Our sweet Crabcake turns 7 today. I can't believe it! A client just reminded me that dogs start eating senior dog food at the age of 8. Cue the tears! We love this pup so much and tonight we will celebrate by buying her a treat at Woofgang Bakery!
Friday, June 26, 2015
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Family Weekend
A couple weekends ago my family came into town to take our mothers day pictures! This year for Mother's Day we gave both of our moms a professional family photo session and my family was up first last week. The pictures are AMAZING! Seriously, so good! Once we narrow down the ones we're keeping I'll post some of them here. We're using JAGG photography and they are great!
Derrick's mom and little cousin Cassie came up Saturday morning for some Cassie climbing time at the gym. She just turned 8 and Derrick's mom brought her on a celebration trip. She also gave me an awesome birthday present....a Selfie Stick!! And a gorgeous monogrammed purse! I immediately started practicing my selfie stick skills!
After climbing we took my family out to teach them pickle ball! Jack is still recovering from nationals so he went out with friends instead but the rest of us hit the courts. I'm going to be honest....after the first minute or so of whiffs and lost balls Derrick and I were wondering if pickle ball was the best choice for the family. It turned out awesome though! After getting the hang of it Mom, Dad, and Jay were all amazing!
Jay is a high school tennis champion so at the end he took Derrick on in a really tight singles match. It was fun to watch but I'm glad I wasn't playing in the 100 degree heat. Derrick ended up with the win but Jay gave him a run for his money during his first day on the PB court!
That night we had everybody over for a cookout to test out the new grill. We used our friend's pesto turkey burger recipe and they were delicious! Derrick did a great job at the grill.
After the cookout Mom pulled out some cupcakes and cards and we had a little birthday celebration for me. It was super sweet.
We ended the night with a board game around the coffee table.
The next day Mom and I got some quality time going on a birthday shopping spree at the outlets and getting a pedicure. It was so nice!
I love having a house where we can invite everybody over and have plenty of space to spread out and hang out together. It's been one of the happiest consequences of being home owners.
Derrick's mom and little cousin Cassie came up Saturday morning for some Cassie climbing time at the gym. She just turned 8 and Derrick's mom brought her on a celebration trip. She also gave me an awesome birthday present....a Selfie Stick!! And a gorgeous monogrammed purse! I immediately started practicing my selfie stick skills!
After climbing we took my family out to teach them pickle ball! Jack is still recovering from nationals so he went out with friends instead but the rest of us hit the courts. I'm going to be honest....after the first minute or so of whiffs and lost balls Derrick and I were wondering if pickle ball was the best choice for the family. It turned out awesome though! After getting the hang of it Mom, Dad, and Jay were all amazing!
Jay is a high school tennis champion so at the end he took Derrick on in a really tight singles match. It was fun to watch but I'm glad I wasn't playing in the 100 degree heat. Derrick ended up with the win but Jay gave him a run for his money during his first day on the PB court!
That night we had everybody over for a cookout to test out the new grill. We used our friend's pesto turkey burger recipe and they were delicious! Derrick did a great job at the grill.
After the cookout Mom pulled out some cupcakes and cards and we had a little birthday celebration for me. It was super sweet.
We ended the night with a board game around the coffee table.
The next day Mom and I got some quality time going on a birthday shopping spree at the outlets and getting a pedicure. It was so nice!
I love having a house where we can invite everybody over and have plenty of space to spread out and hang out together. It's been one of the happiest consequences of being home owners.
Friday, June 19, 2015
Mr. Weber
Derrick and I finally, finally got a grill! Right in the middle of the hottest summer ever! Derrick's Dad gifted us a very generous home depot gift card after we bought our house and we'd been hanging onto it for just this purpose. With the whole family coming into town last weekend we decided it was time.
We broke it in on Saturday evening with a family cookout!
We haven't had any time to use it since but I'm excited to have it and use it more once it cools down a little bit! Grilling in 95 degrees is no joke!
We decided that we'd rather invest in a nice one now then a cheap one we'd have to replace down the road. We very quickly landed on a Weber. My Dad used a Weber charcoal grill my whole childhood and Derrick confirmed that the reviews were the best. We narrowed it down to two but in the end we decided to go big! So big in fact that the salesman measured our car first to see if it could even work. It was going to be really tight so we told the guy that if he could get it in the car we'd take it. Challenge accepted!
We did make it home and somehow got it out of the car and up on the deck that night!
We broke it in on Saturday evening with a family cookout!
We haven't had any time to use it since but I'm excited to have it and use it more once it cools down a little bit! Grilling in 95 degrees is no joke!
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Happy Birthday To Me!
Whoosh....long haitus there! Sorry about that. It's been BUSY with a capital, apital B! Seriously...so much for hitting a lull at work! I am full steam ahead and firing on all cylinders! Plus we've had lots of company and some exciting work news come up! More on that later. For today, rewind 6 days ago to my birthday!!
I had a nice low key birthday and it was awesome. Alison was in town and we spent the whole day shopping, eating, and....staining my deck :) It's not done yet but I can't apply the rest in this 100 degree heat so it's going to have to wait for a while. Thanks to Alison for embracing the day and pitching in to help!!
Derrick gave me my birthday present first thing in the morning. These awesome shoes!! I have had my last pair for about 2 years and I was obsessed with them. I went searching online to see if I could find them again. I was going to order 2 or 3 pair. Unfortunately, they don't make them anymore. So, I did the mature thing....I refused to buy any shoes at all.
Derrick went out on a mission to find a pair that could replace my beloved old ones and I have to say, well done sir, well done! I absolutely love them!
The next day Alison, Jack, Derrick, and I tag teamed some Ellie time while Leanna and Kevin had a Jurassic World Date.
This is one of my favorite pics of the night. She was very serious about her egg sorting.
That's it for now. I have tons of pictures from our family weekend though so stay tuned!
I had a nice low key birthday and it was awesome. Alison was in town and we spent the whole day shopping, eating, and....staining my deck :) It's not done yet but I can't apply the rest in this 100 degree heat so it's going to have to wait for a while. Thanks to Alison for embracing the day and pitching in to help!!
Derrick gave me my birthday present first thing in the morning. These awesome shoes!! I have had my last pair for about 2 years and I was obsessed with them. I went searching online to see if I could find them again. I was going to order 2 or 3 pair. Unfortunately, they don't make them anymore. So, I did the mature thing....I refused to buy any shoes at all.
Derrick went out on a mission to find a pair that could replace my beloved old ones and I have to say, well done sir, well done! I absolutely love them!
Birthday night I had a frisbee game and then went to trivia where I was surprised with cupcakes and a supersized cherry pepsi :)
The next day Alison, Jack, Derrick, and I tag teamed some Ellie time while Leanna and Kevin had a Jurassic World Date.
This is one of my favorite pics of the night. She was very serious about her egg sorting.
That's it for now. I have tons of pictures from our family weekend though so stay tuned!
Friday, June 5, 2015
She Wings It, And She Scores!
Don't you just love when you have a vision but no idea how to do it so you just wing it and it works! That's pretty much this entire blog because I never have any idea how to do something before I I dive in. Fortunately it works out most of the time if you wouldn't mind forgetting the mandavilla homicide for a moment. But seriously...if you randomly found this blog by googling something along the lines of "frisbee, paint, and Crosby" and you're looking for DIY tips...don't sue me if my methods make your house fall down!
I made a few tweaks in the office this week. They were quick and easy and surprisingly successful. First up, Crosby got another bed. Not a new bed...an additional bed. She still has her princess and the pea throne up in our bedroom.
It's perfectly reasonable and not at all over indulgent for a dog to have an upstairs bed and a downstairs bed right? Right?? She really does love spending time in the office. If we're downstairs and she's not around we can usually find her curled up in here so it was an easy buy when I spotted one that would fit in with the new colors.
Then I whipped up that piece of art hanging in the corner next to Cros. It might not live here forever..I eventually want to frame both of our diplomas and they may end up in that spot but it's living there for now. I stole this idea from my lovely friend Courtney. Sorry about the glare. I found this old window at a yard sale for $5 and then just got a $3 engineering print at Staples! The print isn't perfect, if you get really close you can see a few printer lines running through it but it's because those engineering prints are meant for blueprints, not wedding photos! It adds to the charm I think. I love how it turned out!
And finally...and this is where the winging it part comes in. I hung a peg board for all my real estate signs!
I wanted a way to organize my sign riders and I'd also been itching to work with pegboard. I know...you are such a weirdo Laurie! Anyways, I picked up some pegboard and some hooks at Lowes and had them cut it down to size for me. It was brown...boring! I had some some left over sample paint from when I was looking for a green for the office so I just did a quick coat of primer and two coats of green. Super fast and super easy because it's small. That's the same green that was runner up for the wall color. I'm patting myself on the back right now for going with the blue.
Here's the winging it part. The Lowes guy sent me home with a peg board and two 1x2 strips. The 1x2s had to go behind the pegboard so that the hooks have room to hook in and behind. Like this:
So the dilemma was, how do I get the peg board onto the 1x2 and into the wall while keeping it level and strong enough to support the pegboard and my signs.
Problem #1...my stud finder is the pits. Really bad. It cannot find a stud so I just don't use it anymore. I tried the knocking test until I remembered I don't know how to do the knocking test. So then I just said forget it and went with my trusty wall anchors. I LOVE wall anchors. Seriously....remove almost anything in our house and I've probably got an anchor behind it. I could mount a feather on the wall and I'd probably anchor it. It just makes me feel better.
Problem #2....this is really a two person job and I am impatient. Derrick would have no problem helping me with this when he got home from work. I am, however, extremely impatient when it comes to these things so most of the time I figure out a way to forge ahead on my own instead of doing the more intelligent and adult thing...wait. Basically I ended up screwing my pegboard into the 1x2s just enough so the sharp screw tips stuck through the wood. Then I balanced a level on the 1x2 while I pressed the ends of the screws into the wall to make an indention. Then I just put anchors in each of those indentions.
Four anchors, a little bit of balance, one ding in the wall, and a sore drill arm later we have success!
I thought about putting it on the wall in front my desk because I wasn't sure how it would look in this spot when you walk into the front door but I like it here. It's tucked out of the way and if our visitors get a little reminder that I'm a realtor when they walk in the door....so be it :)
I made a few tweaks in the office this week. They were quick and easy and surprisingly successful. First up, Crosby got another bed. Not a new bed...an additional bed. She still has her princess and the pea throne up in our bedroom.
It's perfectly reasonable and not at all over indulgent for a dog to have an upstairs bed and a downstairs bed right? Right?? She really does love spending time in the office. If we're downstairs and she's not around we can usually find her curled up in here so it was an easy buy when I spotted one that would fit in with the new colors.
Then I whipped up that piece of art hanging in the corner next to Cros. It might not live here forever..I eventually want to frame both of our diplomas and they may end up in that spot but it's living there for now. I stole this idea from my lovely friend Courtney. Sorry about the glare. I found this old window at a yard sale for $5 and then just got a $3 engineering print at Staples! The print isn't perfect, if you get really close you can see a few printer lines running through it but it's because those engineering prints are meant for blueprints, not wedding photos! It adds to the charm I think. I love how it turned out!
And finally...and this is where the winging it part comes in. I hung a peg board for all my real estate signs!
I wanted a way to organize my sign riders and I'd also been itching to work with pegboard. I know...you are such a weirdo Laurie! Anyways, I picked up some pegboard and some hooks at Lowes and had them cut it down to size for me. It was brown...boring! I had some some left over sample paint from when I was looking for a green for the office so I just did a quick coat of primer and two coats of green. Super fast and super easy because it's small. That's the same green that was runner up for the wall color. I'm patting myself on the back right now for going with the blue.
Here's the winging it part. The Lowes guy sent me home with a peg board and two 1x2 strips. The 1x2s had to go behind the pegboard so that the hooks have room to hook in and behind. Like this:
So the dilemma was, how do I get the peg board onto the 1x2 and into the wall while keeping it level and strong enough to support the pegboard and my signs.
Problem #1...my stud finder is the pits. Really bad. It cannot find a stud so I just don't use it anymore. I tried the knocking test until I remembered I don't know how to do the knocking test. So then I just said forget it and went with my trusty wall anchors. I LOVE wall anchors. Seriously....remove almost anything in our house and I've probably got an anchor behind it. I could mount a feather on the wall and I'd probably anchor it. It just makes me feel better.
Problem #2....this is really a two person job and I am impatient. Derrick would have no problem helping me with this when he got home from work. I am, however, extremely impatient when it comes to these things so most of the time I figure out a way to forge ahead on my own instead of doing the more intelligent and adult thing...wait. Basically I ended up screwing my pegboard into the 1x2s just enough so the sharp screw tips stuck through the wood. Then I balanced a level on the 1x2 while I pressed the ends of the screws into the wall to make an indention. Then I just put anchors in each of those indentions.
Four anchors, a little bit of balance, one ding in the wall, and a sore drill arm later we have success!
I thought about putting it on the wall in front my desk because I wasn't sure how it would look in this spot when you walk into the front door but I like it here. It's tucked out of the way and if our visitors get a little reminder that I'm a realtor when they walk in the door....so be it :)
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Good Read
I've been MIA a little bit but I blame two things. One: work has picked back up again. I was in a lull there for a while which I have learned to embrace so I was getting things done around the house and enjoying some downtime. Well now I'm swinging again so that means I'm busy all the time with work and personal life stuff. Hopefully I can get back into a routine around here though.
The second thing I blame is our recent trip to the library! First off...side step. I had grand plans to start taking at least one picture every date night and having a monthly round up here so we could remember what we do. It's not always super exciting but we always make a point to have Tuesday date nights and we've been doing them for over a year now. Of course, I managed to get a photo the first two weeks of May and forgot the last two weeks. Anyways, here's what we did:
May 5: Anniversary Snoopys and NCSU Disc Golf
May 12: We went golfing at Knights Play! Derrick has the pictures on his phone so I'll add them later. We didn't actually go golfing, just went to the driving range. It was my first time and I loved it! Dad's bringing me a set of clubs next weekend and we're going to do a 9 hole course! Derrick likes to tell the story of when he hit one and it went high and way left and I naively said "Must be windy up there!" My bad honey, you're doing great!
May 19- See, this is why I need pictures. I am almost positive this was the night we stayed in and watched one of the Indiana Jones Movies. Derrick has created a list of movies I need to see because I have seen embarrassingly few movies that apparently are "must sees". Actually, now that I say that it may have been "My Best Friend's Wedding" that we watched. Either way I'm pretty sure it was a movie night in.
May 26: Dinner, Library, Read books in Hammock. This was a fun one and the other reason for my recent blog hiatus.
While at the library I picked up Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. It's based on a true story of Louis Zamperini. He was a trouble maker turned Olympian turned WWII POW and the story is incredible! I could not put it down. If you don't have anything you're reading right now I would go get this book. It was amazing.
And apparently there is a movie that everybody knows about and everybody has heard of this book because of it. Remember...I don't know movies :)
Anyways, that's what we've been up to! Hopefully I'll do a better job of documenting date nights from here on out.
The second thing I blame is our recent trip to the library! First off...side step. I had grand plans to start taking at least one picture every date night and having a monthly round up here so we could remember what we do. It's not always super exciting but we always make a point to have Tuesday date nights and we've been doing them for over a year now. Of course, I managed to get a photo the first two weeks of May and forgot the last two weeks. Anyways, here's what we did:
May 5: Anniversary Snoopys and NCSU Disc Golf
May 12: We went golfing at Knights Play! Derrick has the pictures on his phone so I'll add them later. We didn't actually go golfing, just went to the driving range. It was my first time and I loved it! Dad's bringing me a set of clubs next weekend and we're going to do a 9 hole course! Derrick likes to tell the story of when he hit one and it went high and way left and I naively said "Must be windy up there!" My bad honey, you're doing great!
May 19- See, this is why I need pictures. I am almost positive this was the night we stayed in and watched one of the Indiana Jones Movies. Derrick has created a list of movies I need to see because I have seen embarrassingly few movies that apparently are "must sees". Actually, now that I say that it may have been "My Best Friend's Wedding" that we watched. Either way I'm pretty sure it was a movie night in.
May 26: Dinner, Library, Read books in Hammock. This was a fun one and the other reason for my recent blog hiatus.
While at the library I picked up Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. It's based on a true story of Louis Zamperini. He was a trouble maker turned Olympian turned WWII POW and the story is incredible! I could not put it down. If you don't have anything you're reading right now I would go get this book. It was amazing.
And apparently there is a movie that everybody knows about and everybody has heard of this book because of it. Remember...I don't know movies :)
Anyways, that's what we've been up to! Hopefully I'll do a better job of documenting date nights from here on out.
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