don't have a cow, man.

holy cow! i've really been neglecting posting lately. apologies to my adoring fans. all two of you! :)

so anyway, on to the reason i've been inattentive (okay, that's a lie, i've still be READING blogs, just not posting anything...) so...yeah...anyhooskies...

we've finally started tackling the roof. and it's everything i thought it would be and more. meaning it's completely terrifying, just like i thought it would be.

no, seriously, i kid you not. our roof has a 10/12 pitch, which translates to holy s#!+ freaking steep. in fact, that's why our estimates came in so high (oh, i didn't tell you that we were too cheap to just pay someone to do this? well, now you know) was because of the pitch. in addition, there is, like, NOTHING to hang on to. we have roof jacks, but that doesn't really help me. if i start sliding, what am i supposed to do, grab the person standing next to me? i think not.

so, it's taken me about three weeks to get used to being up there. and being sore. and being hot and dirty. and gross and sweaty. but i'm officially "used" to being up there. for the most part. the other day, i totally tripped over a bundle of shingles and almost fell to my death. but you know, i'm brave like that.

here's the process we go through.

1. rip up old nasty white interlocking shingles.

2. rip up old nasty MOLDY tar paper.

3. hang on for dear life, go down backwards and rip up old shake shingles.

4. shake splinters into a million pieces and you end up digging most of it out of the attic.

5. pull out the nails that were holding the shake on. SIX nails per shingles. yikes.

6. measure and cut new decking. nail to roof.

7. measure and cut new tar paper. nail to roof.

8. measure and cut new shingles. nail to roof (at least we have a nail gun for this part...)

9. move to different part of roof and repeat process. over, and over, and over, and over again.

on to the pictures...the action shots were taken by my mom. she didn't get on the roof, but still ended up hurting her back somehow. oh, we carpenter's really know how to hurt ourselves!

just a reminder of what the roof looked like before we started.

k on his belly digging at the shake under the siding.

dad and i pulling out nails (i look super excited) and k and his dad putting some new shingles on.

ripping up the old crap.

haha, k's butt looks funny because he was sitting on the ridge

kansas is like a box of chocolates...

you never know what you are going to get!

outside my apartment window this morning.

hey...at least i got a snow day out of it, i left work at 1 yesterday!

do you like that i have a coke machine right outside my window?  yet another reason i decided to live here.  except i really want one right now and i don't have any dang change!!

grrr!!!!

such a slacker

so i haven't blogged in like a week. sheesh. i'm horrible at this stuff. but i'm really trying to get better, i'm just super busy right now.

i went to my last wedding of the year this last weekend! hooray i'm done! for a while anyway. i think the first one we have next year is in april. sheesh, you graduate college and everyone and their damn brother gets married. i added it up, you know. i went to ten weddings this year. TEN! i was invited to 13, but couldn't go to three of them. on two different weekends i was supposed to go to two weddings in one day. i mean, REALLY people. there's only so much time i have to spend at these things! :)

really though, i love weddings. and my friends erin and kyle got married this weekend. i LOVED it! erin was beautiful and everything was perfect. i served cake (or was a cake server/cutter person) and her cake was decorated to look like lace. i kept looking at it like, "that looks familiar." it was the same lace design as her dress! how cool is that?

i know, super cool.

anyway...kyle told me i should start keeping a book or something of what i liked and didn't like about all the stinkin' weddings we went to this year. i was like, "that's dumb."

and instead i planned out pretty much everything i want! :)

type A catie meets type B kyle. trust me, we are complete opposites.

anyway, what do you think about this? i'm thinking light grey tux for kyle, dark grey for the groomsmen. dark purple for the ladies with silver shoes and silver dresses for the candlelighters/little girls. then i'm going to have burnt orange, amethyst and white cala lilies for my flowers. here's some images for your reflection....(note that the brides' dress is the one i blogged about forever ago. i'm still obessed.)

oh, and that the engagement ring is tiffany's novo. i told kyle once that it's tiffany's or the answer is no. not true, but maybe it will scare him into it!



i also was thinking that because halloween is on a saturday next year that it would be SO COOL to get married on that day (our anniversary is nov. 1st). and then i had the brilliant idea to do little treat bags for the favor, only there is a candy bar and everyone goes and "trick or treats" for their candies. or an ice cream sundae bar would be awesome. with some pumpkin bowls or something. anyway...i'm getting a might carried away considering i'm not even engaged. but kyle thought it was a cool idea, too, so at least i'm getting somewhere!

sunday sunday SUNDAY!

i had the most amazing weekend. don't you just love it when you honestly have a great time? not that i don't always have a great time when i spend a weekend with kyle, but we were surrounded by great people all weekend!

on friday we hung out with chad and his fiance, katie. they both went to high school with kyle, but i've known chad for so long that i think i can call him a friend. at least an acquaintance. it's nice to have a couple that we can hang out with and i can talk to HER about stuff. she's about my age and is catholic [i should tell you that i'm not catholic, i'm technically methodist. but i'm looking into converting to quakerism. random fact, i know. more on that in another post.] but anyway, she went to church with a lot of my friends from high school and bishop carrol [i dated a guy from BC for like three years]. so we know a lot of the same people and she's honestly a smart and funny person who can make everyone feel comfortable. so anyway, we went and saw the house they just moved into and then went out for a few drinks. unfortunately, i don't have any pictures from that night....boo.

on saturday we went to the wedding of one of my favorite couples of all! katie and dustin are adorable, and if you met them, you would know they are perfect for each other. dustin was kyle's intern at cat for a few years, but we all went out together while dustin, katie, and i were still in school. they are hilarious, especially together. the wedding was really short [for a catholic wedding, anyway... :)] and we sat next to zach [another of kyle's ex-interns] and ryan and sara and their four adorable children [ryan works at cat with kyle]. after the wedding we went to the reception on emporia state's campus in one of the prettiest ballrooms i've seen! everything was beautiful and we had a blast. katie and dustin even decided to go to the bars with a bunch of us after the reception...in their full wedding attire! so cute. here's some pics for everyone's enjoyment.

SO cute!

some of katie's handiwork (she's a graphic designer).

joey, tony and caleb waiting for their turn to dance.

sara and katie (sooo many katie's this weekend!!)

can you believe the photography skills of the boys? caleb took this one of kyle and i!

caleb and joey. SOOOO cute!

the cat boys...and tony. :)

more of katie's skills...

my favorite picture of the night.

we c/katie's gotta stick together. we're at the bar in this pic.

zach and i at the bars.

the boys! too bad they are all separated now [zach is in waterloo, iowa; dustin in kc, ks and kyle in holton] they were a fun group to hang with.

wonderful weekends...

i really didn't think that being in a long distance relationship was going to be this hard. really, i didn't. kyle and i have been dating for about 6 years now, and for three of those we've lived at least an hour apart.

but even an hour apart isn't really that bad. i could still go and see him if i wanted to, but sometimes that meant driving home really late at night or getting up at the butt-crack of dawn to drive to work or school in the morning. now, we're down to weekends only. and it sucks, really.

now, we officially live 3 hours apart. and that's if i don't have to stop on the way up to his house. 3 hours?!? that's a lot of a weekend. i mean, that's SIX HOURS of driving for one of us. i'm really not sure how long i'm going to last here in wichita. being back up in onaga for the weekend just showed me exactly what i was missing out on. it's so beautiful up there, epecially when you see what wichita looks like. and then you add to the fact that i actually got to cook for two people, not just one (and a dog and a cat, but they don't really count, do they?) and do my laundry for free and live in a house that i wouldn't have to pay rent on. it's just kind of depressing to return to stinky old wichita and think about how much i'd rather be living up there.

this post is getting depressing...it was supposed to be about my wonderful weekend up north and it turned into a bash on wichita post! lol. oh well! i really do like living here, but i truly miss all my manhattan friends and of course, seeing kyle any time i wanted to. i'm sure everything will work out in the end, and since it's not worked out yet, it's not the end!

so, ANYWAY...i did have a wonderful weekend at kyle's house, although he doesn't have internet and i don't get my FB and blogger "fixes" in everyday...but that's okay, i did get to see him after all... :)

here's the line up of weekends to come...

sept. 13th - dustin and katie's wedding in emporia, ks.
sept. 20th - dalton and emily's wedding in some small town in nebraska...basically it's so far north we will almost be in south dakota.
sept. 27th - e.duerr comes to town on friday! and erin g's bachlorette party in KC on saturday, studying my butt off on sunday.
oct. 4th - my LEED test day...yikes! kyle is building a shed at his house this day as well.
oct. 11th - erin and kyle's wedding in axtell, ks.
oct. 16th - i'm on the graduate panel for the KSU Interior Design Symposium all day, kyle and i leave for vacation that night!
oct. 16th - 20th - on vacation to cachura valley, co!
oct. 25th - a FREE weekend finally...
nov. 1st - kyle and i's 6 year anniversary, my dad's birthday, and the KU/KSU game in lawrence! we're going with some friends of ours that have the same anniversary!

and i think that's all we have "booked" until thanksgiving...sheesh, we are a busy crew this fall!