A Child's Wish Ten Years Too Late

When Tracy and I saw this bag of off-brand Marshmallow Mateys, which ironically is an off-brand itself, our inner children jumped at the chance to eat a bowl with tons of marshmallows. When Tracy poured the first bowl, we started to regret it.

Okay. This will be fun . . .

Superbowl: A Family Event

Tracy and I will probably always struggle just a little with sports in our home. I like sports, but having SportsCenter and several games on every day is boring for me but relaxing and fun for him. But one thing we have agreed on is no sports on Sunday. We agree that Sunday should be a day of relaxation, peace, meditation, and family unity. But he really loves sports. So we have compromised that he cannot watch sports on Sunday except the Superbowl, but we will watch the Superbowl as a family--and the Wulfs will either go big or go home with it (even though we will be home when we watch it--sorry, bad joke).

In our second year of Superbowl Super Sunday, Tracy made his first round of jerky with his new dehydrator. His carnivorous eyes glowed with excitement all weekend.



In my family, we have an inside joke. Whenever my mom made roast on Sundays, her friends could always tell because the smell lingered in her hair and on her clothes for the rest of the day. I felt the same was going to happen to me. I wish the internet could communicate and transfer smells and their intensities. Usually after I've been in a room for awhile, I become accustomed to that smell. The jerky smell never went away! It was a good smell but a strong one. Interestingly, I went to a baby shower later that day with 6 or 7 pregnant women. I didn't know whether they would crave the smell and sniff my hair, try to lick me in hopes that the flavor also transferred, or just barf on me. Luckily, my "smell-pretties" (as Tracy calls perfumes and colognes in his child-like way) seemed to cover up the smell enough. No awkward moments or barfing.

Now to the main event.

Look at all this food. No we didn't eat all of it--we didn't even put a dent in it. There were only two of us! But we wanted options, and we had many!



Thank goodness the Packers won; otherwise there wouldn't be peace in the Wulf household for a long time. During the football game, however, I found that convenient times to go to the bathroom or do other things were mostly during the game itself, so I wouldn't miss commercials. :)



I'm excited that we are creating our family traditions. The Superbowl is a common one, but it still shows that we are consciously choosing and creating our own.

Blogging

I read this fascinating article the other day about blogs--Mormon women's blogs to be more specific. I'll give you a few minutes to read it.

http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/01/15/feminist_obsessed_with_mormon_blogs

At first I felt an interesting mix of emotions.

I like this new-found respect for the thriftiness, happiness, and creativity of stay-at-home Mormon mommy bloggers, even if only for a momentary fantasy from a hectic work schedule. Even if some non-Mormon women only envy the happy family life portrayed in Mormon mommy blogs during what they consider stressful, "the grass is always greener" moments, at least others can recognize that family life can be happy. I believe that family is not the only way to feeling fulfillment, but I feel that it can be the most fulfilling endeavor in life through effort, love, communication, and compromise.

I also felt awkward that strangers would read the blogs of people they don't know and look at photos of kids they don't know. That's kinda . . . weird and creepy! I don't read strangers' blogs unless they have a legit business of some sort.

I'm sure that some of the Mormon mommies read this author's article and momentarily wished they had a career, a quiet and clean house, and no obligations once they got home, but then they, too, would realize that they just like daydreaming about it, that they love their lives, that they wouldn't trade what they have for anything.

To each her own.

New Year, New Me?

I see I have followed the same pattern as I did with my journal in high school. I remember it every four weeks or so and try to come up with a concise way to sum up my life's events. Who wants to spend hours writing about a month of school, work, and (back then) boy concerns? Likewise, who would want to read all summary on a blog? No one.

But there are just a few things I should share. NEWS UPDATE: Tracy and I have had so much fun visiting family and friends in Arizona. I have definitely been blessed with amazing people in my life. Unfortunately, my sister, Karen, who is expecting twins, celebrated Christmas in the hospital and might celebrate Valentine's Day there as well. She and her babies are still healthy and the babies are growing in her, but her body is advancing toward delivery a little too fast. And then my sister-in-law had surgery this past week. She seems to be recovering well, but taking care of four kids will be a challenge when my brother has to go back to work. We'll do the best we can to help, but we all have to return to work soon too. Sheesh!

So, I say let's wipe Lacey's blog slate clean. Let's start over for 2011. I'll try my best to update and be clever as often as I can on my blog this coming year.

I haven't come up with my new, official resolutions yet, but I can report on my resolutions from last year.

1. Become more service oriented. This one is difficult to measure, and when is someone really done serving? Never, so this one must carry on through next year. But I feel that I have done more than I have in the past, so I feel that I can say I have improved in this goal. Yay!

2. Become more crafty. I have worked a lot on this one. Unfortunately, I give away all the things I work on before I take any pictures so I can't show them on here. Perhaps that can be my resolution for this year. Take more pictures!

3. Take better care of my body. (The typical goal.)Tracy and I have faithfully gone to the gym, and I have consciously added more vegetables to our meals. Otherwise, we still eat ice cream, cookies, and brownies basically at will. So, did we meet this goal? Mostly yes. At least we did quit in January like a lot of people.

I'll let you know what my new goals will be for 2011, but for now I am pretty pleased with my progress in 2010.

I have a feeling that 2011 is going to be an interesting and challenging year, but I'm excited for the ride!

Good Morning, Baltimore!

Earlier this month, I attended and presented at the International Writing Center Association/National Conference for Peer Tutoring in Writing Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. All of the Texas A&M University Writing Center's presentations (all 6 or 7 of them) went really well, and personally I was extremely pleased with ours.

Here are some pictures of some of my presentation with mostly me talking. (Sorry that two of the pictures are so huge!) We talked about using different writing processes and different strengths within our writing processes to help writers improve their strengths.




Left to right: Marissa Doshi, Hannah Hardin, Jackie Johnson, and me.

I learned a lot from all the sessions I attended, and I had a ton of fun with the amazing people I work with. Now, I'll show you what I did in my free time!

Yes, I sang "Good Morning, Baltimore!" and other Hairspray songs while I was there. At first my plan was to get pictures that coincided with songs from the musical, but I quickly abandoned that idea. I don't want pictures of rats on the streets or bums at bar-room stools. Here is the only picture that I think I can link to the musical. Try to guess which song...
If you answered, "Miss Baltimore Crabs," congratulations! You are "SMRT."

So although Plan A fell through, I have plenty of pictures of the harbor and fun people!

There were a lot of really cool ships at the harbor.

This one is from Norway that just made port in Baltimore. What a pretty ship!
Front view of the Norwegian ship.
The platform leading onto the Norwegian ship. They had a Norwegian office guarding the entrance and answering questions about the ship.
This is my attempt at being photographically artistic. Still the Norwegian ship.
While we were walking around the harbor, one ship seemed to come out of nowhere and started squirting water towards the docks. They played Pirates of the Caribbean music, but once there was a break in the music, they all yelled, "Everybody say 'ARGH!'" We all yelled back, "ARGH!"


Another ship in the harbor.
We went to the harbor several times.


Yet another attempt at being artistic.
Megan Dorth, Hannah, and me.



There was a street performer right next to the harbor. He is balancing on two skateboards with the wheels facing each other, four plastic cups, a wood board, a pipe, and his trunk. AND, he is juggling a bowling ball, a machete, and a lit torch.

This is my attempt with artistic water photography. Meh.
Fall does exist somewhere!


Overall, I really, really enjoyed the conference and spending time with such awesome people. I bet you never thought writing center work could offer these kinds of perks!

Disney Desperate Housewives

Sorry I haven't posted regularly. Life carries me away sometimes--I don't weigh very much. Plus, our camera and our computer must be having a fight because they aren't talking to each other. Pictures of us are on hold right now. But I can share this.

Ever since high school, this has been my favorite comic--ever!!


I thought of it today, Halloween. I don't know why. I didn't dress up as a Disney princess, although that would be awesome!! If anything else, it is on my blog for a record, in case my yellowed cut-out copy ever disappears.

By the way, I have to give a huge shout out to my older sister, who is going to have fraternal twins!!! We're very excited for her. She will be a wonderful, but tired, mother. :) Love you, Karen!

Fall!!!

I'm so sorry it has taken me so long to post something. Life has been crazy this summer. Tracy was gone five out of seven days of the week for three months, and then he was gone for almost a month working on his and another graduate student's research. I worked A LOT and took on several projects at home and work. Whew!!

By the way, I was released from working with the young women in our ward. Yeah, I totally cried. (I can admit it. I know why they don't ask if we are willing to be released, because I would have said no. haha! JK) But I was called to be the Relief Society pianist, which will be a challenge for me. I have to practice and practice and practice to be good enough to have people sing to my playing. I feel that I've improved since this calling, and I know with practice, time, and confidence I'll only get better. So this new calling was really an answer to prayer.

Anyway, luckily school has started again, which means several things. Tracy will be home consistently again. Yay!! School supplies are super cheap. Yay!! College football dominates our TV on Saturdays. Semi-yay!

In the north, school starting would mean that fall is here or will soon be here. I love fall!! In College Station, Texas, there is no fall. No beautiful colors, no brisk, chilly weather, no hot chocolate. Just sweat and rain that tease me with temporary tolerable temperatures (alliteration was unintentional here, I promise) before they climb back up again with more horrible humidity (okay this alliteration was intentional). Eventually temperatures plummet to almost freezing, which slightly brings fall-like sensations. At least I get to have hot chocolate! Oh, I can't wait for that!

And this fall, I get a special treat. Kellee, my little sister, is coming to visit me!! I'm so excited! I've never had a visitor from the family stay with us before! She's coming in three weeks, but I've already got it all planned!

Isn't fall amazing?