Vacations...

So yesterday my stunningly beautiful wife tempted me with a 2 day play time type trip.  I don't really know how to describe it but it was tempting.  Having gone to work today instead of doing what she proposed I at this point kind of regret it.  Oh well.  I have gotten more work done that I thought I would. 

I did reserve tomorrow for the 2nd half of the play day extravaganza and I am dang excited about that let me tell you.  We are going to see so much sweet action free stuff in Vegas that I can barely wait to tell the honest truth.

Overall I wish my congestion would go away.   It is really wiping me out.  Sometimes my eyes totally water over and I can hardly focus on anything I was thinking about...Which is actually quite weird... It does make driving quite interesting.

Tonight I am going to try and start a hugely gianormous overall of my website.  To the point that things will no longer look the same and things I have tried to accomplish for years will maybe start to come about.  We will see.  I have set aside several hours and we will see if I can make some serious website magic happen!

Jobs...

Well today I applied to a job at the Environmental Protection Agency.  The particular Job I applied for is here in Vegas.  After I applied I was kind of not excited about this job at all.  Maybe I am just not excited about being stuck here for at least a year.  I have never liked being tied down.  I guess that is starting to show now that I have big choices to be making.  Anyway.  I have to head to class, but I know I am excited about being done with school.  No doubt about that.  I am just not excited about doing one thing for a long time...

Sickly...

The title describes me today.  I feel a bit off and to be honest I don't feel like I am firing all the cylinders currently.  Oh well.  It is that it is my baby girl and I who are feeling a bit sick.  When we were the only ones who escaped the christmas time sickness.  Oh well, that is what happens, it came around and is nipping us in the rear.  Luckily it isn't the throw-up sickness. 

 

Today I was able to get more work done, and found out that the repair for the Atomic absorber in my lab is okay to go through.  We will see if we can actually pay for it tomarrow.  That is how things work in big organizations.  You have to get three levels of clearance.  Sadly sometimes those levels of clearance don't know what is going on.  :(

Sunday?

Well today seemed like a day of normal work for a few reasons. 

1. I was away from my wife for the majority of the day.
2. I was working most of that time.
3. My wife had a wonderful meal for me when I got home.

So usually I help make the meals at least on Sunday.  I tell you that I really do have a saint.  She does a lot for me.  I really feel like a mooch being married to her.  Today didn't feel like sunday because I was having lots of fun and not working for money.  This I actually really did like.  I guess I will get ready for another great day tomarrow...of normal work...

 

 

Saturday is a special day...

I really like my saturdays.  They go by so fast.  I think to myself that I will always do so much on these days.  Then I do usually do a lot on these days and well it often isn't what I thought I would do so much of.  The irony of things. 

 

So today here is what I did.

 

• I got up at 8 am awoke yet again by a baby girl named Andy.  She woke me up 5 times last night.  But this morning she was laughing so that is okay!
• Then I read my scriptures for a while.  I read about Nephi and him building a temple.  I wonder how well he could picture Solomons temple, especially cause he was copying it...
• Then I worked on Alisons Jewelry Box.  I finally only have the finish to put on and actually attach the lid.  I am worried about that, but it will probably work fine.
• Then I played the piano for a while.  I am determined that I will have a few songs under my belt this year before I get again to the end of the year.
• I went to the park with Zach, Andy, Alison and Demetri Zachs friend who is 7 and quite a load of fun for us and Zach.  The coolest thing is he is Afro-american.
• I worked on my book review website and put my kids down for a nap.  Then they got up and I was still doing that.
• I watched the end of a movie I have been trying to see for almost 6 weeks.  It took about 25 minutes.
• Alison got back from the temple and we went for a walk to get mail and get some fresh air.  
• We went out for dinner and a purely Mexican Resturant.  It was really good. 
• Got home and did dishes, vacuumed, cleaned the house and put the kids to bed. 
• I then folded laundry with Alison.
• I worked on my photo website.
• Helped Andi get back to sleep, she lost her pacifier.
• Am currently typing in my journal and will get in bed after I hit send on this.  What a day!

I got a lot done and had a lot of fun.  Like always, just not what I planned...

Games

Tonight Alison, Zach, Andi and I all went to our ward adult game night.  It was a lot of fun.  They had a room for kids t play and be tended.  It was hilarious.  It was at the church and there were lots of kids from ages 11 to 2.  The room was mayhem after a few short hours.  It took Jenna (the girl over most of the tending age 14) and I a while to get things cleaned up. 

 

Playing games with the adults of the ward was a lot of fun.  I played Dominos mainly with the Bishop and councelors.  I would have played Uno with some of the high priests but they were a bit to concerned with the rules.  I was as well interested in playing Jepordy but that was filled up pretty fast.  Anyway it was a good time.  It is funny how the adults seem to know how to party and make good food, especially when the kids aren't around.  It is good being an adult. 

 

Tonight when we were playing games we periodically checked on our kids.  Well Andi our 6 month old was in as well being held and played with.  So one time I went to check and she saw me and I thought she was okay but when I left she just cried and cried for one of her parents.  She was actually unconsolable until she had one of us.  What a little stinker.  I just laughed.  A pro mother got turned down until she got Alison.  She is a girl that knows what she wants for sure. 

 

After the party we went up by the temple and took some pictures of the temple at night and as well of the view of the temple and vegas.  I think that I got a really cool picture of the valley (especially the casinos). 

 

We climbed up a little rocky incline and had a great view.  We left Andi in the car and all hiked up the hill.  It was funny when we got back to the car because we realized that Zach only had one shoe on the whole time.  He just laughed and laughed about that.  He thought that was the funniest thing.  He is a happy and silly boy.  What a joy he is!

The Future

Well I found out today that the school I applied to for a PhD program decided to not accept me.  This is kind of blow, but overall I am doing okay with this.  I am dissapointed because it would have been a great opportunity, but probably more because of my pride being dinged up a bit over being rejected.  That is what I feel bad.  I am glad that I tried.  I have learned a lot about this admissions process to schools.  I am currently being successful in about 1/2 the times I have applied to graduate school I believe. 

For my future I feel a bit excited, but I also feel a bit apprehensive for what is ahead.  I don't really know what direction I may end up going, but I hope that it is one that will allow me to support and have a wonderful life with my family.  I really just want to spend my time with them and enrich their lives.  When I think about that aspect of life I am quite excited and invigorated.  For me that is my direction. 

My plan now is to get my degree, and hopefully get a job that allows me to head in a direction of my career goals.  For me that is a problem.  I frequently feel like I have no career goals to speak of.  I know what I want to do but that is usually mostly fun to simply think about.  We will see.

Jobs I think that will be good for me to pursue?  Here is a list that comes to my mind currently...

College Teacher (or high school if I must)
Environmental Consultant
Chemist
Water Technician
UPS man (it has always interested me to be sure...)

Other than that I am sure that opportunities will come up frequently, and now I will be taking them!

Spring Time...

So today I stayed at school/work until 10:30.  This was a good idea for me getting done with my thesis and degree by May.  It is just so hard to be away from my kids and wofe any longer than I actually need to.  I just miss my boy.  He is awesome to play with.  I guess that is what happens though when we try and get further ahead in life.  I am feeling good about being done with my thesis in may of this year.  I think that it is totally possible.  I just need to keep going on it consistently.  It is kind of overwhelming to have so much that I need to be doing and covering in this huge project.  I have lots of learning to cover in the next 4 or 5 weeks. 

 

I really wish that my professor would have been a bot more proactive on helping me get things done.  Generally I have to just wander around in the dark until I figure it out.  Rarely does he tell me what I need to do.  I hardly know what he expects from me.  I don't even know when our project is actually due to our funding agency (the army core of engineers), despite having asked him several times.  He just doesn't do anything that isn't on his agenda.  I honestly don't know at all what is on his agenda (well he ultimately wants to be an administrator I am pretty sure), I guess that is what life is all about.

Furniture...

So I have the calling of Ward Clerk in my ward.  This means I have to handle a bunch of normal things that are more temporal than spiritual.  Well I also keep the bishop running in a strait direction. 

We have some people in our ward (lots actually) that got some help moving in to their apartment in the ward.  This bishop got them furniture from DI (actually a furniture order). 

These people have also kind of become our friends as we have hung out with them and visited them.  I am blown away at how nice the furniture is that they got.  I mean it is nice than you could get for good money at furniture stores.  Wow.  I then looked at my furniture and wondered why I was trying so hard to be self sufficient.  I know it really is worth it in the long run but dang why try?  Its also hard to see people that don't really try to be good members either and they still get more temporal blessings.  I guess the key is temporal blessing.  Those actually when you have everything or nothing seem to still keep me in about the same place, depending on my spiritual state for my overall happiness. 

What a quickie!

I could swear I just got to work today.  I I don't know what to think.  I guess that 8 or 9 hours just isn't enough. 

Today I did about all the different possible things that I could here at work, dishes, experiments, homework, thesis writing and I worked out.  I had a good one.  I am excited to go and see my wife and kids.  I also looked a job for a bit.  I found an interesting one in Page Arizona that looks really interesting.  An environmental inspector.  We will see.

That is all for today, I will try and do another video tonight...

Happy Baby!

This is a happy baby! Andy loves being in front of the camera. I am quite pleased with that!

Bad food...

I just watched a movie called Super Size Me.  It is a movie about how fast food is affecting america.  Really overall it is sick how bad that food is for you.  The movie follows that guy who eats mcdonalds each meal for 30 days.  He gained 24 1/2 pounds and had terrible levels of everything you could watch.  His liver also about shut down.  He was seriously sick from just eating that food.  Argh.  I think that movie was well done.

 

Otherwise my day has been a good one.  I am enjoying work despite difficulties and not quite enough time to get all my work I need to done.  We will see how things go over the next semester.  I am still struggling with a machine that isn't functioning well at all, actually not at all. Tomarrow that is my project.  We will see how that goes.

 

I am also writing a major amount on my thesis each day, or trying.  By the end of the week I am going to have my introduction and background done.  Then I can give it to my commitee for ideas.

 

We will see what happens.  I hate waiting for what will actually happen.  For example, I hate waiting to hear for michigan on what my admission status is.  Argh.

 

Robert, Robert...

Dearest midget brother...

 

Okay so that is a bit low Elder Williams, but I had a laugh.  I mean I bet I am still a bit taller than you.  Plus I got you by 85 pounds...okay I really am not that fat, or I really hope that your not that skinny.  That would be really a bad thing for you.

 

I must tell you that I thought for sure that I had converted Jenny to my side of the game but I discovered today that she is all yours.  I am a bit dismayed, all that hard work...anyway, it will be awesome to have you home and see Jenny play us both for all we are worth. 

 

My kids currently are currently being pretty cute.  Andrea in playing with Legos and she is way excited.  I will be honest however, she is just excited about something to suck on.  She is really good lately at grabbing things.  To the point that tonight I couldn't start talking/typing until I put her down.  She is growing in her skills.  She also likes to grab things and wave them around.  That is a pretty interesting thing for a little girl. 

 

Andrea turned 6 months on my birthday, which was fun.  It definitely put a perspective on how long we have had her.  She is getting big fast.  She is also starting to wiggle around in an almost directional way. 

 

Okay so to Zach, there is so much to say.  Tonight for starters we had spaghetti.  That is a favorite around here.  When he started eating we made him take his white shirt off to protect it.  He did a really good job and it was quite cute.  Then he was done and turned around and wiped the little spaghetti he had on his hands onto his white shirt.  Argh!

 

Another fun thing is that when Zach stills a toy from Andrea he say very nicely "Thank you" and is off.  Like that makes it better, sigh. 

 

Maybe the funniest thing about Zach this week was when we went Bryce (went for my birthday) we were eating lunch in the parking lot by a viewpoint and I was feeding the Mountain Chickadees and White-breasted Nuthatchs.  He would hold a piece of a pretzel and chase the birds around saying "more, more!"  I was throwing a good amount of bird food around him on the ground and so he had a good number of birds playing and eating around him and he was trying to get the birds to hop or fly through his legs.  That was a moment when we really wish we had a video camera. 

 

A funny story about feeding the birds was that when I was at the most guilty stage of feeding the birds a ranger walked buy looked at Zach chasing the birds and he just laughed.  We so deserved at least a scolding. 

 

Well have you been to Bryce?  I must say that it is worth the trip.  Of the parks I have been to it is one of my favorites.  I must try say that I have only been to 14 of 58 parks.  But I have been to 90% of the most popular parks.  For me there are a few more that are really peaking my interest but I am honestly not interested in focussing on getting all of them.  I have about 10 or so more I really want to hit and others if I am close and it is convienent I will do but that is my feeling.  Currently in my life I am more interested in hitting all the temples in the USA.  I am actually by the end of this year likely going to have more temples to my list than National Parks. 

 

Okay so here is another funny thing that Zach does...do you remember the toys that have the gearing that when you push them they will speed up and go fast?  Sometimes you can build up tons of speed they will go dang fast.  Well he likes to get the wheels going and picks the motorcycle up and lets the wheels rub on his face.  It is hillarious how he tries to do it so carefully. 

 

I am wondering what else to say to you...I love you man.  I am proud of my brother in Jamaica.  You definitely rock!  I hope that your work is going well.  You are honestly not missing out on things that will ever leave you lacking.  I hope your well.

 

Love your brother!

 

Chris

 

P.s. I hope that this letter to you is not to overly proud parenty.  I know that those things can be really annoying!

 

 

AA

Well I think that I might have failed on always being able to fix my atomic absorber.  I have really had a few strokes of brillance and he has a lot of confidence with me.  Oh well, I can't do it all I guess...

Bedtime?

I must say, my two-year-old is perfect in about everyway, except that he just won't go to sleep at night.  I mean I could strangle him.  He pulls every trick in the book to stay away.  Then he will only go to sleep when we sit there and whistle or shush him to sleep.  He must have everything perfect.  It is like the rocket launch, nothing can be out of line.  Argh...

 

I sill love my kid, but argh...

 

 

Off to class again...

Well I have gone through another day at the office.  Wow.  I think that I might have figured out what is wrong with my machine (the atomic absorber) so we will see if I can fix it.  The Tech guy that was on customer service was pretty helpful.  So we will see.

I hope that the person doing my Lens repair is also able as well to do a good job and not at a huge cost.  For some reason I can't manually focus my sigma 70-200 lens.  Once fixed I think that I will be happier with its function.

Tonight we are having dinner with a friend, Christina who joined the church a while back.  She is just awesome.  I hope that she makes Filipino food.  I love cultural food.  I haven't had much Filipino food in the past and I am excited to try it out.

Tonight as well we are going to start packing for our bryce canyon trip for my birthday.  This will hopefully alleviate stress we are often subjected to when we go camping...

Resolutions?

I guess that I am reaching the point in the year that I will actually now be facing the trials of keeping new years resolutions.  I think that I in the past week began to fade from what I had resolved to accomplish.  Mainly the daily things like journal writing and picture work for my flailing website.  So today I worked hard on these things and I hope that I have began to get on track or stay on track or the year.  We will see, but I think that looking back at the month I now have a bit of perspective that has allowed me to realize how my year could turn out either way, positively or negatively...

 

So I am going to make it a positive year, now that I really have to dig in and keep moving!

 

 

Somersault Zach!

Here is Zach doing a sweet action honest to goodness somersault!

Not a smail mail...

Dear Elder Williams,

 

I am sorry that this isn't actually a snail mail.  I am having a hard time getting the motivation for giving you snail mail.  I understand that it comes in different forms, and you can hold and pet and lick snail mail but you honestly don't seem the type.  Well I could be wrong I guess, but we will see.

 

Anyway, in your letter I was asked a few questions.  The two that I remember (wait now I have another, that is three) are dealing with marriage and kids.  I guess I will deal with the what is marriage like. 

 

So luv, true luv.  It definitely turns into marriage if you let it hang around and set in.  Anyway not a bad thing, actually I would do a commercial to promote it if it would help todays society.  Never the less, I digress.  It is flashy at times.  Fun, exciting, and fresh everyday (that actually takes a certian type of person that is actually in love and wants to keep trying to serve the other, but it does perpetuate itself).  The honest answer is that it is dang fun.  I mean you get to do everything with your best friend, hang out, cook, clean, play and whatever else you decide to do together (I wasn't intending to send you mind there, but really you should plan on spending almost all your time together cause that is where real fun happens...). 

 

It is awesome.  I am actually sad for some people that have gone so long without being married.  Like for example Sam Neff.  I think he is just missing out on great things that he will just have to wait on until he gets hitched.  But people like nathan and keven, they aren't missing out yet.   It is okay for people to not be hitched at age 24.  They aren't that old.  Even though I did have a kid at that age. 

 

So being married is awesome.  Just make sure that you marry the person that is awesome for you and you can build your own amazing relationship like I have had the opportunity to do with Alison. 

 

So to try and actually answer your question about what is marriage like?  Two answers, first it is like getting to the top of the highest mountian you have ever climbed and seeing more than you have ever seen before.  Something that really can't be described.  The second answer is basically you can't describe it until you get there.  You can honestly be told that you have no idea.  Oh and it is surprising every day.

 

Having children?  To answer this I will be honest and blunt first, then dreamy.  Okay so you know what free time is like?  Well the opposite of that.  No free time.  The more you have the worse it is.  I am only now beginning to see what mom and dad just don't go on vacations now or really back then.  It is not really vacaion most of the time and so why go?  Ali and I are honestly working hard to still have a lot of fun.  To tell you the truth, I am blown away that Alison still likes to go on these adventures as much as well do.  To me it seems like so much more work than it is worth for her.  But that is my point of view I guess. 

 

Having kids is like having all you time being Zach or Andrea time.  I work long hours to get things done at work because when I get home it is Zach and Andy time.  Not really much Alison time sadly.  That is one aspect of having kids. 

 

The dreamy side is when you kids roll over the first time, learn to do things, bite thier sisters head, invent a new thing to do with a toy, give a 5 month old (soon to be 6) a ball and she screams with delight for 20 minutes because she figures have to hold it by wrapping her body around it, teaching a new thing that isn't new but is amazing to them, doing somersaults, playing in the sand, (when you take zach camping take him to the sand dunes and you can't miss) looking at the same old thing for the first time, discovering the world all over again, and well lots of other way fun things.  It is honestly awesome to be a parent.  This as well though don't rush.  You life will never be the same.  You eternal standing will never be the same.  In the same breath have as many kids as you can love and support without going nuts. 

 

Okay the thrid question, how to keep your focus.  It is just like avoiding immoral thoughts, smoking or sex.  You have to keep yourself constantly at it.  You just have to be a person that gets up and does their days work each and everyday all day.  What can you do?  Just show yourself the person you desire to be each day even when you don't feel like that person.  I feel like I have only said man up.  Well it is just like on the ranch, you have to feed the cows each day.  How does John or Paul work each day?  They just get up and do it.  That is what it is about.  I guess it comes down to the fact that their are people that do things in this world and others that wished they did or dream that they might.  The last 6 months of you mission will show what kind of Missionary you are.  So just keep showing it.  We each at somepoint get put in the blender and put through to puree, and what the Lord want's to see is what we will become after that. 

 

So I guess I have written you a bit so far.  I hope that this is uplifting, almost as much as snail mail.  Hopefully however you will get the same happy feelings from this letter as a snail mail because of what is in it as well as the fact that I didn't use many natural resources sending it to you.  That is my tree hugger thought for the day.

 

Um I guess I am also asking you what you would like for your birthday since you will be home soon and may just not want for things.  Tell me what you would like in a package if you want one, or if you would just prefer money in the old account.  If you want it in the account, let me know if you want it the the wells fargo one.  I will get the number from mom and dad and put it in if that is the case. 

 

So one last story, I have a class at UNLV with a true rasta man in it.  Except maybe it isn't a true rasta man because it is a white guy.  But he had a hemp bag, the hat that holds all the disgusting dreads, was filthy, and of course his eyes looked like he had been stoned a lot in the past as well as quite recently.  He also talked like a guy who had been burned but a bit of refero...I honestly could stop staring at him with a good amount of awe and disgust.  Anyway...

 

I guess I have taken enough of your time.  I hope that you are doing well.  Are you stuck totally to only email?  If your not then check out Zach doing a somersault at this link... http://hiddenlightphotography.blogspot.com/ 

 

I love you brother!

 

Chris

Somersaults!

So I just wanted to let you know that Zach my kid now does somersaults, and lots of them.  It is awesome!  I hasn't quite figured out how to project where he will end up when he has rolled but that makes it even more fun. 

Enjoy!