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.

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?

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.

A New Addition and Other Developments!

I realize I have not posted in a LONG time, but since I see my good friend Jan (the one who started all of this) has not posted in a longer time, I don't feel too bad. So what has been going on with the Greens? Well, we have a new addition to the family. His name is Ferb (as in "Phineas & Ferb" - we are big fans) and he is a guinea pig. Shocking, I know, especially in light of the fact that I am strongly anti-rodent. But for all the accusing I get from a certain male that I spoil the kids, he was the one who wanted to surprise them after all of their begging. I agreed as long as I do not have to deal with it (ha -right!). Anyway, Ferb has been with us for a little over a month now. I have had minimal dealings with him, but lots of nagging about him to do. Oh well, at least I am playing to my strengths. I am grateful that at least he does not have red eyes.

Our other big development is that our #2 girl turned 9. I can't believe it. And in less than a month her sister will be 12. Where is the time going? By August, I will have kids in 7th grade, 4th grade, 2nd grade & kindergarten. I sense a midlife crisis coming on.

One Year Later

It was one year ago today that we were traveling back from a wonderful Christmas trip to visit our family when we were involved in a 9 car, 4 truck pile up near Evanston, Wyoming. Initially, we came upon an accident involving 1 SUV & 1 semi that blocked the whole road. We pulled over and Rich went to help the family in the SUV. As you can see from the pictures, their car was pretty creamed. It turned out they had been hit by 2 semis. We had no problem stopping when we came upon the accident because we were going pretty slow - it had been snowing. The cars coming behind us, however, were not being quite so conservative. They could not stop and we ended up being rear-ended twice. The second time we were hit, Rich was outside the car getting blankets for the people trapped in the SUV and he had to dive under another semi to avoid being hit.

After we were hit the second time I was feeling like a sitting duck and so we grabbed the kids and got out of the car. We went to the side of the road where a bunch of hunters and truckers were standing. Those guys were awesome! They scooped up our kids and put all of us into he back of the cab of one of the trucks. A driver named Jim let us huddle there for 5 hours while we waited to the police to do the report and a wrecker to take our car. Luckily we were only about 85 miles from Salt Lake, so Rich's family were able to pick us up the next day when the roads were clear.

I am always humbled when I think about the many people who helped us, whether or not they even knew us. Our family, of course was awesome - Rich's mom & brother came and got us and my sister was able to get us a reservation at a hotel in Evanston even as we sat in the back of that truck waiting for the police to finish. That reservation was key - they ended up closing I-80, so there were a lot of travelers stranded. Our awesome friends in Atlanta gave us additional frequent flier miles so we could fly our family home from Salt Lake. And a trucker named Jim who let us stay warm and dry in the back of his cab for so long. He drives for Jim Palmer so if you see one of those trucks in your travels, let it remind you that there are good guys out there.

Most of all, I am so grateful that we were okay. All we had were a couple of sore necks and the inconvenience of not having our car for a while. One look at that picture of the SUV puts it all into perspective. So today is a day to hug the kids and feel blessed because we were so blessed! Happy New Year everyone!

Gingerbread House

A few years we had an awesome time making gingerbread houses with a couple of of friends in Atlanta. We did the whole nine yards: made the gingerbread, cut the pattern, etc. There was a lot of work before we ever got to decorate it, but it was so fun. We made two houses - Rich made one & I made the other(the kids assisted on both). It got a little competitive (shocking, I know), especially after Rich STOLE all of the remaining icing to make snow around his house when I still needed some for decorating. Anyway, we gave one of the houses away as a gift and we kept the other one. When we got home from delivering the one we gave away, we discovered that the dog ate the remaining one. So much for our hard work, but it was still fun!

This year, we went the easy route: I bought a kit at Target and last night we put it together. It was way faster, but still fun. The whole event was much less competitive (the kids did the decorating) and, almost 24 hours later. the dog has not eaten it yet.

Christmas Vacation

Friday was supposed to be the kids' last day before Christmas Vacation, but we ended up with a foot of snow and a snow day. I had a surprise planned for the kids to kick off vacation: I reserved a night at Key Lime Cove, an indoor water park less than 2 miles from here. The whole indoor water park is a midwestern thing I had never even heard of until we moved here. Anyway, it makes sense since the winters here are so long. Key Lime Cove is less than a year old, and the terrible economy seems to be taking its toll because they had a pretty incredible deal. We paid about a third of what they normally charge for the room plus water park passes. So the kids spend the first half of the day playing in the snow and the second half (plus Saturday) playing at the water park.

I was glad we did it because the weather really went downhill after Saturday. We woke up Sunday to a -8 air temperature with a -34 windchill. It was the coldest day I have ever experienced. I am already planning Spring Break in Sunny Florida!