Still Alive!

Wow. I thought I sucked at blogging- but this- just wow. Hello from two years later!

The funny thing is it takes two years for our little family to have something to blog about, so you’ve really only missed a few major game changers! John is four now- a full blown kid. What happened to my tiny boy? Annie is two going on threenager. All attitude. All the time. And here’s game changer number 1! Addison Daphne Green! We had another baby! She is six months old and just pure joy.

We are still living in the Hoover area but we have moved into the Vestavia Hills Ward boundary. We definitely have the best of both worlds. The Vestavia Hills Ward is my favorite ward we have lived in since we have been married. There are so many families there just like us- and even some people that I knew when I was in the youth program! It’s just been the best mix of old and new friends. All of our kids get along so well and we love getting them together. We have a rotating school schedule for the two year olds- which is amazing because Annie gets to go to “class” two days a week. She loves it! Now that John goes to school three days a week she is so happy she has something to do most of the day other than hang out with boring old me!

We also signed John up for soccer and Annie up for dance. Annie’s dance class has started and she has attended twice! She LOVES it and talks about it all week long. Soccer hasn’t started for John yet- but he is very excited! He wakes up in the morning and puts his socks and cleats on and just wears them until I make him take them off. We are hoping the league we signed him up with will be pretty laid back and this age, but you just never know with sports.

Addison loves just being along for the ride. She watches the big kids every move! She is getting so grabby and perfecting some of her fine motor skills. I haven’t really seen her crawl yet but if I put her on the floor and look away, she will be across the room! Haha! She really enjoys watching Belle and is very interested in what I am eating. I have tried to give her some small bites of some things- but he gag reflex does not agree just yet!

Tommy also graduated with his MBA!!! I am just so proud of him. It was a GAME CHANGER for him not to have school during the week. The kids love having him home so he can put them to bed. That used to be their “thing” on the nights when he didn’t have school because on days when he did have school they wouldn’t even see him. INow it’s their “thing” every night!! Bedtime=daddy time!!

Here’s to hopefully blogging more regularly with more funny Green Team stories! 🤣

New house, new teeth, new words

I have lots of good updates for the blog in this post!! Lots of good things have happened for our family since I last updated and we are STILL adjusting to all of them! 

First. We are all moved in to Tommy's parents house!! Since Tommy has started graduate school at UAB and I am starting an internship along with my last semester of college (hallelujah) we are going to need a live in babysitter to help us with the kids. (Except its reversed because we live with our babysitter haha). Betsy and Emily are going to help us with the kids while we get through these next two semesters! We are loving it so far. I thought it would be hard for both families to adjust, but we are doing great! I guess I can't speak for Betsy's family- but they seem like they are doing great too. ;) 

Second: Tommy started school this past week! He is taking an online class and one class on campus on Thursdays. Yay! He is a little relieved because when he looked at his classes yesterday they weren't as scary as he thought they would be. So that is good! I am trying to keep all the stress off him that I can but I am not sure how well he would say I am doing at that.....

Third: I landed an AWESOME internship opportunity. A website called Birmingham Mommy, that I have been following for years, responded to an email I sent them saying that they would love for me to write for them for a few weeks to get my hours in. Its going to be really fun because I get to choose what I write about. The first article I sent in was about how to keep your kids safe online now that school has started back and they pretty much have to use a computer. I technically start my internship on the 12th so you won't see any of my content on the site until then- but I am still writing and saving articles to get ahead. 

Fourth: AnneMarie has gotten her two top teeth!! Thank GOODNESS because the girl eats like a 400lbs man. She can eat a whole kids meal by herself. She wants to eat corn cobs and turkey legs. Steaks!! I am always nervous when my babies want those things and don't have any teeth- but I feel better about giving it to them the more teeth they have. (Don't worry, I am not giving her steaks...although she would eat them). 

Fifth: John is loving being at his Grams house. She gives him all the cookies he wants and he basically does whatever he wants! He asks where Daddy, Pap,and Meme are as soon as he wakes up in the morning They are all gone already- because everyone over here is on such an early schedule. Betsy teaches seminary, Emily and Tommy both work in the surgery center so they have to be there early, and Butch leaves around six two. My kids have both adopted a 6:30AM schedule sooooooo you can probably assume how I feel about that. But that means they go to bed pretty early so its not all bad. 

John loves having so many dogs and he always wants to go out there and when he can;t go out there hes looking  out the window. 

He is doing really good with his speech. He can say all the names of the trains on Thomas and Friends and he asks for drinks/foods by name now- (i.e. hot dogs, chips, apple juice, peanut butter) when before he would just say one word for all foods. So we are pretty stoked about that! 

Everyone is handing the adjustment well so far and we are so thankful that Butch and Betsy are so willing to help us and let my kids destroy their house on a daily basis. We are so lucky to have them. I definitely scored in the in-law department. All my friends keep telling me they could never live with their in laws but this is like the greatest thing I've ever done! It feels like a family sleepover all the time. 

I'll update again soon an hopefully things will still be going this well! You know what they say though- when things are going this well its only a matter of time before....well you know. I won't jinx it!! 

BG

Around the World and Back again, that's the Sailor's Way

Around the world is exactly where we've been since I blogged last. Does anyone know who says that by the way? Here's a clue.

Anyhow, its been a minute or two since my last post. I haven't missed blogging about much though, just my first child being born. And my second child. But there is no time like the present to start the old blog back up again. I just finished another semester of school, so I am out for seven weeks! Yay! I have to go back in September for my FINAL SEMESTER! I am hoping if I blog every week for 7 weeks that will be long enough to make it a habit. Its just so hard while I am in school and have two kids!! But I really do enjoy blogging. Its the closest thing I have to a journal! 

Since I missed so much time between now and my last post there is no way I will ever catch up so I will just start with what's going on with everyone now. 

Tommy- Ole Tommy recently graduated with his Bachelors in Business Management! I am so proud of him. He really focused on school when we got married and he has been kicking butt ever since. I love that guy. He got accepted to UAB's MBA program and he will be starting that in September. He is going to pursue UAB's Dual Degree program where he will have the opportunity to get his MBA and his MSHA at the same time. He will start the MSHA program next summer. I am not looking forward to him being gone all the time, but I know its what's best for our family in the long run. So I am trying to be tough and make him proud! 

Brittany- I already told you I finished up a really hard semester of school. Somehow I ended up taking all of the really hard upper level classes at the same time. But now all I have left is an internship and two classes next semester and I will be finished with my Bachelors too! Right now I am just focusing on having fun. I was always trying to do schoolwork when AnneMarie would sleep. John doesn't take naps anymore so he took care of himself a lot. I would also have to give Tommy the kids pretty much as soon as he walked in the door so I could go do homework. I feel like I haven't been playing with them as much as I should. So we have just been playing everyday for three days! Real summer is almost over but it just started for me!!  We have been swimming everyday and we just got back from the zoo this morning! 

John- Our Bubba is getting so big! He is so sweet and has started giving me kisses all the time. He is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine right now. All the rest of us have to put up with that Thomas the Tank Engine theme song every time its his turn to pick a show. I just started implementing the "taking turns picking a show" rule because he will watch Thomas all day if I let him. I tell him AnneMarie gets a turn and then Mama gets a turn, and then he gets a turn. It actually works out for me because whatever I turn on for her he usually gets interested in too. He is two and a half years old now. He still struggles with his speech. He can communicate with Tommy and I but it involves a lot of whining and he throws a lot of fits. So that's hard. He has been getting speech therapy twice a month. The therapist doesn't think he will qualify for any free preschooling to help because he has made so much progress since we started seeing her. We are going to meet with the School District Representative on Monday. I almost hope he does qualify so that he can be around other kids his age. I think that would help him a lot. John is also potty trained!! He picked up on that very quickly so we were all super happy about that. $20 something dollars I don't have to spend on diapers every month! John is so fun now that he is getting older. He is a good helper, loves all things trains, loves hot dogs, and apples! 

AnneMarie- Its amazing how different your kids personalities can be. Annie and John are so different in almost every way! John was a tiny little baby when he born and she was a chunk. She is a chunk now! She is bigger than her two year old cousin Lina. Like I am starting to get genuinely concerned! haha! She loves food. She refuses all baby food except for the fruits because she wants to eat whatever John is eating. She has two little teeth and I am pretty sure she is working on her top teeth since she's been a little extra fussy lately. She loves our dog so much. She will laugh if the dog is just walking around! Belle is a good babysitter. Annie reminds me of John when he was little. He would sit and watch the entire movie of Brother Bear and The Nightmare Before Christmas. She will sit and watch the entire movie of The Good Dinosaur and Tangled. Which is good for cleaning time! Annie is sweet and cuddly, she loves to be in water (bath or swimming), and she loves it when John plays with her. (Which isn't that often because she pulls hair and pinches...) 

We are getting ready to move in with Tommy's parents at the beginning of August. Since Tommy is starting grad school and I am going to have to do a 20+ hour a week internship in the fall, I am going to need help with the kids. I am looking forward to having another adult to talk to during the day and a bigger space for the kids to play in other than our apartment. John will like being able to go outside and Tommy is going to love saving some serious dinero. We are hoping to rent a house when we move out in six months that is the same size or bigger than our apartment that has a little backyard for the kids to play in. They just love to be outside and I hate having to keep them closed up all day. 

That what's going on with the Green Team lately! We are going to the beach next week and hopefully hooking up with my parents and siblings down there. But if that doesn't work out I am still looking really forward to seeing my grandparents and my aunts and uncles! I haven't been to the beach in years so I am about to die to get there!

BG 

Alabama, the truly beautiful

WE ARE HOME! The "Welcome to a new state" sign for Alabama says, "Welcome to Alabama the Beautiful!

I don't think there could be a more accurate description of this sign and of the state after 34 hours in a car driving across the country!! I love this state! I am so glad that Tommy and I were able to drive safely across the country with Betsy, Meme and Abbie. We were all so happy to get here and a little hysterically delirious by the time we crossed the state line, but if we can survive what we'd been through, we could survive a little hysteria! 

In Nebraska we drove into the biggest storm I have ever seen. And that's saying a lot. The sheer amount of water that that storm poured out was amazing. Its like a cloud evaporated and entire ocean and was dropping it over the interstate all at once. Luckily, Tommy was driving or else I would have killed us all! Meme was driving the other car, and she did a very good job too. We eventually stopped 3 hours away from where we had planned to stop because we literally couldn't see to drive any further! After 7 hours of sleep we were all refreshed and ready to go. It was STILL raining, so we had to drive a little slower than we usually would have. We got home around eleven that night. We saw all of our family and we have been having a great time since! 

We don't move into our apartment until Thursday, but our parents have been so nice and have been letting us stay with them. But I am SO excited about getting into our own place! 

Tommy is working today, with an old job he had. He loves landscaping, and so he picked up hours this week with his old boss/life influencing family friend. I think it makes him happy to be doing something to make money, I just feel so bad for him! I had an interview today, and accepted my job at the hospital! The drug test is in the works. Yay!! We are progressing!!! 

I am 25 weeks this week, and John Junior has never kicked this much. I think if I wake up one more time at night just because he is moving I might just freak out. There is nothing I hate more than wanting to be asleep, and staring at the ceiling instead. But everyone keeps saying it will get worse it will get worse..blah blah blah. Except for waking up at night, it hasn't gotten any worse really. So HA! 

Leaving Idaho! (Again)

It is so weird to look back and count the number of times that I have posted/blogged/tweeted about leaving Idaho. Throughout my entire first semester of school I must have done it like 45 million times. And goodness knows I traveled a ton when Tom and I were dating. Hopefully, this will be the last traveling I do for a while. (A long while!!!)
Betsy and Abbie have been here visiting with Laura and Grace for the past few days. I think Abbie has really enjoyed being around all of her little cousins, and its obvious that they definitely love her! They all love to play together, and I think it is pretty much safe to say that they will miss each other when we leave tomorrow! We are planning on leaving sometime in the night tomorrow- our plan keeps changing-and driving all the way to Higginsville Missouri on the first say. (18ish hours I think..) My doctor here told me a lot of things that I can/need to do to make sure that I keep regular blood flow while traveling for so many hours- so I am not really worried about getting blood clots. Which include getting up and walking every two to three hours for 10-15 minutes. I hope I am able to do that and keep Betsy, Meme, and Abbie from strangling me because I keep holding us up!!

Switching topic, I had my 24 weeks appointment this week! My baby is 24 weeks old!! John Junior has a healthy heart rate, and I am pretty sure he is a future athlete because he is always running laps in my tummy! I don't mind it though, I like for Tommy to be able to feel him kicking AND I like to feel like I know John Junior is okay. Kicking is comforting, in a weird completely-opposite-than-comfy-kind of way. I have really started to want spicy things real bad. I haven't gotten to buy stuff to make anything spicy because we are leaving and I don't want it to go to waste, but a couple weeks ago I bought some flamin' hot cheetos at a gas station and I was in heaven! Harrison wanted to eat one even though I tried to explain to him that they were really super hot! You can imagine how that ended.....

Although I am happy to be leaving Idaho, I am so grateful for the opportunity that Tommy and I have had to attend cheap school here. And to be completely away from both of our families for a while. A lot of really good things have happened to us, we got engaged here for crying out loud! I spent Thanksgiving with Tommy  and some of his family (and Steve) in Driggs Idaho last year. Tommy came to my room early in the morning one day. Like so early that I hadn't fixed my hair or changed out of my pink checkerboard plaid pajama pants! He did it for privacy.. :) And he made me hot chocolate (in superhero mugs that we bought together on one of our dates) and took me outside to this porch swing. Of course it was freezing, so he had brought out all of these blankets, one of which belonged to the cabin and was pretty much a bear skin. He told me all the reasons why he loved me, and walked over to a Christmas tree that was growing right off the deck and took off a Christmas Ornament with a ring inside!! I hadn't even seen the ornament before he took it off the tree- I was so nervous! He told me afterwards that he doesn't even think he slept at all that night, and that he was extremely nervous!!! How cute is he!!

The thing I love most about mine and Tommy's relationship is that we still have butterflies after almost 8 months! He still is always trying to do sweet things for me. Just last week I was having a pregnancy breakdown. Where you aren't even sad about anything, you just have two people's worth of emotions in you and you just need to cry!! Tommy felt really bad for me and he said that we needed a date. Which caught me a little of guard because we are supposed to be saving every scrap of money we have! But he was right, it was exactly what I needed. That night we even got dressed nice and went on a REAL date to Frontier Pies where we even got STEAKS. Oh yeah, living wild. It may seem like something small, but it made my whole day and made me feel so much better. I just love him!!!

So I stink at blogging....but here's another post!

Hey everyone! So its been like 6 months since I blogged last, but I think I have a pretty good excuse. I got PREGNANT! Yes, believe it. Now we are 23 weeks along with a healthy baby boy- who we have already named John Thomas Green Junior! (Tom is pretty excited that its a boy..and its really cute.) We have been in Idaho this entire time- but NEXT FLIPPING WEEK we will be heading home to Alabama to stay. This decision was made for mainly three reasons. First! Its so ridiculously hard to find jobs out here that pay well. Second! I ain't having no baby in Idaho! and Third! Tom is studying healthcare administration, and a degree in such from BYU-Idaho means jack. We figure his education is pretty important. So we are going home! I couldn't be more excited. Zaxby's, my mom, air conditioning...I really don't know which one I am more excited about. That's how sad my existence is right now!! I am done with school, and have been for a couple of days and I am bored out of my mind. I am going to force myself to start packing. Tom and I put away our winter clothes last week which are our bulkiest clothes. Our guest room is literally full of stuff to be packed, so I will have to get that organized before Betsy and Abbie get here on Sunday!

Tom's last day of work is today. I am so proud of him and thankful that he's been able to work while we have been here. I had a job once, at a cupcake cafe! But my morning sickness got so bad that I had to quit. I was only there for about a month. The beginning of this pregnancy was AWFUL. I thought it would never end. Thankfully, Tommy picked up my slack with working- just like he does with everything else! I know it was hard for him going to school and work everyday too. But he never complains about anything, and here I am rolling on the floor complaining about EVERYTHING! Its one of my favorite things about Tom. I wish I could be more like him. I am SO happy its his last day of work! He said that if he thinks about it too much, it will be the longest four hours of his life, So I have been joking with him all day about how I hope he has a "good first say at work!!!" So much for not talking about it. :)

On sunday me and Tommy read about what foreordination means. We were talking about how some people had to be the "bad guys" because there "must be opposition in all things." If you have seen Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, I have always imagined it like this: What if when we all died and faced Heavenly Father that He showed us Judas and said something along the lines of, "That's not Slugworth! He was working for me!" We read some scriptures about it, and we found out that even though there must be opposition in all things, people still have their agency and the power to make their own decisions. It made me think of how far gone Judas must have been when he betrayed Jesus. But then Tommy brought  up and even cooler point and wondered if the whole reason there is evil, Satan, could ever be forgiven. There had to be opposition, somebody had to disagree. It seems a little unfair to have had that role don't you think?? But i guess that's just a question to get us thinking- nobody really knows the answer. It's' still fun to talk about! 

I will definitely try to keep up with the blogging this time, I am out of school and fat so I really have no excuse! My mother in law is showing me up on her blog...so I guess I should step up my game too! 

Until next time! 

BG

The New and Improved

Hey ya'll! So I know that I haven't blogged to you in a coons age! I have been so crazy with college and LIFE in general! I got married!! (As a lot of you already know..) Tommy and I are currently living in Rexburg where we are attending Brigham Young University- Idaho. Getting married is the greatest decision I have ever made. (And trust me, there have NOT been a lot!) Tommy takes such good care of me and is always watching out for the little things to make me smile and let me know that he is thinking of me. He gave me his ice scraper when we moved here, and got a new cheap one from dollar tree. Not that I ever physically used it. Its just the ice scraper that stays in my car that he uses whenever he wakes up before I am even ready to go scrape my car in the morning. Eventually his cheap ice scraper broke (curse you, dollar tree). He just mentioned it in passing, but I remembered when I saw some really nice ones at Walmart. So I bought him one and showed him, thinking that I am the sweetest thing ever. But the next time I drove to school my ice scraper fell out under the pedals from under my seat. When I picked it up I realized he had taken his old one back and given me the new one. That crazy boy! I am so in love!!
So here is our new blog- full of things we need, things we think we need, things we do, our wonderful family, and our new adventure we have started together!

Much love!

BG