Author Archives: Just Call Me Mel

pictures are worth thousands of words. Okay, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration

Posted on by
Reply

My weekend in pictures (and some brief narrative, because despite my lack of productivity in recent months, I am still a writer…)

Friday night… after fantastic pedicures with Robyn (go see Mickey at CK Nails on Cantrell. AWESOME) and while Ian was gallivanting about with his lovely girlfriend at the movies (they saw Thor and both said it was Surprisingly Awesome. Go figure) Rader and I had dinner with friends. We went to Salut where we had some of the absolute best homemade pasta I’ve ever eaten. Holy Spamoli I would have slapped my momma twice for the chicken cannelloni topped with fried spinach.

The next day, was soccer. All day of soccer. Down by the river…where I wish I had a van because the north wind was blowing and it was friggin’ cold. After game #1, Rader and I went to US Pizza for our favorite BBQ Chicken Pizza (it has jalapenos on it and is verra good)and this is where I took the pictures below:



My child is NOT RIGHT. He has all this hair, which I love…but it gets in his way during soccer. So we pull it back, but it falls out (well, it doesn’t now, thanks to my superior hair engineering abilities). Rader, being the sharp-as-a-tack guy that he is, took some pre-wrap and made a headband. I have referred to this as his Hair Injury.

Saturday night, we sat down with our tub of cheesy poufs to watch movies:

Yes, I had to fight them off my cheesy poufs. Ruby declared herself guardian of the pouf and Kitty G didn’t care. So she sat on my lap where she tried to take the poufs from my hands…

Sunday we had more soccer…and sadly the boys lost. Well, I am sad they lost, but not sad that I didn’t have to spend the rest of the day at Burns Park because I had 4+ hours of yard work to do. I don’t always have a lot of help, but Ruby decided she was all about John Deere Dreams this weekend.

When yard work was complete, Wolverine was put together…

And Trinity watched as El Jefe set up our HBOgo so that Rader and I can catch up on Game of Thrones which we are missing out on! I’m 4 shows behind now! The horror!!!


So…how was your weekend? Don’t worry if you didn’t get much done, I feel like I did enough for everyone!

ALSO: Please head to Fictionistas where my girl Stoney guest blogs today. You can follow Stoney on twitter [@stoneyboboney] and in the internetz at http://www.heydontjudgeme.com

bad blogger

Posted on by
Reply

Blogger was down yesterday and most of today so I didn’t get to blog. Bad Blogger. No soup for you!

Unfortunately, I don’t really have anything of value to say today other than The Fictionistas (the group blog that I’m a member of) has a new Facebook Page. Go like us.

Be good this weekend, or be good at it…

meet Katie

Posted on by
Reply


Last year I participated in the Relay for Life in honor of one of my dearest friend’s daughter, Katie. Katie lost her battle with cancer, and the world is a darker place because of it.

This is a note from Katie’s mom, ALL-CAPS KRISTAL

My Reason to Relay

My Reason to join Relay for Life is my daughter, and your daughter or son. I had never given much thought to CANCER. My daughter had been a healthy beautiful little girl, she was never even sick. I worried about the normal things, are they eating right, are they progressing, is it time for shots, don’t talk to strangers. I never worried about Cancer; my family did not have a history of it. I thought she had a stomach ache, and it turned out to be a tumor. That is the day my life changed. Your first reaction is WE WILL FIGHT this. We fought hard we went for two years every treatment to fight this we did. The problem is we ran out of treatments. It takes research to find new cures for Cancer, and Research takes money. My daughter’s Cancer was Neuroblastoma Stage 4 she was given a 20% survival chance. I want to help raise awareness and money for research, My wish is that another parent never has to be sitting where I was that fateful day, and if they are there I want the Doctors to be able to say, THEY HAVE A CHANCE. And RESEARCH is the WAY.


I’m unable to participate in the walk this year, but I would like to put a call out for donations.

Click here to show your support.

I’m back

Posted on by
Reply

This is a brief post. Sorry gang. I started a new job yesterday and last week I was swamped with lying around on the sand.

I did blog at Fictionistas this morning, so feel free to head over there if you’d like. Meanwhile, enjoy some vacation pics:





this is it

Posted on by
Reply

Happy Friday y’all. After today, I am unemployed until May 9. You will find me basking on the beach next week. I’m sure I won’t be blogging much, but if you’re on FB, I’m sure I’ll be posting lots and lots of pics and possibly rubbing it in…(sunscreen, that is.)

In the name of Sand, Sun, and Surf I bid you adieu!

Have a great weekend!

sparkle on!

Posted on by
Reply

The sun is out and I’m so happy!!!

Also, today is my going away lunch with my current co-workers. I’m gonna miss seeing these guys everyday, but now that I have a nametag, it’s officially time for me to go. 🙂

Aw yeah.

I love that life seems to be falling into place for me right now. Knock on wood, it continues because I’m digging this happy thing.

less is more

Posted on by
Reply

Last night’s storms weren’t nearly as bad as predicted. Thankfully.

Today the air is heavy and I think we’re gonna get more rain, but I don’t think it’s gonna be stormy like it has been.

I’m ready for some more sunshine in my life. Good thing my beach trip is just one week away!!!

Sand. Sun. Surf. My holy trinity.

I can’t wait.

riding the storm out…

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday was Operación de Rrasladar El Jefe Operation Relocate El Jefe. I drove my brother’s big ass truck (a country girl can survive!) (and holy crap, $90 to fill that bitch up!) to Oxford and we loaded it down like we were storing up for the apocalypse. Little did we know how close to the truth that would be…

I beat the storms out of town yesterday morning. It was crazy because I seriously drove through a line of sunlight, while I could see two different storm systems on either side of me. Oxford, was sunny and humid and we worked like pack mules to load up the trucks and U-haul so we could haul our asses out of there before the big storms hit.

We had no rain for the first 2 hours of the 3.5 hour drive. But as we were nearing Brinkley, we could see the crazy lightning storms and swirly skies and we knew we were heading right into the mouth of the dragon. (We also knew because of Mike Francis broadcasting on the radio and Fishdog calling to tell me where the funnel clouds were and how long we had… a big thank you for that, Fishdog. Seriously.)
We made it to Brinkley just as the sirens began to wail and just as it began to hail. We stood outside and watched. The cinder block building protected us from the straight-line winds and the rain. It was pretty amazing to see the storm roll in.

That flagpole was nearly bent into an arch a couple of times, the winds were so strong…

Luckily, we didn’t have any tornadoes.
Sadly, there are parts of the state that weren’t so lucky. Vilonia, AR was mowed down by a half-mile wide Wedge Shaped massive tornado.

We are supposed to have round two tonight, but I’m hoping things aren’t quite as tumultuous as last night was.

happy happy joy joy

Posted on by
Reply

Today is Earth Day. Plant a tree. Use a recycled bag for groceries. Start composting. Recycle your beer & wine bottles (I alone may save the world…)

Start a new habit that will help Mother Earth stay young and beautiful…

The Arkansas Earth Day Festival is tomorrow! Go forth and play fellow Arkansans!

This is going to be a fantastic weekend, fellow interneters. I can’t wait to get it started. Well, after tonight’s Nerdsplosion, that is. Heroscape + 3 nerds in my living room = me adding more bottles of wine to my recycle bin.


Speaking of wine…

My friend Laura…she must start feeding me if she’s going to make me drink wine with her. That. Is. All.
Smile! It’s Ren & Stimpy and the Happiness Helmet! Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Hmmmmm….

Posted on by
Reply
Would you pay a fee to try on clothing before you purchase it? It seems some boutiques in Australia are trying to cover a loss in sales by charging try-on fees. Apparently the new trend is to come into the store, try on the clothing, then purchase online for a lot less. Your try-on fee will go toward any purchase you make, but if you walk out without making a purchase, you forfeit the fee.

No. Thank. You.

In other news and absolutely, completely unrelated to the first topic… I was totally Grace under fire today. Or make that, Grace on wet surface… I totally slipped and busted my bohonkus <–official scientific term today when I walked into the office building. You see, it rained all night, and therefore is quite wet outside. I’m wearing my awesome cowboy boots, which happen to have zero grip on the bottom. The floor in the lobby is very waxed brick.

Waxed brick + Slick Boots = Mel’s feet flying up in the air (singing hey diddle diddle with her kitty in the middle of the swing like she didn’t care) What?

Yes, I’m nothing but elegant and graceful. And I’m also hopeful my lovely display wasn’t captured on video to be seen in an epic viral emailing around the world.

FWIW I have it on good authority (my own imagination) that I looked just like this when I landed…