Sometimes it’s best to start out small and work up to something bigger.

Dear Mikey: I just turned 25 years old and I got myself in a situation where I had to file bankruptcy a week before my birthday. This is not at all where I expected myself to be when I turned 25. I thought I would have my career launched already (just got laid off), have my bachelor’s degree by now (still have 21 more credits to go), be married by now (girlfriend and I just broke up a month ago), having kids (not even close), and a house (can barely afford the rent in my apartment).

Tis the season where neck ties, golf balls, and mid-priced polo shirts begin to fly off the shelves. That’s right, Father’s Day is just around the corner. And besides the annual tradition of the final round of the U.S. Open being played, that Sunday in June is our opportunity to remember, appreciate, and show a little love to the men in our lives who went above and beyond the call of duty as fathers.

Whether you had parents that were distant or parents that were overbearing, we all likely dreamed about running away from home while growing up. These unrealistic fantasies likely involved hitting the road with one or two good friends and building a safe haven somewhere in the wildness. Naturally, we all quickly woke up from this daydream, realizing that we’d never make it on our own. “The Kings of Summer” exists in an offbeat world fueled by our youthful daydreams. The end product is funny and quirky, but also wise and nostalgic with something meaningful to say about coming of age.

Father’s Day gifts have morphed over the years. It used to be a tie, a golf hat or a jazz CD. But dads are more tech-savvy these days.

Every Sunday in Ahwatukee Foothills, residents can browse through a variety of cheeses, meats, fruits, vegetables, jellies, breads and other products all grown or produced within a 15-mile radius of the area at the Ahwatukee Farmer’s Market.

It’s only been a week since the 1-cent sales tax went off the books, but area economists and businesses do not expect to see much if any increase in retail sales in the foreseeable future due in part to consumers having little idea the increase ended.

ICAN, a Chandler-based youth program, is introducing a new initiative to ensure that kids returning to school do so with shoes that are not worn and torn. Throughout the month of June, ICAN will be seeking donations for its Kicks for Kids shoe drive, including shoes and socks.

Editor’s note: This is part three of a continuing summer series on the proposed South Mountain Loop 202 Freeway.

State senators voted Wednesday to ensure that if you like to hang your clothes out on the line you have a choice of new homes to buy.

I am one of those whose mother invoked starving children in India or China as a way to get me to eat nasty vegetables like eggplant and okra and to otherwise leave nothing on the plate. These days, I like vegetables, I clearly do not often leave anything on the plate, and my mother need not look past our own shores to see starving children.


Most of the ads for “After Earth” have neglected to mention that M. Night Shyamalan co-wrote and directed the film. Movie studios finally seem to be realizing that having Shyamalan’s name plastered above the title will no longer sell tickets. If anything, it will have audiences fleeing from the theater in revulsion. Whenever it looks like Shyamalan can’t embarrass himself any further, he always comes out with a new film that’s even more atrocious than the last. At least with his previous debacle, “The Last Airbender,” Shyamalan hit ground zero. There’s no way he could possibly make a film even more poorly written, effortlessly acted, and bleakly directed, right?


As Christy Everson was nearing age 40, she made a decision: She wanted to have a child, even though she was single and it meant doing it all alone. Her daughter, conceived via a sperm donor, is now 2 1/2 years old, and Everson hopes to have a second child.


Americans are more confident in the U.S. economy than at any point in the past five years, thanks to surging home values, a brighter job market and record-setting stock prices.
Stock averages last month extended the year’s explosive rally.
Further gains in consumer confidence could help the economy withstand the effects of higher taxes and federal spending cuts that kicked in this year. Spending by consumers drives about 70 percent of economic growth.


Detectives found more than 100 marijuana plants inside a home in Ahwatukee Foothills on Tuesday.

Leslie Patricelli didn’t keep junk food in the house when her three kids were toddlers, but the goofy, bald baby in her board book “Yummy Yucky” grins from ear to ear over chocolate sauce and cookies.
The prolific picture book writer also included pepperoni pizza as a positive, acknowledging in a recent interview that some of her empty calorie imagery for kids too young to seek out sugary and fatty foods on their own have earned her a kvetch or two from parents.
“If I were to do it again I would probably make a few different choices, but I don’t think I would leave everything out,” said Patricelli, in Hailey, Idaho. “All you have to do is watch a kid eat a piece of cake to know that they’re in heaven.”
Heaven, indeed, especially when it comes to an abundance of frothy pink cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies and candy in books aimed squarely at babies, toddlers and preschoolers who may not be intimate with the meaning of moderation.
But some authors and publishers are focused on creating alternatives to c-is-for-cupcake picture books for parents struggling to promote broccoli. Even Cookie Monster sometimes eats smarter, chowing down on celery and demonstrating smaller portions of his namesake treats in “Ding Dong, Elmo’s Here!” and other books from the folks on “Sesame Street.”
“Food is everywhere kids turn,” said Betsy Loredo, executive editor for Sesame Workshop’s publishing group. “So it’s natural for us to want to think of ways we can integrate that and make choices that are healthier. We try to go for at least equity.”
“Sesame Street,” with an appearance by obesity fighter and first lady Michelle Obama, took on nutrition and exercise as an initiative back in 2004. The effort expanded to other divisions and special projects that included distribution of kits to six million families and child care centers offering ways to eat healthy on a budget and educate parents on the difference between “sometime food” and “anytime food.”
With the childhood obesity rate tripling in the past 30 years to 1 in 3 children in the United States overweight or obese, books with healthy eating pictures and messages may not be everything, but they’re something, advocates said.
Sesame Workshop, for instance, concluded in a 2010 study that when children are shown fruits and vegetables linked with favorite characters from the show they choose those foods at a much higher rate and eat more of them, according to Sesame researcher Jennifer Kotler.
Even broccoli, she laughed.
“Something happens between 3 and 5 where there’s a growing awareness of what healthy means. Where 3-year-olds like the foods they like, 5-year-olds know things they might choose might not always be the healthiest,” Kotler said. 
David Goldbeck in Woodstock, N.Y., isn’t an absolutist, but he does care about what kids see in their books when it comes to food. He wants more of them to eat fruits and vegetables, so he co-wrote an alphabet book that puts broccoli and yams in equally healthy company.
The Michigan Fitness Foundation, which is home to that state’s Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness, Health and Sports, uses Goldbeck’s “The ABC’s of Fruits and Vegetables and Beyond” in take-home book bags that are part of a health literacy program in more than 400 public elementary schools, said Marci Kelly Scott, the organization’s vice president for health programs.
The book includes an alphabet format with illustrations (E is for eggplant!) but also history, fun facts and recipes for older kids. Scott ordered 500 of the books in 2008 and routinely reorders to keep up her supplies.
In this alphabet world, C is for carrots, D is for date, as in the “desert fruit found in Kuwait,” and O is for organic.


In case you forgot, Gov. Jan Brewer has other priorities this year besides getting the Legislature to approve Medicaid expansion.

An Ahwatukee Foothills salon is teaming up with local designers to empower women and raise money for domestic violence victims with the first ever Brave Wings Fashion Show on June 22.
The fashion show will take place at The Venue Scottsdale, 7117 E., 3rd Ave., beginning at 7 p.m. on the 22nd. It will feature six designers including the founders of the show, Mabel Cortez and Jenesis Laforcarde. 
The two Arizona designers say they decided to start Brave Wings to give back to the community. They plan to host a fashion show annually to benefit a different charity each year. This year they selected Sojourner Center because their clothing lines both fit with a theme of empowering women.
Cortez’s line, Mabella Chic, focuses on strong independent women.
“I’ve been around strong women my whole life,” she said. “Coming from a strong women family, for me, it was about empowering women in the sense of making them feel good with fashion. I want to present women in a fashionable way so they can feel good about themselves.”
Laforcarde’s T-shirt line is about self respect for women.
“I decided to do a T-shirt line because of my generation,” she said. “I’m only 19 and I see my friends being dependent on their boyfriends and not supporting themselves. I wanted to create a T-shirt line about being confident, independent and doing your own thing. Whatever you want to do, you can do it, as long as you put your mind to it.”
Saskia Salon will be sponsoring the hair at the event. Saskia Salon opened in Ahwatukee at 4647 E. Chandler Blvd., two years ago. Since then Saskia Almasan, the salon’s owner, said the business has become steady and she has been able to hire a few new employees and keep the focus on customer service. Her goal is to keep growing organically. Networking with the fashion industry and local charities helps that growth.
“When you feel blessed it’s automatic to feel like you want to give back,” she said. “As a business owner you start with nothing and a dream. You’ve got to find people of like mindedness to grow that… Any time we can join with wonderful people trying to make our own city better, that’s huge. We touch lives on a daily basis in the chair. I think it goes from your chair to your community, then your city. If we keep going like that then maybe we can change the world.”


Arizona-based Maracay Homes recently spent $4 million to design new floor plans based on consumer requests in a post recession economy. Those new floor plans — the New Arizona Living Collection — include secondary living rooms that can be used as playrooms, laundry rooms by master bedrooms and expanded outdoor spaces, said Maracay President and CEO Andy Warren.

One of the ways the Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce assists local businesses is with a membership drive taking place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 6 at The Grace Inn, 10831 S. 51st St. It is the chamber’s chance to introduce businesses to their main benefits and have a little fun.


Kyrene School District officials on Tuesday presented a capital plan for the upcoming 2013-14 school year to its governing board, hoping to modify its current “run to failure” effort to fund capital needs.
With its biggest challenge of funding capital items like leaky roofs, air conditioning towers and rusted water pipes, the district is modifying its “run to failure” plan to only pay for high-priority projects and maintenance projects with excessive or recurring costs.
Kyrene Superintendent Dr. David Schauer said on Tuesday that the plan is “not something we are happy about, but something we believe we can do.”
Still waiting on whether bond legislation from the state will come out in favor of school districts this summer, district chief financial officer Jeremy Calles said select schools with the high-priority capital needs will be addressed first.
“The pile is only growing bigger and bigger each year,” Calles said.


Most of the ads for “After Earth” have neglected to mention that M. Night Shyamalan co-wrote and directed the film. Movie studios finally seem to be realizing that having Shyamalan’s name plastered above the title will no longer sell tickets.

When it comes to money, women have their own style. The wealth-building strategies that resonate with women and lead them along the path to greater financial freedom are not the same as those for men. We assimilate money information differently — not only because of cultural attitudes and beliefs about women and money, but because of how our brains take in, process, and use information. How much of your brain power is being applied to decreasing your financial vulnerability and increasing your financial know-how and well-being?

Powel is looking for a family willing to put in the time, patience, love, and training it takes to have a puppy. He has puppy-like behaviors (chewing, potty training, and training), but he’s worth all the time and training it will take to watch him grow. He is a Chihuahua mix, 9 months 26 days.

There’s no smoke and mirrors about it — Americans are eating a lot more smoked seafood than they used to.