Julie, Julia and Me

Over the Christmas break, we rented several movies to watch. One of my favorites was "Julie and Julia." I absolutely adored this movie, most likely because I absolutely adore both eating and cooking. Besides being entertaining, this movie affirmed my love for cooking (and made me want to do more of it), and really got me itching to blog more.

This blog was set up to be a family blog and it has served that purpose. I've tried to keep family members near and far updated on the ever so ordinary goings-ons of the Fuller family. However, I consistently find myself wanting to process my thoughts and observations in addition to posting a travel log or reviewing our monthly calendar.

So, I am making a New Year's Resolution to blog at least once a week. I'm sure some of these posts will be updates on our family, but I hope to get in some writing time as well...as if I don't do enough of that for school.

So, along those lines, and in keeping with the theme of Julie and Julia, I just want to say that while I loved that movie, it would have been the icing on the cake if the main character had actually gained a few pounds during the course of her 365 days of cooking each and every one of Julia Child's recipes. I mean...come on....how could ANYBODY not gain weight cooking with real butter every day? Even if you only sampled the food, there's the tasting that goes on while cooking to assure the flavor is good, and those tastes all add up. I know it's Hollywood, and in Hollywood you can cook and eat gourmet French food for a year and still look amazingly thin. However, in my humble opinion, it would have made a good movie even better if Julie would have shown her real passion for Julia Child and her cooking by plumping up just a tad.

Random Thoughts

I am fortunate enough to have a certain amount of quality alone time everyday, which affords me the opportunity to think about and pay attention to my thoughts. Some random thoughts/observations I've been having as of late:

• After a day or so of these inversions, I start to get depressed.
• One of the things I least like in a supervisor is the tendency to micro manage.
• Many people are homeless by choice and are really okay with their circumstances.
• Some people seem to feel the need to toot their own horn more than others. Why is this?
• The two things I like best about Christmas are the lights and the music. The thing I like least is the tendency to be so busy that you don't really get to enjoy either one.
• One of the qualities I value most in family, friends and co-workers is a good sense of humor. Humor can pretty much redeem any situation.

I'm not sure why I felt the need to post these....just did.

Workman Family Christmas Party 2009...and other stuff

Caitlin's "new" car.....round 2

(hopefully there's not a round 3, as long as she's on our insurance).
Vanessa and Santa....no this isn't some new twist on the Holy Family
and she didn't get a new baby for Christmas,
just an Itunes gift card.

Caitlin and Santa (a.k.a. Cousin Mike)

So, the Workman family successfully pulled off another Christmas party. These yearly parties have been going on since about 1979-1980. I remember it was the first Christmas that Mom and I were alone....mom and dad had separated and Mitch was on his mission, so we decided to have a family party at our home in Bountiful. Of course, the kids who were kids then are all parents now, so 29 years later, our family party can no longer be held in anyone's home. This year, we were fortunate to meet in my counsin Brandee's clubhouse in her subdivision. There's the core group who lives around the area that are always there, but every year we are fortunate to have a cousin or two in from out of town and it's always fun to catch up. This year a cousin from Cedar City and one from Nebraska were here.

When we first started doing these parties, my Aunt Mildred, who has since passed away from breast cancer, sewed a Santa bag, complete with jingle bells. All the adults would bring gifts for their children from Santa, and someone would go out, jingle the bells, and leave it on the porch for the kids to find. Alas, the growing number of children and, therefore, presents, put a strain on Aunt Mildred's santa bag, so somewhere down the road we ended up getting a Santa costume and recruiting various male family members to be Santa. It's kind of fun to see the cousin's taking the "Santa torch" from their dads and now playing Santa. This year it was my cousin Mike and he did a most excellent job. He made Caitlin promise not to wreck anymore cars before he'd give her a gift, which she committed to (what one will do for an Itunes gift card), so I guess we're out of the woods :)

Vanessa was en route home to Iowa, so she was able to join us. I was so glad to spend some time with her before she goes home for her "summer" break. She'll be back in April, and I'm looking forward to spending more fun time with her when she returns.

As of Thursday, Caitlin now has another set of wheels. This one is a 1993 Acura, 140,000 miles, no spare tire, and a dent in the door.....but it has a sunroof and an awesome stereo system which more than compensates for all of the above in Caitlin's eyes. This is what $1800 dollars buys you nowadays. I, on the other hand, am equally excited about this new vehicle. Caitlin and I both had a brief but glorious taste of her transportation independence, and have both deeply grieved her need to depend upon me, once again, for getting her to and from the bus stop and work. But the wait is over and I can now once again kiss her, wave to her, and tell her to have a good day without ever getting out of my jammies.

Today's holiday festivities include a trip to Gateway for Christmas shopping, dinner somewhere wonderful, and looking at the Christmas lights in S.L.

On a personal note for the few family members who read this and know about the tough choice I needed to make regarding my internship.....I ended up choosing to do my Field Placement at the Homeless Veterans Fellowship rather than McKay-Dee Behavioral Health Institute. After several lengthy conversations with my Field Placement Professor, I came to the conclusion that either placement would be equally beneficial for my education, so I took the one that afforded me more flexibility, included working with more chronic cases of mental illness and substance abuse, and......the one that offered to pay me. In addition, the HVF is only one block away from Rich's nursing home which makes it extremely convenient. I started working at HVF two weeks ago and have been working 20 hours/week over the Christmas Break. I can tell I'm going to learn a lot and benefit greatly from this experience! I feel so fortunate!!!!

That's it for now! I'm just so impressed with myself that I've managed to blog 3 whole times in the month of December. It's amazing what I have the energy to do when I'm not in school.

Celebrating 20 Years....with 10,000 of our closest friends.

Heading out for my morning run....-1 below at 5:00 a.m., according to our thermostat. Chip thinks I'm a "stud." I'll take that as a compliment.



Celebating our 20th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

So, last month we decided to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary by going to see Dave Matthews (who we both love) in Las Vegas. We left on Thursday, driving in lieu of flying because Rich's health is just too precarious to get non-refundable tickets to anywhere right now.

Actually, driving to Las Vegas together was fun. We talked.....a lot. And, we were able to eat at Subway and listen to NPR without any protests from the kids. As you can see, our trip was getting off to a lively start.

We got to Vegas about 5:00....starving (Subway only lasts so long), and immediately headed off to dinner at a very overpriced restaurant in the MGM Casino. After dinner we enjoyed a couple of drinks at a really fun bar....I had two wonderful martinis (gin, extra dry and straight up, just like I like 'em), and then headed off to the concert. Dave Matthews was playing at Planet Hollywood; this was an acoustic concert with just him and his lead guitarist, Tim Reynolds. The venue only held about 10,000, so there wasn't a bad seat in the place. It was an absolutely amazing concert. He really puts on a show and gives you your money's worth. We were sitting by some real die hard fans who follow him all over (known as groupies back in the day) which made it even more fun. After the concert we headed back to our hotel and didn't get to bed until 1:00 a.m., which made us feel like we'd really accomplished something. I mean, this was our 20th anniversary celebration, and we were in Las Vegas, so we kind of felt obligated to stay up extra late.

We slept until 9:00 the next morning, courtesy of the lovely privacy blinds in our hotel room. We attempted to take a stroll down the strip, and after purchasing the much requested items for Caitlin and Sam at M&M World, we'd had enough of the strip. So, we headed down to a really nice outdoor mall we'd gone to with the kids a little over a year ago. We spent a couple of hours in Borders, drinking coffee and looking at books, followed by lunch at a wonderful restaurant with 100 microbrews on tap, and then went to see "Precious" at the theater there. We had a great day. We momentarily entertained the idea of going to see Bill Engvall, who we both think is very funny, but it didn't start until 9:00 that night, and we had stayed out until 1:00 the night before so......

We headed back to out hotel and enjoyed a celebratory glass of champagne, followed by the buffet, which for me consisted of about one pound of peel and eat shrimp and a couple of decadent chocolate desserts. Were in bed by 9:30....in an attempt to balance out our sleep time from the night before, of course.

We had an absolutely wonderful time together. However, we have concluded that we are not "Vegas people." It is a really fun place to be, and you can people watch to your heart's content. However, I think our next anniversary celebration will be in wine country, San Francisco, or Seattle.

We were so happy to see the kiddos, who were wined and dined by Grandma all weekend. I'm not sure they were nearly as happy to see us :)

Twenty years is really an accomplishment, in my opinion. Not many people in my family have been married that long, and if they have, it's their second marriage. I take immense satisfaction in knowing that we have been married for TWENTY years, endured some pretty challenging times, and are more content than we've ever been. Content in a good way, too....not in a "going through the motions" way. I consider myself extremely fortunate to be married to someone who is so invested in my well being.

The icing on the cake is that even though we came home to a driveway that needed shoveling, it is no longer frigid cold, so tomorrow's run will be sloppy but warm. Oh, life is good.

I'm On A Roll Here!

My merry carolers! The two who can't sing are, and I'm sure Caitlin is wishing us all Peace on Earth.

That Sam....always carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders....

Me and the kiddos.

So, this is the second post to our blog in 3 days! I'm a feast or famine kind of person, I suppose. Actually, the last post was courtesy of my adorable niece, Vanessa, who shamed me into getting back into blogging. She reminded me consistently throughout the week of how behind our blog was, so being the sweet person that she is, she did it for me :) That being said, I'm feeling compelled to keep up the momentum and start posting more regularly. I have been told there are no blogging rules or norms that require one to catch up for the many, many months their blog has been inactive. I'm very happy about that.

So, this was a busy, wild, fun-filled, service-filled Thanksgiving holiday weekend! We spent Thanksgiving day with many friends and all of my family at Mary and Mike's home. They have a beautiful home that is perfect for entertaining and both of them are wonderful hosts who make you feel very at home. We had a great time ...lots of laughing and eating....and oh, the pecan pie! I think I'm still living off the sugar and fat from the enormous piece I ate. But hey, it's the holidays :)

I got some shopping in with Vanessa on Friday, after an early morning trip to the doctor who confirmed I had sinus and ear infections, and most likely strep throat. So, after popping antibiotics and decongestants, Vanessa and I shopped and then did the fastest decorating job ever in my mom's house as a way of surprising her and helping her get some holiday spirit. I'm quite sure we could be in the Guiness Book of World Records for the fastest decorating duo. It took us longer to unearth all the decorations and find extension cords in the basement than it did to string lights and put up tinsel! That night Sam had some friends sleep over and they enlisted us in a rousing game of Apples to Apples.

Saturday I helped the Youth Group cook and serve lunch at St. Anne's, one of the homeless shelters in Ogden. Vanessa came along and including her and myself there were 11 of us that cooked and fed 139 people. My sweet husband spent time with Caitlin going for coffee, hanging Christmas lights on our trees out front, and cleaning our house. It was a good day.

Saturday night, Chip's sister Ann, and our niece Briana, stopped for a visit on their way from Laramie back to LaGrande, Oregon. As usual, we stayed up late talking and laughing, and my voice was totally shot by the end of the night. It's good to lose one's voice from too much talking and laughing, I think.

Yesterday it finally dawned on me that I have a pretty hefty paper due this Thursday, a smaller one due on Tuesday, as well as a final to study for. All this playing kind of made me forget I'm not quite finished with the semester yet. So, Sunday was pretty much spent sequestered in my office madly typing away. We did get our Christmas tree up and our house decorated, after which we went to see A Christmas Carol (good, but I think it would be scary for little guys) and took a stroll through Christmas Village. It's been years since we did that with the kids. It used to be a holiday tradition to visit Christmas Village; the first time we went we were pushing a very tiny Caitlin in a stroller. While the kids are older, and there's no longer the whole Santa thing to enjoy, I have to say we had just as much fun and I still think Christmas lights are magical.

Thanksgiving Break

For Thanksgiving break, my wonderful niece, Vanessa, was able to come down from BYU-Idaho and spend the week with us. On the night before Thanksgiving, Caitlin, my mom, Vanessa and I got tickets to the Transiberian Orchestra in Salt Lake. Everyone enjoyed it, but it was definitly not my mom's favorite. She had the impression that it was going to be more like a symphony with bells and "lighter" and "softer" music. Little did she know that the Transiberian Orchestra is more of a rock band with bright lights, electric guitars, and head flipping. It was definitly not what she expected. The rest of us really enjoyed it and we had a wonderful time. Afterwards, we all went over to the Gateway and had dinner at an Italian resturant. The food was delicious and we had a wonderful time together. We were so glad that we got to spend time with our wonderful, incredible, hilarious, and beautiful Vanessa. Sadly, we have to give her back to her family in Iowa for Christmas, but we look forward to next year's holidays, where she will be at school and able to come down to see us :)

Happy 17th Birthday Caitlin!

A celebratory dinner at one of Caitlin's favorite places to eat,

The Pizza Factory.

Today is Caitlin's 17th birthday. I can hardly believe it. Like her Dad, Caitlin has never been one to make a big deal out of her birthday. She rarely asks for gifts, has never been much for parties in her honor, and has always preferred to keep her birthday nice and simple. This year was no different.

Due to a prior commitment with the Governing Youth Council, we began her celebration last night, rather than on her actual birthday, with dinner at The Pizza Factory, the restaurant of her choice. Grandma joined us to celebrate in between visits to the nursing home to see Rich. Caitlin's never cared much for cake, so this year we bought a half-gallon of her favorite ice cream at Baskin-Robbins. (In years past she's chosen a huge chocolate chip cookie or even cookie dough in lieu of birthday cake.) Today my mom took us (Caitlin, Sam and me) out for lattes at Grounds For Coffee and to Roosters for lunch. Caitlin said her birthday was a great one and exactly as she wanted it...low key.

Every year on the kids' birthdays, I reminisce about the day they were born and all the events leading up to it. I honestly can't believe that 17 years have gone by since Chip and I left for the hospital, at 12:00 midnight, on August 4th. It's still amazing to me how we walked into that hospital as a couple and walked out not even 48 hours later as a family. I remember thinking to myself, "I can't believe they're just going to let me take her home!" Even though I was 29 and Chip was 32, we were still so unprepared for the experience of parenthood and overwhelmed at the work involved and the depth of emotion we experienced for our new daughter.


Here she is today, 17 years old, and I still find myself overwhelmed at times at how much I love her and how grateful I am to have the opportunity to be her mom. I hear people talk about how raising teenagers is horrible, and their kids never want to be seen with them. Now I admit that we have our moments, and there have been times when I'm sure we all love each other far more than we like each other. And there have been times when we definitely have all needed a break from each other. However, I don't relate to the horror stories I've heard about raising teenagers.


Caitlin is such a great person and she loves spending time with us. She has never been embarassed to be seen with us (except when I stood up and danced during the Mamma Mia movie.) She always kisses me goodbye and tells me she loves me on the phone no matter where she is or who she's with. She has such a kind heart and is very sensitive to the way others are treated. Caitlin is one to advocate for the underdog, and at times I wonder if we have a budding social worker on our hands. She's always been such a great student and had the rare honor of being inducted into the National Honor Society as a Sophomore. Because of her academic performance and her value system, she was asked to be on the Governing Youth Council for Weber County two years ago. Caitlin took it upon herself to find a job last summer and has worked at Johnny's Dairy for almost a year now. Although she complains that it gets boring at times, she has never complained about going to work. She's one of the most resilient people I know, some of which is learned and some of which is innate for her.


Am I gushing? Why, yes I am. After nine months of pregnancy, 16 hours of labor and delivery, countless diaper changes, middle of night feedings, and ongoing sleepless nights I spend worrying about and wishing for the well being of our daughter, I HAVE EARNED THE RIGHT TO GUSH!


An assignment in one of my Social Work classes asked that I write about my family. Caitlin read it recently and told me how much she liked what I wrote about her. Because it meant a lot to her, and because it came from my heart, I will end this post with those words.

"My daughter, Caitlin, will be 17 years old in August. Caitlin was born August 4, 1992, after an easy pregnancy but difficult delivery. She has, from the very beginning of her life, been a total individual, marching to the beat of her own drum. Caitlin is a beautiful and graceful dancer; although she prefers jazz, hip hop and modern dance, she is also a lovely ballet dancer. While growing up she has preferred dance to soccer, Sarah Brightman to the Spice Girls, linguine with clam sauce to macaroni and cheese, and old Hollywood movies to the current teen flicks. Her I-pod is filled with everything from Lady Gaga and Britney Spears to Frank Sinatra and Tchaikovsky. She still kisses me goodbye and tells me she loves me on the phone. I absolutely love my daughter and am so proud of the woman she's becoming. From Caitlin I have learned that celebrating one's individuality and uniqueness is one of the greatest gifts we can give to ourselves and to those who love us."

I love you, BooBoo.