Deedee's Diaper

Deedee, Abby's constant companion, needed a diaper change this morning:) So cute!

Abbyisms

I don't want to ever forget the cute things that she says . . .

1) She loves this new show called the Imagination Movers. Abby calls them the "musha musha movers."

2) Nate and I often tell the girls that we agree with each other when in a discipline type conversation with the girls. For example,
Jenna: Mommy, can I ride my bike outside?
Me: No, it's close to dinner time.
Jenna: Daddy, can I ride my bike outside?
Nate: No, you can't. I agree with Mommy.

Lately, whenever Jenna is getting reprimanded or I've told her no, Abby pipes up and says, "I gee mi Mommy." ( I agree with Mommy.) For example,
Jenna: Mommy, can I have a snack?
Me: Sorry honey, I didn't bring any in the car.
Abby: I gee mi Mommy.

3) "Mommy, you're my beh fend." (Mommy, you're my best friend.)

4) sippy soup = swimming suit

5) seaping booty=Sleeping Beauty

6) hairpane=airplane

One of my favorites

I am going through old pictures and picking out my favorites so that I can start printing pictures out and putting them in albums. I know, I know . . . I am so far behind, but I have to start somewhere, right?

This is me and Jenna when she was a little over 1 month old. Notice the pink cowboy boots? She was born in Texas (which is a privilege if you live in the south), so we had to have the correct attire:) I just love this picture!

This is what happens when Daddy dresses them.

Nate is the best husband I could have ever asked for. He is my best friend, an excellent daddy, and a great help with the girls and around the house. He cooks, cleans, and takes care of the kids whenever there is a need. I love all of those things about him. However, getting the girls ready for the day is not one of his fortes. See below:

Abby wore two different colored shoes when dropping Jenna of at preschool this morning. When I got home, her fly was down. I hope it was up at 9am this morning!
This is the best! I walked into preschool to pick up Jenna and was a tiny bit mortified. This is what Jenna had on. This is an adorable outfit, especially when worn with the leggings that go with it! Nate thought that the top was long enough to be a "mini-skirt!" So, Jenna wore a shirt and tights to school today. I apologized to the teacher as I was trying to get over my shock of my half-dressed daughter:)

In the end, I am, of course, not upset with Nate about this. I find it incredibly funny! Note to self: pick out clothes before leaving for work on Fridays:)

If Only Mouths Came With A Zipper . . .

A few funny moments from our day yesterday:

Five minutes after we got home from school/daycare, the carpet cleaners were knocking on my door. They were 25 minutes early and I was so flustered trying to get everything together for our afternoon out while we waited for the carpets to clean. As I was feeding the girls lunch, the carpet cleaner guys were pretreating the stains on the carpet. Jenna was talking to them and I heard her say, "Hi--my name is Jenna." Then as loud as she possibly could, Abby yelled, "Hi ! My name is Bootybutt!" What a proud moment for me. Really, those carpet cleaner men must think that I am the worst mother ever. In my defense, I contend that the OTHER parental unit in our house got them started on that word first, as a cute reference. Now we are trying to play defense and prevent our children from yelling that word as loud as they can to complete strangers:)

During our afternoon extravaganza, which was to keep the girls out of the house while the carpet dried, we landed at Kohls. I had to return something and was very proud of myself for not purchasing anything else. We stopped in the bathroom, and upon exiting the stall, Abby yells, "My mommy just went pee pee all by herself!" I bet you can imagine how embarrassing it was to walk out of the bathroom knowing that everyone in a 100 foot radius knew what had just happened in that stall.

You might be wondering why I posted these stories, since they ended up being pretty embarrassing to me. Well . . . I have learned that kids sometimes are not appropriate. But they are still hilarious. Pastor's wife or not, my kids are not perfect, and I am not perfect. But I am real. And someday, I can't wait for Abby to read this story:)

A Sweet Picture

Baby Steps

Swimming is a struggle and an adventure for Jenna. Before she was 2, she loved the water. However, we didn't get a chance to do much swimming because we were on vicarage or in St. Louis for our last year of seminary. Since we weren't rolling the dough, or much dough at all, belonging to a facility that would allow swimming wasn't an option.

When we got to San Jose, Jenna suddenly became afraid of the water. So much so that she would absolutely FLIP OUT if we tried get her into the water. It was quite disturbing, actually. Screaming and shaking and holding on for dear life. I don't know if that natural fear for her or if something brought it on. There were a few times that we tried to take her in the water and she flipped out. Maybe we scarred her. I have no idea. So for about a year, we just let her do her own thing. We were happy if she put her feet in the water at a pool. She graduated to holding onto the side of the pool, and we thought that was great.

So we enrolled her in swimming lessons at the Y and thought that she just needed a little encouragement from someone other than me or Nate.

16 weeks sitting on the steps of the pool. 16. weeks. Yep. I paid for that. (Actually Grandma helped.)

So I decided to go for the big guns and enroll her in a Swim School. I asked around and did some research and found one that is highly recommended. Jenna's been going to this swim school since September and has been doing so great. But she is definitely taking baby steps, and that makes me a little uncomfortable. I just want her to dive right in (literally and figuratively) and swim like so many other kids her age.

The first day of lessons at the swim school, it took her 20 minutes to be coaxed into the pool. Luckily, this place has the most wonderful teachers who made it comfortable for Jenna and soon she was in with no problem.

She has a male teacher, Derrick, whom she ADORES. Derrick has a class of four four year olds and it is the cutest thing! I'm pretty sure that each little girl has a secret crush on him. They bounce around and giggle the whole time.

We have progressed from sitting on the steps to getting right in the water and playing with the other kids. Now, we are working on putting her head under water. She gets so close each time, but just doesn't do it. She will put her face in, each ear in, and the back of her head--but not the whole thing!

Baby steps. I have to remember that. Each new thing she does is way better than 16 weeks of sitting on the steps.

Nine October

Today was a good day. No huge tantrums or meltdowns or too many things to do. We've been hanging out at home since work/preschool/daycare this morning. I am loving "home" more and more since I started to work part-time. I really value my time here and find myself being more motivated now that I have less home time. It's interesting, because when I was home full-time, I would often dread the days that we didn't have much to do. Being home with the kids was hard for me and often resulted in tension of some sort. But things have seemed to switch. I think working part-time is good for me.

One bad thing did happen today, though. I came to the realization that Abby is giving up her nap. She's refused to nap in the afternoon a few times during the past three weeks, and I chalked it up to her just not being tired. But after entertaining a wide awake Abby until 9:45 last night (I made her take a good nap yesterday afternoon), I decided that I'd rather have her awake during the day as opposed to the evening. So, there are no more afternoon naps at the Hartke house. I'm trying to think up a good plan for "rest time" in the afternoon. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Teaching my adult class continues to get more interesting. Today I think I learned more from/about my students than they learned from me. First, we had a lengthy discussion about prison. I learned all about what it's like on the "inside." I also learned that California's prisons are really overcrowded, so many people are getting shipped off to other states to serve their time. Sounds like something California would do.

The other interesting piece to my day was that I highly suspect that some of my students are smoking pot before school and/or during our half hour break. Bloodshot eyes, strange behavior, and that lovely smell are all things I've noticed this week. I have the freedom to drop any student from my class, and that's probably what's in store for these people. I can't have stoned students in my classroom distracting the others who are really trying to work.

Who knew this would be my world? Not me!

If you are looking for some cool Christmas gifts . . .

check out this website.

www.wearefullofscrap.blogspot.com

My friend Maria sells homemade cards and photo albums. She's very creative and they make great gifts!

Burned Waffles

These are part of tonight's dinner. Waffles Burned waffles. We had breakfast for dinner tonight, and I burned them. Luckily, we had a whole stack of Hello Kitty Waffles to eat before these, but I completely forgot about this last batch after sitting down to eat my own dinner. After about fifteen minutes, Nate went over to the Hello Kitty waffle iron, opened it up and said, "Honey, I love you for this. This is so you."

There are several things to fill you all in on here. Why do we have a Hello Kitty waffle maker? We won it at a silent auction. Yes, we actually bid on this item and won. I guess that's what having two little girls does to you.

And yes, I do have an issue with burning food. Not all the time, and much less frequently than in the past. I am absent minded. Big time. Especially when it comes to things around the house. I'll put a batch of cookies in the oven (and not set the timer because I'll be sure to remember to get them out), put a load of laundry in, clean half of the bathroom before I realize that the cookies are burning and I forgot to check on them. I do this a lot, but I have been trying to be better. I actually set timers now and really try to finish one task at a time. Like laundry. I really try to fold all the laundry and actually put it in the drawers all in one day.

I'm just happy that Nate has come to the place where he doesn't get annoyed or angry when I forget something and food ends up burned. He just loves me for it:)

Getting Into Mischief

You might think that the stroller that Abby is sitting in is real, but it is actually a toy stroller. It just happens to be huge! Abby likes to sit in it, even though she knows she shouldn't. I orginally took this picture because Abby chose to wear snow boots in 95 degree weather:)

This is true mischief! I accidentally left a bag of cookies on the counter. While I was upstairs, my two little sweethearts swiped a plate of them.

Cookie victory!

After work today, I was changing my clothes. I was seriously upstairs for 3 or 4 minutes. In that amount of time, Abby had gotten a chair in the pantry, fetched the strawberry milk, and helped herself to spoonfuls of yummy pink powder.

So yummy!

In Conclusion . . .

to my moral dilemma post, I have come to understand that such a delicate and personal issue as birth control is one that is between you, your spouse, and God. As for me, I will continue to wrestle with all the different angles of birth control and IUDs, especially. Researching and learning about it has certainly been an eye opening experience and I am thankful to those of you who shared your experiences with me.

A Trip To the Salon

I just ran across these pictures and had to post them because we had such fun on this particular day. Back in August, my mom was here visiting and needed her nails done. Recently, I've found this great salon in our area and absolutely love our new hairdresser, Bruce.

On this day, Abby had her hair cut, so me, Jenna, Abby, and Mom were all in the salon at the same time. As soon as they saw Grandma getting her nails done, they wanted theirs painted too! The nice nail lady, whose name I cannot remember, quickly painted the girls nails for free! She was so wonderful and the girls were ecstatic over their pink and purple fingernails !

This picture cracks me up because Abby is looking rather suspicious of the entire situation.

She really did have a great time. Just not sure about that little fan that dries nails:)

All smiles for Jenna!

A Moral Dilemma

This is one post that I would really like feedback on. If you are reading this, please don't be afraid to comment even if it is anonymously.

I am really interested in knowing as much as I can about the IUD (birth control device). Not only for my own knowledge, but for others who ask me about it. The topic of birth control comes up frequently in my circles. Most of us are done having babies, but can't stomach the thought of the pill forever or the permanency of a vasectomy. The IUD seems like a great choice for many of us, but after doing some research and talking to my doctor, there is still a chance that an embryo can form and be "aborted" because the conditions aren't right for implantation. From what I understand that chance is very, very, very small . . . but I struggtle with whether it is right to have an IUD given even the smallest chance of a baby forming.

I am not a crazy right wing Christian who pickets abortion clinics. I think those people give us Christians a bad name and go about it in an ineffective way. But I do believe that life begins at conception and that we are precious and honored and loved even as an embryo.

When we were on vicarage, I had the opportunity to volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center. It truly was one of the most fulfilling experiences in my life. I got to know women as individuals and talk with them about their situation. I got to to guide them through their choice of life. Not always, but many times. I am passionate about helping women during this crisis time and look forward to the time when my schedule allows for me to volunteer again.

Given all of that, I cannot fathom the idea of possibly creating a little Hartke baby and essentially making the choice for it not to live. And if this fact is true, that an embryo may be created and "aborted," how can I in good conscience counsel other women to do the same?

The trick here is that research and my own doctor says that there is no way to really know if creating an embryo actually happens, but that the IUD only prevents implantation, not fertilization. Many doctors are using the Mirena brand which seems to be more effective. A pro life doctor at my doctor's office has started using them after refusing to provide IUDs for years. She now feels that comfortable with their effectiveness.

If you are reading this and have an IUD, I am not judging. I am just asking questions and trying to find out answers. It's hard to find good information out there about whether an embryo is actually formed when using an IUD. The research goes both ways.

Any thoughts?

My Sweethearts

Jenna, Nate, and Abby at the beach party at Camp Pioneer. The girls had fun decorating Daddy:)

"Stuff Issues"

A while back, I posted about how difficult it was for me to get rid of all the baby clothes that were sitting in bins in my garage. I am long over that and have found great freedom and joy in giving away those clothes to people who could use them. I also have discovered that "stuff" suffocates me. I've been getting rid of toys that aren't age appropriate for my kids as well as my own clothes and things that I no longer use or need. Very freeing.



I am having an issue with other "stuff." Namely video game "stuff." I am feeling this pressure to have the newest and best gaming systems. Please know, that we have not owned a gaming system since our seminary days when we had no kids. This past summer, we became proud owners of a PS3 as well as Guitar Hero. Nate plays that often--usually after I go to bed and that doesn't bother me.

What bothers me is the kids side of it. Everytime we go to a friends' house that has a Wii, Jenna asks for one. So, Nate and I have thrown around the idea of giving that to the girls for Christmas. But I don't know if I really want to do that. Do 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 year olds need a Wii? Do we want to start the slippery slope of wanting the newest gaming technologies out there? Do we want to start allowing our kids to play video games on a regular basis? My answer is no to all of that, but I don't know if I am being too restrictive.

Yes, my kids watch tv, and yes, Jenna loves to play on the Barbie website on the computer. But I am very aware of "screen" time and don't want to allow too much at any given time. And introducing video games makes me cringe a little.

Does anyone else have an opinion on this? I am open to all of them:)

The Ice Cream Truck Denial

Below is a conversation that happened between Abby, 2 1/2 and Nate at bedtime. Imagine a sweet, high-pitched two year old little voice, very upset that she did not get ice cream today.

I apologize if this isn't funny to any of you, but it was hilarious to us:)

Abby: I heard dee eye keem tuck tooay. And I wanna get some. I ent to akk Mommy if I ould hah um, because I eyed to. (I heard the ice cream truck today. And I wanna get some. I eent to ask Mommy if I could have some, because I tried to.)

Nate: And what did Mommy say?

Abby: See said NOOOOOOOO! I tie morrow. (She said nooooo. I try tomorrow.)

Jenna Got Into My Eyeliner

Just Because It's Funny :)

More Adventures in Teaching

This new job continues to be an adventure. Here are some things I have learned in the past few days.

* Many students landed in my class because they didn't pass either section of their high school exit exam and have a lot of work to do academically. Motivation to learn is an issue and part of the reason for the non-passing status of these students. I am trying to figure out how to motivate them to learn when they don't want to. I have been trying to get one kid to write a few paragraphs for me for a few days now. I finally sat next to him and pushed him to write.

They don't get grades. The only things they gain from my class is skills to pass the test and confidence in themselves. So far, I'm not sure if they are interested in either. Any ideas?

* Now that they are comfortable with me, they #1 try to push my limits (like children) and #2 challenge my opinions. For example: That driving drunk isn't a good choice. Seriously . . . .

* The more I get to know some of these students, the more I pray for them. I walk into my classroom every day now and pray that God would permiate the room. Most of my students have to be there and are coming from awful situations at home. Today, I had a student come in shaking. She was so upset because she is afraid of going to juvvy (juvenile detention) because she violated her probation. I bought her a water and talked to her. I really do hope that God works healing in her life.

I feel like I walk into a battleground every day now. I have to fight to get some of them to participate. Many of them are fighting situations in their lives outside of our classroom walls and the only way (and the most powerful way) is for me to ask God to work in their lives.

Of course, I can never say His name in my classroom. I can't talk about my faith or even tell them that I pray for them. But they know Nate's a pastor and I hope they see a little spark of Christ's love for them through me, even if I can't say it.