Megan swam in her second swim meet. She did a great job, taking 10 seconds off her times in each of 3 events(50 meter freestyle, 100 meter free style & 50 meter backstroke). Here is a video of her. Please forgive the sound of the obnoxious mom cheering.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Getting Ready for Christmas
We got our Christmas tree this weekend and the kids decorated it today. As a result, several Green Family records were set:
1. I am posting about an event that actually happened TODAY. Usually, there is a lag of about 2 weeks to three months. This is close to being a Christmas miracle.
2. The kids decorated basically the whole tree themselves. I put up the lights (I know, that should be a Dad job, but not in this house) and helped with a few ornaments, but they really did most of it. This is the first time I have been so uninvolved with the decorating. It was kind of liberating. Sam was the one who was really into it. He had a longer attention span for it than the girls did!
3. This may be related to # 2 above. Not one single ornament was broken in the decorating of the tree. Usually, at least three are smashed. I will admit that I am typically responsible for at least one breaking. So maybe because I was so uninvolved, the lives of who knows how many ornaments were saved.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Thanksgiving
We had such a nice and relaxing Thanksgiving this year! My sister Jen came to visit. She got here Tuesday night and left Friday night, so it was a quick visit. We packed in as much as we could into the time. Unfortunately, they moved the kindergarten Thanksgiving feast to Tuesday afternoon instead of Wednesday, so she was not able to go to it. But, she was able to see Hannah at horseback riding and Megan at swim practice. She also got our household on wifi and got our new laptop online. It was funny, because I realized that our other computer was almost 6 years old! Yeah, it is pretty slow, so this new laptop is a real treat. It was supposed to be for the kids but I am referring to it as mine now.
Thanksgiving dinner turned out awesome. This year, I used the brine recipe from the Chicago Tribune and it was really good. The turkey was juicy and the gravy was not too salty (like last year). I think this brine is a keeper. Of course, I won Rich and my annual pie contest. (Rich does not read this blog or he might protest, but he would be wrong. My pie was way better). On Friday, we tried to undo some of the damage we did the day before by going to a spin class. Jen had been to spin before, but neither Rich nor I had. Wow, it was a workout! I was really wiped after and I thought I was going to be sore, but I was fine on Saturday. I think we will try it some more since winter is finally setting in and our chances to bike outside are now pretty rare (although you never know with that polar bear husband of mine).
Here are some pictures from Sam's Thanksgiving Feast:
And here is Jen, covered with kids:
I hope you all had as great a Thanksgiving as we did.
Thanksgiving dinner turned out awesome. This year, I used the brine recipe from the Chicago Tribune and it was really good. The turkey was juicy and the gravy was not too salty (like last year). I think this brine is a keeper. Of course, I won Rich and my annual pie contest. (Rich does not read this blog or he might protest, but he would be wrong. My pie was way better). On Friday, we tried to undo some of the damage we did the day before by going to a spin class. Jen had been to spin before, but neither Rich nor I had. Wow, it was a workout! I was really wiped after and I thought I was going to be sore, but I was fine on Saturday. I think we will try it some more since winter is finally setting in and our chances to bike outside are now pretty rare (although you never know with that polar bear husband of mine).
Here are some pictures from Sam's Thanksgiving Feast:
And here is Jen, covered with kids:
I hope you all had as great a Thanksgiving as we did.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Totally Lame
Okay, I know I am totally lame with regard to updating this blog. What have we been up to? Here it is in a nutshell:
Sam turned 5 and had an awesome party at Pump it Up.
My good friend Janey from college came to Chicago for a conference so the kids and I went and had dinner with here. This was a major achievement for me because Rich had to go to India (more on that below) for work and was not here to chauffeur me to the city, as he usually does. This was not good because I have issues with driving on the tollway here into the city. There is so much construction and so may highway splits that I prefer to leave that whole mess to Rich. But alas, I HAD to see my buddy so off we went. We made it and it was well worth the stress - I had not seen Janey for about 15 years!
As I said, Rich was off to India for a week and we all hated it. Here is a picture of the kids waiting in the rain for his taxi to arrive home. He came back on his birthday, so we had a big celebration after which he fell soundly (and quickly) to sleep.
This was the Welcome Home/Happy Birthday set up:
Megan finished he fall soccer season and started swim team. This is new for us and she loves it. She is doing great. This was here in her first meet where she won two ribbons! Her best friend Paige is doing it with her so it is especially fun.
Sam is taking a little "Intro to Soccer" class in the morning before school. He is having a great time, but that may be just because he can run around like crazy for 45 minutes. The coach is awesome and funny so he enjoys going.
And finally, we had Halloween. The weather was cold and miserable and Mary got sick. The costumes were cute, though. Sam was Batman, Mary was Dorothy, Megan was a zombie 50s girl and Hannah was a dead prom queen (we had fun making that costume).
Here is a close up of the prom queen. Rich did the blood.
So all in all, we have been busy as usual. My sister is coming for Thanksgiving which is less than 2 weeks away. Help! Somebody slow the time down!
Sam turned 5 and had an awesome party at Pump it Up.
My good friend Janey from college came to Chicago for a conference so the kids and I went and had dinner with here. This was a major achievement for me because Rich had to go to India (more on that below) for work and was not here to chauffeur me to the city, as he usually does. This was not good because I have issues with driving on the tollway here into the city. There is so much construction and so may highway splits that I prefer to leave that whole mess to Rich. But alas, I HAD to see my buddy so off we went. We made it and it was well worth the stress - I had not seen Janey for about 15 years!
As I said, Rich was off to India for a week and we all hated it. Here is a picture of the kids waiting in the rain for his taxi to arrive home. He came back on his birthday, so we had a big celebration after which he fell soundly (and quickly) to sleep.
This was the Welcome Home/Happy Birthday set up:
Megan finished he fall soccer season and started swim team. This is new for us and she loves it. She is doing great. This was here in her first meet where she won two ribbons! Her best friend Paige is doing it with her so it is especially fun.
Sam is taking a little "Intro to Soccer" class in the morning before school. He is having a great time, but that may be just because he can run around like crazy for 45 minutes. The coach is awesome and funny so he enjoys going.
And finally, we had Halloween. The weather was cold and miserable and Mary got sick. The costumes were cute, though. Sam was Batman, Mary was Dorothy, Megan was a zombie 50s girl and Hannah was a dead prom queen (we had fun making that costume).
Here is a close up of the prom queen. Rich did the blood.
So all in all, we have been busy as usual. My sister is coming for Thanksgiving which is less than 2 weeks away. Help! Somebody slow the time down!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
A New School Year
I can't believe how fast the summer passed. Even the kids think it went fast. Now here we are starting school again. I now have a 7th grader, a 4th grader, a 2nd grader and a kindergartener. Amazing! So far things are going smoothly. It was sad putting my little guy on the bus that first day. I am going to miss him. But he is ready and I know how much fun he is going to have.
I also need these girls to stop growing for a little while. They are starting to make me feel old.
I also need these girls to stop growing for a little while. They are starting to make me feel old.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Triathlon!!
A dream came true! On July 18 we did our first triathlon! This all started back in April when I found this sprint distance race (1/2 mi swim, 12 mi bike & 3.1 mi run) scheduled for July and I also found a training program that did not seem too hard. If only I had a training partner to help me along... so of course I thought of Nancy, my good friend next door who I can usually rope into crazy things. She turned out to be pretty interested and she showed the training program to her husband Mike who also though it looked doable. With the three of us on board, Rich was helpless before the power of peer pressure and we were off and training!
Obsessed is probably not a strong enough word to describe the four of us over the next 12 weeks or so. Everything revolved around the race. Just ask Hannah - she was pretty sick of hearing about it. We were all so good about our training program. Luckily, Rich's work cooperated until the very last week. This was okay because that was the lightest week of the training program, but for a while it looked like he might not even be able to get to the race. He worked crazy hours that week, but he made it.
So here we are packing up to go to the race. We went the night before. There is Rich with his constant companions - the briefcase and the laptop!
Here are Nancy & me flexing our guns before the race! :)
Here are the four of us ready to go. Nancy & I were in the women only race that went first. An hour and a half later Rich & Mike went in the coed race over the same course. Since they were not starting as early as us, they got to come see us off for the swim. Now this race was in Racine, Wisconsin ans the swim was in Lake Michigan. According to the announcer, at the time of our race, the water temperature was 59 degrees! It was sooooo cold. Thank goodness we had our wet suits but even then it was so cold on my face that I physically could not put my face into the water for about the first quarter of the swim. Every time I tried I could not breathe and my heart was racing. Finally, I got used to it and was able to settle into a rhythm. Other than the cold, the swim was really nice because the race was pretty small - only about 200 people - so there really was no chaos at the start. That was great!
The wet suits help so much with the swim. They really make you more buoyant and you can swim faster. And if by chance you get tired, you can just hang out and float!
Yay, we did it! Nice picture with the porto potties in the background, I know! :)
I was so pumped after the race! It was so much fun! It is such a great feeling to set a goal and then achieve it. And to do it all together made it even more awesome. Mike & Nancy make the best training partners. So now that we worked so hard to get into shape, we are going to try to do 2 more races this season and then next year maybe try a longer one. Come and join us!
Obsessed is probably not a strong enough word to describe the four of us over the next 12 weeks or so. Everything revolved around the race. Just ask Hannah - she was pretty sick of hearing about it. We were all so good about our training program. Luckily, Rich's work cooperated until the very last week. This was okay because that was the lightest week of the training program, but for a while it looked like he might not even be able to get to the race. He worked crazy hours that week, but he made it.
So here we are packing up to go to the race. We went the night before. There is Rich with his constant companions - the briefcase and the laptop!
Here are Nancy & me flexing our guns before the race! :)
Here are the four of us ready to go. Nancy & I were in the women only race that went first. An hour and a half later Rich & Mike went in the coed race over the same course. Since they were not starting as early as us, they got to come see us off for the swim. Now this race was in Racine, Wisconsin ans the swim was in Lake Michigan. According to the announcer, at the time of our race, the water temperature was 59 degrees! It was sooooo cold. Thank goodness we had our wet suits but even then it was so cold on my face that I physically could not put my face into the water for about the first quarter of the swim. Every time I tried I could not breathe and my heart was racing. Finally, I got used to it and was able to settle into a rhythm. Other than the cold, the swim was really nice because the race was pretty small - only about 200 people - so there really was no chaos at the start. That was great!
The wet suits help so much with the swim. They really make you more buoyant and you can swim faster. And if by chance you get tired, you can just hang out and float!
Yay, we did it! Nice picture with the porto potties in the background, I know! :)
I was so pumped after the race! It was so much fun! It is such a great feeling to set a goal and then achieve it. And to do it all together made it even more awesome. Mike & Nancy make the best training partners. So now that we worked so hard to get into shape, we are going to try to do 2 more races this season and then next year maybe try a longer one. Come and join us!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Independence Day
The 4th of July weekend became Independence Day for Joanie this year!
Yes, that is Hannah cutting the grass! Woo-hoo!
Yes, that is Hannah cutting the grass! Woo-hoo!
Our New Yard
After two years here we decided to do some landscaping in our backyard. All that was back there was a crummy old play set from the people before us and a small vegetable garden. Being in a subdivision, the lack of any trees or shrubs meant that we were staring right at our neighbors' yards and houses. The plants we put in are still small but hopefully as they grow and we add to them we will have a little more green to see.
So here is before:
We took the play set down a couple of months earlier and got our trampoline. The play set area makes a great spot for the trampoline, but it needed some rehabbing too.
And after:
Our plan calls for more planting along the fence, but we are waiting until next year to deal with that. In the meantime, I am loving what we have out there now.
So here is before:
We took the play set down a couple of months earlier and got our trampoline. The play set area makes a great spot for the trampoline, but it needed some rehabbing too.
And after:
Our plan calls for more planting along the fence, but we are waiting until next year to deal with that. In the meantime, I am loving what we have out there now.
Summer Stuff
It appears that this blog is becoming seasonal - I really have to try to post more often. Many of my friends put me to shame with the frequency of their updates, but one special person (I hope she knows who she is -she started all of this) keeps me comforted. :) She updated recently so I though I'd better get moving!
So what is new in Illinois? Well a lot, so this will probably take a few posts. We started our summer a few days late since the kids had snow days to make up. It still baffles me that here in Illinois there are no snow days factored into the calendar. Each one must be made up at the end of the year. Of course, in Georgia there are days built into the calendar. While we had only a few "snow" days down there, we never had to make one up. Anyway, we started our summer with a bang with a very special visit from our awesome friends Jan & JT & their kids. We miss living in Georgia with them (of course, they left first so we have been missing them for a while). The kids had fun hanging out and spending a relaxing day together. The Bananagrams party that night was icing on the cake! (If you have not played Bananagrams, you need to - it is very fun). It all ended way too fast.
It is hard to believe how big the kids are getting. It seems like yesterday Hannah the dinosaur and Savannah the ladybug were trick or treating on Pine Grove Drive.
At the end of June we got to take whirlwind family trip to New York City to see my family and celebrate my Aunt Pauline's 90th birthday. Aunt Pauline's birthday is June 29 and Mary's is June 27, so we celebrated for both of them (the party for Aunt Pauline happened to be on Mary's actual birthday). During the trip we went to the Statue of Liberty, the Intrepid and even the beach! It was a very bust but very fun weekend. We stayed with my sister Jennifer in Brooklyn in her 3rd floor, 1 bedroom walk up apartment. She is a very good sister and aunt to have all of us there. The kids got a very nice taste of the city life their mom grew up with (although we did not have a walk up, thankfully).
Mary really wanted a Statue of Liberty crown,so since it was her birthday weekend we indulged her.
The Intrepid was way more fun than I thought it would be. I pictured something only Rich would enjoy. However, since they redid it, they put in a lot of family friendly activities to do in addition to all of the airplanes. Of course, since we had Rich with us it was like was were taking the audio tour for each airplane there. After 15 years of marriage I am pretty good at smiling and nodding and totally ignoring him all at the same time! Jen was less experienced so she got many earfuls of aviation history that I am sure she uses all the time.
We had Aunt Pauline's birthday luncheon/dinner (it was at 3:30) at a Greek restaurant in Brooklyn. Jen ordered this incredibly beautiful cake with "Happy Birthday Pauline and Mary" written around the sides. It had these groovy tall and skinny candles. We were going to put 97 (90 +7) on it but we decided to just put a whole bunch without counting them out. My sister Jackie was there too with her husband and twin boys as well as Antoinette (my grandmother's sister) and Doreen (I am not sure what she is too me - she was married to Aunt Pauline's nephew who recently passed away; Aunt Pauline is my grandfather's sister so maybe Doreen is some form of cousin in law once removed???)
We don't get to see Jackie's boys very often so it was a treat to spend time with them. They are 6 months younger than Mary. They got a kick out of playing the DS with Megan.
So that was our crazy June. July has been pretty busy too. The whole summer is passing by way too fast.
So what is new in Illinois? Well a lot, so this will probably take a few posts. We started our summer a few days late since the kids had snow days to make up. It still baffles me that here in Illinois there are no snow days factored into the calendar. Each one must be made up at the end of the year. Of course, in Georgia there are days built into the calendar. While we had only a few "snow" days down there, we never had to make one up. Anyway, we started our summer with a bang with a very special visit from our awesome friends Jan & JT & their kids. We miss living in Georgia with them (of course, they left first so we have been missing them for a while). The kids had fun hanging out and spending a relaxing day together. The Bananagrams party that night was icing on the cake! (If you have not played Bananagrams, you need to - it is very fun). It all ended way too fast.
It is hard to believe how big the kids are getting. It seems like yesterday Hannah the dinosaur and Savannah the ladybug were trick or treating on Pine Grove Drive.
At the end of June we got to take whirlwind family trip to New York City to see my family and celebrate my Aunt Pauline's 90th birthday. Aunt Pauline's birthday is June 29 and Mary's is June 27, so we celebrated for both of them (the party for Aunt Pauline happened to be on Mary's actual birthday). During the trip we went to the Statue of Liberty, the Intrepid and even the beach! It was a very bust but very fun weekend. We stayed with my sister Jennifer in Brooklyn in her 3rd floor, 1 bedroom walk up apartment. She is a very good sister and aunt to have all of us there. The kids got a very nice taste of the city life their mom grew up with (although we did not have a walk up, thankfully).
Mary really wanted a Statue of Liberty crown,so since it was her birthday weekend we indulged her.
The Intrepid was way more fun than I thought it would be. I pictured something only Rich would enjoy. However, since they redid it, they put in a lot of family friendly activities to do in addition to all of the airplanes. Of course, since we had Rich with us it was like was were taking the audio tour for each airplane there. After 15 years of marriage I am pretty good at smiling and nodding and totally ignoring him all at the same time! Jen was less experienced so she got many earfuls of aviation history that I am sure she uses all the time.
We had Aunt Pauline's birthday luncheon/dinner (it was at 3:30) at a Greek restaurant in Brooklyn. Jen ordered this incredibly beautiful cake with "Happy Birthday Pauline and Mary" written around the sides. It had these groovy tall and skinny candles. We were going to put 97 (90 +7) on it but we decided to just put a whole bunch without counting them out. My sister Jackie was there too with her husband and twin boys as well as Antoinette (my grandmother's sister) and Doreen (I am not sure what she is too me - she was married to Aunt Pauline's nephew who recently passed away; Aunt Pauline is my grandfather's sister so maybe Doreen is some form of cousin in law once removed???)
We don't get to see Jackie's boys very often so it was a treat to spend time with them. They are 6 months younger than Mary. They got a kick out of playing the DS with Megan.
So that was our crazy June. July has been pretty busy too. The whole summer is passing by way too fast.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Spring Fun
Wow, this has been a busy spring for the Greens! First off, Hannah (a girl after her mother's own heart) decided to run track. She ran the 800 and the 1600 meters. Back in the day when I was in school, we called these the 880 (half mile) and the mile. It was kind of a crazy season - they had a couple of weeks of practice and then the meets started, at least two a week. A couple were canceled for bad weather (shocking, I know) but they ended up with something like 11 meets in 4 weeks. I was so proud of her, I though I was going to explode. She went to every practice and ran her little heart out at every meet. The younger kids got pretty tired of going to the meets, although Megan did say it looks fun and she can't wait to be in 6th grade so she can run too - yay!
We also got a new addition for our backyard. The people before us left a play set that was getting pretty old and hazardous. We had the whole thing removed and instead of getting a new set, we decided to get a trampoline! This is a huge development for our kids. They were always trying to go next door and jump on our dear neighbors' trampoline. We must be getting old and soft, because we caved in. The kids are loving it.
Grandpa & Grandma Green came out for a visit. It was great timing because they got to go to Mary's 1st grade performance and Megan's and Mary's violin recital. It was so fun to have them here. Sam had a ball playing Candy Land with them and they were more than patient with his frequent suggestions that they play AGAIN! It worked out great for me that they were here because we ended up with four (yes, four) cases of strep throat in this house. Fortunately, Grandpa & Grandma were not among the victims, but unfortunately I was. Megan, Mary, Sam and I all shared it. This is the first time in the history of our family that we have shared strep (and we have had it plenty). Anyway, Mary & Sam were not that sick, but Megan and I were. We were both pretty much out of it for two solid days. Thank you Grandma & Grandpa for being here and taking over so I could be sick!
Here we all are with our respective antibiotics.
The last event I have to report on is a big one. My baby graduated from preschool! I can't believe it - I swear he was just born! I have had a child in preschool since 2000, but now no more. Sam is my first one not to graduate from Northside Drive Baptist Preschool . Our move to Illinois from Atlanta made the commute a little too long. So Sam has attended the Engle Junction Preschool at the Lindenhurst Park District and he has been happy there. He loved his teachers and he is ready for kindergarten - but I am not. When August comes, I am going to be a sad mom! We are very proud of out little graduate!
I swear, he was just born! Where did the time go?
We also got a new addition for our backyard. The people before us left a play set that was getting pretty old and hazardous. We had the whole thing removed and instead of getting a new set, we decided to get a trampoline! This is a huge development for our kids. They were always trying to go next door and jump on our dear neighbors' trampoline. We must be getting old and soft, because we caved in. The kids are loving it.
Grandpa & Grandma Green came out for a visit. It was great timing because they got to go to Mary's 1st grade performance and Megan's and Mary's violin recital. It was so fun to have them here. Sam had a ball playing Candy Land with them and they were more than patient with his frequent suggestions that they play AGAIN! It worked out great for me that they were here because we ended up with four (yes, four) cases of strep throat in this house. Fortunately, Grandpa & Grandma were not among the victims, but unfortunately I was. Megan, Mary, Sam and I all shared it. This is the first time in the history of our family that we have shared strep (and we have had it plenty). Anyway, Mary & Sam were not that sick, but Megan and I were. We were both pretty much out of it for two solid days. Thank you Grandma & Grandpa for being here and taking over so I could be sick!
Here we all are with our respective antibiotics.The last event I have to report on is a big one. My baby graduated from preschool! I can't believe it - I swear he was just born! I have had a child in preschool since 2000, but now no more. Sam is my first one not to graduate from Northside Drive Baptist Preschool . Our move to Illinois from Atlanta made the commute a little too long. So Sam has attended the Engle Junction Preschool at the Lindenhurst Park District and he has been happy there. He loved his teachers and he is ready for kindergarten - but I am not. When August comes, I am going to be a sad mom! We are very proud of out little graduate!
I swear, he was just born! Where did the time go?
Friday, April 10, 2009
Spring Break
We took an awesome trip to Florida for Spring Break this year. We rented a house in Orlando and had a blast! My sister joined us for most of the week. We had a great reunion with our friends the Mojicas. It is amazing to see how big the kids are getting. We went to the beach, we went to Epcot, and Typhoon Lagoon. The house we rented had a pool so the kids did a ton of swimming. It was really warm, so I was very happy. At one point there was some whining about being hot. The offending whiners were quickly told by their mother to be quiet and be grateful! The day after we got home, it snowed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)