Catch Up

So we have REALLY been neglecting the blog of late. I noticed the last post was in April and was about Eric's play. Well this is a quick rundown of what has been happening since then.

The second weekend of Eric's play, my bff Nikki came for a visit. We did lots of girly things like pedicures, shopping, and a chick flick. It was a great time, and fun just hanging out like old times.

At the beginning of May we had a little beer tasting for our friends and family to try some of the various Pair O'Noyd Brewery brews. It was lots of fun, but I think the best part were the "under 21" crowd seen here.

On May 17 I celebrated my 40th birthday. Sometimes it is hard to believe I am 40, but other times I definitely feel like I am. Perhaps the best/funniest moment was getting a card from my Mom & Dad where my mom repeated to me what I told her when she turned 40 (I would have been 7 at the time). "Don't worry about turning 40, the rest is easy... it is all DOWN hill from now on". Too funny, only my mother would wait 33 years to get back at me. Here are some before and after pics of my birthday cake... note how much smoke comes from 40 candles!

We also had new siding, soffit, and gutters put on our house in May/June. They did a great job, and it looks so much better. The woodpeckers were all to fond of our wood siding, plus it was really fading and we weren't looking forward to painting so we went with vinyl siding. It is a similar color. Here are the before and after pictures.
Take note of the big hole the woodpecker made this spring, along with a few others we had already covered up.
Hopefully the woodpeckers will stay away from the vinyl... I think they will I don't think they will be able to get a grip on it with their nasty little bird feet.

It is hard to believe that it is already July. We are headed out this afternoon for vacation. We are taking the train to Denver and then staying with our good friends, Jenn, John, Sidney & Abby Thomas at their home in Colorado Springs for the week. We plan to hit several local micro-breweries to get more inspiration for Pair O'Noyd Brewery and take in a Cardinals vs. Rockies game at Coors Field. We also will get to celebrate Abby's 6th birthday with her.

Okay, need to sign off and a few more things done before we leave.

Lights...Action

I found some free time in between brewing beer batches to perform in a new show here in Geneseo at Richmond Hill Barn Theatre. Tonight was opening; we really had good performance especially for opening night. My number one fan was in attendence. And was sharing with me the audience perspective of how things appeared to go. This is a really good script and has won many awards in New York when it was first released in the early 90's. It was also made into a movie starring an all-star cast including Maryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Leonardo Dicaprio and Robert Dinero. It is called Marvin's Room. If you can't come see it here in Geneseo. You really should consider renting it.

It's Been a Year

It's been a year... no, not since I blogged, although it seems like it... but since I married my best friend. Well technically it has been a year, a week, and a day, but it has taken me some time to sit down and blog.

At times it doesn't seem possible that is has been a year since our wedding already, but at other times I struggle to remember life before Eric. Our actual anniversary was on Easter Sunday, but we did most of our celebrating on Saturday. We headed to Champaign-Urbana on Saturday, since we were planning to spend Easter Sunday at my parents house near Gibson City.

We enjoyed the Illini baseball game that afternoon. It seemed appropriate since watching baseball games is one of our favorite things, and Eric had never been to a college game. That night we had an A-Mazing dinner at Kennedy's, the restaurant at Stone Creek where we got married. Our meals were great, and our server was Leah, who just so happened to be the event coordinator for our wedding reception. She recognized us and we let her know that we were there to celebrate our anniversary. She thought is was great that we came back for our anniversary so she went the extra mile, bringing us a free round of drinks and a free dessert. We spent the night at I-Hotel, which was really nice and reasonably priced thanks to Priceline.

On Sunday we went to church at Quest then headed to Mom & Dad's for Easter dinner with family. We opted for my Mom's pie for dessert that day, but after getting home that night we did have some wedding cake. It was still really good... the cake was a tiny bit dry but the filling and frosting were still delicious. It was so good that we have had a few more pieces later in the week.

So all in all a great anniversary, but not nearly as great as the last year with my husband.

It's a Beer!

After patiently waiting for five weeks, Eric and I enjoyed our first home brew Friday night. It was actually pretty good, too. I think it would have been a little better if we had waited for it to get a little colder. We brewed an India Pale Ale (IPA) and in true IPA form it was rather hopptastic. Was it the best beer we have had?... certainly not, but it was nowhere near the worst either. It was tasty, but we have left ourselves some room to improve.

The best part of our endeavor is that we have been able to do it together, and have been having lots of fun. We have already brewed up the second batch, this time an American Cream Ale. It will be ready to bottle next week, and ready to drink two weeks after that. Once we have two beers available we hope to host a little tasting party.

Here is a little pictorial of most of the brewing process.

Brew Day: Grains and/or barley malt are boiled in water, along with hops, becoming wort.

Brew Day: The boiling wort is cooled quickly to 70 degrees, then transferred to the primary fermenter (a big plastic bucket with a lid) where additional water and yeast are added.

Secondary Fermentation: After about 5 days in the primary fermenter the beer is transferred to the secondary fermenter (a 5 gallon glass bottle) where it sits for about 2 weeks.

Bottling Day: The beer is transferred to a bottling bucket (a large plastic bucket with a spigot) and priming sugar is added. Then it is transferred to the bottles (approximately 50) and capped. Note: We do not have any pictures of this process. We had a small leak in our bottling bucket because the spigot wasn't completely tightened so time was of the essence. The beer sits in the bottles for about two weeks where the last of yeast eats the priming sugar that was added, carbonating the beer.

Drinking Day: After two weeks the beer is ready to be chilled and enjoyed.

Please Pray!

I am sure everyone is aware of the earthquake disaster in Haiti. In addition to praying for the Haitian people, please pray for five ladies from our church, Bettendorf Christian, who are in Haiti on a mission trip with Lifeline Mission. One of the ladies suffered some broken ribs, but otherwise they are safe. Please pray for their safe return home, and for peace and patience for their families here waiting for them. Also pray that they are able to use this disaster to show the love of Jesus to so many who desperately need it.

What's Brewing?

IPA (India Pale Ale)!

Eric & I used some of our Christmas money from my parents and purchased a brewing equipment kit. We brewed our first batch on Sunday afternoon. It was lots of fun figuring it out what we needed to do together, and we only had one minor disagreement. I think we did everything more or less right, but already figured out better ways to do things next time. Sorry no pictures... I decided I should concentrate on the actual brewing.

The brew is in the primary fermenter, and we will probably put it in the secondary tomorrow night. I will try to take pictures then if I can. It will stay in the secondary for a couple of weeks, then we bottle, and then it will be ready to drink after it carbonates in the bottles for 2-3 weeks.

We are excited to have ParO'Noyd Brewery actually in operation. Mmmm Beer!

Birthday Boys

Saturday we celebrated birthdays for Alec and Travis. Their birthdays were actually the previous Wednesday, but a weekend gathering worked out for everyone. Steff and Travis made some wonderful enchiladas and later we had birthday cake and ice cream.

Here Alec is sporting the "6" because he turned six years old.

I think he really enjoyed the Legos we got him.



The birthday boys and their cake

It wasn't Jack's birthday, but I want to include a picture of him because he is getting SOOOO big.