i Madonnari

Brent and I went to visit my family in Santa Barbara over Memorial Day weekend. It was so nice to get away, see the beach and of course I always love spending time with my family. I had not seen most of them since Christmas and I always love playing with my nieces and nephews. We did not do a whole lot while we were there, just because things were kind of crazy... but we did go to iMadonnari which they have every year at the Santa Barbara Mission. They make squares in front of the mission and artists (I think mostly local) buy a square and then spend the weekend doing a chalk drawing. Then they hire a featured artist for the big middle square. It is really amazing how real some of them look. They have music and food and lots of people come to the event every year. It is awesome and I have not been in years, so it was fun to go again and to take Brent.


Also ran into my friend Chrissy! I had not seen her in years, so it was a special treat. We were good friends and hung out quite a bit in high school. Now she is married with two beautiful children. Love that girl.

SB Fires

Once again, my home town was on fire. I don't know why it keeps trying to burn down. It is so sad. I know there is fire season... but that is usually near the end of the summer, and I don't remember the city being on fire so much when I was living at home. I know many had to evacuate their homes... including some of my family and many friends, but thankfully... everyone I know is safe and their houses didn't burn down. Hopefully this was the big one of the season and I don't need to worry for the end of the summer. I am so thankful for my brother in law, Billy, and the rest of the people who fight those fires to keep everyone and the city safe.



At an event in Santa Barbara (which I will blog more about in another post) many artist paid tribute to the fire fighters by doing these neat chalk drawings. I thought it was awesome.

Blythe is married!

On an earlier post you saw our little roommate night out to dinner for Blythe... well, after over a year of dating Rob, they are now married. We were roommates for 2 years... so it will be weird to not have her around anymore, but I am very happy for them. And I will see them around, she is my brother-in-law's sister after all.
Blythe's mom made cute little dresses for all of the nieces. Reanne and Sierra (our shared nieces) looked SOOO cute. They were loving it too. Here are a few pictures from the reception at the art museum.... (also funny that my last post was the art ball at the same museum)P.S. My friend Colette cut and colored my hair. I love it!

Art Ball

I would have never known about the Art Ball, but my roommate Ashlee works at the Springville Art Museum where it is held every year, so she told me about it and got me excited about it. So Brent and I decided it would make a fun date and got tickets. P.S. That is something I have always appreciated about Brent... always thinking of fun and creative dates. It is never same ol same ol with us. I love it.
So we dressed up this Saturday night, we heard it was formal wear, so I had an excuse to get my high school formal dress out again. It was such a awesome event. There were live bands playing jazz type music and people dancing (Brent and I love to dance) and there was great food and of course amazing art. There was a Russian art exhibit there that was amazing. The museum had just added a garden also, so that was open for the first time and it was beautiful. We also ran into a few friends and my Aunt Teresa and Uncle Dale. It was great! Oh.... they also had a photographer there taking your picture and they gave us our picture at the end of the night. I can't believe I never knew about the Art Ball before. Such a great date.

Haiku

When I worked at Apx, there were a group of us that used to write haiku's to each other... to talk about anything, it just made the day more interesting (sad huh?). I enjoyed it though... I kind of miss having to be creative in communicating by haiku.... so here it goes. (I'm a little rusty)

At last! Spring is here!
I thought it would never come.
Let the joy begin.

Happy Mothers Day!

I really wish that I could have been home to spend the day with my mom and to give her a hug and kiss and tell her thank you and how much I love her, but I couldn't ( I did call) so I am writing a message to her on my blog.

Mom,
Thank you so much for being so wonderful, for raising me, and for your good example. You have helped mold me into who I am today. You have taught me so much... you have taught me the importance of the gospel and I grew up knowing you had a strong testimony which helped me build my testimony. You have taught me the importance of service... I can't even think of how many times I have seen you do so much for so many people and I have always appreciated that our home was a welcoming place for people to come and feel loved and appreciated and knew they could always count on our family for help if they needed it. You have taught me the importance of cleanliness and organization, I don't think I fully appreciated this until I moved out on my own, but this is very important and something I will want to teach to my kids one day. I remember as little kids being excited about cleaning because you sewed us little apron's with a list of what we needed to clean in one pocket and some candy in the other pocket for when we completed our list (and somehow I actually saved the candy for when I was done). You have taught me the importance of marriage and family, that even when it gets hard, you don't give up and that family is important and will bring so much happiness. You have taught me patience and to relax, that things will work out if I try my best and stay on the right path. You taught me to believe in myself when I wanted to give up. You have supported me in my life's decisions, even if they were crazy... like taking off to Costa Rica for two months at age 19 with my older sister, both of us being inexperienced travelers. You taught me to love music which is now such a passion of mine. I will always have memories of you playing hymns on the piano on Sunday and playing your guitar and singing, it was so comforting... I wanted to be just like you. I could go on and on...
Thank you for always listening to me, thank you for supporting me, thank you for loving me and making me feel important and special, thank you for believing in me. I love you so much.

Love Tracy

P.S. To my sisters....
Thank you for being wonderful examples to me of what I want marriage and motherhood to be like. I see you and your cute families and it makes me so excited to get married and have a family of my own. You are all so wonderful and talented and amazing mothers. I am so blessed to have you as sisters. I am so thankful for our friendship. I love you all so much!

Spring!!

Spring FINALLY came! I am so excited for warmer weather... I feel like winter was never going to end. Since I told Brent that we should date for four seasons and a roadtrip before we got married, I have been having us take pictures together at every season. This is season 3 with several trips together, one long roadtrip... only one more season to go. :o)

Granola

So since I did my hard core diet... I had to come off it easy and was still not able to eat a lot of things. My friend Nate gave me this recipe for a good healthy breakfast that I could eat and I LOVE IT!!! It is so sweet and so good, you don't feel like you are eating something so healthy, but you are. Plus that... it makes your whole house smell so good. Here is what you need...

2 cups crushed pecans
2 cups slivered almonds
1 cup crushed walnuts
1 1/2 cups coconut
1 tbs vanilla flavoring
1 tbs cinnamon
1 cup coconut flour (you would have to get this at a health food store)
1 cup agave (also probably have to get at a health food store)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup coconut oil

Mix together, spread on cookie sheet, bake at 250 degrees for 40 stirring every 10 minutes. I have mine in a bowl with milk in the morning for breakfast, YUM!!

Cruise Girls

We had a cruise reunion dinner yesterday. Before the cruise... I knew most of the girls, but I didn't feel as close to them as I did after. We still all think it was one of the best vacations we have ever taken... so care free... so fun.... escape from reality... fun activities... beautiful location, I can't say enough how much we loved it. So we get together and we reminisce. ha ha... these girls are a blast and I love them. Corinne is in the picture with us but didn't go on the cruise with us, but she wanted to. And we are missing Kirsten and Emily's sister Jenny and Amy, but lets be honest, we didn't really spend that much time with Amy on the cruise anyway because she was always off doing her own thing. ANYWAYS.... good times!
2008

A year earlier.... we had all gotten together to have dinner because after a month of being home from the cruise... we were missing it terribly and we were missing each other.
2009

Just Because

This last week at work was a little busier than normal because every three months at Novell they have Quarter End, so we have to stay a little later because everyone is trying to get their contracts processed before the last day of the month. It was not as bad as I thought it was going to be from how they talked about it... although I am sure July's will be much worse, and we got free meals and they try to make the longer hours bearable. But this last Friday, after that was all over... I got up and got ready for work and came down the stairs about to leave and saw the roses and card on the table. They were for me! I was so surprised. Why? Just because Brent had not seen me in a couple days and it had been a little busier at work so Brent wanted me to know he was thinking of me. I could have cried it was so sweet and thoughtful. I really don't know what I did to deserve him, but I am so thankful I found him. He is so amazing. Again.... I am so glad I found my best friend and get to spend the rest of my life with him, and I am thankful to his parents for raising such an amazing young man.
P.S. The Chocolates he saved for me from our date that we went to see the Orchestra... after we all went to this amazing chocolate store in SLC, but I was on my diet, so I couldn't have any and I was having a hard time with it because I love chocolate, so secretly he bought me some and saved it for me until I was off my diet. :o)