If you’ve ever walked into the store and seen a lovely lady fashionably clad in great jewelry and with a killer smile, then you’ve had the pleasure of meeting Kelly – co-owner/founder, mom of three, Martha Stewart, breastfeeding advocate, empowered childbirth champion, do-it-all. She always wears a smile despite how hectic her days become. Here, Kelly has documented a day in her very fashionable and crazy life.
Wake up at 5:30 am to try and keep the number of awake children under two, because if one more wakes up it is really going to be a long day.
Shower, dress and feed several people.
Prepare lunches and then get in car (warning: you should love your car, lots of time will be spent there)
Enter carpool line, drop-off your eight year old.
Park and go inside to pick up paperwork for PTA. Chat with outgoing PTA president who no doubt wants you to volunteer for one or nine things. (note: Yes I could have skipped one step by avoiding the carpool line but I can’t bring the child into the school because he is too cool for that and needs to be dropped off.)
Next stop: pediatrician for a well-visit. You hear about statistics and development; and then console a weeping six year old because she wanted to be told that her eyes needed glasses. Two out of the twelve children in her class have needed to get spectacles this last month, and she wants them, too.
Back to the car. Drop off six year old.
Head into work with The Baby. Work for a few hours, deal with questions, and products, phone calls and woes, and then…
Back to the car.
Pick up two children here, and then one there, and then off to one more stop for the day.
Come home. Laundry, dishes, homework, cook.
Back to the car (do you see why you should like your car?). Get the kids, the gear, the coats, the umbrellas, the seats, the drinks, snacks, money and keys all into the car in the rain.
Head to baseball diamond, cheer on your child and other people’s children with more intensity than you have ever summed up for a professional being paid 4.1 million dollars a year. You watch your child be so incredibly proud of himself, and his body, for what it can do. You see that amazing joy a team has when they have been modeled a life of sportsmanship and respect.
Back to the car, and when you get home, covered in dirt and rain, with frizzy hair, your little one, The Baby, sits down on the potty and <gasp> goes potty! You will cheer so loudly it will make her jump. After you tuck them all in that night you will sit down and write this blog post, because you hope, you pray that you will never forget this day and all of the amazement of it.
Thank you, Kelly, for doing all of the above and still being able to put a smile on each day for the wonderful customers of Bellani!
PS. When do you sleep?
The first is my Flip that I got for my birthday. Yes we have a video camera but it’s old, and big and well rarely sees the light of day. My Flip is the perfect purse-sized mamarazzi accessory. Singing in the car, capture it on the flip. JT going across the monkey bars for the first time, captured. I love this little affordable gem. The downsides are the charger is sort of cheesy (and sold separately) but I am glad I got it anyway. Also if you shake a lot your videos will shake a lot, the Flip doesn’t have the image stabilization that other video camera (which cost 5x as much) have.
When it comes to make-up I think I am not a brand loyal person and use what looks good on me. Lately I have been obsessed with the new Bare Essentuals 100% natural lip glosses and their new super awesome “Flawless” mascara. I like glosses because lipstick always ends up on my teeth. Seriously, I look like a fool a work. I find the result isn’t the same with these glosses. These go on great, provide some nice color and some shine/sparkle without so much you look like you borrowed Barbie’s lip gloss kit from your 4 year old. However, it’s the mascara that’s my obsession. I love the brush and the natural look of this one. It’s easy to apply, doesn’t clump and lasts all day. When you are running late a little gloss and mascara can make even jeans and a t-shirt look pulled together.
I have a favorite spot, along with several people at Bellani. It’s a crazy name I have to admit, but has grown on me. 
So last week the girls and I were sitting around a table at Carabaas Restaurant enjoying a pitcher (or 2, maybe 3) of Sangria talking about life. The topic of “If you could change one thing on your body, what would it be” came up. You know the game, we’ve all played it. It’s fun. You get into the dream world of what would make you feel wonderful and give you what the universe didn’t. Almost if you were perfect (your perfect, not someone elses) what would it be.
I would like to say that I was lucky because I had a mom who worked “inside” the home for most of my childhood. But as I write this, I feel like a hypocrite because even thought I appreciated that greatly, I am not doing that now. I loved that she would send us off to school (where I grew up in NJ, our town was only 1 mile x 1 mile so there were no buses. We walked everyday and it was uphill BOTH ways!) and be there when we returned. She volunteered for school events (maybe a little too much some times, just kidding mom) and cooked us healthy home made food. I have a sister who is almost 2 years older than me, and we played every sport we could. Soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, and softball in the spring (and if my mom was really unlucky, we would make the all star team and travel all summer). My sister and I did this from the time we were 5 years old, until High School where that got into another realm of commitments. Since my mom worked “inside” the home, my sister and I were able to attend all of our commitments and activities.
Kelly LaChance Guertin: I'm a lady with a cackle that can be heard in any room. If it comes to Pregnancy or Childbirth I have a real answer, from a mom who knows a little something about it. I have three children, The Boy, age 7; The Girl, age 5, and The Baby, just one year old!
Stacey is our High Tech Mommy, Stacey Boulmetis.
