A Glimpse of Heaven on Earth

A long time ago, I attended a church service where a bible passage was read from people in different languages. Where one person left off in Chinese, the next person picked up in Spanish and when they came to a stop, the next person picked up in the next language. It was so interesting to 'hear' that and I remember thinking, that's what Heaven will be like. All ethnicities coming together, speaking the same, even though the languages are different.

I ran across something today, that gives me that very same picture in my mind but this time it's through music. I love it and so I have to share it. Watch this video...it's what I picture heaven will be like.



If you would like to know more about this video, go to Playing for Change.
The Playing for Change community is a group of artists who have collaborated with people in their neighborhoods across the globe to create a multimedia movement to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music.

Hola Bienvenido a Puerto Penasco!

We are back from vacation! And it was probably one of the most interesting vacations we've ever had for a few of reasons:

1. Our first time to vacation with Nathan. It's just different with a little one.
   
2. The first night, I had to hang my head out of the car window to throw up. It's been a while.
   
3. Greg and I didn't fight once. We traditionally fight while on vacation.
   

We went to Puerto Penasco which is a small fishing town off the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. Americans call it Rocky Point and it is just over 60 miles from the US border - a short 4 hr drive from where we live in Arizona. Here's a map from Phoenix to Rocky Point:


Thursday - 4/9
We drove to Rocky Point with 2 other families and arrived late in the afternoon. We immediately walked down to the beach and it turned out to be great timing for pictures!

Here is Nathan's first time to see the ocean and true to form, he was quiet, observant and just took it all in.


Here was a surprising shot of Nathan and Maysen, silhouetted from the setting sun.


Here's a picture from the beach looking back at where we stayed, the red arrow is pointing to the house we stayed in.


Friday - 4/10
We eagerly anticipated a beautiful day on the beach and instead we woke up to wind gusts of 32 mph! You know how you have certain ideas or expectations about your vacation? Well the weather deflated the expectations we all had and we wondered if we were doomed for the entire weekend.

Nathan and I stepped outside to take a walk but we had to head back to the house when we started to get pelted in the face with flying sand!


So we were stuck inside-all day. Here's Nathan & Maysen both looking out the window watching the wind howl.


After being locked inside all day, we had to get out of the house! So we let Greg drive through a sand storm to take us all to dinner (this was the night he started driving like one of the locals). While we were at the restaurant, we got a picture of our group outside on the balcony in the Tsunami (just a progressive exaggeration of the wind). When I saw this picture, I totally laughed out loud, it's pretty funny...


Saturday - 4/11
On Saturday, the winds moved on, the Sun came out and we were on the beach in no time at all!


I just realized how funny this next picture is. Three guys, One girl and who has the ball? The 7 year old girl!








This is a visual of Nathan's issue with his feet. He doesn't like being barefoot on grass or sand. In this next shot, I was trying to put him down to walk but he folds his legs up and refuses to stand on his own because he doesn't want his feet to touch the ground. Quiz question: Which parent does Nathan take after in this?


Sunday - 4/12
Easter Sunday - it was strange being at the beach vs. in church on Easter Sunday! Here are pictures of Nathan's Easter Egg Hunt. I forgot to put his shoes on so you see him 'straining' to reach that egg without stepping into the sand.




Just some extra pictures that are favorites from the trip...

The Auger Family- Yep, I made them do this but it turned out cute!


The White Family incognito!


Nathan, my little cutie-patootie-picture-poser!














Greg and them Horns! See the Longhorns on the smoker behind Greg's average size head?


This last picture is for Lynn...'Aahs-para-Gous'...soon my friend, very soon! :)

Heading out...see you soon.

We are heading out for vacation tomorrow and you will soon see pictures and/or videos of the Hull family with friends frolicking about on the beaches of Puerto Penasco, Mexico! Until then, I leave you with a little somethin-somethin that made me laugh today. Enjoy!

Hi, Billy Mays Here!!!!

Just kidding. :)

I wanted to share this video of Nathan making his 'Rock N Roll' face - he scowls and scrunches up his face while listening to 'Rock' music. He's been doing this for a couple of months now and what's interesting is that this expression is only reserved for 'Rock n Roll' because you'll notice in the beginning of the video he doesn't make this expression while listening to other music.

Safe at Sun...

At 6am this morning, I received a text message from a team-mate that I had worked with for 9 years. He had been let go. I couldn't believe it. The rif's had started.

One farewell email after another started filling my inbox. I simply wasn't prepared for Bloody Monday...I thought this was all happening on Tuesday because I had heard 'the 31st' numerous times.

I talked to my manager at 7:35am and she informed me I was safe. I almost cried but for the sake of professionalism, I kept my composure.

It wasn't until about 10:25am that I broke down. A flood of enormous and undeniable relief.

Train Ride at Schnepf Farms...finally!

I have been waiting a long time for Nathan to ride the train at Schnepf Farms. I was waiting for the 'perfect' day where Greg could be with us and this will sound corny, but I wanted us to wear 'matching' clothes for the pictures - it's ok to roll your eyes.

We had also been waiting for the stars to align so that we could have lunch at the Schnepf Farms restaurant with Josh & Lynn. We had planned this a couple of times but something would come up and it just didn't work out for whatever reason.

Last Sunday, we finally accomplished both...but it wasn't the 'perfect' day...by far. Isn't that how things usually work out? Our Sunday morning couldn't have been more opposite than what I had envisioned to lead us in our afternoon at Schnepf Farms.

The PLAN was:

1. Attend the 9:30 service with Nathan in childcare at church.
2. Take Nathan to the worship portion of the 2nd service, so he could see Dada playing drums.
3. Go home, let Nathan take a nap.
4. Change mine and Nathan's clothes to match (cue to roll your eyes).
   
5. Meet Greg, Josh & Lynn at Schnepf Farms for lunch.
   
6. Let Nathan ride the train.
7. Take a bunch of cute pictures for scrapbooking!

What happened:

1. I attended the 9:30 service wearing periwinkle blue, Nathan goes to childcare wearing army green.
   
2. Volunteered after the 9:30 service, at the last minute, to lead the 3 yr old class b/c they didn't have anyone!
3. Nathan was with me in the 3 yr olds room-hence no nap.
   
4. Straight to Schnepf Farms for lunch with our friends.
   
5. Nathan got to ride the train.
6. I took a bunch of pictures and complained the entire time about our clothes not matching. Josh stopped just short of telling me to Shut Up!

After lunch, we walked around a little before getting on the train and snapped the following pictures:


This picture is for Grandpa David who recently asked Greg how tall Nathan is right now.


When we first boarded the train, Nathan wanted off. However, once we started rolling, he seemed to enjoy the ride.




Our train ride came to a stop about halfway and we were told that if we wanted to see the deer we would have to walk a ways. We had no idea that there were deer at Schnepf Farms! We walked through a corn field and smack in the middle was a pen filled with about 40 deer!





Here is our group shot...unfortunately the 'B Team' (Josh & I) had closed eyes. In the end, it turned out to be a really nice day - even though it didn't go according to the 'Plan'!

Happy St. Patricks Day...much later!

I have no idea where the time goes. Case in point, I'm just now posting pictures of our St. Patricks Day - Night Hike, a week and a half later.

Anyway, we did this cool night hike on St. Patricks Day at San Tan Mountain Regional park, about 10 mins from where we live.

Here is a park map with our trail highlighted in yellow:


So here's the thing with the pictures. Since we were hiking at night I didn't want to take my Nikon, trip on some rock and end up bashing my nice camera to pieces so I took my little Canon point and shoot. Like most digital point and shoots, the Canon has a digital LCD screen on the back that displays the image your taking a picture of, so imagine standing in a place that is pitch black. Essentially, the LCD screen is also going to be pitch black.

For example, my 'End of Trail' picture below is off center and crooked - that's because I couldn't actually see the sign in the dark through the camera but of course I still tried to take a picture of it!


The other issue with taking pictures in the dark was that whenever the camera would flash, it would temporarily BLIND people! It's a good thing we weren't hiking deep cavernous canyons!




At the end of the trail, I held my camera above my head and took the liberty to BLIND not only my group but everyone!


But my favorite picture of the night is definitely this one. Greg face just cracks me up and Robert in the center has this great fun expression, then mellow Amber is on the side with that fantastic smile of hers and everyone else is just doing their own thing in the back!

Good Times!