Beach Trip Part 2

Tuesday was the last day that they weather channel seemed to be able to guarantee not too much rain so the guys took the opportunity to go golfing. Michael and William bought clubs at the Humanity ReStore and Derrick and Alexander caddied for them. Derrick can't play golf with his bad shoulder right now...he still has a physical therapist to yell at him. Team William and Alexander won. I hear the course was pretty terrible. While the guys were off golfing, Holly, Rebecca and I soaked up some clouds on the beach for the morning and then visited Lucky Dog cafe for lunch. It was the size of a single wide trailer...I'll give it  a B+. I wasn't blown away but I was happy to try something local.  

Tuesday night, we ate at Robbi's Reef. We tried to go there on Sunday night but they are closed Sunday and Monday so we went back the first night they were open. It's a seafood restaurant but I was pleased that they  actually cared what their non-seafood items tasted like. Derrick got a delicious Italian sausage sandwich and I got a delicious salad. It was so good we went back on Friday and ordered the exact same thing!

Now...the best part of our week!!! Drum Roll please.......

SHARKS TEETH

Venice, FL is home to one of the best Sharks Tooth hunting beaches. We went for the first time on Tuesday but I wish we had done it the very first day we got there...even after that long drive. I LOVED it! There were tons of people out there hunting. We searched our kitchen and found about 8 colanders so we took those out there to sift through the sand. I found 85 total! Derrick was a good sport and watched over my sharks teeth as I ran back and forth from the ocean. Holly and Rebecca really got into it too, as did William although he had unfortunate timing. A not-to-be-missed game of bocce started just has he hit his groove and found his first one.  He found more the following day though!

This is also where we met Mr. Giant Turtle. I touched him...Derrick did too, however, it was through wireless phone connection. I had him on the phone while I touched him. It was terrifying and awesome!

Thursday Andrea really hit hard. There were tornado warnings and I was busy positioning myself closest to the safest place in our house should a tornado strike. I would have been ready! We did get a little lapse in the storm during the late morning and I told Derrick we had to use this time to go Shark Tooth hunting! I told you I was obsessed right? Everybody but Alexander was convinced it was a great idea too so we piled into the car and headed out! It was only when we encountered the flooded beach road that we started to wonder if the idea was as grand as it seemed. There was caution tape on all of the beach entrances and cars were leaving there as quickly as they could. Not to be deterred, we parked, found an entrance that had not been barred yet, and headed onto the beach where the ocean was almost up to the boardwalk! My obliging husband jumped in the ocean and sifted away until he found at least one tooth! William videoed it...I'll post it if  I can get it from him. The wind and waves were CRAZY! It was pretty cool.

That night we escaped Andrea with some more bowling and some Mexican food.

Rebecca looked adorable in her bowling outfit.

William wore the big hat at the Mexican restaurant.

Friday we finally got some sun and I, not so subtly, rushed everyone out of the house so we could soak it up. I was so excited to get at least one day of the sun. It was a great end to the vacation! Holly and I even napped by the pool that afternoon...perfect!

A 13 hour car drive later and we were home. It was definitely too short but also much needed! It was nice to  set work aside (I only had to take 1 call and answer a few emails) and Derrick was able to disconnect from work for the most part as well. I think we both needed that and it came just at the right time!

Next up...Girls weekend in St. Louis this coming weekend! Derrick's so sweet for letting me take off with just the girls. It's going to be a blast!

Let's Go to the Beach, Beach!

The title is to be sung to the starting beat of Nicki Minaj's Starship.  That is what I've been singing for the past several weeks and is the excuse for my long absence of blog posts! Derrick and I joined up with friends and look a week long vacation to Venice, Florida to soak up some sun tropical storm Andrea. We settled on Venice, FL because I wanted to get away from NC and we were able to find a beach house that would comfortably accommodate all 7 of us and still be within walking distance of a beach without breaking the bank. We booked our trip through a company called Vacation Rental Pros and I would definitely recommend them. They were very easy to work with, checked in along the way, and were very timely with their responses to any of my questions.

So, Venice is an 11.5 hour drive from Durham, NC. Derrick and I considered flying for just a second, but decided that driving couldn't be all that bad and it would save some major cash. Alexander and Holly also opted for driving so Derrick and I picked them up in Fayetteville which was right on the way.  We were able to get all of the luggage, beach bags, and games in the trunk which left plenty of room for all of us comfortably settled in up front with our snacks and Roo Cups! Derrick even broke out his tank top for the ride...definitely beach ready.  I told him he looked like a body builder in this picture...don't you think?

The drive was surprisingly easy! We didn't hit any traffic and only got a little bit of rain in the Tampa area.  The only hiccup we had was the lack of mini Oreos. It's all I wanted in the world and the gas station we were at did not have them...it was devastating. Luckily the next place we stopped had them. I may or may not have screamed. I bought 2 bags and Alexander made sure to grab some on the way home to avoid another crisis situation.

We were at the house by 7:30. Isn't it cute? The description called it a mansion....not quite, but still cute! It had 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a pool. Perfect for us!

Here's a view from the kitchen facing the front of the house. That table where everybody is sitting turned out to be perfect for games....and we played a LOT of games thanks to Andrea. 

Here's the living room. Plenty of seating and the ceiling was so cool with those beams! I loved how open it was. I told Derrick that if the bedroom layout wasn't so weird, this could be a really cool floorplan for us one day. 

The first night we played a few games and crashed. It had been a long travel day for everybody. Monday morning we hit the beach! The walk-able beach was OK...there wasn't tons of sand but there also were hardly any people so it was a nice trade off. The water felt awesome and we were able to swim way out and find a sandbar. We also played some bocce that Derrick and I brought along. Michael is really good at bocce! He probably won. I kept forgetting my camera, but here's a phone pic of the aqua water! This was our last really good day of sun until Friday.

That afternoon we laid out by the pool. It was really nice to be able to enjoy the beach in the morning and then be lazy by the pool in the afternoon. Holly and I both took afternoon naps by the pool at least twice. Derrick played sunscreen police.

Sunday night for dinner we checked out an Italian place we had seen driving into town and that Rebecca had also read was good. Rebecca is the foodie of the group and had found some awesome restaurants for us to try throughout the week. The place was called A Taste of Italy and it was delicious!! Derrick, Michael, and Alexander split a pizza by the yard. Essentially, it's three pizzas cut in a way that can be lined up on this huge tray so that the entire table can try the different types of pizza. Here's the inside of the restaurant. We were in a hidden back room. So cute!

Here's the pizza by the yard!

 Here is what William, Rebecca, and I got. It's the Sunday special. They only make it on Sunday and apparently the sauce simmers all day on Saturday. I don't know exactly what it was...pasta and lots of meat but it was amazing!

Venice was an adorable little beach town. They had these painted dolphins and turtles lining the sidewalks. 

 After dinner with A Taste of Italy in the background.

I'm not sure what's going on here.

Here is Holly and my favorite Dolphin. It was sponsored by a Venice Radiology practice. It had pretty fish swimming on one side of him and then...

X-Rayed fish on the other side that lined up with the fish on the right side!!! It was the best one.

The next day was more of the same. It was overcast but Holly, and I still went out to the beach. I managed to get sunburned but it's already tanned out. The clouds started moving in during the afternoon so we went bowling and I bowled a career high 125! That was right after a 62 on my first game...I am not consistent! Derrick is still bowling lefty because of shoulder but he still did really well with a high of 128!

That night we went to the Daiquiri deck for dinner and BOGO daiquiris!

And ended the night with gelato!

Sorry for the picture overload! We're only halfway through the week but I'll finish up with another blog post. I still haven't even touched on my new found hobby!

Rewarded with Pillows!

A couple months ago, I told Derrick I wanted new pillows for our bed. We are using five dollar ones from Target....they don't even fill up our pillow cases! His response to me was "sell a house!". Since then, I got under contract with a house that closed on May 16 and that was the day we were going to get new pillows! It seems so trivial, but it was something to look forward to...something we could have easily gone out and bought any day of the week, but instead we turned it into a goal.

May 16th came and went. I did have a successful closing and we joked that we needed to go get the pillows but we just never made the time to do it. Then I had a meeting with one of my mentors. He asked me how I celebrate my successes. I unabashedly told him about the pillows I had been working toward and then admitted we hadn't bought them yet. He told me I had to buy my pillows!

What's the point of working so hard towards a goal and not celebrating in your own way? What are you working for then? Just to pay the bills? That's not motivating!....well, I guess a hot shower can be motivating...but still!  Even if it's as simple as renting a Redbox you've had your eye on or as extravagant as a dinner date at Ruth's Chris....he reminded me how important it was to actually take those times to celebrate and realize you earned it! Especially early in my career, I need to set the habits of celebrating my successes. Hopefully, one day I'm going to have several closings a month and celebrating each one will keep me going.

I texted Derrick and told him we had to get my pillows and this past Sunday we went to JC Penny and got them!

Pillows are expensive! Thank goodness they were on sale. We saw pillows there for almost $100 a piece! We settled on the $35 a piece ones that were on sale for $20 each, used $10 in rewards dollars and then used a giftcard for the rest! Not bad! And sleeping wise....totally worth the cash!

Thank you Derrick for understanding why I needed to get these pillows! For my next closing, lets get Coldstone!

Jack Goes to Nationals

Everybody knows Jack plays ultimate at UNC-W. I have posted it on here, on Facebook, and I tell pretty much everybody I meet. Well, his team qualified for college nationals and went to Madison, WI over the long Memorial Day weekend to compete.

I have been trying to get it into Jack's head how big a deal College Nationals is....really Ultimate in general. If he didn't want to play, that was OK with me, but I really wanted him to understand that those people who do play competitively, take it VERY seriously.  Making it to College Nationals is a huge deal. It's kind of like making it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA college basketball tournament.

I think Jack finally gets it :) He got to go and play this past weekend. Most college players do not make it to Nationals. Only the top 20 teams in the Nation make it each year. I never went and Derrick went one year. It really is an honor to go and I am so excited that Jack got to experience it.

The cool thing about Nationals this year is that Ultimate is finally getting some attention! Several of the games were live streamed and the Semi Final games and the Finals were actually televised on ESPN. That is so huge for the sport of ultimate! Two of Jack's games got live streamed: his pre-quarters game against Colorado and his quarters game against Carleton.   When you go to Nationals as a freshman you can expect to be a bench warmer and a water-bottle-filler-upper.  Jack got three points in the Carleton game and tore it up!! The commentators called him out for playing great defense, he caught a bail out huck and he had an incredible layout for a huge goal to bring them within 1 of Carleton.  The announcers said "And a huge catch by Jack Williams!"

They ended up losing in the Quarter Finals game to Carleton but they went so much farther then they were expected to. They were also called out for having excellent offense and really being a team that relied on everybody and not just a few stars. I think that's something to be proud of.

I got to talk to him tonight about it and it was so cool to hear how fired up he was. It was such a cool experience for him and I know that he is only going to get better and better. He is one of only two freshman that made the A team this year and I think he will be a vital part of their team in the next three years at Wilmington.  Who knows...maybe we'll get him so hooked he'll even play club one day!

Congrats Jack! I'm so happy for you and I'm glad you finally got the chance to experience the craze Derrick and I have been telling you about :)

Kudzu

Every year on Memorial Day weekend there is a local frisbee tournament called Kudzu. There are a few legit club teams that come but mostly it's filled with pick-up teams. Just groups of friends getting together to play and have fun for the weekend. Derrick and I always try to play in this tournament because the weather is nice, most of our friends play, and it's close by so we don't have to drive forever and we can sleep in our own bed that night!

This year we played for a team called Osos y Amigos. Bryan Brickhouse and his fiance Caroline captained and asked us to play so we jumped at the chance. The cool thing is that The Osos is actually the name of Lenoir Rhyne College's ultimate team. Lenoir Rhyne is in Hickory! Brickhouse went to LR for undergrad I think and this team had a couple other alumni from the Osos.  Oso means Bear in Spanish and the LR mascot is a bear.  They had to add amigos to it as there were more amigos then Osos on the team.

It was a really fun weekend. The weather was the coolest it's been in a few years at around 78 degrees each day, the wind was just breezy enough to be cool but not to affect the game play too much, and we were able to win a couple games. I think we ended up in 6th place but it was fun to play with new people and spend Memorial Day out in the sun!

And the Award Goes to....

Jay Williams!!!

My brother Jay just got notified that he will be awarded the Commuter Award by Chicago Booth School of Business. He will be recognized at an award ceremony and will get to shake the Dean's hand! For those that don't know Jay's story, he works a full time job in Richmond, VA Monday through Friday and then hops on a plane to Chicago every Friday evening. He has become a regular at a Chicago hostel. He attends classes for his MBA on Saturday and Sunday and then flies back Sunday evening in order to get to work Monday morning.  Oh yeah....and he's president of the marketing club...incredible, right? "The commuter award is awarded annually to weekend students who fly a great distance on a weekly basis for class, while also playing an active role in the Booth Community.

I'm so proud of you Jay! I could never do what you are doing. It takes an incredible amount of drive and self-discipline and I am so glad you are getting recognition for this crazy schedule you're calling life for the next three years.

He Scored and I Missed it!

Derrick started playing on a co-ed soccer team with a couple co-workers several weeks ago. They meet on Thursday evenings and play one or two games a night. It's through the same organization that does his basketball league. I didn't go to very  many of them because I was playing pick-up ultimate on Thursdays for a few weeks but it's been the perfect way for Derrick to get in some exercise while his shoulder is still recovering. He could do everything except throw ins.

Tonight started the playoffs for their team! Last year they played in the B league and were winning a lot so they moved up to the A league this year. Unfortunately they didn't take any W's but they did manage to tie two of their games. They lost their first playoff game tonight so they are out and done for the season but Derrick did score one of the two goals off of an awesome pass from Travis!

and I MISSED IT!! typical.....

Here's the team...we had to run right after the game so I didn't get a team picture. Maybe summer league :)

Oh yeah... and I had my second closing this afternoon with those two maroon people in the middle :)

It was was a good day!