Round 10!!!

Round 10 is up and running!!

It is that time again! Time to bake for our ever so deserving military!!! For this round, I found him through his wife on twitter!! Below you will find a little bio about him from his wife! As always, if you have any problems or questions, please email me at baking4troops@gmail.com or leave a comment here with your contact information! Thank you so much!

SSG Nicholas Limerick is assigned to Bravo Company over in Afghanistan. He has been in the Army for 8 years and plans on becoming a Warrant Officer when he returns home in January 2010. He has a wonderful wife, Jennifer, and has been married for 7 years. He also has a daughter, Shannon, who is 5 months old. He deployed the day she turned a month old. He enjoys watching
the Baltimore Ravens, playing video games, hunting, fishing and camping. He was born and raised in Texas and plans to retire there one day.

Round 8 & 9!

Okay well I am bad and left my laptop down with my husband and forget to bring it back with me... therefore I will not get to START posting about these rounds and our awesome(!!!) participants till the earliest of the end of the month!! I am so sorry for that! Please be patient!

Round 9!!

It is time to start signing up for teams again!!!

Here is our person for this round~

This round we are baking for a fellow blogger! Her name is Sarah! She runs the blog: Sweets by Sarah

Here are 2 links on her blog that show all of the people she works with! I thought it was really cool and wanted to share it will all of you!
Day in the Life Part 1
Day in the Life Part 2


Here is a blurb from her email she sent to me:

I am currently in Iraq with Marine Aircraft Group 26. We are a
headquarters unit that supports anywhere from 10-12 squadrons. We are
an fun bunch of people and are making the most of the year that we are
deployed. We are originally stationed at Marine Corps Air Station, New
River in Jacksonville, NC.



As always, if you have any problems or questions, please email me at baking4troops@gmail.com or leave a comment here with a way to contact you!

Thanks again for all your hard work!!!

~Lyndsay (and her mom Pam)

Wraps up Round 7!

This wraps up Round 7 for Richie! Thanks to all those who participated!!! And thank you to DeAnna, his wife, for being patient with me in getting these posted! I am normally not this late in getting them up!!!

Round 8 round up should start sometime next week... I need a lot of people to get back to me before I can start! :-) You know who you are :-)

And Round 9 sign ups start next Friday!!!

Thanks everyone for all that you do!! You are awesome!!!

Team Member - Carol

Carol baked chocolate chip cookies for this round!


Thanks Carol for joining us this round!

Team Member - Joy

Joy baked...
Hello Dolly Bars (7 layer bars)

M&M Cookies

Brown Butter Brown Sugar Shorties

Chocolate Caramel Matzoh Crunch

and here is a picture of her box all ready to go!!

I wanted to say a special thanks to Joy for all of her hard work and research she did to get our "special" bonus round kicked off for round 8!! Thanks Joy!!!

Team Member - Susan

Susan did an awesome job just like every other round! She baked oatmeal raisin, and peanut butter milk chocolate chip. She also included some kettle corn AND of course a pound of coffee from her favorite Starbucks!

Susan also has a website, make sure to check it out! Thanks Susan!

Team Member - Patti

Patti from New York baked this round...
White Chocolate Macadamia cookies and...

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies...

She also included some other store bought cookies and candy!

Thanks Patti for another great round!!

Team Member - Francine

Francine baked Marble Pound Cake (pictured below)and oatmeal cookies....

as well as chocolate chip cookies (pictured below) and lemon sugar cookies!


Thanks Francine for another great round!!

Team Member - June & her son's cub scouts!

Here is a picture of her son's cub scout group who baked this month for Richie! They are holding the card that they made for him!

Here are some of the cookies that they made for him... In their box there was: orange ginger cookies, Peanut Butter, Snickerdoodles, Chocolate Chip, Rice Crispies, Jelly Beans, and Popcorn!

Here is her son making the Rice Crispy treats!


Thank you all so much for participating!

Team Member - Aunt Barb

My aunt baked this round:
Lemon lovers, brownie drops, short breads, and pumpkin raisin spice. She also included in her box: iced tea mixes and magazines!

Thanks Aunt Barb for another great round!

Team Members - Heather & Martha

These 2 members made posts about their experiences on their blogs! Please make sure to check them out!

Heather-

Here is the link to her blog post.

Martha-
Here is the link to her blog post! Make sure to check it out!!

Thank you both so much for doing this!! You are awesome!

Team Members - Kim, Courtney, Chris, Elise, Suzanne, Tarisa, & Alicia

These are team members who didn't send me any pics, but did let me know they shipped! Thanks for doing that! :-) Here is what they sent (if I know)...

Courtney-
She lives in Mass. and is a 2nd grade teacher and had her students make cards for Richie!! Isn't that so sweet?!? And then she baked Chocolate Chip and Cinnamon Sugar Cookies! Yum! I wish we had pics of the cards or of Richie's face reading them! :-) Thanks Courtney!

Chris-
She is from Willow Grove, PA. She baked Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies, Brownies, gum, fruit stickers (gummy candy), Peanut Butter Crackers... And she had her child's 1st grade class make cards as well!! How cool is that?!

Suzanne-
She baked Oatmeal cookies!!

Tarisa-
She baked Snickerdoodles, Chocolate Chip Cookies, M&M Cookies, and Sugar Cookies.

Alicia-
She baked Peanut M&M Cookies, Ginger Cookies, and then filled with other goodies. She had her family help and explained to her kids the importance of our military while they did it!

Thank you all so much for all your hardwork!!!

Round 7 Round Up! Finally! Mom & I!

For this round my mom and I had a little help for our box in more ways than one (I'll explain as we go through these pics...) ...

These are the cut outs that we made:

This is my mom and her helper... She is my good friend's daughter whose dad is in the Navy and currently out to sea for 7 months. My mom and I decided hat we wanted to send a care package to him as well... So we asked my friend if her daughter wanted to help bake for her dad! And she did! And she was an EXCELLENT helper!! She helped us make the chocolate caramel surprise (the ones with the rolos inside)


Here is the candy that went inside of eggs for Easter...

Here are our boxes. 2 went to Richie and one went to my friend's husband. After our article in the paper we had 2 ladies volunteer to help. One lady donated homemade biscottis in 3 different flavors. Another lady baked cut outs as well and then bought sanck packs of peanuts and then gum!



I also contacted the Tabasco company and asked them to donate to our organization. And they did!!! They sent him a whole package of stuff! I am not sure of the details because I didn't hear the specifics, just know they did! Which I think is awesome!

Shame on me!

I am sorry that I have yet to post Round 7! I promise I will work on it!! This week was much more busy then I expected!! :-) Sinuses were driving me crazy many days this week and I had to decorate a cake and cookies for a party!! I promise I will work on it!! ASAP!! Thank you for being patient! :-) And there is still time for Round 8 to sign up and ship!!

Round 7...

I promise to have my Round 7 round up all posted by the weekend!!

So make sure you check back! And don't forget Round 8 is up and running!!

Round 8 Information!!!

Here is a copy of the email that will be sent once the email issue is corrected. But I am trying to reach as many people as possible until then! I have posted this on the site and on the facebook page as well... SPREAD THE WORD!!! You all did AWESOME last round without having email to get us started! Let's see what we can do this time!!

Here it is...

Hello Fellow Bakers-

I hope everyone is ready for another round of baking for our deserving military!

Round 8 Information-
Leaders email me (bakinggalsinfo@gmail.com) no later than Sunday with your team name, and please have your articles and pictures uploaded by Wednesday.
I hope to have the teams open on Friday but no later than late Sunday.
We are also going to be doing something different this round. A fellow baker presented an idea and has done the necessary research to make it happen… SO this round, we will have a “BONUS” team which will be baking for wounded men and women. There will be some specific guidelines for this, especially shipping dates, so please make sure that you read before you agree and to check the site for more information on this.

Future Dates-
I have posted on the site the dates for the next 4 rounds after this current one. Please check it out so that you are aware of what is going on.

Other Tidbits of information-
* Don’t forget to join the facebook page!
* Also, don’t forget to check out our merchandise!
* And if you have purchased some, I would love some feedback and pictures.
* I would like pictures to use on the site: your packages ready to go, the baked goods, actually baking them, responses from who you sent to, etc. PLEASE make sure that you will not mind them being posted on the site AND that you, yourself have taken them.
* I also would like to start posting the responses we are receiving from those we are sending to… so if you have received some, please share them.
* I would like to get an idea of how many cookies we have shipped so far. I will be creating a place for you to share how many rounds you have participated in and how many cookies you have baked thus far. We can keep updating it continually.
* Finally, if you have any suggestions, ideas, problems, etc. please contact me. I love hearing everyone’s thoughts on this organization.

Thank you all for your hard work, and I can't wait to kick off this round! Make sure to SPREAD the WORD!!

Thanks,
Lyndsay

Round 7....

Please make sure to check back in a week or so for our Round 7 round up!! I am still waiting on lots of pictures that have been promised by team members and there are some who I never heard from at all... So if either of that sounds like you... EMAIL ME!! :-)

Get ready for Round 8!

Thank You from Round 6

Last week my mom and I received a thank you letter from our man from Round 6! Check it out! (Click on image to enlarge!)

Recipes!

I need your help! We need more recipes for our cookbook! Please try and send me one, or two, or three, or more! If you could attach a picture with it that would be even better! Or a little story behind the cookie... Something that you heard back from the person you sent it to, etc.

Please try and make a point to do this! It is my next thing to check off the list and I cannot do it without all of your help!

Richie's Address Given!

I sent out an email containing his information. If you did not receive one, please contact me... I tried to get back to everyone, but I may have overlooked someone... I am sure I did... I had LOTS of emails to sort through with being in charge of the whole thing now :-) So I am sorry if I missed you, but will get you the information as soon as I receive your email. baking4troops @ gmail.com

Thanks everyone!!

Oh and don't forget... email me when you ship and attach any pics you take of your package (or at least what you baked)! You know how I like to brag about you! :-)

Operation Baking GALS has merchandise!!

I have been working hard on this... check it out! Please make sure that if you do purchase something that there is a * after our link... www.zazzle.com/bakinggals* so that we get more credit for your purchase. If you have any problems, please email me and I will fix it.


buy unique gifts at Zazzle

Questions, ask.

Thanks,
Lyndsay

Our Round 7!

We found this guy from when my mom and I mailed our last rounds boxes! We ended up talking to his brother in line... and told him what we did... he mentioned his brother, we said to email us and we would love to send him stuff... by the time we got home he had talked to his sister-in-law and she had emailed me with information on her husband!!

So here is a bio about our man:

Richie is 25 years old. He joined the Army in March of 2003. He went to basic training at Ft. Jackson, SC and then on to Advanced Individual Training (ait) at Ft. Lee, VA. That is where he and his wife met (She was also in the army for 2 years). After graduating from AIT, he went to Airborne School in Ft. Benning, GA. From there he got stationed at Ft. Bragg where he has been ever since. He got deployed for the first time from November 2003 to April 2004. They got married May 9, 2004. Then they found out they were pregnant with their first child - son Colson - in April of 06. He got deployed for the 2nd time in August, came home for his 2 week R & R at the end of November to December 11. Colson was born Dec. 5. He then was gone until October 23 when he came home again. Now this third deployment (all to Iraq) he left on Dec 4 of 2008. He is a sergeant and has been for about a year now. His MOS (job) is a fuel supply specialist. He is great at his job and is very knowledgeable.

He love soccer!!!!!!!!!!! loves to play and loves to watch - especially the premier league in England. we got hooked when watching the world cup in 06. his favorite team is Manchester United. but he is one to watch all sports - from tennis, golf, to football, baseball, basketball - all of them.
He enjoys watching movies and video games.
He was born in New York, New York - moved to St. Petersburg, FL when he was 6 and would very much love to retire there.
He really enjoys working out - like serious muscle building and likes to read the muscle and mens health magazines....

Our only request that we have is that you try and send out later in the round versus right at the 1st because he is on mission working somewhere else but is supposed to be back by the end of March, but just in case... we want to ship a little later!

Thanks for looking and hope to have you baking,
Lyndsay

Any questions, please email me at Baking4Troops @ gmail.com

Facebook!

I created a Facebook Group for our organization. Please join, post your thoughts, and pass the word to others!

Link to page here

Thanks,
~Lyndsay

I NEED YOUR HELP!

Please pass the word along on the information for Round 7... since I cannot send out a mass email yet, it is making it difficult for me to get the word out on the details... SO PLEASE spread the word to visit the main site and sign up! (Click here to go to site)

Also, I created a facebook group... and invite you to join and spread the word about that as well! (Click here to visit)

Thank you all for doing what you do! You are all awesome and truly do have a special place in my heart!

~Lyndsay

BIG News!

Susan (the creator of Operation Baking GALS) and I have been talking... and she does not have enough time to devote to the site anymore... and she asked me if I would be willing to take over the dirty work! So you are looking at the new admin of bakinggals.com!! I am really excited and I hope that we can keep it up and keep getting new people involved!! And of course that I do her proud! She is still going to be involved, just more in the background! Round 7 is coming very soon! The switch just happened yesterday... so I need a day or 2 to learn it all before I put it all out there!! Hope to have everyone back! And of course even more!!! Thanks everyone for your support!

~Lyndsay

2nd Article!

This article was in our Community Newspaper... it is almost the same article as before, but he added updates of things that happened since the first article was printed. There is not a direct link to the paper yet, they haven't updated their site yet. When they do I will add it to this post!





Thanks for looking!
~Lyndsay

A "Thank You" from his mom.

Below is copied from an email I received from Molly that Ben's mom wrote to her to pass along to all of you... (She wrote this after being forwarded the link to this blog to see what everyone had done for her son.) Please enjoy and know what you do for them REALLY does make a difference... not only to them, but their families!

"I am really overwhelmed! Really, I'm in tears! Looking at those pictures and thinking of all the time and effort put into sending boxes to a soldier(and many soldiers) these women don't even know is just amazing to me. I know that even if the recipients don't eat them they will be blessed beyond measure just to receive and be able to share...and know that someone cares that they are there.

These guys have to get discouraged a little...missing out on the fun and "freedom" of others their age. I know they often don't feel Americans are behind them in "the cause". They have no days off while there. They put relationships, marriage, and children on "hold", or struggle to keep their relationships intact. I have really been forced to see the military life so differently since Ben is in it and all the sacrifices made by the soldiers and their loved ones.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you...for thinking of him and baking for him and PRAYING for him. The boxes, which the ARMY would call "boodle", will be even more of a blessing to Ben and his troops since they got moved to the new post. It is much smaller and more remote and he says the food has not been very good. They just got a computer last week so they can email, though there is only one computer for 100 guys...and no phone yet. What a great time to get boodle....and such beautiful, delicious looking boodle! And so many boxes of boodle! Yes, I'm crying just thinking of it's arrival...day after day. Wow! Who could not feel blessed?! and remembered!

Please share this mom's gratitude with ALL involved! and ask them to keep praying for and blessing our troops!

Be blessed!
Denise"

Keep up the good work team :-) And thank you again!
~Lyndsay

Team Leaders - Mom & I

We made this round...

Cut-out Hearts with Sanding Sugars:


Coffee & Cream:


Chocolate Chunk Cookies:



Our Boxes...

Cut-Outs wrapped and in the box:


the start of our second box with candy and granola:


Ben's "Birthday Present" - Chipotle Hot Sauce:


Magazines we included this round:


The second box filled to the max!


Thank you again to all those who participated!! If you sent something to Ben and I don't have you posted on here... please send me an email or leave a comment because this is all of the information that I have!

Looking forward to the next round!!

~Lyndsay

Team Member - Molly

She baked...

some really cute sugar cookies:


And then included some white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies, macadamia nuts, and candy in her box.

I have to give a special thanks to Molly because without her we would not have been sending the cookies to Ben this month! She is the one who emailed me with information about him! PLUS... she lined up next months too when I found out that the person I had lined up needed to be pushed back!

Thank you Molly!!

Team Member - Aunt Barb

She made this round...

Pumpkin Cookies (with raisins, nuts & maple frosting), Brownie Drop Cookies, & Elk Jerky:


Elk Jerky...


She also included a birthday card!

Thanks Aunt Barb for another great round!

Team Member - Erin

This was her first round, she ran out of time to bake this month due her daughter having surgery. But still wanted to participate so she did the next best thing...
Asked her cousin, who recently served, what they would want and bought that stuff!

She filled a box full of:
Pringles, Popcorn, Crackers, Candy, Little Debbies, Sport Illustrated magazines, and deodorant.

She was also a recruit from the article in the paper! And someone I knew back in grade school!

Thanks Erin for participating!!

Team Member - Patti

She baked for this round...

Chocolate Mint Andes Cookies:


Double Chocolate Coconut:


Potato Chip Cookies:


Cherry Biscotti:


Thank you Patti for another great round!!

Team Member - Mary

Mary joined us after reading the article that was published about my mom and I! She was very eager to participate and managed to bake and ship in less than a week!!

She sent over...

Peanut Butter Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Oatmeal Raisin
Some jerky, trail mix, popcorn, and drink packets!

Thanks Mary for joining us!! Glad to have you on our team!!

Team Member - Sandy

She sent...

some Chocolate Chip Cookies:


And then filled her box with other goodies:


Thank you Sandy for joining us this round! Hope to have you again in the future!