Working with Leonard

So I work at Leonard's Metal, on the corner of Western and West Main. Yep, I manufacture airplane parts. I'm in the aerospace industry. I do NOT work on an assembly line, although I wokr in the work center called assembly, it's different...really. Now I am going to try and explain as simply and as easily as I possibly can what I do. It may be difficult for you lay people, but try to follow along.
Leonards Metal is divided into different work centers. I work in work center 40/ assembly. Here it is. That's Jack, he is pretty funny and loves to talk. And the reason it looks so empty is becuase this was taken at 5 in the morning on Saturday. I normally work 6:30 -3 with two 10 min breaks at 9 and 1:30 and a half hour lunch at 11, but I can work overtime; so I can work 5-9 on Saturdays if I want. Not too many people come in but there are a few of us. The other work centers in the plant make the parts that we put together. Here is a view from the other side of the plant. My computer last summer was on the very opposite side of w/c 40 and I had to climb these stiars a zillion times a day. Seriously. For instance, I was working on these parts we just call -1, that involve a part called a clip and a nut. The nuts are manufactured here at the Auburn plant but the clips are made at another LMI out of state. So anyways all the parts have crazy part numbers like 4Z841933W92-56 yeah, something like that. We just call them by the last numbers after the dash sometimes. LMI makes parts for different companies like Boeing, Vought, Sikorsky, Canada Air... the list goes on. They range from little parts to some of the bigger parts that my work center makes. These -1 that I worked on cost $6, doesn't sound like a lot but they ordered 7,569 so it adds up real fast. And yes I was sitting there for 2 and a half days working on these parts. All I did was squish the little nut into the hole on the clip using what is called a squeeze. There are many different kinds of squeezes. Here Cindy is working with a bigger type of squeeze. I also use drills and deburr parts (that's when after you drill throught metal there are usually little chunks that are stuck to the hole you drilled and get in the way when you try to put a rivet through it so I make sure to eliminate those.) I also work a lot at the bonding table using fancy glues and sealants and cool chemicals and paints. There we have attached velcro to parts that were going to be used for curtain holders. Every part is wierd and has some random purpose they look nothing like what you think. Everything is usually painted after it is installed in the plane. Oh, that is good thing to bring up. There are no planes in this factory. We just make the little parts and ship them off to other companies who put the little pieces all together. I have worked on a Blackhawk wing before, but that's as close I got to seeing anything that resembled a plane.
I think that is all, I hope that all makes sense. There was a Leonard at one point but he sold they company to someone else and they just chose to keep the name. This past week I was sick on Tuesday so I didn't get to go to work. Don't I look pathetic? You should feel sorry for me since I had some dumb 24 hour bug and I was up late Monday night throwing up. I'm great now! So yeah, thats where I work. I hope that cleared up some questions and now you have a better idea of where I work and what I do. I really do enjoy working there as much as it seems wierd and random. The people are really awesome and a ton of fun. I'm not sure there are any other better jobs for a college student to work in the summer. You should all try it!

Info dump

A lot has happened so I have a lot to say. Lets see, a week ago I went to a wedding on Saturday in Bellingham, very nice. Hmm that's all I have to say about that. For Father's Day a bunch of the relatives came over for a barbeque and activites. As me and all my cousins were chopping down on chips before the burgers were even done we discovered something a little disturbing. You see that thing in the frog's mouth? That's not a dish scrubby thing, its a chip. Yep, a quacamole chip found amoung the other nice lime green triangle shaped chips. Were not sure if it is actually a chip but we found it in the chip bag. Later the whole family decided to try something new. We wanted to try letterboxing. I had never heard of it, probably no one else has. Here we are setting off on our adventure. It is difficult to explain but it is basically a scavenger hunt with out a prize and any joe blow can play as long as he has the clues and a park nearby where the clues are already placed. I guess this is a world wide thing, we actually met someone as we were out looking for the clues who has been doing this for years across the US. Here is one of the boxes under a log. Inside is a pad of paper on which you are supposed to stamp your initials. Anyways, while we are out on this trail looking for clues I glance up to see not just a man with out a shirt on, but an old man in a speedo. Actually it wasn't really a speedo it had to have been a thong. Sorry for the visual image but I actually saw this in real life. Not only did we see him once but he kept going back and forth on the same trail! I had to see him four times!!! Ahhhh! What is this world coming to?! My whole family thought it was pretty funny, it was really hard not to laugh out loud! Ick, this is just gives me the heebie jeebies thinking about it.
New subject. I started work again on Monday at Leonard's Metal in Auburn. This is where I worked last summer and I love it. I get to manufacture airplane parts and work with some really cool people! Here is a picture of Mt Rainer on my way to work at 6 in the morning! I will put up some more pictures about work later.
This past Friday and Saturday my family had a garage sale. Wow those are so much work! Unfortuantely I forgot to take pictures, sorry I'm slacking off.

Home on the Farm

So I am back home, back home with dial-up. I have this long blog to post but it takes way to long to put pictures up, and I don't like blogs with out pictures. I miss Centralia but it is also good to be home. Except that my room is a diaster since my family has been putting junk in it for two years now. My next blog involves a wedding, letterboxing, and a man in a speedo. So stay tuned and have pity on me having to deal with the slothfulness of our pc. I will post as soon as I find a good place with wireless. It has officially been 20 min. since I signed in. Grrrrr!

Farewell to Centralia

So today is my last day living in Centralia. I've never had to move away from a place where I had close friends. This is something new to me and I can say right now I don't like moving. So I am left with figuring out how to say goodbye. No one really seems to know. In the movies it is always dramatic, tear jerking. I think of Gone With the Wind and Casablanca type movies. But I am not a dramatic girl, I really don't like sappy movies, and I hate crying. So what I am supposed to do!!!! How do you leave your classmates that you have poured into and encouraged, you helped build dreams together, you laughed and cried with them. What about the kids on Sunday and Wednesday? What are they supposed to do? Who will pour into their lives and be an example of how a Christian is supposed to live? Who will give them advice about friends and answer their questions about God? And then what do I do with the Willeys? Ah man, what about the Willerys. My family for two years, what will I do with out Sunday lunches? I hope you will manage with out peanut butter cookies and banana bread. Especially Julianna, I don't know of anyone else that will celebrate random spontaneous day with me! I have come to know Centralia better than my own town. It's been my home and now I have to leave. I know God has something for me at home, but I wish I didn't have to leave Centralia. it's hard leaving your friends (especially when you are the only one leaving) but God has plans for them here in Centralia, I don't know why I have to be the only one to be called away. I really have grown so much and learned a ton from everyone here, don't worry about me forgetting anything, it's all become a part of me.
I really want to give a shout out to the Willeys because they are some of the most amazing people in the world,
The Willeys:
Roger and Robin-thanks for your wisdom, for opening your home to me and making me feel like I was a part of the family
Julianna-um, what can I say to you? You have really given so much to me (mostly food) but you are like your parents, wise and insightful. You are so much fun, definitely random and spontaneous.
Jessica- thanks for your friendship and inviting me along on your random errands. I love your honesty and hearing your perspective. You are a hot tamale!
Jonathan-thanks for being the brother I never had! I had a lot of fun with you around; you have a ton of talent! You need to do a concert closer to where I live!
Marianna-well I wish you had lived at home this past year so I could have really gotten to know you. You have amazing blogging skills and thanks for buying me tea!
To GTC-anything that I have done in the past two years is because of what you have done and because of you guys challenging me and telling me I can do it. Thanks is not enough, I look forward to great things happening in GTC!
To everyone at Destiny- thanks for bringing me into your church, thanks for letting me teach your children and believing that I was capable of more than just teaching. Thanks for all your prayers and support! I will miss having such a close church family.
It's been said that change is good, change equals growth, and growth is good... right? Well I want to grow, but it's lame that the change is me leaving what I love. I will continue to pray for the people that have made an impact in my life these past years and I look forward to seeing you all again. I feel like I have not said enough, there is just too much I can say. Here's looking at you...




P.S. I will still have my blog so please check it and leave me a comment! I won't be able to update as often since we only have dial-up at my house, but I will try as often as I can!

Urban Camping

Before I go on to explain urban camping I need to give props to a couple of girls in my Wednesday night class. Makayla and Nancy Piepgras sang "Breakfast" by the Newsboys at their all school talent show yesterday. They were wonderful! There was quite an assortment of talent. One girl did an Oriental fan dance, a little boy did tap dancing, and another girl did a ribbon dance and of course there was the usual singing and choreographed dances. They were all pretty good, I didn't really get the fan dance though. So good job girls! I am proud of you!
Urban camping. Well let me tell you the events leading up to our urban camping experience just for dramatic effect. My second year class, Brent Kintz, Kacie Bates, Kim Bowen, MaryBeth Kraemer and myself, all planned to hang out Tuesday night for one last hurrah. It started out great because Brent gave us all flowers and sang for us. Then he surprised us even more by taking us out to dinner where he had more flowers for us. (He is such a gentleman.) Well after dinner we could not decided what to do, we almost went to Canada but decided to save that for later. We then agreed on roasting smores over a bonfire. We couldn't find a good place to have a bonfire so we ended up going to the church, taking a bunch of chairs and sitting on the roof. Yep, we roasted marshmallows with a little candle torch. We got a little bored later and started throwing marshmallows at random people walking on the street below. It was pretty funny until a cop started circling the building. We quickly decided it was time to go which ended up being a good thing because just as we were leaving Jonathan Willey, Kevin Emerson, and Red Williamson (aka Aardvark Arsenal) were just coming back from a concert they did and became a prime target for the last of our smore supplies. A marshmallow fight was a fun way to end the night. Urban camping was a great experience, definitely different than the real thing but what can you do when you are in an urban setting with out a bonfire?

New Addition to the House

Well today me and Julianna upgraded. Julianna (my wonderful roommate) invested in a Maytag washer and dryer. Oh yeah. It was finally delivered today, and boy does it look cool! First of all, as you can see they are rather tall. That is because Julianna got pedestals to go with them. The pedestals are actually cool drawers that open and have a shelf you can put your laundry basket on and they have dividers in them to help you sort your laundry. That is not the only cool thing. If you move your attention to the strange wire thing on the top of the dryer (the one to the right) that is actually this shoe rack that goes in the dryer so that you don't hear your shoes banging around for an hour. Which brings me to selling point number three. Drying time is about an average of 30 minuets! That's correct, you heard me, 30 minuets! And the washer is about the same. It all depends on what you have the settings on. Another cool feature is that they are energy efficient, so the energy cost is only about $25 a year!! They both have a ton of cool options for your loads. For the past year we have only had a washer but no dryer, so I have been drying all my clothes on a drying rack. I am thrilled (even if I am leaving in less than a week) to finally have a new washer and dryer!
On the subject of cool appliances and gadgets I just want everyone to know I invested in a Schick Quatro for women and it has changed my life! Wow, you have some smooth skin after using it!
And a random fortune I got:
What a novel thought.

GRADUATION!!!!!

Graduation, the final stage of education. Where little girls become women, and little boys become men. GTC's commencement services began at 6 at Destinay Christian Center on June 10, 2007. I was so excited and yet sad at the same time. It is alwas fun though. At GTC they always make an end of the year video to show some pictures of what we have done. All the graduates look forward to it. The directors, Lindsey and Dustin, give out the intern of the year award, which went to Brittany Smiley and Kacie Bates this year. This graduation was a little bit extra special because it is Lindsey Bates last year as director. She is getting married in the fall and will be moving to Bellevue so we had a special time to honor her ten years of service. Thanks Lindsey for all you have done! I would not be who I am with out you! I'll miss you tons!When all the graduates are called up to the stage, we get a little gift bag which has our class gift (ours was a sweet Fossil watch), a group picture from dinner theatre, a gift from Pastor Bill, and our favorite friends books. To end the ceremony Pastor Bill has us gather around a table and we make a salt covenant, which says that we commit to remaining pure the rest of our lives. I didn't cry at all until at the end when everyone was finding their families, I saw my little sister in her Army uniform. She had drove all the way from Seattle to see me! I had to shed a few tears. Now I will be moving back home on Thursday so I have a packed schedule of visiting friends before I leave. I will make sure to put up some pictures of our get togethers and I will definately put up a farewell Centralia blog on my last day.

Blessaway

Blessaway has finally come and gone. This is GTC's final retreat before we all graduate. Everyone goes to Ocean Shores and stays at the Canterbury Inn which is amazing. Tradition has it that every year we rent mopeds and drive around on the beach and have a huge barbeque at which we feast on kabobs. I love it. Mopeds are one of the coolest things ever invented. Except that mine kept randomly dying on me and the blinkers and speedometer didn't work. But hey, I still had fun! Carissa crashed into a grassy ditch while trying to turn around. That was pretty funny to watch, she was alright after she got out. The kabobs are some of the finest in all of Ocean Shores. They're packed with steak, chicken, pineapple, onions, peppers, and mushrooms and grilled to perfection by our very own Ryan Bates. Yummy in my tummy! On one of the nights, the first year students make a presentation to the second year interns to bless them for all their hard work. This class gave one of the best gifts ever, a handmade book with a blessing from each of the students in it. We also blessed Pastor Bill and Miss Becca as well as Lindsey since this is her last year with GTC. And no blessaway is complete with out playing a game of mafia, it's usually fun except that I am always a townie and no one ever believes me. We also play other random games like dominoes or some card games. Everyone had a fun time relaxing and just blessing each other before we all graduate. On our way home we stopped at Dairy Queen and took our 15 passenger van (affectionately called Marsha) through the drive through and got ice cream for everyone. Tonight is the graduation banquet so I need to go dry my hair!

Missions Trip to Jamaica!

Ah, home sweet home! Well I just returned from a two week missions trip to Jamaica on Monday. And no I did not get much of a tan. We sure had a blast though! We got go to a lot of schools and do their morning devotions. We did a couple rallies and had several times of just going out and talking to people which was easy since they speak English (although it was difficult to understand sometimes because of their accent or they were speaking padawa-thats their Jamaglish) We stayed in the Assemblies of God Bible College in Christiana. We got to eat some cool food like goat curry, ackee and saltfish (ackee is their national fruit that is actually poisonous until it pops open, it tastes like scambled eggs-no joke!) We traveled all around the island including going to Montego Bay, Kingston, Negril, Mandeville and other small towns. It was a great time to be able to make an impact on the youth of Jamaica. We all enjoyed it, but are definately happy to be back.

On Wednesday the whole team left for our final getawaylblessaway at Ocean Shores. So I will have tose pictures up shortly. Tomorrow night is our graduation banquet and then the actual ceremony is on Sunday. It's almost over!! :(