We Are Blessed!

Wow! It's been a long time since I've updated this blog, and so much has happened. Here's the scoop on the Watson 5!

Scott's last day of work in the Air Force was June 19th. He started his Human Resource job at Home Depot the first week of July. He works a lot of hours - as many as he did when he was a first sergeant! The good thing is there are no middle-of-the-night phone calls from the military police about naughty airmen!! Scott finally turned 40 on October 3rd. I say 'finally' because I was getting tired of him making fun of me for being in my 40s while he was still in his 30s the past two years :).

I started teaching the 7th and 8th grade class at North Pole Christian School on August 17th. I LOVE IT!!!!! I have a class of seven junior high students, and we just finished our first quarter of school on Friday. It is such a blessing to work at a Christian school. I get to teach the kids about the Bible every single morning except Wednesdays when we have a guest pastor come in for a school Chapel service. North Pole Christian is small - only eight main teachers for pre-school to 12th grade and a student body of 80 or so -but I love the size. It feels like a family. I had the opportunity to be the assistant soccer coach for the 4th-6th grade soccer team this fall. I know God has a great sense of humor because I know NOTHING about soccer. The head coach had her wisdom teeth pulled out the weekend of our Anchorage/Fairbanks tournament, and I had to be the lead coach! We placed 2nd out of six teams, though, and had a great time. I'm preparing to direct this year's Christas musical for grades 3 through 7. I love my job and praise God every day I go to school!!

Kaylee moved into the dorms at University of Alaska Fairbanks in September and started her first semester of college (pre-nursing courses). She is taking 13 credits and is doing well in all her classes except for Anatomy/Physiology. She wanted to drop it after the first test but has hung in there. A wonderful lady at church who is a physical therapist is tutoring Kaylee, and Kaylee has joined a study group with some of her fellow students. I reminded her that if she dropped the class, God wouldn't be able to show Himself strong in her weakness. She's working hard, and I am proud of her. Kaylee was hired part-time in the registrar's office at the University. The job is great! It's walking distance from her dorm and schedules her hours around her college classes. Kaylee got sick just before her classes started. I took her into the ER when she started having breathing problems. They tested her, and it turned out she had Swine Flu. That girl was the sickest I've ever seen her, and she missed her entire first week of college!! We quarantined her to her bedroom, and, thankfully, the rest of the family didn't get it. Kaylee wants to transfer down to my alma mater, University of Alaska Anchorage, because they have a bigger nursing program. She applied for a transer and was accepted. She will be moving down to Anchorage in January. We will miss her terribly but are very excited for this opportunity.

Jackie is a junior at North Pole High School. She is still working at Safeway as a bagger, and she turned 17 in July. Jackie's school counselor has asked Jackie to start thinking about what she wants to do after college. She thought about it and informed me that she wants to move to Japan and work with the Pokeman company. I applaud her adventerous spirit, but I had to bring to her attention that she doesn't speak Japanese, and she doesn't know anyone in that country. She wasn't deterred. Our lives would be pretty boring without Jackie around.

Jonathan turned 4 years on on October 17th. Scott, Johnnie, and I were all getting over nasty colds so decided against a party. I did take him out to see Toy Story in 3D. It was cool! The theater didn't give us those cheesy paper 3D glasses but real, plastic ones. They worked wonderfully! Jonathan was so funny. We were watching a preview for the Scrooge movie coming out this Christmas, and the snow was falling. It looked like it was right in front of our noses. I looked over at Jonathan, and he was trying to grab the snowflakes! Oh, the innocense and delight of children. We stopped by Cold Stone Creamery where he picked out an ice-cream cake, and then we went home and celebrated. Jonathan is attending preschool at North Pole Christian school and loves it. He he is in a class of 18 students, and he loves his his teacher, Miss Pam. Jonathan is learning to write out many of his letters. He proudly displayed his handiwork on the bathroom cabinets using Kaylee's eyeliner. You can tell you are older and more patient when things like that happen because instead of yelling at him and having a fit (like I would have done with the girls in my younger years), I admired the his penmanship and then gave him a washcloth to clean it up. Yes, God is good!!

That's it for now. I'll write again before Christmas. Love and miss you all!!!!