.....your son asks you if you have any deodorant and you stop and think, there is plenty in the soldier stash.... and the light goes on and I say to him.....since you are now one of my troops, you can have one!!!!  roflmao

You go to the store to get supplies and forget to get your own!

...you walk into the post office to mail another package and the clerk begins the conversation with..."we were just talking about you"...

... if, you no longer know how many packages you've sent and have finally thrown away the thick stacks of customs receipts that used to be in the mailing supply tote bag along with the rolls of packing and strapping tape, markers, pens and extra custom forms. And you've reluctantly parted with the stack of fading custom receipts that were in the other tote bag that holds letters and copies of emails from soldier contacts - but you've kept and treasured the letters and emails. And, that was three or four years ago. When the sight of Little Debbies cakes and stacks of Cup-o-Noodles makes you think of all the boxes of them you have packed and shipped to homesick soldiers. When you discover that you are always guiltily on the lookout for supplies on special sale so you can send more things. When you find you are hiding the amount you are spending from your spouse who probably knows anyway. When your dining room and front hall piles up with boxes about ready to ship, like today. When you stagger into the post office ten minutes before closing time with six, or twelve boxes you have just finished packing, endearing yourself forever to the staff. When you tell your family that instead of exchanging Christmas presents, we are going to be sending boxes to the soldiers - and they agree.

 

Oh Sarah,  your description says it all.  No truer words were ever spoken -- especially those about hiding the amount you've spent from your spouse!  The "thank you" emails, letters and postcards make up for all the money we've spent when they 'thank us' for thanking them. 

Scotty 

You know you're an Any Soldier Junkie when your favorite postal clerk hands you back the customs form and kindly says

"You don't need this for packages mailed inside the country". 

Oops:).

 LOL diggerdeb!

 You send emails to your sister, a retired professor of nursing and her husband, a retired Navy chaplain - ad infinitem, ad nauseum.

 You send emails to all Mensa members (the High IQ society) in the Middle East telling them that they are not forgotten and asking them to join.

You spend more time here than on your favorite porno sites.

You wish you could hit the Power Ball so as to support EVERYONE!

 

Bil

Mesa AZ

 

 

If you go through almost the entire "where to send" page at least 2x a week!

 

Bonnie

NYC

When you've been gone for 2 weeks on vacation and this is how you return goes

1: Wake up increadibly early to get to the airport.  2: flights delayed  3: fly for 4 hours

4: sit in an airport over night cause your flight was canceled   5: fly 2 more hours   6: drive 3 hours home

7: been up 29 hours get home look for free mail, the bills can wait   8: read the letters   9: check AS 

10: write replies   11: finally sleep 3 hrs then get up to print pictures to go in letters and mail them before the PO closes

 

You know you’re an Any Soldier Junkie when you get a refund check in the mail, wave it at your husband saying look honey I’m richJ , and he says ‘Oh good, Soldier money’, without even skipping a beat!

I don’t know who was more surprised - him or meJ .

And then you post it at 3 in the morning cause you're checking the contacts you just finished packing boxes for to mail today!!

You know you must be an AS junkie, when you've read this forum over and over (and checked back several times to see if anyone has posted anything new) and haven't even sent out your first package!  All the stories posted on here are so inspirational and uplifting, I've had to reach for a tissue more than once.  I'm off to the PO today to send my first 2 boxes, hopefully the first of many. 

Some of these posts are already sounding like my mom and I!! We just hit this website the very end of last week ... I immediately cleaned out my clothing so I can send some items to the Wounded Warriors deal in need of "conservative clothing items"... Mostly jeans and sweaters in BRAND NEW CONDITION some with tags still on!

 We took a trip to Target Saturday afternoon and we were too into looking into cool items for our care packages we forgot some of our own items we were after! This whole thing is just way too much fun!!!

You must be an AS junkie if you were once deployed with Army with the awesome and most helpful support of AnySolder, came back to your family and life and didn't log onto this site for a year and out of nowhere have logged back in and made this your first post...

And we all still remember you and welcome you back with open arms!  Hey Matt!  Great to see you--hope you are doing well!  Happy Thanksgiving!!