Good God

this is random, but this weekend there were baptisms at our church again, and of course, it's my favorite thing to watch. mostly cause it really really clears out my tear ducts. just joking. seeing people publicly give their lives to the Lord is nothing short of the most beautiful thing on earth. whether you are a little kid- having the wisdom at an early age that Jesus is your Lord and Saviour, is awesome; or if you are a grown man of 40, with kids and a wife- having the wisdom and humility as a grown man that you can't do it on your own, that you and your family need and deserve to have God at the center of your lives, that's awesome too. anyway, that's not the random thing i was going to mention. in the midst of the baptisms, i noticed the shirt of a young girl who got into the 'pool' to get baptized. her shirt said 'OMG'. for those who are not of the texting generation, that means 'oh my god', and i just thought it was kind of a funny, yet oddly appropriate thing to wear to be baptized.

anyway, most of my posts are dedicated to my kids, poo, and family life. in that order. this post is dedicated to Jesus, who i love with all my heart. i have to remind you that i am not a pious and good person. i don't spend hours a day praying on my knees and meditating on the Word. i don't have the opportunity or ability for such practices. but, i do pray, and Jesus, being awesome, answers my prayers. always in His special way. and ALWAYS on his clock.

i have prayed for an acquaintance of mine to become pregnant for about 3 years. this couple had been trying for a bit more than that actually. they tried and tried and nothing happened. there were certain things that came up, endometriosis and such. even after that was 'fixed', still no baby. then this couple adopted a baby. and they waited and waited for that bundle of joy to arrive in their arms. pretty much as soon as their adopted baby arrived in their homes, a new baby arrived in the wife's womb. oh Jesus. you're so funny. when i told this story to a friend of mine, the thing that blew her away the most was that Jesus must have such a special plan for the adopted baby, cause if the parents had gotten pregnant at any time in their first 2 and a half years of trying, they never would have adopted the baby they have now.

then a few months ago (like 8) a few people i know prayed for a friend of ours to get a job. yes, eight months. no job. shocking in a recession. i know. sometimes i feel like if i pray for something, it should just happen. like right away. and knowing the verse that says "again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven." (matt 18:19) hello, Jesus? a lot of us here have agreed for quite some time that this friend, and his family, needed a job. but during these eight months, other prayers were said, AND answered, other things were being worked on and developed and God answered our specific prayer of getting a job this week (thank you Lord!)

and finally, today, i got a call from an out-of-town grilfriend of mine who was in a pickle a few weeks/months ago. she and her husband were not on the same page. already not a fun situation. but they were not on the same page about having a baby. my friend wanted one now-ish. her husband, not so much. (actually, chris and i prayed this prayer for our life a while back. the roles however, were reversed.) but more than wanting to have a baby now, my friend wanted to be on the same page as her husband. especially about this, cause it's kind of a big deal. so we prayed about it. we prayed for heart change, cause that's one of the many awesome things that God is able to work, in whoever needed their heart to be changed. maybe just one of them, maybe both. and God did it! sacrifice, peace, and love have shown up in abundance in their home, cause God is good.

so, all this prayer answering has been great for my faith, and i am sharing it all with you, cause hopefully it will help you with yours too. especially if you have been praying a certain prayer for a long, long time. philippians 4:6-7 says: "be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;  and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." it's important that God guards our hearts and our minds, and is able to do it for a long time, cause sometimes he takes a loooooooooooong time to answer our prayers. sometimes the answer to our prayers don't look the way we thought they would, and often they don't happen when we think that they 'should'. and that always ends up being a good thing. because God is good. and He's quite a bit smarter than the rest of us.

random goings ons

on monday chris took the kids to the gym. or to kids club. which they love. their new favorite toys are two beach balls. one with nemo on it, the other with disney princesses. apparently when chris went and picked the kids up when he all done working out, lily was holding 'her' disney beach ball and started running over to chris when she saw him come in. but in that same instant, topher, who had just been holding the nemo ball, got that snatched away from him. so lily, with her keen sixth sense for her little brother (ok, she heard him whimpering), stopped running towards her dad, and instead marched straight over to the boy who took 'topher's' ball. "NO! that's toto's!" she took the ball and gave it back to her brother. the boy she reprimanded was six-ish. twice her age. way to go lily! chris said his heart swelled with awesome pride for his little girl. he also made topher give the other kid the ball since they were leaving anyway. word to the wise, do not mess with topher unless you want a whole lot of lily all up in your grill.
and speaking of 'all up in your grill', we went to a little bbq today, honoring the fine men and women who take a night out a week to minister to high school students via small groups. since chris does that, we were invited to this bbq at barb's house. it was all very lovely. great food, greater company. i was sitting on a picnic blanket with chris, our kids, and handful of awesome people. topher was kinda up and down all throughout the meal. something we are trying to work on. he all of a sudden stood up, either lost his balance, or was trying out a new michael jackson move (new to him, old to michael jackson. obviously. since he's deceased and all.) anyhoo, my poor clumsy little boy fell, face first, into my plate, that had my open burger (loaded with ketchup and mustard and relish) and a pile of guacamole, and salsa. when topher stood up, we were all astounded at his beard-of-condiments. why didn't anyone have a camera on them!?!?!? jenny- you were there! you're a photographer! shouldn't you have a camera built into your hand or something!?!?
anyway, it was amazing, and i am very sad i do not have a picture to share with y'alls. hopefully topher will remember what happens when we get up in the middle of meals when we aren't supposed to.
topher is fine by the way. chris' shirt (and neck), however, are not, as topher ran straight to his daddy for comfort and solace. 
and finally, my sister, who is doing just dandy in korea, is still pregnant. she is due on monday. or something like that. please keep her and their fam in your prayers if you think about it. can't wait to have another new niece soon!

great day

this morning was my morning to sleep in. chris was going to wake up with the kids, no matter what time they woke up. OF COURSE, they woke up at 6:30. one whole hour later than they wake up for me. thanks guys.

i woke up somewhere around 7:30-8:00 (glorious sleep!). i was actually awoken to the most incredible sound in the whole wide world- no, not money falling from the sky, though that would have been equally as good. the sound i heard was dishes being unloaded fromthe dishwasher! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! and i didn't even ask for that to be done! i rolled out of bed and got dressed and ready for work. it's monday, the one day i work.

i walked out to the living room, and chris had already fed the kids and himself breakfast! yeah dad! i was going to make pancakes and eggs. forget that! i sat down, had a muffin and coffee. got the kids dressed for their day with their dad, and i went to work. what a great morning!

usually work is a nice place for me to have social interactions with other adults. but no one was really at work today. i had a few conversations with chris' uncle. then when his dad came in, i chatted with him, and then when my sister-in-law came, i chatted a bit with her too (gotta love nepotism folks!) but it was nice to have a really really quiet day. i sat at my desk, input numbers for 4 hours, then filed papers for an hour and a half. i didn't put anyone in time out, no one was mad at me, i didn't hear a single wimper or tantrum being thrown, i didn't get any poo on my hands or feet, it was a much needed break after last week.

then i got home. the sink was empty, sippy cups had been washed, other dirty dishes had been placed in the dishwasher, and topher was sitting on the potty, getting ready to drop a deuce! is there any better way to come home? not really! we played with our play doh, and were getting amped to eat pizza and watch the suns game at chris' dad's house. when suddenly we got a phone call.

it was chris' dad. someone who was supposed to go to the game tonight got sick, and couldn't go. did we want the tickets was the question. chris said he would go with his dad, but his dad didn't want to abandon the 'party' that he had going on at his house. good man! he said he would watch our kids and that we should just go together.

so we dropped the kids off with their grandparents. went to a superamazing game. and just had an awesome time together. i love my father-in-law. i love the phoenix suns. but i really really really love my husband. thanks for giving me such a great day from start to finish.

after some reflection, it occured to me- this was a great day for me, but is this a normal day in the     

 day of a man?...                                                                                                                              

Why Sundays Are Awesome Pt.2

1. i know i just posted this picture a couple hours ago when i walked into the living room to find a mess of bodies strewn across my living room. but notice topher's sippy cup nestled in his arm pit. (the only reason he had this sippy cup is cause he was awake when i gave it to him. did not know he was so tired and was going to fall asleep again...)

2. now in this picture, i would like you to notice that the sippy cup is on the floor. chris later informed me that he was rudely awakened (for a brief millisecond) by said sippy cup, falling onto his face. good bounce and roll cup. and you can also see that topher is falling off of the couch. but is still completely asleep.

3. here is my sleeping beauty. i love her. i couldn't not put a picture up of her.                                                                                      

after taking more pictures of my ridiculous, and tired family, i went into the kitchen to prepare a snack for when everyone decided to wake up. all of a sudden my phone rang. it was chris. he was asleep a few seconds ago. i couldn't imagine what he might want from me (probably a back rub. the guy is so high maintenance sometimes!) so i picked up the phone, said hello, and heard no reply. so i looked around the kitchen wall, into the living room, and this is what i saw:

4. topher. he fell off the couch. found a safe and soft landing spot- aka his father's face. and was still totally and completely zonked out. he stayed this way for another few minutes while i took more pictures and laughed at my ridiculous boys. this is one of the best sundays i have ever had!                                                             

(sorry about the crazy layout of the pictures and words... blogger changed how you upload the pics and i am just trying to figure it all out...)                                                                                                               

Why Sundays Are Awesome Pt.1

sundays are kinda my favorite day. i love them. it's the only day that chris never works. not because his work 'respects the sabbath' (until criminals take the sabbath off, law enforcement probably won't be able to either), just cause that's the schedule he happens to have right now. so our sundays are usually filled with lots of church, family time, and laying around.
nap times are kinda crazy cause we get home from church anywhere between 1:30 and 2. topher has lately been napping at 11am, because of his psychotic new wake-up time of 5:30am. (nope, still haven't found the magic solution to fixing that. although now that lily and topher share a room, lily doesn't come into our room to sleep! yipee! one breakthrough at a time i guess.)
so today he took his nap at 2ish. then fell out of bed at 3ish. then i put him on the couch to hang out with is dad and sister while i got some work done on the computer (no, i don't call blogging work. i mean my actualy bookkeeping work).
i came out of my room to cut up some strawberries and get the kids' late-day snack ready, when i encoutered this:

  

 topher fell back asleep. lily fell asleep. and chris has a laptop burning a hole in his stomach as he is asleep too.

i love my family! and i love sundays!

what i learned about myself while zumbaing

i joined the gym a month or two ago. 24 hour fitness. chris had started going there in january, and always went on mondays with the kids when i went to work. then he suggested i give it a try cause he was already paying for childcare ($10 unlimited for the month, per child) which meant if i went to the gym, i would have some time to myself. sold!

my first day at the gym was embarrassing. though it was over a month ago, i remember it like it was yesterday cause it was so embarrassing. i went on the eliptical machine, and within the first three minutes i was panting like a dog who had run 80 miles in the dead of summer. oh. dear. i have since then gotten much better, but i have to admit, when i am on the machines, my focus is to watch some 'adult' tv shows (NO. not THAT kind of adult show. i am talking about shows with LIVE people, with relatively normal sized heads and eyes. not drawn, made up ones with gigantor noggins like dora and kai lan.) and read magazines. i'm usually on there for 30 minutes or so. breaking something between a 'light sweat' and a 'serious glow'. those are great times for me.

but i also try to go to one zumba class a week. zumba is a latin/hip hop dancing cardio class. it's pretty fun. but i always break a serious sweat in there. mostly cause i don't know what i am doing so most of it is 'physical' sweat. but some of it is mental sweat too!

last week, i discovered something awesome about myself in my zumba class. it wasn't that i was getting any better, cause even though this was my 5th or 6th class, i still found myself with my arms up while the rest of the class had theirs down, and me shakin what the good lord gave me to the right, while everyone was shakin their money makers to the left. oh well. practice makes perfect?...

but the class was doing a 'new' routine, at least it was new to me. somehow everyone else in the class knew exactly what was going on. this dance involved lots of jumping. like jumping jacks jumping. and i have admittedly not been able to jump since before i had lily. birthing that giant child, and then later her skinny-tho-big-headed-brother a year later, really messed up my water works 'downstairs'. running is not that easy, sometimes i pee my pants A LITTLE. that is one of a millin reasons i do not run. but JUMPING is crazy. the thought of jumping makes me need to urinate. i did some (maybe one or two) of chris' P90X workouts with him last year, and i literally did one jumping jack and then had to go and change my pants. i haven't jumped again since.

but here i was, in this zumba class, throwing caution to the wind- and i was jumping! like a maniac! and i wasn't soiling myself! AWESOME! my internal plumbing has fixed itself, and it only took two years of giving my body a break by not being pregnant. thank you body. and thank you crazy zumba teacher for adding jumping jacks into our already exhausting hour together.

chlorox wipes for me. baby wipes just won't cut it...

i don't like to blog when the kids are awake. but i just need to vent real quick and then i will go back to being a wonderful, patient, beautiful, attentive mother...

topher woke up at 2am. then went back down. and then woke up again at about 5am. for good. (i miss his crib!!!!) we all tried to lay in bed together, again, as i continued to repeat our new mantra: "if the sun is not up you shouldn't be either. if the sun is not up you shouldn't be either..." we were all out of bed at 5:50. except for chris. he left for work at about 3:30am.

the kids and i were hanging out in the living room. since i went to bed at 10, i actually felt ok. not like the normal angry zombie mommy i usually am at 5:50am. so i was just sitting on the ground, watching dora the explorer, when i realized topher was not within eyesight.
"topher", i called.
no response.
he was probably in the kitchen, praying to the fridge to drop boxes of cereal into his greedy, chubby hands. he does that sometimes. i called him again.
"i do poo mom!" he called out excitedly.
that's weird cause 1.his voice came from the kitchen. and 2. i can see the green potty, it's about six feet from where i'm sitting, which means if he did poop, it wasn't in the potty.

so i slowly sauntered over to the kitchen, and to my horror, i found topher with crap smeared down both of his legs, an island of a steamy steamer a few steps behind him, floating in an ocean of urine. the horror. the horror.

topher got washed up in the tub, then sat in time out for 10 minutes where he was told to sit and think about what he had done. that's all i had. i have been told time and time again not to spank your kids for messing up while potty training. i'm just trusting other people on that, which is the only reason topher did not get spanked!  then i attacked the kitchen with a roll of paper towels, a plastic bag, and many a chlorox wipes. it looked like i got everything. so i threw the dirtiest plastic bag in the universe out to the outdoor trash. i went back to the kitchen and saw a tiny circle of smudged poop. how did i miss that during my disinfecting extravaganza? the only way i didn't see that is if... i was standing on it. i checked out my heel, and there i saw an identical circle of shmooshed poo. UGH!!!!!! one more cholorox wipe. for my heel.

then i looked at the carpet, right by the kitchen. (can i tell you again how happy i am that we live in an apartment right now? yes i will steam clean the crap out of the carpet. again. BUT, it is nice to know this is not my permanent carpet!) there was a wet spot. or it looked like a wet spot. i was hoping some urine had dripped off of topher's body while i rushed him into the bathroom. i approached the spot with more cholorox wipes. nope. it was more excrement. how did that get there, and why was it so flat?

well, it must have dripped off of topher's body, as i had predicted, and then i must have squashed the poo when i stepped in it. AGAIN. which on ly means i must have tracked poo from the kitchen to the bathroom. oh. the horror! i checked my feet to make sure that what i was hypothesizing was actually real, and there, on my foot, same one with the once poopy-heel, was a circle of shmooshed poo, identical to the circle of shmooshed poo on the carpet. MORE CHOLOROX WIPES PLEASE!

so, i guess topher's potty training is maybe not going as well as i thought it was last week. he takes two steps forward, then one step back. that step back today involved me getting a lot of dung on my dang foot.

a watson thing

lily and topher woke up at 5:20 this morning. lily woke up cause she had to go to the bathroom. that's legit i suppose. topher woke up cause he's nuts.

the three of us tried to lay down together in topher's bed as i kept chanting to them: "the sun's not up yet. you MUST GO BACK TO SLEEP..." it didn't work. fortunately the kids crawled out of bed while i was in and out of sleep and just played with the train set that is in tohper's room.

a million hours later, we went out for breakfast with chris' grandparents at 8:30. grandma watson is the proud mama of 4 boys. i asked her what she did to keep her kids in bed in the middle of the night. she said she didn't really remember any real issues with sleep and her boys, except maybe a bit with chris' dad.

oh, really?...

then i asked chris' mom, also the proud mama of four kids, what she did with unruly nighttime sleepers. she said she didn't really have any issues with her kids and sleeping at night. except with chris. he really liked some light that was in some box type of thing that was in the hallway, and young chris really liked this light and would come out of his room, laydown by the light with his butt in the air, and fall asleep.

oh, really? chris was a problem you say?... (although i would trade for that 'problem' any day of the week!)

so, i guess i am sleep-deprived because my kids are genetically prone to not-great-night-sleeping! thanks a lot wes! and chris! i will have to keep this a secret from whoever decides to marry my little topher in the future, just like barb kept this a secret from me :)

just a few great moments

a few days ago, we went family grocery shopping. so great. chris got home a bit early from work, our pantry was bare, it was the perfect scenario. on our way to albertsons, (i am playing the monopoly game. what a sneaky way to get people to shop at your store. laugh now, but if i win a new car, or a $5 giftcard to albertsons, we will see who gets the last laugh...) lily told us to look at her and topher who were holding hands. so cute. which i expressed: "you guys are so cute!" to which lily replied: "take a picture!" so i obediently grabbed my camera phone, and while i was doing that topher chimed in with a perfectly timed: "cheese!" this made going 'shopping' worthwhile for chris.

i am always telling lily: "please be careful." because she is crazy. and not very careful. so when she is doing something 'dangerous', she says to me: "mom, i have to please be careful." it's pretty funny.

the other day ago (ok. it's probably been a week or two ago) i told chris i was sorry that i had been slacking in the kitchen. i have not had much of an appetite for anything i cook, which deters me from cooking. the only thing that makes me cook actually, is dave ramsey. (the financial guy that ruined my life/saved our financial life) but i had been working more and so i apologized to chris after we had eaten out. again. and chris looked at me with those beautiful baby blues and said: "honey, since i have been hanging out with the kids every monday, and friday mornings, i would understand if you never cooked again. i don't know how you do it." and those were some of the best words he has ever spoken to me! he understands me! he appreciates me! so great.

i was walking by lily's room after we had already tucked her in and said good night. she didn't see me, but when i looked into her room, she was standing right by her night light, having the best time making shadow figures with her hand and arm! i didn't know she knew the magic of a wall, a light, and shadows! so precious! i love those serendipitous moments.

also tonight, topher was in his bed for what seemed like an eternity, when all of a sudden he emerged from his room. he came into the living room and was SO HAPPY to see chris sitting on the couch. "DADDY!!!!" he said with the biggest smile on his face, and his arms open wide for a hug. only he was met with a very stern chris who managed to not melt at the sight of his son. topher immediately burst into sadsadsad tears as chris ushered him back to his bed. it was a sad moment and a funny moment. i was in the kitchen watching/hearing all this unfold. i was very proud of chris for holding his ground cause topher is not supposed to get out of his bed.

here's a picture of topher and his daddy. i do not exist when this man is around. i often remind my son that he would not exist if i weren't around!

and here is a pic of topher sleeping at my feet while i was on the computer a few days ago. he woke up from his nap, came into my room, was so happy to find another human being, and promptly fell asleep on the floor for an extra half hour! i love these crazy crazy crazy kids!                                                                            

hoop dreams

i had a dream at the beginning of this basketball season. none of them involved the phoenix suns, all of them involved me being the champion of our fantasy basketball league. in previous years i was part of two fantasy leagues. this year i decided not to be part of any. but the numbers were uneven for our family league, so i decided to join after all.

and i got the first round draft pick! that was a serious first for me, having been part of 6 drafts before this one. everything was great. my name was 'itsjihaesyear'. and it looked like it was going to be! i was in first place throughout the whole season. i was opening a can of whoop..butt on every watson-related man in the league week in and week out! it was great! (note:i actually never beat robert watson. let that be noted.) and all i was doing was updating my lineup and not making any changes. lebron james, shawn marion, jason richardson were doing all the work for me.

chris on the other hand had no interest in either of the two leagues he was a part of. he barely updated his lineups and he just barely made it into the playoffs. YET SOMEHOW i lost my second round game, and then my third, so i finished in FOURTH and chris finished in first. BOOOO...

then march madness came and went with much angst and pent up anger. there is no method to the madness of the ncaa march madness tournament. yet somehow chris managed to make the most correct picks (44 of 63) and i came in second-to-last with 32 of 63 correct picks. BOOOOOOOOOOOO...

but now my hoop dreams lay with the phoenix suns. the team i thought had NO SHOT of getting into the playoffs this year, especially considering the fact that i did not know a good number of the names that were on MY TEAM'S roster. but over the last few months, and especially over the last few weeks, names like frye, dudley, lopez and goran dragic (does that name make you think of puff the magic dragon too? or is it just me...)our team looks AMAZING right now and i am very very excited to see us dominate the trailblazers, beginning tomorrow night! go suns go! it might be presumptuous of me, but i am going on the record to state that i really think this could be the phoenix suns' year to win it ALL.

great night

so the day started off gross. topher woke up at 3am again. he does like a sleep-walking-crying thing. i just pick him up, put him back in bed, and that's usually the last i hear of him till 6am. so that's what happened this morning. i was really tired of course, cause it's 6 stinkin am. and chris and i stayed up past ELEVEN PM to watch LOST and Glee. ('Maureen' from 'RENT' is on Glee this season! pretty exciting stuff!)
anyhoo, i complained to chris this morning about my morning. it must have sounded beyond obnoxious. he looked annoyed. we all got over everything relatively quickly and the day proceeded.
we went and looked at a couple houses with our realtor and the kids. i only bust out the portable dvd player on long rides, and today was a long ride through gilbert and chandler for the kids! saw some promising homes and a couple gross ones. which is to be expected.
we ate lunch at about 2:30, and dinner was ready at about 6:10pm. i was pretty sure the kids weren't going to eat very much for dinner since they did such a great job with the rice i made them for lunch. so i was going to just make them some oatmeal, cause it's filling, and they never fight me on oatmeal. and chris and i were eating meatloaf and potatoes, and i was pretty sure lily wouldn't eat any of it. and then shocker of all shockers- she ate her meatloaf (doused in ketchup, even though there is already ketchup IN the meatloaf! go antioxidants...) AND two celery sticks!!!!! i have no idea what has happened to my no-meat-no-vegetables-unless-it's-cut-up-so-you-can-only-see-it-on-a-molecular-level daughter- but i've never been so happy at meal time as i was today! way to go lily! you make mama happy and proud!
then i had the genius idea of putting our kids to bed BY 7:30pm, instead of sometime around 8 (usually a little after). this proved to be the best thing since sliced bread! lily was down for the count by 7:40, and topher followed suit soon after.
chris left for work at 8pm, and my girlfriend grace came over for ice cream and chit chat a little before then. right now it's 10:13 and i am pretty dang ready to call it a day! 8 hours of broken sleep- here i come!!! :)

If Animals Kissed Good Night

it's been awhile since i have written anything about books. so i thought i would get back on that. especially since i have run into some great books lately, and a few not great ones. you will hear about those too. and the only reason i am able to read so many books- is cause they are books we read going to bed.

my kids do not like reading in general. in the middle of the day, it's usually not going to happen if i try to make it. sometimes i will find them sitting on the living room floor looking at a book. pointing out stuff. so awesome. but if i comment on it, or sit with them, the moment is gone. they obviously would rather be running around naked, making a mess, playing hide and seek, or all the above. but before bed and nap time, because it's something that is keeping them awake for longer- they are pretty excited about story time.

i actually got this precious gem of a book from the library. i might end up buying it cause i love it so much. it's just the sweetest book about how parent animals say good night to their baby animals. a good, healthy mix of daddy animals AND mommy animals with their babies.

it might be a touch long for real squirmy one year olds, cause there are quite a few words on some of the pages. and there are also qiote a few pages. but the rhymes roll off of your tongue, and the pictures really keep the kids interested.

the pictures are probably the best thing about it. they are soft and sweet, the animals are chubby and cute and content, and it just makes you want to kiss and kiss and kiss your sweet little child and say good night.

long week...

i just got home from small group, and i have had a crazy 'week' (i know, it's just tuesday. that's how long of a week it's been!)
sunday night chris went to bed early cause he had to go to work before 4am. so i decided to make him some hard boiled eggs at 10pm, cause i was still going to be up for awhile. i put 6 eggs in a pot with water, had it boil, then on medium/low heat, and went on my merry way. i think i blogged. did random things on the internet. then i went to bed. topher woke me up at 5:30am, which was not ok since i went to bed after 11. but when i went into the kitchen to get him some milk, i noticed a blue halo of light under a pot on the stove. i never turned the dang thing off! that's about 7 hours of cooking. there was definitely no more water in the pot. only six very brown, kinda burnt-ish looking eggs. i praised Jesus that i didn't set the whole apartment complex ablaze. and then i opened all the windows cause our home stank! serious sulpheric stink. many candles were lit. some curse bombs were dropped. not a good way to start the day. especially since 1. chris had been up 2 hours before and could have tuurned off the stove HAD HE NOTICED IT WAS ON. of course he didn't. just like he doesn't notice when i get my hair done. anyhoo, it was also bad cause we had just talked about some 'egg genie' thing that hard boils your eggs to perfection everytime. most guys on his squad have one. i thought it was ludacris, and part of the reason why america is crazy- cause you need to have a specific machine for every single job under the sun. we will be buying an egg genie on the weekend...
i managed to squeeze in a morning playdate and a lunch hang-out while i was airing out the apartment. topher had more accidents on the carpet, so i steam cleaned the living room AGAIN. my girlfriend asked if i regretted training topher so early. cause maybe he wasn't as ready as he could be if i had waited. but then later at night, when we were getting the kids ready for bed, topher said he had to poop. and he wanted dad to take him. so chris took him, and i was going to put lily down while chris was occupied, but lily knew chris was supposed to put her down, so she didn't want to go with me into her room. so then we all decided to hang out in the bathroom together as a family. and we all watched topher poop. and it was INCREDIBLE. a bigger turd than you would think would be able to exist in his little body emerged and sank to the bottom o f the tank. and as we all watched topher poo (no stage fright here folks!) i was SO THANKFUL that he was potty trained enough to be able to poo on the potty (and with an audience) cause if i had had to clean that crap (literally) out of a diaper- it would not have been good.
this morning the kids and i went to the zoo. perfect day for it. actually, as we were getting ready for the zoo, i was running around getting the kids' clothes, and lily was in her room with topher, reading to him. (reaD: she can't read! but it was a number book, and she knows her numbers. so that's reading to me.) SO PRECIOUS. i love my kids.
we went to the zoo, had a great morning, and the kids fell asleep in the car on the way home. when the kids fall asleep in the car, we stay in the car until they wake up. i learned from my mistake last week, and made sure i had some literature in the car for such an occassion as this. so i read a chapter of the bible, and an entire issue of 'Parenting' magazine. the kids were out for an hour and a half! great nap! and again- the weather was perfect. with the windows down, the kids were not too hot or too cold. when they woke up, we got out of the acr and all walked to the apartment. perfect.
then tonight, chris and i were planning on going to small group together, but when he came home from work he was TIRED. he has to wake up at 4 again tomorrow, so we decided to drop the kids off at nana and papa's, go out for a nice, quick, romantic dinner for two at chipotle, then i dropped him back off at the apartment, and proceeded to small group.
because of the crazy day the kids had, they both fell asleep in the car on the short ride home. my nightmare come true. there's no way i was going to stay in the car with them for 8-12 hours (unless there was some kind of guarantee that they would sleep for that long!!!) anyway, i parked the car in our usual spot- which is as close as it could be to the apartment, but is still too far at the same time. i picked lily up first. then topher. i did not do a good job of closing the sliding door. oh well. topher was flopping around like a fish out of water- totally asleep. weird. almost dropped him. twice. i was walking/wobbling/praying, trying not to drop the kids. then i got to the door. the locked door. the keys were in my back pocket and i had no idea how i was supposed to get those out with my arms as full as they were. first i tried to prop my leg up on the wall, to give topher more support while my arm was busy retrieving my keys. but then i couldn't reach the lock and doorknob from that angle. i almost started pounding on the door to wake chris up. but i didn't. i crouched on the ground, kinda woke up both kids, managed to get the door open, took off my shoes, threw/placed lily on the couch, brought topher to his bed, then picked lily up and put her to bed. whew. i need to work out more, or my kids need to quit growing.
and to top off this crazy 'week' (read: two days) our tivo didn't record LOST or GLEE!...

sarah's housewarming cake

thursday night we had a nice little get-together to celebrate my sister-in-law's sister's new apartment! sarah's been living in arizona for the last year and a half i think. maybe more. and she has the greatest skin in the world! (that has nothing to do with her moving into an apartment, but she really has beautifully milky white clear skin. i jealous.) she has been living with her sister, and justin (my bro-in-law), and niece. they are planning on moving into army life, so sarah's getting her own apartment could not have happened at a better time.
i thoroughly enjoyed making sarah's cake. especially since it is the first real cake i have made since living in this apartment. i actually really hate getting the cakes to come out of the baking pans, and then i really really hate frosting the cakes and trying not to pick up crumbs along the way. it's stressful. but fortunately the cakes slid out of the baking pans, and i got a great recipe for vanilla buttercream off of the foodnetwork website, which made frosting shockingly quite easy. and for the most part, i would say that the frosting tasted pretty good too. but i'm not entirely sure cause after all the frosting making and spreading, i had no desire to actually eat any cake once everything was all said and done.



sarah likes cats (she has great skin. but obviously she's crazy. i don't like cats.) she also likes to read and drink tea. her favorite color is red, which made me start sweating immediately when i asked her for her favorite color- cause mixing fondant to be red really sucks. like really sucks. but it turned out alright.



i just did a buttercream icing around the whole cake, and added all my handmade fondant pieces afterwards. i did the circles on the side of the cake, to tie in the motif on the 'rug' i made. but i mostly did it to cover the unevenness of the icing. i also did a 'shag carpetting' on top of the cake to really make it look like an apartment, AND to cover the unevenness of the icing on the top of the cake.



and here is the buttercream recipe i used that worked out pretty great:
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream

i added quite a bit more whipping cream to make it more spreadable. but i also added some already-brewed (and therefore not hot) coffee to break some of the serious sweetness of this icing. next time i will probably add even more coffee (this time i put in about a tsp of the good stuff. a serious tbsp or more will probably be better. i'll let you know though.)

(i know the label says 'cupcakes' even though this was clearly not a post about cupcakes. but i'm not making another new label!

nothing to fear but pee itself

topher is way awesomer than i give him credit for.

yesterday i got him a cute little bible at ross. it's a boardbook, which is good cause he still isn't the best with paper pages.anyhoo, he loves it. on the cover is a drawing of Jesus with a bunch of little kids. he started naming the people in the picture: "that's toto. that's mommy (a little girl holding 'toto's' hand). that's noona (an african american boy). that's gu-gu hyung (meaning his cousin, who is 1/4 african american and 3/4 korean. he was pointing to the other two ethnic kids on the cover)." then i point to Jesus and ask him who that is. "grandpa" he says. and toto's grandpa does happen to have long hair and a beard, and when we are at his house, he often has at least one kid on his lap at all times. even when he is eating. what a great compliment- to be mistaken for Jesus!

then this morning, as i was reading my bible, i told topher: "hey this is mommy's bible. it's just like your bible!" this excited him quite a bit. he grabbed his little bible and said: "my Jesus. (pointing to his bible) mommy's Jesus. (pointing to my bible)." precious!

so anyhoo, i have bought a couple of boxes of Pull Ups in the last month since we've been back from Vegas. and with every box i think: "this is the last box of Pull Ups i am going to buy." and then i don't try to re-train topher to be potty trained. cause it's so taxing! so much effort needs to be put forth- on my part! like when we are out and about, i have to intentionally stop at a public restroom and make him/wait for him to pee. whereas if he is wearing a Pull Up, i don't care, and if lily doesn't have to pee, then we will not stop in a public restroom. ever. so topher's not being re-trained is my fault. as usual. so i decided to bite the bullet and throw him back into his undies. no matter how much extra laundry, carpet cleaning, public restroom visiting that would cause.
so he was in undies all day today. and it was awesome! he didn't soil himself once! he wore a Pull Up to nap, but that's totally acceptable in my books. i was so excited when we got to the end of the day and were changing into our jammies. i was telling topher how proud of him i was as i was getting lily ready for bed. and of course, topher peed on the carpet beside his bed.

oh well, it could have been poo, and it wasn't. and he could have been peeing all over the place all day today, but he hadn't. so all in all, it was a pretty great day.

as for lily, ahe is doing pretty great. she has her days when pooing is still a serious, and possibly painful chore, but she has woken up with a dry Pull Up 4 nights in a row! and only one of those nights did she wake me to take her to the potty!

as usual, i convince myself that things are going to be difficult, terrible, a disaster, or all three, and then my kids shock me and show me that they are awesome, able, and adorable little self-sufficient human beings. though not entirely self-sufficient. but that's ok in my books.

Easter Funtimes

we watsons had another wonderful easter together. we missed having chris' dad and step-mom with us, but it's tax season. it couldn't be helped. (chris' dad is an accountant. in case that previous sentence didn't make sense.)actually, chris' sister, and her kids didn't make it either. unfortunately. but the rest of us had a wonderful time, eating, chilling, looking for eggs, and making sure the kids didn't go jumping over the fence and into the pool with their new sugar-induced powers.
chris' mom is the brains and arms and legs behind our family easter celebration. we met at her house, as we did last year, and she and jerry do a bbq style dinner, while the kids and other family members bring side dishes. altogether, 'we' was composed of grandma and grandpa, chris' superaunt susie, supercousin katie, her awesome hubby joey, and their beauty of a daughter brooklyn, who is lily's bff by the way (they are a year and 3 months apart), chris' two bros and their fams, and our awesome friends, jeff and mary beth (who i consider to be an older, wiser sister) and their two beautiful girls.
anyway, barb is crazy and awesome, cause she puts together an easter basket for all the little kids. even the babies. 8 altogether. and then she sets up the eggs for the easter egg hunt. there were 7 big eggs and 7 little eggs for each kid. what's 14 times eight? like a million. anyhoo, thanks barb for being awesome (and better at math than me). all the kids, big and small, had a great great great time.

all the pics are pretty self-explanatory. except for the one of topher who looks like he has handcuffs on his belt. he does. he is wearing his 'sherrif's belt that he got for his bday. he kept dropping his 'bullets' and people kept picking them up and telling him 'hey topher, you dropped your bullets.' our easter was very safe, and very well protected. hope yours was the same!

clarification on: easter dresses

ok. if you read my post from an hour ago, you will be proud and happy to know that i did do the dishes, and put the clothes in the dryer, and hid all of the clothes and shoes that i know lily and topher will want to wear tomorrow, but are not permitted to. (gotta choose your battles. or make potential battles disappear altogether.)

and while i was doing the dishes, i was thinking about whether or not i offended anybody about buying dresses for easter from my post marked 'humble pie' or something like that.

i just need to clarify that i have a serious problem. i am a little obsessed (oxy moron!) with clothes and accessories. i love them all. quite a bit. and it's a problem. remember i told you we took pictures with our professional photographer friend? well, for two weeks leading up to the 'photoshoot', i thought and thought about what lily should wear. did i want her to be playful? beauitufl? easy breezy? really dressed up? moderately dressed up? etc. and then the day of the shoot, i forgot to put in her white shirt that i bought FOR THAT DAY. ugh. and i could hear God laughing at me, and asking me if all that 'thinking/obsessing' was worth anything. it wasn't. and the pictures still turned out awesome!

so anyhow, my comments about buying an easter dress, was a criticism against myself. cause it would be one thing if i thought about it, bought it, and forgot about it. but for me, it's one obsessive thought that starts with a dress, then goes down to the shoes, and possibly matching earrings, and hopefully, just maybe even a necklace...

i think stay-at-home moms need/deserve a new easter dress every year. cause the truth of the matter is- that might be the only day of the year they have a real excuse to get dolled up! and any excuse for a mom to get dolled up, feel pretty, and show off a litle, is not a bad thing, considering what moms deal with everyday, whilst wearing sweatpants, the same pair of jeans for a week so as not to create any extra laundry, and a t-shirt. or a long-sleeve t-shirt, depending on whether it is summer or winter, here in arizona.

anyhoo, people used to get dressed up for church every sunday in their 'sunday bests'. we have definitely moved away from that, at least at the last 3 or 4 churches i have attended. easter is a very special day. the most special day for Christians, cause it's what makes us Christians- Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and then He rose to life three days later. we should try to offer up our 'bests' to God- good looking insides and outsides, cause He surely did so for us.

what to do?

here's a picture that chris' grandfather just sent him, from an easter celebrated many moons ago! so cute.

so it's 10:27pm. so many things i could be/should be doing right now. put laundry in the dryer (i will definitely do this at some point before bed!). put dishes in the dishwasher (not holding my breath on this one). make banana bread, just cause i feel like eating banan bread tomorrow (but that's probably not going to happen either). read the bible (it is easter season!). look at listings our realtor sent us for a new home. start decorating a cake that is 'due' this thursday (i'm really excited about this cake. yes, cake, not cupcakes. but not excited enough to start working on it...) tidy up the apartment. look up some preschools for lily, and possibly topher too. find some extra-curricular programs for lily (and possibly topher) to do, like t-ball and ballet (former for both, latter for lily only!) etc. etc.

so much to do. so very little desire or energy to do anything but sit in this chair. i barely want to post a post, but theni would really just be sitting here doing absolutely nothing.

the past couple days have been exhausting and entertaining. i have taken some awesome pics of some things, and didn't have a camera for some other things. example- i was hanging out with my girlfriend christin, and her two girls. cambry, christin's oldest, is topher's age. and they are so cute together! i will NOT say she is topher's girlfriend, cause quite frankly that girl has many suitors after her! she was the only girl born in '08, in the midst of three very handsome boys being born that same year. anyhoo, christin has a 'great' backyard. very pretty, complete with a fountain and a putting green. the putting green happens to also have 3 sand traps. my kids thought the sand traps were a little piece of beachy heaven. at one point, christin and i were watching topher, kneeled in the sand, with his sister smashing sand into his newly shaven locks. handfuls of sand. smashing. into his 'hair'. awesome. then it looked like topher had grabbed a handful of sand and put it down the back of his pants, into his pull-up. i was shocked later when there was no sand in my son's butt crack. delightfully shocked mind you. the whole time at christin's was a riot, but i didn't have my camera on hand for any of those ridiculous moments. oh yeah, topher also grabbed a nasal aspirator off of the table, then went to lie down on the couch and tried to aspirate his own nose with this aspirator that does not belong to him.

lily and topher are being really hilarious, cute, and obnoxious these days. the terrible twos have definitely entered topher's life. lily's counting in spanish is kinda the funniest and cutest thing in the world. and she is trying to dress herself when we go out, and it's nuts. especially since she got a trunk full of dress-up clothes for her birthday. today she wore a regular old skirt with a glitzy, frilly, faux-crushed-velvet pink bustier-type princess shirt, complete with glued on jewels and everything. topher is testing his limits still. but is responding a bit better to his beatings (read:slaps on the hand!) i smacked his hand cause he tried to run away from me int he parking lot today. then when we were walking on the sidewalk, he insisted on holding my hand, even though that is not one of our rules. it was so nice though, so maybe i will make it one.

i have been waking up at six every morning this week. topher has gotten lily off of her schedule (she used to wake up anywhere between 7 and 8) and now she gets up at 6 too. although this week, the kids took turns waking up at six, or before. it's like they planned out the night before who was going to get to sleep in (never me), and who would wake me up early. mean little monkeys.

but, in my efforts to be a better human being, a nicer mom, a better christian, i have been trying to be more thankful in all situations. so though it takes me a little while to snap out of zombie-mode, once i get that coffee maker going, i try to enjoy my time with the kiddies, even though it is so dark cause the sun is BARELY UP!... deep breath... relax.

so, i guess that's it for now. it's already almost 11, which means i need to be up and at em in about 7 hours, so maybe i will try to get 7 hours of sleep for a change! it'll be nice to have energy for church, volunteering, making dips, then going to a rockin family easter bbq + easter egg hunt at nana and papa's.
that's it for now. good night all.

I'm Eating Humble Pie for Easter

our small group has been reading colossians. we wanted to set ourselves up for success, so we picked one of the shortest books of the bible. there are only 4 chapters. we've been at it for about 4-5 weeks. we are ALMOST finished with chapter two. almost. it's good though, because the whole book is jam-packed with too much good information. not that other books in the bible are NOT packed with too much good information. you know what i'm saying.
anyhoo, i read ahead a few weeks ago, and am completely stuck on chapter 3. the part about 'rules for holy living'. yikes. chris' grandmother told me once that she was studying the love verse in 1 corinthians, and she tried to practice each attribute of love, starting with 'love is patient' continuing on to 'love is kind, it does not envy...' i think she said she was 'stuck' on the first one for quite a while. which is understandable cause it was when she was mothering 4 young boys.
anyhow, so i am reading through this chapter, and it's making me feel like garbage, cause i realize more and more that i am full of garbage: "set your heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things..."
with easter coming up, you'd think i would naturally be full of pious thoughts, and thankfulness for what my Savior did on the cross for me (and for you!). but alas, i have fallen captive to the american way of celebrating easter- easter dresses, easter baskets, etc. etc. i say this is the 'american way' because when i was living in canada, i was unaware that people made such a big commercial deal about easter. but i was unaware of quite a bit when i lived in canada. sometimes that was a good thing, sometimes not. it didn't make me holier, maybe just apathetic.
but here in the land of the free, everywhere you go, there are beautiful and fluffy dresses for girls, supercute preppy outfits for boys, wonderfully cute things to fill easter baskets with. they are in the stores, ads appear in all 6 of my e-mail addresses, i am overcome with the desire to buy buy buy!
and is that what Easter is about? of course not. but do my thoughts rest, daily, on what easter is about? not really.
chapter 3 continues: "put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry... but now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips." ah. so much more to work on. of late, i have been repeating the latter portion of that verse to myself when i get riled up about nothingness and am filled with impatience, and BAD WORDS. seriously, i have to repeat that about 3 times a day. minimum. i don't know why i have such anger in my heart. or filthy language from my lips. but it probably has to do with my heart, and it's condition, and what it's fixated on. and like i said before, it ain't always Jesus.
i am so stuck on that beginning part of chapter 3 that i find it hard to read on, but i must, cause it tells me what to fill the gap with: "therefore as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentlness, and patience." and there is no greater picture of someone who lived all this out, than in the person of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, a very torturous death, and yet still displayed compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, all the while. yowsers.
if you read through colossians, one thing that is mentioned in every chapter is thankfulness. we need to be thankful, no matter what circumstances are around us. thankful for the people around us, thankful for Jesus, thankful to God, for all things.
so, no matter what you end up wearing for easter, or what is or isn't in your basket, i wish you all a happy easter.