Tracie's World

This last week I began my journey to obtaining a Master's Degree at Penn State University. And let's just say, it's been interesting. Something I did to prepare beforehand was request a blessing. LDS families have sort of a tradition of the Father's blessing their children before the beginning of a new school year, and I figured this would even be useful for non-traditional students like me. So one of my Home Teachers came by last week, and gave me a beautiful blessing. I've tried to draw strength from that as I continue on this path. I dialed in to my first lecture on Tuesday night, and although it went well, my head certainly hurt by the time the night was over. I'm taking two classes right now, one is a foundations class in Enterprise Architecture, and one is in Project Management. Enterprise Architecture is all about strategically bringing the Business, the Technology, and the Strategy all together to get the organization to where you want it to be.

I didn't do so well with my personal goal-setting last year, and frankly, it showed. While 2016 was a blessing in many ways, it was also one of my rougher years - professionally and personally. So in an effort to start 2017 off on the right foot, I have put together the following: Tracie's 2017 Goals "Be of Good Cheer" by Focusing on the Atonement Speaking of other people's good qualities - less criticism Making time for the Temple Doing at least one small act of Service a day Writing/Blogging more Focusing on next steps, not looking too far ahead. Maintain My Physical Health by Eating only the best foods - mostly vegetarian lifestyle, cook more, eat out less Exercising 90 minutes per day - strength training 2 days per week, yoga 1 day per week, walk/run/hike 30 minutes per day (get outside on non-inversion days) Maintaining proper sleep habits - try to get 8 hours per night Not taking on too much  Focus on my Studies by Study 2 hours per day

Seems like the western US has been getting hammered with snow and freezing temperatures, and Utah has been no exception. It seems like the snow has been coming down ever since Christmas Eve, and it has long since stopped being magical. When I woke yesterday morning the temperature was -3. I honestly can't remember the last time that happened, and I am plenty ready for winter to be over.

Niece #1 returned from her Christmas break the other day, and stayed the night, prior to moving in to her new dorm the next day. Imagine my delight to have some one-on-one time with the girl who started it all. I made us some homemade popcorn, and we watched a movie (I was shocked to learn she had never seen "Galaxy Quest", so I introduced her to it), and had a great time. Sure love this kid!

Now that 2016 is over, last year's crop of 13-14 year-olds moves on to their new Sunday School class. I have to say that I'll miss them. Despite the clique-y girls, and the rowdy boys, they are a fun group of kids, and I was blessed to be their teacher. I spent most of the year wondering if I was making any sort of difference. But I did notice a lot of growth by the end of the year, particularly with the young men, and that was really encouraging. I even got a Christmas thank you hand-delivered by one of the boys. Hopefully that's a good sign.

A few weeks ago, my friend Stephanie and I made our way down to the Deseret Book in Cottonwood Heights, where Steve Young was doing a book signing of his autobiography "QB: My Life Behind the Spiral". Now, as a true blue Cougar for pretty much all my life, and a Latter-day Saint, getting a chance to meet Steve Young was a very big deal. He was a tremendous example throughout his years in the NFL, and continues to be now that he's retired. And if most LDS women of a certain age were to admit it, we would all say he was our celebrity crush. So as I say, it was a very big deal. And although the experience was brief, he was very kind, and it was a definite highlight.  As a double bonus, I also got to meet and get a signature from his co-author, Jeff Benedict, another great and well-known Latter-day Saint. And for a t riple bonus - the book was really good!