Red Lipstick

So yesterday while I was in the shower getting ready for my hubby and I's date night, Gremlin #1 managed to find my red lipstick.  She had been quiet for quite some time, and the throwing of her toys into the shower with me had halted, so I had some suspicion that something fishy, and most likely naughty was going down.  Just a few short minutes later, Daddy arrives home.  I hear some shuffling, a few words being said and then silence.  I emerge from the bathroom, all dressed, and the hubby's face says it all.  Some thing's up...  I chalked it up to the house being a mess, and yes, Gremlin #1 managed to destroy my clean house in a matter of less than 10 minutes before Daddy got home.  Then I see my red lipstick down the side of the bathroom counter.  Ugh... "Bella, did you get into Momma's lipstick?"  Not a word... silence.

"Tim have you seen my red lipstick?  I think Bella got into it?" I ask.  "Yah, she got into it" he replied.  "Ugh..." I groan.  I again seclude myself to quiet of the bathroom to put my face on, and when near complete, I again question for the red lipstick.  I was going to wear it to match the red blouse I had on that evening.  Tim directs me to Bella's floor where the evidence is written all over Bella's white carpet.  The container had been confiscated awhile back, but the contents lay all over her floor.  There was no denying who did it, the proof was all over the place.

These are the lessons I've learned from this:

  NUMBER ONE!
            Red lipstick is one of the hardest stains to remove out of carpet.  Not only did I read this, but I now know first hand.  Yay, right?

NUMBER TWO!
            Using near boiling water to wash most of the lipstick out first works well and then finish scrubbing it out with 409 cleaner.  15 to 20 minutes later, and some lightly scalded hands, my carpet looks near new again.  After I experimented on the lipstick, I used the same method to clean up a small spot on our bedroom carpet, when she got into my eyeliner about six months ago.

NUMBER THREE!
            The terrible two's have arrived, and are in full force.  The result, a locked down house.  My make up is now up one drawer higher and safe until my little Dandelion grows some more.  Which we all know how Dandelions grow, pretty much over night.  And with her learning by leaps and bounds, it won't take her long to figure out how to get into the closet and grow enough to reach the higher shelves. 


These are the years to be cherished right?  :)  I kind of have to laugh when I think of it.  I enjoy our children, but I understand the concept of grandchildren much more now.  You spend the weekend with them, spoil them rotten, and send them home.  Children behave much better for their grandparents and they get their house back to normal once the kids leave.  They maybe grow a few hairs that weekend, but they will recover.  Raising children, on the other hand, is where all of the gray hair starts.  Or in my Dad's case, his seven girls gave him a head of full blown pearly white hair where he now very much resembles Gandalf the White from Lord of the Rings.  We not only made his hair grow gray, but another step further into white.  It all begins with the up all nights and poopy butts, then evolves into the red lipstick or nail polish all over your white carpet, then the sassy years where "no" and "mine" seems to be the only two words in their vocabulary, and finally concluding into the dreaded teen years with the "Mom, Dad, I need $20 bucks!" and you worry about who their kissing and what their doing when their not home.  And kissing better be all they're doing...

Gandalf the White

My Dad

I don't think you ever stop worrying about your kids, as I know for a fact my parents and even my husband's parents worry about me and my family on a regular basis.  In fact, my parents are driving four hours to come and pick me up and drive me and the two Gremlins home with them for two weeks while the hubby is gone deer hunting.  It's not that I didn't want to drive home, because I did, but everyone was worried about me and the Gremlin's first long journey away from home.  So, we will be trekking it with Grandma and Grandpa this time.  It is a sigh of relief for me, to not have to drive, but serves well for proving my point.  You never stop worrying, even as your children grow up.  BUT, you get enjoy your grandchildren in a different way entirely than you did raising your own children.  With that said, I hope to get a few grandchildren of my own some day.  Hopefully not in the next 20 years, but someday.  Until then, I am just going to focus on getting us all out on the other end of childhood years and teenage hormones alive.

Good Morning from the Gremlin Post

Curiosity peaks early at the Frits household.  While most of the children of the world (at least in our hemisphere) are still fast asleep, my little dumplings are up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:30AM.  And to Bella's amazement, she was not alone.  On our journey to the fridge for our morning milk she found the most interesting of creatures on the fridge, something new for her hungry eyes and imagination.

 Of course she had to poke at it...










And touch it without REALLY touching it...

But she really wanted to.

She is an interesting little lady with her hobbies including, but not limited to, geology (rock picking), pedology (digging in the dirt), and entomology (a fascination with bugs) with a minor in the arts (finger painting).  She is like her Daddy as she loves the great outdoors, but has her Momma's touch because she's always putting her hands in the dirt and stopping to admire a leaf, or a flower's petals, or that bug that sits atop them while we're roaming around outside.

In the end, we find that our little girl is somewhat of a girly girl even if she likes her hands in dirt.

She woke up on Sunday morning, just to find that Momma's toenails were painted red, and she kept pointing to her toenails, wondering why hers weren't red too.  She, with her Daddy in tow, went walking down the hallway to approach me when the question arrived to my ears.  "Momma, can we paint Bella's toes too," her Dad asks on her behalf.  So up she gets propped on the couch, sitting so diligently beside her Daddy, as I paint her nails.  Now she's prancing around the house, showing them off and so very proud that her toes now are sparkly red like her Momma's.

She's so humorous, always finding a precarious situation to be put in...

           Or laughing at her own jokes...                                       Quite often you'll hear her jibber jabbering in what sounds some foreign language and then a trail of laughter to follow that you can't help but be caught up in.  You are left in wonder, trying to figure out what in the world she must be talking about that is so darn funny.  But all together she's a one of a kind gal with a heart of gold, even if at times it doesn't seem so.  I don't think Landon could find a sister that loved him more. 

This is our little lady Bella.  She naughty most of the time and sweet as pie just as often.  But mornings such as these, she's the latter and I just soak it all in, because I'm sure later she'll have me pulling my hair out.  But I love it, I love the way she is, and somehow she's always making me melt.

  Funny how these little munchkins can do that.

But now that she decided to go back to sleep, I'm going to go cuddle my other little man and get some more z's in myself.  I just thought I'd share my morning to all of my readers.  Hope your day starts off as sweet and adventurous as mine and Bella's.  Good morning world! 

Organization - My Very Own Home Management Binder

It's late, I know.  Landon was awake so I decided to work on my Home Management Binder (HMB) and I finished it!  So I'm superbly excited and had to blog/brag about it!  But he finally fell asleep, so I'm only allowing myself a few minutes on here to tell everyone about it.
It has 13 completed sections, each of which reflects a part of my life so that it helps to better manage my time and helps me to not forget things, like appointments or the last time the refrigerator got cleaned and when it need to be done AGAIN.  Here are my sections and subsections (just in case you're thinking you want one too...):

Section One: Scheduling
              A Collaborative Weekly Schedule
              Monthly Calendars
              Work Schedules
              Day Care Schedules
              Garbage and Recycling Schedule (sent from the city)
Section Two: Food Menu & Grocery Lists
              Grocery Lists
              Shopping Lists
              Weekly Food Menu (that gets posted)
              Monthly Food Menu (with featured cookbook)
Section Three: Household Maintenance
             My Master To-Do List
            Weekly Cleaning List (one room gets cleaned each day)
            Seasonal Cleaning Schedule
            Fishtank Maintenance Log
            Vehicle Mainenance Log
            Work Record (for when things get fixed around here)
Section Four: Yard & Garden Maintenance
            Garden Plans
            Outdoor To-Do List (Seasonal)
            Plant Care Sheets
           Chemical & Fertilizer Application Log
Section Five: Family Planning
            Fun Ideas for Family Time
            Birthday List (for my HUGE family)
            Natural Family Planning Information
Section Six: Medical
             Appointments
             Any pertinent medical stuff we need to keep up to date on
Section Seven: Financial Peace
             DAVE RAMSEY!!! http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-step-1/
             Our Budget
             Bill Pay Stuff
Section Eight: Child Care
             Emergency Contact Numbers for Babysitters
            Isabella's and Landon's Daily Routine
             Do's and Don'ts
             Fuzzi Bunz Care Guide - How to Use Then
Section Nine: Physical Fitness & Nutrition
             My Excercise Plan
             Couch to 10K in 13 Weeks http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=1462924
             Body Weights and Measurements
             Information from my Body Media http://www.bodymedia.com/
             Information on Eating Right (from my Nutritionist)
Section Ten: Self Cares & Reflection
             Short Term and Long Term Goals
             My Book Reading List (Top ten books I want to read right now)
             Prayer Journal
             Time set out for fun lady stuff like manicures, pedicures, facials, etc.
             Time set out for charity and giving
Section Eleven: Blogging
             Blogs I've written
             Ideas for future blogs and where I want to go with it
Section Twelve: Project Profiles
             Each MAJOR project have going on gets a profile where I can write down ideas and  
             plan what I want to do.
Section Thirteen: Miscellaneous
             Anything that doesn't fit in the first 12 sections, this section is empty right now.

I know this seems crazy OCD, and maybe it is, but it's a place where I can go and make sense of all the chaos in my house.  I am super excited to have it done and in full swing.  I've been using it for a month or so to clean my house, for babysitters and daycare, scheduling and such and it's worked beautifully as long as I stick to the plan.  Of course there are days that the plan doesn't work, but you can always compromise and pick up where you left off.  Even Tim used it today to catch up on our house cleaning, and he liked it because he didn't have to ask me what I needed help with next, it was already written out.

So all together, it has been a productive day.  Like I said, sometimes the "Plan" doesn't work out and the last three days was one of those times.  So we spent the day catching up and cleaning the rooms we didn't get to and when that was done, I worked on this management system and took care of the kiddos.  But I said I was going to keep it short, and I've already been on here longer than I anticipated so I'm off to bed.  Thanks Nessa for getting me going on this whole thing, I LOVE IT!

Big Sister, Little Brother

It's getting later in the day and both kids are asleep, as was I just a few moments ago.  I awoke feeling good, and should have woken the little ones, but decided to enjoy this quiet moment without the Gremlins awake.  I thought I'd share some of my more intimate moments of the past two weeks.

Big Sister ~  It has been a joy and a bit of trouble having a new baby with a very interested Big Sister under the same roof.  A lot of mornings, if Landon is laying in his chair, Bella will wake up and immediately go over to give her brother lovies.  I think Bella fell in love with Landon just as fast as her Mom and Dad did.  I will never forget that day in the hospital when Grandma and Grandpa Frits brought Big Sister in to meet Little Brother.  Her eyes lit up and excitement touched her face.  "Baby!" she exclaimed!  We had spent the past three months pointing at Mommy's belly and explaining how Baby was inside Mommy's tummy.  Even a few days after, Bella would still point to my pudgy belly and say "baby", which would then lead to a little discussion about how the baby in Momma's belly was now her brother Landon.  Bella's a smart cookie, and I don't think it took her too long to figure it all out.  A once worried mother, concerned that her two babies wouldn't coexist in peace, now worries that Big Sister will strangle Little Brother with hugs and smother him with kisses.  They adapted so well, I stand hopeful and confident that they will grow up as best friends, just as I did with my next youngest sibling.  After all, that was the whole point of having them so close, so that they could grow up together, play together, and be the best of friends.

A Not So Sleepy Baby ~ Landon is a good baby, he is happy for the majority of the day.  But Bella was an excellent first baby, she slept all of the time, and when she woke up she would eat and go directly back to sleep.  And although breastfeeding was a bit of a struggle initially, she took to it in a week or so and she rarely spit up.  Landon on the other hand, likes to be awake the majority of the time and has his nights and days screwed up.  The past few days he has been staying up for about 3 hours at night, from around 1AM until after 4AM, bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to eat.  He LOVES to eat, and LOVES to nurse.  I enjoy nursing, as it provides a moment of intimacy between you and your infant child, but four hours straight of a child looking to you as their milk factory and their contentment, is hard to provide when you're so tired.  And I'm not going to say that at 4AM I am this gleeful and patient mother, because after a full day of running after the older Gremlin, when the younger Gremlin is awake at night and stealing most of my sleep and energy, I get a bit grumpy.  None-the-less I realize, after a bit more sleep does arrive, that it won't be like this forever and I WILL miss these late night pajama parties.  I can say without a doubt though, that I will NOT miss being blessed with the fountain of spew that comes after each feeding, leaving us both soaked and leaving me with a large amount of laundry at the end of each day.  I can now understand what my family was talking about when they joked that the reason for cleavage was to catch all of the puke... it makes complete and "utter" sense now.  :)

Hubby Hubby ~ Another wonderful thing about being a new mom, is the togetherness that it creates between you and your spouse.  Terrible twos and tantruming toddlers create stress between a marriage at times, as it wears your patience thin and at the end of the day you've pulled out a few hairs and magically grown a few gray ones to replace them.  Even if you and your spouse match stride for stride in your parenting skills, you can't help but rub off the grumpiness on each other at the end of the night when its been a bad day.  Having two under the age of two has been hard, but having a newborn comes with a sort of haze that lingers for a few months.  It catches the both of you up into a love nest where all you can do is sit there in contentment and smile at the little miracles you have created together.  Tim and I often sit and smile at one another, cuddling our newborn son and watching our adventurous daughter muster up some silly tactic that we both have to laugh about.  Bella has grown to be quite the character, and quite the little girl, running around with her butt wagging, blond curly hair that falls to the nape of her neck, and who can forget that mischievous grin.  Landon will have quite the play date with his Big Sister around, as she's full of the dickens.  He already watches her when she comes up close, and I am sure that I will have a double dose of trouble in no time.  But again, I love the togetherness that a newborn brings home with them when they enter this world, creating a more complete and fuller family.  I'm loving it!

What About the Healthier You? ~ Hah, I have been trying and failing quite a bit.  I find that when Landon doesn't sleep and Bella is being naughty I crave junk food like mad.  I imagine that when Landon is sleeping more on a schedule that this will get easier.  I haven't incorporated walking into my schedule yet, but I have started using my Home Management Binder each day so that I keep moving around the house.  Today at Walmart, I bought a $4 pedometer so that I can visually see how close I am to my goal of 10000 steps a day.  10000 steps is what they say an "active" person walks in a day.  My house is slowly coming together and getting more clean as I am becoming more motivated.  I am hoping with more sleep, comes more energy and the motivation to start working out.  I can't fathom doing that right now with the 6 hours or less of sleep that I am getting currently.  But I AM going to start running by the time my 6 week postpartum lazy daze is done.  I signing myself up for a 10k run at the Fargo Marathon weekend where my sister Lisa lives and today we discussed running the 1/2 marathon together in September 2012 at Lake Superior.  With providing goals like this for myself, I am hoping to muster up some motivation to getting more healthy and in shape.  Each day is a struggle to not eat junk food and to become more physically active, but I am getting there.  Eventually life will settle into a routine and such things as planning a run early in the morning will become more possible.

But with that, I am needing to come to a close.  Miss Bella is awake and crying to get out of bed.  Thanks for reading and I will post again soon!  :)

New Beginnings

Life seems to move along, at its own pace and with its own intentions.  One of my four OB/GYN doctors had told me, "You'll have this baby before October."  So, here we sit with a new baby boy, one day before my due date, and the very last day of September.  I went into labor at 8:30PM on the 29th, and God blessed us with our little boy, Landon Michael Frits, at 11:54AM on the 30th of September!  A much faster delivery than Bella.  I was in labor with her for 26 hours, with our son less than 16 hours.  I pushed for 11 minutes, which I am proud of as he was 8lbs 8oz and 21" long.  A whole pound and a half larger than Bella was!  :)  He is beautiful and perfect in my eyes.

And so dawns the start of a new life for me and my family.  Having one more little one in the house adds much more complexity and chaos, but in a good way.  We are still adapting to this new life a week later, and it's amazing to me how intimidating this one little life can be.  He's so small and fragile, and he requires so much attention.  It is definitely a balancing act that I will need to master, being a Mom to Bella and Landon, a house wife, and a loving wife to my husband as well seeking my new journey to athleticism.  We will see how it goes.

So today is my last lazy day that I am allowing myself to have.  I have been leaning on my husband quite a bit in the past few days, allowing myself to sort of melt into the couch with Landon.  Tomorrow I am activating the "New Life" movement, which entails starting my Home Management Binder, starting a new food menu (that we're going to stick to), starting a new healthy diet (that is realistic), starting my "Couch to Marathon" training which will take a year for the 1/2 marathon, and within the next year a full blown marathon.  I am sure I will fail, several times, but success to me is not measured by how many times I fail in this process, but rather that I picked myself up and started where I left off and kept going.  With my goals in mind, I am determined enough that I believe that within the next 18 months, I will create a whole new happy and healthy me with a happier and healthy family.  All of this is only possible through God's help, so I fully intend to jump into a more active prayer life, as I know and hope to fully realize eventually that this change is only possible if I lean on Him and derive my strength from Him.

Thank you to everyone for your inspiration to become a better person!

Wish me luck in my new endeavors and I will be blogging again soon!