might as well be an ironman

on sunday chris participated in his first olympic triathlon.

and it was phenomenal! my husband is crazy and incredible!

chris' day started at about 4ish, mine started at about 6ish. as did my lovely friend's, lainey, who very kindly came over by 6:20am. and barb showed up moments later to come and pick me up. lainey hung out with my crazy kids till 12 and i could not be more grateful to have such a helpful friend! i was very happy to hear that toph didn't wake up til 8 and lily didn't come out of her room til after 7. it took a team effort to make sunday awesome, and all the team members did so great!

so, barb and i drove down to tempe town lake for this triathlon and were not sure what to expect. chris was supposed to start at 6:55am, which is about when we parked the car. when we got to the race area, we still had no idea what was going on. some people were swimming. some people were getting on their bikes. it was craziness. then i texted chris' uncle Matt, who mentioned he would come out and support chris, and low and behold, he said chris was in the water and about to start his race in minutes! so barb and i jumped up to the bridge where Matt was standing, and there was my chris watson treading water below me!

the race started and chris was off!he looked great! apparently in the first few minutes of 'death swim' chris got kicked in the head and punched in the neck. chris in turn hammer punched some guy in the butt. great times in dirty polluted tempe town lake.

here's chris emerging from the water after a brisk 30 minute swim. i stole this picture from uncle Matt's facebook album, and his caption for this was perfect: "Chris coming out of the water with his hand on Jesus' shoulder."

so glad Jesus was with my hubby this morning!

then it was off to the bike! we got to see chris hop onto his bike and breeze down Mill Ave. by the time we got to Rio Salado (a half a mile away from the trainsition area), chris had already done a turn and came by us again! i was really beginning to love this whole triathlon business! especially cause us fans were able to take a little break to fuel up before going out to cheer our hearts out again for another hour and a half.



here is chris in the transition area getting ready for the last leg- the run!


we actually caught the butt-end of chris' bike ride. literally. as we were walking back up from starbucks, we stopped to see if we might catch a glimpse of chris again. we were looking down the wrong side of the street when it occured to me that maybe he was almost finished. so i turned and looked the other way and saw chris' butt turning the corner and going back up Mill to the transition area. i screamed. chris heard me. he was encouraged. and biked on.

here's chris starting his 10k (6ish miles).


here's my hubby running and smiling. why are you smiling crazy? you just swam 1500 meters and biked 25.2 miles and ran over 3 miles and still had 3 miles to go. clearly my hubby is on crack.


so chris finished his race in about 3 hours and 15 minutes. absolutely amazing. i don't know how people can exercise for that long. i had a seriously wonderful time hanging out with barb and matt all morning and catching glimpses of an incredible ironman in the making.

we went home (after we FINALLY found our keys, which was a 1 mile walking detour...) took naps, and went out for steaks (a great recovery meal!) with two of chris' biggest fans.

the reasons i came back

sometimes as a stay-at-home-mom, all you want is some peace and quiet and for no one to touch you or talk to you or ask for anything or anything. going to orlando was a great break for me. but now i am back and jumped right into the thick of things thursday morning as i watched both hobey and zane and, of course, my two little monkey children. it was crazy! but it's great to be back. to be asked for, to be needed, to be hugged, to be kissed, to not have too much time to myself.
cause i do love spending time with these crazy people, and that's why i came back!






by the way, i had the best mother's day on sunday, the day before i left. my kids were sweet and wonderful, but my hubby always makes sure that i feel like the queen of the universe on mother's day, and i did. thanks so much family. you guys are 1 in a million.

the reasons i left part 2

what does orlando have that phoenix (mesa/gilbert) does not?

1. a chance to eat beautiful dessert with my girlfriend kendra. no kids. no hubbies. just kendra, me, and an absurd amount of chocolate cake. (there was also an incredible strawberry shortcake that is not pictured.) the child in my womb kinda ruined the experience. i actually tried to throw up in the restroom at the restaurant. then i almost threw up just thinking about throwing up in a public restroom. but the experience all in all was still wonderful :)


2. they are over-ruled by disney. we went to 'downtown disney' which is near disneyworld, but not quite. we walked around and posed for pics. like this one in front of the Lego store where they had the most incredible pieces of art- all made of legos. i felt like i was cheating on my kids by being there without them. bad mom! thus ezra is trying to poke my eye out...


3. florida has alligators! and i don't think i've ever seen one before. we went for a walk around a little lake and kendra said that we probably wouldn't see one cause it was starting to get too hot (i didn't leave to get away from the arizona sun. the florida sun was just as aggressive!) but Jesus had a different plan for me. near the end of our walk we saw something in the water that looked like a log. but it was moving. and it was a tiny little toddler-sized alligator.


4. kelly lives in florida too! kelly is the blond in the pic. she and i worked in korea together for 1 year, as did kendra and i. thoguh kendra and kelly's years did not overlap, they met at my wedding and both ended up in florida VERY RANDOMLY (beither they, nor their husbands are from florida, yet they all live there). so they have become friends, and i have managed to stay friends with them both (even though sometimes i REALLY SUCK at being a long-distance friend). we met for lunch and had a rockin great time. kelly came with her two boys- silas and james (silas is pictured in the second picture below, james is the little guy on my lap in the third pic) and kendra and i came with the ezster. it was lovely to be surrounded by my friends and their kids, and to see how much God has done in our lives since we were all single girls living in korea 8 years ago.




5. kendra is married to this lovely guy named jon. jon actually lived in korea for a year too (korea is kind of a post-college hot spot!!) though he actually was friends with kendra in college. they got married and i met jon at their wedding in michigan 4 years ago, but that's it. i never got a chance to know him. until this week! what a guy! great dad! as soon as he got hom from work, ezra did not leave his side. i love this pic, though i don't know if you can see how engaged ezra is in the book his dada is reading to him. so precious. jon is great at his job, he loves Jesus, his wife, and his son. what more can you ask for?


6. and last but not least, i went to hang out with kendra. friend of my heart. the year i spent with her in korea was amazing. she was kind of my first ever accountability-type partner. we would go out after work on mondays for 'magical mondays' where we would just talk about Jesus and life over some wickedgood coffee. she got me through lots (chris breaking up with me! chris trying to get back together with me...) and really helped me to grow as a Christian. i haven't seen her since she came out to phoenix 3 years ago when topher was born. she came out to meet my new boy, it was only fair for me to go out and meet hers. and oh what a boy!

the reasons i left. part 1

this is the first of at least two posts. i just got back, like two hours ago, from a great 50hour trip in orlando. i left superearly monday morning and like i said, just got back a little while ago. and it was wonderful!

my beautiful friend kendra (the stunning red-head pictured above) and her delightful husband jon, adopted stunning little ezra (the stunning little man pictured above) 4 months ago, when he was 4 months old. God is so awesome and has brought this wonderful little bundle of awesomeness from haiti to two incredibly incredible parents. he has already undergone so much in his little 8-month life, and he has done it with much joy and grace.

i love you little ezra! this post is entirely dedicated to you and your incredible cuteness!

Tuesday with Topher

it's friday! but i started this post on tuesday, which is why it is called 'tuesday with topher'.

this morning we dropped Lily off at school and then topher and i proceeded to a birthday breakfast for Papa Jerry. Papa Jerry was working so we actually had a birthday breakfast without him, but you were missed Jerry! and happy birthday! so the 'party' consisted of barb, grandma, grandpa, and our wonderful waiter, who happened to be african american. this wonderful state of arizona is in SERIOUS need of some racial diversity. why do i say this? because as we were waiting for our breakfast topher started asking: "what's the black man doing? where's the black man going?" OMG. mortifying. my son is racist. or something terrible like that. i actually had to shove his face into my shoulder to muffle his obsurdly loud voice, and whisper in his ear that we NEVER say stuff like that. fortunately he listened, like a good boy. i have to admit my heart stopped when our nice waiter brought our food for fear that topher would say something crazy like: "thank you black man."

then we went and picked up lily from school and went to our cousin's house for lunch and a playdate. i am loving playdates with my 3 and 4 year old these days! they need such little supervision! or do they...

near the end of our time together, i was talking to topher and noticed something colorful kept poking out of his nose as i he was talking to me and breathing. i asked him if he stuffed something up his nose and he said: "yes." so then our cousin googled: "how to get stuff out of your kid's nose" i was trying to get him to blow his nose into a tissue, but a tiny corner of whatever that was stuck in my son's nose kept peeking out and i couldn't grab it. tweezers! needed tweezers. so chris' cousin went and grabbed tweezers and then topher started freaking out. they were shiny and pointy and topher did not think those belonged anywhere near his nose. so he started crying and stuff, and managed to blow the thing out of his nose (while i held the other nostril closed). what was it? a blue, flat, foam star. where did it come from? how long had it been there? all good questions, with no answers. oh my tophy. such a boy.

so that's all the stuff that happened on tuesday with my boy. but lately he has been killing me with his requests that i leave my hair down. he hates when i have my hair in a pony tail! i don't know why. sometimes when he wakes up and i have my hair back, he starts to cry, and immediately stops if i take my hair out of the ponytail. it's crazy and i don't understand it. maybe there is someone who has beaten him and traumatized him who had a ponytail. maybe that person was me. i don't know. he says i look handsome with my hair back and beautiful with my hair down. i am wondering if he really knows what 'handsome' means, even though he is very aware that i think he is a very handsome boy. i don't know. all i know is that i love my sweet little topher even though he is a little bit racist. but we are working on that! and on not shoving crafts up our noses.

bookkeeper no more

so, i am blogging as present-day jihae for today. i am so glad i had all those old pregnancy posts saved up! i have not been in a writing mood lately. this kid in my belly is driving me crazy! last week really sucked, this week, week 11, is not looking much better. oh well. such is the life of a pregnant person. i am lucky to be feeling sick and carrying a healthy growing little human being. thanks Jesus. i will TRY to quit whining so much.

anyhoo, today was a momentous day, so i thought i would blog about it so i can remember it in 20 years from now. i have been a bookkeeper (how i wish there was a double 'p' in the word!) for the last five years and though i have not been a fan of the work, i have been a BIG fan of the place where i worked. as many of you know, i worked for chris' dad who is an accountant. chris' uncle also is an accountant, and also works there. as does chris' sister, bre. and a great family friend, jennifer, who has been at Watson & Watson CPA for over 20 years. craziness.

my bookkeeping job has been the longest i have ever stayed at a job, even though i managed to have two kids in between it all. and not only had two kids, but had them in the middle of tax season! i think i took a week off with lily, and then started to bring her into the office with me (much to the serious delight of grandpa wes and the other office members). and i believe topher was born on a thursday and i think i may have gone to work on monday. those tax returns were not going to assemble themselves! (though someone would have assembled them. but i just felt like that someone should be me and my new infants.)

this is kind of a side note, but did i ever tell you about the time i lactated through my shirt at work? i even had topher at work with me i think. or maybe it was lily. i was DEFINITELY wearing a light blue tommy hilfiger polo shirt. i remember this because of how BRIGHT and NOTICEABLE my milk rings were when i looked down at my shirt. i must have just been working and working and working, and then i brought some papers into chris' dad's office, and then i sat down, took a breath, looked down at two very large circles of wetness on the front of my shirt, and i died in my chair. of serious embarrassment. no one said anything. chris' dad loves a good joke, but he was so good about not saying a thing! thanks wes! i left very very soon after. and i maybe never wore that shirt again.

so today was pretty anti-climactic. i went in to finish one last thing and answer any questions my replacement had for me. superlow-key. but an hour into my work day i hear too much noise to be a client or even a herd of elephants, and soon i am greeted by my kids and hubby with flowers, balloons, cake and a card. sperlow-key no more! there is a very very strong possiblity that i have the most thoughful husband in the world. his card was the sweetest as he just wanted to tell me how much he was looking forward to our new family-funtime-mondays. i love him! and he got me a pot of gerbera daisies (my fave) and a mint chocolate cake- since i (usually) love mint chocolate (the child inside is not a fan of sweets! it wants me to have NO FUN!)

thanks chris for being the best and most thoughtful husband a girl could ask for. and thanks to the wonderful staff at Watson and Watson CPA for having made my last 5'professional' years really really special ones. goodbye bookkeeping, hello getting ready to be a mom of three kids (omg... what am i doing??...)

here are some pics of lily working it at the office when she was a tiny little munchkin. she was a great secretary, bookkeeper, and box-inhabitor. i feel like a terrible mom for not being able to find any pics of toph at the office with me, but i am just thinking i didn't bring him nearly as often as i brought the lilster.

week of the raspberry

we are at week 8. i really can't remember what we are doing this week- maybe making fingers and internal organs and more facial features? whatever the case is, it's been whooping my butt. i have taken at least one, although most days 2 one hour naps, a day. so glad my kids love tv and sit watching while i snore loudly beside them. good times.

a lot of the websites that i've been reading say i shouldn't be showing yet. shouldn't, eh? i've already been told that i am showing on more than one occassion. not nice. although chris tries to do his best to tell me that i look great, his defense for my early pooch is: "what? i have big sperm." really??? he's 31 people. i can't even imagine the seriously inappropriate things he must have said as a teenager. (and he made this big sperm comment in the middle of lunch with some friends, their kids, and ours. need to buy the guy a better filter.)

and just to jab at my awesome hubby one more time, the other day i was wearing a huge sweater cause i was cold. chris said: "hey, nice sweater." so nice of him. i told him i was wearing it because i was freezing, and to cover my fatness. to that he replied: "IMPOSSIBLE." and as my jaw dropped and hit the ground and shattered, chris looked at me with horror in his eyes and said: "wait! you said HOTNESS, right?" omg watson.

i guess it doesn't help that all i want to eat are chips and fruity snacks (and fruity snacks constitute those sour rope things which are ridiculously awesome!) i am aiming to only gain 20 lbs, which is what i gained with topher (my 6'4oz baby) and not 30 lbs, which i gained with lily (my 8'3oz crotch-destroying baby).
we'll see how that goes.

anyhoo, we had our 8 week ultrasound earlier this week and it went so great. the heart beat was strong and perfect, and there was only one baby, not twins, so that was a delight to see as well. pretty much, God is awesome, and we are excited to meet baby raspberry in november.

and tomorrow, i will attach our week 8 ultrasound pic! or i will try to...