Hannah the Poet

For a Social Studies/Language Arts project, Hannah had to write a poem relating to the Holocaust. This is what she turned in:

Death’s Kiss

On a crowded train to my doom

I cry, scream, plead

Into an ear

That cannot hear

The future looms, in the smoke over there

Where the bodies burn.

Soon I will be ash, floating in the sky…

I have always wanted to fly.

Out of the train,

Death holds my hand

I have nothing left

And nothing to lose.

Angry yells and barbed wire

Welcome, please, jump in the fire.

This way, go that way

Like a shy child, I obey

Now I take the cleansing of my life

In the shower Death kisses me

Her lips are cold, her grasp is steel

She is beautiful

She is my one way out of this dark hole.

I was pretty amazed. It is so strange because Hannah is so like me in so many ways, but so different too. My high school English teacher told me I was the most literal person she had ever met. What a surprise when I majored in math! For Hannah to write that poem is so out of my league, it isn't funny. And of course - she hates math.

Update

Whew! Could it possibly be so long since I posted anything? It seems every other post I do is some sort of update meant to fill in for months missed. Sorry.

So what have we been up to? Well first off, my foot is doing pretty well. I was on crutches for five (!) weeks. It was longer because of an infection the pictures of which I will spare you. It was pretty nasty. Then I was able to walk in the boot for a couple of weeks and then I graduated to a tennis shoe. So here I am, 10 weeks out form the surgery, wearing tennis shoes (and only tennis shoes) with new orthodocs in them. I am going to physical therapy (wow did I need it after wearing that boot for 7 weeks) and I can ride the stationary bike, swim and walk on the tread mill. I interpret riding the bike as doing spin classes, so at least I can get a little exercise. The swimming is helping too (I was totally sore after my first time back in the pool - so depressing!). I go back June 1, which will be 3 months post-op. I am hoping for clearance to run. And wear something other than tennis shoes (not that I am not grateful to be out of the boot!)

In retrospect, I will say that the bunion surgery has not been that big a deal and I am not too stressed about the other foot (I scheduled it for December, but I might move it up). The big issue was the lousy hammer toe. It still does not feel anything near normal and the doc said it could take a year for all of the feeling to come back. Ugh. Luckily, I do not have that issue on my left foot. All it needs is the bunion surgery.

While all this was going on, Hannah turned 13. I can't believe it. She had a fun afternoon of shopping at the mall with Teresa and then a sushi dinner with her dad (I was still out of commission). Here are Hannah & Teresa after their shopping trip:



It is hard to believe Hannah is so grown up. I am so proud of what an awesome, talented kid she is. I still see that little girl with a whale spout, twisting her hair. Then I blink and here is this mature young woman. People warned me she would grow up fast - why didn't I believe them?
Happy Birthday Hannah! You are awesome!

We were able to spend spring break with my sister and Teresa. We had a blast and got to catch up with our friends the Mojicas.

Jen's rental car was a black Grand Marquis. It was huge. We decided a gangsta pose would be appropriate.


Time is flying by and we have a crazy summer coming up: Rich & Hannah to Utah for Kristy's wedding, Mary & me to NYC to see my family, Hannah to Girls' Camp, all of us to Utah & Idaho for Green family reunion...and that just gets us to July! Hopefully there will be a triathlon for me in there somewhere along with lots of running!

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.