Test and Movies

Ever since I got pregnant again my Mom has been wanting to do the string test again on me. I've been sort of hesitant to let her do it as I liked my last results that said we were having a boy and I didn't want her to get a different result and ruin our hopes before we found out. But, with the impending anatomy ultrasound right around the corner, I decided to let her do it since it was just the tow of us. Depending on what her results were would decide whether I would tell Marshall or not. He's having a hard enough time right now and the little hope that it might be another boy is what is keeping him afloat most days. But, tell him I would as my Mom got the exact results I did. Boy, Boy, Girl! Amazing! It's always said Boy, Girl for my whole life including when we did it when I was pregnant with Nolan and now it says two boys! I don't know how this thing works but for some reason it just does! At least, I hope it does. We will know soon enough.

My Mom gave me a DVD she had picked up for the baby. It was Where the Wild Things Are, one of my favorite books as a child. So we popped it into my computer and gave it a whirl. It was basically the same drawings from the book but with the words and someone speaking them, kind of like an audio book but with visual too. There were other stories on the DVD too, so I'm sure we will put it to good use one day.

Since Mom was in no hurry to head back to Wilmington we decided to go catch a movie before she left. With very little enticing in the theaters, we settled on The Campaign. It wasn't that great. Turns out they showed you all the funny parts in the trailer. I was disappointed. I thought with Zack and Will both in it it would surely be hysterical. Nope. Oh well. It was still a fun afternoon of popcorn and goodies and Mom time. Afterwards we headed back to the apartment so Mom could grab her stuff and head back to Wilmington.

Homeland Premiere Party

Mom and I spent the day shopping! Nothing like retail therapy to make you feel good. We hit up all the good spots too - Ikea and then Southpark. I saw lots of great boots but ended up opting to get some dress shoes instead as I needed some black heels for the premiere party tonight. After a long day of shopping we headed back to the apartment to get ready for the Premiere. They were holding the Premiere downtown at an old but elegant theater. We arrived in time to grab a drink and some snacks and mingle a bit. I introduced Mom to our next director, Guy, along with some other people she didn't meet last year and a few she did meet last year. Then we settled into our seats in the balcony to watch the show.

Michael Klick, our producer, said a few words first and then on to the premiere. I was actually excited to see it because I didn't work on the first episode this year. Some of it was filmed in Israel with Claire and the part that was in Charlotte I had taken off for as I wasn't yet ready to go back to work after Nolan's death. The show was really great as always and I was surprised to see that while I didn't work on it except for an additional scene here and there I still was given screen credit for the episode! After the show a bunch a people were sticking around for dancing and drinks, but we were hungry and not in any mood to dance so we left. We ended up back near my apartment at PF Chang's where we had dinner.

Cheesecake

It's Friday! Yay and my Mom is coming up today! Since Marshall couldn't be here for the premier party, I invited my Mom to come up and go to the Homeland premier with me. We were filming on stage today and I was thinking my Mom would get here before we wrapped, but we went so quickly that we had just wrapped when she drove up. I wasn't complaining though as I was glad to get out of there at a decent time. So Mom came in and hung out in my office while I finished up and then we left and went to my apartment where we dropped off her stuff. Since it was early and we both were hungry - the fruit on a stick that Vicki had brought around had long since left me - we decided to drive a couple of blocks over and eat at the Cheesecake Factory. We made sure to save room for dessert though and took them back with us to the apartment. It was nice having my Mom in Charlotte for a change and not having to spend the entire weekend by myself. We sat on the couch and watched a movie and ate our cheesecake. It was a great way to start the weekend.

Fish in a Glass Bowl

Today we were filming in the high rise Penthouse again. It is such a beautiful place, but I really don't think I would ever want to live in a Penthouse. It's a little creepy to me. All the glass and the views are great and all, but going up and down the elevator all the time would get old. Not to mention, I like having a yard and I know my dog enjoys the yard. I'm pretty sure a kid will enjoy the yard too. Plus, with a kid I would just be on pins and needles all the time in a Penthouse worried they would open a window or get too rambunctious on the patio. I just feel a bit like a fish in a glass bowl in a Penthouse with floor to ceiling windows. It's not like the buildings nearby aren't just as tall. Hell across the way we could see a topless woman in her hotel room, so you know people in that hotel room are spying on you in your Penthouse. Nope, I will stick to my little one story house on the ground with a yard. Maybe one day I will have a multi-storied house, but that would be the extent of it.

We had a cast read thru today for the next episode, unfortunately we also had some bad news given at the read thru. I already knew the news, but I could tell most of the cast did not. David, one of our actors, announced to everyone that he will not be joining us for season 3. He's such a sweet guy and I was really hoping the writers would change their minds, but alas they did not. It was very classy of him though the way he told everyone. He said he didn't want it to be the elephant in the living room everyone was afraid to talk about with him when they found out so he wanted to be the first to let everyone know. He then went on to say how great a show this has been and how much fun he has had to work on it. I'm sure this show has done great things for his career and I doubt seriously this will be the last we see of David. Still though, we you are on a TV show the cast and crew become a little family and it is always hard to see someone go no matter what the reason.

Emma

First day back at work after a four day weekend and I'm late! Well, technically I wasn't late. In fact, I was 10 minutes early to the crew parking lot. And there I stood for the next 30 minutes. Along with 8 other crew members. Fortunately, the ADs and director all knew we were there and that we were simply waiting on a van. Apparently they were short staffed this morning and traffic downtown was horrendous. I barely got to set and got all my stuff out before we started shooting!

We were working with Damian this morning and he was still glowing from his big win at the Emmy's. He had also brought along with him to work his precious Emmy, or as his children called it, his "Emma." His kids are so stinking cute. Of course they are British and I think all British children are adorable with their charming little accents. Damian was great though and I think because he had forgotten to mention the crew in his acceptance speech, he was trying to make up for it. He wanted to make sure everyone held the Emmy and took their picture with it and he made sure to tell everyone it was their win too. After all, we did win Best Drama and you don't get best drama without an awesome crew to help you.

It was a great first day back as first days go. I had new baby photos to show those who asked and everyone seemed pleased to hear that all was still well with the baby. I truly do think people are just as anxious for good news as we are. Nobody wants to see their friends endure what we had to go through, and certainly not twice.

14 1/2 weeks

We had our ultrasound this morning! Everything looked great. Doctor Wright said the baby looked healthy and everything was looking just as it should. I'm 14 weeks and 4 days. The baby's heartbeat was 149 and they estimated the baby weighed about 3 ounces. Tiny little thing but healthy! Our next ultrasound we will know the baby's sex!

Afterwards I had to travel back to Charlotte to work tomorrow. Long weekends at home always make the travel back extremely hard. At least I have new photos of my baby to look at! And I saw the infamous google maps car while stopped to fill up with gas. So that's how they get those pictures of our house.

Photo Shoot

This afternoon Marshall and I met my cousin Jay and his assistant Allan in downtown Wilmington for a little maternity photo shoot. We walked around the river walk for a bit before Jay picked a little place with foliage to photograph us. Although I'm grateful for him doing the pictures for us for free, I was hoping we actually would show some of where we live in the background. The river walk or the Cape Fear Bridge for instance. I know at some point he wants to do a shoot at the beach like we did last time, which will be great but we could have shown more of downtown this go round too. Oh well, the important part is that we are photographing the bump.

Afterwards, we met Susan and Stacey at Mixto on Water Street for dinner. It was my first time eating here and I have to say I was not impressed. It was nice to sit outside and have the river view, but the service was slow and the food wasn't all that good. The company on the other hand was excellent as always. We had some good laughs and enjoyed my last night in Wilmington for awhile. When we headed back home, my Dad met us at our house to visit with us for a bit as well. It was a great way to end a long weekend at home. Now if my nerves will just calm down about tomorrow. I don't care how great things seem to be going, I still get anxious right before a doctor's appointment. I guess I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm so prepared for bad news these days that I'm slow to get excited. Maybe soon that feeling will go away. Maybe once I start to feel the baby move. Or then again I could and most likely will feel this way for the entire pregnancy. It's going to be a very long and trying 9 months.

Circa

I went to bed pretty early last night and I slept in pretty late this morning. I was so exhausted and still feeling the effects of pregnancy fatigue. Buster kept me company in the bedroom this morning long after both Marshall and JoJo left me. Since he's not allowed on the bed, he got as close as he possibly could to me without being on the bed or under it. If he could have fit, he probably would have actually be under the bed.

Finally, hunger overcame me and I had to get out of bed and shower if I wanted anything to eat. I had thought that yesterday's meal at Flaming Amy's would have quenched my mexican craving, but it only subdued it slightly. So Marshall agreed to mexican again today. Los Olos it was then! It was good as always and I ate my weight in chips and salsa. Afterwards, we ran some errands around town before heading back home.

Since we had missed spending our anniversary together, we decided to have our anniversary dinner tonight at Circa downtown. While downtown we also walked around a bit looking for good spots to do a maternity shoot with Jay tomorrow. We didn't find any place we loved, but we did stumble upon this little serenity pond out front of this bank. It was lovely and peaceful amid the bustle of downtown so we walked around it a bit and enjoyed the serenity of it all.




Then we headed off for dinner. I had my favorite - Organic Greens Salad. This salad is so good I actually crave it. It's so good, Marshall even orders it. The key to it is the candied walnuts and the fried gorgonzola cheese. It is so unbelievably awesome. That wasn't all that we had of course, but it was probably my favorite part. The best thing was that we didn't have to pay for dinner! When Nolan died we had received some gift cards to Circa from a friend of ours and from the production I was working on at that time. Although we had eaten at Circa once since then, we still had a gift card left over so we used it. It turned out to be a perfect 3rd anniversary after all, even it it was a few days late.

When we got home we watched the Emmy's since Homeland was nominated and boy did we sweep the Emmy's! We won Best Writing, Best Drama, Best Lead Actor (Damian Lewis), Best Lead Actress (Claire Danes), Best Casting and Best Editing!

Home for the Emmy's

After only a few hours of sleep, I woke up, packed the car and headed home to Wilmington! I didn't want to waste any more of my four day weekend in Charlotte than I had to. Probably one of the biggest perks for the crew that is working on an Emmy nominated show is the three day weekend that we get because of the Emmy's! Since our show is nominated for best drama, all the main actors will be in LA for the Emmy's on Sunday which means we will have no cast to film with on Monday! Oh bummer. Mandatory paid day off for the crew! Yippie!

I arrived home just in time for lunch and I knew exactly what I wanted - pineapple jalapeno salsa from Flaming Amy's! Yum. I had been craving not only that but mexican food for some time so the nachos carnivore and salsa from Flaming Amy's would satisfy them both. Since I was also taking Tuesday off due to a doctor's appointment, I also had to meet Mike who would be filling in for me on Homeland on Tuesday to give him the script book. He agreed to meet us at Flaming Amy's which worked out great for both of us. We chatted briefly about the show and he seemed anxious to work on it again, especially now that it was an Emmy nominated show and I was glad to have someone qualified to fill in for me that I didn't have to worry about. It was a win, win all around.

Unfortunately, for JoJo our venture to Flaming Amy's meant she had to wear the dreaded cone of shame. Poor thing has been going round and round with allergies. We have her on a regimen of allergy shots currently and they seem to be getting to her now that the doses are getting more and more potent. To keep her from chewing her hair out and aggravating her skin, we have to keep her coned when we aren't around to watch her. Hopefully soon this will all be over. I know she is miserable and we are just as miserable having to watch her and take her back and forth to the vet. She has become a very high maintenance dog this past year or so and I hope this isn't what the rest of her life is going to be like. That won't be much fun for any of us. Our hope is that these allergy shots will at least make the problem more bearable for her so her quality of life will be good. Right now you can look at her and tell she is just miserable. Her skin is itchy, her hair is falling out and her eyes are blood shot. She isn't very perky and doesn't have much interest in playing fetch or any other games. About the only thing that does perk her up these days is a treat.

Baby Brain

I've been feeling more with this pregnancy the effects of "baby brain" than I did with the last. These days I feel as though I really just can't remember anything! I don't know if it is that I'm just focusing so much on paying attention at work that the other things in my day to day life go by the wayside or if I'm just still very unfocused due to the whole Nolan thing or what. Whatever it is, I am doing stupid things these days. I'm forgetting where I put my keys, if I took my prenatals, what time my call time is... you name it, I feel as though I'm forgetting it. Usually, I'm the one that remembers everything. There's this old wives tale I once heard that if you are having a girl you have baby brain symptoms more than if you are having a boy. Something about the increased levels of estrogen. I guess we will find out soon enough if that is indeed the case with me. I have to say I didn't feel all that forgetful last time, but I do feel  like I'm losing my mind already and I'm not even that far along yet!

Today we were filming downtown yet again so for lunch I joined the AD staff and Jen Martin and we went to this little tapas place down the street called Dandelion. It was delicious! We ordered just about everything on the menu to share between the six of us and I have to say we did a pretty good job. To make it even better, our 2nd AD Kim Kennedy picked up the bill for all of us! Such a sweet thing to do. Lunches like this make it really hard to go back to work, especially when it is Friday and your three day weekend is about to start!

Fortunately, we also were greeted with an ice cream truck on set this afternoon courtesy of the director. I settled for sorbet this time, which was great! Unfortunately, it was pretty late by the time we got off, so I decided to head back to the apartment to catch a few hours of shut eye and hit the road early in the morning. It may be a three day weekend for the rest of the crew, but for me it is a four day weekend! We have an ultrasound appointment on Tuesday so I get an extra day off! Can't wait!

Cake Pops & Emmy's

This morning when I walked into the office I was greeted with an Emmy. Unfortunately, it wasn't for me, but rather for our casting department. They had won the Emmy at the Technical Emmy's this past weekend in LA. So they decided they would bring the Emmy to our office so everyone could see it. We also just happened to be filming on stage today so not only did the office people get to see it but a lot of the crew did too. I met some of the casting people I did not know yet and then took a picture of their Emmy before heading to the stages for rehearsal. I was amazed when I picked it up at how heavy the Emmy actually was. It was also a lot larger than I had imagined. It is really great to work on a show that is winning such awards and hopefully this weekend we will pick up even more Emmy's at the televised show.

The rest of my day was pretty uneventful but busy! I was glad to be on stage though out of the rain and cold. But the highlight of my day came in the afternoon when the accounting PA brought me a cake pop she had made. I had seen a picture on instagram of a monster cake she made that was adorned with cake pops on top and I commented how yummy it all looked. So when she had some cake pops left, she brought me one! How sweet. And oh how yummy! I know that the odds of me developing gestational diabetes later in my pregnancy are high, so I'm going to enjoy eating this sugar now before I no longer can! Today Damian finally figured out I was pregnant. He came up to me and whispered in my ear, "are you pregnant?" When I told him I was, he gave me a hug and told me he was so happy to hear that and would be praying for me that everything went well this time.

3rd Anniversary

Today is Marshall and mine's 3rd wedding anniversary. It's amazing what has happened in 3 years. Not at all what we imagined, I know. I think it's probably safe to say that in only 3 years Marshall and I have been through "the worst" in a marriage. First there was Marshall's endocarditis which left him in the hospital for 5 days not knowing if he would have to have open heart surgery. Then there was our first miscarriage which ended in a D&C, which Marshall was out of town for so my Mom and my friend Tina accompanied me there for it. And of course, the worst of all - last March when we lost our son Nolan and had what was the absolute worst 48 hours of our lives. But, now we are pregnant again and hopeful that the 3rd time will be the charm. We still don't know what we are having yet, but so far the baby is healthy and the pregnancy is progressing as expected so that is really all we can hope for at this point. Here's hoping that the next 3 years are "the best" as I'm sure the birth of our first healthy baby can only be called one of the best years of our lives.

Unfortunately, our 3rd wedding anniversary wasn't spent together, but I will be home this weekend for a long weekend so we will celebrate then. Marshall requested I send him a picture of my baby bump to show Mike at work, so I did a little self portrait and sent him a quick sneak peak of the baby bump. I'm 13 1/2 weeks now. Hopefully, at our next ultrasound we will find out whether it is a boy or girl!

Hawthorne's Pizza

Last night was the premier of the TV show Revolution which is filming in Wilmington, NC right now. Many of my friends are working on the show and while I DVR'd it at home, I was unable to stay awake and watch it last night. I heard this morning that the ratings were good, so that is all that really matters. Eventually, I will watch the show and see what my friends have been up to. Even though yesterday was a short day, after a short weekend I was still exhausted. Waking up this morning to rain certainly didn't help my tiredness either. And of course we were filming outside in the rain first thing too. Fortunately, it went quick and we moved to our second location which was indoors and nearby one of my favorite pizza joints!

Today I had lunch with some of the guys (and gal) from work at Hawthorne's Pizza today as it was a walk from set. It was my usual lunch crowd of Rob and Adam, plus the props department of Jay, Brooklyn Mike and Ally. We caught a ride down there because it was raining but since it let up after we ate, we walked back. The pizza was as always, delicious. The company even better. It was a nice way to break up the work day.

It ended up being a somewhat short day for us, and by short I mean we finished in under 12 hours! That always makes for a good day. What was even better was I was off in time to drive back to my apartment and watch the So You Think You Can Dance Finale! The only thing that would have made it better is to have my gals and my husband here to watch it with me.

Knee Socks

This morning came really early today after such a late night on Friday. Fortunately, we were filming on stage today. I love when we film on stage. Things are just easier on stage. I started my morning by making myself a decaf coffee with the Keurig in the office. It was uneventful day for most of the day until Vikki our craft service girl came around in the afternoon with a tray of food and her jeans rolled up to her knees showing off her skull knee socks. I had to pull up my jeans and show her the knee socks I was wearing under my boots. When Tina had sent me a care package that included Nolan's nightlight, she has also sent me a collection of crazy zumba knee socks. It just so happened that today but Vikki and I both wore our socks on the same day. It was the highlight of my day to find someone else on set with crazy socks hidden (or not so hidden) under her jeans.

Panther Game

Today Marshall's friend Ed Bullock had gotten us free tickets for the Panther Game. Apparently, Ed's Dad has like 10 tickets scattered all over the stadium that he has for free since he had something to do with the building of the Panther stadium. So we were the lucky recipients of 2 of them today. They ended up being front row tickets in the end zone. They were awesome seats! We had so much and the Panthers won! Yeah! I'm so glad we were able to make it to this game and that the Panthers actually won. Marshall loves the Panthers and so it was a great day for him. We even saw our friend Kent who is the photographer on Homeland and happens to be the Panthers' official photographer too. He grabbed a picture of Marshall and me in our amazing seats.

We had to leave the game early because Marshall had to head back to Wilmington today as he's working on Revolution this week. It's going to be a long lonely week without him and the dogs!

Cravings

After getting in at and to bed at nearly 7am, the last thing I wanted to do today was get out of bed. I was so exhausted. The worst part about night shoots is that your whole weekend is wasted. I finally got up around noon just to not waste my entire day and to try to turn myself back around for an early call time on Monday. I went over to the house and helped Marsh do a little work on the house even though neither one of us really wanted to do anything today. We left early and headed back to Southpark. I was so tired I really didn't want to go anywhere for dinner, so we opted for heading downstairs and seeing what was in the shopping complex adjacent to my apartment. We settled on Firebirds Wood Fire Grill and it was really good. I had steak because I've been craving it for some reason with this pregnancy. I don't know why because I hardly ever eat steak any other time. I guess it's one of those pregnancy things. I normally don't have strange cravings. Instead I crave normal food, just not food I normally eat on a frequent basis. And when I crave them I really want them. I went through a phase early on with both pregnancies where I just wanted oranges or orange juice. Now I guess it's steak. We will see how long this craving goes on for.

Night Shoots

Since we had a late call yesterday and again today, I was able to go over to the NoDa house today with Marshall and help him with a few things. I didn't get much sleep since it was after 6am by the time I got to bed but at least it is Friday. I helped Marshall cut some boards for baseboards in the house. Then we walked up to Solstice Tavern and had lunch before I had to leave for work. The one great thing about this neighborhood is that there are so many restaurants and shops within walking distance. Hopefully that will be a selling point for when we put the house on the market.

Tonight we were back at Rural Hill for another night of filming. Another all night shoot! These kill a pregnant woman! Heck I don't like them when I'm not pregnant. We were filming on the road for some dusk shots and I noticed we were right beside a very old cemetery. On the gate was a sign that read "Closed at Dark." Hmmm. Who would want to go there at night? Seemed like an ironic sign to me, but then again we are out in the country. Maybe they had weird people wanting to come out there at night and have seances and whatnot. I hope this is our last night shoot for awhile, as this was really draining on me. I could hardly make it home in the morning and crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Rural Hill

Today we were in Rural Hill filming for the first time ever. We are going to be back out here the next couple of nights. We didn't come to work until 5:30pm, so I full expect for us to see the sun rise on the way home in the morning. I hate working all night shoots. Especially when I'm pregnant. I'm still very much in the fatigued part of pregnancy so tonight and tomorrow are going to especially challenging for me. Not to mention that it is cold! The best thing about tonight was that they ended up putting video village in the sprinter van first thing for the car work we were doing and they never took it out. At least I got to ride around in a heated van all night which was good and bad. While I was warm and comfy, it also became increasingly hard to stay awake as it got later and later. Eventually, I caved in and hit the craft service table for a sugar pick me up. What I found was a glow in the dark lollipop! Oh what fun Halloween candy is. At least it made the night a little more interesting walking around with a lollipop whose stick glowed in the dark.

Downtown Dish

Today we were filming downtown so I was able to once again go out to lunch with Rob and Adam to our little Italian place we like. After lunch we moved to our firehouse set where we filmed in the back parking lot. Out in back we found a huge caterpillar chilling out there. I guess it's that time of the year when you start seeing them out everywhere. I've noticed everyone around here putting those bands around their trees to keep the canker worms from getting up in their trees. Fall is definitely here now that is for sure! Despite our really warm days every now in then, there is a definite chill in the air most days.

Today's call time was 7:30am and so we got off around 8pm. Since we were filming downtown I got off in time to meet Marshall at Dish for dinner since he was in Noda working on the house. I had my favorite chicken and dumplings and it was awesome! It makes such a difference to be able to have dinner with my husband at night.

5:30pm call tomorrow. Oy vey!

9/11

Today is the infamous day - September 11th. The day America will always remember as the day the twin towers were hit. I feel sorry for the families that lost people that day. I don't know how they can ever move on and deal with their grief when every year on 9/11 they are forced to recount the senseless death of their loved ones by watching the horror played out again and again on the television and recounted in every newspaper and on every social media site there is. It's bad enough trying to just make it through every day without having to be constantly reminded of the loss you feel inside.

Today was also our first day back filming on Homeland. Fortunately for me we finished up filming at a church only a few miles from my apartment. Marshall and the dogs also got into town so I was able to have dinner with him after work. I was so glad to see them all. I had gotten used to seeing them all every day over the hiatus and I missed them terribly last night! So happy to have them here with me this week!