Nevada Child Seekers is recognized as the 2007 Missing Child Non-Profit Organization of the Year!!!

I remember it so well, I was sitting with Stephanie Parker, Executive Director of Nevada Childseekers, just hours after she had received this news by telephone.  We were at another volunteer activity and she was just beaming!  Could not believe the news.  It is a major award, out of the entire country, wow, and to be part of that myself as one of their volunteers is beyond my wildest imagination.

When you meet Stephanie, she is one of the most fun, energetic and warm people you could ever get a chance to be introduced to.  Laidback describes her real well.  But also to recognize everyone around her when she gets recognized.  When May 2 rolled around, Nevada Childseekers was also praised by our very own, Mayor Oscar Goodman.  He officially declared May 2 as  "Nevada Child Seekers Day in the City of Las Vegas"...She did not just go get this award herself...she did not just invite the people in her office that work so closely with her every single day...No, she took it a major step further and invited the volunteers as well!  Yep, I was on television that day, thanks to her!  I got to meet all the councilmen and the Mayor himself.  What a rush!  Every single one of us got a certificate.  So cool!  According to Stephanie, she could not do her daily job without the volunteers.  Double Wow!

When someone in my office nominated me for this year's Good Neighbor Award, I was so excited!  You know that if I win, Nevada Childseekers will get the $10,000 grant.  They so deserve it.  So keep your fingers crossed on that one, you might see my smiling face on the front of your national Realtor Magazine in November...

I could not think of a narrative to convince the judges on my nomination, so I enlisted the help of Stephanie and without sounding way too full of myself, here is part of it:

"We utilize the most valuable resource in our community to help in our mission to locate and educate missing, abducted and runaway children. In 2006 Eveline participated in Emergency Volunteer Searchforce activations by local law enforcement agencies including Everlyse Cabrera. She is available when we call for community events and education outreach. Eveline has completed training for the Emergency Volunteer Searchforce and NetSmartz Internet Safety. She has also assisted in providing abduction prevention education information at community events and has assisted in fingerprinting over 2000 children for child ID kits. Passionate and talented volunteers are a gift to any non-profit organization and Eveline has stood out with her availability in several areas that positively impact the lives of children and families in our community." 

So, maybe there will be a trip in store thanks to Nevada Child Seekers...Chicago here I come!!!

....more are against that here in America.

Something about morals, the Bible and it being disgusting.  The photographer is from New York, Spencer Tunick.  He has done this same thing a bunch of times.  Maybe some people should refrain from posing nude, I think some of them should put a bathing suit on at the beaches as well.  But Spencer usually takes a panoramic picture and does not show every little detail....that might be a good thing.

                                        

If you'd read my MEME, you would know that I am originally from Holland

...YES we are very, very liberal.  We live and let live so to speak.  Many times I have been told that my ideas of pot (gasp!), sex on television, and other things are a little out of line.  I don't promote it, but I am not really against it either.  Some of the criticism was given right in my own living room, because I expressed an idea. 
I was really FOR legalizing small amounts of marijuana here in Nevada.  Why not?  I don't smoke it, never have.  But don't you think that had to do very much with my upbringing?  It was there.  Because it was there, I did not care for it.  The idea is so simple, it's almost insulting.  Holland has less rapes and sexual assaults, it has less teenage pregnancy, and you guessed it, less drug addiction.  We were able to join our parents in a local bar at 16 and have a beer or a glass of wine with them.  But we did not get to drive until we were 21...after some hefty fees paid to a driving school and flunking the exam at least 3 times.  We swore the driving schools did that on purpose so they could charge more hours.  But the moral of the story is this:
Drunk driving teenagers? NONE.

When I first read about it on MSN, click here, I was shocked to see almost 100 comments pop up out of nowhere!  Now that is what I call interactive!!  Bunch of them are negative comments, but I was pleased to see a bunch of them being on the other side of the fence who said "LIGHTEN UP, America!!".

Thoughts??

I am going to be soooo tired! Like most Realtors that I know of, I usually don't get up too early in the morning.  I mean, if you are on Active Rain till the wee hours of the morning, how can you blame me?  Maybe I am stirring the pot here a little, and I might get a bunch of comments saying, NOT ME, NOT ME, I get up early, you are stereo typing!!

No really I am not, just stating the facts, and that includes myself.  But Monday, June 4th is going to be different.  I will have to be at Silverstone Golf Course in Las Vegas.  And no, my tee time is not at noon...I will have to be there at 5:30 AM!!!  Yikes.

But all for a good cause, and that is why I will sacrifice a few hours of sleep.  I will be volunteering at the 17th Annual Dickinson Golf Tournament.  The money raised will benefit Nevada Child Seekers.  You know who else will be there?  None other than famous Gale Sayers.  Yeah!  I am not the biggest football fan out there and he played football when I was running around in diapers, but still...isn't this way cool?  His autobiography, I Am Third, was made into an enormously popular and award-winning TV movie, Brian's Song. The movie captures Gale as gifted athlete, comeback player, leader, teammate and friend. In 2001, Disney remade the movie. 

I'll post pictures after the event.  I am so excited!  I think I will go to sleep NOW...uhmm, I am writing this Saturday night...that way I can wake up early....it will be so worth it!

Keep those comments coming, I welcome them, positive and negative...time to stir that pot!!

Did you hear?  Had you been following this train wreck yourselves?  I certainly did for a while.  He was known as the most hated blogger on the web.  And now he is gone.  Poof.  If you type iamfacingforeclosure.com into your browser, you get a very clean looking white screen...that's it.

• Although he did some stupid, stupid things, I couldn't help but feel for the guy.  Or actually his poor wife.  Does the word DIVORCE mean anything to these people?  Or at least a legal separation, my gawd, what does it have to take?
  
  Here some links to the recent news story....
   -  Notorious debtor Casey Serin shuts down blog
   -   Casey Serin: The world's most hated blogger?

I don't know, all that work...all these months...gone.  I really hope he is going to get himself a decent job, pay the bills, pay society back, lenders, make amends with his wife. 

Thoughts???

Next weekend is going to be exciting!!  The Springs Preserve will have a Grand Opening June 8-10^th, 2007.

On June 9^th, Grammy nominated singer Jewel will mark the official grand opening of the Las Vegas Springs Preserve with an acoustic concert in its 1,800-seat outdoor amphitheater.   General admission is $45 (tax and fees not included ). The Preserve will close at 6 p.m. to the general public and re-open at 7 p.m. for the concert.

What is this Springs Reserve you ask?  Well, as an introduction, it sits on 180 acres smack in the middle of Las Vegas.  It recreates the rich history of Las Vegas and has an emphasis on conserving and recycling our valley's natural resources.  Even the overhead parking structure has solar panels.  According to Jesse Davis of Springs Preserve, , "Seventy percent of the power required to operate the whole Springs Preserve Visitors Attraction will be generated right here on property."  Now that is what I call resourceful!

•·        You can find out how the first visitors to the Las Vegas valley thousands of years ago survived our brutal summers without air conditioning. Ouch!
•·        And they have an attraction almost identical to something straight out of Universal Studios...a flash flood experience.  Watch part of it here......Springs Preserve: The Flash Flood Experience

I plan on being there to document this opening with pictures...check back on my blog for more information on this....

I said it was right smack in the middle of Las Vegas...Where is it, you ask?

The Springs Preserve is located at 333 S. Valley View Blvd. between U.S. 95 and Alta Drive.

I urge everyone to come out and attend the Grand Opening, and visiting this with your entire family...more than once!

Eveline Tritsch
Las Vegas Real Estate
 

For ALL the missing children, please watch and turn on your speakers

Isn't that sad? More on this a few days from now, after reading some comments, a blog is building in my head...I have to get it out!!! I also have to make this 50 words or more, so forgive my rambling. Look for Part 2 on this ordeal.

Allright, I was reading up on other people's MEMEs and must say, very interesting people here!! Thanks, Jeff Belonger for inviting me to meme me...?????

Alas, here I go:

1.  I grew up in The Netherlands, my parents decided FOR me to take the plunge and move to the United States, although I was almost 14, very hormonal, and very against it, I did decide a long time ago to Thank Them, it was THE best decision, I love it here!  We first moved to the Bay Area in California. 

2.  I never "officially" graduated High School, after my junior year, I opted to take the equivalency exam and get out early.  I then was a rebel and decided to pack my bags and be an au-pair in West Berlin, Germany. 
For those of you who don't know what an au-pair is, it is the french word for live-in nanny.  Oh boy, at the age of 17, back in Europe, being able to drink in the bars, no age restrictions there, an American Army and Air Force base with all the gorgeous men, I partied hard...Oh get your mind out of  the gutter already, nothing out of control!  Let's just say    I was alot of fun to hang around. :)
If anything, the family that I was living with begged me to stay on for longer.  I did that good of a job.  I declined and felt that 1 year of that was enough.

3.  Back in the US, living with Mom and Dad again, swore this would be temporary (!!!), just turned 19 and back working as a waitress at Bob's Big Boy.  This was no life!  At least not for me.

4. Joined the US Air Force in 1989.  My lovely recruiter had it timed so perfect for me so that I arrived the day before Thanksgiving into bootcamp.  I still need to go thank him with a swift kick in the ass for that one! 
I arrived together with one other girl, a mental case.  No really, she was so distraught in there that the first week she decided she was going to pee her bed, because she heard that they would immediately dismiss her. NOT!
When that didn't work, she made an appointment with the dentist and told her escort that she had brought her razorblades with her and she was ready to slash her wrists...We got to babysit her on suicide watch for 2 weeks while the Air Force decided what to do with her....my experience in bootcamp was not fun!

5. I was part of Desert Storm.  I am very proud of that, it was scary but I learned a tremendous amount.

6. I married and divorced a wonderful man.  I say wonderful because he is.  We just weren't very compatible.  Hey, it happens!  But we had two wonderful kids, they are my life!
He is remarried, I am not.  ;)wink wink;)

7.  I am addicted to Sushi and I can also eat Mexican food every day of the week.  I like to drink, nothing out of control, but I like my wine and tequila, what can I say.

8.  I see myself retired anywhere near a coast line, I have this need to be near water for some reason.  It completes me... :)
I have not decided if it is going to be near Monterey, CA or the East Coast, we'll see where life takes me.

9.  I work with my dad, actually he is my step dad, my real dad passed away when I was only 2 1/2 from cancer.  But this Dad has been in my life since I was 6, so we are just as close and I don't consider him anything but my Dad.
I have a sister in The Netherlands who just beat breast cancer in 2005, and I have this weird fear that I am next.  After a lot of research we found out it is a genetic thing - it runs rampant on my dad's side of the family. 

10.  I volunteer.  I put in a lot of hours with Nevada Child Seekers.  They were established in 1985 to help find missing and runaway children.  I am also trained with the Metropolitan Police Dept on Search Force.  Basically if a child goes missing, chances are great that Metro will call us out to go and help look for them.
I was part of Everlyse Cabrera's case  last year.  To this date we have not found her.  It can be very taxing, but also rewarding, because there were many more children brought home because of this organization.  I know with my children, I would want the same assistance.

I know you what you're going to say, I named 10 things about me and all you needed was 5.  Well I go overboard with everything.  So there.  That's 11 !

But I hope you enjoyed and here are my 3 people:

1.  Rich Kruse - Boy do I LOVE to read his blogs!

2.  Luke Bouman - He is new, just blogged his 2nd blog and he was featured already!!

3.  Mary Pope-Handy - A Realtor from San Jose area, CA...
              

Mine did!  I gotta give it to the guys from Republic Services of Southern Nevada!  I don't think I have ever not seen them work, no matter what day it was!  Even Christmas Day if that fell on one of my pick up days. 
Crazy isn't it?
If you lived in Henderson, Nevada or anywhere in the Las Vegas Valley, yours would be picked up as well!  You wouldn't have to skip the holidays and be thrown off track for the next few weeks.  Am I right?

Oh, that could work against hubby's plans, perhaps....he would not have an excuse not to take the garbage out! GASP!

(P.S I tried to take the pictures from my daughter's upstairs bedroom as sneakily as possible, but I still think he did see me! :0 )