Wahooo!!!

I got the best email ever yesterday! I passed my real estate class exam!! Talk about relief.  All my co-workers knew I had just taken the exam and were asking how I did. I told them if I passed, they would know but if I didn't pass I was going to lie to them and tell them I hadn't gotten the email yet! haha

I got my email about 3:30 and we all had a good scream :)

Derrick took me to the Cheesecake Factory for drinks, dinner, and cheesecake. Isn't he the sweetest :)

Ok...enough smiley faces. Now I have to start studying for the national exam.

Happy Halloween!

Derrick and I took Crosby on a walk through a giant neighborhood tonight to check out all the crazy kids.  Here's the rundown:

Best Costume: Robot kid.  We're talking 3 foot tall kid with 2 giant card board boxes...one for the body and one for the head. He was just waddling around like a top heavy duck.

Best costume runner up: Mrs. Weasley

Cutest Moment: Dad with his little "princess" carrying her from house to house, lifting her up to reach the door bell, and instructing her on "trick-or-treat"

Best Quote: Little girl about Crosby: "I like your puppy. We've seen lots of puppies but she is spectacular!"

Most likely to be left behind: 2 ft. tall Spiderman wandering into the road.

Best decorated house: All of them! I've never seen people decorate so well! We even saw one house that had a grave actually dug into their yard. Cary is a little crazy for Halloween.

Hope everybody has a happy and safe Halloween!!

Today is the day

Wish me luck!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

This past Saturday was my Dad's birthday! Now that everybody is in different cities, we aren't usually able to get together to celebrate but we still manage to conference call in and do our Williams (now Williams/Marcey) tradition. For each birthday, we go around and say what we love about the birthday person. We've been doing it for years and it has become a really special part of our birthdays.

 This year, Mom took Dad up to a winery for a tasting and dinner. Mom sent me a picture of Dad during our conference call so we could see him :) It was hilarious.  Here's Dad on his cell phone with me on speaker phone, Jack called in to Mom's phone and was on speaker phone, Jay was going to face time in on the ipad but he got stuck in a review session in Chicago but he still managed to sneak out and call Derrick's phone so we put him on speaker phone on Derrick's phone and Dad on speaker phone on my phone.  Confused yet?

Our tradition is a true example of the impact that Dad has on our family. He is the most wonderful leader of our family and will go to any length to make sure we know how much he loves each one of us. No matter the distance between us, he never fails to be available when we need him or to just call and check in.  I love you Dad and am so lucky to have you as a father. I hope you had the most wonderful birthday and enjoyed a well deserved date-day with your love :) Derrick and I can't wait to come home and see you in a few weeks. 

Busy Busy Busy

We have lots going on recently and it's been great, but also exhausting. We've been able to catch up with our friends CK and Irene who we haven't been able to see much since the wedding. We're excited for the upcoming changes happening for them!

Derrick has been very busy at work. They are increasing his responsbilities and he is doing great, but yesterday he didn't sit down at his desk until 5:00. I've been going to my real estate class full days Tuesday and Wednesday and working full days on the other days.  It's has been awesome having free weekends though!

I've got my class real estate exam coming up on Wednesday. It's going to be a long weekend of studying but I'm excited to be nearing the end. If I do well enough in the class exam I qualify to take the National exam. So..hopefully I'll be taking the National exam in just a couple of weeks.

Thankfully our evenings have been nice and slow. We've been trying to go on walks through different neighborhoods to get a feel for them. Derrick isn't much of a walker, just to walk, but I am and I think he is starting to come around! It's also good because we need a new way to tire Crosby out now that we don't have practice in the evenings. Winter league starts in a month though!! Can't wait. 

We're looking forward to a visit from Derrick's mom tonight, watching Jack play in his first ultimate tournament next weekend, and planning a vacation for after Christmas. Plans are already in the works!

Pumpkin Time

Warning: Picture Overload!

We met up with the Preeces again last night to carve some pumpkins. Courtney made this delicious chili/soup and we enjoyed some tasty pumpkin beer. Then it was pumpkin carving and s'mores time.  Here's a million pictures of the evening!

The focus in this picture cracks me up. 

Jeff's creepin

We carved a pumpkin for Crosby and a fat, happy one for us :)

Courtney and Jeff's pumpkin was sneaky...just look at that eyebrow

All lit up!

S'mores fire. I almost caught Derrick on fire in an attempt to keep him from catching fire....

She is so proud

State Fair

Wednesday night, Derrick and I met up with Courtney and Jeff to go to the State Fair. It's in town for 10 days and is always crowded, noisy, and greasy. We had a great time! We all got our tickets early at a discounted rate so we were able to walk right in without having to wait in line. Wednesday turned out to be a really good night to go. It was busy but we didn't have to wait in line at all for rides and we had our food in less then 5 minutes! Here's some pictures of the evening!

The craziest new ride at the fair was this ridiculous thing. Basically you throw your kids in these bubble wrap tubes that are floating in a tub of water and you watch them fall all over the place and collide with each other. It was hilarious. 

Our first ride of the day was this gigantic slide. We all raced and Jeff won. I screamed the whole way down. 

The view from the top was pretty awesome though! Excuse the smoky picture. Something went wrong with the camera. 

On the way back from the slide I was totally tempted by this ladder game. It's a long ladder that is just supported by one connection at the top and one connection at the bottom. You have to try and climb up it without falling off or flipping over. I couldn't convince anyone else to do it with me but I did mooch $5 off the hubs and got 2 tries. I did pretty well the first time but was tired on the 2nd attempt and fell off pretty quickly. Here's me getting some tips from the guy. You can see the ladder in the background. 

Here is a picture of the four of us in the animal tent. As usual, this is where the big crowds were. We could hardly get a glimpse at the piglets. Check out those baby donkeys. Aren't they adorable? I keep telling Derrick we're going to have one some day.  He doesn't believe me.....yet. 

I didn't get any pictures of the food we tried but Courtney did. Once she posts about it you can check those out on her blog. Derrick and I shared a funnel cake and a fresh squeezed lemonade. It was delicious!!

Finally, we ended the night with one last ride...the swings!! They are terrifying! I screamed my head off last year and was determined to do better this year. Ha. Those things whip you around so fast and I swore we were going to slam into the roller coaster next to us every time we passed it.  It was cool when the fireworks started just as the ride started though.  

Here we are after the swings, thankful to be alive.

It was an awesome time! We can't wait til next year!!!