deAR sNoW dAy...

dear snow day,

hi. my name is kristin fulghum, well as far as your concerned...mrs. fulghum. i teach 4th grade in the great state of kansas. this is my first year teaching in such a winter wonderland. you see, i'm from texas. i grew up there, i went to school there and i taught there for four years. one day, i got married and moved to kansas. at the time i really wasn't happy about moving to such a cold environment. but then a nice little birdie, actually several little birdies, told me that if i teach in kansas i'll get to have you. lots of you.

now, this really made me excited. because even though you have to make those days up, there is nothing quite as fabulous as waking up for work and then getting a call that school is cancelled. i love crawling back into my warm bed, sleeping into the double digits, lounging in my jammies and watching lots of tv. it's a free day.

well, this is where you come in, snow day. you see, december came, the winter weather came, the snow and ice came and yet, somehow, snow day...you never came. my husband tells me i need to lower my expectations for you, but all my colleagues keep saying this is terribly unusual. they say, this is the longest we have gone without a snow day in many many years. so every night, when the winter weather hits, i turn on the tv, i watch good old gary lezak tell us the roads are going to be slick, i do a little snow dance and i pray for you, snow day. because, you see, i need you. i need an unexpected, break from my 22 rambunctious little friends.

so i beg you snow day, please visit overland park, kansas. please, bring the thick, heavy, slippery snow and fall all night long...not all day long once school has already started. please don't taunt me with any more snowy news reports if you can't follow through. please don't let me down. i'm counting on you.

yours truly,

mrs. fulghum

a wEeKenD wiTh tHe bLaB

this past weekend, the blab came to visit. for more on the blab, read here. the weekend was pretty low key and relaxing which was nice. especially since, we can have fun no matter what we are doing. we spent our time eating, lounging, shopping, playing phase 10 at starbucks, touring kansas city, picking out bridesmaid dresses for angie's wedding, hearing about b-shaw's new beau, looking through the roommate box and wall of shame pics and playing guitar hero. it was so nice to have some girl time. i love each of these girls and i am so thankful for their friendship.

here are a few pics from our weekend.

thanks for coming to visit kc ang, beash and lin!

tHe bLaB is CoMinG to tOwN!!

allow me to introduce you to the blab.

these are my college roomies. my fabulous college roomies. and they are coming to kansas city in two days!

you might be asking yourself "why the silly name?" well let me tell you. at a&m we were all on staff with fish camp (a freshmen orientation program). since 4 of the 70 people on staff all lived together, our house became the fish camp hang out. someone decided it was too hard to say "let's go hang out at angie, linda, b-shaw & lev's (two kristi/ens = going by our last names. bradshaw - b-shaw; levrets - lev) house. so we were dubbed the BLAB.

B is for Bradshaw

meet kristen bradshaw. she is a pool and spa show event planner living in dallas, texas. when you first meet her she is a little quieter and reserved, but don't let that deter you. this girl is hilarious...in kind of a weird way. she makes up songs, does eep opp orkin, makes up weird noises, weird faces and weird dances. i love her for all of these weird things, but i love her especially because she is observant...she always notices if you are upset, anytime you go out with her you get a lot of attention from guys...she's beautiful, she always made me work out in college and she makes up fake boyfriends with you when your other two roomies are out with their real boyfriends.

L is for Levrets

that's me. in case you don't know, my maiden name was Levrets. clay changed us from the BLAB to B-FAB.

A is for Arredondo

meet linda arredondo. she is a...hmm...i don't know what she is called...she works for a brokerage firm in austin, texas. let me tell you, you want this girl as your friend. she is a good one. linda is so selfless and will do absolutely anything for anyone. like b-shaw, this girl likes to get crazy. the two of them together...well it's quite a sight. they are hilarious. i also love my linda because i can always count on her to sit on the couch and eat a lot with me. once we watched all 27 episodes of the oc season 1 in one weekend. yes, that was a lot of sitting on the couch and eating chuy's fajitas. we actually had to take a break and go walk around her apt. complex because our bodies were so tired of sitting.

and last but certainly not least...

B is for Burns

meet angie burns. she is an advisor in the student life dept. at sam houston state university in huntsville, texas. i love this girl. we met the beginning of her freshmen year and have been friends ever since. angie is getting married in june and the B-FAB will soon become B-FAT. thanks a lot trey! but let me tell you...trey is a lucky guy. she cooks, she cleans...a lot, she creates, she serves others. what i especially love about this girl is that she is always the life of the party. i can't tell you how many times she has done the "run in front of the car & pretend it hits you" trick...even for random people we don't know. she will do anything to make you laugh.

bradshaw, levrets, arredondo, burns = the blab

we are all pretty different, but let me tell you, when we are together it is non stop fun. now all three of my friends are quite the life of the party and extremely good looking, so this isn't such a shock, but we seem to attract a lot of attention when we are together. people in restaurants stare, others have tried to become the fifth member of the blab and of course we make friends in foreign countries. the first time we went to mexico together we made lots of friends and became known as "texas". as we walked around the resort, we would hear people shouting "texas!" at us. the last time we went to mexico, we became friends with all the resort workers. water aerobics, bingo, night life, we made lots of friends.

we don't talk every week and we don't see each other all the time, but when we are together it is non stop fun. clay's a little worried, but he has to be initiated sometime!


i love my girls. they have blessed my life for the past 10 years and i thank my Jesus for such wonderful friends. i can't wait for our kansas city weekend!

mErrY cHriSTmAs aNd a HaPPy nEw yEaR pArt 2

well 2008 was quite a year for the fulghums. i really can't believe that it has come to an end. good thing we have 2009 ahead of us. in honor of one heck of a year, i have searched high and low for my 12 favorite photos. it was so fun to look back through all the pictures of the year and it was oh so hard to pick only one to represent each wonderful month.

here ya go...i hope you enjoy my year in review.

january
new year's eve 2007...don't worry it was taken after midnight.

february
the first meeting of the fulghums and the levrets. don't we look good in our 3d glasses?

march
my 28th birthday. my favorite restaurant. my favorite austinites.

april
my 6 favorite girls celebrating me during my bachelorette weekend in galveston.

may
best day of my life. married the love of my life and my best friend.

june
all packed up in austin and about to start our journey to our new home in kansas city.

july
celebrating clay's birthday with our parents and nana & papa.

august
celebrating the end of the bar exam with a weekend trip to chicago

september
clay signing the role of attorney's at his swearing in ceremony. he's officially a lawyer!

october
pumpkin carving party with our small group. the Lord blessed us with an incredible small group here in kansas city that has provided us with genuine community.

november
thanksgiving with clay's family. we are so thankful for both of our wonderful families.


december
hanging out in ruidoso with my family. a relaxing end to a life changing year.

the Lord has grown me and stretched me this year in ways i could never have known. 2008 has been better than i could have ever imagined. my friends and family spoiled me rotten, i married someone better than i ever expected, i've gotten to be a part of a phenomenal church plant, i learned that i could love another city as much as austin, i met new, precious friends and so much more! i am so thankful that i have a Savior who leads me every step of the way.

mErrY cHriSTmAs aNd a HaPPy nEw yEaR.

our first christmas as a married couple was quite an adventure. it didn't quite feel like christmas because of all the celebrations. Neither of us celebrated the way we are used to, but nevertheless, it was a wonderful week. we definitely realized that christmas is not about the traditions but about celebrating the birth of our Savior and enjoying time together with friends and family.

our 1st celebration was with just the two of us. it was a wonderful evening of building our own traditions and enjoying married life.

we arrived in texas saturday night. woke up bright and early sunday morning and met our bestest friends, the mccords for breakfast before we left for ruidoso. we hadn't seen adelaide in almost 6 months so she has grown a lot, and is even cuter than ever!

after breakfast we headed off in two cars with my family to ruidoso, new mexico. it was such a relaxing week of eating, phase 10, playing with emery and relaxing.

here is emery playing wii golf and real golf with his new clubs from uncle bryan. he was hilarious with the wii golf. he wanted to do it completely by himself and he could.

uncle clay and emery playing. this kid was obsessed with his uncle clay. "uncle clay, come sit by me. uncle clay, play trains with me. uncle clay, come here." so cute!

uncle bryan, trying on my new hat. emery, eating snow.

this kid loves his trains. we happened upon a train store in town and i think emery would have stayed there forever if we let him. me and my sis in law, melissa sporting our cutie hats that she knitted. isn't she talented?

one last family pic. it was a great week. thanks for putting it all together mom & dad!

we arrived back in kansas city saturday afternoon. because jordan, clay's brother, was flying out the next day we did christmas that night with the fulghum's. it was a great evening of snacking, opening lots of presents and playing wii.

here we are with some spectacular gifts.

and later enjoying those spectacular gifts.

we are immensely thankful for two wonderful families and the time we get to spend with each of them. the Lord has surely blessed us and we are forever grateful for the true meaning of christmas.

and a happy new year
to be continued...