The Unadventures of Tracie

I didn't blog at all in October? Dang. Oh well, that's all to be changing as I'm taking a challenge this month to blog every day. It will be quite a challenge since I rarely blog anymore. I actually have tons of stuff I want to write about but haven't been because a.  I'm not sure it's appropriate for this blog (i.e., I really want to write lots of stuff about birth, pregnancy, feminism, breastfeeding, religion, etc. In other words, the causes I'm really passionate about. Seriously, just talk to me for 5 minutes and see if one of these topics doesn't come up.) b.  I don't really have a lot of time c.  I'm lazy d.  I worry about what people will think about what I have to say. I don't worry about what they'll think of ME per se. I just worry that expressing my opinion on the things that matter to me will somehow offend them. And I hate people thinking that I think things about them that aren't true. So what have I been up to? I...

I find it funny that it's January and I'm posting about Halloween. Well, I don't want these awesome pictures to go to waste. For Halloween this year Austin and I had three Halloween parties. One with my family (I don't have any pictures from this) and two different ones with different friends. The family party was awesome, as usual. Unfortunately Austin and I didn't dress up as we weren't ready yet. This is first year that I've ever NOT dressed up for the family party. Then we had a party with my "book club" friends. This party consisted of eating food, watching the boys play video games, and taking turns chasing babies. Austin, Morgan, and I dressed up in a theme. See if you can guess. If you can't tell, Austin is Han Solo, I'm Princess Leia, and Morgan is Wicket (an Ewok). My costume was very last minute. I couldn't find any Princess Leia costumes that weren't ridiculously priced, so we thrift-stored it. The skirt and turtle...

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!

This is an interesting day for me. This is the first time that I can kind of celebrate Mother's Day. Morgan's still in my tummy, but to me, he's my baby already. I love my baby, and I'm sure I'll love being a mom once he finally gets here. I wanted to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in my life. I have to first and foremost thank my own mother who brought me into this world. I am so lucky to have such an awesome mom. She loves me, and I love her. What more could you ask for from a mom? I am so grateful for my mom. I can't imagine anyone else who would've been better. She's such an amazing example to me. I'm appreciative of everything she has done for me. I wouldn't be the person I am today without my mom. I'm so glad to have such a wonderful mother-in-law. I'm so lucky to have married a man who had such a great mother and did such a great job raising him. I always wanted to marry into a family in which I could feel a part ...

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...

I'm grateful for many things this year. I'd like to say thanks to all the many friends, family, neighbors, and acquaintances in my life. Earlier this year I wrote posts specifically thanking people in my life. I still mean everything I said then. You can read (or reread as the case may be) my thanks here , here , and here . This year I'm thankful for... * my husband who really does so much for me and is my strength * my family members, on both sides * my friends, especially the new ones I've recently made * the gospel * my Savior * my job * Austin's job * a home that keeps us warm and provides shelter * a sense of humor and * my upcoming bundle of joy due June 12th. I know most of you already knew. The cat's out of the bag. Austin and I are now telling the world. (Which means I finally get to blog about it) You can go to Austin's blog to see a picture of our little Squiggle. He/she is a little bigger than that now as that was 4 weeks ago. Happy belated Thank...

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...

Last Thursday Austin and I hung out with the Beckstrom relatives. We went to Outback Steakhouse with (forgive any name misspellings) Aunt Karrie & Uncle Robert and their kids Emily & Nicholas; Uncle Jim & Aunt Jan and their kids Nikita, Max, Ivan, and Andre; and Uncle David & Aunt Vera and their kids Brett, Kiersten, and Dylan. With all those people (and knowing the Beckstroms), it was understandably boisterous inside. We celebrated Brett’s birthday (and teased him about his girlfriend who is indeed a very attractive girl). Afterwards we went to SubZero, which is a really cool (as in liquid nitrogen cool) place. For those that haven’t been there, it’s pretty neat. You order what type of cream you’d like (with its corresponding percentage of fat: premium 14%, custard 10%, lowfat 6%, and yogurt 0%). Then you choose your flavors that get mixed into the cream. They have at least two dozen flavors to choose from and you can choose as many as you want. You then get one free ...

In honor of Father’s Day, (yes, I know it was yesterday, but better late than never.) I have decided to write a list of the TOP TEN reasons why my dad is so great/why I love him so much: 10. He gives good hugs and is always quick to give me one when I need it. 9. He’s taught me to be a hard worker and to be the very best I can be. 8. He’s the most persistent, resilient, ambitious person I’ve ever known. He doesn’t let anything stop him or get in the way of what he wants to accomplish. When obstacles or challenges come his way, he just finds a way around them. 7. If I need help with something, he’ll “make it happen.” 6. He loves my mom. 5. He’s a great example of charity and service, always willing to step in and help others when he can. 4. His family is the most important thing in the world to him and he’d do anything for us. 3. He’s a man of integrity. 2. He loves the gospel and listens to and follows the spirit. 1. He loves me! I love you, Fajha. ...

This weekend was quite the whirlwind for Austin and me. (Yes, this is correct usage. See CACCAAA for more information. I will soon write an entry on this subject.) Anyway, quite the whirlwind. First of all, good news! I found out on Friday that I’m going to be a work-from-home editor! I will be working a few days here at the office, but I believe the majority of my time will be spent working from home. I am quite excited about this for a number of reasons. I will be saving a lot of money on gas (with me currently having to fill up every 4 work days and gas being about $50 to fill up now). I will be saving lots of time (with the average commute being around 2 hours daily). I will be able to get more sleep on a regular basis as I won’t have to drive into work. It also works out great with our current plans. We also won’t have to move anymore, which we were both dreading. Now, on to the rest of the weekend! Charity and James came over for dinner Friday night. I made Tomato & Basil Ma...

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...

Happy New Year everyone! I know you've missed me. . . You haven't heard from me since last year! (cue groans.) Yes, well. I think I'm humorous. I am currently at home sick. Lovely. Actually I'm pretty stoked about it. (Not being sick, but being at home.) My boss told me to go home. So I'm currently "working" from home. (I don't have anything to do.) I like being at home and leaving early meant I didn't have to deal with rush hour traffic on the way home. Yay! And now I can get paid to write blog entries in my underwear while dealing with my massive sneeze attacks. Anyway, I wanted to write down my resolutions for the New Year. (I won't talk about New Year's Eve since Austin already covered that.) So here they are, my resolutions for 2008: 1. I resolve to get in shape this year. (Austin: "what shape? like pear-shape? diamond? perhaps parallelogram?") My shape of choice is to get back to the weight I was happy at and also...

Here I am back at work. Cold, dark, tired, and sad. Presents have been opened, food has been eaten, oh yes, Christmas is over. Don't get me wrong. Christmas was good. I just hate being back at work today. I couldn't sleep again last night. And now I'm here at work with nothing to do (and no management in sight) and my lights are almost off (and blinking annoyingly) and it is freezing cold. I wish I would have had today off as well. Anyway... here's a rundown on my short Christmas break: Austin and I finished the last little shopping we had left to do over Friday and Saturday and just relaxed. Sunday we went over to my parent's for the McNeil "Bring a Special Thing and Share Memories and Eat Treats" night. That was fun. It was good to see some extended family and hear them share some thoughts. We were to bring an object that was special to us and explain why. I brought my guitar that my dad had given me, and Austin brought his painting he had done in Italy....

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...

After reading Heather's post, I am also moping. I'm really glad I got an opportunity to say goodbye to Heather and to Leah, but am sad that I didn't get to say goodbye to Ryan or the boys. I'm also sad that I didn't have more time to spend with the Powell family. It really was too short. But there will be other times. Austin and I would like to visit again. (I'm sure that will make Leah happy.) I'm really glad that Austin and I decided to go to Arizona. It was worth the long trip. I only wish we could've spent more time together. Things are always crazy around holidays. I loved your home Heather. It gave me a lot of ideas on how I want to decorate. It helped me figure out a little more what my own personal style is. I love the decoration we made. It looks supercute on my entertainment center. I am SO excited for Christmas this year! Austin and I bought our very first tree. We couldn't afford one last year. (All the cheap ones disa...