So as quick as Joe could get here, he also had to turn around and leave again. However, this time it wasn't back to Texas. He had his first Pro Staff Sales company meeting in Destin, FL. It only happens once a year and our company has been doing it annually for several years now. The concept is to have a few of our manufacturer managers and all our sales reps fly in for meetings and training for 1/2 days in a conference room at DestinWest. Then lunch, golf, dinner and drinks the rest of the day over the course of 4 days. Half work and half play for the guys, it was a good bonding experience for Joe as well as an opportunity to learn a little along the way. In fact, he won the longest drive competition on one of the courses. See the picture at the "professional award ceremony" on the condo porch that evening, haha. Congrats!!
The following weekend was Mothers Day and with Joe being in Georgia this year and not with her in Texas we wanted to have a little homemade something to send her. We know how creative Mama Mann aka Schatzie is so that triggered an idea lightbulb to actually have an Arts n Crafts night and we each did a pot for our moms. Unfortunately the sad part was the present didn't quite make the trek safely. Apparently she had to ask him "what was that supposed to be" when the box was opened because all that was left was shards of pottery. It was supposed to be a painted decorative pot Joe did for her and we also sent a boot that doubled as a bird feeder. Too bad. However, we promised her we would try again but maybe hand deliver it next time :) Luckily we did document pictures of it during the making of it. Happy Mothers Day to two amazing women!! We love you both!!
Then, speaking of "moms" and my future endeavour, the exciting day we couldn't wait for was soon upon us...May 24th at 12:30...why?? Well, it was time for the gender reveal. We had an appointment at Storkvision in Atlanta. My friend, Melissa and her husband Robert had been before when she was expecting her little girl. She told us about how it works, how its 100% accurate and that they can tell you the sex 4 weeks before the OBGYN office will tell you. So I booked it on the Saturday before I was 17 weeks along. We were both dying to know one way or the other so we could start buying stuff and planning for the little one. The night before the scan we decided, "well since this is our first big event to find out, let's make it a surprise to everyone and announce it in a creative way". We thought it might make it more memorable and fun. Everyone will actually get a small piece of snail mail with a little reveal game to find out since we aren't all geographically close enough to have a reveal party.
So that morning we went to look at a house for sale in Auburn,GA around 9am, then rode up to Chateau Elan for brunch before we headed on our way to find out, then arrived at Storkvision early. When you drive up it looks like a cute little house in a culdesac downtown Atlanta off Hardman Court. The outer waiting room is decorated so adorable in a gender neutral green tone with baby clothes and photographs making us wonder even more which we will be walking out shopping for. The receptionist was giving us other reveal ideas and asking us what we thought it was. I said "girl" since the heart rate had been so high and Joe said "boy" just because he said he had a feeling. She mentioned that the Chinese gender zodiac had surprisingly been the most accurate from the people she had seen come and go from the office. I told her "well if that is true, then it would be a boy". We signed up for the GenderPlus package with 15 minutes of viewing time, 5 black n white pictures of the ultrasound and a DVD of the session. We walked out so thrilled and amazed to watch our little one on the screen and find out everything was looking healthy and normal!! It was so hard not to share the big news with anyone at first that afternoon so the two of us headed to Lenox mall to shop for our first clothes for baby Mann. We also had to grab some for daddy Joe because he needed some new sharp work clothes and well mama wanted Sprinkles cupcakes (yes cakes plural as in three!) haha
To knock out the big eventful day, we also happened to find out Dave Matthews was playing and bought two tickets for that evening. They performed at Lakewood Ampitheatre in Atlanta and we opted for the lawn seats since we were there for the music and not the view, lol. You can't bring picnic baskets or drinks so all we had were lawn chairs and a blanket but so glad we brought that blanket. Apparently our idea of a lawn chair and theirs are two totally different things. They stopped us at the gate until we dropped the chairs we brought and then let us in. We had no clue that beach chairs (the low ones that sit in the sand) are what they call lawn chairs. Ok, now we do! Shockingly on the way out, they were still there by the turnstyle so technically we didn't lose them. We had a nice relaxing time and a few laughs too, ask Joe about the chick in the daisy duke jean shorts in front of us. The following Sunday was a typical American Memorial Day up at Lanier, we had Noelle and Michael as well as my aunt Nancy come up to the lake with my parents, me and Joe. We kept our gender secret while enjoying some fun in the sun, a big cookout dinner (including Moms pasta salad, Joe's corn and Noelle's key lime pound cake, yumm) while hanging out with their pup Allie and rocking the preggo pooch in a bikini, it may be the last time of the season for that, we will see, haha!
