Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Brotherhood
A few weeks ago I took the boys to Arctic Circle for lunch and they were playing on the play land. While I was watching Teagan go up the stairs to go down the slide, Tate was sitting at the bottom of the stairs watching all the kids go up. There was another little boy there about Teagan's age and he was right up in Tate's face growling and snarling at him (yes, just like an animal) while saying, "You're too little!". Teagan had looked back down the stairs right before he was about to go down the slide and saw this happening. He marched back down the stairs and got in this other little kids face and said, "HEY! That's MY brother!" and the other little boy said, "Well, he's too little!" and Teagan yelled back, "Well, he's growing!". Tate looked over at me and started crying and ran over to me. Teagan is mean to Tate a good portion of the time, so I teared up and thought to myself, "You DO love your brother!"
Monday, October 03, 2011
Stressful Times
Oh my gosh! Remind me to never move internationally during my 3rd trimester of pregnancy. It is super stressful!
On top of feeling, well.... fat, pregnant and tired, we are:
• Organizing
• Packing
• De-junking
• 2 Yard Sales
• Selling both our vehicles
• Trying to keep the house clean with a 2 year old and a 1 year old so people can constantly bombard us to see our place to rent
• Landscaping our front AND back yard
• Both of us are still working
• Jeremy's still going to school
• Trying to move out in less than 2 wks from and ship our stuff to Australia which takes 2-3 months to get there... and by the way AUS has the TOUGHEST customs IN THE WORLD, so it’s hard to send anything. I hate that we can’t send any of our food storage or spices. No food at all can go into the country. No stuffed animals. No fake plants, flowers or wooden baskets. No camping stuff or anything that might contain American soil on it, including shoes. Plus the shipping company Jer's work is going through is not fastest at responding to us because they are in Hong Kong (which makes no sense to me)
• Finally found renters but I'm not counting on anything until the contract is signed and the money is in our hands (so we are still showing)
• Planning a trip to Los Angeles because Jeremy has to have papers signed by an Australian notary and the closest one is in LA. So we are making a trip of it to take the kidlets to Disneyland if we don't have a heart attack and die in the meantime. That has to be done within the next few weeks too.
I’m glad they released Jeremy from his calling at church. He was the 2nd counselor in the Young Men’s presidency. It takes up a lot of free time and it’s just something we don’t have right now. I, on the other hand am still waiting (secretly hoping) to be released from the RS chorister. I don’t know why I always get this freaking calling. It freaks me out! I’d rather be a teacher than a chorister, don’t ask me why. But, I must keep getting the same calling in every ward until I get over it. (I may have to leave it out on my RS Profile that they have new members in the ward fill out in AUS. Lol)
We are also sad to leave our little dogs behind. I think Banks will have the hardest time being away from Jeremy. He might die of a broken heart waiting for Jeremy to come home. But, it would cost $5,000 to take them over and they would have to be quarantined for anywhere from 30 days to 6 months; Plus they would have to ride in with the luggage for a 20 hour flight. I think that would be traumatizing for them. So we decided they would be better off staying here with Honey Coco and Honey Lona until we come home.
And, uh... did I mention I'm in my 3rd trimester? I will already be full term in 7 weeks. It's flying by! I haven't even had time to think about this pregnancy. But if you didn’t know… it’s a boy and we are naming him Stefan Lees Green. We couldn’t think of any more “T” names we liked, however, Honey Lona refers to him as “Tristan”. Lees is a family name on my dad’s side that we are passing down. I actually never thought of passing the name down until Jer and I were doing a family history class at church and I found that “Lees” has been passed down as far back as you can go on my Dad’s side. So, now I feel I must carry on the name.
And if you weren't savvy on the updates, Jeremy found out that he is staying here in UT until January because after we all got our Visa's, he had to start the process of getting government security clearance, which can take up to 3 months. The Australian government office shuts down for the month of December for Christmas, so they told him to stay here until I have the baby and come over after we can get little Stefan a passport. Jeremy might even go over a few weeks earlier to try and find us a place.
…Which brings me to my next stressful thing, HOUSING. We called the bishop over in Australia to see what we could secure in terms of temporary or permanent housing over there and were told that housing isn’t as easy to find there as in the US. Jeremy’s work will pay for temp housing until we find a place, but still, it’s just more moving around. We are not able to secure any housing until we are physically there and present. We have been told that they are so hard up for housing in Canberra that it can be a 2-3 month waiting period and even then you are competing with 10-20 other families. All we have to go off of is FAITH for this. We have both been given blessings and told this is the right thing to do for our family and that we will be provided for. But, MAN it is scary! There is so many variables that we cannot plan for.
And before the housing is even a stressful thought, the one right before that is traveling over to AUS with 3 little boys! Jeremy might take Teagan with him when he goes early and then my mom will fly over with me to help with Tate and Stefan. Still doesn’t sound like fun though. I actually think Tate will be the hardest (18 months). He won’t understand and will want to be up doing stuff. Plus he is not entertained by TV or movies. At least the baby will just eat and sleep (fingers crossed) and we have tried to tell Teagan as much as possible so that he can prepare for it. So, we will see how it all works out.
Thank you to our Mom’s that have helped us SOOOOOOOO much with the kids lately! We could NOT have gotten so much done without your help. I can’t wait til this next month is over with. Then we can have a few weeks of down time before Stefan arrives. Then… the exhaustion starts all over until we get settled in Oz.
Strange things I learned about Oz:
• They have no Ranch Dressing. What?
• They have no tootsie rolls
• They have no root beer
• There is no Arby’s
• Driving on the other side of the road will be interesting (and possibly hazardous)
• They never say, “Shrimp on the Barbie”
o Apparently they call “shrimp” – “prawns” and BBQ’ing is “grilling
• We will be living in Canberra, but it’s pronounced “Can-bruh”
• Apparently they have a great railway system
• There summer is in Jan and Feb
• They celebrate Australian Days (which is like our 4th of July) on Jan 26th with a big balloon festival in Canberra. I’m excited to be there for that.
• AUS has 8 of the 10 deadliest animals/critters there. (It freaks my arachnophobic husband out!)
• If you watch Shark Week on Discovery, you will see that many of the great whites are just off the Gold Coast, which we will be only a couple hours away from.
Ok… so this is one of the longest posts I’ve done in awhile. I’ve clearly checked out of work (which is what I’m supposed to be doing right now).
Until next time, whenever that may be…
TTFN
On top of feeling, well.... fat, pregnant and tired, we are:
• Organizing
• Packing
• De-junking
• 2 Yard Sales
• Selling both our vehicles
• Trying to keep the house clean with a 2 year old and a 1 year old so people can constantly bombard us to see our place to rent
• Landscaping our front AND back yard
• Both of us are still working
• Jeremy's still going to school
• Trying to move out in less than 2 wks from and ship our stuff to Australia which takes 2-3 months to get there... and by the way AUS has the TOUGHEST customs IN THE WORLD, so it’s hard to send anything. I hate that we can’t send any of our food storage or spices. No food at all can go into the country. No stuffed animals. No fake plants, flowers or wooden baskets. No camping stuff or anything that might contain American soil on it, including shoes. Plus the shipping company Jer's work is going through is not fastest at responding to us because they are in Hong Kong (which makes no sense to me)
• Finally found renters but I'm not counting on anything until the contract is signed and the money is in our hands (so we are still showing)
• Planning a trip to Los Angeles because Jeremy has to have papers signed by an Australian notary and the closest one is in LA. So we are making a trip of it to take the kidlets to Disneyland if we don't have a heart attack and die in the meantime. That has to be done within the next few weeks too.
I’m glad they released Jeremy from his calling at church. He was the 2nd counselor in the Young Men’s presidency. It takes up a lot of free time and it’s just something we don’t have right now. I, on the other hand am still waiting (secretly hoping) to be released from the RS chorister. I don’t know why I always get this freaking calling. It freaks me out! I’d rather be a teacher than a chorister, don’t ask me why. But, I must keep getting the same calling in every ward until I get over it. (I may have to leave it out on my RS Profile that they have new members in the ward fill out in AUS. Lol)
We are also sad to leave our little dogs behind. I think Banks will have the hardest time being away from Jeremy. He might die of a broken heart waiting for Jeremy to come home. But, it would cost $5,000 to take them over and they would have to be quarantined for anywhere from 30 days to 6 months; Plus they would have to ride in with the luggage for a 20 hour flight. I think that would be traumatizing for them. So we decided they would be better off staying here with Honey Coco and Honey Lona until we come home.
And, uh... did I mention I'm in my 3rd trimester? I will already be full term in 7 weeks. It's flying by! I haven't even had time to think about this pregnancy. But if you didn’t know… it’s a boy and we are naming him Stefan Lees Green. We couldn’t think of any more “T” names we liked, however, Honey Lona refers to him as “Tristan”. Lees is a family name on my dad’s side that we are passing down. I actually never thought of passing the name down until Jer and I were doing a family history class at church and I found that “Lees” has been passed down as far back as you can go on my Dad’s side. So, now I feel I must carry on the name.
And if you weren't savvy on the updates, Jeremy found out that he is staying here in UT until January because after we all got our Visa's, he had to start the process of getting government security clearance, which can take up to 3 months. The Australian government office shuts down for the month of December for Christmas, so they told him to stay here until I have the baby and come over after we can get little Stefan a passport. Jeremy might even go over a few weeks earlier to try and find us a place.
…Which brings me to my next stressful thing, HOUSING. We called the bishop over in Australia to see what we could secure in terms of temporary or permanent housing over there and were told that housing isn’t as easy to find there as in the US. Jeremy’s work will pay for temp housing until we find a place, but still, it’s just more moving around. We are not able to secure any housing until we are physically there and present. We have been told that they are so hard up for housing in Canberra that it can be a 2-3 month waiting period and even then you are competing with 10-20 other families. All we have to go off of is FAITH for this. We have both been given blessings and told this is the right thing to do for our family and that we will be provided for. But, MAN it is scary! There is so many variables that we cannot plan for.
And before the housing is even a stressful thought, the one right before that is traveling over to AUS with 3 little boys! Jeremy might take Teagan with him when he goes early and then my mom will fly over with me to help with Tate and Stefan. Still doesn’t sound like fun though. I actually think Tate will be the hardest (18 months). He won’t understand and will want to be up doing stuff. Plus he is not entertained by TV or movies. At least the baby will just eat and sleep (fingers crossed) and we have tried to tell Teagan as much as possible so that he can prepare for it. So, we will see how it all works out.
Thank you to our Mom’s that have helped us SOOOOOOOO much with the kids lately! We could NOT have gotten so much done without your help. I can’t wait til this next month is over with. Then we can have a few weeks of down time before Stefan arrives. Then… the exhaustion starts all over until we get settled in Oz.
Strange things I learned about Oz:
• They have no Ranch Dressing. What?
• They have no tootsie rolls
• They have no root beer
• There is no Arby’s
• Driving on the other side of the road will be interesting (and possibly hazardous)
• They never say, “Shrimp on the Barbie”
o Apparently they call “shrimp” – “prawns” and BBQ’ing is “grilling
• We will be living in Canberra, but it’s pronounced “Can-bruh”
• Apparently they have a great railway system
• There summer is in Jan and Feb
• They celebrate Australian Days (which is like our 4th of July) on Jan 26th with a big balloon festival in Canberra. I’m excited to be there for that.
• AUS has 8 of the 10 deadliest animals/critters there. (It freaks my arachnophobic husband out!)
• If you watch Shark Week on Discovery, you will see that many of the great whites are just off the Gold Coast, which we will be only a couple hours away from.
Ok… so this is one of the longest posts I’ve done in awhile. I’ve clearly checked out of work (which is what I’m supposed to be doing right now).
Until next time, whenever that may be…
TTFN
BUP!
So, I do not even know how to convey in words how happy this little man makes me. He has the CUTEST personality. He is so dang funny. He is definitely the comic relief in our home. He is so happy and talks, and talks, and talks... and talks. He wakes up in the morning just going through all the words he knows. It is only quiet in the car if he is sleeping, otherwise he is jib-jabbering the entire car ride. He makes the funniest faces too.
Plus, he thinks farts are called burps. So everytime he farts, he gets shifty eyes and says really loud, "BUP". You always know when he poops, cause he does the same thing. It's hilarious!
Plus, he thinks farts are called burps. So everytime he farts, he gets shifty eyes and says really loud, "BUP". You always know when he poops, cause he does the same thing. It's hilarious!
Going Fishing Today?
So a few weeks ago Teagan says to me, "Mommy, go fishing today?". And I say, "Who are you going to go fishing with?"
Teagan: The fish
Me: Who is going to help you?
Teagan: (and he says this with out missing a beat) Jesus. He helps everyone!
And I thought to myself, "You ARE listening sometimes when we try to teach you things." It's a great feeling. We always tell him to ask Jesus for help in prayers.
Teagan: The fish
Me: Who is going to help you?
Teagan: (and he says this with out missing a beat) Jesus. He helps everyone!
And I thought to myself, "You ARE listening sometimes when we try to teach you things." It's a great feeling. We always tell him to ask Jesus for help in prayers.
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