Melissa in the House

There was a period in my life a couple years back when things were extremely difficult.  My boys were 6, 4 and 2.  My youngest was having some developmental delays in behavior..he was almost impossible to deal with, my oldest I was struggling with homeschool because he had a learning disability, my middle child was stealing and not behaving at preschool, my husband had a server in our home that made a constant annoying sound, so when we were home, it was kaotic, and the list goes on.  We lived in a smaller home and I had to deal with my husband's clutter problem, I couldn't keep the house clean b/c his office was in our tiny dining room. Our neighbors were unfriendly b/c they had issues with our landlord, I served at church and to get my kids to choir on Wed. night was like climbin Mount Everest, and Brian was always working late and would go home afterwards.  It was a very difficult time to say the least.  I was able to make a friend nearby that had a son ...

After Jacob and I came home from the hospital after a month of being bed ridden, it didn't take long for Brian to get me back in the swing of life.  He went back to work right after the baby was born, normally he usually takes a week off to help me settle in, but in this case with number three, it was back to the grind sooner than expected.  It was one weekend, not even a few days after being home, that he ask me a very strange unorthodoxed request.  At the time, Brian drank alcohol and I had given up trying to persuade him otherwise, so I would pray and ask God to guide him, and just rest my case in the Lord, however, I was a little put off.  He wanted me to go down to Kroger and get him some beer. I just knew this was not a good idea.  For one, we lived in Town Lake, our church was right down the street, imagine what the pastor would say if he saw me in Kroger picking out alcohol.  "What if the pastor runs into me, Brian, do you have any idea w...

Pink has always been my favorite color, and purses are one of my favorite assessories, so naturally when we stopped off at the Coach Outlet on the way to Orlando one year, I couldn't resist this lovely pink tote.  What made this tote so wonderful you might ask?  Well, for one, it was pink, it had a suede bottom soft as a camel, the canvas was signature, and the price was fantastic, $167.00, with that bargain, I even conjured Brian into buying the change purse that matched, it was $50 ish.  We had recently sold a home and I had been wanting a Coach bag for years and so he agreed today would be the day, I would get my bag and we both agreed it was a good deal.  He recently bought me a Dooney a few weeks prior but I thought it really was my best interest to have a couple different purses to help coordinate my outfits. We make our purchase and head down to Orlando, I think I was more excited about my Coach bag than about the week trip to Disney World, for real. ...

Since Brian and I met, he has always had me cut his hair since I kind of remembered when I worked for a hair salon in highschool, I kind of got the jist of how you cut hair and so I took this on as one of my housewife responsibilities.  As the children began to grow full heads of hair, he had me cut there hair too, and as time progressed, I have honestly gotten really good at cutting all four heads of hair.  I asked Brian one time if I could take Joseph down to have his hair cut, at this time, he was a bit of a terrible two and it was really difficult for me to cut his hair.  My question was not well received by Brian, apparently when he was little, someone cut his ear and since then, he was very sensitive to the thought of a hair dresser/beautician, whatever the PC is now adays, of cutting one of his chidren's ears.  As the hair on Joseph continued to grow around the ears more and more, I decided one day while Brian was at work to take him down to Super Clips in...

 A couple years back Brian and I live in Marietta. We were renting a home off Sandy Plains Road, our neighborhood was alot older than most, and our home we were rentitng was built in the early 1970's.  The backyard was nice and open, a big area of grass for the kids to run and play, a beautiful creek next to the property.  The back of the property had a little forest.  One day we had a lightening storm and one of the really big trees way in the back fell over.  It is a miracle the tree never fell over when the children were outside playing because the tree turned out to be dead.   Down came branches and vines.  My landlord came out and spent time cutting up the tree, it took a whole week to finish up this big job, they would pile it up and dispose of the wood, come back, do some more.  The landlord didn't want us to concern ourselves and made sure it wasn't a nuisance.  I wanted to help out so when they would leave, ,I would go in th...

I grew up in Conyers, and if you know anything about Conyers, GA, despite the bad publicity it recieved a fews ago, or despite the Heritage School shooting, and despite the Mary Fowler ordeal seeing signs and wonders from mother Mary, it really was a great place to live.  My uncle worked down at the Jackson State Prison in the hospital where he treated prisoners providing them medical attention.  It was during the summer and he would leave work and pass a huge peach orchard in Jackson, GA.  This one orchard had the best peaches of the season, they were big, ripe and juicy.  The man was selling them $5.00 a big brown bag full, it became famous in my family real quick. My grandmother told my Aunt that lived in Dunwoody, and of course, being a southern cook, she wanted in on the peaches.  I was scheduled one afternoon to pick granny up at the Cracker Barrel off Panola Road and bring my aunt the peaches.  She had ordered a whole box of peaches, literally, i...

 A few years ago, I use to live in Ellijay.  Brian and I had a cozy mountain home situated back on  ridge of a mountain.  We had some neighbors, our properties were spread apart, so it was private yet still civilized.   It was getting closer and closer to my due date with Isaac, and my mom would come visit once a week and bring me lot's of fruit.  I really loved honey dew melons, they were my favorite, and I could eat a whole melon just for snack as I got closer to my due date.  When I cleaned out the melons, I would take the seeds and toss them out by the front porch.  There is a reason for this, I was so afraid to leave the front in case I saw a bear, so over time, these seeds begin to add up. The rain had been so heavy this season, it rained everyday, night,morning, afternoon.  I go outside one day to get some fresh air, it is really close now to Isaac's due date, and I notice a vine growing on the porch.  At first , I thought ...

If you have any idea about me or have read any of my post, I use to live in Ellijay when Brian and I first got married.  Talk about a learning expereince, I'm not saying it was bad, just different from my metro Atlanta life working for my Aunt who spoiled me in addition to my mother who would do all my laundry, bring me coffee, let's just say I grew up and rose to the occasion.  Now, I was married and did these things for my husband.   Brian worked long hours, he was the back end operations at a bank, sounds exciting I'm sure, for him, it was his life literally.  He worked not even five minutes from the house but I never saw him.  So, I got lonely real quick after the newness and excitement of mountain living wore away.  You'd think mountain biking, hiking, canoeing, not with a new baby.  Isaac and I would go to the park and come straight home.  Brian and I were not successful finding a church we could agree on, that is another post, so no ...

One year my brother Ryan came and visited Brian and I and our two boys at the time. Joseph was just a newborn, and my brother needed some R&R so I invited him up.  At the time, we had a cozy mountian home, it was mid-spring, the smell of flowers filled the atmosphere, the fresh mountain air, the sounds of nature sweeping through the trees, it would be perfect, besides, I hadnt seen my brother in a long time or spent quality time together.  My brother was born with asperger's disorder, he does well,, has is pecularities, but most of the time, we can tolerate each other.  In referene to peculiarities, he has to have everything planned out a certain way.  So when he arrived, he checked out the downstairs area where he'd be staying.  We were in the process of finsihign out basement.  I had a bathroom at least, a tv area with cable, internet/computer and a futon for him to sleep. He first told me when he would come up for his meals.  I was to cook h...

Many years ago I was hanging out with some friends at one of their homes.  My one friend in particular rented from his ex-step father named Bob.  Bob lived on Lake Lanier, he had a nice little lake house, but Bob was really rough around the edges.  When I say rough, I mean really rough.   You wouldn't first assume he owns such a nice piece of real estate.  That's another blog for another day, never judge a book by it's cover...or something like that. We go in the kitchen looking for food, and Matt who lives with his ex-step father Bob, closes the fridge and says, we only have ginger ale.  Typical for these bachelors.  Rachel and I were both staring at a bowl of asparagus.  Not being serious, we laughed and she told her fiance Matt, "We can have some asparagus?". Matt replies, "No, we can't, that is for Bob's parrots".  I immediately said, "Bob has parrots?   You never told us this the whole time we'e been h...