Farewell to Matt and Megan!

The Santa Cruz Boardwalk is one of our favorite places to go. It has lots of fun kid rides and a beautiful view:) This week, we took Matt and Megan to the Boardwalk because they've never been there and they will be leaving us next week: ( Matt is our vicar, aka student pastor, and we have enjoyed their year with us here in CA and will miss them a whole lot.

For the first six months, our kids referred to them as Map and Megan. I never corrected them because it was so darn cute. Abby finally figured it out and he's now plain old Matt. Megan looks like she could be the mother of our girls, so she fit into our family quite well! Over the past year, they have become like family to us and I am especially thankful for Megan. She sat with me in church to help with the kids. She was the designated crayon holder, back rubber, and kid watcher when I had to take Abby to the nursery. She watched the girls on occasion and gave me the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever tasted. She's been my friend and I will miss her, but I know how happy she is to get back to the Midwest to be closer to her family! I am happy for them!

We had a picnic on the beach, and here's a good shot of Megan.

Matt offered to buy funnel cakes for us. He came back with two--one plain one and
one with ice cream and strawberries and whipped cream. I think he and
Jenna at that one all by themselves!


Matt got to experience the joy of having Abby ride on his shoulders!
She doesn't sit still, pulls ears, and often tries to get down.
Needless to say, this experience didn't last long:)

Good Times Part 2

After we left the Hartke family wedding, we made the two day trek to Tenkiller State Park in Oklahoma. We met my parents there along with our dear friends, Mike and Cindy Woltemath. Mike and Cindy brought three jet skis and Nate and I fell in love with them while we were there. We took several 50 mile round trip rides up the huge lake and back and absolutely loved every minute of it. We are totally lake people. We'd much rather be on vacation in a cabin on a lake than at the ocean. I love everything about it.

During our time in OK, we, of course, made a trip to the ONE doctor in the small town near the state park. We thought Abby had an ear infection, but it ended up to be a nasty virus that made her feel yucky most of the time we were there.

Overall, it was a great trip . . . we love Mike and Cindy dearly and are thankful for them in our lives:) Here are a few pictures from the trip.

My mom with Abby before she got sick.

On the jet skis . . . Abby loved the jet ski, Jenna not so much. Nate took her on the "tippy one" and she got thrown off. Mind you, she was going 8 mph, but given Jenna's fear of the water, this wasn't good. We now call her Jenna Jet Ski. She loves it:)

Us with Grandpa Mike and Grandma Cindy

My parents and Mike and Cindy

The Swimming Saga Continues

I signed the girls up for the summer session of swimming at the swim school we've been attending for the past year. In the past, only Jenna has been going (because Abby could only go in the parent/child class and I was waiting until she could go independently). She's been going once a week, but this time, both Jenna and Abby are attending five days a week for two weeks. The girls are in separate classes, but at the same time. Swimming bootcamp is how I like to think of it.

Given that swimming is a struggle for Jenna (afraid of the deep water, reluctant to try new things, and sat on the steps for 16 weeks of the Y lessons) I made two rules for the girls. #1 Do everything your teacher asks you to do, even if you don't want to. #2 Try something new every day.

The first day was awesome! Both girls loved their teachers and did everything they asked. I was sure that this awesomeness would continue. It did for Abby. Yesterday, she had another great day. But Jenna struggled. She was doing fine and then all of the sudden I saw her crying. She didn't want to flip from her back to her tummy and was putting up a fight. From that moment on, she was scared to do anything else. This isn't like her. She hasn't been uncooroperative since our Y days.

In the car on the way home, I found out why. She told me that her teacher called her "hard." She has two teachers--the main one and a helper. There are two other little girls in Jenna's class, and the helper went to grab Jenna from the wall to practice, leaving two others there. Jenna says that the lead teacher told the helper teacher to leave Jenna for last because she was "hard."

Well . . . Jenna heard this, and all the confidence she had in the first day vanished. I suspect that she gave up and felt awful for the rest of the swimming class--which would explain her downturn towards the end of the lesson.

In the car, she just cried. Her head in her lap, she asked me why she can't swim as well as the other kids and why she is "hard." All I could do was give her praise encourage her.

I hope things are better today and that her teacher knows that when he thinks those little ears aren't listening, that they really are. I'm hoping for a better day today!

A Sweet "All Better" Card

That's what this picture is according to Abby. You see, I have swimmer's ear--which has turned out to be very painful and annoying. In the midst of our busy day of cleaning, running errands, and going to swimming lessons, I sat down in our recliner for a few minutes. When asked if they could go outside, I told the girls that I needed a few minutes to rest because my ear just really hurt. (Time for some more Advil.) In a matter of ten minutes, both girls presented me with "All Better Cards," and I just had to share this one with you.

Abby made this. To you, it might just look like a coloring page with a very red, scribbly Cinderella, but there is a lot of thought behind this for a three year old. Abby chose Cinderella because she is my favorite princess and she chose to color it red because it's my favorite color. If you know Abby, you know that she is obssessed with the color purple, and for her to color an entire page red, is a big deal!

Thank you to my sweet, thoughtful little Abby!

Sickos

I have more vacation pictures coming, but I just have to vent about one vacation annoyance: getting sick. Someone always gets sick when we are on vacation. It's to the point where I scope out urgent care facilities or emergency rooms on our way into a new town so that I know where to go. Usually, ear infections are the culprit, but this time was different.

Nate: viral pink eye
Laura: fluid in the ear that won't go away and is very, very painful
Abby: stomach flu

I swear, our health insurance carrier must love us because 1. we always have out of network charges when we go on vacation and 2. they've seen a lot of the Hartke family already this week.

Is going on vacation worth it when someone or many of us get sick? Yes, but very, very annoying.

I Don't Get It

Really . . . Jenna is on her bed right now crying her eyes out over a box. I have no sympathy or patience for this situation and I really just don't get it.

Jenna got a jewelry box for Christmas and the box that it came in has been sitting in the garage since December. I save those kinds of boxes to mail stuff in, and today I was wrapping a gift for my friend, Tamara, and that box was perfect for what I had to mail. As I was putting the gift in the box, Jenna said that she wanted the box (most likely because it was pretty and pink and girly). Of course, I said no that I needed that box for the gift and I didn't have another box to use.

Jenna proceeded to throw a fit about how she's been looking for that box and just didn't want to tell me about it. (Yeah right, for six months she's been keeping this all inside!) She sat at the table, staring at the box and is now saying "bye bye" to the box. She told me that she needs the box so that if anyone tries to steal her jewelry box then she'd have the box to put it in to hide from them. (Did I mention that we call her The Negotiator?) Seriously . . . . she just wants what she wants and is using every tactic she can think of to get it. I am not falling for it, and I will not unwrap the gift so that Jenna can have this box.

Am I a terrible mother for not giving her the box? Should I have bought another box to mail this gift in? I think no.

I am trying to divert her attention to something else, but all she keeps doing is complaining about this box. A great start to the day! I can't wait to take the package to the post office. I'm sure we're in for more fits over this box. Oh how I love parenthood sometimes.

Good Times--Part 1

We've been on vacation for a little over a week now, and here's what we've been doing . . .

First stop: Pittsburgh, PA to visit with my parents. One of my favorite places is Kennywood, a local amusement park. Jenna and Abby LOVED this ride and we spent a good deal of

time there. For those of you Pittsburgh folk, this is the Kiddie Land version of

the Whip (which is sadly gone now).

Second stop: Sandusky, OH to spend time with the Hartke uncles and aunts at the Great Wolf Lodge, which is a hotel with an indoor water park. Lots of fun! This picture is of the Hartke grandchildren: Timmy, Allie holding Jeremy, Jenna hugging Abby, and Joey.

Third stop: Toledo, OH to visit with Nate's parents and attend Nate's youngest brother's wedding. Every time all the Hartke's are together, we play wiffleball. One might think that this is an innocent game played among siblings. But no . . . the boys are serious about their wiffleball. Unfortunately, my team didn't win this year:(


Jenna and Allie were flower girls for Jon and Emily's wedding. Congratulations Jon and Emily!

Classic. Nate trying to kiss Jon. Jon wanting none of that:)

The whole Hartke clan. All 22 of us. Soon to be 23 in October. Beth is having a baby girl!

The Joy of Flying With Kids

A busy day stresses me out. Meeting a deadline stresses me out. Having to clean my house in a short period of time stresses me out, but nothing makes me crazy like a six hour flight on the airplane by myself with the two redheads. Make that 9 or 10 hours of craziness--I didn't include the getting to or from the airport, sitting at the gate, and keeping Abby from cutting her fingers off at the baggage claim carousel. A l o n g day of traveling seriously stresses me out.

In three days, I'll get on a plane with my girls to go to Pittsburgh to begin the Midwest Extravaganza. As I've been thinking about getting ready (notice I did not actually say that I am getting ready) for our trip, I decided to write down all the helpful things I've learned as a seasoned traveler with children.

1. When I travel by myself, Nate can get a pass from the ticketing agent to come through security with me and sit at the gate with us. An extra set of hands to help get shoes off and on, strollers unloaded and up on the belt, jackets off, and everything back on is awesome! Going through security and hanging out at the gate exhausts me before we even step foot on the plane. A helper is nice:)

2. I don't know what did before we bought our own carseat bags! For several years, our carseats were checked in just a clear plastic bag, but then we found the carseat bag. It is AWESOME! We bought an Eddie Bauer bag at Target for $25. When I looked them up, they are up to $76 on Amazon. Target has other kinds that are just as good, but not as expensive. Click here to find out more. These bags not only better protect your carseat, but they give you more space to pack stuff! We packed diapers, wipes, jackets, and all the bulky stuff that was a pain to pack in the suitcase. The bags even have a shoulder strap for easy transport. I am a huge fan of these:)

3. DO NOT sit in close proximity to other families with children. When we fly, we often make friends with the other families at the gate while we are waiting to board the plane. Some parents think that it's a good idea to keep all the kids together and sit close together on the airplane. I strongly disagree. If there's a little kid in front of or behind us, guess what Jenna and Abby are doing the whole time? Playing, being loud, and distracting everyone around them. I have been known to get up and move seats (on Southwest's open seating) if there are other kids directly around us. Mean? Maybe, but it makes for a much more enjoyable trip.

4. Do not attempt to give your children Benadryl on the airplane if you haven't tried it at home first. I do not drug my kids on the airplane. I don't give them Benadryl or anything else in hopes that they will sleep. However, we did have a Benadryl incident that made one particular trip a nightmare. I flew to Detroit with Jenna by myself when she was just over one. I had the bright idea of booking an overnight flight, thinking that she would sleep. And she probably would have, if I hadn't given her Benadryl for her cold that she had. You see, I had never tried Benadryl before with Jenna and assumed that the medicine would help with her cold as well as make her a little drowsy. A bonus, right? NO! There is this tiny statement at the bottom of the label that reads, (I have this memorized and will never forget it) "may cause excitability in some children." Yep, Jenna partied all night on the plane while the rest of the adults tried to sleep. I was exhausted by the time we got to Detroit:)

5. Some airports have family bathrooms. I am in love with these particular airports. Chicago-Midway is one of these airports and I always choose a connecting flight there simply because I can take my kids, stuff, and all our craziness into one room without disturbing anyone else.

6. I always bring my own plastic trash bags for the airplane. The flight attendants don't come around enough to pick up all the trash that we accumulate. This way, I can keep our little area clean:)

That's all I can think of right now. If you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Abby's Garden

These pictures are of our flower bed in front of our house. Notice the green leaves awkwardly sticking up out of the ground? They are Abby's creation:)

Yesterday at TBall, she made me carry around two small bushes of what I think is a magnolia plant. She told me that they were going to go in her garden. And they did:) She took the leaves and VERY CAREFULLY placed them in the flower bed.

So cute!

The Royal Highnesses Season Comes to a Close

Yesterday was our last day of TBall. It was technically the "championship" game, but all four of the mini teams won their championship game:) In mini's everyone wins . . . all the time! We just try to keep that bit of information from the girls.

So yesterday was our last game and closing ceremonies. The girls got tropies and their yearbooks, and Jenna has not let them leave her side since she got them! The trophy and yearbook went to bed with her and I had to talk her out of taking them to church this morning.

Here's to the end of a great first season of TBall! Looking forward to next year!

The Brink of Summer

I have been in a blogging slump, and I'm sorry about that. We have been incredibly busy over the past month or so and I just haven't found the time or energy to write. Our craziness started with our trip to San Antonio for PLI. Then I took the girls to Illinois to visit my grandma, and I don't think I ever put any pictures up from that trip. I'll have to do that soon. Then we made a trip back to the east coast and on Friday we are heading out for our annual Midwest Extravaganza trip.

I call this the Midwest Extrvaganza trip because we do this sort of thing every summer. Since we live so far away from our family, we have to make one big trip out in the summer to see everyone. There's usually a wedding on the Hartke side of the family or a big trip somewhere with my parents. This time, Nate's youngest brother, Jon, is getting married and Jenna's a flower girl. But the trip begins before that! On Friday, we fly into Pittsburgh and spend a few days with my parents. (I go first with the girls and Nate comes after church on Sunday. I am SO excited about flying by myself with the girls, can you tell?) Then we head to Sandusky, OH for a few days at the Great Wolf Lodge, and indoor water park. We will spend time with Nate's siblings there. It'll be a first for our family--getting together somewhere other than Nate's parents' house. This trip has been full of drama already and I wasn't sure if anyone but us and Tim & Beth's family would show up, but it;s looking like it'll be a great time full of Hartkes! Then off to Toledo for the wedding weekend. And THEN we drive 900 miles to Oklahoma to spend five days with my parents and our dear friends, the Woltemaths.

See why I can't call this trip a vacation? It's not. It's a trip. It will be a fun trip and it will be so good to see everyone, but it is absolutely not a vacation:)

Jenna graduates from preschool on Wednesday and I am done with school on Friday. And after our Midwest Extravaganza, we are ready for summer! I don't exactly know what this summer holds for us, but I do know that I will be spending lots of time with the girls and yet again, battling Jenna's fear of swimming with more lessons. But this time, Abby gets to join too. We don't have anything major planned, but I look forward to lots of good time with the girls. Stay tuned for updates on how all that good time goes:)

Not Happy At All

I haven't worn glasses regularly since I was in 7th grade. I hate wearing my glasses, mostly because I hate having them sitting on my face. I hate when they slide down and I hate that everyone has to comment on the fact that I am wearing glasses or that I look different or whatever . . . .

But I went to the eye doctor today, and I am going to have start limiting my time in my contacts. I am not happy at all about this. Apparently, I have an astigmatism in both eyes, which is what has been driving me nuts over the past few months. I have blurry vision and at night, my eyes get so, so tired. My doctor told me that I have dry eyes and that over time, my contacts have shifted the shape of my eyeballs to cause the astigmatism. I have no idea if this is true or not, but she said that I have to reduce my contacts wearing by 50%. That's a lot and I hate wearing my glasses.

So I posted a picture--I apologize for the cheesy self-portraits and awful lighting. And please excuse the eyebrows that are so badly in need of a waxing. So if you see me in my glasses, you now know why:)

I Am A Cheerleader

. . . which is pretty funny because I never was an actual cheerleader. I tried out twice for the squad and never made it. The last time I tried out, I was the only one cut, and at the time, that hurt a lot, but now I can look back and laugh at my reject cheerleader status and be thankful that my life went in a different direction. I now know why I was cut---I have absolutely no coordination. None. I fall down stairs. I fall up stairs. I constantly trip over my students' feet. And unfortunately, our little Abby takes after me. So, so clumsy!

But I digress. This post isn't about my failed high school cheerleading aspirations or my inability to put one foot in front of the other. Instead, it's about my job. I love it. I really do. And this week has been a rewarding one for me. I help students get their GED. We do lots of learning in class. I make them write essays, read current events, debate issues in the news, learn how to multiply and divide fractions. I work them pretty hard. But today, I realized that my biggest job is to be their cheerleader.

Most of my students have either failed in the traditional educational system or been failed by it. They come into my class with little to no confidence in their abilities and the best thing I can do as their teacher is to give them the confidence to continue. Some just need to know that they have the skills to pass the test. Those are the easy ones. But some need the confidence to even keep coming to class. They need to know that I will help them and that I will not make them feel substandard, as many of them have felt in their years in school.

Over the past few days, I've had a line of students in and out of my classroom coming to tell me that they've passed their GED test. Many couldn't believe that they actually passed, and many are excited about what the future holds. I really love this job and am so thankful that I have been able to walk beside them and see their hard work pay off.

A Day at the Park

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

So this is a fun little blog activity that I stole from Laurie and MckMama. I'm sure I'll get better as I do more of these (and I'm not even sure if I'm doing this right), but it's fun to admit the parenting blunders I've made, laugh at them, and kiow that there's a whole blosphere out there doing the same thing! Enjoy!

1. I absolutely did not give my children, potting soil, water, buckets, and watering cans to play with outside on our newly cleaned back patio. I would never think of allowing them to get this dirty and make such a mess on the yard that my husband just cleaned up.


2. And I did not bust out laughing instead of reprimanding Abby when she let out a big fart at the dinner table. That is gross and I would never encourage her by laughing. Never.


3. I most certainly did not ignore the fact that neither of my children ate their dinner tonight, and I surely did not let them eat Goldfish in place of their dinner.


4. I did not lie to Abby and tell her that it's cool to fail at the ski jumping and become a snowball when playing Ski Jump on Wii Sports. Lie to children? Who would do such a thing?


5. And I absolutely did not give Abby and Jenna my old eyeliner and let them draw on their faces. Seriously . . . what good comes from that?

What To Do

Working in a public school district and being on the chopping block as funds are cut, I have found myself to know more about our state budget issues than I ever though I would. It's been a rollercoaster of awfulness for our school for a year. Almost all of our programs have been cut (thankfully, my GED program would be one of the last to go if it came down to that), countless teachers have been laid off, seen their hours cut, or lost benefits, and every day we learn that "it's only going to get worse."

It seems as if California is out of money and we have tens of billions of dollars to cut from the budget. The state gov't is banking on a set of propositions that will be voted on next week to increase revenue so that more cuts don't have to happen in schools. But it looks like these propositions are going to fail. And what it comes down to is that the people of California are not willing to pay more money to do the job that the legislaters failed to do.

And I don't know how to feel about this. And I am not sure how to vote.

If these propositions don't pass, we are looking at a 20% additional cut. That would be total of 40% cut. That's a lot. And people will lose their jobs and the quality of the education will suffer. There are crazy ideas going around here like cutting counselors and sports and even going to a four day school week! Whether those things would actually happen, I don't know . . . but the fact that it's even being talked about in the papers is cause for concern.

On the other hand, if they do pass, it's just feeding into the problem that is our California gov't. It's all politics here . . . .the unions have the Democrats in their back pocket and are opposed to any financial restraint while the Republicans have never seen a tax they liked. So instead of doing their job of figuring out how to be responsible with our money, the gov't is asking the taxpayers to make the decisions for them through these propositions. And people don't want to do that . . . and I am angry about it.

If I don't manage my finances appropriately, I fail. There are consequences. But when the state is irresponsible with money, the people whom they serve have to pick up the slack in many ways. I don't see how that's good for anyone.

California is a bigger machine than some small countries. We are in trouble, and that is scary. I don't know how I am going to vote on the propositions yet, but it doesn't look good.

A Quick Rundown

I really want to write a nice post about my awesome weekend in Illinois, because I really did have a great weekend. Taking the girls to Princeton, IL to see my 95 year old grandmother in a nursing home and visit with some other family members cost a lot of money, nearly drove me crazy, and required a great deal of schlepping of the redheads. But in the end, it was completely worth it. Every cent, every crazy, and every schlep.

I don't have much energy left to write about all the wonderful things, but here are some tidbits.

We started the trip in the airport with a bit of horror as Abby took one big, giant lick of the handrail as we were waiting to board our plane. I knew she was going to be a handful from that moment on . . . and she was.

Next, they asked me the famous question, "Are we there yet?" 20 minutes into a 4 hour plane ride.

I was the only adult who had to put on a bathing suit and swim with my kids. Jenna's swimming fear irrationally reared it ugly head again and she flipped out in the pool about swimming. But that wasn't the worst--I was swimming with Abby, and instead of standing on the edge of the pool to jump into my arms, she took off and decided to jump in the deep end before I could get there. I caught her, but not until she got a tiny bit scared . . . make that both of us.

And it really wouldn't be a vacation (or whatever you want to call it, because I consider Maui a vacation or Disneyland a vacation, but taking two kids to Illinois by myself is more of just a fulfilling visit with family), if one of my kid's didn't end up in the ER with an ear infection. Yep. Jenna. Double ear infection. Yuck.

A good trip, awesome to see my family, and hopefully, we didn't contract the Swine Flu from Abby's giant handrail lick:)

Checklist

Clean melted, purple crayon out of the dryer . . . check.



Retrieve rock from Abby's nose . . . check.



Get girls to work on Mother's Day gifts . . . check.



Retrieve cash and gift cards from Jenna's wallet. . . check.
We have our own little Swiper!



Spend way too much money to get refrigerator fixed because a small piece of streamer got caught in the fan an warped it . . . check.



Continue to be ticked because a small piece of purple streamer from Abby's birthday ended up costing us a lot of money . . . check.

Attach Barbie heads to Barbie bodies. Why do they do that? . . . check.



Pack and travel by myself to Illinois for my grandma's 95th birthday . . . almost!

The Big Red Barn

While in San Antonio, our friend, Chuck, had some restaurants all lined up for us and the first one was the Big Red Barn. All I knew was that it was big, red, and served lots of steaks. Little did I know that this restaurant is one of a definitely one of a kind:) It's a snapshot of life in Texas.

As we walked into the restaurant, I had to take a picture of this sticker on the back of someone's car. I was so surprised, because I have never seen this sticker before. Really, I never have. I went through an entire presidential election without seeing this one, and believe me, I pay attention to all things politics. It could have something to do with the fact that I live in California and anyone seen with this sticker on their car would surely have their tires slashed:)

This isn't the greatest picture, but we walked in and noticed that the entire menu was painted on the walls. Red walls to be exact. I was sure that we'd get menus after sitting down, but nope . . . we got this . . .

A beautiful red piece of wood with the menu so nicely displayed. I saw the host from the corner of my eye carrying this monstrosity, and then couldn't believe it when she set is down against the table next to us. I guess you can expect to have a big board leaning up against your table when you eat at the Big Red Barn. So funny!

Now it was time to order, and our waitress showed up. By this time, I am soaking all this up and loving it. Everything about this place is so funny to me, and then she shows up. We were all kind of in a joking, fun mood, but she was not. She did not appreciate our questions and apparent amazement with the Big Red Barn. We were totally outsiders. But we had to get a picture with our waitress--cowboy boots, fake leather, fringe, and tips stapled to her vest--and all!

If you know Nate, you know that he is a beer snob. He prefers a good Anchor Steam or Gorden Biersch over the Bud Light in a can. When he asked what was available, she said, "we only have can in a mug." A what? "Can in a mug." What's a can in a mug? Apparently, the Big Red Barn only serves Bud, Bud Light, Miller, or Miller light in a can--a can in a mug. See the above picture:)

If you are ever in San Antonio, please look up the Big Red Barn. It will be an experience you will never forget:)

A Mini Vacation

After PLI, we stayed in San Antonio to spend time with our good friends, the Lexows.