Results Realty Buzz

Fireworks on the New Year is a Texas tradition and this year we have heard them going off since early in the evening.  With our severe drought this summer there was no fireworks on the 4th; believe me people are making up for lost time this evening.  (It helps that is is 70 degrees out at 10:00 at night.) I just heard on the news the fireworks stands are doing record sales! Our dog and cats will be happy when we finish ringing in this New Year!  Our dog is honestly too big to be a lap dog but this evening he is a lap dog (lol).

Happy New Year!

For all your Spring/Tomball/Magnolia TX Real Estate needs, contact me today!
Marchel Peterson
Results Realty
Cell: 832-721-8332

Can you imagine being at a busy airport getting ready to fly out on one of the busiest travel day of the year and all of a sudden you hear swing music over the loudspeaker and young people start dancing swing? That is what happened a few days before Thanksgiving at Denver International Airport.

 I can't tell you how many times I have been in Jeppesen Terminal, as we have family in the Denver area, but from now as I visit the terminal I will remember this video of swing dancing. I thought it was so much fun to see these young people dancing to swing music. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!

For all your Spring/Tomball/Magnolia TX Real Estate needs, contact me today!
Marchel Peterson
Results Realty
Cell: 832-721-8332

On this Veterans day of 11/11/11 I am writing this post to honor my Dad Harry Gifford.  My Dad was drafted in to the Army prior to Pearl Harbor and served through the entire war.  It has only been in the last few years that I have been able to get my Dad to talk about his war time experiences and I was amazed to find out that the draft was going on before Pearl Harbor happened.  I had always thought the draft started after Pearl Harbor but that is not the case.

After getting drafted he called his 4 brothers and told them if they wanted to choose the branch of the service they wanted to be in they had best enlist rather than be drafted.

The picture to the left are the Gifford boys. Two of them were in the Army, two were in the Air Force and one was in the Navy. All of them came home safe and sound. My Dad's oldest brother stayed in the reserves and at the time was told he would not be called up and if he was would not go to the front line. As it turns out that was not true and he died on the front lines in the Korean War. My Dad was the second to the oldest and is the only one of his siblings that is still living. (He also had an older sister.)

My Dad at 94 years of age and my Mother at 86 years of age still spend 6 months in Colorado and 6 months in Arizona. My Dad drives them back and forth pulling a small travel trailer and I would get in the car with him any day as he is still an incredible driver. He got a lot of practice during World War II as his job in the Army was to drive a supply truck to the front line in Europe.  He was with a group that followed Patton's tanks.  He said that Patton would clear an area out and then they would have to come back and clear the area out again. His job was to drop the kitchen off and then he would spend the rest of the time picking up more supplies or taking troops back and forth to the front line. He said that often he would get where he was going only to find that the front line had been moved. In the video below he describes one of my favorite stories.

My parents are from the small town of Kinsley Kansas. When he left for the war my Mother was just a young girl and he did not give her a second glance.  When my Dad came back from the war my Mother was all grown up and the rest is history. They will be celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary on December 1st. We will be having a celebration in January in Arizona as that will give time for all their winter visitor friends to get in town.  They have decided this will be their last year to winter in Arizona so it will be a bittersweet year for them.

We are by no means a military family but we are a family with a long history of serving our country when needed. Between my husband's family and my family we have had someone in almost every war since the Revolution. The only one that we could not come up with was the War of 1812. The most recent addition to that history is our son who served as an Intelligence Analyst with the Army. He was in for the same length of time as my Dad 4 years 10 months serving two tours of Iraq. He got out in June of 2009 and is now a junior at Texas A&M in Ocean Engineering.

I have been blessed to have wonderful parents. I always say I had an Ozzie and Harriet upbringing and I'm so blessed to still have them.

My Dad and Mother truly are my HEROES !

________________________________________________________________________________________________

For all your Spring/Tomball/Magnolia TX Real Estate needs, contact me today!
Marchel Peterson
Results Realty
Cell: 832-721-8332

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Copyright © 2010 Marchel Peterson, All Rights Reserved. *My Dad - My Hero!!*

Tomball Business & Professional Women 13th Annual"Fall Food Fest" will be held at Tomball United Methodist Church on Baker Street Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM.

Last year we were able to give 6 high school Seniors scholarships plus one additional scholarship to a Lonestar college receipient and one scholarship to a Leadership North Houston recipient from our organization. We are hoping that we will even be able to give more this coming year.

This event serves as  one of our organizations's primary fund-raising effort to secure funds for scholarships. Additionally our organization's fund-raising contributes to numerous community needs.

Local restaurants will be providing samples of their food. Pizza, Cassaroles, Chicken Friend Chicken, Soups, Mexican food, Deserts, Pies and More!

Adult Plates are $8.00. Seniors 60 and over are $5.00 and children under 10 are $2.50. If you don't have time to stay To Go Plates are also available.

A raffle, along with a silent auction, is part of our fund-raising efforts for this event.

Raffle tickets are presently being sold with the winners of the raffle items announced at the Food Fest. Raffle tickets are $5.00 apiece or 5 for $20. In previous years I have sold 4 winning tickets. You could be my next winning ticket! Please come and support our scholarships for High School seniors and others in need.

We appreciate Tomball United Methodist Church on Baker Street allowing us to use their Church for our fundraiser. This is an easy location to get to. If you are coming from 2920 turn north on Baker and you will curve to the church on the left. If you are coming from SH 249 turn to the east on Baker and the Church will be on your right.

For all your Spring/Tomball/Magnolia TX Real Estate needs, contact me today!
Marchel Peterson
Results Realty
Cell: 832-721-8332

The pictures above were taken Labor Day weekend. I was going to post them right away but then the wild fires started and after that the lake issue seemed trivial. Now that the fires are over I am back to posting about Lake Conroe. Lake Conroe is a back up water supply for Houston and with the severe drought we have been in they have had to start taking water out of Lake Conroe. It is so sad to see the lake being depleted but at the same time I understand why it has to be done.

If you have followed my blog you know that we are in two active sail boat clubs on the lake. We were out at the lake Labor day weekend and it looked like a ghost lake. Typically you would see several sailboats and a lot of motorboats out on the water. We saw maybe three motorboats, a couple of jet skis and NO sailboats on the lake.

We have a Catalina 22 which is a relatively small sailboat. We have the retractable keel and keep it at Conroe Yacht Club on dry ground. Our friends with the larger boats have had to find creative ways to get their boats off the water.

I expect it is going to be several years before the lake is back to normal. We will miss our sailboat races but in the grand scheme of things people having water to live with is more important.

Please pray for rain in Texas. It is going to take a lot of rain to get us back to normal levels.

For all your Spring/Tomball/Magnolia TX Real Estate needs, contact me today!
Marchel Peterson
Results Realty
Cell: 832-721-8332

This is Dundy; we rescued him over 2 years ago and what a joy he has been. His cute Golden face got him in the Golden Rescue but he is only about 50 pounds so is for sure a mix. Other than Golden we are not sure what he is although I think he has some Border Collie. I hear we could pay $60 and do a test to find out but it is kind of fun to guess. He is the best guard dog we have ever had; his bark sounds like he is a Rottweiler. Problem is when you open the door you have this cute bundle of fur greeting you. He is happy we found him and the feeling is mutual!!

There are so many dogs and cats waiting to be rescued.  Personally I think rescues make the best pets. They are so happy to be rescued!!

For all your Spring/Tomball/Magnolia TX Real Estate needs, contact me today! Marchel Peterson Results Realty Cell: 832-721-8332

I often have people ask me what they need to do to apply for a mortgage.  George gives some great insight on getting organized to make your loan application.

I know that PITI is sometimes hard to understand and George does a GREAT job of explaining it in language that is easy to understand!

Yesterday I found myself in my car for a fairly long stretch of time waiting for a client who was running late.  Typically when that happens I bring out the cell phone and start surfing.  In this case I was out in the country and was only getting one bar on my phone so surfing was out.  I then started digging through my car to see what I could find.  What I found were two REALTOR magazines from back in April; both of them unread by me.  In the NAR magazine I found an article entitled “What animal are you”?  I am not familiar with the book but Stefan Swanepoel has written a book called “Surviving the Serengeti” which draws business survival skills from the animal life in Africa’s Serengeti region.

At this time in April 20,000 people (it says mostly real estate practitioners but I am not sure how they tell that) had taken the quiz.  It was intriguing to see how the respondents landed.

• 31% Enterprising Crocodile – Enterprising Crocodiles see the possibilities in the future that others cannot see.  They are passionate about work, learn from mistakes and understand their weaknesses as well as their innate strengths.
• 24% Graceful Giraffe – Graceful Giraffe’s develop interdependent relationships that are fostered through patience, self-dignity honor and respect.  Grace is a disposition that requires compassion toward others and the desire to extend good will.
• 13% Communicating Elephant – The Communicating Elephant is a good communicator.  They understand that it is not always best to use a lot of words.  They understand how critical verbal and non-verbal exchanges are.  They understand successful relationships depend on good communication.
• 10% Strategic Lion – To the strategic Lion it is all or nothing. The Lion’s primary skill is strategy; it is all about organizing their thoughts, ideas, experience, skills, expertise and expectations to accomplish the desired goal. Strategy is not just about the end; it is the means to the end.
• 8% Efficient Cheetah – The Efficient Cheetah finishes the job in the shortest possible time with the least amount of wasted resources.  They are able to overcome interruptions, distractions, mistakes and mental and physical fatigue. They focus on being effective thus producing the desired results.
• 7% Risk Taking Mongoose – The Risk Taking Mongoose evaluates all the options before making a decision.  They review goals and determine the various routes to get to the destination.  Often they choose the path with the highest risk to gain the maximum reward.
• 7% Enduring Wildebeest- The Enduring Wildebeest keeps their mind going even when their body wants to quit. They continue moving forward despite obstacles, hardships, pain or fatigue.

At the bottom of the article I found that I could go online to take the quiz at http://www.whatanimalami.com/.   Reading through the different animals I was guessing that I would be the Communicating Elephant but bookmarked the page so when I got home I could see what the quiz said.  I took the quiz twice and yes I was a Communication Elephant both times.  I thought it was kind of fun and wanted to share it with you.  So what animal are you?

If anyone has read the book  please share how you liked the book.

For all your Spring-Magnolia-Tomball TX Real Estate needs, contact me today!
Marchel Peterson
Results Realty
Cell: 832-721-8332

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Copyright © 2011 Marchel Peterson, All Rights Reserved. *Motivational Monday - What animal are you?!!*

Lake Conroe Sailing Association's Thursday night races are in the middle of the season and we are still experiencing plenty of wind. Typically in the summer our winds die down and lots of races get canceled due to lack of wind.  Not so this year!

The wind is the good news but the bad news is that we are not experiencing any rain.  We have lived here for almost 15 years and this is the driest we have ever seen our area.  My sister lives in the Denver area and for some odd reason they seem to be getting all the rain.  Typically at this time of the year they look brown and dull and we look green and lush but that is not the case this year.  Again trying to find a positive out of our drought we do have a lot of wind so consider coming out to join us on Thursday nights.  You don't have to own a boat to participate people are always looking for crew.  I help on the committee boat and my husband crews.  For more information visit Lake Conroe Sailing Associations website.

For all your Spring-Magnolia-Tomball TX Real Estate needs, contact me today!
Marchel Peterson
Results Realty
Cell: 832-721-8332

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Copyright © 2011 Marchel Peterson, All Rights Reserved. *Lake Conroe Sailing Association Thursday night sail boat races!!*

Picture taken by Marchel Peterson all rights reserved!