Mommin' It Up!

May 10, 2012

Home SWAT Home

Sunday morning Emily and I got up at 4:30 a.m. to catch a flight home from Mom 2.0 Summit. It was brutal. We arrived home about 12:30, though, which was nice. Since what can go wrong will go wrong when mom’s away, Bobby had gotten sick Saturday night while I was gone. So, his planned trip to the store to get a few things we were out of didn’t happen. Since we were out of milk, bread, and bananas, I decided to run out to Aldi about 4:30 Sunday afternoon. (Because Aldi was a Mom 2.0 sponsor, and their prices are amazing!) But when I went out to my van, I was greeted with two police cars blocking my driveway. What the what? There was also an SUV parked right behind the police cars, and an officer was talking to 3 adults, two women & a man – there were also FOUR kids in the car, including a baby.

Bobby had come outside with me and almost immediately we heard “Joseph Albertson! The house is surrounded! Please come out with your hands up!” We peered down the street and there was another police car and a cop with a bullhorn three doors down. Well, YEE-HA! Just another Sunday afternoon in the city!

Naturally, Bobby and I turned on the Wii for the big kids so they wouldn’t notice the drama. Then, we pulled up chairs on our front porch and sat back to watch the drama.

The cop with the civilians was literally RIGHT in front of our porch. From the conversation we surmised they lived in the house or were related to the person that was being sought. The man was on the phone trying to make arrangements for someone to come get the kids. I felt so sorry for those kids. The younger woman was yelling at them a lot and using the “F” word. Lovely. I know it’s a high-stress situation, but geez. It was really hot so I went in and got a box of Capri Sun and took it out to the woman, but she declined, saying the kids were leaving soon. Fortunately, they were all soon escorted away.

By this time they had completely closed off our block so we definitely knew I was not getting out to the grocery anytime soon. I wasn’t too thrilled but I figured this wouldn’t take too long. Soon, I’d have my bread and milk, and anti-fungal cream for Jonah’s wicked diaper rash he had developed while I was gone? Right?

Then, we heard the cop tell the people on our sidewalk that SWAT and the Hostage Negotiation Team were coming. WHEEEEE!

It didn’t take long.

Soon this was the scene across the street from our house!

Soon there were SWAT guys with assault rifles all over the place. They were being very stealthy – jumping over fences, creeping through alleys, etc. All this time, the policeman with the bullhorn was constantly calling the guy to come out. Bobby and I could see a news camera crew down the street filming the action. He and I were constantly updating our FB statuses, and I was tweeting and instagramming the drama. And also, after about two hours, I was complaining HEAVILY about not being able to get to the store!

At one point a SWAT team member, or HNT member, dropped an orange box right in front of our sidewalk. I was all…umm…I hope that thing’s not going to blow up! Luckily my friend Jen, whose husband is on the HNT, told me that’s the “jump phone” they use to talk to the perpetrator. From online news reports, we found out the guy was wanted on a domestic violence charge, and was believed to be holed up in the house with an automatic weapon.

At some point we went in and made the kids dinner, then after that we let Joshua and Sophie continue to play Wii so they would not know that their were men with assault weapons right outside the house (they remained clueless throughout. We turned up the TV so they wouldn’t hear the bullhorn.)

But since we are super-stellar parents, we took Jonah out on the porch with us and let him swing on his baby swing so we could keep watching the drama!

So we were just sitting there minding the SWAT team’s business, when all of a sudden a stealthy SWAT guy crept up right next to our porch! I didn’t even hear him but Bobby pointed him out to me. So, I did what any good blogger will do:

photoswatbomb — photo heavily edited to *try* and hide the fact that I had been up for like 14 hours and had no makeup on.

LOOK AT HIM SMILING!!! HE LOVES IT!

I wasn’t as stealthy as him, because he saw me take the pic and said. “Don’t you go putting that on YouTube.”

No worries, dude. But you didn’t say anything about MAH BLOG!

Soon after this, things stopped getting fun. The bullhorn kept going. At one point they blared the SWAT truck’s sirens (it was on this guy’s front lawn at this point) really loudly for a really LONG time to try to get him to come out.

It got late. I still didn’t have any groceries. Jonah’s biscuits were still burning and he needed that diaper rash cream!

We put the kids to bed. It took forever. At one point I went out and saw the SWAT guys all in a row, with their shields up, in tight formation – it looked like they were ready to go in and get that guy!

But then nothing.

And about 45 minutes later, the trucks packed up and left. Huh? Bobby finally got out to the store after 10 to get us a few things, and I went to bed.

Then I woke up to news reports the next morning that THE GUY WASN’T EVEN IN THE HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT????? I don’t know how he got out but he wasn’t there. He ended up calling police from a location several miles away and turning himself in without incident.

After holding my neighbors and us hostage for over FIVE HOURS! Ugh.

If he moves back to the house three doors down after he gets of jail, I am totally leaving a bag of flaming poop on his porch!

May 8, 2012

THAT’S Lands’ End? Mom 2.0, part 2

As you know, Emily and I were sponsored to Mom 2.0 Summit by our favorite company to work with EVER, Lands’ End. Let me tell you how we felt like rock stars in these beautiful outfits. Over and over and OVER again we heard two things from attendees at the conference. Number one was: “THAT’S Lands’ End???” in a shocked voice, and number two was: “I am going to have to take a look at Lands’ End now! You make me want to shop them!” I am not even kind of exaggerating when I say we heard that numerous times. Of course, those remarks were always preceded with, “I love your dress!” Emily and I were posting pictures of our outfits on Facebook this weekend, but now we want to include photos along with some of our favorite features of them as well.

For travel, I went with my favorite – classic Starfish Collection comfort:

It was blissfully comfy and oh-so-adorable! I have on the Starfish tunic, striped scarf, and cropped leggings, which you can’t see, but they are adorbs (that’s how we cool kids say “adorable” these days) and I want to marry them. (Sorry, honey.) Also, I carried this gorgeous linen and leather handbag. It was big enough to be my carry-on on the plane, and it held my prized possessions – my iPad, my breast pump, and my makeup bag with room to spare! It has all kinds of pockets, a detachable wristlet, and even a place for your business cards. It’s pretty much the perfect bag!

We neglected to get a photo of Emily in her traveling gear, whoopsie! But she was also looking splendid in these pincord pants, matching drapeneck tee, and pointelle cardigan:

She had these shoes (pictured) on as well and they were so cute! I wanted to steal them!

(Emily jumping in here – I loved this outfit so much! It was super comfortable and I know I’ll probably wear it about once a week for the rest of the summer. The shoes were SO cute, and comfortable as well.)

When we got to the hotel, we immediately changed for the much-anticipated WHITE PARTY!!! We were both just soooo over the moon about our white linen dresses.

I loved my dress because it was so comfortable. The pleating on the bodice was a fantastic detail that really made the dress stand out. I felt great in it and very beachy. Emily’s halter was actually from the Lands’ End Canvas line (which you should totally check out if you’re not familiar with it!) Hers had pockets, too, which was so convenient. We felt amazing and confident in our white! (I was kinda bummed though, that Emily’s spray tan turned out so good. Dangit! My creamsicle dreams were totally melted.)

Friday’s dresses were my personal favorite. Em and I were both all decked out in linen. I must tell you – these linen dresses are gorgeous, the colors are SO vibrant, and they fit like a DREAM! This green portrait collar dress made me feel like I was straight out of the offices of “Mad Men”.

Here’s a look with my gorgeous Kinzie Linen Tote. The freshwater endless strand pearls are Lands’ End as well!

I really felt super-glamorous in this portrait collar dress. (And the shoes are great, too! More on those later.) Everywhere I went that day, people stopped me to tell me how much they loved it, especially the color (which is called “Asparagus”.) By the end of the day, Emily and I were saying, “Asparagus is the new black!” Everyone loved it!

Emily’s v-neck linen dress was equally beautiful. And check out her striped handbag! I was soooo jealous of it! (I know, my greed for Lands’ End cannot be satiated. It’s a DISEASE!)

(Emily here again – this was one of my favorite dresses too. I just loved both the fit and the cut. I am also slightly obsessed with that handbag.)

Something we both loved about these dresses is that they have little snaps inside the shoulders that hold your bra straps in place! Genius!! And again, I cannot emphasize enough how amazingly well they fit & flattered! The backs of these dresses were also so pretty and lucky for us, the Mom 2.0 official photographer caught that detail!

Friday night the party was a little more casual and Emily and I chose dresses that were super fun and comfortable. Once again I was jealous of Emily’s dress. Seriously I could easily own one of everything!

Don’t you love this bold print? And the belt was such a great touch. This dress also had pockets, FTW! And I know it’s kind of hard to see but she was wearing these shoes, which are sooooooo cute – I wore the same ones in white to the white party. Hers were orange and I LOVE them (orange is my favorite color. If we wore the same shoe size I totes would’ve ganked ’em.)

I chose a cotton modal print dress. This was without a doubt one of the most comfortable pieces of clothing I have EVER worn. It traveled SO well too, I did not have to do anything but pull it out of my suitcase and put it on! And I loved the print, but it also comes in lots of great solids. The matching espadrilles were the icing on the cake!

Saturday at the conference found me back in linen again and Emily in this great v-neck chambray dress. Her “sherbert frock” as one conference attendee called it, was much-coveted! And isn’t her necklace gorgeous? I wore the same one later that night.

I loved the way my shirred linen pattern dress fit. The shirring on the top is hard to see in the photo but you’ll see it later when Em rocks a solid color. Once again, Emily and I both got tons of compliments on these dresses! Despite the fact that it is linen, I didn’t have to iron this one out of my suitcase, either. I couldn’t believe it! The ultra-fashionable Nicole of Momtrends loved our dresses so much, she included us in her fashion wrap-up! We were so honored!

momtrends — photo courtesy of Nicole Feliciano of Momtrends

Finally, we were SO excited to get our looks together for the big closing party of the conference, at the VERSACE MANSION!!! We were both feeling very glamorous in RED – me in red butterflies, Emily in red linen with the shirring detail on top.

This dress was soooo FUN! I adoooore the print. It was ultra-comfy, and had pockets and the snaps to hold my bra straps in place. I felt super-fabulous in the bold print and color. I honestly felt like I fit right in at the Versace mansion! And check out my gorgeous and comfy Elizabeth buckle sandals.

Emily’s shirred linen dress was super RED hot. Look how beautiful she looks! The shirring on the top is so elegant, and it fit like a glove.

She had cute linen & red matching espadrilles, too! We both carried the Kinzie linen tote in red to complete our looks for the party. We got some great photos in these dresses!

Like this one, and of course, again for your enjoyment, the soon-to-be-legendary shot of us in Versace’s shower! Lands’ End REALLY infiltrated the Versace mansion in this one!

I can’t tell you how much we LOVED every minute of wearing these amazing pieces of clothing. We couldn’t have been any more proud to be representing Lands’ End – the brand that truly took us from the conference room to the beach to the Versace mansion! We hope you’ll head to their website, get your shop on, and show them some love!

Which one of our looks was YOUR favorite?

May 7, 2012May 12, 2012

Mom 2.0, part 1 (of gazillion)

I hate to throw the word “amazing” around too much (because I know I do) so the word I’ll use to describe our experience at Mom 2.0 Summit is “spectacular”. And I’ll also add on “life-changing”. Because I believe the after-effects of this conderence are going to change Emily’s and my lives.

It was just…so well done. Simple words that carry a lot of weight. So. Well. Done. The content was excellent, and effectively communicated! The people were fun, open, friendly, supportive. The venue was breathtaking!

The view from our room at the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne

We cannot think our generous sponsor, Lands’ End enough for sending us to represent them at this epic conference! We will have a whole Lands’ End fashion recap for you this week. We hope you enjoyed the photos of all our outfits over the weekend on our Facebook page!

whiteparty — decked out in Lands' End for Thursday night's White party

A highlight of Mom 2.0 was making some new friends, Jenny and Rachel. They are AMAZING and deserve a whole post just about themselves, which we will deliver later in the week! But in the meantime click on their names and check out their blogs!

racheljenny — Rachel (left) and Jenny, we LOVE you girls! (photo by TimeDog)

But let me talk a little about the content. Right off the bat, in Brene Brown’s keynote the first day, we were reminded to be vulnerable. There is power in being vulnerable! I have said before that we need to share each other’s hard stories. Those are the stories that we learn from, and that we benefit by sharing. I haven’t been sharing those with you for awhile. But I’m no longer afraid to or ashamed to. I do my best, I do – but I fail. And I’m tired of pretending that I don’t.

The first session Emily and I attended also had some brilliant and inspiring content. I was so excited because it was led by Kat Gordon of Maternal Instinct. I first connected with Kat a couple of weeks ago after my rant about the over-“mommifying” of us by marketers. Kat asked me to guest post on her businesses blog, (and I’d love for you to read it here if you haven’t already), so I was THRILLED to meet her at Mom 2.0!

Untitled — Me with Kat Gordon of Maternal Instinct

Kat and her co-presenters did a great job at their session – it was all on how you can use social media to effect change. You guys saw Emily and I do that last year when we asked you – and you SO DELIVERED!!! – to help our friend E cover her cancer care expenses. (You guys, I got teary-eyed just typing that. YOU are so generous and amazing!) Emily and I want to to more of that – of using this blog and all the other media that go with it to support local businesses, non-profits, and women in business. So look for that, and thank Kat, Shelly, Kathlene, and Kami for inspiring us!

Speaking of inspiration – we got to see so many successful women speak at this conference! Raise your hand if you were CLOAKED in Liz Lange during your pregnancies!! We got to hear Liz speak along with Pilar Guzman of Martha Stewart Living, and Lee of GlassyBaby, and they were (there’s that word again!) AMAZING!

You know who else is amazing? Amy Clark of MomAdvice (she is also a human kitten. Meow!) We knew this already, but we LOVED the face time we got with her this weekend!

Mom 2.0 also had some generous and wonderful sponsors. Thanks SO MUCH to companies like Dove, Intel, ALDI, and LG for taking such amazing care of us, and for speaking frankly with us about how we can work together.

Ok, so – we learned A LOT! And we also had some FUN! The parties were a blast, and the company was superb! Here we are enjoying the white party with our new BFFs, Jenny and Rachel:

fourBFFs — these. girls. ROCK! (photo by TimeDog)

The party at Gianni Versace’s mansion sponsored by the spectacular INTEL was OFF THE HOOK! You guys would not believe this place! Here Emily and I are just chillin’ in Versace’s shower – like we do!

The “shower” was a circular, ornately-tiled room with several gold shower heads – nowhere near a sink or a toilet. I really do not want to know what actually went on there but it made for a great photo-opp!

Here are some other breathtaking sites from the mansion.

As great at allllllllllllll this was, let me tell you what my true *favorite* moment was. It was Emily, my buttoned-up cuz, getting goofy and silly over the Bloggess. If you don’t know who the Bloggess is, please smack yourself in the face, then go read her blog and buy her #1 New York Times best-selling book! She is the funniest, ever. The end. AND as we were heading out to Versace, there she was standing right outside the hotel! OHEMGEE!! So, in the spirit of celebrity awe, Emily PHOTOBOMBED her!

Seriously, THIS is my favorite picture EVER in the history of the world. I love it MORE than my children’s newborn photos. Feel free to judge. I can’t help it! I am going to frame it and put it on my desk for inspiration!!

Despite the fact that we are HUGE nerds, the Bloggess graciously agreed to have her photo take with us and Rachel in our red dresses (if you know the Bloggess, you know why the Red Dress is important to her!) If not, GO READ HER!

You guys. Mom 2.0 was the BEST conference we have ever been to! We can’t wait to share more about it with you, starting of course with our GORGEOUS outfits from Lands’ End. (Seriously, I cannot TELL you how confident I felt in those clothes!!) We also want to share with you ALL the wonderful women who attended the conference. So I am leaving a linky below for them to post THEIR Mom 2.0 recap posts, so you can all get to know them to.

More to come this week…leave us a comment about what you want to hear about, or what you enjoyed about this recap so far. We’re back and we LOVE you! We’re excited to make this here blog even better for you!