ouch

last night at dinner,

i was regaling my dining companions with tales of my nearly heroic tennis feats earlier in the day. 

i shared how i was feeling pretty fantastic when i looked at the score book after we finished playing.  i realized i had the 3rd highest score in our group! 

(a very new experience, as i usually sit close to the bottom)

when suddenly the little whipper-snapper pictured above said this...

"3rd highest out of 4?"

there was also a teeny, tiny bit of a smirk on her face. 

 

for the record, there are 9 women in my group.

so there.

from the art teacher

aftie was on the announcements at school today along with the other students selected for the art show this past weekend at UB.  but let's face it...we are only focused on our aftie-girl!

here's the announcement:

Congratulations to the following Heim Artsits who had work in the Student Celebration of Visual Arts at UB this weekend. There were 14 artists who represented Heim from Mrs. Woods classes. The following Heim Artists were recognized with outstanding work:
6th Graders: Alexa T, Jacob M, and Afton Hulse. 7th Grader: Kimberly N, and 8th Graders: Julianna L, Jon W, and Madalyn S. Please keep an eye out for the S.C.V.A. artwork to be displayed in the main hall later today, congrats again for outstanding creativity in artwork and making Heim proud!

aftie's art teacher sent these photos this afternoon.

it's fun to be recognized for your talents and hard work!

way to go aftie-bug!

artist in our residence

the other day our aftie girl casually mentioned something about her artwork being in a show or something. 

no big whoop. 

here's the letter she produced from her backpack.

wowie-wow-wow!, i said.

so we decided to zip over to the exhibit after church.

here's what we found...

(you can't see the other side, but there is a paintbrush over there)

 

we ran into aftie's art teacher, who was of course a lovely lady.

she told us that she hoped to be working with afton for the next couple of years,

and that she hoped aftie would continue on with art club,

AND that she is a talented girl.

of course, we already knew that!

we were lucky enough to get a quick photo with the amazing artist!

she's still humble enough to pose with her family.

aftie-super star artist!!!!

adventures with flat stanley

we got to have a super fun visitor come to our house...flat stanley, from idaho!
flat stanley is a book about a boy who gets flattened, but then gets to be sent all over the world on different adventures.  then the elementary kids reading the book usually get to make their own flat stanley and send it off on an adventures.  so we got flat stanley from the barnes family in twin falls idaho.  cori has been my friend since 7th grade, and now she is sending me her youngest childs flat stanley.  where did the time go?  anyway-  here's the letter and pics we sent back to idaho with flat stanley.  we were sad to see him go!

(begin letter)
We had so much fun with Flat Stanley while he was visiting us in Buffalo, New York!  Thanks for letting him come for a vacation.  Unfortunately, it’s been pretty cold the past few weeks, so we couldn’t play outside at our favorite places.  But Stanley did get to hang out with us and see what we do during a normal week.  He got to see Ella at gymnastics, Afton & Ella at golf lessons (luckily they don’t play outside where it’s cold; they play inside a big dome!) and all the homework the girls have to do after school.  He even watched Ella jump rope while she was practicing her spelling words! 

Here are some of the places we did take Flat Stanley…

One of our favorite restaurants:  La Tolteca  

We don’t have very many Mexican food restaurants in Buffalo, so we are really happy when we get to eat at La Tolteca.  Ella even made sure Flat Stanley got a drink!

 

We went to Wegmans.  Wegmans is a wonderful grocery store!  We do almost all of our grocery shopping at Wegmans, but we also meet our dad for dinner here sometimes.  They have all kinds of delicious things to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  We like to sit upstairs in the kids area while we eat.  Flat Stanley came to Wegmans with me to pick up a few souvenirs.  We hope you like the Buffalo Bills Beanie Ballz, Traxler!  We love watching the Buffalo Bills play football.  Especially when they win!

We went to Niagara Falls!  It was a beautiful day and we took lots of pictures to send home with Flat Stanley.  Sometimes the mist is so thick that you can’t really see the Horseshoe Falls very well. (We included some postcards that show them)  That’s how it was when we visited.  But we could see the American Falls really well!  We stood right above them!  They are soooo loud!  The best view of the Falls is from Canada.  But we didn’t have a passport for Stanley to go into Canada, so we just looked at them from America.  Stanley got to see the Rainbow Bridge that you can drive on to cross into Canada.  It’s just across the river, and has lots of tall hotels and restaurants. 

Ella helped Stanley look into the view finder so he could see the Falls a little closer.  We looked down by the bottom of the Falls and could see a big snow cave that the mist had made, and we also saw the path that you walk on during the summer to go to the Maid of The Mist boat. It was all covered with snow and frozen mist!  Here are a few more pictures of Flat Stanley by the American Falls.  In the picture you can see a lot of white mist at the top right corner.  Behind that mist is the Horseshoe Falls.  On the postcards you can see how why they are called the Horseshoe Falls.  It’s because of their semi-circle shape!

At the Niagara Falls park, there is a big statue of Nikola Tesla.  Nikola Tesla was a famous scientist who found a way to create electricity from the power contained in the Niagara Falls. 

 

We had to get some lunch after all that walking and picturing taking! So we headed to The Hard Rock Café.  It was delicious and fun to look around at all of the cool stuff used by famous musicians. 

There are 3 bridges in the Buffalo area that can take you to Canada.  Flat Stanley got to see 2 of them.  The first one was the Rainbow Bridge, right by Niagara Falls.  The second bridge we showed him is the Peace Bridge.  We take the Peace Bridge to Canada during the summer on our way to a beautiful beach on Lake Erie called Crystal Beach.

Buffalo is famous in history for lots of reasons, but one that we’ve been learning more about lately is the role Buffalo played in the Underground Railroad.  The Underground Railroad helped to get southern slaves to freedom.  Freedom was found in Canada.  Many slaves crossed the river into Canada before the Peace Bridge was built.  One stop on the Underground Railroad was at the Michigan Avenue Baptist Church.  The slaves were hidden away in a secret place in the basement of this church.  Once they reached this church they were within a few miles of Canada.  We had a hard time imagining how it must have felt to be a slave and have to hide all the time to be safe.

Buffalo has beautiful architecture.  Many buildings are very old and beautiful.  We took some pictures to show you some of the buildings and houses. 

Buffalo is also famous for The Erie Canal and its locks.  We weren’t able to take Flat Stanley to the Erie Canal Locks, but we wanted to show you, so we bought a postcard!  Maybe the next trip we can take him!

We are including some Buffalo Wing sauce to make your own, since you can’t taste them in Buffalo.  There are two restaurants that claim to have invented Wings.  The Anchor Bar and Duffs.  Most people seem to like The Anchor Bar a little bit more, but President Obama had wings at Duffs a year or two ago!

We are also including a package of Sponge Candy.  This is a very traditional Buffalo treat.  We don’t really like it at our house, but lots of people LOVE it!  You’ll have to try it and let us know what you think.

We watched it being made at the candy factory one time.  They boil all of the ingredients together and then pour it into a big block.  Once it’s cooled they use a saw to cut it into little squares!  We were really surprised to see them using a saw!

One other thing we are sending home with Stanley is a drawing of the Blizzard of ’77.  This was a terrible snow storm that lots of people still talk about!  One lady told me that she was a teenager during the storm.  All of the schools were closed down, but her chemistry teacher walked to all of his students homes and gave them their homework for the week!  She wasn’t very happy to see him knocking on her door!

We are so glad Flat Stanley was able to visit us!  We hope he can bring you and your family on his next trip to Buffalo!  There are so many fun things to do and see.  Give your mom a squeeze for me!

Love,

Amy, Ryan, Afton and Ella Hulse

learning

 "one of the great discoveries of parenthood is

that we learn far more about what really matters

from our children

than we ever did from our parents.

we come to recognize the truth in isaiah's prophecy that

'a little child shall lead them'".

boyd k packer

my sweet aftie has a gift of sensitivity towards others that i admire.
she made the most beautiful cards for each of her lunch-time friends
with a sticker that is representative of a quality they possess.
she is a truly, deeply, thoughtful girl.
my aftie has taught me so much about what really matters.
i'll be grateful to her forever.

the journey

for the past 9-12 months (who can remember exactly?) our stake young men and young women presidencies have been planning nonstop for The Journey. 

what is The Journey? 

The Journey was designed as a weekend for the youth of our stake to baptize enough of our ancestors to create a stake in heaven. 
(a stake is a geographical area made up of wards.  wards are smaller areas within a stake, obviously, similar to a catholic parish.)
our church believes that everyone, on earth and in heaven, wants to be baptized and become a member of this church.  (they just don't always know it!)  we believe it is our responsibility to make this happen while on the earth.  therefore, we believe in baptisms for the dead, by proxy. 
(someone who is living is able to be baptized for the person who has passed on.)
frankly, it sounds a little weird to most people.
but it's actually very special to those of us who believe that families can be together even after death, and this is the beginning of an eternal connection.
so, The Journey was created to allow the youth of our church, ages 12-18 to be baptized for members of their families who had passed on from this earth life.
we began the weekend early, (thursday evening, as it was the week of winter break) with registration for the big event.
we all stayed at the seneca lake girls camp.  the photos above show some of the kids (106 in all!) who came to The Journey, registering for the workshops they were able to attend throughout the weekend. 
they each received a beautiful moleskine journal to keep and record their thoughts and feelings in. 
we had some delicious soup and rolls, welcomed them, and watched a movie and chatted before preparing for bed.  the kids always have a great time together, so there was a lot of laughing and talking during the movie!
then off to bed!
5:30 am friday morning:  wake up time. 
seriously. 
not my idea.  not in favor of this, whatsoever.
the day began with breakfast, a devotional and then off to palmyra where the baptisms and workshops would take place.

this is one of my favorite photos of the palmyra, ny temple.

we had shuttles running between the church and the temple, all day.
this allowed for baptisms to be done throughout friday and saturday. 
my cute friend, emily, (above) was one of our adult shuttle drivers. 
she loved it!
(also, she loves me for taking her picture holding the shuttle sign)

(these two darlings are graduating from high school this year!)

when the kids weren't at the temple, they were at the church across the street participating in numerous workshops both friday and saturday.
some of the workshops included topics on courage & adversity, hope joy & forgiveness, local book of mormon history, working to accomplish goals, and quite a few others.

near the end of friday, after a very long day and me suggesting to him "that he use this time to attend one more workshop", one 12 yr old boy threw his hands in the air and said,
"i don't want to go to another workshop!"
i couldn't blame him! 
it was a long day!
we also had a quiet room where the kids could sit quietly and reflect on the days events, write in their journals, read scriptures, etc. 
here's what i found on friday afternoon...

that lady who looks like she's reading...isn't!
 she's totally asleep!
hilarious!
if i wasn't so busy running around and being bossy to the kids about being in workshops, i would have pulled up a couch and taken a nap too!

saturday ran in mostly the same way, but ended earlier.
we had a nice lunch and finished the weekend with a keynote address and a testimony meeting, where the kids were able to share their thoughts and feelings about the weekend.
there were some very sweet and tender feelings shared during that time.
many of the kids had personal stories to share about their very own ancestors who they had been privileged to be baptized for.
one of my favorite moments was when a darling girl shared her thoughts about attending The Journey.  she was not planning to come for the weekend, but changed her mind at the last minute.  because of some of the decisions she had made recently, she was unable to enter the temple to perform baptisms and participate in that part of the weekend. 
my heart broke and tears ran down my cheeks as i listened to her share such personal thoughts and feelings.  about how she was embarrassed to admit her weaknesses, and how she now realized that she wasn't as strong as she had thought she was.  but then i heard her share the changes that she planned to make in her life that would take her closer to the places she knew would bring her true, lasting happiness.
i could hardly control my tears as i listened to her.  maybe because i knew just how she felt, because i have been where she was.
despite my protests and whining for months about having to sleep in a cabin, (in february!) and numerous other irritations...it was an amazing experience to be a part of.  i feel a lot of gratitude to my heavenly father above, to have been able to experience such a wonderful occasion. 
and we did indeed accomplish our goal of baptizing a stake in heaven.
2,254 baptisms.
 

life is sweet

wow! 

what a great night!

last night i went to see natalie merchant rock with the bpo.

i've determined this concert belongs in my top 5 favorite concerts attended.

that natalie merchant is one talented girl! 

she sang with the bpo and some pieces were soooo moving and beautiful! 

then they finished up and we clapped and clapped and hoped she'd come back for a finale. 

she did! 

she wowed us with her humor, her stories, her voice, her musical talent, her enthusiasm, and cute purple tights!  (the photo above is from last night)

she brought her guitarist and pianist back on stage with her and they played for another hour!

she sang some gospel, jazz, and made up new, funny lyrics to songs as she was singing.

for a while she would just begin singing a random song from rock and roll history, and her guitar player would pick right up and play along with her. 

they were phenomenal!

i could have sat quietly and respectfully for 3 more hours.

she seems like a girl you'd just want to go to lunch with and laugh and laugh.

i'm so glad i had the chance to see her!