I humbly submit that I have become an expert in lies and deception.
For weeks, I have been keeping a terrible, awful secret from James. You see, I made plans to bring Matthew to Dover for James' redeployment ceremony, and I "neglected" to tell James that he and I would be attending. It just slipped my mind ..... honestly ...... :-)
I basically had to weave a complex web of lies to achieve the desired surprise. (And, by the way, a whole lot of other people had to help me keep the image and/or be involved in the plans to keep it all a secret ..... thank you to those with tight lips!) The lies began with the buying of plane tickets (to Baltimore, not LA like I told James), and arranging to stay at Lisa and Bob Bell's home in Dover for the trip (not in the apartment in Glendora, like I told James). The real problem presented itself a few days ago when I learned that James would be leaving Dover on October 1st (tomorrow); however, knowing that the plane flight scheduled for Matt and I wouldn't be until October 2nd, I called James' command to let them in on the secret. They agreed to "arrange" that he couldn't leave Delaware until the day that I was scheduled to leave, but little did I know what a great job they would do in convoluting the plans! They gave him some crazy ridiculous story about how his flight *had* to be scheduled during the redeployment ceremony because it was the only flight to El Paso on that day and he *had* to fly during fiscal year 2009 for financing reasons. He was instructed to miss the flight (obviously) and reschedule after the ceremony. (His command also gave him a bunch of other problems during redeployment just to mess with him .... but I'll allow him the satisfaction of blogging about those frustrating experiences. And remember, Honey, that was all a concoction in the brains of LTC Devine and CW4 Alequine .... I had nothing to do with it!) In any case, he called me yesterday explaining the situation, and I intentionally made him feel guilty about not getting back home to Matt and I sooner, etc etc.
Me: "Do you really have to attend the redeployment ceremony? Wouldn't you rather take your scheduled flight during the ceremony and get back to Matt and me that much quicker?!"
James: "Honey, don't take this the wrong way, but there are other people coming to the ceremony, and I don't want to let them down since they are coming to see me."
Me: (innocently, but clearly fishing to see if James actually suspected that I would be there with Matt) "Oh really? Who's coming? Anyone I know?"
James: "Well, the Bell family, of course. No one else that I know of is supposed to be there."
Me: ::look of extreme relief as sweat rolls down my brow::
I laid it on thick - and I mean thick. Ultimately, he had no idea that Matt and I would be at the ceremony, and also had no idea that four of his other friends from the East Coast would come for the ceremony either. He appeared flabbergasted when he saw us - which was exactly the effect I had wanted! (By the way, the local media picked up on our unique story of two parents deployed at the same time with a young child at home; in fact, they read Matt's shirt about "Daddy's boots in Iraq" and "Mommy's boots in Afghanistan" and were thereby alerted to the situation. The media not only interviewed James and me incessantly, but they also filmed the moment of our reunion from every angle you could possibly imagine. So far I am not aware of any clips of us that survived the editing room floor, but judging from the sheer number of cameras in our faces all day, I imagine we'll find a few clips of ourselves on the net or local TV.)
After the ceremony, we went back to our friends' house for Capriotti's subs, drinks (with alcohol, of course), chocolate and vanilla cake, and casual conversation about everything from the paparazzi to the politics of the war on terror to the method to avoid the obligatory 10-pound weight gain during redeployment. James ended up going to sleep shortly after Matt, so the night was cut somewhat short, but it was a very pleasant few hours of rest and relaxation with family and friends. I think James would agree with me when I say that we hope to have more nights like these in the next month!!
Once again, these pictures are worth more than a thousand words....
