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Sprin...errrr...Fall Cleaning

Sexy Nerd and I actually cleaned our house last week. It has been said that our home cleanliness standards are "below average", which I would take offense to, except that it's 100% accurate. (Also, we're the two people who have been going around saying this. We have no shame.) What do you do after cleaning your house from top to bottom? You take photos and document it, of course! From now on, whenever I'm feeling down about the dishes piled on the counter or the muddy paw prints across the floor, I'll just look at these photos. Sooo much easier than cleaning again. We removed about two dogs worth of Pica hair from beneath our kitchen island. If I were craftier, I could stuff a set of throw pillows. Note the fresh roses on the island. Damn, we're fancy. Do not note the giant wooden giraffe, whose head is chopped off by the dining room light fixture and who is not fancy.

How to Make a Pumpkin Latte

(A recipe for lazy people.) Have you noticed every blog has posted a Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Latte copycat recipe lately? This one is different. I promise! It's so good that I've been making a regular one with my breakfast each day and another decaf pumpkin latte every evening. At work, I shared the recipe with two patients last week! When those pumpkin latte recipes started popping up, I couldn't wait to try them. They all had the same problem though - too much time and effort. Ummm, I want a pumpkin spice latte recipe that I can actually pull off before work in the morning, when my brain is still mostly asleep. Have you seen what some of these other recipe creators expect you to do? Boil down 3 cups of sugar until you have a simple (yeah right) syrup, shave fresh cinnamon from the stick you got from the farmer's market this morning, and have a unicorn spit into the mixture. Who has time for all that? Easy Pumpkin Spice Latte Recipe (for LAZY people!)

Crock Pot Apple Cider Recipe

I looove hot apple cider! It's so easy to make, it makes your house smell amazing, and it seems fancy if you serve it to company, especially in a charming mug with a cinnamon stick. This is wonderful to drink in cold weather, which makes it perfect in our house, which I keep at a brisk 60 degrees during the winter. (Sexy Nerd adores  60 degrees - our agreement used to be 50!) I make this every time Sexy Nerd puts up our Christmas lights. He's starting early this year. It seems a bit unfair to Thanksgiving, but here we are. Our $5 Crock Pot is working hard! The Best Slow Cooker Hot Apple Cider Recipe (approximately 8 servings) Make a simple syrup by bringing 1/8 C water and a 1/4 C sugar to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and add 1/8 tsp each of allspice, cinnamon, and ginger . Whisk well and let simmer for 5 minutes before removing from heat. In a separate pan, bring the following to a boil: 2 C water , 1 can frozen apple juice , 1 cinnamon stick , 9 allspi

15 Decorating Tips from the Summit County Parade of Homes

A beloved annual tradition of ours is an autumn drive from Albuquerque, past golden leaves and through winding hillsides, to Breckenridge, Colorado to view the stunning dream homes on display during the Summit County Parade of Homes.  This year, there were so many great ideas for when we build our dream home (this spring, I hope!) that they couldn't possibly all fit into just 1 post. Be sure to check out the second post,  10 Decorating Ideas for your Modern Mountain Home . Bonus tip? Build your home on a lake! Can you imagine seeing this from your kitchen window? *swoon* Tip 1: For a grand, stately first impression, two front doors are better than one. Tip 2: If you can see the ceiling of your covered patio from inside, continue it in the same style for a seamless indoor-outdoor vibe. Tip 3: Sliding barn doors are in. Waaay in. Almost every house had at least one. Some were small... ...and some were huge. I really had to muster my strength to push this

What Is Wrong With People?! And a Giveaway

It's a beautiful day for a Del Taco gift card giveaway! What can you get at Del Taco? Oh, I don't know. Maybe a taco. Maybe a burrito or a breakfast sandwich. Or, just maybe, the yummiest (and actually somewhat healthy, if you can believe it!) fast food item ever, the new Del Taco Fresca Bowl. There are 3 Del Taco Fresca Bowl varieties to choose from: Southwest Chicken & Veggie, Pollo Asado, and Fire Roasted Veggie. Each is only $4 and there are coupons available to make them an even better value. There's a free drink coupon available through the Del Taco email club, an online instant win game , which is pretty much impossible to lose, and the Del Taco Facebook page. I even received another coupon for $1 off my next purchase with my receipt. But before I continue any further, take a look at this:   Bah! At my most recent Del Taco visit, it was about 1pm on a weekday and I was on my lunch break from work. The perfect time to be out in public IN YOUR PAJAMA

Anyone Home?

I'm here! I'm here! Apparently though, I'm jinxed. On Friday, I was going to post to LambAround at work during my lunch break. Our internet went down. No biggie, I thought. We were driving to Colorado in a few hours and I would just post when I arrived at my in-laws house in Buena Vista. Their internet was down too! Forever the optimist, I shrugged and said I would post when we got back home on Monday afternoon. Things were looking up. We spent the morning hiking Black Canyon of the Gunnison with perfect, gorgeous weather. Then, this happened: What part of IT'S FREAKING SEPTEMBER!!! don't you understand, Colorado? Our poor Chevy Volt was a trooper, but it just couldn't make it over the snow-packed mountains between Ouray and Durango. If your car slides off the icy road, it's usually an annoyance. If it slides off the road of that particular mountain pass, you plummet to a terrifying death! We turned around. 400+ miles out of our way and a day late

Leisure Suit Larry

Do you remember the raunchy 90s computer game, Leisure Suit Larry? He's real! I met him just the other day. Even though it's the year 2014, Larry hasn't changed a bit. He came into our pediatric dental office and he never took off his yellow (YELLOW!) aviator sunglasses, even though we were indoors, and he was constantly talking on one of those little headset thingies, even when he was talking to me, and he made sure everyone in our waiting room could hear his conversation. Apparently, he's a major player with lots of wheeling and dealing going on. There was no need to speak so loudly though. With his gold watch, polyester suit, gelled hair, and cologne that filled the room, there was no chance of possibly missing him. No one else at my office had ever heard of the Leisure Suit Larry game. It killed me!

Nuclear Nonsense

It's Thursday and I still haven't posted anything. My idiopathic insomnia is out to get me this week and I feel like I can barely even type this coherently. The past 2 weeks I've gotten a total of...22 hours of interrupted sleep? Maybe 23, if I round up. This calls for a classic blog post (sounds so much nicer than rerun, right?) ***** Remember Nuke the baby? ( Click here if you missed it )(Ooh, and click if you didn't read the comments! There are some hilarious ones!) Sadly, Sexy Nerd's nuclear weapon obsession doesn't end with our imaginary baby. What is it with guys and weapons? He came home from work the other day completely psyched up about the cool models he'd purchased. Carefully, he peeled back a layer of bubble wrap and displayed, quite proudly, what looked like a paper towel roll that someone had attached bits of paper to and spray painted silver (okay, maybe not quite like that, but pretty darn close!) "It's an actual model of

Puffy

After my crown lengthening surgery on Thursday morning, I went straight home to rest in bed with an ice pack over my sliced and diced mouth. When the ice pack provided by the dental office began to warm, I replaced it with a bag of frozen corn. 20 minutes on. 20 minutes off. In other words, I was a model patient. Immediately after the procedure, I expected that I'd be a bloody, disfigured mess, unfit to be seen by anyone other than the very bravest people. Actually though, I looked almost normal, with the exception of my fancy new teeth - an improvement. I was pleasantly surprised! Sexy Nerd came home from work several hours later. Excited to show off my beautiful new smile, I asked him how I looked.  Him: You look pretty good, considering.  Me: Considering they hacked off the bone and gum from 6 teeth?  Him: Considering all the gauze stuffed in your mouth.  Me, with what I'm sure was a look of complete horror: There's no gauze. In the 10+ years we've been

No Sleep. No Sleep. No Sleep.

The last several weekends, Sexy Nerd and I have been getting ideas for our new house at the Colorado Springs Parade of Homes and the Denver Parade of Homes. This meant several nights in hotels, away from our beloved Amerisleep Liberty Bed . We almost always stay at Marriott hotels, which you would expect to be pretty nice, right? WRONG! I mean, they were fine, except for their terrible mattresses. In Colorado Springs, Sexy Nerd actually texted an entire complaint to Marriott at 3 am because our mattress, affectionately referred to as "The Taco", was so uncomfortable. When he came back to bed, he tried to get all snuggly with me, which is 100% THE WORST THING EVER to do to someone with idiopathic insomnia . I had finally just barely fallen asleep and he woke me up. His reason? According to Sexy Nerd, when he laid down on his side of the bed, I rolled over to snuggle with him , so he assumed I was still awake. It was the taco mattress! It flipped me! This Marriott mat

Decorating Inspiration from the Parade of Homes

Sexy Nerd and I spent last weekend gallivanting all over Colorado Springs. Seriously all over. I may not have planned the most efficient Parade of Homes route. Who knew Colorado Springs was such a big place? I just expected it to be similar to driving around here in Albuquerque! With many homes priced above 1 million dollars, there were so many great decorating ideas. Here are a few of my favorites: Everyone loves a square dining nook.  I'm still not certain what the material on the fireplace was. It looked similar to wood, but I think it was tile. Perhaps it was wood tile . From the doorway, all you could see was a beautiful, tidy window seat. With the bookcase tucked to the side, only the bedroom inhabitant sees if the shelves are a disaster. Genius! This was one of our favorite home exteriors. I love the idea of building a home that frames a great view right from the moment you walk in.   I need a bright yellow front door! Mine will be lacquered.