Weird Dreams!!

I need to make a note of some crazy dreams I have had. My "What to Expect" book says that along with endless sleepiness, mood swings, lots of peeing and food cravings that "strange" dreams are also a common side effect of being pregnant. Now, as far back as I can remember I have always had strange dreams and there are many that I can still remember from my childhood, however my most recent ones seem to take the cake!!
I have dreamed at least TWICE that I am having twin boys, I don't remember much else. I guess I wake up in shock before the dream can end!! The other one was definantly one to write about. There I was, in Panama City and I was standing in line somewhere that I can't remember when I met a guy (who was SHORT!) and the next thing I know we are talking, kissing and then end up GETTING MARRIED on the beach! Mom was also there and gave me her blessings for this new marriage! I forgot to mention that I was WAY PREGO with a big ol belly! My "new"husband and I then bought a new crib for $88.00. Yes, I remember the exact amount. As the dream continued I soon remembered that I already had a husband ! I left Florida and my beach-fling, but took the crib with me! Weird! Hmmm......

Baby Names: By Mike : )

I just had to add this! Mike called me so excited to report that he had picked out two possible names if we have a baby boy. I figured it would be something like Hank, Merle, or Willie. I was in for quite a surprise when he suggested "Olen" and "Arn". I instinctly asked, "Are you drunk?!". He laughed and said, "No!". "Olen" is the name of a boat captain down here in Florida and "Arn" used to be a wrestler, "Arn Anderson". Yes, he was very serious and couldn't understand why I didn't like these names! My first thought was "Olen-colon"! My child is not going to be scarred for life in grammar school with the name "Olen-colon"!! He also said that he met a family while fishing that had two little girls, he told the mother that his wife was pregnant. She told him to tie a ring around a string, hold it over my belly and if it goes in a circle its a girl and if it swings back and forth than its going to be a boy. He is eager to try out this trick! Against my better judgement I wrote down these names as "possibilities" in my pregnancy journal. Besides, I think its super-sweet that he's been thinking about baby names. It will be funny in years to come to look back on these names!

Bella-what?

Well, today was not a good day : (

My FAVORITE pair of jeans did not fit! Not even a little bit! I squirmed, squatted and tried to stretch my way into them. Nope, couldn't even think about buttoning them : (

I got some good advice from Shea who suggested that I try a "bella band" which is basically a tube top for a fat belly! It will supposedly allow me to wear my "cute" jeans a few more months. It kinda cinches my jeans to my hips so that they can remain un-buttoned without anyone else knowing. Well, atleast the folks who didn't read this blog! Of course I called Mom to see if she can "copy" the stretchy pattern to make me one in every color! I guess I shouldn't complain too much, I have yet to be sick or have any nausea! Even after choking down Waffle House this morning at work showed no evidence of "coming back up!" Yay! Mike says I'm moody, I guess a little bit. I did have a complete cow yesterday when I got home and there wasn't any sweet tea made! I literally broke out into tears! So, for now I'm symptom-free! I've heard that the less sick you are, the more likely you are to be having a girl! Hmmm.....We'll see. I still a long way to go until I find out!

Baby Bump or just eatin-to-much bulge? You decide?

Okay, I know it's kinda cheezy to take baby-bump pics at only 7 weeks......... but I'm excited!!!

This is more of a shortbread cookie, half gallon of milk, banana pepper ring juice & BLT bump!!

Hee Hee!!

P.S. Mike told me to stop "sticking it out" for the camera!! He better be nice or I'm gonna post his "baby bump!!" He looks further along than me!!!

This is the first card we recieved from Mom & Earl....

Other family & friends reactions:

My dad: "Baby!! You just made my day!!"
Nanny: "You are!? Sam! Manda's pregnant!!"

Becky: ( I said, guess what...) We must have that cousin ESP, she said: "You're pregnant?!"

Kasey: "I've got a ton of maternity clothes!"

Ricky (Mike's dad): "You gonna give me a boy!?"

Jessica: She did more screaming than anything!

Ashley: ....More screaming from her too! "I'm soooo excited! Does Tara know?!!

Gary & Lila: I had left them a message on their answering machine and Lila quickly called back: "We are so excited for yall"

Aunt Patti: "Oh my God! I love you!"

Brett: "Holy Sh**t!"

Shea: "Are you really?"

Mike called most of his family when I wasn't around, but I'm sure there was lots of screaming and happiness from them too! It was all a blur making all the phone calls and this blog would be 10 pages long if I typed everyone's reactions! Thank you to everyone for all the "congrats" and warm wishes!!

Gifts I have recieved so far:

"What to expect when you're expecting" book from Jenny along with "Baby-Greenway's" first outfit! A white Baby Gap hoodie and pant set. Also, one pink duckie and one blue duckie (Maybe Jenny is hoping for twins!) Jenny has also offered us a pak-n-play, baby tub, glider w/ ottaman ( I know I spelled that wrong!) and a box FULL of maternity clothes!

Kasey has also given me tons of clothes to borrow for my big belly!

Mom gave me the "Belly Book", a journal to keep track of my pregnancy!

Guess who's "prego"?!!

So, once Mike and I were both convinced that I was in fact pregnant we decided to share the news! Of course Landria was the first one to know and I made her swear to keep it mum until further notice! I knew I could trust her, but I do think she told her hubby to keep from busting at the seems! On Wednesday night, I think it was the 25th (June, of course) Mike and I decided to let the "cat out of the bag"!! I spent the whole day coming up with my "perfect plan" to let our mom's know. Mike had already made plans for us to go to his mom's house Thursday night for dinner and we would let her know then. But, in the mean time we just HAD to tell SOMEBODY!

I was so excited to tell mom, Earl, Jenny and Josh all at once but I didn't know when I could get them all together so Mike and I drove over to Jenny & Josh's to report our newly discovered good news! So, side by side Mike and I told the aunt & uncle-to-be, "We have something to tell yall.......I'm PREGNANT!!!" Jenny started jumping and smiling!! "NO WAY?!! REALLY" which was then instantly followed by "HAVE YOU TOLD YOUR MOM!?" She then ran off and came back with the "What to expect when you're expecting" book!! We showed them the test which read "Pregnant" to confirm that we wern't playing a joke on them!! Josh hugged me and shook Mike's hand. Meanwhile, Cousin-Carter was not at all interested in this news and only wanted to show me his cars and tractors! We decided to take a picture of Mike and I holding the "What to expect" book and the pregnancy test, this later came in handy when we broke the news to mom and Earl. With the help of Jenny we came up with the plan to go to mom's house the next night, once we left Wanda's house to break the news. Whewww....if yall are bored from reading all of this, I won't mind if you skip this particular blog!

The next night we went to Wanda's house to share with them their souviners from St. George, even though this was not the "purpose" of our visit! Once we got there I passed out the gifts along with a wrapped braclet box for Wanda. She probably figured I had bought her a shell bracelet and opened it not expecting a pregnancy test to be enclosed! Mike and I had our eyes glued to her reaction which was the following: "You got me a pregnancy test from Florida?"

Ummm......I couldn't help but laugh! "No Wanda, look at it!!!" "Oh my God!!" She jumped up and grabbed us both!!! The next one to be suprised was Tiffany who was on the way home from taking Ava to vacation bible school, we decided to suprise her the same way. Once she got home I handed her the box and said here "I brought you this back from Florida". I can honestly say, Tiffany's reaction was one of the best ones! She opened the box and then SLAMMED it shut!!!

She looked at Mike and I and then doubled over and couldn't say a word!! For atleast a minute she was in a state of shock!! What a fun night!!! The next stop was mom's house.......

Now, keep in mind Jenny had taken a picture of Mike & I the night before. The plan was to give mom a stack of pic's from Florida and shuffle the one's of Mike & I with the test in the middle. Josh was working that night but we wanted him to be able to hear mom's reaction. I of course wanted to video tape her reaction just the way Josh & Jenny did with Carter, so Jenny brought the video camera and pretended to be setting it up while mom looked through the pics. In theory this plan seemed flawless. Let me set the scene: Mom and Mike on the sofa. Me, Jen, Earl and Carter were on the floor. Jenny had the camera in hand with Josh on speaker-phone pretending to coach her through setting up the camera to the TV. Mom had given Carter an empty paper-towel role to use as a toot-toot horn. Carter was yelling through the tube the whole time! Mom throws down the pics and gets the TV set-up guide to help Jenny set up the camera for the video that we were NOT actually going to watch! Confused? Yea, you should have been there!! I said, "Mom!! Will you please look at those pictures!!" She sat back down and started looking again.......Mike and I were making eye contact because he could see which pic she was on, he would shake his head with every pic that was turned....the more she flipped through the louder Carter would get! Earl then grabbed the camera from Jenny to hook it up (not knowing that Jenny was recording!!!) I freaked!!! I didn't want the "moment" to be missed! "Earl!! Give Jenny back the CAMERA!!" I snapped! Mom then yelled at me! "Manda! What is wrong with you!!!!" I felt so bad! Finally, Mike looked at me and nodded......It was the "Moment!" Mom of course was not wearing her glasses and turned to Mike and said, "What is this?" Mike said, "look at it!" ( Mom thought Mike was holding up a box of Famous Amos cookies in the picture!) "Are you PREGNANT?!!", I think she asked me that 3 times! "YES!!" I said!! She jumped up and hugged me, "My baby's having a baby!!" And yes, Jenny was able to record all of this chaos!! Josh, who was still on speaker-phone was about to lose his mind! All he could hear was Carter toot-tooting on the paper towel role!! Mom & Earl were super excited!!

The above pic is of Wanda when she opened the box, along with pic's of Aunt Tiffany and Cousin Blakely from this same night : )

Are we really?

Well, since Mike and I wern't "planning" on having a baby this soon into our marriage we were more than a little bit shocked to find out that our adventure would be starting sooner than we had planned! However, things happen for a reason and I have not once asked "why us?" or "why now?". Sometimes our destiny isn't up to us and our "plans" aren't always in our hands. So, with this being said I was a bit suprised when on the 20th of the month my "little friend" didn't show up....hmmm. Not too uncommon, but still made me wonder. A couple of days had passed and the only other thing to make me think that something was up was the fact that I was peeing like a racehorse and my "girls" we super-duper sore!! So, I decided to take the test just to rule out the chance of being "prego"! So, I bought the test and took a squat! Laid it on the counter, took a peek and saw that only one line was there. Wheww! What a relief was my first thought. I went on about my evening washing clothes and cleaning the house when I remembered that I didn't toss out the test. I went back for a second look and saw the other line that created the almighty PLUS sign!! What!? I looked at the box, looked at the test, the box, the stick and then could literally feel my heart stop! I instantly called Landria and said, "Oh my God, I think I'm pregnant!" "Are you sure?" she said. "Yes, I'll call you back!" I paced around the house and waited for the daddy-to-be to get home. Once Mike came home I didn't know how to tell him.....he could tell soemthing was wrong with me and kept asking "Whats the matter?!" I just had to say it. Standing there in our kitchen I said "I think I'm pregnant!". "What? Are you sure? Did you do the test right?" I showed him the test and he said "Well, I guess we're having a baby!". The next day we went to Rite Aid and bought 4 more tests. We stood in the aisle for about 10 minutes picking out which ones to get. He insisted on the ones that actually said "Pregnant" or "Not Pregnant" where as I just opted for the standard ol plus and minus signs. We hurried back home and there I marched into the b-room to take another pee pee! All 4 tests were lined up as we waited. Both of us agreed to look at the tests at the same time and no peeking before hand. Mike said his watch and we waited..........3 minutes later we were both convinced that 5, 6, or 7 tests couldn't be wrong!! We were pregnant!! Well, not really "we", but we were in this together and were both excited and scared all at the same time!!!

How we found out.......

Here we are at St. George Island a week before finding out about the "bun in the oven"! Hopefully I'm not the only unsuspecting mommy-to-be who ate her weight in oysters and downed one too many Corona's on the beach before finding out the big news! Even while wearing a bikini the "baby bump" was non existant and showed no evidence of the baby cake a bakin! Looking back, I recall my unusual craving for boiled peanuts that Earl so grasciously bought 3 bags of !!!
I guess this was our last official vacation as being newlyweds! :)