Since I've got A LOT going on the next few weeks [parties, family, tattoos, shoots] I decided to get Lily's One Year [OH.MY.GOD.] pictures out of the way. I'm totally in love with her...

Have a happy weekend!
Mae

Why Lily's New Nickname is "Peanut"

So Tuesday, June 22nd was the scariest day of my life. And praise the Lord, all three of us came out, [exhausted mind you!] on the other side

Here's the quick summation of those...awesome...18 hours...

• Let's try something new!
• ...oh my God, my daughter is dying
• whew! We're gonna be ok
• ...or not.
• "Do NOT make her mad"
• "My daughter almost died from a peanut, NOT lack of vaccinations"
• Sleep, what sleep?
• "She's so cute"
• Home Sweet Home
• "Am I gonna be like this forever?"

Let's try something new!
Tuesday I went to Sprouts to stock up on our bulk items. I was almost out of the store when I thought...hrrrm, I should get some almond butter! So I went over to the "freshly ground" section to check the prices...a little too much since our budget is a little tighter these days. I was trying to figure out ways for Lily and me to get more protein in our diet and nut butter on fruit is SO easy! I saw the peanut butter right next to and thought, eh, why not? Lily does fine with cashews and almonds so peanuts should be fine! That night I get her supper ready and decide to let her snack on some grapes and peanut butter while she waited. I gave her a taste on my finger, fine. Then about two tablespoons on her tray. A few seconds later, her mouth turned red, and she started getting big wihte welps. I started to shake a little. "...hey babe...come check this out" Eamon checks her out then gets online. "Eamon...her lips are starting to swell up... I think we should call 911..."
I got her out of the seat and started cleaning her up. Then she let out a weak cough. Then both of us started racing for the car.

...oh my God, my daughter is dying
As we were walking to the parking lot, Lily's lips got bigger and she started acting very sleepy. I got her in the car, no diaper, no carseat. Then it got scary. Lily started falling asleep...and I could barely get her to wake up. When Eamon heard me say "Lily, baby! You gotta wake up!" he turned on our hazards, started honking his horn and speeding through our little neighborhood to get to the closest CareNow center. I thought I had just killed my daughter, I didn't know what to do. I was so scared, and praying like, well, like Lily's life depended on it! We bursted through the doors holding my limp baby and said "My daughter is having a reaction to peanuts!!!"

whew! We're gonna be ok
The staff was exteremly helpful. They assessed her immidiately, and told us she was having an "oral allergic reaction" and gave her some Benedryl and steriods, along with an Epi shot. I wasn't too thrilled about the drugs, but they are for emergencies, and this definitely was. She said they were gonna keep us for 2 more hours just to observe her and make sure she doesn't have any further reactions to the peanuts, or the drugs. Eamon went out to get us some supper while Lily and I waited around to be released. Then I saw them...

...or not.
Hives...little bitty hives started showing up on her arms, face, stomach back, legs, feet. Head to toe she started to be covered in these hives. I called a nurse in right away. She assessed her and quickly got another shot of epi. Eamon was still gone and while I wasn't showing it, I was getting scared.
What did I do? How could I have done this to my baby...I should have just waited a few weeks to give her any. How could I put her through this???
Then her doctor told me the she was having a severe anaphalxic reaction to peanuts and that it didn't matter what age Lily was, she is always going to be allergic. I was sort of relieved. [And all you finger waivers and upturned nose snobs can be quiet now. Rude.] She then told me we were about to be transported to Cook's Children's Hospital in Ft. Worth for overnight observation. Sheesh... it seemed like this was never going to end. So I had to wait for Eamon to get back to the ER to tell him what was going on [no phone SUCKS!] and we waited for "Teddy Bear Transport" to show up.

"Do NOT make her mad"
The ambulance showed up, finally and Lily made it VERY clear to the doctors/nurses that her lungs were at a full 100%, lol. She screamed, and screamed and screamed while they were putting her on the gerny [which I still don't think was totally neccesary, but whatever]. She was even more pissed when they didn't let me in the back with her. Eventually she just went to sleep, which was great. Then the EMT started asking me about her history. The vaccination discussion started, and while we disagreed, she was very respectful. When we got to the hospital, she told the staff "Do NOT make her mad" for fear of their ears being blown off again.

" My daughter almost died from a peanut, NOT lack of vaccinations"
So then they send us to a triage with lots of other babies and again someone comes to take our history. There's a lady who is entering everything into a comp, the emt who talked with me in the ambulance, Lily's attending nurse from Cooks, and another very young, very blond, very rested "nurse" who we will just call Nosey. The woman who is typing away is getting all her info from the EMT. "Name?" Lily, "D.O.B." that sort of thing. The attending nurse is hooking up Lily's monitors. Then, Nosey walks in talking about her "super fun night with the guy that she's screwing in the cubical next to us...her friend...blah blah blah."
Here's what happens-
Typer- "Are vaccinations up to date"
EMT- " No, parents chose not to"
In my head, "please no more talk..."
Typer- continues to ask the EMT questions
Nosey- "did you tell them...false research?" laughs like she's a genius and LEAVES.
SO I'm sitting there with a baby that almost died and am like...what did she just say?
We answer a few more questions and wait for the doctor to clear us to the room upstairs that we were going to stay in overnight. When we finally get there and settle down I say "Ok, I know I'm sleep deprived and kinda crazy right now, but did you hear what that blond girl said?"
Eamon- "Yes, she said [insert stereotypical sorority girl inserted her tampon in the wrong hole accent here] 'Uh, did you tell them that their decision not to vaccinate their kid is based on false research, giggle giggle giggle!' I was like, false research? You just made yourself look like an idiot!"
Yes, that's my husband, he is far more concerned with the logical falicy of the term "false research" than the fact that this chick thinks she knows what is best for my baby based on what her hot prof told her. So ya, we're still calling her a bitch, and I think she deserves it.

****Edited SO one of you very awesome very sweet ladies just had a conversation with me that was awesome. Instead of completely edit this paragraph, pretending I never had these feeling I wanted to share a little bit of what she shared with me. To love me, grow me, and further the kingdom- check it out!
"I just saw that you had an opportunity to tell this story from the perspective of God's mercy on Lily (and you for your mistake). But it overwhelmingly became about bitterness toward someone else. You have the chance to show grace and mercy to someone who doesn't deserve it. And I'd always read James 3:10, but never verse 9. After reading that recently, I was very convicted that we should never curse someone else as we are all created in God's image- even the "ugly" ones. Thank you for listening! You are a special lady ;)"
Thank you M for keeping me in check!

Sleep, what sleep?
It was the longest night ever. The nurses kept coming in to check on her, Eamon stayed up just watching her monitor, and I was still fighting guilt. Before we knew it, there was light coming through the window.

"She's so cute"
In the morning, our baby girl was back to normal. We walked around the halls and said hi to everyone, it was such a blessing to see the joy she brought to all of the nurse's and other patient's faces! Eamon watched the World Cup while I sat, playing with Lily in the play room, waiting to be released.

Home Sweet Home
With a perscription for some Epi Pens, steriods, and lots of rest, we were finally on our way home, after about 16 hours! Lily was so happy to be home and she was finally able to relax, taking the LONGEST nap ever. I cleaned and scrubbed everything that had peanut butter on it and checked our pantry for what needed to be thrown out. There were only a few things, thank God! We had gone a whole year without anything major happen to our baby and we were now armed with the knowledge of what to do for our baby girl.

"Am I gonna be like this forever?"
And lastly, something very, very interesting has happened since we got home. Lily gets roid rage...well sort of. She is absolutely loopy, giggly, argumentative, happy, paranoid, all at once. It's been very entertaining, lol. I wish SO BADLY that she could talk and say what's going on in that little head.

Now, we are all doing well. My husband was a rock solid pillar of Hope for me, never leaving our side when we needed him. We've had *some* sleep and are moving on with new eyes and hearts, ever more thankful for our baby girl and Gracious, loving, HEALING Saviour.

Oh, and Betty. Lily's BFF that was there with her all night :]


Love you guys!
Mae

My Moon, My Man

In light of yesterday [Father's Day] and today [our two year anniversary!] I want to dedicate this post to the most amazing man I've ever met...
and coincidently have the pleasure of sleeping with ;]

Do you see this stud? This was Eamon on our wedding day, waiting patiently to see his bride come down the aisle, praying for the life we had ahead of us.
This was the beginning of year one. We were so, so young. Absolutely nothing convince us that marriage would be as hard as they say, we were way more in love with each other than any other couple ever on the face of the Earth, the rules simply did not apply to us.

Do you see this dedication? This was Eamon the night Lily arrived [weeks after our first anniversary], waiting patiently to see his daughter come into the world, praying for the new life we had ahead of us...all three of us.
This was the beginning of year two. We were thrilled, scared, anxious, overwhelmed, and exhausted. We were so, so young. Absolutely nothing convince us that parenthood would be as hard as they say, we were way more in prepared than any other couple ever on the face of the Earth, the rules simply did not apply to us.


Now, do you see this smile? It's right there under the scrunchedupness. This is Eamon and Lily on our vacation [a few weeks before our anniversary], waiting patiently to see Lily's face light up at the site of some awesome fish.
This was the beginning of year three. We were finally rested. Absolutely everything convinced us that vacation would be as refreshing as they say, we were way more in love with each other than any other couple ever on the face of the Earth, of course it was gonna be awesome.


I cannot express how lucky I am to have found the one who completes me. He grounds me, fulfills me, excites me, and provides for me only like the man of God that He has sent for me can.
I also can't express the JOY I feel watching him strengthen as a husband and lead as a father in our house.
So here's to you babe, two years of marriage and one year of parenthood later, we made it. I love you.

Now! Off to make a lasagna for supper and begin our Toy Story Marathon! WOO!
Mae

Three Things You Didn't Know About Me

In light of all of the business I created for myself today, I'd like to wound down my night on a lighter note :]

So here are 3 silly things you may not know about me!

1. Until the day after my wedding, I never met a raw tomato I liked.
Just the thought of them made me want to barf my brains out. For our wedding, one of our friends gave us a basket of homegrown tomatoes. OH.MY.GOSH. They were plump, they were marbled, they were tart and sweet all at once, and they barely had any seeds. I was in HEAVEN. Now, grocery store tomatoes still give me the heeby-jeebies, but OUR tomatoes, they're going FAST!
Every day when I water the plants, Lily comes with me and pinches all of the tomatoes, as if she's checking them. When she gets to the red ones she looks at me and squeals [melting my heart as I think about it!] and waits for the go. When I tell her it's okay she pulls with ALL her might. Sometimes I have to loosen them just a little, but man oh man, she doesn't even wait for me to take them inside, she just gets after em! What's funnier is she is really attracted to the ones that fit just inside her fist, see:

Today's loot.


Lily finally gets her pick.

The pay off was so good ;]




2. I have a crush on Barack Obama.
...what? I didn't say I liked his politics. I didn't say I wanna have his babies. But I AM saying that I watch as many of the State of the Union and Presidential addresses and I am only telling a half truth when I say it's to "stay up to date". I wish he narrated audio books.

and don't you DARE tell Eamon...I still haven't heard the end of "You think SAWYER is hot." I was labeled a betraying hypocrite for weeks... Now if he finds out that his constitutionalist wife finds the Democratic Mr. President sexy...well, I fear for our marriage.

3. I've known from the time I was a little girl that I wanted to be a mommy.
When storms or hurricanes would come through South Texas, I would always make sure my sisters took a bath. Then I brushed and put up all of their hair, made sure they had warm pajamas on [even though it was probably like 95 degrees outside...whoops] and then have them get their baby dolls ready. What do I mean, get their baby dolls "ready" They all got cleaned, brushed, and tucked in to their respective spots in our beds. Yup. I was eight when I had three younger sisters. And I did this until they all grew out of baby dolls. Go ahead, call me crazy.

Hope you all have a good night!
Mae

Meal Plan Monday

Well, I got a WHOLE lot done for Mae B Photography, and Lily did not like it. Not one bit. Head on over and see what I got done, stiiiiill not quite caught up, but I'll get there. Also check me out on Facebook to see more updates.
I get to shoot another awesome family that I've gotten to know over the past few years and am so excited to shoot their chunky monkey :] I do need to get feeling better though for that to happen! While doing this week's meal plan I wanted to die of nausea. Today's lunch was amazing, but I think I ate too much. Hopefully Lily doesn't wake up with the pukes, that'd me aweful.

[SIDENOTE: I totally made her laugh so hard that she threw up earlier, but she just kept on laughing, it was tooooo funny]

Well, here's what we've got going on this week :]
Breakfasts:
Lily:

• Steamed egg yolks [go here to see more on how to prepare]
  
• Fruit or veggies steamed
• *We've added soaked oatmeal for miss Lily because she is SO hungry all the time!

E&M:

• Steamed eggs with fruit
• Omlet with homemade soaked wheat rolls
• Soaked Oatmeal
• Soaked Muesli
• Soaked Panckakes [SO good, we served them last week with Amish butter and raw, local honey and steamed fruits. It was very filling! We used the recipe right out of NT because I didn't really like most of the ones I found online]
• Soaked Dutch Baby Pancakes [So far, this is Eamon's favorite "soaked" recipe]

***any recomendations to make this not so runny/griddy/DONE in the middle?

• Fried Eggs with Homemade yogurt

Lunches:

• Salad w/pan fried fish [talapia, flounder, or salmon]
• Fish [the same mentioned above] with brown rice and steamed veggies
• Hummus plate [chic peas soaked for 24 hours and cooked in the crockpot over night. VERY tedious, but noticeably tastier.
  

Snacks

• Laver [nori]
• Fruit/veggies
• dehydrated fruits and veggies
  
• sweet potato fries
• Yogurt
• brown rice crackers [Lily is LOVING these]
  

Dinners:
Monday: Tonight we're having pasta with shrimp, broc and feta...I hope, lol.

Tuesday: Breakfast for supper. **We're taking the night for our family to try and figure out where Eamon is supposed to be working and whether or not he should be going to school. PLEASE be praying about that with us!

Wednesday: Kidney Bean and Cauliflower curry

Thursday: Cashew noodles with Broc and tofu. [Found this AMAZING brand at sprouts called SprouTofu. It's made with GMO free, sprouted soybeans!]

Friday: Creamy tomato soup with potato and spinach skillet cake

Saturday: Pizza [capers sound like a great addition this week :] aka, there's a bottle of capers that is a million years old that needs to be used.]

Sunday: Hummus platter :]


Well, time to make supper, g'night all!
Mae

Another week...

Another week has gone by of me doing TONS of "behind the scenes work" and it seems like I've got nothing to show for it. I've got tons to blog about, but here's our week in pictures :]

Found this awesome recipe for Lentil Burgers...SO YUM. I made a tahini sauce to put over them with some greens we had left from our garden... LOVED them.


No bread for me :[ haha



Uh, so ya...ANOTHER waterline exploded overnight so we went ANOTHER day without water. And there was LITERALLY a jackhammer, circular saw, lawn mower, weed eater, and a vacuum cleaner all running at once when I tried to put Lily down for a nap.



Aaaand...sometimes I get snap happy when I'm around Lily...SHE'S JUST TOO DANG CUTE!




I went inside [two seconds] to get my camera to take pics of our garden, and this is what I find:



The tomato plant in the back is as tall as me!



And these suckers are gonna get eaten tomorrow! I got lunch and dinner covered....mmmmm
Well, it doesn't seem possible, but even though it seems I'm cleaning non-stop, my house is a wreck...SO I will be back later this weekend :]
Mae

Meal Plan Monday

Sorry it's so late! We had a full day today [including a visit to the FW Science and History Museum!] and I'm just plain pooped!











Breakfasts:
Lily:

• Steamed egg yolks [go here to see more on how to prepare]
  
• Fruit or veggies steamed
• *We've added soaked oatmeal for miss Lily because she is SO hungry all the time!

E&M:

• Steamed eggs with fruit
• Omlet with homemade soaked wheat rolls
• Soaked Oatmeal
• Soaked Muesli
• Soaked Panckakes [SO good, we served them last week with Amish butter and raw, local honey and steamed fruits. It was very filling! We used the recipe right out of NT because I didn't really like most of the ones I found online]
• Soaked Dutch Baby Pancakes [So far, this is Eamon's favorite "soaked" recipe]

***any recomendations to make this not so runny/griddy/DONE in the middle?

• Fried Eggs with Homemade yogurt

Lunches:

• Salad w/pan fried fish [talapia, flounder, or salmon]
• Fish [the same mentioned above] with brown rice and steamed veggies
• Hummus plate [chic peas soaked for 24 hours and cooked in the crockpot over night. VERY tedious, but noticeably tastier.
  

Snacks

• Laver [nori]
• Fruit/veggies
• dehydrated fruits and veggies
  
• sweet potato fries
• Yogurt
• brown rice crackers [Lily is LOVING these]
  

Dinners:
Monday: Lily and I had a spaghetti date tonight, It was super lovely :]


Tuesday: Fish Tacos. The Brownings are coming this way for supper and swimming, should be fun :]

Wednesday: Shitake and Udan soup

Thursday: Lentils with Sea bass

Friday: Vidalia onions are in season now so French Onion soup is DEFINITELY on the menu

Saturday: Pizza

Sunday: Hummus platter :]

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Losing It

My belly that is, and slowly my mind...but I think that's unrelated.

I don't know if I shared the news here, but before I went on vacation [emphasis on the BEFORE, I probably ate more sugar on vacation than I have all year...] I weighed myself at our family doctor and I lost ten pounds for the month of May :] FINALLY some progress!
And let me tell you, it was hard.

But, I wanted to share some of the actions I've been taking to make these changes possible and hopefully they keep on coming!

1. I got help from someone who I knew wouldn't put me on some diet pill, tell me to stop breastfeeding, and tell me to eat 500 calories a day. Dr. Jim Bob is not only my former employer, but my go to health guy and family friend. Him and his wife Cindy know so many things about what God has made our bodies to do, naturally, and I always feel safe with their advice. So, during one of my bi-monthly adjustments at LFWC we talked about my struggles losing weight. We found out that I am estrogen dominant, which was making it that much harder for my body to let go of the fat that was in my body. So with his help, I started makin more changes.

2. I cut out the simple carbs that were turning into sugar in my body. No more white rice, all brown. And even though we were eating whole wheat bread/bagels/pita I made it a rule to only eat it once a day-either at lunch or supper. So instead of having toast or a bagel in the morning with my eggs [it was really just to fill me up and give me an excuse to eat butter and honey] I have a small amount of oatmeal or goat's milk yogurt. It fills me up and satisfies my sweet tooth. And if I don't have either of those, I steam up some apples and a dab of butter :] The carbs I do eat are prepared by me about 95% of the time and soaked overnight. I also stopped baking as much, but did allow a cookie every now and then so I wouldn't go on a crazy purge.

3. I have awesome support from my husband and friends. I think this is the biggest thing you could have!

So, as I get back into the swing of things, post vaca mind and all, I'm going to add regular work outs again. Not as fast, not as often, but definitely thorough and regular.

WISH ME LUCK!
Mae

Snapped back to reality

It's been really hard to get back into the swing of things. Soaking grains, sweeping floors, and staying active are not as easy to slip back into as I thought it would be.
Last night we made some more concrete-ish plans for our family and boy HOWDY it kinda rocked my world. Lots of work ahead and some dreams will be put on hold.
But anyway, here's some eye[and ear] candy for you to tide you over :]

I LOVE with this photographer

She makes me want an underwater camera SO bad

I love this song, and this video

Duet from Robin Cantrell on Vimeo.

Ah, so pretty.

And yesterday I worked on my fan page for my new little adventure, Mae B Photography



Guess what's been on my mind lately, lol.
Have a good night!
mae