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.