Engagement Photos

Chris and I had our engagement photo session on Wednesday. We went to our old stomping grounds…Tigard High School. Here’s just a sneak peak. :)

SwagBucks!

178 days ago…

Wow, has it really been 178 days since I last blogged? Holy crap! Where has the time gone? So many holidays to catch up on and talk about. I guess since I last blogged I turned 24 years old, celebrated my daughter’s 3rd Halloween, celebrated Thanksgiving, celebrated Christmas for the first time in 21 years with my Dad, rang in 2011 with my wonderful family, have been diagnosed with severe gallstones, and have also started a part time job since I left Farmers Insurance. Holy crap. That’s a lot of stuff. I don’t even know where to start really without going into too much detail! I really wanted to start this blog as a photo blog, but so much for that huh? Well, for the time being I will post a photo of something that I missed blogging about for now. I promise to update more often. Between the wedding planning, and moving here soon life is pretty crazy. I have engagement photos coming up this Wednesday! I am very excited! Stay tuned! :)

Happy Birthday to me! :) Peanut butter cheesecake thanks to The Cheesecake Factory!

Chris & Maya on Halloween. Tweedle Dum and Alice. :) (I was Tweedle Dee!)

Family Christmas Photo

Love.

Beach trip March 2011

Long time – No blog

I haven’t blogged in quite sometime, and there really is a lot to talk about now. First off…I WAS CHOSEN! Megan from IDKIWP called me two weeks ago and told me that my story was chosen for the next season of the show. I was floored! I had no idea that I would be chosen. I watched some past episodes and didn’t think that my story would make it – but it did! We set a date that an executive producer, camera man, and lights would come to my house to interview me, Chris, and my aunt for filming. We set the date for October 5th, 2010.

I spent most of the day/night on the 4th cleaning, and trying to figure out what I was going to wear, but also what Chris was going to wear. The next day on the 5th the crew showed up at my house bright and early at 8:30AM. Keren (the executive producer) was so sweet! When they got there they wanted to look over the apartment to find the 3 different places that they would want to shoot the scenes in. They said that mine would start around 10:00AM, so to go ahead and do anything that I still needed to. While they sat up, I finished my hair and make-up, and decided on what to wear — only to find out that what I had chosen was too light for the filming, and needed more color. Me? More color? Everything I own is black! After picking out a red top to wear, we were ready to go…or so we thought. We ended up changing the background of my scene about 3 times before we found the perfect set. At this point the butterflies started and I was nervous. I tried to stay as calm as possible. I downed 3 glasses of water just sitting there waiting for them to be ready.

11:00AM rolls around, and they are finally ready to film me. I start to panic. Afraid of messing something up – worried that I’ll forget or leave something out. Keren informed that there is no way that I could screw up. If I needed to re-word something, or say it again a bit more clear – that is perfectly fine. That’s the fun part of editing! As I sat there spilling my guts to these people I didn’t know, in front of a camera, super bright lights in my face – I was overwhelmed with emotions. Telling Maya’s story out loud, detail for detail I couldn’t hold anything back. Tears were forming when asked about my relationship with Chris and when asked what Maya means to me. 3 and a half hours later – I was finished.

After my set, we broke for lunch. We ordered pizza in, and set up for Chris’s scene. I sat back in the bedroom so it was quiet enough for the filming of Chris. Once they finished filming Chris, I went to pick Maya up from a friend of mine’s house that was kind enough to watch her.

When we got Maya back home, we changed her clothes so there was no characters and no logos. They filmed us (as a family) outside playing on our back porch, and then filmed us as we took a walk to the playground and played there for a little while.

When we came back home from the playground, it was time to get set up for my aunt Rayna (Maya was born in the backseat of her car and was named after her).  Rayna showed up and they were ready to film. Listening to my aunt tell these strangers how much I mean to her, and how much she loves me and Maya moved me to tears. I had to sit there as quiet as possible so nothing was heard.

Around 7:00PM that night we were completely finished with filming and everybody was out of my house around 7:30. It was an amazing experience and was also a bunch of fun. I can’t wait to see my episode. It is supposed to air on TLC in Spring/Summer of 2011.

TLC will be sending me a DVD of the finished episode for my own personal use. Chris and I are going to be having a viewing party at our home so any of our friends and family that would like to see it are more than welcome to come. :)

A Moment of Silence

I am proud to be an American. I want to thank those that are serving currently in the military for OUR freedom. I want to remember those that lost their lives that morning – not only in NYC, but also the pentagon, and the PA field. You will never be forgotten.

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melissabrowning.avon@gmail.com