Rising Moon Birth Scholarship Consignment Sale

Rising Moon Midwifery believes that all women, regardless of income status, should have access to homebirth. It is always a struggle for us to not have the ability to care for all woman. Until PA allows CPMs to bill all insurance companies, including Medicaid, we are developing this fund to help make that access possible. If you have other ideas for fundraisers, please let us know! Directors of the Birth Scholarship fund are Nicole Schwartz (ndilliplane@gmail.com), and Amy Borelli (amy@journeybirthservices.com).

Rising Moon Birth Scholarship Consignment Sale
Saturday and Sunday, October 6th and 7th 9am-6pm
(1/2 price Sunday afternoon!)
Presale Friday afternoon, October 5th 1pm-6pm
mark your calendars for a day of great shopping!

Location: 104 Leonards Lane, Phoenixville, PA

Clean out your closets and turn clutter into cash!!!
Do you have baby clothes, furniture, and toys piled up in your garage? How would you like to get rid of it and turn it into cash? Just bring your new or gently used items to us and we’ll do the work for you. All you do is sort and tag your items, drop them off at our designated locations, and wait for your check in the mail!

*Anyone can be a consignor, just register for a number.
*Consignors are invited to our Presale, where you get to shop the pick of the sale items before we open to the public!
*You must submit at least 20 items or a total value of $75 (this could be just 1 or 2 big items!) to shop at the presale.
*You get to set the prices.
*You make 70% of your sales.
*Checks are mailed within 2 weeks.
*There is a $5 participation fee which is deducted from your final check, so there’s nothing to pay up front (or get it waived, see Incentive below!).
*If you don’t have $5 worth of sales, there’s no charge.
*Unsold items can be picked up at the end of the sale or donated.

EXTRA INCENTIVE - Want to have that $5 participation fee waived?
Have your friends sign up too! When 2 new consignors reference your name during registration (and show up with items to sell), your consignor fee will be waived. Get out there and spread the word. Another way to get your fee waived is to volunteer to work during the sale (setup to teardown). We'll waive the fee for ALL workers, plus you get to shop even earlier than consignors!

To register for a consignor's number, call Amy Borrelli at (610)765-1252 or email her at amy@journeybirthservices.com.

Don't want to be bothered with the tagging and sorting? Feel free to donate your items so that all of the proceeds of their sale will go to the Birth Scholarship Fund, and we'll tag and sort for you! Call or email Amy for more information!

Don't have anything to sell? Your munchkins all grown up? You can still make a donation to the Birth Scholarship. Please contact one of the Birth Scholarship Directors to arrange to make a donation.

See you at the sale!
Thanks!

Hail to the Brits!!

Dear Family & Friends,

Today was a special because the unit celebrated Afghanistan's Independence Day in Jalalabad. Tomorrow is the actual Independence Day, but because the unit has to provide security in this area, it was celebrated today.

Today made me appreciate that we actually have quite a bit in common with the Afghans. Both our societies are multi-cultural and diverse, our peoples desire freedom and security, and although we both won our freedom from the British, the Brits are now -- for both our countries -- one of our closest allies.

We were joined at today's celebration by our US comrades from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, who operate in partnership with our brigade. Both brigade commanders had some remarks for the assembled soldiers and guests, and then some soliders were recognized with certificates of acvhievement. After the official proceedings, a band played for the soldiers and several groups of soldiers did traditional Afghan dancing. (See attached picture.)

Another big even today was the arrival of the 5th Kandak resupply convoy to Jalalabad which brings us our mail. Many of the Pennsylvanians work with the 5th Kandak and they receive a hero's welcome when they show up with mail.

The Peace Jirga between Afghanistan and Pakistan ended this past week on a positive note. You probably know from the news that many of the terrorists take refuge in the lawless nowrthwestern frontiers of Pakistan, and both countries are now working hard to eliminate these refuges. The Pakistanis have been having their own problems with "miscreants" in that area this summer.

This coming week some of our US and ANA operational staff will be working with planners from the 173rd ABN BDE and the 201st ANA Corps on upcoming operations, inlcuding our pending relief from the eastern zone. Also this week, the 5th Kandak is going to be doing first aid training for Afghan Uniformed Police and then will conduct a MEDCAP (medical civil assistance program) in Asadabad.

Best Regards for a Happy Summer at Home!

GEORGE M. SCHWARTZ
LTC, AR
Team Leader/Senior Mentor
1st Brigade, 201st Corps (ANA ETT)

Fun, Food and Fantacy

Yesterday was the Family Readiness Group Picnic at Knoeble's Grove.
Since Sophia is still a little short to ride the rides we walked around the park enjoying the people. We stopped to watch The Waltons at the Bandstand. They were a talented pair!

A trip to Knoebles isn't complete without a visit to the Fudge and Nut Shoppe. I bought Peanut Butter Cup and Rocky Road Fudge. With the purchase of one pound of fudge you received one square of the Flavor of the Day: Cinnamon Snickerdoodle. I haven't tried it but it smells like Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.
I was glad to have my sister along with me for the picnic. She's great company and because of the distance between us (PA to NC) we don't get to spend as much time together as I'd like to.
After having our fill of walking, the three of us sat under the shade trees and watched the famous Knoebles stream.
She makes me laugh.
A lot.

It was a great day. Everyone had fun.
Now I have to get some more fudge.....

OH HO HO How I love to swim

Just Keep Swimming
Dory, Finding Nemo

"Hey Mr Grump Gills
You know what you gotta do when life gets you down?
Just keep swimming
Just keep swimming
Just keep swimming swimming swimming
What do we do we swim, swim, swim
OH HO HO How I love to swim
When you WAAAAAANNTTT to swim you want to swim"

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope this note finds everyone enjoying their summer. We are all doing well here, and actually some of us are at home now, enjoying leave with our loved ones. This includes 1SG Walter who made it home safely yesterday to meet his new son.

I know that the family group picnic is this coming weekend, and hope that the turn-out is good. We have really bonded as a result of this experience, so I am sure that we will all be seeing more of each other after this.

We continue to make improvements at every location that we have ANA and US troops. Our "home" garrison in Darulaman has constructed several new living quarters for the coalition forces, and we have many new tenants who are advisers to the Police. Here at Camp Darulaman, we are leading the charge to make improvements for the ANA. We have completed a new consolidated dining facility for them that is more efficient and drastically improved the sanitation.

I honestly cannot report on anything special occuring this past week. The news from distant Ghazni has, of course, been terrible with the kidnapping of all of those Korean hostages, and we all hope for their safe release. We did wish SPC Gerrity and LT Mitchell happy birthdays; well, we had to remind LT Mitchell that it was his birthday...

Best Wishes for this Coming Week,

GEORGE M. SCHWARTZ
LTC, AR
Team Leader/Senior Mentor
1st Brigade, 201st Corps (ANA ETT)

Our Picnic in Reeves Park

It was an amazing day today. I was happy to have kicked my cold and we needed some fresh air. The weather this summer has been terribly hot and humid so Sophia hasn't really been able to experience the beauty of nature yet.

This morning I packed a nice lunch and we headed to Reeves Park for a picnic. I've been driving past the park since we moved to Phoenixville thinking :
"My... what a nice park. I should stop there one day. "
We mailed off a package to The Dadder first and hiked through the grass to find the perfect picnic spot.

We found it below the huge trees. They provided just the right amount of shade .

We had all the ingredients for perfect fun: The Babe, picnic bag, diaper stuff sack and yummy German mineral water....

She loved it.

She really loved it.

She really, really love it.

We (heart) naps.
It was great day!