Day #152

Sunday writing...no mail pick up or delivery, of course.

There were 3 postcards to SendSomething people, a letter to a sendsomething woman because she indicated she was interested in Russia and I had found my admission ticket to The Hermitage and wanted to use it on an envelope! The other two letters were both to service men who had asked for mail from home.

Day #144

Saturday is becoming Armed Forces Day.

This is 4 letters to soldiers who wanted more word from home, plus a postcard to go into a book for a soldier. There is also a penpal letter in the batch.

The afternoon brought only one PostCrossing card, which initially I lost, but fortunately found again, so I could register it with PostCrossing.

Dear PostCrossing. I have received a post card from Buffalo, but I have lost it and so I cannot register it. All I know is that it was mailed to me from someone in Buffalo, New York.

Dear Beverly:For Postcrossing to be able to help you finding an unknown ID, including lost postcards the only way is submit all the information you have about the postcard. The more information you provide about the postcard, the easiest and quickest it will be to find the correct ID.

Give us lots of information like:

- the date or numbers or town on the postmark (even if it doesn't make sense to you)

-the parts of the ID you can read (even if it is only one number)

- what the picture on the front of the postcard is including any words

- if the sender says anything about themself or their town/area.

- their name or if you can't work it out even just the first initial of the name

When we find the correct ID through this system, we will send you an email with it and it will appear on your 'received postcards' section so that you can register it afterwards.

Dear PostCrossing: Please reread my letter. I DON'T HAVE THE POSTCARD IN MY HAND!!! i HAVE LOST THE POSTCARD. It was addressed to Beverly Sykes, [address] Davis, CA 95616 and it came from Buffalo, NY but that is all that I can tell you.

Dear Beverly: For Postcrossing to be able to help you finding an unknown ID, including lost postcards the only way is submit all the information you have about the postcard. If you don't have much information, fine.

And you don't have to shout.

Dear PostCrossing: ARRGGGHHHH!

Day #142

I had lots of outgoing today: 5 postcards, 4 for Post-crossing, 1 to a Soldier, a pen pal letter, and a letter to one of my Compassion kids.

I don't know how the recipient will feel about the Quaker oatmeal card I made, but she claims to be crazy for cereal. I loved it...it has a typed message on the back. The card with the light glare was to the Soldier and was a Where's Waldo card, which I thought might be fun for him.

Nice incoming mail too.

There were letters from two of my favorite pen pals, a Postcrossing card from The Netherlands, and a "letter" from my granddaughter.

This is panda eating bamboo, just in case you can't quite see it clearly.

Day #141

A trip to the post office.

Today's outgoing was a package to Soldier Amanda, a postcard to another soldier, and a big package of all those letters I wrote yesterday to the Compassion kids.

No incoming again :(

Day #131

Outgoing, there was a penpal letter and 3 soldier letters (to misc. soldiers who needed a boost). Also, a postcard about how I'm spending my summer vacation (at the butterfly exhibit in Santa Barbara).


I used some Washi decorative tape to decorate one of the soldier letters. This is a new item for me and I'm getting the hang of how to be creative.

In the mailbox was a letter from a pen pal, a SendSomething postcard, a Postcrossing card, and an art card from a guy in Brasil who is a member of IOUMA.

Lastly, there was this great book from The Pen Thief, which I won in a give-away contest.

I'm thrilled!

It's Sunday, so nothing goes out, but I wrote these...

I had found some great cat yoga postcards and sent them out mostly to SendSomething cat lovers. The two letters were both to soldiers, one to Amanda (the one with the cool "courage" sticker I found at Michael's) and one to a misc. soldier who is lonely and asked for mail.

Day #112

Four things to send out before I leave town for a couple of days.

There is a thank you letter to a neighbor, a Postcrossing postcard, a letter to a soldier starting his second deployment in Afghanistan and feeling depressed about it, and a letter to a penpal.

Incoming was one letter from a Compassion child.

This is from Murugi, in Kenya. I was amazed that her first letter came so quickly--I was not looking for it for a month yet. But it was very nice to receive.

Day #111

I spent the day driving to San Francisco, conducting an interview, and driving home again, so there was only time to write one letter.


This is to another soldier in Afghanistan, not one I've "adopted," but one who just needs to hear cheery things from home. His wife is pregnant and so I sent him one of my parenting stories from my diary of the years when the kids were little. I hope it doesn't terrify him!

There were two penpal letters in the incoming mail. One was from a penpal in Ohio and one was from a penpal in England.


But the best thing about the envelope from England were the stamps.


This envelope is definitely a keeper!

Day #109

I sent out 2 letters and some postcrossing post cards today.


One of the letters went to Amanda #1, in response to her letter yesterday. The other was to a soldier in one of the fighting areas of Afghanistan. I read that he was hoping for more letters, so I sent him what I hope is a funny letter about our dogs.

In the afternoon, there was only one small package, but it was great.


In addition to a fascinating letter, Rose sent me a DVD of The Reincarnation of Peter Proud and this great little tea bag carrier that she made (I may send it to my daughter, since I'm not a tea drinker)