Saturday, May 31, 2014

Coffee break.

I am at home alone all day. I take late work days for E as an opportunity to clean. We are not (and never will  be) neat freaks. Life happens and the house gets out of order. I have always found it easier to clean alone. I like to turn the music up and not have any distractions. I finally am done with our kitchen and decided to take a quick break to have a well deserved cup of coffee. (okay, and to blog too)

^^^My fifteen minutes of peace and coconut goodness

Nothing feels better than a freshly cleaned home. 

xo-M
"My idea of superwoman is someone who scrubs her own floors."
-Bette Midler

Friday, May 30, 2014

100 happy days.

I challenge everyone who reads this post to participate in 100 happy days. 
I love the idea of taking time to acknowledge what makes you happy.





xo-M

"We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same."
-Anne Frank

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Sunday Sounds

XO- John Mayer  (Beyonce Cover)
I am such a sucker for a cover song. Throw John Mayer in the mix and I'm sold. I love this man's voice more than I can express.

I Got You- Jack Johnson


Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds- The Beatles
Nothing like a song about an acid trip, right? (Just kidding) I love this song because I love to hear Eric sing it.

Love Never Felt So Good- Michael Jackson & Justin Timberlake

Burning Gold-Christina Perri

xo-M

“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” 
-Bob Marley

Friday, May 23, 2014

Ten.

Ten years ago, this very week, I graduated high school. 
Man, oh man! The things you learn in ten years.
This is the letter the 28 year old Melissa writes to the 18 year old Melissa.

Dear Melissa, 

High school is not the best years of your life. Sure, they are fun, but the best are yet to come. Anyone who tells you otherwise peaked in life early on...you don't want to be that person. All the hours you put in after school with Mr.Southwell will make you appreciate how much he actually did care and want you to pass. [He wasn't the 'worst teacher ever' that you made him out to be] He will actually be one of the teachers you remember the most. 

You will still love Dashboard Confessional and Taking Back Sunday. You will giggle at how much you once liked Sum 41 and Simple Plan. You will still love giving/receiving mix-tapes. Music will still be your escape.

You never know when you will say good-bye to someone for the last time. Make sure you thank Danny for the car he gives you. In fact, make  sure you tell him thank you for everything.

Phones will come a LONG way in the next ten years. I know you think you are really cool right now with your Nokia...just wait. You will also become overly attached to your phone and have even make it a point to set up "phone-less dates". Seems crazy, right? You should invest stock in Apple. 

You will find your soul mate. No, his name is not Johnny Depp. You'll even get married. Speaking of, your brother gets married too. [and gives you the most awesome niece anyone could ask for]

Stay in shape, it is hard to get back in shape. The days when you rarely ate meat and went walking/hiking regularly are things that you will miss. It takes a lot of hard work to be able to do those things again once you stop. 

You are weird, but that makes you...you. Don't worry or care when people don't understand you. You will find the right ones who do. They will be the ones who matter.Continue to be kind. Continue to trust your gut, it is usually right. 

You turn out okay after all, kidd-o.

Love, 
The older and wiser Melissa.  
 xo-M

 I leave you with my actual senior quote...
"Knowledge speaksbut wisdom listens." 
― Jimi Hendrix

Monday, May 19, 2014

An unnecessary amount of cat pictures.

We are head over heals in love with our new kitten.
[Joey loves her too!]
 




xo-E&M

"If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough."
-Oprah Winfrey

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Sunday Sounds.


Take Me To Church- Hozier



Where does the good go- Tegan and Sara
I love Tegan and Sara. Cheers to Grey's Anatomy for using this song in the perfect moment. For those of you in the know, isn't this the perfect 30 second dance party song?

The Russian Messenger (Live)- Rodrigo y Gabriela

This is one of my favs from his new album. 

Iron Sky (Live)- Paolo Nutini
xo-M

“Music can change the world because it can change people.” 
-Bono

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Luna.

Meet the newest member of our family
Luna Stache Anthony

Luna's first bath

We are so excited that Joey LOVES his new sister. 


xo-M

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats"
-Albert Schweitzer


Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Catching up.

I haven't blogged in a week!  
[we have some catching up to do]
Catching up via snapshots
Besties
How stinkin' cute is Christian?
 More tornado clean up
Cooling off 
 Joey
Date night with E
 Rosa's babies waiting on her
E got out theTinkerToys at Gma's.
When E cooks dinner, it is always pizza.


AND WE GOT A KITTEN!
Joey waiting on his new sister to finish eating.

xo-M


"The most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy - it's all that matters."
-Audrey Hepburn

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Happy Birthday

Some people get dealt better cards in life than others. 
I think about this often.
I was blessed with a good hand. 
The ship is only as good as its captain.
Thank you for steering me in the right path.
Happy Birthday, Mom. 
xo-M

"first my mother, forever my friend" 


Sunday, May 4, 2014

Sunday Sounds

Think of You- MSMR



Happy Ending- Mika .
The video is a bit silly (in a good way), but I have always thought this was a powerful song.


Shark Attack- Grouplove

I like to pretend we live in a world where everyone loves Pearl Jam. I could listen to this all day, everyday. I think several interpretations as to what the song is about work. I know what it means to me and how it makes me feel- and that is what makes it so beautiful to me. 

Sheezus- Lily Allen

xo-M


"Music touches us emotionally, where words alone can't.” 
-Johnny Depp

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Charlie bit my finger.

A squirrel bit me. 
File that under things that I thought I would never say. 

Charlie, the rescued squirrel who bit me. 


Tuesday afternoon, we were on a bit of a scavenger hunt after the tornado. One of the things missing that we felt like we had searched everywhere for was Emma's sandbox top. (You know the red, plastic crab shaped sandbox for kids?) My brother went looking in the woods and spotted something red in the distance. Not only did he find the top to the sandbox, he found a helpless squirrel, with what looked to be a broken back leg. He scooped him up with his hat and yelled for me to come. I found a milk-crate that had been blown into our yard to put him in. This wasn't my best idea (hindsight is 20/20). He was terrified and crawled to my hand and bit me. REALLY hard. It hurt SO.BAD. He was like a snapping turtle-he was not letting go. As you might imagine, I yelled a few choice words. My brother contacted someone he knew who rescued squirrels and Charlie is now healing from his wound and living a happy squirrel life. Despite getting bit (and getting a tetanus shot the next day), I would do it all over again. 
xo-M

"We can not do great things, only small things with great love."
~Mother Theresa

Thursday, May 1, 2014

The Aftermath.

Early Tuesday morning our phone's went off with a severe weather alert and to take shelter immediately. E & I both jumped up. Our phone's have never gone off like this before,this was serious. The first thing I did was text my mom to see if she was up. She texted me back "Yea what are you doing up" I texted her back and she didn't respond. Four minutes later she called to let me know she was okay but was unable to tell much else (it was still dark outside and the power was out)  An EF-3 Tornado had just swept through her yard moments after she read my text. I live twenty minutes from my mom. E & I put on our clothes and headed out her way. We left at 5:50am and once we got closer, we realized every way out to her house was blocked. It is a horrible feeling knowing that this just happened and you can't get to your family. Two hours later, there was one road to her house open and we finally got out to her house.We were in disbelief at what we saw. These picture are all of her yard.






This was a horrible morning, but I need to take a second to brag about how amazing people can be. A huge tree fell across and blocked my mother's driveway. We knew this was the task we had to take on that day. We drove to town to get supplies (chainsaw, chain oil, 2-cycle oil & gas) and a few sandwiches for lunch. When we got back to her house, a truck was pulling in the driveway. It was a couple who lived down the street (who we had never met). They said that they were untouched by the tornado but knew a lot of people on the street had been and they wanted to help. They had brought a chainsaw and asked if it was okay if they helped us get this tree out of the way. No lie, not even five minutes later three more people pulled up to help cut up and remove the tree from the driveway.

                                                    tree that was blocking the driveway

I will never be able to thank these kind people enough.Thank you kind helpers and to everyone who checked in on us throughout the week, it means more to us than you know. 
xo-M



"When I was a boy and I saw scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, Look for helpers, you will always find people helping" 
-Fred Rogers