So the blog comes to an end...

But not forever!

Steve & I decided we should have a combined blog.  What's this nonsense about updating two blogs when we're married & sharing our lives together?  :)  So with that being said, I want to introduce you to...(drumroll please)...

lipetzkybrewpub.blogspot.com

Our old blogs will remain alive & available for viewing, but we'll discontinue posting on those & going forward, will continue amusing you with our adventures on the new blog.  (Please update your blog links)

We're still working out the finer details (such as having more than one author & making sure we're both on the profile), so hang in there as we figure out the kinks.

See you on the other side!

"Hi. My name is Brewer. I love peanut butter."

We don't give our dogs entire jars of peanut butter.  Sometimes they help themselves when we're not home.

But we really did give Brewer this jar.  If we empty a jar of peanut butter (which is quite often in this PB-lovin home), we scrape out all that we can & give it to the dogs to clean the rest.  They.love.it.  Brewer, bless his heart, is a dopey dog that has nothing but love to give.  And damnit if he isn't proud of his toys.  He carried this jar around for what seemed like hours.  Walk into the bedroom?  He followed behind with his jar.  Try to shut the door to use the bathroom?  He pushed the door open with his massive forehead & brought his jar.  This boy has my heart by the strings.  *Sigh*

(And for the life of me, I cannot figure out why Blogger insists on turning the top picture on its side - I've adjusted it so it isn't too big for the site & tried everything to turn it back...no luck)

Lovely weekends

I've been feeling very much a homebody lately.  I've always enjoyed relaxing time at home, but it comes in phases (wholly depends on how much traveling I've done).  For the last year, we've traveled quite a bit; Boston for a wedding, holidays at parent's houses, trip to Cuba, preparations for our wedding in Rapid City (takes the cake for busiest time of year), honeymoon in OR, & Steve's cousin's wedding in Sioux Falls...and various other short trips thrown in there.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE traveling, but it can take a toll.

I've been stubborn about being home on the weekends recently.  Not necessarily everyday, all day - going out for a drink with friends is fairly common on the weekends - but I love getting off work on Friday & knowing I have a weekend filled with sleeping in, running, naps, working in the yard, baking, cooking, eating, drinking...

This weekend was one of those weekends.  :)  Saturday was rainy & cold, but I can't say I got much done.  Sunday was a different story.  Baked two loaves of pumpkin bread, cooked a batch of tomato sauce, prepared ingredients for French bread to begin rising on Monday morning, re-potted several indoor plants, & cleaned the chicken coop to prepare it for winter.  Success!  It helps the weather was fabulous on Sunday...sadly, probably one of our few nice days left for the year.

And then there were three!

I'm like a proud Mama Bear...three of the four chickens are now laying!  I tried to snap a picture tonight of the three different eggs, but my camera battery died & I'm simply too lazy at the moment to charge it.  We'll have plenty more eggs...more opportunities to snap a picture.  

The pictures below are of the first two girls & their eggs...  The brown egg we believe is from Fenway, our Plymouth Rock White.  The green is most likely from our Ameraucana (or Auraucana or Easter Egger - each type of chicken is hard to define so we're not sure exactly what type of chicken she is, but she does have the blue egg gene).  These eggs can, depending on the type of bird, range in any color of blue, green, pink, yellow, or khaki.  The newest egg is more similar to the green egg in size & shape, but it is a pinkish tan.

And to follow, a few pictures I snapped of blackbirds splashing around in a puddle across the street.  They're not the most endearing bird - loud, raucous, & they run off the cuter birds - but it was fun to watch them in a moment of play...

Honeymoon

My wonderful husband planned our honeymoon as a wedding gift to me.  The trip?  A bike ride through Willamette Valley wine country, staying at adorable B&B's, tasting fabulous wine, & checking out the beautiful scenery.  We started out the trip by meeting up with Dan & Linds for a super fun night out on the town.  The next day, we packed it in & started our trip. A few pictures from the adventure:

Dinner at our first B&B

We were going to out to a restaurant, but our "mom" laid out a large tray of local cheeses, spreads, olives, & homemade bread with a bottle of local wine.  We made it dinner &  it was divine.

Loading up the bikes at Pedro's house

We're ready!

Hops!  There are fields & fields of hops.  Steve was salivating.

Does anyone know what this flower is?  We couldn't get over the blue color.  From far away, it honestly looked like a pond on someone's property.  The flowers didn't smell very nice, but they had the most beautiful color.  And the bees were going crazy.

Close up

At our second-to-last B&B (& my favorite), the husband & wife allowed us to borrow their car to drive into town for dinner.  This is us by the car - we were so incredibly grateful!  We were able to shower & dress up for a nice dinner & drinks in town.  No bikes for the night.  :)

We had a wonderful time & highly recommend Willamette Valley for their wine country.  Wonderful wineries & the people that run them, delicious wine, bounties of delectable restaurants, & the most charming B&B's.  We hope to go back someday!  (Although we'll probably take our car next time & use the bikes for day trips :))

What's this? A blog?

It's been awhile since posting...and for that, I apologize.  It's been a busy summer - to say the least.  Here's a quick recap:

We got married....

I love that our first dance picture so closely resembles our cake topper

We've continued to work on the yard...

This area of the yard does not grow grass very well (so abundantly obvious in this picture), so we're working on maintenance free landscaping (note the rock path, the mulch, & addition of native, drought-tolerant plants).  The V-section between the slate path & the sidewalk will probably slowly become grass-free.  Our plans include semi-permanent "hot boxes" (small moveable "greenhouses" that we'll make using old windows from the house) & continuing to add the maintenance free landscaping.  A work in progress...

We've continued raising our four chickens...

The coop (with hops sitting on top of the weather proofing tarp)

The girl(s) have made us proud & begun laying eggs...  

(At this point we don't know who is laying the eggs, but we're almost positive it's Fenway, the Plymouth Rock White.  The pattern tends to be one egg every other day, although we had two days in a row of eggs.  They're small, closer to the size of a medium egg in the store, but delicious!)

We've been canning...

Apple sauce (with apples from a wild apple tree on one of Steve's project sites) & strawberry apple sauce

Canned peaches & peach salsa (not pictured)...

And chokecherry jelly from the abundantly wild chokecherry bushes around town...

And of course, we've participated in numerous races, both around town & outside the area.  (Sadly, no pictures of those at the moment)

That's our life in a nutshell for the past few months.  Regular blog posting shall now resume!  :)

Wedding Photos, Round 1

Instead of inundating blogger with pictures, check out the link below with our first set of wedding photos:

http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4477756007/a=60502644_60502644/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

(And sorry for being so distant, I blame it entirely on wedding planning.  But now that I'm not wedding planning, I have no excuses)  :)