Orchid's Back!! And Other Weekendy Things

Our little Orchid went on her first plane trip alone this weekend to Washington D.C.  She went with people from school, but it wasn't an official school trip because the Catholic Archdiocese has some sort of rules against that sort of thing.

She got back late last night.  I'll get some pics from her and post them here soon.

Tulip was sick Sunday morning and we didn't go to Wisteria's birthday party, church or my in-laws.  She's better now though.  I think it was from the swimming.

Oh, I didn't mention that Tulip and I went to Key Lime Cove in Gurnee on Friday to Saturday with her Girl Scout Troop.  Gardenia and Star were supposed to go with us, but Star came home very sore and hurt from Track practice on Friday and Gardenia didn't want to leave her.

Star had a big track meet all day on Saturday (which was also why she couldn't come the water park) and met Uncle Marigold and Aunty Apple Blossom there.

Lent Lent Lent

I just got a comment on my post about Lent from 2 years ago (wow). So I'm prompted to post, because I really should.

For the second year now Star is going whole hog, so to speak, about lent. She is doing the strict Orthodox Fast. She, Gardenia and my other daughters are Greek Orthodox and they started Lent on Monday (Clean Monday). Greek Easter (Pascha) and Catholic (regular) Easter are on the same day this year (not usual). That's good and bad. Lent is aligned, so there isn't a problem there, but since they are on the same day we run into the same problem everyone has on Christmas, when to go where and see whom.

We haven't even begun to talk about that yet because my Dad is really very sick right now. He's extremely weak and we're (the boys) are going to be taking turns going out to Rochelle and helping out.

So there's what we're doing for Lent. I'm not buying into the whole silly fasting thing anyway. Star just does it to say that she did it and to hold it over our heads.

First Update of 2010

I haven't been updating here as often as I'd like and I'll get to that later.

We had a nice Christmas at home. We went to church Christmas Eve and then to Opa for Greek food.

Little Tulip couldn't get to sleep and was crying that Santa wouldn't come because she was too excited to sleep. I think she cried herself to sleep.

In the morning we got our Santa presents, our presents and then we went to Yaya and Papou's house.

My Dad has been hit really hard by the new chemo and this is why I hesitated to post. He didn't manage to get around to anyone on Christmas Eve or Christmas day (the tradition is to go by his sister's on Eve and my Mom's brother's on Christmas day). He wasn't' happy about that at all.

Gardenia was off the week between the holidays. Star and Orchid went to Papa's house for the four days. Some of their cousins were there too. I think my Dad was doing pretty well at the beginning of the week, but after all the excitement he was beat by the time we got there on New Year's Eve.

He came out to sit in his chair on New Year's eve, but he spent the day in bed on New Year's day. We all spent a lot of time in there with him, but it's been very hard and frustrating for him.

Two old family friends came and cooked breakfast on New Year's morning, then they ended up spending the whole day with us. My Dad has really touched a lot of people's lives in a very positive way. I'm very proud.

Another Visit with Papa Pansy

Orchid, Tulip and I went to Papa Pansy's house again yesterday. We left as soon as the Bears game ended and had dinner there. Marigold and Apple Blossom bought a ham and we had a lovely meal.

Papa looks really run down and beat up. I very much hope that he can work with his doctors to settle into a regimen he can be much more comfortable with.

Star stayed home because she has finals this week and she if fighting hard to keep her straight A average. She has an 89% going into two of her four class finals and she needs mid-nineties to bring the grades up the the 90's overall.

Gardenia had Christmas shopping to do and she's shopping for curtains, rugs, etc etc etc for the new first floor.

Broken Leg

It has been a VERY long time since I posted, but life is like that.

On 26 Apr 09 my beloved Gardenia broke her left leg and big toe. She fell down the stairs while I was at the grocery store. I rushed home and took her to the hospital.

She broke it very near her ankle, but the break is in the fibula. That bone is more for stability than weight bearing. She is in a boot cast. The doctor said that she will be completely healed (no pun intended) in about six weeks.

She spent the first two days not working, then the first two weeks not going in to the office. She worked on her stair and crutch skills. She went back in to work this last Monday.

Since I last posted Star had been awarded an Academic Letter for getting straight A's in her first three quarters of High School at Mundelein High School. She also started Track. She does Triple Jump, Hurdles and some sprints.

The other two are doing well, despite the scare of the broken leg.

We are planning on doing Volleyball again this Junior Olympics, but this year we are adding some track events and possibly my little Orchid will participate.

Epiphany 2009 An Audio Post

I have a special treat for you all today. I'm going to bring you up to speed with an audio post.

Enjoy.

A's, Other Good Grades and Other Things

Straight A's! That was Star's first HS report card. She did great and we are so proud of her. There were 25 out of 577 freshmen who got straight A's. Since she didn't have any "honors" classes she is ranked 25, but without taking that into account she is #1 in her class! Woo Hoo!

Orchid and Tulip are doing well too, but we don't get their report cards for a while yet. We are very happy with Orchid's work habits and attitude toward school this year.

Star was also invited to go on a trip next summer for 3 weeks to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. It is very expensive and she is doing everything she can to help raise the money.

Papa is holding his own right now. He has been receiving chemo for Pancreatic Cancer for a month now. He's lost a lot of weight; he has his good days and his bad; but his blood work is still good. Say a prayer, meditate or send positive thoughts his way.

Summer Ending Update

Seeing as it is mid September and the summer is almost technically over (with the Autumnal Equinox) I figured I really ought to run down everything that happened this summer:

JUNE
- Star graduated from 8th grade at Santa Maria del Popolo. *Orchid played bells for the ceremony
*Star won the President's Award (from the President of the US). There were only two students who won.
*Star read the Reading at mass
- Star and I went to Washington D.C. for her 8th grade trip. She was one of four students who laid a wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
- Star went to summer school for her state required Health class (she was the star pupil)
- Star's 14th birthday!

JULY
- Star, Orchid, Tulip and I got passes for our park district pool and we tried to go as often as we could
- Orchid got contact lenses (she's almost as blind as her sister Star).
- The Owasippe Trip

AUGUST
- A new flower blooms! On 4 August 2008 my brother, Ginger and his wife Holly added a new bud to accompany Lilac and Geranium. Let's call him PETUNIA!
- We added another flower, sort of, by marriage. Marigold married Apple Blossom. We never thought we'd see the day when Marigold got married. We all had a blast.

- Star
*Started High School (gasp)! She loves her teachers and classes
*Started Volleyball at school. She's on the Frosh B team (takes after her old man on the B team), but she has Volleyball as a specific gym class so maybe next year she'll move up.
*Isn't playing clarinet anymore. She had a good run there, from 4th to 8th grade.

- Orchid
*Started 7th grade. Just one more year to go. She's doing very well so far and has a great attitude toward school.
*Signed up for Track but switched to Volleyball. She dropped out of band, but says she'll keep up her flute. Let's hope she can.
*She's not going to be in Girl Scouts anymore herself, but she's going to be helping Tulip's Girl Scout Troop

- Tulip
*Started 2nd grade, but she still has the same teacher. We loved that teacher last year so this should be another good year for her.
*Still in Girl Scouts and still loves it

EARLY SEPTEMBER
- Bushia (aw heck, she doesn't need a flower name) went into the hospital. She's 88 and very weak, but she is home now and recovering.

- Star is now sharing her wisdom and holy graces with younger Orthodox youth by helping out as an Assistant Sunday School teacher
- Tulip started Sunday School and Greek School (actually tonight is her first night)
- Star has moved up to full fledged GOYA (Greek Orthodox Youth Assoc.) and has left poor Orchid in Jr. GOYA.
- I'm going to be starting adult Greek school on Thursday nights. Cross your fingers for me.

Christos Anesti

EDIT: I said I would add another post, but I will just put it here.

We went to church Saturday night. We got there early enough to get a seat, but not in the church proper. Our church is a bit small (we know this, but it is really an interim church building) so they set up chairs in the narthex and they extend all the way back to the Sunday school classrooms. We were in the narthex.

We all got candles and as the service progressed and people left we moved further and further ahead in our seating. Eventually we actually got into a pew in the church itself.

All the flowers were old enough this time for us to stay almost all the way to the end, and we all stayed awake this time! The younger two were drooping a lot by the time we got to communion so Gardenia decided that it would be best for us to leave directly after Communion.

While I was going down the street to the local school (where overflow traffic parks) they waited, back in the narthex. Well, that's where they usually set out the snacks for the after-service fellowship. On Easter they set out lamb and soup (I'll have to ask Gardenia the exact names for them because they are special dishes just for the middle of the night, after Easter feast). Remember that Holy Saturday is a strict fast day. When I picked them up with the van they were all drooling.

We managed to get home with a lit candle. That's supposed to mean blessing and good luck on your house.

A few years ago we went to Opa! in Vernon Hills right after church. That was really cool going into a Greek restaurant right after Greek Easter at about two in the morning. The only people in there were Greek so we were greeted with Christos Anesti (Christ has Risen) and answered Alethos Anesti (Truly He is Risen). Star ate so much, so fast that night that she got sick.

Unfortunately Opa! doesn't do that anymore so we stopped by a Dunkin' Donuts / 31 Flavors that is open all night and all got ice cream. That's a lot different from Easter soup, dolmades, calamari and octipodi, but we enjoyed it.

Sunday afternoon we went to Oak Lawn to see Yarrow and Peony. They were very happy to see us. We had lamb and beef. We also took home a pile of cookies which have already disappeared.

Kalo Pascha (Happy Easter)!

Good Friday (the Orthodox Way)

Today is Good Friday for the Orthodox flowers in my family. Usually the two Easters are about a week apart, sometimes they are on the same day, but I've never seen them a month apart. It has been very confusing.

My new poll is about what you do for Easter. I'll post after Sunday what we do, but I wonder what special things everyone else does.

I've always felt that Easter should be the most important holiday of the year and I've been confused that it is second banana to Christmas. Christmas would be meaningless without Easter.

Here's a crazy idea (it's not Orthodox or orthodox, just my crazy thinking) what if we had kept Christ's birthday celebration on his actual birthday (presumably in spring because of the shepherds watching over their sheep) then we could have had one big celebration with Christmas and Easter together. Now that would have been something.

Anyway, no meat today (that is the Orthodox way). In fact, no meat, dairy, fish or oil this whole week (only shellfish). Also tomorrow we are not supposed to eat anything until we go to church at about 11:00PM until after midnight.

As the little flowers grow old enough to observe the ritual fasting I find new and more extreme rules that I didn't know about before. I didn't know that we weren't supposed to use oil.

Today is also Star's Ribbon Ceremony Day. She's in 8th grade and she gets presented with her hat tassel thing for her graduation cap. Gardenia and I are going to try to attend.

Closing March, Opening April

What have we been doing lately? I see that I have been terrible at keeping up here and haven't posted since late March.

Out like a lion? Spring Break was the last week of March. Star went to Pansy and Begonia's house for the first half of the week. I have reports that she and Rose worked hard with the barn and the horses.

The ending weekend of March saw me at a Friday / Saturday conference to learn more about the FRG. It was a very useful conference. On Sunday, I once again doffed my Army duds and went trolling for volunteers. An outreach group from a Church in Oak Park has volunteered to help out with home repairs for our group and I went to the services to drum up support. I go a standing ovation at the 11:15 service. That was really nice.

We just lived our lives as usual in the first week of April.

Last weekend we were supposed to go with our FRG to Springfield to help support he family members of our soldiers who live outside the Chicago area. Unfortunately, only one family said they wanted to come, so we didn't go to Springfield.

Fortunately, a new water park / resort opened in Gurnee (about 25 minutes away) so we signed up for Friday night. We went Friday and swam for over two hours and then we swam again for almost 11 hours (!) on Saturday. Holy Cow! Finally, I told Gardenia, "I'm done." I had been trying to keep up with three girls all day and I was sore and exhausted. We had a good time though.

Monday morning dawned and little Tulip was sick, really sick. She was burning up with fever. This is when our scheduling comes in really handy. I didn't get much sleep, and neither did Gardenia, but we took care of her. Tuesday morning she wasn’t yet better and Orchid went down too.

Orchid is doing much better, but we are still waiting to see if Tulip can make a full recovery. She was doing much better after her bath Tuesday evening, but then heated up again.

Athletic Pizza

On Wednesday evening we had the athletic banquet for Santa Maria del Popolo. We had pizza, it was on the informal side.

They gave out letters to the eighth graders. Now we'll have to buy Star a sweater to sew her letter onto.

They also gave out pins to put on your letters. I guess Orchid will have to wait a couple of years to pin hers on.

Update 13 Mar 08

You are going to see a rarity today, photos of our young flowers. The reason is that the images are already (or will be) in the public domain and they are group shots. Those of you who know our dear ones will recognize them and anyone else will have to just guess.

This first one is an update to my post about Star winning the DAR essay contest. This image has been in the Mundelein Review and the Daily Herald and we have gotten a lot of congratulations over it. Star has threatened to find and burn all copies.

The next one is from last Tuesday night. They had a winter concert. Both Star and Orchid are in the advanced band. The band director has said that Orchid is doing so well with her new instrument that for the next concert she will probably play in the intermediate band with that instrument and in the advanced band with this one.








As far as little Tulip is concerned, she got her new glasses. She looks SO cute, but I couldn't show that image.

She also went roller skating on Wednesday. That meant that Daisy walked behind her for 2 hours and 15 minutes before she was confident enough for him to step aside for the last 15. She has very large bruises and a bump on her head, but now she says, "skating is my life."

Two Weekends and Happy Birthday

Last weekend our whole garden (the five of us) all went camping. "Camping?" you say, "Camping in that weather?" Well, it was in a cabin, but our BSA Troop used to do the same thing so I feel justified.

The theme of the camping trip was Mystery. The Cadets hosted the thing and they did a skit in which the components of the S'mores were stolen. All off Saturday were events to help solve the mystery. They had a reveal on Saturday night. All three of Star, Orchid and Tulip were in the skit. Tulip was an adopted scout since her Brownie troop didn't go.

This weekend Star and Orchid went with Begonia and Pansy to see Les Miserables. They enjoyed it very much. I, Daisy, went to a meeting of our FRG (Family Readiness Group) while Gardenia and Tulip stayed home and watched movies.

Tomorrow is Peony's birthday so we are here at Peony's and Yarrow's house in Oak Lawn. Happy Birthday Peony.

Speaking of Peony and Yarrow, Greek Lent starts on 10 March this year and Greek Easter is 27 April, more than a month after "regular" Easter (23 March).

BTW the FRG is the group supporting the families of the 108th Sustainment Brigade HQ that just got deplyed to Iraq. The 108th is my old unit that I just retired from last May. I am the FRG Leader. There was some discussion about that since I'm not actually a Military spouse, but when I tried to step down I was outvoted.

Happy Birthday and Congratulations!

This last Friday our little Orchard turned 12 years old! Shame on me for not posting that day and if you forgot to call, you are welcome to leave a happy birthday comment here.

This weekend we are going camping with the Girl Scouts. We'll be in a cabin and the theme of this "Camporee" is Mystery! We've written a mystery skit and the girls will be spending the weekend trying to find the thief and where she stashed the "loot."

We call it a Camporee because it is as many of the troops from our school as want to go. I think we have three troops.

Also, this Sunday we are going to meet with the Daughters of the American Revolution because Star won an essay contest they had. She gets to go and read her essay.

The theme of the essay was writing a letter as if you were a girl of the Revolutionary period. With all the historical fiction, Star reads she had no trouble coming up with material.

Hopefully she will let us post her composition here on Flowers of Mundelein.

Saturday 5 Jan 08

I am writing this to you, dear reader on one of my Christmas gifts, a folding keyboard for my PDA.

Well, we had our first basketball game of the new year and we won, 27 to 8.

This must be starting to seem like a blog only about basketball. For that I apologize, but basketball is a nicely packaged topic. Also, I happen to be sitting at the 8th grade boys' game (right after our 8th grade girls' game) while writing this.

We also have two science projects going on. Star has been monopolizing our kitchen with her project on natural dyes. I don't think her hypothisis that artificial dyes are more effective is going to prove true.

Orchid is working on a project with water rockets. She is going to try to show that bottle rockets with water and air are more effective than water or air alone. She is going to shoot the rockets at a 45 degree angle and measure the time and distance. We are sort of waiting for the weather to get warm enough to do it.

Will write more later. Don't forget to participate in the poll.

Boxing Day

Yesterday, we Mundeleinians (or is that Mundeleiners) took our semi (sort of, not every six months) annual Metra ride into the city to see the Christmas tree and Marshal Field's (hey, the still have the MF name on the State Street building and Tulip hates it when we even say the "M" word) windows.

The windows were not that impressive, but we liked the tree, and Star got to use the camera that Santa brought her.

Santa also brought Orchid a flute and Tulip a Barbie carriage. I don't know if Orchid's favorite gift is her flute or her iPod Nano. Tulip's favorite gift is most definetly her Leapster.

Star says she doesn't have a favorite gift, but she has already read the second two books in the Wereling series, and I think she is going to find that her cell phone will be her favorite.

Mommy Gardenia got some lovely jewelry and I got SO much that decorum prohibits listing them here. I think my favorite is my new friend Jill (the name they give the voice in my GPS).

This is my photo of the tree, I asked Star to write a post and post her photos today.

BTW, this was written on my PDA while riding the train home.

Christmas Stuff and Basketball Less Taken

On Monday we went caroling at the Greek American Rehabilitation Center in Wheeling. It was very nice. All five of us went with the JOY (Junior Orthodox Youth) and GOYA (Greek Orthodox Youth of America) from our church (Ascension of Our Lord Greek Orthodox Church). We walked up and down the halls singing and Star made a couple of new friends. We even sang one Greek song (well, I didn’t sing it as I don’t know the words or tune).

Tuesday everything was Ice Stormed out. No school, no band concert and no Greek school.

I used our brand new Cannon ZR800. Tulip’s Christmas concert was Wednesday morning and I got the whole thing on tape. She was very cute and really got into the movements for the songs. First graders can be so funny; they don’t have all the inhibitions in place yet.

Star’s basketball season is on hold until after the new year because of some scheduling conflicts. Wednesday night they didn’t do too well, losing 29 to 8. Star played pretty well and I managed to video tape some of the game. I ran out of battery at about half time because I hadn’t recharged it after Tulip’s concert.

Wednesday was Uncle Sweet Pea’s 40th birthday. Happy birthday Uncle Sweet Pea, and congratulations again to Granny Begonia (I always say that the mother does all the work and deserves all the credit for a birthday, since the baby is just along for the ride).

On Friday we had Girl Scouts and we made pretzels.

BBall Record 3 and 3

Ah, I remember it like it was yesterday: they wore blue, we wore white, we were at home, we scored a lot, they didn't.

You can see by the scoreboard that it was a blow out. They actually only made two baskets, the other point was from a free throw.

Our Stargazer Lily got fouled and had to shoot two free throws. From her reaction you'd've guessed that she committed the foul. She made one of the two. She got at least one other basket, several rebounds and several blocks.

It was a fun game. It was the game the scoreboard is from (note Star's number on the board, 50).

On Tuesday I had to take Tulip to Greek School so I couldn't make the game. We played the same school, but at their home gym. We won again, except it was 30-something to 20-something today. I'm glad, it would have been sad if we had beaten them as badly again.

On the way to Greek School, Tulip and I were listening to the School Of Rock CD in the Flowermobile. When it got to the line about "until the stars are falling," she asked if they meant asteroids.

I told her that it meant, "the end of time." She said, "but the circle of life goes on forever." I asked if we could please just listen to the song. She said, "Continue."

On the way home I offered to play an audio book. She said, "Yes, that will get some English into me."

Six year olds are so funny.

A Basketball Game Won

Yesterday Star had the second basketball game of the season. She is the tallest girl on the team by far. She is also the tallest of the two teams they have played so far.

As the tallest girl she is indispensable and her long arms block shots and passes like nobody's business. It is great to see her get aggressive out there (makes her Prop father proud).

Last year she was the first girl ever from her school to foul out. The coaches are fine with that. They say, "they give you the fouls, use them."

She is even better this year, she had no fouls in the first game and only two yesterday.

Enough of roughhousing, what was the score? Well, the intensity level was unbelievable from these girls. They usually are SO NICE that they almost seem apologetic when they win, like they offended the other team. But, yesterday they went out there and took the game.

They kept the other team from scoring a single basket through most of the first two quarters. At half time the other team had only made one 3 point basket, the score was 15 to 3. We parents were so excited that I took a photo of the scoreboard (it didn't turn out).

We ended the game with our Star getting 2 points, a bunch of blocks and a few rebounds.

The final score was 24-13! Hooray!!