Retro House Lights Up The NightIf I had the time I would make one gigantic list of all the heroic services people have provided for me and my family in the past few months. The list would probably extend from Retro House, down the street, through BYU campus and on into the depths of Utah Lake. I am in shock of how compassionate humanity can be, who knew? Seriously, who knew?
Just today we found two fully-signed Buffalo Bills footballs for Ollie and Gigs on our doorstep. This is so timely because we are sure Gigs is headed to Linebacker-dom and now is the time to motivate and manipulate his dreams. Or so they tell me. But seriously, it is not everyday that something like that happens . . . except, it is around here. We've been so blessed by the best hearts of this planet. I will be returning the favor for the rest of my life.
One of the most beneficial services rendered to us came by the way of a company called Lights Up Inc. a Christmas lighting company. They showed up at Retro House and made it sparkle. No charge. We might've been the first house in Provo to have Christmas lights up and operating, but we needed the glowing distraction. It's the Rockefeller tree-lighting celebration every night around here.
And Chup didn't even have to get on his orange ladder and curse loudly while hanging un-tamed tangled lights from our roof line. Not to insinuate that sorta thing happened last year, (and the two years before that) but it could've. This year Chup came home from work and saw that his house looked as festive as gingerbread. It is the light in my delight right now.
On an related note, during set-up they came equipped with a microwave so that they didn't have to heat up lunch in my kitchen:
See? You didn't believe me until you saw the photo. I know!And you can even let the children watch a live tutorial:
See? Notice the glue gun. That is how they keep their lines straight. Glue gun!This is the point in my post where I announce that Lights Up Inc has generously offered one auction package so that you too can have a merry holiday (and keep your husband virtuous) while knowing that 100% of the proceeds of this auction will go to my cute sister and her family.
Here are the details:
- Bidders must live in Utah. Lights Up Inc. will serve as far south as Spanish Fork and as north as Ogden. Heber Valley and Park City are included.
- The lighting package includes the LED C7 with the choice of the incandescent lighting. Lights Up Inc. will decorate the front of your home, including roof lines and peaks.
- This auction will start at 1am today (Tuesday, December 2nd) and will end tomorrow night (Wednesday, December 3rd) at midnight mountain standard time. This is a quick auction so you should probably stay on your computer all day if you want to win. Hire a babysitter too.
- Following the close of the auction, the winner will pay for their item via the Stephanie and Christian PayPal account. The winner will then forward the PayPal receipt email to cjanemail@gmail.com with their mailing address. I will then contact Lights Up Inc and let them know you are the very relieved winner of this fine auction. They will then contact you to communicate about further details.
- There will be only one winner which will be the highest bidder (bidding will take place in the comment section of this post).
- You can visit Lights Up Inc for more information.
Thank you Lights Up, thank you Buffalo Bills, thank you our friend Design Mom for inventing online auctions, thank YOU (person at computer reading this right now, yes YOU, I know who you are, and I sincerely thank you just for scrolling down the page).
Let the auction commence!
75 Pieces of Opinion:
i didn't know- about the compassion of humanity. now i do. thanks to your sisters story. to your story. now i know, and i remind myself often.
seriously- thank you for making the time to share.
Hi from Ireland.
Have been reading your and Nie's blog for a few weeks now and am impressed by how you handle everything. It is great to have a community that does what it can for you like those amazing lights. But remember: you are the hero! I'm sure Nie is proud of you and will be forever thankfull!
That is an awesome story! The kids look so cute waiting by the window too. Thank you for sharing.
Since Melbourne Australia is just a tad out of their zone, I'd better not bid....damn it.
Love to you all,
Jane
You are so funny! What a brilliant gift. I am so into Christmas lights - where I live there is a house which raises money for charity each year by going so OTT - it is a Christmas ritual to go there every year. And I can't believe they brought a microwave, how brilliant!
Wow! You lucky Utahns. Good luck bidding and may you bid often and h-i-g-h!
Thats a bummer! I wish they serviced Michigan! minutes from Ann Arbor! Geez, Schucks!
Good luck to your winning bidder!
Your home looks beautifully decorated.
oh how cool! Im in Aus so cant bid.
Love the pic of the tree out the front. You even managed to capture the alignment of the moon and the two planets.
I don't see a link to the auction.
I live in New Hampshire, so I can't participate in the auction, but I would love to. My husband is going to be doing a clean the gutters/string the lights combo this year, ahhh.
Love your new banner- it's so classy and festive!
I`m sorry I can`t participate in your auction, (which I think is a brilliant idea)since I live in Norway. I have followed your blog since the first days of september. I don`t knoww how I found it. My sister died from cancer on sunday the 17.of august, so perhaps there is a link. God only knows (and I think he do. In a strange way following you, your family, and all your efforts after Stephanies and Christian`s bad accident, have eased my mourning for my sister. Does it sound strange? Perhaps, but that is the way I feel.
You don`t have to worry about paying back all you get. You pay back all the time. You give people all over the world a possibility to show their good hearts, and I think that is paying back enough.Do you understand me? You move peoples hearts, make us pray.That is peace-work on a high level. Thank you and good luck with the auction and with all your good work.Have a blessed time with all the children and the fantastic christmas-tree in the garden.
you are welcome...and made me smile at the end of the post....you are welcome! Love and hugs ~Donna
We live in Nebraska! If only your bidding went as far east as Nebraska *sigh*
Our BEST wishes to the winner.
I'm in Tennessee and can't bid but just wanted to say good luck to everyone!!!
Great post. I love stories like this.
Ohhhh post a photo of the lights!
How neat.... I live in Georgia and have never, ever heard of this super cool service! How lucky for you and the little ones!
I wish I could bid.... I wish you the best!
how wonderful and generous of that company. i know people who make their livings at holiday time doing such service and it's especially nice that they are donating their time and talent this way. what a treat for the kids and i know my husband would be relieved too. it sounds like husbands everywhere deplore the lights job but who doesn't love the look of a festive holiday lights job? very nice and how cool about the footballs.
never been the first to comment! probably not the first now!
only wan't to say COURTNEY YOU LIGHT
UP MY DAY!You deserve every special thing that happens to you!
Do you really mean me when you say thank you?
All my love Karan
Good Morning! I'm sitting next to my son on the couch. He is watching the Backyardigans and I'm watching the wood stove making sure it lights and takes off keeping us cozy throughout our day. I love reading your blog. I love how it makes me tear up. I love how it makes me laugh and smile.
Happy Holidays to you all.
Alissa
P.S. - I live in NY but am spending New Year's in Logan. Will there be any Nie Nie festivities and gatherings around till about the 5th? Just thought I'd put a little bee in you bonnet!
I will bid $150 for the package.
Leslie James
I know it is a little bid, but we are students and have a little house :) I bid $50!
okay I guess I'll start the bidding at $100.00
Dang it! Wish I live in Utah...
Jason Adams rocks!
Side note: I just read your old blog posting about not owning a microwave. Loved it! I don't own one either and people think I'm nuts!
Are you sure they won't fly to Ohio?! :)
Gotta love the Buffalo Bills. I'm from Buffalo and shamefully I'm jealous of little kiddos getting signed footballs :)
What a wonderful opportunity to do a little something for Stephanie and Christian. I bid $200.
You can thank our own Provo High School alum and Buffalo Bills lineman Kirk Chambers and his wife Marilyn for the signed football. They are awesome!
Fun, Fun! But I live in Arkansas. Prayers are still with you all.
I just want you to know you are so, so clever with the wordplays! I look forward to reading your attention-grabbing headers as much as I do your posts. Today's was brilliant! You go, girl! (And I'm a professional magazine writer - I can't imagine having to come up with pithy headlines every day!)
You, you light up my life, you bring me hope, to carry on...Sorry for the bad singing and glad you couldn't hear it!! What a wonderful gift!
Good luck everyone on the bidding. If they served Dallas, TX, we would bid for sure!
I'm happy to bid $200. (I don't think my original comment posted.
What a great surprise......love the picture of Jane and the other lil' guy watching out the window. Too cute.
I looked at their website ~ they do beautiful work. What a wonderful idea for an auction.
My bid is $200.
I'll bid 175.00$
I'm Ca but you and the story of Christian and Nie and their dear family lights up my day!
$225, i hate when my husband curses....
$250
Come on people!
My neighbor got a bid from a company to do his lights for $1200 and nothing fancy was involved! Let's see those bids go higher!
ps-I live out of the specified area AND my lights are already up and shining bright!
Assuming they will come as far west as Eagle Mountain, I will bid $250.
Looks like someone beat me to $250. Let's do $300.
$325.00
Dangit! I live in Logan! What a great gift.
Logan is so lonely...
but I will live in the joy and beauty of retro house. cheers.
That is the coolest thing ever. They make magic happen. The picture of the kids watching is priceless.
I love those guys. And the microwave.
Too bad Canada is out of their radius, but what a great idea (I hate when my hubby curses in French...).
I second the "I want to see photos" of the Retro House all a-glow.
Love your blog s-o-o-o very much, and still sending lots of positive thoughts/prayers to all of you on a daily basis
I'm so sad not to be able to bid. Michigan is rather far from Utah. My husband cursing is never a good thing and he does so with each string he must attach. I guess we'll have to do it some other way. Get those bids in, we all know Nie and Christian deserve every ounce of our generosity.
I would donate my whole Christmas fund for Utah lights here in Florida! But since I am many miles away and many dollars short, I will just buy your book for my boss's bathroom :) We are both devoted readers.
Love you, C Jane, and my prayers are with all of you!
Oh how I wished that I lived in Utah. I have the husband who rants and screams and tells me I'm trying to kill him by making him get up on the ladder to decorate for Christmas...hehe He HATES outside decorations. So CONGRATS to the person that wins and if you here screaming and not nice words shouted from the east. That would be my husband...lol
On another note...how awesome is that that they came to your house to set up yours lights. I can only imagine how beautiful it looks...and a glue gun. Who would have thought that for straight lines!
More pictures of the lighted house please. Wish I lived in Utah for the auction. Aren't people wonderful when we need them the most (and when we don't)
WOW! What a splendid gift from the lighting company, and how touching all the generosity you have both given and received. It's amazing.
I have never left a comment here that I am aware of, but I was brought to your blog somewhere I while back after following links from scrapbooker's in Utah! I am quite a blog stalker... in a good way... and just love seeing where links can take me. Throughout the stories of Nie Nie, I prayed....and prayed more on my own blog, leading my readers to your story...
and while being from buffalo... I loved this story. they dont lie when they call us the "city of good neighbors!" continued thoughts and prayers for the entire family..
and just know... buffalo loveeeees you guys!
We could so use this service, but we live in Illinois!! I guess there's no chance they'd come all the way out here, eh??
Lynne
Illinois
What a festive post. It positively sparkled and twinkled and jingled. Woohoo! Enjoy the lights! You've earned 'em!
I'm in Alaska, or you know I'd bid. Best of luck to the bidders!
On a side note, I'm coming to Utah next Wednesday to visit friends and family! You want to meet at Target? Then I can thank YOU for being the amazing person that you are.
I wish I could bid but KS might be a little far. Just a thought to increase donations you might offer the bidding to everyone and if the winner doesn't live in Utah then the lights could be donated to another member of your family.
Evan Rowley: formerly of Cedar Ave, bids $350.
Thanks for making me laugh every day! Your writing puts a huge smile on my face. Thanks C Jane!
oh I wish I lived in Utah, oh I wish I lived in Utah. What a gift!!!
Don't have $400 to bid, but I do have *onesies?? :) Also, I am a Radiographer at the University Hospital and visit the Burn Unit VERY frequently. I am willing to donate anything else you may need in ThAT way. Let me know if there is anything that I or we in Diagnostic Radiology can to do make your sisters recovery and stay more pleasant! We Pray For You and Your Family.
Becca Miller
*BabyBumpkins.Blogspot.com
that is absolutely fantastic. though i'm confused... how do they use the glue gun to keep the lines straight? do they glue the light to the house? wha-huh? juss trying to get it right for when we have a house to light up.
i'm happy for your blessings. every smile is a smile worth while.
-m.
C'mon guys!!! Let's see those bids go up a little higher! I live in Idaho so otherwise I would bid but this service usually costs 900+! Think about what this is going towards! Help out The Nie!
Not sure what the last bid was.....I bid $375. :)
I bid $400.00, please.
So Jason Adams of Lights Up is the GREATEST!!!
He did my lights already and the bids need to go higher!!!
My house alone cost $600.
Just think-
A happy husband
A beautiful house!!
Oh how i wish i lived in Utah!
Holy moley! Gigs is getting so big!! I'm so happy that you got your house decorated. You totally deserve it. I think of you every time I go to BYU (which is quite often seeing how my husband is a PhD student there.)
I bid $500. Thank you!
$550.00
Kim H. in Salt Lake
I bid $600. Thanks!
A GLUE GUN???? Who knew??? I want a lesson on how to do that!!! What thoughtful guys that was the PERFECT service to provide for you and the kids~Im sure they were sooooooo excited about having lights up!! Keep enduring to the end Courtney, you are awesome!
$650.00
Kim H.
SOLD! To Kim H. for $650!
Kim, you are awesome. You can e-mail at cjane@gmail.com and I will get you further instructions. Thank you for being so generous.
Thank you so much to all the bidders.
Merry Merry.
CJane
We want or at least I want to see a picture of the whole yard at night just to appreciate what they did. Wish I was closer, I would have bid to have my house done. I bet the kids are just over the moon looking at the lights.
CJane,
We want you to feel safe, and if that means not posting a picture of your house for any weirdo to be able to trace down where you live, I think most of us understand.
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