• Food,  Review,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    You Can’t Be Awesome When You’re Hangry

    I am thrilled to work with The Motherhood, ConAgra Foods, and Kid President this summer to help combat child hunger. This is a sponsored post. Also, how great is it that I can say I’m working with Kid President?? One of the things I used to dread just a little bit about summer when the boys were younger—and especially when they were in their early teen years and doing the most growing—was the constant disappearance of food in this house. Their being home all day long meant that all day long they were in the refrigerator and the pantry, on a constant hunt for snacks. I was at the grocery…

  • Confessions,  UGH.,  Writing

    Let The To Do List-ing Begin!

    After yesterday’s announcement, I was pretty keyed up and had the absolute worst night of sleep in recent memory. It took me two hours to fall asleep in bed because I was thinkingthinkingthinking, and I was wide awake again after about two hours because I was thinkingthinkingthinking. I came downstairs at about 3:30 a.m., turned on the television and opened the ole’ laptop. I worked on a post, checked emails, and scrolled Facebook–but not for long because my friends were all sleeping at the time and there were few updates posted since I had gone to bed earlier. I finally went back to sleep on the couch and got about…

  • Friends

    Help A Sista Out! (Please!!)

    Remember Piper? She’s the friend of mine (and of so many of you too!) who has had, shall we say, a really bad year so far. And that’s a pretty big underestimation. After getting the bad news that turned her life upside down without any warning at all, she’s been struggling. And then, about ten days ago, her car caught on fire, leaving her without transportation to go, well, anywhere, including driving her boys where they need to go AND getting herself to the college where she just started classes. A bunch of us decided that we needed to try and do something that would help Piper, and so…we’re having…

  • Uncategorized

    I Need An Introduction!

    I have been getting a vicious urge to spring clean on my blog. I enjoy the little badges and widgets and such, but after a while I look at it like it’s too cluttered. I’ve been trying to figure out how to clean it up a bit (like moving a couple of the buttons to my blogroll page and making text-based lists instead), and I suddenly realized that I don’t have a Blog Bio–and haven’t, for a looooong time–anymore. If I were surfing the web and somehow found Suburban Scrawl, I’d have to dig into the posts immediately in order to get a sense of who Melisa with one S…

  • Family Fun,  My Sister Has Mad Skillz

    Go Big or Go Home

    I don’t do anything small. It’s a personality trait, I guess. My sister’s got it bad, too. Our mom started it, I guess. And, I would imagine, our grandmother was just as “bad”. Individually we are pretty creative, but add one or two more of us and the combination is lethal. Give us a simple task and our brains start to spin with ideas on how to make it better, stronger, faster, more impressive, and shortly after that, we RUN with it. Remember our “Amazing Race” premiere party? That’s just one example. I have been called “Martha” more than once (way more) in my life. I don’t know how to…

  • Friends,  Spreading the Bloggie Love

    Help Me Help Her Get Help

    Today’s post is a shout-out for some assistance. My girl Sarah over at Snarkalicious is quite obsessed with NKOTB, which, if you’re unaware, stands for New Kids on the Block. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate her obsession probably about a 76. And that’s being conservative*. Sarah, who saw NKOTB in concert twice last year, just bought a ticket to another performance, and she spent the extra bucks to actually meet ALL of them. Anyway, being the fiscally responsible wife and mom that she is, she was trying to think of a way to raise a little bit of cash to pay for this “5-star ticket”…

  • Food,  Friends

    We Interrupt This Blog For Two Special Announcements…

    Now that it’s 2009 and you’ve turned over a new leaf (or whatever), are you feeling the urge to reach out and help others? I’ve got two opportunities for you right here, and they require very little effort! First, my buddy Mags from Ms. Maggie Moo Talks 2 U has opened an etsy shop to sell some yummy goodies!* Mags is not only a CHEF, which–to me–makes her quite qualified to open up shop like this, but she is also lost her job a couple of weeks ago, and every purchase you make will help her out. In checking out her shop I noticed that there is only a shipping…

  • Writing

    Send Some MoJo My Way, Please!

    Just a 30-second rant, here. Humor me. I am working on an article that is due in 6 days. I have no doubt I will get it done; I am more than halfway finished. I am just not feeling it, though! The topic of this article is something that is extremely familiar to me and I should be having an easy time of it…but I’m not! I am easily distracted and want to take the dog for a walk, but I really, really, really want to get this monkey off my back. My paycheck is waiting for me and will be sent here as soon as I send in this…

  • Shameless Promotion,  Writing

    Shameless Plug

    Now that the holidays are over, it’s time for me to get back to business on a few things, one of them being writing (yay!), and I’m not just talking about bloggin’! The three magazine articles which I’ve already gotten assignments for are calling me, and (I’m putting it out in the universe not as a resolution but as a commitment) I plan to send off several queries to some new magazines by this Monday. The other piece of “business” I need to get back to is promoting my book, Remembering Ruby: For Families Living Beyond the Loss of a Pet. Many of you knew me from my other blog…

  • Music

    If I Ever Needed For You To De-lurk, Today Would Be The Day…

    Obviously I love getting comments on the blog…it’s validation that there are one or two people out there who are reading my stuff! But today…well, today I need assistance! I am beginning to assemble a holiday music playlist for my group cycling class, and the first song that I thought would be nostalgic to spin to is this one: Yowza! Great memories with that gathering of artists, as I’m an ’80’s gal. But–the horror!–although I have it on vinyl, I can’t find this original version anywhere online, meaning I can’t download it! I know there are two more recent versions (one of which I will probably use if I am…