Drama. Drama. Drama. In Spades...

Yes, I am well aware that it has been a trillion years since my last posting, but my life has been chock full of drama. So much drama, it will take me 5 posting to catch you up. I have decided to dribble rather than dump my life for the last few months on you. You are so very welcome!

First post is regarding my eldest son, Jacob. See photo below- POST SURGERY!

Look a few millimeters over from his inner corner of his eye. The red lines are the sutures.

Last Saturday, we were shopping and we got tangled up in the store and one of the clothes hangers dangling over my arm, dangled itself into his right eye. Upon, unknown removal by me, by turning away from my son, it created a full-thickness tear of his upper eyelid. That created a centimeter long tear which looked like a triangular chunk of his eyelid was removed.

We proceeded with great alarm to the urgent care center, who upon taking my insurance information, refused to touch him and sent us to the ER next door. The ER, upon taking my insurance and admitting us, refused to touch him and transferred us to Children's Medical Center in Dallas. The injury was at 3pm, we got to Dallas at 6:30pm and he had surgery at 11:30pm. The poor thing not only never had ANY pain meds, he also didnt eat or drink for over 12 hours that day.

He did amazingly well. He was at times even charming the nursing staff into thinking that putting an IV in his arm was going to be "no big deal." Ha. Double Ha. By the time the surgery took place, he had exhausted every flexible, patient and pain-controlled nerve in his body. He was worn out. It took us 3 hours to wake him up post surgery to get him home, because they had to give him double the sedation meds to calm him down.

The pictures above "are not that bad" unless its your child needing sedation and you have to sign papers saying that you know its a possibility that your child may never wake up from the procedure. Thank you Lord for my husband, friend's prayers and my faith in God. I was a wreck and cried the entire surgery.

Jake is 100% in that eye. His vision was even 20/20 before they did the repair. The doctor said he was very, very, very lucky. No cornea damage and a few millimeters to the left and he would have needed tear duct repair, full admit to the hospital and a trip to the operating room. She says luck, I say God's Providence.

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!

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?

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...

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

Cow Killer!

Ok... we found THIS in our backyard tonight. We proceeded to catch that booger in a jar and look it up on the internet. It is a wingless wasp called a 'cow killer' or a 'velvet ant.' That sucker was at least an inch long. It looked like a fire ant on some serious steroids. You can see in the photo the gigantic stinger, hence the cow killer title- apparently a sting from them makes you want to die! They eat bee larvae- yes, we have bees in our backyard. We are trying to save the ecosystem since bees are myseriously dying all around the nation. Our mint is pollenating currently and bees are everywhere. What could be worse than the boys gettin stung by bees? Being stung by cow killers! Yikes! Be on the lookout for these in your area...

Check out that male model... look familiar to you?

That my dear friends, is my church's minister, Matt Chandler, lead pastor at The Village Church. I chanced upon this priceless photo on our lead music minister's blog and had to share it with the world. That is just the kind of loyal parishoner that I am!

Random shots of the fam

The boys at the children's museum in Commerce, Tx

Jake in his great, great, great grand- father's hat and his Nonna's cane

2 boys ready for anything Jacob at 5 and Luke at almost 3- his birthday is August 3rd. We are going to SeaWorld to celebrate!

Check out my boy Luke's book- he's famous!

Click here to view this photo book.

Lots and lots and lots of photos from many moons ago...

A trip to Frank Buck Zoo with all the wild animals

Jake's first day of preschool- check out the uniform baby!

First ever trip to Chuck E Cheese- the roller coaster ride of their lives!

The big birthday boy in his silly party hat! 2 yrs old

Super duper hot day in August at the Grapevine Botanical Gardens

Day at the Train Museum- cant figure out how to rotate this thing!

Nonna getting a chance to love on both boys at the same time.

Picking up the boys after a week spent at G-pa and G-ma's house in Arkansas.

Luke, prior to giving up the passeys for good. He looks pretty attached doesnt he?

Here we are! Team Sterzik. Big Jake is 4 years old, Andra and Chris, and Luke the Moose is 19 months old. We are living life in the fast lane here in Texas, and we do our best to keep up with the blessings the Lord has chosen to share with us.

Chris just got a new job within Texas Instruments and is thrilled to be pursuing a dream career path. However, this week, He is slaving away in Taiwan on a 7 day business trip. Andra spends her days chasing two energetic boys around and drinking her mandatory Sonic vanilla coke with easy ice (you know its bad when you pull into Sonic and your 3 year old says 'Mommy, I want a coke, easy ice.') Jacob is in children's day out twice a week learning social skills and ripping the knees out of every pair of pants he owns. Luke keeps me company at home, following me around asking for food and to pick him 'bup.' A busy season of life for us and it seems to pass by in a blur. We are trying to keep our perspective and our wits about us here, and can't wait to see what else God has in store for us in 2007.

Our family of four- three amazing men plus one lucky woman. This was taken in November last year at Luke's dedication service at Denton Bible Church. Boy, he sure looks cute, but he was a handful on stage! He did not want to be held- he wanted down on the floor and he would not let me take the pacifier out of his mouth while they were doing the service. We were able to have this wonderful family photo taken afterwards.