Day Two

This one is the meaning behind your blog name
"The Smeltzer Family"
I really dont think that one needs to be summerized soooo guess I'll post more tomorrow :)

Melissa

Day One

I was going to start the Day 1 post tomorrow but I am just going to do it tonight. I hope I can come up with 15 interesting things about myself

1. I am a twin, but we don't look like twins

2. I am NOT a morning person

3. I love sprees, they are probably my most favorite candy

4. I love sugar. It might be the reason why losing weight has been hard for me

5. Speaking of weight, I've lost 25 pounds in a year. I've gone down 5 sizes so I feel pretty good about it. I set small goals for myself and hope to lose 15 more pounds.

6. I LOVE ZUMBA. This really isnt interesting because everyone who knows me, knows I am obessed

7.I am a debt collector. It's not the best job in the world, but it's a job

8. I actually have my degree in Accounting, but I am thinking about going back to school to be a counsoler

9. I want to adopt as many children as I can

10. I struggled with an eating disorder for 8 years of my life and I still struggle everyday

11. I am a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I joined when I was 15.

12. I was a horrible student in High School. I graduated with a 1.7 (I think) GPA. Not proud of it ... and I wish I applied myself better

13. I hate driving, I actually get HUGE anxiety when I drive or anyone else drives.

14. my two biggest pet peeves are hair (in a hair brush,on clothes, on the floor, in the bathroom) and leaving dirty laundry around.

15. I hate tomatoes, eggs, avacadoes, sour cream, cream cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt and any kid of liquid medicine. I will seriously throw up if I eat them, just thinking about it makes me want to gag.

Heres the picture ...

30 Day Blogging Challenge

I took this from my friend, Ashley's blog, and I think this sounds really fun and I'm gonna do it!30 Day Challenge Each day of the month, write a blog post according to these guidelines below:

Day 1-Recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
Day 2-The meaning behind your Blog name
Day 3-A picture of you and your friends
Day 4-A habit that you wish you didn't have
Day 5-A picture of somewhere you've been to
Day 6-Favorite super hero and why
Day 7-A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 8-Short term goals for this month and when you'll accomplish them
Day 9-Something you're proud of in the past few days
Day 10-Songs you listen to when you're bored, happy, sad, mad, hyped
Day 11-Another picture of you and your friends
Day 12-How you found out about blogger and why you have one
Day 13-A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Day 14-'A picture of you and your family
Day 15-Put your ipod or shuffle on-first 10 songs that play
Day 16-Another picture of yourself
Day 17-Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 18-Plans/dreams/goals you have
Day 19-Nicknames you have and why you have them
Day 20-Someone you see yourself marrying or being with in the future
Day 21-A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 22-What makes you different from everyone else
Day 23-Something you crave for a lot
Day 24-A letter to your parents
Day 25-What I would find in your bag
Day 26-What do you think about your friends
Day 27-Why you are doing this 30 day challenge
Day 28-A picture of you from last year and now-how have you changed?
Day 29-In this past month, what have you learned?
Day 30-Your favorite song

Has it really been 6 months?

Yes, I am horrible at blogging. I am going to sit down to find some time to tell everyone about the last few months. So, here we go ...

Noah turned 3 in May. He is getting so old. I can't believe it. He used to be just a tiny little boy.

Here are some pics of that day

He is now talking a lot more since starting therapy. We still have a hard time understanding him but he's doing better. HE LOVES incredibles and anything with superheros, especially iron man, which is funny because he's never even watched the movie.

He loves to run (still) and play with our dog, Packer (even though he doesn't really like playing back).

As a lot of you know I am a ZUMBA instructor and am obsessed with it. In July I got certified to teach children 4-12 years of age, it's called ZUMBATOMIC. Here are some pictures

Also in July we went to California to visit my real mom's side of the family in Peteluma. It was fun. We only stayed for a few days and I wish we stayed longer. Next time I guess.

In August Aaron's sister, Rachel, came to visit for a few days. It was so great to see her and spend time together. We took her to see Seattle since she's never been here before. I only have a few pictures because my camera was not working properly, but you get the idea.

Noah started preschool just recently and it was a success. No tears (from mommy or Noah). He rides the bus to school and I was just extremely nervous that he would freak out, but he didn't care he was too excited and just said BYE and waved. What a cute little boy, all grown up

Aaron's been doing really good. Just started school back up and will finish with his Associate's Degree in the spring. He is very excited to be getting closer and closer to his degree. He has started running more and has lost 40 lbs in like 3 or 4 months. I am pretty jealous because it has taken me over a year to lose 20 lbs. He's doing so well. He ran a half marathon in Sept and finished in 1 hour and 25 mins.

As for me? I am just working a lot and doing Zumba. It's really become a passion of mine. I hope to someday teach a few classes on my own but I don't have a whole ton of time to devot to that.

I am really exited for this time of year because it's Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love fall and everything that comes with it. Since Noah is developing more and more everyday I really want to teach him about the holidays what they mean and do crafts. We'll see how that comes. We will be doing a pumpkin patch excursion soon. More to come and hopefully it won't take me anthor 6 months to post.

Melissa

ZUMBA!

yup that what this post will be about. Most of you know that I am a zumbaholic. I started doing it when I moved here, around March 2009. I just LOVED it. I love dancing and I love the way Latin music makes you feel. They also have different styles and, of course, I have more of a hip hop style but I make it work. I've lost 16 pounds so far ... I hope to lost 10 more pounds but I thank zumba (and my dedication to the gym). I was hoping for more of a dramatic weight loss but people say I look different so atleast that is good. So, last weekend was my 6 year wedding anniversary and I went to Oregon to certify for ZUMBA. I am thankful that Aaron wasn't too mad about it. :) We are celebrating our love this coming weekend, he seems to think he has to buy me a present but just me certifying was good enough for me. So, now I am offically an instructor. I hope to get a job to teach on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I am really excited. Here is some pictures

This is me in my zumba gear

This is (from left to right), Abraham, Leslie, Tayna, Gina and ME!

Gina and Abraham were the instructors certifying us. It was amazing and so was she. :)

So, now lets go on about Noah. I love him. He's becoming such a bright boy and doing so well with his therapy. Hes starting to talk more and participate in things. We are trying to get him do adult directed activities so when he goes to preschool it won't be so hard. That's a challenge. Hopefully it will get better. Here are some pictures.

I can't seem stay on track

I don't know what it is ... maybe sitting at the computer typing or trying to compile something to type but I just can't seem to keep up on my blogs. I go two to three month before I update. I am just not a blogger and I am sorry. However, it gives everyone something to look forward to I guess.

So, whats been going on? Well lets go by months:

October= HALLOWEEN!

did we celebrate? Not really. My dear friend, Melissa, lent me a costume her son wore for Halloween when he was Noah's age, BUZZ LIGHTYEAR. All we did was go to a church Halloween party and came home. Noah doesn't grasp the idea of Halloween and it's not a favorite holiday of mine yet. Here are some pictures of the night ...

November=THANKSGIVING.

Nothing special here. My older sister couldn't come to Washington for the holiday so it was just Oma, Opa, Aaron, Noah, my sister, Cecelia and myself.

Noah did start his developmental therapy this month. He is meeting with OT therapist on Tuesdays and Thursdays at our house. He will start Speech therapy in January as well as going to some Autism classes. On this note, we actually have seen a HUGE difference in him since doing therapy. He has a sensory issue so all this pressure builds up and he has no way to release it except to act really really crazy. It was very frustrating and hard to keep him calm. Now he is starting to converse with us (somewhat) and interact with us instead of going a millin miles a minute. I can't wait until he finally says "I love you Mommy." I think that's what gets to me the most. I can't have the type of converstations with my son that my friends have with their 1 1/2 year olds ... and my son is almost 3! So I hope speech therapy with get him going even farther and then once he starts preschool for the therapy classes he'll be able to interact with children his age on a regular basis.

Now ... December=CHRISTMAS!

My favorite month and time of year. I bought most of Aaron's gifts online on ebay so I saved a lot of $$. I am a really thrifty shopper so I only spent $150 on Noah this year (not a lot since he's my only child) ... and half of that was on a slide! He still didn't really grasp the idea of how Christmas works but it was actually really fun. We were really worried that he would be too stimulated and not be able to retain calmness ... but he was actually so good and really just stuck to a few toys and I opened all his presents. I hope next year he will understand Santa and we can start talking about what Christmas is all about and so on. It will be fun to do those activities together.

So ... what about me? I have been just working a lot. I am also working out a lot too. I am disappointed that in 6 months I have only lost 12 pounds but everyone says I look a lot different. I don't have a before and after picture because I have always hated getting pictures taken of my whole body ... but I'll post some on here of what I look like now. I am doing a lot of ZUMBA. I can't tell you how much I love that fitness program. I think it's what helped me alot with my depression. If anyone can try it you will love it. It's not about being the best at it ... it's about having fun and dancing ... you can burn up to 1000 calories in one hour ... We tested those pedometer things one time and I burned 850!!

Aaron has done really well in school gotten 4.0s two quarters in a row! I only did that one semester in college ... lol he's really good at math and I am very proud of him. He's also doing such a great job being a stay at home dad and putting up with my grumpyness ...

Anyways ... my computer is not letting me download the pictures I have so I will put them on in a few days .. .if I remember. Happy Holidays! :)

Melissa

Stephanie Nielson

I urge everyone to go to this blog
nieniedialogues.blogspot.com

Once you read it and look at pictures you will feel humbled. Humbled about not only your life, but about your appearance. I am the biggest self critic. I look at myself and pick everything apart to my hair to my skin tone. I've always had this issue since I was young, growing deeper when I had my eating disorder. It's hard to overcome habits especially when you feel basic hate for your looks.

After reading about this woman and what she goes through made me cry. She is scarred from a devestating plane accident she was in a little over a year ago. She was burned over 80% of her body and was in a coma for months. She might have her days of self doubt and saddness of her appearance but she's such an inspiration. It makes me take a deeper look into my life ... because I don't think I would have the courage that she does.

Again wow. This definitly humbled me

I will update with pictures soon.


Melissa