BOCD

BOCD is the disorder with which Rich has diagnosed me. It stands for "Bunion Obsessive Compulsive Disorder." I have to admit I have had it bad ever since we decided to go ahead with the bunion surgery. See, I have always had hideous feet thanks to my DNA. Bad genes combined with the abuse of my being a runner had finally led to some problems that had to be fixed.

So here I sit, almost a week after surgery. All I can say is thank heavens for our awesome niece Teresa who flew out here to take over and be me for a while. Since my worst foot was my right foot, the doc did that one first. That means no driving for at least 3 weeks! There is no way we could have done this without Teresa. She is the best!

Anyway, back to my BOCD. I think I can honestly say that I have read everything possible on the internet associated with bunions, recovery from bunion surgery, exercising after bunion surgery, shoes after bunion surgery, physical therapy after bunion surgery, gaining weight after bunion surgery, Paula Radcliffe (women's world record holder in the marathon; had a bunion removed a year ago) and Victoria Beckham (she's got 'em too). More topics than that I am sure.

In about a month, we will do the other foot and I will see a light at the end of the tunnel (I hope). The end result will be no running for 3 months or more, but hopefully better feet and knees that will enable me to run for many more years. I have to remember that because it really bums me out that my triathlon/running season is going down the toilet.

WARNING: The pictures below are ugly & gross. Both of my feet are in them so you get to see the hideous "before" and the (temporarily I hope) hideous "after." I go back to the doctor tomorrow and will hopefully get some more dramatic pictures. These pictures are from my appointment Thursday, 3 days after the surgery. The foot is still pretty swollen, but it is definitely straight. There is a gauze pad over my second toe (I had a hammertoe too and they had to put a pin it it) and it is till covered in the picture - it is not really that color.






Are you sure you want to see them?








It is not too late to turn back!











Okay, but I warned you:



Good times!

Horse Show

Hannah recently had her schooling show at the barn where she rides. I tried posting a video of her, but I could not get it uploaded. :( Anyway, here are some photos of her riding Hansel. She has been riding bareback for a couple of months now. It is supposed to help her build up strength and help her post better. It just looks hard to me. She did a great job and got a blue ribbon. Now she is riding in the saddle again, thank goodness. She has been working very hard and it is really showing!

Swim Meet

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.