Liam gets to hold Norá for the first time.
Mom shares some lap with Baby, and Norá.
Our Diaper Pirate.

Day Two

Norá Iascí has arrived

Liam greets his little sister at 2:22 a.m., Oct. 9, 2009 - right on her due date.
Weighing in at 8lbs, 8 oz, and 19 3/4 inches long, Norá had a head full of dark hair.
Norá's middle name is Iascí - which is pronounced Easkey, and is Irish Gaeilge for water.

Mommy Time

At Play with Grandpa

Liam enjoys the swing at Grandpa Bannan's.

Drums of October

So my ability to log onto Facebook and post bits everyday and read bits from friends has obviously put a damper on my blog posts, but hopefully I'll be keeping things up a bit better as the baby is due in the next month or so and I'm sure we'll have plenty of photos to share there as well.
Mom left today going back to Alabama after a short weekend here and she'll be back a day or so after the baby is born, so we'll try to get her in some pictures - as well as visits from Dad and our planned trips to Maryland to see everyone there.
For now, I'm also working over at Loimestudios.blogspot.com to put up some of my new artworks as they have come along.

Family photos

Courtney, Bryan, Ayden and Dilyn come for a visit

One tired pirate
Dilyn and Liam both doze
Snuggling with Coutney
Checking her out

The Family That Pirates together

A Sharpie, some felt and an old sash ... everything you need for an entertaining day
Vanquishing the intruders

Exploration Debriefing

Ian animates the days explorations through the Natural History Museum while Liam demonstrates a new found origami method.

Life with Cousins

Its Firefighter surf genre ... you might not understand
The cousins!

Summertime swinging

Heather takes Liam's swing for a spin ... baby feels dizzy

A Day of Natural History

"I'm not going to fall for the joke about something being behind me again dad!"
Who does this guy think he is? Teddy Roosevelt?
Thought baloons from Firefighter's head: "Wonder what a dinosaur tastes like?"

Superhero Unmasked

You've discovered my secret identity!

The Sleeping Storm

The morning we are leaving for Maryland

The Natural History Museum

A grand time was to be had by all as the Bell's and Bagley's tagged along behind the dynamic duo of Liam and Ian - like veritable Boondock Saints cutting a swarth through the resistant crowds of people, like Dirk and Al on the quest for buried treasure, so were the mini-explorers in there search for Dino bones and mammoth sea creatures.
After spending an extended amount of time in a minivan trying to find a parking place (for some reason everyone, their brother, and their cousin from out of town was in DC at the Smithsonians today), which on a positive note gave the boys a grand time to catch up and examine each other's explorer costumes, we arrive and wound our way through exibits of pre-historical life before getting a great show at the IMAX theater where we watched "DINOSAURS: MONSTERS OF PATEGONIA" in 3-D, which scared the daylights out of Liam. Not that I blame him since I dodge the frothy breath of carnivorous dino myself.
After such a great day, it was only fitting to top the trip into DC off with a late lunch at the Dubliner Irish Pub with a pint of Magner's Cider and a few pints of Guinness to wash down the fish and chips, smoked salmon and Shepherd's Pie and Guinness Burgers. And by the time we made our way back up D Street to Union Station to get the car, we were full and happy and looking forward to our next day together.
Tomorrow, we transendental travelers head for the great North of Pennsylvania for a quick over night at Jeff and Ashley's then off to the Eastern Shore.

A Quick Trip

As soon as I make it out of bed, after staying up till 2 am watching Jimmy Buffett at Wrigley Field and then NCIS, I'm packing the car and we are off to never never Maryland for a short week of high activity, then back to Tennessee in time to open the house to my god-daughter Courtney and her family, including there 3 week old baby Dilion James.
Looks like a week of stormy weather for us, but hopefully it will dry by the time we head back home - since we are buying a bed in Maryland from IKEA and will be zooming back home with it strapped to the roof of the car. Now where did I pack the duct tape?

This is why we homeschool

Pirate Day and learning to write Gaeilge words related to pirates

A Gulf Coast Vacation

Feeding the gulls
Walking the pier
Christine with the catch of the day

Man, the things a child can talk you into

Swashbucklers in action!

On returning to the mountains

After an adventurous run down to Alabama to visit with the family for a Memorial Day gathering of Jacobson's, we have returned to our misty mountain hollow of a home, and a deep sigh as we get ready to head out again, but first ....

With Heather in school and needing to check into her online classes every day, it has become very important to find Starbucks, since they have about the easiest means of getting Wi-Fi when you're on the road, not to mention plenty of coffee to keep me happy. Being in the backwoods of Alabama's Gulf Coast, we weren't able to find any available signals for Wi-Fi in my mom's hometown, so we had to go about 30 minutes down the road to Daphne, Ala., which unfortunately put me in close proximity to bookstores and art supply stores, so I returned with plenty of books and bags of inks, markers, paper and an assortment of other things. Heather's school time also gave Liam and I plenty of chances to spend all day on the beach at Fairhope and even a great trip down to my old stomping grounds in Gulf Shores. We even packed along a couple of younger cousins for a great day on the most pristine white beaches in the world.

The trip to Gulf Shores also provided a great chance for us to go to LuLu's for lunch and let me just say, the oyster loaf and Gumbo were divine! Heather and Liam both had the Mahi Mahi and thank's to their meager sized stomachs, I was able to help them finish there courses as well.
Though I don' t have the time to go into it now, it was a grand trip and we have returned tanned and refreshed and ready for the next adventure.

A Pirate Looks at Four

An Artist at Work

Rarer postings

With Heather knee deep in  baby birthings, prenatal appointments and an online midwifery school, use of the computer can get rather rare. Add to that Liam's deep affection for the PBS kid shows we can get on our NETFLIX account, and the moments to use the computer become even rarer, but here I am at 7 am, blogging along, hoping for the chance to add a few photos to the blog this morning, so with that, I'll bid off.

By the way, I've got a grand total of 4 projects going on right now. The first series is "Ceol Na Mara," (Songs of the Ocean), second is "Máthair Grá", then "A Cuan Airithe" and finally .... I can't remember the name of it, but I'll get back to that later. And I'm writing again, so hopefully that will come along as well.

Back in Business

So, returning to the pages of Brendan's Isle after an extended absence, I am happy to report we are settling into the Northeastern-most corner of Tennessee quite nicely ... for a while anyway.

I have decided that this reason is obviously not the part of the South that gives said region a reputation for friendliness, as I have neighbors who don't even try to cover their disgust at my presence in their little hamlet of scenic mountain views. Needless to say I was raised in the region that gave the South that reputation so I do not flip them off. Not yet anyway.

Heather is busy with birthing. She is currently enrolled with Aviva Institute which is a midwifery college out west. Heather is not commuting, as she's taken a page from my college pursuits and is enrolled in online classes. She is also actively working with a local group of midwives and is out there meeting mamas and assisting in homebirths.

Liam is thrilled to have a new pool and seems to be becoming a bit more ... exuberant ... lately. He has also decided that Blues Clues is his favorite pasttime.

I am painting ... well, actually I am inking, but that just sounds weird, so maybe I will say I am arting and since I am taking the time out from spending the majority of my time laying down lines on paper to write our family blog, I guess I should probably restart Loime Studios blog as well, and speaking of Loime Studios, the official, everything on board, launch of the website is coming shortly as I just sent the webmaster photos of the artwork and their titles. Now begins the process of working out what to do with everything.

Now, to see if I can get some pictures back up ...

Adjusting to the mountain view

MOUNTAIN CITY, Tenn. -- The air is clean, the stars are visible, the traffic is light, and for the most part, the people are pretty friendly. We are loving our new house, and hopefully, I'll be able to post some photos as soon as we get the house set up and are willing to let people see it.

Heather is meeting with the midwives today and I'm continuing to unpack the enormous amount of stuff we own. Liam is loving the big yard and the weird twists and turns of the house ... and right now he's running around in his underwear and a Robin Hood hat.

A New Home is Found

It seems that tomorrow morning, we'll be putting an end to our vagabond wandering as we just found a house in Tennessee. 

Its  a great house on an acre of land for rent in Mountain City, TN. There's room for a garden, plenty of room in and out of the house and hardwood floors.

An answer to the missing photos

In an answer from the Blogspot helpdesk, the reason my recent photos are not available, is I have reached the limits of my photo storage, so, I'll have to make a decision on whether I will delete some of my older posts, or start paying a premium for storage space. Considering that I am going to have another website coming online soon, we'll see whether its advantageous for us to simply post photos on another space, or simply create a new blog.

We are Here

BALTIMORE, Md --- Since our last post, we have journeyed from Baltimore, to Pottstown, Pa., to visit with Heather's brother Jeff, and sister-in-law Ashley, and our nephews Carter and Caleb. From there we traveled yesterday down the Eastern Shore of Maryland to the Bagley house, where Liam had his first sleep over with Ian, and finally today we came over the Bay Bridge back to Baltimore where we'll be for about 3 days with Danielle and Karen.

Tomorrow will determine where we will be in another week. I've got to go to our storage unit, which is several hours away, to see if I can find the documents we need to get across the border into Canada. If I find them, we head North. If we don't, we head South. Either way, I guess that will be worth blogging tomorrow.

Breaking Down

I have entered a new phase of life ... I have submitted to establishing a Facebook account, realizing instantly that I must be the last person on Earth to have a Facebook since I have a flood of emails of people wanting to be my friend.

The questions remaining from this new endeavor are:

1. Is it a status symbol to have an exhorbantly high number of friends?

2. Are these true friends I can call on if I am in need?

3. Am I expected to be on Facebook at all times?

Also, as a bit of news, we are currently in Pennsylvania and are on our way to Canada for a certain someone's birthday celebration but don't mention it since it's a secret.

Also, I am several days past my 38th birthday and am happy to report a serious lack of heavily frosted cakes being shoved at me. If anyone is horribly scarred by not buying me a present, I'm in the market for a sturdy pimp cane which could support my limping body.