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...

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!

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 ...

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...

I agree with Austin. Blog entries are always hard to start. So last weekend I continued my birthday celebration. I got to go home early on Friday since I had gained extra hours doing the workshops. I stopped at Target and bought myself 3 new shirts (yay!) and a giftcard for my friend Kim whose reception was that same night. Austin and I then went to Red Robin for dinner. Then we hurried over to The White Willow to see Kim and wish her well. We were then going to go to a movie but it was getting too late so we decided to rent movies instead. Then we stayed up watching Friends season 4 all night. Saturday was the day of the party so Austin went to class while I went and got a massage. (I used the gift certificate Austin got me for Christmas.) Then we cleaned house and I made spinach artichoke dip and apple cinnamon yellow cake. Trent & Jess arrived first later joined by Charity & James and Brett & Charlotte. We chatted while we waited for Brittnee & Matt to get there. Th...

Austin and others have been complaining that I haven’t been updating frequently enough. So, here I am updating on the last week or so. On March 4, I, along with AJ, threw Heidi a baby shower. We had a “spring” theme and it was a “friends” shower. (Shera had thrown Heidi a ward/family shower in December.) AJ graciously did the invites and mailed them out while I was still in Texas for Austin and me’s trip. Since I don’t get home until 6:30 usually and the shower was set to start at 7, I planned to get everything done the night before. I left work an hour early and stopped at Walmart for groceries and Heidi’s gift. I then returned home and started cleaning the house. I cleaned furiously and prepared the spinach artichoke dip that was to be cooked the following night. I also made sugar cookie dough and placed it in the fridge to chill while I finished cleaning the house. Austin and I were still technically housesitting for my parents and so we went over there to bake and frost the sugar ...