Extreme Makeover Adventure

Well, we got in very late last night from our Extreme Makeover Adventure in Bartlesville. I'll get the big question out of the way: Ty was not in town. Apparently, the show films two episodes a week and has different team members assigned to each one. The common denominator, Ty, flys back and forth to the job sites, every other day. Yesterday he was at the Houston job site for yesterday. We were disappointed, but also felt very tired thinking of all the flying Ty has to do!

Alas, we were not diappointed at the experience. One thing we have learned is that when you're bringing food somewhere, people part the seas for you! We were able to pull up right to the house and park next to the hospitality tent for the crew (our client was providing dinner for the crew last night). The house is actually being built in Dewey, Oklahoma about 15 minutes outside of Bartlesville. It's also known as the sticks. You drive through many miles of backwoods before you come upon this massive structure surrounded by HUNDREDS of bright blue shirts.

When we pulled up, the house was being framed. There was no roof when we pulled up and three hours later when we left--it had a roof, windows, and siding was going up. That's how fast they work! The story of the White Family is that they are a family of 10 children, 5 still living in the home. The father was a minister until he died suddenly in April of a heart attack, leaving his wife and children with no income. They lived in a small trailer (and we mean trailer). Can you imagine? At the minimum, they had 6 people sharing this home. At one time they had as many as 12.

Anyway, Extreme Makeover team has come in to build them a brand new, GIANT house! They have 3 shifts of 100 contruction volunteers each working round the clock for 7 days. Incredible.

We did get to meet a couple of the "celebrity" design team members. We met Paige (blonde that wears pink all the time) and took our picture with Dan (who is a total hottie and looks like Tom Cruise!). So, we got our excitement there.

Anyway--it was a really cool experience to see something like that. Especially for me because I watch the show every week. It would be like visiting the set of Lost or CSI: or something for those fans.

We took LOTS of pictures and as soon as they are downloaded to the work computer I will post!