The Williams Family News: January 2008

Well its about time I added something here! This past few months have been pretty crazy for me with work. I have spent a lot of hours there and not only have I paid for it physically and mentally, but Debbie and the kids have suffered too. Even though I am getting home at my normal time now, its been almost 3 weeks and the kids still show signs of separation anxiety.

Everyday when I get home from work, they all but tackle me as I walk through the door. Most of the time I can't even get the door shut before they get to me. As cute and sweet as this is, sometimes it can be frustrating as some nights I can't get much done. Whether it be here in the apartment going from room to the next or leaving to go somewhere, Ella and Brandon try to follow me everywhere I go. If I don't take them with me when I'm leaving they both freak out. Brandon is usually the worst as he is now old enough to realize that dad isn't around all the time. In all, it makes me feel pretty good to be loved like that. On the other side of that, they even have the separation anxiety with Debbie as well. It is very hard for either of us to leave the house or leave the car while we are out shopping without Brandon going hysterical. Most of the time Ella is understanding about it as she is old enough to understand some of the things we tell her.

Now for me. My job I can honestly say is the best job I've ever had. Its still considered a start up company. We are only about 50 or so employees total. So I guess you can say we are a lot like family. Even though I've been there for over 2 years now, some days it still amazes me that I'm there and how it all came about. I think it has a lot to do with us being here in California too. There are a lot of aspects of being out here that I'm not used to yet, but for the most part its been fun living here. As far as the winter season is concerned, I can honestly say I'm still not used to the warmer year round temperatures here. Most of the people at my work look at me like I'm nuts when I come to work wearing shorts and t-shirts. As fun as that is to do at this time of year, its still weird to me as I miss the snow. I know, call me strange but its weird not being around snow when you have been around it your whole life. In all, I have really enjoyed living here and we will probably do so for quite some time.

Today has been one of those days! you know those days that seem to drag yet have those moments you dread, the moments that you almost die over and the bit that you crack up over! Our day was one of those eventful days!

Meet Ella, a spunky little 3 yr old with no reservation in her wonderings about life and things. She is the reason I never have a dull moment in life...that is not to say, that I have never been mortified by her freedom of speech....so on with the day.

Today we woke up late...Awww a good sleep in...who can complain there! We get up and feed the kids and we all get cleaned up...We go for a walk and a ride (Ella rode her new trike and Brandon in his little car that we push along). This was our first opportunity to get Ella outside on her trike due to the major rain storms we have been having here. It is finally a sunny day and she is getting the peddling down...however the steering is another story...

We decided to take our recycles to cash in, not that we were getting a lot of cash from it, but it was something to do. The recycle place was super busy but is across from a Wal-mart so while Josh stood in line, me and the kids went to look at toys. As we are looking around Ella would ask the employees she sees putting things away "is that your job" the people looked at her funny of course, as this little person asks such a weird question...almost like they didn't know how to answer it!

After that, we had to make a run to our storage unit to pick up a mouse ( not the fuzzy kind the computer kind)...our cordless one decided to go to the electronics god in the sky(RIP)! We get there and I sit in the car while josh jumps out to get what we need...you know the mouse. He opens the storage unit and he turns to me in the car with this look of total frustration and shock. I thought oh great some evil creature has made a home in our stuff, YUCK it is now full of SUPER COOTIES! He wouldn't tell me what is wrong so, I get out to take a look! I cant believe it...some one busted through the top between the units just under the ceiling from the unit to our left, into our unit. At first we look and we don't see any problems but, I was sure that wasn't so!

I decide to get the people who watch over the place and tell him that is was broken into...after he cusses out some profanity he gets his keys and we go back to the unit....where he says...well that is a first! Lucky us...we get the newest version of break in! Do we win an award??? Yep a call to the local police station!

So after I call, I look over and Josh who has that Wonderful look on his face AGAIN and there it is, the first sign of sabotage! Someone helped themselves to one of Josh's Sub woofers...Yup just one, because that is the only one that they could get out, due to the small gap between the box and the other stuff we have in the unit! ( it is a 5x7 unit with a washer and dryer tucked in first).

As we sit in the back of my XB waiting for the officer, we watch Brandon play with a ball and Ella sit next to me, talking to me about life and things...we start talking about the OFFICER that was coming to help us. She starts to say ossifer and I correct her drunken slur and say, Say Office and she says Office and I say, say er and she says er and finally she says offic-er and says it a few more times and then we see lights at the gate...

After an hour of chilly weather and silly kids the officer pops up. He gets out of his car and starts talking to Josh. Then Ella in her cute little voice starts to say: your not going to kill us right?...ummm, your not going to kill us right? Lucky for me he is paying no attention to me or Ella, who I keep shushing from her cutesy talk and kinda bumping her with my elbow, in hopes that she would SHUT UP... She gets a little louder and says: your not going to kill us right?...Ugh I can only pray that he is ignoring her and not thinking that we are teaching her hate issue for cops! Finally(after total mortification) I say Ella he is a good guy, he is nice and here to help us!!! She says it two more times before, we finally get her to believe that this guy, all deck out in this gear, is not going to end our lives (like she really knows what that means right? what are we teaching her? Ugh I am playing in my head where she would get such an idea or hear such a thing)!

He comes in at first and is a little surprised that some one would squeeze their body in through the small space above and he gets a ladder to look into the other units, hoping that they weren't hit like we were. Sadly, yet so STUPIDLY, he finds our woofer in the next unit over....yes you heard it right, the moron totally makes it obvious, he was in our unit! Then leaves our stuff in plain view when the officer flashed his flash light in there..DUH!

So Josh went to work again, to get the mouse. we wait for the officer he finds out whose unit it is. Again HI your a dork for leaving it in plain view MORON!( like they don't know who is renting that Space)! Josh starts pulling things out...Looking for that all so elusive Mouse! Josh comes to find out that the guy that broke in was smart enough to put everything in our unit the way he found it. Josh, being the computer geek that he is...not like Brian geek, but computer parts geek, has a HUGE crate of computer must haves...well I should say USE TO HAVE! yep, he took it all leaving only older stuff. Even Josh's laptop that we use when we have computer issues was gone...arggg! Not to mention Josh had a $200 dollar graphing calculator that he used when he was in school and was Super in love with...that is the one thing he complained about most.

So all this time we are standing around as the "OFFICER" is checking things out on a ladder. Then I hear Ella's little voice say...are you OK your highness...HUH? Of course I snicker and don't say anything. The officer is completely unaware of our 3 year old's royal status comment. The officer looks around for a while and during that time she keeps calling him your highness. Finally, I say he is an Officer. She says "OH officer". I had to explain to him that she was calling him your highness and he laughs...and says well that is better than what people usually say about cops....hah! Oh my goodness....UGH!

So as the night draws on, we are telling the cop all that is missing and it's "worth"...Ella is now in the car playing. The officer finishes up our information and grabs his camera. He starts taking pictures of our stuff that had been damaged. I hear Ella yell "take a picture of me"! LOL (yikes) ( no her mom isn't a picture taking freak!)

So all in all we get it sorted, Josh starts to clean up all the stuff that has been pulled out of our unit. Finally we start to head home when the officer comes back. OK what now? The officer gets the guy running the place and says that they are going to open up the unit next to us because the guy is on parole and they don't need a search warrant to look in his unit...uhhh OK? Sadly this is the first time the guy working there tell us that the guy changed the lock today...weird! Why would he do that all the sudden? You see he isnt the real owner of the unit..a lady friend of his is, I think he didnt want her snooping, I mean why would he, he just commited B&E! LOL

The lady that owned that unit came and told them that the guy had phoned her to tell her that he lost the key to the old lock and put a new one on. When they opened up the unit, there the old lock sat with the key IN IT!!! HUH??? Again I say, what an IDIOT!

We were only able to locate 3 of the many things that had been taken, one was that all elusive mouse!