Sunday, June 27, 2010

The Haps

I love it when I do things by accident. I just posted a blog post with no text. Silly me!

Anyway, I thought I'd throw up a little update on all of us. This has been a vacation week of sorts for us. Rather unintentional, but since Matthew wasn't with us until Wednesday, it was kind of hard to do our normal routine in it's entirety, so I just gave up and took the week off. Ben and Anna and I had a good time playing and taking trips to the library. Ben and I read tons of books and he was able to finish the reading program. Usually Matthew corners me to read and Ben will just go play b/c he likes to have alone time with me. Well, he had all the time he needed over the past few days. Anna will sit with whoever is reading whatever, so she had fun as well.

We went to Rockford on Wednesday to meet Matthew at the Children's Museum. We all had a great time running around the place, then Rob's parents took us out to McDonald's for lunch. The boys did not exactly embrace one another....rather they fought fiercer than before. I was wondering if the "pecking order" didn't get rearranged with Matthew's absence, thus they had to duke it out to reestablish it. Loudly. Repeatedly for a couple of days. Yeah.

Rob is still applying for a teaching position and has sent resumes to three more schools. We're praying about this new venture. We're hoping he does find something soon, because the Custom Shoppe is cutting back on hours again.

It's back to the usual schedule for this upcoming week, except that we have Family Bible School every night. Should be fun getting the kids up in the morning....wait....I don't wake them up! Maybe I'll have some quiet time......

Rob caught a cold from my dad, which he gave to me, so I was feeling rather crummy this morning. An Alavert seems to have stopped most of the cold symptoms, so I've just been extremely tired. I have still been able to stamp a bit, as I'm getting ready for my first workshop at the end of next week.

The boys and I went to a birthday party yesterday for a friend of Ben's. It was a pool party and they had a great time. While we were gone, Rob took the opportunity to mop the entire downstairs (we have icky hardwood floors....can't understand why people think they want hardwood!!) The carpet under our dining room table was pretty shabby and nasty. Rob couldn't bear to put it down on a clean floor (that he had to mop six times to get clean) so he threw it out. We took a trip to Menards to buy an inexpensive replacement. Looks nicer and smells better, too! We were waiting to throw it out when we moved, but we simply couldn't wait much longer.

I think that's all the exciting news. I'm kind of tired now, so I'm going to hit the couch!!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Fulkerson Family Picnic II and Trip to Illinois

We had a great time this weekend visiting family in Illinois. The kids had such a good time that they are both still sleeping!! Both?? Yup, we lost one. Matthew stayed behind with his grandparents for a few extra days. We'll meet them in Rockford on Wednesday to pick him up.

We took off Thursday around noon. Rob had taken the day off, as I refuse to let him work a full day before leaving on a trip EVER AGAIN!!! Or at least until the kids are older :) We got all packed up and ran some errands while waiting for a package to arrive. It came right before lunch, so we ate and left. I had a migraine that day, so packing wasn't a whole lot of fun and neither was the drive down. But we arrived with no real problems and had a good time visiting with Rob's parents, grandparents, and his aunt and uncle from Florida.

On Friday, Rob and I took the kids to the Children's museum. Anna was like a pinball in a pinball machine! She couldn't settle on one activity the entire time. We finally gave up following her around and just found a bench in a central location to watch her. The boys had a good time at the pizza parlor exhibit and even made me a kiwi pizza. Can't imagine what that would taste like for real!

We dropped the kids back off and Rob and I snuck in a mini-date. We ate at Steak 'n Shake then hit a few stores, all within two hours! Not bad! When we got back, Anna was down for a nap and I decided to get in some cardmaking time while Rob also napped. I took some meds before I started, Rob thinking that a little more Tylenol would help the headache. It did, but it also made me jittery. I eventually needed a nap myself!

That evening, I had a Pampered Chef party at my sister's house. She's a new consultant. The party ended up just being me and my two mommies, but it was lots of fun. I also prepped her for her Stampin Up! workshop in July.

Saturday was the Fulkerson Family Picnic. We had a ball! We all met at a park and ate and let the kids play, then when it got too hot we went back to Mom and Dad's to let the kids play in the pool. We also celebrated my mom and one niece's birthdays, which are this week. It was so fun to see all ten of the cousins playing together! We had a great time. I'm always amazed by how twenty people can fit into my parents' house, but it works. Also helps that the kids are so little :) I'll have pictures up on FB hopefully today sometime.

Sunday we attended church with my parents. Ben and Anna did okay in their class, but Matthew was a little freaked out, so he ended up in the service with us. We took off shortly afterwards and went to Rob's grandmother's 99th birthday party. I wish we could have stayed longer, but Anna was getting rowdy and Ben was lapsing back into bad behavior. (He was a real pistol the first two days of the trip, calmed down on the third, then got all crazy again.) We left and had a nice trip home. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for Rob's Father's Day supper. Besides making breakfast that morning, it's the only real thing we did for him. The stamp set I planned to use to make his card did not come in in time and is present is also still in limbo. Hopefully I'll get them today!

All in all, a really great trip!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Did you catch my head as it spun past??

Wow. It's been a loooong time since I've blogged. My head (and Rob's) have been spinning out-of-control for a bit now. We have lots of exciting things going on. Rob has two schools that are interested in him right now and I have become a Stampin Up! demonstrator. Yeah....that's enough to send your world into a tail spin! I can't really go into great detail on the two jobs yet, but they are both teaching positions in the math/science arena and both in Michigan. In fact, one of the schools just called this afternoon. Both of them are lower in pay than we anticipated, so that's why I joined SU this month. I already have my first workshop booked (thanks, Mandy!) and am hoping to do a few more bookings with family and friends before we might have to move. (So contact me today...I am planning three trips to Illinois this summer! Enough of the plug for SU....)

The kids have been told of the possible move and did not take it well at first. Ben cried and Matthew had his usual "I fear change" issues for a few days. (This is my child that since age 2 has not wanted to turn a new age on his birthday, so moving is tramatic!) Now they are excited to explore a new place. We know that with one of the schools, we can continue homeschooling but we're not sure about the other one.

The boys have both been doing well in school. Matthew just finished week 22 of Core K in Sonlight and still loves it. We're reading the book "In Grandma's Attic" right now and he's thoroughly enjoying it. We haven't switched math programs yet, but I plan to do that after a trip to Illinois next weekend. I've been impressed recently with his handwriting. We decided not to do an extra program for it and on his own, he has improved his writing. Many days he tries to be as careful as possible and it's paying off.

Ben has a regular schooltime now as well, thanks to the implementation of our new schedule. He just finished his tenth lesson in "Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." I think he's catching on faster than his older brother. He loves to try writing new letters as well and is in some ways easier to teach. He does tend to get frustrated easier than Matthew, but a few simple explanations and a lot of patience guide him in the right direction.

Anna is still my little dolly. She's just as sweet as ever, but does prove every now and then that she is two. Thankfully, most of her fits happen when she's tired or hungry, so that's easy to solve. She still loves playing with her dollies, Legos, and has added puzzles to the list.

Sounds like it's time for supper! Please keep our family in your prayers as we go through this time of transition and decision making.