Family Adventures Family Adventures When my children are grown and gone, I hope that they will look back on their childhood and remember the sound of their mother's laughter. Sometimes that is easier said than done. Articles
Relay For Life
2008-04-26 23:26:00 Last night was the Relay for Life , thank you very much for all your contributions. We were able to exceed our goal. Jeff volunteered me as the online chair yet didn't tell me what to do. Then I was sent a 80+ page manual on how to run the website. What I didn't know was that I was supposed to solicited information out of the teams and email and post that information. Now I know. I was invited to do the job again next year, even though this year I only did my job for a week. I guess that is the great thing about being a volunteer.Jeff won the spirit award for his team. He has a lot of spirit and this year he used a bull horn. This was my first year attending the event. If you have never attended a relay for life event, you should find one near you and check it out. We had a blast. It all starts with the introduction of the cancer survivors in our area. Some speeches are made by some of the survivors. Thanks are given. And then the relay begins. The object of the rela...
Why Won't My Teen Clean Her Room: and other parenting fun
2008-04-22 14:01:00 I have been having the hardest time getting Mandy (17) to clean her room. I don't think she has cleaned it properly since we moved in a year ago. She still has unpacked boxes in the middle of her room. I have bought her shelves and assembled them. I have grounded her from the computer and TV. Nothing seems to work. I have begged and pleaded, threatened and yelled. I am tempted to go in there with a garbage bag and be done with it.Mandy is a good kid. She does well in school. She has a job. She is very busy and for the most part she is kind and respectful toward me and the rest of the family. She just refuses to comply in this one area. I think she is doing it because she can. To prove a point. The point being that I am not the boss of her anymore. I cannot tell you how much this is driving Jeff and I crazy. But, it is only a room and while I nag her endlessly and haven't let her use my computer in months, I haven't really pushed the issue. It is only a room.I have... More About: Parenting , Clean , Room
Kindergarten Registration
2008-04-21 15:34:00 Tomorrow I register Lily for kindergarten. She doesn't start until early August. I feel like I have been kicked in the gut. I sure am going to miss that little girl when she is off spreading her sunshine at school.Friday I was able to go to a luncheon for the base spouses group. I was lucky enough to be seated next to two ladies who currently have kindergarteners at the school Lily will attend. I got the scoop. Lots of volunteer opportunities. Both moms were very pleased with the school.Lily has been doing great at our playgroups. They are designed like a pre-school program where mom stays but the teacher conducts stories, songs, crafts, etc. At first listening to another adult was a new concept for Lily to say the least. Now she is understanding what is expected of her and able to participate. I am able to sit in the back and visit with the other moms while Lily does her thing with the kids and teacher. I hope that will translate to a good kindergarten experience, havin... More About: Parenting , Registration , Kindergarten
Relay for Life
2008-04-16 03:45:00 Howdy Y'all, I am the husband Marsha talks crap about all the time. I am participating in relay for life this year and I wanted to blog all of Marsha's blogging buddies to ask for support. Relay for Life is an all night walk to raise funds for cancer. A person gets a team together and ensures someone is walking on the track for the entire 12 hours. This might sound rough, but it is not because if you have 12 people on the team it only comes out to be an hour per person. Well if you would like to donate please go to this link http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=entr y&fr_id=8691 Once you go to this link you can go to donate and look under individual for my name Jeffery Green. I hope y'all are able to donate to this worthy cause! The event is next Friday night, 25 April so I only have less than two weeks to raise somemore donations. Thanks! Take Care!JeffI follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog.
Across the Bridge
2008-04-15 00:11:00 Yesterday we were feeling very fine and had cooperative weather. Jeff, Lily and I decided to walk across the Biloxi Bay Bridge . This bridge was destroyed by Katrina and was finally fully functioning again last week, or the week before who knows for sure I was sick and haven't crossed the bridge in awhile. Now that it is complete, it is approx. 2 miles across acording to the odemeter on my car. There is a lovely biking or walking lane. This lane is on the side that allows bicyclists and pedestraians to see out to the open sea. It is a lovely walk. There were a lot of people out yesterday morning and we had a lot of fun.Jeff was concerned that Lily would not be able to walk that far and had me bring the stroller. The two of them then ran off without me, while I plowed along pushing the only stroller we still have which happens to be enormous. I could see the two of them running off in the distance, I guess I am a pretty slow walker. Lily and her dad run the exact same way, ... More About: Parenting , The Bridge
The Pink Dress
2008-04-11 16:15:00 How would you feel if you called a reputable plumber and the person who showed up to fix the pipes under your sink was a female in a pink spring halter dress. Imagine your discomfort as she tries to get herself under the sink, all the while her breast are popping out as she bends, her bottom as she squats and scoots. How much respect would you have for her ability to perform the job at hand? How much respect for her profession is she showing by trying to do a job that requires getting on the floor in a cute little pink sundress?This is exactly how I feel about all the moms who come to the library story time in their cute little pink dresses or their skin tight jeans. Ladies, you have to sit on the floor, you have to crawl around on your hands and knees to coral your 1 1/2 year old. Have some respect for the job, have some respect for the fact that you are a mom and your job requires you to get down and dirty. Screw Oprah, put your kids needs above looking cute. Cause honey, y... More About: Pink , Dress
And then there were three
2008-04-09 15:42:00 Thanks for all your good wishes. Lily did pass her sickness on to Jeff and myself. So far Mandy is ok. Lily is not completely better yet but she is slowly making a comeback. She didn't get dehydrated the whole time, but she did lose some weight, not eating for five days will do that to a person. I should say she ate very little. The doctor tells us not to give her milk but that is all she wants. She keeps it down and it has calories and fat. Just don't tell on me.What is worse than taking care of a sick little one. Trying to take care of a sick little one while you are sick yourself. Jeff was so sick he stayed home from work yesterday. He was laying on the couch with Lily watching cartoons and I went into the bedroom to lay down for a minute. Woke up about 7 hours later. Only woke up because I was gagging on my own puke. Sorry TMI?After my little nap, I was feeling a bit better. I was able to take Mandy to work, pick up a few things at the store, clean up a little and then pick Ma... More About: Family , Daily
A Sickly Weekend
2008-04-07 15:42:00 I heard a strange noise from Lily's room on Friday night, I was sound asleep and not sure what I had heard. I went to her room just to check. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully, I covered her with a blanket and left. I was a bit thirsty so I got a drink of water. Not really all the way awake. When I made it back to my bed, Jeff asked if I was ok and I said yes. Just as I laid my head back down on the pillow I heard the noise from Lily's room again. This time I was fully awake and this time I knew what it was.Lily was getting sick. I rushed to her room. Her bed was covered in it, she had been laying in it. Poor girl. I scooped her up and gave her a bath. Jeff went to work cleaning her bed. I got her all cleaned up and was ready to put her back to bed when it started again. This time I got her a bowl and we avoided having to have another bath. Lily and I were up all night Friday, she didn't stop throwing up until after 7AM. We spent the night together in the livin... More About: Family , Daily , Parenting , Weekend
My Little Helper
2008-04-04 18:04:00 Today was a floor scrubbing day, we have some ceramic tile floors and while it is lovely the grout is darker in some areas than others. In the kitchen I was able to get the floor swept before Lily found out I was doing floors. Lily is my helper in all things. I began to scrub the floor with the scrubbing brush to really clean out the edges and the grout. I gave Lily a swifter mop so she could "help". It was all going pretty well.When I had finished scrubbing, I had to mop up all the water I had spread around the floor. I put the bucket of soapy water in the entry way, where there is another tile floor and began to mop up all the soapy water from the floor of the kitchen. Lily found my scrubbing brush and the bucket of soapy water and started to scrub the entry way floor. Too bad I hadn't swept it yet. In fact we have been working in the yard so much that our entry way floor is a disaster, full of sand and leaves. Can someone please tell me why my trees shed their leaves in... More About: Daily , Little Helper
My Inner Feminist
2008-04-02 02:19:00 My husband is driving home as we speak. I can remember as a child how upset I always was that I was continuously being fed the message that women are inferior to men. Women's brains don't work as well because we are ruled by emotion and not reason. Our opinions are not valid because we just don't understand the way the world works. We are to be tolerated. We get all riled up over silly little things and therefore our being upset is not worthy of acknowledgment. I guess this is why I was upset that Lily said that boys mow the lawn and not girls.In the ninth grade we were given a comprehensive test which had to be passed before we could graduate from high school. One component of the test was we had to write a proper paragraph. I of course failed because my topic sentence was about one thing and my paragraph was about another, see above paragraph. It makes sense to me. Hopefully it will make sense to you too. I am sure they would fail me on my paragraph writing skills aga... More About: Feminism , Feminist
My Little Feminist /sarcasm
2008-03-29 15:38:00 After driving Mandy to work this morning, and getting Lily settled down with some cartoons, I decided I should mow the lawn. I have a very brown thumb but I still am determined to have a nice yard. I told Lily I was going out to the back yard to mow and she told me, "girls don't mow, only boys mow"Lily out-climbs, out-runs, out-jumps, every boy on the playground. She may like to wear pink but she is a rough little girl. Where have I gone wrong, how have I failed? Where is my little feminist? I was so upset. I spent 45 minutes trying to get the mower to start, now I am blogging. Where are all the boys?Jeff is off at the Bataan Memorial Death March this weekend. Have fun baby, don't worry I will find a way to mow even if I have to go and buy an electric lawn mower. Why don't they just have a key starter like the car?I follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Sarcasm , Feminism , Feminist
One Year in Mississippi
2008-03-28 16:54:00 Today is our one year anniversary of moving here to Mississippi . One year without getting on a single airplane, lovely. Our trip here from Misawa was a nightmare. We lived in a very small town in northern Japan and were traveling with a dog, a cat, a three year old, a 16 year old, and one ton of luggage. Here is what I blogged last year about our journey...Old black water, keep on rollingMississippi Moon wont ya Keep on shinning on me?We were listening to the radio and the song, began to play on the radio just as we were driving past the sign WELCOME TO MISSISSIPPI. We all sang along. We hadn?t planned on driving into Mississippi, but we missed our connection in Atlanta. We were put on stand by to get onto the next flight into Gulf Port, Mississippi but we did not make it on the plane. Our pets and luggage however did make it on the plane without us. They put us on standby for the next flight leaving four hours later. We had already been traveling at this point for 26 hours. Not... More About: Year
Too Small
2008-03-26 17:22:00 My Lily has grown from a size 4T to a size 6x over the last month or so. She is very attached to her clothes and now she doesn't fit into any of them anymore. At first I tried the direct and honest approach. I told her that she grew and that her clothes no longer fit her and she needed to wear her new clothes. She threw a two day long fit. Now I sneak the too small clothes out when she isn't looking. She thinks they are in the wash...I follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Parenting , Small
A Date
2008-03-25 16:20:00 Jeff and I recently went on a date to celebrate the end of our diet and he wanted to thank me for all my hard work helping him to lose 10 lbs in two weeks. He got his waist down to 32 1/2, and all told he scored an excellent on his fitness test.I got to pick the restaurant and I picked a little hole in the wall in the downtown area. I had my very first Po'Boy sandwich, fried catfish no less. It was very good and reasonably priced. We then took a little walk down to the beach through the downtown. It is so much more fun to walk than to drive, we saw so many more details. We got ate alive by the gnats too. I never knew gnats bit until I moved here, they are the scourge of the earth. Lily and I spend a great deal of time outside and we both have a great deal of bites to prove it.After our walk we went to a smoothie place. Jeff and I make our own smoothies all the time but I have never had a commercially prepared smoothie. I think the smoothie craze must have started while we... More About: Daily , Mississippi
Easter Birthday Fun
2008-03-24 15:49:00 Yesterday was Jeff's birthday in addition to being Easter . We incorporated the Easter and birthday activities into a day full of fun.I woke up at around 5AM, so excited about all of the plans and work I had put into this day I could not go back to sleep. I got out of bed and made some coffee, Mandy was already in the shower as she had to be at work by 7AM. I hid the boiled eggs that Lily and I had dyed and covered in stickers the night before. Mandy came into the living room to check out her Easter Basket, she mumble her thanks and hid her spoils in her room.I was certain that Lily would wake up as I was driving Mandy to work. I was worried I would miss her face as she saw her basket, miss her looking for and finding all the eggs. She did wake up while I was on the road, but Jeff kept her from the living room and the two of them patiently awaited my arrival before beginning the Easter morning fun.Later I picked Mandy up from work and when we got home we had the present openin... More About: Family , Daily , Parenting , Birthday
Natchez, Mississippi
2008-03-22 15:53:00 We finally took our trip to see the mansions in Natchez which were built before the civil war. My understanding is that most of the southern mansions built before the civil war were destroyed during the war and seeing older homes is rare and special. I enjoyed spending the day with my family and the opportunity to see Natchez was lovely, but I don't think I would make the trip again.There are many houses open, and available for touring. We saw three, it cost us about $75. I thought that was a little pricey. The first one was in poor repair, I am thinking if you are charging me to see your home a fresh coat of paint is not too much to ask. The second house was in perfect condition but run by very stern tour guides who insisted that you listen to hours of commentary and only look at the rooms in the order you are told and after listening to a detailed description of every single piece of furniture, what wood it is made of, who made it, etc. It got old. Jeff and Lily about los... More About: Mississippi , Adventures
An Irish Blessing
2008-03-17 20:33:00 May the road rise to meet you.May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face,And the rains fall soft upon your fields.And until we meet againMay God hold you in the palm of his hand.Happy St. Patrick's DayI follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Irish , Blessing
You can find me at the mall
2008-03-17 14:47:00 It turns out that Lily and I did not have colds, because colds don't go away in a day, right? I think it must have been allergies. The pollen in so thick here you can cut it with a knife. We have been spending a lot of time outside too. A little clariton and our sore throats went away. The gnats here are so thick. Just walking from the house to the care causes us to get bit all over our faces, ankles and hands. I tried to clear off and sweep up our back porch yesterday and plant some grass seed in the bare patches, those little gnats were swarming my face and arms. It is so incredibly beautiful and the weather is amazing, but those bugs make me want to hide away and never leave the house.I lost two pounds this week, but this morning I had gained them back. I was disappointed I was hoping to lose more during this two week diet, tomorrow is Jeff's PT test and today is the last day of our diet. It will be nice on our pocket book to take a break from dieting. I am thinking o... More About: Daily , Find , Mall
Spring Break
2008-03-15 13:29:00 Lily and I have come down with sore throats. We are hoping to kick it by resting today. Let us hope the nutritious full of antioxidants works. We have so much planned next week. Mandy is on Spring Break , our play groups and the base have all kinds of Easter Egg hunts, and Jeff is taking a day off for us to take a little day trip to Natchez. It would not be fun to be sick for all that.Speaking of Spring Break more than 300 students from around the country are choosing to come here for Spring break , to build houses for Katrina victims. Instead of going to Florida, or laying around the house, they are building homes. Wow, that really touches my heart. Restores my faith in the world.I follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Daily
Busy, Busy Me
2008-03-12 23:25:00 I am finding that a nasty side effect to eating healthy foods is that I have a ton of happiness and energy. I don't seem to have time for sitting on the computer and blogging. Even yesterday on the way to the grocery store after voting when it started to pour down rain, instead of going home, we splashed our way through the puddles and enjoyed having the entire grocery store to ourselves. That is really not at all my personality.Today as I arrived home after driving Mandy to work, the Domino's pizza delivery truck was driving past my house. I almost threw myself on the ground in front of his truck. I think I would prefer to feel bad, play on the computer all day, and eat really delicious food. I have no will power. Tonight we are having beef Don Buri, a Japanese stir fry with thinly sliced beef, onion, garlic, ginger, in a sweetened soy sauce and saki sauce. One of my all time favorite foods, it is great with tofu subbed for the beef as well, anyways, we are having it with... More About: Family , Daily , Busy
My Day Off
2008-03-10 16:10:00 I saw Bill Clinton speak at Biloxi High School on Saturday. The event was not well publicized and if I hadn't read the paper from cover to cover that morning I would have missed that he came to town entirely. Saturday is my day off, my husband takes care of the girls and the house, the errands, the cooking, the dishes, etc. I have nearly every Saturday to myself to spend as I wish. I usually cannot come up with a thing to do. Mostly because, while I have the time I do not have the money, to shop or eat out, to get my nails done or a massage. This particular Saturday I had planned to spend the day shopping with Mandy's money for clothes for Mandy. You would not believe how hard it is to find a pair of pants that will fit a tall skinny girl. Especially when said girl does not like to show her butt crack. I read about President Clinton being in town and I looked at the clocked and thought if I get in the shower right now I can just make it.I showered and took off, Biloxi hig...
Thursday Playgroup
2008-03-06 21:16:00 I have been going to the library story time for about six months. It is every Thursday . It is free. It is fantastic and there are a lot of other children Lily's age. The teacher reads a story, and does games, and then we go outside and play at the playground. It took Lily a long time to get the routine and to be able to behave during this story time. Now she is a pro.But, today the other moms actually talked to me. They were really nice too. I guess it takes six months of seeing a person every week before they become one of you. Don't get me wrong there have been hellos and goodbyes. There have been nice weather we are having etc. But, an actual conversation, I have never really been included. 90% of that is probably due to my not having the opportunity to chat due to Lily's need for constant course correction. Today I was able to just sit over by the other moms and let her play. Yeah Lily and yeah to the other moms. Bonus points that they are all my age as well. U... More About: Daily
Giving Blood
2008-03-05 14:36:00 Yesterday, Mandy gave blood for the first time. She did it at school and was able to get some free junk food and get out of second period. After giving blood, she started to feel poorly. It got worse after lunch. Finally she called her work and told them that due to the fact that she gave blood and was feeling woozy, dizzy, nauseas...she wouldn't be able to work. They told her to get a dr.'s note. This really upsets me.It is rather difficult to get a dr.'s note at one in the afternoon. It is also a waste of a dr.'s time for us to come in for a note when Mandy is not in need of medical assistance. Luckily we have free health care and luckily Jeff works at the hospital. Otherwise we would have to go to an emergency care place and wait for hours to see a dr and get a note. Paying a lot more out of our pocket than Mandy would earn in a day of work. I cannot believe that they do this to minimum wage employees. They certainly aren't paying Mandy health care.I wonder if the... More About: Family , Blood , Giving
The Diet
2008-03-04 14:37:00 Jeff's PT test is coming up in about two and a half weeks. He has been trying to lose about 10 lbs for months and months. The same three pounds keep coming and going. For those of you not familiar with the military he has to take a physical training test annually to ascertain whether or not he is "fit to fight". The test includes running, sit-ups, push-ups, measuring the waist, etc. Each component of the test has points and you have to have a certain number of points to stay in the military (you get more than one chance). Each branch of the service has different standards and different tests, Jeff is Air Force. Anyways, he is in great physical shape. He did a marathon this past year, etc. But, keeping the waist within regulation is difficult for Jeff. Usually he is able to drop 10 lbs very easily and very quickly but this year he has struggled for months with no results. He was about to give up. While he would pass his test with a good score, he is on a quest for an exce... More About: Diet
Grandma Dorothy
2008-03-03 16:10:00 During our last move the boxes carrying all our loose pictures was destroyed. The movers were able to save the pictures but they are no longer separated into separate little boxes and envelopes. Instead every loose picture we own is in an enormous pile in a giant box. I should probably organize this mess...I wanted to find a picture of my grandma and I knew the picture was in this box. I had to sort through thousands of pictures one at a time to find the exact picture I was looking for. It was a little surreal to look at a picture of me as a kid, then one of Mandy as a baby, Lily as a baby, Jeff as a kid; in no particular order. I eventually found the photo. It was a picture of my grandma, my mom, me, and Mandy. The photo was taken shortly after grandma and my dad had gone sky diving. Grandma was around 70 I believe and decided that she wanted to go sky diving for her birthday. My dad and grandma tried to talk me into doing it too. They thought if they had three generatio... More About: Family , Dorothy
HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS (HPV)
2008-02-29 16:11:00 We recently got a letter in the mail from our health provider saying that they recommend Mandy get the new HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS (HPV) shot. HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS (HPV)causes 70% of cervical cancer and 90% of genital warts. The new vaccine prevents a person from getting HPV. Only this shot is only being given to girls. Why not boys too? Both sexes get this virus, but having the virus does not cause any harm to a boy, no cervix no cervical cancer. But if everyone were vaccinated wouldn't it help to prevent the spread of this disease more than if only young women are vaccinated. Does this bother anyone else?I follow comments. Leave a comment and I will come visit your blog. More About: Human
The Birthday Party
2008-02-27 15:57:00 My mom passed down a birthday tradition to me that I continue in our family. On your birthday you get to pick your dinner and we as a family sit down and eat your favorite meal together. Mandy picked pasta carbinara this year, with warm and buttery buns, she wanted a white cake, with vanilla ice cream & chocolate sauce, and sprite. Lily and I decorated the house with black and white balloons and crept paper. It was a nice dinner, cake and presents.Later, Mandy got the remote control and we all watched American Idol. Haven't seen it in many years. We had a blast. Loved the 70's theme. We all sang along and then between performances we somehow started singing other songs that get stuck in our head. We are all awful singers so it is funny for us to belt it all out. I had a really great time.Mandy works most evenings, so all of us spending an evening together is rare. The last young man to sing was singing John Lennon's Imagine and it brought a tear to my eye. What in the w... More About: Family , Party , Birthday Party , Birthday , The Birthday Party
Happy Birthday Mandy
2008-02-26 13:46:00 Today my oldest daughter turns 17. What a journey we have had. She was born when I was 21 years old and probably about 14 in maturity. Having a baby changed me forever. Everyone told me I should have an abortion or give her up for adoption because I was unmarried and extremely poor. Having been adopted I knew that was not the right path for Amanda and I. The nay sayers got up my dander and I worked very hard to be the best mom I could be.During Mandy's early years most people would tell me that she and I were too close. It is funny how perfect strangers and acquaintances, family and friends feel the need to advise a young mother on exactly how close she should be with her daughter. I wish that I could gather them all up in a room, introduce them to my 17 year old daughter and stick out my tongue at each and every person whose personal commentary about my ability to be a mother and my ability to make decisions hurt me deeply over the years. Perhaps I should be satisfied to ... More About: Family , Parenting , Happy , Birthday , Happy Birthday
Passive Agressive
2008-02-24 16:44:00 I just checked our credit scores, mine is 6 points ahead of Jeff. I don't earn any money, haven't in years. Credit scores are curious. But, we both scored excellent with higher scores than 98.2% of the country. See you should listen to my money advise.I just finished the federal taxes, not fun. My head is spinning. I still have to do state. Yucky. I keep telling Jeff we should pay someone to do this. Does anyone else do their own taxes?The other day, Jeff and a co-worker were discussing having strong willed children. The co-worker asked which parent Lily's willfulness comes from Jeff or me. Jeff said both of us are very strong willed and Lily must have gotten a double dose.The co-worker remarked that Jeff and I must have some knock down drag out fights, being that we are both strong willed.Jeff responded, not really. We don't really fight.I thought that was curious, Jeff and I really don't fight. Even though we are both incredibly stubborn. I think we are stubborn... More About: Passive
How far would you drive for Target?
More articles from this author:2008-02-19 14:45:00 Jeff had the day off from work yesterday, Mandy had to go to school. We never seem to have time together as a family anymore. Mandy works weekends, she will be seventeen at the end of this month. Gasp.Jeff, Lily and I went over to Mobile yesterday to the Target . Jeff was embarrassed that we would drive an hour to go to Target. He did not understand that there is a difference between Target and Walmart. It was fun. The Target we visited was in a Mall, much larger than the malls we have over here. We all had a great time. Would you drive an hour for Target?We are still discussing vacation ideas. I am more of an explorer. I want to go and see some of the pre-civil war mansions and some of the battle sites from the civil war. Or I would like to go and see the Mississippi river, maybe take a cruise. Jeff wants to go to Disney, or Jackson to see our capital, or to the Smokey Mountains for hiking and Dollywood. I am thinking we should take separate vacations. Just kidding, I ... More About: Family , Parenting , Drive , Adventures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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