Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Dis mah crib

Welcome to my abode, world wide web! Kick off your shoes, grab yourself a Diet Coke from the fridge, and lemme show you around! 
The movers came to pick up the empty boxes today, so we're officially unpacked and moved in! We still have some decorating and furnishing to do, but that will be a process and if I wait until I'm done, I'll never post pictures. So come join me as we tour my house, featuring absolutely terrible photos of a very beautiful house. I am the worst photographer in the history of the world. It's much prettier in real life, so just come on over and I'll give you a real tour! 
Look at that cutie pie house. We love our neighborhood, we live within 5 minutes walking of two different parks, and the mountain views take my breath away every time. 

Come on in through my purple front door!
You walk through the door and see this beautiful staircase, one of my favorite parts of the house!


Here's the entry way, with the door to the left in this picture. The garage is the door on the right. (Oversized 2 car garage! Major upgrade from our tiny-barely-1-car garage in Spokane). Underneath the stairs is the door to the unfinished basement, which is currently full of storage tubs and furniture that doesn't have a place in our new house, and my salon stuff. We would like to finish it eventually, but for now it will be a big play room for Nate's outdoor toys, and hopefully my shampoo sink and hair chair set up down there. 
Anywho, standing in front of the door, the living room is to the right. 
Living room and dining room, both to the right of the stairs. And Abby. 
Dining room 
Coming around the corner from the dining room, here is the kitchen! 
Oh my goodness, I love this kitchen. So much storage! So much counter space! 
Kitchen from the other side. For perspective, the front door is at the end of the hallway, and the stairs are behind the kitchen. 

I somehow didn't quite take a picture of the little eating nook and pantry to the side of the kitchen... so use your imagination. In your imagination, also pretend that Nate's lunch isn't still sitting on the table. But here is the family room across from the kitchen! I have big plans to eventually reface that fireplace and put in built-in cabinets and bookshelves on either side. Someday. 
Love that big window behind the couch, looking out into the backyard. 
We just bought this couch, and I'm in love. And I want to spend my whole life on that chaise. 
 
As soon as we put this TV up, Cary said, "Don't you think that TV looks too small on this wall? We'd better get a bigger one." Typical. 
Down the hall from the living room, there's a little half bath. I went to take a picture of it and found Nate, eating several-hours-old mac and cheese on the floor of the bathroom. I opened the door and he was like, "What? Where do you eat your mac?" Whatever floats your boat, dude. 
Let's go upstairs! 
At the top of the stairs- The master bedroom is in front of you, the laundry room to the right (LOVE having laundry upstairs!) and a second bedroom is to your right. I don't have any pictures of the second bedroom because my little brother is currently living there and it's not quite photo ready.... But it's a pretty little guest room and it's waiting for you!
Master bedroom! Having a master that's bigger than our bed is so exciting! We need some more furniture and decorations for this room, but moving is expensive, man. 
Big window in the master, looking out into the backyard. Also, I wandered out of of the shower the other day and didn't realize that the curtains were open and I'm pretty sure I made eye contact with our backyard neighbor who was out on the porch. Howdy, neighbor! Yikes.  
We have never had  TV in our room before and I'm a little worried about my self control. I want to lay in bed and watch trashy TV until my eyes fall out of my head.  
Entry to the master bathroom, walk in closet on the right, regular closet on the left. Our old house had the TINIEST closet of all time, and I am giddy about all of this closet space. 
Master vanity. Needs a paint job, but it's nice!
 
Tub and shower. I don't love the shower, but it works. Maybe we'll update it someday. 
Okay, so you walk out of the master and you see Nate's room on the left, a linen closet, the second full bath, and a 4th bedroom that is currently our office on the right. 
Nate's room. I thought we would fix it up like a "big boy" room instead of like his nursery, but I just couldn't do it. I'm not ready to have a big boy. He can stay my baby for a little bit more. (Even though he turns TWO next week. WHAT.)
 
Nice big closets in every room. 
I want him to stay in a crib forever. Thinking of switching him into a toddler bed gives me cold sweats. 
Guest/Nate's bathroom. I want to eventually update it, but it does the job for now. 
Tub/shower 
As a fitting conclusion to this photo tour, here is a terrible picture of our office. Definitely in need of some organization, but I'm burned out, man. 

We love our house! I still can't believe we really live here in Colorado Springs. Pinch me! Every store and restaurant I could ever want is within 15 minutes of me, there are beautiful and fun parks everywhere, Cary has a 15 minute commute to work, my family is just over an hour away, I adore our house and our neighborhood- is this real life?? Am I dreaming?? 

Come visit! Our guest room is waiting! 

Friday, October 14, 2016

Important things. And other things.

Oy, it has been ages since I posted in ye olde blogge. It is only appropriate that I mark my return to the blogosphere with a matter of most import and interest to the people of the internet.

But this will have to do.

Here are some things:

I think I have dementia. This is me every single time I make popcorn in the microwave:
Step 1: Put popcorn in microwave
Step 2: Walk away
Step 3: Hear popping noises and shout "OH CRAP SOMETHING IS EXPLODING!"
Step 4: Realize it is my popcorn, which is in fact, designed to explode.
Step 5: Walk away again
Step 6: Allow the smell of burnt popcorn to slowly fill my nostrils as I notice with vague interest, "Something is burning."
Step 7: Rush across the house, remove burnt popcorn from the microwave and repeat steps 1-6 with a new bag of popcorn.
Step 8: Eat burnt popcorn and feel sad at both the popcorn's grossness and the atrophy of my brain cells.
What does this say about the sad state of my attention span? How can I not stay engaged in the simple process of popping popcorn, and yet I can watch every second of any episode of reality TV with complete rapture? I am disgusted with myself and yet the only way I see this situation changing is for the microwave industry to make a popcorn button that actually works. These are the issues, people.

This morning, I made a smoothie with some spinach. Nate absolutely demanded a piece of spinach, and I obliged. He took a bite, made a disapproving face, and then gave it back to me saying, "Leaf?" His tone conveyed so much- why are we eating leaves? Don't you know that they've invented nachos and ice cream?

You may be thinking to yourself, this blog was a waste of a click. But I have been saving an important present for you. I am about the share with you some very exclusive pictures from our vacation to Punta Cana. I didn't want to post these pictures on Instagram- I needed people to work for them.

Let me tell you a tale. One time Cary and I went scuba diving in Punta Cana. There was a photographer there who took pictures of us underwater. After we dove, we were all hanging out on the beach. The photographer was walking around, and asked if we wanted him to snap a shot of us. We said sure! It is important to note that this conversation was in Spanish, and my spanish is limited to directions to the train and there are lots of books in the library type conversations.

So the photographer takes a picture of us on the beach:
Hooray. We are on the beach. Gracias por el photo! Adios!

But. The photographer had different ideas! And rather than try to explain that we just wanted one picture, we decided to just pose for his pictures quick and then move on. Let's take a jumping one!

 Ohp. Apparently what we heard was "Let's take one where it looks like you're pooping on the beach!"
 Hey we did it! Okay, time to be done. No, one more? Okay.
 Uh-oh. More beach pooping. Let's try a different angle.
 Much better. Now it looks like you're pooping directly into the ocean. At this point, I really tried to communicate that we had plenty of pictures and we're ready for him to move on. But he just wanted to get one more shot! He told us to lay down on our stomachs on the beach. I knew this was going to be terrible. And then. He said. "Encima" And I said "Huh?" And he said, "Encima!" And I said "What???" And Cary said, "I think he wants you to lay on top of me." And I laughed and said "HA! Like this??" And in my split second of laughing at this ridiculous request, the photographer snapped what is absolutely the most horrifying picture of me that has ever been taken:
I look like a whale that has breached herself onto a very sad and unfortunate Cary, who is extremely displeased to find himself in such a situation. You can see his eyes, begging for someone to save him. At this point I jumped up and said "No mas! No mas!!!" And the photographer finally left. And now we have these precious snapshots to forever remind us that we are pasty white weirdos who should vacation indoors, with plenty of clothing on. And that our futures are not in modeling.

You see, if I waited until I had something profound and meaningful to say before I blogged again, I think we would wait forever.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Lazy hair don't care

This is probably my most random blog post of all time. But I've had a lot of people ask me about dry shampoo lately, and I wanted to share my ultimate lazy and cheap hair hack. I'm a girl who likes to look good, but is also extremely lazy. I also have dry and damaged hair from constant heat styling and coloring abuse (sorry hair), so I usually only wash my hair 2-3 times per week. Don't worry, I shower every day, I just don't wash my hair! My husband finds this absolutely disgusting, but he's not the boss of my life. Anywho. On days that my hair isn't being washed, it's limp and greasy and it is not cute. Enter:

.... drum roll.. 

Baby powder. 


I know, you are skeptical. Everyone I have talked to about this says either they've tried it and it didn't work, or it sounds weird. And maybe my hair is just weird too, but this trick saves my butt often so I'm showing you how I do it! 
 This is what my hair looked like this morning. Greeeeasy, limp. Ew.
 Yup. You could grease a frying pan with my head.  Alright, time to get started- I would do this before getting dressed, to avoid a baby powder-y shirt situation. In these really lovely photos, I have a towel over my shoulders. 
 Step 1: Sprinkle on some baby powder. I like to use the little travel sized baby powder because it is a lot easier to control how much you're putting on and how fast it comes out. It's important to put on enough baby powder to absorb the grease, but not so much that your hair turns white. A little bit of trial and error here to figure exactly how much refreshes your hair but doesn't make you look like a little old lady that smells like a baby. By the way, I've done this with both brown hair and blonde hair, and if you do it right, your hair doesn't look white. 
 Step 2: Make this super weird face and flip your hair all over and continue sprinkling baby powder right at the root. I focus the baby powder on the top of my head and right around my face. Part your hair in several different spots and sprinkle it on in. 
 Step 3: Rub it in! This part is so important! Take your finger tips and really rub the baby powder into your scalp. Give yourself a nice head massage. Focus again on your part and hairline and rub rub rub!
 This is what my hair looks like post massage. Still looking a bit like a little old lady. Don't worry- we're about to fix that. 
 Step 4: Bust out your blow dryer! For just a couple of minutes, blow dry your hair while still massaging and rubbing in the baby powder. Flip your head upside down and rub in the baby powder at the scalp while blow drying. This serves two purposes- it helps blow out the excess baby powder, and it helps restore some volume and shape into your hair. I usually grab a paddle brush or round brush and smooth the top just a bit. 

 Step 5: Sometimes my hair is a bit staticky after this whole routine- I like to use just a bit of styling oil, rub it into a very thin layer on my hands and just smooth the fly aways down a bit. 


And you're done! And your hair looks great, isn't white, and Cary can bite me because he never even notices that I didn't wash my hair that day! With the blow drying, I never notice that my hair smells like baby powder. This is also great for putting your hair up and helps give you some volume. 

With this goofball always at my ankles, I am all about quick little tips that make my life easier- and baby powder dry shampoo is the difference between greasy ponytails and cute hair, and in less than 5 minutes!
I'm already sad I cut his widdle baby hair. 

Let me know if you try this!