Grandma Cookie Memories

I just wanted to write a short blog late tonight. My great grandma passed away early Thursday morning. For the first time since I left, I really feel like being home for a bit.

It's a little rough that I can't go home, but that's ok, because that can't stop me from keeping in touch with my family back home and from remembering great memories that I will always have.

As always, especially with my family, funny stories and general comedy are what get us through the toughest times. Memouse shared a couple of stories with me earlier today and it made me think, these stories that we share, we try to paint the most human and colorful stories that we have of someone to honor them, and that of course usually involves comedy. And then I though of my own stories of Grandma Cookie...

How she got her name first of all. Everyone else in my family called her Granny. I refused to, she was always G. Cookie probably because as most people visiting their Grandma's house, I asked for and was offered cookies... yum. The windmill variety was my favorite, sometimes oatmeal raisin. I had many a cookie while being watched when I was being watched all through elementary school by Grandma Cookie. I have so many memories there, too many to mention...

Then there are the random things you remember about a person, memories that don't mean much to anyone but you. For me, the most dear was being shown how to make a church and then a steeple and then...wait for it...wait for it...that's right, I was amazed at the first time I opened it and there were the people (if you don't know what I'm talking about, google it). This was my most representative memory of spending time with Grandma Cookie when I was younger. We also watch the price of right DAILY (her favorite was plinko, so is mine). I also believe that I was the only 7-year-old that was addicted to "The Young and the Restless" (I had a big crush on Christine Blair, better known as "Cricket". Anyways, enough babbling....

My last and best memories of Grandma Cookie allowed everything to come full circle. This summer, I was able to see her interact with Tryson. Both of them absolutely loved each other's company. I remembered my bond with her as a young child and it was a great moment. Then last month at the wedding I was able to get away from everyone while we were all still outside getting ready for pictures. I talked with her a little bit, enough to know that she was very happy and of course watching Amber's boys playing, I didn't realize it was the last time we would talk...

I should go, but there is so much to say...I'll just summarize by saying this: Spend as much time as you can with the older generations in your family. If you pick their brains and really sit down and talk, you'll be amazed with how much information and memories you will pick up.

-Chris

What has been going on in the past week

Well since our last...... WE HAVE MONEY!!!! Like Chris said, "When it rains, it pours." Our money finally came through and then the next day Chris got paid. :) So we were able to get actual grogeries. Fruit, veggies, and meat. No more tuna and mac and cheese. So we have been trying to amuse ourselfs as you can see from our last blog. So here is a funny story. Chris and I are on a little bit of a different schedule. Seeing that he gets up at 5 a.m. Well any who. Chris was sleeping and I was just sitting in bed. All of the sudden he starts talking, " That boy and the room with the blue paint." he says. I was like, "What?" He said, " You know. What you just were talking about. The boy with the blue paint." I said, "No. I wasn't saying anything." He then said, " No, I was talking." I then say, "Are you talking in your sleep?" He says, "No." Than he turns over and starts snoring. I was laughing so hard. Then the next day I started telling him this. I said, "You talked in your sleep last night." He was like, "No I didn't. I know what I was talking about." I say, "Oh really. The boy in the room with blue paint. Is that right?" He was like, " Get away from me. (laughing)" He didn't know what else to do but run away. It was funny. Maybe not to you all but hey we have no one else but us. :) Tryson is getting into everything! He is starting to walk............................................................................................................
on furniture. But he is in the right direction. He still is hanging on my legs and likes to climb on me(even when Chris is home). But what can you expect. He loves his mama and we are together 24/7. Since we moved we haven't spent a moment apart from eachother. That is really all the news we have for now. I know it is getting kind of boring. We will still continue to post anyways.
Love you all, Chris, Stahsia, and Tryson

This, is the way we live (to the tune of the wedding party entrance song)

So, due to unfortunate circumstances we have found ourselves living off a steady diet of whatever we bought 4 days ago at target (which isn't the place to go for food). We also eat on tv trays and watch our snowy cableless tv in the middle of our mess with empty boxes all. I actually said last night to Stashia, "hey Stash, I got the tv workin', you can almost see what's goin on if you look at it from across the room!" And the scary thing is that I was seriously happy about that, and didn't see anything wrong with that statement....eh. We are being held hostage by our new bank and I just started work last week, so...here we are wishing we could order a pizza, or buy meat other than tuna...ahahahaha.

"I hope the bank money comes through tomorra' so I can git some fuelin fer ma truck"...hehehe. Anyway, it is just a funny situation, funny because it is temporary but still funny. "Well I'ma go back to the kitchen now, Maw is cookin' up some grape laffytaffy for de-ssert! Then I reckon we'll go on ta bed when the candles run outta wax. Ya'll drop by real soon!"

-Cletus BillyBob McCoy (ok, Chris...we are eating grape laffytaffy though)

P.S. I'm sorry this entry is so lame, I'm giddy-tired right now and need to pass out.

Touring the house with Tryson

Hello everybody, this is Tryson Micah Williams, I'm not old enough to type so my dad is typing for me but I wanted to give everyone a tour of how our apartment looks. This is me helping unpack:



I just realized that dad didn't take a picture of my room when he took these pictures because I was sleeping, but I wanted to tell you that my room is going to be AWESOME! It's gonna have animals and toys and and lots of books for me to read with mom and dad (I read them a lot of books, because I'm real smart).

Anyways, here is the master bathroom, I had a bath in here today, but dad says that most of the time, I won't be able to go in here, oh well, who needs two sinks anyways, I can only play with one at a time....


So next up is MY bathroom...well, no, it is really grandma's bathroom for when she visits, which is real real soon!

Then we have the super duper kitchen. It is real nifty, mom and dad go in there a lot and I like to cling to their legs and say "baboo baboo ba". It really doesn't entertain me, I just do it because the like it so much. I know this is true because of how often they yell, "Tryson PLEASE!!!" which means please continue to do it I guess, so I smile and clap and keep them happy:
The last room I'll show you for now is the living room, or as I call it, the dust room, my dad tells me it is called a fireplace, I don't know about all that, I just like sticking my hands in the black dust and then crawling to mommy in the kitchen to crawl up on her legs and entertain her some more....YAY MOMMY!:
So, that's all I have time to show you for now. It is way past my bedtime and mommy and daddy have to go back to unpacking. In a day or two, daddy says he is going to put more pictures up and maybe he'll let me type next time...I hope I hope. Anyways, I'm going to hide in one of these big boxes here, I think this one is addressed to grandma. I think I'll mail myself there so I can show her my patty-cake skills. I have mad patty-caking skills! Pat it, roll it, toss it in the air, I've got it all down thanks to my grandma, here I come!
















-

Bored at the Moment

So I'm sitting here on the internet for about 2 hours (Tryson is taking a nap). I should be on packing but I am just not driven. I'm missing Chris right now. I figure I would tell him on a blog how great he is. So yesterday I was kind of bitching. I know, shocking. I was as you might say a debbie downer. Anyways, Chris said it was really getting to him. So as I'm sitting here I'm thinking that it was probably since he had been up at 5a.m. and worked all day. I just wanted to say that I love him so much. I want to thank him for all that he is doing for his family. He comes home from work and he goes right into "helping mode". He will take care of Tryson and just start unpacking more boxes. He doesn't complaine. He is the man most woman want to marry. I get a kiss before he leaves for work, when he comes home, and before I go to bed. He makes me so happy. So even though some of those blogs seem knd of sappy we are really truely happy. I know everyone has bumps in the road and that theses are our bumps. Thank you for the support and encouragement from everyone. Thank you to my loving husband for understanding and helping with all this shit we have to do. :)
-Stashia

Apartment Craziness Part 2

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Today became ok at around 7pm. That's when we had dropped the rental car off at the airport (2 hour round trip) and got some food into our systems (Tryson was by far the hungriest and ate at least as much as Stashia. Earlier today we signed the lease (YAY!) but then found the carpet to be soaked from the carpet cleaners (booo!). The movers came to our apartment (YAY) but the truck was too big so they had to go all the way to south in Seattle to get a smaller one and come back at 8am (BOOOO) which means tonight we are sleeping on a borrowed mattress (Thanks Kevin from waste systems) and I am using a random tenant's wireless router called "Divine Intentions" sitting on the floor with suitcases and a damp floor that makes all of our knees wet. At least we have a place and tomorrow should be the final installment...stay tuned.

-Chris, with Stashia being cute and Tryson being sleeping

From Stashia:
My day started out scrambling to get the rest of the stuff out of the hotel room and checking out by 9 a.m. Finally I got to the apartment complex we signed our lease and now we can sit back and breathe, right? Wrong! After Chris left after signing the lease I waited around for our keys. It's funny how 5 minutes means 20 minutes. So I finally get the keys, find the apartment, walk in to find .......... ours floors are sopping wet. The movers are supposedly going to be at the apartment in 30 minutes to an hour. The guy at the leasing office said it would take no more than a half hour for the carpet to dry. He was wrong. Then I notice some other problems with the apartment ( I'll spare you the details). So I go back to the leasing office only to be ignored for 15 minutes. Ok, now I'm back at the apartment. I get a call from the movers saying they don't even know if they will be able to get the truck in the complex to deliver our stuff. Needless to say they couldn't. So there I am in a empty apartment with Tryson, no hotel to go back to, and Chris doesn't get out of work for another 3 hours. So I sat there in the empty apartment while Tryson took a nap and did the only logical thing I could do at that moment. CRY! I call my Dad and he calmed me down. Then Tryson woke up and we spent the remainder of our time at Wal-Mart. :) Then Chris got out and he already told you all that. So once again it wasn't the ideal day for me.
Thanks for reading my bitch for the day
-Stashia

Apartment Craziness Part I

So just as I am settling in to work, the apartment scene spices up our lives. We knew that the apartment people should be getting back to us soon and that our stuff should be coming soon, what we didn't plan for is rushing to get the apartment to approve us and running to the bank at 5 to open an account and beg for them to give us money for our checkss so that we can get our stuff moved into an apartment tomorrow (wooo, what a mouthful). So it was one of those kinda stressful afternoons, but sparing the details, we have our apartment as long as we show up with our money and I can take an early lunch at 9:30 to sign the lease with Stashia. Alright, I should go help Stashia pack up our stuff from the hotel into our cars....horray....ish.

-Chris

Chris' First Day of Work

So today was a pretty good day. The only thing that would have made it better was waking up in an apartment eating breakfast, grabbing a lunch from the fridge and going to work. Other than that it was an amazing day, since I can't do those things yet. I started off the day leaving for work real early, getting lost (which is expected, come on it has the largest useable space of any building in the world) and then finding my way to where I thought I was supposed to be, which (because of the company being so busy) they had wrong. I had two tours by two different departments though and I am pretty secure now with the area for being my first day. So finally after lunch, I was able to get down to some business. I don't have my own desk yet or computer because it is so busy, but I think they are ordering me a laptop and I have a semipermanent place for at least a couple days. I would have been able to enjoy looking out at 777's from the cafeteria if my blood sugar wasn't so low. But I still really did enjoy it. It was somewhat erie. I will try to better prepare myself for tomorrow. The best parts of the day were getting to know some great people, realizing that the dress code is anywhere from dress casual to jeans and a t-shirt, learning learning and more learning, having the once a year test evacuation of the building occur on my first day and of course have the chef in the cafeteria mock me in front of about 20 people in the cafeteria for obviously being new...wow..(not so much on that last one) but horray, I think I'll be happy where I am. Oooo...and there is apparently "work out the wazoo" as one person put it, so I might get some overtime in...which is both good and bad, but if temporary, they good would outweigh the bad I do believe. So much more to say, but seriously at this point no one wants to read more about my day other than my Memouse, so I'll just call her tomorrow and spare the rest of you. Thanks for listening, we love you!

-Chris is typing, Stashia is down the hall coloring and doing crossword puzzles, Tryson is either dreaming about his "truck truck" that is still in transit or the many ceiling fans he has seen in stores the last week (imagine Tryson with his head tilted back at a 90 degree angle and a toothless smile yelling "AHHHH....AHHH" that has been my biggest joy the last week.

One factoid about Seattle/Washington: not much air conditioning especially in apartments. It just doesn't get much above 80 ever, so you see ceiling fans everywhere.

Lazy Sunday

Today was a kick back and relax day for all of us. We all ate breakfast together. We all took a nap. We all had a nice dinner. Not much to really say. We did have to check out where Chris is starting his first day tomorrow. We went looking to see where he needed to enter and to park/be droppped off. The most exciting part of the day was by far when we went to the laundary mat to do laundary. :) Thankflly it only took us about an hour to do. I can't wait to get in to our apartment. Yeah I kind of forgot to give the details on that. It is a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment. Fully equipped with brand new washer and dryer, stove, dishwasher, over the head microwave, garbage disposal, new fixtures, new carpet, and a nice almond color to the walls. :) Also included is a fully equipped gym, tanning bed, in door basketball court, jacuzzi, and outdoor pool. We are really super excited to be out of this hotel room and into a nice home. It's kind of funny that we all have never lived together in a actually home. Soon though. Oh and I also talked to my cousin Brain today. I got the general area where abouts he lives. Come to find out where we were yesterday he lives only a couple of miles from. I'll be excited to finally meet my little cousins soon. :)
I liked to say thank you for all your comments. As much as you like the blog we like the comments as well. We love you all and thank you so much for your continued support.
-Chris, Stashia, & The little Boo Boo :)

Another Day of Exploration

We started the day as a lazy day. Got ready around 10:00 a.m. pacific time, went to Denny's (yes they have one), and then went to Northgate Mall. They have a two level Target. You better bet I was loving it. Anyways we did your usual in and out of store shopping. Got Chris a pair of dress pants and a dress shirt for his first day of school.... I mean work. :) Then we discovered this store. Brookstone. Oh were Chris and I in heaven or what. They had several different types of massage things, robes, slippers, etc. You name it they have it. Then we reached the mother of all relaxation. A $4,000 panasonic massage chair. That thing massages everything... well not everything :) but almost. I'm sure if you asked it, it would. Yes, I said asked it. From your head to your feet. It will either scan your body into the computer system or you can customize your massage. So needless to say Chris and I were enjoying it. Another thing we liked was the malls Thai food in the food court. It was very tasty. Oh and a side note I get my car back on Tuesday. Some people would think that was a good thing but it is not. That just means I have to give up the luxaery Buick mini van. Chris and I got in this huge fight in the begining of the day. Reality has kind of set in and we were having as you might say a hard time with it all. I think Chris even said at one point if he should quit his job and move back to Michigan. The good thing about it all is finally reality set in and we worked though our problem.

-Stashia

Third Day Was The Worst Day For Stashia

So if I can suggest to anyone. Don't be in a hotel room with a 10 month old baby with no car or no stroller. Wow....... it was not fun. It started with Tryson waking up at 5:30 a.m. We got up while Chris got ready for work. Chris was gone by 6:15 a.m. to beat the I -5 traffic for his 45 mintue commute. Tryson and I thankfully went back to bed till 8:30 a.m. We then went down the hall for some breakfast. Tryson had his usual half of a waffle. Then it all started. I was under the impression that the cleaning staff came around about 9 a.m. So Tryson and I hung around the hotel for 2 1/2 hours. Finally I just got sick of waiting. About an hour later Tryson is ready for his second nap. I put him down and then I was able to take a shower. Not even 5 mintues in the shower our hotel phone rings. It keeps ringing and ringing. So after my 10 mintue shower I come out and call the front desk to see what that call was about. She said that she was wondering if I wanted my room cleaned today. I said no because thankfully Tryson is still sleeping at that point. No sooner that I hang up that he wakes up. That was his 20 mintue nap of the day. So as the day continues I am still under the impression that Chris is coming home at 3:00 p.m. I get a call saying that he is not getting out till 4 p.m. By this point Tryson is getting into everthing and I can only roam the halls with him so many times. I also had to call several different places to square things away in Michigan. So between the calls, Tryson getting into the trash cans, my purse, taking cords and everything known to man to put in this mouth (even a wrapped up tampon). I was kind of done. Thankfully, this is the only day it will be like this. Chris won't need the car on Monday when he starts working at the Everett plant and hopefully we will have an apartment by Wednesday and we will be able to post pictures of it!

-Stashia

P.S. Yes, we found a place that we liked and hopefully it works out!

Cultural learnings of Seattle for Make Benefit Glorious City of Grand Rapids

Today, we went on a sightseeing venture to the Seattle Center. It was a busy day and we managed to spend from 8:30a.m. until 7:30p.m. out of our hotel room. We went apartment hunting at 2, but before that we found somethings out. These are some things that we have observed in the great land of Seattle that may be of interest:

1. If you want to get anywhere a distance from home in any reasonable time, you have to grab a warm body and pull them in your car so you can go in the diamond lane (carpool, 2+ people). Which means, when I have to go to corporate, I'm alone and therefore, I'm screwed, it takes 60 minutes for a 33 minute trip. But with Stashia and Tryson at my side, we are a powerful force that can zoom by cars at 2 to 3 times their speed. Also, there are stoplights at on ramps to control traffic flow. Oh, and to round out the traffic differences, there are no "Michigan lefts". If you want to turn left, you wait for a light, not a convenient median.

2. The city is beautiful and all the attractions are amazing, and in my opinion the best ones are free. The space needle is what everyone talks about, but I am not about to pay $32 so that my family can go up there. I'm an engineer, not a doctor. Second of all, if you want to eat up there it is about $40-60 a plate. Again, engineer...not doctor. The sculpture park on the other hand is free to visit and even has a Calder sculpture! If you love gardens and woody plants, there are plenty of those for free as well. Viva Seattle!

3. This is kinda from yesterday, but we discovered a huge Steve & Barry's store in the Everett Mall. Let's look at some pictures:

Only in Seattle would some put a Michigan shirt anywhere near an Ohio State shirt.

WARNING, NEXT PICTURE IS NOT FAMILY FRIENDLY, EVEN THOUGH IT WAS IN A STORE IN THE MALL:
I have no words for this, it was funny seeing the look on Stashia's face though.

In summary, we have found Seattle, hard to get through, beautiful, confused and naked. More to come, I'm going to have Stashia write a blog soon, maybe tomorrow.

-Chris

Family, Departure and Arrival

We're in Seattle! Well Everett actually. It took a lot to get here and we are happy to get a little settled at least.

Stashia, Tryson and I want to thank everyone for everything they did to help us keep our sanity. There was so much work to have done over the last couple weeks that we would have never made it if we had done it alone. So THANK YOU to our close friends and to our families for doing so much for us at the drop of a hat, we really do appreciate it.

To continue on with the story version of things, flying was not stress free. Three large carry-ons, a backpack and a car seat are enough to carry for 3 or 4 people, but somehow Stash and I managed to carry all that plus passing around Tryson from time to time. Both flights were delayed due to mechanical issues, but we arrived only 30 minutes late. Got back to the hotel around 10pm Seattle time (1am on our body clocks) and crashed around 11:30.

This morning I woke up and was stuck in I-5 traffic making my commute twice as long. There was much relief after I arrived at Boeing though. Very relaxed atmosphere, a very beautiful corporate office, just happiness. I'm excited for orientation on Friday.

For now, Stashia, Tryson and I are going to go out and explore/shop Everett today. We may venture into Seattle in the next couple days, but as always...there is still a ton to do.