Lisa Smith Molinari grew up in a small town in the rolling hills of Western Pennsylvania, where life is more about high school football and hunting season than corporate takeovers and cultural events.  Being somewhat chunky and insecure, Lisa thrived in the manageable environment of her little hometown, attaining some social status in high school as evidenced by her election to the position of Class Clown in 1984.

Although Lisa intended to shake the dust of her small town off her shoes and go off to college, she ended up at Miami University in Oxford, OH, an even smaller town.  Four years later, she discovered that her hard-earned bachelor’s degree in Speech Communications really only qualified her for entry-level sales positions (a plumbing supply company offered her a job selling urinal screens and tank bulbs.)  So, she did the only reasonable thing: she decided to go to law school.

Working her way through law school in Lansing, Michigan, Lisa earned a coveted spot on the Law Review and graduated cum laude in 1991.  A few months later, she was on top of the world….well, on top of a hill in Pittsburgh anyway, working as a young associate attorney in a thriving litigation firm.

Lisa envisioned a future that included promotions, partnership, opening her own practice someday, and of course marriage and children.  She thought she would have it all as long as she stayed the course.  What she didn’t know was that she would marry a military man, move all over the world every few years, have a bunch of  kids, and neglect her legal career to manage their family life.

Seventeen years later, Lisa is still attempting to manage her family.  She does  manage, however, to take time to observe the journey of life and to see the humor in it.

[Lisa's humor column, "The Meat and Potatoes of Life,"  appears weekly in the Sunday Leisure section of The Indiana Gazette newspaper.  Lisa also contributes weekly to "Stripes Military Moms," a website associated with Stars and Stripes newspaper, and to "The Village Connector" online community newspaper. Lisa's articles have also appeared  in The Washington Post , Military Spouse Magazine, Houston Woman Magazine, Arizona Parenting Magazine,  The Citizen, Northwest Kids Magazine, along with other print and online publications.  Lisa's writing made WordPress' "Freshly Pressed" List twice, made the semi-finals in the February/March 2011 Humor Press essay writing contest, and Lisa's blog was voted the number one blog on  Circle of Mom's  "Top 25 Military Family Blogs" list.  Lisa and her family are currently stationed at Naval Station Mayport, Florida. You can contact Lisa at meatandpotatoesoflife@gmail.com.]

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