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Best Halloween Costume Ever

Happy Halloween! I'm super boring this year, with no costume, no decorations, and (gasp!) no candy. Here's a throwback Halloween post from a few years ago.

 Until 6th grade, I was a cat every year. I finally switched things up when I saw a picnic table costume in an American Girl magazine. That's right. For Halloween, I went trick-or-treating as a picnic table, complete with paper plates and baggies of chips hot glued on.

Wanting to outdo myself, the next year I was a mama cat trying to sell her babies. Sure, it sounds horrible now, but I remember it looking so cute in that 1997 American Girl magazine.

I'm pleased to declare that 2012 was the year of my Best Costume Ever! Unbeknownst to her ahead of time, I went as my Halloween-loving coworker, Marie, complete with blond wig and her stolen name tag. It must have been meant to be, because she came in wearing the exact same pair of Halloween socks, purely by coincidence!

Now I just need to figure out a way to top this next year. And don't get any funny ideas, Marie. I'll be taking my name tag home with me before next Halloween!

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Chemical Peel Before & After

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This article has been updated! My new chemical peel post, which includes pricing, Jessner peel before and after photos, product recommendations, and a helpful timeline for scheduling your treatments, is at the bottom. My original Jessner peel post (one of the most popular on my site of all time) is at the beginning. Chemical Peel Before & After Since posting my chemical peel photos, detailing the stages of the process, and writing my chemical peel blog review back in 2013, I've had quite a few Jessner peels (my favorite) and TCA peels. However, I've saved a ton of money over the past 6 months by doing my own chemical peels at home.  At my last professional peel, I made a note of the product being used and did some research when I got home. I was able to buy the exact same one,  Dermalure Jessner Solution Acid Peel 14% , from Amazon for less than the cost of a single peel.  (2/23/19 Update: I've switched to  Dermalure 30% TCA Peel  for my at-home treatments.
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Amerisleep Mattress Reviews (8 Year Update!)

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  Updated 5/9/20 Best  Amerisleep  Coupon :   1. Save $250 on Any Size Mattress with Promo Code KITTY 2. Save 30% + Extra $50 Off with Promo Code AS30 (exclusively through this link) ***All Promo Codes Include Free Shipping Both Ways*** Amerisleep Mattress Reviews  We've been happy Amerisleep customers since purchasing our first AS3 mattress more than 8 years ago. With  chronic insomnia  (yes, even as a baby - my family insists I was a nightmare), the struggle to improve my sleep is my life. My husband, the overly-analytical mechanical engineer, was initially skeptical of a mail-order mattress, but he was quickly won over. What you'll find in this  Amerisleep Mattress Reviews  blog post (in order): Amerisleep Promo Code (above) Amerisleep VS Tempurpedic: The Iconic Wine Glass Test Choosing Between the AS2, AS3, and AS4 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Mattress Longevity: The Level Test   (featuring cute
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Flooring Ideas

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Ever since we purchased our 13.1 acre (gotta get credit for that extra 0.1 acre!) lot outside of Albuquerque last year, Sexy Nerd and I have devoted most of our free time to planning our mountain dream home. We cannot make a decision about a nything . At this point, it seems our best option would be to build a row of townhomes , each in a completely different style. On Monday, we would live in our colorful Victorian home, and later in the week we could switch things up in our ultra-contemporary, all concrete house. Since I can't imagine our neighborhood HOA (or our budget) ever allowing such a thing, we really do need to narrow down our list of ideas. Flooring is a tough choice. In our current home, we have premium laminate flooring. It stands up well against our rambunctious dogs, but is easily damaged if you unknowingly drip water onto it and let it sit, like by the dog's water bowl and the dishwasher.  We also have real wood flooring on our stairs and our bedro
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Our Dream Home

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We've finally broken ground on our dream home ! Can you believe it? (You can follow our construction progress here , along with lots of construction drama - the neighbors building their fence on our property, discovering we'd placed our house on a bunch of expensive rocks, our concrete footings being destroyed by a freak hail storm, etc.) Even more surprising than finally building the house we've dreamed of for years, we actually managed to work a good chunk of our ridiculous wish list into the actual design. *Update* Construction is finished! It took longer than expected and cost more too (that's how construction works, right?), but we are finally living in our mountain dream home and it's even better than I'd hoped! Here is a photo of our new kitchen and living room.  Our Dream Home Believe it or not, our budget was meager. Really! My husband built the coffee table from an olive trunk and did the thin brick backsplash himself. Eventually, he's
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My Instant Pot Explosion!

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Like many new Instant Pot owners, I've wondered, How many Instant Pots have exploded?  (Eeek!) I'm happy to report that my research on Snopes and other sites has shown that these do not explode, at least not when used properly. There is a lawsuit between a woman in Texas and the Instant Pot manufacturer, but she admits she had thrown a towel over the steam vent. Do NOT do this.  Still concerned? Consider that on Prime Day of 2018, Amazon sold more than 300,000 Instant Pots. That's more than a quarter of a million sales in only 1 day! If these things were not safe, you would see news stories every day about someone being injured. Still, things can go wrong. We love our Instant Pot, the digital pressure cooker that seems to suddenly be in every home. You can't mess up - just throw in random ingredients and you'll get something yummy every time. It's foolproof. At least, that's how I used to feel about our Instant Pot, until the explosion... Inst
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Cake Mix Pancakes

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When making Cake Mix pancakes , the scrumptious possibilities are endless. Red Velvet cake mix pancakes. Chocolate cake mix pancakes. Butter Pecan cake mix pancakes. Funfetti cake mix pancakes. (Yes, Funfetti cake mix pancakes!) With this 2-ingredient recipe, you can turn your favorite cake mix into your favorite pancakes. Cake Mix Pancakes Personally, I think my funny napkin is the icing on the (pan)cake. It's Sunday morning and you're planning to do all the things today - scrub those grody baseboards, polish your quartz countertop that was supposed to be low maintenance but actually isn't at all, sort through the disaster that is the freezer.  While on your superhuman kick, you think I'm going to make my family pancakes for breakfast. Not just any pancakes - the best pancakes ever. I may even serve them as breakfast in bed! Yeah, you're awesome sauce.  But oh no! You're out of eggs. No pancakes today, right? I was once like you (minus
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10 Canned Cinnamon Roll Hacks

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You're in for a treat. Today I'm sharing my best canned cinnamon roll hacks and improvements for turning store-bought cinnamon rolls, like the Pillsbury Grands ones or even the store brand, into something special.  Dry cinnamon rolls? No thank you. They need to be OOEY and GOOEY. That's just Cinnamon Roll 101. All of these ideas make Pillsbury canned cinnamon rolls company-worthy and delicious. These are also great for taking homemade cinnamon rolls up a notch, but what a pain that is. With these better-than-homemade canned cinnamon roll hacks, you'll never bother to bake them from scratch again. Test out some of these ideas tomorrow. Won't it be nice to dig into a mouthwatering cinnamon roll for breakfast? You can't get a better start to your day than that. Canned Cinnamon Roll Hacks Hack #1:  Always cover your pan. For some reason, the directions almost never say to bake your cinnamon rolls covered. This is the secret to soft, doughy rolls like at C
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Hello Fresh (Complaints)

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Update Since posting my Hello Fresh complaints yesterday, here is a message I have received: "I did order from HelloFresh previously and was not charged what I was originally told (or thought I was told). Also, the food from them was anything but fresh and they refused to do a refund, only doing credit - even for the overcharges! So basically I ended up being out of money thanks to them." Original Post Hello, my bloggy friends. I have a HelloFresh complaint and believe they are pulling a scam. Yours truly came *this close* to falling for it.  Maybe scam is too harsh of a word. Sneaky? You can decide for yourself. Hello Fresh Why I Think Hello Fresh is Dishonest/Misleading: An ad from HelloFresh appeared in my Facebook feed. (I'll post it here if it appears again. I keep scrolling and scrolling, searching so you can see it.) The offer sounded too good to be true, so I read through the comments.  People were asking questions and the ad moderator was reply
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Moderna VS Pfizer: All You Can Do Is Laugh

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I received my second COVID vaccine on January 25th. It went much better than my first dose . ( Read all about it here. ) In New Mexico, we were randomly assigned a vaccination site with no input on which brand vaccine we were receiving. After being vaccinated the first time, it was revealed that I'd received the Pfizer.  It's not a big deal - I'd happily sign up for either brand just to get closer to a post-COVID world. (Come to think of it, that's exactly what I did.) Still, it seems I lucked out by receiving the Pfizer.  Moderna VS Pfizer This is just anecdotal evidence, so feel free to roll your eyes at me, but everyone I know who received the Pfizer vaccine has been perfectly fine after both doses and everyone I know who received the Moderna vaccine has gotten sick after one of the doses.  It's merely anecdotal...except I'm in the healthcare field, so I'm basing this on lots of people, including dentists and pharmacists. I follow a professional message b
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Grilled Stuffed Burrito

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SN will be quick to tell you that there are pros and cons of being married to a blogger. This Copycat   Taco Bell Grilled Stuffed Burrito recipe  (courtesy of an actual Taco Bell employee) is a perfect example. I know I'm getting my fast food chains mixed up here, but let's supersize it and make ours XXL! On the plus side, I love to cook up tasty new foods to post on my blog. He never seems to mind this part. Can we make Grilled Stuffed Burritos at home? Sure, why not. Taco Bell Grilled Stuffed Burrito Copycat (Waaay better than the fast food version - healthier, less expensive, and you don't risk ticking off the drive-thru girl.) On the other hand, I may occasionally give my husband something tasty to eat, like a hot-off-the-grill burrito... ...and then steal it away before he can take a bite.  Hey, I have to get photos for my blog, right?   SN should have known better than to try to eat his burrito before I was finished. Don't feel too b
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