Chick On the Run...

The chicks have been at our house now for a few weeks and it's amazing how fast they are growing. They have been really easy to take care of and so far only one crazy event has occurred. Although, as we speak to other chicken friendly neighbors, this will be the first of many chicken stories we will share.

One night we went out to do our nightly changing of the water and refill of their food. After we filled up their supplies we were playing with some of the chicks, although they are mostly freaked out when we try to "play" with them. All of the sudden I said to Jason, "Wait a minute....I only count 5 chicks!" (if you don't know we have six). I immediately started to back out of the garage and told Jason, "I can't deal with finding a dead chick...I'm pregnant!". Jason started to search all around the box. The problem was the box was up on a shelf, so if the chick decided to take the plunge to the ground, both of us thought there was no way she would have survived. As I was standing in the doorway, waiting for him to find our little chick I happened to look down in the corner at the bottom of the stairs. Nuzzled in, behind our mop, there was Toula laying on her belly (that's how chicks sleep) with her eyes closed. I quickly got Jason's attention and he ran over to check on her status. We couldn't believe it, but...SHE WAS FINE! It was quite the distance for such a small animal to travel, but I guess the mop was keeping her warm enough to survive.

After this happened we decided to move the chicks into a larger temporary home. We also added a roost and as you can see in the picture Apollonia is enjoying herself. Jason has been working really hard to get their coop finished and so far it's looking great. Below is a photo of the "coop in progress"...those chicks are going to have a great home!



I also added a video of the chicks just hanging out...I think they are adorable :)

Happy Birthday Bella!

We want to wish our beautiful, wonderful dog the best birthday ever. Bella was born 3 years ago and 6 weeks later we took her home. I can't believe she is already 3, it seems like just yesterday she was so small she could curl up and fit in Jason's hand. We think that Bella is truly the best dog in the world and is the ultimate "man's best friend". She has brought us so much joy over the years and we hope for many more!

Bella when she was a puppy (about 8 weeks old)...


Bella at 3 years old...

Happy Mother's Day!

We both want to wish our mother's and everyone's mother a wonderful Mother's Day. It's a great tradition to reserve a day to thank mother's for everything they do, although they deserve to be honored everyday for their hard work. I'm so excited to be celebrating as a "mother-to-be" this year. We know we will take lots of great advice from all the wonderful mother's that came before us.


This year Jason and Baby Girl Dzubinski surprised mee with a bouquet of flowers, that smell delicious! Also this morning they took me out to our favorite breakfast place, Kerbey Lane. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and now Jason is making a great dinner for me. It was the perfect way to spend my Mother-to-be Day :)

Bringing home the chicks...

Today the Dzubinski's started a new adventure. As you know, we have been interested in having backyard chickens. If you decide to start with chicks, they have to stay inside under a heat lamp for 60 days. So, today we made a drive up to Georgetown Feed Store and purchased six baby chicks!


We wanted four chickens, however there is no guarantee that you wont end up with a few roosters or the possibility of a chick getting sick. So, we purchased 2 Light Brahmans, 2 Americanas, and 2 Bantams. We're not sure what type of Bantams they will turn into because they were all in a pen together, but hopefully at least one will be a Silkie.

We decided to name the chickens after female characters from movies that we both enjoy. One of the Americanas is Apollonia and the other Toula. One of the Brahmans is Clementine and the other is Angelica. The gray bantam is Satine and the yellow bantam is Lucy. Try to see if you can figure out the movie :)



Now Jason needs to start work on the coop so these little gals will have a place to live in a few months!

Bella getting to know the new chicks...

Easter Weekend Part 2

After the dog walk we grabbed a bite to eat and hit up our next community event. The 1st Austin Funky Chicken Coop Tour was going on from 10am til 4:30pm on Saturday. We were both extremely excited about this event because of our recent interest in "backyard chickens" around the neighborhood.

About 3 months ago Jason noticed that a house that is on our normal walk with Bella had about 8 chickens in their backyard. We were extremely surprised to see this because we were both under the assumption it was illegal to have live poultry within city limits. Then shortly after this discovery we found out our neighbor across the street had chickens and suddenly it felt like chickens were popping up everywhere in Austin.

The Funky Chicken Coop Tour provided us with a back stage pass to having backyard chickens in Austin. We were able to talk with the owners, ask questions, and see a huge variety of different coops. It was such a blast! We ended up going to about 10 different coops and rated them on what we liked and disliked. Our favorite one happened to be a coop just a couple of blocks away from our house. We liked it because it had a fairly large chicken run area and also incorporated a garden to provide shade and nutrients for the chickens.

Our favorite coop...



The tour definitely inspired us to start looking into adding some new members to the Dzubinski household. Although we do need to get our nursery done first, Bella may need to prepare to adjust to more than a baby here in a few months.

This is a picture of another coop we found interesting. It's a called a tractor because it's on wheels and people move it around to get different parts of their yard fertilized by the chickens.

Easter Weekend Part 1

This year we decided to be part of the "Mighty Texas Dog Walk" held in downtown Austin. All of the events proceeds go to the Texas Hearing and Service Dog Organization. So on top of it being fun for Bella, it was for a good cause!
The walk started at 9am on Saturday morning, but we came around 8am to visit with the different vendors. We arrived with Bella's best friend Aydie and her master Grant. We ended up getting so much free stuff for Bella, it was like her version of Halloween; trick-or-treating from one vendor to the next. Gifts included: dog treats ranging from biscuits to bones, frisbees, chew toys, and a couple of snacks for the humans.
When the race finally got going Bella insisted on being the very first one to cross the start line. There were alot of photographers taking pictures before we headed off, so hopefully we made it in a paper. The walk was about 2 miles and the weather was an enjoyable 60 degrees, so it was a great morning activity.

Part of the purpose of the dog walk was to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. Apparently the largest dog walk was held in London with approximately 10,000 dogs attending. I'm not sure we surpassed this amount, but there's always next year!

Bella met her twin!



She visited with Scooby and his gang...

Give Us Your Opinion...

We are so excited about having a little girl in August. Of course now that we know it's a girl we need to start to think about how to decorate the nursery. We both really want to have a wallpaper border wrap around the middle of the room. We have narrowed down our options from 1,000's of wallpaper borders. We love the two borders below, but we just can't decide which one. So, we thought we could use the advice of those that check in with our blog. Give us a vote on which wallpaper border you like the best and be a part of decorating for our baby girl!

Both borders repeat this same image over and over..

Dancing Animals


Animals on a shelf (obviously the advertisement on the bottom wouldn't be there)