countdown x 2!

In all of the pre-holiday rush I forgot to post last Monday! I'm going to catch us up !

As of today Dan has 26 weeks left in his fellowship.

Leah is 14 weeks old!

Merry Christmas to all!

what color is your belt? -or- one proud mama

Maybe the site of his birth had something to do with it - Daniel has always been excited about karate. He started taking classes when he was in preschool. He has had the goal of earning a black belt for years. (I've always thought it was cool for such little kids to be introduced to goal-setting! Think of the possibilities...)

Yesterday was Daniel's black belt test (junior black belt, first degree).

The history portion was administered firing-squad style - orally. The students were expected to know several typewritten pages of karate history, ranging from its origins to the lineage of Adamsons' karate dojos.

The physical conditioning portion of the test included 50 perfect-form push-ups. (Let that sink in...whoa.....). There were other exercises too, but none were as feared as the push-ups.

In front of a panel of about 30 black-belts, the students demonstrated seven different kata routines (the karate equivalent of a dance routine - each a minute or two long, it's a series of fluid poses to be performed with an attempt at perfect form). One of the katas included nunchucks, which you can imagine was not popular with mom for indoor practice!

The final portion was three forms of self-defense demonstrations. Could you quickly take down a series of 'attackers' that come at you one at a time? What if the guy chasing you has a club (made of foam, mercifully!)? What if there were three attackers coming at you at once? Add in the fact that the test had been going on for more than three hours before this portion even started. I was exhausted at that point and all I'd done was hold the baby and pray!

After months of spending both weekend afternoons in 3 hour-long boot camp classes (along with weeknight classes, seminars and independent study) we made the drive to Adamson's Karate dojo in Avon, IN. The test was a nerve-racking 4-plus hours long. Here are some photos...

(Photo below caption)

Daniel is visible in the near-left window as Shihan Adamson (in the dark suit) makes his way up and down the line asking history questions.

Action shot during a kata routine. Don't ask which one - I have no idea. I should, considering I'm the one who has driven Daniel to 99.8% of his karate classes over the years. The katas all have Japanese names. (Despite living in Japan I never learned more Japanese than what it took to say hello, excuse me and I'm very sorry thanks to our three small children at the time. )

Here Daniel stands in front of the panel of 30 black-belts awaiting judgment on one of his kata routines.

The big announcement is made - Daniel passed! They ALL passed this time around--how cool is that? It does NOT happen every time. Some of these kids have tested before - multiple times. What a feeling of elation (and relief!) filled the room!

The real, custom-made black belts -- complete with each child's name embriodered in Japanese kanji-- will arrive in a few weeks.

Daniel, Michael and Noah - these guys trained together, carpooled, and studied while we parents wondered when OUR black belts would be awarded for our time and trouble. Sensei Paul Adamson, who's been Daniel's Sensei since he graduated from the preshool program, is standing behind them. (He was awarded his sixth-degree black belt recently!)

Fantastic job, Daniel! If you can do THIS when you're nine, I'd say you don't have any excuse not to set goals and stick with them in the years to come!

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Noah and Daniel, 2002 (Man, these two look like Leah and Luke !)

On to our countdown...

Leah is 12 weeks old!

Dan has 28 weeks left in his fellowship.

Have a great week, everyone!

debate

The kids have discovered a love of texting Daddy. They all jockey for turns with my cell phone to send him messages. It makes it challenging when Dan and I try to text one another since several children run to the phone to read the message when the chime sounds.

Yesterday Dan texted me that he was stuck at work - probably 'til midnight - again. Our favorite phrase for events like this is shortened to one word - s*cks (rhymes with trucks...) as in, that s*cks.

Because it does.

We don't use this phrase around the kids because, you know, it's not very nice.

Noah, who's a first grader, was the first one to grab the phone the next time Dan responded. He glanced at the screen, saw the word s*cks, and asked if that word said SHUCKS.

Uh huh - sure does!

Shucks all over the place.

The next time you're tempted to say that something s*cks, think of Noah, my fib, and say SHUCKS instead. Works surprisingly well...

I really hate parenting debates like this. Which is worse...fibbing or teaching our 7 year-old a rude phrase?

I'm so thankful for a fresh start each day! God knows that I certainly need it in this job He's given me.

late fall

I don't know where the last few months have gone. Baby Leah's arrival this September was such a gift! Time never goes more slowly than when I'm pregnant...and never goes faster than when I have a newborn. I've been sifting through our family photos from the last few months and found some good ones that haven't made the blog yet.

Emma is so thankful to have a sister! Leah brings our household so much joy. She's also brought with her a whole lot more PINK than we've seen in years!

Noah lost one of his top front teeth...I just love that! We're happy to report that he lost this one the traditional way. No older siblings --ahem-- assisted with this one.

For weeks the kids said Leah looked "surprised" (confused?) all of the time. We're glad that she has some new expressions now!

Here is Daniel playing in our front yard. This is the first year we've had enough leaves to play in! (One tree produced these...our subdivision isn't very old!) Noah dutifully raked these into a pile...then we did nothing with them. Now they're covered in snow. Good thing we don't live somewhere with mature trees or we'd be buried.

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Leah is 11 weeks old! She's becoming very conversational. The kids love it when she sticks her tongue out at them.

Dan has (drumroll)....29 weeks left to go! We've made it into the 20's! That's something to celebrate!

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Leah is 10 weeks old.

Dan has 30 weeks left in his fellowship. OOOOHHHH - almost in the 20's! PROGRESS!

He was just with us for four days. It just feels right when he's home. We are thankful that he has a job, and will be even more thankful when his job and his family can be in the same city. :)

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Leah is 9 weeks old. She weighs 10 pounds now! Many of her teeny baby clothes are too small !

Dan has 31 weeks left in his pediatric neurosurgery fellowship. He's coming home to spend Thanksgiving with us, so he only has a 3 day work-week this week! No one deserves a few days off more than he does!

This week's photo is Dan with Daniel. Dan's at work in the Misawa Air Base hospital's ER. We stopped in to visit him occasionally, and we definitely weren't the only people with kids hanging around. Some of the moms on our base realized that Dan was great with kids so they took their children to the ER to see him rather than going to the pediatrics clinic. These were the beginnings of where he finds himself today. We're so proud of him!

I think he secretly likes pediatrics for other reasons too. If he is a kid doc, he needs to know about stuff kids like, right? He has a free pass to play all of the new video games and watch all of the kid movies from now 'til he retires.

countdown

32 weeks left in Dan's fellowship. November is halfway over!

Leah is 8 weeks old!

perspective

Dan's a veteran. We lived on a military base for four years. As Captain Fulkerson he was an emergency room physician. You can see him pictured above in his emergency gear. Yeah, as a civilian it was wayyy reassuring that all of the active duty folks were issued gas masks...I kind of wondered where mine and the kids' were, just in case...

You can imagine how *easy* it was to treat patients dressed that way.

Anyway, those years were a fantastic education for me about what it really means to sacrifice. Of course ours were small sacrifices in the grand scheme of things - I in no way mean to say that our experience even begins to approach that of the men and women who lose their lives or their health during their time of service. These are definately lower-case sacrifices I'm referring to.

Being in the military (or being married to someone who is) means being told where to live. It means you don't know for sure when you're moving until you have orders, and those orders can most certainly be changed. Multiple times. (Oh how our families celebrated when orders were cut sending Dan to a base near Las Vegas, Nevada...only to be changed to a remote base in northern Japan a few weeks later.)

It means your children will change schools every few grades.

It means being told you have to wait for your belongings to arrive --- on the government's watch. ( We all heard stories of entire crates worth of household goods disappearing, never to be seen again.)

It means limited choices - in clothing, toiletries, shoes, movies, books, you get the gist. (We were active duty just before it became possible to order anything and everything online!)

It means being assigned to your doctors and dentists and often waiting a looong time for appointments. It means specialists are only available a few times a year (so you'd better pray that your child's facial injury happens when the plastic surgeon happens to be in town).

It means holidays alone and learning to make new traditions.

It means that your friends will come and go at a dizzying rate.

It means knowing that your friends may never see their spouse alive again, and trying to figure out how to be encouraging to them as they sweat out those deployment months.

It means that lots of households morph into single-parent families for six months to a year at a time-- over and over again-- during their years of service.

It means the US government is in charge of every element of your life. If you can recall going to the BMV or the post office then you can appreciate having similar experiences with all of your family's healthcare and housing needs.

Stop and ponder that for a moment...

Yeah.

Dan has been a civilian for several years now. I am so proud that he served our country. If he hadn't I would never have had the same appreciation for our great nation. We have many friends whose families are still living an active duty military life and we are so thankful for all that they do. Their sacrifices, great and small, keep us free.

Thank you, Veterans! Dad, Grandpa Krou, Engen, and especially our Dan....we love you and are so proud of all of you!

countdown

Dan has 33 weeks left in his fellowship.

Leah is 7 weeks old.

She's sprouting some peach-fuzz on top of her head. I'm encouraged that maybe she won't be as bald as I was as a baby! Crossing my fingers....

Team Fulkerson is a few days late with our countdown this week. I hope you're all having a great one! Today is Veteran's Day. We are so thankful to our country's brave Veterans. If that is you (or your spouse!), thank you! You keep us safe and you keep us free. Those are incredible gifts that are easy to take for granted. More on that soon...

costumes

I'm a real humbug about halloween. It's one of those 'holidays' that I consider not at all worth the hype and effort. Buying or making costumes for all of the kids...talk about pressure! Remembering to buy pounds of candy that I then have to successfully hide until trick-or-treat day doesn't add to my serenity, either. All of this effort and expense to do what? 'Celebrate' morbidity and evil.

Ugh.

I know, I know. What a stick in the mud! I'm a huge scrooge about it... until it's actually time to trick-or-treat. When I see how excited the kids are it helps me remember how much I looked forward to the yearly ritual when I was little. For those two hours I actually think it's fun! This year Dan was home to hand out candy while Aunt Jodi, Emma and I walked up and down the street with the younger children. I was so thankful to have help!

Don't get me started, though, about the joys of monitoring the candy consumption of four children for weeks afterward. It makes me glad Leah doesn't have any teeth - yet.

Dumb holiday.

Leah's baptism

Leah's baptism was this past Sunday at Christ Lutheran Church here in Zionsville, IN.

It was so moving for me to see our tiny daughter in this dress. I can remember going to the fabric shop many years ago with my mom and grandma to choose the fabric, lace and ribbons. My grandmother made the dress for my little sister Lori's baptism in 1982. Emma wore it to her baptism in 1998.

Our cousin Diana Nixon is Leah's godmother. I was the nanny for two of her children when we all lived in South Bend, IN in the early 1990's. She has been a fantastic mentor for me as I've navigated through learning how to mother. I'm so thankful that she and her family live in Bloomington, IN so we're able to see each other a few times a year. I know Diana will pray both for me and for Leah in the years to come. What more can a parent ask for than to know that another mama is praying for them? Priceless.

I love what our pastor said after the baptism - Leah became a new princess in the kingdom of God. Now she is Jesus' baby sister. That's what I call a blessed day!

Thanks be to God.

countdown

Dan has 34 weeks left. Putting him on the plane every other Sunday really stinks, but picking him up from the airport every other Friday is so FANTASTIC! Worth every penny (I'm sure Continental Airlines loves us...)!

Leah is 6 weeks old!

Have a great week, everyone!

Noah's birthday portrait

Noah has the distinction of being THE middle child out of five. He has an older sister, an older brother, a younger sister and a younger brother. You could say he gets it from all directions.

On report card day last week Noah yelled from the family room, "Mom, Daniel said I get an F in existing!"

Emma had an eye doctor appointment a little while ago. The rest of us were in the waiting room, cleaning up the toys we'd enjoyed while we were there. During the cleanup Luke threw a toy at Noah's head hard enough to draw blood, right there in the waiting room. I don't know if that's worse than the (full) sippy cups that Luke chucks at Noah's head every so often - we'll have to ask Noah which he prefers.

I was excited for Noah's birthday to come around so we could celebrate him for a day (or three, the way it happened to work out - party on Saturday, real birthday not 'til the following Monday...). I think he really enjoyed it!

We all love you, Noah--even the members of Team Fulkerson that hurl insults and heavy objects at you! Think of what a strong person you'll become...

countdown

Dan has 35 weeks left in his fellowship. The kids and I hope to count how many DAYS he has left during this fall break. Maybe we'll get it done tomorrow! ;)

Leah is 5 weeks old - and getting balder by the day. I'm thinking hats...

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Dan has 36 weeks left in his fellowship.

Leah is 4 weeks old!

Today is Noah David's 7th birthday! Happy Birthday Noah! Hopefully I will remember to post some "big kid" pictures of him soon, but today I can't resist posting some of my favorite baby Noah shots. How the years fly.

Sorry I can't credit the photographer - a lady (whose name I no longer remember) took great pictures in one of the rooms of her home on the Air Force base where Noah was born. If any of my Misawa friends knows her name, please remind me! I feel guilty using her images!

4 whole weeks

God sends you what you can handle, right? Leah has, so far, been our easiest newborn.

By far.

She sleeps for 5 hours at a stretch during the night. Let me just say that is UNHEARD OF with previous Fulkerson babies.

She can be put down sometimes without screaming the moment her back hits the bassinet -- so novel!

She loves her swing, too. We haven't had a baby who liked the baby swing since 1998.

We have all enjoyed her so much these past four weeks! The other kids argue over whose turn it is to hold her. Dan's even been bonding with Leah from Texas! She is fussy in the evenings when we Skype with him, but when we hold her up to the computer screen she quiets down, looks and listens. I truly think she knows his voice. It's really cool!

Here are a few pictures we took yesterday, in honor of Leah's four-week birthday. :)

great expectations?

A very wise friend once told me the secret to her level of calm. This friend (who happens to be the mother of four, three of whom are triplets) says

high expectations = low serenity; low expectations = high serenity.

I loved this and started applying it to my life. Immediately.

Now, is it a bad thing to say I have low expectations? Fifteen years ago I would have been appalled at the very idea! As a student (and eventually a teacher) I would say that high expectations are the key to getting people to do their best work! Why should anyone purposely have low expectations ?

Here's why. We've been on this merry-go-round before.

Elementary-aged kids have school projects out the wazoo. First-graders take a loooong time to read a book out loud (no matter how loudly the baby in your lap is screaming). Two year-olds are destructive and cooperate the least when you need it the most. Babies scream the loudest when you need for them to be the quietest.

If you expect these things to happen then you're not surprised or disappointed!

If, by some miracle, things go BETTER than you expected, well, then it's been a great day.

Yesterday afternoon was the perfect example. A neighbor (also the mother of a two year-old) called to invite Luke over to play for awhile. He smiled and was excited....until she came to the door to collect him. He refused to go with her, saying STAY AT LUKEY'S HOUSE. Of course Lukey's house currently had one child with a fever camped out on the couch, another child painting a homemade salt-dough map of Indiana in the next room while his brother waited patiently for me to find something for him to paint too; and a screaming baby in a sling around mom's neck. Never mind that the kitchen counter wasn't visible and everyone was starting to get hungry. I invited the neighbor and her daughter in to play for a few minutes, hoping that Luke would cooperate ...

You already know how this goes.

The two year-olds fought non-stop over the same toy. The sick kid kept coughing, reminding us all that we're exposing neighbors to germs. The brother that was waiting to paint was forgotten, baby continued to scream. The twist I wasn't expecting was for Luke to stick his finger up his nose and start a huge gusher of a nosebleed, causing him to need a complete change of clothes (not to mention a new load of laundry and a floor mopping for mom). Then the kid who was waiting to paint fell down the stairs.

Friends from church dropped by briefly to bring us homemade soup and a rose (on behalf of Leah's birth, a tradition in our congregation). Luke grabbed the rose and took off. Not thirty seconds later it looked like the photo at the top of this blog entry. I guess Leah should get used to her gifts being presented in pieces.

Our kind neighbors and friends didn't say a word about the chaos. I'm guessing they won't believe me the next time I insist that we're fine---because thanks to all of the prayers said on our behalf, we are.

Well, the prayers plus my seriously low expectations.

Special thanks to Maureen, the source of my mantra. :)

countdown

Dan has 37 weeks left in his fellowship.

Baby Leah is 3 weeks old! :)

Hope you're all staying healthy! We're keeping the hand sanitizer manufacturers afloat all by ourselves around here!

Cheers,

Team Fulkerson

countdown

Dan has 38 weeks left in his fellowship.

Leah is 2 weeks old. :)

Have a fantastic week, everyone!

Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame!

I can't remember how Dan managed to get this photo, but this is our own Dan with (then football coach) Lou Holtz.

In Lou's office.

At Notre Dame.

Cool, eh?

Fall Saturdays always make Team Fulkerson long to be back in South Bend, Indiana.

Go Irish!

countdown

Dan has 39 weeks left in his fellowship! We've made it into the 'thirties,' folks! We're about a quarter of the way done! Progress is a beautiful thing!

Team Fulkerson would love some prayers this week, especially for our children. Dan left yesterday and is back in Texas now, after a blissful couple of weeks here with us. We all miss him terribly.

To make it an even more sad day, our very special next-door neighbors moved away yesterday. They've been wonderful friends (and playmates) for several years. They have doted on Luke since he was Leah's size and I'm not *quite* sure how to help Luke understand why they aren't there...

God's handiwork

ode to a nap

In the weeks leading up to Leah's birth I was a complete basket case.

I was worried that Dan would miss the birth.

I worried about giving at home with no one but the older kids to help me (Noah's birth was very fast), thus scarring them for life.

Conversely, I also worried about needing to be induced (more about that soon).

Thankfully Dan came home a few days earlier than planned and I breathed a huge sigh of relief - he'd be present! If I have another fast birth, I thought, he can deliver the baby (and oh, how he'd love doing that.)! Surely, I thought, when he's home my body will relax and she'll come!

Nope.

Now I have to explain that I have a huge fear of pitocin - the drug they use to induce labor. I had it with Daniel. It makes the contractions so much worse than if you have them without pitocin. I also was pretty adamant that I did not want an epidural. I had one of those with Daniel, too, after hours of laboring under the effects of pitocin and only making it to 4 cm before I couldn't handle it anymore. My beef with the epidural? I hated not being able to push effectively (or even keep my own legs on the table). After two unmedicated births when you see that your body really knows what to do and all you have to do is cooperate with it, it seems really inefficient to mess with the process. No, what I really wanted for this birth was an unmedicated experience that required no pitocin and as little medical intervention as possible. I spent hours, days, weeks pondering this plan.

Then add in the sleep deprivation. For about four months leading up to induction day I woke nightly around 3 a.m., often unable to go back to sleep for any length of time before the 6 am alarm. The night before the scheduled induction (still praying to go into labor on my own) I woke up at 2:30 a.m. and never went back to sleep before we headed to the hospital.

OH, not good.

I cried the whole way there. Poor Dan, driving along....I'm sure he was wondering what our day was going to be like. Well, actually, he probably knew. I'm lucky that he didn't drop me off and sneak back home.

By the time they hooked me to the pitocin and the blood pressure cuff I was not only exhausted but furious. I started taking pictures because that was just the mood I was in....how on earth was I supposed to try to give birth with pitocin in my system, without an epidural, WITH ALL OF THESE THINGS ATTACHED TO MY ARMS? Every time I had to go to the bathroom the poor nurse had to unplug me from four different outlets and drape all of the cords around my neck as I dragged the IV cart into the bathroom with me and tried not to drop said cords into the toilet.

So not good.

It took the whole morning for me to make it 5 cm. At that point I realized that I couldn't deal with the pain anymore. When the doctor put in the epidural I cried and cried - hysterical, boo-hoo crying. I couldn't stop. They didn't even bother giving me a tissue - they handed me a huge washcloth.

You know what came next? A NAP. Probably the best nap I've had in my entire life. I am not being flippant when I say that this nap was truly a gift from God. It was exactly what I needed, and God always provides! They woke me up to tell me it was time for baby to come out - she had a head start on us! I won't subject you to any more details, other than to say thank you to all of my wise friends who said GIVE IT UP AND JUST GET THE EPIDURAL! To my friends who encouraged me to try to have unmedicated childbirth, thank you, too. I consider it a personal victory that I lasted one whole centimeter longer without an epidural during Leah's birth than I did with Daniel's. If I hadn't at least tried I would have always kicked myself. I surely don't need any more reasons to do that.

Last, I propose that you add the word pitocin to your favorite list of expletives. If you hear me say PITOCIN, DANIEL! FOR THE TWELFTH TIME, PICK UP YOUR SOCKS! you'll know what I'm saying. I'd even suggest the alternative phrase, "OH, PIT!" (as in, "she's still smiling, time to crank up the pit!" like one nurse said when I was hooked up to that horrible stuff during Daniel's delivery) -- but that one might get Team Fulkerson into trouble...

Baby Leah, you were worth every moment!

countdown plus more pictures!

Counting down is especially fun when Dan's on vacation! Forty weeks until he's finished with his fellowship!

Here are a few more shots of Leah and her adoring family....