holding myself accountable for my NY resolutions for the first time ever....

So I thought I could revisit my new years resolutions every quarter to see how I am doing with upholding them... some are better than others - but were only 1/4 of the way through the year - so here we go... if you have any suggestions on how to achieve my goals - please let me know!

• Overcome my fear of numbers... and by numbers I mean my bank account and my weight. I never like looking at my bank account number because the number is constantly going down and I hate looking at my weight because it is constantly going up... so I am hoping this year my fear of numbers will go away because my bank account will creep up and my weight will dwindle down I am much better at paying my bills - and i don't get anxiety when I have to do so ... so thats a plus and a step in the right direction - right?
  
• While were on the topic of weight.. I have really struggled since college with my weight (actually my entire life) however, I have really noticed since I have been dating Justin (not that it is his fault at all - but just because I am more comfortable than ever) I have lost interest in working out and focusing on my physical health. My goal for this year is start towards my ideal weight loss goal - to loose 23% of my current weight, and I would be where I would ideally want to weigh. I am at 6.86% thus far - and I still have a lot to go but I feel 100% better than what I did at the beginning of the year - I am fitting into clothes that haven't fit for 3 years now and it feels so good! but i have a lot more to loose until i'm at my ideal weight!
  
• Back to saving money - I want to save enough money to fly down and see my grandma and great grandma in Florida. I miss both of them dearly and the older I get the more time they spend down in Florida still working on this one - i just want to get to florida at this point - JM and i were talking about taking a trip this fall - just the two of us - better start saving! we need a tropical vacation
  
• I would also love to furnish the basement with Justin's help. It is currently a big heaping mess! We had a funny conversation the other day after leaving Best Buy after buy a headset for Justin's PS3
  

Lindsey: Are you close to paying off Best Buy credit card (18 month no interest) from your Play Station 3?
Justin: Yea, I think the next purchase that I will get is a new tv for downstairs, and if I get the tv will you get the surround sound?
Lindsey: I don't mind buying the surround sound, however don't you think we
should work on buying furniture for the basement too?
Justin: I suppose
It just goes to show you how differently boys think than girls, all they want is a nice tv and the equipment to make it look and sound that much cooler - forget about the comfort level of the room (i.e. couches!). Now I just have to find couches that I will also fit down the stairs - the entrance is VERY narrow... we have a new TV, however still no furniture - JM's part is done - haha - the rest can wait in my opinion - not my biggest priority

• Although I'm not a runner I would like to participate in one race this year - like a 5k - lets start off small and work and I can work my way up to a bigger race or more 5ks throughout the year if I get really ambitious we all know that i'm crazy for signing up for this 1/2 marathon but its motivating me to get out and run/walk and workout - so keep praying for me - may 1st is right around the corner - eek!
  
• I would also love to find a way to calculate walking/running 2oo miles this year. i'm pretty sure i'm up around 60 miles logged this far with running - i have no clue with walking - but i'll take it...i set these goals so that i could try to meet them/break them- i guess it would help if i kept track!
  

SOME FUN RESOLUTIONS

• Blog 350 days this year... so far were off to a good start i'm going to change this to be 350 POSTS not days - too hard to keep track - ha! and i'm at 87 out of 90 days that have been in 2010 - hopefully i can keep this post up
  
• Paint my nails so they don't look trashy like this not good - need to work on this one! my manicure is wearing off and i need to fix my nails before easter!
  

• Go on a date with Justin once a month... Although we go out to dinner together, sometimes its just so I dont have to make dinner and I'm being lazy or have no creative ideas - I want our dates to be planned we need to work on this one as well!
  
• Host a a girls night out once a month for my girlfriends. I am so fortunate to have such a large group of friends who live here locally, and I love it when I am able to get together with them frequently (scarf exchange, Saturday morning movie and breakfast, dinner, ect) we are 2 of 3... i skipped January because it was a busy month, but we did a scarf exchange in february (thank you mother nature for ruining some peoples attempts to come!), a manicure/pedicure party in march, and were going to see the Last Song in April...
  
• Have my parents and Justin's parents over for dinner once a month we have had Justin's parents over - not mine yet - sorry B&L
  
• Write notes to my friends who may need encouragement, thank you notes to people who encourage me, just saying hi letters to my friends I might not get to see all the time, and an occasional love notes to Justin i have tried to keep up with these - i try and stop in the card isle every week before i start my grocery shopping to look for a perfect card for that lucky person that will receive a card that week!
  
• Continue to volunteer at my church nursery once a month unfortunately i think this one may be coming to a halt... i have tried (and by tried i mean 5 times since we signed up and they have too many volunteers for the amount of kids in the nursery - and i would rather spend my time in the worship service rather than in the nursery if that is the case. i feel badly but i think i gave it my time - and its time to find a new place to give my time and efforts to - outside of the church nursery!
  

Oreo Pop tutorial

So when Melissa, my cousin's wife found out she was preggo I was so excited that I was going to be able to throw her a shower. Early into the pregnancy she also realized that her cravings for oreos was much larger than normal - and if someone would ask her if she needed anything she always replied - "oreos". so from that moment i knew that i wanted to make oreo pops for her shower that we were going to be throwing her...

i thought that these little favors would be adorable and fun to make - however they turned into a little labor of love [but with a few trial and errors - a process was created, so stay with me - i was photo happy to begin with and then i think i forgot to take a few pictures during the process...]

I started out using double stuffed oreos - and i twisted the cookies apart keeping the top with the bottoms... and yes it is okay to eat all of the broken cookies

so this is the dangerous part [and i am VERY accident prone so please have 9-1-1 on speed dial if you are similar to me.. ha!] i used my gas stove - but a candle or anything with a flame will work - heat your lollipop stick over your heat source[bought in the candy isle at your local michael's or joanns]
press the sticks into the frosting [and make sure the stick goes all the way through to the cookie - so that the cookie will go back together properly] make sure the sticks are completely set before you move onto the next step
melt a little bit of white chocolate chips in a double broiler and spread it onto the cookie piece of the oreo [the non frosting side]
make sure that the oreos are set and secured to their lollipop sticks and are not going to come undone before dipping them into the white chocolate. dip the cookies into melted white chocolate [you can add a little crisco, paraffin wax or olive oil to stop to prevent the white chocolate from sweating once it sets - and the evoo will not make it taste funny - i promise!] and let cool on wax paper.
[please envision a bunch of dipped oreos that have been dunked into white chocolate]

i drizzled two different colors of white chocolate on top of the dipped oreos [i used pink and green to match the shower]
once the drizzle is set then you can bag the pops. i used these from michael's which worked perfectly and they fit right over the oreos

my guest probably hate this next step but its the only thing that i can think of to hold the bags shut - so i use fishing line initially
and then add a little flair with a ribbon
and then i put all of the favors in this cute little basket [that i found at joann's]

and there ya have it a looooong tutorial of how to make oreo pops!

i hope you have a chance to make these little lovlies! they may be a labor of love when you are making a large batch - but i think they are so cute!

Top 2 Tuesday - 2 Random Things about Moi

today's top 2 tuesday theme from taylor's undomestic momma blog is

2 random things about yourself

1. i could eat mexican food every day! i love lime and cilantro that much! its so fresh


2. i make lists for everything i do (i.e. grocery list [in order of the store], things to do at work for the day, blogging ideas)

photo

and if 2 aren't enough for you you can see 100 of my favorite things here

don't forget to stop over to taylor's blog and learn something new about other bloggers

Weekend Recap Part II - Melissa's Shower

I was soooo excited to have the opportunity to co-host (with my mom and sister) a baby shower for my cousin's wife Melissa. They are due in May 6th.. and I cannot wait to meet Addison Riley. I absolutely love Melissa, I have actually known Melissa forever, we went to the same babysitter when we were growing up, and I couldn't be happier to now have her in our family - and I just know that she will be an AMAZING mom!!!

the guest of honor and myself

Kitchen Table

Dining Room Table

The mantle

Addison Riley C

the food

the cake

Shower guests enjoying the food

Melissa waiting to open up her gifts

Her nursery is done in the Brooke pattern from Pottery Barn and here is one of her owls - she was so excited to get this!

i bet ya'll will be shocked to know that i got her a set of BBblocks and made her a pillowcase dress (and yes I know that I haven't posted how to make one of the dresses yet - i will sometime this week!)

the oreo pop favors (which I called a labor of love... I will have another post on how I made these)
I can't wait to meet Addison, she will be a well loved baby!

Weekend Recap

I'm going to break up my traditional weekend recap into two post (suspense - right.. kinda like to be continued tv shows - ha!) but we had a busy weekend here..

Friday night we went out to a new place in Columbus, Bernards to watch my beloved buckeyes play in March Madness and unfortunately we lost to Tennessee but it was still a good season, and we can always try to reach the Elite 8 next year... (on a side note the happy hour and food at Bernards were delicious!)image

after we recooperated from our lost we walked over to meet up with one of my college roommates Brandy, who was in town for the night with her boyfriend Joe

and Kathy was there too

Saturday night Ashley, Molly and I got together for dinner at PF Changs. A little mini tri delta reunion... we had so much fun catching up (and yes - thank you mr. waiter for the big background, little people picture!)

I love my mini Toledo reunions. I am so lucky that some of my best friends came from the 5 wonderful years I spent in the 419!

After dinner with the girls I went down to meet up with Justin, for Chris and Ryan's bday (yes you read this correctly, I was out downtown 2 nights in a row.. pretty crazy weekend - huh - i told you this weekend was so crazy that it deserved 2 posts)

myself, ashley and jaci
megan, april, laurie and myself

So that is my crazy Friday and Saturday nights.... a little basketball, lots of good food, and amazing time with friends - a pretty good weekend if you ask me!

I'm baaaack....

...and its my 100th post! So I thought I would share with you just a few (or maybe 100) of my favorite things...

image

1. family

2. friends

3. laughing so hard it hurts

4. fresh manicures

5. receiving hand written notes in the mail

6. the perfect pen

7. simple “I love you” texts from jm

8. scent of a new car

9. phone conversations with my grandparents

10. THE Ohio State Buckeyes

11. polka dots

12. a laughing baby

13. having a good hair day

14. the way I feel every time “my everything” by brad paisley comes on the radio

15. watching fireworks

16. a new outfit

17. a scent that brings back memories

18. watching a thunderstorm

19. fresh chips and salsa

20. a baby smiling back at you

21. planning girls days/nights out

22. blogging

23.sushi

24. completing a long run without stopping

25. sperry topsiders

26. smell of a crockpot when you get home from work

27.sunkissed cheeks

28. monogrammed items

29. new shampoo and conditioner

30. warm towels out of the dryer

31. swimming in the rain

32. little blue boxes with a white ribbon

33. completing a list

34. oversized sunglasses

35. holding a baby

36. scent of a new box of crayons

37. post-it notes

38. ice cold miller lite or Michelob ultra with a lime on a hot day

39. the Cleveland Browns

40. an organized fridge

41. a new Pandora bead

42. country music

43. mango habenero and spicy garlic sauces from Buffalo Wild Wings

44. summer dresses

45. google

46. planning dinner party for our couple friends

47. yelling OH somewhere and someone yelling IO

48. sleep timers on tvs

49. bubblebath OPI nail polish

50. real housewives seasons – nj/ny/oc

51. giving gifts

52. watching snow fall

53. window down, radio up days

54. my blackberry

55. drinks during happy hour on a deck

56. finishing up my DVR

57. a new pair of shoes

58. going to florida

59. chipotle veggie burrito bowl

60. lady antebellum’s new cd

61. clean sheets

62. lake Cumberland

63. picking apples

64. oxiclean

65. lettuce wraps

66. buying something and not finding out its on sale until you ring it up

67. 100 calorie count popcorn

68. family ski trips out west

69. pashmina scarves

70. google chat

71. random bouquets of flowers

72. making a new project

73. coupons

74. driving up to a meter and having it still have minutes on it

75. hibachi grills

76. food network

77. having a baby reach up to you to hold them

78. reality tv

79. cilantro

80. picnik

81. Japanese steak house

82. fresh cut grass

83. koozies

84. hearing a song and having it instantly remind me of a specific time

85. ruffled shirts

86. catching snowflakes on your tongue

87. taking pictures

88. gerber daisys

89. movie nights

90. making a birdie

91. peanut butter and butter sandwiches

92. attending church

93. empty dishwasher

94. hint of lime tostidos

95. using a gift card

96. colorful sharpies

97. march madness

98. new tube of toothpaste

99. vanilla lime yankee candles

100. all of my followers

I never thought that I would enjoy blogging this much.. and I definitely did not thing that I would posting 100 things this soon.. but it has been a lot of fun this far - and I appreciate all of you who read this blog daily and follow me! ya'll mean so much to me!!!

also I need to thank Aly for helping my with my HTML problem - she did a great job - I am so thankful to have such a wonderful friend like you :)

Hard Hat Area - Site Under Construction

So I needed to change my header from Vday to something more "springy" and updated pictures... and in doing so I found this awesome background from Shabby Blogs, however my text is not in line with the rest of my blog... so I am currently going under construction until I have time to dedicate to my blog and figure out a layout that works ... so if you any of your are HTML wizzes out there and can help me it would be much appreciated! thank you for sticking with me - and I will be back again this weekend!

**UPDATE i tried to shut my computer down 3 to 4 times before calling it quits last night with my updated background, however I couldn't do it.. so I changed it to this boring header and decent background but I promise you that we will be up and running by tomorrow! Please bare with me as I work to get it fixed! Thank you :)**

Life Lesson - draw strings have a purpose!

Workout Pants have a draw string for a reason!!

Yesterday JM and I showed up to running group and it was BEAUTIFUL out - so I decided that instead of my typical yoga pants, I would try my capri work out pants for a little more air circulation when my body starts to over heat... but my capri's at one time had a drawstring in them - and they came out over time in the wash and never bothered to feed it back through the pants

well wearing my capris was all great in theory until we started running, and my pants started to fall down.... and that was just part of it - we were running down a main road in Columbus and I was so afraid someone would pass me and recognize me as the girl who is trying to run,(running so slow that i might as well be walking!), holding my pants in one hand and my ipod in the other and struggling to run down hill.. it was sheer embarrassment for a mile down a very busy road- but we made it!

so needless to say - i will not be wearing those pants to work out in anytime soon - i will stick with my yoga pants with a secure band around my waist!!!

image found here

Happy Thursday:)

House [Condo] Tour.... Living Room

I have mentioned before that I live in a condo, and although the thought of living in a condo was very appealing at the time that I decided to buy [3 years ago] I believe I [we] have outgrown our current place, but with the economy the way it is, I don't think I will be looking to move any time soon so I need to entertain myself with my current place and I am always looking for news ways to decorate... and I digress... so let me give you a tour of my family room [and i am open to any suggestion that you may have that might improve it!]

the general theme in my house is the artichoke green with a hint of the tiffany blue and brown... as you can tell this room is a majority of the artichoke green

walking in from the foyer



view from sitting on the couch



our "dining room/extension from the worlds smallest kitchen!"

my mantle (if you have ANY suggestions what so ever for - they would be MUCH appreciated!)

i like the candle sticks on the far right side of the mantle - i fill the base each season with something different - right now I have golf tees.... but I have put candy hearts for february, fake snow for the winter, coffee beans (for whenever I can't think of something creative), and buckeyes for when the LOVELY Ohio State Buckeye Football is in season) - but im not attached to them staying on the mantle - i totally understand if ya'll think they are too small for this large space! other than that - i'm not attached to anything up there! ha

off to the side of my chase lounge is where I keep all of my current crafts that I am currently working on- I would normally clean it up and pretend as if everything is always this clean and organized [ha!] but i'll be honest with you - its always here!



So that is a tour of my living room, I hope you enjoyed yourself :)

**just in case you missed last weeks installment of my home tour - you can view my bedroom here**

And I have to thank ya'll for your encouragement with the shoes from my previous post - I have decided to keep them:) and I will make sure to take a picture of them when I figure out a perfect outfit to wear with them:)

a wild time shopping

I met up with Ashley tonight for dinner and a little shopping and then went to DSW and Michaels and apparently I was feeling a little wild tonight - because I came home with both of these...

do you think these are too wild? or too risque? I was teetering with the idea of buying them and 2 people told me how cute they were (nothing about power of persuasion - right?!) do you think that they are cute? (or more importantly, someone with my boring style, can I pull them off?)


and I couldn't resist these little guys from the $1 spot at Michael's - if all else fails they match my shoes! ha!
and yes Jennifer - I thought of you the entire time that I was buying these items!

i hope you all had a great Tuesday!