Janice's random happenings

Here is the "skinny"

2012-01-24T19:54:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you are all tired of hearing about my weight loss but I am finally getting around to posting my (not so) glamorous photos of me through out the process.

The first set of photos was taken of me in the spring of 2009 when I had decided "I was going to lose weight!" I wanted to take a photo that showed me in ALL of my glory so I could look back and marvel at how far I had come! I'm sorry to say that I just didn't have the motivation to stick with it...just think how much farther along I could be if I had...

Then in the fall of 2010 Matt decided he was going to do something about his weight. He talked with is Dr. and a nutritionist and came up with a plan that would work for him. As he started to lose weight and drop pant sizes I couldn't have been happier for him! But as I would do the laundry it was getting harder to tell who's jeans were who's! I thought to myself "oh no, I don't THINK so!" I knew I needed to do something and fast!

One day while over at Auntie Viv's house (while planing the reunion) she told Sheri and I that her family was about to start a biggest loser contest. We both talked about how we needed something like that to light a fire under us!! The next day (Jan 28th) she called and told us that her family wanted us to join in and it was starting on Jan 31st! Talk about lighting a fire, we had two days to "get ready."

I had never before worried about calories, carbs, protein and new nothing about where to start. So Matt, being the supportive husband, helped me find apps for my phone to help track what I ate. He also found me websites I could read to get more info and he even loaded some weight loss books on my phone so I could listen to them while driving. I really wanted it to be a change of life not a "diet!" (I knew that if I thought of it as a diet it would never work long term.) It also had to be something doable, not crazy or extreme, I didn't want to lose just to gain again. I soon came up with a plan I thought would work for me and I jumped in head first, off the deep end (so to speak). If I was going to do it I was going to do it 100%!!

The competition started Jan 31st and would be 17 weeks long ending on Memorial Day. I was thinking to myself that if I could lose 20 lb. in that time it would give me a good push in the direction I needed to go. (I started the competition weighing 205 lb.) I can't even begin to tell you how thrilled I was when I started to lose weight! The first week I lost over five pounds! As the weeks went on I started to think I just might be on to something, this just might work! So I came up with the plan to take photos every 20 pounds and hang them side by side to help keep me motivated! But I hadn't taken one to start with...then I remembered the one from 2009 and decided to wear the same clothes and stand in the same spot so I could really compare them.

And now I have decided to share them with you! I'll worn you though glamor shots they are not! But I hope you will be able to see the changes...

210 lb. March 2009

185 lb. March 2011

165 lb. May 2011

145 lb. Jan 2012

I reached my goal of 140 lbs. on Aug 11th 2011!!

(I had failed to take the 145 lb. photo on my way down the scale so I took advantage of my 5 lb. weight gain over the holidays.)

Now I am in training for my first Half Marathon...

Biggest Loser Challenge

2011-05-31T18:27:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know Sheri and I participated with the Wright family in their Biggest Loser Challenge.

The challenge was 17 weeks long with "weigh in" each monday. With everyone having such varying goals with weight loss, progress would be measured by % of weight lost. Each week there would be a weekly winner and the at the end an overall winner.

Sheri and I got together and took before photos and the we did it again at the end of the challenge and let me tell you, have we changed!!

I won bragging rights by winning the challenge of biggest % lost but Sheri is the one that lost the most pounds.

Here are our before, after (same clothes), and after (new cute clothes)

I lost 24.88% of my body weight/ 51lbs

Sheri lost 24.23% of her body weight/ 55lbs (can you say close race)

Butt you haven't seen the "end" of our weight loss as we still have more to lose to hit our goals!

Washington Park

2011-02-03T22:19:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite places to go is Washington Park in Anacortes. It's such a fun park to spend the day in or just to enjoy a nice slow scenic 3 mile drive. So a few weeks ago we had a nice sunny day and not wanting to waste it we (sheri, joel, seth, ellie, matt and myself) set out to have a day at the park.

Matt has a new camera so we got-

some fun...

some cute...

some cool...

some playful...

some helpful... (please note this is a Ford diesel F350 1Ton Crew Cab jump starting a Prius)

some not so fun...

pictures of our day!

After spending time driving around playing at the park the kids wanted to know when we were going to go "play" at the park?! So just before heading home we stopped off at the toys. The ground was very wet and slippery resulting as you can see in a tragic end to Matt's care free days of mobility for the next 4-6 weeks. (he got his very own pair of crutches and boot the next day) No I'm not a mean wife who has to take a pic before going to help. It just happened that as I went to take a photo of seth rolling down the hill Matt slipped. (I knew I should have had it in video mode!) =)

We also decided to stop over at Grandma & Grandpa's house with dessert to finish off our fun filled day only to find Matt was not the only one who had been injured that day.

Grandma stepped wrong on her little step stool and it flipped up and hit her leg! Then while we were there I went to get the ice cream back out of the freezer and was attacked by a butter tub full of frozen strawberry puree.

Still all and all we had a great day and we think next time...

YOU should come with us!

last day of vacation

2010-07-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

We got up early saturday morning and went for a drive up the beach looking for sand dollars. we did finally find one that was not broken and we also saw this guy out and about on the beach.

After breakfast we took the beach highway into Long Beach and walked around town for a few hours and found a nice sandwich shop to eat lunch at called Surfer Sands.

Then we headed back to camp and took a nap before packing up and heading home. On our way out of town we stopped for one last treat at Scoopers Market!

As some of you may know we have a dream of one day owning our own live aboard dive boat. Until this last weekend the only maker we have found that makes the kind of boat we want was in France. On our drive home as we passed thru Raymond Wa we saw this beauty along side the road and found out it is made right there in town!

Mind you it is a long way off before we will be able to afford a 60-100 foot custom boat like this but, hey thats what dreams are for right?

day five - last day...?

2010-07-12T00:08:00.000-07:00

On friday we were going to tour the Tillamook Cheese factory but my knee was hurting so bad that we decided to go home a day early. =(

So we packed up again and headed up the coast to Washington. One thing to remember is that as you go up the coast it may be only 30 - 50 miles to your next stop but the road is so windey (and sometimes foggy) that it can take hours to get there.

As we hit Long Beach Washington the sun finally came out! (we had not seen sun since the day we got to the beach) So we thought we would park the tent trailer on Matt's aunt and uncles lot in Ocean Side and play on the beach for an hour or so.

When we got there we saw that his aunt and uncle were up from California for the summer. After visiting with them for a bit we headed for the beach! Once there we thought it would be fun to have our own fire and eat our dinner out there.

We had so much fun we thought why not stay to see the sunset then camp with his aunt and uncle for the night and go home saturday! =)

day four - family

2010-07-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

I know i said this trip was just about us but sometimes you just have to take opportunities when they come.

On thursday we decided to more up the coast from Newport to Nehalem Bay State Park. One thing we learned on this trip is that ALL of Oregon's state parks along the coast are 100% reservations only. If you haven't planned ahead you have to wait and see if anyone has canceled or is leaving early.

We always got in but one guy in line had been trying for two days... After setting up in our new location we drove up to Sunset beach just 32 miles up the coast where Aunt Dorris and Uncle Knude's family was having their family reunion. We couldn't not go see them when they were SO close. We had so much fun playing in the water..

and Dave built a fire so we could all keep warm, cook hotdogs and roast marshmallows!

As you can see from the pictures it was not a sunny day but,
it was so fun to see them and spend a few relaxing hours on the beach.

day three - sightseeing

2010-07-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

On our third day we didn't have to change campgrounds so we enjoyed sleeping in and had a nice waffle breakfast.

Then we packed up sack lunches and headed out to the Sea Lion Caves.

On our way back we stopped by Seal Rocks to attempt a geocache and walk down to the beach.

Unfortunately the fog had gotten so thick and we were getting cold we decided to cancel going on the long walk down the hill to the beach.

So we decided to check out the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport.

Where we also saw some sea lions..

Then we finished our activities with a well deserved nap!

day two - change of location

2010-07-07T21:35:00.000-07:00

Day two after diving in clear lake we took a little nap (a must when camping) then took down the trailer and headed for the Oregon coast. We have a dive buddy that lives down here and he sent us an email letting us know of all the fun waterfalls and scenic byways we could see and take on our way to Newport from the lake. We stopped at a few that were right next to the road and had room for trailer parking.

We arrived in Newport and found a spot at the state park set up camp and had just enough time to make it to the beach for sunset.

summer vacation

2010-07-07T00:52:00.000-07:00

Matt and I set a goal this year to "vacation" more. Oh sure we have always taken vacations from work but for the most part we stay home and worked on stuff or we travel to/with family. Don't get me wrong family is great but in our 16 years of marriage I don't think we have gone on more then 4 vacations alone and they have all been weekend trips. So we are down in Oregon vacationing! Thanks to Randy and Lisa for letting us borrow their tent trailer we get to stay for a whole week!

We packed everything up over the weekend and took off at 10am Monday morning. After a few quick stops (gas, back home to fix the tail light, the dive shop, Costco, Safeway), and a medium length drive, we arrived at Clear Lake Resort in Oregon by 7:30pm. According to Google maps the trip should take about 6 hours with traffic from our house to the resort.

We had just enough time look out across the lake once, find a "rustic" campsite to park the trailer in and set up for the night.

After having some sandwiches and chips for dinner, we played a couple games and went to bed.

We started our first day by getting up at the crack of dawn (6am) and went for a brisk scuba dive (Lake temperature was 40°)

The lake is accurately named, visibility was VERY good (just a guess- 75' to 100')

Happy 16th!

2010-04-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

16 years ago today I married the love of my life!

love is in the air!

2010-02-04T20:31:00.000-08:00

i got my new DOWNEAST catalog today and i'm in love with most everything in it!

i mean, how cute is this cardigan?

and this shirt would be the perfect with said cardigan!

i think my bag/purse collection would be much more complete with this great bag.

i really like how they have used this necklace as a belt.

these are just a few of my favorite things. =)

how lazy do you think i am?

2010-01-05T19:26:00.000-08:00

for all of you not in the know, my nickname is Turkey. so no, i'm not so lazy that i haven't changed my background in over a year. i just thought it was a fitting background. =)

Dickson Christmas Party

2009-12-21T23:20:00.000-08:00

we had our Dickson Christmas party tonight over at Dode & Stephanie's house. they have a great house for get togethers, it has a living room and a family room. that way the kids can have fun in one room and the adults can visit in the other.

we started out the night with a great turkey dinner. while we all ate we called mom and dad on skype so they could talk with all the grandkids.

next we did the nativity with the kids acting it out.

William (Samuel the Lamanite) and Seth (a rogue cow)

Miriam and Savannah (sheep)

William (Joseph) and Jenna (Mary)

Jenna (Mary) and Ellie (Jesus)

Elizabeth (angel) Jared & Isaac (shepherds)

Allison, Anastaya & Lainey (wise women) Darcy (Jesus)

mom and dad (inn keepers)

Jacob (teenager)

Ellie (cute girl)

Grandma and Grandpa (??????)

it was so fun to get together as family and have mom and dad get to "join" us!

Dickson Fun!

2009-12-20T22:30:00.000-08:00

for the last 12 years the "dickson girls" have gotten together to make ornaments.

we each come up with an ornament, make a sample & a kit for each person participating. so when you leave you have 4 to 7 new ornaments for your tree! we have so much fun!

Stephanie makes homemade hoagie rolls and we all bring good sandwich makings.

she also makes a great dessert!

there is usually more eating and talking then crafting!

Stephanie is the one that always hosts the ornament party and Dode most years runs the daycare! this year Sheri, Stephanie, aunt Viv, myself and our good friend Robyn and her daughter all came to the party. at about 8:30pm Dode announced to the kids that "we should send aunt Janice to go get Randy & Lisa's kids so they could spend the weekend!" so next thing i knew myself and four of Dode's kids where in their big van headed to Coupeville (an hour and a half drive) to pick up Randy's four oldest kids.

we got back to Arlington at about 12:30am!

i had already told Stephanie's girls i would have a sleepover with them so i ended up sleeping in the girls room with 6 fun little girls!

we got to bed around 2am! =)
(i had gotten up for work that morning at 4:30am)

family fun

2009-12-12T23:21:00.000-08:00

so now that i have my saturdays free it gives me some time to spend with family! today i went out geocaching with Dode & Stephanie. we went out to the pilchuck tree farm to seek a cache that someone had dedicated to Stephanie "FarmGirl".

it was about a mile hike out to the cache.

as you can see we found it!

on our way to and from FarmGirls cache we looked for some micro caches. (i think micro caches should not be aloud in the woods!)

we all had a great time even though it was a bit cold!

after we got back to Dode's house the girls found that the small pond next to their house was frozen.

while out playing on the ice Miriam found some thin ice a "fell in". (the pond is only 6 or so inches deep) her nice sisters brought her in and put her in a hot bath to warm up. after running around for a while after her bath she thought her feet were still cold so what else is a girl to do?

(she fell a sleep!)

our route

2009-12-05T17:18:00.000-08:00

this is the route we took when we went to see mom and dad in Nauvoo.

we had so much fun and saw some great people

and landscape.

we also saw some things we had never seen before.

so why the long way home you ask

need i say more?!

Nauvoo

2009-12-02T22:31:00.000-08:00

They say "a picture is worth a thousand words."
So we'll let them do the talking. =)

new blog

2009-11-24T17:45:00.001-08:00

Dode and Stephanie have started blogging!

http://dorreldicksonfamily.blogspot.com/

sheri

2009-10-30T14:03:00.001-07:00

now that i have your attention- sheri has been updating her blog but for some reason it is not moving to the top of the list. so please take the time and go see all her fun post!!

test test

2009-10-29T18:38:00.001-07:00

is this thing working?

guess it must be me then! =)

The Trip towards Nauvoo

2009-10-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

For several months now, we have been planning a trip to Nauvoo, with Sheri and Joel. Them with their truck and fifth wheel and us with our van/camper. In the back of our van, we took out the middle seats and folded the back row into the floor. Placed a deluxe inflatable full size mattress in the back and put an ice chest and our suitcases at the foot.

In the planning stage, Sheri figured out that it would take them about 6 days to get to Nauvoo with their large trailer and small children. While they have a 3 month trip planned ahead of them, we only have 2 weeks of vacation. So it was decided that they would leave a couple days before us, and we would catch up with them somewhere in Montana. And as it turned out we caught up with them Sunday afternoon just outside of Bozeman, MT at the home a longtime family friend, Colette Crawford. Where she fed us a yummy Elk Steak Dinner, and allowed us use of her shower. (But not in that order)

Colette's husband Lonnie took Seth out for a ride on the tractor, next thing we knew Seth was steering the tractor with minimal help from Lonnie.

As you can see Seth had a great time.

We travled with Sheri and Joel all the next day and camped together in Rapid City

so we could all go see Mt. Rushmore!

We all had a great time traveling together!

Tuesday morning we parted ways with them so we could travel at "real" speeds, arriving at mom and dad's house in Nauvoo IL at 2am wednesday morning! =)

sheri's blog

2009-06-19T00:33:00.000-07:00

i just wanted to let you all know that sheri has started a blog!

http://woodsonwanderings.blogspot.com/

it's a boat time!

2009-06-10T23:58:00.000-07:00

we have been storing Matt's brothers boat at our house for the last 3 or 4 years. his brother only takes it out maybe one or two times each year, then it is promptly return to our side driveway. so the other day Matt called him up and told him either find it a new home or give us the keys!! to both of our shock he gave us the keys!

so three days later we took it out! the whole family, even Missy! this gave her a chance to wear her new life vest.

Matt started out by driving. we went up the Snohomish river in case we had any trouble we could float down. (the boat had not been used for almost a year.)

i loved siting back and enjoying the ride, but i really couldn't wait to drive the boat!

we saw lots of old boats along the river.....

this one has been righted at some point.

we didn't even notice this was a barge and not just the shore until our way back!

i was really shocked at how many boats had been "let go". (there were lots more than just these few)

we also saw some great scenery!

that's a hot air balloon!

it looked like the pilings were sprouting.

at the end of our two hour boat ride we even caught the sunset!

we had a great time and plan to do it again soon!

(you should come join us)

as you can see we had so much fun we tuckered out poor Missy! =)

my tree

2009-06-07T02:51:00.001-07:00

this Golden Chain tree is one of my favorite things about my yard!

sadly it is only great looking for about 3 days!

(just wanted to share my happy tree with you)

my dad!

2009-05-31T09:49:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday!

We love you!

weekend project!

2009-05-27T21:40:00.000-07:00

Matt and I decided it was time to organize the garage. When we moved BACK into our house we just "put" stuff in the garage. So other than a place to hang our scuba stuff it all had no home. Not that we have a lot of things, but it all took up the center of the floor!

We sat down in our camping chairs at the front of the garage and decided what "zones" we wanted/needed. This is what we came up with; scuba, computer, tools, garden and storage/camping. Then we mapped out the most practical & logical layout. Then the hard part, moving everything out and around! We cleaned it in stages- removing everything, sweeping then repurposing that zone for it's new use. At one point the garage was looking really good then we looked at the driveway!!

Hey things always look worse be for they get better, right?!?

As we went along designing each new space things really started to fall into place and it all just felt right. Like in the garden area I asked Matt to hang a bucket for my gloves. But I wanted it mounted sideways so as to not hold so many spiders! Then we found it was handy for more than just gloves!

It works great for storing extension cords! We also mounted a milk crate to the wall for little things witch gave us room to store lawn care stuff under it. Next we decided that the shelf on the left of the garage was in the way for hanging our scuba stuff so we took it out and moved it to the right side witch then gave us more useable storage space all together.

We also moved the work bench out from the back, where it always got blocked and was not useable. It is now out with our scuba area so Matt can work on our gear with out having to climb over boxes.

That then freed up space so the air compressor and tool box could move to the right side in the back.

So then there was room for Matt to put up his computer desk I ejected from the house. Now he has his own space to work on peoples computers. (And it's not all in my living room! =] )

All in all, I would say it turned out pretty good!!

And we could still park a car in there too if we wanted!

15 years together!

2009-04-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

in honor of our 15th wedding anniversary today

go fly a kite!

2009-04-08T21:50:00.000-07:00

Matt, Sheri , Joel, Seth and I celebrated spring by dusting off the kite!

(i have had this same kite for 17 years!)

---

we even skipped a few rocks! =)

PICTURE TAG!

2009-02-25T17:46:00.001-08:00

1. Go to your my documents/my pictures
2. Go to your sixth file
3. Go to your sixth picture
4. Blog about it
5. Tag six people

this is mom and dad just as they got in the truck to pull away from my house leaving on there mission!

i tag 1. robyn, 2. lisa lyon, 3. sid, 4. aunt karen, 5. tera, 6. aunt viv

a five way give away

2009-02-19T10:25:00.000-08:00

I found this on Shayla's blog and thought it sounded like fun---hope you all agree! I'm excited to see who the first 5 lucky ducks will be!
The first 5 to respond to this win something from me! But...you have to do this:

Repost this to your own blog and offer the same thing to your first 5 responders.
The first 5 who repost it to their own blog will get something made by me! My choice. For you!
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make
2.What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year-no guarantees on when this year, but sometime in 2009!
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. the possibilities are endless.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The first 5 people post this on their blog and leave a me comment telling me they did, win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! Sounds like fun right?!? So let's PLAY!

where does it all come from?!

2009-02-17T07:57:00.000-08:00

so as many of you know Matthew and I put our house up for sale in Oct. 2007. (we want to travel the world doing scuba diving.) it took some time but we did find a buyer and they wanted to be in by Christmas. so because we would be traveling light we had a huge estate sale and sold EVERYTHING! we keep about 15 boxes of stuff like Christmas decorations, my floral supplies and some keepsakes. but other then our clothes and bed we sold it ALL. then the buyers asked to extend it until Jan. we were a bit disappointed we didn't get to spend our last Christmas in our house but things happen.(we had moved into a room at mom and dad's until everything was taken care of.) so as all of us do we put off cleaning and taking away the rest of the trash from the house until the last day. just as we were puling out of the driveway at 4pm the day of closing we got "the call" letting us know the sale had fallen thru! i told Matthew just to keep on driving because i was not ready to face our empty house yet.

we stayed away from our house for about 6 weeks. then we thought maybe if we painted some of the rooms it would help it to sell. so we moved our bed (just the mattresses as we had gotten rid of the frame) into the living room so we could paint all the rooms. then as you all know the housing market really dropped! so we took our house off the market. and here we sit until it comes back up. (in two three years?!? maybe?)

so back to my question "where does it all come from?" how come my house gets so messy? we sold almost everything. how can what we do have left take up so much space??!!

we may never know the answer to some of life's questions. =)

2009-01-07T23:40:00.001-08:00

why not blog?!?

2009-01-07T02:35:00.000-08:00

so i can't tell you how many times as i'm doing something "fun" i think "i should blog about this". but then when i get home it never happens!

like....

december 2nd my birthday dinner. we went out with family to the outback stake house. that would have been fun to blog about but no, i didn't like any of the pictures of me! (i even had a tiara on!)

or how about all the times i have gotten to gather with "the girls" so i could do their toenails. that might have been a good one!? but no i never remember to even take the camera! and who would want to look at our feet anyway?

then there was the time we took the truck out to "play" with it in the snow. but alas i'm not a creative enough writer to make that the lest bit fun for anyone to read.

then on dec. 22nd we all went to dinner for allison's birthday, then went tubing at grandpa & grandma's! but i already put up a video of us doing that! who wants to keep reading and seeing the same thing over and over?!?

but Christmas! now that would be fun to share right? well you would think so but as i sat down to blog about it nothing! i mean all we did was play some christmas trivia (hard to show that in a photo). we opened gifts (wish we would have thought to even get the camera out). we had breakfast over at dode's and to get there we (matt) had to shuttle everyone over from a nearby store parking lot! we (joel, dode & jacob) even had to shovel out sheri and joel's truck just so the could get to the store parking lot (does anyone even know where the camera is?!?). we played games and had a great dinner aunt viv made! (who wants to put that on hold to take any photos?)

but new year eve! AND it's matt's birthday! how could i go wrong with a blog about that?started out the holiday by going out to lunch (me and sheri & joel and viv & dave and g & g). we (matt, janice & joel) went diving then we (matt, janice, joel, sheri & seth) all watched the space needle fireworks across the water. we even had cupcakes for matt's b-day! but you know how it goes. we got home late, slept in late, went out to lunch (matt, janice, sheri, joel, seth, robyn & her kids), came home and played on the wii. took a nap! we had a great new years eve & day!! and still no blogging was done!

so as you can see i really do think and mean to blog a lot more then i do it just never works out!!!

so there you have it! THAT is why my blog is not all the blog it could be!

pike place market

2009-01-04T20:05:00.000-08:00

today matt and i went to pike place market to be with his sister and her kids. Tiare (matt's niece) is in town from hawaii and this was our chance to see her before she went home. we had lots of fun looking all through the market and visiting with everyone.

while we were there tiare got the chance to be a "fish catcher" at the fish market!

Snow Day Tubing at Grandma and Grandpa's

2008-12-20T18:28:00.000-08:00

Diving Sunrise Reef

2008-12-11T21:55:00.000-08:00

the new missionaries are on their way!!!

2008-12-04T08:28:00.000-08:00

mom and dad left my house in everett at 8:15 am dec. 4th.

Christmas fun

2008-11-29T11:07:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Darcee Michelle Dickson

2008-11-29T07:47:00.000-08:00

Randy & Lisa's baby arrived Nov. 24th at 10:30pm, she weighed 7 lbs and was 21 inches long.

2008-11-27T01:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

feeding time...

2008-11-12T00:21:00.000-08:00

Janice in the Dome

2008-11-11T23:48:00.000-08:00

2008-11-06T20:18:00.000-08:00

Aquarium Diving

2008-11-04T22:20:00.000-08:00

as of to day i am an aquarium diver! thats right i get to dive in the "dome" at the seattle aquarium. what do i do while diving there you want to know? well i will be volunteering 4 hours of my time every other week for the next year. while there i get to..... wait for it.... its lots of fun.... everyone will be jealous.... you will be bagging to be a skilled diver like me.... ok here it is.... clean windows and vacuum fish poop off of the bottom!!! i know you all wish you were me. but really it should be fun and something different and a new challenge. i mean think about it how do you scrub a window while floating in the water? every time you push hard into a good scrub all you do is shove your self off. also you need more then one "tool" while working but it just doesn't make sense to keep going to the surface to get the next "tool". so now i get to master puling my self in with a suction cup in one hand and scrubbing with the other all the while holding on to all my "tools" so they don't float a way on me. and if that is not enough i am on a hookah system. that means i get my air through a hose from the surface. so think about what happens to the garden hose when you wash the car. so as i go about doing my "chores" i have to remember if i turn right two times i now need to go left two times not to mention watch my buddy and his line. and the vacuuming, well they have this really strong water vacuum and when i say strong i mean keep fish and small children clear. so while cleaning the poop off the bottom i have to try and not suck up the 1/2 inch of sand on the bottom of the exhibit. the fun "tools" i get to use are a kitchen scrubber, an ice scraper and a car wash mitt. so after getting out of the dome today after being in there for about an hour trying to learn all i need to do i realized that i really did not even see all the cool fish around me. you know wolf eels, sturgeons, rockfish, skates and SHARKS! that right i did not notice any of the dozen sharks. well maybe next time.

random family photos

2008-10-23T20:56:00.000-07:00

sheri's wedding

gaylene's wedding
palmer lake (not sure when)
g&g dickson with mom & dad's grandkids
baird reunion in enumclaw

i was looking at my photo library and thought i would share some fun pictures i found.

i've been tagged?!

2008-10-06T23:20:00.000-07:00

i was tagged by my cousin, jamie

7 random facts about me!

1- i have a scar on my left leg from climbing though a barbed wire fence waring roller skates.

2- i have a fear of needles, as in i would rather have the flu for a week than get a flu shot. i know, i know!

3-i can't stand to let my hands touch skin when they are all pruney.

4-i strongly dislike scrap booking. i like being crafty just not scrap booking.

5-i have almost cut out soda all together!

6-i have never broken any bones but have the most extensive brace collection of anyone i know.

7-one of my dream jobs would be being a cop.

milestone

2008-10-03T22:12:00.000-07:00

well i got my promotion! i do not have any details at this time, so i will write more later.

moving up?

2008-09-30T21:25:00.000-07:00

i have been in the process of applying for a promotion at safeway. currently i am a p.i.c. (person in charge) but i would like to be a 2nd assistant. to do so i had to take a personality quiz then if i passed i would get to interview. there are 5 openings, 10 people tested and only me and 3 others passed. today was my big interview and (if i do say so my self) i nailed it!! not sure when i will know if they picked me but i do know i did all i could. sheri even came over to help me pick the right tie. =)

scooby divers hull cleaning

2008-09-30T17:25:00.000-07:00

well matt and i are starting something new. we have taken over the clients of a zinc replacement business. what is that you ask? well all the good metal on the bottom of boats needs protected and if not protected it will corrode. zinc is a sacrificial metal that is mounted to the bottom of the boat. so now all i have to do is weed through all 200+ files and make a game plan. the previous owner did not keep a reliable schedule or good records. hope we can make a good go of this!

okay, i'm blogging are you happy?

2008-09-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

just thought i would try out this new fangled blog thing. :)