Minnesota

Wow this has been quite the whirlwind couple weeks!  Just so you all know I AM still moving forward with the whole "Nanny Agent" thing...I just need to survive October first.   Also, I'm still undecided about a name. I have a hard time committing to something so concrete. :P

Last weekend I had a very rare opportunity to go to MN with Angie (NO kids) and see my amazing brother and sister-in-law.   As some of you know I went to school up in Minnesota, graduated 2 1/2 yrs ago, packed my car, moved, and haven't been back since.   I hadn't seen my brother and sister-in-law in a year and a half, so it would be an understatement to say that I was excited about this weekend trip.

It was wonderful.

Very short, but wonderful nonetheless.







Thursday, Kerrie (my sis-in-law), met us at Mall of America and we spent the afternoon/evening wandering around (brought back lots of college memories) and catching up on life. One of my dear college friends even stopped by to hang out.  Then when my brother met us all after work and we went out for refreshments and chips and salsa together and reminisced about old times.

 

where the bro works

                                       

Friday was spent visiting my brother where he works (Target Headquarters) and hanging out at Caribou. Then spent the evening in our PJ's eating pizza, watching Modern Family and playing with their pup Ajax.   It was such a sweet time with them and made me miss them even more. Why does Tennessee have to be so far away from Minnesota and Colorado????

Ajax

Cutest little family

brings back so many memories

Angie rockin it as usual

Saturday we just had to stop by Women of Faith and see Angie speak...it was the first time I actually was able to sit through her whole talk at an W.O.F. event and it was so special to be able to share that with my family.  Only my younger brother has met the Smiths, who have become like family to me and so it was so important to me that my older brother and sister get to spend some time with Angie.  
Anyone else live far from your family and sometimes you feel like you have two or three separate lives?
For a weekend it was nice to have those lives merge.

 That's my little update. We are still having issues getting Internet...although we have now been billed for two months worth of Internet...we still don't actually have it...hmmmmmm. Once we do though I will be writing much more consistently and begin writing more info sections geared towards nannies.
Have a wonderful rest of your week my dear blogger friends.
Kels

True glamour of a nanny.

I debated sharing this story because really, it was a pretty embarrassing scene...but then I thought about it and realized that being a nanny brings the risk every day of being publicly embarrassed or humiliated (moms and fellow nannies, you know what I mean).  
Kids don't always have filters, they don't always have control of their bodily functions, they sometimes lose control of their emotions.
 The person most in the spotlight during those moments is the caretaker.

Before I share that story though, can I first just say how proud I am of Todd and Angie?
In case you hadn't heard the news going around, Angie's book has been #1 on Barnes and Noble (above The Help...which made for a great screen shot). I am so so proud of her and am honored to have been able to watch her walk this path and stand by as she walks in humble obedience.  You MUST go get her book and read it. It is amazing and I plan on reading several more times....I've already read chapter 5 about four times. She is a very gifted writer.
Just to add to the families exciting week Selah's new CD was released this week and has been in the top 100 list on itunes and at one point was even between Lady Gaga and Eminem...HA.    I am so excited for them and LOVE this new CD. I have listened to it over and over again for several months and don't think I will ever get tired of it.   I love getting to see Todd, Amy, and Allan do what God has put them on a path to do and have never met musicians so humble and Christ-centered.    Go support them and buy their CD!
OK...just had to brag on them a bit.  Back to my story....

So just for laughs here is how my night was last night:

We were going to Selah's CD release party.
We walk in with the whole clan and I have little C in my arms.
 Now just to give you a little bit of back story and prep for the next part....the girls are very into finding me a boy. For the most part I just humor them and put up with the embarrassing moments when we are out and they announce (usually rather loud) if they see a boy they think I should get married to (they never seem to go to dating...just straight to marriage).  
Anyway, so for about the past 9 months or so they have been obsessed...I mean literally obsessed about this one boy that has helped out with Selah's CD (praying he doesn't read this...it was just too funny not to share). They are constantly talking about wanting us to get married and how they think he is just perfect.

Then they informed me that they had also been telling him these same things.

Great.

I finally got to the point where I would tell them that I don't know this guy and who knows...he may not even be my type.
Simply to try to simmer down all this excitement for them.

Ok.

 Back to the party.

We walk in and I'm being introduced to people and we proceed into the next room where I get introduced to this guy. A little awkward introduction of "Oh yeah, I've heard all about you"s were exchanged and we just laughed it off.
Silly children.
They say the darndest things.
As our introduction finishes I happen to look down at little C's face.

Ok moms/nannies, you know the face. The one where you know in a matter of milliseconds things are going to be projected from the child's mouth and although time seems to be moving slow...there is NO way you can move fast enough to do anything about it....

Yep.

That was the face.

Which was followed by projectile puking all over....Me.

Side note: Why is the first reaction to put your hand there to catch it? There is no such things as "catching" uncontrollable vomit. It's impossible.

So I'm standing there completely being covered as little C just keeps it coming and the party comes to a screeching halt.
I'm torn between wanting to comfort and hold C close as she is crying and throwing up....and not wanting to move because I'm covered in chunks.
And then comes the "Now what do I do stage" that results in you just standing there calmly holding a puke covered baby and not moving a muscle for fear that chunks may scatter even more and the soaked through shirt and pants may get more soaked through than they already are and the chunks may squish under my feet since of course my shoes were covered as well.   And of course....not breathing. Because if you breathe in the way that you smell...you may just join in on the puking party.

Are you feeling sick yet?

Then I hear someone say...."Are those tomatoes?"
I look down to see perfectly cut up little triangles of....hot dog. To which I reply..."Nope, hot dog."

 Yep nanny guilt.

I was the one that fed her hot dog. Apparently she didn't actually chew u a single piece and I was now wearing the results.
I will never feed a child a hot dog again.
So we made our way to a bathroom, scrubbed off as much as we could, and I changed into one of the guy's t-shirts...

To make the situation even more humorous...as I came downstairs Allan informed Angie and I that the girls had taken care of the "boy situation".  I was afraid to even ask what that meant but he proceeded anyway saying that the girls told the guy "Hey just so you know, Miss Kelsey says that you really are not her type."  

Awesome. 

Out of the mouths of babes. 

8 year old match making. 

Never a good thing. 

At that point Angie and I pretty much just fell on the stairs laughing at how oddly eventful the night had been and we had only been there for about 15 minutes.
I then spent the rest of the night trying to keep a 5 foot radius between me and anyone else because the smell was enough to make you gag.  
At one point I must not have kept to that 5 foot radius because Angie was talking to a friend and said "Man, I still smell puke." to which her friend responded...."Kelsey is standing behind you"  hahaha.

We finally made our way home...with the windows down the whole way of course ;)
The night could not hold anymore incidents.

right?

We're getting the girls ready for bed when we noticed a leak in the ceiling....I run up to check the girls bathroom and as I take the lid off the back of the toilet I get shot...right in the face and hair...with a shooting stream of toilet water.

We spent the next hour trying to fix a toilet...laughing about the glamorous life of a nanny and her best-selling author boss.

Being a mom or a nanny always brings the risk of embarrassing moments, sticky (or stinky) situations, and a whole lot to laugh about.

This will be one night that I will laugh about for the rest of my life.

Moving

Well, well, well...this whole, not having internet thing seems to be hurting my blogging consistancy.
So much has happened in the last three weeks and so many times I have had stories that I've wanted to get on and share, but alas...traveling, moving, working and not being up to date with technology has continued to slow me down in the blog world.

A few weeks ago I was at camp with our youth group (which I wrote about earlier), then went from there to Cincinnati to nanny for the week and then on to Louisville to meet up with Angie at the last Deeper Still conference (which was incredible).      The conference was something that I wanted to share about for some time because it held so many special moments for me on so many levels. I missed the session the first night, BUT I did make up for it by getting to hang out with Angie, Melanie and Sophie....who all provided me with some wonderful laughter. A much needed night of good conversation and humor. If you haven't followed any of them on their blogs you most definitely should!  

The next day was filled with incredible speakers, fellowship with my sweet friend Sarah and even a quick backstage run in with Beth Moore....my goodness that woman radiates Jesus to everyone she comes in contact with. phew. incredible.
I've been lingering in the lessons taught that day by Beth and Priscilla about taking sabbath, the gifts each generation has to offer and the need to be united not in competition in ministry.

So good.

I over-all it was a great weekend to lead into what was lying ahead. I got home and my roommate and I moved and what was supposed to be a nice, organized, slow move turned into a frantic, unplanned overnight move.

Long story.

 Moving is never uneventful when it comes to me and Jenna.  We have been best friends since Freshman year of college...which will be six years in October. We were also roommates throughout college and to say we have moved together is an understatement. Not ony did we move in and out of dorms every year, we've also moved from states away to get here and since living here have moved several times. Not a single move has been easy or uneventful.

So after getting stuck in a hail storm,

wading through a flooded parking lot,

spilling paint,

discovering a broken counter,

 taking a break to test out pillows and spend a gift certificate,

getting rocking chairs stuck in doors,

 keeping Little Ceaser's in business for a week,

   and frantically trying to find a truck last minute...of course all with the help of some awesome friends we got our whole apartment painted and everything moved in on time. We may or may not have shed some tears through the process and made some promises to never ever move again, but through it all we are constantly reminded that the little frustrations in life tend to be the things we laugh about the hardest and our most treasured moments as friends together. It's the adventures that make our story what it is.


Now we are waiting for living room furniture and staring at piles while laughing through the memories of how we got here.

I AM so excited to share our apartment transformation and am trying to be real patient. We are on a very tight budget but wanted to switch things up...since we had the same decorations and lots of mismatched things collected from college and the last two years. I am a lover of projects and decided to take on the large project of re-doing all of our furniture and creating a whole feel using very little money. So excited to share the results with you all.


I also have some other news that I have been keeping under wraps and I'm getting closer to being able to share it with you...some big plans and big step of faith coming soon!

Also in the big news area....WE'RE GETTING INTERNET! Hurray. So I can finally start blogging more.
That's it. My quick little update on why I've been M.I.A.
Gonna go work on changing my address, pretending there are no boxes to unpack while I enjoy a day off by the pool catching up on life. 

"My girls"

This is way over-due, but I have been dying to share some very special pictures with you of some very, very, VERY special people in my life.  Before I do though let me just brag on them a little bit...is that ok?
good.

well, if you don't want to read through the bragging you can skip on down to photos. ;)

So I get to spend my days with five precious little girls. Four from one family and one from another family (nannying for two musician families keeps me constantly on the go). Not only do I get to spend my time with these girls, but I am beyond blessed to get to spend time with their parents...especially their moms. I seriously go home at night and spend the drive thanking God for placing such wise, spiritual examples in my life.

I began working for the family with the one baby girl just over three months ago and I already feel like I've known them for years. So much of that is because her mom takes time to really invest in conversation and dive into what is going on in life. Lately we've been going to Cincinnati (well, Florence KY actually, but Cincinnati sounds more exciting) once a month for a week, so we gets lots of time to talk. I am constantly blown away and so ready to take in her story and her wisdom. Love them so much. And if you couldn't tell already I am slightly obsessed and adore their precious daughter.

Now the OTHER family I have been nannying for, for over a year and they truly feel like my Nashville family. I mean who goes to their boss' house in their PJs at 10pm to watch Toddlers and Tiaras?? (don't judge us...the psychologist in me just loves analyzing the people in that show).

They are very special to me to say the least and I am honored to have them in my life. The ministry that Todd and Angie commit their time to and the transparency with which they live life is a constant example of how we as Christians are called to live. I have learned so much from them  and continue to learn and be challenged through the way they live their lives.  

Now their girls....they mean the world to me.  Each one has such a unique personality and to have spent so much time now watching each of them grow and start to discover their own likes and dislikes, emotions, preferences, etc is so much fun. I could write a book about each one of them so instead I'll just say they are each incredible and their own little ways.
They are going to be some incredibly talented, tender hearted girls just like their parents(did I mention the outfits they're wearing in the photos were made by Angie? shhh don't tell her I'm bragging on her).

So anyway, I was so excited to do an official photo session with them, because the only other official one we had done was Charlotte's newborn photos....a year ago.

Crazy!

Where did the time go?

I was going to just pick a few to show you, but then I started stressing out going through the hundreds we took and the favorites started piling up. It seemed to be easier just to throw them all together, add some cheesy, sentimental music and make a slide-show. 


Here they are sorry there are so many and it turned into a ridiculously long slide show, but I've been dying to show off my gorgeous girls and they are way too photogenic and expressive to just choose one of each...

Glamorous

Being a nanny can be a tough job. I mean, I'm 24 and it's easier sometimes to have a discussion about the latest parenting fads, the most recent news on the American Pediatric Association, and the best discipline tactics then it is to have a "normal" conversation with someone my own age.  I spend the majority of my time waltzing around with a baby on my hip and several kiddos in tow looking like a young single mom.

And It's sort of a running joke around here that with the perfume of baby barf, the beautiful accent of baby food down my shirt and hair that has been pulled out of it's ponytail holder several times makes me a real guy magnet....especially when you have all that going on for you AND you're driving a mini-van full of kids singing Justin Bieber.

Some people say I live a glamorous life.

and when they say that I laugh.

Is being sneezed on, resulting in a mouth full of pureed sweet potatoes going in every direction (mostly targeting my face and hair), glamorous? On first thought I laugh and think...absolutely not. But then....

 I looked up the definition of the word "Glamorous"
Glam-or-ous
-adjective
1. Full of glamour; charmingly or fascinatingly attractive, esp. in a mysterious or magical way.
2. Full of excitement, adventure, and unusual activity

Well if we are looking at the dictionary definition and not society's definition....it couldn't be a more fitting description of my job.

Speaking of charmingly attractive, full of excitement and unusual activity...does she not have the most adorable guilty face or what?

SO despite the fact that my mind is constantly spinning with the songs from Dora, or when on rare occasion I go out with friends I accidentally drop a pacifier out of my purse...I adore my Glamorous, exciting, adventure filled, very unusual life as a nanny. 

Also....HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my amazing, beautiful, fabulous boss and dear friend Angie Smith....andddd HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sweet, snuggle bug, Charlotte. I'll post more on that tonight once I have photos to show you :)