Million Dollar Neighborhood - Episode 5 "Buried Treasure"

Christella Morris is a blogger, social media expert and marketing executive who recently spent the summer filming a reality television show with her partner and two sons, along with 99 other families in her community. You can watch Million Dollar Neighbourhood, Season 2, airing on OWN Canada Sundays at 8pm EST. For more information about Christella, visit her blog at http://www.crawltheline.com

Episode #5, Season 2: Million Dollar Neighborhood "Buried Treasure" features 100 Families of Bowmanville, Ontario as they try to meet the financial challenges set upon them by financial experts. To earn or save $100,000 every week for ten weeks in order to increase their cumulative net worth by $1,000,000! My family was lucky enough to participate in this season and every week as the show airs I will provide you with insight into our feelings around each challenge, getting to know some of the more popular or lesser-known individuals on the show, and even maybe some extras!

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This week I was lucky enough to get to watch the show with two of my favourite hunks, Rodney Foster and Brent McGill. You might know them as THE WINNERS OF THIS CHALLENGE! YAY! 

The best part about watching the episode with them tonight was that Rodney had yet to tell his two younger kids that they had been nominated, let alone that they had won, so when the final moments of the show came and they announced the nominees the kids were adorably shocked! They kept saying "Oh you didn't win! You would've told us!" and lo and behold, Rodney and Brent DID win the challenge this week and it was awesome seeing their kids reactions!

Although our family wasn't heavily featured this week, we did get to see quite a few shots of my handsome Hubs! This week's challenge involved searching our homes, cars and pockets for "buried treasure" aka loose change, following up with a "second look" at our tax returns, or in our case a "first look!" and the families participated in a skills exchange! Even though there was no event to market the week was as crazy busy as ever and we all put the pedal to the metal to make it happen! 

I couldn't believe HOW MUCH MONEY in loose change everyone had laying around! I tend to empty out my wallet every few weeks and toss all the small change (I guess we're saying bye bye to pennies anyhow, so this won't matter!) into a container. After it looks like there's enough to buy dinner we usually count it and roll it and bring it into the bank. That particular week we didn't have an excessive amount of change because we'd used most of it only weeks before during the Yard Sale Challenge to ensure we had enough to make change for everyone who bought stuff that day. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess! Ha!

As far as the taxes go, I hadn't submitted any tax returns for FIVE YEARS (holy crap, eh?) I thought I was the only procrastinator that bad on earth, but apparently not as quite a few folks on the show were in the same or worse situation. We knew we were getting about $3-4K back from my returns, since we'd had the two kids and I'd been in school, but the total of $7K was a big shock! In the end it was mostly due to my government allowances for Cash and Carter and the majority of it went directly onto my school debt, as it was said on the show, so what seems like a bit of a windfall wasn't really anything at all. Oh well. 

That being said... Although I'd never recommend not doing your taxes annually, looking back for me it was good because my return wasn't going to change regardless and had I gotten $800-1000 back each year I would've blown it on stupid things instead of using it to pay down my debt. This way I at least had the opportunity to pay down a major chunk of my student loans that were in serious arrears and let that be one thing that we didn't have to worry about so much anymore! Lesson here? Do your taxes on time. Unless you're like me and will blow it all on something dumb and are certain you're getting a return. Otherwise, do. your. taxes. on. time!

SO MANY people put forth an AMAZING contribution this week! Watching the McMaster/McCreary family and little Mahdi teach the Laverty/Pigeau boys some sign language was amazing! I know that was a moment that each of those boys holds very dear to their hearts and I'm so glad it was included in the final cut. Most of the time we see boys that age being very rough & tumble and it was great seeing the sweeter side! (It gives me hope for my own boys!) Every week the McCreary/McMaster family put forth an AMAZING effort and they are truly an awe inspiring family, my only wish is that we could see more of them!

Once again the Field brothers were up to their shenanigans! Both Jackson and Spenser spent a lot of time this week (and all of the weeks, really) helping fellow MDNers out with whatever they needed. For two single, fun loving guys, these two have a lot of heart and depth and I'm glad it's showing! Hey Jackson, your depth is showing! ;) 

Rodney and Brent, aside from being the GRAND CHAMPIOOONNNNNNNSSSS this week spent EVERY week from the car challenge on hauling junk all over Bowmanville! They still, to this day, will pick up any junk you've got. I can't wait to see what they do with all of their junk-cash earnings! 

I also have to say that I am SO proud of Rodney for participating in this show. Production did a great job of finding several gay families to represent the Bowmanville community and create a sense of it's diversity and for that I'm very happy. Although it's fairly rural, it's still linked to a very large metropolitan core and all of that multi-culturalism and diversity trickles down into this area too. I don't think I could live somewhere that wasn't accepting and tolerant and Bowmanville has proven to be a community that shines with it's diversity!

Although Rodney was previously married to a woman and has had three beautiful children, he showed the strength and courage to step out of the somewhat confining regime that everyday life had given him and truly become the person he is. He and Brent have a beautiful and loving family and he's worked very hard to maintain a very strong relationship with his children, who adore him, throughout all of the changes in his life. 

Sometimes when we think of what it means to be a gay person we see the people only as "gay". Brent and Rodney (and Connie and Ann, for that matter!) are such beautiful examples of people who are gay but don't allow that one trait to define them. They live in a small community, have families and regular jobs and live their lives just as any other person does. They have lovely characteristics, morals and senses of community and are some of the most generous, caring individuals I have met in this town!

One of the things I was most cautiously aware of when moving out here from the city was how small town life would affect the way our children see the world. I grew up in a small(er) town and sometimes with small towns come small minds. Meeting all of these diverse, giving and warm people has cemented the fact, in my heart, that Bowmanville is a beautiful, historic and warm community that opens its arms and hearts to anyone who enters it. If I take anything away from the show up until this point, it is how grateful I am to have been exposed (en masse) to such amazing people and such an amazing community. I'm no longer "the girl from Toronto living in Bowmanville" I'm a proud Bowmanvillain! Bowmanvillian? Bowmanvillite?

Sigh. I'm just proud to live here. :)

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stay tuned for next week's episode and recap! same time, same channel, same blog!
want to catch more? I live tweet the episode every Sunday at 8pm! follow @christellasays
or hashtag #MDNtv on Twitter