The Unadventures of Tracie

Saturday our little family of three went to the zoo. It was a disaster. The purpose of going to the zoo was for a work gathering. In the 3 years I've worked at my job, we have never met outside of work. So I was excited to introduce my husband and son to my colleagues and coworkers. Though we were free to visit the zoo on our own time, the department was going to meet up between 2 and 3 "at the pavilion." We had planned to get there around noon, explore the zoo for a few hours, meet up with people from work, and then go visit the Wests because it was Issac's birthday party. That is not what happened. We instead left at around 1. According to good ol' MapQuest, it would take us about 51 minutes to get there. So I figured we would meet up with people from work first, explore the zoo for a few hours, and then head over to the Wests. What I hadn't counted on is that MapQuest is a dirty, dirty liar. We drove around forever looking for our right turn on ...

(Also known as the longest post you'll ever read in your life. Ye have been warned. Thanks to Amanda who finally pushed me off my butt to write about this.) I have always wanted to be a mom, maybe not necessarily the "staying-at-home" part that some feel is a woman's calling, and some feel that's where they want and should be, but the part where I got to experience the blessing of creating and raising a little person who looked like me. Growing up, I loved kids. They were cute and fun and precious. I loved their innocence and their tenderness. Their curiosity and their trust. Children have always occupied a special place in my heart. I knew that I was destined to spend my life working with children. And so I looked forward to the day, which I knew would someday come, when I would have children of my own. I knew I would love being a mom because how could I not? Everyone around me loved being a mom. They told stories about the blessing and benefits of being a mom. ...

I've been posting a lot of "serious stuff" lately so thought I'd post some lighter stuff before I delve back into deeper matters. First of all, Austin and I bought new couches! I got a bonus from work and we decided to use the money to get new furniture. So hello new couch and loveseat. Love, love, love them. I'd post pics but unfortunately my camera is broken. Does anyone know where I can get a Canon camera fixed? I haven't been able to take any pictures since Morgan's birthday, which means I'm missing many potential photo opportunities. See here and here for online stock pictures of the couches. They look better in person. Anyway, the couches are awesome. We looked all over the place, sitting in just about every couch in Utah County. Finally we found a sofa set (sofa + loveseat) at a place called I.M. Home in Provo. The couches are chocolate brown (so dark they're almost black but not) and I think faux leather but parts of them feel real. T...

*I wanted to post this when Morgan turned one to mark the reach of my goal but I didn't finish it until now. I have always wanted to breastfeed. I knew that when I had a child it would be something that I would do. Having an unmedicated (aka "natural") childbirth was also something I knew I wanted, for so many reasons. (Post to come on this later.) And I succeeded. Unfortunately, I spent so much time preparing for birth that I forgot to learn about breastfeeding. Ideally you wouldn't need to learn about breastfeeding. You would know how because you've seen others do it. You would've heard other people talk about it. About the challenges and the solutions. And though I've known some women who breastfed, I realized I hadn't really seen how it was done or talked about it with them. I went into it completely naive, which is so against my usual nature of study, search, and prepare. I think I figured it would be easier than I thought. I also did not know...

I interrupt this message (and everything else I need to do right now, including finishing other very long, important posts and a book-long reply to an email) to post this . This is a link to a short story on Glass of Random , written by ME. This is the first piece of fiction I have written in 7 years. It's not polished or anything, but it's done for now. I wrote it in one night (not that impressive considering it's two pages long). This is a HUGE DEAL to me. Why? Because I have always loved to write, as soon as I could put pen to paper and form words. I spent much of my childhood writing silly stories, plays, and poems, loving every minute of it. But I have been afraid to write for years, ever since after having a disastrous creative writing class at BYU. Since then I have been so afraid of failure that I haven't even tried to write for a long time, too long. So this was scary and wonderful and frightening and exhilarating for me to do. I didn't realize h...

I went to all of church on Sunday. I had many mixed feelings about being there. Overall though, I think I want to continue to go again more regularly. Though there were some things said that bothered me, I did get one nugget out of the whole thing. In Sunday School, the teacher mentioned one thing that I thought was a good and helpful analogy. I'll paraphrase because I don't remember exactly what was said: Going through life you should treat God as your steering wheel and not your spare tire. They're both pretty important things to have on the journey of life. But one is a constant. Yes, you need that spare tire and it's so helpful to have. And you'd be pretty stuck without it during an emergency. But you only remember it when you need it. And once the emergency has been "fixed," the spare tire isn't relevant anymore. On the other hand, the steering wheel is something you constantly use to get where you need to go. This is all pretty obvious st...

Dear 21-year-old Tracie, In 5 years, so many things will be different that you'll hardly recognize yourself. How could 5 short years change you so much you ask? Well, just wait and see. You may think you're an adult now. But you're not. You so still have so much to learn. 5 years from now you'll definitely KNOW you're an adult. And guess what? Though you currently feel old to high schoolers, in 5 years you'll feel old even to most people in college. But don't worry. You may be an adult but you're still the same silly, playful Tracie you've always been. No matter how old or responsible you get, you still find the fun in life. Speaking of fun, you know that guy you're dating right now? The one you told you could never marry? The one you weren't supposed to get serious with so you could go on a mission? The one you weren't sure you could ever love like that? Yeah, you marry him. In about a year. In a summer wedding. In June. Something...