When we last left her, our heroine was saddened over the news that she would not be able to attend the unveiling of the Extreme Makeover Home Edition home. She longed to yell "Move that Bus!" But, wait, what's this?
Da da da DA!!!
It's SuperHusband!!
Yes, it's true! I was supposed to watch my neighbors kids Friday afternoon, but that morning Whitney awoke with a rash (coxsackie. . .foot/mouth. . .etc. . .no fun. . .really mad. . .no sleep. ..) So the neighbors kids weren't coming and I was heading to the Drs office after lunch. Matt called about 11 and said. . .
"Well, I was thinking. . .I have some personal time (PT) time I can take if you wanted to go see them give the house away."
"Oh, it's ok, honey."
"No, really, if you want to go I'd be willing to come home."
"Well, (I'm getting a little excited now) if I WERE, hypothetically, to go, I would probably need to be there a little early so you would probably need to take Whitney to her appointment too."
"That's fine. Just tell me if you want to go."
"Well, of COURSE, I want to go!"
So, Madison decided she wanted to come with me, Molly opted to stay with Dad (I figured we'd be really far back since we would probably get there about an hour before the big moment). We skipped taking the shuttle bus from a big convention center parking lot and tried our chance to just park close enough and walk. We were only about 4 blocks away. As we rounded the corner to go toward the house this pulled up by us. . .
Oh, NO! It's them, we're going to miss it! Little did I know how S L O W these TV "reality" production shows take. This was actually the "practice limo". So we got down to the street. It wasn't as crowded as I thought it might be and we had an ok view of at least the street where the action was going to be goin' down. Madison was excited. We got to a spot right in front of a bush with no one in front of it so we kind of had an open view. If you squint a little you can see the dark top of the bus parked in front of the house. 
Oh, wait, let me Zoom in for you 
So, while we were waiting and waiting, some lady on the other side of the street wasn't feeling to well so the fire truck and ambulance arrived. . . .honestly, what some people won't do right? I'm happy to report that she was fine and the ambulance promptly took her away. . .ok, let's get on with it! 
John was the schmoozer of the designers. He was always trying to act like he was SUPER busy but kept hanging out by all the fans. Including this little one in front of us that had her little lamb/bear signed. All I had in my pocket was a Martha Stewart paint chip sample card, so we had it signed too. Madison wants to take it to school! 
While we were patiently being so good, one of the guys from the production team came over and said in his megaphone. . ."I need you to work with me and I need you to listen! I'm going to take a small group of you over to the other side. . ." Yippee! That meant us, so we got over where the volunteers and VIP's were and holy cow look who we saw when we got there!!!
Yep, that's him. We were so excited we got a prime spot. We were right next to the street on the next door neighbors property!!! Madison was making fun of me because I kept snapping pictures of Ty. Hey, I had no idea how they were going to turn out so I just kept taking them!!
Oh, here's a better view of the house. I'm still not in love with the blue trim but it's certainly a nice home. The front of the house has kind of a wood lattice effect where the normal brown is on the rest of the house. 
Yep, still snapping away.
Oh, look who it is. . . . These ladies next to me wanted their daughters hats signed. With the leopard print you could hardly even tell.
Here's all the people that we mad that we got over to the "other side"! Suckers.
After a lot of waiting and waiting. . .they brought out the big crane camera and did the overhead shots of the crowd. I think we were all screaming and yelling for like 15 minutes. It was funny to see the crew members going crazy up and down the street trying to keep people goin'. We knew it was close when the design team came out. Here is Tracy and Paul (and one of their makeup/hair/clothes people cleaning up Paul (with Tracy's help). She was grooming him just like a chimpanzee! The sweatshirt, the hair, I half expected her to lick her thumb and wipe a smudge off his face. It was kind of cute though. I like Pauli. 
Here's Paul giving a little squeeze.
Tracy looked great and I LOVED her leather boots. They were fab.
Here's the whole team, Preston, John, Paul and Tracy.
I didn't realize that what Ty says to the family is scripted. I guess I figured it was, kind of, so here he is reviewing his lines. . .
Here's Ty waving the limo in. . .after I took this picture I realized that the camera was aimed right at us so I better get yellin', and wavin' and actin' crazy so you can see me on TV! Madison had a light blue coat on so look for us!!
Here's the family arriving
They headed straight for their family/friends that we right next to the limo. . .did you notice the neighbors up on their roof??
A big wave to the crowd! 
A chat with the fam and just how many times do we need to tape "Move that bus." Well, for the record I think it was at LEAST 25 times, in every direction possible! I'm "MOVE THAT BUS"ed out!
This was about 10 minutes of chattiness, and the anticipation was killing all of us!!
One more big group hug. . .
"MOVE THAT BUS!!"
It was priceless. . .and just like you see on TV. We all were bawling like babies.
It took a couple of minutes before the mom and girls could get up off the street and the boys kept running all around, it was great.
Welcome Home Mahacek family, Welcome Home!!!
and went over. The home is located in the Havelock (historic) district of town. Neat little area. Old, but neat. I wondered how they would do this there, but it's looking pretty good. It was tough to get a good look at the house. It's in the middle of a block and they had it barracaded on the side streets. We were only a couple of rows back from the fencing. I overheard someone saying how the show offers the neighbors a hotel and a daily $1000 or so, to use their property, yard, etc. One house directly across they were using for the VIP's. Hey if it was my house, I'd stay there and get in on all the action (although it would be a little crazy, and noisy!) In this picture it's the third one in that they're working on.
The lots are small, so they won't have much of a yard. They were going for a "Tudor" style of home. 
I'm not sure if these are classic colors for a Tudor, but I was left wondering where the designers were when they picked it out. 
It's a dark chocolate brown with royal blue (
Ghost and pumpkin pizza 
Here's Madison doing her best Barkers beauties pose. She did the one with the word "Spooky" around the pumpkin. She's had some pretty creative pumpkins over the years. Matt did the "stem nose" one in the middle. I did a quick carve of the lil' babe one.
Lots of stuff! All kinds of stuff that you think. . .oh, I should just throw this out, NO ONE would ever buy this! So, you sit out in your yard looking all excited saying, 
it's amazing what piles up while you're being pregnant, having babies, raising kids, working, sleeping, it never quits growing!! We actually got rid of quite a bit and we all made some serious cash too! The nice thing was that it forced Matt and I to go through boxes that we haven't touched since we bought the house almost 8 years ago!! Wow, there were some winners out there. I had wedding gifts that I hadn't used, and oh, my, the clothes. Check out this "matronly" Laura Ashley number from the early 90's. . .
And didn't we all have a least one of these dresses/jumpers from Express in the early 90's? I had at least 2. 
My house is now free. . . .until I fill it up again!!