Do We Love.... Autism Awareness

Autism Awareness Month gets real when you hand the mic to someone who lives it. We’re joined by our guest Johnny, with Nicole chiming in, for a warm, funny, detail-rich conversation about how autism, family support, and special interests can grow into creativity, confidence, and community. Johnny doesn’t just tell us what he likes, he shows us how he builds: a Lion King “Pet Edition” made from photos of cats and dogs across the extended family, planned like a true production and finished with help from the people he loves. 

From there, we jump into a holiday tradition that keeps leveling up: a Christmas light show with synchronized music, a growing catalog of songs, and tens of thousands of bulbs. Johnny explains his role as the director, the way his dad produces the show, and how watching other creators online sparks new ideas. We also talk classic game shows, including a family birthday tradition where they recreate the gameplay with cameras, props, and throwback-style prizes, plus the surprising way Wheel of Fortune helped with spelling and learning. 

Johnny also shares what it’s like to run a YouTube channel with over 13,000 subscribers, do collabs and voiceovers, and keep learning new software skills to the point where he can teach his dad something new. We round things out with horse-farm Fridays, Power Rangers fandom, and a proud graduation story that captures the feeling of stepping into the spotlight and nailing it. If you care about neurodiversity, autism acceptance, and practical ways families can support autistic kids and teens, this one will stick with you. 

Subscribe for more, share this with someone who needs a hopeful listen, and leave a review if you’re enjoying the show. What special interest has shaped your life the most?

Johnny's Links
Youtube - Korag the Network - Johnny's creations

The Lion King Pet Edition 

Horses for Change

Widmer Wonderland Youtube

Notice there is a Jersey Devil but not a Jersey Angel

Transcript

Heather 0:24

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to episode 19 of Do We Love That For You.

Zia 0:29

Good morning, everyone. How are you today, Z? Good. So today we have Do We Love Autism Awareness Month. And we can say do right off the bat. Yeah, we do. We do. There's no question about that.

Heather 0:44

Yeah, very close to both our hearts. So we are very. So I am not at home in here. I'm not. I'm actually in New York, but I am not with you. You are. I'm not. I'm down with my nephew, Johnny, and his mom, Nicole. She's one of our fans. Johnny's one of our fans. He listens to all our podcasts. Yeah. Welcome, Johnny.

Johnny 1:09

Thanks for having me.

Heather 1:11

Absolutely.

Zia 1:11

Hi. Welcome. Thanks for being with us.

Johnny 1:17

Yeah. And what can I say? Autism aware of mom had to get involved.

Heather 1:23

That's right.

Johnny 1:23

That's right.

Lion King Pet Movie Project

Heather 1:24

That's right. That's right. So, Johnny, is there any way you can tell us about a fun thing you did a couple of years ago with all of the pets in our extended family?

Johnny 1:39

Oh, you mean my Lion King Pet Edition?

Heather 1:42

Yeah, tell me about that.

Johnny 1:44

Well, um, I got inspired to make that from two cats from Bob and Melissa family. Their names were Simba and Nala. And they were they inspired me to make all all the Lion King films. And those two played the main played the main lions, Simba and Nala. My cats, some of them, well, Max and Duncan, the stupid ones, play Timone and Pumba, 'cause of their characteristics. Um Capasa plays Simba's Monserrabi. Uh my dance teacher, Miss Lorraine's cat, plays Presley. Wesley plays Mufasa, rest in peace, by the way. Um a couple couple of family friends cats plays Scar. Uh his name is actually Scar, by the way.

Heather 2:41

Oh my goodness. I didn't know that. That's awesome. That's awesome.

Johnny 2:45

Uh uh, I believe uh I uh uh uh Oakley plays one of the hyenas, Melissa's dog. Uh Briscoe also plays one of the hyenas, you and Rich's dog. Uh and a and a family friend also played the and a family friend's dog also played the the also played the lead of the hyenas. Um her name is Faye. Um haven't heard from her in a while though.

Nicole 3:17

Yeah, has been a fun time.

Zia 3:19

Yeah.

Heather 3:19

Very cool. And you put it up on YouTube for us to all see it.

Johnny 3:25

Well, not exactly. Um uh due to copyright reasons, I can't really post the whole thing on YouTube, but uh I it is on it is available on Google Drive if you if you have a shared link, however.

Zia 3:41

Very cool. That must have taken a lot of time to do.

Johnny 3:46

Believe me, it took me a a while, at least at least until Simon Allah way was a girl grow up into like a adult cats, but I did I did have other projects to work on before mm before they did that.

Nicole 4:00

So it took you a couple of months.

Johnny 4:02

Yeah, it took me a couple months. Wow.

Heather 4:05

Did you do it all yourself or did you get some help?

Johnny 4:08

I got some help from from friends and family. Um they sent me the pictures of me of the animals I n I I needed for the uh movie. So um, like, for example, um, I got in pictures of Briscoe and Oakley and many more. That's very cool.

Heather 4:32

You had us do we you had us make them, I believe we had to have them sit and lay and do a trick or something.

Johnny 4:39

Yes, I remember. Yes.

Heather 4:42

Yeah, that was so much fun. Funny.

Johnny 4:44

Believe me, it was.

Heather 4:46

I love that for you. That sounds like so much fun. And I remember when when your mom, when Nicole sent it to us all, we actually all sat together and watched it with Uncle Rich.

Johnny 4:58

I'm I'm glad you did that. Yeah, glad you did that.

Zia 5:00

It was a lot of fun, yeah. Well, I hope Heather. Oh, there goes Charlie. So sorry, guys, you know our life. Um so yeah, that y'all have to ask Heather to show that to me because I would be very interested in seeing the hardware.

Heather 5:15

Can I share it on our website?

Johnny 5:17

Yeah, you can if you have the uh correct link.

Heather 5:20

Okay. We'll get it from mom and we'll we'll share it.

Christmas Lights Show Tradition

Zia 5:23

That's awesome. Absolutely. Yep. Now, um Heather was telling me that you actually do something with your dad around Christmas time, which I'm kind of a little jealous about.

Johnny 5:38

Yeah, it's true.

Zia 5:40

Yeah.

Johnny 5:40

It's it's true. Every every year we put we uh we uh have this life show called When We Wonderland. It gets bigger every year. Yep. Um uh this this this will be our this year will be our 11th year. Um can't really give can't really give too much away, but I think we're adding some stockings for the house and some candy canes for the uh driveway, I think. Oh, awesome.

Heather 6:10

Yeah, every year you add new stuff, right? Yeah. Something new.

Johnny 6:13

Yeah, something new every year.

Nicole 6:15

Yeah, and we currently have 42 songs in the catalog.

Johnny 6:19

Yeah, that yeah, that's true. That's true.

Nicole 6:22

42 songs. And looking at my notes, we have about 20, no, 69,128 bulbs.

Zia 6:34

Yes. Oh, wow.

Heather 6:38

Wow. And I believe you have the link to post that as well. So you can post the the pictures of that so we can people can listen to that. Yeah, we actually, this is the first year we weren't able to come down and look at it. Um, it was circumstances waiting on baby Charlie, some of it, but um, we've come down every year or much of the years to watch them when they turn them on. Yeah.

Johnny 7:06

Yeah, yes, yeah, this is true. They missed last year, but I hope I hope they can make up for this, you know.

Heather 7:12

Oh well, definitely for it. Yeah, you see a lot of cars. Do you see a lot of cars stopping to see them?

Johnny 7:20

Yes. A lot of cars sometimes stop.

Nicole 7:23

Yeah, so they can tune into a radio station and listen to music in their car and watch the lights synchronized with the yeah, it's worth coming down for.

Heather 7:34

Eliza comes down for it. Maybe you and Eliza can do a girls' road trip. There you go.

Nicole 7:39

You star and Eliza, girls trip down to drive by at one night. That'd be wonderful.

Zia 7:43

Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, that's a lot of fun. So I get a little jealous when I see that because I love my music. And then when things go to my music timed correctly, um, I was a past dancer, so oh, it's just so satisfying to see the lights going with the music.

Heather 8:02

Yeah. There's one that does it in Clifton Park. Yeah. Over in uh Jonesville, I think.

Zia 8:09

Yep.

Heather 8:11

I've I've driven by that one a bunch of times, but yeah.

Zia 8:14

I usually go online to look at them. Uh I don't know. I don't like the winter much, so if I can stay home, I stay home. Do you watch people who do the light shows like that online?

Johnny 8:27

Yes, um, that's how my that's how that's how my dad get inf inspired by that. He watches like other other YouTubers who do like light show work and stuff, and like one year 2015 I told him that like we like we should do that, man. And and eleven years later we're going strong.

Heather 8:50

Oh, that's amazing. And that's something you and your dad do together.

Johnny 8:56

Yes. Well well well, I just like uh observe the work and he just like does it does it.

Heather 9:06

Yeah. Yeah. But that's okay. You still are out there helping him plan it every time, right?

Johnny 9:10

Yeah, that's true. That's true. Yeah.

Zia 9:13

Yeah.

Nicole 9:14

If there's any mistakes, you you let dad know.

Johnny 9:16

Yeah, that's true. That's true.

Zia 9:18

So you're kind of like the director.

Johnny 9:21

Yes.

Game Shows And Birthday Play

Heather 9:22

There you go. Yeah. So we didn't you didn't get a chance to write notes about it. Would you like to talk about your love of game shows?

Johnny 9:32

Yeah, well, um, ever since I was like um five years old, I loved watching Wheel of Fortune. Um my my very first episode was on October 16th, 2007. That's that's how I got in got into it. Um it was a college week episode from and it was it was like anything like anything I I've I've I've ever seen before then. Years later my knowledge of game shows just grew and grew and grew with Jeopardy and we Jeopardy plus the Lunk Family Feel and Places Right and many more.

Heather 10:13

Yeah, yeah. What what is the one special thing you do every year with game shows that we've been doing for many years?

Johnny 10:22

I've been every almost every birthday we've done game game shows for as the uh main poding games for my birthday.

Heather 10:33

Yeah. So you play the games on your birthday?

Johnny 10:38

Yes.

Heather 10:39

Can you just can you tell us how we do it?

Johnny 10:42

Well we we use the uh computer and and some and some cameras, and if I have some props, uh we use that.

Nicole 10:56

And then everyone gets whoever wants to play can be the contestant.

Johnny 11:00

That's right. That's right.

Nicole 11:01

That's awesome.

Johnny 11:02

That's right.

Heather 11:03

And you keep it based on the episode we're or the time frame of the show we're playing. So the prizes that are all offered during the game show are the prizes that were offered around that time, right? But they're not real prizes.

Johnny 11:17

Yeah, that's why, that's why, because I can't really, really give any give anything away.

Heather 11:22

Yeah, I've won trips to Hawaii, but I've never gone. I've gone in my life.

Zia 11:27

That's great. That just sounds like a lot of um another family in-tune thing that you guys do. That's so cool.

Johnny 11:37

Yeah, thanks.

Zia 11:38

Yeah. I hear a lot of hardworking mama things going on in there too.

Johnny 11:45

Yes, yes.

Nicole 11:47

Yeah, I make sure everything will run smooth. Yeah, and then dad does all the editing, all like behind the scenes production.

Heather 11:58

So he's the air quote producer.

Zia 12:01

Producer, yes, yes, yes. You have to have Johnny do that for Rich. Yeah.

Johnny 12:10

Yes.

Heather 12:12

So you also have a YouTube channel that you have, right?

Johnny 12:17

Yeah, that's right. Um, my channel is called Core than Network. Uh Heather will probably put that in the uh description later later on. Uh we currently have over 13,000 subscribers on the channel. Um, where I upload um anything from where I upload videos from kids to adults, and um it's either uh mashups, crossovers, or anything I like really.

Nicole 12:46

Anything I like and you have um you do collabs with other YouTubers?

Johnny 12:52

Yes, I do collabs.

Nicole 12:53

Um you do voiceovers?

Johnny 12:56

Yes, I do voiceovers.

Heather 12:58

That's awesome. Very good. You are an amazing man.

Johnny 13:05

Yes, thank you. Thank you.

Heather 13:07

Yep, I agree. You are amazing. I am so glad you are bringing in Autism Awareness Month to our podcast.

Johnny 13:14

Glad to do it.

Learning Software And Teaching Dad

Heather 13:15

I think that is the greatest thing. Yeah, we chose right, we chose correctly. We did choose correctly. So um do you want to add anything else? Yeah, please.

Johnny 13:29

Well, um, there was I'm I've been doing these computer works for for like since 2017, and it was actually mom, mom that gave me the idea.

Nicole 13:42

Because you used to ask dad to do, you would think of it and then ask him to do it on his computer. So then I said to your dad, I'm like, why don't you teach him how to do it on his own computer? And then you learned how to do it, and then you just took off with it. And then there are sometimes some things your dad doesn't even know, and you teach him something new.

Johnny 14:04

Yes, wow.

Nicole 14:06

See that? Because you have um some type of program you do everything on.

Johnny 14:12

Yes.

Nicole 14:13

So software you're using.

Johnny 14:15

Yes, yes.

Zia 14:17

Nice, that is so cool. See, we learn from you guys too. Yeah, exactly.

Johnny 14:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Horse Farm Fridays And Patience

Heather 14:26

That's great. So can you talk about your horse when you go see the horses on Fridays?

Johnny 14:33

Oh, the horses. Um, yeah, it's yeah, it's called Call of Hollow Horse Farm. I've been doing it since I've been doing it for five, six and a half years now. Um Pop Pop usually takes me when mom goes to her job, but um uh she takes me when she has her day off and stuff. But um, there's one horse I worked with for the first three and a half years. His name is Tuff. He was owned by one of the um one of the workers there who's who moved to a new farm. Um yeah, um, and and there were there were there were plenty more I worked with, like um, there's one of them named Pixie. She's uh she's a she's like a pinto.

Nicole 15:23

Um what's a pinto?

Johnny 15:25

A black and white horse.

Nicole 15:26

I love it. Okay.

Johnny 15:29

Um the the the um um phage, the uh coin one I work with now has has a horse named Carolina.

Nicole 15:39

What color is she?

Johnny 15:40

She's blonde.

Nicole 15:41

She's yeah. So what do you do with the horses?

Johnny 15:45

I groom them and I walk them.

Heather 15:47

Very nice. So when you say you groom them, does that mean you brush them out?

Johnny 15:52

Yes.

Heather 15:53

Wow. The whole body?

Johnny 15:55

Yes. Well I don't have a lot of.

Heather 15:58

That's hard work though. Yeah. Is it scary to walk them?

Johnny 16:04

No, it's not that scary. Um, it's kind of kind of kind of nice if it if they don't like like do what like sometimes they have a mind of their own. Exactly, yeah.

Nicole 16:20

So you had to learn patience and yeah understanding, like you're with them in their time.

Johnny 16:29

Yeah, sometimes they're like really heavy to pull up when they're eating the grass.

Heather 16:33

Yeah, absolutely.

Johnny 16:33

So I have to have some help.

Heather 16:35

Yeah. Are you allowed to let them eat the grass or are you not supposed to let them?

Johnny 16:40

I think they're allowed to eat the grass.

Heather 16:41

They are okay, that's good. Very good. But patience sometimes is hard when they're eating grass and you want to walk.

Johnny 16:50

Yes.

Heather 16:50

Yeah.

Zia 16:51

Yeah. That's amazing. Really is amazing. Do you have to clean up their skull?

Johnny 16:58

No, thankfully.

Nicole 17:00

Yeah. Yeah. That's nobody wants that job. Do you get to give them food or treats?

Johnny 17:07

Sometimes we do.

Nicole 17:09

Okay. What's their favorite treat, do you know?

Johnny 17:12

I well, one of them likes um likes apples, I think. So pop pop and I gave gave one of them an apple.

Nicole 17:20

Wow. That's right. I think they like carrots.

Johnny 17:23

Yeah, that's true.

Zia 17:25

Oh, I like carrots. Yep. Mine used to like radishes.

Heather 17:31

Oh radishes. Okay.

Zia 17:32

Yep. Yep. What was your horse's name? Um, actually, I had Chester and Pete. And I think the other one was called Cinnamon, if I forgot forget. Yeah, but Chester was my favorite. I always wanted to ride Chester.

Heather 17:50

Have you ever gotten to ride your horses or do you just walk that?

Johnny 17:53

I just walk them because I'm I'm I'm not I'm not I'm not comfortable enough to ride any horses.

Nicole 18:00

They're tall.

Johnny 18:01

Yes.

Nicole 18:02

Yeah, you need a lot of upper body strength to hold yourself up.

Johnny 18:06

Yeah, that's right.

Heather 18:07

Yeah. Horses are kind of scary when you think about how big they are. Yes. Yeah.

Johnny 18:12

Yeah, but they're just harmless animals.

Zia 18:15

They are. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I always like when I watch a movie or something and you see the ones that hold their head a certain way, and you know they're just like very proud to be there. Yes. That's always fun.

Heather 18:31

Yeah. Is there anything else you want to talk about?

Power Rangers Fandom And Meetups

Johnny 18:35

Um I don't oh yeah. Um I I'm I'm a huge fan of Power Angels, and uh ever since like 2011 when Samurai was airing, um I've been a huge fan ever since um there were there were actually a lot of seasons that were on Netflix and that's how we got into all of them. Uh have a huge collection in my room and downstairs uh as displays.

Heather 19:06

Okay. You did something with Power Rangers last week.

Johnny 19:10

Yeah, that's true. I went to this year's Ranger Station in Philadelphia and got to meet a little and got to meet some some of the actors.

Zia 19:18

Oh cool. Who's your favorite Power Ranger? What color?

Johnny 19:24

Uh I like the Blue Ranger the best, but because blue is my favorite color.

Zia 19:30

There you go. My son-in-law loves the red one because it's his favorite color.

Johnny 19:36

Ah, I see.

Heather 19:38

Well then I like the pink one because it's my favorite color.

Five Minute Loves Quick Picks

Zia 19:41

Well, I guess you know which one I like. Aww. Do you want to have Johnny start our TikToks?

Heather 19:53

Do you know how to do so? We're gonna do our five-minute loves. Remember we talked about those last night?

Johnny 19:58

Yes, I remember.

Heather 19:59

And do you want to do a clock? Do you want to make a clock sound and go tick tock, tick tock?

Johnny 20:03

Oh, I alright?

Heather 20:04

Do that so that Uncle Rich can put the timer in so because he puts a real timer there. So go tick tock, tick tock.

Johnny 20:11

TikTok, tick tock.

Heather 20:13

So your first five-minute love is when you were growing up, and even now, did you play with Legos or Mega Blocks or neither or both?

Johnny 20:24

I played with Legos, but my brother has a huge Lego collection in his room.

Heather 20:29

Okay.

Zia 20:29

Oh, okay.

Heather 20:31

All right.

Zia 20:31

Yeah. What about you, Heather?

Heather 20:34

Um, I I didn't play with either. Um, we didn't really have them when I was a kid, and I never really brought them in for Eliza. Huh. Um, we had some Lego, like she'd had, you know, one or two Lego sets that she did. Yeah. But we never really did either one.

Zia 20:51

Okay, so I had Legos.

Heather 20:53

You had Legos?

Zia 20:54

Yeah, I was a little obsessed with Legos, so it was very easy to help Alex with his collection, and I think that's why his collection got bigger because I was like, but what about this one? I like this one too. We should get this one. So I think I I contributed to that little Lego collection.

Nicole 21:12

Yeah. But that uniform I had neither. I didn't we didn't have them when I was growing up. So okay, yeah.

Zia 21:21

All right. Yeah. You want to do the next Wednesday? Sure. So uh in our house, well, this house, we use Xbox. My daughter loves her PlayStation, and then there's Nintendo. So what platform do we like the best?

Johnny 21:38

Oh boy, this is a tough one. I have like because in our house we have like all three con all three consoles, all three of them. Uh my brother plays plays the uh PlayStation the most, but I I think if is it it's a no-brainer, so I'm gonna I'm gonna have to say I like all three of them the best. All three?

Heather 22:02

Okay. All right. What about you, Heather?

Nicole 22:05

Uh I think I'm gonna have to say Nintendo because I like playing stuff on the Wii.

Heather 22:10

On the Wii. Okay.

Nicole 22:12

Yep.

Heather 22:13

So so we started with the Xbox, but graduated to a PlayStation. And so, but I also A switch, so yeah, I think I'm gonna go with Johnny and say I like all of them. I don't necessarily have a preference. I I I'm willing to play on whatever console is going.

Zia 22:35

Yeah, so I have like an Xbox account, but I do have a switch. Um, which I did not know that, Heather. We have switches, see we could play games together. Um my gosh. Yeah, so newfound game. I think it all depends what game you like to play to pick your console. So if you have a you know, yeah, like not all of them have the certain games that my kids have always wanted to play. So Margaret picks the PlayStation sometimes because I think it's like, oh, what the heck is the game she plays? Like all the Disney characters are in it. So she always plays that. Um, and that I think only is set on the PlayStation, so I think that's why she was always drawn to that. Um, but yeah, it I think it just depends on what games you like to play. Yep. Alright. Yeah.

Johnny 23:26

Can you read the next one? Uh okay. Um Marvel or DC or any Vapor superhero in general.

Heather 23:34

Ooh, this one's really wanna answer that first.

Johnny 23:37

Well, um I'm I'm a big Iron Man person. Like, I love the second Iron Man movie in the Marvel MCU, and uh one of my favorite parts is the erase colour thing, and I I just love the the erase color thing where I was like when when I was little, I used to run around the leather one when I was younger, and uh it was like my favorite scene in the hint in in in the in in the whole movie.

Zia 24:05

Very cool.

Nicole 24:06

Do you have a DC I love Iron Man?

Zia 24:09

Oh I'm sorry. No, I was just saying, did he have a DC character that he liked too or just the Marvel character? Is there anybody like Superman, Batman, any of those do you like?

Johnny 24:20

No, but I think Danny likes them.

Zia 24:22

Okay.

Nicole 24:23

Oh very cool. Go ahead, Ocole. Sorry. Sorry. No, it's okay. I love Tony Stark. So I would have to say that's he, what is it, Iron Man? I think that's my favorite. Yeah. Um, yeah, I'm obsessed with him. Okay.

Heather 24:39

How about you, Heather? I'm I think I'm old school DC. The old Batman, the old Superman, the the TV show ones, the 80s movies. I'm DC for that. Yeah. However, I love the Hulk. I'm all about the Hulk.

Zia 24:57

So of course you do, because I'm your best friend. Yeah, huh? What's you? Um, well, I'm half and half. Uh I've always been stuck on my Spider-Man. Um, but my other favorite is Superman. So uh it's tough because I think like again with the game soul game consoles, I have favorites in both. Um yeah, I I mean if I'm gonna look at uh even with the comic books that we have in the house, I think we always go for you know your favorite character was on either side. Um I I think when I was little watching, there was more DC on TV other than Spider-Man. So I there was a lot of DC characters out there as a cartoon. So yeah.

Heather 25:49

Yeah, I I agree with that. Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah, so the next one we've already kind of talked about. We talked about our favorite Power Rangers, but yeah, let's let's remind everybody.

Johnny 26:02

So yes, I like the Blue Ranger the best.

Nicole 26:04

Blue Ranger? I would have liked the pink because pink and well, pink and black are my favorite colors and glitter, but there's no glitter power ranger.

Zia 26:13

A glitter power ranger, we need to make one. Yeah, what do you think about that, Johnny? We make a glitter power ranger for mom.

Johnny 26:21

Yeah, that would be awesome.

Zia 26:23

Yeah, I like or maybe you'll have like a super power to be glitter power ranger. You gotta get to that point.

Johnny 26:30

Yeah, bam, baby.

Zia 26:32

Yeah, level up.

Favorite Game Shows And Family Memories

Heather 26:36

All right, Nicole, do you want to do our last one?

Nicole 26:39

Uh favorite game show that was on TV. Um, I would have to say my favorite one was Family Feud.

Heather 26:47

Family Feud. All right. What about yours, Johnny?

Johnny 26:51

Well, um, I like all game shows, but my top favorite has to be Wheel of Fortune because it's my very first one I watched.

Nicole 26:58

Yeah. You know, going back to Wheel of Fortune, Johnny, you forgot to mention that it helped you learn how to spell. Yes. Your teachers incorporated it.

Johnny 27:07

Yes, that's true. That's true.

Nicole 27:09

Yeah, yeah.

Zia 27:10

Yeah, that was really neat. Yeah. What about using? Well, when Alex was little, um, we used to have the every everybody in the house, we would watch Wheel of Fortune and then Jeopardy. Um, and then it was bedtime. So because of that fact, I do love both of those because I got to spend time with our our little family, and that was like our time with Alex to learn things. Um, but when I was growing up with my with my grandmother, it was uh pressure luck. And it would always sit there and we'd be like, no whammies, no whammies. And you know, Michael and I, my husband and I still say that to this day. We're like, no whammies, no whammies. Um, but she loved that game. And uh, you know, she really got beyond. Um, I actually, oh, was it Bob Barker? Remember I got that signature for her, Heather? Oh, you did. Yeah, I forget. I think it was the guy that did the new newlywed game. And she loved it.

Johnny 28:13

It was Bob Hunbank that did that.

Zia 28:15

That's who it is. I got his signature for her. Um, not that she's with us anymore, but I had him sign it to my grandmother, and I'll have to take a picture of it. Um, and he was very excited. He's like, Is your grandmother with you? And I said, No, but I had to have him sign it to her because it was her favorite guy. So yeah.

Nicole 28:35

That's my special.

Zia 28:36

Yeah, yeah.

Heather 28:39

So I think mine would have been the um, I'm gonna go between two, and I'm gonna go with the family feud because I used to love trying to guess what it was or see how close my answer was to the people being surveyed, and I always wanted to be a surveyed person.

Zia 28:58

Yeah, absolutely.

Heather 28:59

Obviously, I don't live in California, never did really, so I can't have ever been in their survey.

Zia 29:07

Right. Right.

Heather 29:08

Um, so I'm gonna say family feud for that. But I always loved the newlywed game because I thought it was funny that you would be just married and want to go show everybody how much you knew about your significant other. And I used to think that was a funny thing that people would do because you would see them not answer the same. But I'm like, how do you not know that about your spouse?

Zia 29:32

Right.

Heather 29:32

I mean, I now know, but you know.

Zia 29:35

Yeah. And sometimes they would be they would do those shows where they were married so long and then they still wouldn't know the answer, and then they would hit each other with the index cards, those big index cards.

Heather 29:48

Yeah, I used to love that. I don't, I don't know. Maybe I like to watch people fight like that.

Zia 29:53

Yeah, how how could you not know that about me? You know, exactly.

Heather 29:58

You don't know when they go to bed, you live in the same house, you know. That's right. Always made me laugh.

Zia 30:05

But absolutely. Oh my god.

Closing Thanks And Autism Pride

Heather 30:09

So I don't know. Johnny, is there anything else you want to talk about? Uh or should we start wrapping up?

Johnny 30:17

Uh we should probably start probably start wrapping up because I'm I'm all out of things I want to um I want to talk about. But all I can all I can say is thanks for having me on on on the on the show. I really I really love I really love representing the autism autonomous awareness month on on on this week's episode. Thank you.

Zia 30:37

We thank you so much for coming on. Yeah, we thank you. It's so nice to have you on.

Johnny 30:43

Yeah, thank you.

Zia 30:44

And thank you for letting me sleep here last night so we could do that this morning.

Johnny 30:47

Yeah, you're welcome.

Heather 30:49

Yeah, I had fun.

Johnny 30:50

Yeah, glad you did.

Heather 30:51

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, thank you for having us.

A Proud Graduation Moment

Zia 30:54

Yes, yes, it was so fun. We didn't get a lot of talking there, Nicole. Oh, that's okay. I know. We have to ask mom a question before we go. Go ahead, mom, say something, please.

Heather 31:03

Yeah, you gotta tell us some story. Oh, tell us your favorite Johnny story.

Nicole 31:09

Yeah, my favorite Johnny story. Yeah. Uh that would be when he was graduating elementary school. Do you remember sixth grade?

Johnny 31:20

Yes, yes.

Nicole 31:22

It was because it was a large class, they had it at the high school, the graduation, and he walked up on stage and he was presented um, I think it was the president's award or something.

Johnny 31:34

Yeah, pop up with Granny withil.

Nicole 31:37

Yeah, and um, so we were nervous for you because we're like, oh gosh, you're in front of all these people. Is he gonna handle it okay? And they're like, Johnny, way to go. The principal said that to you, and you looked out into the audience, it was a full auditorium, and you gave thumbs up and you're like, Yeah, like I did it.

Johnny 32:00

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's true.

Nicole 32:02

Yeah, I'll have to send Heather the picture of that. Yeah, yes. Um, that was a very proud moment because we weren't, we you never know, you know, it was gonna get more stimulated, and so yeah, you uh you shined that room. There was a lot of light shining on you.

Johnny 32:18

Yes, there was that for you.

Zia 32:20

There was a good proud mommy moment. Yep, yeah, that's a great story. Yeah, yeah.

Heather 32:26

That's a good one. You gave me chills.

Zia 32:28

Yeah, yeah.

Heather 32:30

I love that. I love that that's your memory too. Yes, yes. I can feel it as the mom, like, oh my gosh, is he gonna be okay? Is he gonna make it? So when when Nicky said, you never know.

Johnny 32:45

Yes, yes.

Nicole 32:47

Was that Miss Stephanie?

Johnny 32:48

I think so, yeah.

Nicole 32:49

She walked you on the stage and then she stayed back, and then you did your thing.

Johnny 32:53

Yes, I did.

Nicole 32:55

You charmed the whole auditorium.

Heather 32:58

Yes, we'll definitely have to post that picture. Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. Well, again, thank you so much for coming on with us, Johnny. Thank you for showing us how awesome Autism Awareness Month can be.

Johnny 33:12

I'm glad to do it. Thanks for having me.

Episode 20 Tease And Goodbye

Zia 33:14

Yes, and so nice to meet you. Yeah, yeah, thank you. Thank you guys for being here. Thank you for our guests, and uh stay tuned for episode 20, Heather.

Heather 33:28

2020. And side note, I see an ear nose and throat for my voice next week. Absolutely. Maybe an update on episode 20.

Zia 33:37

Yeah, and I won't be as grumpy because I'll have had a week off. I love that for you. Oh, thanks.

Heather 33:46

Oh, thanks. All right, happy guys, everyone. Love ya. Bye.

Zia 33:51

Bye.