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