Goodbye 2009....Don't let the door hit you on the way out

This year was tough,  for a lot of people.  I hope to never have another one like it.  I thought 2008 was hard, 2009 was worse.  The economy is horrible, and the Housing market is a mess.  Gloom and Doom are everywhere.  People losing their jobs and homes constantly.  I was hopeful when the year started out, but not much good happened. Goodbye, 2009 I hope to never have another year like this again.

The country is hoping for a much brighter 2010.

Nosy Jim

Jim is our neighbor. I'm not sure of his last name, we have lived across the street from each other for 6+ years and we only refer to him as "Nosy Jim" because he is. The other day, Derek wanted me to walk to the mailbox with him as he rode his scooter. As I was coming outside Derek was across the street talking to Nosy Jim and riding his scooter through his freshly mopped garage and driveway. Yes, he mops his garage and driveway, often. Jim comes over to tell me that some of our roofing came off probably during the wind/rain storm we had last week. I hadn't noticed anything and it happened about 10 days ago. Jim pointed to where it was and I couldn't see anything. He said, " you have to come to stand right here, and you have to get just the right angle and look right between those two trees...do you see it now?" Barely! I don't think anyone else would have noticed it except maybe a home inspector climbing around on our roof looking for problems. 

 The first time we met Nosy Jim was when we were moving in. He came over to introduce himself and tell us that one of our bricks was crooked in our entryway. I never would have noticed this, but they were still putting the finishing touches on our house so we had them fix the very slightly crooked brick. Over the years Jim has told us that Filthy Croatian immigrants built our house. He doesn't like Croatians (another story) How dare those Croatians? I honestly thought they were Mexicans. They spoke Spanish pretty well and they had dark hair and looked Mexican, I don't think I would know Croatian if I saw one, but he does. I really didn't care who built the house, just so they did a good job. He also told us that before our house was finished (before we took possession) that one night some people walked all through the house, they walked all the way through the upstairs and down. He couldn't get a good look because it was dark. When he told us this, I honestly didn't care because it wasn't our house or our problem yet. Whatever could happen was still the builder's responsibility. It turns out those people were Curtis and Marilyn Johnson. How dare those nosy people? 

When we first moved in Jim had an Armored Knight right outside his front door. It was kind of odd and didn't go with his stucco house with desert landscaping. Everyone that came to our house said "what's up with the knight?" From the very beginning, we suspected there was surveillance hidden in the knight. He was so dang nosy. The HOA told him he needed to get rid of it. He said he would, but the funny thing before he could rid of it someone beat him to it and stole it right off his front porch. It looked kind of expensive too. Maybe it was a Croatian that took it. He also knocked on our door to tell us that there were scorpions on our block wall. He and our other neighbor Kevin had been going around the neighborhood with black lights looking for scorpions and they found some on our block wall. They suggested that I get a black light, find the scorpions, catch them, and put them in a jar. No thanks, I don't have time for that and that is why I have the pest control come. Besides Dax is already terrified of scorpions he would lose it if he knew we were scorpion hunting at our house. 

 Nosy Jim also likes to complain a lot. Like how awful the traffic is behind his house (right in front of the school) for 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the afternoon while it is drop off and pick up time. That's what you get for living right next to an elementary school. He doesn't like people in AZ, they can't do anything right like fix his something special yada yada corvette. I think he should leave then. The problem is he has way too much free time. Anyone who has time to mop their driveway, notice crooked bricks on the neighbors' house, and broken roofing when you stand at the right angle, and have time to scorpion hunt needs something to do. Maybe he can come to mop my driveway and garage. I barely have time to mop the interior much less the exterior.

Holiday Fun

Trey and Derek with Santa. Dax was off with his friend Ethan, and we didn't get any pictures of them.

 The Hancock PTA was having a little Holiday Event this last weekend. My neighbor was the sponsor and it was all FREE so we decided to check it out. They had bounce houses, Horse Drawn Hay rides, a petting zoo, pictures with Santa, crafts, goodies, and Hot chocolate, which Derek has about 6 cups of, as a result, he peed in the parking lot while I was getting Trey and the stroller loaded and had no idea what was going on. So I felt like W.T. Anyway they had a great time. Trey looking at a pig through the fence. I wouldn't let him in the actual petting zoo. That would be a disaster. Derek picks up a chicken. Something he shouldn't have been doing. Quite the "Naughty" lately. So a few weeks ago Derek wanted Strawberries. He asked me if I would please pull the "weeds off" Derek has lost his first loose tooth. He didn't even say anything to me I just noticed that it looked loose and out of place. He said it has been like that since the day after Thanksgiving. Didn't seem to bother him a bit. Dax freaked out when his first tooth came loose.

South Mountain Thanksgiving

After our Thanksgiving Meal, Curtis took Dax and Derek on a little hike up to South Mountain. Time to burn off some calories and energy.

AWOL Again

For my Birthday present, I decided I wanted to go back to Maryland/ Washington DC and visit my cousin, Aunt, and Uncle and go see the Premier of New Moon on opening night. We wore these great t-shirts that we made and blinged up. Went to dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory, saw the midnight show of New Moon, helped Amy decorate her house, and re-bought a couch 3 times that didn't fit into the basement 3 times. We had a great visit. I took Trey with me.

 While the older boys stayed home with Dad. Trey did pretty good on the airplane, and he was a typical one year old but we had a good time. There was an incident that took place while I was away that will go down in history. We knew that while I was gone there would be some times that Dax and Derek would be home alone. We often leave them on "lockdown" while I do errands and they know the rules. They always do well on their own for a short period of time and we went over everything with them and they like to be on their own every now and then. 

 Thursday Morning Curtis had to leave for work before the boys went to school. He got them their breakfast and made sure they had their backpacks and everything ready to go. Dax knows what time they need to leave for school and they just walk across the street to go to school. They do this every day with no problems. Apparently, when it came time to go to school Derek decided his feet were cold and he didn't want to go to school, so he didn't. Dax tried to get him to go, and he wouldn't. Dax went to school without him, but he didn't tell anyone about the fit Derek was having.  Dax could have called either of us on our cell phones. So Derek, the kindergartner who is five years old, stayed home alone by himself all day long playing video games, watching TV, and eating cereal and ice cream sandwiches. Something he has no business doing. 

The school did call the house and leave a message that Derek wasn't in school, but we had no idea any of this was going on until Curtis came home that day. We were both shocked when we found out what happened. Derek said he was fine and wasn't scared of being alone all day. Most people laugh when they hear this story. It is only funny because he was safe and didn't burn the house down. I called my neighbor and had her stop by the next morning to make sure this didn't happen again. Something I should have done before I left. We are bad parents!!!

Happy Birthday Trey

Happy Birthday Trey J is one year old today. He had a pretty good day. He slept in until 7:30, did errands with me, took two naps, and made a few messes with the pots and pans. Then we had a little family party and he ate his little cake. Before he was born we knew Derek liked the name Dixon and wanted to name him that. We told him we were going to name him Treyson, but he could call him Dixon. We didn't think it would stick for more than a few weeks. One year later Derek still calls him Dixon. If you ask Derek what his baby brother's name is, he will always say Dixon. I think in the past year I could count on one hand how many times I've heard Derek call him Trey or Treyson. He will just have 2 names. Our favorite things about Trey: When he does snorty pig, his belly laughs, and when he walks around the house carrying anything because it makes him feel big (like the broom that is 3 times his size).

A new direction

This week was pretty busy. On Wednesday we got Dax's tooth fixed. It turned out the Dentist didn't think it was worth saving and the tooth next to it also had a cavity, so he pulled two teeth. It went reasonably smoothly. Now I'm seriously looking into dental insurance. That little mishap was $800 which does not include the temporary filling from Dr. Blackwell, the consultation with Dr. Kapur, and the work that has to be done this week with Dr. Blackwell because Dr. Kapur discovered some fresh decay on a different tooth. I love Dr. Kapur, he is a fantastic pediatric dentist. He was so great with the kids and very thorough in his work. We are going back to Dr. Blackwell because he is so much cheaper. Dr. Kaupur's recommendation. 

 On Thursday Curtis decided to take a trip to San Diego with his right-hand man, James Wilson. For several months Curtis has been looking into options to deal with the current Real Estate market here in AZ. It seems opening an office in CA may be the solution. Values have dropped a considerable amount, especially in Maricopa county, one of the hardest-hit areas in the nation. Although the lower-end homes are starting to come up in value, the upper end will continue to drop until banks decided to start lending money again. People can't get financing so the prices are going down down down. It is sickening how much they have/are dropping. Although San Diego is also a distressed market their home values are so much higher than in Arizona. Their FHA limits are also higher, so there is more financing available. The Arizona market likely will not recover and be healthy for another 5 years or so. Curtis is sick of his agents selling $50,000 homes, although the median price is $130,000. About where they were when Curtis got into Real Estate 10 years ago. Curtis wants to thrive and not just survive off of these low commissions. There are too many headaches to do twice the work and get paid 1/2 as much in a healthy market. They went to check out the market, home values, office space, etc. We will likely be moving forward on that in the next few months. 

 On Friday Dax had an Arizona map project for school. We baked a cookie in a 9x13 pan to take to school and mark significant points in Arizona with Frosting and candy. I went and helped the class make these. Dax worked with Phuc Ly and they did a great job. I was so mad I didn't bring my camera. Their map was beautiful, They had the Desert, Mountain, and Plateau regions marked. The Salt and Colorado River. They had little flags marking the main cities, forests, craters, and surrounding states. I was proud of them, and then they got to bring the cookie home and eat it. YUM.

 Friday night we went to the Harvest festival at Hancock. In past years they have done it before Halloween, this year they did it after and it seemed to be a full-blown carnival with several bounce houses, karaoke, carnival games, etc. Dax and Derek had a great time. Today was the Primary Program at church. Dax and Derek both did a great job. About six months ago the Primary chorister told me that Dax had volunteered to lead the music for one of the songs. She wanted to involve the kids in other areas besides singing as a group and saying their speaking parts. My first thought was "what is he thinking, we are not a musical family and I know very little about leading music" I'm also thinking about all the people I know, who know about music (I call them music snobs) get really frustrated when the average joe doesn't lead the music perfectly or sings off pitch, everything isn't just perfect. I was so hoping this would go away. The Primary chorister had a few practices and met with the kids individually throughout the year. When she came to meet with Dax a few months ago she said that by far he was the most prepared. I was shocked because I had only made him practice for about 15 minutes before she came. He really learned the music and took it seriously. Today he was fantastic he made sure he had eye contact with everyone and had them stand up together and he actually led the music on the beat. I was so proud of him. In the end, he said " I think Jesus was proud of me because while I was leading the music my chest felt hot. I've heard that when Jesus is happy you feel a burning in your bosom (he says it bossom)" It was one of the best primary programs that I have seen. The chorister did a great job having kids sings solos and play the musical instruments they were learning. Trey started waving goodbye. It is so cute.

Halloween and more dental drama

Happy Halloween. Derek is Jango Fett (Star Wars Character) for the second year in a row. Dax is Harry Potter, and Trey is Eeyore. They got loads of candy at Trunk or Treat at the church on Friday night, then round II to do Trick or Treating in the neighborhood. 

 Dentist part two: On Wednesday I take Dax back to the dentist to finish up his tooth. Once he had been on the antibiotic for a few days the swelling and pain were gone. He had had this procedure before I remember that he was pretty sore at the end, so I even gave him a dose of Tylenol before we left. He goes back there and I am hearing moaning, complaining, screaming, etc. I keep thinking I am so glad nobody else is in the waiting room. If I was a patient and I heard all that commotion I would leave. Finally, after 45 minutes the Dentist comes out (they told me this would take about 45 min) I'm thinking great we're done. NOOO!!!. Dax was screaming and moaning so much he couldn't even work on his tooth. In a nice way, he tells me that he thinks Dax needs to go see a Pediatric Dentist because he doesn't want him to have a bad experience and fear the Dentist for the rest of his life. So the Dentist walks with me next door to introduce me to the Pediatric Dentist and we schedule an appt for the next day. We show up the next day and meet for a consultation and find out why Dr. Blackwell couldn't finish the tooth. I now see the difference between a pediatric dentist and a regular one. It was like taking your kid to a classical music concert and then taking your kid to the circus. They had a train that was in the ceiling that went all through the office, there were video games and an amazing fish tank. All the equipment was in bright kid colors, and there were prize machines that you got a token from the Dentist. Not only that the Dentist just had a great personality to work with kids. Besides all that fun this will cost twice as much as the regular dentist, but hopefully, the job will be done.

The Nutty Professor

The Nutty Professor (Dax) made the honor roll. But it was his mother who was nutty this time. I didn't check his backpack for a few weeks and didn't even know it. We are proud of him. 

 Last night I told Dax it was bedtime. As usual, as soon as it was bedtime, he was hungry and had to eat. He ate an apple and went to bed. About 45 minutes later he comes into our bedroom where were watching TV. He acted a little odd but seemed to be awake. We asked him what was wrong and he just made a noise and started crawling into our bed. We kept asking him questions, but he wouldn't answer. We were getting frustrated with him and told him to tell us what was going on or we would throw him in the pool (not really). The pool was no threat to him, and neither was anything else we said. We finally figured out that he was sleepwalking. Curtis took him back to bed and it seemed that he started to wake up a bit. In the morning we asked him if he remembered anything about him coming into our room and acting weird. As we suspected, he didn't remember a thing and thought we were joking with him. We have heard him laughing in his sleep, but sleepwalking is new. I think it was the apple right before bed (hehe)

AWOL, Weddings and other crazyness

Thursday started out busy. My friend Stephanie was flying in at 9:30 a.m. for the weekend. Our friend JJ was having her wedding reception this weekend. I also had Enrichment Thursday evening so I would spend part of the day getting ready for that. 

As I was on my way to the airport I get a call from the school. Usually is not great news when the school is calling. It was Dax's teacher telling me that his teeth were bothering him, and he had already been to the nurse. It was only 9:00 a.m. and school starts at 8:30. He didn't mention anything to me about his teeth hurting, so it was news to me. I told her I signed the permission slip for the nurse to give him Tylenol. I told her I would call the nurse and talk to her. I hang up and call the nurse (all programmed into my cell phone, so I'm not too reckless of a driver). The nurse tells me that she has the permission slip to give him Tylenol there is some rule that she can't give it until 9:30 a.m. so Dax is supposed to go back at 9:30 if he is still hurting. The nurse said she looked in his mouth and it looks like he is getting new molars. I wasn't convinced this was the problem, because he never complains about new teeth. 

At 9:30 the nurse calls me and tells me she gave him Tylenol and looked in his mouth better it looked like one tooth was swollen and ugly (decay etc.) that's what I was afraid of. About fifteen minutes pass and the nurse calls me again. My phone has never been so busy. She tells me Dax is still in pain and wants to go home. I'm fine with that except I'm still driving back from the airport. I will be there in about 15 minutes. I ask her if I can release Dax over the phone and have him walk home since we live across the street. No, they can't do that, I have to physically go in and sign him out. I tell her ok but it will be 15 minutes. Five minutes later I get a call from "Home" on my cell phone. I think it's odd since I don't think anyone is actually at home, it's Dax telling me that he was at home and he thinks he has a cavity. So he just walked home without signing out. I called the nurse and asked her if she released him because he just called me from home. She was shocked and a little panicked. No, she did not release him, she told him to go back to his class and get his backpack to get ready to go home. So I did the right "procedural" thing I went to the school and signed him out and told them he left. Their mouths dropped open. "How did he go out without us seeing him leave? He must have snuck out through the cafeteria" yada yada. 

 I go home and tell Dax he can't just leave school, I have to sign him out and he has to have permission. I asked him how he left school. He says he just walked out the front door of the office. The school thinks they are so secure, but obviously NOT. I know my friends' son was about to get into trouble so he did the same thing. He just walked out the front door and walked home. Anyway after talking to the nurse, and his teachers later on. He was in so much pain "excruciating" was the word he used. After he went to the nurse the first time and went back to class he left class without even telling his teacher to go back to the nurse. So Miss Janssen looked up and noticed he was gone. Anyway no more AWOL. By the time he was home, the Tylenol had kicked and he was fine bouncing off the walls as usual.

 Not like I had time that day, but I did take him to the dentist to find out he has a horrible cavity and he needs a pulpectomy, which is basically a root canal for a kid. The Tylenol had worn off about the time of his appointment. I should have given him more before we left, but I didn't. He moaned and wailed while we were in the waiting room. Of course, the dentist was running late because his previous patient had an allergic reaction to the Novocaine. Dax was so miserable and mad that he had to wait for the dentist, he was not saying nice things about the dentist. Finally, he gets back there and gets a temporary filling and has to take antibiotics for infection for 10 days. Then we have to go back and get it fixed after the swelling goes down. Rush home and start to get ready for Enrichment.

 I'm so glad Stephanie is there to help. I wasn't sure how this enrichment was going to turn out. Our original plans for Enrichment had gone from self-defense to evolving into having the Postal Inspector come to speak about ID theft. Anyway, we didn't have a huge turnout, but those that did come were pleasantly surprised. I had no idea the Postal Inspector was Law Enforcement, they even carry a gun, and are amazed at what types of crimes they investigate and arrest people for. When I started making calls to find someone to speak for our enrichment someone suggest that I call the Post office. I laughed out loud. The post office???? Anyway, he was a great speaker and I have to say I have a new respect for the Post office. Friday our other friend Mary flies in. We have not seen Mary for at least 15 years. It was soo good to see her again. We had lost contact for a while, but eventually got reunited. I put Stephanie and Mary to work helping me make a fruit cascade for JJ's reception. We were so happy to see JJ married. She has waited a long time. It made for a fun reunion. JJ was so happy that after all these years we were still able to be there when she got married

Mary (Farman) Fatupaito, JJ (Newell) Lorenzen, Stephanie (Pilling) Carter, Marilyn (Lund) Johnson

The glorious Fruit Cascade, that Mary and Stephanie gave up their Saturday helping me to cut up fruit and put it together.

More on Dixon

Going down Feet First

Trey has pretty much got the walking down. He is still a little unsteady, but he definitely walks more than crawls. He has also figured out the stairs. He always seemed frustrated with me when he would get near the stairs (going down head first) and I would turn him around to go down backward. One day it clicked now he goes down backward or sometimes walks holding the rails. We spend much time on the stairs, it's his new playground.

He has also discovered his tongue makes clicking noises and also "neener neener" If you do it to him, he will do it back.

Treyson Mason Dixon Johnson

Trey is getting so big, he is on the verge of walking. He is already into everything and causing trouble. Last week I took Derek to the park and it was Trey's first experience with the equipment. He liked climbing up the little toddler stairs and went down the slide with Derek. He came home filthy.

We don't have church until 1:00 so we have started a little Sunday ritual of going for a family walk on Sunday mornings. Last Sunday we put Trey in the swing for the first time. He seemed to like it at first. It was nap time, so I'm not sure what happened but all at once he put his head down and stopped enjoying it. He was either tired or dizzy, it was kind of funny.

He has his two bottom and top teeth and it looks like he is getting two more on the bottom. He is unbearable to take to church. It falls during one of his naps and he just wants to crawl around and get into everything. We don't even bother to take him anymore, we take turns staying home with him.

Raingutter Regatta

Cub Scouts had their annual Rain Gutter Regatta. The cubs make little wooden boats and then race them in a rain gutter. Last year Dax didn't fare so well. This year he technically came in first. The only problem is every time he was up against this one kid who shall remain nameless (but his initials are E.S.), the other kid would cheat and push his boat ahead. Dax always had a strong lead, then right at the end, by some mysterious mishap, that kid's hand always pushed his boat to the end. Whatever we are just proud of him for not giving up and getting so much better than last year.

911 trip to CA

outside Bubba Gumps restaurant

To much fun

We were in desperate need of a vacation. Curtis has been overworked, with too much stress in the industry, and we didn't have a chance to go anywhere while the kids were out for summer break. I kept telling Curtis he needed to take some time off. Long story short on Monday night, Aug 24th I'm giving him options for some time away in the next few days, he is not acting excited about any of these. Tuesday morning he wakes up and tells me that he is "leaning towards" going to Disneyland with the family leaving early Wednesday (the very next morning). Since he is "leaning towards" doing this I figure I better start getting things in order to leave just in case. 

I start doing laundry, moving appointments around doing what I have to do to leave town. Curtis calls me at 11:30 a.m. and says "I'm ready to go" I'm thinking he has decided to officially leave early the next morning. No, he meant he was ready to go NOW. Not an option for me. The kids are still in school, I still am getting things in order, paying bills, pack for 3 kids I had two more appointments that I had moved to that day since we were possibly going to be gone. I also told my friend I would watch her little girl until 3:30. In Curtis' mind, he wanted to leave at 3:30 when the Mom showed up. I scrambled and rushed and barely got everything together and we left at 4:15, at least until I realized I didn't throw Trey's bag in the car so we had to go back and get it. We were on the road by 5:00 p.m. (a terrible time to leave town). I was a bit frazzled at first, Trey was miserable in the car, but we had a great time. We spent 2 days at Disneyland. Curtis has a friend from Seattle who happened to be at Disneyland with his family so we met up with the Hellicksons for a while. The kids had a great time together. On day 2 we lost Derek in Tomorrowland. Terrible feeling to lose your kid at Disneyland. I soon found out that if you are going to lose your kid, Disneyland is the place to do it. When we realized he was in fact lost and not in any of the areas we thought he might be I told a Disney worker. I don't know how long it was before she told me they found him, maybe 2 minutes probably less. They are good, how do you find a kid that fast in a place like that? Anyway, when Curtis went to pick him up at the gift shop in Tomorrowland, he was good and happy to see us. I asked him if he was scared or if he cried. He said "no my eyes were just leaking a little bit" Dax and Derek (Austin looking on) with Pocahontas at Goofy's Kitchen. Mike Hellickson kept calling her Sacagawea. I think he was watching too much "Night at the Museum". Pocahontas didn't like that too much. We had dinner at Goofy's Kitchen with the Hellickson's. There are tons of Disney Characters milling around while you eat. It is a buffet and Dax thought it was the best restaurant ever. He rates everything on a scale of 1-10 and most things get about a 7-8. Goofy's Kitchen got a ten.

Then we met up with Curtis' cousin Baden Gardner & Family. They live just a few miles from Disneyland and we usually try to hook up with them while we are there. Stacey & Baden Gardner, Curtis, Marilyn, & Trey Johnson Cameron & Kylie Gardner, Derek & Dax Johnson at Rainforest Cafe.

 

While we were in California, we made a drive up to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. I have always wanted to visit a Presidential Library ever since I worked with a guy who told me how cool they were. This guy I worked with told me all about the Nixon Library and said he actually donated money to Nixon's Library. WHAT? Someone actually admits that they donate money to Nixon's Library, I was convinced the library had to be good. Anyway, Curtis is a Political Junkie and a fan of Reagan, and since we pulled the kids out of school it would be educational so it was a win-win.

Replica of the President Reagan's Oval Office.

Air Force One

Bloated Federal Government- used in Reagan's first Campaign for President in 1980. Kind of where our government is headed now.

This is a piece of the Berlin Wall

Part of Ronald Reagan's motorcade

Our Family getting ready to board Air Force one. This particular Air Force One is the one used by Kennedy -George W. Bush (he only rode in it once) it is there for you to walk through and check out. Ronald Reagan wanted Americans to have a chance to actually see an Air Force One, so his museum has one. It was very cool. I liked that President Regan charged the press the going rate of a first-class ticket +$1 because he didn't think the taxpayers should have to pay their expenses.

Hail to the Chief As we drove back to Anaheim from Simi Valley (Reagan Library) we decided to explore Los Angeles. This was one of my favorite things we did on this trip.

RAMPART ONE, there is a car on the freeway with an open door.

We used to watch the show "Emergency" when we were kids. I think the fire station or engine was called "Rampart One". Any time they were called to an emergency the dispatcher would say "Rampart one there is an emergency at yada yada yada........." We laughed out loud when we saw this sign on the CA freeway for Rampart Blvd. Later on, we actually drove through Rampart Blvd, but I didn't get my camera out fast enough to get a picture of the sign. Notice the beautiful blue skies and clean LA freeways-NOT!!! Actually, this was during the time those huge fires were happening, so I'll give LA a little break

As we are driving on the freeway at freeway speeds, there is this car in front of us with the driver door open, and sometimes it would open wide and then somewhat shut. I don't know if the car was such a piece of junk, the door didn't close so the driver had to hold it, or if it was the AC system for the hooptie, or if it was a criminal planning their escape. Something else to laugh at.

Still driving around LA, (which was one of my favorite parts of our trip) exploring Beverly Hills, the Hollywood walk of fame, and other areas of interest. We come across the sign for the revamped show "Melrose Place" This picture was cool because although you can't see it in this picture, in the upper right corner above the van is a street sign for the actual street "Melrose Pl" Kind of cool.

I have always heard that the walk of fame was actually in the scary part of town and not at all the glamorous Beverly Hills. I was not surprised to see homeless people and scary stuff going on amongst the Hollywood stars. What I was surprised about was when a celebrity gets their star on the walk of fame and they have all the press there and it is a big deal, how on earth do they hide all that rif raf when they do their big media hooptie do.

Derek and Dax at the Beach at Balboa Island. They love the beach.

Famous

I just got this e-mail from my friend. Her son Britton and Derek are good friends.


Britton has this super annoying habit of wanting to collect any free newspaper or booklet that is offered in those plastic displays outside of stores. He has piles of them in his room. Yesterday he picked up a Real Estate Guide and was looking through it, for who knows what purpose.
He turns a few pages and declares:
"Oh my gosh! I can't believe it . . . Derek's Dad is so FAMOUS!!!"

Political Flake

This housing mess is getting worse and worse. Banks are not lending, more homes are going into foreclosure, and the President and his people and yapping their jaws about how everything is fixed. We know it's not. We see it every day. The banks are not working with people, they are not doing short sales, and there is no such thing as "Obama's Help for Homeowners" Nothing is happening that all this stimulus money was set out to do. Commercial Real Estate is on the brink of disaster.

Curtis tells me daily this whole mess could be fixed if Obama wanted to, but for whatever reason, he wants to tell everyone it is and not do what actually needs to be done. The banks are the problem, and until they get their act together nothing will change. This recession started with housing, and it won't end until housing is fixed. If you talk to anyone in Real Estate, or who deals with banks or relies on lending for their business they understand the true problem and don't understand where the "Economists" are coming from saying this is over.

I decided to take matters into my own hands. I started calling my congressmen, and Senators, letting them know what the banks are not doing. The person that answers the phone, acts like they care but I know as soon as I hang up the phone the issue is already forgotten. I knew I was getting nowhere so I started doing a little research on the internet about senate banking committees etc. I started calling Washington. I finally got the name of the man that deals with banking legislation, Brian Filipowich. I just like to say his name is Filipowich. I don't think I was supposed to get his name. The receptionist slipped late one Friday afternoon after he was gone for the day. She probably just likes to say his name too Filipowich. Every time I called back they did everything they could to not get me through to him. So I found him on Facebook, I sent him a friend invite, but he never accepted. Not surprised since he had no clue who I was. Although I did send him a message through Facebook. I was still getting nowhere.

Once again I called our Congressman, Jeff Flake, and asked for a meeting. By now I was getting more familiar with what terms to use, so I sounded almost like I knew what I was talking about. They told me what to do to request a meeting, but that didn't mean he would meet with you. Congress was soon to get out for their August recess so the timing was good. I called back a few days later and I was shocked. Congressman Flake agreed to meet with us.

Last week, Curtis and his right-hand man James Wilson met Congressman Flake for the meeting. They are on the front lines of this mess, they see the trends, they see the problems with the banks, etc. Curtis went fully prepared armed with his charts and graphs.

Going into this we didn't expect that much would come of it, but we felt we had to do our part. Between the time that I set up the appt. and the actual meeting, there was a two-week gap, during that time the Health care debate really started to heat up with town hall meetings, etc. Jeff Flake was also opposed to the original stimulus (TARP) and he pretty much votes no on everything, which isn't all that bad.

Curtis and James met with him he was very nice, they show him the charts and graphs and the disaster that we are headed for and the congressman says something like "hmmm that is bad, wow those numbers are scary...what do you want me to do about it???" Curtis says "well you are my representative and this is what you could do, raise FHA limits so more people could get lending, prevent more homes from going into foreclosure, or make banks accountable to get the short sales done before the homes go into foreclosure yada yada yada. " He gave him several ideas to get legislation going to prevent long-term disaster. He says "no Health care is a big deal right now, and in his own words I don't see how this would really get me re-elected." WHAT???? You honestly don't care that we are headed on a death spiral?????

I honestly didn't believe this meeting would go anywhere, but I did think he would at least give reasons why he couldn't get legislation passed something like " I'm only one person in congress and the republicans are the minority this would never fly" or "such and such bills would have to pass before we could move onto this" no he didn't even care to try, not unless it was on his agenda for re-election. In the meantime, we will watch and wait as more people lose their homes, more banks will fail, commercial real estate will implode, and unemployment rises, but "the recession is over." As James left the meeting he said "he is nothing but a talking head" He acted like he was interested and he cared, but when it came down to doing something about it meaningless words just spewed out of his mouth."

Too much fun???

Curtis with Al McCoy "voice of the Suns"

Curtis on the court of US Airways Arena

Curtis and one of the Sun's announcer Tom ? I see him on TV all the time

The Phoenix Suns invited us (along with a few hundred other people) to "Taste of the Suns." We got to eat center court at US Airways Arena from Levy's (The fancy schmancy restaurant at the Arena). The food was extra yummy. The point of the entire evening was to try to sell us Season Tickets. We got the impression that the Suns were not alone in the suffering economy. As they had "many new Season Ticket seats that had not been available in years." We said thanks for the food and no thanks for the purchase of the season tickets. I really wanted my picture taken with the Sun's gorilla, but unfortunately if their on-site photographer was taking the pic the Sun's Dancers had to be in the picture too. I think for future reference maybe the gorilla should be in front of a background of ANY OTHER COLOR, but black. The following week Curtis Johnson Realty was the main sponsor for Sean Hannity's Freedom Concert at the Jobing.com arena in Glendale. Sean Hannity does a few of these concerts around the county and it is a tribute to the Troops/ Veterans and their families. We got to meet Sean Hannity and have a photo op. He also brought John Voight (aka Angelena's Dad) and Rich Little. The concert was Lee Greenwood, Charlie Daniels band, Michael W. Smith, Ollie North, and John Voit came out and talked, Rich Little did some impersonations -he was really funny. The night ended with Billy Ray Cyrus. 

Billy Ray had been at the teen choice awards with his daughter Mylie a few hours before, he kept mentioning it. I think he arrived just minutes before he went on stage. I always wondered what would happen when a performer is at a concert and they are frazzled from going to so many cities. We found out with Billy Ray. He kept saying " How is Scottsdale.. . I love Scottsdale" Previously throughout the night the other performers said "Phoenix" which is fine because we were in Phoenix Metro. The crowd didn't like it so much when he kept calling Glendale -Scottsdale. Everyone started yelling out to him "you're in Glendale" Finally he realized what was going on and said, "you don't like Scottsdale?" Then he said "I just twittered that I was in Scottsdale and did a spell check" he seemed a bit embarrassed. I'm sure he did spell "Scottsdale" correctly he just had the wrong name. It was a fun night.