A Little of Me

I've been posting on this blog for years now and I've never formally introduced myself (I do apologize).

My name is Tracie, wife to one amazing man and mama to one beautiful little girl. My handsome husband and I have been figuring our way through this great life for almost 4 married years and 7.5 years total. It's amazing to look back and see the people we used to be at the start of our relationship and see who we are now.  It may not seem like a lot of time in the scheme of things but here's a little glimpse of what we have been through:

1 baptism - mine when I was 19!
1 high school graduation - mine - yikes!
2 college graduations
1 engagement
1 wedding
1 puppy - he's now an overgrown puppy at 90+ lbs
4 moves - townhome, tiny apartment, 1st house!, Florida to Michigan (the big daddy)
8 new jobs - 2 were internships
2 deaths - my stepbrother & stepfather

1 road trip
1 birth - our sweet baby girl Quinn <3

The list isn't all inclusive by any means, but it covers the doozies! We have had some severe lows, such as when we lost my stepfather (as well as my stepbrother) to suicide. We have had some amazingly beautiful highs, such as when our baby girl was born on Thanksgiving day last year. She is now a 11 month old with a huge personality. Throughout both the severe lows and happy, happy highs and everything in between we have been transparently His. Our faith in God has steered us through the rollercoaster life has been and will continue to in the years to come.

I hope to share with you the daily triumphs and struggles of life and hopefully encourage you during your ups and downs. I do not pretend to have it all together, but I think we could all use a little more encouragement through the seasons of life. I hope you enjoy my anecdotes and reach out to me when you need a little extra encouragement or if you need a prayer warrior on your side. Expect to see tons of baby pictures (because Quinn is a cutie and every mom should show off her kid:) ) and some favorite recipes here and there. I might even be able to share some tips along the way to figuring out parenthood. But most of all, I hope to encourage you.

One of my favorite bible verses is from Mark 5:41 - "He clasped the girl's hand and said, "Talitha koum," which means, "Little girl, get up."

In the context from Mark 5, the little girl was thought to be dead by her parents and Jesus told them they were wrong, "This child isn't dead, she's sleeping." The people told Jesus he didn't know what he was talking about (sassy!). Jesus proceeded to clasp her hand, tell her to rise and she rose!

We aren't dead, guys, are hearts, souls and minds are asleep. Get up! We can do this! Life is beautiful and so are you.

The Peanut Butter to My Jelly

We purchased my new car on Friday and it was quite an experience. We are so glad to be on this end of it. It was our first time purchasing a car with no parents involved. Brian researched and researched cars up until we bought it, wanting to make sure that I was getting something that I would be happy with for the next 10 years. That may seem like a long time to keep a car but it's how I am. I kept my car that wasn't a gem for over 5 years, just imagine what I can do with a car that has all it's working parts, plus some. It's a luxury to have air conditioning, wiper blade fluid, a driver's door handle that works and more. It's amazing what you realize you were missing when you get it.

The whole experience was frustrating for us. The dealership we went through has a "no-haggle" policy. They say it's because they take away all of the haggling and give one low price. This was great until they told us when we were ready that instead of waiting 3 days like they originally told us we would be waiting 2 weeks. I don't know about you, but once we decided we were buying it I became impatient and 2 weeks was too long when they had promised 3 days. So we started looking into it. We found a couple of other places that we giving lower prices to us. This is where it became super messy. Our original dealership and the new one started battling for us, basically. Lowering the price and offering incentives to get us to buy their car. It took one day of it for us to be resigned and just wanting to pick a place. So we did. We went with our original dealership who said they could get it when they had originally planned. Great! Except we had put a deposit on a car in both dealerships. Well you definitely live and you learn. Don't do that. The other dealership did not want to give us our deposit back. They said they wouldn't and yelled at my husband. Brian proceeded to hang up on the guy. Whoops. But what would you do if someone was yelling at you? It was completely unexpected and we didn't know what to do.

So Brian said it was my decision and since I didn't like being yelled at I decided we would just take the hit of the deposit. I didn't want to go through the process with someone who may not treat us very well. We got an e-mail a short while later by someone else at the other dealership saying we would get our deposit back. We have yet to see it but at least it's a start. We still bought it at the other dealership and they were great about it.

The whole process definitely caused frustration and bad moods for both of us which is unfortunate since it's a good time. It was a struggle for us but we got through this obstacle and are closer as a result. When one of us is frustrated the other other one always seems to be calm. I take it as a blessing from God that it happens every time. It shows me how Brian is definitely the peanut butter to my jelly. We complement each other even in the tough times and it shows me again and again how he is my soulmate. God made us for each other and I get to see that every day.