The Unadventures of Tracie

Several years ago Austin and I bought several kinds of gummy bears in an attempt to discover which gummy bears were the best. We rated them in different categories, and it was a lot of fun. I’ve been wanting to do something like that again. And then this weekend, the perfect opportunity presented itself. We were at Sprouts shopping, and they had a wide assortment of apples on sale for $0.88/lb. This was too good to pass up. So I went crazy and bought 14 varieties of apples. Most we only bought 1 or 2 apples, but some we bought more. (We bought 10 Ambrosia apples because they’re awesome and they’re not widely available.) I wanted this to be the ultimate apple taste test. So, today we cut up and prepared the apples. We put them on paper plates and divided them up and labeled them. In retrospect, I wish we had taken pictures of the whole process. (Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda.) We then decided on categories; we rated the apples on Overall Taste, Juiciness, Sweetness, Tartness, and Har...

I don’t blog as much as I used to. (Paging Captain Obvious!) The reasons for this are many. Lack of time. Lack of motivation. Feeling unable to talk about the things that matter to me. Anyway, I’m making a new goal to blog once a month just to chronicle what is happening in our lives. If I don’t write this stuff down, I’ll forget it. So here is the status of the members of the Austin & Tracie family: Austin : still in school. I honestly don’t know when he’ll graduate at this point. I keep having my hopes dashed, so I’m not even going to set a date. It’ll most likely be sometime next year though. This summer he’s taking a computer programming class. For funsies. Hopefully it’ll teach him something. He’s working on a few graphic design side projects and has goals to work on stuff throughout the summer. This summer he’ll be home at 5ish so that will be great to have him home earlier. Tracie : still working. I honestly don’t know when I’ll stop working at this point. This...

I was still in school when Austin and I were dating. The semester we got engaged I was taking Marriage Preparation at BYU. (Highly recommend. Probably one of the best classes I've taken in my life ever.) As one of the assignments in that class, I was to write a letter to my fiance explaining why I wanted to marry him. In honor of our four-year wedding anniversary, coming up later this month, I'm posting my letter to him, written four months before we got married: Dear Austin,      I know that there could have been someone else for the both of us. We could have (and I guess we still could if we really wanted to) changed our minds and found someone else. But we didn’t. After fourteen months and against sometimes insurmountable odds, we are still together and going strong. I know that before we started dating I told you that I could never marry you. I was wrong. I was wrong for so many reasons. To further clarify, I would like to tell you all the many reasons why I’...

For our anniversary this year Austin and I went out to dinner while his mom watched Morgan. We were gone about an hour. It was good to have some time to ourselves. I can't believe it's been three years already. This year of marriage will be very different from the rest as we start this year as a larger family. Husband & Wife First New Family Photo I'm so happy to be married to Austin. He's always been a wonderful husband and now he's a wonderful father as well. I'm so lucky to be married to my best friend. He really is my perfect match. I'm looking forward to spending this year learning how to be parents together. I'm so grateful to have Austin as my partner in our new life together. Happy Anniversary sweetheart!

Today is a very special Father's Day. Today my husband celebrates Father's Day for the first time as an actual father. It's only been three days and already Austin is such an amazing father. Morgan loves being held by his daddy and sucking on his finger. I am just so impressed with how Austin loves his son. I married a wonderful man, and he's going to be such a wonderful father. I'd like to make a shoutout to my own father. Fahja has been such a great dad to me. I'll always be my daddy's little girl no matter how old I get. He's been supportive over the years and always ready with a hug. I know I can always count on my dad. He's never let me down, and I know he never will. I didn't get to see him this year on Father's Day as I was at home with my brand new baby. So since I didn't get to say it before, I'll say it now: Happy Fahja's Day!

Everyone can shout for hooray. Why? Tracie is posting pics on her blog! Yay! Anyway, these are the photos from our trip to the gardens at Thanksgiving Point. You can all Ooo and Ah over them. Pictures include those of flowers, trees, water, and the various themed gardens, such as "The Rose Garden." There are also many pictures of water lilies. It was the first time that I had seen water lilies, and I found them to be absolutely gorgeous. If you ever have an opportunity to go, I highly recommend it. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and serene. Thanks Mom & Dad B. for making it possible for us to go!

For once, Austin's giving me a chance to tell everyone what's going on. For all of you who have been complaining that I haven't been posting as regularly, blame Austin. It's no fun to write about stuff he's already written about. So, the other day I found randomly a list of events going on in Utah county. One of them was at the Museum of People & Cultures on BYU campus. The activity was called "Culture-Me-Mine." It was a date night activity consisting of looking at the museum's exhibit, a clay sculpting competition, a scavenger hunt, and couple's feud. (It also consisted of eating yummy brownies and cookies.) All for the low, low price of $5 a person. It was a pretty fun night. Austin and I had the chance to do something different for a date, and it was cheap! What more could you ask for? (Well, I guess you could ask for more, but I won't.) You can see the "Man on a Couch" sculpture that Austin and I made together. It was pretty...

So I wanted to beat Austin to the punch and blog about our weekend. Since Austin and I will be traveling (Yay, Texas!) on Valentine's Day we decided we would celebrate early. So Austin bought me flowers, chocolate, and my Cosmo last week. (All for a much cheaper price!) They were very much appreciated. Friday night was our ward V-day party. It was a dessert party. I had made Magic Bars for the occasion (though Austin and I ate most of them ourselves). Then unbeknown to us the drawing for the "raffle" was actually a way for the organizers to force people to play "The Newly Wed Game." Austin and I were picked. It was a lot of fun actually. We didn't win any of the prizes but we did really well. It was a good way for our ward to get to know us. (We still only know a handful of people in the ward.) Saturday was the day we designated as our V-day. Austin went to school and I played The Sims 2. (Austin bought me some expansion packs as my v-day present; part o...

I have finally reached my 50th post. After much deliberation on what I should write on for this momentous occasion I decided that I would use this post to gush about my husband, Austin. I want everyone to know that I am the luckiest girl in the world. “Why?” you ask. The answer: I am married to my best friend. Before I met Austin I used to think and ponder (and occasionally pray) about the kind of man I wanted for my husband. I made lists of husband qualifications in Young Women’s and for various classes along the way. I even wrote a humorous essay one time on what I wanted in a man, “My Ideal Spouse.” All I can say is all these lists and dreaming and pondering did not prepare me for the man I was destined to marry. “Why?” you ask again. Because I never knew that the person I would marry would exceed all the lists I could ever write. I could never have hoped to find a person more practically perfect for me in every way than my dear beloved husband. And to celebrate and shout to...