flying time - or- a great big catch-up post

Dan's fellowship is over in 45 days! We are hatching a plan for me to pick him up at the hospital on his last day and head directly to the highway....Houston, buh bye! We'll see if he and I will really have the energy to follow through with pulling an all-nighter that night. Anyway, I got this in the mail yesterday:

Do you people see the word GRADUATING on this invite? This is an invitation to Dan's graduation dinner!

WOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I hope they have a delicious dinner and really live it up that evening! The kids and I will surely be raising a glass (of lemonade? Sprite? ) to him that evening from our kitchen table in Indiana!

So far as I know, this is the LAST time Dan will graduate. ;) He's been really good at it all of the other times!

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Now for some parental (rather than spousal) bragging...

A few weeks ago Emma had an Academic Superbowl competition here in Indianapolis. She was so nervous in the weeks leading up to it, certain that she was the weak link on her team. She studied and studied the topic: "An American Generation: 1964 - 1980."

I know...seems like kind of a long time period to study, doesn't it?

Her specialty area was social studies. We're happy to report...

that Zionsville West Middle School won!

Emma even knew a few answers that her teammates didn't --what an awesome feeling! Way to go, Emma!

Emma with her Academic Superbowl ribbon. We are so proud of you, Emma!

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Daniel turned 10 in March and I am just now managing to post his birthday portrait.

Daniel - age 10

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Leah, age 7 months, has decided that she doesn't like pureed baby food. No, despite her toothless state, she wants her food in chunks. She crawls all around our house in search of leftover bits. Cheerios are her current favorite, but she is pretty fond of goldfish crackers too. And blueberries. And wads of paper. And Legos (eek). Mom spends a lot of time doing the finger-sweep motion. A big shout-out to Daniel for digging out that Lego this weekend!

Leah has also decided that being the earliest roller, sitter, real-food eater and crawler in the bunch wasn't enough - she now pulls up to a standing position. Here are a couple of shots of her showing off her newest trick.

Team Fulkerson is in real trouble now.

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Noah was stuck at home last week with a fever.

As in ALL FIVE SCHOOLDAYS last week. Isn't that awful?

He built legos to pass the time. He was also home to watch some handyman *revisions* take place.

[Team Fulkerson is glad to report that things in THAT department are going much better!]

Here are a few shots of Noah's handywork last week:

Careful, Indy! Don't fall!

That kind of says it all, doesn't it?

Team Fulkerson hopes that none of you are stressed (streast) out today!

Have a great Tuesday (Lostday), everyone!

Luke's third birthday

Luke turned three a few weeks ago (OK, going on a month ago is more accurate). I have been distracted, OK? I thought I'd catch up with his birthday post while he's down and out with a fever. Poor guy! Never fear, he's watching Little Bear and sipping apple juice from his sippy cup, so all is right with the world (other than the stinkin' fever, of course!).

Luke with birthday loot! I wish he would look directly at the camera. You'll notice that he refuses to do that in all of these pictures - unless he's looking very sad, of course.

He chose white cupcakes with sprinkles for his 'cake.' That's good, because my attempts at making fancier cakes have fizzled so many times that I've pretty much given up. I'm not sure why he looks so miserable in this shot - he'd just blown out all three of his candles and was handed a cupcake!

Yeah, these are out of order. I'm ignoring the urge to delete the pictures and switch the order around. Here he's waiting for the cupcakes and candles to be placed in front of him. He kept looking at us like he wasn't sure what we were going to do to him.

Now THIS is the three-year-old Luke we'll all remember! He'd just pilfered a freshly-baked cupcake (not even frosted yet) and, well, did THAT to it. Notice his "little guys" all over the floor. Maybe he wanted to share crumbs with them? They're there pretty much all of the time. We're considering working them into the decor on a permanent basis. Could we weave them into a rug or something?

At age three, Luke's favorite things are:

Using an "H" sound wherever a "Y" or an "L" should be, meaning his name is Hukey, his baby sister is Heah, ("Heah is hittle."), he eats hogurt and one of his fave Star Wars characters is Hoda.

Throwing things.

Licking (hicking) sticks of gum.

Watching Little Bear, Curious George (love) and Spongebob Squarepants (UGH).

Wrestling with Daddy.

Getting piggy-back rides from Daddy.

Eating McDonald's french fries.

Wondering aloud "Why baby Heah doesn't have no hair?"

Getting a hot dog at the baseball concession stand

Playing at the park

and going to Chuck E. Cheese

We love you, Luke! What a big boy you're becoming!

(Sniff...)

home improvement?

Mother's Day came early this year! This week Team Fulkerson has delved into some much-needed, much wished-for home improvement projects.

We had the carpets professionally cleaned for the first time ever! What a concept...I kept playing with the kids, doing dishes, folding laundry...and the carpets were cleaned at the same time!

Only problem was that the guy who did the carpet cleaning asked for a tip.

Twice.

I wasn't expecting that. I'm new to this...someone needs to warn me about these things! I don't tip my furnace maintenance guys or the guy who carries my water softener salt down into the basement.

Have they both hated me for the last 8 years?

We also hired a handyman company come do some things around the house. I've been wishing for a new bathroom faucet and some new light fixtures for years...so I had high hopes. I was so excited to get started!

Then the handymen arrived.

One of them spilled coffee on my cleaned-less-than-24-hours-ago stairs and didn't cop to it or say he was sorry. I found the spots after he left. That's a lucky thing for him. He'll get an earful if he ever comes back this way. I thought that was pitiful.

Maybe he's friends with the carpet cleaning guy I stiffed.

The guy who was assigned to work on our to-do list for three days apparently is handy when it comes to patching drywall and painting (good!) but not so handy with having the necessary tools, being willing to go buy the necessary supplies, or plumbing in general (bad, considering I wanted a faucet installed). Without giving you all of the gory details, I'll just say that after three days we still can't use our downstairs sink, we have several holes in the walls surrounding the new light fixtures, and the other major project he was hired to do (build frames for our existing vanity mirrors) wasn't even started.

Here are a few photos so you can all enjoy the view.

Is it normal for the after to look decidedly worse than the before?

Maybe just for Team Fulkerson.

Have a great weekend everyone! Be thankful you're not our handyman's boss, who's coming bright and early Monday morning to finish the job!

This used to be our drain...and one of our nicer hand towels.

Mirror and faucet look good. It will be great when we can use this bathroom again! I know I should pick up the towel and clean up the mess but I'm being obnoxious and leaving it for the handyman's boss to see Monday morning. (Tattletale).

I am so happy with our new light fixtures! Too bad the previous light hid several holes in the drywall that are now exposed (see the rectangles next to the globes?). Our handyman doesn't carry drywall in his truck, nor does he go to places like Lowe's (literally a mile away) to acquire some. Instead he asks ticked-off housewives with crying children to go to Lowe's - for the second time that day- to go buy drywall instead.

Interesting approach.

The good news is that the wood frame surrounding our front door is repainted and we have a functioning doorbell for the first time in six months! Aah, the little victories in life. The doorbell chime was only installed upside down for a little while...