Phone cards for the Troops & Breakfast Burritos

Foti and I decided that we are going to start doing more charity work in the new year. But, we figure why wait until January 2009 to start helping others? We decided to participate in an event to help raise money to buy phone cards for the troops overseas. This time is especially hard for them because they are away from their loved ones during the upcoming holidays. It's a time where we all blindly indulge in our favorite foods, surround ourselves with family and surprise our loved ones with christmas cheer and generosity. No matter what your political views on the war, we can all pretty much agree that being deployed overseas on Thanksgiving and Christmas sucks.

Today a local radio station, KLBJ and some people from my husband's station(FOX 7), all worked together to raise money for calling cards for the troops. Last year they made 100k, but with our struggling economy, not everyone could afford to be as generous. We still persevered and worked together in dreary weather to get as many donations as possible.

There were 2 highlights of my day! The first highlight was a retired trooper who personally donated 2 boxes of phone cards. Each card had 200 minutes too! It was incredibly inspiring and an amazing gesture of compassion =) All the volunteers were touched by his generosity and personal stories from when he was in the war.




Last and definitely least important, I discovered I don't completely hate breakfast burritos. Hate is such a strong word and I don't like using it. Yet, it pretty much sums up how I feel about breakfast in the form of a burrito. It's like eating hot soup mid-May, just not an appetizing scenario. I'm not totally a convert. No, no, no. Did I say that ? I still think eating a fresh, crisp apple is a way better breakfast than a morning burrito concoction. I'm sticking to that! However, I guess there are exceptions. Today I learned that breakfast burritos are OK if it's freezing cold, extremely early in the morning, if you're volunteering and if they were donated and made with love. In that exact case, they aren't half bad. They got me through the afternoon. That's as far as I'm willing go. (Trust me, it's major progress.) Food made with love can definitely move mountains or in my case, not hate a dish. Same thing pretty much.

Basically, charity rocks and breakfast burritos aren't inedible.