If you follow me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, you may have noticed that I was a little quieter over the last few days than usual. It’s because of sheer exhaustion.
You guys just don’t even know. My house wants me to be crazy.
Last night, I got my first good night’s sleep in about four days. Because my house thinks it’s funny.
It started Saturday night, at around midnight. A lone chirp. Something electronic. I waited for it to sound off again, but heard nothing, so I closed my eyes and drifted off.
*CHIRP*
Twenty minutes have passed, and I’m woken by the sound again. Again, I wait. Again, nothing.
*CHIRP*
It’s been another 20 minutes or so, and I’ve just dozed off for the third time. This time, I get up and investigate. We have two carbon monoxide detectors, one upstairs and one downstairs, and a smoke detector downstairs. Our home is an open floor plan, with the entire upstairs opening over the rest of the house, so the one smoke detector works for everything. I checked them all. I waited beside each one for the chirp, and yet, each time it sounded, every 20 minutes, it wasn’t any of the detectors. Yes, I sat around for an hour, moving from detector to detector, from 12:30am until 1:30 am, trying to find the source of the chirp.
Nothing.
I gave up and went to bed. I slept fitfully all night as the incessant chirping interrupted my dreams.
The next morning, I vowed to find it. Except IT NEVER MADE A PEEP ALL DAY. Not one. So you can imagine the frustration I felt when I heard a lone chirp at 11:30 that night, as I try to drift off to sleep.
No. This can’t be happening.
*CHIRP*
I decided to involve the Hubster. We searched and searched and found nothing. We finally pulled all the detectors from the walls, and deactivated the batteries.
*CHIRP*
Are you even serious right now?! Is this real life? It can’t be. I’m Phoebe on Friends, and I’ve crushed my smoke detector with a shoe and it’s still beeping.
*CHIRP*
The Hubster is unfazed and goes back to sleep. I lay in bed with the blankets pulled up to my chin, mumbling, and twitching with each chirp.
*CHIRP*
The next day, through my exhaustion, I notice….NO CHIRPING. Again. My house hates me. It hates me because, again, the chirping is nonexistent all day, and yet it begins again at around midnight that night. I got up and carried all of the detectors out to the garage and buried them in the laundry.
I was desperate. I didn’t even care about our safety.
I tucked myself back into bed, snuggled down, took a deep sigh of relief, and …
*CHIRP*
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I stood outside my bedroom, on the landing overlooking our living room, leaning on the railing, on the verge of tears, desperate to find the source.
*CHIRP*
I drop my arms, throw my head back, and…
I FOUND IT!
High on the ceiling, at the peak of the room, was another smoke detector. Stupidest place for a smoke detector EVER, but whatever.
One ladder, a twist, a removed battery, and a little maniacal giggling later, I triumphantly went to bed and slept the rest of the night.
Dear smoke detector maker people, TWENTY MINUTES BETWEEN CHIRPS IS NOT A GOOD WAY TO TELL SOMEONE THAT THE BATTERY IS DEAD. It is, however, a quick road to insanity. The end.
Okay, now, about this recipe…I know it’s officially spring, as of today, and all that, but it’s, like, the yuckiest weather ever here today. And it was yesterday, too. And the two days before that, it wasn’t yucky, but it was co-oooold. I think, then, that hot cocoa, spiced up with some cinnamon, is really the perfect thing for me to welcome spring with. Sorry, warm weather people, but you get warm weather, so…yeah. We’re even. 
Still have snow? Toes freezing in the wind? Yucky rain pouring down? This drink is for you. Some fresh whipped cream or fluffy marshmallows, a dusting of cinnamon, and some chocolate sprinkles top this cocoa off perfectly. 
Enjoy!
Cinnamon-Almond Hot Cocoa
Makes 4 8-ounce servings
Ingredients
4 cups milk (or 3 cups milk and 1 cup half and half or heavy cream, for a creamier drink) (soy, almond, or other NDB for vegan/dairy free)
4 heaping tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
4 heaping tablespoons sugar
4 scant tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips (vegan is available)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (or more, to taste)
1 teaspoon vanilla (or other extract of your choice)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (or more, to taste)
Pour milk (and half and half or cream, if using) in a bowl and warm in the microwave for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes (optional).
Transfer milk to small saucepan over medium heat and whisk in cocoa, sugar, chocolate chips, cinnamon, vanilla, and almond extracts. Continue cooking over medium heat, whisking almost constantly, until it just barely begins to lightly boil, about 10 minutes; remove from heat.
Transfer to a fun mug, top with marshmallows or whipped cream, and any other yummy treats you want. Serve hot.
Recipe by Darla
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Silly Oregon, welcoming spring with the classic Oregonian rain.
I feel your pan. We had the same exact thing happen to us a few months ago. We have about 5 or 6 smoke detectors in the house and didn’t have the patience to figure out which one was causing the chirping, so we changed the batteries in all of them. Then we heard the chirping AGAIN the next night! ARGH! Hope you get some well-deserved sleep soon.
We had a beep, every 40 seconds, almost constantly for several months, and we could not work out where it was coming from… I was convinced the sound was coming from somewhere in the bathroom, and when I removed the side I found a dying smoke alarm that a previous tennant had put under there. I was NOT impressed!
Silly beeps…
Helen x
Those chirps seem designed to drive people absolutely crazy!
This hot cocoa sounds absolutely comforting though. Beautiful photos!
This is one amazing sounding hot cocoa
This looks amazing! Totally fits in with my almond milk kick lately!
I really hate smoke detectors. I was the first out of my roommates to come back to school after winter break, and what do I come back to? chirping! It was the most annoying thing ever! Luckily the busted smoke detector was in the hallway because if it were in one of my roommates rooms I probably would have gone insane since none of them came back until two days after I did.
Delicious looking hot chocolate!
I feel you on the smoke alarms! My desperation one looooong night came from one of my sons toys the kind that you push buttons on the sides to hear alarms, beeps, emergency sirens, you get the picture? It was crushed on the bottom of the toy box and the battery was running low so it was almost a creepy sound. Anyway after being up all night for several nights (only came on after kids put heavier toys in box at night) I finally found it and did what any “sane” mother would do…..I threw it outside. Oooops! Anyway this cocoa looks so yummy will be on my to drink list this weekend love anything with almonds! Thanks for sharing.
That happened to me about 2 weeks ago, My husband had left for work already and I heard that awful chirp myself and since he wasn’t around, after figuring out which alarm it was, I had to get up on a chair and beat it down. Then I beat it some more to crack it open to get the still chirping batteries out. My poor dog was shaking like a leaf and we were all tired on a school morning!
I hope your lovely looking rich cocoa was enough to soothe you!
Hearing random chirps? Been there! SO aggravating, right! Recipe looks great.
Why is it that our husbands can sleep through that crazy annoying chirp? We had one and I couldn’t get the thing to stop even after removing the battery…I thought I was going nuts!!! I love that you celebrated Spring with a big cup of cocoa…it sounds amazing!!!
Sweeeet!…and delicious, so so delicious!
Hot cocoa is one of my weakness.
xoxo
G.
I thought it was really funny that right after I read this we had the same thing happen to us! I must have been sleeping like a log because the first 2 nights I didn’t hear it but my husband did. He dismantled 2 alarms that he thought were causing it and like your’s, it only happened at night. The 3rd night he konked out from sheer exhaustion but I kept hearing it. Turns out there was a fire alarm directly above our headboard and that was the culprit. How we missed that one I have no idea!
I had told my husband about what you wrote (this was before ours started) and he said it’s dumb that the alarm chirps, these companies really should make them so they hum or something so people can easily figure out which one needs new batteries.
Right there with the detector. Only this time, it wasn’t mine, it was my grandmother’s. Her carbon monoxide detector started spazzing at about 3 am. She dismantled it and had someone from her apartment maintenance fix it the next day (which happened to be a Saturday, but she seems to be able to make people do things for her). Cocoa sounds awesome; chocolate, cinnamon, caramel. . .three of my favorite things! ^-^
Oops, no caramel in this one. It is, however 1.30 am here in New England, and my little boy’s been up half the night sick. Maybe, possibly not really here right now. . .