lifetime original series.

well, we were on national tv tonight. 

it was somewhat anti-climactic. 

when they finished filming us, they told us our clip would probably be on June 5th. 

we never heard anything else. then someone text me tonight and said "i'm watching you guys right now!" total bummer. i was hoping to write on here and inform you when it'd be on, and be able to tell my friends. 

nevertheless, it was really cute. they did such a good job. I even teared up, and i hadn't cried the actual day it all happened, haha. 

so, jon decided that he wanted to surprise his dad at a harley dealership. they're both really into motorcycles, so he thought it'd be really special to do that. i don't really know anything motorcycle, but i knew that idea was great, and it was even more special that it was jon's idea. 

so on April 11th and 12th, Jon and I hung out just the two of us. no one really knew that he was home, and his entire family especially didn't know. his mom and brother did a good job at keeping it secret. john and kathy got into town late on April 12th. the show had flown the two of them out here, reserved them a rental car, and reserved hotel in oceanside, so they drove up and crashed in their room. 

april 13th, kelly, the producer, calls us early in the morning to ask if Jonathan has his uniform ready. uh, what? we forgot that we had decided on that uniform. whoops! so we took it to the tailor the second they opened and paid extra for it to be done in two hours. we picked it up at noon, went home and got ready, and then left for the surprise at 1. 

jon and i were both a nervous wreck!! 

we got to the harley dealership at about 1:30 and planned the whole surprise. then we started filming. we filmed for about 1.5 hours there. they didn't show any of that on the episode, which i was glad about. i felt like the biggest tool in front of the cameras. 

then, i left to pick up john and kathy. ummm, talk about anxiety! i had to pretend nothing was up. kathy knew we were surprising john that day, but she didn't know how or when. john started asking me questions on the way to the dealership like "did they have you sign a waiver?" and "what is the title of this show?" and i just had to brush him off! 

he was probably like "ugh, my daughter in law is such a snob."

when we got to the dealership, they mic'd all three of us up. then, we got back in the car and drove up to the dealership again to make it seem like it was the first time on camera. so when you watch the show and see us pull up to harley, that was the second time:) (third time for me, since i'd been there already with jonathan!)

i had to pretend it was the first time meeting everyone at harley, because john didn't know i'd already filmed there that day. it was crazy. i was such the ball of nerves. 

we walked around the dealership for awhile, looking at motorcycles and talking about them.

one of the guys, mike, that was helping us looked a little bit like jonathan; kind of short and stocky. mike was actually a former marine with 3/5, which was cool. he has dark hair, you'll see him on the show. he came up and talked to john about the motorcycles before asking if he wanted to test drive one. john didn't know they were going to let him ride one, but he was hoping they would, so he said yes! and things fell into place. mike told john that someone would bring a bike out for him to ride, and that he(mike) was going to go in the back to get all suited up. he said that john could follow the camera van, and that he would just drive behind john as a liability.  john didn't ask any questions. so mike went out back, and told jonathan that everything was ready!!!! 

 jon out back, waiting for us to tell him its time to go!

jonathan riding behind his unsuspecting dad :)

they brought a bike out for john, and then jonathan drove around the dealership and started driving behind john. they drove around the block for a short period of time, though it seemed really long while we were all waiting for them. all of the employees came out of harley and were all waiting for the two boys to get back! it was so cute! 

 

scary and exciting waiting for them to arrive!!!

so john drove up and pulled in front of me. i was in charge of saying the punch line for the whole surprise. they didn't tell me that until john and jonathan were gone. i could have been going over what i was going to say!!! 

anyway, john pulls up and i start asking him how his ride was and if he liked the bike and if jonathan would like it etc etc etc, while jonathan is getting off the bike behind john and SLOWLY taking off his glovessss and unbuckling his helmettttt and just taking his time. finally, when it looked like jonathan was ready, i said to john "why don't you turn around and see who your escort was?" so john turned, and jonathan took off his helmet.  

it was so cute. john said that when i told him to turn around, it registered before he saw him. he was still SO surprised that jonathan was home already! the whole weekend, john dad kept telling us how happy he was and thanking us for surprising him. he also said (on camera) that i'm too good and keeping secrets, but i didn't take it to heart. 

we had a good day wednesday. jonathan and i got to sleep at the hotel with john and kathy, which was fun. we went out and walked around the beach in oceanside. i didn't think i liked oceanside, but this area was actually nice! then on thursday morning, April 14th, we went to a condo for more interviews. they interviewed me, kathy, jonathan, john, and then john and jonathan together. it took so long!!! about 4 hours. then we were DONE! 

the people working on the show were so much fun, and had such energy!

Jon Surprises His Dad for an Episode of the TV Show "Coming Home" from Double Scoop Photography on Vimeo.

Melodee wrote about the homecoming here and the surprise here.

it was such a fun experience! it was crazy watching the show and seeing how much they didn't put on there. hours and hours of filming for five minutes of air time! i guess that's how it goes. 

i'm sorry i couldn't tell you sooner when it'd be on, but watch it tomorrow (monday!) here! it's episode 12, "three cheers for dad". 

or watch it on hulu here.

by the way, no, jonathan didn't get a motorcycle out of it, but the four of us did get free harley swag. ha!

homecoming.

here we go.

this was my life in the days leading up to Jon's arrival.

7 days before reuniting with jon. 

Amanda Marie and I made a welcome home banner. 

this was a king sized duvet cover that i cut and sewed smaller. amanda used her pretty handwriting and then we used yarn to stitch the letters in.

the tape on the left is to show how large the banner is! 

 

 6 days before. 

shopped for and picked out an outfit to wear when picking him up. something that hopefully wouldn't date the photos too much, something cute but doesn't make me look 12. breezy in case its hot, but still modest. 

ugh, it sounds as hard as it was to find. but i found it, thanks to my darling friend, jenni hens.

5 days before.

one thing i liked about having jon away: i could do anything to the house that i wanted.

i knew that was going to change when he got back. 

so i celebrated by painting the front door.

  4 days before. 

i hung jon's signs!!!!!!!! that way, the whole neighborhood could celebrate with me!

the last two (seven month old) jr mints tasted better than the first two fresh ones!

2 days before. finished painting the door, and cleaned the whole house.

1 day. 1 day before. the DAY before he got back.

 cleaned our car, to make him think it was that clean the whole time he was gone. 

freaked out, freaked out, freaked out.

and failed an accounting exam because i was too busy freaking out to study.

then the day finally came.
after 209 lonely days apart.

April 10, 2011.

The day i had been waiting for since we found out he was deploying, over a year ago.

on sunday, i woke up anxious and panicky. 

i text my favorite girlfriend from church to tell her i couldn't come because i was too....just too.

she said that she thought coming to church would help, so....reluctantly, i went. 

she was right, it did help.

after church, i went and visited with the Vigil's in Carlsbad. 

they are our biggest fans, they're so so good to us.

they helped me calm down and made me feel a lot better.

then i met up with AMANDA.

jon was supposed to get home at 3:50 pm. his flight got delayed, so we did what anyone else would do. ate mcdonald's and chocolate. 

and, as you can imagine, we regretted it soon after.

greasy mcdonald's food, soda+caffeine, sugar+chocolate mixed with anxiety isn't good for the belly. plus, we had driven off base to find a pf changs to fix our addiction to their dessert shots, so we were about 30 minutes from where we were supposed to pick jon up and it was getting REALLY close to that time. so, our nerves were through the roof.

 then, i got this alert. 

(the timing was a little off)

and that did it for me. we really needed to hurry. so we sped back up to camp pendleton!

 and once we got there, we realized that we hadn't written on the windows!

my phone was blowing up with texts from jon saying he was on base and that he would be there soon and that he was nervous and couldn't wait to see me, etc etc etc...and the producer was calling me over and over asking me where i was because we needed to get our microphones on and everything and i hadn't put any lipstick on, and i hadn't written on the windows yet and ahh! it was a lot!

after writing on the car, we ran over to the parade deck, met with jon's family, got our microphones put on, and pushed in front of the cameras. it seemed like ten hours, but i think it was actually ten minutes before the motorcycles pulled in, followed by the big white buses that me and all the families had been dreaming about for seven months. 

they all parked, and i looked in the third bus and saw a tiny little hand, waving at me out the window about six rows back. i waved back and when i couldn't handle it any longer, i ran to the bus that jon was in and he jumped out and ran to me and we hugged the best hug i've had, ever. and hugged and hugged. he was squeezing me so tight. then we looked at each other, i took off his cover and his shades and looked at that cute leathery, clean shaven face and relief washed over me. finally, my boy was home from war, safe and sound. and it wasn't a dream, it was for real. he looked cuter than i'd ever seen him look.

 he was sooo happy to be hanging out with his favorite twins again!

 this is the photo that i sent out to my family, letting them know that he was home.

my car, on the way to dinner.

we all ate at the California Pizza Kitchen in La Jolla afterwards, and this was our view as we left the restaurant. 

the beautiful San Diego Temple. 

Welcome Home, Jon from Double Scoop Photography on Vimeo.

video from my amazing photographer. 

Double Scoop Photography.

coming home. pt 1.

jon and I are going to be on tv.

you read that right. 

a little snippet of our story is going to be on the show 

'Coming Home'.

ever heard of it?

the first season started a couple months ago, 

while jon was still away.

i'd watch it every monday. bawling my eyes out. 

on march 7, i was watching the previous nights episode online, and saw that they were looking for more stories to feature...

i thought to myself hey, why not? and sent them our story. 

march 9th, they responded. 

Alexandra,

Thank you for writing to us.  Do you know the window for your husband's return?  Where in CA are you stationed? What is his unit?

All the best to you and your family.  Thank you for your service.

we wrote back and forth, and on march 14th, she sent me a questionnaire to fill out. 

i was starting to get a little bit worried.

for 6 months, jon and i had planned on having just the two of us at his homecoming, so we could hug and kiss and talk and just look at each other. so we could get reacquainted and catch up on lost time. it was going to be a romantic reunion, just husband and wife after a long 7 months, not having to worry about anyone but us at that moment.

would having a camera crew there ruin it? would they be pushy? would it be awkward? 

i had no idea what to think.

a couple days later, march 16th, i filled out the questionnaire and returned it. 

the plan was based loosely around surprising his dad. 

well, they liked that idea. 

she emailed me back promptly, 

and asked for a few photos of jon and i. 

luckily, we aren't hideous. 

she called me. 

she asked if we wanted to be on the show. 

i told her i'd think about it, this was a lot right now, 

and i had to wait until jon called me so that we could discuss. 

i had signed us up without even thinking very much about it. i had no idea that this would actually be something that we could do. it didn't seem like they would ever choose us. jon and i hadn't even talked that seriously about it. jon had never seen the show.

when he called me that night, he said someone from camp pendleton had called him in afghanistan. (umm....where was that number when i had something to talk to him about??)

they were encouraging him to do it. they wanted someone on the show to give the marine corps a good name. he told them he wasn't sure if we were going to. so we talked about it a little bit. i told him more about the show, and told him about a father/son reunion they had on the last weeks episode. we were both silent for a minute. then, jon said he wanted to do it. 

so i called the producer. 

i told her i was nervous and wanted to know all of the details. 

she offered to go to coffee and discuss all of this. 

so on March 29th, i met with her and decided that we would definitely do the show.

then i REALLY started to get excited. and. um. NERVOUS.

i called john (jonathan's father) asap. just to get it over with. 

"hi."

"hi..."

"so....someone nominated us to be on a military documentary. the show contacted me and asked if you and i wanted to be on it. they're looking for a military family to feature. they want to fly you out here for jon's homecoming. and want to interview you. what do you think?"

"of course. i'll be there. i would love to see him come home."

luckily, he was somewhat busy, so the conversation was brief. 

everything was set up! the producer and i kept in really close contact. she got jon's step mom in on it as well. we definitely needed an insider to keep john preoccupied and not questioning too much. she got their plane tickets for tuesday night, april 12. jon was set to come home april 10, the sunday before. 

john was under the assumption that his son would be returning home april 15 or 16th.

jon's little brother, alex, actually told jon's little sister kaitlyn when exactly jon was supposed to come home.

kaitlyn told her dad, john, that jonathan was coming home sunday.

john told kaitlyn that she and alex were wrong.

WHEW!

april 9th.

this happened:

 the coming home crew came into my house, 

and exploded their stuff all over my living room/everywhere.

 moved things around and added cute drapery...

and interviewed the S out of me. 

my, my, my. it was quite the experience.

i know i sounded like a total tool talking. 

i'm so nervous/embarassed to watch it.

the camera guy was probably 50 years old. skinny. 

known for wearing stripes. very funny.

he used powder to de-shine my face and burt's bee's lip balm to calm my fly-aways. 

as he was taming the fly-aways, he said,

"oh come here....just one hair...oh, now his friend needs to be fixed....come on. ugh, these guys are trying to get their own show."

too funny. 

while i was sitting on that chair, i was trying to hard not to fidget. 

i kept moving my feet and didn't even notice.

the sound guy from behind me,

"is she moving her feet?"

producer/interviewer,

"yes. she is.

alexandra, can you not move your feet around?"

they were really, really sweet about everything, 

but it was nerve racking. 

they interviewed me for about an hour. then tranique came over, and we made brownies and talked while they were filming us hanging out. that was the best part because tranique has been on camera a lot and totally kept the conversation flowing and made me feel a lot less awkward.

it was such a fun day, the crew was the funniest. 

the next day was jon's homecoming.

ah, i could go on and on.

jon's mom and her family decided to come out for the homecoming, so i invited my sister, amanda, to come with me to ease the tension and keep me occupied. 

i was SO glad she was there. 

we got to camp pendleton, um...a little late. 

the crew was waiting and strapped the microphones onto us quickly.

they filmed us talking about the deployment, the homecoming and everything else for the few minutes before jon got on base. it was so awkward just standing there talking to amanda, we are both very camera shy, but we got through it. 

then the moment came, where i was reunited with my lover. 

you can see the microphone thing on my back in this photo.

to be continued...

the surprise and post interviews...



also, lets celebrate me and the fact that this is my 300th post. 
thank you in advance. 


Double Scoop Photography.

sweet, sweet relief.

Double Scoop Photography.

finally.