Riddle Solved

Kudos to our fine sleuths, Rachel, Annie, and Benny!  You are all terribly good guessers (and/or I'm  terribly poor at subtlety)!

Yes, we are expecting our fourth baby.  *gasp* That's almost hard to type!  We're thrilled, of course, and it has been fun 'revealing' it to the family (I'll explain in a moment).

Did you find all the clues?  First, of course, there has been the sporadic and poor posting these last couple months.  Many times I sat down and typed out a long rant of one kind or another, and it just tangled itself within itself and went nowhere, really, and I never published it.

Oh, you want specific clues?  Let's see if I can remember them...

I mentioned *most* (4 of 5) of Granny's grandkids were expecting here.  That surprised me, as my 2 distant-er (geographically) cousins never completely struck me as the 'make a family' type.  The graduate-degreed, majored-in-liberalism, live sometimes in communist countries, yes, but not so much the motherly/fatherly types. :)

I mentioned "looming expenses" a time or two  as well as lowering my gardening expectations for the year (which Sariah caught on to).

Then of course there was the 'different vehicle' reference, and then the post on the different vehicle.

And the childbirth articles, of course.

So, this little tidbit of news has been slow in it's reveal, not just to all you dear ones.  In fact, *I* knew about it around the first of December or so, but determined that it might be construed as obnoxious to announce it to the family while my brother and his wife awaited their first baby's arrival.  So I decided to hold off until sometime in January after their little girl was born.  Within a couple weeks I learned that my young sister-in-law was expecting her first baby.  Considering that her original due date was one day after mine, I thought it probably wouldn't work to keep mine a secret long enough for her baby to arrive.  So, through the holidays I enjoyed (immensely) everyone's joy over her exciting news, happy to keep my own news hidden for the time.

Eventually, of course, my brother's baby was born in mid-January, and I think I told him right away (he was pondering how close Mackenzie might be in age to any cousins).  However, that was a week-and-a-half before a scheduled weekend at Gi-gi's.  Now, I have kind of determined to avoid negativity regarding this blessing, and while I'm sure she *means well*, Gi-gi's first words when I told her I was expecting Organique were, "Oooooh honey.  Well, I hope you have the good sense to get your tubes tied after this.  And congratulations."  Of course, my kids are probably close to the top of her 'favorite people' list, but of course, until birth, they mustn't be 'actual persons' or something.  In any case, I didn't want to inform her before having to see her right away, so I kept it secret a while longer.  I did call my folks  just prior to that, and then went to Gi-gi's.  When I returned home, I had a couple small items to ship back to her, so I included a letter informing her, and assuring her that we were thrilled, though gun-shy to tell her about it because of the concerns she has about affordability, and the state of this world, etc. etc. etc.  And included "I think you know all my rebuttals to these things, but if not, just ask. :) "  Then I ended up leaving town suddenly (and conveniently, don't you think?), and later got a voicemail assuring me that she "wouldn't chew me out, except maybe for having another summertime baby."  I told her later that I must have a subconscious effort to be a lazy gardener (I have 2 kids born in September, one in May).  My husband told his parents around that time, and it was tough keeping the news (which everyone in my folks' neighborhood had heard by then) from our kids, whom we wanted to tell together, but hadn't had the chance.  FINALLY, sometime in February, we told our kids.  The rest of the world has just heard via the grapevine, I think. :)  But now it's your turn.  Now you know.

And s/he's due August 8th.