do something

This week officially kicked off my 2009 3 day. Yes...I am walking again. Why?.....well, why wouldn't I. I have been thinking about this a lot lately and have come to these conclusions.

It is important to do something.

It is important to try to make the world a better place.

It is important to stand up for people that can not stand up for themselves.

and it is important to show your kids how to do these things.

Anne Frank once said "how wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world". Last year the 3 day raised $110 million dollars. Every cent of that money was raised by people just like me that decided to do something. People that did what Anne Frank was talking about and stopped waiting. How amazing is that!

My kids and I always have the radio on in the car. Just recently they started playing the 3 day commercials. You probably know the ones. They always play the song "I wanna do something that matters...". Well, this year, every time Bryce hears them he says "that's what you do mommy. That's your race. You help people that are sick" (this is how we have tried to explain the walk and my absence for the 3 days). So...I know that he is getting it. He is understanding that it is important to help others. And I hope one day he finds his own "do something".

On a much lighter note....I got my fist 2 donations this week! Thanks Cheryl and Nancy. You both rock! I am a little less nervous about the fundraising because of yall!

We also had our first big team fundraiser....A Texas holdem tournament!! It went really well and we raised around $1,300. Everyone had fun. My friend Jennifer was the last women standing and came in 3rd out of 47 players!! Thanks to all of you that came out to support us. We decided to have shirts made this year to wear and to sell. I love them! We are selling them for $10 so if you are interested please let me know.

I'm sure that I will have many more posts about the 3 day and my fundraising and training journey. If you would like to help out and make a donation please click on the 3 day widget on the right and it will take you to my personal page. Each walker has to raise a minimum of 2,300 this year, so I need all the help I can get!!

Four of the five members of this years 3 day team

Love our shirt design!! If you want to buy one please let me know.

All of the money goes to the 3 day and it is a great way to advertise this amazing cause.

How did I miss that!?!

Bryce had a baseball game today. It was 44 degrees outside and Callie was exhausted (as was I) so I decided to keep her home and let her take a really long nap. We both slept for 3 hours and woke up to Bryce babbling excitedly about his baseball game. Turns out, he hit his first double off of a pitch and he fielded extremely well. The coach decided that his great playing deserved the game ball. Yes...my child received the game ball the one game that I decided to miss. And to make it worse he kept saying "Mom, I wish you could have seen me". I felt awful. worse then awful. I know that I will not always be there for every event of his life. He will have tons of accomplishments that I will get to hear about, but not witness first hand. I guess that's one of the hard parts of being a parent. And tonight when I tucked him in he must have sensed that it really bothered me. He said "I love you mom. it's okay that you weren't there today". I love you too Bryce...more then you can fathom.

what a wonderful world...

Callie's world is full of princesses, dress-up, and make believe. She loves everything about them. She wears tutu's to school and when we get home she serves me tea and donuts on little plastic plates. Walking around the kitchen in tiny snow white heels, carrying the purse of the day and wearing a crown is a very normal occurrence in her world. She loves wearing her "princess" pajama's (thanks Crystal for the great pj's!) to bed and will tell me every night which one is her favorite. I never thought that I would love all of the "girly" stuff, but i adore it. I know that soon her love of tutu's will fade and tea parties will be a thing of the past. Her view of the world will change from fairy tales and princesses to something not as wonderful. My view on the world, however, has gotten a little brighter lately....Tea parties on tiny chairs with plastic food and teddy bears puts life in a whole new perspective.

Honesty

Bryce is the most honest child I know. He will just come right out and say whatever he is thinking. If he feels like he might get into trouble (i.e. Bryce...did you just draw on Maxi with markers?), he will just stand there and look at you. Here are two of my favorite examples of his brutal honesty..

Bryce: Mommy...can I have more twizzlers?
Me: No Bryce, you had enough.
5 min later...
Me: Bryce what are you doing?
Bryce: Me and Callie are trying to sneak twizzlers but you caught us.. Actually, we already snuck a couple before you caught us.

Two days ago, on a trip to stride-rite, Bryce decided to jump from a shoe display to a bench that was at least 5 ft away. It did not go as he planned. After a stern talking to, he had to apologize to the store clerk. Later that day we had the below conversation...
Me: Bryce! Please stop jumping off of the couch onto the ottoman. You know you are not allowed to do that. Didn't you learn your lesson at the shoe store today?
Bryce: Nope

from smiling to scary...

Callie has a brand new talent. She can transform from an angel to a little monster in about 2 seconds flat! Most people that know her say "no way! To prove it to all of you non believers, I caught the transformation on film.....

She was all smiley letting me take her picture in her school picture outfit

She wanted to swing and laughed as she went higher and higher

Still smiling after five minutes

Immediately after the above picture was taken I tell her that I need to start dinner and I can not push her anymore...

From smiling to scary in 5 seconds flat...

Luckily the tantrums are short-lived....5 min later she was "over it" and decided playing with daddy would be just as much fun.

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.

I have done this once before but have gotten a little slack on the Monday blogging, so this week's "Not Me's" are from the past several weeks. Hope you enjoy reading all of the things that I certainly did not do, all of the things that I would never think of doing, and all of the slips and mis-steps from the past couple weeks of life in the Thornton house.

• I most certainly did not squeal for joy when Bryce's first weekend of baseball activities got cancelled due to weather. What mother would wish that disappointment on her child? I can't imagine why I would rather spend a weekend at home getting caught up on housework and watching tv over sitting in the freezing cold at the ball field for hours on end.
• I did not feed my children peanut butter sandwiches and McDonald's 3 days last week because I wanted to make it to the gym in time for my classes. My children eat well rounded, home cooked meals every night!
• While meeting a friend and her kids at Chick-fil-a for a playdate, I did not get chatty and forget to ask Callie if she had to go potty. Since I didn't forget to ask her there is no way she had an accident in her pants and started running around the playground like John Wayne (picture a wide-stance cowboy walk). Seeing that my daughter is completely and utterly potty trained, there is no reason why I would need to bring a change of clothes to Chick-fil-A. Upon realizing the situation, there is no way I decided to strip her down and let her ride the 2 miles back to our house in whatever random clothes happened to be in the car. And then, when clothing is being removed I did not figure out that she had actually pooped and peed. What would any sane mom do in this situation? Well, she certainly would not line said child's carseat with plastic bags, insert dirty stinky child, and drive home all while said child was screaming "but I'm stinky!!".
• Again, my child is completely and utterly potty trained. That being said... There is no way that she decided to pee and entire lake on the floor of World Market. And I did not park a buggy over the lake of pee while dragging/running/herding my children to the bathroom to get paper towels to clean up the accident. Do you realize how gross that is? A responsible person would notify the store so that they could correctly sanitize the mess. (I did wipe the floor with wet one's after the puddle was soaked up...that counts as sanitizing doesn't it?).
• After a really hectic, crazy day there is no way that I told my husband my gym class started an hour earlier then it actually did. And with a whole entire hour to myself, I did not get a Starbucks and wander around Target before actually going to the gym.

Obama's in charge...

One of my all time favorite (and maybe the funniest) things that Bryce has said...

Me: Bryce your are having Mac and Cheese for lunch

Bryce: But Mom... I don't like Mac and Cheese! I only like Sponge Bob Mac and Cheese

Me: Too Bad! and you do like Mac and Cheese...you eat it all the time. It might not be your favorite but that does not mean you do not like it. There are already enough foods that you will not eat and we are not adding Mac and Cheese to that list!

Bryce: You know Mommy, you are not the boss.

Me: Bryce, I am the boss and I will be until you grow up!

Bryce: Your wrong mommy, you are not the boss. Obama is the boss. He's in charge of the country so he is in charge of me. I am going to call him and tell him I don't want Mac and Cheese.

Take me out to the ball game...

Baseball season officially kicked off this weekend. Saturday morning we had the opening day parade. Bryce and his team rode in the back of one the coaches trucks and they waved and threw candy. He had a great time and I actually enjoyed hanging out with the other moms, drinking coffee and eating munchkins while waiting on my own munchkin to ride by. Seeing that we had to get there at 6:50am I left a sleeping Callie at home with Bryan. She was a little disappointed that she didn't get to join in the fun but was satisfied with the leftover donuts (food is the way to that girls heart I tell ya).

Last night Bryce played his first two games of the season. He played really well and his team did a great job. He did not hit one off a pitch this game but hit really well from the tee. He also ran a lot better then he has in the past (sounds weird but he usually just kinda skips along. Fine in Rookie but not such a good thing in T-Ball). It is nice not having a "baby" at the games. I actually got to watch and cheer the team on. Five of the kids on the team have younger sisters so Callie has lots of little girls to play with. She also enjoyed cheering Bryce on. At one point, While walking from the circle to bat, he walked over to the fence where Callie was watching. She looked up at him and said "Gooooo Tyce (what she calls him)". He smiled at her and said "thanks Callie, I'm gonna hit it hard". My all time favorite moment of the game.

Bryce riding in the parade...notice the Skull and Cross Bone doo rags they wore...so cute!

Ready to Roll...

at bat...

baseball ready...

catching up in pictures

We have all been really sick at our house and I have been awful at blogging. I just got around to uploading my pictures from valentines day! So here is a review of the last month or so of our life in pictures...Callie dressed in her heart dress for her valentine's party at school

Bryce with the heart bag he made for his party at school

We made Pink heart pancakes for breakfast on Valentine's day.

Callie and her friend Laney at Ellie's (Callie's favorite friend from school) birthday party

Bryce hiting the piniata at Matt and Krista's housewarming party

Callie and JJ at the housewarming party

Both kids are currently getting 3 treatments a day...Love the dino mask!

Finally feeling better and getting some fresh air

Happy to be outside!