Slowly but surely...

Well, our roof is half done, thanks to Mother Nature for providing insuffient weather allllllllll day on Saturday.  The weekend pretty much went down like this:

Friday... The guys teared off old shingles (on half the roof) and attempted to land them in the dump trailer.  I say "attempt" because that part of the project was definitely not their strong suit!  It was my job to pick up the ones that didn't land in the trailer... which was about 3/4 of the roof.  After some additional purchases at Menards we called it quits for the night.

Saturday... Kurt and I got up with the sun and immediately began preparing to cover our exposed roof before the forecasting rain.  Kurt tackled the starter strip and drip edge while I crawled around the roof pulling nails (yep, I was up there too!).

It started sprinkling already around 8:30am and things went downhill from there... Lucky for us, Jim (Kurt's Dad) arrived just in time to help tar-paper the roof and (in the rain).

All in all they got it papered and managed to pull an enormous tarp over it before any damage was done.  Whew, close call.  The rest of Saturday was shot due to the rain and that set us back quiet a bit... but don't worry, we still had to make another trip to Menards.

Sunday... We tried to play catch up and Kurt went to town shingling with the help of our friends Noah and Chuy (you guys totally kick butt!!). 

After a full dawn-to-dusk day of work they wrapped things up for weekend.  Kurt still had to finish up a section on Monday night but since then we've attempted to have a "normal" week and are saving the other half for the coming weekend.  Oh yeah, I also made yet ANOTHER Menards run... *grumble*.

Even though the project is taking longer than we had hoped, the results are looking great!  Check out these before and after shots!!

 Old roof (above) ---- New roof (below)

On another (much more fun) subject... our engagement pictures are TOMORROW and we are really excited for them!! =D  The weather looks perfect, a sunny 68 degrees when the session starts so we're looking forward to hanging out downtown Cedar Falls for some modern pics and then out in the country for some laid-back shots. Our wedding photo, Rose, does some awesome work so it'll be fun to see how everything turns out!

Hello Fall!

Today is the first offical day of Fall so I guess it's time to say goodbye to summer and open our arms to the cool weather, brisk breeze and crunchy multi-colored leaves (my favorite!).  Fall is Kurt's favorite time of year and it's a close runner up for me too (I'm a summer girl, what can I say?).  Either way, we're pledging to take advantage of Fall because everyone knows it'll slip away too fast and we'll be stuck with winter for far too long.  So, first up.... re-roof the house!

After writing the largest check in our life (you're welcome, Menards) and loading/unloading the truck a few times we now have a garage full of roofing supplies.  Horray!  Lucky for us, Kurt is a handy man so he'll be tackling this project with the help of his dad and a few friends (THANK YOU GUYS).  We're excited to see how the fresh new roof changes the look of our house... the current one is pretty sad looking.  This is the first of many curb-appeal projects that we have added to our "wish list", hopefully we can take down those awful old-school awnings next!!  I know, I know... they're practical.  But ugly! So you know how this one's ending right??  ....Anyways, the tear-off starts now!  Cross your fingers that it doesn't rain (although I just looked at the forecast and I looks like it might tomorrow - uggh).  Stay tuned for progress pics!

OH yeah, for those of you that missed the fun, Memory Walk was a success last weekend and I am happy to report that work-life is getting back to "normal".  Although the weather was colder than I would have liked we had a good turn out (record turnout actually!) and we are set to raise a total of $250,000 chapter-wide for Alzheimer's care, support and research.  Rock on, right?  Of course, reaching that impressive goal calls on supporters like me and you to keep fundraising and raising awareness.  Keep it up and thank you all for supporting my efforts! :)   Here's a sneak peak at what Memory Walk 2010 entailed....

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Work, Work, Work.

I've been meaning to post for quite some time, but this has been a hectic week! In fact, I've been meaning to sit down and do a post dedicated to elaborating on our work -- as in, what we do for a living.  Since we don't get to see many of our friends and family members very often there are a few questions that we always get asked ...one of them is "how is work going?".  Of course, people rarely have time to actually discuss this subject but work is such a large part of everyone's lives that I think it's important to know and understand what your loved ones actually DO.  Here it goes....

Jessi
Job Title: Outreach Coordinator
Company:  Alzheimer's Association, East Central Iowa Chapter

This is a big time of year for me at work -- it's Memory Walk season (actually, we're only 2 days away from Memory Walk now.  Whew!).  For those of you that aren't familiar - The Alzheimer's Association's Memory Walk is the nation's largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer's care, support, advocacy and research.  Memory Walks are held annually in hundreds of communities all over the US, but our specific chapter of the Alzheimer's Association hosts 4 walks each year (all on the same day)... one in Coralville, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and West Union. I am the Walk Coordinator for the Northeast Iowa Regional Memory Walk, which is held in West Union, IA.  So yeah - in a nutshell I've spent the 4-5 months promoting the event, implementing marketing tactics, recruiting team captains, attending tabling events, and generally raising awareness about the event (and of course, the importance of the cause).  Now that Memory Walk is just around the corner my days are filled with list-making, last-minute details and packing up supplies to ensure Memory Walk is a smooth and inspiring event for all that attend. :)   ....When it's not Memory Walk season my work days consist of more general duties like carrying out support services, delivering community presentations, marketing smaller events, compiling the newsletter, etc.... until Spring rolls around and I dive into QUASH (sounds fun, doesn't it?? We'll leave that for another post).

I truly enjoy my job and am lucky to have an awesome group of co-workers! 

Kurt - Day Job
Job Title: Concrete Finisher
Company: Martinson Construction Inc.

This is also a busy time of year for Kurt... when the weather is nice there is lots of concrete work to be done.  Summer has consisted of some long days and even mandatory Saturdays but now that fall is around the corner we'll have to wait and see how the schedule pans out!  Kurt has been at Martinson for about five months and it's been a good job, but not a real fun one.  If you've ever talked to Kurt for more than 10 minutes I'm sure you know that concrete isn't a job he likes doing - but it is a job he's good at doing.  He's been working different concrete jobs since high school, he's put in time on a numerous different crews as he floated around and went to college, too!  So although Kurt spends his days making concrete look pretty - it's his "night job" that really qualifies as "his work".

Kurt - Night Job
Job Title: Owner, Upholsterer 
Company: Showtime Auto LLC

We've mentioned it before but it's worth mentioning again because starting a business certainly qualities as an adventure!  Kurt spends almost every night outside in the garage doing custom upholstery jobs.  I have to admit that I didn't realize how time consuming this venture would be until he started tackling this big jobs... I don't know how he does it but Kurt easily logs an additional 30-40 hours per week with Showtime.  ...Now here's where the explanation comes in handy because when most people hear he does upholstery they think he's recovering furniture, ahhhh not true.  Kurt does AUTO upholstery (think hot-rods, muscle cars, etc with standout interiors!) and the occasional boat cover, motorcycle seat, etc.   It's an interesting trade because every job is a custom job -- he listens to what the customer is looking for then does whatever it takes to create it.  (My camera is dead but I'll be sure to post some pics of his work later!)

So there you have it -- the low-down details on our daily work lives!  I'm sure you'll hear tid-bits about work in the future, too. With that in mind we'd like to leave you with a little quote... hope it inspires you a little, or at least makes the rest of the work-week a more manageable! :)

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”  - Oscar Wilde

Oh, Pita.

Our Internet service is horrible... and that is the *main* reason that I haven't been able to blog this past week and half.  I swear, every time we try to get online we have to spend half and hour troubleshooting and running repairs just to get it connected for 10 minutes!  Uggh!  I am fed up with Mediacom.   BUT it seems to be working for now (of course, not the wireless though) so here it goes:  A quick update on what we've been up to....

Last weekend I went to Des Moines to have an "APT 14 Reunion" with my college roommates from senior year.  It was a great day and fun night (but we missed you Caitlin!!). 

YUM. We've been grilling out more now that the weather is cooling down!  Ahh the simple joys of Fall in Iowa. :)

And now the big news!  We adopted another dog!! .... I had mentioned a few times that I would like to have a small indoor dog since Rockie is an outdoor dog.  I've grown up with small indoor dogs as pets and Kurt grew up with farm dogs (outside, of course).  .....One day at the mall my Mom was flagged down by a lady that saw her "I love my Papillion" magnet on the back of the car and wanted to ask if she was interested in another Papillion.  Long story short, this lead to us meeting and adopting a papillion from the Humane Society.  Random, we know.   

This poor little pup was rescued in a thunder storm about a month ago.  We're not quite sure what kind of life he lived until now, but we've self-diagnosed him with PTSD.  Seriously.  He's pretty skittish and clearly has a grudge against all men.  He'll follow me everywhere that I go but he still growls and/or barks at Kurt every time he comes in the door.  It's been fun watching him warm up to us and get comfortable in his new home... but it is heartbreaking to think what the little guy went through to make him so fearful and jumpy!  How can people be mean to such an adorable dog?!? 

Anyways, we named him Pita (yep... like the bread).  The shelter had named him Peter, but neither of us could handle having a prissy puppy with a traditional human name.  LOL.  Since the dog was already getting used being called Peter I figured that "Pita" would be a good fit... sound the same, but is much much cooler.  Problem solved.  Plus, it's a good story isn't it?!?! =)

Meet Pita!

Aren't they precious?

Now we're enjoying the long Labor Day weekend -- it's been nice to have the few days at home.  We even took the dogs on a nice long walk yesterday!  There are TONS of fun trails around here so we were all loving it.... perfect weather too!  Other than that, Kurt is logging lots of hours on his current upholstery job and I'm dedicating time to wedding projects.  Needless to say I have found numerous DIY projects that I've fallen in love with for our wedding... I told myself it'd be easy to get them all done before the big day, but time is flying!!  We've already been engaged for 6 months and I've done 2 out of like 50.  Oops, better get to work.  <3 

Have a fabulous Labor Day!  Take a break. :)