#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#
"Right on time! Thank God!" Katie squeals as Logan and I get out of the car and follow her up the sidewalk to her house. "Now, before you go in, I want you," She looks at me, "To close your eyes. I want this to be a surprise."
I smile as I do as I'm told. I've been waiting for this day for a long time! I'm sure Katie's done a wonderful job with the shower and I can't wait to see it! "Alright, step forward a little bit." She says as she guides me through the door. I walk a few more steps before she stops me. I hear some shuffling before she speaks again. "Alright, open."
I don't hesitate for a second after she says that. "Surprise!" I look around at my surroundings, trying to take everything in. There's at least thirty people here, some people I don’t even recognize. I scan over their faces, trying to find someone I know... I see Andrea, my old realtor, and the General's wife. "Now, I know you don't know a lot of these people, but they know you. They wanted to be here for the party. Some of them worked at the base and knew Nick very well, some of them are soldiers and are part of Logan's unit."
"I don’t even know what to say..."
"Well, go look around." Katie pushes Logan and I forward as I look around at the décor. Everything is pink, of course, but it has a certain modern feel to it. There's a long table up front with all kinds of goodies like cupcakes, cookies, cake pops, and even strawberry milk. Next to that, there's a centerpiece made of cupcakes designed to look like a dress with Julianna written in the center. After that, there's another long table with all kinds of presents. Logan's eyes light up as he sees a tower of diapers. "Now, that, I like." He says as everyone else laughs.
I come to the end of the array of tables as Katie waits at the end. "You did a fantastic job, girl! Thanks!" I hug her as she quickly pulls away, "You're welcome, but why don’t you open this..." She hands me a small box with a little pink bow. I pull the cover off and find a CD inside. On the cover it says, Julianna's Jams, with a picture of my sonogram underneath. "What 's this?"
"After you guys left the Doctor's office yesterday, I stopped back by and got a copy of your sonogram. So now, you can do this..." She puts the disk into a CD player and presses play. A loud heartbeat plays. Logan smiles, "You just thought of everything, didn’t you?"
"I'm good at what I do." She chuckles as she announces, "Let’s get this show on the road!" Everyone forms a line for the food as Katie places a piece of fabric over my head. I look down and see a sash, it reads Mommy-To-Be. I roll my eyes as she looks to Logan, "Now, I know Caroline pretty much forced you to come and I didn’t think you would want to hang out with a bunch of ladies all day, so..." The side door opens as a bunch of guys in army t-shirts come walking in. "I told the ladies to bring their husbands."
He shakes his head, "Katie, you're something else." He walks toward them as they salute him. "Hey, boss." They add as Katie pulls me away and ushers me to the front of the room. "This is your spot." I sit down in a huge, comfy, pink chair.
Everyone mingles with one another and soon, it's time for games. Honestly, I don’t know how Katie came up with all this, she had to spend a lot of time on it. We played bottle chugging, where everyone gets a bottle filled with water and whoever drinks the liquid the fastest, without cheating, gets a door prize. Then we played Play-Doh babies, birthday card time capsules, and worked a personalized crossword puzzle.
"Now, for the last game..." Katie announces standing beside me. "We're going to play Daddy Knows Best! Now, I'm going to sit Logan and Caroline back to back. I'm going to give Caroline a dry erase board and when I ask a question, she'll write her answer on there. Then I'll ask Logan the same question. We'll see how well Daddy knows Mommy! Let's see how many questions Logan gets right. In front of you, is a blank card, right your name and the amount of questions, out of four, you think Logan will get correct. Whoever gets the closest will win a prize." After they finish, she collects them all in a bucket and sits it up front.
"Alright, Logan, get up here." She adds and places two chairs back to back. She hands me the board and a marker as she starts with the first question. "Caroline, describe Logan in one word." I quickly scribble on the board as she turns to Logan. "What do you think her answer will be?" She asks as he hesitates...
"She says it all the time, strong-willed."
"Caroline?" Katie asks as I turn my board around. "Yeah, you got it!" Everyone claps as she reads the next question. "Logan, describe Caroline in one word." I think a moment before writing down my answer.
"Perfect." He adds as I grin and turn my board around. "Unbelievable." Katie mutters as I turn and give Logan a quick kiss before returning to my place.
Katie turns to everyone, "I really am trying to stump them... Uh, Logan, if Caroline could go anywhere she wanted, right now, where would she go and who would she take?" I scribble my answer down.
"That's easy, she would take me and we would go to the beach house."
I smirk as I turn around, revealing what I wrote. "I swear, this is the last question, there's no way he can remember this." Katie laughs, "When, where, and what time did you first see Caroline. Include the date." I didn’t hesitate with my answer as he replies.
"June 14th, 2011, it was a Thursday, I believe, and it was at the airport around noon."
"Caroline?" She reads what I wrote as she shakes her head. "Apparently Daddy knows Mommy really well." She adds as everyone laughs. We turn our chairs around as we prepare to open gifts.
"Nice job, Mrs. Cook." Logan mutters.
"Not too shabby, Mr. Cook."
I have to say, Katie did such a good job with the baby shower and Logan and I were so blessed to have so many people show up. We had so many wonderful friends and everything we received was a blessing in itself. We got bottles, bibs, pacifiers, a mini bath tub, diaper bag, all kinds of clothes, shoes, socks, diapers, and even a bassinet and swing.
The last thing I opened, did catch me by surprise, it was five large boxes, all from the same person... There was a note on top, it read:
Caroline and Logan,
I'm so sorry I couldn't be there, but I left my presents with Katie. I hope you like them, I can’t wait to see the nursery when I come back! I'm sure it'll be lovely.
Caroline, take good care of Julianna. Logan, take care of Caroline.
With Love,
Helen
Inside those five boxes was a crib, changing table, dresser, car seat, and stroller. It was the same ones that I had picked out in a magazine not long ago. The furniture was painted white and the car seat and stroller were in pink floral.
I was so grateful for these gifts and I wished that Helen and Alex could have stayed with us a little longer. To say the least, the baby shower was a huge success, I still couldn’t believe all the stuff we had gotten and I had to say, I don’t think Logan realized it until he was lugging it all up the stairs.
You're Still The One Page 15