Back to school

So after a summer that somehow seemed to fly by in flash of sunshine, I find myself back at RMU for the final year of my doctoral program. After the first day back, I have to say that so far this year has been an equal mix of fear and excitement. (To give you a little background, I would have said the only word to describe the first day of last year was PANIC.) So I think it's an improvement!

Right now, I'm a little ahead of the game because I collected data for my research over the summer and will be entering into the fun, fun world of data analysis this fall. I just hope that things continue to go well. With the big move to the new house looming on the horizon, I really need to keep as stress free as possible. We'll see how that goes. One day down, six more to go...

Garden baby shower

We held a beautiful baby shower for Jena in the yard at my parents' house this afternoon. The flowers were blooming, the sun was shining, the food was fabulous, and there were lots of friends and family to join in the fun. I think it was a fantastic success, and little Brody will be able to come home in style as soon as he is ready!

Brody Nicholas

I went back to the hospital to see Jena and the baby today... Jena is doing really well and so is Shawn. I brought her a baby book so she can start writing down memories while they are still fresh in her mind and I also couldn't resist buying this really soft and cuddly stuffed dinosaur. :0)

Since Brody is still a preemie, he can only have a few visitors at a time. Jena, Shawn, Mom and I all spent some time with him this afternoon and got a chance to hold him. He's so tiny and really cute! I loved his little hat and the way his little feet would kick like he was having a dream. Jena is doing so well at everything... I'm so excited for her and proud of her! We all can't wait until the baby can come home... we love him so much!

I have a nephew!

Jena went into pre-term labor last night -- we were all pretty scared because we weren't sure why she was going into labor so early (her due date was September 28). At first, the doctors weren't even sure if it was real or if it was a false alarm... but it turns out that it was the real thing!

This afternoon the family rushed down to see her at Magee and it's a good thing that we did. Once they had wheeled her back into delivery around 3:00pm, everything seemed to go pretty quickly. She delivered a healthy baby boy at 6:17pm today! He was a preemie, so we were expecting him to be small, but he actually looked bigger to me than I thought he would be, so we were all happy about that. He weighed 3 lbs and 14 oz. It all happened so fast it was kind of surreal... I can't believe I have a nephew! I'm so excited!

Because he was so little, we weren't able to hold him yet, but he is in good hands at the hospital and I can't wait to go back tomorrow to see him again! Jena was amazing... I'm so proud of her! No name for the baby yet... will keep you posted.

Congrats Jena and Shawn!

Biggest and Baddest Tour

On Sunday night, a bunch of us went to the Toby Keith concert at Star Lake. Paul and I were a little preoccupied because we had made an offer on a house earlier that day and our minds were very much on that. (By the way - the offer was accepted! We're excited.... more about the new house once things are more official.)

We had fun tailgating (thanks to Danielle, Patty Lynn and Shawn for the awesome food!) and hanging out before the concert even though it was incredibly HOT. Thank goodness someone had the foresight to bring a tent which definitely helped. Toby was awesome... a great concert for a summer night. And we even ran into some old friends!