BUSTIN' UP THE BADLANDS

 

Woah that was serious fun.  The Radical Rands and the Wicked Weilands took a  weekend getaway to Drumheller, AB.  Scott, Yael, Karma, Nate and I went off-roading with the Jeep Rubicon in search of Dinosaurs in Drumheller.  The weather was scorching hot and it ruled.  Scott (who is a former OLYMPIAN - had to throw that in there Yael) drove us through the dry and uneven badlands.  We all felt so bada$$.   Karma, their incredibly well behaved pooch, sat in the back of the Jeep while the four of us enjoyed the beauty of Drum.  

After a full day of exploring and getting crazy in the heat, we crashed at the Weiland family cabin on Buffalo Lake.  The four of us drank and ate and laughed the night away.  It was so amazing to be with these people.  They are such a fantastic couple and Nate and I hope we are friends with them for a very long time.

We're driving up that?!?!?!?!?!?!

and now down...

* T - REX *

The one and only Dino we found...in a parking lot.

How do you do Hoodoo?

On the suspension bridge.

Dusty Lady

Enjoying a lunch break

Crashing at the Cabin

JULY 14th Happy 2 YEAR Wedding Anniversary!

No longer Newlyweds

Today is the big day.  Nate and I have been married for two whole years!  I can't believe how quickly time has gone by.  We feel like it JUST happened!  No longer newlyweds, but I'm just fine with that.  Too be honest, isn't two years a bit long to be calling yourself a newlywed?  I don't know.  Anywho, I think that some of the biggest marriage lessons that I've learned so far is that;

• Giving in a marriage is 100% more important than taking.

• You need to trust your spouse with all of your heart, mind, body, booty and soul.

• Tone and Tact is so important in a disagreement.

• You can both admire beautiful people, but never touchie or get emotionally involved.  Just wrong...

• Don't interrupt your spouse, ever.  Respect what they are saying - especially in a public setting and if you disagree with it, tell them in private.   

• Kisses come in small, medium and large.

• And doing something that the other person wants to do (even if you don't want to do it) will earn you big points for the rest of your marriage.  eg:  Living on a sailboat for a year.  My favorite new line to Nate is:  'Remember that time we almost died?  Yeah, about that........'

We were going to go to Hotel Arts for our Anniversary; however, after some thoughtful consideration, and since I'm such a recessionista, we thought we'd save our moola and go up to the cabin instead.  I'm SOOO excited about that cause we'll have it all to ourselves and it will be FREE ;)

Here are some of my favorite marriage memories:

There are way too many sailing trip memories so I'm going to just say that the entire trip was a big fat number one.

Number two is when Nate surprised me with a christmas present on Christmas morning in front of my whole family when we agreed that we wouldn't exchange because we were trying to save money.

Numer three was when we were apart for two weeks ( I know, so little time) in Novemeber when I came back to calgary and he stayed in the states and how badly we wanted to see each other when we got back.  We were literally home sick for one another.

Number four when we bought our house in Mackenzie Towne.

Things I'm looking forward to in our marriage

A Babymoon

Raising a happy and quirky family

Travelling to Peru, China, Egypt, Thailand and India.

And finally, as a gift to you Nathan, I wrote a loving and sentimental poem.  I've entitled it:

My loving poem. 

(maybe this will get you to look on our blog a bit more)...

Kate and Nate went out on a date,

They both were late, but got along great,

Day, Night, Affiliate

Their time together grew at a rapid rate.

Nate knew Kate would be his mate,

he took her to the cabin as proposal bait,

Nate asked for her hand and she just couldn't wait,

time to the wedding was expediate...ed.

Accelerate now to two years ahead,

Mom and Dad Hoyda and Weiland always said,

These two together has been their fate,

but please don't you dare name your first child Tate.

I love you Nate and my name is Kate

Don't you love how our names correlate?

I know we could learn how to really create

a fabulous life we'll appreciate...

and hopefully we'll accumulate,

and on our 60th we'll celebrate,

I'm sure the time will come to circumnavigate

but just understand I'm slightly delicate.

My best. Work. EVER.

Last year as a twenty-something!!!

I had the best b-day ever.  It started with Mom making blueberry pancakes - delish, wow it'll be hard to move out again, then breakfast was followed by family gifts...ahhh, gifts before 9:00 a.m?  Oh heck yeah.   I got my hair done mid-afternoon and found out that my hairstylist lives ACROSS THE STREET from us in Mackenzie Towne and then that evening, Nate threw me a little dinnner shin-dig at Murietta's downtown.   The building is beautiful and old and in the heart of all the wild and crazy Stampede action. I was so thankful that I got to see a load of my great friends and spend some extra time with my brothers Paul and Danny.  The only thing that got me a little down was my bro Teddy was missing cause he's working on his PHD in Kingston.  (Yeah, he got all the brains and I got all the charm, HA!) But we were able to communicate in other ways which made my day.  Family is so important and the best thing going on.

(Danny, Nate, Kate, Paul and missing Teddy)

(Pauz, Dano, Weilz, and Hot Weilz)

But yeah, the day was AMAZING!!!   Nate bought Crave cupcakes for dessert for everyone and we had to be really sneaky about eating them (Cath, they're better than Calibaut chocolate!), and we had a ton of wine and a ton of laughter!  It was an amazing night and my hair looked fab. 

(Va Va Vanilla CRAVE cupcakes, and Va Va Volumized Hair!)

(Jenny and Kate)

(B.F.F and her wonderful husband Jesse)

So far, turing 29 has been super!  THanks sweetie.  I love you ;)

P.S  Thanks for procreating Mom and Dad.  

(Paul and I very excited about the Crave Cupcakes)

(The clan a.k.a cute, loving, amazing, nice-guys/girls)

SOLD!!!

Last week, Avalon Master Builder (hehe, that name cracks me up because it's so pompous) informed us that we will have possession of the home on JULY 24th.  Nate and I both thought; BOO.  Get it done already!  We want to get in!  We want to start working on it!  I want to take some pictures dang it!   So, we took matters into our own hands and drove over in our car and broke in.  Actually, let me rephrase that.  NATE broke in while I waited patiently for him to open the front door to let me in.  It was quite sneaky and ingenious all at the same time.  I felt like a first class criminal.  It was awesome and I got my photos.  Here they are in all of their structurally rustic, pre-dry wall glory.  Get excited!

Breakfast Nook and Hallway to Kitchen

RenovNate and DomestiKate

Right after breaking into the house.  I was so proud of my husband in this moment and also terrified that we would be arrested.

One Week Before.

After: With most of the Hardie Board up.

RenovNate and DomestiKate (omg so bad...)

At the risk of sounding like a pre-teen valley girl (this is what happens when you stay with Mom and Dad in Elbow Valley for too long), we like ummmm... 

totally bought a freakin' house!!!  

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, like, oh my gosh.  I have personally given myself a few bragging rights here because after living on a 40 ft sailboat for nine months, this is something I'm allowed to write on and on about.  You can't take this away from me people!

Our new home is located on what I like to call the trendy side of cookie cutter Mackenzie Towne.  The outside of the house is currently being finished with Hardie board stucco and stone while the inside of it will be left at drywall.  With Nate's construction and renovation skills we agreed that we would finish the inside of it ourselves.  I really like the fact that we'll be able to pick everything from the hardwood floor wood type and stain to the door knobs.  

Here's the sweet floor plan:

What really sold us on the house is that it is one of a few in Calgary that are being built with a 'green' state.  The project is called Emerge and all of the homes that they build feature Net-Zero, geo-thermal heating, solar panels on the roof, completely space age forward thinking brain homes.  In their words, they build homes that; ''...promote practical yet effective environmental conservation solutions.  Each house combines state of the art energy efficient construction techniques and equipment with renewable solar energy to provide energy for use in the homes".  In my words; "less money to the bill man AND save the environment?  I'm in."  

We bought the house called the Aster which was named after the wild flower.    

If you'd like to know more about it take a look at the Avalon Website: 

http://www.avalonmasterbuilder.com/

or,

http://realgreenrealeasy.com/

Je t'aime  xoxo

88888

.......................................

s    s    s    s    s   

Back home but still dreaming of Paris...

I'm convinced that the city of Paris has some crazy voodoo magic that grabs ahold of your emotions and won't let go.  My physcological being was so manipulated with various behaviours that I'm sure I was the most baffling travel companion.   My frame of mind was varying each minute.  I mean, I stood rock solid still in front of the Mona Lisa for the better part of an hour and wouldn't surrender my spot for anybody.  I even kept my elbows extra wide just to stay where I was.  Completely fixated is a complete understatement.   Then, within the same afternoon, I cried like a baby when first setting my eyes on the Eiffel Tower.  My poor husband must have felt like he was at an amusement park of emotions with the constant change in displays of awe, ecstasy and hysteria.  The poor boy.  But I think what I found especially interesting about Paris was that it revived the FIne Arts teacher in me with fierce conviction.  I was so totally inspired.  I wanted to sing, dance, design, paint - just really be involved in the creative arts again.  So, to act on that (forgive the pun), I've enrolled in a summer intensive Dance program at a studio in downtown Calgary.  Hopefully it will quench my artistic thirst before I plunge full tilt back into work at a Fine Arts High School in September.

The fashion in Paris absolutely rocked my world.  Some may find that statement shallow or inconsiquensial, and if so, I don't care, but you may to want to skip the next paragraph.  I was absolutely drawn into the high-end va-va voom of Haute Couture.  I guess in a sense, fashion is an art form.  The parisian woman are unusually beautiful and so is the clothing.  For example, one day I saw a young mother pushing a baby stroller down the street.  She stopped to tend to her son or daughter and this gave me the opportunity to stare at her and analyze her outfit like the crazy fashion stalker that I have seemed to become.   Immediately, I noticed that this woman is decked out to the nines.  Head to toe in the latest and most beautiful clothing I may have ever seen in my life.  We're talking straight out of French Vogue.  Leather gloves, black beret, boutique black dress with stockings and pumps, loose black trench and a silk scarf.  Polished.  Initially I thought to myself, there's no way that woman is the mother, how can she look so good?  She's got to be the nanny.  I had sufficiently suppressed my inner jealousies with lame excuses when suddenly she picked up the little bundle and covered the child in kisses.  Definitely hers.  How was this woman so polished and fabulous?  Is it really her clothing?  Well yes, of course it is Kate!!!  Here is a woman who takes obvious time to present herself to the world in an way that encourages beauty.  She obviously shops at boutiques and spends a great deal of time picking and choosing the best cuts and fabrics - plus she has a baby.  Talk about superhuman.   With all the crap that is going on in the world, this woman has taken time to make herself beautiful.  Shallow?  Hedonistic?  Some will say yes.  But I say dignified, graceful and self-confident, and I guess a little Chanel never hurt.

A few things that surprised me about Paris was that contrary to popular hollywood notions, the people are not snobby.  Also, I really did think that the Parisian carrying around a Baguette in his or her grocery bag or in the basket on the front of their bike was a stereotype.  Nope.  Everyone, and I mean everyone smokes.  It's not a bad habit there, it's a cultural necessity.  You are weird if you don't smoke.  The meal portions are miniscule compared to ours.  It's embarrassing.  The woman don't wear make-up.  A bit of black eyeliner, a touch of rouge and good to go.  There are very few gypsies and beggars - Calgary is much worse for street dwellers.  Unfortunately, Notre Dame wasn't as grand as I had expected it to be, and finally it surprised me how good Ratatouille actually tastes.  For peasant food, that's an (excuse my French) damn good dish.

Au revoir for now beautiful Paris.  We will return one day.  

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Paris