August 25, 2010

The last couple of days have been the most rewarding, tiring, and amazing. Nathan and I were able to volunteer for the Extreme Makeover home edition team that came to Pocatello. First off, on Monday night we went to a Benefit concert for the Jane Marshall-Spreier family. They had the Extreme Team there (Ty, Ed, Paul, and Jillian) and did an auction and had performers. The Team also got in and played instruments of their own. It was awesome! Then we went home and tried to take a nap for at least an hour. Nathan slept but I couldn't. We then got up and went over to help finish the house before the family came home. We signed up for the 2am-8am time slot. We got to see the inside of the house. It is beautiful. That's all I can say about it. You will have to watch the episode at the end of October/beginning of November to see it. I helped put food in the fridge and unpack boxes of items that the designers were going to put in the house. Nathan helped clean and carry some stuff into rooms. They only needed us for a few hrs so we decided to camp out on the sidewalk so we could have a good view of the family when they came home and saw their new house. We were in line at 4:30am and got home at 7pm. We were in the front of the line by the fence across the street from the house at first. Then a security guard came over and told us since we had volunteer shirts on, we could go join the others RIGHT BY THE HOUSE. We were relieved to get out of the crowd we were in. We couldn't move at all. So we ended up being right by the house and able to see the families reaction (faces) when they MOVED THAT BUS! It was so amazing! We both started to cry. The lady's (Jane's) parents are in Nathans parents ward and her and her family used to be. Natalie stayed with them all night and day. If you don't know the story about the family here it is. Jane has 9 kids, her husband left her, she had breast cancer, their home started on fire last year and made it uninhabitable so they lived in trailers in their backyard, etc. She definitely deserved this happy ending/beginning. Watch for us when the show comes on t.v. We will be with the volunteers. Nathan might be holding up a sign that says "Move that bus" or "Welcome Home." Pictures and video are on the slide show up top (Smile box) click on the pictures to move them around and see them better....