good morning, everyone!
i'm up a little before i need to be so i thought i'd blog for once...

the weather is getting cool and crisp here, well as much as it can be, but enough for me to wear long sleeves comfortably all day long. which i love. so i've been making lots of soup, drinking tea, and just chilling out reading some good Word and listening to coltrane. and also my shuffle, which contains denison witmer, bettie seveert, otr, aquaduct, u2, arcade fire, innocence mission, poole, band of horses, saves the day, pinback, sloan, minus the bear, rainer maria, the go team, rilo kiley, stars, the national, spoon, the hold steady, clap your hands say yeah, moonbabies, and oh so much more.
ahhhhhh...

it's been a long time since i have listened to new music, or much music at all. i connect music to certain times of my life and whenever i hear it, i get a feeling/visual/etc that reminds me. so i didn't get into a lot of stuff these past 6 months because i didn't want to hear an album and instantly think, "this was from when my dad had brain cancer". now i finally feel like i can get into things without associating everything with the actual disease. now for lots of healing.

when someone you love dies
you never question where they've gone
like landscapes on the snow
they're blocks you build more life upon
they're the corner of your eyes
their quiet arms still comfort you
-denison witmer
i tried to make you smile

a new post, finally!
i wonder if anyone even checks this thing anymore.

you may have heard about the southern california wildfires on the news.
we were driving back from justin's place in santa monica when the first malibu fires broke out.
i'm not sure about the timing, but san diego county also developed many more fires throughout the day and night.

some of my friends have been evacuated, about 50% of my co-workers didn't show up today--also, we did have school/work today. hard to believe since the air quality was so poor. even matt got sent home from work at 10:30 am! let's just say that i made a few calls to the superintendent's office (as well as to the san diego county office of air quality) as a "concerned parent". my first phone call started out with me having one child and then my story gradually evolved to me having "several children"--which, i'm sure convinced them of my actual parenthood--who uses a vague term for the number of children they have??? ha!!!

i'm sure i wasn't the only "parent" who called, because around noon they cancelled school--except transportation would run as normal but parents were welcome to come pick up their children. teachers could leave as long as all of their students were picked up. which didn't happen because so many parents rely on school-provided transportation. anyhooooooo--i came home to matt and 4 episodes of dexter (i can't stop! it's terrible! why am i rooting for him???). now i have a giant headache and a sore throat (lovely, lovely smoke). but they actually did cancel school tomorrow so at least i don't have to be at my best. the fires are about 20 miles away from us but it doesn't look like they're coming towards us. but that's what thousands of displaced san diegans thought last night. i'm packing up our important papers and photos tonight just in case.
welp, better get to it!

so, 2007 already, is it?
really matt?
new pornographers only made it to #10 live?
oh well.
i guess i don't think i even saw 10 bands live this past year
(no thanks to migraine-triggering light shows--boooooooooooo!)
anyhoo:
top on my list=
1. the pipettes at HMV in london
2. new porngraphers at the bellyup tavern in encinitas

top songs i got stuck on in 2006 (mostly because of lyrics)

side note: 2005-2006 was the worst year of my professional life.
2006-2007 is turning out to be the most stress-free job of my life
good thing i go in school years instead of actual years. that way part of the year is still good!!! :)

therefore, i divide songs into 2 parts of this year...

***summer trip/after my (horrific)school year...***

1. track #12 on the worship track from dad edwards nothing but the blood of jesus-i think it is the guy from delirious...
what can wash away our sins?
what can make us whole again?
nothing but the blood
nothing but the blood of jesus

2. absinthe party at the fly honey warehouse--minus the bear
hey let's cross the sea
and get some culture
red wine with every meal
and absinthe after dinner

during my school year...

3. worship song-hungry
hungry i call to you
for i know you satisy
i am weary but i know
your touch restores my life
so i wait for you
and i wait for you
i'm falling on my knees
offering all of me
jesus you're all this heart is living for

4. the blankest year-nada surf
time don't move
we're the only ones who do
bending reason cause it's all we hold on to
i had the blankest year
i saw life turn into a tv show
the person i knew i didn't really know

5. africa-michael edwards
please let me know let me know
if you're going to africa
and i'll pack my bags pack my bags today
and stop what i'm doing sail through the sky

6. misfit-elefant
tell me your name
tell me your story
cause i'm into it
running through life
like a misfit

7. drive on to me-elliot
we move to fast to remember
drive on to me
we count the days from the hours...

8. in the mirror-elliot
i look in the mirror
to see what my hair is doing...
but that's not the real reason i'm looking
i need a reminder of what i'm doing
i need a reminder that i'm human

in my dreams i love you like
a snowstorm in the night
but do dreams ever do damage to life
when you need so much you can't get it right?

that's the first part of my year in review 2006...

every time i think i'm ready to blog, i sit here, staring at the screen, and nothing comes to mind...

so how about another update from my summer, then?

after italy, mare and i took the train through gorgeous switzerland, up a gondola to the swiss alps.
we stayed at an interesting hostel that was plopped right in the side of a mountain and our bunk beds (or shall i say, giant frame with plywood slopped across it and individual mattresses lined up next to each other-yikes!--mary had the end, lucky her! and i don't think anyone ended up sleeping on the other side of me) had a view of the swiss alps, complete with 4 waterfalls. and this was the view from laying down in bed---completely beautiful...

we were in such a teeny town that we had to hike 40 minutes up the mountain to the nearest town to get food-breakfast? lunch? some sort of morning meal. purchases were made in the form of more nutella, peanut butter, bread, bananas, white chocolate and a random avacado. ha! it just looked good. did i mention that mary and i went vegetarian on this trip? not on purpose, but just sort of naturally. wierd, huh?

seeing the swiss alps for the first time literally brought tears to my eyes. it was absolutely amazing--my eyes/brain could not process the hugeness of the view all at once! i had to keep moving my eyes, looking at different sections at a time, in order for my brain to process it all: gigantic alps EVERYWHERE, numerous waterfalls, glaciers close by, and green and white everywhere with clear blue sky--absolute heaven. plus peaceful and quiet...

mare and i picnicked for what seemed like hours--nutella overdose-yeah! quote from my journal: "it was a perfect, perfect morning of slowness and just taking it all in". then in the afternoon we took a beautiful hike to the base of one of the glaciers. it required walking through the woods and different farmers' properties and grazing pastures. goats and sheep bleated and cows clanged their bells as they grazed on sloping fields. on our way, we sat on a bridge, under which flowed a river of glacier silt water (an odd, but pretty, gray color). we laughed and chatted and then found our way back to the hostel for a shower, homemade pizza, and hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps!

the next day we took a crazy hike to the schilthorn (some peak, also in some james bond movie). too much to write about in that experience. let's just say it stretched our faith and we had a fan club by the time we reached the gondola station at the top of the peak. we rode down the overpriced gondola (wait, have i mentioned that switzerland is extremely expensive in general? way more expensive than any other place we visited in europe), gathered our backpacks from our hostel, and hopped on a train to interlaken. a clean, dorm-like hostel awaited us, along with the coolest blue-green opaque colored lake view. we spent the next three days relaxing by the lake, laying in the sun, shopping in town, playing cards, laughing, talking, reading magazines, doing pilates, taking walks along the lake, eating chocolate, journaling, and eating great free breakfasts that were included in the price of our stay (of which we pilfered pieces of bread to make into sandwiches later on). ahh, relaxing recovery....

then we were on to ireland, which deserves a post of it's own!

in real life here, though, i had a fantastic week-long visit with my family (kevin and emily-i missed you guys--see you at christmas, though). caleb is such a chubster and hannah is a chatterbox--so fun to see them again and to chat with all the adult members of the fam! can't wait to go back for christmas + see the edwards clan and heidi and ken.

matt and i also took a super fun weekend trip to napa for a wine-tasting weekend in november. we had such an amazing time that we almost impulsively took an extra day off, but thankfully, matt brought us both back down to earth and said that wouldn't be a good idea. i was disappointed until partway home i remembered what i had to do at work the next day--could not be missed!!! ha! but that's how much fun we had! napa was beautiful, like fall in the midwest. perfect sweater weather and fall leaf colors everywhere (grapevines were mostly a beautiful yellow on the still-green fields). i would go back any day.

so how do i end this post?
goodbye.

so, after gentle but persistent nudging from mom edwards and mary edwards/sanford (depending on which form of id you look at: passport vs. drivers license), i am finally blogging!!!

and can i just say that i had a crazy summer???
it was amazing, life-changing, hilarious, stretching, so much fun, pricey, priceless, beautiful, peaceful, busy, relaxing, informative, awe-inspiring, and a million other things. it truly was the best summer of my life! here's a little snapshot of the trip...

my favorite things from italy:
(people in attendance: me and mare-woo!!!)

-drinking $2 bottles of wine in cinque terre

-swimming in the clear blue mediterranean sea

-enjoying one of the best lunches (of my life) of pesto pasta and cold white wine on a hot day in rome

-walking where paul walked (and millions of others! the history was overwhelming!) in rome

-waiting for our delayed train in cinque terre, intending to "buy groceries for dinner" in a little shop while we waited for the train but instead coming out with a bottle of limoncello (lemon-flavored liquer) and two matching shot glasses!!! ha!

-running for aforementioned delayed train and celebrating by singing the german national anthem with school group of 2 chaperones and 40 teenagers as we stood in a squished compartment-i got in their video-hilarious!
(quote from my journal: "all of the sudden, we saw a train (now over 3 hours late) going by on a track on the side of the mountain. we looked at each other in disbelief, gathered up our bottle and glasses and made a run for it--gradual incline, mind you-- back for the station, which was a good quarter mile away. mary took off like a running maniac while i flopped behind with my flinging backpack, trying not to break the limoncello bottle or shot glasses."

-nutella gelato-nothing in the world is better!!! this was our lunch on a couple of days...

-pompeii-ruined city (death by volcano) excavated--amazing!

-tiny town of riomaggiore in cinque terre, italy.
here's what i wrote in my journal "so beautiful and quaint. lots of old italian men and women sitting on benches, chatting and gossiping. clothes hanging out on clotheslines, people sweeping balconies and storefront steps, different colors of apartments all stacked on top of each other, stone steps going up, down, twisting around corners, archways, fishing boats lined up below our balcony on the street, teeny markets with fresh produce and wine, people constantly out on their balconies, arms folded on the railing, looking down on the street below, green shutters on the windows, a bell clanging in the distance (a church?), people stopping to talk to each other on the streets, and so on...
i feel God telling me to
slow down.
settle down."

-journaling and reading/laughing about entries with mare on an almost daily basis...

welp, there's a little taste for you all. i plan to write highlights of each leg of the trip, but you'll have to be patient!!! :)

see ya!
tracey

p.s. i started a new job within san diego city school district. i really like it and it is WAY less stressful than last year! yay!

hello everyone.
long time no blog.

i have been ridiculously busy lately.
first off, most of you probably know about our/my travel plans this summer, but i shall go into some detail on this blog.
this is going to be the craziest summer ever! mary is flying to LA and then taking the train to san diego on thursday, june 15th. then i'll skip out of school 3 and a half days early on june 16th and we'll fly to london together. we'll spend the night there and then fly down to rome, italy, where we'll take trains up the coast for about a week-ish, plus maybe a side trip to venice or florence. then we'll take a train into interlaken, switzerland and stay in the swiss alps at a cool little hostel in the mountains (you have to take a gondola--like a ski gondola, not a water gondola heehee- to get up there). we'll hike around for a week-ish and then take a flight from zurich (switz) to meet matt in dublin, ireland! that's july 1st, for those of you interested in actual dates. then we'll spend two weeks travelling around ireland's coast, staying in bed and breakfasts and hostels (some with ocean views). after that, we'll fly into edinburgh and do scotland for a few days, then on to london for a couple more days. whew!!! then matt and mary fly back to the us and i fly to AFRICA! what? yes, i can barely believe it myself.

that will be an epic trip in itself. my friend julie (the occupational therapist i work with) will be with me the whole time. in the mornings, julie and i will be working in a school for children with special needs (the first one in tanzania, i believe), helping to increase the children's communication skills, motor and sensory skills. then in the afternoons, we will be working on a project with adults who have disabilities. basically, it is a sheltered workshop as well as a training center for adults with disabilities, so they can get job skills training and learn to make a living for themselves. in tanzania, people with disabilities are not treated like people (mohamed, the man who created these projects, told me that these are the children who are locked in closets). we'll also be helping to work on some policies to support people with disabilities.

in addition, mohamed wants our advice in running a special education program, as well as parent outreach (getting parents to allow their children with disabilities to come to the school--there are still some in the area who do not want to let their children out into public). i also have some ideas related to early intervention so these children can start receiving help before the age of 5-this would require lots of help from the government and medical community, so i'm not sure how quickly it could be implemented, but at least a plan could be put into place. we'll be there volunteering for 2 weeks and then we'll take about 2 weeks to travel around zanzibar and tanzania (with the assistance of biggie, a friend of the edwards family!). i'll return home on august 20th (but then be in cleveland from aug 24-28th for one last summer fling!). our friends sue and tom will be volunteering for a week, helping to create a nature center and guided cave tours, to generate tourist dollars for the community. it should be an amazing trip with a very inspiring leader (mohamed), who has his hands in all different sorts of projects. if anyone is interested in other projects that are available, let me know.

so i've been doing quite a bit of research in my spare time to get prepared for this summer. i just can't wait!!!!

in other news, my dear friend heidi came to visit me over my spring break. we had such a fantastic time--it was so hard to part ways, as usual. oh-does anyone watch the next food network star? because heidi and i want to try out as a team. we made some silly demos when she was in town and one that was more serious and we're actually pretty good (if i do say so myself)! would you all vote for us if we tried out? :)

well, i need to get ready. matt and i are going camping in the middle of nowhere in the anza-borrego desert, which is about 2 hours away from here. the desert wildflowers are beautiful this time of year and we haven't been camping forever!

i miss you all and love you.

p.s. michelle-i loved the pictures of hannah--so CUTE!!!! i need to see those babies!!!!
p.p.s. i love seeing the edwards africans blogging--the pictures are amazing--it looks like you all are having a wonderful time!

we'll end with some lyrics from michael edwards's esteemed "family album"

please let me know, let me know if
you're going to africa
and i'll pack my bags, pack my bags
today
i'll stop what i'm doing
and sail through the sky

i won't be like, won't be like the others
who have gone to africa
i'll be slow to speak
and quick to hear the sound of life

cuz some things have to be done
and some things have to be seen
and not with pride
but with humility

(do the things that He has put on your heart)
You lifted me up and brought me down
here i go! to where? i don't know!

and i hear the song playing
my song for africa
where I cry for life
and live for hope with those who sing along

You lifted me up and brought me down
here i go, to where? i don't know
keep me safe oh dear Lord, i don't know where i'm going
airplanes fly across the sky
i want inside, i want inside

"i love travel. it's one of the few things in life you never regret."
--honeymoon with my brother