Putting the "J" in Joy

We have a four legged child named Bailey who loves to go for long walks and stop every 2 feet to sniff every dogs last pee, etc. As we are winding down our nights in the house before we move, we took Bailey out for her last walk in our neighborhood before she moved out to my folks house while we wrapped everything up at ours. On our walk, Scott and I were admirring the festive lights that the homes all had on and the fact that our looks like the scrooge house, but only because we are moving. I thought I would share some of the homes with you all.

You have the simply decorated home with just a wreath and some garland around the door.



You then have the classic looking homes (my favorites).




The "I can't have enough blowups" house



Have your own reindeer stable in the yard



The Jewish decorated home

and then there is the home that just can't quite get it all together for the holidays. One night the "O" was the only thing that was lit and this night it was only now missing the "J" in Joy!

The road to 40

We have been quite busy here in New Jersey with buying & selling a house, packing, dinners in NYC with friends, etc. and with everything going on it is official that I have lost 30 pounds and on the road to 40 (goal is by Christmas). To lose another 9-10lbs. by Christmas would be quite impossible this time of year with all of the goodies that are around but I am hoping to be down 35 now by Christmas.

Also related to 40- we will be closing on our new house in 46 days! Time has been ticking away slowly and this weekend really kicked it in high gear with our Get A Sam arriving on Friday and packing it up all day Saturday, then a Christmas party Sat night and another one today. We are nearing the end of packing up all of our belongings and keeping out enough to live here for just under two weeks until we officially close on our current house. We are headed to my folks house for the month we will be homeless, part of which we will be in Hawaii for 9 days and also spending a long weekend in Green Bay for a Packers playoff game in the Frozen Tundra in January.

Stay Tuned...

26.2

Scott has been training hard since about June for his 2nd marathon, both of which are NYC. His first marathon he finished with a time of 4:02:18 which was a great time, considering he is not a professional runner. His goal this year was to run a sub 3:45 marathon.

We went out for a carb loaded dinner on Saturday night to get him ready for the long road ahead in the morning, made sure a few alarm clocks were set (especially since it was daylight savings) and headed to bed. 4:45am came and he was ready to go and conquer the 5 boroughs. He finished the marathon yesterday with a time of 3:54:18 which was not his goal but a superb time!

Naturally after he finished, we headed out to a bar and had a few beers!

Now that the road to 26.2 miles is completed, he is going to take a year or two off from training for a marathon. His goal is the London marathon in a few years.

Attorney Review

We are officially under attorney review for the purchase of our new house! It amazes me how quickly all of this process has gone so far with listing our house, going under contract on our house, home inspection, finding a new house, accepted offer and now under attorney review.

I got the call last night from our realtor with a "You bought yourself a new house". I was shocked that they accepted our low-ball offer, but of course was excited! The ball is now moving and hopefully the rest of the process goes just as well.

Here is a pic of the new house:

Wedding Recap

Where has October gone?

• October 7th - celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary


• October 16th - signed a contract to sell our house


• October 20th - attended Scott's best friends wedding rehersal and rehersal dinner


• October 21st - attended Scott's best friends wedding and came out of attorney review on our house


• October 22nd - Scott's 30th birthday


• October 24th - Recover

What wedding would be compelte without a few photo booth pictures! The first is three of the groomsmen and the wives (aka Table 7), the second is Scott and I with his parents and the third I think you can figure it out!

On to a busy rest of the week, looking at a house for the third time tonight and potentially making an offer on it, dropping Scott off at the airport bright and early tomorrow so that he can go to Disney for "work", home inspection on Wed., 5k run for me on Saturday and then the month is over.

The Running Crew

I think most of you know that my hubby, Scott, is running the NYC marathon this year, which will be his 2nd marathon ever.

I had set a goal to go on an 8 mile run with him this year and not be the fat ass that I was last year when he would go for a run I would sit and veg out on the couch. Not this year!

I have been 'running' since around mid-May but really more often about mid-June. So far my longest run I have done is 6.5 miles which for me is GREAT! On a normal day I run about 4-4.5 miles and then do a long run on Saturday. I am gearing up for about a 7-7.5 mile run this Saturday.

On better news, I have lost 22lbs while getting off my butt and actually doing something. That is just over halfway to my ultimate goal of losing 40lbs by Christmas when we jet-set off to Hawaii for the Holidays. I will keep you posted on my progress this weekend. I am getting closer to that 8 mile mark.

Times are Changing

Our house is on the market!

Yes for sale that is. We have decided to sell and move up the property ladder so wish us well in finding a buyer soon so that we can start looking for that next "new" home for the Tune's!

Part III: Ocracoke

Hi-ho, hi-ho it's off to Ocracoke we go! The final leg of our journey was about to commence and I don't think Ocracoke knew what was in store when the Sanger's and BLT's arrived!

On the way down to Ocracoke we drove down Highway 12 which drives through the Outerbanks and is a beautiful drive, especially when the sun is shining! We took two detours on the trip to see a few lighthouses.

First up, Bodie Island Lighthouse and Keeper's house


Next up on the lighthouse tour was the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse


We continued the trip to the ferry docks where we queued up in line for our trip over to Ocracoke. While we were waiting we thought it might be a good idea to break in the boards that Scott and I got for Heather and Jason to see if they might have a little "home field advantage". You see there is finally a team that we all agree to route for, besides we were cheering for the Durham Bulls but we got blamed that they didn't win, so we knew that we were going to get some Duke boards for them.



The lines starting to move onto the ferry so we did a quick Zamboni clean up and onto the ferry we went.

A few pics from ferry



Once on the island of Ocracoke, we drove to our B&B villa for the duration of the trip, The Castle B&B.


After settling into our digs, we headed out on our beach cruisers for a guided tour of the island. First stop was lunch though since we were all starving! A recurring theme starting from lunch which was that Jason and Scott were wearing Boston and Yankees gear, respectively. People kept asking, "You two are friends?". We had a good laugh with all the commentary around that. So here is a photo op of the two boys in their gear.


We explored the rest of the island that afternoon with stops at the lighthouse, Blackbeard's beach for some shells, crab hunting and a few pictures.

After working up a sweat on the beach, well not really, but some parched mouths, it was time to grab some coffee at Ocracoke Coffee Shop. This place was packed but had some damn good coffee. Heather and I ordered the drinks in which the guys wanted the mother of all frappachino like drinks. The lady asks if we want whip cream on them and Heather says no and I say yes. Fast forward now to drinks in hand and Jason asks where his whip cream is and Heather says, "I didn't order any for you." That started what Jason called the downfall of the coffee since he went back and asked for whip cream, they had to change the cup his drink was then in which had chocolate sauce down the side and now said new cup did not. Needless to say, Jason is enjoying the mother of all frappachino drinks WITH whip cream as well as Scott. Heather and I settled with iced coffee...see simple. The relaxing life we had!

We headed back to the villa in order to prep for our dinner festivities on the beach. We loaded up in our car with firewood in the trunk, beach chairs, blanket, beer, wine, and our dinner to be cooked on the fire.

The guys set out to find a bit more driftwood, if possible, since after getting all the wood from our car to the beach, Jason thought we would need more since it would burn pretty quickly with the ocean breeze.



The fire was started and we were settling in quite nicely!


Hazy view of the sunset



Hot Dogs were being roasted on an open fire!



We were starting to get some admirer's of our campfire. If you click on the photo you will see some crabs that wanted to come join our little party we had.



Smores time with our Escazu chocolates we bought in Raleigh.


Here is where things start getting interesting since we didn't have a flashlight, there are crabs all around us and we are starting to take photos. See they don't look too bad a little blurry at times but not too bad.





This is where I think the guys were trying to pull a fast one on Heather and I. This is a string of photos that I put into a video to show the constant movement that Heather and I were doing so that we could not get eaten by the crabs.

The next day, we had a nice day at the beach and then got back on our old trusty bikes and headed out for another coffee. Yes the guys both got another mammoth frozen drink with whipped cream on top and chocolate chips.

After that I wanted to go check out the British Cemetery so we headed further down the road and I put on the breaks when I saw this place, Zillie's. I popped the bike in the rack and went inside to pursue....or the guys did.

After a glass of wine/beer on the porch of Zillie's and some 6-packs to go....is that legal? We headed off for the British Cemetery.

We pulled into the cemetery and in about two minutes after that Jason says, "I don't think this is my bike." We are all standing there like "huh....you STOLE some one's bike", he quickly rode off back to Zillie's to retrieve his bike while we walked around the cemetery.

One recovered bike and time to head back to get ready for campfire number 2.

Scott and I headed to the general store for stuff for dinner while Heather and Jason went to pick up some fresh fish for our fish taco dinner. After we buy the groceries but forgot the firewood, Scott and I head back in and ask to buy a few bundles of wood and the cashier asks us what we are up to and this is where the problem starts

Scott says: Just having a fire on the beach tonight.

Cashier: You know they are banned right now due to the heat?

Scott: Since when?

Cashier: Awhile, just like the rest of the OBX beaches.

Scott: Oh, ok. Thanks for your help.

After we got back to the villa and broke the news, we felt satisfied that we had a nice 6 hour fire the night before and that not a sole in sight said anything to us!

So we improvised with fish tacos on the charcoal grill at the villa. We pulled it off well with a sundowner on the deck, fish tacos for dinner and a game in the villa afterward.

Day three, was a repeat of Day 2 but with Heather and I going out shopping at the local stores and the guys watching the baseball and taking a little nap. We caught back up with them at home and then headed back out for Zillie's then home for a sundowner again with a few photo ops, where we tested out the timer on the camera!

After a nice meal out that night we bid farewell to our bikes and called it a night. We had a bite to eat in the am and headed out for the ferry back over to the Hatteras. We said our goodbye's until next time. We had a wonderful trip with Heather and Jason and absolutely agree that Ocracoke is one of the best places on earth.

I am finishing this post up on the night that they are evacuating Ocracoke as Hurricane Irene is supposed to be making her way up the coast. I sure hope they don't get hit hard.