Carol Semkew's Blog

Making Changes for the New Year. This is the time of year when many of us evaluate what we’ve been doing and sometimes decide to make changes.  I’ve decided to make a fairly major change by starting 2013 with a new brokerage, HomeSmart Realty.  Besides being the largest and fastest growing real e...

The First Day of Winter It's the first day of winter and the forecast high temperature in the Phoenix area today is 69 degrees.  Almost 70 degrees in December!  In contrast, many parts of the country are experiencing severe winter storms as seen in this NBC news story this morning. Whenever we he...

Estrella Mountain Ranch, Goodyear AZ Where is Estrella Mountain Ranch? Estrella Mountain Ranch is located about 17 miles west of downtown Phoenix in south Goodyear and is one of the three distinct communities of Estrella.  It is surrounded by majestic mountains and desert vistas.  The other two c...

Three Party Planning Tips My husband and I just hosted a Christmas party at our house this past weekend and I wanted to share three things to help you have a great time the next time you decide to host a party.  Two of these tips we used at our party and the other is something I learned from this...

Rainfall in Phoenix is breaking news! It always amazes me that a little bit of rain becomes the top news story on all the local t.v. stations in Phoenix.  Last night, the rain and the expected rain pretty much took up the whole newscast at 10:00.  Being from Vancouver, rain was just part of dail...

Another local business in Goodyear - West Valley Vision Center I was at West Valley Vision Center this morning for my annual eye exam and, given my recent focus on local businesses in Goodyear, thought it was a perfect day to blog about this one.   West Valley Vision Center has been in business s...

Local Coffee Shop and Bakery in Palm Valley, Goodyear I love to support local businesses and it’s super easy to do when the business has great customer service and great products.  Sugar ‘N’ Spice is exactly that in the Palm Valley area of Goodyear.  Located in a somewhat isolated complex at the ...

Goodyear AZ has a new Fedex location.  A local retail store, Bengjo, was doing so much shipping around the world that they decided to become a .  Located in Palm Valley at the corner of Wigwam Blvd. and Indian School Road, Bengjo is a convenient location to drop off all your packages that you ne...

Snowfall in Metro Phoenix! How can that be?  Well, they’re making it happen at Westgate City Center in Glendale and at Tempe Market Place (in Tempe of course).  “Snow What Fun” is happening every night from now through December 24th at Fountain Park at Westgate and at the District Stage at Tempe ...

It’s not too late to participate in one of the Christmas Fun Runs in Phoenix.  This Saturday, December 15th, you can celebrate by dressing up in your best holiday running outfit and running with all the other santas and other holiday characters at the Jingle Bell Run in Phoenix or the 12ks of Chr...