It’s snowing here. Snow-ing. That never happens, first of all, and if it does happen, it’s gone within the hour. But now, it’s a record breaking dump fest. It’s quite amazing, really. I haven’t seen this much snow fall in an hour in years. The nice thing is that around here, everything shuts down. Sometimes it’s nice living in a wussy region of the country. (more…)

Is here.  Twilight, what have you done to my wife?

I won’t embed it, because I never know what will offend and what won’t, and if that makes me a wussy blogger who’s given up my voice, then so be it.  (FWIW, I don’t find it offensive.)

Some of my favorite lines:

“Couldn’t get enough of those werewolf abs, came home and got mad that I don’t look like that.”

“Twilight, what have you done to my wife? She’s got the hots for teenage boys and thinks it’s all right.”

The snot.  The coughs.  The tears.  The fevers.  The refusal to eat. The propensity to sleep during the day, only to have nighttime be when everybody feels the worst. It has all taken over my life. My girls have been sick lately, (the middle child missing a week of school) and we go in for a throat culture today, since the oldest can’t seem to swallow without mucho pain.  I don’t really want to walk into the doctor’s office, though, since I kind of blame them for giving this to us in the first place (although I have no proof - I just know we were there a couple of weeks ago, pretty much healthy, and now THIS). (more…)

So Heather O. and I are both nominated for a writing award or two- if you feel like taking a peek and voting, have at it. Nothing is at stake except bragging rights- and an ego-boost.

My husband’s work schedule has changed, so I am no longer able to run in the morning with my running group. Losing this precious girl/me time has been difficult, but I’m managing. I joined the Y to try to get extra work-outs in, and as I have no immediate plans for a race, I’m okay not being on top of my game, running wise.

I was talking to a friend about DH’s schedule, and she said, “Wait, does this mean you can’t go running anymore? I have a double stroller you can have, if you want it.”

I told her that 8 year olds don’t exactly fit into double joggers.

She laughed, and then said, “But why don’t you just leave your kids home by themselves, then?”

I thought she was joking. She wasn’t. (more…)

I’m losing my house. It’s been a long, private and painful process coming to terms with it, and I’ve written about it on Dandelion, if you’re interested. Some might scoff in derision, as I, a blogger, use the word “private”, but for as much as I share, there are hours of quiet contemplation and pain before I open up the parts I’ve prepared for consumption. I’m losing my house, and it hurts like hell. But it’s something that is going to happen, no matter how much I wring my heart out.

But like so often happens, that pain is turning into a springboard for the unfolding of an amazing process. (more…)

I can’t decide which one, though. Worst movie, or worst song lyric?

I’m thinking about this game because my son is having a resurgence of a former Star Wars obsession. I thought we had gotten over it, but then the kids in the neighborhood started pulling out lightsabers to fight with, which led to an interest in a Star Wars lightsaber Wii game, which led to the renting of The Return of the Jedi, which led to the renting of second worst movie ever made. (more…)

A year ago Monday, I was doing nothing more than my normal day of grocery shopping and errand running.  When I arrived home I was greeted with a message on my answering machine that said this, “Melissa, I have an extra ticket to the inauguration, can you get here?  Call me back soon!”  This phone call came one day BEFORE the inauguration, so there wasn’t much time to decide (this isn’t a political discussion ladies, bear with me!).  There were SO MANY reasons to say NO – too expensive, not enough time, no child care, DH would have to take off days of work, scared of flying, yadda, yadda, yadda.  But against my nature, because I live in the realm of caution and NO, I said YES!  Or more importantly, my DH said YES, “you are going, the kids will be fine, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, we can pay for it later, there is a flight at 4pm – GO!”  So, 3 hours after that life changing phone call I was on my way to Washington DC – and 24 hours after that, I was sitting in the grandstand behind Steven Spielberg, Leo DiCaprio and Arnold Schwarzenegger, watching the Inauguration of the 44^th President of the United States. (more…)

Even people not named Stella need some help with this from time to time. Come and tell me how you get your groove on at Segullah

I have recently discovered that TNT runs re-runs of “Angel” in the morning, and along with the “Bones” they run in the evening, my DVR is filled with David Boreanaz, and my house is messy, as I waste my time. 

My husband watches “Dollhouse” and it is super clear that Joss Whedon uses all the same actors in all his shows.  I’m good with it.  He’s loyal. And a genius.

Speaking of vampires, I wonder if they think of diabetics as dessert.  You know, if vampires were real. Our blood is more sugary, after all.  (more…)

The snow crunches under her tires as she pulls into the Grandmother’s driveway, and the children are out of their seat-belts before she has turned off the engine. The Grandmother has volunteered to host a supervised visit so her children could see their father, and they are excited. The woman is fishing in her pocket for her keys and watching her footing on the icy walk, as the children tumble ahead, a flurry of boots, scarves and dropped mittens.

The Grandmother flings open the door, and her flushed face and wide eyes show panic as she calls out to the woman over the heads of the boisterous children. “Something’s wrong! Come, I don’t know what… He’s fallen… in the hallway..!” (more…)

I’ve spoken openly about the love I have for my book group.

In a time and place when I felt bleak, worthless, and despondent, my book group, on more than one occasion, saved me from the brink. Not to mention, fed my very limited intellectual soul.

These women, who I would want in my “Red Tent,” are priceless.

I lost one of my book group members last night. Peggy was a charter member of our book group. Seven years ago when we started our Band of Sisters, Peggy, Chris, Mary Ellen, Virginia and Jane all sat in my living room, among others who have fallen by the way. We were fledgling little chicks in the beginning, not knowing what books to read, where to meet, or most importantly, what refreshments we should bring! But we found our way. (more…)

So, Um…This link was sent to me, and I’m curious… so just for your consideration, Here. Let us know what you think. Let’s try to be… open minded? Or at least, um… yeah well. Okay? Okay.

This list was compiled by Chris Sacca, and the links are verified legitimate.
1) Text “HAITI” to “90999″ to donate $10 to the Red Cross — Our friends at the US State Department, including Katie Stanton (@kateatstate), very quickly put together this number to channel relief contributions directly to first responders who will be on the ground there.

2) Text “Yele” to 501501 to donate $5 to Yele Haiti –  Wyclef Jean of the Fugees created this foundation to permanently improve the lives of the most impoverished in his home country of Haiti. Check out more on Yele Haiti.

3) Donate to Partners in Health (click here) — PIH (@pih_org) is already on the ground in Haiti and mobilizing their relief efforts. If you have heard of Paul Farmer, this is the organization he co-founded. Working to provide health care and education to the poorest of Haiti, PIH is the real deal.

4) Donate to Architecture for Humanity (click here) — Cameron Sinclair (@casinclair) and his non-profit Architecture for Humanity (@archforhumanity) can be found at virtually every developing world disaster site on the planet. These guys are a collection of design and housing geniuses who work tirelessly to provide shelter for the most deserving.

5) Donate to charity:water (click here) — charity:water work to bring clean water to the 1 billion people on the planet who don’t have it. Recently, the organization’s founder Scott Harrison traveled to Haiti to commence operations in that country and already thousands of Haitians have clean water to drink. Every dollar of support to C:W goes fully and immediately to work in the field.

*****

There is nothing up yet (9 a.m. Pacific) on the Church website for relief we are marshaling, but I have no doubt there will be soon. Keep the people of Haiti in your prayers- these kinds of disasters hit the poorest people the hardest.

Ok - remember the rules.  The rules are important.

(For the record, I did paint the master bathroom, and I did read the BoM, although only once. Cleaning every day, not so much.) (more…)

It was cold this morning. Very cold. Too cold to go running, and yet I did it anyway. Because I’m crazy. (more…)

It’s like buying the world a Coke, but better. (more…)

I suppose I should have known better. My morning was hellish already, since my soon-to-be-ex-husband disconnected the phone, television and internet without telling me. Try fixing something without a phone or the internet sometime. Just try. It can be done, but it’s a many-hours of difficulty, straining-patience type of thing. But besides that, we had a baptism to go to this morning. At 10 o’clock. In my old ward. The one where the Bishop once explicitly forbade me from even mentioning the word “divorce”. (more…)