Almost There!

Well folks, today is my birthday! The big 29! This will be the last year of my twenties! I'm very excited both to still be in my twenties and to be nearing my thirties, which I think will be good to me. However, I've been thinking about making a 30 before 30 list for some time now, and it seems like if I don't do it now I won't have time to do anything on the list! So, here is a list of 30 things I hope to do before I turn 30 in exactly 365 days. 

1. Get at least one set of papers graded by the next class period. 

2. Turn midterm grades in with everything graded and early for at least one class. 

3. Finish the Phi Theta Kappa Honors in Action Project. 

4. Read 20 books that I want to read. 

5. Read 5 non-fiction books. 

6. Organize the files on my home computer, work computer, jump drive, and Dropbox so I don't have to look in all the places to find what I need. 

7. Go to Disney World!

8. Redecorate my living room, bedroom, and/or bathroom. 

9. Get a full time job with benefits or get into a PhD program. 

10. Take guitar or piano lessons. 

11. Get my piano professionally tuned. 

12. Have my whole house clean (closets, attic, and all) all at one time, even if only for a moment. 

13. Teach my puppy a trick. 

14. Get new glasses. 

15. Read a book to Jill. 

16. Go to the Catching Fire midnight premiere in full costume. 

17. Finish a cross-stitch project. 

18. Finish making a sweater. 

19. Make a Disney movie night/Disney trip scrapbook. 

20. Volunteer for a good cause. 

21. Make a perfect lasagna from scratch. 

22. Make a piece of artwork I'm proud of to hang in my house. 

23. Regulate my blood pressure. 

24. Complete a Coursera course. 

25. Go to a cooking class

26. Pay off a credit card or some other form of debt. 

27. Take my car in for regular oil changes. 

28. Have a garage sale. 

29. Write letters to loved ones. 

30. Develop my relationship with God. 

Well, I don't know if all of these are feasible, but I'll keep you updated!

Godspeed.

On This Lovely Bella Notte

Our guests for the evening chose Lady and the Tramp for their Disney dinner.  Since I didn't have much advance notice, this wasn't as elaborate as some, but we still had fun.

Obviously, we had to have spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, and there is no better recipe for spaghetti and meatballs out there than the Pioneer Woman's recipe.  Seriously.  This recipe is amazing.  It's one of two bookmarked pages on my phone (the other is my school's LMS) because I make it frequently enough that I need it handy.  Soon I will have made it enough that I will have it memorized.  We also had cheesy garlic bread, I just mix some garlic in with really soft (but not melted) butter, spread it thickly on sandwich bread, sprinkle on fresh parsley if I have any, and then smother it in cheese.  Mozerella, colby jack, mexican blend, just whatever we have on hand.  It always comes out wonderfully.  Then, because it's just the perfect side for an Italian meal and dad had lots of homegrown tomatoes (yum!), we had a salad with our Tangy Tomato dressing.

This seems like as good a time as any to share the Tangy Tomato recipe.  Now, we call it Tangy Tomato because it's based on the Tangy Tomato dressing at Outback Steakhouse, but I personally like this dressing significantly more than the dressing at Outback.  It's got a nice kick to it that, as my dad says, just really gets your mouth ready for the rest of the meal.

Tangy Tomato Salad Dressing

Ingredients:

2/3 cup ketchup

1/3 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/8 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1 pinch thyme

dash salt

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1. Mix all ingredients excluding olive oil in a medium saucepan.  Slowly whisk in olive oil while bringing to a boil.
2. Upon reaching a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered 5 minutes, whisking the whole time to keep the oil from separating.
3. Cover until cool and refrigerate.

I was always a ranch dressing girl, but this is definitely my new favorite.  I wish I could carry it around with me for use at restaurants!

For dessert we had homemade ice cream with an amazing hot fudge sauce.  I don't actually know the homemade ice cream recipe because my mom has it in her head, and I left it to her.  As far as the hot fudge, this is my brother-in-law's secret recipe, and I was only very recently allowed in on the secret, so I better not share it!

This dessert didn't really have anything to do with the movie, it just sounded delicious.  Frankly, I haven't really watched Lady and the Tramp quite as many times as I've watched most Disney movies, so I was kind of short on ideas.  This was true for an activity and craft as well.  Our guests (two of my Aunt, the Cake Lady's, granddaughters) were also a little bit older than the Bean, so I wasn't sure they would be as in to an activity as the Bean usually is.  So, we didn't have an activity for the night, but we did have a craft planned.

Mom actually already had this and was going to use it as a headband, but we thought we could do necklaces like Lady's collar in the movie.  Mom had a really cool braiding technique, but we couldn't really get anyone interested in the craft, so we just watched the movie instead.

Disney Family had more super cute printables for Lady and the Tramp, and they did not disappoint.

I used the printables I found on this site for Toy Story as well, and I still can't believe how cute they turned out!  I'm sure it uses a lot of ink, but I happen to have a few extra color ink cartridges because I use colored ink so rarely, so I haven't been bothered by that.  They also take some pretty precise cutting, but this is the kind of thing I really enjoy doing.  I don't know if you could tell.

Although I'm not as familiar with the movie, I am a huge fan of the music from Lady in the Tramp. "Bella Notte." "He's a Tramp," and "The Siamese Cat Song" are true Disney greats. Peggy Lee was something else!

We're having so much fun with these Disney movie nights and we've actually already had three more!  I hope you're enjoying reading about them as much as I'm enjoying planning, throwing, and writing about them!

Godspeed!