EHM REVEAL!

I am on the couch curled up with my fave blanket and now all I need is a SB salted caramel hot chocolate. For the update on the reveal...

We were traveling down a road that is just steps from our house. I am in the midst of telling my husband a story about work and he says "wait". I ask him what and he says, "there's TY"! He is sitting in the car I photographed him in last week. Now I feel like paparazzi. We turned around and saw him with his assistant or sidekick I don't know which taking his (Ty's) picture standing by a 1970 Barricuda that is for sale in someone's yard. We turned around and Josh got a not-so-good pic of Ty kinda bent down in the vehicle. I really felt like crazy paparazzi at that point. Shortly after, they pulled away. Josh and I headed over to the site. We had a so-so spot. After all, we weren't planning on waiting all day to get a special spot. We hadn't been there long when a guy from the show came near where we were standing and announced that they needed to film some crowd shots in the VIP section. We would be moved there and then moved back later when the rest of the VIP's showed up. We took our chances and went. Our spot was right behind the Grys family.

They did several camera passes of us saying "move that bus", "Jake", and cheering. They edit all of those crowd shots in later to when the family arrives. It doesn't happen exactly as you see it on TV. In fact, almost nothing happens the way you see on TV. When the family arrives, all cameras are on them and their reaction. Also, it takes FOREVER for them to move the bus for the family. Furniture was still arriving for the LONG time that we stood there. They were throwing hats and stuff to the crowd. CVS brought all of these envelopes with gift cards in them which they threw to the crowd. We got 3 of them!

Here is a pic of the finished house at the first spot we were standing...

From our new spot, I got some pretty nice pics I think. There was a lady standing on a chair the entire time which was annoying to everyone. You will probably see her in many pics.

This pic is of Didiayer Snyder and Michael Moloney...

We had quite a long time to wait as they were still waiting for some furniture to be brought and delivered.

This is a pic showing the long camera that they were using to film the crowd as well as the front of the house. I just love the little tree with the red-orange leaves. It just looks so cute and perfect.

The next picture shows the bus and the actual limo the family was brought home in...I say that because they had a fake family for some camera shots earlier.
Right before they brought the family back, Ty & Jake's therapist, Angie filmed a piece that you can see in the following pic. Angie is the one that originally nominated the family.

Since most of the rest of the pics are self explanatory, I will post the rest of them. You will see the family, Ty, Ed (wearing a stocking cap), Rib (drinking coffee), Didiayer, Michael as well as the family marching up the walkway to their new home. They film the tour of the house where the family goes through tomorrow. As they say on the show, "Welcome Home Grys Family"!!

Breakfast

Good Morning! Since Josh is my favorite breakfast chef, I asked him if he would do breakfast this morning. He started getting the eggs and bacon out and Aliyah ran off to get this...

She got her apron on and grabbed these little plates and started setting the table. It was funny because they had things on them like bead necklaces, dominoes etc...
We each had one at our plate. Keirah was the last to get one and she couldn't rest and eat until she had her plate from Aliyah. I love the apron--it's made for kids, however I have it wrapped around her and tied in the front. It goes to her ankles.

We enjoyed our breakfast of biscuits, eggs, bacon and dominoes and necklaces =). Now she thinks I should be making a Shutterfly book with this picture in it.

Now we're off to start our hodge-podge day...cleaning up the yard=getting rid of the flowers that have died over the weekend, taking Aliyah to see HSM 3, going to the big reveal of the EHM house, and whatever else.

Did I??

Did I really IRON a tablecloth for several minutes?
Did I straighten and organize the linen closet like a store shelf?
Did I make the toy room look absolutely wonderful?
Did I organize the toy room closet as well?
Did I organize the girl's misc. drawer?
Did I get on my hands and knees to clean every visible spec of dirt in my bedroom?
Did I cut 4-5 inches off Keirah's hair?
Did I finish my laundry?
Did I clean my house?
Did I skip visiting EHM today?

YES I DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EHM Tour

**Update** I forgot to mention that there are MANY MORE volunteers than they can actually use for the show. They try to get skilled workers for the job so there are thousands on a volunteer waiting list. Also, many are pre-selected and called ahead of time by the head builder.
Neighbors do NOT get monetary compensation, however EHM does fix/re-landscape anything that they have torn up in the neighbor's yards.
Also, they do change their minds on things just like anyone else. They ordered the siding and didn't like the color. They were going to paint it, and then decided to order another completely different color! It's on now, so no turning back--I guess =).

Beautiful Saturday here and nice weather to get that house finished!! I got the opportunity to go on a tour of the site and such. We walked up the street and were greeted by security. He at first was going to tell us we had to go the other way like everyone else, however we had to ask for "Rick". He is the production manager and led us on our tour thingy. Sadly, Ty is out of town at the moment working on another home, but will be back Monday. We got to go down "production alley". They have neat little names for everything. Another name is "bin city". The interesting thing is that this stuff is sitting in people's front yards etc... I didn't know this before, but there are camera's mounted on the top of some of the neighbor's homes. Of course, now I have seen them.

We couldn't tour the inside as it is dangerous since so much is going on in there. We got to see Michael, Rib, Travis, and the cowboy (don't remember his name at the moment). Rick pointed out different people walking around and what their various roles are with the show. We stayed for a little over an hour and left because the people in our group chose to. Rick was more than gracious and gave us quite a bit of info about how it all works/comes together. The production is based out of LA, however he lives on the East Coast near Boston. He did tell us that the Midwest is the best place to do these projects. We asked him if that's because we have no lives or what?? He said that the people here are much nicer and willing to volunteer and support it. He told us that in many other places, they have trouble getting crowds out for the reveals and such. As he was talking, I saw Michael appear...

He is talking to the head Builder/Contractor. As you can see and will see in the pictures, there is a lot going on constantly. The truck directly in the front is full of pea gravel which was being kind of shot out along the side of the house. This is a 4000 sq ft house, however it only has a one-stall garage! They simply don't have room to put anymore garage than that.

Now you have a bit of an idea of wha the house looks like. They are putting stone on the front, as well as putting finishing touches on roofing/trim. The blue hard hat/yellow shirt people are part of the builder's crew.

This is the night production manager. He is the liaison between the builder and the production team. We asked how cooperative the neighboring families are and he told us that rarely does a neighbor of a house turn them away. If they do not want any part of it, they partition off the house and do not use their yard or anything. He said once they see what is going on with the show and the spirit behind it, they usually change their mind. You can see that their lives get interrupted quite a bit while this happens...check out the next door neighbor's house...

The man in the picture is Rick the production manager--the one who showed us around.

This is Michael again right before he started dancing around for the camera. I think he would qualify for the "whitest teeth" of anyone I have ever seen! Contrary to what people may think, the designers do NOT stay on site 24/7. They usually work 7a-7p and then go to whatever hotel they are staying in. In this case, they are staying in a neighboring city. The trailers that are set up are kind of like offices and such. They have a trailer that is one big food area with stoves and such. They even have an Icee machine sitting right in the middle of the street--LOL.

This is the hair/makeup artist for the show along with the production director behind her.

Stuff we learned about the show:
This particular crew & design team does 12 shows this year and the other crew does 8-10. They do about 22 shows per season. They do shows for 10 1/2 months of the year.
The family's belongings that were emptied from the house goes to offsite storage. They have the option of keeping 100% of their stuff, although many famillies donate a pretty large portion of it to charity.

Rick has been with the show for 4 seasons out of 6 and said he is a veteran because there are not many that have been on longer--people burn out.


Much of the stuff you see on the show is "trade-out". That means the company lets them use the service or item for advertising on the show.

They cannot show websites or telephone numbers on anything on the show--those are all taped over.


Here are some more pics...














They do a lot of editing right on site in one of the many trailers you see in the above pics. The rest is finished up in LA.

Yes, they do have to get permits and have permission from zoning and such just like everyone else. They typically call city officials several weeks in advance to alleviate the red tape that a regular person encounters.



This is quite exciting for an otherwise quiet city! The show usually takes about 1 1/2 months to air so we are looking at Dec. or early January.
People are making the comment that these people will be getting a TON of trick or treaters at Halloween, and I would imagine they would =).
I didn't take photos of everything, but I will follow up later with pics from the reveal (if we have a good spot). This was fun as it was like a backstage pass--no barricades to stand behind and a pass right by security =).

Whirlwind

It definitely has been a whirlwind of a week! We spent yesterday on a whirlwind trip to Chicago. We managed to squeeze in all of the things we wanted to do. Luckily, I'm going to visit again in a few weeks =).

Tomorrow I get to tour the site of the Extreme Home Makeover house. I don't really know what to expect, but I'm taking my camera. I kind of imagine we will have to wear hard hats. You can be sure I will post about the fun on here. They say they are expecting 10,000 spectators tomorrow! I'm glad I don't have to jockey for a spot in all of that!!

Well, we had a nice time on our quick trip. We got to meet up with one of our friends for lunch at Rainforest Cafe. Her husband was on business so he wasn't there, but it was a great to see her! They had some happy news to share--love happy news. We proceeded to go to the new American Girl "Museum" I mean store. It is truly really cool and much more spacious than the previous one. You could spend hours in there I'm sure! It kind of reminded me of a Disneyesque place. Everything is super cute! Keirah was asleep during the whole visit. We did some Christmas shopping there for both of the girls. We asked Aliyah what she wanted to pick out to buy and she picked probably the cheapest item in the store--a $7.00 pair of glasses for your doll. She loves them. That's all she asked for. I love that about her--it's really sweet that she doesn't beg for a bazillion items.

From AG, we visited one of my favorites--Coach. I love that place.

We looked at a few other stores and set out walking. Our goal was to be finished in time to eat an early dinner at PF Changs (Josh's favorite) before heading back to Union Station. We had a wonderful early dinner there and savored every bite (with some to take with us). Josh had to pace himself so he didn't just eat the whole plate which could feed a family. He had chicken fried rice & a tiramisu dessert shot. I had honey crispy chicken with white rice and a S'mores dessert shot. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Our train ride was adventurous as it was like riding with a circus animal (Kiki).

Oh yes, I couldn't resist posting about this. I had a couple of things get broken this week. My lamp got broken (the glass shade). Aliyah says it looks like a lion took a bite out of it =). In the process of the lamp breaking, a corner got broken off my nightstand drawer =(. The other thing is the chain to my journey necklace got broken. All of this happened on the same day. I didn't really sweat it as they are indeed just things. I am still using the lamp and nightstand, it just looks like that lion got a bite of glass =). As for my chain, I went to the jewelry store intending to purchase a new one. To my complete surprise, they GAVE me a brand new chain that is thicker and better! How cool are they??

EHM II

PS--did I mention that one of the guys that will be doing quite a bit of work on this house also did work on our house for our additoin =)! I think that's cool!

Here is an update on the "happenings" in the neighborhood. I don't know about all of you, but when I think of this show, I think of an extremely ratty (should be condemned) type home. That said, please don't think I live in the slums or something. To be honest, this is probably one of the best looking homes that I have seen on the show (pre-demo). It was built in the 80's I think so not even that old. Basically, it is being upgraded so this little guy that has dwarfism and brittle bone disease can do things on his own.



Anyway, my mom took my girls there today and watched for quite awhile. They were filmed a couple of times. She met Rib Hillis and got his autograph. He was holding Keirah so she could take a pic, however Keirah wasn't so sure about that so they didn't get a pic =(.



When Josh got off work, they went over and got to see the filming of the fireworks imploding and Ty doing his crazy antics. Josh got several pics of the demo.



We can hear all of the trucks and the noise. There is the distinct smell of truck exhaust and such. They have dump trucks lined up to take away the remains of the house.



At night, it is lit up like day. It's almost like a little city within a city. The cars line up and people are walking around everywhere. This is quite different since it is a generally very quiet neighborhood. When I walk in the evenings, we rarely see anyone except the occasional person working in the yard. Here are some pics...



I will not visit the site tomorrow since we will be in Chi-town =). There is a chance I may get to tour it over the weekend though, we will see. That would be cool. Enjoy the pics and watch for more.


The house intact before the demo!
Underway...the man of the hour is in red! Ty!

Pretty well underway. I have more pics, however I will be posting them on FB. If you aren't already a friend on Facebook, message me.

Extreme Makeover

So, they are here...Extreme Makeover Home Edition and not only are they in our city, they are 3 blocks from my house! I walked over there tonight and was just in time to see Ty Pennington leaving. Aliyah & I saw the family leave in a limo and most of the design team. I know we will be able to hear it as I heard cheering tonight when I walked out the back door.






The main tent and work going on behind the houses.
Family leaving in the limo.

The house on the right will be torn down tomorrow morning.

The red house will also be torn down. See Michael on the right...

The infamous bus.

Ty Pennington (driving) and designer leaving the site.

Let's just say traffic and people have highly increased in the area! What is normally a quiet area to take a walk for us every night has become the buzz of the town.

On another note, some of the guys that worked on our house addition are working on this house as well.

Sentimental

I get this out every autumn. It is so very cute and so is the person that gave it to me. My beloved sweetheart gave this to me (the middle figurine) not long after we started dating. This is one of the first gifts I recall getting from him after we were dating. I have had it over 9 years now. I used to collect Cherished Teddies that long ago, however I sold most of my collection when they were going well on ebay several years ago. This is one of the pieces that I would not part with for...well SENTIMENTAL reasons. The little guy is raking leaves. When Josh gave it to me, he said that it was him raking leaves at the park (where we met & worked for many summers in HS and college). He really did have to get a rake out and rake stuff, btw. I took it with me to college and had it right by my bed. Although my tastes have changed and I no longer have little statues sitting on my tables, this one gets a special place during the autumn season. Other than that, it is in my curio. I can't help but smile when I see it. HAPPY AUTUMN!!

Award

Thanks to Mimi at Palm Trees and Blue Skies for this award!! I am excited...although I think the rest of you are definitely more creative!!

Now...drumroll...6 things that make me happy:

1. My adorable, funny, romantic husband

2. Giggles from my sweet little girls

3. Sunshine & water --oops is that two?

4. Friends to share life with

5. Little surprises like flowers

6. Coach purses & accessories--oops that's kind of materialistic...but they do.

Now, I get to hear what makes some of you happy!! I love happy...here's passing this along to:

Michelle , Julie , Meg , and you, and you, and you!

Seeds

Since my flowers only have 2-3 weeks at best before I get rid of them, I have started collecting seeds from them. I still have to figure out where the seeds are located on some of them namely my geraniums. Call me a whack-o or an environmentalist or a farmer...I don't know what?? There is a two-fold reason for this. I haven't ever done this before in my gardening. Normally, I go to Lowe's and a few other places and buy all of my flowers. I have decided that in the spring, Aliyah will have a grand science project. We will start in March planting seeds in trays. By the time 6-8 weeks have passed, I can put them in my garden--hopefully! She has planted before with great results. The difference with this time will be with quit There will be a variety of flowers and on a larger scale. I want to see if we can grow flowers as well as the greenhouse does.
The other reason to do this is of course to save big $$$. If I can get my geraniums to grow from seed, that would save a lot of $$$ since they are more expensive than other annuals.
Whatever does not work or grow well enough, I will just purchase. Now I'm going to have to go to google and figure out where the geranium seeds come from on the flower!
The other plus to this...it will help spring come early for us. Off to find plant information....

Fall Activities

What a fun time we had at the weiner roast! The weather was perfect. The fire was just great and kept us toasty when necessary. We had fun going on a hike through the woods and going up a rope climb. Aliyah did it twice. The view was gorgeous and looked like a beautiful canvas. I am so full of those fall favorites like hot dogs, chips, S'mores, apples, and this deliciously sinful dessert called "Loaded Brownies".
Conversation varied from kids to travel to politics to schooling to good vacations to work and so on. The children had cotton candy and plenty of it along with movies under the stars and a tepee to play in. I'm sure none of them will have trouble sleeping tonight. The only thing wrong was that I left my camera in the car =(. I'm a little short on fall pics so far.
We still have a full day planned for tomorrow--a weekend cannot ever be long enough! Raise your glass of cider in cheers of FALL!

Rainbow

The post is titled "Rainbow" because the vitamins we take are "Rainbow Light". We discovered these vitamins when I was pregnant with Keirah. They have a whole line of vitamins for just about everything I guess. At that time, I needed a pre-natal vitamin that I could take with an empty stomach that wouldn't make me sick. Josh found them for me! They worked wonderfully for me. Well, once I didn't need Pre-natal V's anymore, I looked to see what others they had.
We are not really big on veggies--I'm pretty picky. They have one for your green veggies and so on. We only take one vitamin per day, though. I am not one for taking a handfull! The ones we have now are a complete nutritional system multi-vitamin. Josh and I both take them. The kids take Rainbow Light's multi-stars. As for the price...I paid $29.00 with shipping for a bottle of 240 vitamins. That will last both of us several months (4-6 I'm guessing). I really feel like they give me what I need. If you ever get them... DO NOT take them late afternoon or evening. You might just not be able to go to sleep for awhile! This happened to me before and just recently a friend bought some and took it around 5 pm--she was up half the night with too much energy =).
Okay, there's my health post. I'm so looking forward to this weekend. Josh is worn out from working 14 days straight with no days off! Finally, a day for him. We plan to have a date night on Friday, take the girls to a pumpkin patch on Saturday, celebrate mom's b-day Saturday, go to a weiner roast Sat. night, well get as many "dumb list" items done as possible. Josh may even squeeze a couple of hours of work into that nagging little stuff that's left to complete the new master bath. Have a HAPPY FRIDAY all!!!

Vitamins

I am thoroughly convinced that my body functions MUCH BETTER when I take my daily multi-vitamin! I have been out of them for two weeks. I just haven't had the normal energy. The vitamins were ordered BEFORE I ran out, however they were on backorder. I just received them on Monday. Oh, the difference it has made already.
Since it rained today, I had no reason to do anything outside after work. Besides, we took out the roots to the bushes yesterday evening. Aliyah completed her schoolwork with ease tonight and requested tacos. Her original request was leftover chili (super delicious chili made by me), however daddy had taken it to work for his lunch. Oh well, the tacos were delicious as well. Following dinner, I picked up around the house. The vitamins were in full swing!! I cleaned the bathroom from top to bottom and even washed the shower curtain. Everything was dusted, vacuumed, laundry finished & folded, and the upstairs received it's full cleaning as well. The dishes from supper are finished and the girls are in bed. I am sitting here in my comfy chair and drinking in the silence!
I completed some Christmas shopping yesterday for my grandparents! I am determined to get done early! I have received a few adorable things that I won on ebay this week. It's American Girl Bitty Baby stuff that they don't sell in the store anymore =). The girls will LOVE it! Well, glad to have my vitamins back, however I am ready for some sleep!

How?

I have often wondered this about others as I have considered my own blogging experience...

How did you get started blogging?
Who introduced you to the blog world?
What blog did you read first that got you started--if any??
Why do you do it??

Here are my answers:

Back in February, in the months that I spend more time on the computer due to WINTER, I found the "Bring the Rain" blog through a message board related to my college.
I began reading and was instantly hooked! I would check her site multiple times to see what updates she had on Audrey. Another interesting point to mention is that Audrey's birthday was scheduled and was on my birthday!
From Angie's blog, I have read other blogs many times with tears streaming down my face and utter thankfulness in my heart for the gifts God has given me with my children. At times when I read some of these amazing blogs, I feel guilty about not being thankful enough!!
I have branched out now and have friends/family that blog as well as a few new people that I've met along the way. I love seeing the updates that people post each day. It is my unwind/me time of the day before Josh gets home from work. I don't always have time to comment, but I love them regardless!
My aunt started her blog up awhile before mine. I did kinda start one undercover and then I commented on hers and yep--I was discovered.
I blog because it gives me a great opportunity to reflect and remember what is going on in the day-to-day life with my family. Many times, I think I would forget things that I mention on here as time goes by. I also love to hear stories and learn new things.

If you have time, comment with your answers or post it on your blog. I am curious how people got started with blogging!

101

I just realized that I passed 100 posts--WOW! Not much to say except we are going back to Chicago next week!! YAY! The girls will be excited, particularly Aliyah who asks when we are going back quite often. It's time to get going on the Christmas shopping and experience a little seasonal beauty there.

Do you ever get excited when you get those little "dumb" things accomplished? Things like:
changing the air filter on your car -- check
changing windshield wiper blades -- check
getting the yard mowed -- check
making sure your husband gets a haircut in spite of working every day incl. weekends -- check
getting the oil changed -- soon to be checked =)

We have a list full of dumb things like that, and that's what I'm working on getting done. I also need to finish laundry and clean. Here's to wishing you luck on getting those "dumb" list items accomplished--if you have any.

Seasonal Scents

As we took our nightly walk last night, I couldn't help but notice all of the different scents that filled the air. There was the ever familiar fall smell of crackly leaves and bonfires, that Chicago-cafe smell, the plain fresh air smell and many others. I love how smells can somehow transport you back to a memory of times gone by.

Today was like August revisited. The sun was so warm and wonderful. I spent my morning making cards. It was a relaxing activity and nice to have some "me time".

The cards above are some of my favorites. We had a great table of girls and hope to get together with them for more stamping fun in the future! I even won a door prize--how cool!

The girls had fun playing outside this afternoon while I did a bit of work in the yard. Honestly, today has been pretty much a takin it easy day and I am really loving it. Normally it's work, school with Aliyah, baths for the girls, housework, projects before collapsing into bed. I think I decided to not do much today since I have this cold that I have had for about 2 weeks now. The sun definitely helps "burn" it out I think.

Aliyah has been working on some memorization for her class at church. She memorized the Lord's Prayer this week. Two funny things...Thy kingdom come, I will be done...forgive us our debts as we forgive our dinners... I love it! The other funny is that tonight when I asked Aliyah to say the Lord's Prayer, Keirah started out "our Father". She was trying to say it with Aliyah and then ended with a big A-Men at the end. It's like a 2 for 1 teaching deal =).

Lastly, here are a couple of pictures of Aliyah playing in the backyard. She insisted that I take these pics...