STRETCH

Wherever sleep may find you..

I put 'Thing 2' in his bed and told 'Thing 1' to go to bed.  After about thirty minutes I went to check on T1 and this is what I found...

Yes, that's him asleep in a laundry basket...WHOW!!  What a cute kid. ;)

Sure do love you son...

Dad

Happy Birthday 'Thing 2'!!

Noble turned three today.  We did the usual.  Presents, cake, song and WATER PARK!  Here are some pics!

Noble had a great day, first thing he said when he saw his presents was "Thank you mom and dad!"  You are welcome little man.....enjoy those golf clubs, you have a scholarship to earn!

Dad

Who's Your Daddy?

So, guess what's coming up?  One of my favorite days of the year: Father's Day (which I'm petitioning a name change to 'Who's Your Daddy? Day').

This will be my fifth year as a dad and in my own unique, sometimes crazy mind, I will have won the 'Dad of the Year' award for the fifth consecutive year.  Obviously, Father's day is a time to be honored, but honestly, I consider this special day a reminder of the great responsibility and privilege I have to be called 'Dad'.

This week, to celebrate Dad's, I want to touch on a few priorities that I believe are critical to effective Fatherhood.  I strongly believe that 'priorities' must be given way to and men, unless we 'fight' to grow these in our own lives, we can easily be sidetracked, simply settling for compromised Fatherhood. 

Phillip Lancaster said.-  "What this country needs is a few good men - husbands and fathers who are willing to love and lead their households with manly resolve and godly vision."

Stretch Yourself

Jesse

Inspirational People (pt. 2)

I am beginning a new Category called 'Inspirational People'.  These are ordinary people who have courageously battled life.  Their stories are meant to inspire and encourage us.  

Meet Sabrina:  Mom to two earth angels and one angel in heaven.

"We arrived at the hospital just after 4pm which was about half hour after we left the doctors office.  Three nurses tried to get the heartbeat and my OBGYN happened to be on duty so they called him in and he tried. Still nothing. I was not sure how to feel at this time even though the nurses were still optimistic. 

They sent me for an ultrasound and I was not able to see anything. The technician was extremely quiet. My husband watched everything and described what he saw. Since he was not able to read the ultrasound, he assumed everything was fine. He told me our son had his knees up and arms across his chest. At about 7:30pm a nurse and my obgyn came in to see me. They sat next to me on the bed held my hands and gave me the worst news I had ever heard in my entire life. 

They left us alone to decide on waiting until my body went into labor or to have me induced that night. My husband called our family to let them know. My parents and our very close family friends were together and arrived at the hospital not to long after. We agreed to be induced that night and all the while I prayed they were wrong and if he was born he would be ok cause I was 36 weeks, so it wasn't too early for him to come out now. Seventeen hours later, Nicholas was born.  There was no physical evidence that anything was wrong. No heartbeat, no breathing... nothing. 

All I can remember was one nurse crying. Next, we had him baptized with our family present. And then he stayed in the room with us, they did what they could to help me sleep but nothing worked. Leaving the hospital was hard, because I just given birth and no child was coming home with me. The funeral took place on memorial day weekend (for the states) but it was all over the news being advertised so I remember it every year on that day. We didn't go straight home, we actually stayed at my parents place and then my in-laws. They planned to take the baby room down but didn't by the time we went home. The door stayed shut for a long time. Everything was purple and yellow with snoopy decorations. it was a rare theme couldn't really find anything for it unless we went to Toys R Us in Buffalo which was our plan he was due June 15thFathers day that year. He was a month early and passed away so we never made it out to Buffalo. I think it was a few weeks before I attempted to go into the room. I had a real hard time for the first three months. I barely slept, I had to take sleeping pills to get any sleep... The vision of his birth and him after were so vivid in my mind I re-lived it every night....."

To be continued.

Jesse

"It's your birthday....it's your birthday"

Today is my eldest son, Halon's (pronounced Hay-lon; often referred to as 'Thing 1') birthday.  The last few days he has given us the countdown in days. "My birthday is in two more days!"  This morning, the first thing he said was, "Happy Birthday to Halon!" and then he pulled his pants down to show me that he did not sleep in a pull-up and this confirmed his 'big-boy' status.  Thank you son.

Enjoy some pics!

The theme this is was Star Wars, so my young jedi had a blast with this custom made Anakin outfit. Light Saber included! I'm so proud.

Next we moved on to opening presents.  Can you see the excitement?

Before he opened the first one, I said, "Let's open your presents buddy, every one of them is NEW UNDERWEAR!!!  That went over like I lead balloon....here was his response:

After some counseling, cajoling and apologizing (gees dude, take a joke!) he opened all of his gifts and the morning was salvaged with his very own box of Trix!

Oh and Noble (affectionately referred to as Thing 2) did a great job on-looking!  Two thumbs up for the great attitude Noble!

There is a time to waste time.

This past week, I have wasted a lot of time.  Let's see, I have been off of work for a little over a week and during those days, and I haven't done much of anything, BUT I have made a big impact.  Before I get to the impact part I must confess that I'm actually good with the amount of time I used to accomplish nothing tangible. Here are some of the mindless activities I have partaken of:

I watched approximately 7.5 movies. (Including  re-watch which I never do)

I played hours of Nintendo Wii. (My 4.5 year old bowled a 209!...can you say Wii prodigy?)

I played a round of golf.

Watched mucho football.

Spent time on Facebook and surfing the information super-highway for unimportant, useless information.

Went shopping.

A trip to the zoo.

An all-nighter.

Rearranged furniture.

Sat lazily in the backyard.

Let laundry pile up.

The list goes on...

Here is why I am okay with it:

While I did each of these, I had a family member with me (minus the all-nighter, but the case could be made that I was still with hundreds I love dearly..since they were students from our ministry).

I spent a lot of time with my family - we laughed until our stomachs hurt.  We built prisons to put the Decepticons in.  We rooted for underdogs to beat the big guys in bowl games.  We raced around go kart tracks.  We got to pet sting-rays.  We bought ridiculously inexpensive clothes.  We made birdies on one of the toughest courses in Phoenix.  And we just enjoyed each other.  

Although I did not accomplish much in terms of physical production, I did accomplish much in the building of relationships with those that mean the most to me.  There is a 'time to waste time', just make sure something significant is happening in a a relational context.

Excuse me, I have to go....the Decepticons are ONCE AGAIN attacking the Autobots.

Stretch yourself

Jesse

Date night

Thursday's are date night at the Watson house.  This is the night where we put the kids to bed early and just spend time in each other's presence without child distraction.  We usually just watch TV together, eat some junk and chill out.  A couple of things we do weekly to stay connected are:

1. Date Night - (see above)

2. Talk Time - Talk time is once a week, maybe more, but it's just when we sit and talk to each other.  We talk about how our week is going.  We talk about fears, discoveries and failures.  It's really an incredible time of connection.  Sometimes we talk for an hour and sometimes it will be three hours.

Stay connected with your spouse, especially if your careers are completely different.  These are two great ways to do just that!

Stretch yourself

Jesse

Houston here we come!

We are headed to Houston for Easter and to spend some time with Joel Hunter and his family. Joel is a dynamic pastor, communicator and church planter. It will be great just relaxing and recharging.

I will be out of the blogosphere most likely until Monday. Have a great Easter!

Jesse

Zoo Day

We had a great day at the Phoenix Zoo yesterday.  Halon and Noble had a blast.  Favorite animals included the giraffe, rhino and tiger.  We actually watched a tiger climb a 40 foot tree.  There is nothing like spending some quality time with the family.

Jesse

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was great.  We relaxed and just spent time together as a family.  The day started off with the Turkey Bowl.  A group of guys from church got together and played some tackle football.  It was great, except I could barely moved the next day.  The rest of that day we made dinner and ate together and then we took the boys to the Phoenix car show.  It was a great time!  Halon was so excited to sit in H2's and BMW's. It was a blast.

Friday night Sarah and I went to the Suns vs. Clippers game.  We had a great seats thanks to a friend and really enjoyed ourselves.  We have the tree up and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (at least in our house, outside it still looks like summer time!)

Jesse