Good morning, Aye!   Actually I have been up for a few hours now, and have not yet decided if today is good, but it is morning. 

 I do have the day off work, and the sun is already shining.  Day three of sunshine, for those of you keeping track.   This means that the sun has been around long enough that even Washington residents can recall what that bright light in the sky is actually called, and they have either found a pair of sunglasses or gave up looking and bought a new pair at the dollar store.   Because I have not slept much in the past, o week or year, and am happily full of coffee this post will more than likely be more random than normal.   Lucky you!    I hope to have a post or two in my other blog series today also ---all about exploring Bellingham and the area.   Filled with exploring and my best pictures.   Please check it out:   
   http://exploreb-ham.blogspot.com
     I have been out getting some great pictures of the area before we move cross country, and there is new places to explore.  This afternoon I hope to get some shots in Lummi.    So several blog posts are in the works.   Also as and when we move ---the above sight will stop and a new page will appear.   I hope that you all enjoy this page even more than my other blogs.   

 

With plenty of old barn pictures.  

The above is in Sheridan, Wyoming.

Was in Sheridan--this barn no long stands.   Luckily one day I jumped the fence around it, and got some great shots. 

     Roaming around Lummi, I probably will not jump to many fences.   ;)

                 Someone just told me I had a lot of jobs----- So I tried to put them all down. Think I might have missed some.
List starts about 1997 When I was a senior in High school or right abouts than.
Maybe next I will try to list allllll my moves--- good god lol
* Lawn Jobs --Big Horn, Wyoming 3 years
* B Horn School Maintenance half a summer * Got Fired*
* Perkins- host, server, bus boy-- 3 years Sheridan, Wyoming * Got awesome raise/walked*
* Jb's -Server 6 months or so Sheridan, Wyoming * Moved to Oregon*
* Pizza Hut -Server 6 months -- Eugene, Oregon * Quit on good terms*
* Lawn Ranger--Self employed lawn jobs Eugene, Oregon *Equipment got stolen*
* Denny's -Host 9 months Gleenwood, Oregon *Quit on good terms*
* Small new restaurant -- Server- 4 days! Springfiled, Oregon *forgot to show up 5th day*
* Wall Mart-- Cashier, sales floor, dept manager 8 long years-- Eugene, OR- Springfield, OR- Bellingham, WA-- Flagstaff, AZ-- Queen Creek, AZ *Quit before got fired*
* Flying J-- Server 7 months Kingman, AZ
* Carls Jr Cashier 3 days!! Kingman, AZ
* Home Depot Stock shelves 4 months Kingman, AZ
*Iron Skillet--- Server 2 months Kingman, AZ
* E Bay-Craigs list sales Kingman, AZ
* Everbodys supermarket Gopher 3 months Aberdean, WA *Fired for cashing a pay check!*
* IHOP dish/host 4 months Bellingham, WA
* Childcare/sales Blaine, WA
* Lawn Care---self employed Bellingham, WA
* Trident--- Fish gutting Sesonal Bellingham, WA
* Jb's Server Sheridan, Wyoming to Feb 2012
* Pilot Truck Stop/Subway Ferndale, WA 4 days!
* The Silver Reef Casino!!
    

      I have been at my current job just short of a year now.   And I love it.   Most of it.  This will be a job I will actually miss when we move.   I play server in a local casino.   And the customers are like no others I have had in my many past jobs.   This is mostly a good thing.   I have learned in the past, not to reviel to much in my blog posts, because I am never really sure whom is reading my rambling.   So---more thoughts and observations on this job, after it is yet another listing on my resume.    That said, here are a few work related, somewhat, things I wish to share this bright morning. 

     

                                           I wish I had the above picture in a few past arguments.
    Especially when I was trying to explain that a constant hand/arm movement to ones mouth with a pitchfork, was not considered exercise.  

       So a few nights back I was preparing to leave work.   A very busy night at work, and my motivation had long since left me.  Even the caffeine was not really doing it's job either.   One of the last chores is to fold napkins for the next shifts use.  As I was doing this extra fun task an extremely large person walked by.  I say person because of the form there really was no distinguishable body parts.   This individual had to weigh at least 300 pounds.  The point to all of this, is how memorizing watching all of that flab move was.   I am sure this paragraph sounds beyond horrible --but it was amazing and all of my actual work stopped.  Maybe this is one reason I am trying to use larger words in this paragraph, to enlighten my terrible thoughts.   It was also very motivational in me wanting to purchase a similar spoon to the one pictured above.   I have a whole blog post brewing on this weighty subject.  But the cliff notes are--- many many people are becoming super-sized.  Me included, but heck round is a shape right?   The garden chairs at Wally World, have bigger seating areas every summer, and Fisher Price little people, are much wider than they used to be.  

         Even though I am a server at work, we can gain extra cash and hours by working on the banquets side.   It isn't the most glamorous work, but the paycheck is good.  A few months back I landed two banquets in one day.   The first was for the Red Hat Society.   I am not sure the concept of all of this, but it seems to give older ladies something to do.    No one informed me what the banquet was hosting, and I was not prepared to walk into the large room --filled with 200 seniors and tons and tons of red and purple.   Wow, my eyes came very close to starting to bleed!   It wasn't all bad, an Elvis impersonator, or maybe it was Him  took over the stage at one point.  
     That night I helped with an elder meeting for many of the local Indians.  I was sure it was a set up to get rid of the Token White boy, a name I have dubbed myself at work.  Being almost the only white male many a night at work.  For some reason everyone else on the banquet team, was sent to other locations of the Casino, and I was set out alone, in a room full of Indians.   \
    **Let me state here that I am not dissing this race in any way.  Or bothered by Indians ---in any way.**   BUT the meeting soon turned to an open mike night----and the speakers were soon mostly talking about how they could not find jobs, and how the local casino's were hiring white people more and more.    We were taking there jobs on there land.    Etc.   And the arguments were getting louder and stronger.   All of this time I was the only non Indian in the room, and I was in full Casino dress, serving and obviously flaunting my job over them.  
    I am now sure I had nothing to fear, but the situation made me a little jittery at the time. 

   

 

Easter is right around the corner!

 

 

   In closing----  On the way home from work, I quickly merge onto the highway.   Several miles down the highway last night, I started to hear this loud warning alarm from inside the car.   It took me awhile to learn that this annoying sound --told me that my turning signal was left on.   And I instantly relaxed a lot and turned off the signal.   This is a very loud buzzer, and I thought for sure I had lost a tire or tail engine at first.   Duley noted- a similar sound sounds when I place a case of beer in the passenger front seat.   This alarm is informing me that I should strap the beer into the saftey belt for all of our saftey.   Thank you warning alarm!

3/23/2013 Please Read & Share

   Hello!    If last week you were not wearing green, and you got pinched more than normal.  Please note for next year, it was probably St Patrick's Day.  A great day if for no other reason to wear all of the green clothes that never seem to make it out of your closet, because they are ugly.  It is also a great day to use up the last of your green food coloring.  I found out several years back, that Bellingham, Washington bars offer great entertainment on that night, with packed bars and strolling bag pipe players.  You can judge for yourself if the lads wear anything under there kilts.  But green beer is amazingly hard to find that night.  At least the night my buddy and I went out.  He had never enjoyed a green beer, and we set out to change that. It took many more stops than I would have bet on.
      I am surprised at how many things are on our large family's social calender for the 1st of April.  And I have to wonder if we will get there and just be greeted by a wee leprechaun who yells out "April Fools!'    This would be equally as annoying and entertaining to me, so it would be fine either way.  Unless the leprechaun was just barley shorter than myself.   I am vertically challenged for sure! 
      We use calenders all of the time.  In fact we have a huge one in the living room, color coordinated with everyone in the family.  Of course most of the running involves the kiddos.  At the start of each month, we marvel at how empty the calender is.  By the end of the month we fight to find space to add anything.  Although the last year has flown by for us, it has been great for sure!
   Another event not yet on our calender, but coming very soon is our cross country move.  Of course I will add lots of tales and pictures once we get settled some were with wi-fi.  Some of the stories might even be true!   Although we do have about 60 daze till moving day, we have sooo much to do still.   And I have already started to over worry about it all.   I shouldn't worry, my wife and I have become pros at moving.  Doing every type of move possible.  From the super smooth transition---is there really such a thing??  To hauling all of our belongings in garbage bags, with a large police escort.   Small town, bored cops, many showed up thinking they could witness a domestic dispute.   Gotta love Arizona, which is were we are moving again!   I will share this and some of my other cop stories very soon!   My buddy wishes I had most of my court appearances on tape--because they really would make good TV.   I really wish I had my old exploring hikes recorded.   Because they were all beyond crazy.  Of course this is back when I was in shape, before I exclaimed that "round is indeed a shape!  
     I am sure everything will work out for the best.   But I like to have a detailed plan for everything.  And with kids, it doesn't work to even attempt to plan.  What happens soon becomes the plan.  And if it is super adventurous, it could easily become a four part blog series!
      A new factor to this move, is that we hope to purchase our first home.  The place needs work for sure, and buying something we have not actually been inside, is also a little nerve wracking.  But it will be ours!   Something we will die in for sure.  ;) So we will be poor when we arrive, but poor in our own pad.   The arriving that broke, is also already stressing me out.  I know first hand that you can not live on love alone.  Those mean land lord folk do not take food stamps and or Monopoly money!   But things will work out for the best.  We live in a very beautiful area, but it is also an overly expensive area.   Because of my part time job, our rent went up, and all of our benefits vanished.   Good deal right? 
       Plus actually seeing sun some days is healthy and something we miss.   It is a small town we are going to, close to a very big town so work and activities surround.   Also as I might have mentioned --again a full blog post is in the works about this-- my beautiful wife has a terminal disease, and the an actual hospital that for that will be near by.   To gain more knowledge on all of this and maybe send us some support---please check out her website    http://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/j022/aprilshome?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fb_wall&utm_campaign=dashboard_overview&og_action=hug&fb_ref=809752


    If nothing else please pass the above link on!    We are not asking for a hand out, but for a hand up.    Thanks for reading!

Rain In Washington--Who'd Of Thunk? Welcome To Washington!!

     As I sit here watching it decide if it is going to rain or not---- **Spoiler alert**  It is going to rain!   I think back to the first time I moved to beautiful Washington.  Do you know a huge reason the area is so darn purdy?  Because it rains all the time.  ;)  Anyways I was sick of Oregon and packed everything I owned into a big blue pickup truck.  As in many of my road trips, everything was going wrong--but I had a good buddy with me, to make fun of my misfortunes.   Just before you enter into Bellingham, Washington there is a rest area.   My truck and I were running on empty, so I attempted to buy a pop out of the vending machine.   The machine that ate my money twice, but gave me no caffeine filled beverage.  As I was jumping around the rest area, holding one foot in the air, from deciding to kick the vending machine, it started to dump rain.  I believe I than slipped in some random dog poo.   As I was flopping around in the grass, greatly wondering about this move, my buddy snapped a photo and than yelled out "Welcome to Washington!"    Like many moments it was only amusing to my buddy.  But whenever I hear someone grumble about something similar---I yell out a happy phrase that is similar.   If people from my home state are grumbling about snow in the winter or summer ----   I yell out  "Welcome to Wyoming!!"  It works in many situations, and is amusing in almost all of them. 
   

      I did not take this picture---- Although this like most of the views is amazing, it also shows how dam cold it is only about 9 months of the year.   For some more insights on Wyoming, and pictures I actually took, please type in Sheridan Wyoming on this pages search option.  

     I have a feeling that this post is going to turn into a vent so I will talk about some good happy thoughts first and see if the whole post turns that way.  In writing my posts, I find that after I sit down to type, even I am surprised at what comes out. 

 

True story! ;)

      First off--- as of next week, my wife and I  will have been married a year.   Wow does time fly.  Although I am not really happy with most of the in-laws at the moment, I have heard this goes along with having in-laws or even having friends.   Luckily no one else but me can actually see any of my friends.   Last week we had a late Valentines day/early anniversary day out and among other things got matching tattoos.  

 

 

    Almost a year. Ignore my bald spots, and look at how amazingly beautiful my wife is. Than marvel in the fact that she would say no, if I asked her to marry me now lol----I kid, for the most part we are still in the honey moon stage.  And we try to keep each other as happy as we are in the above picture.  I am only sharing this because my wife, like almost everyone else, hardly ever reads my posts---but I am planning to ask her to re-marry me on our anniversary.  We are moving this summer, and funds are tight--- so the date is up in the air, but the party will be in Vegas. 


     I will have more deep thoughts on this, with some pictures in a very soon blog post.  One picture I need to make larger, because my wife swears it looks like I am about to cry in the picture. 

      **"Truth apart from love can do harm. Love apart from truth can also do harm. But Truth and Love together are a mighty force for good."**----my mother

                         **"Some people are so poor, all they have is money."**

      For more deep quotes and thoughts---please roam through my old blog posts.  They are full of both! 

         I don't know how anyone travels on airplanes long distances. Just this one hour time change throws me off for like a week. If I flew to China-I would be asleep the whole vacation. Starting to really enjoy AZ and it's not observing the time change twice a year.    If you were not aware of the time change, and have been suddenly very early for everything, ummmm---   now you know!   Although almost every computer and cell phone, knows to set itself.  Does anyone else find this disturbing?   Kind of like when you turn on your computer on your birthday and every sight you frequent on your computer, KNOWS it's your birthday.  Along with people that don't even know your last name.  The best part about our road trips past, to Vegas was going across the Hoover Dam.  Because about half way across ---you enter another state and another time zone.  We used to place our cell phones in the cup holders and about wreck, watching them re-set.   This fun is ruined because you can not drive over the dam anymore.  Thanks to a 12 year construction plan --started after 9-11.

   
                         I have never claimed to be the smartest crayon in the box!

    And now some of my own insight on harassment based on the last week of social interaction online and in the real world.  It is also based on the great movie we watched at work teaching us how to harass people.  Wait!   Teaching us how every possible thing could offend someone.  Luckily I work in a casino now, so the customers are pretty hard to offend.  I hate most PC terms and all of it's politically correctness.  But being a short person, I do like the term "vertically challenged."   Basically instead of anyone working for anything or taking personal responsibility, everyone is a victim.  Maybe I am just over thinking all of this ?

      Falsely claiming harassment seems to go with low class/income people. My wife & I have had five people say there were harassed by us in the last month. First off, we are on a roll! ;) Some thoughts on this: ** If you continue to e mail/text/ etc back---we are not harassing you** **If you enjoy it, it is not harassment.** **If we are asking for cash owed us or something fixed that you broke---Surprise, it's not harassment!**

 

     **I stongly beleive that 90% of workers, trained or other wise, do not know how to do there job.**

      Right above is the cliff notes of another rant from my long time buddy "Professor Getty."   I could list multiple examples of this---but I am sure you could also do the same, no matter were you reside.  I do have to give Kudos to our local Midas repair shop----  Each time I have dealt with them --they have been helpful, timely, fair, and friendly.   *Gasp!* 
    I am typing this rambling mess of rambling from a local coffee shop, while Midas checks out our new truck.  Well new to us.   This should already be takin' care of, but we chose another repair shop ---and basically wasted lots of time and gas.   Please allow me to back track a lil bit here.
      Last Thursday I coordinated time with my mother-in-law, and we drove 30 + miles into the country to take my truck into a "great" shop.  We knew for sure that the brakes needed looked at and a few other little things, but mostly wanted to have the whole rig checked out to see how good a purchase it really was.  Thursday night the shop called me, right before I was leaving for work.  They quickly explained there was a long list of possible fixes, and than rapidly rattled them off over the phone.   I know as much about vehicles as I do about computers.  Basically if it doesn't turn on, I am lost.   So on Friday I asked if they could e-mail us an invoice of all of the issues, and we as a family would decide what needed to be fixed.  I was told this could be accomplished, but not until Monday.  Late Monday afternoon, I again called the shop, and was told that they were still working on the invoice.   On Tuesday I again called the shop-- and was than told that they were not hi-teach enough a place to send us an invoice in any form.   What kind of business can not even accomplish this simple task?  I could make an invoice with a pen and a tablet of paper, but I don't have a business licence.  Anyways, the secertary proceeded to be very rude to me, and we than decided that if they could not even make an invoice, they probably should not be trusted with any part of our truck, especially the brakes.  And again coordinated a trip to the shop to pick up our rig. 
     Call me crazy, many people do---but at the very least I believe that a places secertary ---the first, maybe only person your customers correspond with---should have people skills.  If the restaurant I work at, had the most amazing food in the state, but customers had to deal with a witch of a hostess to get a seat, we would soon become an empty building.   Needless to say the shops secretary continued to be herself & I am a strong believer in my personal attitude reflecting what I receive from others.   Not surprisingly the shop owner, defended his worker, as he handed me the truck keys.  I will be "praising" this places great customer service all over the Internet very soon, with the name of the shop also.   
         Next post----some thoughts on our newest and continuing issues with the kiddos elementary school.  But enough negativity for today.     Thanks for reading!!

Another Post--Your Welcome!

     Above is another picture of mine from down by the bay in Bellingham, Washington.  I have tons of water pictures.  I have also just found that if you post pictures on your Facebook cover photo--- and than save them to your computer--- they come out modified in panoramic view with almost no effort from you.   Giving a great effect. 

      
      This is just a little further down the boardwalk, looking into Fairhaven.    I want to turn my better exploring shots into frame able greeting cards, but with work, us moving cross country very soon, etc etc  just have not had the time to try them out even.   The first step is getting all of my exploring pictures on my FB page, but this to has been a slow process.  Add in that I am a slacker --and it may never get finished! ;)

Please check out my FB page----   Wyoming Jack/Bobble Head's Blogs Exploring Bellingham & Whatcom county    it always needs more viewers and "likes" for sure!

   I still am forming a blog post in my head about crappy neighbors and such---  Most people agree that things should stay in my head.  I have been in too good of a mood to write this post yet.   Give it time, I will be fully annoyed enough to write it soon.  It was close yesterday, when we had yet another run in with the neighbor, I appropriately enough call "Loony Tunes."   But I knew that Nana was watching the kiddos, and my wife and I had a day to ourselves.   A great day that sadly brought us to Wally World at one point.  But shopping is much easier without the kids for sure.  If nothing else less items "fall" in our shopping cart when we are alone. 

      I will soon post more about our day out yesterday.  I will say it was awesome.   I had to work on Valentines day and our one year anniversary of being married is coming up this month, so we meshed the daze together and had some fun.  I believe the highlight was in the evening when we got matching tattoos.  Which I must say hurt 80 times less than I imagined for sure.   I made sure it was on my right arm, in case it stung still when I returned to work, I hold the serving trays with my left arm.   Anyways this is my first tat and if nothing else my mother is not impressed ;)  As I might have mentioned she recently joined the huge Facebook family.   And
the jury is still out on how much I "like" this.  Yesterday I hinted online that we were getting tattoos- an my mother responded with   "Didn't your mother teach you anything??"   I always having the smart ass bug responded with   "My mom taught me not to get a swastika tattoo on my forehead--but only because of job interviews of course

                              A true smart ass----notice this is not a picture of me!  ;)

 

Our new tats!

 

    Just do not stare directly at my manly breasticles, you might go blind. ;) Our new tats as of last night. Supposedly say "Love" in Chinese. I say supposedly, because all of these lovely words could really mean anything and they are just... fooling us all. They all mean something like "eat at Joe's! or sponsor a tattoo shop, or each symbol actual says "screw America" in some form. Those Asians can be almost as shifty as Americans.... Whatever the case---I like our matched set a lot!

      



                                                      And now your moment of Zen! .....

 

  Is it a sign of to much coffee   when your coffee talks to you in the A.M.?

 

        There seem to be tons of pictures of me enjoying coffee.   The above is me with Bigfoot.  He is slightly sad, because he is not also holding a cup of Joe!   I kept the image small because when this picture is blown up, Big Foot's package is bigger than my head. 

I

 

       This I have shared before---and is also in Seattle in front of the first Star Bucks.  Notice the people reflected in the window, that is part of the massive line that usually loops through the store and outside a ways down the block.  I do not necessarily find SB coffee any better than any other coffee---but by sure volume of stores, I tend to find myself in one quite a bit.  Plus they were one of the first coffee stores to provide free wi-fi.  Making it easy for me to look like a big writer in front of other yuppies, while I am in all actuality losing at a game of solitaire.   Seattle really is a great place to just soak it all in.   I have several blog posts about our visits.   And we are taking the kids for a couple day exploring journey before we move out of this great state. 



     How to jump start your morning in style!    With this much coffee --I could almost keep up with the kiddos!   If I even had half of the energy of our 9 year old, I could maintain three full time jobs. 

 

Above is our youngest in the school newspaper.  

Hard to see in this picture, but he is chillin in the white shirt, with the super kool hair.

He styled it himself.

 

 

 

And you thought you had a bad job.....

 

 

   One of the dr's in Sheridan Wyoming is named Dr Batty.   No joke.   As in that's his real name, and I will let you provide the joke for that statement. 



      As always

                             **Happy Trails!**

Hello March!!

    **"Out of all the gruesome noises coming from the bathroom stall next to me, the camera click was the most troubling."**


                                **"Sarcasm is just one more FREE service we offer here!"**

                          **"No matter how bad it gets, I am always rich at the Dollar Store!"**

            **Can you imagine the reactions if those meteorites had hit Russia on December 21st!?**

     **"Probably the main life lesson I've learnt is that you should check to see if a chair has wheels before standing on it."**

         Hello!    I am typing this on my old mini laptop thanks to my wife.  And recalling how difficult it is to type fast on not just a lap top, but a very small one.  She surprised me last night, by getting it fixed and in working order again.  We have another lap top, but it is large and almost as portable as a home PC.  So a huge thank you to her!  I am writing this from a local coffee shop, thanks to my mother-in-law, who took two of the kiddos, my wife is having a mommy day with our third, so that I could disappear.  This does not happen much.  Usually when I have "time to myself" it is time for me to go to work.   Speaking of family, my mother just joined the Facebook generation!   The jury is still out on my happiness with this.  Probably because I filter what goes in my blog posts much more than what I post on Facebook.  ;)

     I am still forming in my head, how to write my next blog post about all of our neighbors we will defiantly not miss when we move cross country.   I would like to pause here and thank my parents and teachers---ewww!   Who made reading and writing a huge priority in my life.  Obviously I still need work in the writing area.  But with all of our problems with housing, landlords, and people in general, it is great to know that I can plop down in front of the computer and quickly compose an letter that makes people notice and than usually see things our way.  People do not usually like my letters, like my blogs, but they tend to be very effective!  My wife than gets to edit and approve my thoughts, before we send out any e-mails.   But for the most part -she is the talker.   And in a good way.  If we need to set up something, or defend ourselves or our children in person-she is the man for that!   Altogether we make a team to be reckoned with for sure!

    Sadly our kids are not being taught to express themselves effectively at all.   They want our oldest to type everything he hands in, but do not offer keyboarding classes for him.  Since we use these skills all of the time, we are trying to give the kids extra tools to use.  So in the future, the kiddos will be co-writing some exploring blog posts with me!   We are finding all of this very hard to accomplish--with everything else that goes on in a day in our life, and mostly because the kids spend all day at school, not being taught anything.  It is beyond hard to sit them down for more lessons during there free time.  If anyone out there has any suggestions, please let me know.  

 

Just sayin'!

 

 

Statistics show you are more likely to get bit by a human -than a shark

 

 

Garfield, like me-always offers deep insight!

 

 

 

Wally World drivers---Always safe drivers----Always!

 

So my wife is very happy, because the town we are looking at moving to has a super center Wally World.  Every were has this store, that's not why she is happy.   But after what seemed like 20 years of working with the company, but was actually 8, I took allll of my vacation time in a row ---came back to work, and quit.   Soon after I informed my wife, that if I ever went back to the evil company to work, she could shoot me in the foot!   And than call me "Hop-A-Long. 

     Ta Da!!   that is why she is happy.   The town has this store, and it would be a very easy way to be employed soon after moving.   It is always easier to land a good job, when you are working.