End of School

The School year is winding down and Trey got an award.  I liked how Jacobson did their awards each grade at a time.  Much more efficient so nobody had to sit through the entire awards assembly getting bored to death.  Trey's award was for "Understanding himself"  Mr. Foy said nice things about Trey.

Jacobson was nice for a year, but Trey has decided he wants to go back to Hancock. He said it feels more like home.  I'm ok with that, way more convenient for me.  I was proud of Trey for trying the new school and giving the gifted program a shot.  He had a great attitude, but he wants to be with his friends and "go home"

1000

In January 2018 Curtis made another bold move to leave his current brokerage and join EXP Realty.  EXP is a fairly new brokerage and didn't have much of a history.  Curtis had been watching this company for about a year when we decided it was time to make the move.  We are so happy he did.  EXP is a new concept where there is no "brick and mortar" buildings, everything is based on "the cloud" the offer stock options and best of all "revenue sharing" based on a platform that is similar to networkings and multi Level marketing, which is a perfect set up for Real Estate.

When Curtis first joined his goal was to recruit 100 agents.  He soon surpassed that and his goal kept getting bigger and bigger. He started setting all types of goals.  One of which was when he hits 1000 agents we would remodel our shower. 

A few years ago we started having issues with our shower leaking into the basement, there was mold growing in the glass block, it was tired, dated, drafty in the cold months and in great need of a remodel.  Anytime there was a shower issue we would say something referencing "1000". On March 8, 2019 it happend  Curtis had successfully established 1000 agents under him and sooner than he had originally anticipated because EXP is on FIRE.

Before Shower Remodel

The worst of the shower, leaky corner, mold etc

After Shower Remodel.  We love it.

We also painted the cabinets a darker color, and added molding around the mirror, and a chandelier above the tub.

Liftoff

Now that Trey is at Jacobson Elementary they have the Space Explorers club.  They teach the kids how to build little rockets and then they launch them.  The Rocket launch was originally scheduled back in February but they got a bunch of rain, the fields were a muddy mess.  The launch got postponed until April after Spring Break etc. I showed up and snapped a few pics.  I watched a few of the launches and they were all flawless, it was pretty cool.  As the kids advance in grades the rockets get more technical.  They do not always launch, which leads to some disappointment and tears.  

Trey's rocket way up in the sky

School Project-V Day

Trey had an assignment to make a Valentine Box.  Normally my boys don't get into this much, but Trey's teacher made this an assignment and they get graded on effort and creativity.  He wanted his box to look like Cookie Monster,  he did a great job.  Although I think I about pushed him over the edge when we spent too much time in the Craft store.  I thought he was pretty creative with the mouth/flap that opened and closed.  The challenge was the slot had to be no bigger than 2"x1",  which made them get creative in selecting Valentines that could fit in the slot.

Sunday Trifecta

It has been two weeks and we had a special occasion, so Dax came home already.  😊

Last Sunday was a big day, Three Priesthood events.

Dax is starting to prepare for his mission so he met with the Bishop and Stake President to receive the Melchizedek priesthood and get ordained an Elder.  Curtis is on the High Council so it was nice to get updates from the Stake President said he had interviewed Dax, and he was impressed, then the Stake President sent out an email to the rest of the High Council asking for their vote of approval.  It was nice to hear the comments from the people that know Dax.  One of them had been teaching the mission prep class so he got to know Dax.  His comment was "I can't raise my hand high enough to sustain Dax"  That was great to hear.

It was an exciting day.  Curtis stood up in our ward to present Dax to be ordained.  All went well, and I think everyone thought that was special that Curtis had the honors to present his own son. Right after church Curtis ordained Dax and Elder then immediately after that Curtis and Dax ordained Derek to be a Priest.  Although Derek just turned 15, now with the changes in the ordinations coming at the beginning of the year rather than at their Birthday Derek became a priest an entire year early.

Then we all came home and had pizza for lunch and Dax immediately left to go back to the dorm.  It was great to see him and hear about his college adventures.

Newely ordained Priest and Elder

My Three Sons

All my boys 

One Flew the Nest

The day has finally come. Dax has left home and moved into the dorms at ASU. He was very excited.  This is an exciting time and we will miss having him at home, but we are excited for him to grow and mature and have new experiences.  He will only be 20 minutes away.  I asked Dax how often he thought he would come home his reply "only special occasions"  YES- that was the correct answer.  I want him to grow up and have the full experience of living away from home. I don't want him coming home to do laundry and hang out with the family.  Not because we don't enjoy being around him, but we want him to grow up.

He is off.

Nice when all your belongings fit in a cart

He is a Sun Devil Now. These Dorms are luxurious-seriously.

Dax's roommates were not there for the first few days.  They still had not returned from Christmas break.  I think the first few days were a little lonely,  and he was trying to figure everything out.  I don't think he really minded, I think he liked having all that time to himself to do what he wanted.  he finally met his roommates and he likes them and is enjoying his college experience.  Dax says the classes seem too easy.  I told him he was well prepared his high school was called "Arizona COLLEGE PREP" 

A-ha Moment-Merry Christmas style

Christmas was great.  Curtis Mom Shauna arrived on December 20th, we celebrated Derek's Birthday on the 22nd (his birthday is actually the 23rd) then we celebrated Shauna's birthday on the 24th.


Derek is always so easy going about having his birthday so close to Christmas.  This year we gave him a pumpkin pie (his favorite) for himself, then we bought one for us to share.  With all the other goodies around the house, we had a lot of junk food to get through.  We also gave him a new monitor for his computer.  He settled on a curved screen.

Family Christmas pic- Derek's 15th Birthday

Then Shauna's Birthday is the 24th.  We met with Curtis' Sister Alisa and took Shauna to the Hen House Cafe.  I have wanted to go there for a while.  I love going out for breakfast and I have seen people posting pics of their food on Social Media.  This pancake was ginormous.  We barely ate any of it, we took the rest home in a pizza box.  That is how huge the pancake was.  It was a fun breakfast.

"Mom's Homemade pancake from the Henhouse"

Curtis Dad, Brent, and his wife Marilyn arrived about noon on Christmas Eve/Shauna's birthday.  We had a nice dinner with them, and everyone stayed at our house.  This would be the first time in about 40+ years that  Curtis would spend Christmas morning with both his parents.  This was a long time coming since his parents divorced many years ago.

I love to wake up early on Christmas morning and open gifts.  I think Christmas should happen before the sun comes up. Nobody else in the house agrees.  I asked everyone what time we were going to do Christmas so we all knew what to expect. I was told nobody wanted to wake up early.  They wanted to sleep in, then have breakfast then open presents about 9:00 a.m...  I don't agree with that but I went along with it.  No fun having cranky people Christmas morning.

I had a talk with Trey a few days before Christmas and he let me know he knows the truth about Santa.  So no need to play the Santa game anymore.  As usual, on Christmas Eve we put all the presents out (this time we didn't have to wait for them to go to bed) and sealed off the front room/living room with sheets of butcher paper so nobody could peek in.  A tradition started by Shauna's parents.  Everything was ready to go, we went to bed.
I got up about 6:30 a.m. Christmas morning.  I could hear some music playing, but couldn't figure out where it was coming from.  I finally tracked it down.  It was Trey's iPod alarm going off.  He has his iPod set to go off at 6:30 playing A-Ha's "Take on Me"  He left his iPod in the living room to charge the night before.  Then we sealed off the room so nobody could go in.  The tradition is when it's time for Christmas you tear through the paper to see what Santa brought.  I heard the song play through once and thought it would end.  NOPE.  Then I thought it would play for 5 minutes then automatically go off.  NOPE.  Maybe it would be 10 minutes then go off.  NOPE.  The song played continuously on a loop for at least an hour before others started to get up. Then Trey got up.  I started to make breakfast as planned.  Some people were annoyed at Trey, some were just annoyed with the song.  I thought the whole thing was hilarious.  Everyone had to suffer through it because they insisted on waiting to have Christmas and tear through the paper the night before.  Christmas music eventually got turned on to drown out "Take on Me"  I think it is a funny Christmas memory.

Then we had a nice time opening Gifts with Brent, Marilyn, and Shauna. Dax got some money for college, and I gave Trey and Derek Morse Code equipment.  I'm sick of giving them video games.  I was mad at them for the PlayStation 3 incident where they tricked me and gave each other a Play Station 3 for Christmas, but they actually gave it to each other a month early.

The Giving Machine

The LDS Church started a program "Light the World" encouraging people to give to others during the Christmas season.  Last Christmas they introduced "The Giving Machine"  It is a vending machine where you can buy all types of things to give to other people throughout the world.  100% of the proceeds go to where it is needed.  There are all types of things you can give, seeds, a sewing machine, work boots, meals for a month.  It is a great idea.  They placed one this year in Gilbert AZ, not too far from us.  We had been wanting to go with the kids the entire month of December but we were always busy and we had heard the lines can be long.  We finally made it the last night it was available.  We donated seeds, two chickens, and vaccines.  The kids picked those items.

It was a fun experience, I hope the machine comes back next year.