LOVE-ly Weekend

It was the best 3-day weekend ever – can’t remember the last time our hearts and lives were filled with so much joy. We were SO surrounded with love and it was absolutely incredible.

Around 10:15 Friday night, our friends came into town. We were on such a high from seeing them and being SO excited that we didn’t end up getting to bed until after 2 am! We had first originally met Susan and Erynn through the Christian Writers Guild. (Erynn writes books that you definitely need to read and share with your friends. Check out her website here.) They had come up from Albuquerque and volunteered at CWG’s annual conference, and we hit it off with them immediately – so much so that we went to Albuquerque last March to go to Erynn’s wedding and hang out with the rest of the family for a day. Well, recently they had all been talking about coming back here to visit all of us for a 3-day weekend. We really never thought we’d be able to pull it off, since we’re talking about trying to coordinate 13 different people’s schedules..... but we did it and it was so much fun! Yay (as Erynn would say)! =)

So you are probably wondering what we did for Valentine’s Day. Well, we spent it with Brian Regan. ;) If you have never heard of him, you are truly missing out. He is a comedian who can make you laugh until you cry. Our cheeks even hurt the next day! It was the best investment of our time and money and we recommend that you see him whenever he’s in town. We also had a wonderful dinner with friends and family at Saltgrass with the cutest server ever! ;) So, we didn’t get to spend the day alone doing romantic things, but Valentines Day represents love, and we sure were loved on that day! Also for Valentines Day, Jen’s Dad surprised her with 12 long-stemmed roses. It’s a tradition he keeps up with every year, and it always makes her feel SO special. Actually, we both also got Valentines surprises from Mom and Dad Kelly – thanks for loving us and for all the little things you do!

Sunday the girls went shopping all day up in Castle Rock, CO while the guys went skiing. It was a great bonding time for all of us. Later that night, we even played a rousing game of Catch Phrase and got to learn a LOT about each other. ;) Monday we had to say goodbye. =( That is never fun at all..... this weekend went by WAY too fast.

Mangum’s, we feel so amazingly blessed to have you in our lives. We feel honored that you have adopted us as one of your own, and that we now have a new “Mum” and Dad, as well as 2 new sister-in-laws, and 3 brother-in-laws. =) Thank you for accepting us, loving us, and for meeting needs in ways unimaginable. We love you and can’t wait for you guys to move here someday! See you in a month or two!

CFA Scholarship #2

(By Greg)

I posted a praise about 13 months ago on receiving a scholarship to pay for the Level I CFA costs. Well, I'm excited to let you know I received another scholarship today to pay for the Level II CFA costs. Not to mention, it's almost twice as much as I had anticipated!

Here's their response, and I quote: "...Congratulations on receiving the June scholarship from the CFA Society of Colorado! Scholarships were limited this year and you were one of the few candidates chosen..."

For those who forgot or are new, here's what the CFA entails: http://www.testprepreview.com/cfa_practice.htm

Check back in August 2009 (exam date is June 6, 2009) for my results: PASS or FAIL...

Bunco Babes

(By Jen)

Soooooooooo, I played my first game of Bunco last night, (I guess I am a little behind the times.....) and it was one of the most fun "girl nights" I've had in a long time! =) I even won a prize for having the most Bunco's!

I got together with a couple of friends of mine in December, and we decided that it would be fun to start a Bunco team for some of us younger gals at church. Well, indeed it was! We had our first "meeting" last night and it was a complete success - even though a few people couldn't make it to this first meeting. We laughed until we cried, learned a lot about each other, formed new friendships, and made a vow that "what happens at Bunco, stays at Bunco." ;) We also learned that apparently other people in this world (no one in our group) play Bunco and drink the whole time, thus calling it "Drunko." But we had enough fun without the booze..... if you looked in the windows though, you might have thought we actually WERE "drunko!" =)

Here are a few pics from last night.....

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