Married Student Ward

When Nick and I got married we started attending the married student ward(MSW).

Now there are many cool things about a MSW.
* Everyone is broke and humble about it
* Everyone is the same general age
* The Bishops are often College Professors
* The ward changes often, so you get to meet a lot of new people
*Relief Society
Now this last one deserves a little explanation. In a college ward Relief Society your leaders and teachers are your peers. Women who are dealing with the exact same issues you are.

Also there was the roll. Every week you marked yourself here, grabbed flyers for activities, picked up the visiting teaching message,(because who can afford the whole Ensign), and checked the "Expecting Mothers page".
I know right such a cool way to announce you are pregnant. Don't tell anyone, just write it down in Relief Society.
But this was not the best however.
Because of the high rate of change several times a semester you would get to go around the whole room and introduce yourself, so we could all "get to know ya"
Invariably the tiny blond on the second row would stand and say.

"Hello, my name is Stacey, my husband is Dave. We have been married for 4 months and we are 2 and a half months pregnant."

Now I and others as the group of old timers (those who had been married for 2-3 years w/o producing progeny) would look and each other and kind of smile.

Because who doesn't think that is cute!!!

When I got Pregnant with Cooper, I wanted to announce like that. Except I wanted to one-up them. I wanted to say the gender of the baby too!!

Now wait you might ask, won't most people be able to tell you are pregnant
before you can tell the gender.

Well no, see I am tall and I carry all in my back.
So as the day of my 21 week ultrasound approached and I was so excited. It was at the beginning of a new semester so I just knew I would get to announce in Relief Society.
However much to my chagrin the Sunday before my Tuesday appt. we were all asked to introduce ourselves.
Well I went for it even with out the Frosting for the cake.

"Hi I am Tawny my Husband is Nick
we have been married for almost 4 years
and we are expecting our first baby in May.

My disappointment at not knowing the gender was tempered by the Relief Society Secretary, who was conducting, dropping her book and yelling "No Way". It was marvelous.

Now here I am again.
Getting a little chubby,
just barely "showing"
and I am saying.

"Hi my name is Tawny my husband is Nick we have been married for almost seven years and have an almost three year old son named Cooper. And we are expecting another Little Boy the second week of May!"

"NO WAY!!!!!"
That's right I made it, this time!!!