TURN UP THE JOY! GROWING UP IN AN IVY LEAGUE GHETTO. TODAY IN MY MSN NEWSFEED, THERE WAS A STORY OF A COUPLE, WHO ARE RAISING TWO YOUNG CHILDREN IN A ONE ROOM APARTMENT, ON A BEACH, AND THEY CAME HOME TO FIND A NASTY NOTE, WRITTEN BY SOME CHICKEN SHIT NEIGHBOR CONDEMNING THEM, FOR NOT HAVING A LARGER HOME FOR THEIR CHILDREN, AND DEPRIVING THEM OF A BACKYARD? LIKE THE BEACH ISN'T THE MOST AMAZING BACKYARD AND PLAYGROUND THE KIDS COULD EVER HAVE! BUT THE PERSON, SIGNED THEIR NAMES, ANONYMOUS, AND LEFT THE COUPLE TO PONDER THE MEANING AND INTENT OF THE BRUTAL AND CRUEL NOTE. IN THEIR DISPARE THEY PUT THE NOTE AND A DARLING PICTURE OF AN ATTRACTIVE COUPLE, WITH THEIR TWO KIDS, PUMPKINS IN HAND, ON THE BEACH WITH SOME HOUSES OR APARTMENTS UP ON THE HILL BEHIND THEM. LUCKILY, THE COUPLE POSTED THE NOTE ON FACEBOOK, FOR THE WORD TO SEE, AND THE SUPPORT AND COMMENTS, CAME STREAMING IN, AND I ADD MY TWO CENTS WORTH, TO THEIR ENCOURAGENT, SEEING THINGS VERY DIFFERENT, THAN MY VERY MATERIALISTIC FAMILY, WHO FELT, I AM SURE, THE VERY SAME WAY, ABOUT ME AND MY HUSBAND, BACK 27 YEARS AGO, FINDING AN OLD RUN DOWN HOUSE, BUT WITH A GREAT YARD TO RAISE OUR TWO CHILDREN, LATER TURNED INTO FOUR, AND NOW THESE FOUR CHILDREN ARE THE ONES, I OFTEN BRAG AND WRITE ABOUT, WHO ARE THE ENVY OF NOT ONLY MY MATERIALISTIC FAMILY, NOW THAT, MY KIDS, THEIR MUSIC, BOOKS, MILITARY AND WORK RECORDS, ARE STELLAR PERFORMANCES, BOTH FROM AN EXCELLENCE STAND POINT, AND FROM A MATERIAL WORTH. TOP COPS, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, PROSECUTORS, JUDGES, TEACHERS ALIKE, WOULD ALL LIKE BRAGGING RIGHTS TO THESE KIDS, WHO WERE RAISED VERY SIMPLY, IN A RATHER HUMBLE HOME FOR THE FIRST 8 YEARS OF THEIR YOUNG LIVES, AND EVEN THE HOME AFTER THAT, BETTER, BUT STILL IN AN OLDER AREA OF TOWN, AND PROBABLY, CONSIDERED ON THE SMALL SIDE TOO, WHICH, BY THE WAY IS THE TREND IN HOMES, RATHER THAN THE OLD, MONSTROSITIES, THAT WERE BUILT DURING THE LAST TWO DECADES, ENERGY DRAINS, GAS HOGS, AND A NIGHTMARE TO UPKEEP, WITH KIDS, LEAVING THE NEST AND PARENTS RATTLING AROUND IN LARGE EMPTY NESTS, THAT RARELY SEE THEM FULL AGAIN! RESEARCH HAS SHOWN THAT, FAMILIES ARE HEALTHIER IN SMALLER HOMES, BECAUSE, THEY HAVE TO LEARN TO SHARE, LIVE TOGETHER SO TO SAY, THEY COMMUNICATE MORE, AND THE PARENTS, SEE THEM, BECAUSE THERE IS NO ROOM TO HIDE OUT, SNEAKING BOYFRIENDS, GIRLFRIENDS, IN DURING THE LATE HOURS, OR WATCHING UNACCEPTABLE PORN AND SHIT ON THE COMPUTER! MY SISTER'S HOUSE WAS SO LARGE, SHE HAD TO HAVE CELL PHONES FOR ALL HER KIDS, TO CALL THEM TO DINNER! IN MONEY MAGAZINE ABOUT TEN YEARS AGO, THEY SAID THE TREND IN HOMES, WERE MOVING TO SMALLER AND SMALLER HOMES, SOMEWHERE AROUND 1400 TO 1800 FEET, AND NOW, YEARS LATER, THERE ARE NEW DEVELOPMENTS GOING IN, THAT ARE REALLY SMALL HOMES! MY COUNSIN OWNS AN APARTMENT HOUSE IN TOKYO, JAPAN--I JUST HAD MY BLOG STOLEN, SHUT DOWN, TO STEAL MY TITLE, AND MAKE UP THE STORIES, THAT PROTECT THE LIARS, TRYING TO CLAIM MY CHILDREN AND GRANDCHLDREN ARE THEIRS--I AM ALLEGEDLY DEAD! LOL! JOKES ON THEM, JUST LIKE IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN, THEY WANT MY ROCK STAR SON(S)! I HAVE BRAGGING RIGHTS TO TALL FOUR! SORRY, AND YOU HAVE A BODY OF EVIDENCE TO OVERCOME, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT! ANYWAY, THE JAPANESE, SELL THEIR REAL ESTATE BY THE SQUARE FOOT OR THE SQUARE YARD! MANY EUPOPEANS, NEVER OWN A HOME AND RENT THEIR WHOLE LIVES, BEING VERY CONNECTED AND EVERY NIGHT IS FAMILY, NIGHT, BECAUSE, THEY ALL LIVE IN SUCH CLOSE QUARTERS! IT IS ONLY US, WASTEFUL, GREEDY, MATERIALISTIC AMERICANS, WHO BELIVE WE ARE ENTITLED TO, OR THAT EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE THESE BIG ASS HOMES, AND THAT KIDS TURN OUT BETTER, COMING FROM THOSE HOMES WHICH IS JUST NOT TRUE! LIKE I HAVE SAID BEFORE, I HAD AN OLD MARINE FOR AN ENGLISH PROFESSOR, WHO SAID, NONE OF YOU WILL EVER BE FAMOUS, BECAUSE YOUR LIVES ARE TOO EASY, SIMPLE, AND YOU DON'T HAVE THE ADVERSITY YOU NEED TO BE FAMOUS! SO, I HAVE WATCHED, SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE OVER THE YEARS, BOTH IN HISTORY AND AROUND ME, AND MONITORED MY OWN FAMILY, AND SELF, AND HAVE LEARNED THAT, THAT REALLY IS TRUE . . . IF EVERYTHING IS TOO CUSHY, OR IF EVERYTHING TOO ROUGH, SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE ARE NOT BASICALLY, GOING TO BE CREATED; HOWEVER, IF THERE IS A GOOD MIX OF THE GOOD AND THE BAD, AND EASY AND HARD TIMES, SUPER STARS ARE CREATED! LET ME TELL YOU A FEW STORIES. I JUST WANT TO SAY ONE THING, ABOUT CRUEL PEOPLE, THEY OFTEN HAVE TO EAT THEIR WORDS, DOWN THE LINE . . . WHEN MY MOTHER AND FATHER, FIRST SAW OUR LITTLE LOVE SHACK, ON ECCLES AVE. IN OGDEN, UTAH, AND THE METAL BED, FROM MY HUSBAND'S GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE, WHO HAD DIED, FEELING WE HAD A TREASURE, TO HAVE HER PRESENCE IN OUR HUMBLE HOME, SAID . . . "ONLY POOR FOLKS HAVE BEDS LIKE THAT!" WELL GUESS WHAT, I HAVE MADE MORE MONEY, THAT MY ENTIRE, EXTENDED FAMILY PUT TOGETHER FOR GENERATIONS, SHOULD BE IN THE BILLIONS, AND MY SONS, ON THEIR MUSIC, HAVING IT STOLEN, AND MARKET THROUGH THE MORMON PONZI SCHEME, NETWORK MARKETING, FREAKS, OF THE MONEY GRUBBING CULTURE, FBI, CIA, DEA, ATF AND OTHER ABC SOUP GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, WHO HATED ME AND JUSITIFED, STEALING, NOT ONLY MY MONEY, TO THIS VERY SECOND, SHUTTING DOWN THIS BLOG, MOMENTARILY, SO THEY CAN DOCTOR, THE STOLEN TITLE, TO FIT THE SCENARIO THEY SAY, SO THEY CAN CLAIM MY AMAZING AND GREAT KIDS, RASIED VERY SIMPLY, SEEING THEM AS "ASSETS" OF HUGE ASS WEALTH, TALENT, AND BRAINS, BUT GENERALLY ALL AROUND WONDERFUL HUMAN BEINGS! SO, DON'T BE PRESSURED, YOUR KIDS, LOOK HAPPY, AND THE REASON I NOTICED THE PICTURE, IS THAT YOU LOOKED, AT FIRST JUST LIKE MY OLDEST DAUGHTER, WHOM, I DIDN'T SPEAK TO UNTIL THIS MORNING, WHO SPENT HOLLOWEEN EVE, WITH A FREE STANDING FIREPLACE, SITTING WITH HER HUSBAND, HANDING OUT CANDY, WHILE, A TON OF TRICK-OR-TREATERS, CAME THROUGH THE NEIGBORHOOD, WITH HER KIDS, THREE BOYS, OFF AND RUNNING WITH FREE AND UNABANDONED JOY, THROUGH THE NEW NEIGHBORHOOD, BRINGING BACK MORE CANDY THAN THEY HAD EVER GATHERED! MY KIDS, ARE VERY MUCH, FOLLOWING, IN THAT SUCCESS FORMULA, OF HUMBLE, SIMPLE, CONTACT AND COMMUNICATIONS, IN A LOVING HOME! LOVE WORKS WHEREVER YOU LIVE, IN WHATEVER, CIRCUMSTANCES YOU FIND YOURSELVES IN, AND BEING DEBT FREE, MEANS BEING CAREFREE, AND MORE ABLE TO LOVE AND GIVE YOUR ATTENTION TO YOUR VERY LUCKY KIDS!

Young Professionals In the Inner City--Ghost Stories!

The lying sack of thieves, who are jealous of the way I raised my kids, have stolen the blog, to keep their eyes on it, so if anyone questions them, about, anything, they are not caught with their pants, down, that happened, a long time ago, they are just not smart enough to realize that they have already been caught, and their shit, has caught up with them, but, take your time, I am patient, and love what I am doing, poor as I am, the billionaire on Broadway!  LOL!  So, the house my kids were raised in, during their formative years, was, well, go take a ride out to East Missoula, Riverside, Milltown, and Bonner, but, it was in a city!  I think, that is why I love that ride so much, because, it reminds me of my early years as a mother, our crooked, ginger-bread, looking home in a run-down neighborhood, on the wrong side of Harrison Blvd., in Ogden, Utah.  I have decided, and maintain to this day, that my shyster of a cousin, Ed, who was a realtor at the time, waited until we were reading to move into an apartment with two small kids, so that I could take time, during the day, to drive around the town, to find a suitable home, for our small but, growing family, just out of graduate school, with my husband, getting his first city planning job, and us with only one car, so, searching for a home was hard, to get him to work, and me, running around, the city, while we were staying in Bountiful, Utah, with his mother, after, leaving Tucson, Arizona, dirt ass poor students, with two kids, three and under in tow.  So, on the night we were going to move, Edward, my kissing cousin, called me at 11:00 PM, and said, before you move into your apartment, come see this house.  OK.

Now, me and my husband, had managed, 24 unit, apartments in both Utah and Arizona, to get through school, so we were not used to paying much for rent, and our last place in Tucson, Arizona, was, part of student housing and it was, a little Quonset hut, village, with dirt roads, small yards, and the feel of a village, resembling something you would see, in Vietnam!  LOL!  But, the rent was $43 per month, and that included utilities, so we were not used to paying much at all for rent, even with the new job, we refused to pay much, so, we looked at the house, and in the dark, they saw me coming . . . the house was across from a Mormon church, so that was a plus, large yard, and at the time we were totally active in the church, so that would make thing nice and easy, for that purpose.  With a single light on the pretty nice front porch, the blue and white, Old Mother Goose-looking gingerbread house looked pretty cute.  The yard was maintain, something, I was a sucker for, having seen many very much better built homes, but with shitty yards, so they were almost off the list to start with.  There was an extra apartment upstairs, so, perhaps we could rent out the space if we needed to, so, we decided, or I did, that we should move in the home, because, it was actually cheaper than renting, so, that would save us the down-payment, and moving costs twice!

DID WE BUY THIS?

My ex-husband, is a pretty mellow guy, and he kind of went along with about anything I wanted to do, so, we met the banker, at 7:00 AM, so he could get to his new job, and signed all the paperwork, buying the house on a contract, seeing that, the going interest rate, millennials, was 22%! so things could be worse, and everyone had to buy on contract that that time, which, 8 years later when we moved, we got out of the house easy, so it was a blessing!  But, as we got to the house we, started, hauling our stuff in, we could see that the house was made of shack-shingles, the foundation of the house was an a slant, the steps to the front porch, were crooked, there were golf ball, holes in whatever was at the back of the house, we could see, completely out of the house, into the driveway, when we went downstairs, etc., you are getting the picture . . . my husband, who, really, never said much, just looked at me, and I at him, and nobody said anything, except, did we just buy this?  LOL!  Ah, yeah, and the second we moved in, I was trying to get my husband to apply for jobs out of state, not only because I didn't like the house, but because, I didn't like being back in Utah!  But, 8 years later, when we had to move, I cried all night, being shocked that, I actually, loved the house, the memories, the fun with the kids, the holidays, the gardens, the flowers in the front yard, the church across the street, and after 8 years of trying to leave, my friends, finally saying, after every false alarm, we will believe, you are leaving when we see a moving van out in the front of the house . .  . but I think, my kids, now, buying homes, that resemble, the nicer home, we bought in Provo, and carrying on, the traditions and fun times with their kids, the home was priceless!

SHOCK AT THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Utah is unlike anywhere else in the importance of image, not so much, the substance and qualify of the home, the neighborhood, or the person, but what, the perceived reality, is to other people, and all the cities, towns, and counties, were divided, with the wealthy on the east side of town, and the poor, or less wealthy on the west side of whatever street divided the two areas.  So before, my oldest daughter, Greta went to kindergarten, me and my educated, but, poor friends, most of us, fighting our way through college, after marriage and kids, or with husbands just out of schools, like the University of Arizona, Harvard, Bowling Green, etc., and with many wives, following in the foot steps of their husbands, and seeking college degrees themselves.  But, we decided to prepare all the kids, in our neighborhood for school, and I believe there were 6 or 8, among our friends, in this very humble part of Ogden, below the poverty line, of demarcation between the rich and the poor, who were entering school.  We took turns and every, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for the year prior to entering school, all the mothers took turns, planning learning activities, or field trips, for these kids.  Before school started, the kids all had to take some type of entrance exams, and to the surprise and shock of teachers and school administers, this little group of kids, from the wrong side of town, but with very educated parents, poor as were all were, had the kids that scored the best on all the tests, and they just could not figure out, what was going on, but, this was a phenomena and it had not happened before. 

All these kids, especially, mine, with my focus as a mother on brains, intellect, and creating baby geniuses, which has proven to be right and true, succeeded all the way through, Polk Elementary school, winning science contests, Reflections, starring in school plays or decorating pumpkins and winning decorating contests, with many parents from the rich side, designing the pumpkins, which was so obvious, to the judges, that, Chris, won, in first grade sticking toilet paper, all over his pumpkin's head for hair, and then drawing a funny face, making the judges, give him the win for creative design, and I think all my kids won that year, or Nicole winning the Reflections art contest, for drawing a cityscape of New York with crooked buildings and a statue of liberty, with blonde hair and make up, bright red lips!  LOL!  The house we lived in, made my kids creative, with spook houses in the rickety basement, to creating Barbie villages with old shoe boxes, and all the Christmas lights out in July, because now they were upstairs in the extra apartment, and mom, being in school, only came up once a week to clean!  LOL!  Dead birds in cigar cartons, worms and poisonous mushrooms, in old metal garbage cans, that caught rain, worked great for their brew, and filled with water, perfect for their concoctions and stirring utensils.  Lead parts in school plays, gifted programs, and awards after awards, even coming to the attention of the department chair of the Child and Family Studies Department at Weber State University, where, I graduated from! 

MAGICAL STORIES OF SEEING GHOSTS, TALES OF EDGAR ALLEN POE READ TO JACK-O-LANTERN LIGHTS, AND SIMILARLY THINKING PEOPLE, WITH TALES OF THEIR OWN!

At one point, the Ogden Standard Examiner, did an October Halloween Special Series, on ghost tales, from, inner city professionals, which my husband was, as a city planner, working with the planning commission, city counsel, and county commission, and well familiar to the newspaper journalists, but, we had talked of sightings, sounds and scary stuff happening in this old home for years, and one time the newspaper, must have been hearing rumors about their new city planner, and other with tales of ghosts in their homes, so, they picked three young professionals and interviewed us on, our experiences, with ghosts, which were many, and not rare!  It was fun, and my husband, told me of a magazine, his office used to get, called, exactly that, Old Home Journal, and each October, they would have a month dedicated to ghost stories, of people who were remodeling old homes, and some were downright frightening, like the story the movie and books, Amityville Horror Stories were based on, but I got fascinated with the specters and ghosts, and started to read and actually, once, when I could not get to the library, did a whole research paper on the paranormal and ghosts, even had a professor, who had a son, studying parapsychology, at the University of Utah, serving as a medium, for the cops!

MIKE AND KELLY, DON'T LET ANYONE, DISUADE YOU FROM LIVING EXACTLY WHERE YOU WANT TO LIVE AND RAISING YOUR KIDS ANYWAY YOU WANT TO RAISE THEM, BECAUSE, 20 YEARS DOWN THE ROAD, YOU MAY BE THE EVEN OF US ALL!

TINY HOUSES ROCK AND ARE COMING MORE AND MORE IN STYLE . . . AND MEAN PEOPLE ARE NEVER IN STYLE!

KISSES TO YOU AND YOURS!