New baby!!

On Mother's Day, Rachele started having contractions, which were about a month early. But the doctors thought they might have miscalculated her due date, so they weren't too worried about it. When Rachele went in to be checked out, though, the nurses said that yes, she was in labor, just not enough in labor. So for the last 19 or 20 days, Rachele has been having contractions, and anytime they were really bad, she'd go in to the hospital, only to have the nurses scoff and tell her she was having "stomach cramps"...as if she'd never had a kid before and didn't know what contractions felt like. Sheesh.

Anyhow, last night the contractions were really strong, so Rachele and Tree went yet again to the hospital, and this time they admitted her! Things progressed very quickly, and at about 3:12 a.m. today, Bran Cormack Pambrun was born. Rachele and Tree plan to call him Cormack, though Dave and I really like Bran. I have a feeling the poor kid is going to be confused about his name for a while...lol

And, just in case you haven't gotten tired of seeing his picture on Facebook, I'll share a few here. :-) (Sorry, they're not in chronological order...oh, well. :-) )

Iris was very disappointed that Bran was a boy. She very badly wanted to have a little sister. But she still wanted to hold the baby, and seemed to warm up to him pretty well. :)

This is when Bran was just a few minutes old--he still had the baby goop on him! One thing I noticed today is that he's got really long fingers and toes--he's gonna be a little monkey for sure! :-)

Here's Rachele and Bran just after he was born. She looks pretty tired, but she's so happy he's finally here!

Tree sure is a proud daddy. :-)

Bran being weighed. He's just over 7 pounds, and definitely a boy! Not real happy about being on the scale, though...lol

Here's Aidan with Bran--proud big brother!

 I don't care what people say, that looks like a smile to me!

This is Daniel with Bran. He thought he was going to break the baby...lol I've never figured out why guys always think that.

Okay, I think that's enough for now. Hopefully I'll be able to get more pictures of him soon and get them posted. Talk to y'all soon!

Hmm, isn't this where I'm supposed to write stuff?

So....yeah, that whole "updating more often" thing kinda didn't work so well, did it? *sigh* But I'm back, and ready to give it another shot!

I have started paying the school back and now only owe them $89, and I'm registered for classes this fall! I'll be taking World Literature Survey, College Writing II, Intro To Public Speaking, and American History I. Next spring, I'm planning on taking Astronomy for one of my sciences. I'm not sure what else I want to take, for sure, but since I'm going to be working toward an English degree (so I can hopefully go into editing), I'll be taking a LOT of English classes over the next couple of years. I've also applied for financial aid, and so far it looks like I'll be eligible for enough grants to cover my tuition and books--I just have to wait to find out if it's been approved for sure.

Still working with the Census. I'm a crew leader for the Non-Response Follow Up operation, which means my crew visits households that didn't mail their census questionnaires back, or else didn't send them back on time. So far, most people have been very cooperative, which is a pleasant surprise! This operation is scheduled to end in mid-July--at least, as far as I know for now, but it could change at any time. I don't know if they'll keep me on afterward, but if not, I'll probably go to the temp agency I worked for last summer, and see if they've got anything for me. Hopefully by that time, Dave will be working from home, and I won't have to stress about working very much while I'm going to school.

Speaking of Dave, he goes in for surgery next Thursday. His right hand has been giving him some problems for a few months, and has gotten progressively worse. It's numb on the outer side, and he can't spread the fingers apart. He's got very little strength in his fingers, and has lost muscle mass in the area between his thumb and forefinger. He went in for some X-rays, and apparently his ulnar nerve is impinged. So when he goes in next week, they're going to shift that nerve out from behind the elbow and use the tissue in his arm to create a sort of pocket to hold the nerve in place, and they're going to do the same thing in his wrist. It's an outpatient surgery, so he'll be coming home the same day, but will have a brace on his arm for about a week or so. After that comes off, he'll have physical therapy for a few weeks to strengthen his hand. Meanwhile, I brought home a stress ball yesterday so that he can start working that hand and try to regain at least some of that lost muscle mass.

Our son Daniel is apparently engaged....again. It's funny--his one year anniversary would have been next Friday. I haven't heard much about this girl. I know her name, what her job is, that she has 2 kids, and that Dave knows her parents from his folks' church. Daniel has been dating her for a whopping three weeks, and just moved in with her yesterday. I found out today (not from him, but by poking around her page a bit, since I could see that he'd commented there) that the wedding is July 31st. I don't plan to say anything to him, because I figure it's his job to tell me, if he even wants me to know. I don't think I can congratulate him, though. I think he's moving way too quickly. They don't even know each other. She doesn't know anything about him, except the act that he puts on while he's first dating someone. The thing is, he can be kind of a jerk at times, and he's very impatient. And he hasn't figured out that when a girl says "I don't want to talk about it right now," she really doesn't. He doesn't know how to allow a girl the space she needs to be able to think about things.

Ugh. I guess what I'm really trying to say is that I just wish he would take his time so the two of them could get to know each other. I really do want him to be happy, but I'm afraid he'll end up hurting another young lady, her kids, and his own daughter.

I've been finding recipes on this recipe site, and have found some pretty tasty ones. I want to make something like these chicken wings, but I'd rather use the sauce on something with more meat to it! lol

Oh--I finally got my birth certificate, so as soon as we get the money back together, we're going to apply for our passports!!!! Just one step closer to our trip to Scotland! :-)

Also, Rachele is apparently further along in her pregnancy than we thought--Tree called me today to say that she could be having her baby anytime in the next few days! Looks like I'll have to go pick up some more yarn on payday this week so I can make a blanket for her. We still don't know what she's having, so her blanket will probably be in purples, blues, and white.

I think I've gotten everyone caught up on what's been going on around here, so I'll go for now. I think I'm going to just have to make a point of posting at least something on here every week. Happy Mother's Day to all of my mom friends!