A post because I'm feeling conversational and Eliza is napping...

Hey friends,

Have I mentioned on this blog that I'm pregnant??  I know... I'm a great one for secrets. I'm actually quite pregnant, as in I'm dilated 2 centimeters, 75% effaced, and I'm 36 weeks today. I can hardly believe it! You'd think 9 months would give you enough time to wrap your mind around it, but sometimes it doesn't feel like I've had any mental prep time at all. But ready or not, Baby Girl #2 will be making her debut sometime soon. And we'll be ready. :)

My Texas family threw a baby 'sprinkle' for me this week, because "every baby deserves a party and every baby should be celebrated." I felt a little funny about it, especially since she and Eliza will have been born a month apart so all of the clothes should fit seasonally, but it was a wonderful opportunity to get together with a bunch of women in the ward that I love and just have a fun girl's night. I also co-celebrated with my friend and neighbor, Meghan, who just had her own little girl Margot a few weeks ago, so it was nice to share the spotlight with a dear friend and cute baby. :)

This week has been full of music practice. I mentioned I was put in charge of the Christmas program. Well, pianists are scarce so I'm also accompanying most of the meeting. This has been a challenge since I don't have my own piano to practice the difficult pieces. But I have really great friends who have welcomed me (and Eliza) into their homes on many mornings and afternoons this month to practice and get the music solidified before the program on Sunday. This week has been a lot of practicing with those I am accompanying and it's so comforting to see how Heavenly Father just helps things come together. As long as the meeting is rich in the Spirit, we will have been successful.

Have a happy Thursday!

My Joy and My Song

I've been working on a project this month, but between orchestrating the Christmas program and practicing the piano for the pieces I'm accompanying, my time hasn't quite been my own. But over the weekend, Blake helped me finish my project, and it has completely changed my December.


We decided to decorate our Christmas tree with several names of the Savior this year. We finished late last night, and it has been such a blessing to me in the hours I've been awake to see the tree. We think and talk of Jesus Christ so much at this time of year, but generally we think of Him in the context of the baby in a manger, or even some of the names from wonderful Christmas songs:  Wonderful, Counselor, King of Kings, or Lord of Lords.  But every time I pass the Christmas tree, an ornament catches my eye that makes me think of and appreciate my Savior in a fresh way that feels very real and very powerful.

The Mighty one of Jacob...

Advocate...

Founder of Peace...

Lord of the Vineyard...

Redeemer of Israel...

Bread of Life...

I want to share my testimony that The Way, The Truth, and the Life was born in a humble stable and came to redeem all mankind. I testify that the Only Begotten of the Father will return to the earth in glory to reign as King of Kings, and that in that day, just as the shepherds knelt to worship him at his birth, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is the Christ.

Share the Gift

So I've been failing miserably as a blogger. That's okay; there are more important things to be successful in. But recording our little family's history and keeping in touch with my family is important to me, and I figure that maybe I ought to try a different approach to this blogging business and see if I can be any more successful.

Enter the Moment of the Day. I'll attempt to share something random from our life on a multiple-times-a-week basis (see how I didn't say 'daily'?... Realistic goals for the win.). Even if it's a bunch of trivial stuff, you'll still be getting more from me than you have thus far!


Here was a really happy moment today:

I've been feeling pretty stressed this Christmas season. In mid-November I was given the assignment to coordinate the Christmas Program by December 21st. It has proven to be a challenge and an extreme test of my patience and "good will towards men." (A test which some days I pass and some days I fail...) I feel that as I've been channeling so much of myself, my time, my patience, and my stamina into the task at hand, the things that are most important to me have been neglected. Namely, Blake and Eliza. [May I just interject and say that Blake has been an absolute CHAMP. All. Month. Long. With him on my team, nothing's impossible.] I think that is what has been the most difficult thing for me:  feeling a severe imbalance in my life at a time when, if anything, the balance scales should tip towards family, not away from it.

All of that is the long way of saying that I've been a little bit of an on-edge, stressed mess sporting sassafrass cranky pants. Not exactly the picture of "Christmas cheer," you might say. But today, this video was able to cut through all of the frustration and stress and pierce my heart. It felt so good to feel myself soften as the Holy Ghost testified of the reality and divinity of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

What a truly priceless gift. And how wonderful that we have the opportunity to share that gift with others. #ShareTheGift

Trip to Utah - the belated update

Oops. This post got started and left in draft form, so you're just now getting it off the press.

~written August 15, 2014~

My goodness. What a glorious, mixed-emotions, why-in-the-world-isn't-my-husband-here, can-we-take-Grandma-home-with-us-please-mommy last two weeks it has been. Every penny of that plane ticket was well-spent and has paid in rich dividends in family relationships and a strengthened marital relationship. Seriously, I got home yesterday and Blake and I have practically been transported back to the newlywed stage, which is completely delightful.

Me saying that sounds a little funny (and perhaps borderline TMI) because as of Monday, we've been married for 3 years. I think some of the 60-years-married folks out there might still consider us newlyweds, but whatever.

Because I'm feeling scatter-brained, out come the plus sign bullets:

+Happy Anniversary to us! Let's give a shout out to the saintly husband who let me buy a plane ticket that was going to get me home the day after our anniversary (but consequently save us 200ish dollars). Being apart on our anniversary actually had some benefits. I'm reminded of the 17-day internship Blake took in Mexico while we were dating. Gushy, desperate lovey-dovey texts galore. This time, we also had the benefit of being able to call and skype at will. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. :)  We're actually going to have a belated anniversary day this weekend so we can celebrate our marriage together. Because marriage--even the normal, growing, sometimes--really-challenging, kind--is worth celebrating.

+Eliza slept in a portacrib for 2 weeks and apparently got used to sleeping back in a cage because she just fell out of her bed during her nap. Oops. Hopefully that'll be a one-time deal and her subconscious edge-of-the-bed boundaries are now revitalized and up and running.

+North and South. My goodness, what a gripping chick flick. I've only seen it once and I hadn't remembered that pretty much it's a heart-breaker 99% of the way through and the last 1% is glorious because of the previous 99%. I love it. I could watch that final scene five times in a row and still be breathless. Side note- what are the chances that Blake and I look like that when we kiss?... Hmmm...

+I was shocked to have the sliding doors open at the SLC airport and not be assaulted by humidity. It was wonderful! It was rainy and quite chilly for what we've been used to and I wore a hoody on most mornings and a jacket almost the whole trip. :) Silly Texas heat...

+So pretty much the only parenting I have to do when I'm at the Hulls is diaper-changing and making sure Eliza gets a nap and goes to bed at a decent hour. There would be hours at a time where she'd be off having the time of her life with the kids--and she'd come toddling in with a huge smile on her face. She had so much fun! She also loved the Utah grass. It's like lush carpet compared to the stuff we have in Texas. I almost wanted to get down and rub my face on it, it was so soft.

+Courtney is home!! We really missed Blake, but I'm so grateful Eliza and I were able to be there at the airport. I know missions are wonderful, but families are just plain meant to be together and it's so nice to have that together-feeling when someone's been gone for so long! The night she got home, Mom, Courtney and I stayed up girl-chatting for several hours. We just couldn't help ourselves! The lack of sleep landed me with a cold for the rest of the trip, but it was so worth it. It was the first chat-fest of many while I was in Utah. There are very few things I love more than that.

+This was outrageous: how was it that BETH was the last family member that I got to see once we got to Utah?!? Seriously. Not even funny. But we had some grand old times together! We did some much-needed shopping (mostly for Eliza), enjoyed being in the garden, girl-chatting, going to the temple, gushing on Eliza, and just being together. I was so grateful that Beth took a few days off work so we could all be home together. Thanks for a glorious weekend, Hun!

+While we were home, we got to meet sweet little Miss Abigail, Jake and Christy's daughter and Eliza's newest cousin! She is tender and beautiful--I forgot just how little they come. She was just about Eliza's size when we brought Eliza home... I could scarcely believe it. It was fun hearing Jake and Christy's perspectives on making the parenting switch from one to two. It definitely sounds a little bit daunting, but Jake and Christy do such a good job at incorporating humor and a take-it-one-day-at-a-time attitude to tough things. They're such great examples to me and I'm so grateful they're making this transition first so I can call Christy for advice when our #2 arrives!

+We had an awesome Briggs BBQ at Dan and Karen's while we were home. The whole family together (minus Blake who we missed!) with great food, balloon launching, karaoke (yesss!), and even a home improvement project for the boys. It felt so, so good to be together. Aside from the little things like home-grown peaches and corn-on-the-cob, that feeling of being together is what I crave most when I'm home in Texas.

+Notice how I said 'home' in Texas? I haven't doubted that Texas is home, but it was interesting to be sitting at the DFW airport and feeling like I was leaving home. But at the same time, going home in a way, too? That house on 2500 will always be home to me, but 'home' is really being with the ones you love... Although I was surrounded by family that I love dearly, I felt very incomplete to not have Blake there as well. I guess this is just evidence of the Blake and Annie Hull family really blossoming into its own entity.


Well, there's definitely more where that came from, but this post is approaching novel-length so I'll wrap it up. We were so glad to go, so glad to be with family, and so glad to come home and be with Daddy again. Family is seriously the best. I'm already looking forward to Thanksgiving! :)

A Normal Saturday

Oh my word. Where in the world did the summer go??  Honestly, my lifestyle right now makes it feel like it's always summer, but I've seen a major change in a few things that let me know that summer is over and fall is politely knocking on my door:

#1:  Scheduling with the other women in the primary presidency has become 500% less insane. And that number might actually be conservative. Most of the summer, we were having to do "virtual" presidency meetings via massive email threads. There was a counselor that I went over a month without seeing face to face! Busy, busy moms with busy, busy kids! It makes me grateful for the more simple phase of life that Eliza and I are in, where 'busyness' for generally constitutes some sort of adventure of our own making--going to the park, going swimming, going to the library... Sometimes it doesn't feel all that magical, but when I slow down and really take a look at small moments in our day, there is so much magic to be seen and treasured.

#2:  Texas is finally cooling down a little! This last week, there were a few days that I would go so far as to say that it was actually cold. Although, my "cold" threshold has changed dramatically this year. After 100 degree weather and 90+ degree nights for several weeks, it dips down into the 60's and 70's and I pull out the hoodies and storm Walmart for emergency generators. Just kidding on that last part, but still, since when did 70 degrees become "cold"?? I am so, SO excited for the Texas autumn. Spring was amazing and I've heard fall is equally wonderful. I'm so grateful to live in a place that has seasons!

There are some fantastic summer adventures I ought to update you on, but I'm just going to talk about normal life as of late for a little while.

Saturday was such a fun, normal day. We slept in, (which was divine because Eliza has been a bit excessive on the early-rising lately) and once Eliza did wake up, we brought her into our room for some family snuggle time. She doesn't usually put up with such shenanigans, but the house got pretty cold that night (see previous definition of cold) and she was excited to come snuggle under all the blankets in between Mom and Dad. I love moments like that.

[insert picture when I can figure out what I'm doing]

We finally got up and ate breakfast, and even though it was late morning, it was in the 70s so Eliza and I were able to bundle up and go on a walk while Dad mowed the lawn. It's amazing how much easier it is to walk briskly when it isn't 95 degrees outside! Blake had just finished the lawn when we returned from our walk, and we decided to clean out the garage. Eliza thought it was great fun. Blake organized as I swept, and Eliza took great pride in helping with the dustpan. (I really want to find some Eliza-sized cleaning supplies. She loves sweeping and feeling like Mommy's domestic helper.)

We pulled the cars back in once the garage was pristine, and Eliza and I went into the house while Blake trimmed our hedges back. (Turns out the hedge-trimmer is a little too much excitement for her liking.) Lunch, an afternoon of church-prep, and a hotdog BBQ that night made for a great day for everyone. Blake and I wrapped up the evening with a few episodes of Psych and some full-belly laughs. Happy normal-Saturday to us!

Welcome to Texas

Guys... I just killed a scorpion. In my house. Granted it was only about 1/4" long, but still. A scorpion. I've heard of much bigger from some of the people in our ward, so maybe this was just a young buck. (Which I hope doesn't mean there is a mommy and more young bucks sneaking around inside somewhere.)

We also saw this doozy in the bush outside our front door last week:

Somewhat concerned and wondering if we should kill it--(my initial thought was, "Of course we should kill it!! No spider that big deserves to be on this earth!")--we did some research to find out what it was. Apparently, the argiope aurantia does deserve to be on this earth. Although it's pretty intimidating, it's completely harmless to humans and eats all manner of other awful things, like wasps, bees, and small vertebrates. (What?! A spider capturing and eating a gecko?? True story. Don't mess with the argiopes.) As we were reading it says males and females look about the same, but males are smaller (about 1/4" for the males; 3/4-over an inch for the females). We were sure we were looking at a female last week.

WRONG. Turns out those measurements are for the spiders' bodies only. Not their legs. Ew.

So we left last week's spider to go about eating wasps and gross things. But in the web today, there is a truly. massive. spider.--next to a smaller, shriveled, dead one. Looks like Mr. Man made his genetic contribution and kicked the bucket, as per usual. We'll see if Ladyfriend eats him...

Friends, this spider is ginormous. Like multiple inches including legs. And although it's kind of pathetic that I'm going on and on about this (especially because apparently they're all over the United States? A common garden spider.), I just have to say that when in Rome, you get used to what the Romans are used to. I hope. I wasn't a pansy about the scorpion, (although the thought creeps me to the core) and I'm allowing a giant spider to live and let live two steps outside my front door. But if it comes in my house, it's going to die. (Somehow. With loads of courage and fierce battle cries.) So you just keep your orb web with the crazy zigzag down the middle outside, okay dearie? And when your babies come, they better blow AWAY from my front door.

P.S. I am apparently addicted to parenthetical statements. This post has seven.

Crazy Crust Pizza

Remember that bookstore date I told you Blake and I went on? Well on that date, we both found a recipe that we wanted to give a shot. And the first one was a definite keeper.

The trial run for this recipe wasn't perfect--there is some tweaking I want to do--but it was so tasty that we wanted to share it with you. The crust is a batter that you pour into a cookie sheet. Very fun! It also means no waiting for dough to rise (or rise twice, for some recipes). What you save in rise time, you spend a little in baking time, so I guess it's about sixes, but give this pizza a shot sometime.

Crazy Crust Pizza

Batter:

1 c. flour (I used wheat with great results)
1 t. salt
1 t. Italian seasoning
1/8 t. pepper
2 eggs
2/3 c. milk

Topping:

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef OR 1 cup pepperoni
1/4 c. chopped onion
1 (4 oz.) can mushrooms
1 c. pizza sauce
1 c. mozzarella cheese

Make batter--mix until smooth. Pour into lightly greased 15x10 cookie sheet, covering the bottom of the pan. Arrange meat, onions, and mushrooms on crust. Bake on the low rack at 425 for 25-30 minutes until the crust is a deep golden brown. Drizzle sauce and sprinkle cheese on the pizza and return to the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is nicely melted. Serves 3-4.

My notes:

• I measured my cookie sheets (you know, the normal beloved jelly roll pans we all have) and they are actually 11x16. This meant that the already-thin pizza crust became very, very thin in my cookie sheet. I think next time I will try doing 1 1/2 times the batter recipe. I think if you doubled the batter it might be too thick to cook well underneath a mountain of toppings (see subsequent note), but I'll play with it and alter this post as needed.
• Also, with the crust, it says to lightly grease the cookie sheet... This could have been a problem due strictly to the thinness of my crust, but if I did the recipe again as is, I would grease the heck out of the cookie sheet!! I was able to get the pieces off, but it certainly wasn't an easy, convenient scoop onto the plate. I'm hoping that a thicker crust next time will solve that problem.
• Toppings. The recipe seemed a little light on the toppings to us. We were also feeling adventurous that night so we piled toppings on with reckless abandon. Half of the pizza was pepperoni, olives, mushrooms, and roma tomatoes; the other half was ham, pineapple, and slivered almonds. Both were seriously divine. (And I don't even like mushrooms!) I was worried that the crust wouldn't cook underneath all those toppings, but the thinness may have compensated for that. I'll try a loaded-toppings pizza with a thicker crust and let you know how it goes.
• Although it made a full cookie sheet, I thought the serving estimate was pretty fair. Mom Hull, if you wanted to do this for dinner I'd do at least two pans, maybe three depending on how ravenous Jace was that night. ;) Next time I'll also serve it with a green salad to round out the meal a little bit.
• I'm a sauce-lover and there were several bites on my pizza that I wished had more of the pizza sauce flavor. Next time I'll be a little more liberal with the sauce. Or you could just have sauce on the table as a dipping option for those who wanted extra.

Like I said, I'll update the recipe on this post as I get things figured out. Blake requested it on the meal plan this week so I'll give it another shot. (I'll try to remember to take pictures!)