Ok guys, I'm not too sure about this. I don't how to get my pictures in the right place!!!! And I need a header! Katie Bay, are you following me? This week has been sort of slow. I had lunch with Allen so that I could get the full 'experience' of Campione's, a cute Chicago style restaurant in town. He was SO pumped!! We got the Wednesday special. Twas a delicious success. I went to the Farmer's Market this morning with my friend Nick. I got tons of great pictures off the new D40. I'll post those soon! Mapping out plans, so maybe the Tin Roof tonight. Mike Allen and Ben think it is a good time, I'll judge for myself soon enough. I hope all is well~ I leave you with an awesome commercial that some friends of ours worked on that aired during the American Idol Finale!! I pray it planted a seed in the homes that can help.

adventures in baby sitting-

Disclaimer: This was written for a very dear friend. It is long, so beware because your humor may not be a ridiculous as ours! Hope you enjoy!



Here is the sweet princess AFTER the whole ordeal!!
My very curious baby bro:~)

Originally written on March 26, 2009… I just haven’t had time to finish until now (BLASTED EDUCATIONAL Requirements!!). Here you go:

So about 2 weeks ago I, being the self sacrificing love that I am offered to babysit, in order to allow my parents to run (key word=run) to dinner. How hard can it be? Jill was flat on her back high on drugs from her wisdom teeth, the brat pack (hannah, jack and bo) were playing next door. All I had to do for 2 hours was entertain, bathe, and feed Matt and Emmy. Easy task, right? NOT THIS TIME!!!

As mommy dearest was walking out the door she says, öh can you snap a picture of me and the pups? My hair looks good and they are still pretty cute from their grooming"

"SURE" I say, no biggie, so we step outside for approx. 5 mins and take a few pix:)

As I walk back in I notice the front door and living room are covered on crushed up packing foam from a BIG box that had not been put out yet....ÖH great!!"I'm thinking, I call Jack, he cleans it up and I move on to finding Matt......

The parentals hit the road, and I realize its been 10 minutes since I've seen Emmy (an unlikely occurancce since she is the BIGGEST BABY in the world and spends her days hanging on your leg) I call around, no Emmy. So I start searching the house (shows how great a sitter I am right? haha) I start up the stairs and begin to follow the TRAIL OF FOAM...on the spindles, the hand rail, the carpet, the wall, that stuff sticks to EVERYTHING!!!! I make it to the top if the stairs to find Emmy in the middle of her room in a PILE of crushed up foam, "LOOK!!! Lee-lee!! Funny!!!"She says to me, ÿep, real funny.....

IT's in her hair (looks like lice) stuck to her body, on her bed, walls, rug, sticking to the floor, the door, needless to say I was covered soon enough......So I Trudge down stairs to put her bad self into the tub...spent 30 mins picking and combing the foam out of her hair, it really was like a bad lice dream....(OMG!!What if she swallowed some already, I'm thinking...Do I know the number to poision control??? I was smart and locked Matt in the bathroom with me while I completed this task!!)

I get her out of the tub take her back upstairs to her room to dress her and access the damage and turn right back around for FEAR that we may look like snow men because the stuff is just attracted to you....I take a very naked Emmy down stairs and call Jack home to finish cleaning up the mess....well he REFUSES!!! I stoop to his level and argue with him in his room for 10 minutes....as I am arguing I notice matt is wandering around with something black in his hand but figured oh he is fine...then next thing I know as I am having a screaming match with a pubescent pit bull/ terrier mix brother, Matt hands Emmy what he has been playing with and she rubs/ sticks it all over her little body from her chin to her belly....

It was a STICKY MOUSE TRAP!!!!! THE WORST KIND OF STICKY POSSIBLE!!!! SO I abandon ship on getting the one of the brat pack to clean up the mess while I watched little kids...obviously I have a hard time with this as it is!!! I take Emmy and a bottle of AJAX dishwashing soap with me BACK to the bathtub!!! I scrub...its not coming off...I'm desperate, I have NO "goo gone" or finger nail polish!!! I try, listerine (21% alcohol you know) I think this will break it down...NOT!! I try mineral oil.....That doesn't work either....I resort to Lemon juice....its acidic....that can def. do the job....NADA!!!! At this point she is crying because she thinks I am going to rub her raw and Matt is STILL asking me if "I mad at him?"...So I say..."Screw it, I don't care if your clothes stick to you forever...at least you won't be able to get them off"(she has a tendency to change clothes 5x's a day!lol) I get her out and dress her and proceed to find the Vacuum to get that dreaded foam off of EVERYTHING and out of the house FOR GOOD!!!!

I know this is LONG but.......It gets better.......

so I run upstairs with the vacuum and start sucking all the white foam up....well there became a point that the vacuum was over loaded with foam and I just kept sucking and it was shooting the foam out the back side of the vacuum out into the hallway~!!!!!!! Seriously!!!! It’s like a bad scene from a 1990’s Mccully Culkin movie at this point!!!! I take the vacuum container down stairs to trash the contents and return to FINALLY remove the foam from the Emanuel house….whoever invented that stuff is best friends with satan!!! Lol

As I am finishing up, I notice that I have not seen or heard from Matt in over 15 minutes (don’t you pity any future children I may have?? I can’t keep up with them!!) I take the contents of the vacuum downstairs for the LAST TIME and as I approach the trash can I nearly buy the farm by SLIPPING face first into the hardwood floors……yes, remember that mineral oil that I used on Emmy…

Matt had watched where I hid it in my parent’s bathroom and decided that it was LOADS of fun to have an indoor slip and slide in our kitchen!!!!! At this point I don’t know whether to cry or just lay out laughing!!! LOL!!!! My temporarily druggie sis came down to see the commotion and God knows she didn’t need mineral oil to impair her walking anymore than the Percocet!! She did sit down in the floor and wipe up oil, while I hosed Matt and Emmy off one more time…by this point Bo came in from playing with the neighbors and said, “Lee-lee, if you would have just called me I totally would have come home to help get this all cleaned up” ‘MY HERO!!!!!’ I’m thinking.. In the end, Bo was the hero and did help get the last of the oil off the floor, while holding Emmy (he is going to be SUCH a good dad:~)).. we ruined our clothes in the process b/c there was SO much of it!

The parentals came in about 5 minutes later and said “guys, the house is clean but ya’ll look like you’ve just seen a ghost”…..I say, “oh, no, a ghost would have been delightful compared to what we’ve been through”.

I am plotting out my summer...so far, on the books: studying for the GRE, riding my red-headed horse, eating LOTS of sticky Popsicles with the brat pack, Dennis the Menace and the hot headed Guat tot, and keeping up with my non-commital lunch dates. I'm BACK!! So I'll write you in the next 24 hours and fill you in:)

Blog #2......lets see if I can do this!

We were ready to get this 'daddy/ daughter' trip over with!!! as you can see from Jillian and Hannah's expression!! Below are some of my cousins and their kiddos with our grandma.

It was an awesome weekend! I’m originally from the gulf coast, so I ran down for my grandmother’s surprise 80th birthday :~) We had a blast surprising her and I loved hearing so many great memories from other family members throughout the party and spending time with my cousins! I didn’t get to hit the beach (I’m a beach bum when I can be! my favorite!!) like I wanted to because I was only there for 36 hours and it stormed most of that time….but there is always next time.WE SERIOUSLY GOT HER GOOD!!! SHE DIDN'T HAVE A CLUE!!!!!

The above was the extent of our beach trip....not a big deal needless to say.....