Goofy girls

I came across this picture from the last time the Texas grandparents were in town ... judging by the beads and the purple, gold and green glasses, I'm assuming it was around Mardis Gras season.  Hassie Clare and Quinn LOVE their Glenda.   

Quinn cracks me up in the pic. She really stepped outside her box by a) putting the glasses on and b) taking a picture while wearing the glasses.

MY HEART

Easter 2012

What a fun filled week! We had a fantastic Easter party at school followed by a spectacular Easter Egg Hunt that involved 600 candy filled eggs, a soccer field and 30 5 year olds.  It was so stinkin cute!

I found these sweet little crafts for the kids. They love anything with stickers! This is Quinn and her BFF Olivia.

HC doing her craft.

I picked up these cute Jesus Loves Me necklaces. The kids thought they were fancy.

First pic Quinn has ever taken "willingly" with the Easter Bunny.

Ready for the egg hunt!

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Quinn checking out her stash.



Me with my egg hunters.

 For the past 9 months I have been participating in a Catholic church program called RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults). Although I've gone to Mass most of my life, I never participated in sacraments or took a leap of faith in joining the church. Those of you that know me know that I have pretty liberal social beliefs but fairly conservative political beliefs. I've never really felt like I could become Catholic because of my radical difference in opinion on many factors the church teaches. But as I've grown older and wiser (and with the help of my dear Catholic friends) I've learned that it is okay to have a difference in opinion on some of the teachings of the church. I believe that the Catholic Church is the one true church. I also think that they have some things totally wrong. I'm okay with this now ... so now I'm a full blown, card carrying Catholic:) The Easter vigil ceremony was long but memorable. I was Baptized, received my First Communion and I was confirmed as a Catholic. It was a long road. The funny thing is that I don't feel one bit different. I've always felt like a child of Christ, I have always felt close to God (at least most of my life), I've always felt a deep understanding of the importance of living a good life. But the process is over and I'm officially a Catholic. Fred was my sponsor. He has always played a strong, God-like role in my life so it was only appropriate to have him by my side. I must also mention that we get a pretty big discount now at the girls school! The ceremony was memorable to say the least  - full submersion in the baptismal, dosed in oil from head to toe, lay on the alter face down while they prayed for the saints. It was dark, kind of creepy according to Jamie but a touch beautiful. I might have started the process for the wrong reasons but somewhere along this journey I realized that your faith needs constant attention just like the other relationships in your life. So for the past 9 months I've educated myself on Christianity, prayed in ways I've never prayed before and spent a lot of time strengthening my relationship with God.

Hassie Clare didn't make it through the 3 hour ceremony. It started at 8:30 PM!!!! She looks so beautiful and peaceful in this picture to me.

Although we didn't get home until midnight, the Easter Bunny still made a trip to our house.

Thank goodness the Easter Bunny knew we needed batting helmets and play clothes!

Off to find the stuffed Easter Eggs the Easter Bunny hide in our backyard!

They both found money eggs filled with 5 one dollar bills. On their own, they got a baggie and put some of the money in the bag and asked me to give it to the kids at St. Jude. My heart was swollen with pride.

Afterwards Nana and the girls helped me prepare some food to take for our family Easter celebration.

We ended the day over at Uncle Dave and Aunt Jenny's house. We had a family friendly softball game (Thurman's v. Carroll's v. Hagel's), played the bean bag toss game and ate until we almost popped. It was the perfect Easter afternoon!

Mommy Dearest

Over the past 5 years my parenting confidence has seriously declined. My parental knowledge and confidence was vast and superior prior to actually having children. Now I constantly doubt myself as a mother and wonder daily if I’m raising these little munchkins to be serial killers or happy, well rounded members of society. Sometimes I lay in bed at night and relive all of the ways I could have been a better parent that day. Although I think I’m giving it 100%, could I do more? Is parenting really just a crap shot?


And just when I think I've earned the title of being called Mommy Dearest the principle of the girls school sends this letter home:

• April 12, 2012
• Dear Mr. and Mrs. Thurman,
• This week I have been reading a small story of the Saint of the Day over the intercom. All week the theme seems to have focused on doing what is right and just, as well as integrity. I have asked our students to think about our school mission statement. In our statement the students use the word integrity. I asked them if they are people of integrity. Fr. Duy celebrated Mass with us and told the students not only did they need to find Christ in everything they did but that others should see Christ in them.
• Hassie Clare was sent to the office today because another classmate spilled their milk. On her own, she went and got paper towels to help the student clean up their mess. She also comforted this student. Also, when she got to the office a teacher was walking through the door and Hassie Clare held it open for her. I wanted to share with you this wonderful act.
• May God bless your family,
• Principle Martin

My little girl was on cloud 9 for days. She has such a sweet, tender heart and loves helping others. When I asked her what made her get up to help her classmate she said that she watches me help people all the time and do special things for them and that she wants to be like me. Sniff Sniff. It was proud day for both of us!

What is the legal age for manuel labor?

I have a feeling Jamie and I might violate a few of the child labor laws. At 5 years old my girls can unload most of the dishwasher (I pull out sharp knives and anything that goes up high), unload the dryer, fold towels and bed linens, clean their playroom, help carry in some groceries, clean their bathroom (they use lysol wipes to wipe down everything), change out the bathroom garbage bags, clean their room and make their beds. Is that too much for a 5 year old? They work together as a team by either assisting each other or splitting up the chores. At this age most of the work is fun for them and they enjoy helping us (Quinnie more so than HC).

I'm in charge of the inside of the house and Jamie is in charge of the outside of the house. He quickly caught on to the concept of using our children as free laborers.

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I told the girls a few weeks ago that our household is a well oiled machine and that everyone has to pitch in to make it run smoothly. Quinnie Ray told me "I have a great idea. Why don't you buy some oil at the store so we don't have to do all have the work and we can crawl in bed and snuggle instead?" I wish it was that easy Quinnie Ray but I love how you think!

I'm sorry... I've lost my mind. Have you seen it?

So I officially made it an entire month without blogging. Some of you might wonder if I gave it up for Lent. The answer is no ........ I gave up peanut butter. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. Anyway, the past month has been the busiest month of my entire life. I over committed myself, once again, to waaayyy too many things but I've paid the price! Someday I will learn.

It all started when I got suckered into volunteered to be the assistant soccer coach. No big deal - season is only 5 weeks long. Before I knew what was happening, I got bullied into offered to coach a 5 year old Coach pitch softball team in a neighboring town that evidently takes little girl softball VERY seriously.  I had the perfect assistant coach, great parental support and one of my girls begging to play (more on that later). Sounds like a no-brainer .... I came up with a cute team name, let my girls pick our colors and went to the draft and picked girls that either went to our school or girls the same age as my girls so that we could be together forever. Little did I know that soccer season and softball season overlapped by 3 weeks. So for 3 weeks I put my kids through hell racing them around town every evening and weekend to soccer games, softball practices and on most days, both. I officially became one of those insane helicopter parents that I swore I would never be. We basically lived out of my car and off fast food. I will NEVER again do that to my children. Shame on me.
In the meantime, I was finishing up the long road of RCIA (aka - becoming Catholic). It was a long 9 months and this subject needs it's own blog entry .... or 4. We had retreats, practices, classes .... but the ending was bittersweet.
Thrown into the mix of all this craziness was pink eye (HC) and the worse case of strep (Quinn) I've ever seen. It even got in her eyes! Horrible, nasty stuff that went undiagnosed for 5 days because I thought she had pink eye!

Quinnie Ray with her swollen little face. 

We spent lots of time at different doctor offices. They are all dressed up because we had just left a beautiful ceremony at church where my parent's renewed their vows and my Mom was confirmed as a Catholic (more on that later when I can retrieve photos off my camera).



Even when she started feeling a little bit better she would not open her eyes due to light sensitivity. Once we figured out that it was strep, she was a new little girl within 24 hours. Symptoms - red, swollen, painful eyes, headache, doesn't want to eat, only wants to sleep = Strep Throat. Who would have thought!



While Quinnie was puny, Hassie Clare was kicking butt on the soccer field. Once I told her she could get an ice cream if she scored a goal, she scored 3 goals in the very next game.  I see so many things wrong with my bribe but whatever it takes .. right? :)  



Hassie "I will do anything for ice cream" Clare

In case I get sidetracked and never blog about our soccer season again I have to mention that Quinn scored 2 goals in one game after she came back from her illness. We are still not sure how that happened. She is not what we would call a "go getter" on the soccer field. Once HC would score in a game Quinn would ask to sit out the rest of the game cause she was already guaranteed an ice cream. She said that way she would not have to get sweaty. That is how Quinnie Ray rolls.
 


Quinnie "I perfer not to sweat" Ray

 Let's see ... what else. Jamie and I loaded up my mom and the girls and took a one night trip over to eastern TN for my adorable niece's first birthday. The party was beyond precious ... just like our Paisley. We stopped at an ubber cool kids Science Center in Nashville on the way home ( 99.9% sure this is where we picked up the pink eye and possibly the strep.) I didn't take any pics on our entire trip! Unless maybe I took some with our actual camera and not my phone but in that case, I can't access any pics because my external storage device is acting like a little bitch and I can't download pics right now. So there you have it .. another excuse why I haven't blogged in over a month.

My best friend from high school has a daughter, who is also my Goddaughter. Hassie Clare and Jamie got to go to her royal princess party while Quinn and I went to doctor.

Hassie Clare (5.5) and Ava (6) at Sweet & Sassy

Milestone wise it was a big month for us:) Both girls are officially swimmers without floaties and bike riders without training wheels. HUGE deal in the Thurman household.

I finally figured out how to load pics onto my blog directly from my iphone (temporary fix while my pic hard drive is being fixed). Maema put a serious guilt trip on me about my lack of blogging so I better get busy catching up!

PS - Please let me know if you find my mind anywhere .... I really need it back!