We’re leaving to go to Las Vegas for our 5th anniversary in 2 days. I wanted to get a dress. (Okay, another dress.) My goal was to get something empire waist so I can wear it for awhile, maybe even get a size or two larger. I was gonna get something with a high back to hide the back breakout. (The horrendous backne battle continues!)
But I left with my typical size 6 with straps that accentuate each humiliating little red bump. I couldn’t help it! I just figured it’d be the last size 6 for a llllooonnnggg time and I wanted a pretty-little-thing during my last days as a Pretty Young Thing. Yes, I know that’s a little concieted, but let me be a P.Y.T.! I’m gonna be a P.S.W. (Pregnant Swollen Woman) pretty soon.
Plus…It was only $29.99 at Target, so I didn’t even spend that much. A size 6 with justification….I’ll miss these days.
Posted in Uncategorized
I knew no one would be more excited than my sister. She’s been talking about it forever! She wanted me to be, as she put it, “The cute pregnant bridesmaid” in her wedding back in 2008. What?! No. I was gonna be slim at my sister’s wedding. I drank and danced, it was a great night!
Julie and I, 10-04-08
I wanted Julie and her husband Kevin to be there when we told Mom and when we told Dad. The original plan was to have Dad over at his cousin Teresa’s house. (Teresa is really cool. She and her husband and their kids recently moved near us.) But, Dad couldn’t come.
This was kind of a celebration for Kevin’s birthday too. I was working and called Grey and asked him to pick up a cookie cake. I wanted to have the cake say, “Happy Birthday Kevin, oh yeah, we’re having a baby.” Cute, fun, on a delicious cookie cake.
I really wanted to do this task myself. If I had had the time I would’ve gone to the cookie place at the mall with fresher cookies and spent more to make it look good. This was an important cookie.
But, Greyson had to take care of it because I was busy. So, he did it the man way, not the woman way. There was no way he was gonna go to the mall for a cookie. So I asked him to go to the grocery store and get one of their lesser quality cookie cakes. He didn’t want to go to that grocery store, so he went to the closest one and got whatever. This is the announcement cake done the “man way”. I couldn’t be upset because it was just really funny…..
So, I have Julie open the grocery bag. She sees the cake. She shouted, “I KNEW IT!” Hugs abound and soon we eat. Julie is a crier. I mean the time we went to see Titanic was epic. A half-hour after the movie in the car I would say “I’ll never let go Jack!” and she’d start crying again. TV shows, commercials for the Special Olympics…you name it…she cries. But, this time she only cried once.
We called my other grandparents and we put them on speaker phone. My Papa had been asking about a great-grandson since the day we got engaged. We laughed when he said in his deep, slow, southern drawl, “I knew Greyson had it in him!” Despite his irreverant, antiquated comments it was a wonderful sweet moment. My Grandma had such joy in her voice and that’s when Julie cried.
We called some cousins and friends before putting it on Facebook last night. There, everyone knows. It’s out. We enjoyed having our little secret. But, it was a relief to have it out.
Posted in Uncategorized
I wanted to tell Mom a special way. She could become a Grandma on her birthday! Greyson and I have been throwing around ideas for several weeks as to how to tell her. I wanted Mom, my sister Julie, my brother-in-law Kevin, Mom’s husband Jeff, and my step-siblings all together to tell them. Julie and Kevin couldn’t be there so we invited everyone else over for a cook-out and game night.
We play games. That’s what we do. Our Apples To Apples and Catch Phrase nights are epic. Beach vacations are late nights of great drinks and card games. But, today I had other motives of course.
Greyson tried to record it but the camera was acting up. Our little scheme went like this…. I had everyone sit around the table together. (Greyson was in the kitchen trying to be sneaky with the camera.) I said that because Mom and Jeff were turning 55 in October we should take a family trip together. (I had collected brochures from God-awful cheesy tourist spots when I was in South Carolina with Sara.) I started laying down brochures for the Dixie Stampede in Myrtle Beach, South of the Border etc. Jeff was thrilled with this idea. Bryce, my very hip step-brother was looking at me like I was insane.
But, then I said, “Mom, we have this thing on your actual birthday. Greyson and I will be there and we hope you will be there too.” I laid down the brochure for the Rex Birth Center. She looked up at me with teary eyes and the funny look she gets when she hears good news. She got up and hugged me, tight.
We called my Grandparents, her parents, and they were so excited. My Granddaddy said the news made his whole week. We called my Aunts and Uncles. My Aunt even said, “I was beginning to wonder if you knew how that happened.”
I showed her the ultrasound pictures and we all laughed and talked. We played a new game until I couldn’t stay awake any longer. I love my family. They are awesome.
Mom and I on the day she married Jeff 06-20-10.
Posted in Uncategorized
I had been thinking about how I would tell my male bosses I was knocked up. I was worried what their reaction would be to having me in the field with baby-on-board.
I decided the best course of action would be to first go to my female HR rep who just had a baby herself. She was very excited for us, and she was very helpful. She explained all the FMLA stuff for maternity leave. We discussed how I would do my job in the field once I got really big.
Okay, the big moment. I was telling the boss. I was done with my work that day and about to go. I went into his office and closed the door. I said, “I just spoke with HR about this and now I’m telling you. Well, you may have noticed I haven’t exactly been myself lately. There’s a reason, a good reason. I’m 12 weeks pregnant.”
There, it was out.
His reaction is more than I hoped for and then some. He smiled and said, “I was wondering when this was coming! Congratulations! I can’t imagine a better parents for this child than you and Greyson. He or she will be very loved.” (Greyson used to work there too, and he was Grey’s boss too. So, he knows us as a couple pretty well.)
This was more flattery than I was ready for. But, I was thrilled and happy to hear it. We discussed some logistics and I went away feeling a little lighter and a little more confident in working up to my maternity leave this fall.
Posted in Uncategorized
We went to the doctor today to get the latest. We heard the heartbeat and got the go-ahead and tell the world why I’m broken out and cranky. We decided this would be our “weekend-of-telling-everyone.”
The weekend got started on Tuesday. We didn’t mean for it to begin. But, I suffer from a chronic condition called Diarrhea of the Mouth and I had a flare up. In my defense, it’s a really cool story.
Okay, we have the world’s greatest neighbors. Four couples who make up our awesome group of dog-loving friends. We play trivia every Tuesday night. Our team name is
Cowbell. (If you understand why that’s funny, you get our humor.)
Erin and Mike are the fitness couple. Active, cute, sweet, kinda quiet, and die-hard NCSU fans. They are the purity in our group of foul-mouthed cynics. At the end of the night we were all standing around the table. Erin said sweet and soft, “So, we’re going to have a baby. I’m 13 weeks.”
It came up instantly like an eruption from gut to mouth, “Me too! 12 weeks!” Everyone stared from Erin to me with open mouths before the screams and hugs. Erin and Mike are due 9 days before us. The funny thing is, Greyson totally called it! He knew Erin was pregnant too.
So we have fun new partners in this little journey. Congrats Erin and Mike! Here’s to “more Cowbell.”
l to r: Mike, Erin, (in the NCSU red of course!) Vinnie, Sam, Greyson, Me. (Dave and Trish are not in this pic.)
Posted in Uncategorized
