Fuller's Follies

Funny Ad

2009-07-14T12:44:00.001-07:00

This is a link to a hilarious ad on Craigslist. http://sanantonio.craigslist.org/cto/1257065913.html

Ryan's Singing Debut

2009-07-14T12:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmJQkZzNzvs This is a link to a video of Ryan. Shelby recorded it using Bill's cell phone so it's shaky and blurry but it's classic Ryan. He's singing his favorite song "Never Let Go" by Matt Redman. Be sure to watch to the very end....the kid cracks me up!

Fuller's Follies Update Summer 2009

2009-07-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

Nothing new and amazing to write about - I just hadn't blogged in awhile so I figured I better post a Fuller family update. We are all doing well, praise God.

Zack finally left his job at Hertz. He worked hard there but they really don't value their employees. That job served its purpose but I'm glad he's out of there. He is now working next door to the Hertz office for Redding Distributing. He works at night loading the trucks for their shipments to stores. He got a decent pay increase from switching jobs and he will get health insurance after 90 days on the job (which should be soon). It's hard work and tough hours but he's already earned a bonus for working hard. He and Brittni spend as much time together as they can. He has a motorcycle which scares his mother to death but you know how boys are. He lives in an apartment here in Redding with a friend that he has known since childhood. His friend is getting married soon so he'll have to drum up a new roommate eventually.

Josh turned 18 in December and lives with his girlfriend Amanda in Shasta Lake City (just a few minutes away from Redding). He is currently looking for work and is finishing up his senior year of high school this summer. He enrolled in Shasta Adult School and just has a few credits left to complete his high school equivalency. He broke his collarbone in January while riding his longboard. He had to miss almost all of the snowboard season because of it. He has his first car - a zippy little Acura Integra. He recently travelled back to Pittsburgh with his dad (Bill Hartman) to attend the wedding of a cousin. He was able to meet family that he had never met and get to know family that he hadn't seen since he was too small to remember. They had a nice trip.

Shelby completed the 5th grade and is now a middle schooler. How did that happen? She is still a very social character and like her Papa, knows everyone everywhere we go. Even if she doesn't know them, she will be their best friend before long! She is a very loyal friend and sometimes gets hurt when friends are more fickle. But she's learned some excellent life lessons and is always willing to forgive. She is certainly growing up to be a lovely young lady - that is if we can keep the attitude in check! She just got back from church camp with 6th, 7th and 8th graders. Feels weird to send her off with boys that have peach fuzz!

Ryan is getting to be such a young man rather than a little boy. He will enter the first grade in the fall. He's a little worried about that because, "first grade is hard." He's a bright boy and we reassure him that he will be just fine as a big first grader. He is enjoying his summer and pretty much plays until he collapses on the couch. He still needs a nap now and then (so do I) but he sure does resist them (I don't). He has learned to swim this summer which is a great accomplishment.

Bill is in "a season of change." He finally had enough of things that were going on at work and quit his job. He is currently spoiling us rotten. The kids get to spend the summer hanging out with Dad and I get to come home after work to a clean house and hot dinner. Wow, I could definitely get used to this. We're committed to things staying this way until school starts and then re-evaluate. That way the kids don't have to spend 40+ hours a week in daycare. One of the benefits of this change is that it's caused us to take a good look at our budget. It's so easy over the years to commit to $9.99 here and $19.95 there that you don't realize how all those things add up to a significant spending habit!

A few weeks ago our dog Roxie (8 year old Mini Dachshund) had to be put to sleep. We are now completely "petless." She woke up one morning with her back legs paralyzed. We spent the next week pouring money into vet bills to no avail. She got to the point where she couldn't go potty any more and we decided that it would be best to end her suffering. It sure didn't help to see her wag her tail when we took her to the vet that last time. :-(

I am doing well. I like my job as the Education Coordinator at the hospital. I still work a couple of nights a month as nursing supervisor so I can keep up on my clinical skills. The new job keeps me very busy. It's been nice having nights, weekends and holidays off for the first time in a decade. It is hard to get used to working 5 days a week though. I have been having a problem with my eye for a couple of years but it's been getting really bad over the last few months. It's called corneal erosion and is very painful. When I have a recurrence I become basically useless. I can't keep my eyes open because of the pain and the light sensitivity. I recently saw a specialist who gave me some options for further treatment so now I just have to see what insurance will cover and what I want done. Hopefully I'll get that taken care of before the next recurrence.

Kindergarten's End

2009-06-05T12:47:00.001-07:00

Ryan graduated from Kindergarten this month. All the children were adorable. They sang for us and told us all about themselves. They demonstrated their French skills and they even did a song using the sign language alphabet. My favorite part is always the part when your child comes and finds you in the audience and gives you a flower. :-) The first words out of his mouth the next morning were, "I'm a first grader!"

The kids had to wear what they would normally wear for chapel day which would be a button up shirt and slacks. Ryan insisted on wearing a tie so we got him a new shirt and tie for the occasion.

More Milestones

2009-06-05T10:23:00.001-07:00

Shelby turned 11 in May. How does it go so fast? Believe it or not all the girls in the photo are the same age - check out the size difference! In fact, the tallest girl was only 10. Shelby wanted a Hawaiian party so we had hats and leis and coconut cups. We made our own little pizzas which of course included ham and pineapple. There was a pineapple pinata and games and LOTS of noise. Shelby even found a blow up palm tree that was quite the challenge to keep inflated. The party was designed as a sleepover but only one of the girls was actually able to spend the night. I was grateful for that since Bill ended up being sick and the girls were NOISY. Oh, I guess I said that before - but they were! They sure had fun though.

Eaglecam

2009-03-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite websites lately is the EagleCam in Redding. We have two eagles that have a nest right next to the freeway which leads into downtown Redding. Construction on that freeway caused Caltrans to place a cone in the nest last year hoping to force the eagles to nest somewhere else. The eagles, however, liked their home and were not deterred. So the cone was removed and a webcam was set up to monitor the eagles. They are so content in their home that they have hatched 3 eggs. The eaglets hatched on March 17, 19 and 22. You can peek at the birds at this website: http://www.turtlebay.org/caltranseaglecam.php

Every morning I log onto my computer and Ryan and Shelby and I watch the eaglets have their breakfast. I'm hooked. I check on them at least once during the day while I'm working and at least once in the evening. You can't zoom in or anything so the eaglets just look like gray moving blobs at this point but I still enjoy watching them. And if you happen to catch "shift change" between the two parents it's just amazing to see them take off from the nest. Truly majestic.

The parents names are Patriot and Liberty. The babies are Freedom, Spirit and Hope. The funny thing is that one of the eaglets from the last time this pair had babies is named Freedom also. So Spirit can tell other eagles "This is my brother Freedom and this is my other brother Freedom."

The Biggest Loser

2009-03-20T16:48:00.000-07:00

Today I joined a group of ladies for a local Biggest Loser contest. We each paid $50 into a pot and weighed in. We will weigh in once a week for 8 weeks. At the end of the 8 weeks we'll all get together for a final weigh-in and the person who lost the biggest percentage of weight will be the winner. I am hoping (and praying) that this will be the motivation I need to kick myself back into the routine eating right and exercising. I will keep you all posted as to my progress. Weigh-in days are Wednesdays. I'm going to try to remember to take a before and after photo and if I am brave I will post them at the end of the 8 weeks. :)

Vacation Report

2009-02-27T09:25:00.000-08:00

Well, we have done it. Another family vacation success. We left last Thursday and spent 5 or so hours in the car headed to Sunriver Oregon. We traded our timeshare week in Mexico for a timeshare week near Mt. Bachelor for fun in the snow. There were only 5 of us since Josh is still recovering from his broken collarbone. :(

The condo we stayed in this year was not as nice as the one from last year, but it was much closer to Mt. Bachelor. Since Zack could only stay for part of the time we spent the first two days there skiing/snowboarding. We usually like to have a recovery day in between snow days. We had a blast the first day. Ryan took a little while warming up to skiing again but he picked it up quickly. Shelby is our little skiing maniac and was tearing it up right away. Zack really enjoyed the slopes - he has never snowboarded anywhere besides Mt Shasta. Bachelor is so much bigger and nicer. The second day we were sore and tired but it was still fun. Ryan and I had to stop early though because there were really strong wind gusts on the lift that just terrified Ryan. I took him back to the condo to watch "Horton Hears a Who" while Bill, Zack and Shelby finished out the day.

Zack had to leave the next morning and we used the day to chill out and recover. We took the kids out ot lunch and to see "The Pink Panther" at the movies and pretty much just relaxed.

The next day we had an adventure at the High Desert Museum outside Bend. It was a really cool place with displays on local Indian history and history of the local culture in the 1880s. There were around 100 live animals and some displays of stuffed bears and wolves. We enjoyed oursevles and it was educatinal to boot.

We had planned a ski day for the following morning but the winds were gusting to 45mph. So....we opened the phone book to find something to do to have fun and entertain kidlets. What could be better than bowling and the arcade?

Wednesday we headed home to do laundry and relax because you know you always need to recover after vacation!

Winter Vacation

2009-02-15T15:56:00.000-08:00

We're leaving later this week for a vacation in the snow. Wahoo! We're going to Mt. Bachelor for skiing and snowboarding. We're all very excited. Unfortunately Josh has to miss out because of his broken clavicle. He got to go last year and Zack didn't get to go. Zack gets to go this year but he only gets to go for part of the time because he doesn't have enough vacation days to stay the whole week. So he will follow us up there and then have to drive back by himself early. If the weather cooperates we hope to get 2 full days on the mountain with him. There's a winter storm warning in effect right now but it's supposed to clear before we're scheduled to leave. I'll take lots of pictures and will hopefully have some good pics to post here.

Going on vacation seems strange to me this year. In years past when I worked as a staff nurse it didn't matter when I was gone. My shifts would be covered by other nurses and when I came back it was no big deal. Now that I have an office job my work will be piling up while I'm gone. I expect to come back to a lovely stack of stuff to get caught up on. It will all be worth it though!

My handsome son!

2009-02-10T12:55:00.001-08:00

This is Josh and his beautiful sweetheart Amanda. They went to a dance Saturday night at her high school. Don't they make a cute pair?

The Conflict Within Myself

2009-01-13T19:27:00.000-08:00

This blog has been rattling around in my head for weeks, maybe even months. It revolves around two of my current favorite worship songs. I grew up listening to my Grandpa singing hymns to me for years and they became a very special part of me. The songs often say what I am feeling way better than I could ever say. I can't tell you how many times I have sniffled my way through Sunday morning worship or wiped tears away while I commute to work in the mornings. Sometimes its tears of joy, sometimes tears of disappointment in myself, but usually they are tears of awe for my God who loves me for whom He created me to be. I struggle between knowing the right thing to do and doing what I want to do instead. As Paul says in the Bible I do what I don't want to do and I don't do what I want to do because of the war between my spirit and my flesh. The songs below describe that struggle so well. The first song describes how I want to be remembered and the second song describes where I too often find myself.

The Blessing by John Waller

Let it be said of us
while we walked among the living
let it be said of us
by the ones we leave behind
let it be said of us
that we lived to be a blessing for life

let it be said of us
that we gave to reach the dying
let it be said of us
by the fruit we leave behind
let it be said of us
that our legacy is blessing for life

this day
you set life, you set death right before us,
this day
every blessing and curse is a choice now
and we will choose to be a blessing for life

let it be said of us
that our hearts belonged to Jesus
let it be said of us
that we spoke the words of life
let it be said of us
that our heritage is blessing for life

Still Here Waiting by Todd Agnew

It's cold outside
Or is that just the chill I feel inside from standing here
Steeping in my shame

I can't deny
I'm surrounded by the very thing You freed me from
That's why I can't come home

I don't know where I turned around
From chasing what I always found completed me
More than I could dream

I don't know why I can't remain
Safe here where I always came to meet with you
And You always met with me
And You're still here waiting

I fail to see
Why You'd still be waiting to forgive me
After all that I have done

But I cannot say
That one time I returned and You had turned away
Your love never fails

You say, Come home and You'll be there
I can run into Your arms

Let It Snow!

2009-01-11T21:46:00.001-08:00

This is our first trip to Mt. Shasta this season. Wheeeeeeeee! We had so much fun as you can tell. Zack was our photographer. He did a great job didn't he? After warming up on the bunny hill Ryan got right back into the swing of things. It was cold and a little wet and oh so much fun!

Wish you were there!

2009 is starting off with a bang!

2009-01-08T09:04:00.000-08:00

I spent last night in the Emergency Room with the second child of the week to end up in an ER. Josh called me last night about 10 minutes after I went to bed saying, "Mom, I need you to pick me up...I think I broke something." He was right, he did. After 3 1/2 hours in the ER it was determined that he broke his clavicle. The doc printed us a picture so we could show off the gnarly boo boo. He was long boarding and fell on his shoulder. He may also have a fracture on his humerus up by the shoulder, but it's in a place that they wouldn't do anything about it anyway. So he's in a sling and on pain meds. So much for snowboarding this season :(

Shelby ended up in the ER on the 1st. Her pierced ear got infected and even though we had been treating it, she woke up that morning with her ear so swollen that you couldn't even see the earring in the front. All the clinics were closed so we went to the ER at my work. They had to inject the poor screaming child with lidocaine (3 shots in her sore ear) and dig the earring out. It was not a fun morning. She's on antibiotics now and doing much better!

On a better note, Ryan has his first YMCA basketball game on Saturday. Go Spurs!

2008-12-26T23:26:00.000-08:00

These are my lovely children on Christmas day.....and my respected parents with Ryan's underwear on their heads....lol

This is the snowman the kids made last week when it snowed. Awwww, how cute!

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope all of our friends and family had the same. We love you ALL!

Milestones: Boys to Men

2008-12-14T13:11:00.000-08:00

Well we celebrated big birthdays this past week. Zack turned 21 and Josh turned 18. Wow! How did that happen? Aren't they handsome? We celebrated together with a big family lunch and presents. It was fun having the boys and the girlfriends and the Gram and Papa over. Tostadas and cake and ice cream...o my! I've enjoyed watching them grow up and now I'm looking forward to watching them develop as the young men God created them to be.

Halloween

2008-12-14T12:57:00.000-08:00

Ryan was a Tigger this year. He wore this costume a couple of years ago also. This will be the last year since it won't fit for much longer.

Shelby made her "Pirate Princess" costume herself. She took an old princess costume and attacked it with scissors. We bought a hat and an eyepatch. She borrowed the sword from her brother and the look was complete.

This is Shelby and Ryan (in the middle) with some of their friends at Halloween. Remember wax lips? What fun we miss when we "grow up!"

Summer Vacation

2008-11-09T19:19:00.000-08:00

Well, the title is really a misnomer. We didn't really have a summer vacation. We spent a week at Mt. Bachelor skiing and snowboarding and relaxing so summer vacation was not happening. Over the summer we did some home improvement (a subject for another blog). By the end of the summer we said, "Hey, we better do something fun fast before summer's over." We had spent much of the summer indoors because of all the smoke from the zillions of wildfires. So we decided to go to Marine World (about 3.5 hours away from where we live).

The original plan was to get up and go to Marine World early one morning. We would spend the day playing and screaming and having fun. Then we would drive part way back and spend the night at Embassy Suites in Sacramento. We had stayed there once before and had a wonderful time. The next day we would play in Old Sacramento and then drive home. We were hoping to have a train ride in Old Sac since the last time we went we had missed the season by 1 week.

Notice in the last sentence I said the "original plan?" We made the mistake of calling it a vacation. We said it as a joke since two days out of town doesn't really qualify as a vacation. Our pastor has the most disaterous vacations - they now refuse to say "the V word." Well, we used the V word in vain. Everything started off well. Josh found a friend to go with him since hanging out with Mom and Dad is not much fun. It's even less fun since Mom and Dad would be doing kiddie rides with the two youngest. We left later in the morning than we planned but not enough to make a big difference. By the time we reached the town just before Marine World, we decided to stop and get something to eat so we wouldn't need to spend a million dollars eating inside Marine World. We stopped at a gourmet restaurant (McDonald's) and had lunch. That's when the fun began. When we went out to our car.......she no start. Eeeek! No matter how many times Bill turned the key we got NUTHIN'. No warning or anything, it was just done. It was over 100 degrees outside and we were stuck. We called a tow truck which took forever and then had the van towed to the dealership. Josh and his friend rode to the dealership with the tow truck while Bill and the young'ens and I had to wait for a taxi which took forever x 10. We rode to the dealership and had to wait for them to troubleshoot and repair it. Ryan fell asleep in my lap while we were waiting. By the time it was all said and done it was 3:00 and Marine World was a no-go. So....we headed to the hotel. The kids were very disappointed that we didn't go to Marine World even though they understood that we would go the next day. They had spent most of the day in the car and the other part of the day in a auto shop. Wheee! Happy vacation.
The good news is that the hotel was wonderful and we hit Marine World bright and early the next morning. Josh and his friend Chris went riding roller coasters all day. Bill and I rode rides that the two youngest could go on and we took turns taking Shelby on some bigger roller coasters. She's a brave little thing. We stuffed ourselves with pizza and cokes and had a wonderful time. So, next time we go somewhere it will be called an outing or an adventure but certainly not a VACATION!

Update...better late than never....right?

2008-11-06T16:04:00.000-08:00

Well, the biggest news in the Fuller family is I have a new job. I still work at St. Elizabeth Community Hospital (I've been here 10 years now). I am now the Education Coordinator for the hospital. I got the job about 6 weeks ago but I just started actually doing the job on Monday. I had to wait until they found a replacement for me before I could move into this position. I now work in the daytime (eeek!) Monday through Friday. I will still work a couple of nights each month as Nursing Supervisor. That way I won't lose all my clinical skills and I'll be able to maintain a connection with the people I'm responsible for educating. I had to go buy a whole new wardrobe for the job. Yikes!

Bill continues to work at Remi Vista, Inc. as the Human Resources director. Some days he enjoys his job more than others. Lately he's experienced frustrations in the job. Hopefully the cycle will be on an upswing soon and he can enjoy his work again.

Zack is doing well at his bachelor pad. He's asking for household stuff for Christmas. It's funny because we gave him some household stuff for Christmas last year and he wasn't thrilled (he was still living at home then). Now he sees the value of things like new towels and toasters. So....we'll see what Santa has in mind for him this year! He works at Hertz detailing cars. He's been there over a year now. He and Brittni are still dating. They also work together. Awwww...how cute! He finds stuff in the rental cars all the time. They save it for a set amount of time and then he gets to keep it. He's gotten things like CDs and nice sunglasses in the past. A couple of weeks ago he found $2500 in the glove box of one of the cars. Wow! The company turned it into the police department. If it is not picked up in 90 days there's a chance that they may release it to him. How cool would that be?

Josh is a senior in high school. He is doing independent study. He does most of the work at home and meets with his teacher once a week. He has a very active social life and rides his long board all around town.

Shelby is in 5th grade now. She's enjoying school and has a non-speaking part in the school Christmas play. She's going to be playing a shepherd. She is also on the school basketball team. Basketball just started this week. She also is a very social character and knows everyone just like her papa.

Ryan started kindergarten this year. He's enjoying school and loves his teacher. He cried one day because he didn't have homework. Go figure. He's a busy guy and loves to go go go. Too much time at home and we get told "this is BORING!"

Well, there's a brief update. I'll try to keep up on my posts now that I'm a real daytime person!

Just Trying It Out

2008-10-10T00:30:00.000-07:00

So....I have a blog on another site but they changed formats awhile back and I'm just not liking it. I'm trying this site out to see if it works better for me.

This is a test....this is only a test!