F-U-L-K-E-R-S-O-N

(By Jen)

All of my life I feel like I have had THE most perfect name. Jennifer Lynn Kelly. I loved my name. Three first names - easy to pronounce, easy to spell. It just baffled me that most of my friends didn't like their names and wanted to change them, or better yet, they didn't like the spelling of their name and wanted to change how it looked. Me? I was completely happy with my name...... until 4 1/2 years ago that is. ;) Now don't get me wrong, I was ecstatic at first to take on the last name of "Fulkerson," but little did I know how much I would come to want my old name back. The main reason? Kelly was much more simple to say AND to spell. It took much less time out of my day (and for those who know me well know that I hate to waste time). When I USED to say my name over the phone, here is how it would go:

Person on phone: "And what is your last name?"
Me: "Kelly"
Person on phone: "Is that with an "e-y" or just "y"?"
Me: "just y."
Person on phone: "OK, you are confirmed for........"

Time of phone call? 2 minutes. =) But NOW when I say my name over the phone, here is how the conversation goes:

Person on phone: "And what is your last name?"
Me: "Fulkerson"
Person on phone: "Uh (long pause)....... can you spell that?"
Me: "F-u-l-k-e-r-s-o-n"
Person on phone: "OK, let me confirm. Your name is Jennifer, last name Sulkerson. S-u-l-k-e-r-s-o-n."
Me: "No, not "S", "F." "F" as in Frank."
Person on phone: "Oh, I'm so sorry. Let me go back and fix it......... I now have Jennifer Fulkerson. F as in Frank -u-l-k-e-r-s-o-n. Is that correct?"
Me: "Yes, that is correct. Thank you."
Person on phone: "OK, you are confirmed for........"

Time of phone call? 2 hours. =) I keep trying to get Greg to change our last names to Kelly, but he won't do it...... something about how I should have thought of that BEFORE and how it might make some people upset. Can't blame me for trying though, eh?? ;)

(By Greg)

Well, I've had this name all of my life and really haven't given it a second thought. But it IS funny to hear and see how badly people can butcher my last name. Just last week for example: Brian, my brother-in-law, went to reserve tuxes for their wedding. Apparently it was quite the adventure. The lady took the names of everybody in the party, and from the sounds of it, she might have been old and hard of hearing. She obviously couldn't hear, or couldn't spell (even though Brian spelled EVERY name, letter by letter for her)! Jeff Belval (correct spelling: Belveal), Sean Haz (correct spelling: Hayes), Josh Dunkin (correct spelling: Duncan, as in yoyos, not donuts). But the best one by far was my name -- Greg FUKerson! Seriously? Who would have that last name?

Which brings me to my somewhat newly acquired nickname -- "Focker." If you've ever seen "Meet the Parents," you'd know what I am talking about. I'm not 100% sure where that came from, but I think my old roomie gave me that nickname back when that movie came out in 2000. Now granted, this isn't THE most appropriate of nicknames, but when you have my last name, you just have to take what’s been given to you. Besides, it IS pretty unique -- I can only think of two people that have that nickname.....

Like a Kid in a Candy Store

It’s always so great for us when Greg gets a holiday off, especially a 3-day weekend, because that means we get to spend more time together and go do something fun! We started off the day by sleeping in (one of our favorite things!) and then heading over to It’s a Grind to get some coffee for our “long” road trip up to Denver and Evergreen. ;) We first stopped in Denver and took a tour through the famous Hammond’s Candy Factory. We had first heard about the place while watching something on the Travel Channel one night last year, and then overheard some friends talking about how they had taken the tour, so we decided we’d add that to our list of things to do and see here in Colorado. It was pretty neat to watch how they made candy and to see that it was all homemade and done by hand. It made our mouths water just watching them make all those goodies! It sure looked like hard work too! After that, we headed up to Evergreen where we had planned to go ice skating. We had made plans way back in September (click here to re-visit the blog post) when we were in Evergreen to come back in the winter, but when we got there, we didn’t feel it was good skating ice. The weather has been amazingly warm lately so the ice was really kinda slushy in most areas. So we just “skated” around on our shoes and walked all over the ice. It was a neat experience as we had never done anything like that before! We ended the day with dinner at Maggiano's and a quick trip to the outlets at Castle Rock. Fun stuff!

This weekend sure went by fast for us. Friday night we entertained at our house. Saturday morning/afternoon we headed over to Biaggi’s to help Mom and Dad Kelly plan the Rehearsal Dinner menu and other such arrangements, and then spent the rest of the day running errands and watching movies. Sunday we spent time visiting our friends in the hospital who just had a baby (who is adorable, by the way), had lunch with friends, and then dinner at Mom and Dad Kelly’s. Then there was today - busy and fun-filled. This week is proving to be another crazy busy week as well, but that’s OK, it keeps us out of trouble. ;)

Feelin' Fine in 2009

Happy New Year everyone!

We had a great holiday season this year. We were extremely busy with lots of holiday parties and get-togethers and we feel we are FINALLY now caught up on sleep and chores around the house. Christmas was so much fun for us this year. We went to Arkansas to be with Jen's Grandparents - most of you already know, the trip there about scared us to death (literally) but once we got there, the visit was awesome. The weather was nice and warm, the food was great, and we all probably gained an extra 20 pounds with all the Christmas cookies and goodies we ate. It was also our last Christmas alone with Brian. Kinda sad to think about, but we also know it will be so much more fun to have Becca in our family for all future holidays. It was a wonderful Christmas this year - we wouldn't have wanted it to be any other way!

New Years Eve we continued with our annual tradition of fondue and Wii at some friends' house. We all stayed (all 8 of us) up until about 3 am, so needless to say we were totally wiped out the next day! New Years Day we had about 3 different parties to attend and were out late again that night as well. Friday night we skipped a party because we were WAY too tired and ended up going to see Marley & Me instead. It was such a cute movie, a real tear-jerker with not a dry eye in the theater, but a cute movie. It only greatly increased our desire to get a puppy, so stay tuned for THAT news in the future. ;)

Now, life seems to be getting back to normal again. We had to take down our tree on Saturday and un-decorate the house. It's always sad to take the tree down and the house seems so bare. Sunday night we were back to our traditional "Sunday night dinner" at Mom and Dad K's house. It's now Monday again.... Greg is back at work and tax season is slowly approaching, so that means more overtime and "fun" at work for him. Jen is back to playing housewife and this week is running around doing wedding stuff with Becca - this is so much fun!

We hope everyone had a wonderful start to their new year and that it brings many blessings to you and your families.

Merry CHRISTmas!!

From our home to yours, we wish you a very merry Christ-centered Christmas and a safe, fun New Year!

With Love (from Arkansas),
Greg and Jen

Let There Be Light!

We wanted to quickly update you with yet another project we tackled late last week - a small, fairly easy one, but one that makes a HUGE difference. We put up lights above our cabinets in the kitchen! That was always our original goal from the get-go, but once we got the extra set of cabinets up, and then the trim up 5 months ago, it was slow moving from there for some strange reason..... But anyhow, it’s done and looks amazing! It adds SO much to our kitchen now. We sometimes find ourselves wandering in there for no other reason than to just stand there and stare up at how incredible it looks! We say all the time that if we continue to keep adding just the perfect touches to our house, we’re never gonna want to move! Maybe we never will, we love our house. ;)

“Elf Yourself”

We have started a trend..... “elfing” ourselves. We did it last year and thought it was hilarious so we thought we’d do it again this year as well. Who knows, we'll probably do it again next year too!

Enjoy! =)

Click here to see us "elfing around."

Christmas is coming!!

Our tree is up! Our decorations are up! Fragrant Christmas candles fill our home with the smell of Christmas! Parties are planned! A night to bake Christmas sweets has been planned! Our vacation has been finalized! Presents are bought! Christmas is coming!

This past weekend was spent doing some fun Christmas things. Friday night was our traditional “Broadmoor Hotel” night. Friends and Family gathered for this annual tradition and we had SO much fun getting all dressed up, eating great food, and seeing all the pretty lights. We look forward to this tradition every year. (Click on any of the pictures below to get a better look.)

Saturday afternoon we headed up to Denver, Colorado with some friends to do some Christmas shopping, sightseeing, dinner, and then to the Denver Parade of Lights. We had never done that before, but it was quite a fun experience. It was also surprisingly nice out that night too!

Sunday night we volunteered our time in the nursery at church during the Kids’ Christmas Musical. (Babysitting isn’t always fun for us, but when we do it with Bob and Cheryl, it can be a real hoot!)

We had quite a Christmas-filled weekend and it REALLY helped us get in the Christmas spirit. We love this time of year! Sadly though, Christmas will be here and gone before we know it.