I'm wordless this Wednesday...

Wordless Wednesday...

Ahh... sugary goodness awaits us!

FREE DR. PEPPER! AXEL ROSE IS BRINGIN' IT!

Dr Pepper is making good on its promise of free soda now that the release of Guns N' Roses' album "Chinese Democracy" is a reality.

The soft-drink maker said in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in America if the album dropped in 2008. "Chinese Democracy," has been infamously delayed since recording began in 1994, but goes on sale Sunday.

"We never thought this day would come," Tony Jacobs, Dr Pepper's vice president of marketing, said in a statement. "But now that it's here, all we can say is: The Dr Pepper's on us."

Beginning Sunday at 12:01 a.m., coupons for a free 20-ounce soda will be available for 24 hours on Dr Pepper's Web site. They'll be honored until Feb. 28, 2009.

Wordless Wednesday...

******WARNING!! FULL FRONTAL NUDITY!!!*******

The time has come...

Here are the long awaited Halloween photos of Jacob and Luke. Oops! I mean Optimus Prime and Spiderman Jr. strutting their stuff. Yes, these are my actual children, even though you cannot see their cute and adorable faces.

Check out these cool Halloween bags my Dad sent them last year. They even talk when you push a button on the handle. Great for 3 year olds who are going through a shy phase. It says 'Trick or Treat' and 'Thank you.' Jacob's was a skeleton hand and Luke's was a witch claw, complete with creepy voices.

And here are the silly pumpkin faces they made with Grandpa and Grandma Sterzik's help on their last visit. I especially like the snot coming out of Jacob's pumpkin nose! It's great being the mom of 2 boys- grossness is encouraged!

Wordless Wednesday...

Halloween pics

Well.... I can't seem to get my act together. How many days has it been since Halloween, and I still haven't downloaded the pictures of the boys in their costumes. I am going to blame my lack of time to pre-presidental angst and prayer. Anyways, here are a few photos of some children that are NOT mine, but I thought the outfits were great!

Here's my first fictional child, Pinocchio. Is that how you spell his name? Oh well, we just call him P-knuckle. He does whatever I ask, I mean make him do.

And this is little Shark-bait. Isn't he cute? The tiniest little feet you've ever seen!

Hope this tides you over until I get my rear in gear and download my real progeny. Is that a real word, or did I make that up?

Wordless Wednesday...

Why dogs hate Halloween...

The time of year when parents of human children and dog children dress them all up in silly outfits. At least the kids get to pick out their own costumes. Poor canine creatures...

Where do they come up with these ideas?

Small dogs have it the worst... Is this a beany baby outfit? Tiny!

This is my absolute favorite. Where on earth did these costumes come from? My brother in law works for McDonald's and he never mentioned any dwarves working there! What patient animals. How much time do these people have on their hands anyway?

Stay tuned for photos of my rugrats in their Halloween costumes...

Wordless Wednesday...

Oops! It's Thursday. So sue me!

Song lyric Sundays...

This idea has been pestering me lately. To take my love of "secular music" (as if music had chosen a side in the great spiritual debate) and pair it with what God is teaching me through scripture. Crazy I know, but call me crazy. So with no further ado, I present my first Song Lyric Sunday, with Seether's 'Rise above this.'

Take the light, undarken everything around me. Call the clouds and listen closely, I'm lost without you. Call your name every day when I seem so helpless, I've fallen down, and I'll rise above this, rise above this doubt.

Lately, I have been burdened by what I can only describe as weighty problems in the lives of those around me, including myself. Shattered marriages, uncomfortable sibling issues, adultery, unexamined lives, depression, physical pain and nearness of death. My typical response to hearing these things is one of two things: become overwhelmed and depressed or to pretend like its not happening and live a life of denial. I'm not exactly sure which of these two fabulous choices is worse.

Back to scripture and our song. The song speaks to the helplessness we feel when our circumstances are so overwhelming but also to hope and rising above our problems. I've been studying the life of Moses recently and it has been so amazing for the last month. His life didn't ever seem to go the way he thought it would, and it reminds me of our lives. In the book of Exodus, Moses

• Thought the Hebrew slaves in Egypt would know he was their redeemer- they didn't and he spent 40 years in the desert as a shepherd fugitive.
• Thought that if he gave God enough excuses or asked a lot of questions, that God would find someone else to go to Egypt- God sent him anyway.
• Thought that Pharaoh would listen to him and believe the miraculous signs God enabled him to do- Pharaoh didn't and increased the work load of the Hebrew slaves, creating resentment in them.
• Thought the Hebrews would believe his encouragement that the Lord was going to save them- instead they blamed Moses and Aaron for their punishment and harsh treatment.

Things were not going the way Moses' thought they would, just like our lives don't always go according to our plans. What happens when God calls us to something and it isn't easy? Our marriage is difficult, or even broken, our siblings hurt us, friends betray us, a parent dies, children are a struggle. What do we do when our circumstances overwhelm us? A friend recently said, "Disappointment is deafening. It can impair our ability to hear God talking to us." Our circumstances can sometimes scream louder than God's whispers.

God doesn't always promise us a smooth road. Life is hard. Let's face it, life can be crappy. But do we let our circumstances dictate us? God promises over and over to be with us in all things, good and bad. He promises to help us rise above them. "My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth" the psalmist says. That Seether song says that I'll call your name everyday when I seem so helpless and I'll rise above this doubt. Hard times= times of doubt for most people. God is this really where you want me? God, where are you? Why is this happening to me?

Moses invariably went to God with his doubts. When all of the Egyptian plans they made together didn't go as Moses thought they should, he went straight to God for answers. When disappointment deafens us, and impairs our ability to hear God clearly, we need to go straight to Him for answers. Then we will rise above our doubts, because we will know God intimately, and know that His plans, no matter how difficult are for our ultimate best and His glory.

Wordless Wednesday...

Yep, the ladies love him...

Be patient. I will explain the photo in due time, in due time. Took Luke to the doctor for his annual exam. Yes, I DO know that his birthday was in August and its now October- time just gets away from me. Anyways, we were discussing his current quirks while Dr. D looked over his info. There was a time that we couldn't get out the door before Dr. D would announce, "He's the biggest boy on the block isn't he?" (Master of the obvious, but I love the man). "Luke is greater than 100% on his height and greater than 100% on his weight."

Get this- Luke is 40 inches tall and 40 pounds at the grand old age of 3. He is the size of an average 4 year old. He and Jacob are assumed to be twins almost everytime the go out in public together. Jacob is 46 inches tall and 46 pounds at the age of 5. Well, Dr. D tells me, "You are looking at a boy who will be at least 6'4 or 6'5." At 5'6, I think my 6'2 husband is a giant. Luke is going to be huge. I am going to have to go back to work full-time and Chris will need a second job to feed these boys. We better be sweet to them now or we are in danger of them sitting on us and squishing us when we are old and feeble.

By the way, the photo... the ladies do love a tall, tall boy! He is a shameless flirt and cuter than puppies and kittens on Christmas morning. I do believe I will keep him as long as possible.

monkey see, monkey do...

Doesn't matter what it is, if one does it, the other will too.

Note the differences in wearing apparel. It appears that I have a skull worshipper and a cucumber and tomato salad lover, living in my house. No... its just Jacob in his Halloween spirit wear and Luke in his brothers size 7 t-shirt. He wore it for over 24 hours a few days ago. Wore it to bed, wore it all day and had to have it pried off of him that night for clean clothing. Yes, I do have standards about cleanliness.. although it would have been easier to just let him wear it again. There was a tiny fit thrown about removing Bob and Larry from his person.

But my all time favorite story of the week involves the dentist. I took them in for a cleaning- it was Luke's first time. He was amazingly calm and cooperative. The dentist even commented on it. I told him that Luke was just very easygoing- that's how he rolls. We go to check out and Jacob has all his goodies PLUS a toy car they gave him. Luke did not recieve a toy, so he goes to get one himself. I stop him from pilfering the toy basket and he lets out, what the dictionary would term a "blood curdling scream." Not just one. Not just two. Three or four of them in a row. I take him to the bathroom where he continues and I am sure the office staff are convinced that I have ripped an arm off punishing him. I quietly talk to him and he stops the "from the gut" screaming. I have NEVER heard this child act this way.

We go back out and I ask him to apologize to the receptionist. Do you know what she said? She stated, "You scared me." My 3 year old freaked her out. THAT is how loud and insanely crazy he was acting. For those of you who know my son, you are shocked and appalled. If he wasn't a boy, I would blame hormones.

Wordless Wednesday...

year book part deux

My better half.... lookin' wicked awesome!

year book

Here I am in all my glory...

from the 50's to the 90's.

I am way fabulous!

some cuteness...

Look at them! Aren't they the cutest? I keep reminding myself of that every time they tromp downstairs at 3am to ask if they can sleep with us or for us to take them to the bathroom, etc. Everthing seems to be flying by at the speed of light (except sleep deprivation). Got to keep in mind that they days will pass so soon. Pictures help me remembers how blessed I am.

Wordless Wednesday...

Wordless Wednesday...

As this is the first of my wordless Wednesday's, I will explain what I am doing and then you will never hear from me again! I am stealing this idea from a friend (Melissa), but instead of cute photos of my boys, you will see silly and goofy stuff, with no interpretation from me. You don't have to thank me.

This is personal...

Tonight was ugly. Jacob had what we call in our home, "a major meltdown." He was uber-tired and he didn't get what he wanted and it quickly escalated into hysteria and frustration. And here's the deal- this post is not about my child. This post is about me.

I "pride" myself on being a person who can figure things out. God has given me a moderate amount of intellegence and I supplement that with things I read or research. I keep trying things until I figure out what works best in a situation I am in or problem I have.

Current problem="I got nothin'." My son represents a problem that I do not have the resources, information or power to fix. Honestly, as I prayed, I realized that I think my pride is hurt. I cannot heal or repair my son's issues and that frustrates my pride. Don't misunderstand me- I hurt so much for Jacob and how he struggles. However, right now, the problem is ME. Scripture says that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Well, I don't think my mindset is humility folks.

The dictionary defines pride as a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc. The opposite of pride= humility.

Is God opposing me? So that I can see the error of my thinking? My faulty mindset that hard work and intellegence can fix that which is broken? Only God has the power to truly heal or repair broken people-where did my arrogance come from? I can see that my concept of who I am and who God is are skewed today. P.R.I.D.E. What an ugly word.

Wednesday, we have a woman from the school district coming to our house for a few hours to interview us and Jacob and watch us interact. Then she'll observe him at school and set up a plan for how to help us "train" Jacob at home. Basically, its parent training for Chris and I. Which we need. Admitting that is my baby step toward walking in humility with God.

Good News!

This is my cousin Alan. He and I are only a few months apart in age. We got married about the same time, and have children around the same age. He and his wife Melissa live in Arkansas and we don't get to see each other often. When we were kids, we were really close. I'd give him my corn on the cobb and he'd give me his black-eyed-peas (it was a great trade!) We even bonded over our love for The Dukes of Hazzard and beating up our younger cousin Ryan (don't ask!) Anyway, he found out last week that he has cancer. This past Monday he went to Little Rock and underwent his surgery. The surgery took approximately 3 1/2 hours. The surgeons did remove the tumor, the kidney, the entire spleen, and a lymph node close to the kidney. Afterwards, the doctors told Melissa that the surgery went extremely well. Recently, they got the test results back that the lymph node was completely free of cancer, which is fabulous news. As far as chemo and radiation, I haven't heard, but I would appreciate it if you would keep Alan, Melissa, Sydney and Carson, as well as his parents Rusty and Cookie and your prayers. Pray that their faith would not be shaken and that God will prove Himself faithful to them. He may get to go home this weekend if all goes well.

1st Day of School

Look at him. Isn't he

an imp? Let's just say

that getting a serious picture of Jacob is nigh on impossible. He is doing fabulous in the classroom and enjoys going everyday. He started speech therapy this week and I start being a homeroom parent next week. Luke is happy being at home with me and no one to take his toys. All is right with the world!

Chick-fil-A Day

We ate for free a couple of times on Chick-fil-A day last month. We only had to dress up like cows to get the free goodies. It was worth it!

Recap from Sunday...

Our sermon this morning at the Village was exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. Matt spoke on the difference between religion and the gospel. I have heard this before, maybe even from him, but it never fails to impact me. His scripture reference was Luke 11:37-12:11, when Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees, and they basically accused Jesus of being unrighteous because He didn't ceremonially clean Himself before eating. Jesus told them that they made a big deal about being clean on the outside but inside they were still dirty and pretending that they weren't. Isn't that just what we do? We want people to think that we are good and moral people because of how we act, but inside we are broken and we don't ever want anyone to know it- they might think less of us- and it's "all about us" isn't it?
Matt broke it down pretty clear when he talked about relativism and religion. Our our country used to promote universal lessons to moral dilemas that were true for everyone (like drinking under age is not ok) but now relativism rules the day and people can make choices for themselves and no one can make these decisions for them. Or people use their religion to make decisions for them. Religion says "I obey my god's rules and therefore he accepts me." Christianity, on the other hand, says "I am accepted by God because of Christ and therefore I obey my God out of thankfulness." Religion motivates out of fear and insecurity- if I dont obey god, he will be angry with me. The gospel motivates me because I want to know more of God.
A religious person inherently thinks of themselves as a good person, where their sense of value comes from how moral they are or how hard they work at being good. "I must be successful, otherwise people wont believe in my religion- my failures show my religion to be false- I must keep up appearances." A person whose life centers around the gospel knows that they are inherently a sinner, who can't "be good" on their own- they need Christ and His power. Knowing yourself to be a sinner results in not finding your value in your morality- my value isn't in me, but Jesus. "I'm broken but God loves me anyway, and my failures are because of my sinful nature, and not because my faith is flawed." Christians believe that everything we have- our faith, our salvation and our hope comes from God- I may fail, but God will not. There is such freedom in that . Romans 8:1 says "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus..." Ever since I heard that verse several years ago, it has resonated with me. I keep praying that I would truly, deep in my soul, believe it- because if I did, it would transform me. My religious past, my obsession with ME and what others think of me would fall away. I would understand that religion and sin destroy what I really want- a deep relationship with Christ and to share Him with everyone I meet.

A "minor" meeting...

Last week, I asked Jacob's new vice-principal Mrs. Brown, if I could come take pictures of the school and make a little 'This is my school' album to help orient Jake to Kindergarten. She agreed and we chatted a little about him while we toured the school. All the teachers that were there let me take a photo and get a look at the rooms. She said she would like to meet again before school so we could meet some of the other staff and do a 'mini-ARD'. ARD's are school meetings for kids with special needs where staff and parents discuss goals, plans, etc. So, Thursday morning our entire family traipsed down to Hawk Elementary and were met in the conference room by: the Vice Principal, Diagnostician, Speech Therapist, Inclusion teacher, Inclusion paraprofessional, Psychologist, and his new Kindergarten teacher. This was a little overwhelming. We discovered that Jacob has not undergone a true Autism Evaluation (we suspected but weren't sure) but will by the first 6 weeks, and that he will be getting some pretty amazing services. I felt like we overwhelmed his Kinder teacher, but everyone else seem very excited about working with Jacob. I wouldnt call myself an anxious person, but I couldn't sleep very well last week and I think I have been dealing with the entire situation by ignoring/not thinking much about it. I've been praying about it all, but this is really a 'I dont have one iota of control' type situation and I'm not sure how these all go down. All I do know is that all of the staff we met were so professional and kind to us and to Jacob. You can't ask for much more than that.

Potty Training

Well... we started potty training Luke this week. Day 1 was pretty uneventful- a few minor accidents. Day 2 I decided to force drink Luke, giving him lots and lots of juice to ensure he got the hang of it. Mistake #1. He is a camel and can hold his pee for inordinately long periods of time. So, me taking him to the bathroom every 30 minutes was very frustrating for us both. Then he would have an accident after about 4 hours of no peeing. Tuesday morning at our house looked like "Hades- the Musical," with me starring as Satan and Luke as a little imp. After a long crying jag by Luke, yelling by me and a long nap. We all awoke in a better frame of reference. Since then, it could not have been easier. I removed myself and my ideas about how hard this should be and "How to potty train a boy" rules and just listened to my son. He tells me when he needs to go and is happy to do it. Yet again, experience does not equal wisdom on my part. The Bible says that man's ways are not God's ways and my wisdom is not God's wisdom. Another life lesson from the Lord via my 3 year old son and a potty.

Bootcamp results are in!

Well, the results are in. Today was the last day of bootcamp for me. 5 weeks of torture and foot pain has resulted in some very interesting numbers. I didn't lose a single pound (insert 4 day Sea World trip one week before weigh-in here) but I am still a loser.
I lost 3% body fat. I was able to do 27 pushups on the wall in a minute when I started, and 37 on my knees when I finished. And the greatest part was I lost 10.75 inches off by body! That tells me two important things. One, I may not have lost any weight but I now have a lot more muscle taking up space where the fat used to be. Two, that I had next to no muscle before I started. My poor body couldnt lose any weight, because I needed to make some muscle.
How was I even walking around before? So... anyone want to do it with me? It starts again on the 18th...

Birthday Boy turns 3!

Luke turned 3 this past Sunday and I had to share some cute photos and stories about this adorable boy. He and Jacob were in our hotel room and Luke decided to share one of his new birthday toys with his older sibling. I told Jacob, 'Your brother just shared something special with you- tell him he's awesome and thank him.' Jacob responds and adds the awesome part for good measure. What was Luke's reply? 'Yes, I am awesome.' Such a humble boy we have on our hands.

Check out those ultra big shades he's sporting at the poolside table. Tre' chic no? And what about the future James Bond? Green castle hats are all the range in San Antonio right now!

Putting the 'fun' in dysfunctional... or Our trip to SeaWorld

There is nothing like getting away from it all, to put things into perspective. On our SeaWorld trip, our hotel had movies outside at night, up on the wall. Like a drive in, only with mosquitos and smores. Anyway, the showed the classic Bruce Willis homage "Over the Hedge," in which he plays a deceitful raccoon. The other main character Hammie is a turtle. At the end of the movie, they are discussing how they are all a family and sharing how families operate; what they do and dont do well. Hammie tells RJ that he would have helped him in his quest to repay a killer bear if he had only asked him beforehand. To which RJ replies, 'I wish you would have told me that sooner,' and Hammie essentially says communicating is another thing families don't do well.

What does this have to do with our SeaWorld trip you ask? Well, my dear, it has everything to do with it. We drove 5 hours to be reminded that communication is the key to any healthy relationship, whether it is husband and wife, parent and child or brother to brother. In hindsight, we probably looked like the 4 stooges- constantly miscommunicating where to meet, where to eat, what to do and where the truck keys are and no one answering their phone- shoot, even knowing where our phones were! But, dont get me wrong. We had a great time and I have the pictures to prove it to you!

The boys at the Waggin' Tales animal show. They loved seeing cats, dogs, ducks, skunks, pigs and ponies doing tricks.

And this is how close we got to the dolphins. No photo cropping required to get this close. All you need are some stinky fish and they come right up to you.

The boys after face tattoos of Dolly the dolphin and Shamu the Killer Whale. Great times!

The Soccer Champion Blizzards

Here they are in all their soccer glory- the 2008 summer indoor champs with their purple trophies in hand. To commemerate the occasion, we bought Jacob a t-shirt in the color of his choice (purple) and an iron-on that has a soccer ball with the word "GOAL" on it. Very snazzy this shirt. How did I end up with 2 boys whose favorite colors are purple and pink? Maybe its because they never see these colors and are therefore novel to them? Lets hope so- for a solid month Luke begged for a 'pink birthday.' Without any intervention or slamming of pink, he changed his mind and requested a 'blue Shamu' birthday in honor of our SeaWorld birthday/family vacation trip to San Antonio.

Our BIG Day!

Today was crazy. Lots of things happened, but just stay with me. I promise it will all be worth it. Andra heads out to Bootcamp while Chris feeds and clothes the boys for Jacob's soccer tourney. His team, the Blizzards, were third in the indoor soccer season this summer. We were playing the Lightning team, who had soundly beat us both times we played them. Surprise, surprise, we won that game! So, it was home for a quick lunch, practice in the backyard with Chris and naps before heading back that afternoon to play the Storm team. We had beaten them earlier in the season, but after a full morning game (hour long), were the kids up for another win?
We scored several goals early on due to Storm being short a few players and a COACH for 15 minutes. About 15 minutes before the game was over, the score was 3 Storm and 4 Blizzard. Imagine a large huddle of 4-6 year olds and Jacob in the middle. The ball gets kicked to him and lo and behold, he fires it straight into the goal- SCORE! Our teams parents went crazy. Moms were hugging me and gives me high fives, the coach said he could see me crying from the bench and Chris was in shock because he had missed everything before the goal by talking to Luke! I was SO proud of my son! He looked up at us when all the shouting and clapping started and you could tell he was beginning to understand what he had done. The Storm came back and scored with about 45 seconds left, making it 5 to 5. Our star player Josh came out as goalie to play forward and literally with less than 5 seconds left he scored our final goal, making the Blizzards the champions! Trophies and everything! What a day! We followed it up with ice cream and Braums.
That goal was such a huge gift from the Lord- such an encouragement for the learning process for Jacob, but mostly for us as his parents. Its tough to see him struggle, but I hope he remembers that moment forever- Chris and I will. So, the next time you visit our house, look on our mantle for the coolest purple soccer trophy ever!