Teddy Bear Tea

I felt like I reached a personal rite of passage this weekend. I took the girls to their first Tea at the Westgate Hotel. It was specifically geared toward little girls, but they still used china (ahhhhhhhhhh!...nothing got broken) and had fancy finger sandwiches and the whole formal tea thing. Here are the girls getting ready.

They had a great time and enjoyed being "Fancy Nancies". They stuck their pinkies out and Grace said, "Dahling" a lot. They served the little ones hot chocolate and then a few courses of yummy stuff. First they had finger sandwiches (grilled cheese, egg, PB & J, and Strawberry and Banana). Then they had chocolate chip scones hot from the oven. Next, they had berries and cream with four little pastries. As for Nana and I, we had the typical tea fare. Don't get me wrong...it was delicious, but would you rather have a chocolate chip scone or a raisin scone? I rest my case.

After the tea we moved into the lobby to be entertained by a clown. All the girls took off their shoes and sat on pillows and listened to stories until Santa arrived with....TEDDY BEARS!

I'm not sure if it will become a yearly tradition or not, but it was well worth the effort and it was adorable to see all the girls and boys in their Christmas finest.

If You Can't Beat 'Em...Join 'Em

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1205892324

Coming Out of Hiding

Not that I have been in hiding per se, but it feels like we have been buried since coming home. Of course coming home right before the holidays doesn't necessarily help, but what better motivation to get our home - literally and figuratively- in order?

Lest I lead you astray, I have hardly been home bound the last couple weeks. Immediately - as in the day after we checked out of the hotel - Mike and I boarded a plane to London. We had plans to visit his Dad's flat for months and it just so happened that the trip was planned for right when we came home. Actually that is not entirely true. I was calling the insurance company for a few days before we left telling them we needed to be out of the hotel and back in our house before we left. I don't know how many friends I made that week, but I doubt we are exchanging Christmas cards. :)




So London was great. We ate well and went to see a couple of shows. Mike's dad and his wife were with us so it was fun to spend some time with them. I went to have tea at The Ritz which was fantastic as well. It was just enough time to forget about the mayhem, but we also knew that the house was not going to organize itself. Besides...we wanted to host Thanksgiving! Yes, we got home and had three days to pull off Thanksgiving. We had much to be thankful for and wanted to spend our first Thanksgiving in a house IN our house.

I couldn't include the picture of the turkey because my turkeys don't come out pretty. I cook them upside so they taste juicy. They taste good...just don't look good.

And along the lines on first holidays in the house, the weekend after Thanksgiving was a mad rush to Home Depot to buy Christmas lights for the house. I don't have pictures of that just yet, but suffice it say that my sweet hubby and I had quite the debate over all white lights vs. retro 1972 big bulb colored lights. And in the spirit of Christmas we came to a compromise. White lights inside the house and retro outside. I can't help but laugh hysterically every time I drive up to the house. I feel like I'm 7 when I see those huge bulbs hanging from the rain gutters.

OK...I'm to recreate the Christmas labels. Did I tell everyone that our hard drive crashed as soon as we plugged our computer back in? It did. I was not happy. Not at all. But I did get an early Christmas present out of the deal. Helllllllllooooooooooooo laptop!

Home at last...sorta

Well....22 days after leaving our house in smoke filled pandemonium, we are somewhat back. At least we are able to let the girls hang out here while we try to restore some sort of normal. We still need to have carpets steamed and insulation replaced and hopefully before this day is done we will have mattresses.

Emotionally I am exhausted and done, but then I look out the window as I type this and see three missing houses so how is that for perspective.

I am still wrestling with all of my emotions. God is still God regardless of circumstances. I don't doubt that for one second. However I have a hard time saying we are blessed when I know that the people who lost their houses are no less blessed. I am thankful. I guess that is appropriate.

10 on Tuesday

1. Fall makes me giddy. I love the crisp weather and trips to the Pumpkin Patch.

2. I love Notre Dame football when they win! This weekend was even sweeter because we were at the game and USC lost!!

3. I'm already starting to feel stressed about the holidays. Who is going where and how in the world are we going to afford presents? Every year I mean to budget and set aside money and I never seem to do it.

4. This Sunday our church is cancelling services and we are going out to serve in the community. I'm so excited to see what God is going to do.

5. Mike is going to be taking Grace with him on Sunday to feed the homeless downtown. I'm so proud of him!!

6. I'm kind of annoyed with all the new shows this Fall. I guess it just gives me more time to read, but c'mon...even Grey's is not totally doing it for me.

7. Emma is going to start going to preschool one day a week. I'm so excited and yet I already know those three hours are going to fly by. I already made my list for this Thursday. I'm not complaining...I can't remember the last time I went grocery shopping by myself.

8. I have finally resorted to writing names on toys. We had a speaker come to MOPS last week who made several good points about sharing and how the greater goal should be to teach our children to respect each others property and desires. That being said, Emma has had a crash course on how to spell her name and her sister's name. She doesn't seem to care if something says G-R-A-C-E...she still wants it...NOW!

9. I'm going on another Girl's Weekend in four days. I mentioned it to someone this morning who responded with, "You must have the most understanding husband in the world.". Ummmmmmmm....he is pretty great, but he also left for New Jersey yesterday and won't be home until late Thursday so I'm not feeling horrible about leaving. Besides I won't be that far away and I'll be home Sunday.

10. It is amazing how quickly Baby Fever- "oh my gosh, my baby isn't a baby anymore and I think I want another one" - goes away when the hubby goes away.

Happy Birthday "I Got Booty"

Our little princess is 2 today. It hardly seems possible that time has flown by this quickly. She cracks us up more and more every day. Grace has been trying to teach her the princess names and she nails them all except Sleeping Beauty. It comes out "I Got Booty". She now realizes that it makes people laugh so she says it for no good reason. Ahhh...the things we will look back on!

Speechless

That is the only word is can think of to describe this past weekend. I had a snapshot moment in life that I will look back on forever. I experienced one of the truest forms of community with three other women and I came home refreshed, revived, and loved on in more ways than I could have dreamed.

I went to Denver this past weekend with a friend from San Francisco and two friends from the South Bay. The funny thing is that we all know each other from church in the South Bay and yet while Joy and I lived there the four of us never really hung out. We briefly saw each other about six months ago and I had such a great time that I asked them if they would want to go to Denver for the Women of Faith conference. I was pushing for Denver because Beth Moore was doing the Pre-Conference and it is impossible to listen to her teaching without be blessed beyond measure.

And blessed we were. We all walked away with a lot to process.

Friday evening my "cheese factor" won out and we had dinner at the former Real World Denver house. IT WAS AMAZING! It was swanky and we sat in a booth that had gauzy curtains that the waiter had to pull back to serve us. We had the best mini-burgers I ever tasted. If you are ever in Denver go to Theorie in LoDo and have a rib-eye burger or a kobe beef burger.

After dinner we skipped the college scene next to the old house and headed across the street to Tavern on Market to go dancing. I can't even say this was the best part of the weekend because the whole weekend rocked, but for me personally I can't remember the last time I felt that free and alive. The DJ played some great songs and we could hardly pull ourselves away. Let's just say that if the husbands could have seen us they would have been dyin'.

Saturday we ordered the most expensive oatmeal on the face of the earth from room service and then we were treated to a personal training session by Joy. It felt great to sweat and even better to have a pro giving me some exercises to get rid of the deflated baby tire around my middle. After that we headed to lunch with Joy's brother, Chad and his wife Heather, and I continued my walk down Real World Memory Lane. It was exhilarating to be sitting on a rooftop patio in LoDo drinking beer and eating bar food. With full stomachs we headed back to the hotel because Joy and Cassie were scheduled to go have massages and facials. Stacy and I opted out and instead each took some time to hang out with God. Stace fired up Joy's IPOD and hung out by the spa and I took a solo excursion to Larimer Square. It made me a little bit giddy. The tall brick buildings that were over 100 years old and a street side cafe with a barista who made me her own special coffee yummy somethin-somethin. All I know is that it had Espresso, sweetened condensed milk, cinnamon and some other good stuffy. I sat at a sidewalk table and listened to music and journaled for almost two hours. I literally had to pull myself away, but I didn't want Stace to start worrying. Once I got back to the hotel, I stopped in the bar to have a beer and catch up on the football games. I don't think I had ever sat by myself in a bar before. Granted it was a hotel bar, but it was still a little bit empowering. As many of you may know the scores were less than promising and it put me in a not so good mood. So, I texted Stacy and we planned to meet at the 27th floor of the the hotel in the lounge to watch the sun set. Neither one of us were prepared for the breathtaking view of the entire city. It was glorious. I didn't necessarily need it to be glorious because I clearly fell in love with this city before Saturday but it brought tears to my eyes. Ten months ago I had never been to Denver and this past weekend was my third trip there. There is a little piece of me that feels like it is a home base; a place of safety. So, Stace and I met, had a heart-wrenching talk in which she forced me to be honest with myself about some stuff, waited for the other two to arrive and then the four of us stayed there until past 9pm. We affirmed one another and shared how God has been so close to us in the deepest of valleys this past year. The affirmations were almost too hard to handle. It is tough to sit and listen to people you love and respect so much build you up. I felt like such a fraud and yet I knew that these women knew me incredibly well and that my "mask" never made it to Denver. I allowed myself to be known by them and they still thought great things about me!

So that is pretty much it. We stayed until Sunday afternoon, but Joy left early that morning and Stacy, Cassie , and I just wound things up. We prayed together and left the hotel and weekend ready to come back to our lives as mommies and wives. I felt like there was nothing unfinished about the weekend at all. Never in my life did I know that relationships with women could be like this. There was no drama and jealousy. There was no judgment and no criticism. There was simply love between four daughters of Christ who relished in a moment to bask in His glory.

Ten on Tuesday

1. It is finally starting to feel like Fall. I think I need to go make a bouquet of sharpened pencils.

2. I need a vacation.

3. I'm leaving for a mini-vacation is 48 hours!!

4. I am SO ready for the new season of TV shows to start. Mike made me watch K-VILLE with him last night and I was bored out of my mind.

5. I think I have over committed myself for the school year.

6. I can't believe my baby is going to be 2 in less than two weeks.

7. I have baby fever, but I can't seem to get over the dread of being pregnant again and waking up in the middle of the night.

8. Yes, I know that is selfish.

9. I'm in love with the new Casting Crowns CD.

10. Did I mention I leave for a mini-vacation in 48 hours!

A Sassy New Haircut

Even at the age of 4....a haircut can completely change your outlook on life~

Some updated pictures and answers to prayer

We need to have a picture of our kids with us for our MOPS nametags so we took this before church on Sunday. It was amazing they could sit this close without bickering. Actually this is the last one we got before Emma shoved Grace off my lap and declared, "My Mommy!".

Last Saturday was the first day of soccer. We don't have a final verdict just yet, but it seemed to go well enough. Grace liked that she had her own ball, but she refused to wear her cleats or shin guards. Maybe if they were purple with sparkles it would help.

Preschool update: God is good! It was a whirlwind week and a lot of tears were shed...by me. Two angels crossed my path this past week and both of them shared that what was considered the "best" preschool wasn't exactly a Christian preschool...and that is really important to both Mike and I. We were kind of shocked being that it is a church preschool, but after further investigation we discovered they were right. I made the call today to a different preschool...one that I have known of all along and that came highly recommended this week...and sure enough they have a spot for Grace on the days we want, at the times we want, and two girls that Grace knows will be in her class. It is really the ideal situation. I can't tell you the sense of peace I have knowing that she is going to a school that she is going to love.

School Days

You would think that we were trying to pick a college based on the anxiety level in our house. It actually started after we moved to San Diego, but even with all of my "planning" it has still come down to the wire and I'm still in a quandary as to what the best decision is for Grace. Do I really let a four year-old decide what school she wants to go to? Just because a school is "the best" does that mean it is the best for her? It isn't like she is going to be permanently damaged by the decision, but she has had such a tough time adjusting to San Diego life that I want her to be excited about school. She has the chance to go to a school that is more social and has seven other girls, or she can be in a school that has six kids total and has a awesome teaching method. When it is all said and done, she will be going to a new school for kindergarten.

It is a lot of angst for a momma bear!

Tagged!

I just got tagged to share 8 random things about myself. Here I was innocently looking at Stace's blog and SLAM...I got tagged. So here goes. It is suppose to be stuff that nobody really knows, but I think most people might know this stuff.

1. I have total blog anxiety because I have two friends that ALWAYS have adorable pictures of their girls on their blogs. I barely take enough pictures of the girls and I am married to someone that is super anal retentive about how the pictures are downloaded and where they get filed. That is why I don't blog more often.

2. I am addicted to Real World, The Hills, and Newport Harbor. I can't get enough of the angst and drama 16-25 years old face when MTV cameras are hovering and uncomfortable interactions are staged.

3. I am also addicted to Perez Hilton.

4. Based upon the previous two confessions I am not as shallow as one may think. I read at least 2-3 books a week. The last book I read was Water For Elephants. Upon moving to San Diego I started a book club within a playgroup I was invited to and it has really taken off!

5. An exciting few months were kicked off last weekend. Mike and I went to Denver for the weekend for his cousin's wedding and then I am going back in a few weeks with some of my girlfriends to see Beth Moore. In October, eight of my friends from L.A. are coming down to San Diego for a Girl's Weekend in Coronado and in November, Mike and I are going to London for a few days with his dad. Having vacations to look forward to are the peak of excitement for a stay-at-home mommy. Besides...the girls get to stay with my mom and as Grace shared with us last Sunday night as we were picking them up, "I want to stay with Nana. She's more fun."

6. Most of my vacations involve movie scene hunting, TV shooting spot hunting, and having tea. For example, my first trip to New York involved me downloading You've Got Mail's filming locations and visiting each one of them. This past weekend in Denver, I needed to see the Real World house and relived where Tyree got arrested for peeing on the wall. When I go to London in November, I have already made sure that I get to go to Notting Hill and visit Portobello Road and then go have tea at the Savoy. It is fair to say that most of the time I am wishing I was in a movie or I am quoting lines from a movie to talk myself down from the ledge. No need to post a comment saying I'm a dork. I already know that. :)

7. Before meeting Mike I attended 20-30 Dodger games a season. If no one wanted to go with me I would go by myself.

8. I often wish I could go back and talk to my 22 year-old self and encourage her to be more confident. If I had only known then what I know now...but then I wouldn't be who I am now so it would be totally different.

Are you ready for some football?

There are 18 days until the Notre Dame/Georgia Tech game. The Fritch family is ready!

Who's Birthday was it?

Hi Fishies!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let me just show off my fancy Moose purse...Moose, say "cheese".
Mommy, Daddy, Emma, Elmo, Grace and Ariel just seconds before Elmo came unraveled.
Mom...do I look fabulous?
Emma, this man is talented...pay attention. Sir, do you love my purse?

Well, Birthday Week is over and it was fantastic. How could it not be with eight days of presents! It was capped off by a Padres game in a luxury box on Friday night. Thank Goodness Barry Bonds didn't break the home run record that night. It would have put a damper on the weekend. On Saturday we had a BBQ with my former roommates before getting married. And on Sunday we headed down to Seaport Village after church. It was cheesy and touristy, but exactly what I wanted to do with the girls. We actually headed over to Coronado and then took the ferry across the bay. After lunch we rode the carousel and Grace said, "Mom, I'm so glad you decided to do this for your birthday!". If only she knew.

Iron Girls

The before picture is far better than the after picture. So even though the one above was taken at 6am by my somewhat supportive husband (hehehe) and my overly enthusiastic daughter, we look far more athletic than we did after the run. All in all, it was awesome. Katie and I ran the IronGirl 10K and had a blast. We finished and were excited to do another one. The funny thing is that the last time we "competed" (we chose not to say we ran it, since there were definitely moments of speed walking) we ran the Jimmy Stewart Marathon Relay which was only 5.2 miles and we felt much better after this one than we did the relay.

Now I just need to keep up with the running and see if I can't make this body of mine do a Half Marathon. I'm not out to win...just to finish. Of course that would have meant running another seven miles on Saturday. I guess that is why they have training schedules!

Ten on Tuesday

1. We just started watching Lost one month, one week and four days ago.

2. We are done with the first two seasons.

3. Season 3 does not come out until December 11th and I can't figure out how to download it off the internet.

4. I find this to be incredibly lame.

5. I'm running a 10K on Saturday.

6. I don't know if I've trained enough.

7. There is a 90 minute time limit. I think I should be OK.

8. My birthday is in 12 days.

9. Birthday week starts in 5 days.

10. What is birthday week you ask? Only the best tradition ever that we adopted from our friends the Hagan's. It is like Hanukkah for your birthday. 8 crazy days of presents!

Bad Habits

Scene: Grace is sitting on the bottom of our staircase with my friend Kari and we are waiting for the babysitter to show up. It is 6pm last Wednesday night and it had been fairly warm during the day. I can't bring myself to use the air conditioner since I haven't lived anyplace with an air conditioner since Las Vegas. I use ceiling fans but that doesn't pertain to the story.

Grace: Mom, this is getting to be a really bad habit.
Me: What?
Grace: I'm sweating!

Statue of Limitations

So what exactly are the rules when it comes to doing cheese-ball touristy things? How long after you move someplace do you get to do the ridiculous without looking ridiculous? Mike was in Chicago all week so I took liberty to put quite a few miles on the Pilot. Besides wanting to go on adventures I was also looking to score a couple of free lunches.

On Monday I met my mom in Temecula at Red Robin. On Tuesday I called my father-in-law and suggested that I bring the girls to Coronado for lunch. On Wednesday we hit up Sea World again. This time we drove into the parking lot at 2:45pm for a 3:00pm show and drove out of the parking lot at 3:39pm. On Thursday I drove back to Coronado with the girls and took them on the Coronado Ferry. We never got off. We just ate our lunch and Emma screamed, "Hi fishies" for a solid hour. Thank goodness we were not with the same group of people the entire hour. I'm sure some people were secretly wishing she would fall overboard.

Today I decided to explore the 52 freeway. I had no idea where it went but figured I couldn't get too lost and ended up finding out that it goes to La Jolla. Who knew? The exploring is fun, but also frustrating. I know Los Angeles County SO well and I don't know San Diego County well at all. Mike's friends called me Zagats and now I wouldn't even qualify for the free local paper. In time I'll get there. In the meantime I know the girls are getting tired of our exploring. Today Grace asked if we could just go straight home from her friends house with exploring. I'm going to have to start thinking of ways to make it more fun or to get her really turned around so she doesn't know that we are exploring.

Sea World Shamuettes

Talk about peer pressure...

I never thought that I would be called out to start a blog. I must say...it is rather flattering! Thanks Stace! I've started and stopped twice in the last two months. There is a tremendous amount of pressure that is built into a blog. Am I funny enough? Am I too serious? Are my photos too amateur? Come to think of it...I've been "called out" a lot lately.

My friend Susie thinks I should follow her lead and go sky diving for my birthday in two weeks. I can't even handle the parachutes at Knott's Berry Farm let alone CHOOSING to jump out of a plane. Parachute or not, I'd be looking for a dull object really fast.

Grace, my 4 year old, thinks that I need to stop drinking Coke. It is diet, but she still informs me that it is not healthy and that I should just drink water. Talk about words coming back to bite you!

Mike thinks I need to go back to school so I can get a job that pays really well so he can stay home with the girls. Please...and give up Women's Bible Study, MOPS, Stroller Strides, and weekly trips to Sea World to see Shamu?

By the way...check out Shamu's mad skills breakdancing. Right here he is doing the windmill. I highly recommend making it down to San Diego for the Shamu Rocks show at night. Off the hook!!! Those pictures don't look so hot on a blog, but he was practicing during another show. Like I said...we go A LOT! Gotta love the Fun Pass!

Sacrifice

I think I started chickening out on the whole blog thing, but I realize that it is incredibily theraputic. Regardless of whether I share the link with anyone or not it is good for me. It seems God is really pressing upon me the idea of sacrifice lately. Not that He is requiring it of me...yet, but that I feel His gentle nudging. Urging if you will. The first incident was at Bible Study this week. We are just finishing up a Beth Moore study on Daniel and she spent over half of the time going over sacrifice and how in the book of Daniel Satan's way of turning the people away from God was to get them to become possessive and to stop sacrificing. As I asked God to help me to be more aware of the areas that He is asking me to make sacrifices in and to take the things He wants if I am unwilling or being disobedient, I clearly heard Him reply, "That is not a sacrifice. A sacrifice isn't me taking...it is you giving."

Settling In

Well I have finally made the jump and started a blog. If anyone wonders where the title comes from it is a Mercy Me song. It was the theme song of this move to San Diego.

"What I've learned in my life the one thing greater than my strife is Your grasp so hold fast".

I've learned to hold fast on the days when being a mommy seems like the last thing I want to do. On the days when laundry, dinner, bills...you get the picture. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God's grasp is tight and these days with little ones are going to be gone before I know it. So I hold fast knowing I have been blessed beyond measure by two little girls who teach me more about myself everyday than I ever wanted to know. And I have learned how much I frustrate God and how much He loves me in spite of my childish behavior.