The Annalise Fan

I cannot tell you how many times people have said to me "Annalise is such a pretty name. Where did you hear it?". If Stan is around, he likes to tell people that she is named after a ceiling fan at Lowes, which usually leads to some pretty strange looks -- which is why he says it =). The truth is, NO, she was not named after a ceiling fan. To be honest I don't remember exactly where I heard the name. I think it was someone in a movie or maybe even a book I was reading.....like 5 or more years ago. Wherever I first heard it, I fell in love with the name and decided that if I ever had a little girl, that is what I was going to name her. So anyway, fast forward to last summer when I was pregnant and Stan and I were picking out names. Since we didn't know the gender of the baby, we needed a boy name and a girl name. We eventually decided that we were about 99% sure that we were going to name the baby Annalise Olivia if it was a girl, but that we would not be 100% sure until we actually saw her because we did have a few other names that we liked. We never picked a boy's name because even though we did not find out the gender, we were both really certain that we were having a girl. We tossed some around every now and again but we never agreed on one and would always end the discussion with one of us saying "Oh well, it doesn't matter because we are having a girl anyway". We were certain of it -- and THIS is where the ceiling fan comes in (not in the actual name selection).
One day, AFTER we had ALREADY 99% decided on the name Annalise, we were out at Lowe's looking for a ceiling fan to put in the nursery. I saw a fan hanging up that I really liked --- but it was all pastel colors with flowers on the blade holders and butterfly pulls. Again we didn't know the gender of the baby, so obviously this fan was not going to do. I really liked it though and since Stan and I were so certain we were having a girl, we almost actually bought it that day. We didn't buy it and decided that we would wait until the baby was born and if it was in fact a girl that we would come back for the pretty fan. We then looked down where the boxes were to find the price and saw that the fan model was called "ANNALISE" - spelled exactly as we were going to spell it. We laughed and saw this as a definite "sign" that we were having a little girl and from that day on referred to the baby as "she" all the time. End of story.....Annalise now has her Annalise fan in her bedroom. So, if you ever want to know the gender and name of your unborn child...stroll the ceiling fan aisle at Lowe's and see what fan strikes you. Then, look for the model name of the fan and there you have it =).