2018, a Year in Review: Meh

Arizona isn’t the most hospitable of environments with our searing (but dry) heat and the sandstorms for which we’ve borrowed the name “Haboobs” (I’m guessing because we were looking for more ways to make 12-year-old boys snicker), but it isn’t as bad as some might think.  We do have three or four months of absolutely phenomenal weather, and when you exclude many of the people who have fled here from their own over-taxed and failing states (only to try and repeat the same stupid things that drove them out of their states), it’s a place we’ve proudly called home for almost 15 years.  Wow!  Yes, this is the fifteenth holiday missive you’ve received from the Greenes by way of the suburban fun park called Queen Creek.  Enjoy.

Soon after welcoming in the new year of 2018, Sam turned 18 and began his last semester in high school.  After a great deal of prompting and prodding by his parents (it seems “deadline” was a strangely foreign concept to him), he submitted his college applications, and he was accepted at ASU.  While finishing high school and throughout the summer, Sam continued working as an IT guy to feed his shoe addiction and sock money away for future endeavors.  On December 11^th, Sam boarded a plane bound for Mexico City to spend the next six weeks training for his mission in Viña Del Mar, Chile.  We got to speak with him on Christmas day, and in the two weeks in the training center in Mexico he’s already tried a host of different foods, which was nothing short of a miracle, if you know Sam.  If you’re bored or feeling exceptionally chatty, send Sam an email at samuel.greene@myldsmail.net.  He’d love to hear from you.  

While Jack was making his way through his freshman year at ASU, he was working for a local engineering firm keeping the world of apartment complexes safely wired for electricity.  As exciting as that sounds, he left that job as he was about to begin his sophomore year to work on campus at ASU for the sports facilities maintenance department.  One of his jobs was to attend every home football game and hoist up the nets whenever a field goal or extra point was being attempted (so you might see him on television) – it’s not exactly a full-ride scholarship as a starter on the offensive line, but we’ll take what we can get in the parental pride department. Apropos of nothing, we’ve recently learned that Jack has certain preferences for the toilet paper he likes (and doesn’t like) touching his hindquarters.  If you’re dying to hear specifics, send him an email. 

As for Erin and me, little has changed.  I’m guessing most of you have already stopped reading at this point anyway – I don’t blame you.  Erin was recently asked to head up a group of students at the high school to help them with an anti-bullying campaign.  Last I checked, no one is bullying her, so mission accomplished.  In the spring of this year, I was asked to teach the 16 year olds in Sunday School. Last I checked, no one in my class has taken to cooking meth or started a dog-fighting ring in their garage, so mission accomplished.  

We hope this finds you well wherever you are on this big blue marble we call Earth – I’m assuming no one is reading this at the International Space Station.  If you get bored, come visit us here in Arizona.  July or August is a good month: you get BOTH the searing heat and the Haboobs.