Time To Be Normal

Whew! The Mister and I watched the 2 hour special on the Okvath's house last night, and from reading the papers today, I learned that the family had a full day yesterday. They toured around the city and met and thanked the many many donors and volunteers, and ended up at the Pointe at Squaw Peak to watch the show. (By the way, did you see the Morrison Ranch grain tanks at the beginning? And the shot of the the Superstitions was taken from our quonset hut next to the tanks. So that's our contribution to the flavor of the show.)

At any rate, the family had worked hard all week in Tucson, and were no doubt already emotionally drained as well as physically tired. The East Valley Tribune explains:

"We were coming home after a long, hard week and we were tired," Bryan Okvath said. "We had our buckets ready in the limo for our leaky roof. But we didn’t need them. We moved in and it felt like home." Kassandra’s favorite room is her own bead studio. She makes bead necklaces to raise money for cancer research, which are now available through her new Web site, www.lovecomesfirst.com. The Okvath family also had some surprises in store for them Sunday. Before driving to the Pointe Hilton in a limo, they stopped off at a party at Breuners Arizona furniture store in Scottsdale, where dozens of employees wore yellow shirts with the words "80 volunteers and three trucks = one family’s dream come true." Breuners donated more than $60,000 of furniture to furnish the house. "When we heard the Okvath story, we knew we could do it," said Tom Daley of Breuners. "It’s been real awesome and a life-changing experience." On Sunday, the Okvath family also received a two-year scholarship for each family member, including mom and dad, to Central Arizona College for associate’s degrees. For more on the Okvath family and their extreme makeover — including the backyard carousel and the family’s new movie theater not shown in Sunday’s show — watch "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How’d They Do That?" at 8 p.m. today on KNXV-TV (Channel 15).

So after this fairy tale time, it seems like they might be ready to be just a normal family again. Hopefully that can start right now.