I don’t really feel like I should be 30 yet.  Remember the days when someone in their 30s seemed so old?  Well, I don’t feel that way at all.  But I guess that’s a good thing!

I’m not really one of those people who stresses about age, though.  It’s really just a number to me. (Remind me of that when I turn 40 )

I realize I haven’t blogged for about 3 months.  I’ve barely touched my cooking blog either.  I should make it a resolution to blog more, but I never keep those.  But I guess it’s time to see how much I kept up with my 30 things.

Cooking
1. Cook with 3 foods that I’ve never cooked with before. (One down – Pork Steaks) And I think that’s the only thing.
2. Conquer yeast! And begin making sandwich bread weekly. Well, weekly hasn’t happened, but I do think that I’m starting to figure it out!
3. Take a cooking class. Nope
4. Make baklava.  Nope
5. Make homemade ice cream.  Nope – I don’t know why, since I’m an ice cream addict.
6. Create an original recipe.  Don’t think so.  Though I do occasionally throw things together and see what happens.  Does that count?

Finance
7. Pay off my credit card debt. YES!!!   Can you tell I’m pretty pumped about this one.  So nice to be credit card debt free.
8. Build up our savings account to a month’s worth of pay. Not there yet, but we’re working on it.  We had a few unexpected setbacks late last year, but I think we’re on track for sure!

Marriage
9. Tell my husband I love him at least once a day. Absolutely!
10. Plan a ‘date day’ at least once a month. We may not have planned date days, but we do seem to have them quite often!

Home
11. Organize all of our digital pictures, print and frame some and put others in albums. Didn’t even touch them.
12. Landscape our front hillside. Didn’t happen.  I swear it will this year!
13. Start to go green.  Sort of.  I have been using more reusable bags.

Self:
14. Workout regularly (3x per week) and get to my goal weight and size.I have been doing well with the workouts.  But I still have a bit to go to get my weight where I want it.
15. Work up to a 5-mile run when the weather gets nicer. Not even close.
16. Figure out what I really want to do with my life. ???
17. Find a job I love!   Still working on this one.  I really hope this is my year!
18. Learn to take things in stride and stress/worry less. I think I’m doing a little better here.
19. Write a letter to myself to open in 10 years. Nope
20. Be a vegetarian for one week. No – but I am still cooking at least one meatless meal per week.
21. Anonymously help someone in need.  Nope

Activities
22. Go horseback riding. Did this in Gettysburg and I loved it!!
23. Take a spontaneous road trip. Done!
24. Learn to knit/crochet. No – but I still really want to do this.  I did recently come across a place that does classes, so i need to look into it further.
25. Volunteer for something I’m passionate about.  Nope
26. Go sleep-on-the-ground camping for a weekend. Done!
27. Go whitewater rafting.  Nope
28.Take more pictures. I think I’ve done this.
29. Find a creative way to make money (sell on e-bay, etsy, etc.)  Nothing.
30. Get a deep tissue massage.  I’ve always wanted one!  Still haven’t done this… still really want one.

Well… I suck!  But oh well.  It was still a pretty good year anyway.  And I think this one is going to be better.  Two biggest goals for this year?  New job and new house!!  Fingers crossed…

Pinterest is basically a site where you ‘pin’ images that you like or are of interest to you.  It’s basically a virtual pinboard.  Organize recipes, plan a wedding, decorate your home, or just ‘pin’ whatever interests you!  I ‘pin’ clothing and shoes that I like, potential gifts, home decor and recipes.

And it’s kind of fun to see what other people are ‘pinning’ as well. 

Do you want an invitation to join?  Just leave your email address in a comment, and I’ll send you an invite!

That’s right… October is National Popcorn Poppin’ Month!  I’m tempted to eat popcorn every day for the rest of October.  No, I wouldn’t get sick of it.  The smell of popcorn completely vanishes all of my willpower.  

And don’t even get me started on movie theatre popcorn.  I don’t think it can get any better than that!

Did you know?

• Most popcorn comes in two basic shapes when it’s popped: snowflake and mushroom. Snowflake is used in movie theaters and ballparks because it looks and pops bigger. Mushroom is used for candy confections because it doesn’t crumble.
• Popping popcorn is one of the number one uses for microwave ovens. Most microwave ovens have a “popcorn” control button.
• How high popcorn kernels can pop? Up to 3 feet in the air.
• ‘Old Maids’, the kernels that you find at the bottom of your popcorn that don’t pop, can be rejuvenated. The water in kernels is what causes popcorn to pop, so all you need to do is re-hydrate the dried kernels.  (I’ll be trying this trick next time I make popcorn!)
• The oldest ears of popcorn ever found were discovered in the Bat Cave of west central New Mexico in 1948 and 1950. Ranging from smaller than a penny to about 2 inches, the oldest Bat Cave ears are about 4,000 years old.
• It is believed that the first use of wild and early cultivated corn was popping.

I like my popcorn covered in butter and salt (yes, I take all the healthiness right out of it).  How do you like yours?

Check that off my 30 by 30 list!

Now we can concentrate on building up our savings account and working towards some final fixes on our home to sell and buy a new forever home!

In the last 8-10 months or so, J and I have very aggressively worked to pay off our credit cards.  We started with the one with the highest balance and interest rate and continued to pay the minimum on the other.  Once the first card was paid off, we were able to roll all of that money into the other card (added on to the minimum payment) and the second was gone within 2 months.

I’m really happy that we’ve been able accomplish this huge goal, but I’m annoyed with us that we got ourselves into that position in the first place.  However, in the future I know we are going to be much smarter about how we spend.

Source

Honestly – time just flies!  I feel like it was just yesterday we were saying ‘I do’.

We celebrated / are celebrating our anniversary this year in two parts.  On Saturday J and I headed to the Highland Games in Ligonier, PA.  We spend the day listening to bag pipers and drummers, watching big men in kilts throw cabers and toss hammers, and watching Scottish breed dogs running through an agility course.  It turned out to be a beautiful day!  We then met up with my sis and brother-in-law for dinner and drinks at Rock Bottom.

Tonight, J and I are going to dinner at Casbah, a local Mediterranean style restaurant and wine bar.  They use all local ingredients when they can, and feature items such as Grilled Spanish Octupus, Sage Cavetelli, Veal Tortellini, Scottish Salmon, Cioppino, Lamb Shank and Filet.  I’m excited for some good food tonight!

LUV, J!  <3

Of course, I remember where I was.  I was in my room at college, in the bathroom, actually, getting ready for class.  I heard my roommate call out… maybe it was “you need to get out here”, maybe it was just a general exclamation… but something in her voice made me run out to the living area to see the first tower in flames and smoke.  It took me  a minute to comprehend, but it was an overwhelming sense of shock, disbelief and confusion.  It took a bit more to really process the events as they unfolded, and for the sadness and sense of loss to come to the surface.

I was one of the lucky ones who did not lose any loved ones on that horrible day.  But I am sad, and to be honest, still confused, over the events of that day and the lives that were lost.

To all those whose lives were lost, who lost loved ones, whose lives were forever changed, and who fight for our freedom… you are in my thoughts.  I will never forget.

Cooking
1. Cook with 3 foods that I’ve never cooked with before. (One down – Pork Steaks)
2. Conquer yeast! And begin making sandwich bread weekly. Well, weekly hasn’t happened, but I do think that I’m starting to figure it out!
3. Take a cooking class.
4. Make baklava.
5. Make homemade ice cream. (Got the KA attachment for Christmas so I’m all set.)
Hasn’t happened yet, but soon, I promise!
6. Create an original recipe.

Finance
7. Pay off my credit card debt.
J and I set in place a pretty aggressive plan.  And we should be making a final payment in October!!  You have no idea how excited I am for that.
8. Build up our savings account to a month’s worth of pay. Because of the aggressive credit card plan, we haven’t really been able to save as much as we’d like.  But once our cards are paid off, we’ll be focusing on this.

Marriage
9. Tell my husband I love him at least once a day.
Absolutely on track for this one.
10. Plan a ‘date day’ at least once a month.
We may not have planned date days, but we do seem to have them quite often!  Last month we went camping, a few weeks ago we spent the day together golfing, and in a few weeks we’ll be taking a long weekend at Gettysburg.

Home
11. Organize all of our digital pictures, print and frame some and put others in albums. Not even on the radar
12. Landscape our front hillside. May not get done this year.  We’ll see.
13. Start to go green.  Use reusable bags, hand towels instead of paper towels, etc.  Simple changes.

Self:
14. Workout regularly (3x per week) and get to my goal weight and size.
I’m doing okay with this.  So far, this week I’ve already worked out 3 times, and I plan to go again tonight. But the weight’s not really dropping yet.  I eat too much.
15. Work up to a 5-mile run when the weather gets nicer. Not even close.  Right now it’s way too hot to even think about running outside.
16. Figure out what I really want to do with my life. ???
17. Find a job I love!
18. Learn to take things in stride and stress/worry less. I think I’m doing a little better here. 
19. Write a letter to myself to open in 10 years. Not yet, but I have time!
20. Be a vegetarian for one week. Not yet, but I do try to eat meat free at least once a week.  It’s a start!
21. Anonymously help someone in need.

Activities
22. Go horseback riding.  This is planned!  We’re going to do a horseback tour of the battlefields when we’re in Gettysburg. I can’t wait!!
23. Take a spontaneous road trip. Done!
24. Learn to knit/crochet.
25. Volunteer for something I’m passionate about.
26. Go sleep-on-the-ground camping for a weekend. Done!
27. Go whitewater rafting.
28.Take more pictures.
So I obviously suck at this and decided to change it to something a bit easier.  Other than pictures for my food blog, I very rarely take any.  So I think taking more pictures works.
29. Find a creative way to make money (sell on e-bay, etsy, etc.)
30. Get a deep tissue massage.  I’ve always wanted one!

This is not actually a picture of a van – if you look over the van, you can see the track.

The campsite we chose is actually owned by the Speedway, and was only for tents and popup tents.  (We didn’t want to be in our little tent surrounded by huge RVs.)  And it was only about a 5-minute walk from the track!

Also a plus – they had showers!  Basically it was a big semi-truck with a men’s side and women’s side.  There were separate shower stalls (8-9 each) and each stall had a changing space.  They were pretty tiny, but they had hot water and were kept clean.  And they kept me clean!  That’s a definite camping requirement for me.   And they also had sinks lined up outside of the shower, along with electricity (which I wish I knew about beforehand, but oh well!)

Bathrooms were port-o-johns, which, honestly, I was not too excited for.  But, they did do a good job keeping them clean.  They actually emptied and did a quick clean of all of them twice a day.  So I have to say it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

I told J that I would definitely do this again.  My only requirement is showers.  Absolute MUST HAVE!

We arrived on Friday around 3:30.  It was a very easy 5-hour drive, and we had no problems finding our campsite.  It only took us about 45-60 minutes to get everything set up.  We had our tent, canopy, large table for supplies and a small one for cooking, air mattress, chairs, two coolers (one food, one drinks), small charcoal grill, propane stove, fire pit, corn hole, plus all of the other miscellaneous cooking / camping supplies for the weekend.

Friday night we made some BBQ Chicken Calzones for dinner.  (You can see all of our meals here.)  We hung out at our campsite, met some of our neighbors (lots of people from Canada at this race), and had a few beers.

Saturday we woke up around 7:30-8:00, made some breakfast and headed over to the track.  They had a ton of stuff going on all weekend – concerts, drivers autograph sessions, and lots of places to purchase food and merchandise.  Here’s driver Ryan Newman signing autographs with his wife at his hauler.

We tried to get some tickets to Saturday’s Nationwide race, but we couldn’t find anyone to sell them to us cheap enough.  Oh well, we just listened to it on the radio.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out around the campsite… eating, drinking, playing corn hole.

Sunday was race day!  We were up again around 8:00 and hung out for a few hours.  Around 11:30 we walked over to the track and found our seats.  We were 35 rows up right on turn 1 – so we had a good view of the start/finish line and cars coming off of pit road.

The race was a great time.  Unfortunately both of our drivers’ (Dale Earnhardt Jr. (J) and Kasey Kahne (me) ) pit crews screwed up and caused them both to finish back of the pack, although they were both running top five before that happened. 

We hung out at the track for a while longer to let the crowds clear out a bit, then headed back to camp.  J started the fire for the hobo dinners, and we settled in for night #3.

We were lucky that the weather was gorgeous all weekend.  We did bring sleeping bags, but it was so warm we only needed a sheet!

Overall we had a fun weekend together, met some great people (Nascar fans are really good people), watched some fun racing, and spent some quality time toghether.

This is one of the last pictures, if not the last, that we took of her.  She absolutely loved being outside!  And this was her favorite toy.  The energy that this girl had was just endless!

I definitely still miss her so much.  We actually talk about her quite often… Mia used to… Mia would’ve loved… When we had Mia… But it’s all happy thoughts.  She was an amazing addition to our little family in our new home.  We got her just a month or two after buying our current home, and she automatically just belonged! 

J used to say he hated dogs and he didn’t want any.  I, on the other hand, was determined to have a dog (or more!) in our house.  I couldn’t imagine living without one!  Then he brought her home as a surprise to me and he fell in love (we both did)!  I think she was more his dog than mine, not that I’d ever admit that to him.  

Though I’m so sad that her life was cut short by her disease, I am so happy and feel so lucky to have had her for the time that we did! She brought a ton of happiness into our lives, and I think into the lives of family and friends who spent any time with her.

Mia – I know you’re waiting for us somewhere!  We miss you!

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together….

Rainbow Bridge Poem

Source

No… not that kind of gas!

Source

I went and filled up my gas tank this morning, and this is exactly how I felt when I saw the total cost.  $54!!  It hurts… really, physically is painful to see that. 

Obviously the price of gas is insane right now, and only going up!  So what can we do about it?  Lately I’ve seen all these articles, blog posts, etc. about how to save on gas.  But none of it really helps me (or my husband).  Let’s go through the list:

Take public transportation: Sure, if I want my commute to climb to 1.5-2 hours each way, with at least one transfer.  (No, I don’t.)

Ride a bike: I’d love to ride a bike to work, and actually looked into it a few years ago.  It was an option, but I would’ve been on some dangerous roads.  Now that our building moved even further away, it’s even less of an option.  With an already 40 minute commute, it would rise to over an hour, in addition to riding on some roads that I’m not entirely comfortable with.  (Yes, the focus is on work, because that’s about 90% of my driving each week.)

Walk more: again, I’d love to.  But let’s think about what’s feasibly in walking distance.  A gas station (shocking), a bowling alley, a deli/convenience store (okay, occasionally useful, but not enough to see any real savings… and we hardly ever go here), a Food Lion (we don’t shop here unless we only need one or two items (expensive compared to Wal-Mart), in which case J stops on his way home from work (it’s right en route) so again not much help), a few shady bars we’d prefer not to step into, a few pizza places, liquor store, banks (neither of which is our bank), and that’s pretty much it.   

Take one trip instead of multiple trips:  We don’t really shop much.  We do one grocery trip a week (and if we have to one of us will stop on the way home to pick up one or two items – typically these are en route so we’re not wasting gas).  So maybe we could do this a little more, but not much.

Buy a hybrid: Anyone want to lend me $30,000?  Maybe in 5 years when we’ve paid off our cars, but since we’re both only a little over a year into our 5-year loans, it’s not happening now.

Take care of the car: Okay, I admit this is a weakness. J is much better at the standard maintenance on his car than I am.  I just don’t think about it, but I’m trying and I’m getting better!

Then of course there are things like slow down (I’m kind of a speed demon, so could do better here), avoid stops (anyone who knows my commute would know how laughable this is), avoid idling (go into the fast food joint instead of using the drive-thru).

So, I think the point of this post is… we’re screwed.  And we’d better start shuffling the budget to make room for the continuously rising gas prices, at least until we have some better options (working closer to home or at home, able to purchase more fuel efficient vehicles, etc.) 

It does make me nervous for things like our upcoming trip to Michigan for the Nascar race.  We’ll probably have to fill up the tank 3-4 times, which takes us up to $200, just in gas, for  a 4-day weekend in which our car will not move once our destination is reached. We really look forward to weekends like this, but if the rising trend continues, we’ll have to think a lot harder about whether these trips are really feasible for us or not.