OBX (Our Big Xcursion)

Derrick and I just got back from a fun little mini-vacation in the Outer Banks. Travis and Claire got married on Saturday night and we decided to take a half day from work on Friday and spend a little longer time in the area. I'll do a separate post about the wedding. Spoiler Alert: It was awesome and the bartender was very liberal!

When we got there we checked into our hotel and headed out to the best reviewed putt putt course in the area Lost Treasure Island. (Woot Woot for 3 1/2 stars!) It was a close game. I was even winning at one point. And then I got a 6 on the 15th hole and a 6 on the 16th hole. There is no recovering from a six when you're playing mini golf.

Check out this sweet lost treasure trolley we took to the start of our course!

The evidence of my loss :( There was a high score board and you had to get 36 or under to get on it. That would be crazy! Derrick didn't get any 4's and he was still 8 strokes off the high score board.

Being at the beach is the only time I regret my non-seafood taste buds. It seems like there are always tons of seafood restaurants that would be awesome to check out but I just really don't have a taste for fish. Derrick doesn't either. That's why we were excited to see a local BBQ place right across from out hotel that got great reviews on Yelp. It was called High Cotton and turned out to be delicious and ready in about 5 minutes!  Plus it has crinkle fries. I LOVE french fries, especially thick cut crinkle or steak fries and their fries were delicious!

Plus we really hit it off with the server and he gave us free Moon Pies when we left! At least that's the story I'm going with. There wasn't a price on the Moon Pies but I was fully expecting to pay for them. Derrick didn't even want one and said so but the guy told him he would want one later and gave them both to us for free. Maybe he does that for everyone and Moon Pies are like mints that are given away for free at other restaurants.

Oh my gosh that would be awesome. I think I'll be buying a box of Moon Pies tomorrow.

And Derrick did want his later that night:

The next morning we tried another local place. That was my rule this weekend. Don't eat anything we can get in Raleigh...except Roo cups of course. Neighboring High Cotton was a Duck Donuts. There is a city named Duck about 15 minutes down the road from Kitty Hawk and we're pretty positive that's where the first Duck Donuts is. They make the donuts in front of you. Not Krispy Kreme style though. It's a much smaller process at Duck Donuts and you feel really lucky to get one of the donuts because there machine only pops out about 4 donuts a minute. They are really cakey and then the staff individually dips your donut into it's topping and throw the sprinkles on. It was very cool and the icing was extremely gooey. They serve their donuts with a wet-nap.

Hot off the press:

Sometimes I feel like we need to hire a photographer to follow us around so we don't end up with awkward individual pictures like this. #firstworldproblems

After Duck Donuts we had the rest of the morning and early afternoon to kill before the wedding so we headed about 20 miles down the coast to Currituck County. It was only 20 miles but it took about 40 minutes to get there. Our final destination was the Currituck Lighthouse but I asked Derrick to catch a couple pictures of the beach houses on our way. The following is evidence that not everybody is cut out to market houses:

Stick to your day job honey. I'll photograph the houses.

After the rumble strip reminded me too many times to look at the road and not the houses and shops we arrived at the Currituck Lighthouse, or as I like to call it the Wolfpack Lighthouse. Check out those beautiful bricks!

 Inside the lighthouse there was a wishing well. Except no water. It was probably started by the lighthouse staff to get extra tips. We obliged with seven cents of our own. Live it up!

Climbing the lighthouse was scary! I've gotten used to my harness when rock climbing and I was really missing it on our climb up. It was 214 stairs and 153 feet. The stairs did not seem sturdy enough and it didn't help that at each level they pointed out that the walls were getting thinner. Derrick risked his life for this photo. Worth it.

The top was crazy windy! Had to take my sunglasses off and hold them windy and had to be careful not to be blown of the edge windy. But the view was fantastic!

We traded with another couple to get this shot. They took almost a million and this was the only one without hair blowing in my face. Look at how tightly I'm gripping that bag! It was necessary to keep our Currituck Lighthouse Christmas ornament from flying off into the ocean.

Derrick handled the stairs with confidence. I was slightly more afraid.

Geeze...this post is getting long. I'll wrap it up. After the lighthouse we took a quick nature walk down a boardwalk. We were promised all sorts of nature including giant water rats, Cottonmouth Snakes, and foxes. So we set off with high hopes down this board walk.

And we found this grasshopper! It was the only nature we saw and it scared the bejeebers out of me because Derrick fake screamed and pushed me toward it. Not to mention I then thought those brown weeds behind it was a tarantula coming up to kill it. I probably wasn't ready for a giant water rat.

I worked really hard for this picture. And then I moved while taking it so Derrick is cradling the lighthouse in a pile of trees. Bummer....this was going to be a good one.

Since Derrick's failed, I tried the leaning picture. Worked out about just as well. Plus, now that I'm looking at this picture I'm not leaning at all! In fact, I'm probably leaning away from it......we'll work on these types of pictures for you.

We did some other touristy shopping and eating that afternoon but this post has gotten really long and I've probably lost most of you by now and am just talking to myself so I'll end it here. Look out for the post to come about the wedding. That's the real fun part of the weekend!

Busy Busy

It's been a busy week! Hence my week long hiatus from blogging. Still not much interesting to post about. I got a call from my old employer at the apartment complex and was asked if she could hire me as a contractor this week so I've been working double time creating a corporate apartment for their Chapel Hill location and still managing my real estate business. We're also getting ready to take a mini vacation this weekend and it's going to great. Bittersweet, but great! Our good friend Travis and Claire are getting married  in the Outer Banks and we couldn't be happier for them! We are thrilled to be celebrating with them! The bittersweet part of it is we will be missing Regionals this weekend. The rest of Raleighwood is flying/caravaning down to Alabama to compete for a chance to go to Nationals. Realistically, it's going to be a tough fight to get to Nationals so this may be the last tournament of the year and Derrick and I hate to miss it. I've been "kind-of captain" of Raleighwood so I've been getting a  lot of grief (all sarcastic....everybody on our team is nice and understands).  But there are some things that are more important, and being there to celebrate with our friends as they tie the knot is something we definitely wouldn't miss for anything.  So, bear with me through this whirlwind week and weekend! I'll have lots to post about when we return, I'm sure!

And, just to leave you with another tidbit from our week. Jack turned 19 and we all tuned in for our "What I Love about Jack" session. Here's a picture of Jack on our iPad. Mom and Dad have Jack (who's on his iPad) on their iPad and Jay is on Dad's iPhone looking at Jack on Mom and Dad's iPad. Confused? It was great as usual. Happy Birthday Baby Brother! Represent for the Marcey/Williams clan at Regionals this weekend!

My Next Project!!

I like to shop. It's just the truth. I'm not a hoarder though...in fact I'm a major purger! I am happy to throw things away if I don't have a use for them right now and Derrick has to stop me from being unreasonable sometimes.  I am my father's daughter I suppose.  But the fact is I still like shopping and I enjoy things and bringing things home.

Derrick works very hard for our money. And I work very hard for very occasional money...True Life: I'm a First Year Realtor.  That being said, I really do try to keep my love for shopping tempered and I LOVE thrift shops!! I found this new thrift shop near my old workplace and decided to swing through after a showing today. I guess showing houses gives me optimism that I might have a paycheck in the next 90 days and it gets to my head a little bit. I feel spendy....

Anyways, I found this gem!

 

Not Crosby. She's a gem too but we don't let her wander Durham Thrift shops. Here he is in all his glory. This picture belongs in a catalog. I'm calling him Jim. Jim smells a little. He's a little on the short side but that makes him perfect apartment size! I'm thinking Jim would look dashing in purple or navy. Suggestions?

I was sold when the guy told me no one wanted it so he was selling it for $15.00. He told me all the young people didn't like it. I got a haircut today and I think it makes me look older. I'm hip! I was even wearing my red skinny jeans today! He must have been confused. I still consider myself a young person. Also, under the cushion I found this last push. 

That's all it took and Jim came home with me! Derrick brought him in for me when he got home from work and now he is sitting here staring at me just waiting for a face lift. I have NO idea how to reupholster a wingback chair but my last chair came out OK and that was a first as well so I'm approaching this one with gusto! I'm giving myself a $25 budget for fabric. Derrick is giving me a $5.00 budget. I hope he likes sitting on feed sacks! I think $25 is pretty reasonable for that amount of yardage, plus it's going to have to be a heavier duty fabric but I still don't want to break the bank. I'll keep you updated on how well I stick to that.

Wish me luck! If you never see an after post about this chair, consider my frustrated and assume the chair has magically turned into a pile of splinters on the lawn below my deck....

Climb On!

Derrick and I have started a new hobby and we're all in. I went climbing with Nikki and Justin a couple months ago and told Derrick how fun it was and thought we should consider it as an off season sport. He jumped on board and on Labor Day Monday we went to a belay class at the climbing gym.  We invited our friends Travis and Claire to come with us and they got as hooked as we did! I used to belay kids up the rock wall at camp all the time but it had been long ago enough that I was very happy to go to the class and refresh my memory. Everybody passed! Woot woot!

Long story short, we are now members of the gym and we all own our own harnesses, climbing shoes, chalk bags, and belay devices. It is so fun and a great workout! I think all four of us have permanent claws for hands but we can all tell we're getting better.  I also love that Nikki and Justin are members so we can meet up with them to climb as well. We're officially hooked!

Weekend Fun

Last weekend both of my brothers were in town. We had just been together for Labor Day but Jay had the whole week off so after spending some time with Mom and Dad early in the week, Jay came to Raleigh on his way home. Jack was coming into town anyways for Sectionals on Saturday so they met at our apartment on Friday afternoon. I still wasn't feeling too great. I was sick earlier in the week and I didn't feel up to adventuring with them but I still wanted it to be a fun night for them. Nikki was already planning on coming over for dinner and games and Travis and Claire were able to come too! They brought Kan Jam!

Jay and Jack sweetly stopped by the grocery store for me to pick up salad and bread and I got to work on stuffed shells for dinner. This recipe is delicious and even easy enough for an amateur like me!

I asked Travis and Claire to bring Kan Jam! It's this awesome tailgating game that Derrick and I got them for their house warming. See that black can in the picture below? There are two of them and they sit about 50 feet apart. Your teammate stands at the other can (like cornhole) and you throw the disc at the can. Your partner is on the other end and tries to "Jam" it into the can. You play to 21 but if your partner gets it through that tiny frisbee sized slot in the can you instantly win. This never happens.

UNTIL IT HAPPENS!

TWICE!!!!!!

Whaaaaat???? Did that just happen!!! It was crazy! Travis sunk it straight through and then won instantly! It was amazing and it happened just as Nikki got there so we were all going crazy.  Then, Derrick couldn't let Travis take all the glory, so Derrick did it almost immediately in the very next game. Cool peace sign Derrick! That never goes out of style :)

We rounded out the night with some fun games inside. I think Jack and Jay really enjoyed getting to know Travis and Claire and catching up with Nikki.

The next day Jay came out and supported us for a game at our sectionals tournament before he had to head back home. Here he is distracting Jack on the sidelines.

As much as we were glad he was there, our team decided Jack does not play as well with his older brother on the sideline. Too much pressure!

It was great getting some bro-time this weekend! I've seen a lot of Jack recently but I don't get to see enough of Jay with all of his traveling. 

Love you both!! Come again soon!!

Dresser Re-Dressed

Mom and Dad had a surprise for Derrick and I when we went home for Labor Day. They had decorated our room to make it feel more like home. When they moved in they had thrown in a bed and dresser but it hadn't really changed much so they surprised us by making it over. The room was already a light pink so Mom just went with it. She apologized to Derrick for making the room so girly but she justified it by saying I'm her only girl so it's her only girly room to do. Derrick doesn't mind and I think it looks like such an adorable little bed and breakfast room. 

 

Mom had this picture of our wedding party blown up and put on canvas just for the room. I loved it!

And how cute is this little Crosby corner! Mom and Dad know the way to our hearts :)

So Mom had a craft project in mind and asked me to bring my wedding craft paper with me when we came this weekend. I hand made all of our wedding programs and I had paper left over so I brought it with me when we went home. Mom and I used it to decoupage the top of that white dresser. 

Here it is before. Dad came by later and took a magic eraser to all of the scuff marks to clean it up. It's already got that Shabby Chic look to it. Not my style for everyday but perfect for our Shabby Chic get-away that Mom created.

Here are all of our papers. The wedding was mostly greens, yellows, and oranges so there were tons of reds and pinks left over which just happened to be perfect. Any oranges, yellows, or greens you see are from actual programs from our wedding which is pretty special.

Mom and I used wallpaper glue that they had left over from the kitchen reno to mod-podge the paper on. Mom and I laid it all out at first to get clean edges along the sides of the dresser and torn edges on the inside. We switched sides halfway through so it didn't look choppy or like you could tell two different people worked on it.

It was too messy to take pictures while gluing but after everything was laid out we used our fingers to grab a handful of glue, spread it out on the top of the dresser, and then smoothed the paper out on top of the glue. Then we took our gluey fingers and smothered the top with glue. It's really important to squeeze out all of the bubbles during this step. Mom got in a little bit of trouble when parts of hers didn't have any glue between the paper and the dresser, just on top, but it was totally fine. We just pulled up those parts and glued another piece down. Since all of the edges of the paper were torn you couldn't tell at all.  Here it is all finished!
 

I thought I got a picture of it after it dried and had the stuff back on it but I can't seem to find it. It is really cute though. I think Mom and Dad are going to put a piece of glass over the top of it too. I don't think it necessarily needs it but I do think it will look nice. 

Thanks Mom and Dad for making us a cute little room to come visit you in! We love it!! 

State Champions!!

This past weekend Raleighwood competed in Sectionals. Every season ends with a tournament series that includes Sectionals, Regionals, and ends with Nationals. You have to do well enough in the previous tournament to qualify for the next round. This past weekend was the first part of the series: Sectionals. Our section consists of all of the North Carolina teams. There were eight teams competing in Sectionals and it was thankfully close by in Chapel Hill. We were able to go home and sleep in our own beds on Saturday night and only have about a 20 minute drive to the fields.

Raleighwood was seeded 2nd overall and there were three bids to Regionals. We won all of our three games on Saturday by a pretty good margin. That landed us in Semis on Saturday morning against Boxcar, another local Raleigh team. We beat them 15-8 and headed to finals again Cahoots. They are a team from Asheville that we had traded games with up to this point. We lost to them during pool play in Axton, beat them in the finals at Axton, and lost to them in the finals at Glazed Daze. They are a very good team and were also undefeated coming into the finals on Sunday.

Raleighwood has a tendency to come out a little slow so we really focused on coming out strong in the first half. It paid off for us in the end! We took half 8-5. Cahoots went on a bit of a run and the hard cap went on. That is basically a cap on the amount of time the games can take. It was tied up at 13-13 and because the hard cap was on it became universe point. Since Cahoots had just won that last point to tie it at 13s we were coming out on offense. The team worked it down and Derrick ended up catching a game winning hammer!

I am so proud to be a part of this team. The goal of this team is to play competitively but have fun doing it. No one gets down on their teammates and everybody trusts the rest of the people on the team. It is a really awesome team to play on and I'm thrilled to be State Champions with them!

Now on to Regionals!!

Labor Day Weekend

Derrick and I headed home for labor day weekend to spend some time with family. Mom and Dad are almost done with their kitchen renovation and we were excited to see it. Plus, Jay and Jack would also be home which is the first time we were all together since Christmas.

We stopped through Winston Salem to visit Derrick's family for a little while and then headed to Hickory just in time for dinner. Mom made fajitas! The kitchen got very broken in this weekend. She cooked most meals and then we had a big party on Monday. I think Mom and Dad are just excited to have a kitchen sink and counter tops again!

Here is a view of the kitchen with dinner all spread out and ready!

I don't have a great kitchen before picture but I dug these up from Thanksgiving. Sorry they are so blurry...I'm not sure why that is but you can kind of see what the kitchen used to look like.

It was so nice to be home and just hang out with the family. I snapped this picture of the boys sitting out on the deck and watching the game through the window and listening to it on the outdoor speakers. 

Crosby gets all riled up when Ping Pong is being played. She darts back and forth next to the table. She's not chasing the ball, she's more excited about the players jumping around and yelling. She felt the need to be very involved. 

The next morning we drove down the street to the Wildlife lake access. There are lots of spots for people to stop and fish and it was a nice little walk for the dogs. Jack and Derrick threw frisbee and the dogs ran wild. It was a gorgeous day! Can't wait til we have a boat to cruise the lake on! 

That dog is spoiled. 

Here are a few more pictures from the weekend including some more kitchen pictures. 

 

Mom and I did a little craft project over the weekend which I will put in another post. This weekend Jack is coming to Raleigh for our Sectionals tournament and Jay is coming to watch as well. They are both going to stay with us for the weekend so it's going to be a really fun weekend! I don't think Jay has ever seen Jack or Derrick play before so I think it will be really fun for him to be there cheering us on!