can't fight the family genes....

this wedding day photo of me was recently uploaded on facebook from one of my wonderful bridesmaids. (i cropped out my mom because i knew she'd make a comment if she found out i was "blogging" pictures of her...).

so then my sister sent me this photo of ellie at the state fair last week.

my husband's response? "wow, you have an incredibly expressive family...."

i'm not sure if it is the parent or child initiating the expressions, but either way...it runs in the family!

meet the voights

extremely defining pictures of each of us below:

me in my element: playing the washer with spoons on stage with men in lederhosen.

brandt in his element: enjoying life on a lazy river taking a snooze

extreme home makeover: god style

last weekend, as some of you may know, our house church (along with a few others) spent all day saturday cleaning, cleansing and purging an entire home - literally from top to bottom. rebecca, the homeowner, lives next door to our friend katie and is in her late 60s. between taking care of her 2 grandkids during parts of the week and a few health issues, she was desperately in need of some cleaning and love.

when we showed up at 9am on saturday morning, we realized it was a little more than a few hours of cleaning, but in fact helping rebecca in confronting some major hoarding issues.


the pictures attached may not do it all justice - as our friend jana thought to take some photos during the middle of the process. i think she is going to go back and take some "after" photos so i will post those one i have them.

we started by completely emptying rebecca's house onto her front yard. we sorted through important documents, medicines and then organized items that needed to be rinsed or washed. her house was completely empty. we then set up a dish station that washed all the dishes (all of her many place settings to serve about 30 guests!) and made them user friendly again. some others took two car loads of laundry to the nearby laundry mat, which took nearly 4-5 hours to do!

over the course of the 11 yr day, several passer-bys stopped to inquire if this was a yard sale, a GIANT portable dumpster on the back of jesse's sweet van was overflowing and we made multiple truck-loads to the goodwill.


some of the guys built some really shelves in the basement for storage. the husband and i took on stripping a wall of some painted over wallpaper (sigh) at one point in the day. as evening approached, some cool antiques had appeared (including some pink depression glass and a office desk my mom would flip out about), we had painted her dining room, living room and kitchen, and new ceiling fans were installed. this house literally did a 180 from dawn to dusk- with the help of about 20-30 willing people. it was a really neat way to show someone god's love. however, i hadn't been this sore since my high school soccer two-a-days!

last wedding post, promise....maybe

swirl that…

last night was the first official meeting of our girls’ wine club. the idea first came about from my friend stacey – we wanted to find a time to get together for a night with girlfriends. both of us love planning, but also get tired of coordinating fun activities but being rejected due to busy weekends and previous commitments. so the idea solidified to a monthly get together, on the second tuesday of each month, with what better than a wine theme?

so here is how the club works (no worries - no official club news, announcements or secrets will be revealed here…just the basics). each month a different member is in charge of hosting club. the hostess is responsible for providing snacks, and each club member brings a bottle of wine. The best part is that each month there is a different theme. for example, last night’s theme was “favorites”, where each person simply brought their favorite wine to share. the theme of the night is up to the hostess to decide, and previously suggested themes include wines by region, country and then of course “hillbilly”, where we’d all drink boxed wine or wine sealed only with a twist off cap.

the inaugural meeting of wine club exceed anyone’s expectations. sadly I cant reveal much, but I can say that it may have been the hardest I have laughed in months. wine club had a pretty early start time of 6 pm, so I attempted to whip up some wine friendly foods: bruschetta, cheese/grapes/crackers and cheesecake. it was such a fun way to mingle groups of friends, meet new people and enjoy some QT time with girlfriends.

as the eight of us took down the 10 bottles of wine that happened at the voight household, we reverted to giddiness of third graders - making up an official lingo for “cheers”, a secret passcode for us “founding members” only, nicknames with alter egos and more. the only thing missing was a lisa frank trapper keeper for our note taking, which may actually appear from an ebay purchase next month. milo was beside himself with excitement and probably overwhelmed by the estrogen but he made it out with only a few successful licks of the cheese tray and a bump on the head from being pushed under the coffee table.

and don’t worry, I am in charge of writing an official song for next month’s meeting…

jrune

i'm surprised i have yet to mention what the voights are now calling the month of "jrune". that's right. said just like it sounds and is what it looks - the words "run" and "june" combined. not only does "jrune" fail to flow from your tongue with ease, but it is even more painful to do.

after the husband's blog post at the end of may about the weight gained after the wedding - we decided to devote the month of june to being healthy - which means at least 30 mins (aka 3 miles) of running every single day. brandt's logic is that i myself would lose 8 lbs by the end of "jrune" if we did it. so i took him on his bet.

the problem you say? today is day three and my body is throbbing. my muscles are swollen inside and i creek like an old rocker. since our schedules don't always match up, the husband woke up yesterday morning and ran at 6 am. he said it was to get it out of the way. i believe it was to guilt me into doing it that night when i got home from work. yet, when i was leaving work, literally all hell broke loose in the skies - with hail (further north some were as big as baseballs mind you!), lightening and probably swirling clouds all the meteorologists peed their pants about [just a little] when they saw their doppler radars...

but no worries - i completed my run despite it all. only made about 2.5 of the 3, but we are keeping up ... and will remind my husband next time he complains about "his knee starting to hurt"! and believeyoume, i will win that bet by the end of "jrune"!

crack attack...

So it has happened. We're married; she's cooking; and I'm gaining weight. Think not? Try 9 pounds since that fateful 3.21.09 date. And don't try to put it on the unlimited supply of drinks and food at the honeymoon resort. No, no. I shed that with my flu/pinkeye when I got back. But it's ok, i've started to accept it. The couch is comfortable. Our DirectTV gets reception 90% of the time and red wine keeps my heart healthy. Or at least that's what I thought until I used the restroom the other day. Without going into details that might scar readers and warping this blog into an R-rated affair, I'll simply say that I was leaving the restroom and notice that the left side of the toilet seat had a horizontal crack in it. Not a scratch, not a tweak - a seat breaking crack. And it wasn't there when I sat down on the toilet minutes earlier.

I broke...I cracked our toilet seat. Think about that for a minute. Toilet seats are built to withstand the worst environments. People's bums are soft by nature. Mine has extra cushioning these days. And I managed to crack it like a hammer to an egg. I wasn't really sure how to react. Semi-proud. Semi-amazed. Semi-embarrassed. But mostly in awe. Then I started to think about what my visit to Lowe's was going to be like. Would they ask why I needed a new toilet seat? Should I sit down on them in the store and "try them out" to make sure they could resist my power/force? One with a wide base? A narrow one to concentrate the support aspect? Should I get one with a cushion or does the next one need to be steel, industrial strength? Maybe white isn't the best color on me anyways - how about a beige one?

It was about this point when I started to realize how quickly the leather seats in my Jeep have stated to crack and age; how the foam on my side of the bed has a much starker imprint than my wife's. And so as I walked away from the ludicrous lavatory trip and headed back to the couch, my wine and the current episode of cnbc, I made a mental note to myself to start running again; that, and check my office chair at work to make sure it had proper support.

-the mister

what i've learned from being married:

• my husband is a great surface cleaner. however, if you consider eating something off of the counter and i’ve been out of town…think again
• there must be something “manly” about taking out the trash. i find joy in keeping my email inbox clean. he finds joy in keeping Hefty in business with his multiple trash trips each day
• growing up, I remember someone told me it cost 10 cents for every light switch you turn off and on. my husband must believe that is true still. either that, or his fingers hurt too much from working so hard he can’t bear to move them to save power or the earth
• there is never any harm in a good ‘ol fashion competition – especially when it comes to who can mow the yard the best or power wash the fence more efficiently
• “alone time” is out the window. at first I thought it was just my dog rudely barging through closed doors…apparently it is a boy thing
• it is always nice when the one who cooks can watch the other clean. my husband actually initiated this rule and i gladly follow it. i think he just wanted to continue his fetish with loading the dishwasher…but again, who’s complaining?
• the family that blogs together stays together. my husband is a blogger now too
• dance. even when your wife is watching. or recording it on her cell phone
• sing loudly. even when you husband is sitting next to you
• something about our bed being made makes me feel like we have it all pulled together. i will strive to stay away from this lie
• apparently i missed the memo on any canned beverage tasting better after sitting open in the fridge for at least two days…
• a well manicured yard is something to be proud of. let’s not go there on where you keep your trash
• i’ve lived by a lot of “secret rules” that i somehow expected my husband to “just know” – working on getting over that
• strive to love each other the way your dog does every day when you come home from work
• long walks and lying in bed laughing before bed will keep a marriage young. maybe this is hopeful two months in, but those are two of our cherished times together each day

watch out ladies, he is in his "prime"…

the voights have of plenty of house projects on the horizon, and i fear we will soon discover we both may be “those people” who start and stop projects before completion. our first home project is so close to the final product i can barely take it – our new gate.

at the first of the year, we solicited my brother-in-law to come out and build us a new wooden fence. this immediate need came just a few weeks after closing on our home, when the previous two-post swinging gate plummeted to its death. we needed something quick to help keep the pup under wraps in the backyard.

but our only problem came when our idea for a one-post gate just got a little too heavy, and thus, the gate was permanently shut and no longer open for business. this weekend, my husband and brother-in-worked to install this heavy duty, rotating wheel and boy letmetellyou it is the greatest thing since sliced bread! that bad boy opens and closes like it is its job….which is great, since that is what we needed to allow our cars back in the comfort of our garage.

so last night, my husband thought he would go out and prime/paint the newly completed fence in all of 20 minutes – in just enough time before a new How I Met Your Mother came on. so after about 10 minutes, he walked back in with paint on his face.

my first mistake was asking if he was done – because i honestly think he believed he was. the second mistake was going outside to see the job only to find the paint he had spilled and/or dropped on the driveway - thinking that it would wash off? which i must ask, “isn’t that the whole point of paint – to stay on after you put it there?"

to add to the manhood, he had the notion that we only needed to paint the front of the fence, and neglect what it looks like from the inside for the visitors we actually know. wrong-o. long story short, we both ended up with tiny paint brushes jamming them in little holes trying to fill in all the gaps with paint. going over six minutes into HIMYM, we called it a day, let the primer dry and plan to go out another nice day to finish the back of the fence.

oh, and i plan to break it to him soon this fence will need a second coat….

weekend update

well, i must say with a deep sigh and heavy heart, my birthday celebrations officially came to an end yesterday evening. for those of you out there who have known me for years, we must all admit i've made some progress over the years. Growing up, the birthday celebration began about 30 days out. This included a daily countdown and suggestions of what to get me off my birthday wish list. during college, we pared it down to a one week celebration and this year, well, it only lasted about four days.

but it was one heck of a four day bash. an evening of $3.50 pitchers with co-workers and friends, a “food day” at work and lunch at pf chang’s, birthday dinner with the husband at ruths chris, a new iPhone, loaded nachos and horse races on saturday night all topped with an afternoon full of presents with family and my mom’s chocolate cake (jointly sharing in the mother’s day love with my mom and sister of course). whew!

so i was fully content with this year’s massive blow-out, that is until my wonderful husband went and put a nail in the coffin. this morning he woke me up and said “happy may 11th”. to which i said, “ok, and….?” to which his response was, “well, I just wanted you to know it is no longer your birthday.” cruel? just a little bit. honest? yes. necessary? i think not!

on another topic, our weekend was full of many blog-worthy topics - which of course will be shared over the course of this week. the husband will make his first debut to discuss some newly obtained tips for grilling steak, lots of upcoming house projects to report on and my niece’s first birthday celebration is just around the corner!

until then….

my joyful life

in honor of my own birth (and yes, i am wishing myself a happy birthday on my own blog today!) i thought i would share some of the newest wedding photos. 1. because i am excited to have some of them. and 2. because my new husband is something that makes life full of joy. the blog name, "made from scratch", is an effort to describe how we started our journey together so long ago, starting essentially from the beginning, or scratch, and our continue to build our lives together.

if you want to check out more of the photos - go here http://www.carignangallery.com/index2.php and in the "client" tab, enter the password "voightwedding" all one word.

happy birthday to me :)

rachel ray THAT

so our friends steph and adam had a beautiful baby boy a few weeks ago, and our "tiny bunch", aka our small group, has coordinated shifts to bring over meals to the new parents. for some reason, i decided to sign us up as meal visit #1 - now, since this whole domestic cooking is new to me, this meant we would either set the bar really really low for those following or knock the ball out of the park with my new skills.

the official vote is still out, but i'm pretty proud of the 3.5 out of 5 rating brandt gave the chicken mac 'n cheese last night. i even spiced up rachel ray's recipe by adding my own seasoned chicken - and i have to say, the homemade cheese for the noods was pretty scrumptious. im thinking of applying the asiago, sharp cheddar and parm mix to a beer cheese/pretzel combo down the road. but what's up with homemade mac 'n cheese turning into just cheesy noodles? something about the kraft and velveeta style has me confused on what is really is supposed to taste and look like.

i couldn't find my recipe on RR's website to share, but it looks like there are tons of options for those of you working to become quite the little cook like me. http://www.rachaelray.com/article.php?article_id=95.

of course i took a photo of the finished piece last night, topped ever so beautifully with bread crumbs - but as usual, left for the office in a hurry this morning and walked out without a camera cord to upload. i'll make sure to post it tomorrow (i know, the post isn't complete without it and you a dying to see it). id also like to add it in hopes my husband stumbles along the post and notices just how unflattering the photography is from my old camera and is inspired to buy me a new Canon SLR for my birthday - which is just around the corner you know...

first batch from scratch - our wedding

i thought i would start out with a few wedding teasers to kick off the blog - mainly cuz i wasnt sure what i should blog about first. these come from our wonderful photogs, wade and steph at http://www.carignangallery.com/blog/. we should be getting the rest of our proofs back in the next month or two and will make sure to share them asap!