Gingerbread House Party

This morning we went to my friend Sandra's house for the kids to make gingerbread houses. The kids had a super time and it was great hanging out and visiting with my Jane Long buddies. Thanks Sandra for the fun time!

Christmas Letter & Family Picture 2008

December 23, 2008

Dear Family & Friends,

Saying that it’s been a tough year for us would be an under statement. It is beyond difficult to believe that we have been without Jon for most of this year. Despite our heartache, the kids and I have been able settle in to a new normal and carry on because of the outpouring of love shown to us.

Anna Claire (8) is in the third grade and remains on the A Honor Roll despite her not-so-wonderful study habits. She is as bright as they come, but Anna would rather be outside playing basketball, building forts, digging in the dirt, riding bikes, playing Littlest Pet Shop, jumping rope or anything other than doing school work. This being said, Anna has found a love for reading that I never thought I would see. She especially loves Babysitter Club books and of course any book about animals. This year Anna received her life long wish, a puppy named Lola.

Ella Paige (4) continues to be our girly girl as well as our resident drama queen. She attends preschool several days a week and is so ready for kindergarten. Ever since she was little, Ella has taught herself to do many things. This year has been no exception to that. Ella has learned to ride her bike, jump rope, whistle, do the Chinese splits, snap her fingers and dance like a Cheetah girl. Ella enjoys gymnastics, playing outside, riding her bike, dressing up and spending the night with Nana.

Brennan Michael (3) is proving to be both my blessing and my burden. When looking at him, he is a ditto mark of his dad. As sweet as he is, he can also be such a handful. Some of the things Brennan loves to do are zipping down the driveway on his hot wheels, playing with his sisters, throwing anything, and drinking Dr. Pepper. Brennan says and does things that keep us laughing as well as keeping us on our toes.

As for me, after ten years of teaching in Freeport, I moved to a Lake Jackson School. I’m now teaching fourth grade reading, language arts and social studies at Elisabet Ney Elementary School. This is also the same school I attended from kindergarten through fourth grade. Change is always tough, but it has proven to be a good thing. When I have free time, I continue to enjoy reading, scrap booking, making bows, resale shopping and spending time with family and friends.

One evening, Anna expressed her sadness and some of her feelings about losing her dad with me. Crying she said to me, “Mom, it’s never going to be the same again without Daddy.” Knowing what to say to this was not easy. I told her that she was right. Things would never be the same. That doesn’t mean we can’t be happy. We continue to be a family, do things together and live our lives the way we would have if Jon were still with us. Most days, we are happy. Although it is easy to slip into unhappiness as we think about our great loss this year, during this holiday season and the close of 2008, the kids and I choose to celebrate and be grateful for the blessings that we have.

We would like to wish you and your family all the happiness you deserve.

Love,
Jen, Anna, Ella & Brennan Greene

Surgery and Beyond

As some of you know, yesterday I had outpatient surgery in the hopes of fixing my severe anemia that I've struggled with for the past two years. My sister, Melissa, took me and stayed with me at the hospital. Thanks Mis. While I was there my sister, Chelle, was at my house cleaning, ordering pizza for my class' Christmas party and running errands for me. Thanks Chelle. The procedure was pretty quick and went well. Although I had quite a bit of pain and nausea immediately after the procedure, later on in the evening I was feeling much better. By this morning, I felt practically no pain. My friend Mechiel came over and we baked some cookies, fudge, cinnamon pecans and some chocolate covered pretzels. Thanks Mechiel. Ella whispered in my ear, "Mom, when are we going to make cookies?" Needless to say, later this evening, while Anna was busy delivering treats to church members with her Faith In God group, Ella, Brennan and I made some Christmas cookies. My mom was here helping too. She's been taking good care of me and making sure I don't over do it. I've taken a few pictures of the event with my early Christmas present to myself. The team of teachers that I work with brought some delicious Mexican food over for dinner this evening too. Thanks Amy, Angie, Val and Cathy. Anna was able to enjoy the cookies once she got home. My mom took the two little ones home with her so that I can have another restful night. Thanks Mom. Earlier in the day Mechiel mentioned to me how lucky I was to have my mom close and so willing to help out. She's absolutely right. I'm blessed to have family and friends who are so good to my family and I. It's been a good day.

Is Elvis Presley My Cousin?

Last night at dinner Ella asked us to raise our hands if we looked like Elvis Presley. I have no idea where she learned about Elvis. To be funny I raised my hand. Ella told me that I did look like Elvis Presley. Brennan said, "I love Elvis Presley...is he my cousin?" We all had a good laugh about that.

Greene Visit

As I was tucking kids in bed tonight, the phone rang. My in laws were calling to let me know that had made it back to Georgia, safe and sound. For the past week we had the pleasure of their company here in Texas.

Although at times my kids are too rambunctious for Faithie and Charlie, they adore the kids and it is obvious that the feeling is mutual. The kids and I always enjoy their visits.

Faithie & Charlie kept my little ones while Anna and I were at work and at school. That gave my mom a much needed break from watching them. Ella has just learned to ride her bike, so she was grateful that between Grandma and Grandpa, she was able to burn up the sidewalks. Brennan is still not too crazy about his big boy bike, but can tear up a sidewalk just the same with his big wheel.

Friday night I was able to talk Faithie & Charlie into letting me escape, I mean get away for awhile. As soon as I was done with work I raced, I mean I leisurely drove up to Houston to meet my good friend Mechiel for some scrapbooking and early Christmas shopping. Also, as Mechiel put it, she was able to twist my arm to get me to go see Twilight with her. No worries, she didn't have to twist too hard. Even though I was gone longer than I had planned, Faithie & Charlie and the kids survived without me. Saturday while I was doing my thing, Faithie & Charlie took the kids to Sea Center, Cactus Grill (the kids' favorite restaurant here in town) and then to Chuck E. Cheese (my most unfavorite restaurant/place in town). I'm not sure about the grandparents, but I KNOW the kids had a great day.


Monday night, Faithie & Charlie took us to eat at La Casona (another one of our favorites) and after that we had an early Christmas. The kids had fun opening their gifts except for Brennan who was having a difficult time breaking away from a DS game. Then my mom showed up with a special delivery, a custom made gift for my in laws that my sister has been working on for awhile now. My sister, Chelle, put together a quilt for my in laws, made from Jon's clothing. Pieces of Jon's t-shirts, boxers, shorts, and pajama bottoms sewn together into a gift too special for words. There were tears, many tears from each of us as we could each see Jon through every part of the quilt. On one square Chelle's husband, Mike, designed the wording. In a circular pattern were the words, "Wrapped in the warmth of Jon's love". Thanks Chelle and Mike. A better gift could not be bought.


Seeing that it is almost Thanksgiving, let me say that I am grateful for my in laws. In a world where raising children has its difficulties, they raised two of the best men I have ever been blessed to know. Their oldest, my Jon, and his younger brother Brad were and are the most wonderful sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, and friends that anyone could imagine. For that I am grateful.

Thank you, Faithie and Charlie, for the visit and for everything else that has trickled down from you.

How Embarrassing

Since my students don't have lunch until 12:40, my students and I have a snack around 9:30. This morning, I was having some pistachios.

As I was cracking one of them, I was talking with a student. The pistachio flipped out of the shell and landed smack dab in my cleavage. Now you can't nonchalantly take a pistachio out of your cleavage, so I reached in and removed it as quickly as I could. Thankfully, the only student who noticed it was the one I was talking to, but it was terribly embarrassing because he was laughing hysterically which in turn gave me a bad case of the giggles! Then ALL the kids wanted to know what was so funny and I was NOT going to tell them. The uncontrolled laughter went on for what seemed like forever but was probably only a minute or less. For the rest of the afternoon, every time this student would gain his composure, he would look at me and then crack up again.

It may not seem very funny on this post or very embarrassing, but at the time, it was both.

Ripley's Believe It

This recovery may just belong on an episode of Ripley's Believe It Or Not. I'm just getting unexhausted (I know it's not a real word but I'm using it anyway) from Halloween, several weekends of birthday parties, laundry piled twice as high as the laundry basket, house cleaning that never seems to end, grocery shopping, playing with the kids and all the other stuff we do in this crazy thing we call life.

Although I was not looking forward to the trick or treating, Halloween was really a great time for all of us. Unlike my normal self, I planned ahead this year for costumes. I can't be one of the moms who buys the costume-I like to put them together-Not make them-Just put them together. My friend, let's just call her "Jane" (because she's worried that someone will hunt her down if I put her real name on my blog-hehe) shopped until we just about dropped and found wonderful pieces for the kids' costumes at our favorite shopping franchise-Goodwill. Amazing, Halloween was still more than a day away and I had just about everything for the kids' costumes!

Anna, my animal girl, was Bindi the Jungle Girl. That fits her so perfectly and although she's much cuter than Bindi, Anna did look like a jungle girl. Not that Bindi is not cute, but she's not my Anna. After a complete meltdown on the morning of Halloween while I was gathering the last minute props for that night (me melting down, not the kids) due to not being able to find our stuffed snake, my mom acquired a plastic one from a friend that ended up working out perfectly.

Ella, who is always a princess, was talked in to being a "punk-rock princess" this year. I think what finally got her to agree to it was me calling her Sleeping Beauty costume, her Stinky Booty costume. That is such a Jon thing to do, but I just couldn't help myself. Mom had arranged for a friend from church to come fix Ella's hair. I was so excited to see her punk rock hairdo, but I was met with a sobbing little princess who had just had her punk rock hairdo washed and brushed out by her hero, Nana. After our friend fixed her hair, Ella took one look at it and burst in to hysterics. All my mom could do was wash it out. Once I got there, I did the best I could to make her punk rock hairdo a little less punkish and a little more princessish. Of course, she was adorable.

Brennan, who wanted to be a train again, was persuaded to be a cowboy. Again, by me. He was by far the cutest cowboy I've seen...ever. I'm just glad no one saw what was inside his boots. My mom and I struggled, and a sight it was, to get his boots on to no avail. The wiser of us decided to try some knee highs. They worked like a charm! His boots slipped right on. It didn't matter too much though. About five minutes after we arrived to our Halloween destination, the boots came off (and the hose) and his crocs went on. Then it was about 20 minutes after that when his hat came off. I'm not sure how long it was, but not long after that his vest came off. By the time we were in the midst of trick or treating, he was no longer a cowboy, but just a regular little boy-cute as can be-but still just a boy.

Once the kids were all dressed, we loaded the van and headed out to Sugar Mill. This is a subdivision on the outskirts of town. Anna's second grade teacher, Mrs. Cherry Lange, invited us out there. They have a big Halloween get together with hot dogs, candied apples, and a hayride. Around seven the hayride began. The kids, and the parents, all pile onto the tractor trailers and off we went trick or treating. You could tell the older ones had done this a time or two. Before the tractors even stopped, all the experienced kiddos starting jumping off and racing to the houses for some candy. It didn't take the little ones long to learn the routine. Their neighborhood didn't seem that big going in, but when we were still trick or treating at 10, I realized it was quite large. Even Anna (my energizer bunny) was exhausted and stopped running up the the doors. Brennan was on the floor of the trailer going through as much candy as he could. Ella was only going about every two stops. One of the last stops was a haunted house. Ella did NOT want to go, but Anna and Brennan insisted, so I went with them. We got up to the house and you could hear screams and see smoke filling the air. Anna turned to me and said, "Mom, I think I want to sleep tonight. I better not go in." Then Brennan turned around and said that he didn't want to go in anymore either. I was so grateful, because I wanted to sleep that night too. On the walk back to the trailer, Bren said, "Mom, I didn't want to go in there...it was freaking out me...it was like... my head off." The boy cracks me up. Finally, we were finished, thanked Mrs. Lange for a great time and headed home.

Unlike most kids who went to bed with no bath, mine each got baths and their hair blow dried before hopping in the bed and getting some shut eye. This is not because I'm so particular about them being clean, but it was more about the fact that my kids all have terrible allergies and we had just been outdoors for quite a few hours, not to mention the fact that we'd been sitting on hay bales too. Needless to say, there were no arguments on getting to sleep.

My mom tells me, "You're making memories." I hope that's what we're doing, because some days the memory making seems like a whole lot of work.