Kitty Deschanel

Alternate title idea? Finally Ready for Thanksgiving! (Yeah, I'm a bit behind.) Guest Bedroom #1 - remember how it looked before? I sweat the bedding didn't look this wrinkly in real life! The new flooring makes such a difference. The last time I shared photos of our house before Thanksgiving , it was a disaster. I told Sexy Nerd before our guests arrived that we should iron this tablecloth. "It will be easy," I said, planning to iron it right on the table. His response? "Nah. I don't see any wrinkles." Tom Turkey, our official guest bedroom ambassador. Light makes his wings and head move. Most amazing of all? He was ONE DOLLAR! Can you believe this amazing time we live in? Guests could find our wi-fi info on the card.   And a Cheryl's cookie on the pillow! Have you seen these Oliver plates from CB2? So cute. The guest bathroom, complete with cleverly placed mirrors. Did I have you fooled? G

I found a great deal on Groupon for our recent visit to Salt Lake City. For about $30 per person, it included admission to 12 attractions, including the Clark Planetarium, Red Butte Garden, Hogle Zoo, and the Tracy Aviary, as well as a tasty lunch at The Lion House Pantry Restaurant. One of the activities we redeemed was for tickets to an educational IMAX movie. There were many options to choose from and, knowing my Sexy Nerd, I was surely going to end up watching Hidden Universe 3D (the most educational-looking one of all.) Imagine my surprise when he wanted to see Island of Lemurs, suggesting it with so much out-of-character enthusiasm that I at first thought he was being a sarcastic punk. We received our tickets, picked our seats, and waited for the movie to begin. "You're not just watching this because you know I'll like it, are you?" I asked. "No," Sexy Nerd assured me, smiling. "I love lemurs! Who doesn't love lemurs?" The lights

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.

(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!)

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

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

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

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

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!

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