President Obama visiting in my neighborhood

My mom called Sunday night and told me that Obama was coming to Dobson Highschool, which is where my son, Matthew attends. The school is only two blocks from my house. We drove by the school around 9:00pm and there were tons of people camping out. I thought about camping out but was not able to pull it off. I read that only 400 tickets were going to be given out and by seeing the crowd, chances were slim. So, Monday morning, I got up early, like I always do, put on my running stuff and ran over to the school to check out the scene, I'm always curious. I stood in the back of the line around 5:30am. By 6:00 am, there were another 100 people. I didn't think I even had a chance and wasn't sure if it was worth it. I wasn't planning on staying, but made friends in line, they saved my place while I ran home and brought a chair for a person sitting on the ground. I gave my cell phone number for a lady to call while I ran home, changed and got into warmer clothes. I had to figure out how I was going to manage the kids while I waited. Matthew had wrestling, Amanda went to the temple with her class, Zachary and friends were invited to go to Phoenix MBA Jamz, and Jeremy would have to wait with me. We waited until almost 12:00 pm. They gave Jeremy a ticket with our address on it. David was so lucky I had Jeremy with me. They only gave out 20 more tickets to the people behind me My friend was intending on picking him up last minute, but couldn't. I felt so guilty when friends called and asked why I didn't call them to let them know. They would have waited with me! I've called them for dumb things like waiting in line to catch a deal after Thanksgiving. I felt like everything was crazy and happening at once. I still have horrible guilt and hopefully someday will be able to find out something interesting first and make it up to them.

His plane landed (photo from the paper)



S Security was everywhere

Our school!!! So unreal that Dobson was picked out of the other highschools. It might be because Harry Mitchell is in our district (head of the Democratic party), also it could have been that our school buildings set back around 50 yards from the street and our school can be completly secured without cutting off all of the access roads, or it could have been that our school colors are blue, Matthew says that is a democrat color and wore red in protest. Mr. Gehrman our principal, asked all students on Tuesday to not park on campus, busses will be provided, and to wear blue, to show our school spirit for the potential Media, or could it just be that our school rocks!! I bragged about our school to Tim and Willey on the radio.

Here is the all of the escorting done on Alma School Road. Conservative talk radio said he was a coward, by not driving south on Dobson, where thousands of protestors were lined up. The Democrats praised him for being safe and driving south down the unexpected street, Alma School. What do you think? It was cool, that our local Street, Rogers, made the paper.

Entering into our parking lot, on the East side by our football field

They had security scan everything, and didn't allow anything that couldn't fit inside a pocket. Everyone, including us, had to lock up our camcorder, bummer

The crowd that had tickets and camped out Tuesday night right by the stoplight on Longmore and Dobson. They had to sleep on the sidewalk, since no one was allowed to set foot on the campus. I'm sure the grass would have been much nicer. My husband, David,

around 8:oopm went out to the crowd and met the lady who made the news

for being the first in line to be seated.

Protestors on the corner of Longmore and Guadalupe.

I took a picture of them while I was walking home

Wow, George W. Bush was present, too?

I did vote for him last time and did vote for McCain,

for those who are worried that I'm becoming Democrat

The paper took this, it was my friend's favorite

The people who hate Sherrif Joe, who has been elected for the fourth time.

Guess he's doing something right? We met him at our church's 4th of July breakfast.

He is quite hillarious and has reduced our crime rate.

Jan Brewer our Govenor, that replace Janet Napolotano.

We thought we had bad seats, sitting on the top row looking at the right side of Obama's face, but the flag was a great picture for the paper, and here we are trying to get seated.

Our tranformed Gymnasium. It use to smell with nasty bathrooms. It's amazing on how much money was spent cleaning and fixing the bathrooms, and making it look spotless. I couldn't find any dust, anywhere. Who paid for that? We even had sod rolled out over most of the gravel, making our school look spotless for the most famous person to ever visit.

He read the Pledge of Alligence

She had an amazing voice. She is blind, but could sing the Star Spangled Banner like no other.

Dobson Dacapo, the highest acapella choir were chosen to sing for the event.

We know half of the students, one got to shake Obama's hand

The picture we took with our camera.

The media got this when he said "Welcome Arizona"

We were sitting directly under the stars. I'm sitting by the guy standing up,

and the person in front of me has their flash on. Not bad seats.

A Football Booster mom, Linda Murphy and I posing.

She and her entire family camped out to get tickets.

The seal was placed on the front of the podium after the invocation.

The crowd roared in excitement when it is placed. About 10 minutes after he spoke it was removed. Isn't it awesome?

What a week for our principal, Mr.Matt Gehrman! Here he is with his wife and two girls and David and I. We had a football 'met the new coach' meeting the previous Friday and talked with Mr. Gehrman until 8:30 pm. Apparently, he was called at 10:00 pm and told that Dobson will be the site. His wife said he was so busy pulling this huge event off. A week ago, he was first on an accident scene, and broke the window of a car that had driven into the canal, then this!! He is such a great principal, full of spirit and really cares about his students

David and I talking a picture by the podium after he spoke.

She MadeIt!!!

Amanda tried out for High School Regionals and competed against 45 other Alto Saxophone players and made the 6th and last spot. A friend called at 10:30pm, telling me her son made it and I asked her to check to see if Amanda was on the list, not expecting her to be, and she was!! I was so amazed. I didn't want to wake her up since we have early church in the morning, but when her Marching Band Section Leader called at 12:00 am, I let him tell her. She was so happy, practically screaming. I had to take her into the laundry room, while she calmed down.

She MadeIt!!!

Just Horsing Around

I took Jeremy, Kelsey and Brenlie Wiles over to Cindy Tucker's to see all of her animals. She has two horses, two dogs, had a cool cat, chickens, had a goose, birds, fish and a ferret? and the cutest new puppy. They all held the new puppy and were impressed with the horses. Brenlie didn't want to get too close. Kelsey and Jeremy climbed up on the fence to pet one of them and Jeremy was picking out junk from the Horse's eye! It was gross but he said "The horse had stuff in his eye" He loves animals! They were all so cute--thanks Cindy!

Heartbreaking and then Hope

Arizona was glued to their tv sets on Sunday. What a close game! The Cardinals only had 2 minutes and 37 seconds to claim their first Superbowl Title and they almost did it! However, tragedy hit and the Steelers with only 1 minute left made the most unbelivable touchdown!
It was such a heart breaker! This week has been sad. However, I felt a such pride and hope when the news showed all of the fans waiting for our team to exit the plane. I was so impressed that 4,000 fans rallied and praised the Cardinals! What hope, what support, we love our Cardinals. I spoke to a former Cardinals player, Dr. Ray Perkins, and he said that this year really helped the team being taken seriously. Maybe next year?

Heartbreaking