What's been going on since December?

It's been a little while since we have written. We've been pretty boring lately though so it's no big deal I guess. Chris has been working about 50 hours a week. Stashia has been holding down the fort, cutting hair and being social with Tryson. Tryson has been developing into a happy, active little boy as usual. Speaking of the little guy there have been a couple cute stories, my favorite is:

Stashia (coming home after a busy day): We are going to see someone you love.
Tryson: Uhhh...Pablo?
Stashia: No...who else do you love?
Tryson: Uhhh...Daddy?
Stashia: Yes Daddy!

I know I'm loved but I can't entertain him with new adventures everyday the way his favorite cartoon character can.

My other favorite story ended today...so, I've been without my license for some time now, I looked all over, I am usually pretty good about the stuff that belongs in my wallet. Well, I'm going snowboarding for the first time with some Boeing people tomorrow (yay). I got some gear and I put on my big bulky coat for the first time since I was back home. Well, Stashia says, "Hey, maybe your ID is in your coat" and right in the middle of her sentence I say, "Oh my god..." and it was in there. I last used it in the rush to show my ID at the airport!! So in that coat I found: my ID, a can of pepsi unopened (complimentary drink we never used), $5, a ticket stub for "Yes Man" and a bobby pin. Wow...that's all I can say about that. I'm very happy about it though, I could have a beer when I went out on Friday because I didn't have my ID and guess what? The waitress must have been about 20 herself...really? She couldn't just take my word that I was a year older than her? Ha.

So, other than that, I've been sick a couple times, Stashia was sick for a bit and Tryson has been sick. I'm currently fighting some chest congestion, I believe because of lack of sleep. I could complain about working a lot but I won't because plenty of people are losing their jobs out there and would love to work 50+ hours a week (and I like my job)... and I could sleep but I also choose to stay up with Tryson and Stashia as long as possible. Also, for anyone who was wondering about the news clips from Boeing and the 10,000 layoffs, I should be ok. 10k is about 7% of the workforce...I can't give details but I am about 95% sure I don't fall in that 7% of what the are looking to cut, from what they have said in the news. If you see them talking about laying off another 15k or so, you might want to call and make sure we are ok :-)

Well, that's it, pretty boring right now. Christa is coming to visit in March and Tryson will be doing swim lessons soon, so that should provide a few stories.

-Chris

Merry Christmas!

Hi Everyone. Apparently the world of personal blogging is dead these days but I really wanted to write a message to anyone who comes across it. We are in the middle of our family Christmas and it is amazing! We started out last night we had some close friends over and we had a Christmas party. Then we opened up our gifts of pajamas to each other and put Tryson to sleep.

It started snowing really heavy at this point. What a miracle! The first snowfall (snow being fairly rare for the Seattle area) and it happened on our Christmas Eve. Here is a picture of a snowman I made for Tryson when he woke up:

Last night Stashia and I opened our gifts to each other and had fun laying out Tryson's presents for the morning.

Tryson was underwhelmed a bit by the morning (he's just learning) but VERY happy about his Little People Airport! He woke up and he noticed the snowman I built all on his own. Stashia woke me saying, "did you hear him? He's saying, 'Hi Snowman! Hi Snowman!'"

So here I sit writing a quick blog while Stashia is making breakfast. Tryson is playing with toys and occasionally talking to the snowman who is still sitting outside. Later we will go visit Santa (since the rest of the world is still open) and thank him for coming to visit. Then we will play in the snow, go to church and have Christmas dinner. We are really blessed to be able to do and say all of that. I can't wait to come home and be able to share the Christmas spirit with everyone back home. We are really excited!

"Pentathlon" (Triath + life)

Hi everyone, so I finished my triathlon today, here are some pictures:

This was coming out of the water after the 400m swim in September water (I am the one in the middle), my thoughts at this point were, "Wow...now I have to bike...it's going to be a long morning."

This is coming back from the 13 mile bike that was pretty tough hills...the 2 mile run was the last segment and that was the best part for me, I'm used to running. When I train for next year, I need to focus on getting my bike ready and my self ready for biking. It was a lot of fun though and I accomplished a few of my goals:
1. Finish
2. Not be last (I was in the middle of 200 people)
3. Not be last in my age group (Male 39 and under)
4. Don't stop swimming (hehe, that reminds me of Finding Nemo) once the time starts, biking once I get on my bike, running once I start running (sounds simple enough but so easy to want to just take a small break).
Other than my goals, I didn't do too well but you know what, it was my first triathlon and I'm only 26, the average age is 35 and it is a lot of biking so I just need to get that section down and I can be more competitive next time.

Anyways, that was the morning...the other 2 events in the pentathlon today were cleaning the car out of and vacuuming it for the first time in a year. Then helping Stashia pack up some of our stuff for out move while wrangling a sick Tryson. Yes, he is seemingly sick, poor little guy and we will both probably be coming down with it soon. I was very glad that I didn't get sick before today. Cold water is colder when you have a fever....brrrrrr. So yeah...it's nuts over here and tomorrow I am going to go to work because I couldn't yesterday. They made me a lead at work so I have responsibilities that go outside of the regular work hours most times and unfortunately I may have to work a Sunday every once in a while, as long as we can make it to a church service I won't complain. So after that Stashia and I are going to try to pick up a cheap vanity we found on craigslist for $30!!! Then we have more packing, call the new landlord to setup a time to pickup our keys on monday!!!....soooo exciting...it won't be exciting when we start moving boxes though, we just helped someone else move....hmmmmpf... Oh well, when we are in we will be happy. Take care, leave us some messages!!!

Sunday Morning,Ferry, Saturday SNOW!

It's another Sunday, Stashia is sleeping in, Tryson woke me up being cute. He will usually say, "HI! HI!" until someone gets him. This morning he decided to say, "HI DADDY HI!" I, of course, had to move faster. Other than that, I'm watching Meet the Press. Tryson had breakfast with his two monkey stuffed animals. He fed them both in their, "Moooooouuuuuuu". He can now say "nose" and "eye" but he can't say the TH in mouth.

In general things are working. Nothing too interesting lately. We are slowly starting to go back to our old tricks of inviting people over for dinner parties. Just like back home, we never have enough room for all these people, but we like it just the same. Both Stash and I are very happy that we have a few friends out here now (not as many and not nearly as close as back home though :-( ). I'm still doing good things at work and remain very busy, I've always worked harder when I multitask. I'm going to have to work more overtime in the next couple months. I took the last couple Saturday's off and I think that's all they will let me.

Speaking of Saturday's it SNOWED Friday and Saturday. Take a look for yourself. By the way, yes even with the time change, it's still past mid April here, enjoy your 70 degree weather Michigan:


Oh and we went on a ferry to a great Island, it reminded me of Mackinaw in the summer except it is very livable, not just a place to visit that takes all your money. Here is a shot from our ferry to the next:


I have more picture on Stashia's camera, pretty soon I'm going to create an account on a picture server and give everyone the line. In the meantime, we miss you guys, give us comments!

Monthly Update, HAPPY EASTER!

So, in the last month we've had a visit from our friend Laura. She was a lot of fun and I think she had a great vacation over here even though it was kinda cloudy and she didn't get to see some of the amazing views of the mountains or anything like that. We did manage to get a great view up in the space needle and the Seattle underground tour where we found an original Crapper: (THIS PICTURE IS SOOO AUTHENTIC, SEE THE 19th CENTURY ELECTRICAL WORK WITH THE PLASTIC OUTLET?...HAHAHA)
Laura and Stashia have some pictures posted on Facebook I think, so I'm not going to put more up here. I will however post some pictures of Tryson being the happiest boy in the world. He has a natural ability to chase ducks while yelling "Daaaa-keeee!" (The ducks did not share his enthusiasm):


So, what else is going on? Well I'm busy with work and with my class. My class is amazing, the Dale Carnegie class (in short) gives you some great practice in principles of building relationships, being a leader, reducing stress and overall improving yourself by living a more intentional life. I wish I had taken this class when I was a teenager. I think the class would be a great high school graduation gift (even though the average age for my class is probably 35, my instructor took the class when he was 8 years old). Oh and I am on the table of contents page of the Boeing Annual report, it's really cool. They took a picture of me while everyone else was paying attention to what I was saying. It looks like I'm talking about some complex engineering concept but I'm actually talking about how much I love playing with Tryson now that he can walk, anyways, you can see it here (page right after the cover:
Me in Annual Report!!
So, that's all that's up in my little area.

Stashia is enjoying Mom-ing it up. During a typical week she goes to a few play dates so she and Tryson can do some healthy socializing. She also is keeping up with MOPS, infact she won a $100 gift cert. to a really nice spa, which she used when Laura came out. Stashia is also building up some clientele out here for hair, which I am really happy about. Not only does it provide a couple extra bucks here and there but she has found these people through cafemom.com, so they are all moms with children who can play with Tryson while she does their hair or they are older moms and love to see a younger bright eyed child again. Yay, all salons should have a Tryson to entertain....something about child labor laws, does it count if he volunteers?

Speaking of Tryson, we are on to the light of our lives. Tryson says some 2 word phrases now and some of them actually make sense like "momma go", "my ball" and I swear this morning he said "good toy, my ball" but it could have just been a coincidence. He also went up to a 19 month old's face and said "HI COOKIE!!". His love of music grows and when we are at a place like Best Buy, he runs to a stereo and dances until we have to pull him away. I see some music or dancing lessons in his future. Well, I guess I will end with that for now. Have a Happy Easter everyone, thank you for reading. We miss you so much on holidays!

Catching up on sleep, a park, more responsibility

So, this weekend has been great. Usually I go to work early on Saturdays. This is the second weekend in a row I have decided not to, and I think I needed it. One day off isn't enough to really relax, collect your thoughts and do things you have been waiting to do. So I took the weekend off, slept late both days and we went to this amazing park on Saturday. When it gets warmer there are pony rides and a petting zoo, a water park and a big playground with everything you would want for any age. Anyways, it was a beautiful sunny 55 degree day (sorry Michigan people, I must admit I never liked the cold, just the snow) and we spent the day out and about. Here are some pictures of the mountains on the way to the park:
*CLICK PICTURES TO SEE FULL SIZE*

In other news, I wouldn't say I got a promotion, I guess the best way to say it is that I have a higher level of job security. I am a focal (Boeing term for "the person who is responsible for a specific area of the company") it is for a process that I am really passionate about and I guess it is natural that they saw the passion (sorry, I have to speak in general terms as to not release any proprietary info). Anyways, it gives me some real accountability which is exciting. Gotta keep proving myself, maybe someday we can buy a house out here ;-) Oh yeah, by the way, come visit us. Plane tickets are reasonable right now. Come out and see the city. We will take you up to the space needle and do some wine tasting and you can watch Tryson be cute:

Mom visit, Tryson's birthday and more

Life has been great for us here. My mom was here to visit at the beginning of the month for Tryson's birthday. We picked her up from the airport late at night. She was worried that Tryson wouldn't recognize her. Well it only took him a couple of minutes and he was all about Grandma.

The whole way home he just kept on staring at her, smiling, and laughing. It was so cute! The next day we threw a little party for Tryson at Chuck E Cheese's. We really wanted to do this many for meeting people and because my mom was here. So many people came. It was great! Tryson had a good time dancing and we had a chance to get to know more people. We were not expecting the presents either. These people we hardly know or didn't even know at all were so generous. The next day (Sunday) we all went to church. After we went to our usual Sunday diner. Then at night our church had the African children's choir. Those kids have too much energy. My mom kept saying, "If I could have their energy 4 weeks out of the year I could get so much done." I tried to keep my mom, Tryson and I occupied. Monday was Tryson's birthday. My mom, a friend of mine and her little boy, Tryson, and me went to a story reading for his birthday. It was fun and he had a chance to play with other kids. Tuesday Tryson had his 12 month doctors visit. He is developing very well and is right were he should be and he does not have to have surgery. On the down side of it he had to get 5 shots in the arm. I could of punched the nurse that gave the shots. She stuck him with the needle hard and far into his arm. Wednesday we went to my MOPS group. Thursday night was one of the best nights. We headed to Seattle to tour and eat dinner. My mom ended up surprising us with a trip in the space needle. It was great. The best part about it was that is was at night and the lights were amazing! Then on Friday night we went and had dinner with my cousins Brian, Allie and their cute boys. Saturday was the day my mom was suppose to go home. Well..... she actually ended up missing her flight. We were kind of scared at first but it all worked out good and she got to spend an extra day here. Then Sunday we went to my cousin's Brian and Allies. They were having a brunch because my other cousins Todd and Cindy were in town. It was really nice to see them again. I other news I have decided to go back to work... sort of. I was at a friends house last week and she gave me a great idea to still do what I love but not really work outside the home or put Tryson in daycare. I am on this site called cafemom and have meet some really great people from it. She said I should post something on the site telling people that I do hair and for fair family prices. So I did and I have gotten a really goo response from people. I posted it on the site last week Friday and have 4 appointments already and more to come. I am so excited! Thanksgiving is coming in a few days. As sad as we are for not being able to be there with our family and friends we have met some great people here that have welcomed us into their homes for Thanksgiving. It's funny. We didn't think we would be spending Thanksgiving with anyone but ourselves this year but it is the complete opposite. We have been invited to 4 places (including Chris's boss's family). Sad we can't go to all but very nice we have somewhere to go. I can't believe how many nice and welcoming people we have met. I never saw any of this when we moved but we have been so happy. Life has just truly blessed us in so many ways. I am so thankful for all the family and friends we have there and here.

Ranch Pizza Sick Carnegie Monkey

I wish you were all here, we are entertaining. Much more entertaining than any blog. For example, Stashia asked me 5 minutes ago, "Do you want Ranch dressing with your pizza?" I replied with, "Ranch, yeah Ranch!" Then a couple seconds ago, she asked me, "Do you want Ranch?" I said, that I had just told her yes ad her reply is that she thought I wasn't serious...ahhh, fun. And the Tryson, he's a reality show all on his own. He gets in a lot more trouble as Stashia noted today. She dressed him today and he ruined it by getting into the fireplace, so she stripped him, through him in the bath and when he got out, that was it for clothes for a couple hours. He now cries when either of us go to the bathroom without him, or leave the room for that matter. He is getting really good with the "hi" and "buh bye". He can say both very clearly and at correct times, although sometimes not at the appropriate times. Sometimes when I see him after work when Stash has picked me up he says "buh bye" and I say, "no no, you want daddy to go away?" and he smiles. Two days ago, I think I scared him when I opened the door after a long day of work and he said a very enthusiastic, "HIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!" Really cute. Let's see, what else about Tryson, he likes being tickled under his armpits and sides and laughs a ton and he likes to take off his socks and put them in his mouth. That's Tryson.

Me, I'm sick at the moment, or actually in the process of feeling better, work was so long today. I got home and Stashia was so nice, she took Tryson grocery shopping with her and let me take a 5 hour "nap" which really helped. I woke up and my throat wasn't scratchy, my head stopped hurting and the initial sick "ick" was gone for the moment, so hopefully by the morning after I take my second nap in just a few minutes, I will feel up to a 9 hour day tomorrow followed by cleaning and organizing until about 9 or so and then getting ready to pick up Stash's mom at the airport at 11pm getting settled back here around 2 or so and then getting up in the morning to set up for Tryson's birthday party...so yeah, I'm kinda not allowed to be sick past today. I also can't afford to take time off of work right now. Pray for me, please.

Other than being sick, as Stashia said, I am registered for a Dale Carnegie class, as wikipedia says, "Dale Breckenridge Carnegie (originally Carnegey) (November 24, 1888–November 1, 1955) was an American writer and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking and interpersonal skills." So, the nature of the class I will be taking in the winter will be encompassing a good portion of all of those. I am really busy at Boeing, pretty challenged at the moment. I am working on a project that no one in my group has had to deal with on their own or without training before, so I guess someone either has faith in me or hates me. I hope it is the former of the two. I am continuing to learn and be able to take on more and more work. I am about done with my mandatory training courses and can't wait to become more useful. I'm planning on everything coming together right before Christmas. So, hopefully by the time we come home, we will all feel very settled. What that means for me is a happy work, social and family life out here. We have a month and a half, ready...set...GET SETTLED!!!! (Somehow, that doesn't make sense...like speed fishing or something.....)

*In British John Cleese (Month Python) voice*
And now....for something completely different...a baby monkey clapping:

You MUST turn your sound up

So, this is a short blog to share with you Tryson in his mastery of salutations:

Isn't he amazing? If you notice, the last thing we asked him to say was "ball" and he decided to show off and give a full sentence (which you can try to decipher if you choose). All we know is that it did include ball, which he kinda says as "baw" so cute, we love our boy!

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!
















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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!