Sunshine, beautiful sunshine!

What a beautiful day we are having here in Kent, WA. Woke to beautiful sunshine and it is supposed to be like this all week.

A few things ~~

Welcome to all my followers! I so like to have people stop by and read my ramblings. And I really like comments. I enjoy reading lots of different blogs and try to leave comments when I have the time so feel free to leave me comments too.

I have been asked recently "what is the bone yard?" In a nutshell it is the carnival lingo for where the trailers (condo's for employees), travel trailers and motor homes are parked for a carnival site. You can read more about it and see some pictures from the Lacey boneyard in archives of my blog (not sure if late March or early April). I will try to get some pictures of the bone yard while here in Kent. We are on a grassy spit that runs along Willis Road right off of Highway 167. The carnival (lot) is 7 blocks from here.

Kent Cornucopia Days ~

The carnival opens on Thursday at 3:00 p.m., Friday at 2:00 p.m., Saturday at 11:00 a.m. and Sunday at noon.

4th of July at Ft. Lewis ~~

What a long and busy day we had. We left for Ft. Lewis at 8:45 Sunday morning. We arrived at the base at 9:20 a.m. I started work right away. First thing on the agenda was to get payday out of the way. About half of us have automatic deposit, which is really the way to go as we get paid on Friday's, and the rest get checks that we pay on Sunday's. After getting that out of the way we got on to the business of the day...making a fun 4th of July celebration for everyone. We opened the carnival at 11:00 a.m. with overcast skies but no rain in sight. We had heard rumors that it was supposed to get to the 70's...don't know how hot it actually got as the sun came and went throughout the day. But no rain fell ~ something we were all thankful for. My day consisted of working in the office, selling tickets, giving breaks to Ron & Tressa (the other ticket seller), and Debbie in the office. We were steady ALL day long. It was definitely a good day for the carnival. During my lunch break (30 minutes) I walked around to some of the other vendors that were there. It was fun to see what people were selling. I didn't buy anything but it was still fun to look.

I am happy to say that Wendy came back on Saturday. Everyone was so relieved to see her. Wendy & Kollin made lots and lots of cotton candy. In the Burger Kitchen was Wendy, Joel, Kollin, Sophie & Nicole. I was prepared to work in there if needed but the five of them handled the crowd really well. The kitchen was busy from the time we opened till we closed at 11:30 p.m. A couple of times I saw Wendy & Kollin making more cotton candy. No telling how many bags they sold but sold them they did. Debbie & I asked Wendy to bring us something to eat at the end of the day if there were any leftovers ~ I am happy to say there were none ~ that makes for a good day in the Burger Kitchen.

The best part of 4th of July for me was watching the fire works that were displayed. Debbie & I stepped out of the office and watched the spectacular show. Ron heard them but could not see them from the ticket box. I wished he had been able to stand with me and watch but it was not to be. I think this was the first year since 4th of July 1996 that we did not watch the fireworks together. Maybe next year.

Once the carnival closed at 11:30 p.m. Debbie and I counted money, made deposits, did the books and finished payroll. It takes just as much work to put on a one day show as it does a 3 or 4 day show as far as paperwork goes. At 4:10 a.m. we were ready to send payroll and the books via email to the corporate office when we lost power! Not a good thing. Debbie called Kenny on the radio, yelled we needed power. Kenny then yelled at Tom, get that generator back on, payroll needs to be transmitted! We never saw anyone move so fast as Tom did at that moment. Later we found out he thought we were done in the office and people were standing around so he gave them something to do. Believe me, he will never cut power to the show office again without double checking with us. We can laugh about it now but we were not laughing at 4:15 in the morning. Once we had power back on we redid the email and sent it on its way, closing the door to the office at 4:40 a.m. Debbie was on her way to her friends and I headed to the show van to wait for the guys. About 5 minutes later Ron asked me if I had the keys to the show van....NO, they were locked in the office. I quickly called Kenny and then called Debbie to come back. She was almost out the front gate of the base when we called. She quickly turned around and came back so we could unlock the office and get the keys to the show van. Believe me, I won't forget those keys again. At 5:00 a.m. we headout the gate of the base back to the boneyard. Another successful show and some very tired workers. We had been up for 22 hours by the time we crawled into our nice comfortable bed.

Monday and our move to Kent ~~

Ron and I slept till 10:00 a.m. when we got up to hearing Kenny say "I need to talk to Alice about driving the show van to Kent." Ron and I just looked at each other and up to start our day. Four hours of sleep brought some relief but we were still a little tired. I went and talked to Kenny. I had heard him right...Shawn had his own truck and so I was needed to drive the show van to Kent. No problem I thought. Ron & I readied the motor home for the move to Kent. He headed out of the bone yard making a stop to dump our tanks. I headed to the post office to drop off a box to Verizon (our wireless card was not working correctly so Verizon sent me a new one and I had to return the old one ~ thank goodness for prepaid mailers). Rudy was my only passenger. He has worked for the carnival since 1990. He runs the Lolli Swings and he and Ron are the primary ones to set up and tear down the Lolli's at each site. After a couple of missed turns I found my way to Highway 167 and headed to Kent. What was supposed to be a 20 minute drive took me 30 minutes. I drove right to the bone yard and was surprised that Ron was not here yet. I quickly made a phone call, thinking what happened now. Well, Ron saw Safeway and decided he needed some of their cookies (his favorite) so he stopped. He was a nice guy though and bought me a bag of cherries. Only $1.99 a lb with your club card, $5.99 a lb without it. Ron arrived about 10 minutes later. Ron backed the motor home into the spot Terry had assigned us but we were on such a tilt that he moved us to another spot. We are on a lovely flat spot with a tree right outside our door. If it wasn't for the noise of the traffic on Willis Road I would think we were parked in a nice grassy campground. I am very aware of the noise on the road during the day but it sure didn't bother me in the night.

This morning we woke to beautiful sunshine...can I say that enough...I just love the sunshine! And hope it stays for a long, long time. Heard rumors that it is supposed to get into the 80's this week. I sure hope so. We slept in this morning and then had a lazy morning of reading in the sun. After a lunch of tuna sandwiches Ron headed off to work - set up time for the carnival. I decided to balance my checkbook and pay some bills. I am so thankful we are back on track with our bills. Thank you Lord for providing us work.

Tonight I am making bbq'd chicken with a pasta salad and green beans on the side. Tomorrow we will both be working finishing up set up for a Thursday start. I am definitely enjoying my day off.

Praise Report & Prayer Requests ~~

1. For safety at the 4th of July carnival for all the workers and attendees.

2. For coninued good health for Ron & I. We both weighed in today and we have both lost 20 lbs since 3/21 when we left Blaine. It feels good to get in our walks and to see the numbers on the scale going down.

3. For the many opportunities the Lord is giving to us to share about Him. Debbie gave each of us a lanyard that says "I love Jesus." Ron's is blue and mine is pink. We wear them while we are working as it holds our scan card (employee card for Funtastic Shows) along with our daily time sheet. While working the ticket booth on Sunday I received a few comments from people saying they liked my lanyard. Just another way to spread the news of Jesus Christ.

4. For the wonderful break we had at home last week. It was so good to see family & friends, get lots of hugs from Miss Opal and have a few days of relaxation.

1. For continued safety for all of us as we set up, work and tear down another carnival. This week the Red Unit is joining us to give us an extra hand so we are about 40 people.

2. For Theresa as she begins her chemo treatments this week. She had a good week last week and even worked a few hours on Saturday and Sunday in Salem, OR. And for Rick as he stands by her side during this journey they are facing.

3. For more opportunities to share God's love with fellow co-workers. Yesterday, one of the ride jocks gave me a big hug and told me I reminded him of his Momma, a Jesus loving woman. Made me feel good that His love shines through me.

Where we go from here ~~

Next Monday, July 12th, we go to Olympia for Lakefair. The fair is at the Capital on the lawn by the lake. Sorry I can't be more specific but I can't find the address.

The schedule for the week is a busy one. We will set up Monday afternoon and Tuesday. The carnival is open Wednesday thru Sunday.
Wednesday is 7 rides or games for $15.00
Thursday is unlimited rides for $25.00 - will definitely be a busy day for us.
Friday thru Sunday regular cost $0.75 a ticket. Best to come Wednesday or Thursday for the best prices.

After Lakefair we go to Portland for one week. All we know at this time is that we will be back at the Portland Shop. Not sure what venue we will be working. As soon as I know I will post it.

Guess that's all for now. Thanks for stopping by and visiting for awhile. Feel free to ask questions or leave a comment. Remember due to past spam messages I now moderate my comments. I post them as quick as I can.

Take care and God Bless. Alice