Anxiety

Mike and I traveled to the Valley Tuesday afternoon and spent the day there yesterday taking care of a number of matters we needed to address. TJei stayed with Jodie because she needed to be at swim team practices and she had art and singing classes Tuesday afternoon. Mia went down with us. She was so excited to see Uncle Quentin's new house, especially Jayden's new bedroom. It was even more lovely and larger than we had thought from the pictures. I so hope they are able to manage payments and other expenses. What an opportunity this is for them.

Mia stayed with Quentin to play with Jayden Wednesday while Mike and I went to meet up with Ron and Terry and visit while they were in Arizona from Oklahoma. What a nice visit it was! Much of our discussion centered on retirement matters. The subject has weighed heavily in our thoughts and hearts over recent months. Especially since Mike fought off such a devastating series of medical issues again. It has really given us cause to reflect on the future. It was wonderful to talk with them and spend that time together. Missing them bunches since they've moved to Oklahoma but even more as life has moved on and we don't do so many family things anymore. Sometimes the thought is there, it would be great to go back in time when both our families were young and again spend a day together at the lake or along a river. Mike and I want to go and visit inn Oklahoma later this year.

Mike had to go to the title company in north Scottsdale Wednesday afternoon to sign a stack of papers for the upcoming sales of properties in Lehi. There weren't any delays along the roadways so it didn't take much time to get that completed. We left there and headed to Mesa to meet Carol at a Chase Bank, Gilbert and McKellips, to open an account for the Children's Trust. Ugh. What a challenge that ended up being. Banks apparently will no longer open an account for a trust which requires two signatures. What? Yeah right....they will open an account for individuals which require two signatures and even a business account requiring two but not for a trust account. Unreal. Mike had to open the account to have routing numbers etc for the land sales proceeds so they went ahead and opened it. Big worry here. Carole has demonstrated over and over again that she is not trustworthy about anything to do with Scotty and Billie's estate. She acknowledged during conversations at the bank that she has been collecting fees from people using those lots as storage yards, etc. She previously had acknowledged she collected fees from the guy boarding horses next door to her. That particular lot sold last year, she would have been collecting those fees until then.

When Mike asked where those monies were at she stated they were in an account at this very Chase Bank branch. She said there was about $7000 there...oddly enough, that was the same figure she quoted was in the account she had - which Mike didn't know anything about - several years ago when she first acknowledged collecting fees for use of those properties. An earlier question by the bank employee had asked whether she had an account at that bank, she had stated then that she had a home equity line of credit loan. She hadn't mentioned this account at all.

It is so frustrating to have our hands tied for the sake of "getting along" while knowing with certainty she is not being honest and is actually failing to disclose and account for money that should be under hers and Mike's control, not hers alone and with no accounting for it at all.

After a quick stop at Panda Express - ran into nurse Kelly from Summit Healthcare (she was one of Mike's nurses :) ) and then we headed back out to San Tan Valley and visited with John, Kelly and girls before heading out to return home. It was so late when we left out! Mike pulled off at the camp area near Seneca and we slept in the car (Quentin's, we left our truck) for a couple hours. We didn't get home until a bit after 2am. whew

The Big Five-O

I can't believe Carol is turning 50 today! Jude is hosting a surprise birthday party to help her celebrate. Mike and TJei have gone down to the valley for the party. I stayed here in town because I am coordinating two family luncheons (yes. two in the same day) for funerals today. I'll be looking forward to hearing about the festivities this evening.