Thanksgiving 2012

This was the first Thanksgiving in my parents new house. They had just moved in the Saturday before but you could hardly tell. They worked really hard to get the house in living condition! Typically we head over to my Aunt and Uncle's house and have dinner with the whole family but most of them headed off to Disney this year so Mom and Dad hosted our immediate family, Uncle Randy, and cousin Kelly this year.

This year, Dad, Jack, Derrick and I played a round of disc golf on Thanksgiving morning. Hickory has a super long course. We played captains choice. Dad and Derrick vs. Jack and I. Dad had never played before and they still won! Derrick can't lose at anything...ever.


Here are a couple pics of the Thanksgiving prep!

Make shift table in the living room!

I wanted the dogs to have a feast since we were all feasting so I bought them giant bones! Here's Bear with his and here's Crosby in her Thankgiving day food coma!

Tree hunting is a big deal in my family. It's a competition every year to find the best tree and we usually make a day of it by going to the mountains and cutting ours down from there. This year, Grandma wasn't up for a trip to the mountains so we stuck close to home, but that didn't mean we put less thought into it.

Here's Dad measuring the size of the tree we'd be looking for and then putting his measuring system to use at the tree lot!

 Tree inspection is very important!

And a couple of family shots after we found the perfect one!

 Derrick and I left straight from the tree hunt for Myrtle Beach. In another change of tradition, his family rented a friend's beach house and spent the long weekend at Myrtle Beach. We spent most of the weekend being lazy, throwing frisbee on the beach, and playing with Derrick's cousins! It was a great and exhausting weekend! I do have some pics of that thanks to Leanna.

Family Portrait on the beach. Crosby looks seriously proud in this picture.

 

  I don't know how the kids did it, but they all got in the ocean. It was way to cold for that!

Can't go to the beach and not play putt putt! Mee Maw beat everyone! Here she is clenching her victory on the last hole.

I told Derrick he looked really buff in this paparazzi shot.

Group shot!

It was a great weekend with family The rogue proved to be an excellent road tripping car and despite the middle of nowhere towns we were driving through, we managed to make the long trips go by pretty quickly! Lots of Christmas posts will be coming soon! If you want a Christmas card make sure I have your address....they are hilarious and you don't want to miss it!

28 years! Wowza!

This is a little late due to holiday traveling but Happy Anniversary to my two amazing parents! They celebrated 28 years of marriage this past Saturday, November 24.  They are such inspirations to Derrick and I as newlyweds! Thanks Mom and Dad for showing us that it is possible to make it for the long haul! The love you share is so obvious to everyone around you and I am so proud to call you my parents. Happy Anniversary!!

Winning the Anniversary Dance at Leanna's Wedding this summer!!!

Turkey Trot

Derrick, Cros, and I are loading up the Rogue and trotting off to Hickory and Myrtle Beach to spend time with family!

Happy Thansgiving from the Marceys! Travel safe and stay warm!

Mini troubles made Marceys go Rogue!

I am blessed.

I am blessed, and spoiled, and very very loved! Three Christmas' ago my parents gave me an awesome gift! They got me a NC State red Mini Cooper for Christmas and college graduation.  My dad had asked me a long time ago what my dream car was and that's what I had said so that's what he got me. I have loved that car.

Unfortunately, recently Derrick and I came to realize the Mini has been causing us more stress then a car should! It is very expensive to maintain and as it increase in miles we were in the shop more and more.  Definitely don't buy a Mini for its reliability.  Buy it because it's adorable and has a 6 speed manual transmission! :)

Anyways, last Monday I was pushed to the breaking point when I had three service lights lit on the dashboard and I received the bill for back brake replacement.  I called Derrick in the middle of his work day and told him I was selling it!  I did manage to make it home to actually rationally discuss it with him before doing anything crazy, but before we went to bed that night, the decision had been made.  Bye bye Mini!

We took it to Carmax to get a quote and I was MAD! They way undervalued the Coop! After taking it to the shop to address a few of those dashboard lights, I took it to another place down the road. Derrick wasn't with me this time and I had no intention of actually selling it that day. Well....I got to haggling with the guy and ended up shaking his hand with a deal. Then he asked me if I had a ride home! Eek...didn't think that one through.  Luckily, my great friend Courtney came to my rescue and picked me up and Derrick came for me after work.

Here's the car getting checked out by the place that bought it.

This was Thursday, we had decided to sell the car Monday.  Here's my last picture with Coop.

Derrick and I had been doing some research and wanted a reliable car, not many bells and whistles, low mileage, and more cargo space.  We found what we were looking for in the Nissan Rogue Krom.  Derrick and I were heading to Hickory this weekend and found a couple at the Winston Carmax that we figured we'd stop by and test drive on our way through.  Well, we ended up driving off the lot with our brand new car Saturday evening.  Carmax was great to work with! I would totally recommend them for buying a car....not so much if you want to get any money when you sell it. Sell it to someone else.

Introducing our newest family member. A 2010 Nisson Rogue Krom with...wait for it...12k miles!! It was an awesome find. Thanks Derrick for doing all the searching :) If you click on that link, ours looks exactly like that. Same color and everything.

Here we are after getting our keys!

It's been real Coop...but we're going Rogue!

Come over and have a seat!

In our new chair!

If you don't follow the blog Young House Love, you should. I'm obsessed with it. It's this adorable young family that have made a career out of blogging about their home improvements. Well, they recently wrote a book (which I pre-ordered back in July...I did mention I was obsessed, right?) and it inspired me to get a little crafty.

Last Tuesday I found this awesome chair on Craigslist for $25 and I decided I'd give it a whirl and see if I could breathe some new life into it.  Thanks to Courtney for going with me to pick it up so I didn't get killed by the Craigslist killer. Looking back now, I probably didn't require her protection as I am confident I could have gotten away from 85 year old Lottie who sold me the chair.

I haggled her down to $20 and took that chair home! Here she is when I got her home!

Isn't it cool? The wood is in great condition and I really liked the lines....but obviously there was a lot missing. I wanted to put a pretty modern fabric on it to give it an updated look so I headed to Joanne Fabric with a 60% coupon I found online! I found the perfect fabric!

I also had to pick up some foam batting, cording (yes, I made my own piping and yes it looks like it was my first time), jute webbing, staple gun, and extra staples. I also used my lunch the following day to buy a jig saw and piece of particle board for the seat.  Then I googled like crazy because I had no idea what I was doing!

I started with the back..because my jig saw had to charge for 10 hours! grrr  I thought the back was going to be the hardest part. There was absolutely nothing to work with except that support beam. Thanks to google, I discovered jute webbing which is this non-stretchy support fabric. I just stapled about 5 lengths of jute webbing across the back to make it nice and supported.  Then I stapled a layer of batting, a layer of muslin, and a layer of my fabric over top.  I used the muslin because the fabric that I got isn't upholstery fabric so I wanted to make sure it felt nice and thick and I also wanted to make sure you couldn't see through it.
Here's the progress when I finished that step.

Then I just did the same thing on the front of the chair. This left the edges really raw and totally unfinished looking. That's where the piping came in.  Did you know that stuff is just hot glued on?? Every tutorial I found says to hot glue it! Works for me, so I went for it. After making the piping and putting it on, I had this!

 Fancy, eh?

Then it was time for the bottom! Oh...and don't think this was an all in one night affair.  Derrick and I lived with our apartment looking like this for 4 days.

Sorry, Honey! You're the best :) You can sit in our chair anytime!

Now...the bottom. After my jig saw charged for 10 hours! I suited up. I have never used one of these things before but I understand eye protection is important. As well as a nice, stable work area and appropriate clothing with no dangling earrings....

Check out those clamps with the tags still on...  Such a rookie.

After realizing that jig sawing is not appreciated by your neighbors at 10 PM, I put the saw away for another day.  The next day, I sawed away! Half way through..the jig saw pooped out. 10 more hours....
I guess that's what I should expect for a $30 power tool.

Next day, I finally got the bottom cut out! No picture...sorry, but see the shape of the bottom below? It's kind of wacko. I did not start my reupholstery debut with an easy project. I went to see if my freshly cut piece of particle board would fit and it.would.not.go.in. Ugh.... 10 more hours. Just kidding! But I did have to charge my jig saw for about 20 more minutes to give it enough juice to make a few adjustments.

Finally! The seat fit and we were in business! Now, I updated Crosby's bed a few months back by removing the squashed bedding and replacing it with nice comfy foam.  She hated it. Wouldn't sleep in it. She chose the floor over her bed.  So...I stole that foam back! If she didn't like it, I was going to use it.  I put two layers of that perfectly comfortable foam on the bottom of my chair, layered batting, muslin, and my fabric over top and stapled that thing so much it was never coming off!

Then I realized the pattern wasn't straight....at all...it was glaringly obvious.  So out came allllllllll of those staples.

And I tried again.

Crooked again! Then out came alllll of those staples...ugh.

One last effort and it was good enough! Not perfect...but let's be real. I chose the most difficult chair and an impossible to get straight fabric. I'm just proud to not fall through the bottom when I sit down.

Derrick helped me install some L-brackets so the seat doesn't move around and then....the drill stopped working...needs to charge for 10 hours. Sensing a theme?

Anyways....that was a lot of talk. Here's some before and afters for you. I still need to pipe the bottom of it, but it may sit like this for a while until I buy some more cording. We love how it turned out!

 

Update: I finally got around to piping the seat portion. Here's a picture of the final chair!!

I Love it! I hope you do too!!!

Wolfpack Jack!!

No...that isn't an NC State reference. This is the name of a play that the Wilmington ultimate frisbee team calls when they want someone to cut deep.  They say Wolfpack and then name the person they are looking for. This past weekend I got to see a lot of Wolfpack Jack! 

The Wolfpack Invitational is an ultimate tournament hosted by the NCSU teams every fall.  It's usually one of the first tournaments that teams go to and it gives the new rookies a taste of what real ultimate is like. I remember my first Wolfpack Invitational and how much I learned. The first ultimate tournament teaches rookies way  more then any of those first couple of practices can teach them. It's the first experience of fast paced ultimate against people that aren't trying to help you or groom you for success.  It's awesome!

When Jack decided to go to Wilmington I was so excited for him but I told him he couldn't try out for their Ultimate team. They just don't have a good reputation....especially with NC State players. I still see Jack as my baby brother and I didn't want them to make him mean or rude.  That said, I also don't think it's fair to hold past reputations against this new team. Yes, it is a different team chemistry then NC State and yes they can be more aggressive, but I also trust Jack to maintain his sweet, laid back personality even if people on team start trying to change him or teach him the mean ways of ultimate. I also think every team has those people that aren't the most spirited and I know Jack can hold his own. 

At the tournament this weekend, I got my first look at Jack (nick named Jack-o by my former wHw teammate and Wilmington Australian exchange student Mark) on the field and he was incredible! I was sooo proud. He wasn't able to make it down for Saturday's games but he came down for Sunday's and he dominated! I knew that he was athletic and good at sports, but it was so cool to see him play Derrick and my sport! We talk about it all the time and my family sort of gets it and definitely knows we're obsessed with it, so it was so cool to see him loving it too and understanding how addictive and great of a sport it is.

He caught so many goals, took his guys deep, skied people, threw goals, got run through D's, and even had a layout! I was freaking out!! Every time he did anything I was screaming and jumping wildly through the air. It was so fun to watch!

One of my favorite parts was when the other team came over. Derrick was playing with an alumni team so most of them knew us and are our good friends. They ended a game early on the next field and came over to see what I was yelling about and they joined in, yelling Jack's name, screaming for him to make a play, and chanting for the coach to put him in.  I asked Jack if I had embarrassed him later and he said no, that he loved it! 

I am so proud of him and I can't wait to continue watching him at his tournaments. I hope he continues to love it as much as Derrick and I do. I texted him after he told me he had made the A team and told him that it is a huge commitment but the best decision I made in college and that I wouldn't change a thing. I hope he gets that same experience!

Jack-O after his first game. He has a lot to learn about what he needs to bring to a tournament. That's my Chex mix, my water bottle, and Derrick's shorts

In the stack.

About to throw a goal!

Part of the alumni team that Derrick and I played on

Congratulations Jack-o

Congratulations to my little bro Jack on making the Wilmington Men's Ultimate Frisbee A team.  Derrick and I are so proud! Look for another blog post soon about his awesome performance at the Wolfpack Invite this past weekend!

Bang Bang!

This past Saturday we were invited to a BANG party for our good friend CK.  He's embarking on a new adventure in less than two weeks and we had to give him a proper send off. CK thought the whole group was meeting at El Centro in downtown Raleigh for dinner.  There was actually a surprise party being set up for him at his house to the theme of his favorite game BANG.

Derrick and I missed the initial gunfight that occurred when CK arrived since we were playing in a tournament all day with him.  We heard it was pretty epic though.  If you haven't heard of BANG, Derrick and I have it (A wedding gift from CK and Irene obviously) so give us a call and we'll teach you how to play!

Irene did and awesome job hosting the party and Nick Neptune went over the top in his preparation to help it be a realistic western evening!  

Here's a few pictures from the night!

Derrick, Crosby, and I all Wild Wild West

Danny made this incredible General Store! It was a prop for the gunfight.

Nick, CK, Irene

Bang! In all its glory!

CK, thanks for including is in your going away shoot out! Your are a true friend and will definitely be missed. We can't wait to visit you in Baltimore and we know you are going to be an awesome addition to the Under Armor team.  We love you!

-D, L, C