Ultimate Blog Party 2009

Well, here it is at last, the UBP09, hosted at 5 Minutes for Mom! This is my first time participating in this one, so I hope I 'enter' it correctly!

Make sure you visit the link above to read the rules and win lots of great prizes!!

Anyway, I was going to do this big, fabulous, jazzy introductory post for all you party-goers out there, but (as my regular readers have read about thirty hundred times now), I'm rilly, rilly sick with the flu. So this'll be the quick and dirty (read: picture- and video-free) version.

I'm Melanie, aka Smellyann, stay-home mom to three kids aged 7½, 6, and very-nearly-four. In my previous life, I was a marine biologist studying shark feeding behavior, but then we eloped and got pregnant immediately and that put and end to all that! Don't know what I'll do when I go back to work yet! My latest thing is recovering from and learning to eat again after gastric bypass (RNY) surgery on 1/26, so I post about that a lot lately. I'm an enthuiastic knitter, crocheter, baker and scrapbooker, altho lately most of the crafty posts focus on my knitting. And I'm a Webkinz fanatic!

I've been married to Rob for over eight years. He has been in the Navy (enlisted) for about 16 years and is hoping to make Chief this summer. He's an Aircrew Survival Equipmentman (aka Parachute Rigger) who can't wait to retire and... do what then, we don't know yet. His latest thing is his BMW motorcycle (I couldn't tell you what flavor, and he's asleep); he's working on getting his license for it but sure is proud of it!

Chloë is my oldest. She's a second grader, and in my not-so-humble opinion, the most gorgeous creature on the planet! Not that my other children aren't beautiful; they are, but I could stare at Chlo all day and admire her beauty. She takes Tap, Ballet, and Jazz lessons and is in her third year as a Girl Scout (one year as a Daisy, two as a Brownie). Her latest thing is acting and modeling, both of which she is quite good at for such a youngster, and she has been hired out a lot lately. We're so proud of her! She shares the Webkinz obsession and has quite the collection.

Jack is the middle child, poor thing. He's in morning kindergarten this year and is now slowly but surely learning to read! He was a twin; he and his brother Robby were born six years ago tomorrow, two months early, so he's had lots of preemie issues as far as developmental delays go. But we work through them as they come, and for all intents and purposes, he's a normal - if tiny - little boy. He has an enduring love for anything with wheels and is quite mechanically inclined. His latest thing is soccer! His first game was supposed to be today, but it got canceled due to an unsafe field. Darn!

Sophia is the baby. She will always be The Baby, even though she is taller and heavier than Jack! She is so smart, and says such funny, intelligent things for someone her age. The child keeps me laughing and laughing throughout the day. She has an enormous fondness for birds; it wouldn't surprise me if she were an ornithologist one day. She takes Creative Movement classes at the dance studio where Chloë has been going for five years now and is such a natural at it, though I'd really like to get her into gymnastics. Her latest thing is to tell everyone to say excuse me when they fart! Hehehe.

Well, that's us in a nutshell. Thanks for stopping by, and have fun at the Party!

Fin.