Saying goodbye

This past week we had to say goodbye to our beloved dog Taylor. Taylor came to us right after Eric and I moved to Illinois in the first year of our marriage. She was the best dog and loved by all. She was so gentle with kids, never knew a stranger and was in heaven just to be rubbed. The move to Texas proved to be to much stress for her old age and she was in a great deal of pain due to a tumor on her spleen that ruptured. Even though she was in so much pain she never complained. She was amazingly smart she could take a bowl full of cereal and milk off the table to the floor(so she could eat it) without spilling. She could also open the gate of chain link fences with her nose. She was awesome and we dearly loved her. She was my pal, my friend, and in a lot of ways besides my kids one of the best things I found after moving from Texas to Illinois. Taylor was special. The kind of dog that leaves you a better person because of knowing her. Yeah I know that is a cheesy remark but it is true. She was truly a part of our family and saying goodbye was one of the hardest things we've had to do. The grief we feel is real. She is and will be greatly missed.

In limbo

I don't know about you but I hate being in limbo. Where everything is stopped as you wait for the final decision. This is where my family is right now. Currently waiting to hear if we will be moving and relocating to Texas. I am praying we will hear soon, although we aren't expected to hear anything until later in the month. Everything is in limbo, if we go ahead and plan for the kids to go to their school it will be money lost, if we plan to homeschool and don't get the job then we lose the slots. Then there is the whole house situation and a slew of everything else. I need to remember to breathe. I don't do well in limbo. I never have ask my parents. This whole situation is eerily similar to one my husband took me on ten years ago right before we married.

He had just separated from the Army in May, no job but knew something awesome would come a long, and it did TWO weeks before we married in August he interviewed and AFTER we got back from our honeymoon he had an offer letter to come to Illinois.

This current showdown started back in May after returning from a trip to Texas. "Carissa I just feel God moving us" he said. Two weeks later his boss happens to mention to his boss that E was looking to relocate to Texas, less than forty eight hours later on our way to Texas for a family emergency E receives an email letting him know the hiring manager for the job in Texas would like to speak with him, less than forty eight hours after that an interview is set up and we just happen to be in Texas. He pretty much HAS the job but we have to wait and see IF the contract is accepted. The contract has technically already been accepted but someone messed up on the first one and forgot to put these 7 new positions one in which E interviewed for so they had to re-submit this time with E's resume included as well as six others. So we WAIT...and WAIT...

To be continued...hopefully sometime soon.

A Salvation Story

Our last night in Texas we had the most wonderful surprise, Jonah our five and half year old, gave his life to Christ. His Paw-paw had the privilege of praying with him and you could see the sparkle in his eyes. We had thought Jonah was getting close to making a decision about Jesus since he has been asking tons of questions about salvation and his older sister has been doing a fine job of witnessing to him. So on May 17th, 2012 we will now celebrate Jonah's birth into Christ. What an amazing gift. We look forward to watching what God has planned for his life.

Conversations with kids...

 April Edition:

Kerith looking at her swimsuit "I love my parachute" not sure why she thinks a swimsuit is a parachute. 

 Today in the van I helped Jonah with a word on hanging with friends he exclaimed "mom you are a genius!" when he spelled it correctly and the game accepted it. I will treasure these compliments because I am sure he will hate me in a few years from now.

The twins are in timeout in their bedrooms until my anger simmers down. They decided to take off their clothes and go for a swim in the bathtub(work out interruption number one) and then after I told them to get out they decided to get naked again and take a bath in the sink yes the sink and take all the kids toothbrushes and scrub the mirror with them. 

 Micah "Mom Mom we found a wholly wholly!" do you know what a wholly wholly is? Rollie Poly :)

  I posted these before but wanted to have all of them in one place.

Jonah before bed. "Mom tonight I am going to dream about desserts falling from the sky and you know what no adults will be allowed to eat it, only kids"

 Micah on the potty: "I need to go to my bathroom yours is not working" me: "Micah it has nothing to do with the potty you have to make yourself go pee pee it doesn't do it for you." Micah "uhh un yours needs batteries"

and so it begins...

We are officially a Soccer family. Grace had her first soccer practice yesterday through an organization called upwords. Her coach seemed nice and best of all made it all fun and weaved Christ in the practice.
We took the whole family to the first practice and it was sort of mess so we will be looking for a sitter for at least Titus since he doesn't quite understand boundaries quite yet. I gave the kids on the sidelines a speech on supporting our family and being there and that this wasn't about them or playing at the park but cheering Grace and being there for her. It is something I believe is important in our family because with the kids so close in age they all fight to be number one. Thank the Lord we are diving into this slowly I can only imagine what it will be like when all of them are into an activity. YIKES!

Old as Indians

Grace is learning about Indians in History I suppose that is what led her thinking in this conversation she and I had before bed this week.

This was too good not to share. Putting Grace to bed Grace says "I get to have chick fil a tomorrow yay!" looking over at her whiled I rubbed Jonah I said " I wish I could have some too." Grace paused "because they didn't have schools when you were little" me trying not to be offended that my child just referred to me as old "am I really that old?" I asked. Grace exclaimed  "not as old as the Indians that is Daddy!

Now it is a pretty well known fact that I am actually older than my husband but obviously Grace doesn't care or doesn't realize that quite yet. It's ok really, hearing her call her Dad old was priceless. I thought I would have to wait until she was at least ten but nope. I will have to remember to thank her for the laugh.

Dear Jonah

Grace had a thankfulness writing assignment for school. Her letter was so sweet.

Dear Jonah,
I want to thank you for being my brother. I want to thank you for playing with me after school. I want to thank you for giving me presents, love Grace F.(that is what she is called in school)

21 days of stress

People keep mentioning to me these are the best times of my life. If what they say is true God help me, after this weekend if THIS is the best man Lord just send down your chariot now and take me to paradise.

February has not been a good month for this family. Eric had his procedure at the beginning of the month, then colds came on and you know they last a while, I mean there is seven of us that the germs have to make miserable. If each of us is sick for a minimum of three days that is 21 days total. This past weekend takes the cake. It started with Jonah and then spread like wild fire. Fevers, coughs, aches, chills, snot, lots and lots of snot. First it came on me, then on Eric, the dreadful germs, the headache, the pain of moving, the pain of sound all the while seeing to the needs of five kids six and under. Now chaos ensues on a good day, I will leave it to your imagination for what this weekend was like. Parenting and sickness don't mix.

So let me end with this, if you see me don't say this is the best time of my life, I just might slap you and I am not prone to violence, I have a hard enough time killing hornworms on my tomato plants.

What is in the toilet stays in the toilet

I have a problem. My kids leave the toilet seat up. My 14 month old Titus loves to play in the toilet. So far all types of things have been found floating toys, food, and my personal favorite dog food which when soggy resembles poop. This week though Titus took my sneakers and you guessed it gave them a bath in the toilet. Now I guess I could wash and wear them but it grossed me out so much that I threw them out. I mean really no one would notice but I would know and just feel gross. So needless to say I will be purchasing a new pair of shoes because what I find in the toilet stays there!

Our Christmas Letter...

The Fulkerson's top 10 memories of 2011 to make you smile, giggle, and maybe giggle so much you wiggle while you giggle.

No particular Order just great memories!

Jonah and our conversations. This is the boy who told me last year "Mom, I love you, but only on Tuesday, Thursday, and Fridays". His questions normally come as I am tucking him into bed. "Mom" he'll say "I love everybody." I laugh on the inside and ask him "Jonah do you love even mad guys?(also known as bad guys)"
"I don't know" he'll reply thinking "Jesus loves mad guys."
"Yes Jesus loves mad guys" I reply "Jesus tells us to love mad guys too."
"Mom some mad guys are scary but Jesus loves them too. I love everybody. I'm like Jesus." I am not sure a memory gets any better than that one!

Kerith being escorted off the stage at the end of the year Mother's Day Out program. Apparently she isn't a big fan of singing in front of people!

Grace Starting 1st grade. Of course she requested that her WHOLE family escort her on her first day and of course three of her siblings had to be escorted out the door so the rest of the class could concentrate!

Campfire s'mores and star gazing. The kids enjoyed roasting hotdogs and marshmallows. The parents enjoyed easy cleanup!

Seeing Grace be the flower girl in my younger sisters wedding. She did a marvelous job and asked right away when she could be a princess again.

During our stay in Texas we got to take the kids to Sea world for the first time! They all enjoyed the day despite it being 120 degrees. Ok maybe not that hot but close!

Titus started walking before he turned one! He thinks he is pretty cool now because he can walk while drinking a bottle. He is really a happy kid and loves to play with his brothers and sisters.

Micah and Kerith turned 3! It is hard to believe that the tiny babies are so big now! They had their first birthday party and enjoyed having friends over for cake and pizza.

The paid for family vacation to Washington D.C. Ok really it was a business trip for Eric's work and we decided since it was a paid for trip to take everyone. We got a little more than we bargained for. first a ruined cell phone, than our van being towed while we walked the national mall, than an earthquake, and lastly outrunning a hurricane. I would say we will never do it again but really it IS quite funny to tell the story now and one thing is for sure we will NEVER EVER forget our trip to Washington.

Um, did we mention our trip to Washington D.C?

Road trip day 4

Let's just say after Monday's events we didn't think anything could top it. WRONG...There I was with the kids visiting with a friend from Parenting After Infertility and her kids when all of the sudden the world started to shake. At first it sounded like a large truck roaring by but then the shaking got worse and stronger and I knew it was an earthquake. Thankfully I had experienced one before otherwise I might of totally freaked out more than I was.

After the quake my friend and her family kindly took us to their neck of the woods because the whole DC area was shut down. We got to see some of the History of where George Washington had his surveyors office. Cool huh? The rest of the pictures are from Winchester Virginia.

Road trip day 3

Monday this glorious Monday. The Lord gave us awesome weather for our first trip in to DC. We decided to take the kids to the National Mall. Parking didn't seem to be an issue. If only we could see into the future. We loved our walk. We saw the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, World War Two memorial, and from a distance saw the White House and Capital building. We should of known something would happen it was to perfect of a day.

You see that little red sign. Yeah it should of been our warning.

You see the white SUV in the middle bottom of the picture? To the right down a ways was where our van was parked. We walked down over the hill just after the picture was taken to find our van gone. Lovely huh? Apparently the FREE Parking 9-4 Mon-Friday should of been followed by a sign tow away zone 4 to ? because that is what happened to our van followed by a $100 ticket on the windshield. We finally found our van parked in a construction zone across the street. Would of been nice if someone would of pointed out that we'd get towed if we weren't back by a certain time I mean there were only two dozen security people around and obviously our Illinois license plate and packed car would make you realize we were tourists but I guess that is the point. SO BE AWARE don't park where it says free parking even when it says free parking you never know what might happen.

Exit Stage Left

Friday morning I pulled my back out but thankfully I was able to attend the kids Mother's Day Out end of the year program. I paid for it later but still it was important for me to be there to watch Jonah, Micah, and Kerith sing their songs. Oh and it was a goody!

Guess who made a really funny memory? Did your mind directly go to the comedian and trouble maker of the bunch? If you guessed Kerith you were correct! It was about half way through the program when the little Miss broke out crying and had to be escorted off the stage. Watch for yourself....Yes just a glimpse of our precious Kerith.