Real Estate Blunder #2: For the Love of a Moonpie

I have a listing!! Woot Woot! My first listing is on the market and I'm so excited. To prepare for this listing I made a stop by the realtor store to purchase a flyer box. You know, one of these:

This is a box that realtors put next to their sign so that nosey people can find out the price of the house. I can say that because I am one of those nosey people! It's not just Derrick and I! Raise your hand if you were not looking for a house but took the flyers! Well the hope is that 1 out of 20 of those nosey people will actually have an interest or know someone who has an interest in the house. 

Anyways, I bought my lovely flier box and took it home feeling more prepared to conquer the listing market. Then came the day to go over to the house to put it on the market so I grabbed my flyer box by the grocery bag handles it was in, my real estate bag, and of course....a moonpie.  I'm on a moonpie kick right now. If you're not, you should be! Delicious!!!

Well, I could not wait to get into that moonpie. I hadn't even made it out the door with my hands way to full when I started ripping into the packaging. I started down the stairs, fumbling with my moonpie wrapper when WHAM, BAM, CLANG, CLATTER! I dropped my flier box and it banged all the way down the concrete steps outside my apartment. Doh! Hand to forehead (moonpie to forehead in this case).

I felt like such an idiot. Who can't wait 10 seconds to get to the car before trying to open your moonpie. This girl. 

I am extremely lucky that my box only chipped in two places. I was expecting it to be broken in half after the noise it made crashing down the stairs. It still functions albeit with a slightly less waterproof quality. 

Like all good stories, this one has a happy ending! There is my poor chipped flyer box hard at work in front of my listing! 

Moral: The Moonpie Can Wait! 

Tax Time...womp womp

Ugh....it's tax time. Derrick and I are using a CPA this year. Some people might think it's a waste of money at our age without a house or dependants but with me being self employed and actually making some income for the first time last year, we don't want to risk it! I think it's going to be $225 well spent!

I'm in the middle of looking through all of my receipts and possible write-offs. I can't believe how much money I have spent just staying in business. We're talking almost $6,000 and I know that I'm leaving some stuff out or wasn't as write-off conscience as I should have been. I'm sure a lot of other people that are self employed would look at that 6k and consider me lucky but that's a pretty hefty percentage of my individual income last year so it seems crazy to me. I've got a lot set aside for taxes this year and I'm crossing my fingers that that 6K in write-offs means I don't have to send it all away! We'll see.

Sorry for the lack of pictures in my recent posts! Everything has been same old, same old recently. We're supposed to get some snow tonight and it's date night so hopefully I'll have some fun snow pics to share!

Californi-aversery!

Derrick and I booked tickets a few weeks ago for California. We're heading west for our two year anniversary in May and I can't wait! Last year was our one year and we didn't do too much so I'm so excited to have a trip planned for this year. We will be going for almost two weeks, flying into Sacramento and spending some time near Lake Tahoe and in Napa Valley.

Derrick's brother, Joel, and his wife and kids live in Sacramento so we're going to be making that our home base and hopefully spending a lot of time with them as well. We're so excited!

Right now we are daydreaming of warmer weather, a cute cottage next to the lake, and some good old fashion family time with family we don't get to see enough of. I hope these next 3 months fly by!

Uncle Derrick and Aunt Laurie

Has a nice ring to it huh?

Parents have to be the disciplinarians. Grandmas and Grandpas can spoil them but still tend to be overprotective. Aunts and Uncles? We're the ones that get to encourage sky diving, brain freezes, and all-nighters. We also get to play with them and then give them back...something Derrick and I are still totally cool with :) Our only two nephews live in California and Derrick and I love skyping with them and most recently keeping them humble in X-Box soccer. It's fun to hear them say Uncle Derrick and Aunt Laurie and we're excited to have another little niece or nephew to play with come June/July!!

That's right! Leanna and Kevin are expecting!! They told us in early November and I think both of our jaws literally hit the floor. Now that the shock has worn off I have all sorts of fun auntie/uncle activities running through my head as well as shower ideas and baby gift ideas. They find out if they are having a little Derricka or little Lawrence in two weeks! We can't wait!!!

100 MPH

Where have I been? This poor blog has been a little neglected recently but I haven't forgotten about it! Our lives have just been going 100 mph these past two weeks. For one, real estate is rocking! And it is awesome! I feel very busy right now and I'm learning how to prioritize and organize my business to accommodate a busier schedule. On top of that, my old job called and I've had the opportunity to go back there and help them with some training as they bring new people on board. When I chose to leave my old job it was not related to the people who worked there, it was just a next step that I was ready for. I have always enjoyed going back to see those people and I really feel grateful that they would still trust me over a year later to come back and train new managers and leasing consultants.

We've also been celebrating friends birthday, cheering for Russel Wilson, climbing, and playing frisbee. Typical day in the life :)

More posts to come but for now I'll leave you with this cute pic of Crosby and Jack from when he came to visit last weekend. She loves Jack!

Gold Sales Associate!!

You know when you get that affirmation that you are where you are supposed to be? Like all of the sudden things have synced up and you feel like that decision to quit your job a year ago was the right thing to do? I got one of those today and I'm so excited and also still a little in shock!

My office is the bomb dot com! Every month they recognize individual agents that had a particularly successful month with real estate. They give individual recognition to those that have sold the most houses, those that have listed the most houses, and those that have sold the most of their own listings. They also give a shout out to a new agent to let them know to hang in there, you're doing great!!

I received the new agent award in September and was thrilled but this month I got an even bigger honor. I won the Gold Sales Associate award for the month of December!! My jaw dropped!!! I was so shocked! Gold??? Like highest on the podium? I was the Michael Phelps of December?? Whhhhaaaattt??

Here's proof:

Keeping it professional in tie-dye!

Poor Roo

Our poor Nissan Rogue "Roo" is looking less than well as of Saturday morning.

No one is hurt, no one was even in the car. We were parked at our winter league game on Saturday morning and came back to our car after the game to find that someone had hit our car and driven away. It's so frustrating. They didn't leave a note or take any responsibility for it. I don't know what type of person can do that. It's a huge dent.  After yelling for a while I called our insurance company and learned that we'll have to pay a $500 deductible to get her all fixed up.  It's such a bummer. I'm taking her into the insurance adjuster today and then to a body shop. I have been trying really hard not to wish negative things on the person who did this. Derrick thinks maybe they didn't have insurance and couldn't afford to fix it. Even if that's the case a note saying "I'm sorry but...." would have gone a long way on the Karma scale.  Anyways...enough venting. Hopefully we won't be without the car for too long. Rental car insurance is worth it people!

A Merry, Marcey Christmas

Around lunch time on Christmas day Derrick and I finished loading up the car, said goodbye to my side of the family, and hit the road for Winston. After fueling up with a soda pit-stop and solving a quick tire pressure issue we were on our way and made it to Winston still in our christmas jammies.

I only have one picture of Christmas in Winston! I can't believe it! I think it's because most of my pictures from Christmas at my house were borrowed from my mom and we were too busy playing with Christmas toys once we got to Derrick's family.  When we got there we opened up our stockings from Derrick's mom and got to watch her open her stocking from us. She is a notoriously excellent stocking stuffer so I always look forward to the goodies she stuffs inside. One of my favorite stocking stuffers this year was an adorable pin cushion and thread. My current pin cushion was thrown together in 5 minutes without any attention to finishing. Pure function. I'm really excited for the upgrade.

One of Derrick's gifts was Kan Jam! I know I've blogged about it before. The whole family went out and played in the driveway for almost an hour. It was freezing and the frisbee hurt to try to jam but it was soooo fun. The kids are getting in good practice for their college ultimate teams. All of them already have great throws!

The rest of the afternoon consisted of eating yummy food, snoozing on the couch, and a game of Life. They have totally changed Life up! We were playing the Hollywood themed Life. The lowest starting salary you can have is $100,000 and you had to build an entourage to help you get through the difficult life in the spotlight. Instead of mini vans you are filling up your limousine. Realistic.

This is the only picture I got of the day. Crosby passed out next to Trey while he's playing Life. So cute.

Note to self: Next year be a better Christmas Day documenter!

That wraps up the Christmas posts! I can't believe we're already in 2014. I think it's going to be a wonderful year!