<p>Well, BOPS just finished a very successful working together on a project (our first).</p>
<p>A female midshipman lost her Dad last May, and now her mother is dying of cancer. We decided to have an Encouragement Party. Moms of midshipmen reached out, used their talents and made Jennifer some things to encourage her. One made a beautiful embroidered pillow with Jennifer's favorite Bible verse on one side and a saying on the other. Another three Moms knit "Comfort Shawls" for Jennifer, her Mom and her younger sister. Still another Mom of a midshipmen went on the internet and purchased a Lone star quilt, and sent it with laundry pens, so all the female midshipmen could sign the back of it.</p>
<p>Yesterday, we had the Encouragement Party. The large group of midshipmen had made or bought cards and wrote their own personal encouragements on them.</p>
<p>With the quilt going around campus for signatures, something spontaneous and wonderful happened among the midshipmen. Many had not known about the situation until they were asked to sign the quilt. Within 24 hours the money for a round trip ticket was bought for Jennifer to spend this weekend with her dying Mom. What Jennifer will find out as she boards the plane tonight, is that they have purchased another round trip ticket for another weekend with all the extra money that came in. This was all from midshipmen reaching out in love.</p>
<p>As the female midshipmen (Band of Sisters) and I gathered to have a group hug around Jennifer, we were in tears as we all realized our problems were little in comparison to the load this midshipmen is shouldering.</p>
<p>We can't do much, but we will all reach out and do what we can to make the loads a little lighter. Thanks BOPS for your amazing work and time given in love and compassion. Someday, we may meet but for now we are friends on the internet.</p>
<p>I try to pay attention to needs the students have. I make it a game to try to see what will make their lives easier. Most of you have midshipmen at the school. You hear what they say, and what they think would improve things or make it easier. Please be a resource person for BOPS and pass the ideas and comments along. We can't do everything but we will try to do as much as we can. Our goal is to make KP a great experience, so the years go fast and enjoyable, and all of a sudden they are graduating with a wonderful degree.</p>
<p>Often when the midshipmen go home on vacations,the Moms have so much lined up to entertain them and give them a good time. The Moms have missed them so they follow them around where ever they go.</p>
<p>What I hear is that the Moms who say they feel bad because they didn't do much, are the ones who have students who tell me they had a great time. At KP there is never a moment to themselves, the schedule is so hectic. They never get a day to sleep in, or just sit in front of the TV, and veg-out. They also anxious to hang out with their friends and catch up on the news without Mom around. Perhaps they have a sport they haven't been able to do at the academy, and a day of skiing or bowling would be like heaven for them.</p>
<p>So, this is BOPS giving help to Moms. Ask your midshipmen when they come home what would be a perfect time for them, then follow that. If they don't feel like spending their time seeing every relative, or having to visit everyone in town, that's okay. That was more for you to show them off than for them anyway. Ask them what they are hungry to eat, and let that be your meals. If you eat pizza three times, that's fine, that is their treat. </p>
<p>They want the opposite of what they get at KP. That is a vacation and rest for them. Ask them, and let it be their perfect time.</p>
<p>LOL KPMOM! We ate pasta almost every night when my boy was home over Spring Break and french toast for breakfast :) I found that he wanted to sleep late.....12:30 in the afternoon on some days. Excellent advice Kpmom!</p>
<p>I got 7 chick flick movies for the girls, and lots of popcorn. The chapel refrigerator has cold soda. So the girls can come down to the chapel lounge Friday and Saturday evenings and have fun together watching the movies. I will take the movies down on Thursdays when I have Band of Sisters study plus Cookie Cafe, and get them back on Sunday when we have Bible Class, and return them to the library and Blockbuster on Mondays. I think this is workable. Maybe we can do movies for the fellows too.</p>
<p>KPMOM - You just never run out of ideas or energy for our Mids! Thank you for taking on yet another project to give the students something to look forward to! </p>
<p>Are you going to have "theme" chick flick nights like all comedy night...all-stud stars night (young Kevin Costner "No Way Out," Matthew McConaughey...) and the tear-jerkers (BYOTB - bring your own tissue box)? My all-time favorite love movie is "Love Actually," GREAT movie! Harry Potter marathon? Steel Magnolias is a great girl-bonding movie (still makes me cry every time I see it), Bridget Jones' Diary, Calendar Girls to name a few.</p>
<p>Wish I could be there with the girls, it sounds like a great time!</p>
<p>Just made him put on a pair of jeans, but he also didn't leave the house for 2 days!We didn't care, it was just nice having him around. That's what home is for - to relax and unwind.</p>
<p>I read the word, "supper time"... that's east coast, where I grew up... you would never hear supper on the west coast... they say dinner... but dinner is actually lunch on the east coast! Growing up on the east coast & living on the west coast for 25 years sure gives me a chuckle at a few phrases! And I chuckle because I understand it all!</p>
<p>Actually, we're in the midwest and in the summer it's just sometime before the sun goes down. In the midwest dinner was what you have on Sunday after church.</p>
<p>I saw a sign that I think represents Cookie Cafe and why it's so popular (besides the homebaked cookies).</p>
<p>Is there anyone out there Dad, Mom, Supporter, who knows how to make a sign? This could be with a router, or painted, stenciled, or any other method that you have skills.</p>
<p>I would like to put this up for Cookie Cafe.</p>
<p>SIT LONG, TALK MUCH, LAUGH OFTEN</p>
<p>This is exactly what makes Cookie Cafe so popular, because they can just relax with their friends.</p>
<p>What do you think about a "quilted" sign? I can make a sign (what ever size you want) out of fabric with iron-on applique letters. That would look homey! It would be something you could roll up and transport easily or leave hanging all the time. It wouldn't take very long to make it.</p>
<p>Okay, with the understanding that I may get my head ripped off, here goes. Did I really see the word "homey" used in conjunction with the Federal Service Academy known as "Kings Point"? "Homey" as in cuddily, cute, adorable, nice, sweet. If they wanted "homey" don't you think most of those mids would have gone to a nice quaint, picturesque New England liberal arts college like Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Williams. Or perhaps a Southern school like Wm & Mary or Washington & Lee. Of course, I could be mistaken as to MrsTweedy's use of the term "homey". Perhaps she meant "homey" as in "YO, dis here is my homey". But that doesn't seem to go with the quilt motif. Can someone explain how we get "homey" to match up with "Acta Non Verba"? I just hadn't heard about that part of the SeaProject requiring a sketch of "Early Victorian Cabin Designs". Okay I'm putting on my Kevlar helmet and flak jacket, --- I hear incoming.</p>
<p>What in the WORLD are you banging on about? </p>
<p>Obviously you don't have the slightest inkling of what Cookie Cafe is to the Mids. It's about a small touch of "H-O-M-E" - as in what is dear to them, where they grew up and what is a soft place to fall. It's about the totally selfless work of a woman who bakes cookies all week long and gives them free to students who seek an oasis from the daily grind. It's HOMEY and it's a comfortable place to get a breather, a freshly baked cookie like Mom makes, and, hopefully it's a place that cynical and insensitive oafs like yourself stay away from because you can't begin to appreciate unconditional generosity. </p>
<p>What possesses you to attack the Cookie Cafe? What is wrong with you? Don't you have more constructive ways to vent your overzealous and possibly misguided energy? Or perhaps you get a thrill out of sniping people who give and donate to KP just so you can don your flak jacket and soak up the negative attention. Get a life .... be sure to make it a HOMEY one.</p>