Popeye, Olive Oyl & a TRIATHLON

This year for Halloween we decided to dress up as Popeye and Olive Oyl. We spent a quiet evening at Bacho and Staci's house enjoying our 2nd annual pizza dinner. We kept waiting and waiting for trick-or-treaters to come, but this year was a dud - only 3 kids came to the door. Maybe it was better we had a quiet night, Jason and I had to be up bright and early the next day.





The next morning, November 1st, we had to wake up at 4:00am in order to check in, get our numbers and wait anxiously for the race to start at the 17th annual Desert Grande Triathlon. That's right, our first triathlon. We obviously couldn't carry our camera with us through the swimming, biking and running, but thankfully Staci and Bacho came and supported us. They cheered us on to the finish line and captured the moments of us finishing.

Both Jason and I were a little nervous before the race, but as soon as the man said go - all the nerves went away and the "you can do it" attitude came. Jason and I got seperated during the swim, so we didn't know how the other was doing. It was hard to go through the race by ourselves, but we finished. When Jason crossed over the finish line he told me his bike broke - his pedal fell off 3 miles into the biking portion. I know I would have quit and waited for someone to come pick me up, but not Jason. He pushed his bike the rest of the way and continued on with the running portion. Can you say SUPERMAN!!!








The race was hot and long, but an overall great experience. We have our medals and the memories of our first triathlon. Now it's time to get ready for number 2 - December 6th.

UGH.... some people

Today was one of those days that was just - "one of those days". Do you ever have those days? I was trying to do something nice for my offices and give them a Halloween treat. I went to Costco and spent about $100.00 on a variety of candy and put a cute little message on each bar. I was at a particular office and asked the receptionist if she would like some candy. She looked inside my bag, shifted the candy all around and looked up at me and said - "what, you don't have peanut m&m's. That's my favorite. Why don't you have peanut m&m's?" I told her I was sorry and i'll remember that for next time. She looked back in the bag, pulled out a snickers and said - ugh.. I guess I'll take this. I know it's not that big of a deal, but I try to do something nice and that's the thanks I get. Next time i'll get the M&M's.

Surprise, we're here....

Jason and I went up to SLC this past weekend to attend our niece's Baptism. We wanted to surprise Jason's family so we didn't tell them when we were coming in - just that we would be there. We flew in Wednesday night and drove to Jason's parents house to surprise them of our early arrival. They were shocked and called us sneaky, but happy to have us there.

I'm not sure where our camera was the whole time because we only got pictures of our day trip to Park City. We haven't been up to Park City for years, and I really wanted to ride the Alpine Slide and try out the new Alpine Coaster. Can you say FUN! We had such a great time going down the slide, screaming on the Coaster, and freezing our buns off. The picture below shows part of the track of the the coaster going up.






We are so proud of Oakley with the decision she made to get baptised. It was a special day to spend with family.

26.2

HE DID IT!!!! Well, they all did it - all 5000+, but we are most proud of the four we cheered on. The St. George Marathon was this weekend, so we loaded up the van on Friday and headed out. Staci wrote motivational messages on the van, i.e - go, go, go and run, run, run to inspire and motivate Jason and Bacho on the drive.

We pulled into St. George around 5:00pm on Friday night and started the marathon process. Jason, Bacho, Lucy - Bacho's sister, and Jake - Bacho's brother-in-law all checked in and received their racing packets. After everyone was checked in we headed over to the all you can eat pasta and salad bar. Yummy!!! After that we headed to the St. George Best Inn, our hotel and settled in for the long night.

The race started at 6:45am, but they asked the runners to be up at the field a couple hours earlier in order to bus the runners to the starting line. I had the job of driving them to the field at 4:45am, 3:45 az time. Poor guys!!! Anyway... we woke up to rain and cold temps. It hasn't rained during the race for 25 years. What are the chances??? I dropped them off to get on the bus and said good luck, stay safe, run strong and we will see you at the finish line. The picture below is pre-race.





4 - 5 hours later we started seeing our family members finish the race. It was so nerve racking because you have no idea where they are, what mile they are on, and if they are ok. The crowd was so big it was hard to see the finish line, plus it seemed like everyone had an umbrella, which made it extra hard to see the runners.





Everyone made it safe and ran an excellent race. Everyone finished healthy, just sore and tired. Who can blame them.... I am so proud of Jason. He trained so hard and gave up many saturday morning sleep-ins. This is one accomplishment not everyone can say they did. Great job you guys!!!

A piece of Fennie Jo.....

Anyone close to us knows Jason's sister Jennie, or as we called her Fennie Jo. She was an amazing person who brought joy into everyones live. She always had a smile on her face and a love in her heart for everyone she ever met. Most days when I was at the Watson house I would find Jennie doing a jigsaw puzzle, crossword puzzle, cutting up scraps of paper or simply watching her favorite soap - Days of our lives. She loved "Days" so much, that while Jason was on his mission, she wrote a recap of what was happening on the show in one letter. She hated that dumb, dumb Stefano!!!

Just like guessing which activity Jen would be doing, you could guess what article of clothing she had on. She had her favorites and wore them till they had holes. Jerrie, Jason's mom, tried and tried to get her to wear other clothes, but Jen held strong to her favorites.

Keri, Jason's oldest sister, found a lady who sewed bears out of old scraps of clothing. Now, thanks to Keri and the Lady that put the bear together - we have something special to remember Jennie by. The bear is made out of one of her favorite shirts.

Jennie passed away a little over 2 years ago, and we miss her dearly. But, this bear makes both Jason and I smile everytime we see it.

The back of the bear has a little saying which reads: A small bear made from my shirt to remind you of me. I am with you always. Though you may not see, the twinkle in my eye as I watch you from above - I am proud of all you are doing. I hope you know my love for you continues to grow. xoxox Jennie Watson

WE MISS YOU Jen-o-fo!!!

The joys of living in Laveen, Arizona

Livinig in Laveen means living around dairy farms and miles of crops. Driving up to our house we have a mile of crops on our street, and we always wonder - what's growing there? More than likely it is probabaly corn. However, as of two weeks ago, we no longer have to wonder whats growing on a section of that mile - we are the ones planting the seeds. That's right folks, Jason and I have become farmers!!!

OK... so that's not totally true. Our ward, the Gila River Ward, has borrowed some land to make a ward garden. Each family was assigned to bring a packet of seeds, and to help water the garden. Last Saturday, I had the grueling tasks of watering the garden. I say grueling, because it was. We had to wait for the irrigation water to flow into the back yard, flood the grass, and eventually flow into the section of our garden. As the water is flowing you have to create and break dams throughout the garden so the water flows down each row. Some rows filled with water nicely, while other needed to be dug deeper.



Our ward decided to do this in preparation for our ward Christmas party. We planted: corn, zucchini, green beans, carrots, and a couple other things I can't remember. Everything should be ready to harvest the first of December - just in time for the christmas party. The garden is new to the ward, so we will have to see what comes from it.




In addition to the garden, we have a ward pig!!! They told us we can't name him, so I call him bacon. Each family signs up to take him scraps of food, gives him water, and makes his home nice and muddy. Along with the veggies in our garden, "Bacon" will be part of our ward feast too. I know - I know, makes me a little sad and sick as well, but I guess that is the circle of life. I'm just not sure if I will be eating pork that night.










On our ward farm we also have a unigoat (he's missing his other horn), chickens, two other pigs and some cows. The owner of the property takes care of these animals, we just get to look at them.

Ragnar - ANYONE?

Calling all runners who would like to run a portion of 182 miles. A course from Wickenburg to Mesa. The relay race is Feb. 27-28. Jason and I think this would be a awesome experience and need 10 more people who are willing to run the ragnar.

What a HABOOB!!!

It might be another reference to weather, but hey - it's crazy to see and be in the middle of. A haboob, for those of you who don't know, is basically a massive dirt/sand storm. They are lovely, especially when you walk outside for a 1/10th of a second and your eyes fill with sand. I guess it is all part of living in Arizona during the monsoon season.

The first picture shows it rolling in, and the second is in the middle of it. Normally, they sky is bright blue with maybe one or two puffy white clouds.

Rainy Days and Painter Bob

As you can read from our blog entry title, things are a little boring around here. However, if you consider monsoonal rain and hail exciting - you're in for a treat. It seems the 2008 Monsoon season has been more active this year than in years past. I can't remember a time when I have seen so much rain. The monsoons, although sometimes scary, are fun to watch and always refreshing. It's not every day Phoenix sees hail - so of course I had to document it. The video I took is the beginning of the storm. My camera was getting to wet to record any more.


The second part of my 'oh so boring' blog entry is Painter Bob. I have to give a big shout out to painter Bob. Jason and I were tired of our hospital white walls and we really didn't want to paint it ourselves, so we asked Bob. He came highly recommended by Staci and Bacho. Bob did an amazing job, he was cheap, and he was fast. We didn't go crazy with the color - just a nice, neutral oatmeal throughout the house. I have ideas of how to spice it up later.

Is anyone else having this problem

As you can see my background has changed. I was trying to update it and it deleted all my links and now I can't edit my page to add them back. I am trying to figure it out, but if anyone has experienced this or knows how to fix it, let me know. Otherwise the blog will be in construction mode a little while.