Tracie's World

Found a gem on Netflix yesterday, and other than the time I was away for the Temple Open House, I spent most of the day watching it. It's called "Egypt", and is sort of part documentary, part dramatic reenactment of events surrounding the discovery of King Tut's Tomb, the Temple of Abu Simbel, Seti's Tomb, and the discovery and translation of the Rosetta Stone. There are 6 episodes, and it's fantastic. If you're like me, and you have any interest at all in history, or archaeology, or Ancient Egypt, you'll totally love it.

Thursday night, Awesome Sister-in-Law #1 invited me down to attend their Stake's  Relief Society activity. And what a great event it was. We started off with a lovely dinner where we got to sit with some really nice sisters. Later, everyone reconvened in the chapel to hear a message from Sister Bonnie Parkin, the former General Relief Society President.  Sister Parkin's teaching style is to have everyone participate and share their feelings. We were asked to "think, pair, and share", meaning to share with our thoughts with the people sitting next to us. We also talked about Relief Society, and about what General Conference means to us, and then she walked around the room with a microphone, asking sisters to share their thoughts. And she didn't want anyone to be shy, telling them to "speak up" and get "on your tootsies". It was great, and a very inspiring meeting. And it was extra nice to be there with family. Although it did leave me wishing ...

Yesterday my pal Janeen and I braved the impending thunder storms and met up to go down to Utah County for the Open House of the Payson, Utah Temple. And what a great experience it was. The temple was absolutely stunning, and the crowds were small enough that we could really focus and ponder on what we were seeing. Generally, a Temple Open House means huge crowds, hot weather, waiting in long lines, and a host of other annoyances that make the experience a little less than thrilling. But this time was just the opposite. I don't know if it was because it was the opening weekend, or the potentially unpleasant weather, but I appreciated it all the same. There was plenty of opportunity to walk around on the tour, and take a minute to really look around. In fact, when we entered one of the sealing rooms, there was a really great couple there that hosted and invited everyone to sit down and relax. Then they spoke about the purpose of sealing rooms, and temples in general, and their...

Last evening, I gave it the old college try, and got myself down to one of the regional Single Adult Activities. It's been quite some time since I've got out there for an event, preferring instead to avoid the drama and what can often be a bit of a painful experience. But I decided I needed to attend this time, sort of as an act of faith that good things would come of it. So down to the Classic Skate Center I went. I kind of had no real intention of putting on roller skates, and I'm glad I didn't. You see, all those years ago when I would spend hours at the roller rink, or skating downstairs in the basement, I never learned how to stop myself other than by running in to a wall. And the Classic Skate Center was wall-less. Just a big open skate space. And I was NOT about to get mixed up in that. But the Activity Committee had provided free pizza, and salad for dinner, and had a soft serve ice cream machine on hand to serve up dessert. And I did find some friends to vi...

So at SelectHealth, we work on a project schedule that we call a "Sprint". The idea is that you do a small project, start to finish, every 3 weeks. And at the end of each sprint, we take the opportunity to celebrate.  I was in charge of our latest celebration, which took place on Friday. Prior to the event, the team decided that we wanted to have a taco bar and watch a movie together. So we put together a potluck with all the fixings, and it was quite a spread. One of the ladies made shredded chicken, and I made some Spanish rice, then the guys all provided the tortillas, chips, salsa, cheese, etc. One of the guys even brought in some churros for dessert. It was quite a spread. For our movie we ended up watching "Guardians of the Galaxy", which was really fun and had a terrific soundtrack of pop music from the 70's and 80's.  As a female who's worked in technology for many years now, I've gotten used to working mostly with men, and to the id...

Friday evening my friend Jen and I got together for dinner and a movie at the theater down the street. Jen suggested that we meet up and walk, and it was a perfect evening for it. So first we walked up the street to the local sushi joint, where I ordered the Playboy roll and the Deja Vu roll, both of which were awesome. Here's a couple of photos. Note that those are tempura shrimp sticking out the sides, and a pile of shaved ginger and wasabi in the corner. The ginger I'm great with, but I'm not really a wasabi fan (it's a plant that gets mashed up and tastes like super hot horseradish). After a delightful dinner we turned around and walked back down the street to catch "Jupiter Ascending" at the discount movie theater. Despite it's having a 25% score on Rotten Tomatoes (aka not many people rated it highly), I liked it quite a bit. It was such a fun evening. Perfect weather, great company, and we got to stay in the neighborhood. I need to...

There's been a lot of talk recently about "what Mormon women want". The Salt Lake Tribune even hosted a live chat session about it. As if all Mormon women are disaffected and dissatisfied, and as if all Mormon men are misogynists. I for one don't really get what all the fuss is about. Women wanting the priesthood, women thinking that we're treated as second class citizens, women complaining about how put upon and miserable they are, and how they want this or that. Frankly, these conversations bore me.  Sure - some things are lousy. But the thing about "wanting", is that it doesn't necessarily correspond to "need", or "essential". We all want things, but maybe we should ask ourselves the following questions first: Why do you want it? What will it cost you to get it? How will it make your life better?   Will it make you a better follower of Christ? If you can honestly answer that it's a necessity, and that the benefit outw...

Several weeks ago I sent off for a DNA test kit from Ancestry. My hope was that it would maybe give me some other ideas for those family lines on which we are stuck, particularly on the line of a certain blacksheep Great-Grandfather named Albert Smith, who one day dropped of the face of the earth, never to return to his family. He's a big gaping black hole that we're frankly obsessed about and are unable to find any additional information on. This of course has led me to all sorts of conspiracy theories, and I was waiting on pins and needles to see if this test could fill in the missing puzzle pieces. This week, my results finally arrived. I held my breath and shook as I went online to view them. Alas, my hopes were mostly dashed. While the test did recognize potential cousin matches from the Ancestry Database, they're all on my Edwards and Roy lines. None of them shed any light on the missing Great-Grandfather.  The results did show that I am about as European as a p...

Got myself down to the Salt Lake Temple yesterday afternoon to do some Initiatories. I've been going most of the time to the Jordan River temple, so it's been several months since I've been to Salt Lake. But it was a pleasant time, and a beautiful spring day on Temple Square. #whereiam #ilovetoseethetemple

Celebrated Easter and watched the last session of General Conference with the family last week. The niece and nephew built a fort out of blankets and chairs, and did their best to pay attention while chowing down on their Easter Candy. After the session was over, the good brother grilled up some burgers and hot dogs, and we celebrated Awesome Sister-in-law #1's birthday. We even played outside a little bit before chowing down on birthday cake (a special one created by the nephew), pie, and ice cream. As you can see, our family takes it's desserts seriously. What a happy day!