Monday, September 19, 2011

WOW! It's Been An 'EXTREME' Production!

       When I told hubby to get a few pictures at the 'reveal' of the 'Extreme Makeover' house yesterday I had no idea what a great job he would do! Not only did he get pictures of the house, but he practically got film of a production of the whole show all by himself! LOL
         The plan had been...originally...to dart over there first thing in the morning and take a few photos of the finished house, and if things were going as planned...be there for the 11:00 a.m. 'reveal'. Then take care of our other daily business before our 3:00 p.m. meeting....Easy, Peasy!
        Does anything in life ever really happen easy, peasy?!....Not in our life! As it turned out, my father wanted hubby to come by and help him put brakes on his car somewhere in that plan...And his sister wanted him to put some questions together for the lawyer the night before, the lawyer who she would be seeing about their mom's house business...And I wasn't feeling that great.....And the time for the 'Extreme Makeover Home' was changed a few times, from early morning to 1:00 p.m., to 3:00 p.m., to 3:30 p.m.!!...Arghhhh!
      So we had to flip some plans around. We had to visit another congregation in the morning, at 9:00 a.m., for our meeting...because keeping our spiritual mental heads on straight is a 'MUST'! :-) ...Then the plan was to take care of the parents' issues, and then go to the 'reveal'!...
       The first part of the morning was going great!...And we were in a good state of mind about the 'Extreme Makeover Home' too. I mean...our area had been gearing up to be in the right state of mind!! :-]

      The excitement in this area about building a home for the Walker family has been amazing this past week. They've had calls on the news practically every day for skilled and unskilled volunteers...and the reply was tremendous!...They had a breast cancer fund raiser (apparently the mom is a breast cancer survivor on top of everything else she's endured!)...
       ...They had a 'Stand Together' sponsored 'Walk' in the Park on Saturday (the family were brought home from their trip to Hollywood early so they could participate in it!). Ty Pennington and Ray Allen of the Boston Celtics basketball team both attended...and all kinds of other stuff happened too!
       I think the parents and young kids around here really wanted to be involved because of the 'stop bullying' undertones of this building project.
             So, when it was all said and done, the cameras and the 'Extreme Makeover' bus was in place...
         Ty Pennington was in place...
           And so was Ray Allen...
            And so was hubby, because...after all...he is the best 'sunflower photographer' on the planet!...and 'he' really wanted to get in on all the excitement too...through his lens! :-) ...{Frankly, I think the main reason he wanted to be there was because he knew I couldn't go, and he wanted to bring the experience home to me... :-] ...Have I told you lately how much I love and appreciate that man?! :-)}
         He said there must have been thousands of people at the site. They had their 'Stand Together' individual balloon letters all blown up and everything!...
       But let me recap a little for you. ....If you remember, this is what the site looked like when hubby went over there at the beginning of the week...
          Ty Pennington was there. There was no house! They had knocked it down already..........But here are the photos from yesterday of the house and the activity going on all over the place before the house was actually 'revealed' to the family...
          And after a few 'takes'...yeah, it really is a T.V. show!...^_^ ...they moved the bus!! And I have tons of footage of all of these proceedings too, but I don't think I'm gonna be allowed to share them with you before the show airs. I'm gonna try!! But I wouldn't hold my breath if I was you! ^_^
      What I 'can' show you though, is the promo for the show's first show of the new season. It'll be on next Sunday night. They're gonna be getting some help from the person that lives in this white house!...


       Celebrity or no celebrity, I like the concept of a group of people getting together with one common goal of building a home for someone. In fact, Jehovah's Witnesses have been doing this very thing for many years....with their Kingdom Halls (places for worship), and homes for people wiped out during natural disasters.
      In fact, hubby helped in the building, from the ground up, of our former Kingdom Hall in Connecticut! It was a double Kingdom Hall, built over a weekend! So exciting! My hips were pretty good back then. So while hubby and a whole lot of other people were hammering and sawing, me and a bunch of other friends went door to door in the neighborhood to apologize to them individually for the noise, and to invite them to come up and take a tour of it after it was all done.
     As I remember, most of the neighbors were very friendly and accommodating. And a whole lot of them actually 'did' come to inspect the place too! :-) They couldn't believe it would actually go up!...Well, a lot of us couldn't hardly believe it either!!... ^_^ But it did!...Ohhhh! The things you can build, with the right motivation. :-)

Build

You can build a reputation,
build a fire, build a stair;
You can build a neighborhood,
build a table, build-A-Bear!

You can build a layered cake,
build some buildings, build a boat;
You can build a website business,
build relationships remote.

You can build vocabulary,
build up friendships old and new.
You could build global relations
if you really wanted to.

You can build upon your knowledge,
build a table, bridge, or train;
build a step into the future,
or just a shelter from the rain.

You can build an awesome snowman.
Then don't waste him. Make a cone!
Or build up folks around you,
so they never feel alone.

All this building talk,
shows the things that you can make
if you build a wordy poem...
and you also stay awake!

         Have a good week everybody!!! :-)

8 comments:

  1. Wow, I must say I had no idea it was that big a production for an Extreme Makeover home. The fact that the knock down and build a new house in a week is mind boggling!

    Deb, only family can ask you to change the brakes on their car lol! Not a simple installing a windshield wiper, etc. nope, the brakes!

    Enjoy your week!

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  2. Lisa, Hello! Oh yeah! It's like a big time T.V. show came to town. Well...I guess it did! ^_^ And call me naive, but I didn't realize there would be like stage production sound jumpers and stuff like that. Even I was surprised about that! But the house build was REAL!!! Those guys worked around the clock all week! And hubby saw them relaying the furniture and stuff into the house right before the family came! Right 'down to the wire'!...And how right you are about family asking you to do the 'little' jobs! ^_^ And at the last minute usually too!...*smh* Apparently you've had some experience with this! Ha! Ha!...Have a good week, Lisa!

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  3. Nice photos Jeff!! Beautiful house too! I'm sure the Walker family will enjoy this house for many years!!
    As far as the Kingdom Hall builds is concerned, it can be done with the help of our God!! What a joy it is to be a part of it!!
    Enjoy your day Deb and have a good week.

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  4. CinLynn, Hubby says: "Thanks Bead!" ^_^ ...And I agree with you. He took such good pictures...I can't wait to see the show and get a gander at the inside of the house! :-) Thanks for the nice comment Cindy. I'm very thankful to have you as a 'sister' friend. :-]

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  5. You live in a beautiful neighbourhood. I love those American houses. Just gorgeous.

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  6. Alittlesprite, Thanks...Yeah, that's definitely a New England style house for sure!...The colors are more like California to me though. :-) Whatever the case, I'm sure they're gonna love it!

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  7. Jo-anne, Thanks!! :-]

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