Charity Andrews

I first heard of Melissa Jagears last year when I was asked by Bethany Publishers to review A Bride in Store. I fell in love! Her mail order bride series is so much fun!! Oh, and get this! You can get the novella prequel for FREE right now:

Melissa won the infamous Carol Award with Love by the Letter.

Last week, her latest book in the series was release!! Woot Woot! Make sure you take time to check it out. But first, get caught up! You don’t have to, you’ll just want to! With the other books in her series being $4.99, it’s practically a steal!

Let’s get to it…shall we?

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The rules are simple. I ask Melissa some random questions. She replies and then I give my answers. Each winning answer is worth one point and I get to decide whose answer is better.

It’s my blog.

Here we go!

1. Have you ever accidentally shoplifted?

Melissa – Yes, just last month. I was buying a microwave at Walmart that I thought was the one I decided on after researching online. I go home and realize it was the microwave I had decided NOT to buy. (My brain is frazzled at the moment to say the least) So I tried to return it later that afternoon….but the cash register declared it was an “unacceptable return.” How can it be unacceptable? I just bought it two hours ago, I have the receipt, and it’s not opened….we look at my receipt and it is not on there. I’m guessing that when the check-out lady asked if I wanted a service plan and I declined, she must have deleted the item itself, not just the service plan. I had just stolen a microwave! So the customer service guy looks a little mystified on what to do. We analyzed my really long ticket again to make sure I hadn’t paid for it and then I shoved it over at him and said, well, it seems it was yours anyway!

Charity – Oh my gosh! That happened to me once too!!! I bought a dress…that I actually didn’t buy. When I tried to return it, it wasn’t on the receipt! AH HA! I wasn’t as clever as you though. I just felt really weird and they looked at me all suspicious like.

— Cleverness always wins!

Charity 0 / Melissa 1

2. What vegetable should be a sin to eat?

Melissa – Burnt Parsnips. Or rather, it’s a sin to make someone else eat it. I made my own baby food, and my first child screamed a lot–I’m not exaggerating. So being distracted with my screamer, I over boiled the parsnips. I am insanely frugal and thought I could scrape off the burnt stuff and puree the non-burnt stuff. Well, I had to go teach at the community college before I had a chance to taste it, and my husband thought it was my pureed pears and fed it to our three month old. After the first bite, she refused to eat any more and then my husband tastes the stuff. Bleck! It was so bad, my three month old not only refused to eat more baby food that night, but she refused to eat baby food ever again. Seriously, she went back to being solely breastfed until she turned 9 months old and could eat off our plates because she only trusted what she saw others eating. She never let pureed anything get close to her again.

Charity – Oh. My. Gosh! hahaha. That is horrible! Poor little thing. hahaha

I hate carrots. I mean,  HATE carrots. I love fruit and veggies, but carrots are evil.

— Scarring your baby for life takes the cake.

Charity 0 / Melissa 2

3. What type of dance style do you have the best moves for? Waltz, Macarena, Twerking (? ha ha), Club?

Melissa – Swing. My husband and I took some ballroom classes and if ballroom classes aren’t the ultimate test of a marriage, I don’t know what is. We fought. A lot. Especially the leading thing. I’m a firstborn, it’s hard not to try to take over. But we survived the first class with a lot of under-our-breath muttering and arguing in an attempt to keep the other couples from feeling too uncomfortable as they watched the break up of a marriage right before their eyes…..but at the very end we FINALLY figured out our swing rythmn and decided to try the class again so we could learn the fancy swing movements we missed while trying to figure out the simple basics of it…..but before signing up, we apologized to our teacher, telling her we’d understand if she didn’t want us back in her class, though we promised we to be better. She said we weren’t the worst fighting couple she’s ever had. So there’s that.

Charity – Wow! I wish I could have seen that!! Girl, I am so bad. Swing dancing sounds so fun…Whenever I dance, my arms go up and it gets really inappropriate. My hubby and I took a free class at the Y. It was a line dancing class. HA!! We don’t even like that style of music. We mostly laughed at everyone else. So awful…

— You are whooping me!!

Charity  0 / Melissa 3

4. What’s your favorite old movie?

Melissa – Ugh, so so hard. If we measure favorite by how many times I’ve rewatched it, it’d be a fight between White Christmas, Holiday Inn, Singing in the Rain, The King and I, and The Sound of Music.

Charity – Oh man! I would list most of the same ones!! White Christmas, Singing in the Rain (and I can’t stand ’em), The King and I, The Sound of Music, and then I would also add Guys and Dolls, The Happiest Millionaire, Meet Me at the Fair, and Follow Me Boys.

— Tie

Charity 0 / Melissa 3

5. Most embarrassing outfit you have ever owned?

Melissa – I got a hot pink fuzzy mohair sweater one year for Christmas when I was in junior high. I used to believe you should at least wear/use a Christmas present once. I looked like a hot pink muppet and I left hot pink hair all over the school. That cured me of the “you must attempt to use your Christmas present at least once” belief.

Charity – Oh my. Yeah, I definitely don’t have that belief…I had my fair share of frightening outfits.

Yep. That’s me on the right. Looking good, 1985.

— Taking it!

Charity 1 / Melissa 3

6. Ever had an online romance with someone you hadn’t physically met?

Melissa – Nope, I’ve only had one boyfriend who I met at work, who turned into my fiance, and then into my husband. I’m rather happy to have never had a broken romance, online or off.

Charity – Oh man! Pretend I didn’t ask this question… I did have an online boyfriend for a while. He lived in Canada and his online name was The Pope. hahahahaha. So embarrassing… I was only 18 and the internet was brand new!!!

— I get it!

Charity 2 / Melissa 3

7. What movie are you looking forward to releasing the most this year?

Melissa – Oh, I’m so going to lose this question. I don’t even know what movies are coming out or are even out right now! This writing thing sucks up all my free time.

Charity – Oh my! That is a problem!! There are so many good ones. Insurgent already came out, which I was totally excited about. Mockinjay, of course! There’s also the newest Mission: Impossible, The Peanuts Movie and The Scorch Trials…Ant-Man, The Fantastic Four, and Star Wars…

— I’ll stop.

Charity 3 / Melissa 3

8. How do you strive to bring God the most glory in your life?

Melissa – By shucking my unbelief, choosing to believe that God will take care of me even when I feel like taking over.

Charity – Short and simple. Love it!

— God wins!

Charity 3 / Melissa 3

9. Would you have ever wanted to be a mail order bride in the wild west?

Melissa – Yeah, I could see me becoming a mail order bride. I’ve often wondered what I’d do if my husband died and left me with kids to raise even in the present day. I hate the idea of dating so much, that I could envision myself cornering some single guy in the church parking lot or driving across the country and knocking on some guy’s door, then saying something like, “I really want to continue homeschooling my kids and I can’t do so without a husband. I think you’d be a good father from what I know of you. Want to think about it?” At least I could see my unromantic self saying that over trying the flirting thing again. It never got me anywhere. Of course, when my husband later learned that I HAD tried to flirt with him, he laughed. He claims that standing near someone and talking to them isn’t considered flirting–it is in my introverted world!

Charity – Oh man!! That’s amazing!! hahaha. I don’t know if I could have done it. The adventure sounds fun, but the reality was much different, I’m sure. You don’t know if you are going to get some scary, backwoods, toothless wonder.

— Gotta give it to Melissa!

Final:

Charity 3 / Melissa 4

— Wait! Melissa has some Q’s for me:

Weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

Melissa – For me, it’s chicken feet. Oh wait, no, a peanut butter and seal popsicle. Yeah, that one.

Charity – oh my gosh. I am so confused right now. You cannot be serious. WHAT????? I was going to go with Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Peanut Butter (it’s the best!!), but…whew. You came out of left field with some doozies!!

Craziest thing that’s made you cry?

Melissa – Cheerleaders on youtube. Uh yeah, I was watching some talented Japanese award-winning cheerleaders on youtube once while pregnant and I cried because I was so proud of the hardwork and abilities of strangers…..okay, so that could be blamed on pregnancy hormones. But yesterday, I was explaining to my daughter that if we moved to a bigger city, she might be able to join a homeschool organization that forms sports teams and she might be able to cheerlead (which I think she has the personality for). She didn’t know what cheerleading was, so I pulled up a youtube video of a cheerleading competition….and got verklempt and teary eyed all over again! I am so totally not pregnant this time. Maybe I don’t want my daughter joining a cheerleading team, I might dehydrate myself with all the crying I would do watching her at games…..

Charity – HA!! Yeah, again…got nothing exciting. I always cry in movies and shows when couples get divorced or I cry when they get back together because I am so happy that they worked it out. Lame.

Strangest book title you own?

Melissa – Probably a tie between “Bleed, Blister, and Purge” and “A Social History of Wet Nursing in America.”

Charity – Ok. I just threw up. I mean…ew. EW!!!!! I don’t have any weird titles…hahahaha. Those are so gross!!!!!!

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Melissa is awesome! What a funny, funny gal! Guess what…

Yep!! She is offering a giveaway of EITHER ONE of her new books!! Can you believe it?!?! She rocks. 🙂

Just head on over to a Rafflecopter giveaway and start entering!!

*For U.S. Rez only. Sorry! We do love the rest of you too!!
**Entries will be checked. Don’t get yourself disqualified by cheating…