriously reduced due to being sucked in by the Pioneer Woman's antics. I could spend days reading her stuff!
Here are the links to the two recipes I found on her site:
Everything Cookies
Monster Cookies

Even now, I got side tracked by looking at even more recipes on her blog. SO many good treats on there!!! Take the time to look through her dessert recipes. Lots of stuff!

Once you're done baking for our troops, give this recipe a try. It is to die for. Absolutely unbelievable! You deserve a little reward for all of your hard work!

Round 26: CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Here we are folks! The Christmas round. I love this round. I love Christmas and the spirit of giving. There's something extra special about blessing someone at Christmas, isn't there? Imagine being thousands of miles away from your spouse, kids, parents, friends, and extended family. I think I would shrivel up and die. Honestly. My family is everything to me.

I've always loved to bake so when I heard about Operation Baking GALS I was all in. What a great way to combine my love for baking and my love for giving. I'm not sure how many rounds I have baked for but I never tire of it. It is just as fun each time. I'm not sure who it blesses more: me or the recipient.

I am excited to be hosting 2 teams this round.
1)Team Fire & Icing. Reciepent is my boyfriends brother, Matt. We've already sent him packages the last 2 rounds. They are having fun with it for sure. Matt was in Iraq when I first started dating his brother so I didn't meet him right away. Shortly after his return we found out he would be deployed to Afghanistan in 2010. Now here we are. I've emailed Matt back and forth and he is definitely missing home right now. I hope we can make this round extra special for him and his unit.

2) Team Baking Blessings. Recipient is the brother of someone I met in college. I believe this is Josh's first deployment. He is a christian and has a huge loving heart. This shouldn't surprise me because his sister and my friend from college, Angie, is one of the sweetest people I know. Their family is close-knit and I know he will really be missing home this holiday season.

I am encouraging everyone on my teams to make/write our christmas cards to each of the recipent. I am also hoping they will get their friends and family involved by having them write out some cards too.  I've started Operation Christmas Blessing through my other blog. I have high hopes for this round!

Matt's Promotion

Recently Matt was promoted from Corporal to Sargeant. We are all so proud of him! I'm sure they still had some cookies and goodies around to celebrate!

Here are a few pictures from his promotion. A couple of them are just of him thanking people for coming. The other is a friend of his that he's known since his training in Pensecola. She's also married to another friend of Matt's that he has deployed with.

She was smart enough to snap some pictures!

Round 25! Baking for Matt

Well its been a while since I wrote anything on the team blog! I took a break from hosting a team but good news:

I'm baaaaaaaaaccccccckkkkk!

My boyfriend's brother, Matt, was just deployed to Afghanistan in mid august so guess who is the recipient for the next few rounds? ;). Don't worry, I save a few of the cookies for the boyfriend. He still gets some of the cookie love. Matt and his unit are pretty excited about the packages they have been getting. Matt says they all appreciate more than we will ever know.

Every time I get an email from one of my team members, I am blown away with the generosity people have in their hearts. First of all, some of these ladies are packing machines! They list everything they have put in a box and I wonder to myself "how in the world did they fit all of that into one box?!" simply incredible!

Thank you Team Fire & Icing for showing Matt's unit so much love! You are all amazing!

Coming Home!

Just wanted to update everyone that Crystal and the 335th Fighter Squadron "Mighty Chiefs" are heading home soon. They will be leaving Afghanistan on January 3rd. Crystal asked that I pass along a big "thank you" from the entire squadron for the goodies and everything that was sent! They were much appreciated.Please pray for safe travels for all of them. I will coordinating with the squadron taking their place and we will possibly start sending goodies to the 494th squadron "Panthers". Thank you everyone for sending the boxes full of items!