Viva Las Vegas

Curtis' sister Alisa and her husband Mike Zoccoli have 3 boys ages 15,13,11. Alisa has a heart of gold. A few years ago they decided they wanted to foster/ or adopt. In September 2008 they were placed with 2 boys, Kenny and Isiah ages 4 and 5 at the time. They had come from an awful situation and adjusted and bonded well with the Zoccolis. There was another brother who was 18 months at the time and was placed with another family. Mike and Alisa eventually got custody of him also. On November 20th, National Adoption day, they adopted the three boys and now they are up to SIX BOYS -Tyler, Joey, Stephen, Kenny, Isiah, and James. They had a big celebration for the adoption and all of Curtis' family came out. While Curtis' mom was here for the week she offered to stay with our boys for a few days while we went on a little trip to Las Vegas.

 We had a great time, and the kids had a great time with Grandma Shauna. We stayed at Monte Carlo where we got a great room rate and we had never stayed there before. It was really nice and a great location on the strip. We went to see the Cirque de sole "Viva Elvis". The Cirque shows are usually excellent and this was one we hadn't seen. Curtis had seen an interview with Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley saying that this was the one show that Elvis would love. It was exactly what he would want and approve. You can't get a better endorsement than that. We checked it out and it was really good. More of a Broadway-type show than an amazing hold-your-breath Cirque show (although there were some elements of that) it told the story of his life. The thing that I liked that I think made it good, is there was no person acting as Elvis. They took news clips and audio so the only person as Elvis was Elvis himself, no bad impersonations. They also took the original Elvis songs with his voice and music but somehow re-did them with a more current beat and sound. It was a fun show. 

We also saw " The Mentalist Live" with Gerry McCambridge. This is a show with the creator of the TV show "The Mentalist" the description was comedy, magic, and mind reading. Sounded interesting. When we get to the show there were probably about 50 people in the audience. As we walked in they handed us a blank white index card. Once we get in to get seated someone came out and asked us to write down our full name (first, middle, last). Then answer to a question that only we would know like the name of a favorite teacher, a significant date, like a birthday etc. And then a specific question that we had and wanted to be answered and he said to be specific like "Will my daughter get married this year" then we passed all our papers in, and one of his assistants collected them and put them in a see-through box in the front where everyone could see them. They never left the room. Gerry comes out and explains who he is, and what he does. He takes some volunteers and does a trick where he guesses the exact number from a phone book that a volunteer picks. Then he goes to the cards in the box and he says he is going to guess what is on the card he pics. He pulls one out and holds it in his hands for a minute. He has everyone stand up and he says I am going to guess the person's initials on this card. If it isn't your initials sit down. He says "M .J." so those are my initials and I'm hoping there is another M. J. in the room so I'm not the one being embarrassed. Everyone else sits down except me. He wanted to hear the person's voice so we were supposed to say "Those are my initials" I don't know how he did it but he asked "is your first name Marilyn" I was shocked there are 100 M names he could have guessed. Then he went to the last name. He said something like "I think it's a common last name Jones, no it's Johnson, Marilyn Johnson ...Marilyn Lund Johnson" WHAT???? I have never seen or talked to this guy, nobody from the show talked to us before we went in, and the cards never left the room. It was crazy. He then went on to guess Mrs. Arnote, the name of the favorite teacher I had written down, and then went to work on a few other people. It was a fun show and a super fun trip. Then we came home and had Thanksgiving with Prime Rib bought from Fry's. My mom would cringe. I decided I wanted a Holiday too and didn't want to spend all day cooking and cleaning.

Halloween

The kids had a great Halloween. Dax dressed as a Mad Scientist, Derek was Black Spider-man (much different than the red and blue spider-man he had been two prior years) and Trey was an Alligator because that is the costume my neighbor gave me that fit him. Mad Scientist doing an experiment with dry ice. The kids loved the dry ice. I think it was their favorite part of Halloween. After we went to the ward Trunk or Treat on Saturday night, we headed to the zoo to meet my old friend Kim. We had been friends since middle school but lost contact for a while so we finally met up after not seeing each other for almost 20 years. She brought her daughter Emily, who is Dax's age. It was great to see her again, and she hadn't changed a bit. You couldn't see very many of the animals, but the zoo had other little rides and exhibits. Of course, they loved the mad science, and there was also one where they could look at scorpions under a black light, and another chance to wear their costumes.

9 weeks down......It was in the stars!

The kids just finished the first quarter of the school year. Now they are on fall break, I can't believe how fast it goes. I had a parent-teacher conference first with Ms. Dowdy, Derek's teacher. Derek is doing well, but still struggling in reading and writing. We work on this daily, but his teacher says he is a whiz at math, and also a deep thinker. Overall he is doing well. Ms. Dowdy told me how well-liked he is and that he is a sweet boy. So happy to hear that. 

 A little funny story about Derek. The other day we were driving to church and Curtis and I were talking about how there are so many vacant spaces in shopping centers and even half-built projects with no end in sight because of how bad the economy is. I didn't even know the kids were listening and Derek pipes in and says " I thought the Jonas Brothers were the economy" laugh out loud, I don't know how he linked those two things together, but what makes it even funnier is a few weeks back I was watching the news and of course, they were talking about the economy and somehow they started saying how right now Teenage Girls are ruling the economy because what they buy effects so many other things. Derek is right, the Jonas brothers are the economy right now. 

 Dax of course is doing well in school as always. He still has the problem of reading too much. In 4th grade, it was a problem as well. A problem is that he is reading his book and not listening in class, or doing math or what he should be doing. Miss Roe even told me that she told the kids around him to take his book away from him if they catch him reading when he shouldn't be. She told me one time they even found him laying on the floor under a table reading. The teacher made it out like he was hiding, when I asked Dax he just said he was trying to get comfortable, and didn't know he wasn't supposed to be reading. I guess of all the problems to have, reading too much isn't so bad. 5th grade seems to start offering activities that the younger grades don't get. 

Soon after the school year started they had elections for class senators. Dax decided he fit the description of a candidate so he decided to run. I was proud of him for that, he wrote his speech all by himself and he actually did a great job. Even political Junkie/marketing genius Dad approved and made no improvements. I think he said 8 kids ran, but there were only 2 spots. I knew his speech was good, and he always does a great job of speaking in public, but this is an elementary school and they don't necessarily vote for a person for the right reasons. Dax learned early how dirty politics can be. He lost to the kids who brought in candy for the class. Two brought in candy, and those two won. I'm proud of him for trying.

 This year the schools start offering Band or Orchestra instead of regular music classes. At the end of 4th grade when Dax brought the info home on it he told me he wanted to do Viola. I initially tried to discourage him from this. 1)- I didn't know if he was serious about this, or if it just seemed the thing to do because other kids wanted to 2) I know this is a commitment, they have to commit for the entire school year, I didn't know if he would really stick to it that long. Not excited about investing in something like this if he isn't committed, but I guess he would have to once he signs up. 3) I didn't know if he would be responsible enough to carry his instrument to a from school. All these things make it seem like these are all the reasons I should sign him up, but this is Dax. Brainiac in the class, scatterbrained when it comes to anything else. 

The school year starts up and Dax is still saying he wants to play the viola. I asked him why he decided on that instrument and talked about it etc. I talked to the orchestra teacher and he is now playing the viola. There is a side story to this... Way back when I was pregnant with Dax, we took birthing classes like all first-time parents do. Our instructor was into natural healing, crystals yada yada (all birthing instructors seem to come from the same mold) After Dax was born, I called her and told her, etc. She asked if we would mind if she could do an astrological report for our baby. Yeah, sure whatever. She asked very detailed questions down to the minute, he was born, his zip code, etc. A few weeks later we get a Book, a full 8 1/2x11 page size book. Probably over 100 pages of his astrological report. The book talked about how the planets lined up at his time of birth etc. We look at it with a grain of salt, not taking any of this too seriously. When you have your first baby and they are brand new, they are just this blob, they don't smile, or show any type of personality. So reading about what his personality was, yeah whatever. We didn't buy it. Especially since We know the parent's personality we didn't buy into too much of what this was saying. With Curtis being so athletic and loving sports, of course, this baby would love sports as much as his dad. I specifically remember reading this one part on his personality with my Mom and it was saying how he would be musical and enjoy the arts etc. Laugh out loud, that is so not either of us. My mom jokingly and trying to get a rise out of Curtis said "oh this baby is going to grow up and play the violin" That didn't go over well. Fast forward 10 years, Dax is wanting to play viola he honestly has no interest in sports (he will watch occasionally with Dad). I'm laughing thinking back about his astrological report and my mom's comment. I have not looked at the thing since then. I pulled it out and it is actually pretty accurate to his personality. Kind of interesting. I don't think he should base his life on what this report says, but it is a nice little compliment to the other tools we have to make decisions in life. He is doing the Viola and actually likes it. Both his orchestra teacher, Ms. Kellis, and Miss Roe brought up the fact that Dax is so charismatic and has a great sense of humor. He makes them laugh, and they both enjoy him so much in class. So happy to hear that. Dax also graduated from speech therapy. He started that in 1st grade because he had trouble pronouncing his R's and a few other sounds. Now he is finally done. Hooray

Floida/Mission reunion

Curtis served his mission in Tallahassee, Florida a few years back (1991-1993). His buddies from his mission decided to have a reunion there when BYU and Florida State played Football against each other on September 18th. Since Curtis actually lived and worked right there at Florida State and he LOVES BYU football it was a great excuse to go back. I would have loved to have gone with him, but I can't bear to travel anywhere with Trey right now. We didn't really want to leave Trey or the kids with anyone and be all the way across the country. We decided Dax would be his travel buddy.

We sent them off with a Florida Farewell. My mom used to make Alligator bread. I was so happy to have gotten the directions and recipe from Marilyn M. a few months back. I finally had an excuse to make it. This gator turned out a little on the fat side. I needed a longer pan to make him long and lean. Maybe next time. He was still tasty with southern BBQ. The kids liked him too.

First, they flew into Pensacola, FL where I hear it has beautiful WHITE sandy beaches. Dax was impressed with how white the beaches were. I have heard the beaches described as sugar or flour. Curtis was sad when the gulf oil spill was going on a few months back and at one point they thought the oil would hit those beaches. Luckily it didn't, they are still beautiful.

There was one point early in the trip when Dax thought it would a miserable trip since he left his Nintendo Dsi and games in the car. Ughh. That boy's life revolves around video games. They would be doing a lot of traveling in the car so he really wanted his games. I overnighted the games, he had them the next day, and now life was good again.

Dax at a Shark museum.

Dax getting eaten by an Alligator

King Dax getting spoiled rotten by Dad. I would never do this. I'm too cheap and mean.

I can not get this picture to go in the right direction. Dax and Curtis holding a wicked young Alligator. His mouth is taped shut, but they said it whipped its tail around and even for a small one had some strength. Nothing to mess with. I want to know who get's to put the tape on that mouth and take it off???

Dax driving a go-cart. Once again spoiled rotten

The next night they were at Panama City Beach. This is Dax on the Balcony of the Hotel.


Game DAY

BYU lost, but we won't talk about that. They still had a great time.
After the game, Curtis and Dax headed over to the Waffle House which was right next to their hotel, but still about 7 miles from the stadium. They sat down to eat and who was at the table next to them??? Legendary BYU coach LaVelle Edwards. If I wasn't married to Curtis I would have no clue who this man was. So random that they would run into him. LaVelle and his wife were at the game, but at this point they were nowhere near the stadium, crazy that they happened to run into them where they did. He was very nice and took a picture with them, then after they ate Curtis had a minute to chat with him. If I were ever to run into LaVelle Edwards I would want Curtis to be there because he knows every stat and every bit of trivia about this team and coach.

Curtis, Lavelle Edwards and Dax

Dax at Wacolla Springs. You can see a big Manatee in the water behind him. I think those are the ugliest fish.
Dax and Uncle Herman at Wacolla Springs. They met up with Herman who is in the Air Force in Panama City, FL

Swim Lessons

Trey Started Swim lessons today. We knew we had to get him going on this since we have the pool in the backyard. The net that we use as our pool barrier for the last 7 years is on its last legs, hopefully, we will get him swimming before it snaps. He does love to swim and play in the water.

Today was his first lesson and he loved it. I knew he would, none of my boys have ever been afraid of the water or swimming. He laughed, and splashed and couldn't wait to get in the water before his lesson started. He is the first kid that I actually got in the water for the lesson. Dax and Derek took swim lessons at a different place and they didn't require me to be in the water with them.

When I came home and told everyone about the swim lesson, Dax and Derek were so proud of him. Derek asked, "did you take pictures?" I thought that was cute because they were so proud of their baby brother. Unfortunately, I was in the water with him, so no pictures.

Kids Today

We have realized that with DVR we have created a monster. We can record shows, pause them go back, and watch the funny parts over and over and over. The monster is that the kids don't understand that we just can't always make a show appear on TV whenever we want, although it seems that way most of the time.

 There has been this TV show that Derek keeps seeing commercials for and he wants to watch it, but when he goes back through his "kid channels" he can never find it. So I did a search through the DVR and it said this show, Sonic X, only comes on Saturday mornings, and it was on one of the networks, WB, that showed other shows besides kid shows(no Disney, Nick, or Cartoon network, etc). I set it up to record, of course, we didn't find this show until the day after it already aired, so we have to wait almost a week to watch it. He doesn't understand why I can't just make it appear on TV. 

 Every day Derek asks me if the show was on. I tell him "no," Today he came to me and he said "every time I go to the channel that you told me it was on, there are only adult shows on the channel and they never have any kid shows, I don't think it's the right channel for Sonic X". I laughed and told him when I was a kid that is how TV was. We only watched cartoons on Saturday mornings and there were no "kid channels" with "kid shows" He asked me what kind of shows I watched so I told him the Flintstones, Jetsons, Smurfs, etc. Then he said "I don't like those shows" he knows that because he has watched them on Boomerang, another kid channel. I told him that's all there was to watch there were not really kid shows like Hanna Montana, Zach and Cody, Wizards of Waverly Place, etc. and we only had about maybe 10 channels, not 250. He couldn't believe that I didn't have the Disney channel or any other of his "kid channels" and then he said, "why were they so mean?". Hahahahahah-laugh out loud. I didn't realize what a conspiracy it was to be mean to us kids, it was just the way it was. Spoiled rotten brats that we are raising.

Grandparents Day

Grandpa "Papa" Lund with Dax and Derek, September 9, 2010

Today is Grandparents Day. This week the kid's school had a day to invite Grandparents into the school. When they first brought home the flyer, I didn't think anything of it because my Dad is the closest Grandparent in Flagstaff and he is usually busy during the week doing his work at NAU. Dax said he still wanted to invite Papa so he called him up and invited him. Surprisingly Papa made arrangements to come down for this. 

 He went to Dax's class first, which was during his reading class, He came home very impressed. They just showed them the work that they were doing. Dax wrote a story about a Pirate ship turning to legos. (Maybe our recent trip inspired him) Papa thought it was a great story. Then he showed him a power point presentation he had done on Rabies. They had just read the story "Old Yeller" and then learned about rabies. This could not have been more appropriate since my dad loves dogs so he thought it was a great thing for them to learn about. Then he went back after lunch to check out Derek's class. He was very impressed with what the first graders were doing on the computer. They are both good students and doing well in school, so it was nice for them to have a chance to show off Hancock Elementary, an A+ school, and the work they do. I think Papa was pleasantly surprised. We were glad he made the effort to come down.

San Diego

After a year of planning, preparing, passing tests, and multiple trips to San Diego. Curtis officially has a Real Estate office and apartment established in San Diego, CA as of August 1. Jumping through California's hoops to get licensed ended up being more difficult than originally anticipated but he and James Wilson played their games and both are finally licensed there. 

 We are excited to see the opportunity there. At this stage in the game, things are going well. Curtis had been spending a lot of time out in San Diego and wanted the family to join him and see the work that had progressed there. Labor Day weekend was coming up and James Wilson would be going back to AZ so we would have the apartment to ourselves. The timing was good so we headed out

Derek being King for a day with Dad

Curtis and my favorite part of Legoland are the cities they have created from Legos. They are amazing, and they have such detail. All from Legos. Washington DC even had a black president and family in the motorcade

Derek in front of Mini Las Vegas

Trey couldn't stand not playing in the water. When he saw his brothers playing in it he went in fully clothed. We didn't try too hard to stop him since we had a change of clothes. Then he had to warm up, the water and outside temp was a lot cooler than Phoenix.

Dax looking a Sea Life they loved the aquarium. Dax is such a scientist and loved looking at all the sea life in the aquarium. I don't know where the brainiac gets all his knowledge. He was looking at an exhibit of some fish and it was saying that it was the largest fish. Dax said "no it's not, the Megaladon (whatever that is) is the largest fish", then he went on explaining to us what the Megaladon was. We went around the corner and there was a display talking about the Megaladon saying almost exactly what Dax had said. Too smart for me.

The beach as the sun was setting. Too much fun, and too much sun that day.

Dax and Derek with Lego people, giving them "knuckles"

The first few days were a quick little trip with Derek and Curtis alone. Curtis would soon be taking Dax on a trip to Florida by himself, so to be fair Derek went a few days ahead (missed school) and got to be King for the day with dad (Because Dad spoils them way more on vacation than I ever would). 

 We spent a few days at Legoland. First Curtis and Derek went a day ahead and checked it out. We had gone to Legoland a few years ago with Dax and Derek when Derek was about 2. We were not impressed, and I didn't think we would ever go back. Dax and Derek both love legos, but at the time there was very little for a 2-year-old to do there. I thought it felt very sterile with everything being made out of legos, especially things that should be living and breathing like wildlife and nature. Swans, fish, and corn made out of legos seemed so lifeless, and cold It did not have the magical feel of Disneyland.

 We thought it seemed disorganized and was not run well. Our kids would have had just as much fun in the lego store, we didn't even last the entire day we were so frustrated. Anyway, Curtis and Derek checked it out a day ahead. Legoland had added a few more things (like a water park, and aquarium) we knew what to expect and we had a great time. We had a great time at Legoland, the beach, and exploring the areas where Curtis is now working. It's nice to have a little apartment there. So much nicer for the family than a hotel room. We anticipate good things to come of it.

20 YEARS?????

Marilyn Lund- Flagstaff High School 1990 

 Curtis Johnson-Branham High School 1990 Curtis & Marilyn Johnson 2010 We both had our 20-year High School Reunions this year. I just had mine, I can not believe it has been 20 years. How can that be?? I wasn't really sure If I wanted to even go. There were several years when I had absolutely no contact with anyone from High School. Slowly through the internet, I have reconnected with several people. When talks of the reunion started happening I kept thinking of all the people that I really didn't know that well in High School, or didn't really like and there were really only a few that I would be happy to see and catch up with. I kept hearing stories of so many people having fun at their High Schools reunions. So I decided to go, not wanting to feel like I missed out if I didn't go. I registered but still had second thoughts. 

 As we were driving to the reunion I had a knot in my stomach. Really not sure that I wanted to be there. I hoped that people would think that I have changed. It turned out to be a good time. Kind of weird seeing all these people after so long. For some, I felt like I recognized their body/face, and I knew who I was talking to, but they had matured and changed so much that I felt like I was talking to a different person. Which was a good thing. I was thinking how High School reunions are kind of an odd thing. 

 There is a large group of people who by no choice of their own are essentially forced to be together for several years. Then one day everyone gets to leave and go out on their own. For some odd reason, years later this group that originally did not choose to be together, chooses to be together. I was surprised at how great everyone looked. Pretty much all the guys still had a full head of hair, there were a few gray hairs. All the kids that were blonds (really light blonds) all had dark hair now. I don't think it was hair dye because some had gray hairs in the dark. Most people were easily recognized. Standing- (I don't know only a few married names) Juniper Miles, Consuelo Fernandez, Alex Degher, Loma Wolf, Amanda Guay, Emily Johnson James, Duane Tewa, Becky Moore McKay, Lisa Sechrist, Marilyn Lund Johnson, JJ McMahon, sitting-Laura Wheeler, Mike Epperson, Lina Cabalnina, Sierra Rose, Sonora Rose 

 This is my favorite picture taken that night. After the big group picture was taken, they broke us down by our Elementary schools. These are the people I have known the longest. My family moved to Flagstaff from Mesa, just a few weeks before I started Kindergarten. Interesting to see how we all turned out from Mrs. Hains Kindergarten class. Laura Wheeler, JJ McMahon, and Sonora Rose were in that class with me. 

 Curtis had his reunion at the end of August. He was reluctant to go also but ended up going and having a great time too. Unfortunately, I couldn't go with him because of traveling with kids (mostly Trey) the older kids were in school also. Curtis needed to go to San Jose that weekend to help his Mom and sisters, so it worked out.

Treysonitis Virus

Our sweet baby Trey earned the title of "Treysonitis virus" by Dax. 

 One day we caught Trey climbing onto the desk and wreaking havoc on the computer. Dax said "that is the worst computer virus you could get" so true. The name evolved and has stuck because he is a huge stinker at this phase in his life. The horribleness all started once he could walk and of course climb soon after. The climbing got worse once he figured out (by watching his brothers) that if he removes the cushions from the couch, it gives him a lower base to climb onto. 

We used to have the family room as a designated safe area for him. We arranged the furniture to pen him in, and he couldn't climb out. It was awkward for anyone else to get in and out of (climbing over furniture) but we didn't care if it kept him contained. Once he figured out how to remove the cushions, climb onto the couch then over the arm, he was home free and it was just ugly for the rest of us. He gets into everything. He has also figured out that if he can't reach it he can just pull a chair, stool, big toy etc. to get into something else he shouldn't. He has been known to climb onto the top bunk and wake up whoever is sleeping up there. He has also gotten a bad rap sheet at the gym daycare. He is usually very good at the gym and I have no problems dropping him off. I often feel guilty when I pick him up and there are 5 screaming kids and the poor workers are trying to control mayhem when I come to pick up the happy one playing nicely. 

 The past few times I've picked him up they told me he was being mean and pushing other kids and stealing their toys. On a side note, I wasn't totally shocked by this because Dax went through this phase, and he was kicked out of every place we went. The gym, the nursery at church, the play area at the grocery store, preschool, etc. I really hated it when Dax went through that phase but he has turned out to be such a sweet, kind boy, it is not so scary to see Trey go through this. Back to Trey, the gym daycare worker told me that they tried to put him on time out but he thought it was funny, which annoyed them even more. Time out is funny for Trey. When we put the older boys on time out and he sees them standing and facing the wall he goes over and does it too. He thinks it is a game. So the workers were getting very frustrated with him and I don't blame them, they have their hands full there. I tried to lay low from the gym for the next few days, I thought maybe I had been going too often and he had had enough. I took him back after about a week off and I was paged to child care, never a good thing. He was getting kicked out. This time he was actually getting a written warning. OOHHH I know scary. Actually, for me, it is, because if the gets another one he gets kicked out for 2 weeks. Which means I can't go and get some time to myself. So I'm not liking it, but I understand.

 I had to laugh at the write-up. Where they wrote the reason for the write up they wrote "beating up babies" hahaha beating up babies, he is a baby. If they are not walking they are kept in a separate area. So these "babies" are pretty much around his same size and age. So pretty much he was beating up his own kind. He is an extremely light sleeper, the other day Dax had a friend over playing and I wanted to wring his neck when he opened up Trey's door while he was sleeping and woke him up. I said what did you do that for, he said I wanted to check on him. We do not check on sleeping babies at this house, then they are no longer sleeping. When we went to Flagstaff a few weeks ago we put Trey in the same room as Curtis and I, even we would even roll over in bed he would hear it and stir. Sometimes he would go back to sleep, not always-very frustrating. This is one of the reasons he is very unfun to travel with. He does have an awful lot of cuteness in him as well. The all-time favorite of anyone he comes in contact with is his "knuckle bump." He was starting to give high 5's, but Derek taught him "knuckles" Everyone loves to see him do that one. Whenever the neighbor kids see me at school with him they have to come over and give him "knuckles". Strangers laugh when they see it. He is starting to say quite a few words. Hi was his first, then uh-oh was next (a favorite of all 3 at this age) here you go, but it sounds like herego, ball, yes, welcome, Mom, pretty cute when he walks in and says "Hi D" to Derek, I guess he picked up with me calling him D. The other day Curtis sneezed and he said "bless you" then I heard Trey sneeze and he said it to himself. pretty funny. He is starting to mimic whatever you say the other day I was talking about money, then he started saying money. I guess his snuggly and cuteness makes up for his stinkiness, so we are not ready to sell him yet.

The most wonderful time of the year

School is back in session, not a minute too soon. We actually had a good summer, the kids were busy with the classes put on by the city. Six weeks of break would be perfect, the last two weeks we are all bored and crazy. I have to write down this funny story about Dax. I was taking him to his summer science class where they made robots, and goo and stuff he loves. We passed this lady on the sidewalk who was smoking. Dax in his voice of disgust says "Did you see that lady smoking?? That is horrible. It is one thing for a man to smoke but for a lady, that is just a sexual offense" I started laughing out loud. He has no idea what a real sexual offense is.

Dax is in 5th grade, Miss Roe is his teacher. Although I really like their school, and it is an excellent school I kept hearing the 5th grade teachers are nothing to brag about. So I really didn't care who Dax got for a teacher. She seems ok although I was bugged when we got the e-mail for the supplies list of ordinary stuff like pencils, glue,kleenix, hand sanitizer, zip lock backs yada yada and gift cards to Office Max or Target would be appreciated. No I don't think so. I already spent a ton just on the basics for the classroom. I'm not about to send the teacher on her own shopping spree.
Derek is in 1st grade and Mrs. Dowdy is his teacher. I think she is good enough. I know she had previously taught Kindergarten. Derek gets kind of an attitude in school and if he doesn't want to do his work, he just tells his teacher "I don't feel like it" I had several conferences with his Kindergarten teacher being concerned about him going to first grade. We worked with him all summer and seems to be doing much better.

A Decade Gone By

Dax had birthday #10- on July 19th. We can't hardly believe it. He had a great day. He re-opened Lego Harry Potter (because Curtis bought it for him early, the day the game came out). Then he also got a Nintendo DSi. His old DS was well-loved and falling apart. Now he has the new and improved version. He loves it, it takes pictures and does cool stuff that the old one didn't do, besides it is shiny and new. Then we had a few of his friends over for swimming, pizza, and cake. I love summer birthdays. They are so easy.

Getting ready to blow the candles out.

L-Westin Thomas, Derek Johnson, Thomas Smith, Dax Johnson, Ethan Savoldi, Dallin Thomas, Tate Seeley. This swim party was thrown together at the last minute. We thought Curtis might be going to San Diego so he would take Dax and Derek and have some fun with them at the beach, Lego land, etc. Those plans fell through so we decided to do this at the last minute. Tate had been out of town with his family when his mom got the e-mail/ invite for the party. She told me that they would be flying in that morning, but Tate would be back in time for the party. When Tate showed up his mom apologized that they didn't have time to get a gift, which was totally acceptable and I told her a gift wasn't even necessary. The next day we found a gift by the front door from Tate. I had Dax write Thank you notes to his friends. This is what he wrote to Tate.

Thanks a lot for coming to the party, Tate. Also thanks for the late-but-still gift. It couldn't have been good without you. Your Friend, Daxton.

I told Becky, Tate's mom, I was embarrassed to send that Thank you note. I know Dax didn't intend to sound rude, but it still did. She laughed and said she still wanted to see the note. Dax's comments always keep us on our toes. So we mailed it anyway.

Hammer time

A few weeks back I was browsing the newspaper and I saw a small ad that said MC Hammer was coming on July 1st. I jokingly mentioned it to Curtis, not thinking he would have any interest in it. After all, it was 20 years ago that Hammer was in his prime, then we all know he went bankrupt, lost everything, and has not done anything musically in years. Besides the concert was at one of the casinos. Not exactly a nice venue. 

Curtis was excited and immediately wanted to go. I had no idea he was such a fan. We did watch his reality show on TV last year, but I have never witnessed Curtis listen to his music, or even see any evidence of owning any. I actually did have one of his albums back in 1990. 

 So we set out to Ft. McDowell casino, and they told us we could buy tickets when we get there. There were still plenty left. We get to the smoke-filled smelly Casino and are amongst the hopeless souls who find Casinos promising. We get our VIP tickets and go to check out where the concert is. Oh no!! It is outside in July in Phoenix on fold-up chairs. We were dressed for an indoor concert with AC. We have plenty of time so we go look for food. We end up in this huge buffet line. All the people in line around us are regulars and are complaining that they drove all the way up to the casino and they are not having the regular Friday night Crab legs, they continue to tell us about how they are going to enter the poker contests after the buffet. 

 These people were plenty nice to us telling us the ropes of the casino, but they also came across as someone you would find working the carnival in town. We're getting all this info as a drunk yells at the live band to turn the music down. We are starting to think this is a really bad idea. By the time the concert starts the sun has gone down and there is a decent breeze. They also passed out those frozen scarves you wear around your neck to keep you cool. The concert crowd came for the concert, not the casino. Much more pleasant to be around. . The first group that came out was SWV. We thought we had never heard of them, but we actually had heard some of their songs back in the 1990s. I thought they did a good job performing, but between songs, they would let us know how extremely hot they were. They said they were from Atlanta, and I don't think they expected this dry heat. They were actually pretty funny about it. They loved their white spandex pants. 

 Now MC Hammer comes out. He was great. He was wearing a tuxedo instead of his baggy, crotch to the knees hammer time pants. He was still a great performer and dancer. He brought about 12 dancers, who were amazing. One of them was his 15 yr old son, who we recognized from watching his reality show. They all came out in Tuxedos. I said they will lose those by the end of the night. I don't know how they were up there on that hot stage under the lights dancing around like that. 

 Gradually his dancers started losing the suits. First, the jackets were gone, then the shirt, then the tank top. Then the tank tops got thrown to the crowd. Hammer kept the full tuxedo on the entire night. I don't know how. Towards the end of the concert, someone came down to the audience and started asking people if they wanted to go up on stage. Curtis went up. When he started to do "U Can't touch this", they let all the people on stage to boggy with Hammer. 

Curtis on stage with MC Hammer

 I think the dancers were tired at this point and not putting on the show that they were earlier in the night. It ended up being a really fun night, worth putting up with the casino riff-raff.

International TV

A few weeks ago, Curtis was contacted by a Finnish TV Station (From Finland if I misspelled that) that wanted to do a story about houses underwater during the USA housing crisis. When they first contacted him they asked if they thought he might be able to find a good example of a home that is being foreclosed on where the people owed more than it is worth. Curtis assured her that it would be no problem. They just wanted to confirm that it would be necessary to find those homes since this is what the story was about. Easy task. When you click on the link, nothing is in English, so I have no idea how to download this video other than watching it from the link. After it downloads, the story on Curtis starts at 9:28

 http://areena.yle.fi/video/1054344 

 Glad there are subtitles for Curtis, or I would have no idea what they are talking about (haha)

Ducks continued

On Saturday, May 29th I went out to check to see if the ducks had hatched. I knew it was getting close to the time they should be hatching. 

 I looked in the garden and 5 baby ducks jumped out. The Mother duck jumped out and the babies followed her around the yard. I went back to get my camera and they were already in the pool. I have no idea how the mother duck got under the net because she could not get out of the net by herself. We finally had to undo the net for her to get out. She tried and tried but just couldn't fit through the holes. She must have had an adrenalin rush to get her and her babies into some water. We kept the net off for a few days and watched Trey like a hawk. They never went back to the garden and 3 of the eggs never hatched. After about 4 days they seemed to be doing well and they were getting in and out of the pool all by themselves. 

 On Thursday morning I could only see 4 baby ducks and 2 of them were sitting outside the pool. The two sitting outside were starting to not look good. I don't know what the problem was because the night before they were all there swimming around doing fine. I don't know if it was the chlorine from the pool, or what happened. When the kids woke up they went to check on them. The two ducks were limp and weak and not well. Dax and Derek wanted to help them. Duck Triage unit on the back patio. They are trying to feed them baby formula through a medicine dropper. The ducks are not actually dead in these pictures but they sure look like it. So these two ducks died. I saw the mother duck with the remaining ducks walking out of the pool and around the yard, then I never saw them again. I hope they walked outside the neighborhood and down the street a block and found a new home at the pond. That is where they should be with the other ducks. Maybe we will see some more next year

Kindergarten Graduation.......

..........."they keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity" Mr. Incredible 

 The last day of school. The school has Kindergarten Graduation, which is cute, but somewhat of a joke to me. I hope these kids have much bigger and better things to celebrate than finishing Kindergarten. It is quite a production, the kids march in with the graduation music Pomp and Circumstance playing. Then they sing songs and do a little ceremony. The parents bring balloons, teddy bears wearing caps and gowns, and all kinds of gifts for their "graduate". Some kids and parents even dress up. Derek did not get a new outfit and neither did his parents. The parents all look like paparazzi trying to snap a picture of "Brangelina" when their little graduate walks in and accepts their diploma. We still got cute pictures.

Derek and his good friend and neighbor Sean Paterick.

Mrs. Laura Lopez, Derek's Kindergarten teacher, said how much she loves these kids. Which she truly does. She was a great teacher for Derek.

Derek marched in to  Pomp and Circumstance. This cute girl is named Chloe

Cute picture of Curtis and Derek right after the "ceremony" WAHOOO! Schools is out for summer.