Venue Weekend

My best friend is getting married!! I cannot be more thrilled for her! Nikki has been amazing about letting me be involved. It would be completely OK for her to plan everything and fill me in as she goes but she has legitimately wanted me there with her as she has been searching things and starting to plan. Her family has always made me feel like I was part of their family and they are no different with the wedding. I LOVE it!

This past weekend we went on a venue hunt for the perfect reception space. I won't say it was the most fun-filled weekend. It was great to spend that time with everybody but it was definitely emotional and a little bit stressful. Nikki is the most selfless person and instead of thinking about herself she could only think about other people and how her venue choice would affect them. Justin finally put his foot down and helped her put her other thoughts aside and choose a venue that suits them to a T! It is going to be such a gorgeous wedding.  Good job taking care of your Bride Justin!

I am not going to blog specific details about the wedding on here. That is Nikki's decision to reveal as little or as much as she wants about the wedding but you can follow along her blog and see what little nuggets she'll give you!  Here are a few pics of our weekend though!

Nikki with the Mother of the Groom and Mother of the Bride

The couple!

Matching in our navy blue.

Adorable cottage we encountered. I LOVE the green moss on the roof.

Justin and his sweet momma at brunch.

Love these two :)

Already a great Son-in-law carrying her purse

A Fresh Start!

Well, Derrick is officially unemployed! No one can call him into the office this weekend. He turned in his work laptop so he can't do anything from home. He doesn't have any work deadlines that are looming or any meetings to prepare for on Monday. This weekend he has nothing to think about but enjoying two days of unattached bliss. Just two days though because first thing Monday morning he starts with his new company!

Most people have already heard this but I am so proud to announce that Derrick has accepted a job with Microsoft and will start Monday. He started the application process in June and went through some strenuous interviews. They offered him the job on the first business day after his in person interview!

I was traveling home from a girls weekend and remember sitting on the plane after having just landed and listening to him tell me about his offer. I was so excited and so proud of him. Derrick is incredible at what he does and I was so thrilled that Microsoft recognized the asset he would be to their company.

Derrick had his last day at SMT on Friday and I know it was tough for him. SMT is based out of Durham and is a really cool company. They do on-screen graphics for sports. You know that yellow line on the football field? Or the clock and score at the top of the baseball game you're watching? Chances are SMT had a hand in it. SMT really offered Derrick the opportunity to grow into a leadership position and was a huge part of preparing Derrick for this next career step. He met tons of fantastic people there and he is as sad to say goodbye to them as they are to him. The good thing is we can all keep in touch and we plan too!

This next career move is going to be great for our little family and the potential is endless! Microsoft is one of those "holy grail" companies for software engineers that really offers a lot of growth potential and longevity.

I am so proud of him! I always am so proud of him! I cannot wait to see what the future holds for us!

Glazed Daze

This past weekend Raleighwood had it's second tournament of the season, Glazed Daze. This is always a nice tournament because it's in Winston Salem. We can drive down on Saturday morning and stay with Derrick's family on Satuday night. The fields are nice, the tournament director is great and has been running this tournament for years, and it's just a friendly laidback atmosphere.  We had a bit of a rain delay on Saturday afternoon but other then that the weather and tournament were great!

We won out on Saturday, though we did have a few close calls! Derrick's mom and grandma came to watch on both days and my parents came up on Sunday. We won our first two on Sunday and then had the finals against Cahoots. Cahoots is a very good team from Asheville and they are who we beat in our first tournament in the finals. 

We totally choked in the first half and went down 6-1. It was pretty bad. We did much better after that and only ended up losing 15-10 I think. I'm not sure what happend but I do think we accomplished our goal of having fun and being competitive. Cahoots is a great team and we will look forward to another match up in the future!

 I was really glad to have all our our parents there watching Derrick, Jack, and I playing together. I think it was fun for them and I think Jack is starting to second guess his desire to play every point at Wilmington next year! It makes for a long day :)

I could get used to this!

Gosh! Why I have I had such a slump in blogging recently?!? Maybe it's because real estate has taken off recently...whoo hoo!! Or because I'm organizing everything for my ultimate Frisbee team and that takes more time than I expected. It could be because I'm doing maid of honor duties and LOVING it so I'd rather be out looking at pretty dresses then in front of a computer. There really isn't an excuse except for life and I'm out living it instead of inside documenting it. I do love blogging though and I need to get better about it again. I think another issue is we have been doing a lot of the same routine recently. We haven't had much time for surprises or fun little adventures. I feel like this is very stream of consciousness right now.

Anyways, onto the topic of this blog post. I have been absolutely spoiled two weeks in a row. I think it is very atypical for realtors to get gifts after closings. And I promise I'm not writing this as a nudge to all of my clients out there. It's just true...it's not standard for clients to give their realtor a thank you gift. For us, getting to closing is our reward. I love that closing table and it takes hard work to get there! Seeing my clients actually sign those papers and take the keys and knowing that I can officially file their 3 inch thick file away is a pretty great feeling.

That being said I was completely shocked when I got called down to the front desk and had a vase full of gorgeous roses and other pretty flowers and a box of chocolate waiting for me from my last closing!

There was such a sweet note with these flowers and it totally made my day. These were particularly sweet clients and I also learned a particularly tough lesson during their transaction so I was particularly touched by these flowers.....particularly?

Then, not even a week later I got another call from the office that there was another gift waiting for me! What???

I was racking my brain trying to figure out who this one could be from and when I got to the front desk this delicious display was waiting for me.

It was from a rental client that I helped out a couple months earlier and who had just moved in. It was so sweet and I was so surprised. Rentals can be time consuming but don't require nearly the amount of work a purchase does and it was so thoughtful for them to send this is a Thank You.

Both of these clients are vets and are going to working at NC State for the next couple years.

Wolfpack and Vets...they are a good crowd :)

So Honored!

My best friend is engaged!!!!! I am SO excited for her and her fiance Justin! Nikki and Justin took a trip to Europe after she graduated from vet school as a celebration trip and everybody was hoping she would come back with a ring on it! Justin did not disappoint and her hand is now extremely distracting!

Nikki was my Maid of Honor and she was amazing! She was so selfless and helped me out in every way that she could. She also spoiled the heck out of me. She was truly a dream and I'm so glad she stood up as my first hand woman as I said "I Do" to Derrick.

A few weeks after getting engaged Derrick and I dropped by her house to drop Crosby off for a long weekend and she had a present for me. Check out how cute this is!

When I opened it up, Nikki had written "Will You Be My...." on the inside cover of the top of the box. 

And inside there was this adorable champagne glass where she had used glass etching cream and stencils to spell out Matron of Honor!

How amazing and creative is that??? And her Matron of Honor? It is such an honor and I am sooo excited!! We've already started some venue shopping and we'll be doing more fun wedding things this weekend. I am so excited to be a part of her wedding and so thrilled that she is involving me in so many important parts.

I love you Nikki! You and Justin are just perfect together and I love seeing how happy you make each other. I can't wait to be there for you like you were there for me on the best day of your life!! You are going to be STUNNING!

Frisbee on ESPN!

I've been a little delinquent on this blog lately! I think life is just getting busy and it takes time to sit down and write one of these. Also, nothing too exciting or out of the ordinary has been going on lately so there hasn't been too much to share.

Last week on the 4th of July Derrick and I started the day by heading to the US Open with our friends Travis and Claire. The US Open is a yearly frisbee tournament (well...this is the 2nd year) and it brings all of the top teams from the previous year and some international teams to play in one gigantic 4 day tournament. Last year the the US Open was in Colorado and this year it was right here in Raleigh! It was so awesome to have such a big event in our backyard. Travis and Claire had never seen a really high level ultimate game so it was fun to bring them along and show them what all the hype is about. We spent the morning at the US Open and then had a very laid back evening watching fireworks off of our back deck.

Friday night we had an unexpected game night with CK and Irene! Nikki and Justin joined us and my parents and Jack showed up as well! We hadn't seen Irene and CK since Christmas and it was so exciting to have them back in town. Mom, Dad, and Jack had just finished a vacation up in Virginia and stopped by for the night so that Jack could watch some of the US Open with us on Saturday. Saturday was the first round of the Semi Finals and some of these games were even televised on ESPN 3. The local men's team Ring of Fire made it to the semis game and just barely missed on finals with a score of 14-13.

That's a picture taken during the Ring game. Check out the nice turf fields and scoreboard. Ultimate is getting big time! It was so fun to watch our home team playing in this kind of arena and in the public eye. They'll beat them next time!

Sunday, Derrick and I decided to watch the finals games from home since it was a 30 minute drive to the fields and Ring wasn't in it anymore. It was just as cool of an experience to watch ultimate on TV. I hope it leads to more broadcasting and the sport starts getting more recognition.

Overall it was a great 4th of July weekend. I'll try to post more frequently in the coming week!

Winning My Heart!

As if I didn't already think highly of Coldwell Banker HPW, my workplace did it again! We had a great first half of the year and they threw the office a cookout on Friday. That was great...of course, but look what else made an appearance:

That's a cupcake truck! And it was delicious and Coldwell Banker HPW took the tab as a Thank You to the agents. I had the cookie dough cupcake....and I'm drooling again.

BUT WAIT...it gets better!

He let me inside the cupcake truck!!! Pink florescent is totally my color and being surrounding by amazing smelling cupcakes is totally my new hobby.

Thanks to Coldwell Banker HPW for being such gracious employers! It's truly a great place to work and I will stay forever if you keep giving me cupcakes!