The Unadventures of Tracie

Remember how Austin posted on his blog about us buying a condo? Well, it's almost here. We close next week (if we get our Aflac money on time, if not we'll have to delay closing a few days). So we will be moving to our new place very, very soon. I can't believe we are doing this. I'm freaking out a little bit. Buying a house is such a huge step. I really hope we're not going to be in over our heads. It was just such a good time to buy right now so we had to act while opportunity was knocking. Anyway, it's late and I'm tired so I'll write more later about our place. For now, here are some pics: Main Bath Bedroom (There are 2 bedrooms besides the Master Bedroom. They both look about the same.) Tub & Shower in Master Bath Master Bath Master Bedroom Kitchen Dining Area in Kitchen Deck (wish this was always going to be our view but they're building a town home right there) Living Room Laundry Room (sans washer and dryer)

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!

I love popcorn. It is one of the best treats ever invented. I am perfectly capable of devouring enormous quantities of popcorn single-handedly. I blame my mom. She is also a popcorn fiend. But this isn't about her. This is about fluffy, buttery popcorn and all of its marvelous wonderousness. My life has been forever changed. So I'm not a complete idiot. I was perfectly aware that not all popcorn comes from little paper bags cooked via "the popcorn button" in the microwave. I mean, I had heard of air poppers. What I didn't know is that it was entirely possible to cook popcorn YOURSELF...ON THE STOVE. Thanks goes to Charity who shared this little piece of wisdom with me. A few weeks ago Austin and I went over to Charity and James' to watch a French postapocalyptic film about cannibals called Delicatessen . (Verdict: Weird, but interesting. And the French are weird.) Anyway, being the good host that she is, Charity had made some homemade popcorn th...

So life does come with its little bits of sunshine. Once a month my work has a professional massage place come in and give ten-minute free massages to employees that sign up for them. I’ve never done it before, but Charity came and got me today and we both signed up. Man, it was great! This is probably the best I’ve ever felt at work. So relaxing and so good, even for ten minutes. I so needed it today. I’ve been stressing about a lot of different things (so glad I’m going on vacation next week) so it was good to have a breather and get my tense muscles relaxed.

Soft and squishy Like Sleeping on a cloud How I love my mattress pad! So, yes, Austin and I got a new mattress topper. It finally finished decompressing and we put it on our bed last night. (The edges didn’t finish all the way but it had been 2 ½ days and I didn’t want to wait anymore, besides we don’t sleep on the edges anyway and the edges aren’t even on our bed really.) It was heavenly… It was like sleeping on cloud or resting on a marshmallow. All joint pain and tension immediately ceased. Austin and I have been talking about it all day today. We can’t wait to go to bed just so we can lie on it. The mattress topper consists of 2 inches of memory foam that is zipped into 2 inches of a microfiber quilted top. The whole thing has a connector piece that tucks into the mattress. It’s absolutely wonderful! It was worth all the money! I hope to be having much sweeter dreams from now on.

How tender are thy branches! Da-da-da-da, da diddly do, da-da-da-da, bah liddly do.....How tender are thy branches! Yes, those are the only words I know. So our Christmas tree is finally up & trimmed! (It's been up for a week or so, but it has shiny red and gold ornaments on it now!) It's so pretty! It's my first tree, and I'm so proud. I'm going to take pictures. Unfortunately, I can't post them since I still don't have a card-reader or a cord connecting my camera to the computer. If anyone want to get me that for Christmas, you're welcome to. Then you'd see pics more often. Anyway... today was my first performance review at WGU. I was a bit nervous, but everything turned out well. My managers actually rated me better than I did myself. I got "exceeds expectations" in every category! They said I was doing well, and they expected me to accelerate rapidly and eventually be a senior editor and leader. They also addressed my con...

On Saturday my husband did the most absolutely amazing thing for me: He made an appointment for me to get a massage. It was my first ever professional massage. I was nervous, but I was brave and stripped completely. It was absolutely incredible. It felt so amazing. I can't believe the hour went by so fast. Thank you honey! I really needed it because I had been having extreme neck and shoulder pain and on Saturday it got much better. Since then, it has once again worsened. But I'm still so appreciate of my honey who loves me.