Sunday, February 8, 2009

Jon Gosselins Standing Ovation at Penn State, Will it Be Ok For The Hayes & Not The Gosselins?

Hello Gosselin fans! When your a parent to young children, most movies you see will be those of the kiddie kind. These past 2 weekends we have gone to 2 movies, one good, one not so much. The first, "Hotel For Dogs" I was dreading going to, and I was so surprised how much I enjoyed it. A movie that entertains both parents and kids is a huge plus for me. The second, "Coraline", was a huge let-down for me. Not only was this movie expensive (3-D Glasses add $3.50 to the already $10.00 admission). This movie was scary for young kids, boring & long for the adults and I feel bad to say I give it a thumbs down. Enjoy The Nightmare Before Christmas instead. The kids in the theater were so super fussy towards the end, it went downhill quick...

Jon Gosselins Standing Ovation at Penn State

Yesterday I received several excited e-mails talking about Jon's wonderful trip to Penn State. Two of My -emails, one from Andrew, the other from Amanda, both had different new goodies to get excited about. Please enjoy pieces of both their e-mails to me as well as their pictures that I made into a sideshow.

Amanda

The event began at 7 pm, so my roommate and I got there around 3:00 pm, just to make sure that we would get a good seat. After a few hours of waiting, we learned that the line stretched out the building and all the way down the street, and that there were about 800-1,000 people waiting. There were only 700 or so available seats so we were very glad that we got there early! They started to let people in and we were quick to take two seats very close to the front with a great view. He looked great - Just as cute in person as he is on the show! :-)

He began by answering the 10 "most frequently asked" questions.. i.e. Which of the kids are most like him, How he and Kate ever get alone time, etc. I already knew pretty much everything he was saying at this point because he and Kate answered these questions already on the show. He mentioned that he and Kate try spend some time together often and they like to watch Grey's Anatomy! He then started to talk about his life now, which I was really excited to hear about! He mentioned that they have a nanny that is NOT Jenny - she is Asian.. I think he said that she is from Taiwan.. he mentioned that she will not be shown on the show. He also said that they just signed on for Season Five (yay!) and that there are a lot of great things coming. He talked about their 2 new dogs - two German Shepherd puppies! A boy and a girl - the girl is named Nala and the boy is named Shoka. When asked about the names he said that the boy is named Shoka because when they were in Hawaii they met a very large Hawaiian security guard named Shoka and they thought it would be a fitting name for the dog who would grow to be over one hundred pounds. He talked about taking them to the vet and not knowing what to do with them at first!

Then he was asked questions about his ethnicity and being in an interracial relationship. What Jon was mainly saying was that he never really thought of himself as being in an interracial relationship until people started to label them as that because of the show. He said that he has only ever experienced discrimination in high school. He mentioned that he grew up in a very "white - Caucasian" environment and that he experienced his heritage through the food that he ate growing up. I really got the feeling that he was very proud of his heritage, but he mentioned that we should all be known for "who we are, not what we are". He then asked trivia questions for prizes.. he asked when the twins' birthday is and the sextuplets birth order and things like that. Then the audience had the opportunity to ask questions, which surprised me, because the advertisements had said that we weren't allowed to ask him anything. One thing that I remember him being asked was whether or not the twins are into boys yet or not.. he said that Cara has all guy friends and Mady teases her for it! He mentioned one specific boy that Cara is friends with that is a foot shorter than her, which made everyone laugh. The whole time he was joking around and laughing and he seemed like he was having a great time!

He is so nice and personable and hilarious! He was joking around with us, as we were all college students, about having fun and enjoying our twenties. After he spoke he mentioned that he would be signing things and everyone ran down to get their autographs! It was chaotic but I managed to get him to sign my Multiple Blessings book! I told him "Thank you" and he said "You're welcome!" and smiled! It was a great experience and it really just proved to me how great of a guy Jon is and how much he loves his family.


Andrew

Jon was quite entertaining and very laid back while answering questions from students ranging from his heritage to things that go on behind the scenes of the show. Jon mentioned that he had just recently signed on to do season 5 with TLC, so another year of J&K is on its way. He also mentioned that there was the optional 2 more years that they could do the show after that, but that it was up to them and the network to decide that when the time comes.

Among other things, another interesting note was Jon's response to a question about a possible trip overseas. One student asked if he had plans to travel to Korea in honor of his heritage. After stumbling a bit, Jon mentioned that they had definitely thought about it and that he knew if he was going to be taking a trip like that but that he was not allowed to talk about it. He mentioned that that was one of the things that was going to make Season 5 "so interesting." Anyway, Jon was very relaxed and quite entertaining throughout the event. However, the event quickly ended and was pretty chaotic when Jon told everyone that they could just come down and grab some of the free stuff that he brought with him to give away (sunglasses, t-shirts, photographs, etc.). This brought an onrush of about a billion love-struck coeds which quickly brought the event to an end. Jon spent 10 or 15 minutes signing autographs before being whisked away by his PR guy.

Thanks for being the positive blog out there regarding this family. I don't agree with everything about them lately, but I do think that they are really held over the fire way too often by people that are just jealous or just don't understand.



The Hayes Family Will Also Be A Weekly Series Soon

After reading this article from The Chicago Sun Times, I find out we will also be seeing the Hayes as a weekly show coming soon. I feel bad that I wasn't excited about it. Although it is truly heartbreaking to hear the story of their daughter and how wonderful this mother is taking care of her and raising such a cute family, I always just thought that their Documentary on TLC was enough. Does this family, despite its size also have a shot at being the next Gosselins or Roloffs? And for the trolls that went on and on about how great this family was, will them having a weekly series the same as the Gosselins make anyone change their tune? Will they too, be accused of exploiting their kids just because they are paying for college with this show? Only time will tell, but there will always and forever only be one Kate Gosselin..So far I don't think she has anything to worry about.

18 comments:

Nina Bell said...

Thank,

Great pictures and enjoyed reading these student's perspectives. Can't wait to see the puppies on the show.

Ann said...

Great info and photos, Babymama. My compliments to the two who sent the photos and emails of Jon's PSU visit.

OK, everyone say it with me now:

WE ARE ! !
PENN STATE ! !

dpc said...

Another season?!?! YESSSSS!!!!

Portia said...

Now I know why I like this family so much, anyone who watches Grey's Anatomy is ok by me! LOL

Anya@IW said...

Great job BabyMama. I love hearing these first-hand accounts.

Looks like the puppy episode is coming soon. From TLC's description of the 2/23 episode:

Now that the Gosselins live in a more spacious home, Jon and Kate have agreed that it's time to expand their already large family. To the delight of the Gosselin children, the whole family sets out to get two new puppies!

Anya@IW said...

WE ARE ! !
PENN STATE ! !

:-)
(I am the proud daughter of a PA native).

3KMOM said...

Babymama, awesome post! Totally psyched to hear a first hand account of how it went. I am so glad to hear there is another season coming as well.

Mom said...

Thanks Babymama!

Lesley said...

Sounds like a good time was had by all.

Realistically, Jon & Kate do not spend the majority of their time doing speaking engagements. They seem to be staggered enough that they are busy in spurts, then they have down time.

Nice post Baby Mama

CBB said...

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for posting video footage. The TLC website hasn't had new epsidoe since December and I have been going nuts trying to find them online. I can't ever get any of them to play on fancast or slidereel etc. so anyway, thanks a million, you just made my day!!!

The Travel Mom said...

CBB~I will eventually (once I ask for help from Nina) get them all on here at some point so that everyone can watch whatever epidose they want. If there is a particular one you want to see, let me know and I will just put it on a post like I did before. You will have to see it in three parts, but at least you will watch it! (lol)

Casey Lee said...

I really enjoyed reading the students perspectives. Jon sounds so down to earth. And thats so exciting about the season 5!

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for posting the emails of the penn state visit! Are the photos available to view outside of the slideshow? Unfortunately they move too fast for me to view and the transitions make me dizzy :(

Casey said...

Awesome post. I love hearing first hand accounts from people who interact with Jon & Kate. Reading about the Hayeses getting a weekly show got me thinking that I would love to see the Mathias quads (Super Quads) get a weekly show (or at least an updated documentary). I love those girls!

CBB said...

I would love to see "Soup & a Surprise" if at all possible. Thanks for offer!
I so love your blog!

Denise said...

No comments om tonight's show?

3KMOM said...

for anyone who is interested. here are 2 excerpts from their new book that has yet to be released "eight little faces"

http://www.zondervan.com/media/samples/pdf/0310318467_01_samptxt.pdf

http://www.zondervan.com/media/samples/pdf/0310318467_samptxt.pdf

The Travel Mom said...

Thank you 3KMOM! I am putting the links on today's post and review of todays show!