Several years ago, I bought a countdown block calendar at Hallmark. The base says, “weeks ’til I’m a Grandma!” and it has two blocks with numbers on them that you change each week as you count down. So, my plan was to get Mom and Dad together and give that to Mom for Valentine’s Day.
Things did not exactly go as planned.
On Friday night, the night Mom and Dad assumed we arrived, we were planning on having frosties with Brantley at Wendy’s on Ridge Street at 8. Mom and I went shopping and we arranged to do dinner at Wendy’s with Tom and Dad at 7:30.
But then…
When Dad got to his house, he tripped, fell, and busted his butt. He had laid a trash can full of brush on its side two weeks ago to drain the water out of it right in the middle of his walkway. A combination of things caused him to not notice this thing he had walked around for two whole weeks. For one thing, the porch light wasn’t on. He also was looking behind him at whoever followed him into the circle.
SO…
Dad was in no mood to do anything or go anywhere. We went to Wendy’s anyway, but Tom and I got the food for everyone and we got it wrong… by the time we ordered it again and got it right Brantley had arrived. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.
Saturday I was anxious all day. I just wanted to go to lunch or dinner or something with my folks and tell them! Tom and I needed haircuts. The plan was to take Jasmine to the lake, go with Matt to a winery, pick up Dad from work at 3, and do something as a family. What we actually ended up doing was much less exciting. Matt pushed back the wine-tasting until it was too late to really enjoy it and THEN get Dad. (If I knew then what I know now, we would have put Dad in bed and gone out with Matt.) We went to the DMV and registered my car. Then we dropped off Jasmine at the Herold’s. Drove back into town and I got a haircut. Tom didn’t get his because Dad said he wanted a haircut, too, and they could go together. It’d be fun. After my haircut, we picked up Dad and he was hurtin’ so we just went back to his house. Tom fixed lunch. Mom came and got me and the two of us went shopping.
We got back to Dad’s around 8, and I was excited because it was time for dinner and we were FINALLY going to tell Mom and Dad the happy news!
Tom and Dad were both asleep. We were able to wake Tom up, but Dad said, “go on without me.” So, we did. We went to East Garden. (He said later that if we had told him where we were going he would have come with us, but I don’t know if I believe him.)
Mom’s fortune cookie said, “Good news will come to you from far away.”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME.
—
On Sunday, we had lunch at Cracker Barrel in Waynesboro for Debbie’s birthday. Tom and I had a plan. We took Mom’s truck over the mountain so Jasmine could stay in the back while we ate, but more importantly so the four of us could ride together. Tom drove. I gave Dad a funny Valentine. Then I handed Mom a card and a present.
She opened the present and squealed and screamed and laughed and it was just amazing. Dad turned around like, “what? What?!” Mom turned the little calendar around, it said “34 Weeks ’til I’m a Grandma” and they both went nuts. (I miscounted, it’s actually 33.)
One of the first things that came up were their names. It’s funny because we talked about it for years, and it all sorted itself out right there in about 30 seconds. Dad said he wants to be “Grandpa” for his Grandpa and my Grampa, and Mom picked “Gran” right away for her grandpa and my Dad’s grandma, Gran.
Dad noted where we were exactly on the road. He was like, “you’re telling us here?! In the car?” Honestly, WE TRIED EVERYTHING ELSE.
We talked about how to tell Lindsay and Haley. My sisters and I are all going to be in Florida at some point in the next couple of weeks, just not necessarily together – but I was trying to work it out so that our paths crossed and I could tell them both in person. Dad said he thought Lindsay would rather know sooner than face-to-face. I don’t know if Dad knew I was holding out on Haley until I had them both together. I also think Dad just wanted to be there when Lindsay and Haley found out. So his idea was to call Lindsay and tell them both while we had her on the phone.
And that’s exactly what we did.
We were all sitting in the 4Runner in the parking lot of Cracker Barrel. Dad called Lindsay and said we’re having a family meeting. I just blurted it out. I said, “Lindsay? Lindsay, can you hear me?” She said, “Yeah, yeah.”
“Lindsay,”
“Yeah?”
“You’re going to be an aunt.”
And there was much rejoicing in the village. 🙂 No one could believe it. Everyone was thrilled. I’m excited.
LINDSAY AND HALEY ARE GOING TO BE AUNTS!!!!!!!!!!!
That La Kid 