So we're home from vacation . . . .

After 7 hours on an airplane with a 2 & 4 year old, we are finally back from our Midwest extravaganza. When I get my pictures organized and suitcases unpacked, I'll give you all an update!

Tagged

This is a new phenomenon that has just come to my attention. My friend, Tamara, tagged me on her blog and I am now responsible for doing some tagging on mine. So here it goes. (I have to figure out how to link first!)

Rules:
1) Link to the person who tagged you
2) Post the rules on your blog (this is what you are now reading)
3) Write 6 random things about yourself (see below)
4) Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them (This is only a game)
5) Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up

6 random things about me

1) I tried out for cheerleading twice--once in jr. high and once in ninth grade. Both times I didn't make it. The second time, I was the only one cut from the squad. Crushing at the time? Yes. Good in the end? Yes. I am so uncoordinated, I would have been an abomination.
2) I secretly want to be from the South. I LOVED living in Texas. I like the idea of big hair, fancy nails, a Southern accent, pick up trucks, country music, and good old Southern hospitality. Every time I participate in a Beth Moore Bible study, I secretly want to be her--she epitomizes a Southern girl to me.
3) When I was in high school, I ran into a curb and blew out my tire. For years, I told my parents that the tire just randomly popped while I was driving. Lame, I know.
4) I love the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus.
5) I have a huge crush on Chip Esten, who is a guest performer on the long lost show, "Whose Line Is It Anyway." I search through our TiVo'd episodes just to find the one's he is on.
6) Nate and I got married on a Wednesday and made the groomsmen wear Santa hats at the reception. Sorry guys!

So here's the tagging part.

1) Tamara is a gift from God. I don't have a sister, but I consider her to be the one I never had. We only lived in the same place for a short time, but we have remained close for five years now. She is a lifeline, does a great baton routine, laughs about being a parent with me, and loves me and supports me at all times.
2) Matt and Misty--Matt is Nate's brother and Misty is his wife. We don't get to see them often, but they can play a mean game of Mexican Train! We get to see our new little nephew, Jeremy, next week:)
3) Maria is my friend from high school whom I have re-connected with in the past few years. She is one of the nicest, most friendliest people I know. She is an awesome mommy with an adorable family.
4) Marci is a new friend of mine. I coordinated our women's retreat this year, and she is the contact person at the retreat place. She was so much fun to work with. Through emails and blogs, we have become friends:)
5) Tara was a classmate of mine in high school. Unfortunately, we didn't know each other well back in the day, but I have come to love reading about her family and all their adventures. Her blog is hilarious!
6) Julie is my friend, who married Nate's good friend, Jason. They have two adorable redheads just like us! I wish we would have had more time with them at seminary. It would have been fun for our families to be friends.
So there you have it! Enjoy!

"Mama . . . me and Daddy rock!"

Today is Nate's birthday, and the above picture is of Nate and Jenna playing Guitar Hero together. No, they don't make purple and pink guitars for Guitar Hero . . . that's Jenna's play guitar. She thinks that she is really playing, and it works out great for everyone. After she got done playing with Nate, she said, "Mama. . . . me and Daddy rock!" How cute:)

Speaking of Nate's gift, here's the story of how this gift came to be. I am horrible at picking out gifts for Nate. I love giving gifts and will spend way too much time in the toy aisle of Target looking for the perfect gift for the 4 year old birthday party. But when it comes to Nate, I never know what to get him. Everything he wants is too expensive and I usually end up getting him clothes (my opportunity to buy what I like)! So, I bought the usual Polo shirt from Kohls this year and hid it in my drawer.

On Saturday, I took the girls to Target to pick out cards (they both picked out My Little Pony cards) and as we were passing the technology department, Jenna said, "Hey Mommy, how about we get Daddy Guitar Hero?" I thought for a minute and agreed knowing that it would be a gift both of us would enjoy.

In the car on the way home, I had Jenna practice what she was going to say when Nate asked her what we got him for his birthday. I told her to tell him, dirt. We practiced and practiced on the way home.

Did it work? Nope. As soon as we got home, she rushed up to him and whispered in his ear, "Daddy, we got you Guitar Hero, but don't tell Mommy that I told you!"

So, the Polo from Kohls is waiting to be returned and we have a new fun game to play:)

Vacation Bible School

VBS is a HUGE deal in our house every year. It starts in about April or May when the new VBS cds are available for sale. We buy ours as soon as we can, and in a matter of days know all the songs by heart. Our girls love the music! (So do I . . . )

The actual week of VBS is in July and it is usually a family affair. Nate's job is to lead music. Not the guitar kind, like in the worship team, but he gets up in front of the kids and teaches them the hand motions. I happen to really love watching him do that, because it reminds me of our camp counselor days . . . But it's really awesome for Nate to be the pastor of the church and be able to connect with the kids of our church through VBS. It's also a good way for him to meet the families who don't have a home church and connect with them on a more personal basis. I have been involved in the past few years, but wasn't able to this year due to work. But I still get to sneak in at the very end to see the last few songs:)

Yay for VBS! It really is the highlight of our summer:) Here are a few pictures from this week.

Santa Cruz Boardwalk

Sometimes I forget about the beauty that surrounds us here in the Bay Area. In a matter of hours, we can be at the ocean, in the Sierras with the snow, or in a beautiful forest with the Redwoods. Yesterday, we ventured out to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk with our good friends, the Johnstones. It has become somewhat of a tradition to take this trip with them and we look forward to it every year! Here are a few pictures of our day at the Boardwalk.

Abby and Michelle playing in the water on the beach.

Jenna and Abby's favorite ride. Notice the rainbow car? They tried to get it everytime. According to Jenna, "rainbow" is a color, and her favorite one at that!

The airplane ride overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Jenna watching Abby play in the water.

An Awful Show and An Awful Word

First of all, did any of you see that awful show called, "Wanna Bet?" on tv tonight? Nate and I were sitting on the couch checking out the shows (which were all terrible by the way) and came across this game show type program. We only watched about five minutes of it, but all I saw was this guy licking cds and then guessing which ones they were. Yes, I said licking cds. Who thinks that's a good thing to put on tv? You will all be happy to know that the cd licker got 4 out of 5 correct. Seriously, who puts a guy on tv who licks cds?

Second, my chiropractor told me today that I have arthritis in my upper neck. For a long time, he kept using the word "degeneration." So today, I finally asked him what that exactly means. He looked at me like a puppy who had been kicked a few times and said, "You have arthritis." So Tamara . . . if you are reading this, I think we are tied. You have bifocals and I have arthritis. Yuck!

Funny Kid Stuff

* I had a conversation in the car with Jenna that went like this:

Jenna: Mommy, does God love everyone in the whole wide world?
Me: Yes, He loves everyone.
Jenna: Does He love me?
Me: Of course, He loves you Jenna.
Jenna: Do you think God loves me even if I have red hair?
Me: He made you with your red hair!
Jenna: How did God make me?
Me: (I am thinking that this is a foreshadowing of the birds and the bees conversation to come down the road.) God made everything and He made you very special.
Jenna: When do we get to go to Heaven?
Me: Not for a while. We need to be here to tell everyone how awesome God is so that they can go to Heaven too.
Jenna: Will they say no or yes to Jesus?
Me: Hopefully yes.

Wow! Who knew I could have such a great conversation about faith with a four year old! I told you all . . . the best conversations happen in our minivan!


* Yesterday, Nate and I were watching Jenna kick the ball during her first soccer lesson. Our backs were turned away from Abby who was playing right behind us with the soccer ball. Or at least we though. Nate turned around and caught her attempting to change her own diaper. She got the changing mat out of the diaper bag, laid it down, and put the wipes and a new diaper on the ground. She was laying down trying to get her old diaper off when Nate intercepted her. Crazy girl! She has been known to carry the wipes and a diaper around asking us if we need our diaper changed:) So independent.

* Right before we were to walk out the door to go to a picnic today, Nate found Abby in the bathroom with her hands on the toilet seat lid and her head on it's way into the toilet. Thankfully, he intercepted her in time. She told us that she was trying to wash her hair. Seriously . . . more child protection needed! I thought we were past most of that!

Oh, and I am not sure where she got the idea of washing her hair in the toilet. Don't think that's the norm at the Hartke house!

The Sleep Nazi Is Back!

I used to be the sleep nazi in our house. With both girls, I was usually adament about keeping to a sleeping schedule because I am a huge believer in routines for children. When my girls get the right amount of sleep and go to bed at a decent time, the next day is much easier. The real nazi part, however, comes in with kids sleeping in their own beds and more importantly not in MINE!

I could never sleep with my kids in our bed. I also like our separate space. That doesn't mean that we never let the girls crawl in bed with us or that Abby didn't spend a few weeks in my bed when she was first born. I am not that inflexible, but I always have encouraged everyone sleeping in their own beds.

Jenna is giving me trouble these days. She wants to fall asleep in our bed and have us carry her to her bed after she's asleep. Or she doesn't want to go to sleep on her own. She often asks if I'll lay with her or rub her back. If I don't do what she wants, she will sit in her room and cry and cry and cry. I am usually so tired by the end of the day that the sleep nazi in me cannot show her face. I end up rubbing her back or laying with her for a little bit.

But the sleep nazi came back yesterday. Ever since I've been working part-time, I have been so, so tired at night. So I decided last night that I would not put up with any more bedtime shananingans from her. So I put my foot down and explained that if she cried about wanting something, that I would take away a privilege that she loves--playing on the computer. It worked. Not a peep. It was a peaceful night.

Here's my problem . . . I have to be consistent and I haven't been in the past few months. It's so easy to convince myself that it's easier to give her what she wants (isn't it like that in all of parenting?) as opposed to doing what's actually good for her and us--and following through.

But I've decided that the sleep nazi is back and here to stay and the nighttime shananigans are over and done with. She is testing me and learning what she can get away with. No more! Nighttime will be peaceful again!

Hiding in the dryer

Really, there is no need to call anyone about the pictures that you see in this post. I know that it's dangerous for kids to play in the dryer. As soon as I got done laughing in the other room, both Abby and Jenna were told how dangerous being in the dryer can be. But when I found her, I really couldn't stop myself from laughing at the choice of places she chose to hide.

I was getting us all ready this morning to go to a birthday party, when I realized that I couldn't hear Abby. She had been playing in the tent in her room and was in and out of my bathroom. I went to look for her and couldn't find her. I looked everywhere and called her name a million times. Finally, I saw the laundry room light on and somehow thought to look in the dryer. Yep, there she was, smiling back at me feeling so proud of her good hiding place! The door was not closed and she didn't seem to be scared, but she was definitely in the dryer.

Have I mentioned that Abby is my adventure? She constantly keeps us on our toes, and this is just one more experience to prove it.

It looks like I'll be installing some sort of babyproofing mechanism on the dryer door very soon!

Soccer

Today was Jenna's first day of soccer! I have to admit, that I signed her up for two reasons. #1--I panicked a little bit at the end of preschool and wondered what I was going to do with her all day every day. I wanted to have some activities for her to do in the summer. #2--I wanted to see if she liked a sport as much as she likes dance. I want to let her decide what she pursues (down the road of course) but I wanted to see how she liked sports along with dance.

So . . . today was SUPPOSED to be her first day. Last night, we went to Sport's Authority and got pink shinguards, a pink ball, and pink soccer socks. We were set. She had her shinguards and socks on all morning and was SO, SO excited. As we were getting into the car to go to her session, my cell phone rang. The instructor was sick and the class was cancelled. Jenna was very disappointed.

So we decided to go the park and have our own soccer lesson instead. I did my best from what I remember from 20 years ago. Here are a few pictures of our first soccer experience!

Notice the pink theme? Notice the socks on Abby? She had to be like her big sister!

All ready for soccer!

Our "soccer lesson" in the park.

A Question from Jenna

"Mommy, why is the top of your hair all dark and brown and the bottom of your hair is blonde?

When your four year old daughter recognizes "the dark and brown" on the top of your head, you should probably do something about it, right?

I have an appointment for a cut and highlight on Friday:)

Heatbreak & Guilt

I haven't worked full time in almost five years. Wow--that's a long time when I think about it! I've done some very, very part time things in the past five years, but last week, I went back to work. I am teaching the GED preparation class for three hours in the mornings at our local adult school. It's only part time, but this position requires me to have a sitter for the girls this summer. In the fall, when I teach the class, Jenna will be in preschool and Abby will be with a regular sitter.

Going back to work has stirred up a whole range of emotions for me. On one hand, being able to contribute to the family finances and have some time in the professional world is appealing to me. But on the other hand, I absolutely hate the idea of Abby (especially) having to be with a sitter while I work. I feel guilty for not being with them all day and going off to work. But me working is in the best interest of our family at this point. The last week has been okay. Work has been fine and our new schedule seems to be working for us.

But today was hard. When I picked the girls up from the babysitter's house, Jenna broke down and cried. First she cried about the vaccination shots she'll have to get in January. Then she cried about the fact that I still make her sit in the car seat with a five point harness as opposed to the booter seats with the regular seat belt. But then she said," Mommy, I don't want you to go to work. I like being at home with you better. Why can't I be with you?"

heartbreak & guilt . . .

We going booms?

"Booms" is Abby's word for the fireworks:) Last night, we went to see the fireworks, and our children behaved consistently with their personalities. Jenna flipped out at first. After a while thought that they were the best thing since sliced bread (although in our day and age, I would replace the words "sliced bread" with "DVR" or "high-speed Internet" or "the Shark Steam Mop." But I digress . . .

So, Jenna flipped out at first and Abby sat and watched them in amazement, clapping at the particularly spectacular ones. The first thing Jenna said to me this morning, was, "Mommy, weren't the fireworks SO AMAZING?" And all day, Abby's been asking,"We going booms?" She wants to go to the fireworks again tonight, but it'll, of course, have to be another year before we experience that extravaganza again:)

Just because I love these pictures

These pictures were taken on Jenna's last day of preschool in June, and I love them because #1 they are loving each other and #2 Jenna is doing her best to make Abby smile.

"Mommy, you got boos on!"

Jenna is enrolled in a little dance class, and I am really excited that she is enjoying herself so much each week. Today, they danced around with ribbons and learned how to shuffle with their little tap shoes on. They even did a little shimmy move, which was so hilarious to me!

While the little girls are dancing with Miss Mandi in the studio, it's a whole other world in the observation area where the parents and siblings hang out. You've got boys running around like crazy men, practically knocking all the adults over (much like the Playplace at McDonalds). You've got moms instructing their kids through the windows, which again is hilarious because the kids can't hear them. Then you've got the little girl whose Mom has no control over her as she runs back and forth between the studio and observation room, slamming the door each time. The best, however, is the mom who wears stiletto heels on the dance floor and talks on her cell phone while she dances with her limp daughter who refuses to participate in any part of the program. (I'm sure Miss Mandi really loves that!)

Abby and I just hang out by the observation window. I try to get a spot where she can see, because she likes to do the moves along with Jenna while she's watching. Today, I was holding Abby, who often loves to stick her hands down my shirt for no apparent reason. I am usually caught off guard, but catch her before I flash everyone around me. Today, I wasn't so fast. She grabbed my shirt, pulled it out and said, "Mommy! You got boos on!"

I was immediately mortified because I saw those crazy, running boys looking at me and some of the other mothers had turned to look at me too. I immediately thought she was saying, "Mommy, you got boobs!" but then she said, "Boo, I yike dat coyuer (color)"

Thank goodness she was only talking about the color of that particular undergarment. Hey, I figure that at least I'm not that lady in the stiletto heels!

Grocery Store, Broken Light Bulb, and an Old Man

After Jenna's dance class today, we stopped at the grocery store to get bags of salad for dinner tonight. But this was a new grocery store; one that I've never been to before.

I had no idea where the salad was and I couldn't see it from the entrance of the store, so we started on the right hand side and walked along the edges of the store until we found the salads, because they are usually on some wall in every store. As we were walking, Jenna kept touching *everything* in sight. When I realized she was doing this, I asked her to stop. She didn't. I saw her little hands beginning to graze the glass bottles of barbeque sauce and I immediately grabbed her hand.

After asking her several more times I started to tell her that if she touched on more thing that she would lose her computer privileges tomorrow. As those words came out of my mouth, she knocked over a lightbulb and it, of course, smashed into lots of tiny bits.

We stopped. Jenna knew she was in trouble. Surprisingly, I didn't get all worked up about it, I just calmly told her that the lightbulb was broken because she didn't listen to me the first time I asked her not to touch all the merchandise. (We are currently working on listening on the first time directions are given. It obviously didn't work out too well today.) Jenna was crying. I was trying to talk to her and find somene to clean up the broken glass at the same time.

There was an older man standing about five feet away from us and as I got up to ask the lady at the deli counter to help, he looked at me and said, "That wouldn't have happened if she wouldn't have touched the lightbulb." Now I was ticked. Really ticked. I am used to the occasional spectacle that we can be in a store. I've shopped with screaming kids before, knocked over an entire display of Ragu spaghetti sauce before, and picked up 50 apples that have fallen off the display in the produce section because Abby decided to swipe the one from the very bottom. But I have never had anyone talk to me directly, and make such an obvious and irritating observation.

I looked at this guy and said, "Do you think I don't know that? Really, do you think I don't know that the lightbulb wouldn't have broken if she wouldn't have touched it?"

I know, I know . . . not a very nice thing to say and certainly not very pastor wifish of me, but I just couldn't hold back. I'm happy that this particular store is not my normal grocery store. I won't be going back anytime soon!

My Sweet Little Adventure

Sometimes I write posts simply because I don't want to lose the memories that have happened during the day. This blog is a lot of things for me, and one of them is a record of our lives. I don't scrapbook and I don't keep a regular journal, but I want to remember the "stuff" of our lives and this seems to be the only way that happens for me.

So today is a post about our little Abby. She's two and still an adventure and I love being her mommy. Here are a few things that happened today that deserve to be remembered (at least for me).

I was talking on the phone with a friend tonight as Abby was finishing up her dinner. She's generally messy and I have learned not to flip out about that, but tonight, she got extra messy. She had applesauce for dinner, as I glanced over at her and caught her rubbing appplesauce up and down her arms as if she were rubbing lotion on her skin. Before I got to her, she had moved to her face. So messy, but oh so cute:)

Every night we say prayers. We say the "Now I Lay Me" prayer and then the Lord's Prayer right after. At the end, we always tag on a few extra prayers for the day. Abby has never said anything during this time, but right as I was about to wrap up the prayer, she said, "My turn, my turn!" They I heard this little voice say, "I wuv Duh Duh (Jenna) and Mama and Da Da and Gamma and Papa. And I wuv Sheshus (Jesus)."

So, so precious.

I Can't Do It

Nate and I are in agreement that we are done adding to our family. We don't feel the need to try for a boy or 8 kids (which everyone always asks me since Nate is the oldest of 8 kids). I am happy with that decision and have been for some time.

My problem is the baby clothes. I have a desire to bless women who cannot afford clothes on their own with the large amount of baby clothes that we have accumulated in the last four years. There is this wonderful charity called, Hope, that collects items for people in need. Another perk is that they pick up your stuff from the curb every few months. I have never put anything out, but this month I am ready! I have a few bags of toys and old clothes of ours that I am ready to part with, and they are ready to go in our garage. I have a note on my calendar to put the clothes out next Wednesday. But I can't seem to bring myself to part with the the numerous large bins of baby clothes that occupy a large space in our garage.

I set a deadline for myself that I would at least go through 0-6 months for this pickup and get rid of most of those. But I can't do it. I stood in my garage tonight, looking at the bins of baby clothes and couldn't even open them to go through them.

I guess giving away the baby clothes is the final acceptance that I am not a mommy of babies anymore and that part of my life is over. And that makes me kind of sad. There's also another part to this. I JUST KNOW that the second I give my clothes away, God will start laughing and give me another little girl. You never know with God, and I'm not looking to give him a reason to laugh at me right now.

So, I can't do it. I'll keep working on it though. . . I've got four days!

Nightmare At The Mall Play Place

Next to those "kid friendly" grocery carts that have a two-seater car on the front with two steering wheels (which is impossible to navigate through the aisles without toppling over a display of Ragu spaghetti sauce), I LOATHE the little play areas that have become popular in malls. You know the ones. The ones with bright green turtles to climb on and cars to drive. The ones with squishy floors where many parents think it's free time for them and an anything goes time for their children?

I took the girls to the mall today to just walk around, have a girls' day out that included the Disney store, dinner, and an ice cream treat. I can never remember the best place to park, as to avoid the play area, and this time, right after we walked into the mall, there it was. Right in front of the Macy's where we came out of from the parking lot. I had obviously parked in the wrong spot. The girls wanted to play so badly, so I let them.

We had an awful experience during our play time and I vow never to go there again. (Let's hope I can remember where to park so I can avoid it all together). So here are my issues with the play areas in malls, based on today's experience.

Issue #1: The germs that must be crawling in that place. I'm pretty sure we'll have a cold or the stomach flu next week.

Issue #2: Big kids that run around like crazy people, knocking little kids down, and the parents that allow that.

Issue #3: Parents not watching their kids.

Issue #4: A little girl who pinched Abby and then pushed her off the bright green turtle. The parent saw this happen did nothing to stop it, didn't apologize to Abby or me, as she fell face first onto the ground crying.

Issue #5: Parents who stand directly behind me and give me dirty looks after I fall into them because their stroller is touching my heels as I am trying to take off Abby's shoes. Why stand that close to me?

Issue #6: Parents who let their little boy run around the play area in only a shirt and a diaper. And a full diaper at that. Seriously . . .gross.

Issue #7: Kids who don't let other kids play in the giant shoe (I think it was a shoe) that had more than enough space for 6 kids and the parents who won't let any other kids in either.

After Issue #4 happened, I scooped up my kids and left muttering under my breath that the play area was the worst place ever. I really wanted to give the mother of the little girl who pushed Abby off the turtle a piece of my mind, but I am trying to avoid drama these days and just kept on walking.

Although the play place was a nightmare today, we had a fun girls' day out:)

A Bit Of Our Day

In case you were all worried . . . we found Blossom! She was all wrapped up in a blanket that was on the couch, and even though I checked it once, I must not have checked well enough. So a crisis was averted, although I was getting pretty nervous and frustrated for a while there.

Today Jenna had her first dance class for the summer at the studio that I'm going to sign her up for in the fall. This particular studio offers a program through the local parks department, so I thought we'd try it out before I committed an entire year's worth of money to them. Jenna's never been in an official dance class before, except for an awful class of 2 year olds through the parks department a few years ago which was so disorganized it was ridiculous. So I vowed that the next dance experience would be with a good studio. So here we are.

We walk in today and Jenna immediately clams up, which shouldn't be a surprise to me, but I was caught off guard. Kind of like when she wouldn't walk down the aisle when she was a flower girl for Josh and Annie's wedding. Really . . . I know that is takes her a while to warm up and that she doesn't just jump into things, but I always seem to forget that. For the first ten minutes, she refused to stand in the circle with the kids, and stood there all shy and nervous. I was so upset that she wouldn't participate. I was thinking about how excited she was for this and how disappointed I would be if she were the kid that stood in the corner each week. (Kind of like swimming lessons when she just stood on the steps for a good 16 weeks.) I stayed in the room with her for a few minutes, but as soon as I left, she was fine. She was having such a great time, and it made me so happy to see her enjoy herself. Especially after we'd spent time and money on the shoes and outfit:)

Wish me luck on the swimming lessons though. We're starting those up again in the fall:) I only pray that she'll get off the steps this time:)