Jon Eric Greene May 31, 1966-February 6, 2008

A year ago today, we lost Jon. In memory of Jon, I'm posting his obituary, a poem that I wrote quite a few years ago for Father's Day and a slideshow of some of the pictures with Jon and the kids.

After a sudden and very brief illness, Jon Greene, 41, of Lake Jackson, passed away Wednesday, February 6, 2008. Jon was born on May 31, 1966 and was the beloved son of Charlie and Faithie Greene of Acworth, Georgia. Raised in Acworth, Jon relocated to the Brazosport area in 1998, to marry Jennifer Fleming and later start their family. Jon was an extraordinary family man. The sun rose and set in his wife and children. They were his hobby, his interest and his purpose in life.
He is survived by his wife of 9 years, Jennifer and their three children: Anna Claire (7), Ella Paige (4) and Brennan Michael (3) all of Lake Jackson.

Jon is also survived by his parents, Charlie and Faithie Greene of Acworth, Georgia, one brother, Brad Greene and wife Erica, also of Acworth, mother-in-law, Christine Van Horn of Lake Jackson and was preceded in death by his father-in-law Michael Van Horn.
He was an employee at The Texas Dow Employees Credit Union as an Operations Analyst in the IT department.

Jon was a quiet, unassuming man of integrity. He revered his parents, treasured his brother and was a devoted husband and passionately loved his children. We will deeply miss his delightsome nature, quick wit and the mischievous twinkle in his eye. Farewell, our dear Jon, we will try to hang in there without ya, until we meet again.

“My Daddy”

My daddy is the greatest,
A very special guy.
He doesn’t drive a fancy car,
Or wear a suit and tie.

My Daddy spends the time with me,
That’s how I know he cares.
It’s important what he’s teaching me.
With memories that we share.

We watch cartoons together,
We play games and he reads me books,
My daddy makes up silly songs,
And gives me silly looks.

My daddy takes me to the park,
He swings me and lets me slide.
My daddy twirls me ‘round and ‘round,
And gives me horsie rides.

There are so many other things,
That make my dad the best.
He’s the cream of the crop,
He’s number one, hands down above the rest.

I love my daddy very much,
He is so good to me.
He kisses and hugs me everyday,
And loves me unconditionally.


- Jen Greene 2002

Headaches & Horses

Today hasn't turned out to be the greatest Saturday in the world for Anna. Anna woke up with a nasty headache. No matter what we did, she was in a tremendous amount of pain. Towards the middle of the day she started to feel slightly better, but she still missed her basketball game. She and the other two little ones were supposed to feed horses with my Uncle Dan. Anna said she wanted to stay home. If you know Anna, you know she had to be bad off in order to give up anything having to do with animals. Dan came and got Brennan and Ella (and brought Anna a much needed Dr. Pepper). I dropped Anna off at my mom's house while I did some light grocery shopping. Dan took a couple of pictures of the kids with the horses. They had to run the pick up through the car wash. Dan said that the kids spilled Dr. Pepper on one side and there was horse drool on the other. Yeah, yuck.

Jenga!

Over the past few days I have not been in the best of moods. Mostly, I just feel overwhelmed with life in general. I feel like I'm mean and no fun at all to be around. For that reason, I told myself that tonight would be different. After I cooked dinner and bathed Ella and Brennan, we all played a couple of rounds of Jenga. Can you see who lost? I feel a little better now...

Lolli-Lolli

It's fascinating the amount of bribery and coercion it takes to get the kids into the shower and then the same amount, if not more, to get them out. Once in they seem to be as entertained as if they were at The Magic Kingdom.

The kids got these great homemade lollipops from a birthday party today. They carried them into their shower. While I was gathering towels and washrags and such they were having a ball putting their candy under the shower. I tried to grab my camera and take some candid shots, but I was spied rather quickly. After that they were pretty much just putting on a show for me.

When they were sufficiently cleaned and able to be persuaded out of the tub, I dried Brennan off and put on his Superman underwear and t-shirt. While I was helping him (is it mine or do all male children act as if they can't dress themselves?) I told Ella to get on her underwear and pajamas. Brennan turned to me and said, "Don't you mean her pantywear?"

Sponge Bob Parenting Class

Do you think Sponge Bob offers parenting classes? Eating breakfast before church, my kids were mesmerized by his words. Wish I could get them to listen to me that closely.

(Yes, we do still have our Christmas tree up! It will come down tomorrow...hopefully.)

Love & Logic from a 4 Year Old

Some of you may or may not have heard of "Love & Logic". It's a parenting program so to speak. Very big in the field of education. What I've learned about it, I love, and I use it all the time. Love & Logic is big on giving kids choices (as well as other things). Again, I use the strategy of giving choices a lot.

I just love it when I hear them using Love & Logic themselves.

Tonight, Ella was putting a puzzle together. She always recruits me to help (even though she's better than I am at puzzles). She and Anna were bickering and being very mean to one another. I had had enough. I got up and said, "I only play with kids who can get along with each other." At that, Ella began her famous drama queen melt down. Oh the wailing! Brennan said, "Ella, I will help you." Ella continued her award winning performance. Brennan began his Love & Logic...

"Ella, you have two choices. You can put the puzzle away or you can calm down. Actually, you have four choices. You can go to bed, you can calm down, you can not do the puzzle or you can...well...those are your options."

She calmed down.

Anna's First Basketball Game

A couple of seasons ago I talked Anna into playing soccer. Her soccer season was quite successful, but Anna wasn't too thrilled with the game. Before the season was in full swing she asked, "Why didn't you tell me there was so much running?" Need I mention that Anna didn't want to return to soccer?

Now, Anna decided, on her own, that she wanted to try basketball this year. There's a local church that sponsors the Upward Basketball program. The name of Anna's team is the Lady Salukis. Here's a picture of Anna from the game and one of Ella and Brennan watching the game. For exhibiting Christlike behavior and attitude during the game, Anna received a white star to stitch to her jersey. Although she was nervous about her first game, Anna did a great job and seemed to have fun. I think she'll have even more fun in the games to come as her confidence grows and she becomes less Christlike...I mean...a little more aggressive.

I only took about 100 other pictures and most of them were too blurry to see what was going on. I've GOT to learn how to use my new camera! I know, I know...when all else fails, READ THE MANUAL!