next time you jump for joy...

do it like this:

this concludes my drawn-out "post" about maine. i'll try and make my life more interesting so i can continue some photo posting...

next time you ponder...

you should do it like this:

my love for pizza

as you may know, my all-time favorite food in the entire world is pizza.

if there was only one man left on earth and i had to pick between him and pizza, i'd probably pick the pizza (sorry, husband).

on a deserted island, i wouldn't take a book - just ask for an unlimited amount of pizza.

if i ever developed an allergy to tomatoes or cheese, i may die. because then i couldn't have my pizza.

ok, i think you get the point.

after a rough four hours of bouncing out at sea, we returned to dry land in portland and set out to find a place to eat. we had gathered a few recommendations of places to go, but at that point, anything that fell in the realm of sea food pretty much made us all sea sick again. so we settled on a place called "flatbread", recommended to us by one of my co-workers.

ahhhhh...this was the best.pizza.ever. maybe it was the environment of the place, the genuine organic menu or just the fact that pizza takes me to my happy place - but it was a.maz.ing. seriously. the selection of toppings was breathtaking - and they outlined some of their house specialties as a guideline, but let you go halvsies on your pie and make alterations as you order.

i apologize for the low quality of these two pictures. it took everything inside of me just to hold up my camera...

happy friday!

deserved sea sickness

many of you have probably already heard the in-person story of my husband's sea sickness while we were in maine.

however, what you may NOT have heard is that he ignored my recommendation (aka instructions) to take the dramamine prior to our boat outing! yes, you read correctly. he ignored them. just like he did on our honeymoon with that pink eye...

needless to say, discovering this information really got me going since i so loyally stood by him in silence for 2 of the 4 hours to ensure he didn't roll off the back of the boat!

these photos are SOOC from this glorious day. some would say a pay-back tribute to my dear hubby whom i love.

trail markers

we didn't have a chance to hike around cadillac mountain while in acadia national park, but these rocks are all over the trails as markers for hikers. we loved the views and realized this was our first time experiencing the mountains and the ocean at the same time - and the islands out in the water were amazing. i can only imagine what this view would be like in a few weeks come "leaf peeping" season!

which way?

apparently an icon  around kennebunkport - we stayed at the "maine stay inn" bed & breakfast!

this friday is brought to you by....

...chrysler

this fancy-pants sebring convertible was our chariot for the long weekend (thank you enterprise!) 

aside from the potential for disaster with a soft-top during hurricane earl, it actually turned out to be really fun - riding around the coast with the top down, michael scott style!

bar habor fog

pretty self explanatory. really cool and kind of creepy at the same time considering this view is of the water, islands and boats at 6 p.m...

perfect sunset

going through all my maine pictures seems very daunting, so i think i'll go through and post some one by one this week.

kennebunkport is also home to one of former presendent bush's estates. while we were driving along the coastline to check out his digs, the sunset was just perfect - and so was this little church!

labor day

wow - so the blog has been silent for a few weeks, and i was excited to see kristi and brandt both noticed by commenting a few times on the last blog, which essentially became a creepy "no face" placeholder :)

so out with the old and in with a new post! lots of things have been going on these last few weeks in our life, which have kept me from tending to my attempt at daily photos. i do hope to pick this back up soon because i think the daily photo journal idea was so fun!

this past labor day weekend, we took a long-awaited and much needed four day trip to maine with our good friends eric and kelly (who just got married in june and moved to nyc). it was great being able to spend so much time with them and catch up on life - and of course explore the cute towns while dodging hurricane earl (who actually wasn't too much of a threat other than some dense fog interfering with the smiths' incoming flight).

brandt and i got there a day before the smiths, so we headed up to the bar habor area to check out the seaside city and acadia national park. we also were able to meet up with some other great friends and their daughter for a late afternoon drink! (in the picture below, you will notice the fog rolling in behind us). friday night through sunday morning we spent time in kennebunkport - enjoying the food, cocktails and our own private cottage at a locale b&b. brandt and eric did karaoke that night, to which i did capture some video that may be posted here later...

sunday we headed back to portland and spent 4 hours that afternoon whale watching in the open sea. the picture you see below is probably the only enjoyable moment we experienced on the boat - let's just say the post hurricane waters were extremely rough and some in our group got sea-sick off the back of the boat while the rest of us closed our eyes and hoped it would all end soon. to top it off, we didn't see any whales - but the overall experience was one to remember and in hindsight, very hilarious!

once i get more pictures uploaded, i'll sporadically try and post them!

no face

after college, my husband moved into his first apartment and began decorating his new digs. through this, i learned something creepy. he has a thing for art of faceless people.

no really. first it was this. semi-normal you say because most people recognize it from the thomas crown affair. okay, fine. but then he moved on to a few other expressive watercolors that also happened to have blurry faces. one night i looked around to count three faceless beings staring at me (and yes, i KNOW they were!). it still gives me the heeby jebbies. 

needless to say, those artistic masterpieces have found a new home (thanks to goodwill and our basement cleanings) and we now have more tasteful and less scary home decor. however, while out on a walk i was attempting to be artistic and found myself shooting this...

i thought it was fitting - his own faceless portrait!

lion king

ok, so this may be a cheetah in the distance, but you get the picture...go ahead, sing the intro to the movie in your head. or out loud if you know the actual words...

i go zoom

this weekend my husband and i took my niece to the zoo. as she says, "i go zoom today with aunt keddy and aunt bant".

yes, aunt bant. my thought is that she doesn't understand the difference between aunt and uncle. my sister seems to think it started when my husband held ellie's dog purse a few weekends ago.

either way, we had a great time with her seeing all the animals. her favorites were the cheetas, tiger and dolphins. she was so precious saying "ohhh wow" in a whisper over and over when we were in the dolphin viewing area. it was like she was taken back by the beauty and simple things in life. just mesmerized. and of course getting "kickin' nuddets" from mcdonalds on our way home was fun too!

taking photos was very challenging - watching her, playing and having fun all while trying to take pictures was tough. good practice for when we have our own later i guess!


for the adults reading, i have to say we saw something very rare that afternoon - two rhinos mating. apparently, this is a very big deal. i just told ellie the rhinos were busy :)

porkchops and applesauce

anyone else besides my family find this addicting to say over and over again after watching that episode of the brady bunch?

i'm not usually a porkchops kind of gal - but saw this recipe in a Cooking Light magazine and thought it was worth a shot since it seemed light and summer-y. to date, it may be one of the best recipes i have made! the meal has a pretty greek feel/taste to it (stacey, this may be up your alley!) and the sauce on top is almost like a tzatziki yogurt sauce.

"porkchops and tzatziki sauce"...still has a good ring to it

'nuff said

no comment needed for this. i love the weekends. and good beer.

hoosiers

now that i am making it a point to bring my camera with me more often, i finally had a chance to capture this photo. i can't tell you how many times in good 'ol indiana i pass a rusty basketball goal and think "i wish i had my camera, that would make a great picture". perhaps the angle would be better if i were taller...perhaps a basketball player. i'll work on that.

finally...

friday is here. nothing artsy or great about this photo. in fact, it is seemingly blurry and off-centered. but, it does make me happy. and you should be happy too. it is friday. smile. maybe stick your tongue out a little bit too

hinkle

a few things to note about this picture:

1. it is never too early to talk butler basketball

2. the way the sun is shining down on the fieldhouse i think it means we may have another great season coming up 

3. i think i stand crooked. hinkle doesn't seem to sit straight.

i long for saturday mornings

we don't really have that many routines in our household (yet), but one i always wake up to on the weekends is the smell of my husband's cup of coffee he brews first thing upon waking up.

the current flavor i believe is some sort of dunkin donuts. it smells so delightful it makes me hate that i don't drink coffee, along with the fact that i never get to use our cute monogram mugs. except for the occasional cup of hot chocolate. fall is thisclose.

the berries

after taking this photo and comparing the grass to other "normal" grass...i am pretty sure this photo should be titled "berries and crabgrass". still enjoyed the colors regardless. and the berries didn't seem to mind...

our weekend

perhaps i will cheat a little on this adventure and post pictures daily - not pictures i take each day. it's okay. i can. it's my blog and i'll do what i want to.

this weekend the husband and i set out to find a berry farm to pick some fruit. for no reason other than it sounded like a fun adventure on a lazy saturday.

we found a cute little place up in noblesville and even got an ice cream cone out of the trip. and a few pictures. this one is at the beginning of the line. the rusted clips in this photo took me back to when i used to ride horses...must be something about that rusted metal.

raspberries here we come!

blog announcement

i feel like our blog has been a little scattered these last few months. some posts have included shots with my new camera, others with family functions or house updates. heck, now that we are cooking at home more, i’ve even added some foodie pics (which don’t fall into relevant topics for my baking blog).



after some long thought, and the discovery an old sorority friend’s blog (via the glory of facebook), i have decided to piggy-back her venture with a rendition of Project 365—only housed on this here blog so it remains a little more personal and easy for my [few] followers to keep up with.


it goes like this: every day (for a year if you desire) i take a photo, that hopefully captures and documents something about the happenings in our life. the point is to challenge myself to take new photos, grow in my skills, and well, like I just stated, to keep track of our life from a new, unique perspective.

since i am sporadic blogger, i am going to give myself a few days head start with the hope that i can maintain this daily. but you all know how i am with phases...

where is little buddy?

i feel like he never gets any attention on here...unless he eats up a rug.

so, little buddy, here is a few minutes of face time with the followers...doesn't his smile make you smile?

keeping up with the food updates

the july phase may just make it into next month!

we may have fallen off the wagon one or two times, or perhaps for about 9 days in the middle of july, but overall i think this journey will continue. that is, at least while the weather is warm and the sun stays up until 10!

one of my girlfriends introduced me to cooking light, and i have been finding a handful of recipes that are worth trying. after making them, i'd say only a few are worth writing down to make again later...but it is fun to learn some more about cooking and how spices and foods work together to make good, and bad, combinations. and it so happens that some of the recipes have similar ingredients, so i can get more than one use out of the spices and herbs we use.

for the recipe below, i substituted the papaya for cantaloupe. the recipe also included black beans, corn, golden raisins, cilantro (again), avocado and a homemade dressing of some things i can't remember combined with lime juice. doing this again, i would take out the serrano peppers it called to add (notice i didn't mention them above) there was way too much punch for my palette.

the meal looks a little mushy, but you get the idea!

month of making food

i may be one of the world's worst bloggers (okay, after jaci since she never posts pics of her kiddo 10,000 miles away from me).

not only is my blogging sporadic, but i never seem to be "ready" with the information i need. take this homemade chicken salad. it had a kick. it had some lime, cilantro and cumin. cumin for sure. and the obvious you see below. 

but that's about all i can remember. oh, and it is one of my favorite new recipes we have tried while striving to spend more time eating at home - at our dining room table we spent so much time saving up for.

cookies!

just posted on my baking blog about the wedding themed sugar cookies from amy's bridal shower this weekend!

4th of july

thought i would post a few quick pics of my sweet niece from the 4th of july. look closely, she has a tiny bow in her hair that she forgot about. not only do bows seemingly get lost in her head of curls, but she tends to take them out when she remembers they are in and then make you put in them in...over and over again...

as a side note, two of my cousins had their little boys in the last two weeks - colin and zack. i can't wait to meet them both soon, and it makes me excited for little niece #2 here in october!

a few from OIB

OIB. ocean isle beach. a tiny little place just inside the border of north carolina - slightly north of myrtle beach. at the end of june the voight clan rented an awesome beach house at OIB to celebrate both my mother and father-in-laws' 60th birthdays. the house was wonderful and had enough room to comfortably fit all nine of us (and each family had their own bathroom/room, which is very important for a successful vacation!). we did a lot of beach walking, porch rocking and, well, eating and drinking. we may or may not have gone through three bags of cool ranch doritos and two bottles of pina colada mix in eight days....

all in all we had a great time - the guys played a couple rounds of golf and the girls got out for dinner and outlet shopping one night (to which we only made it to one store for the entire 2.5 hours we were there). we took turns making dinner each night and had a few dinners out - if you are ever out at OIB, i suggest you skip the "giggling mackeral"...he is only giggling because he fooled you in thinking you would receive fresh, well prepared seafood...however they did happen to carry the brand of wine the voights keep stocked in our house - thanks to a hometown country club (we even served it at our wedding!)

thought i would share just a few of the photos i have gone through so far - so  many to sort through.

how does your garden grow?

opps - this zucchini must have been hiding these last few weeks in all the crazy leaves this plant produces - it is more than a foot long! no. really. stay tuned for some baking posts on how to use a 2lb zucchini..

fu manchu

my husband has what i call "instant karma". i'm not sure i even believe in the whole karma concept - but i know things have great timing when it comes to my husband getting what he deserves.

example - on our way to new york for new years, we arrived to the airport super early with our friends and decided to grab breakfast before going through security. for some reason, the topic came up and i mentioned i had never had problems going through security. i then stated "watch, it will be my luck they will search me now". 

if you are even somewhat aware of the sarcastic, dry banter my husband and i share daily, you can then imagine how my husband started running with jokes. as we later waited in line, he grabbed his bags and walked away saying "i don't want anyone to know i am with you, they'll think im a terrorist too" and "see ya on the plane, i'm not waiting". oh he was just sooooo funny poking jokes.

so after i successfully cleared security without so much of a beep, i look back to see my husband being scanned by an old dirty man (ok, so he wasn't really dirty, but just to embellish the story). just when he thought he was safe, they made him enter the full body x-ray machine (you know, the one that people don't like because everyone sees your naked business). i could hardly contain myself - and if i didn't think i'd cause some sort of security breach, i would've taken a picture.

instant karma.

i tell you this, because, you see...well, i offered to help. but my hair cutting skills clearly weren't enough. he had to cut it on his own.

now, i present to you....the backwards fu manchu. 

instant karma.

perspective

i just got a good dose of godly perspective. and i must admit, i think i needed it.

i just stumbled upon a college friend's blogs (thanks to the wonders of facebook) - she and her husband are expecting their first baby soon and recently bought a new home for their growing family. with her post of their new digs, she talked about her immediate love for their 1930s house (coincidence?) but her desires to quickly fill it with wonderful things and renovate.

i couldn't help but feel called out as i often struggle with finding contentment in the amazing home we have and not wanting more all the time. once one room is complete, i move on to the next. for a while i blamed milo for making me feel that way after he chewed up our new rug so it was no longer "perfect" (i kid), but in reality, i sometimes fail at taking the time to enjoy my blessings instead of trying to make things more "worldly" and perfect.

if you read her post, you'll see what i mean. i am challenged to take back the perspective that what I have is from Him and that i should choose to use my home as an opportunity to give thanks and open my home to loving and serving others. and not be so quick to compare my home to the pottery barn magazine next time the mailman leaves it on my steps...

many great things

it is never a bad thing to say one has many great things to blog about. the one downside i see in this is that it leaves little time to write about them. but i know you are probably busy too. and am sure there are studies out there analyzing the decrease of posts in the blogosphere during the summer months...blah blah blah, snore...

so we just got back from a wonderful family vacation to ocean isle beach (oib as the locals call it), which is north of myrtle beach and technically in the state of north carolina (just in case you wanted a quick geography lesson). i will try and work on some pics this week to upload, along with some awesome summaries and stories that i am sure my in-laws will love being scattered across the internet!

in the meantime, the voights are in day two of their second annual summer phase. if you remember last summer we participated in Jrune, so we are now entering what we hope is a new lifestyle (instead of a short-lived phase). i guess only next summer will tell...

sadly, there is no fancy name for this like last year, this is just more about not being fat. let me know if you think of a good one for that.

okay, so maybe it is more about taking the time to cook meals and reduce our heavy fast-food lifestyle. but name or no name for this attempts, we are working on being intentional about what we are eating and cooking more meals rather than using the excuse of supporting the economy by eating at mcdonalds, taco hut (taco bell and pizza hut combined...it really is a great thing!) penn station and the list keeps going of our weekly consumptions.

i hope to blog with some success updates - and am thinking about changing the name of my baking blog to something a little more universal. after all, if i am going to take the time to slave over a home cooked meal, i might as well take some pics and blog about it, right?

so there, i have confessed our newest phase. i mean lifestyle. last night we even kicked off with a mediterranean chicken pasta with feta, black olives, onions and sun dried tomatoes - but forgot to take any pictures. therefore, you win a picture of our green peppers - from about 2 weeks ago. this little buddy is almost ready for picking now!

moore baby

she's cute. she's sweet. and she is the offspring of one of my best friends. please welcome to the show...ruthie!