Hello!

I checked something else off my 30 before 30 list today.

I went to the movies all by myself!

I know that might not be a big thing for some people but I really do not remember going to the movie alone. I have always thought of that as a hang our or date night idea.

Well...it does not need to be.

 I went to an afternoon matinee and really didn't mind being alone in the slightest! 

WHO KNEW?

 They were giving away free popcorn samples too.

This is the movie I decided on.  I love Jennifer Garner. I always love the movies she in.

The story is about a couple who can not have children and they dream of what their son would be like. To try and help themselves move past this tragedy of not having children they take all their dream of a child put it in a box and bury it in the garden. Volia...Timothy is born. 

 

This movie is so cute. I got choked up more than once.

If your looking for a really family friendly movie this is a great one.

Have a great week everyone!

I'm so sad that the Olympics are ending.

We have been faithfully watching/DVRing all the games.

Even the commercials are amazing. 

I think two have actually made me cry...that's how you know its a good commercial. They can make you cry in 30 seconds or less.

Anyway....I saw a commercial for Chobani Greek Yogurt this week and it grabbed my attention.

I was also at Kroger's and they happened to have them 10 for 10. 

Basically a dollar! So why not...i'll try it out.

I bought a few flavors to try!

They Rock!

This was my first experience with Greek yogurt.

I did notice that it has more fat then the yogurt I normally get.

Does anyone know if there are added health benefits for Greek yogurt?

If so please fill me in...

Hello Friends!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

We have been so dry in Ohio and we finally got some rain...which means it is a little bit cooler.

I threw open my windows and am determined to get some fresh air in this house!

I started cleaning out my office.

This is by no means a fun job.
 I tend to let it get crazy but I'm getting ready to go back to work/school for the year so I have to get my act together.

I try to keep you guys posted on the cool stuff I find and do myself.

I recently heard about a website called Campusbookrentals.com.

My girlfriend who is in nursing school told me about how she went to get one of her nursing books and it was 250 dollars and so she started shopping around and found this website.

Well anyway the site lets you rent your text books from them for a fraction of the cost.

It can be anywhere from 40-90% discounted!?!?

I cant even tell you how much of a steal that is. I checked it out myself and one of my graphic design books was literally 50% off!! (Also this is a really great book if your interested in the history of GD).

They ship it to you for free & return for free!

They let you highlight in the books as needed.

If you get a book that's not in good condition they will return it and give you a different copy free!

CRAY CRAY!

They are also flexible as to how long you have the book so you can rent for a quarter, semester or longer.

They will also give you 30 days to make a return if you drop a class. 

The best part (besides the savings) is they also donate to Operation Smile. They whole goal of operation smile to help children with clef lip.

You can even follow the blog and see the daily progress of the organization.

 This is Daisy before 

This is Daisy after :)

They are doing really great work helping kids to have a more full life.

So anyway that was my inside scoop this week on cheap books.

Hope you all have a great Saturday.

If you have tips for me on savings leave me some comments ;)

I started my 30 Before 30 list about 1.5 years ago.

Welp I have successfully checked another item off the list of things to accomplish!

 Wahooo...

If you want to see the full list there is a link on the right sidebar of my blog where you can see my progress and the things I have accomplished so far.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here a couple thousand..

I had such a great time doing this! If you have not tried it...put it on your bucket list it is totally worth every penny! Also don't forget to take off your eye makeup like me or your will have a little bit of racoon eyes in your pictures :(

We also got to be pulled and pushed by the dolphin but I didnt really love those pictures. In one I looked terrified and the other I lost my swim bottoms being pushed out of the water. 

I almost flashed a group of 8 strangers!!!

My suggestion....Wear a really tight swim suit or a one piece.

Last but not least. I got to kiss a sea lion.

This was so stinking cute I couldnt stand it.

I got a big, wet and surprisingly fishy kiss and it was AWESOME!

So now i can sucessfully cross off an item from my list and am that much closer to finishing the whole thing. 

Hey friends!

I feel like I have so much to tell you about.

I celebrated my five year anniversary with my husband!

It seems like the time has just flown by.

Crazy to think that when we first got married we were still finishing college and now that seems like such a very longgggg time ago.

 To celebrate we booked a vacation to the

 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC!

It was awesome. 

I cant say enough about the Majestic Elegance (which is the resort we stayed in). The resort was breathtaking and the food and entertainment were amazing. We shared this trip with two other couple and that was a whole lot of fun to have extra people to hang out with at night.

The food was amazing...which almost never happens.

I thought I would show you a couple of pictures.

sunrise on the beach

 

This was what our pool and rooms looked like.

We had a room that has a suit up suit....so where you can see those white loungers on the left that was a private entrance to the pool with their own private lounger beds!

That's was definitely my favorite part, by far. 

I loved having our own little private area to hang out and all I had to do was go out the patio door to get into the pool.

This is the group of people that we went with! such a fun time.

There's me and the hubs.

I will say that the Dominican is HOTT!!!

I tried to curl my hair a few nights and I have never met humidity quit like this!

A little out of control for my taste.

I was hot pretty much from the first day to the last day.

Here's us dressed up for dinner. Not going to lie this is probably one of my most favorite pictures from the whole trip!

 I was the one that didn't bother to take off my sandals for the picture! not my most bright idea...by the time this picture was taking my feet were buried in six inches of sand!

I got to do some amazing excursions as well and i'll post about that tomorrow!

Till then :)

Good morning bloggers!

hope you are having a great Tuesday so far.

I am out of school for the summer! 

I'm so pumped to have this time off...I don't even know what to do with myself.

I have been going through my pinterest crafts and very soon will have some cool post to share.

I have made a decision....

I am going to be a Big Sister! 

No I don't mean my mother is having a child.

I mean I want to sponsor a child from the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.

If you are not familiar with the organization... They pair you with a youth. (I think the age is 10-14) You commit to hanging out with them twice a month for 18 months.

I know what your thinking. THAT SOUNDS LIKE ALOT.

That was my thoughts too...

I have been feeling challenged though because I don't really do a ton of community service.

I use to do quite a bit in college and now I am lucky to volunteer 6 times a year.

I personally do not think that is enough.

Tonight is the first training. I am nervous.

I have to go for two hours. I also had to do an extensive background check to make sure that I am not a creeper with a criminal record.

I hope that I get paired with someone cool. 

I'm not picky...any of the following will do!

 Can she get any cuter

 I'm pretty sure he would have me laughing all day

 He would ask me to be part of his Goonies squad and we would go on treasure adventures!

I mean these kids look so cool in the movies they must be fun in life right??

Course it could swing the other way and I could get a nightmare like this...

and then I will react like this...

Or maybe like this...

all because I know no matter what I do cute adorable Lindsay would end up like this jailbird/train wreck Lindsay...

Yikes! Needless to say I'm am excited/nervous about this whole thing.

I'll keep you updated.

Here goes nothing :)

Hello all!

I feel like I have been so busy lately.

If you followed my last post about making homemade vanilla...It was a success.

I watched it age and gave the bottle a shake every couple of days for about 4 weeks.

I just used it in my first batch of cookies and it was awesome!

Highly recommend doing this. It made so much vanilla and tastes so much better than the imitation.

Also I heard that whole vanilla beans this year are going to be scare so that means the price of store bought vanilla will be on the rise as well.

Just a tip

In other news.

I think I am getting ready to scratch some stuff off my thirty for thirty list.

If you have not done this...make one ASAP.

Its so fun and gives you some real goals to shoot for.

Anyway the one that I think I will be accomplishing this month is this...

NEW TATTOO!

I found this on pinterest and its so close to what I had in my head that I freaked.

I think I will change the thickness of the infinity and the font but I really stinking love this.

Thoughts?

I also want to get this on my foot?

What does everyone think of the new white ink tattoos? Sorta makes it look like a scar?

Also anyone have suggestions on the inside or the outside of the ankle?

If you in c-bus I would also love to hear who you recommend as a tattoo shop or artist?

Also just had my first poolside day with my best girlie's!

So good to just get together and chill but the pool and then go out for delicious Mexican food!

what a dork!

Also I just started taking biotin the supplement.

I hear that it is suppose to make your hair grow fast.

Well I just chopped some bang and it was such a mistake!!!

I hate them...I fell like I am touching them constantly and I'm even annoying myself.

You cant see them in the above picture because as you can see I have been braiding that side of my hair as a way to deal with the mess.

 If I ever consider bangs again I seriously want someone to shoot me in the face!!

BTW...I saw my second circus in like my whole life.

Except now I'm old enough to remember it.

Ringling Brothers were in town.

Peta was there picketing outside the event about elephant cruelty.

It was kind of disturbing.

Jared said there is no way that they could be mean to elephants and get away with it because of all the animal rights regulations. I hope that is the truth.

It was a good date night. I don't think I will be in any hurry to go back for a few years.

I think not till we have kids who would really love it.

Have a great week everyone!

Homemade Vanilla

Hello everyone!

I recently head that you can make your own homemade vanilla for baking.

I was intrigued so I decided that I wanted to look into this.

Turns out good old vanilla is just basically the beans and vodka.

WHO KNEW??

I had no idea.

I went onto amazon and bought some Madagascar vanilla beans. 

There are two different kinds that I found Madagascar and Tahitian vanilla beans.

After doing some reading Madagascar beans were what we needed for the recipe.

First we need a bottle with a secure stop to age our homemade vanilla

Then we need whole vanilla beans for the recipe - I used eight beans

Then you need to cut the bean length wise and scoop out the pulp on the inside of the beans.

Both the pulp and the beans are going to go into the container but this helps the process to be sped along.

 

 After you get the beans and the pulp in the jar...cover the beans in vodka. I would suggest getting a decent brand according to the recipe I found. 

Then every 3 days or so you want to give the bottle a good shake to help the process along.

Don't open it for at least 3 weeks.

The longer you wait the better it will taste

Hope this is something useful if you want to try it.

Also to do this it cost me like 15 dollars and that is alot of vanilla. 

Not to mention the tiny bottle at the grocery store is almost 5 dollars.

Try it out :)

Homemade Irish Soda Bread

Hey everyone! 

I hope you are having a great weekend and that you all did something awesome for St. Patty's day.

I celebrated my heritage by making the family recipe of Irish Soda Bread.

Its is awesome

I'm not one of those people who will not give you the recipe.

So here it is.

IRISH SODA BREAD

INGREDIENTS:

3 T butter

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

2 and 1/2 cups flour

2 T sugar

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup raisins

INSTRUCTIONS:

Mix all dry ingredients in to a bowl and then cut in the three tablespoons of butter until there are no butter clumps visible. Stir in the raisins and buttermilk to make a soft dough. Then turn it onto a floured surface and knead into a ball. Cut a cross into the top of the bread. Put a little butter on top layer of bread to help it brown. Then bake at 375 degrees for 35 mins or until top is golden brown.

Should look like this before it goes into the oven!

I mean to take an after picture but when it came out of the over warm I took a giant bite before even thinking about it!

Here is us...sporting our green and watching the buckeyes play in the tournament

Oh well...Have a great week.

Morning everyone!

Hope you all are excited as it is almost the weekend.

I wanted to give you an update.

I have been working at crossing some stuff off my 30 before 30 list.

Tonight on leap year day....I learned how to drive stick!

My girlfriend Lauren decided to take some time and energy and show me how to do this thing!

I will say...it was sorta nerve racking.

There is a whole lot more that goes into driving when you have a stick shift.

There is no way I would ever be able to talk on the phone or eat in my car.

It would be way to complicated.

That being said...it was mostly a sucess.

I drove to and from Yabo's Taco's without stalling.

I consider that an ACHIEVEMENT!

If you are in the Columbus area. We have this great little whole in the wall that has been blowing up.

Its called Yabo's Tacos.

It is awesome.

You can get fish tacos that are incredible.

I ordered three at 2.50 a piece and 2 would have been plenty.

great place, definitely worth a try if your in the area

Also, they have dollar drink specials.

Chips and Queso... delicious

Hope you all have a great end of the week!

HUNGER GAMES

Hello Bloggers!

Hope everyone is having a great week so far

I am getting so geeked about the Hunger Games!

The books are incredible if you have not read them yet.

The movie is all set to come out MARCH 23rd

Thats in just a couple weeks

On a sidenote...I found this hilliarious picture on pinterest and I started cracking up...

So stinkin adorable!

I decided to give up TV for LENT.

Ash Wednesday was this week so I have only been without TV for a couple days.

ITS SO HARD!

I DONT KNOW WHAT I WAS THINKING...

On the otherhand I didnt realize how much downtime I spent watching TV.

I repainted the door to our house yesterday just because I was bored and needed something to do.

AHH...I wonder how many other projects will get done with this time

Do you guys remember the movie "Heavyweights?" About a bunch of kids at fat camp?

The movie was getting a little dull so I was looking up some of these characters on IMDB.

The main character is a total hottie now.

CHECK HIM OUT!

Talk about ugly ducking to swan...hubba hubba

Thats all for now.

If you think of interesting projects for me to do in my free time during this lent season...let me know :)



Reuben Dip

Hello!

Hope everyone is having an amazing week.

I hope everyone is starting to think about how they are going to surprise their special someone.

The hub's and I are going to a dinner theatre with two other couples.

Should be a good time.

Plus we have a long standing tradition about buying each other a special outfit.

I pick his cloths and he will pick out a dress for me.

It's really special because I know that even if it's not my style that he loves it.

I thought I would tell you guys about this amazing little gem that I made for the Superbowl

Its called "Reuben dip."

If you like Reuben sandwiches then you will love this dip.

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs of corned been and have the deli shave it thin

8 slices of Swiss or about a 1/2 lb of cheese

Bottle of thousand Island Dressing

Kraut

Directions:

get 8 by 11 pan
tear up pieces of corned beef and fill the entire pan

Top with drained kraut

cover generously with thousand island dressing

Layer pieces of Swiss cheese over entire top of dish

Bake @ 350 for 25-30 mins

Serve with wheat thins

It was awesome!!

Everyone loved it...Enjoy



Chicken Noodle Cassarole

HELLO

Hope you all are enjoying your week so far!

tommorrow is friday...TGIF

I thought I would hop on and share a delicious recipe that I recently made.

It was even a sucess with the hubby and he is pretty picky.

It was not too difficult either.

I found this little gem on pinterest where I find all things amazing.

I will tell you that this easily will feed 4-6.

I made if just for the two of us and I ate left overs for three days.

The good news is that on day three is was still just as good.

The best park is I think you could make up this cassarole and freeze it and then just cook it when you are ready to have a dinner with the family.

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (I used three whole brest and cut them in half)
2 tablespoons oil (for frying)
6 ounces egg noodles
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 (10-75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
salt and black pepper (to taste)
1-2 cups shredded Colby jack cheese
1 cup crumbled buttery round crackers
½ cup butter

Step 1: Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Add oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts and cook, turning once until fully cooked (the internal temperature has reached 165 degrees) and golden brown on both sides. Remove from the pan and allow to cool. Cut chicken into small pieces. Set aside.
Step 2: Cook egg noodles according to package directions and drain. Set aside. In a large bowl mix together cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, and sour cream. Season with salt and pepper. Add egg noodles and chicken to the sauce mixture. Gently stir together. Place into a lightly greased 2 quart baking dish.
Step 3: Melt butter in a small sauce pan and remove from heat. Stir in crumbled crackers. Top the casserole with shredded Colby jack cheese and buttery crackers. Place into the oven and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until heated through and browned on top.

DELICIOUS!!

Check it out and let me know what you think :)

Have a great Friday everyone

Hello Bloggers!

Miss your faces 
The good news is that I have lots to fill you in on.

Christmas rocked. My hubby is wonderful and bought me boots

And a food processor  that I was so desperately in need of.

and lots of other gifts but these were my favorites :)

I’m sure that will mean that there will be plenty of recipes coming soon.

 Me and Sis

I have decided against the new years resolution this year.
I always get so annoyed with people who do resolutions for two weeks…myself included.
I think I hang tuffer with my LENT promises than I do my January resolutions.

I did a trip to texas to see Jared’s  family over christmas. It was weird not to be home for new years eve with my friends.Felt wrong somehow. Like starting the new year off on a awkward foot.

Also in texas they still let people smoke inside restaurants an bars. 

By the end of the night it was hard to breath and my eyes were seriously burning. 

I hate to sound that way but that you OHIO for the NO SMOKING BAN!

I did manage to snap a quick photo after the ball :)

its so hazy you can see the smoke...lol

We did get a chance to check out some cool stuff like the Houston aquarium!

 We also went to NASA..."HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM"

Don't go to NASA....Unless you are under 10.

There was not that much to see and the lines were like 1.5 hours to take a trolly tour of the NASA campus and you couldn't really even see anything.

I also tried my first What-a- burger...I will just say I dont get what all the hype is about!
 Tastes alot like burger king...I love BURGER KING. 

Thats prolly not something I should admit...shame

Ohio got its first snow storm...UGGG. 

I hate when my pants get wet at the bottom...gross!

Since  with my new job  I am visiting High Schools everyday, it is very possible I may be getting a snow day in the near future! Wahoo. Let hope that I have like 10.

I just downloaded the 10TV app which shows school closing and delays! AWESOME.

Where was this when I was in school. 

I actually had to get out of bed to watch the news and wait for my school listing to appear. 

I feel this is an important right of passage that maybe student are missing out on. (Course I wished I didn’t have to get out of bed only to find out I can sleep in…jealous much)