Today is National Military Appreciation Day. Do you know a soldier’s email address? Send him or her a nice e-card thanking him/her for his/her service and support! American Greetings has a nice selection in their Celebrate the Date section.

Also, don’t forget that the Friday before Mother’s Day (tomorrow!!!) is Military Spouse Appreciation Day!

(x-posted to my blog)

Here are a few entries from the Soldiers’ Angels forums that I keep bookmarked and refer to now and again. These may be useful to Bama Angels who’ve adopted a soldier:

• Where is my soldier located?
• How to Find out More about your Adoptee
• Care package suggestions
• Themed Care Package Ideas List
• Important Phone Numbers & Sites for Shipping
• Customs Forms Are Online
• Flat Rate Boxes (new!)
• website for free return address labels
• Getting more involved

Via Shelle Michaels at Wingtip 2 Wingtip, Recordable Cards with Music from Hallmark are being released in time for Mother’s Day. These cards allow the sender to add a personalized voice message, which is followed by a prerecorded song. You can tell Mom exactly how you feel with the sound of your voice and a song.

Per Jon Gray:

Hallmark has launched for military moms overseas. They’re partnering with the military to help children at four military installations mail their recorded messages of love and support this Mother’s Day through the donation of the new Hallmark Recordable Cards With Music. Many

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The Soldiers’ Angels Mentor Team members are the absolute best. Mine is Dina. She’s been a huge inspiration to me and ever since I joined, she’s patiently answered all of my questions and helped out whenever I needed a nudge in the right direction, or some friendly advice.

One thing she emailed recently were suggestions for getting those creative juices flowing and getting around that letter writer’s block that some of us get:

• Buy a bunch of postcards from your area. On the back, jot down a note about what they are looking at, and what you did at that

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I noticed something new on the Soldiers’ Angels main site this morning, a counter depicting how many soldiers were waiting to be adopted.

Nice addition!

One angel emailed me this morning, it seems she was having trouble remembering when she had or hadn’t emailed her soldier, and she was looking for suggestions as to how to remember this important task and perhaps organize her duties a bit. Well, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m a forgetful type too. I get busy and time escapes me, I know I’m not alone in this. We all get busy but we should never neglect our adopted soldiers!

I’ve found it’s helpful to setup a “nag” to remind me each week. For example,(…)

• Keep an eye on cheap printing sites, such as VistaPrint. They are constantly having sales and offer free printing for various products. Better yet, check online coupon hubs, such as RetailMeNot, for coupon codes for heavily discounted items or free shipping!

  If you are looking for higher quality printing, I have been using Overnight Prints. They cost a bit more, but the quality and service I’ve received has been phenomenal. (Plus they sometimes have coupons listed on RetailMeNot!

• If you use Intuit’s TurboTax software or online services to file your taxes, you can use their It’s

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Special thanks to Greta @ Hooah Wife for spreading the word about this!

The US Postal Service has partnered with HBO for the promotion of John Adab’s series about John Adams. You go onto the website and create your letter, and it will be mailed out for free. The letters will be First-Class Mail postmarked with the Power of the Letter cancellation mark. A pretty cool concept, but pity we’re only just now finding out about it! (ends this month)

Link: http://beta.cardstore.com/poweroftheletter.jsp

From time to time, I will post helpful hints that I have picked up along the way or discovered from other SA resources.

We all started out as new Soldiers’ Angels members, and remember fully well how confusing, overwhelming, or oppressive the whole idea seemed at first. Here are a few tips and resources to help any new Angel on his or her way!

• Soldiers’ Angels FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions, this impressive list of question includes many that we all have asked at one time or another.
• Angel How-To’s - Located in the SA Forums, these are “how to” tutorials and

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