Spaghetti and Meatballs

Today I did absolutely nothing. After not getting home until around 2 in the morning, I was still sleeping at 10:30am when Marshall called and woke me up. I finally made it from the bed to the couch where I laid around in my PJs all freaking day long. Being too exhausted to go anywhere to get anything and not really feeling like cooking, I rummaged through our pantry to see what I could possibly eat. I settled on spaghetti and meatballs as it was quick and easy. I felt like a kid again eating it, but I have to admit it was just as good as it was when I was back then. I have to thank Marshall as he was the one that purchased them. I even topped it all off by making myself a bowl of ice cream for desert.

After lunch I did manage to sort through some paperwork in the office and began filing it away, but I wasn't even motivated enough to finish it all. I started watching the Panther game, but dozed off in the middle of it until Marshall called me again. He was on the hunt for our nephew Robi's Christmas gift. We had decided he was in desperate need of a suitcase, especially since he would be graduating college in May. Marshall went several place looking for the perfect one for Robi until he finally found a hard blue one that he thought Robi might would like. Marshall then went over to his parents' house to do his laundry and take Robi his suitcase. Still being lazy I heated up some queso dip and ate it with tostitdos for dunner. I made some hot chocolate with marshmellows and curled up for the evening. JoJo found a marshmellow that had made its way onto the floor and she thought it was the best treat she had ever had. I spent the rest of the evening curled up on the couch in front of the fireplace writing and then watching Dexter. It was definitely one of those do nothing, lazy kind of days. I don't know why but the whole day I kept thinking about the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Perhaps it was my spaghetti and meatballs lunch, but I almost even broke out the movie and watched it. It would have been a perfect movie to watch on this lazy, lonely Sunday.

Family Christmas

 I met my Mom this morning at Target to do a bit of Christmas shopping as I had printed off some coupons my Mom had emailed me. We stopped by the bank and got some quarters for our LCR gambling game tonight at Aunt Jo's and then went to On The Border for lunch. After lunch I went to Best Buy to pick up a gift for Marshall and then met back up with my Mom at Old Navy. I ended up finding a cute hat for Harper and some clothes for my Dad for his birthday in January.  After shopping, I went home and wrapped the presents and hung out with JoJo for the rest of the afternoon.

My Mom and Billy picked me up around 4:45pm so we could head to Goldsboro to Aunt's Jo's for our Family Christmas night. My cousins Cristal, Chuck, Parker, Candie, Brent, Ashley, Erika, Matilda, Amelia, Mason and Steve were all there and my Aunt Jo and Uncle Brooks. Brandy was missing this year as she and her fiancé Bryce weren't returning from their trip to Costa Rica until 11pm tonight. We all enjoyed chatting, eating and drinking. Aunt Jo even bought some alcohol free wine so Uncle Brooks and I would have something to drink if we wanted it. My 14 year old cousin Ashley even tried it since she could. When Brent, Ashley and Billy left to go play basketball down at the park, the rest of us set up the LCR game and started playing. Everything except Steve and Chuck. Amelia won twice in a row and after that her brother Mason quit. By that time they were back from playing basketball, so Chuck, Billy and Ashley all joined the game. Amelia went on to win two more times. The other winners were Ashley, Erika, Matilda, Candie and myself.

We eventually gave up playing as most people had run out of quarters. The girls all changed into their pajamas and turned on the Kinect. They played skiing first then tennis and eventually boxing. Some of my other cousins ended up getting in on the Kinect fun. It was a lot of fun as always. A little bit before we left my cousin Brett showed up as he had just gotten off work at Andy's. I ate way too much food but I guess that's what the holidays are all about. The whole evening wasn't all fun and games though as we did learn that one of my older cousins had just recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. It appears as though they caught it fairly early, but they don't seem to know everything just yet. It scares me for my younger female cousins as they now have their maternal grandmother, maternal aunt and now mother that have all been diagnosed with breast cancer. Fortunately, they have all been successful so far with beating it but discovering it early has been key.

We finally left Aunt Jo's around midnight and headed home. I was so exhausted and couldn't wait to go to sleep. JoJo was glad to see that I finally made it back home and after a pee break she was anxious to jump in the bed and snuggle with me. It was a fun Family Christmas as always, but I wish Marshall, Brandy and Bryce could have been there too. It would have made it complete to have them there.

Lingerie Invitations

This morning I had a coffee date with Tina and baby Harper at Barnes and Nobles. Harper was her normal happy self and just smiled any time I talked to her. After coffee we decided to walk down to World Market and do a little stocking stuffer shopping. I was able to get everything I needed for Marshall's stocking from there. It was great! I highly recommend World Market for great stocking stuffers from candy to knick knacks.


After I said goodbye to them I went to Target to get Marshall's Christmas Eve gift - pajamas! It is a tradition in my family to open one gift on Christmas Eve and that gift is always pajamas! When I was a kid it was always Christmas pajamas but now it is really anything that falls in the pajama department. I also bought an outfit for the baby. I know Marshall will probably hate that I did, but after looking through all the baby stuff we had I realized we didn't even have a newborn outfit to bring the baby home from the hospital in. So I found this pretty cute little sweater outfit with matching hat and I got it. He at least needed something to come home in. I called my Dad while I was out and made plans to meet him for lunch at Island's - my treat. I figured it would be the only way he would agree to actually come out and eat and besides I would like a little company.

After lunch I continued my shopping, only this time for me. I went to Old Navy in search of some maternity exercise pants. I figured if I'm going to go to Zumba on a regular basis I'm gonna need some maternity exercise pants. I ended up getting a couple of other shirts too while I was there. I went home after that to work on Brandy's lingerie invitations. It took some time to get the template right for the invitation as I was doing them completely from scratch. After I printed all of them it took even longer to get the first sleeve done. But once I was done, I used that one as the template for all the rest. It still took most of the evening to make them all, but I was really happy with the finished product. Now I hope Brandy just likes them! Instead of mailing the ones for my family, I'm taking them with me to Goldsboro tomorrow to hand deliver them at our Family Christmas get together. Marshall worked until midnight, but I talked to him for a little bit when he got off since I was just then finishing up the invitations.

Dogs, Kids & Pizza

I went to Zumba again this morning, even though it was extremely hard on this cold dreary morning to get out of bed and go. I was, of course, glad I did once I got there. It was with Karson, of course. She seems to be the only instructor's classes I go to anymore. Since I was out and about I decided to go to Michael's afterwards and get some materials to make invitations for Brandy's lingerie party. I had found online last night on Pinterest some cute ideas. So, I decided to try to make the invitations completely from scratch. Wish me luck! I grabbed some soup from Panera on the way home as I didn't have long before I had to take both JoJo and Buster to the vet. I barely had time to shower after lunch before my Dad arrived with Buster in tow. Both dogs were due for all their shots and Buster was due for a physical. $610 later, we left the vet. I love my dogs, but man can they be expensive. Especially with the two surgeries JoJo has had in the past year this has been a very expensive vet year for us. When we were leaving the vet I ran into our friends Matt and Anna Maria and their 3 Great Danes. Yes three! How they afford to even feed those dogs I have no idea. But then again, Matt and Anna Maria have no children so I guess all their money goes to the dogs.

Back home I helped Dad apply online to some jobs and post an add on Craigslist for a roommate while Buster and JoJo played a bit. JoJo tired of playing pretty quickly though and Buster soon just wanted to hang out in the backyard. I think he misses the fenced in yard and his ability to stay out there an sun for as long as he wants. Shea came back over tonight to keep me company but this time she brought Tynik and his sister Niyah. Tynik is one of Shea's clients with Easter Seals. He is an awesome little boy and has come so far since Shea has been working with him. He had a major breakthrough not long ago when he sensed Marshall was upset about Nolan and came and gave him a hug and told him it was going to be okay. Before then Tynik had been very standoffish with men, including Marshall. He would sometimes say hi to Marshall but he had never hugged him. Women, however, the boy will hug and hug.

This was the first time I had met his little sister though as Shea doesn't usually have her. She was super cute. We made pizza for dinner while Niyah watched Spongebob and Tynik played games on Shea's laptop. We bribed them to eat all their pizza and we would give them a cookie. It worked pretty flawlessly as they both ate everything on their plates. As they sat and ate their cookies we turned on the X Factor results show. When Niyah was done with her cookie she came and sat down beside me on the couch and snuggled me. She posed for me to take a picture of her and all her beads in her hair (which Shea hated, by the way), but then she wanted to take a picture of me with my phone. She didn't do too bad for a 4 year old either. She dozed off a couple of times but was determined to fight her sleep for as long as she was at my house. She and I both were ecstatic to learn that Carly Rose, 5th Harmony and Tate are all in the finale! Yay! I love them all. It is going to be a great finale next week.

Girl Talk

Had another non-baby doctor's appointment today with the dermatologist. Just my yearly checkup to look at all my plethora of moles. Other than some on my stomach stretching with the bulge in my belly, they all looked fine. Since my appointment was first thing this morning, I was already out and about early and motivated to get some things done. I went everywhere looking for invitations for my cousin Brandy's lingerie party I'm throwing her to no avail. I was hoping to get the invitations in the mail before Christmas since the party was in mid January, but at this rate I don't know where I'm going to find any suitable ones to mail. So I went back home to meet with Dawn who was coming over. I think she was ready to get out of the house after her surgery so she decided to come see me. It was great visiting with her, as always. We extended our visit at On The Border for lunch. We talked about her frustrations over her surgeries and my mounting anxieties over my pregnancy. I showed her the dress I am supposed to wear to my cousin Brandy's wedding which is less than 3 months after my due date. Dawn just started laughing when she saw it. Yeah Brandy was definitely not thinking about me when she chose a short skin tight dress for her bridesmaids to wear. I am beyond myself as to how I'm going to fit into that thing. Every week I gain more weight. I know I've just now started being able to go back to Zumba but so far it isn't helping with the weight gain. I know I'm supposed to gain weight while I'm pregnant, I'm just trying to keep it to a manageable amount. Especially since I was already heavier when I got pregnant this time than I was with the last pregnancy. I had still about 7-10 pounds to lose from the first pregnancy when I got pregnant again. I guess 3 months of not being pregnant and going to Zumba for an hour twice a day just wasn't enough to lose all the weight. Perhaps another month and I would have, but I got pregnant and I was working 60+ hours a week so exercising was hard and limited. When Dawn and I got back to my house from lunch she mentioned her neighbor could embroider Nolan's stocking for us. I gladly sent it with her and also sent her with Nolan's weight pillow to see if her neighbor could add our last name to it as well. Dawn was very excited over the cheese ball I made for her and proclaimed she was not sharing any of it with her husband Eric. I know better though. She will eventually cave and let him have some.

I heard that Homeland's cast were nominated for SAG nominations as well as Claire Danes and Damian Lewis being nominated for personal ones. I can't say I'm surprised that the award nominations keep coming in for our show, especially in the writing and acting department. So I texted Claire and Morgan to congratulate them. They both texted back asking me how I was doing and how the baby was. Claire admitted she was feeling rather huge and ready to have her baby. With only about 10 days to go until her due date I'm sure she is anxious. She also reiterated again that she was looking forward to our little guys meeting next season. I certainly hope they are able to!

Shea came over after she got off work to keep me company. She knew Marshall was gone now and that I was probably spending too much time alone. We chatted, she vented about her girlfriend's kids while she drank wine, and I caught her up to date on all the family drama going around. It was nice to have someone other than Marshall to talk to about everything. An impartial party if you will. Not that my husband doesn't always take my side, but sometimes it is nice to just vent to your girlfriends. Shea caught up on X Factor from last week then we watched tonights episode. I can't believe the season is almost over! What on earth are we going to do until American Idol starts in January?

Cheese Ball

Since I had no appointments to attend to until this afternoon, I slept in until 11am. I had thought about going to Zumba this morning at 9, but when the time came I was just too tired to get my butt up out of bed and motivated to go. I finally managed to motivate around lunchtime as I had no choice but to make it to my 1:30pm hair appointment. Some days are harder than others to motivate and I've found now that I'm off work unless I have somewhere I have to be I can hardly get myself to get out of the house. Once I'm out I'm fairly productive though. For instance today, even though I didn't motivate until lunchtime once I went to my hair appointment I was ready to do something. So, I made a cheese ball for my friend Dawn. She had reconstructive surgery yesterday and she loved the cheese ball I made for our Christmas party so I thought I would make her one and take it to her when she felt up for it. Though it is a pretty easy thing to make, the cheese ball is a messy undertaking. Once it was done and sitting in the refrigerator firming up, I texted Dawn to see how she was. She admitted to being pretty sore still and tired so we made plans to get together tomorrow instead.

Now with nothing to do and nowhere to go I was once again unmotivated to find anything else to do. Instead, I spent the rest of the night hanging out with JoJo and watching TV. I did manage to motivate at one point to do some writing but when I hit a block, instead of trying to push through it I gave up and turned the TV back on. Other than writing my blog, I haven't written much else in the last 9 months so I guess it is going to take some time to get back into it. My mind still wonders pretty easily these days and I find I'm unfocused most of the time. It's a bit disheartening because I once was the type of writer that could lock myself in my room for 3 days and write 100 pages. I'm sure that will come back to me eventually, at least I hope it will. For now I just have to continue to take baby steps in trying to write something other than my feelings, thoughts on the day, expectations and struggles. I eventually gave in and sulked to my bedroom to watch some Dexter. No sooner had I laid down in bed then JoJo hopped up there and snuggled in with me to watch some TV. Dogs always seem to know how and when to make us feel better. Ever since Marshall has been gone she has taken to sleeping on his side of the bed when she normally doesn't sleep on the bed at all. While she might not spend all night there, she gets up there when I first go to bed and she always jumps up in bed in the morning before I get up. Usually, she hears my alarm go off and she immediately jumps in bed before I have a chance to get out. She never wants to miss her morning snuggle time and I certainly do appreciate it.

Teeth, Zumba & Sunsets

I figured since I will be starting biweekly doctor appointments the first week of January, I should probably use my free time now to get caught up on all the other doctor appointments I need to make. So today, I checked the dentist off my list. No cavities! It's always good to get good news from doctors, even if they are just dentists. Since I was down near my Mom's office for my dental cleaning, I figured I might as well meet her for lunch. Plus, I can always count on my Mom to be down with my Mexican food craving. I decided afterwards to keep the productivity going so I headed over to the salon and had my long overdue brows threaded. They will need to be done a couple of more times before the baby comes, but at least I will look decent for the holidays now.

But, the most exciting part of the day came at 4:30pm when I went to my first Zumba class in a very long while with my favorite instructor Karson. Working on Homeland and being pregnant did not allow for much time to go to Zumba classes. Plus, I didn't find an instructor in Charlotte that I just loved as much as Karson. While I did sneak in a class here and there on a random Saturday that I happened to be home in Wilmington, they were far too few of them to really count. I really was like a schoolgirl on my first day of class today. I was so excited to finally show up and was greeted by Karson with just as much excitement. She came running over when she saw me walk in the door and gave me a hug. She rubbed my belly and asked how everything was and how far along I was now. I think my story really affected her when she found out about it. I saw my friend Sonya at class as well. Sonya's husband Jim works with Marshall on Army Wives so she's all too familiar with the crazy film business. It was good to see her and chat even though we have stayed up with each other on Facebook while I've been gone. Perhaps the best part of Zumba though was when I got done and saw I had a text message from Marshall. There were no words, just a beautiful picture of the sunset in Charleston. It pretty much summed up my day. The only way to make the day better would have been if Marshall had been here instead of in Charleston prepping for Army Wives.

On the way home I called and talked to Marshall. He was about to grab dinner with his coworker JT and just the talk of dinner made me hungry. So I indulged a bit and swung through Chickfila and picked up dinner and vanilla shake before heading home. I spent the rest of the night watching Cake Boss and spoiling JoJo with doggie treats. She's the most amazing dog ever. She deserves to be spoiled every once in awhile. Besides, I want to give her all the attention I can now before a little person demands all my attention.