Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Busy Weekend

This weekend was super busy for the Fritz Fam! Here's the re-cap ...

Friday, we went to Paul's work picnic and one of his co-workers volunteered to do a babysitting swap! They'd watch our kids OVERNIGHT Friday and into Saturday, and we'd watch theirs for 4 hours Saturday ... sounds PERFECT to me!!

So we went home, took naps, ate dinner, and went to drop our little seedlings off :) It was their first official sleepover that wasn't at family's! I was slightly nervous, but knew that they'd be ok. And I knew there was a chance I'd be going back there at 11pm to pick them up, but I was fine enough to at least try ... after all, Paul and I haven't had a date night NIGHT in a loooong time!

So we dropped the kids off and headed downtown. Friday nights downtown is where the Fridays At Five are, it's where there's music, food vendors, face painters, etc are ... we went last weekend and that's where Kenna got her beautiful butterfly face painting :)

We walked around and had dinner, it was awesome not having to worry about slow little feet following and wandering. Then we went home and crashed haha, how romantic right?!

The next morning was our yard sale, so it was up bright and early for us! We did ok, but not nearly what I'd hoped for ... enough to pay for me to go get a mani/pedi while Paul headed off to babysit for our babysitters! How I have an awesome husband! Here's a couple pics of the madness at our house Saturday morning -


Sunday - church - awesome! I sang for the first time, at first nerve racking, then it all came back to me and turned out awesome!

After church we headed to Harrisonburg's Once Upon A Child to try to get rid of the rest of the baby clothing - like 8 tubs worth!!! They ended up taking maybe 50 pieces and not even clearing out ONE tub - so home we went with almost everything left :( Big Bummer!!!

After a light dinner once getting home, off we were to Paul's makeup softball game at 7pm. Here's the wonderfulness that came of that :)

Frustrations and Zumba

I'm very frustrated over this situation, so forgive me now please :)

The other day I got a call from our landlord saying that some people have complained about our garden table up front. Granted, we still have to cut the legs yet as they are too tall for comfort and have since held off the progress of actually getting plants IN it, but we are working on it.

Anyways, I told her, no problem, we can move it to the back, even though I'm not sure how well the (eventually planted) plants would do in the backyard given the lack of sun. But I told her we would make sure it got put in the back, no problem.

Then last night, they show up out of NOWHERE!!! Knocking on our door, without a call or anything, which is the SECOND time they've done that, and I can't stand it!!! In the lease agreement, it says they must give 24 hours notice if they will be coming over - so I'm frustrated ALREADY when they got here.

They start off immediately basically saying that the table's gotta go - we haven't moved it to the back yet because Paul sprained his knee last week and hasn't been able to move it - but they were aware of that and told me it was no rush. However, clearly some rich, snobby, old people in the neighborhood have such a huge deal with it being there, that it's a necessity now that we move it - which I don't completely understand the rush. It's not bothering ANYONE - they say that it's "making the neighborhood look bad" lol - WTH?!!? Do these people not have anything better to do? It's just a table!!!!

Anyways, to complete my rage and frustration, the landlord tells us that because of all our kids' outdoor toys and bikes and lawn chairs, etc, our front porch looks "trashy!" Omg, at this point I'm going to flip! I straight up told her WE HAVE KIDS! I have no where to put their play toys. She said why not let them play in the back - and I told her - if I had a nice fenced in back yard like everyone else, I would ... but instead I have ant hills every inch of the grass, bushes that are taking their own life forms, a tree that eliminates any "play" space, and a slope that goes straight down after 20 feet - there's no where for them to PLAY back there!!! So unless they want to build me a shed or storage, my kids' toys are staying up front!!! UGH

So, to conclude the night, I thought it would be best to go to Zumba and work off some frustrations - and I'm SO glad I did! I LOVED IT!!! It definitely helped me let go of the tension I was feeling and most of all, the emotional stress the hours before had created!

So there ya have it, a less than wonderful night for the Fritz Family :) or maybe just the Fritz Mommy!!!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Discipline, Ravioli and Baldness

Today was very eventful - and we embraced every moment of it!

Along with the help of a friend of mine, whose 4 boys are the most well behaved kids I've ever seen, I decided that my kids are way to rebellious and defiant and it needed a change. So she taught me a new way of discipline that already on day 1 has shown tremendous results. I don't need to go into detail, but I must say, I understand why her kids are so good now! It was a whirlwind in the beginning, but I feel if I can keep it up, their attitudes and behavior will turn around 95% - they're still OUR children after all :)

The kids had such a blast playing with the Lykosh boys and we are already excited about our next playdate!

Amy taught me all about eating healthy, and I welcomed every bit of advice. She even helped me go through my fridge and explained to me why each item (and I mean almost EVERY item) was not good for us. I've been trying to figure out how to get the whole family on a better eating schedule and pattern and this helped a lot!

We also had some VERY good conversation about marriage, kids, God ... overall, it was great to say the least to have someone much wiser than me give me some direction.Then, after much needed naps and some playtime, I made dinner! In my quest to eat better, this meal certainly was a step in the right direction -

I call it "the new Ravioli" :)


While the pasta was cooking, I cooked up some spinach. Once the spinach was complete, I added a can of diced tomatoes. Once that was heated, I mixed it together with the pasta, covered it with cheese and baked it at 350 until the cheese melted.

While the kids ate it very hesitantly, I was surprised at how much I didn't mind the tomatoes, which I'm not a big fan of. It turned out REALLY well! Go me :)

After dinner, I decided Noah's luekemia patient haircut was well overdue. So ... here it is -


2 thumbs up today :) Can we have another wonderful day tomorrow???

Monday, June 21, 2010

Father's Day Weekend +

Well today we're not so funky!

This is the second time since we've been home that our air conditioner has stopped working! If you know us, you know that in January our furnace went out, leaving us in a freezing cold house, resulting in our house fire which led us to this new house. Now our air is out, our house is upwards of 90 degrees and I'm wondering what's the outcome of THIS!

I hope our new landlord seizes the moment and fixes our air once and for all, instead of just trying to fix it up. It's dead guy, just replace it! So far he seems nicer than our other landlord (from the burnt house) so I'm hoping this isn't a sign.

Other than being in a sweldering hot home, that doesn't brighten my mood ANY, especially when I already woke up extremely tired! The kids woke up on the wrong side of the bed, Kenna decided to THROW her bowl of cereal, has refused to go in the potty, and Noah just wants what he wants.

I'm starting to think I'm going crazy!

Father's Day yesterday was probably least to be desired by Paul as we didn't do anything out of the ordinary. After church, we went out for pizza and Paul took Noah golfing while Kenna and I went swimming and home for naps. After golfing and our naps, we went to Community Group for church and once that was over, I left with a friend for some catch-up time while Paul took the kids out to Quiznos and Ben&Jerry's for dessert!

I told Paul that I was just giving him time alone with the kids to spend being a good Father :) At least that was my way of justifying leaving him on Father's Day. They had fun though even if he won't admit it, and the kids enjoyed the time with him as well.

So all in all, decent weekend ... now if we could just get our house below 85 degrees, I will be happy :)

Saturday, June 19, 2010

All Day Project

So after visiting in MN and seeing my mother-in-law's table garden, I thought it would be an awesome project for Paul to do on a beautiful Saturday :) And boy has it taken all day, but some awesome progress has been made!

First he had to attach the 2x20x8 boards to make the foundation -

Then the finished foundation -


Next we attached the window screen to one end of the foundation. The screen will keep the dirt from escaping -


After the screen was stapled down and secure, we put chicken wire down for support, to keep the mesh from falling and breaking. At times the wire was hard to manipulate, but we got it to work. The pieces weren't long enough to we thought maybe we'd eventually put a 2x4 across the open space that you can see -


This is as far as we've gotten so far. Hopefully the next post, it will be 100% finished. Paul still has the legs to attach, but then it's completely done, minus the optional 2x4 underneath!

I'm not sure what ALL I want to plant yet, but I do know that there will be garlic, spinach, lettuce and a ton of herbs. I'd eventually like to it so that we can use the majority of our spices right out of our garden.

Check back to see the progress :)

Hopefully a Catch-up Blog

I'm creating this new section of my blog to update everyone, far and near, on the Fritz Family.

My main blog will be strictly MY blog - my thoughts, feelings, emotions, everything you can imagine :) But this blog will be just about our little family and the things we do.

Sometimes I will attach pictures, and others I won't, but just incase you haven't been given the link for our family pictures it's - www.picasaweb.google.com/ditzyfritzy - there you will find ALL THE MANY millions of pictures we take!

Hopefully you will be able to get up to date info and some awesome pictures and details of the Funky Fritz's Family :)