• Best Thing Ever,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Travels

    Go Solo, Go! (Just Go.)

    Last week while in Columbus I was enjoying dinner with some new friends and one said, “Melisa, I think it’s so great that you and your husband travel alone sometimes.” Naturally, I agreed wholeheartedly, and I’ll tell you why. It’s not that I don’t enjoy traveling with Jim, because I do (very much!). It’s not even that I prefer solo travel, because I don’t. It’s just a different kind of experience. I love any and all kinds of travel: solo, with Jim, with the whole family, with friends…get it? I LOVE TRAVEL. It’s definitely not that I need to get away from home and my family. I have found that…

  • Food,  Review

    Healthy Choice 100% Naturals Café Steamers: Feedback = More Options!

    This is the second in a series of sponsored posts I’m writing for the folks at Healthy Choice. A couple of weeks ago I told you about Healthy Choice Greek Frozen Yogurt. (Yum.) Today I want to tell you about their 100% Naturals Café Steamers, which just hit stores in July. I was already a fan of the other Café Steamers varieties (I love the way you cook these things and THEN stir the meat and veggies into the sauce after everything is warm, so the stuff that is supposed to be crisp stays crisp and the pasta is al dente, not mushy from sitting in liquid!), so the new…

  • Best Thing Ever,  Confessions,  Travels

    Six Reasons Why Solo Road Trips Rock

    I arrived in Columbus yesterday afternoon to spend a couple of days with Momo (we’re lunching with Christina while I’m here, too!). It took about six hours to get here (plus an extended lunch stop and visit with Tabatha in Dayton), and the drive was positively glorious. Nothing against my husband, boys, sister, or anyone else with whom I’ve ever hit the road, but solo road tripping is pretty darn amazing. Here’s why: 1. It’s quicker to get out the door when you’re traveling alone. I was only ten minutes behind my planned departure time of 5:00 a.m., easily made up before my first restroom stop. Not too shabby. 2.…

  • Sending You To My Ad-Free Page

    From Malibu To Malibu

    If you’ll head over to my ad-free page I’ll tell you what my recent (okay, SORT OF because it’s been two months!) GM vehicle loan and solo road trip had to do with my last solo road trip. I will also answer the following questions: 1. What scared the you-know-what out of me during the drive? 2. Who did I visit on said road trip? 3. What is the most boring stretch of midwestern interstate? 4. What is the deal with women and cupholders? You’re dying to know, right? Check out my review by clicking here.

  • Review

    Road Tripping with the Chevrolet Malibu: It’s the Little Things

    Over the summer* I drove a Chevrolet Malibu for a week, through several states. (Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, in case you were curious.) It was super-fun. Driving new, clean cars is ALWAYS super-fun, you know? Adding to the fun was the fact that this was my first road trip with a borrowed GM vehicle that was a car and not an SUV or a truck. Don’t get me wrong: I have LOVED driving those big vehicles, but this was a great change. It was just Jim and me, so we didn’t need a huge amount of space like we do when we’re traveling with the whole crew. The…

  • My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Spreading the Bloggie Love

    Blogrolls: Everybody, Meet Everybody.

    Get comfy; I want to tell you a little story. Actually, it’s a big, long story; that’s why you should perhaps make yourself a snack and put on your jammies and then come back. I’ll wait. When I started blogging nearly six years ago, the way that online communities were formed was very different from how it is today. Facebook was still relatively new to the general public and for the most part, nobody was on it yet. Twitter started the year before but wasn’t “a thing” yet either. When I was a newbie blogger*, I found other bloggers by going to the Google Blog Search, throwing in some search…

  • Food,  How To,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Uncategorized

    A Crisis Of Epic Proportions

    I had a crisis of epic proportions the other day. My stomach dropped, my breathing intensified, and I started having heart palpitations. An anxiety attack was on the horizon. You see, I ran out of chocolate chips. I know; I couldn’t believe it either. I have posted on Facebook several times about how I “get nervous” when I run out of chocolate chips, but most people think I’m just trying to be funny. Sadly, I’m not. I truly have a physical reaction to the news that I have zero bags of those little semi-sweet teardrops in my freezer*. Granted, I hardly use them anymore: I don’t make chocolate chip banana…

  • Sending You To My Ad-Free Page

    Want To Go On An Amazing Blog Tour?

    I was tremendously honored to participate in a live-streaming event on Tuesday evening for LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER and The Partnership at Drugfree.org (LTYM’s National Video Sponsor) to try and bring about some awareness and help #EndMedicineAbuse. During the live-stream, I joined ten other writers in reading our essays on personal connections to addiction, substance use, and what we want our children to know about the medicine abuse epidemic. It was a very, very powerful hour. I’ve got the videos for you as well as a link to the Blog Tour over on my ad-free page. Check it out here!

  • Review

    LTYM & The Partnership at Drugfree.org Blog Tour

    I was tremendously honored to participate in a live-streaming event on Tuesday evening for LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER and The Partnership at Drugfree.org (LTYM’s National Video Sponsor) to try and bring about some awareness and help #EndMedicineAbuse. During the live-stream, I joined ten other writers in reading our essays on personal connections to addiction, substance use, and what we want our children to know about the medicine abuse epidemic. It was a very, very powerful hour. If you missed it, don’t worry. We’re doing a blog tour, making our essays available to everybody. We also recorded the live-stream (there are three parts), so ready? Here we go. I recommend watching…