Don't call my Phone Cause I'm Kind of Busy

Well, not so much busy as my phone blew up!!!!! I've never realized until tonight how dependent I am on my phone. At one time in my life, I knew all of my friends phone numbers by heart. If I needed a phone, there was usually a payphone on the corner, just in case I really needed to make a phone call.

Now? When that screen goes blank, your life blows up!! All those numbers from long ago are long gone!! I have become so dependent on just tapping my phone and Walah! the person I wanted to speak to is on the phone!

The internet? Long gone. I just either have to wait until I get home to get back into the world or hope I have a WiFi connection somewhere near.

Oh, and heaven forbid you want to drive somewhere! What if I get a flat tire, I get in an accident, I'm lost!!!! Oh My! I just don't even want to think about it.

Oy vey! I'm waking up first thing in the morning to hit the phone store!

Win a SAFETeam Mother's Day Basket worth over $125 in goodies!

The hunt is on!
Moms work hard.

And they deserve a little pampering - especially on Mother's Day!

Wouldn't it be nice to give your Mom a huge basket of goodies on her day? Soaps, lotions, perfumes, sugar scrubs, jewelry, potpourri, lip balm, room spray, a hand-crocheted flower puff and soap sleeve, scented sachet and more .... but who can afford all that?


YOU can, if you're willing to play along. The winner of our scavenger hunt will receive a huge gift box filled with over 2 dozen wonderful gifts for Mom, valued at over $125.

To play, visit our list of participating shops. Somewhere in each shop you will find a listing where a wee yellow ducky is hiding. When you've found all 15 of them (and note that they are NOT the same items in the basket), send us an email at team.safeblog@gmail.com with all of those listings. Once we've verified that all of your listings are correct, we'll enter your name in a drawing to win the basket. You have until Friday, April 30 to enter, and the drawing will be done on Sunday, May 2. The basket will go in the mail to the lucky winner (or their mother) on May 3rd.

To see the basket and all the participating shops, check out our SAFETeam blog!

Come on! Have some fun and possibly win the coolest gift basket ever for you or your mom!

She's Got a Ticket To Ride...

When you have a bunch of kids and they grow up and start to leave the nest, you never realize how much that last one fills the void for all!

My kiddo has been on Spring Break with her grandparents this past week. I have never known our house to be this quiet! No Demi Lavato, Selena Gomez or Lady Gaga blaring from the bedroom all day! No asking for this and wanting that. No arguing over schoolwork and chores! No, traveling everywhere to take her to all her extracurricular activities.

It has been very peaceful around here. My husband and I have never been closer and really, really enjoying each others company!

But it will all end tomorrow when my kiddo gets on the plane to head home and mayhem will once again resume!

Now, it's not a bad thing. I have missed her dearly. Her hugs, her jokes, me embarrassing her one way or another and I can't wait to see her when she gets off that plane. She'll regale me with her stories of all the adventures she took and we'll once again be all together. A smaller version of our big, happy family.

Yes, our house may seem chaotic at times, but when we have these pleasurable little breaks of serenity, even chaos is welcome in the end.

Everyone sing along now:

Ra Ra-ah-ah-ah
Roma Roma-ma
GaGa
Oh la-la

Could You Take My Picture? Cause I Won't Remember..

Well, that's exactly not true. A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure and honor to be part of the crew on the movie Backstabber (coming Spring 2011). I've helped out on shoots before but this was quite different. One, there was a great camaraderie between the cast and crew. Two, the crew worked soooo well together and three, for a thriller/suspense movie, I think we had way more laughs than scares!

Usually on a film, you expect the cast to be in their little clique and the crew to be in theirs. It's a line that's not normally crossed. From the first day of shooting to the last, an instant family was born. During breakfast, lunch and dinner actors and actresses sat with grips, cameramen, gaffers and even, believe it or not, Tyler! Even during the shoot, crew was mixed with cast and vice versa.

Being as I was part of the crew, I was able to work with a great team. Some I had known before and some I had met for the first time. For those I had just met, we were instant friends. From my fellow Rosie the Riveter girl to Gator who didn't mind giving or getting hugs. Even Jonathan with all his geek knowledge was great to get to know, from one geek to another! It brought me closer to the ones I had known before and made shortened friendships feel like I had known them all my life. We were definitely a little family complete with quirks, giggles and a whole lot of TMI (too much information)!

We had stars on the set such as Lorenzo Lamas and Tammy Barr, but whilst still being professional, there was time for a lot of laughs. As a matter of fact, I believe Tyler is still looking for his slate and many of us are probably still walking around muttering "plane" under their breath when one flies over! We also reminisce about Gator's one liners said quietly but with such power to crack everyone up and who could forget Lightning Amen? Then there was Chuck's limericks, poems and dance with a little one, two punch thrown in at least once a day. Tammy, I can't forget you and our bathroom conversations. Who would've thought that one could have the majority of their talks in the toilet and not feel as awkward as writing this.

Even though we were only together for 9 days (albeit 9 long days), it is something that I won't forget and hope to work with these very talented actors and actresses and crew again and again.

See ya at the premiere!

Backstabber photos can be seen here

And you'll finally see the truth That a hero lies in you

To everyone that helped to send the Frito Pie boxes to my son's troop....a big THANK YOU!!! We received a phone call from our son on December 23rd from a very happy soldier and his troop!! They were in the middle of eating all their Frito Pies. Many of them were going on missions on December 25th so they had their Christmas Party early.

Our son's captain was so impressed and couldn't believe what had been done that he wished that he could come down and thank all of us in person. Being that he couldn't do that, he gave our son the next best thing; a Challenge Coin. He said he is going to send that down to us and we will share that honor with all of you who helped us to get all of these boxes to these soldiers so they could have their Christmas Wish.

The first things to go were the Jalapenos! We sent 2 pounds of those and probably should have sent more! Who knew? Although they didn't have an electric can opener and had to open all the chili cans with what looked like a razor blade on a stick, all went well and those that never even knew what a Frito Pie was has now enjoyed this delicious treat!

We can't thank all of you enough for pulling together in truly the matter of a little over 24 hours what ya'll were able to do!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

That's the Way, Uh-Huh, Uh-Huh, I Like It

My son received all the boxes for his troop in Afghanistan! All the fritos, chili, cheese, jalopenos, Ding Dongs, Twinkies, Oatmeal Cookies and we can't forget the 1200 Slim Jims!! We couldn't have done it without a LOT of help. I can't thank everyone enough for helping us to pull this off for them!!

Here is what he sent to me:

We will have an Immense, Scrumptious Christmas Thanks to everyone... Everyone that has never had one of these Delicacy's are anxious to try one.. and All those that Love them cannot wait either... so this will be one of the more historical christmas's in Kandahar, Afghanistan...
ONCE AGAIN THE BROWN FAMILY PULLS THROUGH...
Thanks Again...








Thank all of them for me and The 451st AEW

Brenda and Hank Pfeifer
Shelley and John Troy
Joy and Paul Burwell
Marieann Wise-Miu and George Wise
Jennifer Tough
Molly, Mike and Mackenzie Goode
Angela Kicklighter and Grammy
Sue Dixon
Kim and Greg Kelly and family
Dan Tripper
Charles William
Carolyn and Steve Wong and family
Nick Banfield
Melissa Singleton and family
Amy and George Sowers
Renee Cannon
Katherine Navarra and family
Tom Lockhart
Tania and Charles Johnson and family
Tony Klepper
Oleta Baldridge

--
SrA BROWN

Food! Glorious Food!

Those of you who know me, know that I have three sons in the military. Two are in the Air Force, one is a Marine. I know that there are many other families just like me out there and we are so proud of every single one of them! My Marine is now stateside after serving a tour in Iraq and one of my sons is also stationed here as well. But my second oldest is serving his second tour, this time in Afghanistan, the first one being in Iraq two years ago.

A few weeks before Thanksgiving we spoke to him and during that conversation we found out that their Thanksgiving dinner was going to consist of powdered turkey and canned yams and their Christmas dinner wasn't going to be much better.

Where he is stationed, they don't have microwaves or a decent kitchen that has regular ovens or stoves. They have solar ovens to cook food. So, the food they eat isn't the greatest! But, what him and his troop of 100 soldiers really wanted for their Christmas dinner this year was Frito Pies!

First, we tried contacting Frito Lay. The person we spoke to in customer service wasn't all that welcome to the idea and we got a form letter in return of sorry, we don't do that kind of thing. Now, it was up to us and our deadline was fast approaching to do something to make sure we could get Frito Pies to them in time.

I came up with an idea in that, there were 11 soldiers in my son's unit and if we sent each of those soldiers at least two Priority Flat Rate boxes of Frito Pie fixin's it would only cost around $35 to feed 10 solders. Surely we could find enough people to sponsor two boxes per soldier!

I put out a call to my closest friends, my Soap Team and my daughter's castmates at Stage Right and within 24 hours we had more than enough to not only get them their Frito Pies, but dessert and enough Slim Jims to feed all 100 of them! Plus, one of the cast members brought in enough Beanie Babies to fill two Priority Boxes to send over to Afghanistan to hand out to the children there and will be delivered to the Humanitarian division!




I cannot thank everyone ENOUGH for their help and response in making sure these soldiers get their Frito Pie Christmas Dinner! I will continue to update my blog when they receive their packages and I am sure we will hear from them very soon!

A special thanks goes out to:

Brenda and Hank Pfeifer
Shelley and John Troy
Joy and Paul Burwell
Marieann Wise-Miu and George Wise
Jennifer Tough
Molly, Mike and Mackenzie Goode
Angela Kicklighter and Grammy
Sue Dixon
Kim and Greg Kelly and family
Dan Tripper
Charles William
Carolyn and Steve Wong and family
Nick Banfield
Melissa Singleton and family
Amy and George Sowers
Renee Cannon
Katherine Navarra and family
Tom Lockhart
Tania and Charles Johnson and family
Tony Klepper
Oleta Baldridge

From the bottom of our hearts THANK YOU!

The Brown family