Beach Trip

For the past 5 years my friend Kami and I have gone on a girl's trip to Huntington Beach, CA. This year we changed things up a bit because I live in Arizona and she's in Southern Utah, so I flew into Vegas where she picked me up and then we drove the 4 and a half hours to California. We spent two whole days on the beach relaxing and playing in the water, and had so much fun. I decided to use our GoPro for the first time and made a little video for your enjoyment!

Disclaimer: I've never made or edited a video before so this is not professional quality!

You can view the video here

Our Story: How We Met

When people ask us how we met, we usually give the easy answer; we met through work. But the truth is, we met because I bought a car.

After my first year of college I decided I wanted to buy a new car. There was no particular reason, I just went to a dealership one day and picked out a car. Never mind the fact that I already had a perfectly good car that didn't carry a monthly payment. This car would be mine and I would keep it forever (I said goodbye to it 3 years ago). Well as you can imagine, a college student's budget isn't really cut out for a new car payment, so I had to find a second job. I searched through the newspaper (yes, that's how we looked for jobs back then, I know some of you are laughing) and found a position for an insurance agent. I knew nothing about insurance but the hours were just what I wanted and the ad said there would be on the job training. Somehow, miraculously, I was hired for the job and started in June 2006. After a week of training with my other newly hired co-worker, my boss had to go home and back to work at the Agency's main office which was in Northern Utah. But he told us someone else from that office would come down soon to train with us more. I think it was a week later that his brother, Jake, showed up. Now we both have different versions of the day we met, but mine is more accurate. Jake walked into the office and saw me sitting at my desk while a slight breeze came out of no where and whisked up my hair as I smiled at him; a golden light surrounded me... ok, maybe I like to embellish. Anyway, I'm the one who thought it was love at first sight. I even went to my other job that day and told all of my co-workers and friends that I was going to marry this guy someday. The next day I decided to give Jake my phone number. He didn't ask for it, but I knew deep down inside he really wanted to, and I told him to give me a call that night because I wasn't working at my other job and we could hang out. Well, we did hang out that night, me, Jake, and my roommate/best friend, Kami. I sometimes consider this to be our first date, but Jake disagrees since there was a 3rd party present. By the end of the week I had convinced him to come back not for work, but to go to the midnight showing of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 with me, and it was all downhill/uphill (depending on how you want to look at it) from there. We dated long distance for about 8 months until I moved up to his neck of the woods and we were a little bit of an on again off again thing for the next 5 years and then this happened.

So there you go, all of this happened because of a car. Imagine that.

"Another Story For Another Day.."

I think I may be able to set a record for the longest job interview; one year. I first mentioned the interview here, and now it's time for the full story.

When I started job hunting after we moved here I didn't want help from anyone, but eventually I decided to stop being stubborn and reached out to my previous boss (who is a really great friend of mine) and he put me in touch with a CEO at a company that provides financial services to Credit Unions. It was an awesome opportunity, however, their office is about an hour away from where we live. I debated going to an interview for this reason, but decided it would be worth a shot; maybe I could work out of a credit union that was closer to me. So I drove an hour to get there, talked with him for an hour, drove an hour and 45 minutes home in rush hour traffic, and had a smile on my face the whole way. It was the best interview I had and I knew it was going to bring good things.

Flash forward a couple of weeks when I got a phone call from a financial advisor who needed an assistant. I had been referred to him by the CEO I'd met with, and his office was about 10 minutes from our place; perfect! I went in for an interview and things really clicked. I was really excited and it felt like the perfect job for me. It was something different than what I'd done before, which is exactly what I was looking for. I found out a couple of months later that the position was being put on hold... indefinitely. At that point I'd been unemployed for 6 months and felt it was time to bite the bullet and ended up getting my job at the credit union. I may not have had the best experience there, but at the same time I was always grateful for the income it provided, the people I met, and the fact that it got me out of the house and back into a working environment.

When the time came to leave the credit union I decided to get back in touch with the financial advisor, and the timing was perfect. He was finally ready to hire an assistant so I went to meet with him again, almost a year to the date from our first interview, and I was hired! I started at the beginning of March and I still look forward to going to work each day. "I love it when a plan comes together."

My cute little desk with a view!

Our Story

Two years ago today, we drove to my mom's house to spend Easter Sunday with her. I brought her an Easter basket, some eggs, and an egg dying kit. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm, and Jake thought we should go for a drive up the canyon to "someplace nice". After coloring eggs, we got in the car and headed up to a small lake that I always loved growing up. We got out of the car to walk around and Jake put on his jacket, which I was a little confused about because it was so warm. We found a nice place in the shade and I climbed on top of a tall rock. Jake told me to sit, and he stood in front of me. He started talking, and all I remember him saying was something about thinking that when we met I was a cool girl, and that I was still a cool girl that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Then he reached in his jacket pocket (and a quick thought flashed through my mind to punch him in the face for making me think he was going to pull out a ring) and he pulled out a pretty wooden box, opened it, and there was the most perfect, beautiful ring I'd ever seen (ok, jacket makes sense now). My mind went blank, I didn't think I was breathing, and I looked at Jake and said "are you going to ask me something?". He told me he already asked, and I'm sure he did but I can't remember hearing it, probably for the same reason that I don't remember hearing anything else, my mind was literally exploding. But he asked me to marry him again, and I said yes! He put the ring on my finger, took my phone from my hand, and took this photo.

When we got back in the car he told me that he'd talked to my dad a couple weeks ago, and that he'd also talked to my mom. So when we got back to my mom's house she was expecting to hear the news and she took a few more photos...

Six months later, on October 11, 2012, we found ourselves here

Best question I ever said yes to :)

Jake Turns 30

It's official, Jake's an old man! Of course we had to celebrate, and we had an entire weekend to do so. Warning: there are way too many pictures of us in this post :)

I made cupcakes first thing in the morning and surprised Jake with them when I took him to lunch at Five Guys.

Doesn't he look happy??

I planned a fun evening for us and it was a surprise for Jake. So after he was done with work we drove to Scottsdale and went to Octane Raceway. We did one race and it was so much fun! I'm still really bummed I didn't get a picture of Jake on the track! After the race we headed over to CrackerJax and played some mini golf.

Here's Jake at his "hole in one" hole!

I got a hole in one too!

After Jake beat me pretty badly at mini golf, he hit the batting cages.

For dinner we went to La Hacienda. We've been there once before; it's in the perfect setting and it is so delicious! We got super lucky and overheard our waiter talking about fresh made churros for dessert and that there was only one order left so we stopped someone and reserved them for us. They were the best churros ever!

The next morning we headed over to Kneaders for breakfast.

That night we used the tickets my mom gave Jake for his birthday and went to the Phoenix Symphony.

We got all dressed up and had a great time :)

Happy Birthday Jake!

While Jake Was Away, We Played

It was time for Jake to spend a week in Michigan again, and I decided I needed some company. Lucky for me, my mom and my Kami (not a typo, she is my Kami) volunteered :)

We had an amazing week together soaking up the sun, shopping, touring, eating, and movie going! I didn't get very many pictures; that's how much fun we were having! But I did manage to get a few photos to share.

First item of business: pedicures!

I knew we needed to go to the botanical gardens and experience all of that wonderfulness at night, and we were not disappointed.

Simply the most amazing chocolate bar ever!

I cannot imagine a better way to spend my week than with two of my most favorite people! I love you both so much, please come back soon!

Another Change Comes Our Way

Well we've been in Arizona now for a year and 3 months and we have another change coming. You may remember that about 7 months ago I posted that I had finally accepted a job at a credit union where I would be going "back to my roots". I was so excited about the change and happy to be going back to working in a branch. I'd spent 3 years in a branch previously before moving to a corporate department in the credit union and loved the interaction with my co-workers and especially the members. Some of my best friends to this day came from my job in Utah; as I've said before, it was very hard to leave that behind. The new job though, was a rude awakening. At first I'd convinced myself it was because of my prior experience and high expectations, but it became apparent pretty quickly as I saw more turnover there than I did in 5 years at my previous job that this was not where I wanted to be. I started all over looking for another job but I knew from before that Arizona makes that process long and difficult, and this time it was even harder. I began to feel trapped and unhappy and worst of all, that I lacked responsibility and resiliency. I've never quit a job because I couldn't handle it. I've never let myself give up on something that I started. But I was so defeated and I let myself down; I let Jake down. Jake and I discussed my job often and almost every day I came home with another crazy story that seemed so ridiculous we couldn't believe it was real life (I wish I were exaggerating). We discussed the possibility of me putting in my two weeks notice many times and Jake was very supportive. He wanted me to be happy, and that was so important to me, but I still felt guilty and told myself to just suck it up and hold out until I found a job or until we moved again. But after months of faking it and having to tell our family "sorry we can't make it to Lake Powell, Tracy has to work; sorry we can't make it home for Christmas, Tracy has to work; sorry we can't use our football tickets, Tracy has to work", and after getting yet another e-mail from management stating that a month was "blacked out" because one of them was going on vacation, I decided I'd had enough. I had dedicated myself to that job just as I do to every job I've ever had and I hadn't been appreciated. No one I worked with was being appreciated. All of my co-workers were amazing, they were so smart and so kind and so good at their jobs. But they weren't being appreciated. We were all being taken advantage of, we were all being manipulated. It just wasn't worth it; there are so many things that are more important in life and everyone deserves to be happy and do something they enjoy. Sometimes we get stuck in jobs that weigh us down and we end up staying for far longer than we should because we have no other choice, but fortunately for me, Jake gave me a choice. I feel so lucky that he stood beside me and supported my decision to leave even though I had not been successful in finding another job. How do I know I did the right thing? As soon as my co-workers started to find out I was leaving I heard things like "Good for you; Are you so excited; Take me with you; I wish it was me; I hope I'm not too far behind you". I don't regret the past 7 months, I learned a lot about myself and about what I'm capable of. I learned to appreciate my dedication to doing what is right, having integrity, and believing in good customer service. I know I made a difference in a lot of the lives of people that I had the privilege of meeting and helping. I also worked with some really great people who accepted me and befriended me and I hope to keep in contact with them.

After working my last day, we headed to Utah for a trip that was supposed to happen at Christmas to see our family. We stayed at my mom's house Wednesday night and were able to spend her birthday with her on Thursday. Friday morning my brother and nephew surprised my mom with a visit and we got to play for a little while with them before driving up north to see Jake's family and my dad. We stayed up there until Saturday night pretty late and headed back to my mom's to stay the night. Sunday morning we slept in a bit, had a slow lazy morning, ate breakfast, and then headed back home and got back around 7:30. It feels a bit like a whirlwind of a trip but it was much needed and much appreciated. It's amazing how blessed we are and it's always nice to be reminded of that. We're looking forward to more flexibility and more time to spend with each other and family in 2014!

There's nothing better than family :)