Last night, Jim and I drove into the city to meet up with someone I became friends with in eighth grade (C), and his wife (K). We’ve kept in touch all these years and faithfully send holiday cards to each other every December, but we haven’t actually gotten together in twelve years. Or thirteen. We couldn’t figure it out. I was thrilled when C messaged me a few weeks ago to tell me that they would be in town for a wedding and would love to see us, and that’s how we ended up at The Purple Pig on Michigan Avenue last night. We had a great time. I hadn’t…
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Office Space
There’s a running joke in this house about Melisa’s office space. I have lots of offices here. Err, I should say “offices”, in quotes. I have a family room “office” (on that couch), a living room “office” (on the other couch), an upstairs “office” (the little rolltop desk in D’s bedroom, which I have actually never used as an office but it sounded good when I mentally took it over a while back), and a basement “office” (which Jim now claims as HIS office, but I use it every now and then). I am in my family room office (on that couch) about 75% of the time I’m working and…
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Spelling Bee.
It’s very, very rare that I will repurpose or republish a post I’ve already written but in this case, a post I wrote back in 2009 couldn’t be a more perfect lead-in to tell you about the Drury Lane production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”, which I was invited to check out, on the house, on opening night. I’ll tell you just a little bit about the show after you read (or reread!) the story of my very own spelling bee nightmare. I’ve always been a great speller. As a kid, being able to spell what I thought was a difficult word made me walk with my…
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Beautiful and Enchanted
One of the things I loved most about this house when we bought it in December 2000 was the screened-in back porch. The following summer we spiffed it up a little bit with some pretty little flower lights that gave the porch an enchanted quality at night, some Adirondack chairs that a friend found for me at a rummage sale, and a coffee table that Jim and I made completely from scrap wood and Mexican tiles we had laying around in the garage. (I love that table!) Over the years, my mom made a couple of pillows for us and my mother-in-law picked up some pillows and knick knacks for…
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Evolution
With BlogHer 2013* coming up next week, I’ve been thinking a lot about the different facets of my blogging “career”. BlogHer 2009 in Chicago was my first conference (though I had been blogging since 2007), and back then, even though I’ve always been the same person online as in real life, my online identity looked like this: Remember that? I love that picture. I used the six-year-old me as my avatar from 2007 until 2011, and truth be told, I was a little scared of changing it. Change is good, though, so I did. I haven’t looked back since! (Well, until now.) If you don’t remember the six-year-old me, you…
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Here’s The Scoop On Jockey Volumetric Fit Bras
If you’re a woman (and you probably are, because my readers are about 98.2% female, a number I just made up but imagine is pretty darn close to reality), you know that finding a bra that fits like ahem, a glove is pure bliss. I mean, we have to wear these things day in and day out. Uncomfortable bras are for the birds. Not LITERALLY for the birds. You know what I mean. Also? 85% of women are wearing the wrong size bra right now. EIGHTY-FIVE PERCENT. Hmm. My guess as to why only fifteen percent of us are properly matched to our bra size is because nobody likes (or…
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My NBC Nightly News Debut…Sort Of
So we weren’t actually ON Friday evening’s NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams as scheduled because our segment got bumped due to breaking news. (“Sigh…but that happens in the news biz, you know”, I type knowingly, because I have LOTS more personal experience with the “news biz” than I did a week ago.) Tracey and I were in the Valparaiso, Indiana Buffalo Wild Wings during the broadcast*, and we had just talked our server into changing the channel on the huge tv that hung on the wall above our table (from NBC Sports to NBC local) when Ann Imig (National Director/Founder of LTYM) sent me a text letting me know…
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Moms Who Drink And Swear
I enjoy supporting other bloggers whenever I can. If I know them personally, bonus. One of my blogger friends is going through a very exciting time at the moment: she’s in the throes of releasing her first book. I especially like supporting other bloggers who publish books, because as an author myself I know how difficult the marketing part is. Most people out there think that the work is done once the book is written, when actually that’s the easy part. Holding a copy of your book for the first time is much like being handed a baby right after you give birth (go with me here): you look at…
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It’s Bathroom Reveal Day!
FINALLY. Our DIY bathroom renovation has been officially complete for about two weeks now since we hung the curtains my mom made for us (the final element!) (thanks, Mom!), but every time I have thought about taking pictures, I wasn’t anywhere near the house. Jim and I are so very happy to be finished with this, the largest DIY project we’ve ever tackled. We did every ounce of work in the room with the exception of the new tub installation; we left that part to our plumber. After hours and hours (and hours) of work and in just a few short months that seemed like forever, this room went from…
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Dude, Dat Donut Is Delicious!