Marshall got up before 6am to shower and get ready for work. After a very sleepless night in the hotel room, battling the air conditioner to get a comfortable temperature, I was anxious to get back to sleep once he left. And sleep I finally did, until 9:30am. It was later than I had intended to sleep in, but then again I don't really have a time table these days. After showering and getting dressed, I took JoJo out and then packed up some stuff to put in the car before heading to the set of Army Wives.
One of the actors, Sterling, was working this morning and Marshall wanted me to come out to see him since he asks Marshall all the time how I am doing. The set was much farther away than I had thought as it took me nearly 45 minutes to make it out there. But, once out there it was truly beautiful. They were filming at this plantation called Middleton Place. When I arrived out there they were filming on a bridge by a lake. It turned out to be a beautiful day with the high reaching nearly 80 degrees. Can you believe it is almost Christmas?! It sure didn't feel like December out here today. I saw Sterling and he gave me a big hug and then asked if he could touch my belly. He told me how happy he was and how much he's been praying for us and this baby. That was the sentiment I got from a bunch of people on set as well.
I hung around the set for a good bit since it was such a nice day outside and I wanted to make sure I said hello to everyone Marshall wanted me to. There were a lot of new faces on the Army Wives set this year, but I knew most of them from Wilmington. Eventually, I left as I still had some things I wanted to do in Charleston before I left to head back to Wilmington.
Unfortunately, I was only about 5 miles away from set when all those plans went right out the window with my flat tire. So I pulled into the first side road I could find and called AAA to come help me. Nearly 45 minutes later, they arrived to put my spare on for me and found the culprit of the flat tire - a nail! Well, there was certainly no way I was driving 3 hours on my spare tire home so I now had to find a new tire or see if the flat could be patched before I could head home. So, I drove back the 45 minutes to the hotel and picked up JoJo and we headed out to find a tire store. A few miles from the hotel I happened upon a Firestone and decided that was as good a place as any. A little over an hour later they had me a new tire put on as the flat was not able to be patched, of course. Now it was nearly 4pm and I was supposed to be home by 8pm for dinner and the X Factor finale with the girls. And I still hadn't had any lunch! Thank goodness I had those cookies in my car to munch on while I waited for the AAA guy to arrive.
On the way out of town, I stopped and grabbed a salad to go then called Marshall's parents to let them know I wouldn't be able to stop back by before I left. As it would happen, Robi and Marshall's mom had yet to make it back from Robi's physical therapy appointment so I didn't feel as bad for not making it back by to say goodbye. I finally got out of Charleston around 4:30pm to head home to Wilmington. Since Susan didn't mind JoJo coming over for X Factor night, I didn't bother going home first but just stopped in Leland at Susan's house when I rolled into town around 7:15pm. Mary Beth and her daughter Abby were already over there as well as Kelly. The only person missing was Shea who wouldn't be over until nearly 8pm when she dropped off her client. Abby loved JoJo and snuggled with her on the floor as we waited for dinner to be ready. Susan cooked a meal she had found on Pinterest - pot roast sliders, asparagus and homemade mac and cheese. It was all delicious and I don't even like asparagus but for some reason when Susan makes it I always like it.
So maybe I will let them do like a baby celebration at least. Something where we can all get together and eat some cake and celebrate this baby. Not necessarily something that requires presents but something that will allow me to be excited and give this baby the same sort of excitement and party as Nolan was given. I know Marshall has been anti getting anything for the baby, but really is that going to make it any easier if we end up losing him? No, the answer is no. We already have a room full of baby stuff, what's one or two more things for a baby? My feeling is that I'm already attached to this baby. Shower or no shower. I am still going to be devastated if things go wrong this time. Perhaps even more devastated, if that is even possible.
After dinner, Mary Beth and Abby left so Susan let her dog Sailor out since she no longer had to worry about him slobbering on Abby's school uniform. Sailor is a black lab and while he is so sweet, he is so slobbery! We had to keep putting him and JoJo in time out from each other though because they kept wanting to play in the living room and Sailor's tail was knocking the tree so hard we were afraid he was going to break something. It was a great X Factor finale and I have to say, it could easily be anybody's win tomorrow night. It will be interesting to see what the outcome is. As soon as the show was over I grabbed my stuff, JoJo and the buckeyes Susan had just made for me and headed home. I was pretty tired from the excitement of the day and the drive and knew if I didn't get home soon, JoJo and I would be spending the night with Susan.
