happy happy birthday grammy dear!

today is my grammy's birthday. grammy is my mom's mom. she is the most amazing woman. she is my example in almost every way. she hasn't had the easiest challenges in life, but she is the most positive person. she has been to every event in my life and all those of my sisters and cousins. she has now included her "great-grands" in her travels. here she is with periwinkle a year or so ago. we all love her to pieces and have the most special memories of being with her throughout our lives. have a great day, gram!!! we love you!

race day

well, here we are. we ran the envirun 5k "wny's most scenic run". that's the niagara river right behind us. we ran past niagara falls and around goat island. it was a tough run. i haven't been running as much as i should have been to prepare, so it was a little (lot) more difficult than i anticipated. my fellow runners are from left to right: eliza, me, crescent, tara and lindsay. we had fun and i will be running much more in anticipation for the next run in june.

and here i am struggling to the finish line!

happy birthday to alyx!!!

a big happy birthday to my sweet, beautiful, smart, kind, loving, newly blonde niece, alyx! we hope she had a great day.

played a little tennis this morning. enjoying trying out different rackets in anticipation for my new liquid metal 8 racket which should be at the store mid-june. i usually call it the metal liquidator for some weird reason. the guys at the tennis shop always give me a crazy look when i ask about it. the ladies i played with today were a little less than competetive. in fact, i ran to return one ball and they called me "so competetive". okay. most of them were there just to chat.

i had a sort of unusual experience today. the day unfolded in such a way that i found myself (and ella) at barnes & noble looking for a gift for my grammy's birthday. it wasn't my original plan, then it was, and then we changed plans again and eventually ended up at the bookstore. it's all in the timing. anyway, ella was crawling under tables, meowing and being a cat while i browsed. eventually i decided to head back to the children's section and had to grab ella. she threw a fit and kicked off her sparkly gold shoes, which flew across the store. a sweet little lady commented on ella's beautiful skirt. ella stopped screaming and i began to have a conversation with this sweet lady. long story short, we chatted for 20 or so minutes and found out she has tongue cancer, which she is having removed in a couple of weeks. she asked where we were from and where my husband had attended college. "oh, isn't that school affiliated with the mor...oh, are you a mormon"? "why, yes i am". then a little conversation about the church ensued. i mentioned where our building was. just so happens she lives right next to it. coincidence? i think not. she lives just a couple of miles from us and said she would like to come to church after her procedure. we exchanged phone numbers, names and addresses. she invited me over for a visit and a cup of coffee after her surgery. we'll get to the coffee issue later. we hugged and she said "honey, i feel like we were supposed to meet today". i think maybe we were.

also, my friend eliza took pity on us and had us over for a delicious dinner. afton asked for the recipe! i have such nice friends, seriously. i don't deserve them!

the girls and i then headed to stake enrichment so i could head up the dessert assembly again tonite. all was well and we had an amazing evening with a couple of presentations that were really fantastic. one dealt with discussing difficult topics and specifically focused on the issue of pornography. the next presentation was given by a local woman who counsels domestic abuse victims. i literally felt sick to my stomach after her presentation, but it was amazingly informative and i hope it helps someone. she talked about the different types of abuse and how it usually starts with the abuser wanting control and the different ways they manipulate their victim. it was eye opening and like watching the most awful horror movie. i'm hoping to volunteer at some point. the presenter was an amazing, strong woman with a masters in counseling. also, the sisters in the stake brought supplies to be donated to their safe house. it was a great enrichment.

time to sleep. we're running in the morning to ready our legs for the race on saturday.

boring update

here's a boring synopsis of our day...

practically pulled the oldest sweetheart out of bed (she did not want to wake up)

took the car into the shop, crossed fingers for small problem!

ran with friend

cleaned out the garage (e was a great helper!!!)

made lunch and ate it outside on the deck

jumped on the trampoline with the littlest hulse

took a little snooze while elle watched dora

picked up the car and happily payed less than $100 for the problem

ran some friends home from the car shop who had been there for 2 hours with three little sweethearts (torture)

ran to wegmans for milk and dinner

ran to the buffalo ward building to help make dessert for stake enrichment

ran to choir practice

chatted with friends

put girls in my bed and read the cutest book i picked up at the library. the illustrations are great.

amy plus two

today felt like total craziness. are you familiar with jon and kate plus 8? if you are, then you'll understand my day (minus 6 children). ryan is at a conference, so it's me and the two crazies.

aftie had her first tennis lesson of the season today. she was so excited and loved it and can't wait for next week. her teacher is an older, 70's probably, funny, cute little guy. he was great with the little class. aft did an amazing job.

aftie also finished the pillow she was working on for her friend. it is amazing. i can't believe how creative and what a hard worker she is. i can see myself at her age wanting to sew and be creative, but i would'nt have known how to figure it out. we took the pillow to her friend. she asked me to go up to the door with her but i said no, go ahead. she gave the pillow to the friend and then came back to the car and climbed in. i asked her how it went. she almost immediately burst into tears and told me that she just wanted me to come with her and then she would have known what to say. i felt like the worst mother ever. she is such a sweetheart and i will definitely accompany her next time.

tennis, anyone?

tonite we headed over to the park to play tennis. aftie and i are the only ones with racquets and she is sooooo excited to start lessons again. i think we're going to sign her up at my tennis club and get some "real" lessons. the past two summers she has taken from the city (two high school girls 'teaching') program. i guess you could say i've gotten my $7.00 worth. at the tennis club, she better be a pro by the end. it's going to be a little bit more than $7. anyway, we had such a fun time. she was doing a great job and we actually had a few little volleys. then ryan and i hit a few balls and ryan is great! ella was the ball collector. she liked to check and see if we were sweaty by touching our foreheads. she is a funny little peanut. we all had a pretty good workout after chasing tennis balls for an hour. so of course we headed to cold stone for some ice cream. it was seriously the most fun i've had on a friday night in a long time. that may possibly sound really sad.

p.s. it was 75 degrees today! heaven, i tell you.

another exciting day

today i did something really brave...i had my blood drawn without ryan holding my hand. usually i pass out or at least i usually freak out. the girls helped me be brave, but i went into the room all by myself. for all of you brave people who don't mind needles poking your skin, laugh all you want, i don't care. this was a big step for me.

today we also went somewhere fun...the movie. we went to see horton hears a who. it was so cute. the girls and i went with our friends and had a great time.

we had a fun dinner with the same friends and our dads. i happened to be making black bean and tomato chili (a recipe from the martha stewart cookbook i found recently). it was delicious. i will add it to my cooking blog and you definitely have to try it. it's more like black bean and onion soup with an amazing salsa served over yellow rice. it is yummy!

i also ran with a friend tonite to get ready for the envirun (5k) next saturday. we ran much farther than we planned and didn't stop once! we are runners! slow runners, but runners just the same. it felt good!

so, that wraps it up. another exciting day at the hulse house.

new delicious-ness

i just stumbled upon a cooking blog put together by some of the local dental student's wives. i just happen to know most of these amazing girls, and let me tell you, they can cook! you should definitely take a peek.

also, i am trying to update all my favorite people and their blog links. my cousins in-law, ryan's cousins, have the most hysterically funny children. if you need a good laugh... no offense girls!
(you know my children are complete angels.)

on a completely different note: it was a beautiful day in buffalo!

the weekend

the question on everyone's mind is...who will wear the green jacket tonite? well, that's the question around here and i'm sure at my mom & dad's house as well. will it be tiger? will immelman hang on to the lead? and we always love phil mickelson. i'll never forget a talk my dad gave in church tying the masters to the Master. it was a valiant effort. truthfully i don't really remember the talk that well, but i will never forget my mom rolling her eyes.

so, today was church.

yesterday was a cold and rainy spring day. we did manage to get to red robin for lunch. we also made a go at cleaning afton's room. wowie wow wow, what a job. afton wanted her bed to be moved in front of her doorway. i refused over and over again. after recruiting ryan to work the decision out with afton and a load of laundry, i realized i was being stubborn. does it really matter where her bed is? really? i apologized for being stubborn and we moved her bed in front of her doorway. she explained, " this way i can just run down the hall and jump, i mean, gently fall onto my bed." uh,huh.

well, it's time for bed. afton is sleeping over at a friends house. ella is trying to buy herself some more time by calling out for water, another animal to sleep with her, etc. happy sunday evening.

it's sunny!

most of this week has been sunny and warm (60's). we have spent much time outside playing. we've got the trampoline up, the sandbox is full of fresh new sand and we even scored on a cute little patio table at lowes. the best part are the cute orange coral cushions from pier 1. oh, and don't let me forget my favorite thing, the swing. it's can fold out into a bed. i tell you, it's heaven on a warm sunny sunday afternoon!

so, here's a new development... afton is sewing. too bad nobody here can help her out. she's making a pillow for her friend. it is seriously cute and so amazing that she's doing such a great job. i've tried to help her with a few parts, but mostly i'm just tying the knot at the end of the thread. i tried to sew on the machine, but we ended up trying to get the fabric and thread unstuck from inside of the machine. like i said, too bad nobody here can help her out. my dreams of creating my own line of clothing has long since left the building.

i have discovered milk that comes in a glass bottle from a local dairy. i can buy it at a really close grocery and you get a 50 cent deposit return when you bring the bottle back. is this genius or what? it makes me feel good to buy something in a container that can be reused and you get money back and it comes from a local place! ryan will be so excited to hear about this. he is so thrilled about my environmental efforts. by the way, i'm being completely sarcastic. ryan likes to throw away the recycling that i have so carefully washed and put in a special container. he just smiles as he puts it into the big trash container and wheels it to the curb. don't come crying to me,ryan, when jesus asks if you took care of his beautiful earth.

that may have been a little sacreligous, sorry.

well, i'm off to prepare dinner for my little darlings. we're having sonoran shrimp scampi. if it's any good i'll post it on my cooking blog.

what?

ryan and i have a joke between us about my easy confusion/bad memory, etc. it goes like this:

Amy "I'm so sad that i've ruined my good driving record (after hitting our mailbox with the rental truck)"

Ryan "uhhh, what about those two lights i've had to replace" (recalling two previous accidents including a fence at mindy's and a stop sign cemented inside a tire at the grocery store)

Amy "what? where are we? who am i? what?"

soooo, remember that happy birthday greeting to my friend mindy yesterday? well, i'm pretty sure her birthday is actually today. what? i was thinking it was april 6th yesterday and then realized it actually wasn't. who am i? what? so a big happy birthday today to mindy!

well, conference was exceptional. i always have loved pres monson, but my love was reaffirmed today after sharing his funny thoughts.

ella has a new funny laugh. at dinner tonite, i said "ella, who taught you that laugh?" ella replied with a little grin "Jesus".

we laughed so hard. she is becoming quite a character.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

It's my friend Mindy's birthday today. Mindy lives in Utah but is a former Buffalonian. Mindy is an amazing singing girl. She is funny as can be and so thoughtful and always says the nicest things. I miss her and I miss our little preschool times. We used to switch off teaching preschool to our little peanuts and often spent an hour or two chatting afterwards. Those were really fun and funny times. One of my proudest driving moments happened at Mindy's duplex. I backed out of their driveway and ran right into their neighbor's fence and took our taillight right out. We also got to spend many an hour at our girl's dance class. I really miss you Mindy! My wish for you is a great day and a nice, quiet dinner out!

friday night

it's friday night and elle and i are having mom and little girl night. doesn't this image totally remind you of ella and i? (that's a joke) the dad and oldest girl are off to a red sox game in toronto with some friends. pretty fancy. the peanut and i got ourselves a couple of movies. namely, undercover dora the explorer and august rush. honestly, i'm a little more excited about the second title. we are having our very own, separate dinners tonite. my choice is amy's kitchen organic enchiladas and elle chose organic waffles. we're all about frozen food tonite.

today i got to do a one on one yoga session with my yoga teacher. it was great! i think we are going to do this on fridays. it was so great to have personal instruction and i learned so many new things.

the newest thing i love: http://www.pandora.com/ in case you are like me and don't find out about cool things until way after the fact, this is a website where you can choose a certain artist or song and then the website picks similar music and plays continuously. i love it. sometimes you just get in the mood for a certain type of music, don't ya?

on a sad note, i just went to feed the goldfish and sweetie is floating sideways on the bottom of the fishbowl. i felt a little shocked and saddened. we'll have to head back to the fish store for another companion for dorothy tomorrow. i haven't shown ella and i hope she won't notice until we take care of the situation. (just call me tony soprano)

looking forward to a nice weekend of conference and family time.

inspired

is the biggest loser the most inspiring show? well, it is to me. especially towards the end when they show the beginning photos and then their current weight. it is amazing!

i have totally slacked off on the exercise the last couple of weeks, but today was a new day! i just registered for a 5k at the end of the month, the Envirun, apparently the most scenic run in Western New York. afterall, i do enjoy a nice view, in between moments of nearly passing out. so, i ran my fastest mile this morning. frankly it's not that fast, but if i keep getting faster that's a good thing. gotta keep working towards a goal or it gets a little boring. also the mighty mighty bosstones helped me move this morning. love that ipod!

we had the front door open almost all day, due to the amazing 65 degree temps! it was fantastic!!!

afton's goal of the day has been to trick us with her april foolery. we've all been practically convinced there was a pink unicorn over there (a few times at least!). she also thought the old 'hug your mom and stick a paper on her back' trick was pretty funny. i love watching her get her own little sense of humor. ella still laughs at whatever everyone else is laughing about, but she's getting funnier every day. a good sense of humor is so important to me. laughter can release so much tension and ease a sassy moment between the girls and me.