This month’s photo fell on the day after we got our new pup, Baron. We were sleep deprived with patience tested and nerves a bit frayed, but also excited to have our much anticipated new member of the family arrive. I’ve been wanting a dog for a long time and since we moved into our new apartment our situation has become much more conducive to raising a dog. What better time for us than in the midst of Project NEW-lyweds to adopt a puppy? This is certainly the most “new” adventure we’ve embarked on so far. We’re in unfamiliar territory, but we’re trying to move through it gracefully with patience and understanding.

This past month has included our annual Adirondack vacation, a few new food challenges, some toys, crafts and outdoor summer activities. I turned 25 years old and Joe began school again. Life is moving along whether we like it or not. I can’t believe we’ve been doing this Project for 3/4 of a year already! Summer is ending, we’re entering the final stretch of Project NEW-lyweds and now we have a tiny pup to raise. There’s never a dull moment, that’s for sure.

This month’s shoot was short and more informal, no need to put Baron through a long ordeal of photo taking.

I’ll share more soon, off to enjoy Labor Day and spending some time with the baby!

Meet Baron, our new border terrier puppy!

For as long as I can remember I’ve loved dogs. I’ve waited a while for this little guy and I can’t believe he’s finally here!  He’s 10 weeks old, full of spunk and energy, and the cutest pup ever.

We’re smitten.

It’s only been one day, and we’re happy to report that the first night wasn’t as bad as we’d expected. He’s from a breeder 2 hours away in Ohio and I think all the excitement of the day wore him out. He’s got a lot of acclimating to do. The cats are quite confused and curious about the whole situation, it’s certainly going to take a lot of time and patience to bring Baron into the family.

Do any of you have advice for new puppy owners?

Have any of you introduced a puppy  to resident cat or two?

Things are going fine so far, I’m just wondering if there’s any words of wisdom we should know. We’ve been doing our research and feel somewhat well prepared, but we’ll take all the help we can get!

Time to catch up on the last 3 days…

Sunday, Day 250, we made Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizzas and asked Joe’s brother and his wife to join us. We assembled ours at home and brought it over to their house to be cooked. They made a meat lover’s pizza while we made a “lighter” vegetarian one.

This is so different from how we usually assemble a pizza. We basically piled dough, cheese, toppings and sauce into a springform pan and hoped for the best.

Dough + sauce + cheese + yellow peppers + mushrooms + red onion + red pepper + sauce. The sauce goes on top because it cooks so long that any exposed cheese would burn (so we learned from Pizza Paradise on the Travel Channel).

And here’s the finished product! Hard to see but it really did come out well. We had to eat it with a knife and fork and while we wouldn’t classify it as “pizza” (given our interpretation of the word), it certainly was delicious.

Here’s Ben & Callie’s pie… a meat lover’s dream. It was ridiculously good.

It’s not something we’ll be making all the time but it was a lot of fun to do!

The following night we broke out another one of our kits that I’ve been stockpiling. This one involved making chocolate from scratch.

The kit came with organic cocoa butter, cocoa powder, confectioner’s sugar, starter crystals, a temperature indicator, paper candy liners, and raw cacao beans. Here’s a run down of what we had to do….

We added some almonds and peanut butter to a couple of the liner cups. The result?

Delicious, although it may not look that way. It was actually really interesting to read about and experience the process of making chocolate from bean to candy. It certainly added some excitement to our Monday night.

And lastly, tonight, we laid off any activities that involved copious amount of grease and sugar and opted for a classic instead: the yo-yo.

While we tried to learn the tricks printed on the back of the packaging the cats were more interested in stopping the yo-yo mid fall and attacking the string.

Despite their curiosity we both were able to eek out a few amateur tricks.

It’s 92 degrees out and this was the perfect, low-key evening activity.

See you soon!

Made into green salsa…

Sonny squeezing in some relaxation time.

Henna tattoos. Joe’s foot, my hand.

An al fresco blended latte, smoothie and cookie at the 61C one evening.

Water balloons.

Wet clothes.

Homemade BLT’s using end of summer tomatoes and local bacon.

Flowering tea.

And I should have realized that a Paint by Number of this size and detail would be quite a challenge!

Tiny paints, tiny brush, tiny details!

There was only one brush so we traded off, straining our necks and eyes to paint the tiny areas.

We didn’t really make a whole lot of progress so we decided that this activity will be saved for rainy and snowed in days. It’s relaxing but will take forever to complete! If we ever do, I’ll let you know.

We also hiked the 2.5 miles around Moss Lake, a new lake for us. If you don’t know the Adirondacks there’s tons and tons of lakes up there, both big and small. Moss Lake is a small lake near the one we stayed on, Big Moose Lake.

It took about an hour for us to make it around the lake and it was a great little hike. The views of the lake were beautiful, here’s the one we saw at the end…

See you soon!

Although we planned on doing tie dye we didn’t exactly pack a supply of clothes appropriate for the activity. Instead we had to dig through our bags and ask family members to donate articles to dye. We ended up with a random assortment of white and gray pieces, unsure of how they’d turn out.

The first step was to soak and tie, (aka rubber band) our pieces. We tried a bunch of different techniques with the rubber bands, hoping for some cool effects.

After they were bundled up they soaked again in a water + soda ash mixture to prepare them for the upcoming dyes.

After a half hour of soaking they were ready. We didn’t really know what we were doing but we went for it.

Once each piece was sufficiently saturated with color they were wrapped up in plastic bags and set aside for 24 hours so the dye and fabric could “bond.”

The next day they got a rinse and a ride in the washer and dryer. Before we knew it they were all done, and they were beautiful!

Five pieces in all, none of them a total flop! Here they all are, my two pieces of clothing are hanging and Joe and his Dad are modeling theirs.

We had a lot of fun with this one.

I’ll share some more vacation activities soon!

We went on vacation for a week in Adirondacks, our 4th year in a row. It was wonderful.

Yesterday I turned 25 and joined the quarter century club. Whoa.

No time for a full post as we’re gearing up for back to work, school, the start of fall, etc…

See you soon!

It was simple, local food done extremely well. Everything was amazing, from the warm, soft bread at the start to the flourless chocolate cake with fresh whipped cream at the end!

We’re looking more alike than ever now that I stole her hair color.

Earlier in the day Joe gifted Em with a gaggle of birthday balloons. A certain little orange guy tried to claim them as his own, however.

Oh, Sonny. Whatever he does we can trace back to Emily, though. She picked him out for us from the SPCA a little over three years ago.

Em was born 10 days before my 4th birthday, back in day, totally trying to steal my thunder. I’ve since forgiven her. Happy Birthday to my baby sis!

As I started to think about what I was going to say for this month’s reflection I realized that by the time we take our next picture summer will officially be over for us. It will still be summer according to the calendar but in our world it will be time for fall, which I’m so excited about. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, the best of the summer (vacation!) is still on our horizon.

I remember posing for our Month 2 photo back in February with snow up to our knees, dreaming of the summer sunshine so we could take our photo without freezing. Yesterday was our most sunny shoot yet and I can’t believe how time has flown. This summer isn’t nearly as hectic as last (we traveled almost every weekend), but we’ve still kept quite busy. Project NEW-lyweds has taken us on so many new adventures around the city, we’re still finding new places in Pittsburgh to explore and enjoy after 5 years here.

We’re more than halfway through our Project now and I have so many thoughts and reflections on it, but I’ll just share a few for now. First off, it’s been difficult. Very difficult. We’ve sacrificed a lot of time, money and energy and have certainly had our fair share of stressful moments because of our dedication to completing a new activity every day, but it’s all been worth it. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. What’s more important than dedicating a slice of your time every single to nurturing your marriage?

It’s easy to settle into a comfortable place and take your relationship for granted once you’re married, which can then backfire when the excitement and spark die down. This happened to us before we got married – the dreaded rut of boredom and the daily grind hit us hard after 7 years together. Hence the idea for this Project.

I can see how some people may think that their work is done when the knot has been tied or once they’ve reached a certain number of years together, but we’ve taken the opposite standpoint with our relationship. When you make it a priority to actively pursue growth, change and excitement, it’s hard to hit a lull. We’re trying to set the tone for the rest of our lives and so far it’s really working.

Together, we’ve done so many new things this year that we probably never would have done if it wasn’t for the Project. We’ve had so many laughs, conversations, and even arguments that never would have taken place if we didn’t decide to be our own catalysts for change. We’ve made memories and have gone on an adventure together every single day. A relationship isn’t something that’s ever done growing, it takes work. I love knowing that there’s so much left to learn about Joe and to experience with him – we’ve both said before that we’d love to do Project NEW-lyweds for the rest of our lives!
Here’s to the final stretch of our Project! We’ve got 4 and a half months left and lots of adventures ahead of us.

First off was the carousel in Schenley Plaza – something we’ve walked by tons of times but have never actually rode on.

It was a pretty small carousel but all the characters were unique and we had a good time.

The next morning we went to an event that we’ve been meaning to go to for a while now, Bach, Beethoven and Brunch in Mellon park.

Basically we put together a lovely brunch spread, camped out and listened to some live music.

We had a cinnamon roll and focaccia from Food Glorious Food along with some strawberries & blueberries, some smoked gouda & crackers, and some peach nectar. Perfect.

It looks pretty sparse but I assure you there were tons of other people there. The weather was perfect and it was a lovely morning.

After brunch we headed over to Station Square to ride the Gateway Clipper’s Ice Cream Social Cruise!

The weather couldn’t have been any more beautiful for a nice cruise along the three rivers.

The Dave & Andy’s ice cream just made the experience even better.

Have you ever seen a more beautiful city?

Be back soon with our Project NEW-lyweds Month 8 reflection post!