Greene Family Adventures

It is time to do the technology upgrades. I decided to spring for a pair of iPad2s to replace the existing iPad that I bought for the wife awhile back. I am not overly excited about the iPad2 but it does seem to serve its purpose and do it decently. We are turning the original iPad into a family iPad that the kids can use and play with, hopefully without breaking it. I also bought mom an iPhone 4S as well as one for myself.
So far the iPads are fairly interesting in their portability and usefulness, but I don’t a ton of stuff with mine and still prefer a real keyboard and mouse.

Over the weekend we took the kids to a dog show so that they could see one and we could look at some “show” quality Chihuahuas. To be perfectly honest I didn’t like all the show dogs. The body types were more toward the chubby side and I prefer the slimmer version that was more like Coco. However we did end up picking up two puppies that were not “show” quality and were more for pets. I will post pictures of them as soon as I pull them from the camera.

Yesterday evening we were working on some repairs to the shed on the property. All of us were outside along with all the dogs. For some reason Coco wandered further away than she ever has before and into the road. Unfortunately she was hit by a car and killed. This was a devastating loss for A as well as Mom. I am also deeply saddened by this and don’t understand why she wandered off that far and into the road

We will greatly miss Coco as she was an awesome dog and very much loved by everyone.

It has been almost 6 months since we moved to Stafford and things are going decently. Though the grandmothers health has gone done hill recently making life a little harder on Mom, she seems to be handling the stress well.

The kids also have 2 small chickens as pets and we are planning to get some larger chickens that will lay eggs so that we can have organic eggs rather then the ones that are commercially sold.

Mom also bought a new minivan to replace her aging one, good thing she doesn’t do this that often.

At the time of this writing, there are 7 days left until we close on the new place.  Since the Grandmother in-law has moved in with us ( Moms grandmother ) we have determined we need a larger place for all of us to live. This decision wasn’t arrive to lightly nor without some in-fighting over money and expenses.  We have purchased a place that is a single family home on 2.9 acres. The house is about 3,100 sqft and has an in-law suite which the Grandmother will be occupying.

There are 7 days until we close and start prepping the new place to be moved into. Hopefully things will go well ( yeah right ) and the kids will enjoy the new place.

The wife took the kids camping in Montebello Virginia for a week. I was not able to go for the full week but ended up driving down there Friday evening and leaving with everyone Saturday evening.  The wife also was camping with another family who had 3 kids of their own.  Over all they seemed to have a good time and enjoyed themselves with A being able to go horseback riding and everyone swimming in a lake.

The link for the images is here.

School is out for A and summer is now here.  The first planned event for the summer is for A and N to go camping with As Girl Scout troop down south in the middle of VA.

Since I bought the kids both CamelBak water packs once they return I plan on taking them on a hike on the C&O Canal. There are some trails there that are easy walks and should be good for the kids.

There are also a few more Girl Scout camping trips planned and we will see what other events we can come up with for the summer.

One advantage of living with a geek dad is that everyone gets to enjoy technology and hardware. Today I decided to get both the kids an EeePC made by ASUS.  Both have dual core Intel Atom processors running at 1.6ghz, 1 gig of ram, and a 160 gb hard drive.  Both systems each also have built in microphones and a web cam. Though now my daughter wants to know when I’m going to travel again so I can call her and use the web cam.

For some reason I started feeling different before the new year was here.  I decided to have the family join Lifetime Fitness and I made the decision to drop 100 pounds by the end of 2010.  I have been going to the gym every day since the start of 2010 with the exception of one day a week.  A is taking introduction to rock climbing class and enjoying it very much. N isn’t ready to take a class but does love going to the gym just to play around in the pay area. Mom has not been making it to the gym as much.

N is also going to start taking Violin lessons which he is excited about.

A is still taking Piano lessons but now wants to take Violin lessons. She also starts golf this Friday after school.

For us it’s going to be a very busy year.

Since it this past weekend and with the impending freezing rain, Mom’s grandmother didn’t want to travel outside the house to our house for Christmas dinner. Instead we had dinner at her house with our family as well as my dad, great uncle and mother in-law. Everyone had a good time though and the kids got to open presents the day before Christmas. A received some American Girl doll items and N received some fun toys including a remote controlled truck that has a flat bed and can have Legos snap into it.

I have now posted pictures here.