Zoo Time

Austin and I (and our mommies) went to the Zoo on Monday!  What a fun time!  Austin is big enough to care about the animals and thought everything was a dog.  I just enjoyed people-watching. Our mommies liked the bat, bug, and rattlesnake exhibit best because it wasn't crowded and was air-conditioned.  Can you believe that Austin's mommy is afraid of lizards?  Silly, huh?  :)

Thanks Pepper for my zoo membership - I LOVE IT!!

Hope I get to go again real soon,
T-monkey

Law School Besties

Last weekend we had a little law school bestie reunion at our house.  When you go through something as challenging as law school, it is nearly impossible to come out the other side without a handful of lifetime buddies.  The 5 of us have ended up in Arlington, Fort Worth, Midland, San Antonio, and Olympia, Washington.  It had been 2.5 years since we had all been together which was way too long.  Just like any old friendship though, it was like we had never been apart.  Love you guys!!

Law School

Las Vegas 2006

Seattle 2007

Arlington 2010

We (minus Sonya) went to Lake Austin in 2008, but we spent the entire weekend in our pjs watching the summer olympics so apparently I didn't feel the need to document that.  They (minus me - I was laid up on modified bedrest) went to San Diego in 2009.  We are planning Colorado Springs in 2011, and I can't wait to see where we journey to after that.

Xoxo,
Gara

Salvation

One of the blogs I stalk (stalk: read about people that I do not know in real life. If I meet ever meet them, I will feel like we are best friends and they will not know me from Adam. :)  I'm okay with this.) - is Kelly's Korner written by Kelly Stamps of Arkansas. I first learned of her in January of 2009 when her sweet baby girl was in the NICU right after she was born and the largest prayer chain that I can remember was started. Every blog I read - people I knew and didn't know alike - were all sporting "Praying for Harper" images. Harper is 16 months old now and happy and healthy and a true testament of the power of prayer - and the internet. I love following along in their life. This was her post today. It hit my heart, and I had to share.

We live in a fallen world. Adam and Eve chose to sin in the beginning and since then the world is full of sin. It's full of hurt and pain and people often question "why"? God never promised a perfect life. But HE did promise to never leave or forsake us. The payment for our sin is death. That means a lifetime in hell. But God loves us so much. He gave a ransom for our sin. He sent His son Jesus to die on the cross as a sacrifice. Jesus took on the sin of the world - past, present and future - and died. But he rose again. He is alive!

John 14:6 "Jesus says "I am the way, the truth and the life - no one comes to the Father but through me".

Romans 10:9,10 "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

All you have to do to be saved and spend eternity in heaven - is to confess that you know you are a sinner and accept Christ as your saviour! Believe in Him and begin a relationship with Him. As a Christian - you are a new creation. You will have joy that can not be explained. A peace that passes all understanding.

You can not work your way into heaven. The Bible says even our BEST works are like filthy rags in God's eyes. Thankfully - Ephesians 2:8-9 says "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." That's the best news ever - it's God's AMAZING grace that saves us. It's NOTHING we can do. Isn't that freeing?

I just want you to know the love that God has for you. I want you to know how great a life in Christ can be! I accepted Christ at a young age and I have never doubted my salvation. There have been many days and years where I was not as close to God. But He never left me. The only way I can know Him and hear Him and grow closer is to spend time talking to Him in prayer and reading the Bible.

How do I know that all this is real? Because I have felt God in my life. I have seen Him at work. I can't explain the hope that I have in Him. I could not have made it through many things I have been through without trusting that His word is true. I believe the Bible is the inherent word of God. Every word is true. It's all about faith. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1). Without faith - it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6)

I didn't write this before because I just wanted to write down how to KNOW Christ - but yes - once you are saved - it is not really enough to just believe in Him. Even Satan believes in Jesus. You must serve Him and strive to have a relationship. We don't do "works" to earn our way into heaven but we DO serve and try to follow Him in all we do because we love Him and want to Honor the One who saved us. James 2:20 says "Faith without works is dead".

I share all of this because I deeply care about each of you who comes here to check in on my life. I felt very strongly that I needed to share this with you today and God just laid it on my heart in a very clear way that I HAD to share it.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift. 2 Corinthians 9:15

Thanks Kelly for sharing this.  I pray that God continues to bless you and your sweet family.

If you read this and want to talk to me about the AMAZING GOD I love and serve, please let me know. I'd love to sit down with you and pray for you specifically.

Xoxo,
Gara

A Post About Nothing

Xoxo,
Gara

Another Baby Milestone in the Books...

First trip to Emergency Room - June 5, 2010
Symptoms - Covered head to toe in red rash including right eye swollen shut
Diagnosis - Erythema Multiforme (basically a rash - not like a teeny tiny rash, but like a OHMYGOODNESS take the kid immediately back to be seen by the doctor so as not to freak out all the people in the waiting room kinda rash - presumed to be triggered by Amoxicillin (although could have also been cinnamon))

Here's how it went down...

Saturday morning  - I was busily prepping for a houseful of lunch guests and making oatmeal for breakfast.  I scooped out T's portion and gave it a whirl in the magic bullet with his pear cube.  Once, it was done, I sprinkled in a bit of cinnamon.  Not sure why - I was putting it in our portion and knew that spices were okay to start introducing at this time - so I gave him a sprinkle.  Not sure if it was the problem or not, but nonetheless, it was a dumb move.  Never introduce something new the morning of a social gathering at your house - it is just dumb.  T is a messy eater and we had him in his high chair in his diaper and bib.  As I was feeding him, I start seeing these little bumps popping up.  At first, I thought that they were mosquito bites since he had been outside watering the grass with B, but they were literally popping up before my eyes.  I stopped feeding him his oatmeal (because by then Brandon had googled cinnamon allergy and it talked about a rash so that is what we thought was the culprit).  Of course, before I got him out of his high chair, I gave him his dose of amoxicillin.  This was his sixth day in his second round of amoxicillin.  He had finished a 10-day course just a few weeks earlier for an ear infection.  I called the nurse at our on-call pedi office and she told me how much benadryl to give him so we tried that.  It was getting worse so off I went (Aunt Momo came along so that B could stay at home to finish all of the party prep - btw, he did fabulously!!!  Seriously, he is the best!)  to the on-call pedi office in Mansfield.  At this point, I'm totally still assuming that he has had a reaction to the cinnamon.  The dr. takes one look and asks if he has recently been on amoxicillin.  I go into detail about that, and she tells us that it is likely a reaction to the antibiotic.  How weird that he would have already taken 15 days worth of it before it caused the reaction.  Weird weird weird.  Saturday, we kept him doped up on benadryl.  He was sad.  We were sad.  Unfortunately, we hadn't seen anything yet...

Sunday morning - he was worse, much worse.  We gave him benadryl first thing to see if it would help.  When he got up from his first nap, his right eye was almost completely shut and his whole face, hands, and feet were ridiculously swollen.  Brandon and I chatted and uniformly agreed to haul ourselves to the ER.  Prepping for this is no small feat since I wasn't sure if we were going to be gone for 2 hours or 8 hours.  After I pumped, packed 3 bags, his lunch, some snacks, my moby wrap, the stroller, the pump and extra bottles, etc., we were ready to go.  We pulled up and I pulled T out of the carseat and just took him and myself in to get signed in.  I thought something about having an exposed rashy sad boy might speed up the process.  Brandon walked in with the stroller et. al and we were immediately called back.  Brandon may or may not have said that we will draw spots on him everytime we need to go to the ER from now on.  Ha.  I wasn't sure what the treatment might be - it looked like steroid shots are sometimes prescribed.  The topical rash part didn't worry me as much as the swollen face, eye, hands, feet, etc.  The main concern with something like this is always if it affects their breathing so it was worth a trip just to make sure he was okay.  It's worth the price of the visit just for the peace of mind.  The ER doctor just said to keep him comfy with benadryl and motrin and to come back if it continued to get worse.  The fever that accompanied it made him more uncomfortable than the rash itself I think.  It didn't get any worse on Monday, and we started seeing huge leaps of improvement on Tuesday.  Thankfully, he seems to be back 100% now!

If you have been following the blog, you can only imagine that I have tons of pictures to document this, but my dad asked that I not post them.  For one thing, they will make you really really sad.  For the second thing, they will make you really really itchy.  I am a sympathetic itcher.  I scratch when I see things that should make other people itchy.  Always have.  I also itch when I see lots of ants.  Just one of those things.  I scratched a lot.  In fact, I'm itchy just writing this post.  It was that bad.

3 doctor visits in 6 days (1 ear ache, 1 9 mo. check up, 1 rash consult) : $650
1 ER trip : (haven't got the bill yet, but I'm guessing $1,000)
Motrin, Benadryl, and gas $ for Aunt Momo : $40
Having my happy little unsplotchy meatball back : Priceless

Xoxo,
Gara

Living Life sans Dairy & Soy

As most of you know, I've been dairy & soy free since Thanksgiving so that I could continue breastfeeding Travis.  Just in the past couple of weeks, I've had several requests from friends or friends of friends that wanted to chat about doing the same thing for their little one.  Truthfully, it really hasn't been that bad.  Eating out is a chore because you can never be 100% certain that what you are communicating to the waitstaff makes its way back to the cooks.  For the most part, I've just avoided eating out (except for at Sonic - I'll get to that in a bit).  My family has been super supportive.  When Lovey comes down, she always makes me a few big protein items (roast, brisket, etc.) so that I can freeze them, and Pepper has been researching and coming up with her own recipes to satisfy my sweet tooth and need for baked goods.  She located these recipes for Oatmeal Cookies and Lemon Bars.  Both are awesome!  Rice Crispy treats made with canola oil aren't half-bad either.  I often just google what I want to make with dairy free soy free in front of it and see what pops up.  We've had pretty good luck substituting crisco for butter and almond milk for regular milk.  Jiffy cornbread mix and Bisquick are both cool.  Orowheat makes a whole wheat bun that is okay (although their bread is not).  My go-to cornbread recipe is 1 Box of Jiffy, 1 egg, 3 tbsps. of olive oil, and 1 can of creamed corn - makes 12 muffins - bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes (also a Pepper recipe).  :)  My sweet friend Anna made me some banana nut muffins by substituting flax seed and apple sauce for the butter requirement - they were excellent and healthy!!

This is Pepper's cake/cupcake recipe that I thought people might want to have.  They are so yummy and I like making the big mess only once!

CAKE MIX RECIPE:


Note: This recipe is equivalent to 4 boxes of cake mix. 4 cups of this recipe = 1 box of cake mix.

Ingredients:

10 cups flour
6 cups sugar
1 1/3 Tbsp salt
5 ½ Tbsps double acting baking powder
1 cup vegetable shortening

Preparation:

1. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Put 2 cups of the flour mixture in a food processor together with shortening. Process until mixture is very fine.

2. Add remaining flour mixture and stir well. Store in air tight container. Store in the refrigerator for up to a month or in the freezer up to 3 months.

LEMON CUPCAKES:

Note: Since the original recipe called for a yellow cake mix, I added a few drops of yellow food coloring to the following recipe. I also added some lemon zest to the mix and the glaze.

Ingredients:

4 cups of cake mix
1 box lemon instant pudding
¾ cup oil
¾ cup water
4 eggs

Glaze (recipe follows)

Preparation:

Mix all together. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Cool and ice with glaze.

Glaze:

Lemon juice
Confectioners’ sugar

I dumped and stirred until I thought I had enough glaze for the cupcakes.
 
These are so good!  She has also made a strawberry version, and I've made a peach version - both also delicious, but lemon is my favorite.

Sonic is one of my favorite fast food spots because of this iPhone app.  A lot of restaurants especially fast food joints have their allergen info on the web (Freebirds does too, btw), but it is handy to have this info easily at your disposal.  I just have dairy and soy marked as my allergens and it tells me what I can eat.  McDonald's french fries have dairy in them.  Weird, right?

A few caveats if you are trying to be dairy and soy free.  Learn all of the derivatives and be a scrupulous label reader.  Brands differ and ingredient lists are always changing so check the label everytime.  One can of canned black beans may be fine, but the brand next to it may have soy.  If you have doubts, stick to protein and vegetables that you cook at home.  Pasta and rice are okay, but some pasta sauces are not.  Olive oil is safe and tasty, and you get real creative when you cook a huge roast in the crock pot.  I can turn the same roast into tacos, spaghetti, and bbq in the same week!

If you have any questions that you think I may be able to answer, please just let me know!  I'd love to share what I've learned!!

Xoxo,
Gara

I'm 9 Months Old!

Can you believe it? I'm 3/4 of a year old. Mom has already scheduled my first birthday party (8/21 - be there or be square) because she knows that it will be here before she knows it (or is ready for it). I'm growing up and now resemble a little boy (attitude and all). I went to the doctor today and weighed 20 lbs. 13.5 oz. (about 50th percentile - less meatball than mama thought) and was 29.5 inches long (between 75th and 90th percentile - must be getting my height from my dad and my Grana).

I've really worked alot on movement since last month. I've got major "ants in my pants" and often break out in a crazy dance complete with wiggling and head bobbing. I shake my head no no no no no while I'm in my highchair sometimes. It sure does make a major mess when I'm a moving target for my spoon. I'm still not crawling up on my knees yet, but I'm doing full-arm push-ups and getting up on my knees and rocking, so my folks don't think it will be long. Of course, I can army crawl wherever I want so I'm not worried about it. I can army crawl over to one of my peeps and then pull myself up on them to standing. I also do a bit of whining with this move until they pick me up. :) I haven't started pulling up on furniture yet, but I can stand by the ottoman if you stand me next to it.

I'm also a little jabber-box. I love to sing and talk. Dadadadada is still my most favorite sound, but I've added lala, baba and vava to my repertoire. I've only spouted mamamamama once and it was when I woke up in the middle of the night and my folks were trying to get me back to sleep. It rolled off my tongue like a string of expletives. Mom thought it was awesome!

Over Memorial Day weekend, Grandpa got my pool set up. He even made sure the temperature of the water was "just right" just like he used to do for my mom's smurf pool when she was little. I had fun with all my peeps over Memorial Day.

I've added several new things to my diet this month most of which I don't really care for (turkey, egg yolks, tahini). I like kiwi and lentils and like stuff better when I can feed it to myself (grapes, banana, zucchini, etc.) I also really enjoy my dairy free soy free teething biscuits. Even mom thinks they are worth the mess they make! I'm really good with my sippy cup and drink a little juice now and then, but mostly just water.

 

My mommy and daddy were going to have an allergy screen run on my blood today, but they chickened out once they figured out that they would have to draw the blood out of my arm. Looks like mom's ban on all things cheesy will continue.

I went to the park with my folks the other day for my first ride down the slide. I had loads of fun (mainly watching the traffic go by), but whatever makes me happy is a-ok with them.

I love Superman. I hate aluminum foil. I get serious bed head. I kept sticking my feet thru my crib slats so now I sleep with two layers of breathable bumpers. I've got two teeth on the bottom and like chasing after Mom's camera and anything Dad rolls to me on the hardwood floor.

Xoxo,
Travis