Exam time: home of camping out at the library, eating large amounts of cookie dough, and taking large amounts of strange pictures on your computer. Just see for yourself…
We also made some videos (you can see one if you go to my facebook).
Yes, this post really has no meaning but if I got you to look at strange pictures of my roommate and I and helped you procrastinate for a couple minutes, I feel like that’s a job well done!
Filed under Fun, Pictures, Procrastination
So I knew that with finals week coming up I would be incredibly tempted to go on facebook, twitter, pinterest, my blog, other blogs, and just about anything that I could go on to procrastinate. And that’s not good.
So instead, I downloaded StayFocused on google chrome (it’s a free app! kinda like this one) which limits the amount of time I spend on certain websites to a predetermined time. So I blocked all aforementioned websites except for one hour per day (that’s cumulative for all those websites!)
And I’m very happy to say that my web surfing has been decreased significantly. But I did sneak in a little Facebook this weekend and found this gem of a video. Please be warned that you will laugh out loud. So for those in the library studying like good students, help your fellow students out by sharing this with them and having the best four minute study break ever!
Filed under Fun, Procrastination
Could I have a more awesome sister?
Well I don’t think that’s possible because she is amazing. And I love her. And she sends me stuff like this at midnight which totally makes me snort-laugh and forget about my anatomy-test-studying woes.
(Make sure to click on it so you can see it full size.)
And then I show it to my roommate and she says “I can’t wait for her to come this weekend.”
To which I respond “ME EITHER!!”
…and then I read it again and snort laugh even harder. My poor ethmoid… (anatomy humor)
I think it’s kind of ironic that I would find this while surfing my blogs instead of biting the bullet and finishing the last paragraph of my paper that was due at 11pm tonight.
(No worries, I totally turned it in 3 hours before it was due. And the prompt was “How did you feel about your last test?” –Really?!)
Me thinks I need a bejeweled Facebook page…
Filed under Fun
This fourth of July was one of my favorites. I’d say it was all because I’ve got cool friends that travel down from Raleigh for the day so we can all hang out.
Mary Katherine, Julie, and I met at Amy’s pool while she lifeguarded and Becca worked. We didn’t have much to do but don’t worry, we weren’t bored. We had fourth of July relay races and games to watch including the Dime Dive, Limbo (complete with a bloody nose for one little girl), Beer Dive (the parents were blindfolded and the lifeguards threw bottles of beer in the pool then the parents had to search for the beer- whichever bottles they found they got to keep), relay races, and Watermelon Rugby (the watermelon was greased and two teams were trying to get the watermelon to the other side- this was the most insane game since one lady got knocked out after the watermelon slipped out of someone’s hands and landed on her head). So yeah, we were entertained. And tan.
After leaving the pool and stopping by Target in search of big red hair bows (no luck), we all got ready at Amy’s house for dinner. We found a restaurant that was open on July 4th (kind of a reality check when we realized restaurants, malls, and grocery stores weren’t open on July 4th- duh) just as a huge thunderstorm blew in and threatened to cancel all fireworks.
But luckily, the rain passed and after dinner we wasted time until dusk when we went to Becca’s club to watch fireworks.
After fireworks we were planning on watching the Bachelorette but found out it was a rerun from a previous week. I mean, c’mon ABC, my weekly dose of gossip is worth so much more than Happy Birthday, America!
So we instead decided to watch a scary movie. If anyone’s wondering, The Roommate is, in fact, a scary movie. But again, don’t worry, because we had sustenance to keep our hearts racing at lightning speed throughout the whole movie with the help of Amy’s red velvet cupcakes…
…and Becca’s cookies and white chocolate strawberries dipped in blue sprinkles. YUM.
After crashing and waking up 6 hours later, we headed off to good ‘ol Waffle House since some of us (myself included) had never been. Definitely fun and Waffle House got big points for being cheap. Awesome for a college kid. Actually, going to Waffle House made me wish there was a Waffle House on the way back from church in Chapel Hill so we could mix it up between that and Bojangles every Sunday.
After breakfast we had an extra half an hour to kill before Amy had to leave for work so we decided it was time to proclaim our totally-ok-with-it-nerdiness to the whole Waffle House staff and diners when we broke out Bananagrams and played at the table for 30 minutes.
After that, Amy left for work and the rest of us left for Ikea and wandered around wishing, hoping, coveting, dreaming, and planning for our future home/apartment/dorm room.
So my fourth wasn’t particularly special, it was just spent with special people. People that I can’t wait to hang out with all.the.time. come August 20! (Lindsay also gets an honorable mention here since she wasn’t able to come this weekend but is so part of this.)
Another day began at 7:45 when I heard Madelyn loudly whisper “Andrea…? Are you up…?” um, yes. now I am.
Breakfast. Beach. Lunch. TV. Nap. Dinner. Bed.
Yeah, not the most exciting day but it was one filled with tons and tons of laughter. And since nothing extraordinary happened today, I figured I’d let Madelyn and Jeremy send you out with (what I think is) a hilarious video of them talking about nonsense.
Oh, and yesterday I told you I’d get a photoshoot with Jeremy and boy do I deliver! Here I am with Mr. Wonderful. Couldn’t you just eat him with a spoon?!
I then ask him to take a funny picture and this is what he gives me. Thanks dude.
The day started out at 7:45 am when the two kids woke me up by coming in my bed and snuggled with me. I was then able to sneak off for about an hour and listen to one of Elevation’s sermons and listen to a couple of songs before an amazing breakfast of eggs, bacon, and fruit made by Brammie.
Then we all got suited up and went off to the beach for an amazing day of wave jumping, sand crab catching, seaweed-flinging, sand-digging, and picture-taking day. Here’s a not-so-beautiful-but-good-enough picture from today that shows you little JJ. Someday Mads and I will invite him on one of our photoshoots so you guys can really see who he is.
We then came back to the quintessential American meal of hotdogs, baked beans, carrot sticks, and watermelon fixed again by the wonderful Brammie.
About an hour into our siesta that afternoon Madelyn and I parked our behinds on the couch and made a couple of videos, skyped a couple of my friends, and played this addicting game. We made several silly movies but I also managed to squeeze a couple of somewhat serious videos out of her including this video about what went on at the beach today. (Sorry for the video/sound delay, I fiddled with it for awhile and I couldn’t find a way to fix it.)
But perhaps my favorite part of the whole day happened after that when I was called by Aileen (the mom) because my favorite movie in the whole wide world was on; The Parent Trap. Madelyn and I quickly parked our behinds again on their bed and watched it until we were called down for dinner (local bbq cuisine!).
But to my delight, when we were called down to dinner and we were still in the middle of the movie, her parents allowed us all to turn it on downstairs and finish it. The whole family even joined in in watching it too.
That movie totally brings me back to my childhood as it was the first movie I’d ever seen in a theater and I was just as glued to the movie as Madelyn was tonight (who had never seen it before). When I really thought about it though, I was not surprised at all why she loved it so much. 1. She’s basically my twin so if I loved it, she loved it and, 2. I first saw the movie when I was 7, the same age as Madelyn is now.
During the commercial breaks I went upstairs and hung with Jeremy, Madelyn’s brother. I’ve hung with this family ever since he was born but for some reason he hasn’t been as attached to me as Madelyn was. It’s probably because I come back only during the summers since I’m away at school the rest of the year but folks, I think I might have won him over a little today. After playing games upstairs, we went downstairs and he actually let me change him into his pajamas.
I know, not a huge deal, but when it’s the first time he’s let you change him, I call that a huge step forward! He even gave me a kiss on the cheek when I asked him. What a sweet boy.
So all in all, I loved today through and through. And I’m not sure how tomorrow could get any better. Thank you again, Boltz family, for inviting me on this fabulous vacation with you guys.
I’m off on vacation for a week with one of the best families I know. They have two kids, Madelyn (7) and Jeremy (2), and I’ve known them for about 7 years when I started babysitting for them.
This family has the greatest daughter ever- Madelyn. I might be a little biased though because she’s actually my twin (just 12 years younger). I’m dead serious.
The ride up here was very uneventful considering three out of the six passengers slept the whole way and two of them were the kids. It might have given me a false impression of how the week will actually turn out given Mr. Insanely-Smelly-Poopy-Pants (Jeremy) and Miss I’ll-Talk-To-Anything-For-Hours (Madelyn) were of course invited on this trip too.
But the house is just gorgeous and I’m so glad to be away from babysitting 24/7 (only to go on vacation with two kids, oh the irony) and to sit and be with such a great family. I was even able to squeeze in a quick mani/pedi for Madelyn before dinner. She even chose the same nail polish as I have on my toes. But what did you expect; we’re twins, remember?
And now I’m off to snuggle into bed before 10 pm. I seriously can’t remember the last time that happened. But when you’re sleeping in the same room as a 2 and 7 year old who like to wake up at 7:30 am, you gotta do what you gotta do. It might just be the key to survival this week.
Filed under Babysitting, Friends, Fun, Vacations
WITH MY NEW MAC COMPUTER!!
Yes, yes, yes!
Aahhhh!!
(I’m excited.)
But why wouldn’t I be? I’ve had Mac envy ever since last year when school started. My friends will attest to that.
Both my friends and my dad emailed me the day Apple announced their summer promotion of $100 to iTunes and the app store. So come Saturday, off to the Apple store my dad and I went to buy my new computer!
Let me tell you, I was way impressed by the use of technology at the store. I can see you now; rolling your eyes thinking ‘of course the technology was cool, it was in the Apple store, after all.’ But seriously, I was impressed.
My parents paid $750 of the computer and I paid the rest (which ended up being about $750 too). Good thing I’m babysitting a lot this summer.
But let me tell you, I left that store with a permasmile. The whole drive back I didn’t even mind that I drained my bank account of $750 because I had known for so long that this was something that I really wanted and didn’t want to buy just because other people had it or because it was new or something.
But I love surfing the web, skyping, taking pictures, and blogging so much right now! And I can’t wait until I get some music on it too. 🙂 So moral of the story, talk to me, skype me, facebook me, comment here, anything to keep me glued to my new love.
Filed under Fun
There’s not much in my life right now that I feel is worth posting about.
I do realize that that sentence makes me sound a little suicidal/depressed, but I promise you, I’m not. I repeat: I AM NOT SUICIDAL. Ok- just wanted to get that out there so nobody called my parents being all concerned or whatnot.
But back to the “nothing worth posting topic.” Truth is, I haven’t been doing anything at all, really. Since babysitting is my job this summer, whenever I don’t have a babysitting gig, I can fill up my days with whatever I want them to. Which makes for some very boring days that nobody wants to hear about.
But since I really want to blog today, I’m going to rack my brain for some remotely interesting tidbits of what I’ve done in the past week or so.
Are you ready for an entire post about whatever I can think of in the next 10 seconds? Awesome! Ready…
10…
9… I’ve got it. Yes, that quick, because this is awesome.
I got paid to go swimming and read a magazine. Yes, those are the perks of being a professional babysitter with awesome families. Last week I got to hang out with 8 kids in their backyard pool and play silly pool games for 3 hours… and totally got paid for it! Because I know you want to know what 5-10 year olds think is a fun pool game, let me explain what we did for a good 30 minutes.
Step one: everybody get out of the pool and stand about 15 feet away from the deep end.
Step two: the leader will make up a way to jump into the pool and demonstrate it for all the other kids.
Step three: after the leader swims to the side of the pool, the other kids will copy what the leader did jumping into the pool. the leader then judges who copied their jump the best and the winner becomes the new leader.
Pretty straight forward, right? Well, if you said yes, you’d be dead wrong. Like, wronger than the restaurant I thought I was being hired at saying they were sorry but I couldn’t have the job because “they didn’t know it was a summer position.” boo.
Well the magic of children’s’ brains comes into the creativeness of how you jump into the pool. These kids aren’t doing any boring cannonballs or belly flops. No. Those are old school and too boring for these kids. Animals are the name of the game for these creative kids.
For instance:
Yes. You get to name them. And then you act it out for the rest of the kids to follow (sounds optional). How awesome are these kids?! PS: I came up with “the squawking goose” and it was an immediate hit. Flapping your arms wildly, squawking like your life depended on it, and running around like a chicken with its head cut off before you walk straight into the pool makes for an amusing show. You don’t become the most awesome babysitter without arsenal like that.
That was only one of the games played but by far the most amusing. Almost every time before I go to someone’s house to babysit, I take a second and remind myself that I’m here for these kids. I had some amazing babysitters when I was little. Some were outdoorsy, some were crafty, and others were more the let’s-make-fools-of-0urselves type. But the best babysitters were always the ones who trusted me and my sister and played games with us not because they had to or because we begged them to or because they were being paid but because they wanted to be friends with us. Kids can always tell if the babysitter’s there for them or the money. I could always tell growing up.
I distinctly remember sitting in the living room of my old house thinking “When I grow up and I become a babysitter, I want to trust the kids I babysit because so-and-so didn’t trust me enough to get my own food.” And I always remember my babysitter Cheryl because she brought art projects to do with my sister and I. I remember then thinking “I’m going to be like Cheryl and bring stuff for the kids to do because she’s so cool.”
So going back to the pool story, I always try to check my “old-kid-know-it-all vibe” at the door for both the kids and myself. It’s no fun to be the babysitter that will come to babysit at the pool but “doesn’t want to get her hair wet” or is too afraid to act like a child that they won’t play games like the crazy animal one above. Because truth be told, they’re usually pretty fun! And you might even get a compliment from the parents like I did while playing the animal game. (One time while getting out of the pool, the mom pulled me over and said “You’re really good at that game! The kids love it.” That’s when you know you’ve gained the friendship and trust of the kids and the parents.)
So all in all, I love kids and I love babysitting. Can you tell?! But I know that even for those of you out there who don’t work with kids, this applies to basically every relationship out there. People can always tell why you’re doing what you’re doing.
I’m so thankful that I have families that I can truly let loose with and hang out with their kids. In fact, this summer I’m going to the beach for a week with one of the best families I know. I’ve been babysitting for the family for almost 7 years which is saying a lot since the oldest child is turning 8 this summer. So. Excited.
Filed under Babysitting, Fun
think of me 