I'll be 37 weeks pregnant on Wednesday and that means that my baby boy is considered fully developed and ready to come at any moment! I still don't think that he will come any earlier than his due date of June 30th though, in fact, I haven't experience one contraction yet! It is weird to count down the days now and only have 24 left before we all meet my little man, Solomon.
Maternity leave is one of the most wonderful things that I could have ever taken! Thank you to everyone who attended my mini group Brainwashes because you all made it possible for me to take 2 months off from work! I have totally been nesting and relaxing. Today I washed all of Sol's new clothes and sorted them, created a really neat photo book with all of our relatives photos and names and floated the lake with a friend. What a life! I think that I had forgotten how wonderful the summertime is really supposed to be before this month. I have always been so busy and hardly took time out to do things that I loved, but this year is so, so SO different. My life is so full of peace and simplicity now. We have downsized everything we own and now I only have to work a small portion of what I used to, life is so much sweeter without the hustle and bustle of trying to stay in the rat race. I think I am actually a completely different person since moving to Oklahoma than I was living in Lubbock, in a good way! Maybe it's just all part of growing up.
On another note... my garden is growing in quite nicely! I ordered a ton of seeds from the heriloom plantation, rareseeds.com and everything sprouted and then died. I guess I need a little more help with my green thumb, and so Josh nicely planted a ton of heirloom varieties from Lowe's in my freshly composted garden while I was in Lubbock last month. We have tomatoes, jalapenos, chilis, squash, blackberries, garlic and zucchini! It is so neat to see everything thriving and starting to produce. I wonder if the first crop will be ready when I give birth to my little seedling? I bet it will!
Here is London, she was a little camera shy tonight.
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I have lived in west Texas for almost my entire life and so you would think that I was "used" to tornado weather. Well, I am not. I remember only seeing one when I was in junior high near Snyder, Texas and my family were all at the Howard's house visiting. All of the kids went and stood in the bathtub as a not so serious precaution and I remember we all looked in the mirror at each other and busted out laughing at the funny sight. This has been my only tornado experience until last week.
I had big plans to go swimming last Tuesday and my friend, Steph, told me that her husband was sent home early from work because the conditions were perfect for another "May 3rd" tornado. Little did I know that the May 3rd tornado wiped out an entire town in Oklahoma with an F5 tornado. Josh was sent home a little early from work also and suggested that we prepare and pack the car. SERIOUSLY? Is it going to get that bad that my husband, who has lived here his whole life, told me to pack some of our most important things? I started to get a little nervous.
I packed the hard drive, camera gear, fire safe box, an extra change of clothes and got the dogs prepared to load into the car if the tornado came within 30 minutes of us. It was weird to have time to prepare in case our house was wiped out. I love all of my cute worldly things, but strangely wasn't attached to them enough to take anything more into the car... not even anything from Solomon's room.
I gassed up, got some Wendy's (with a chocolate frosty for my stress eating:) and when I got home we were glued to the TV for an hour before Mike and Laura came over. There was an F-4 wiping out El Reno, Piedmont and Guthrie and coming straight for Stillwater. We decided to go to the Sheriff's department instead of driving around and I sat in the "command" room in the basement and watched three spinning Ts with red circles around them approaching Stillwater. Luckily I couldn't hear anything down there; no hail, no wind, no creepy tornado sirens or rain. It was eerily calming. When we came out of the basement we heard that there were a few reports of damage but nothing too bad. I was relieved that our house was still standing, but as we began to drive around we saw huge trees down everywhere.
The next day we heard of an F2 coming through south-western Stillwater and demolishing about 9 houses. This morning Life Church got together a group of about 45 volunteers to go out there and help the people pick up the pieces. I wasn't much help being 36 weeks pregnant, but was able to photograph and bring yummy donuts...
Shelley Nelson:
I can't imagine. The tops of the trees gone are really scary.
(05.30.11 @ 12:06 PM)
Mandi Nikole:
Very sad. All the damage all over the states has been so sad. Couldn't believe what happen in Joplin. Glad you made out ok.
(06.01.11 @ 05:42 PM)
Kat Stevens:
Wow. My husband was driving very close to the F-4 tornado when it happened. So sad, and crazy to think of what possessions you would actually really want to take with you. Great shots.
(06.01.11 @ 09:55 PM)
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Tornadoes... scary
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That is hard to imagine for me, because I have spent the last 3 or 4 summers putting in thousands of miles of travel to weddings and about 50 hour work weeks with editing and shooting.
I am already going a little stir crazy. Last night I watered my vegetable garden, then fidgeted on Pinterest, tried to put together a baby bouncer, straightened the house, watered the front flower bed, and then it was finally time to go to sleep (at 9:30, you know). I thought I had nothing to do this week until I made a to-do list for myself and now my schedule is full! YAY! I just can't sit too still.
I have two due dates, one is June 24th (according to his 20 week sonogram measurments) and my other one is June 30th (when I'm scheduled to be induced so that my mom can help me during her week long vacation!). So no matter what, in about 30 days I'll be pushing this big guy out... now that's a little scary to think about.
I have about 10 books that I want to finish before Solomon arrives, and I just keep ordering more and more from Amazon's used book store! It's a little addicting and while I'm not "normally" a reader, I have a drive to soak up every bit of information possible to be the best new mom that I can be. I have pretty high expectations for myself and I sure hope that I will rise to the challenge.
I sure wonder what this little boy is going to look like. We have every gene possible in our family trees: curly brown hair, red hair, blonde hair, blue or green or brown or hazel eyes, tan skin, light skin, freckles, dark eyelashes and thin blonde ones and every type of build and personality! I am not good at waiting for surprises, and so I'm REALLY excited to meet this little guy and see what he looks like and who he will become!
When I was about 25 weeks pregnant I had a dream (pretty creepy one) where I pushed my skin out and it thinned into a clear bubble and I saw what Sol looked like! He had dark hair and blue eyes and looked quite a bit like Josh. I have had a few of these dreams before for other people and they were always true and so I sure hope mine is true too! It might be the Lord just letting me have a little glimpse into the womb so that I won't have to make up what his little face looks like. My husband is pretty good looking and so if Sol looks like him then that will be fun!
Let's just be honest about my self image right now. I weigh MORE than my husband and he is no small man. I have gained just about 50 pounds and am praying, hoping, begging myself that I will be able to lose it. If you have followed my blog for a while then you know that I'm always one extreme or the other (super dieter and fit freak or vacation/restaurant foodie who gains back all of the weight she lost 6 months before!). I really hope that having such a strict schedule with the baby and my life being so busy will help me normalize and eat healthy with lots of fun walks with Sol to lose this weight! I forsee many blogs in the future about it all:)
Well I'm headed out for the morning to take donuts to some church members who are moving wreckage from the Tornado damage here and then off for a swim and some computer work! I'm going to try my darndest to keep up the blogging (although it will all just be about my life for now) in the next two months so be sure to keep coming back!
****A note to my clients!!*****
- Yes, I am still a photographer and am available for your sessions and weddings after I have Sol! I'm not quitting... probably ever.
- I HAVE to complete your album THIS month before the baby comes or it will be put on a long hold (mid August). I only have Sarah, Milena, Megan and Jenn's albums left.
- I won't be taking anymore sessions until August! I am going to really take a nice month long break after Sol is born to get adjusted to everything before returning to work.
- I am only taking up to two weddings per month and my Fall schedule (besides the month of September) is completely booked for Texas weddings.
- I will be back in a big bad way in August! I haven't ever had this much time off and will be totally refreshed and ready to produce some awesome work when I start again. I will only be taking a session or two per week and so please plan ahead if you are wanting family or kid photos!
Anonymous:
So glad Maternity leave waited till after our big day! THanks so much Lauren. You will be a fantastic mother.
(05.30.11 @ 10:38 AM)
danielle:
Breastfeeding will melt that weight right off. It rocks and you will love it!
(05.31.11 @ 11:30 AM)
Jennifer:
I agree! Breastfeeding has so many benefits, for you and the baby! Weightloss being just one!
It is sooooo rewarding!
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Tuesday afternoon I decided to make one of my most favorite dessert recipes. There aren't many things that WOW me from cookbooks, but this peach cobbler recipe is delightful from an award winning chuckwagon cookbook. My friend, Steph, came over to make a mini cobbler with me and we had a good time cooking away until the scary Tornado storms descended onto the Oklahoma plains, needless to say, I stress ate about half of the cobbler:)
Here is the recipe:
1 Cobbler Crust
1 c. sugar
6 cups of peaches, peeled and sliced (I used canned in it's own juice)
1 c. butter
1 1/4 c. brown sugar
1 T. cinnamon
1/2 c. Jack Daniels Whiskey
1 1/2 c. whipping cream
Preheat oven to 350.
Melt butter in a saucepan and then add peaches, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and cream. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes. Add whiskey and stir every once in a while. Cook for 20 minutes.
Line a casserole dish with cobbler crust and then pour in fruit mixture. Cover top with either whole crust or strips of crust and bake for 45-50 minutes.
I used round cake pans since we were splitting the recipe and it turned out great!
Cobbler Crust:
2 c. flour
1/2 t. salt
1 t. baking powder
1 t. sugar
6 T. shortening
1/4 c. cold water
Mix dry ingredients, add shortening and cut in with 2 knives or a pastry blender until it looks like corn meal. Add cold water and form into a ball. Roll out on a floured surface and cut into lattice strips.
After I took this photo I took a bite and decided to put it back in the over for 15 more minutes (I cooked it half as long since it was a lot smaller than the normal cobbler) and it was PERFECT!
Mandi Nikole:
Great post. I blogged a recipe yesterday. I love to cook. Will have to try this one out.
(05.27.11 @ 01:17 AM)
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After the water balloon fight my nephews took a bubble bath...
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Oh beautiful Lauren! Im SO glad you were able to take this time before/after Sol is born. You will NOT regret it. When my son Riley was born in April of '09, I had a wedding 10 days before and 10 days after he was born. Then I got two weeks off and started a series of 9 weddings in a row. While my couples were all wonderful (and Laurie Crutchfield flew in to help me with the wedding before Riley came which helped a TON!), I was miserable. I hated feeling SUPER pregnant and still having to shoot...and I cried and cried everytime I left Riley right after he was born...especially leaving for work. This time with our daughter Reese, I only had like 5 days officially off before she came...a week early. :) BUT I got 6 full weeks off and it was wonderful! I just started back on 5/21 and I cant even begin to explain how much I loved that time to just be mommy and wife. Last year I was busy....busy busy. I even did a few weddings on holidays and this year I have told myself NEVER AGAIN! I wont miss even a teeny tiny part of my sweet babes growing and Im really happy to be at this place. Youre going to be even more grateful for where you are now once Sol gets here. Im so excited for you and that sweet baby boy...youre going to be a great mommy and if you think you know love now...just wait. Its going to blow your mind in the most fantastic way possible. :) Praying for you!
(06.06.11 @ 09:15 PM)Good for you for enjoying some time before baby comes. Life will get very crazy again very soon! :) I've got three boys....they are so wonderful and take such good care of their mamas!
(06.06.11 @ 09:16 PM)Congratulations!! How exciting to know that the baby you are carrying around in your belly will soon be in your arms :c) And I am quite thrilled to hear your comments on downsizing and slowing down. Very insightful and I think it would be beneficial for many to hear and understand.. thanks for sharing!
(06.06.11 @ 10:04 PM)Hey Lauren! I want you to know that you are going to be such a wonderful momma! I am just getting so excited for you! Soak in every single minute! After you hold that sweet little nugget in your arms your life will be forever changed for the absolute best! I wish we lived closer together and could have play dates! You, Josh, and Solomon are in my prayers and on mind the next few weeks. -Ami Martin
(06.06.11 @ 10:43 PM)Lauren, I love your heart. You totally inspire me! Thank you for your blog.
(06.08.11 @ 11:53 AM)