So, it is hard being the amazing star that I am, but I will try to not let it go to my head. The paparazzi, the interviews, my phone ringing off the hook, the fans…

OK, so maybe it isn’t that hard.

In all reality, we are making some serious headway exposing Richmond American. Kelli O’Hara and her producer spent over two hours with us last night. I have to tell you, if you need to rant, nothing beats being given a microphone, camera and undivided attention. I could have gone on for hours and hours. Wait a minute, I did.

I gave them a tour of my home and pointed out all the construction and installation problems. After they were done with my house, they interviewed a number of my neighbors, and then visited another development in Lehi. The crazy thing is, every single Richmond American house they knocked on had considerable issues.

Kelli called me tonight. The ABC4 Investigative Team is planning on flying to Denver (Richmond American headquarters) early next week. They have found hundreds of lawsuits filed by unhappy homeowners. I conducted a quick search myself and found lawsuits in multiple states regarding plumbing, driveway concrete, radon, and mold.

Really Richmond American? Really? Frickin criminals!

ABC news will be at my house today at 3:00 p.m. to interview us regarding our horrible experience with Richmond American. We’ll see what Richmond says about expired warranties on crappy workmanship now!

If you want to participate, be at my house at 3:00. Let’s change this situation!

The power of blogging is frickin fantastic. Thanks for all the comments and support, we are making a difference!

Every once in awhile it is good to rant. You get things off your chest, are able to let go (kind of) and most importantly, warn others. In order to help prevent others from making the same mistake, I want to share how horrible it has been working with Richmond American homes, the frickin crooks. Don’t believe me? Watch the video. Our home is falling apart.

We purchased a brand new Richmond American home four years ago. Since then, we have put hundreds of dollars into repairing problems and poor craftsmanship they refused to fix under their bogus warranty.

After a few short months of owning our home we noticed our driveway was chipping. We called Richmond American and filed a report on their website. After multiple requests, we finally got them to take a look at the driveway. They acknowledged that it was chipping, but told us that it had to be significantly worse before they would repair it. By the next winter it went from bad to worse, and by then the warranty expired. Estimated repair cost $2,000.

We have also lived with a leaky roof for the past four years. Richmond first denied there was an issue, but after water damage had stained our garage ceiling, they finally admitted to the problem. They tried to tell us the roof wasn’t covered under the warranty, but we fought that. Then, they supposedly repaired the roof, but it never stopped leaking. According to Roof Solutions, the repairmen sent by Richmond American had taken caulking and smeared it around with this finger. Seriously. I guess they thought that would fix a crappy roof. We requested that Richmond American fix it properly, but they claimed the warranty had expired. Four years later, we finally had it properly repaired (and paid for it ourselves). The roofer said the leaking and damage was due to faulty installation. The flashing was put on after the shingles, instead of before. Total cost: $460. Interesting fact, the roofer, Brandon Lindsey with Roof Solutions, says he has repaired HUNDREDS of Richmond American roofs due to poor craftsmanship, and one house was so damaged an entire outside wall had to be replaced.

Don’t even get me started about our wiring. OK, get me started. They put our breaker box in the basement bathroom. In order to finish the basement and pass inspection, we had to move it and rewire the home to the new location. Cost $700.00. By the way, can I just add, how frickin retarded this is? EVERYBODY knows not to put a breaker box in a bathroom. This is a safety issue. C’mon!

Insulation is another issue. We have been paying outrageous monthly gas bills during the winter, and finally had SunRoc look at our insulation. Richmond ripped us off here, too. They didn’t even put enough insulation in our attic to pass code. I am not sure how they got away with this, but they did. Estimated cost: $1600 in heating bills and $900 for needed insulation.

So, today I am going to film our driveway, and other driveways in our neighborhood and put it on utahscams.com. Hopefully, this will warn others and perhaps even get Richmond American to fix the frickin problem.

Do NOT buy a Richmond American home. I repeat, DO NOT BUY A RICHMOND AMERICAN HOME. If you do, you may end up with a home like this.

Quick & Delicious White Bread, by Pantry Secrets

This recipe is frickin amazing! From start to finish, it only takes one hour, and that includes rising, kneading and baking. I make this bread all the time, and use it for rolls, cinnamon rolls, bread bowls and pizza crust. Yum!

Ingredients

• 5 1/4 cups white flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 quarter-sized dollops of liquid lecithin
• 2 cups hot water
• 1 1/2 heaping tablespoons of yeast

In a large kitchen-aid type mixer with the dough hook, combine your flour, salt and lecithin with one cup of hot water.

In a small bowl, combine the other cup of hot water with the sugar and yeast. Let the yeast activate for a couple minutes.

Once the yeast is frothy, add the yeast combination to the flour combination and mix for one minute.

Your dough should have the consistency of Play-Doh. It it is too dry, add water, one teaspoon at a time. If too moist, add flour a teaspoon at a time.

Knead in your mixer for five minutes. When finished, take out the dough, and knead by hand for an additional minute. It should still have the consistency of firm Play-Doh.

Cut the dough in half and form two loaves. Place each loaf in a greased bread pan. Cover with a moist, warm kitchen towel and let rise for 25 minutes. (I get a towel wet, squeeze out the extra water and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes before placing over the pans. This helps the bread rise and stay moist.) Then bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Enjoy!

I love the Olympics. I really, really love the Olympics. By the end of the games, my DVR is full of great moments in time, which I refuse to delete for months. There is something about watching athletes perform amazing feats as I sit on my couch and eat ice-cream. It is comparable, although significantly better, than watching The Biggest Loser while eating potato chips.

A darling friend of mine, Noelle Pikus-Pace, is competing in the skeleton at the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. In honor of her awesomeness, I am going to dedicate this post to her, and encourage all of my faithful readers to support her by buying a really cute hat at snowfirehats.com. Noelle designed the hats herself. They are super cute (this pic is of Noelle sporting one of her designs) and help her with the costs of training, travel and gear.

So, to pay tribute to Noelle, and the entire Olympic Team, I have come up with:

The Top Reasons Team U.S.A. Will Win the Olympics

We have the cutest Olympians. Our team is H-O-T HOT. Seriously. When you add beauty to sheer talent, how can you NOT prevail? Don’t believe me? Check out the picture above of cute Noelle, and compare that to this weight-lifting Big Mama from the Beijing Games. She didn’t win and I doubt her picture would ever grace the front of a Wheaties box. Never, never, never would our Women’s Team look like this.

We dress for success. I recently checked-out the official uniform for the U.S. Snowboarding Team. It is denim and plaid– pretty stylin. Although, I think a close runner-up is the uniform my brother suggested- a viking helmet and a skater belt. (I think Brian pulls this look off quite well. See below.)

We’ve got the moves. You know you are going to be good at more than skating with a name like Ohno. I can see it now. Contenders from other countries are probably saying, “OH-NO! Look who is up next! I don’t stand a chance at winning against this Dancing with the Stars Winner/Greek God.” I seriously love the fact that Apolo’s parents named him after the God of Arts. With a name like Apolo Ohno, we are sure to take the gold. I think all of our Olympic athletes should be named after Greek Gods.

We have Colbert. When Colbert is on your side, you can never lose. I still can’t see why he didn’t make the team. He definitely has my vote. (Warning. Do not watch this video while drinking milk. I learned the hard way.)

Why, I ask you, why, why, why do kids think they need pets? Oh, and by the way, a pet is not classified as a fish or a hamster, because we HAVE those and apparently they don’t count.

Further, why as parents, are we guilt-ridden if we don’t comply and GET them a pet?

Last Saturday we bought a cat. We were told (and like morons, we believed) that Siamese cats produced less dander and are hypoallergenic. Whatever. Our four year-old was so swollen she looked like a frickin sumo wrestler. Through her nasal-congested misery, she mournfully cried over the loss of her feline friend on Sunday when it was returned. Even though she was thoroughly and completely afflicted by said Siamese, she STILL wanted to keep it.

So we decided no cats.

I have been considering allowing a dog in our home again. The last one costs us thousands of dollars because we apparently thought we could house an Alaskan Husky on .14 acres. Tala, the husky, quickly let us know the lack of space was unacceptable. She chewed-up shoes, furniture, ripped-up our carpet, demolished our landscaping, and made me frickin crazy. Because we are super-duper smart, we kept the dog for an entire year. Even though some time has passed, I still feel some post-traumatic-stress when I think of Tala.

So, tonight we continued our quest for self-abuse by looking for another dog. We had the pleasure of meeting a cute little Shih Tzu that bit my four year-old daughter on the face. WHAT?!

My poor little sweetheart cried all the way home. As soon as we got home she asked, “Can we find another dog?”

Oh my frickin heck. I think we need some serious counseling.

Have you ever received an email that claimed to be verified by snopes.com which told of a horrific situation where certain death was barely avoided, with a warning how you, too, can dodge it?

A favorite of mine is the “The Killer in the Backseat.” This story has a few different versions, but tells of a woman that was driving with a murderer in her car. She avoided becoming his next victim, thanks to a good Samaritan who warned her of the evil cargo.

Another awesome urban legend is about the giant alligators living in the sewers of New York City. I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t want to encounter one of these bad boys in a bathroom stall.

I love those emails. They are awesome. My favorite thing about them is seeing who believed and forwarded the story to me. The sender usually encourages me to forward the warning to other women, followed by a small manipulation like, “if you really care about your mom, sisters, girlfriends, you HAVE to send them this email!”

My sister and I (the darling beauty mentioned in frickin pregnancy) decided to start an urban legend of our own, and see how far it got.

The good news: Totally believable.

The bad news: We received promises that our “friend’s family” would be remembered in prayers, so we had to let people know it was fictitious.

Unfortunately, the email never made it to Snopes. I, personally, think we had a frickin awesome email and a good chance to live forever in Snopes internet history. Let me know what you think.

WARNING! Do NOT mix household cleaners! Please tell all the women in your life to be very careful with household cleaners so the following does not happen to them!

A good friend of mine was recently cleaning her toilet and mixed cleanser with toilet cleaner. The fumes from the detergents combined, creating a toxic mist that caused her to become unconscious. She fell, hitting her head on the bathtub so hard, she died.

Thinking back on this, I believe we should have elaborated on the story, and better yet, not killed our heroine. A better ending would have been:

She fell, hit her head on the bathtub, and become unconscious- continually breathing the toxic fumes.

Fortunately, her small child saved her life. When her four year-old son found his mother non-responsive on the bathroom floor, he called 911. The paramedics arrived, rescued her from the bathroom fumes, and she lived.

Yes, I think that is a much better ending. Next time you receive an urban legend email and you think, “who WRITES this stuff?” The answer, people like us. OK, I admit it; we are frickin dorks.