So much joy

It's amazing to me the amount of joy our baby news is bringing to people. It surprises us both. We thought everyone would be happy, but we didn't expect such overwhelming excitement. Well, we knew Grampa Vern would be super excited, he's been wanted great-grand-babies since before we were married. When we announced our engagement, he said "I expect some babies pretty soon". We said "well how about we get married first" and he replied "well I suppose it's appropriate but you know it's not necessary!" :) so much for being old fashioned! Grampa never gave up hope. When we called he yelled in the background "I bet I know what it is!!!" Gramma Adele wasn't so sure as she, along with my mom and Brandon's mom, had figured we weren't going to have kids. Surprise!!! Like my dad said "I knew never would eventually come" as we'd always said never to kids.

So Sunday started out with brunch with my Dad and Laurie. I waited until my dad said "what's new" and then showed him the ultrasound and said "we're pregnant". The looks on their faces were priceless. they were stunned. there was a moment of silence as they stared at us until finally Laurie said "YOU are?" LOL I replied "well, mostly me, but yes, WE are". When the waiter came by Laurie announced that we're having a baby. And then the questions followed and my dad was continually smiling at me and nodding. Proud Grampa. :) He gave me a nice long hug at the door and said he was happy for us. We had also called Jackie, my stepsister, and announced it to her. She squeeled.

Next stop, my mom's. My mom is a bit more dramatic in nature, so her response is quite animated. Her and Don have recently begun building hillbilly photo frames out of trees that they cut... so we show up, unannounced... but I honked the horn profusely - as always (need to make sure people are decent). We walk in and she takes us around the house proudly showing us her recently completed hillbilly frames and clocks. We end up in the living room and I tell her that we have a photo she can frame, but it's just little. I hand it to her, she takes it and turns around to go into the dining room light but only gets a few steps away before she screams "oh Amy!" and comes running back and hugs me and Brandon. She's instantly shaking and crying and says she's nervous for some reason. Monday when we emailed she'd said she started knitting an outfit for the baby to come home in. And she printed a copy of the ultrasound and wrote on it and hung it in her cubicle for all to see. Proud Gramma. :)

At this point I'm absolutely exhausted and we decide to head home. We called my Gramma Bernie and Sister, Angie, on our way home and made our announcement. Angie squeeled and was very excited, Gramma too. I know they were dissapointed that we didn't stop by and I feel bad, but I was toast. My sister wrote me a nice email expressing her excitement and support.

We had a 2 hour nap when we got home. I'm a huge fan of naps now! When we woke up we called neighbors Meg and Joe to see if they wanted to have dinner for "Brandon's birthday". His birthday has served as an excellent cover. hehe. So, again we make our announcement. Meg got all teary eyed and Joe was absolutely surprised. He said "That's the last thing I expected to hear" Brandon said "me too!" too funny. Meg is going to be a blessing as a neighbor and auntie to this baby. And, she's going to be great at teaching me what the heck it is I'm supposed to do.

We called my Grampa Vern and Gramma Adele that night too. I can't wait for them to come back to MN. It'll be nice that the shower and the birth will be in the summer/early fall as they'll still be in MN. They did say that if our baby is anything like me, then I'm getting payback!

Today is Brandon's actual birthday. So again we used it as a cover up to get our good friends and poker buddies Gene, Jodi, Brad and Jill to go out to dinner with us. Jodi shared something and then Jill took out a magazine and was showing it so Brandon decided since it was show and tell time that he'd pull out the ultrasound photo. It has seriously come in handy. So he holds it out and Jodi is the first to recognize what it is and she covers her face with her hands and starts to cry and everyone catches on and congrats and oh my's go around. When the waitress comes around someone told her that there's a new baby in the family. We had some really hillarious chats about babies and pregnancy. I laughed so hard. Brandon actually said "So when they poop do you rub their nose in it and tell them NO!" LOL and then later I made a comment about a "baby baister" vs. a turkey baister... LOL good times!

All in all everyone was very supportive and very excited. We have several more good friends and coworkers yet to tell. It's so difficult to get together with everyone. Many of our long time friends don't live near us &/or we are not exactly running in the same circle anymore. I can't wait to share our news with them and I hope we get to soon.

We have a wonderful family and group of friends. We're very fortunate and our baby is going to be insanely spoiled.