The Unadventures of Tracie

I have been blogging. I just haven't been posting my entries. Maybe I'll post them, but probably not. Most are too depressing to read. Anyway, I'm getting caught up. Troy & Jen came to town in October to attend a sealing. While they were here, the family went to Cornbelly's together. It was a lot of fun. It was interesting having Morgan with us as it was at Cornbelly's the previous year that we announced our pregnancy. It was Troy & Jen's first time meeting Morgan. A good time was had by all. And now for pictures:

So I meant to post this eons ago. Here are pictures from Austin and me's trip to Arizona for our Spring Break Vacation. We went to a butterfly garden, went to Egee's, played minigolf, watched Seth play baseball, and traveled to Mesa. We visited Heather and Heidi.

Lots of food for me to eat What, you say? This was a month ago? Well, poppycocks. Deal with it. Austin and I had a fun Superbowl Sunday. We went over to Tyler's where we each made our own individual pizzas. (Ty, your white sauce rocked. Send me the recipe and the pizza dough recipe STAT.) To show you how important the game was to me, I cannot now remember who even played. I do remember that it was a pretty exciting game to watch. One of the best in a while. Though I still don't really care for sports all that much. I enjoyed Bruce Springsteen's Halftime show and the super-cool-3D-commercial-product-promoting commercial break. (Lol, actually it was fun watching stuff in 3D at home.) Before the game was over we headed over to Jan Beckstrom's (Austin's first cousin once removed) house and visited with Justin (his second cousin slash best friend). A good time was had by all. And here are pics to prove these things happened: (Except the second part. I have no pictures of...

It is now February. But that doesn't mean I can't make New Year's resolutions anymore. In fact, I hope that we all constantly make and strive to meet goals all year, not just at the beginning. I wanted to briefly give an account of my New Year's Eve. The McNeil family (and some on Cheryl's side) had a lovely party over at Tyler and Cheryl's. There was good food and good company. Austin and I (and by that I mean me) planned some games. They were well-received. It was good to see a group of adults laughing that hard. Highlights include Austin miming giving an elephant a bath and my dad screeching out "Baby, if you love me, won't you please, please smile." At midnight we had the countdown and Austin and I kissed: We then had some brief, but really cool, albeit illegal fireworks courtesy of Tyler. The next day we spent some time with Heidi, Aaron, and Will, and then went out to dinner to Red Robin with Brittnee and Matt. The day after this I started th...

Christmas has come and gone but you get to read about it again. This year Austin and I went to Texas to spend Christmas with his family. I was excited to see his family but also felt a bit strange about being away from my family on Christmas for the first time ever. We flew out on the 21st after Austin had finished his finals. (He did pretty well. Way to go baby!) My parents generously drove us to the airport, and we arrived in plenty of time. There were no complications or setbacks. It was actually quite empty for this time of year. We had a relaxing time while we were there. The week consisted of visiting with family, including both sets of grandparents who came and left at different times; playing Shanghai (I won twice.); watching Psych (a funny TV show friends have been trying to get us to see forever); seeing Alice perform in The Messiah (which was much longer than I thought it was. Apparently there’s more to it than the Hallelujah Chorus); visiting Brett and Laurie and their t...

Thanksgiving has come and gone once again. Though I took my camera to every event, I did not take any pictures. So you'll have to settle for words only. Austin and I had a great Thanksgiving. He wrote all about it for the most part, so I'll just sum up from my point of view. The night before Thanksgiving Austin and I went over to my parent's as Troy, Jen, and family were there. They had decided to surprise us all. It was a wonderful surprise. That night was spent making pies (mostly by Mom) and singing karaoke. Next day was all about food, food, and more food. We made my oh-so-famous cranberry sauce and pumpkin cheesecake and headed over to my parents. Mom's homemade rolls were excellent as always. The turkey was good as were the mashed potatoes. The gravy was absolutely superb, as was my cranberry sauce that I didn't personally eat. Everyone was there except for the Powells (who a lot of us had visited last Thanksgiving). Grandma and Grandpa McNeil also joined...

I'm updating so you can all stop sending me dirty looks through cyberspace. I love Halloween. And yes I know that Thanksgiving is now approaching (a holiday I also love) but I'm writing about Halloween now so those of you sick of it will just have to deal with it. I had two costumes this year. One for work and one for the family/friend Halloween parties. I decided on my work costume because of a conversation Charity and I had one day. We were discussing one day how we hated the term "comma nazi" because it has such a negative and derogatory connotation. So we decided to come up with a replacement. I decided that "comma ninja" was a much better alternative as one, ninjas kick the butt out of Nazis and two, it was a more accurate description. I approach editing in a subtle kick-butt approach, hi-yahing extra commas or karate chopping abused apostrophes. Like ninjas in the night, Charity and I sneak in and edit. Okay, so editors are nerdy. But most of you alrea...

I love fall. It is my favorite season by far. I love it when it cools down and there's the slightest twinge of crispness in the air. The air smells crisper, cleaner. The sky showcases beautiful sunsets. And all the leaves in the mountain change color. I have many fond memories of going up the canyon to see nature's paintbrush. Everywhere gold, red, green, brown, yellow, and orange. I think Utah is at its most beautiful when the mountains display a master's palette of autumn colors. Recently Austin and I went up with my mom, dad, and my younger brother to see the leaves before they started falling off and dying. We went probably a week too late to see it in its full splendor, but it was still quite beautiful. Here are some of the pics I (and Austin) took: Alas, fall has fallen and now the seedlings of winter are on their way! It's already snowing! It's going to be a long, cold winter. :( If it were up to me, winter would last exactly 1 1/2 months. Beginning o...