Wedding Updates

So I think I am doing this for my own personal good more than others, but here is where we are at with wedding planning... ( i need to see the progress)

We are getting married and having our reception at a Congregation members GORGEOUS house! I have wanted to get married there since the first time I saw it! I am so excited about it! The date is May 29th, 2009.

We have our caterer and met with our photographer last night. We just have to make decision on what we want from both of them.

We know what we are doing for flowers.

I HAVE MY WEDDING DRESS!!!!! I am picking it up tonight or tomorrow!

I think I have bridesmaids dresses picked out.

The DJ is almost in place.

The block of hotel rooms is lined up.

We know what we are doing for favors and centerpieces and for our "cake"

I am sure there are more things... like I said I just needed to see in writing that we are getting there!

Oh yeah, the guest list is almost finished and save the dates are being made Saturday morning!!!!

The RING!

He picked out the diamond and setting all by himself! My man knows me and has some amazing taste! Thank you sweetie!

THE PROPOSAL!

Mike and I flew to St. Louis on Friday the 25th. He had not met my dad or my family and friends from St. Louis. So off we went. I (Mel) knew that one of t he main purposes of this travel was so that Mike could ask my dads permission to marry me..... I had no idea this weekend would end with a ring on my finger.

On Saturday we went all through St. Louis. On Sunday my parents threw a "shin-dig" for Mike and I so I could see all my friends and family and he could meet all of them. The party got going and next thing I know Grandma Mary walks in from Florida! What a surprise!!

The party keeps going on and its great. I love these people so much! Kathy Toettcher (My mom's best friend) comes to the party and she decides that Mike and I need to play a little game. This was so sweet of her and a lot of fun. We had to answer questions about each other and see if we got them right! We did really well on it! It was a lot of fun for people to get to know us better as well!

It seemed like grandma Mary was about to leave. Mike had seen the reaction that I had to her showing up and to having all my friends and family around. He knew when she walked in that this was the moment that He needed to wait. He wasn't going to wait any longer (he had plans to propose on the cruise we are going on the first week in October) . When he thought Grandma was getting ready to leave he went and had the conversation with my dad that he didn't get to finish earlier. They had this life altering discussion over the ice bucket... priceless. Mike asked Kathy to get everyone's attention again that there was another part to the game we were playing earlier.

Once everyone's attention was grabbed Mike started talking and we all started crying! He started to tell all of the 50 people who were there about the reasons he loved me. Telling them the things about me that make me such an amazing woman to him and that even though its only been about 3 months the amount of love we have for each other... I wish I could remember it all, I was crying and filled with excitement and disbelief that this was happening... Then Mike said that there was one more question that I had to answer. A question that didn't get put on my questionnaire from earlier. He handed me a piece of paper and asked me to read the question out loud. It said, "Melissa Scheer will you marry me?" As I read the question, he pulled the ring out of his pocket and got down on one knee and proposed to me! I said YES!

I couldn't imagine a more perfect proposal. The people that were there are some of the most important people in my life. People who helped raise me, people who still encourage and support me and people who have helped me to become the woman I am today!

I thank God for Mike! We are so blessed to be in a relationship together, we are so thankful God has brought us together forever!

Along with gaining an amazing soon to be husband this weekend, I am also gaining two amazing Children! Nathan (10) and Aliyah (9) ! They are so happy! We are one happy family!

we're getting married!

And it's a success story...watch out blogging world here I come !!!

Apparently I can blog from my phone now, just seeing if it works!

time just flies when you are having fun!

Hello!
It's so hard to believe that today is the first day of fall! Its still warm here though I insisted on wearing a 3/4 length shirt with jeans today. I just want it to be fall weather, I want the leaves to change, I want to go to a pumpkin patch, I want to jump in a pile of leaves... Instead it is 89 degrees oh well.

So much has happened and I have been such a slacker on updating you. I need to steal pictures from Mikes camera!

We have had a lot of fun in the past couple of weeks! Aliyah turned 9 last Wednesday! Mike and I threw her a birthday party on Saturday afternoon at a park. There were 7 kids there total and we made a treasure hunt for them. At the end of the hunt was a high heeled shoe pinata for them to bust open! They all had a great time. We had bright pink cup cakes and played some other games as well. Later that night we had family movie night and just chilled out.

Sunday we went to St. Peter and the kids are meeting more and more friends from here which has been awesome. We went to my friends house, the Sutter's with the Nguyen's and Bottke's. It was seriously one of the most relaxing days we have had and just loved it. What wonderful families they all are. The kids played and swam and the adults enjoyed the hot tub.

Mike left for San Diego this morning for a couple of days. What we are most excited about are our two upcoming trips! Mike and I can't wait to get on the plane in Sacramento Friday night to get home and see my family and friends! Then on October 4th we will be driving with the kids to the LA area where we will be getting on a cruise ship the next day. We plan on playing and having fun all week! I'm looking forward to a relaxing week away. Soaking in some sun and being away from normal life for a while. It will be amazing. We are going with our friends Duc, Nicole, Haley, Hunter and Lexi. I think the 9 of us will have a blast! Being slightly on the girly side, I am also looking forward to getting to dress up for dinners at night as well.

Our sad news is that we can't seem to find any good airfare to spend Christmas with my family. I don't know what we are going to do about that. It may just be me coming or worse yet none of us may be able to make it. Seriously if you could pray for airfares to drop that would be amazing. It's generally anywhere from 490-650 per person! YIKES!

If you could keep me in your prayers as well, i am off to find out if my ovarian cysts are coming back to get me again. It's not a major deal, more of just a literal pain. Whatever is going on, I'll just be happy to get a report back and move on in one of two directions!

Well I should get going! For all my St. Louis readers! I can't wait to see you this weekend! I can't believe how close it is, but I wish we were already there!

Much Love,
Melissa

AN ORINGINAL MASTERPIECE

I decided to change the name of my blog today. One of the reasons is because of how much my life is changing. A second reason is simply that my heart has been tugged at to use this idea of "AN ORIGINAL MASTERPIECE" this week as I speak to over 75 junior highers and parents at camp this week.

I am so guilty of this, even today I have been looking in a mirror and have issues with what I see. But see, God created us each for a reason... we are each original masterpieces. God has made us, formed us and has a purpose for us.

I've prayed to God for so long for my life to be a certain way. To have an amazing Christian man and family in my life and kept thinking will this ever happen... should I settle... whats going on God, what happened to this plan you tell me you have over and over again...

He has unveiled that to me and brought me into the life of a man who sees me as an original masterpiece but he could do that because thats how I saw myself as well.

Thank you Lord for making me, me. Thank you Lord for Mike, Nathan and Aliyah. Thank you for making me an original!

Marshmallows roasting on an open fire... while its a 101 degrees out. Yikes!

First Mike had to test out the Trike

And the little helmet

Then we could go home and start putting the pit together

Miss Aliyah putting tiles on the sides

Mr. Nathan Helping on his side

The first lighting of the fire pit!

Happy girl... may have something to do with the S'mores that are coming

Mike and I

Mike and the kiddos

Time to roast them to golden brown deliciousness

mmmm

needed to go... what better way to put the fire out, than with a super soaker... yet another reason I am in love with this man!

This past weekend Mike bought a fire pit for the back yard. We have been talking about one of these for almost a month now and decided to go for it. We found one we really liked and Mike and the kids put it together. Of course we had to christen the fire pit by building a fire in it, and if you are going to build a fire in it, you must also roast marshmallows in it!

This is from S'mores night on Saturday!

Thanks for getting a fire pit honey! I can't wait for it to cool down! :)

Brooke and Henry

Meet Henry

and Brooke

And the two of them together.

My dear friends Jen and Troy had twins on August 14th. I have had a bit of camera drama but here are some pictures from one of my visits to see them. Congrats to Jen and Troy who are absolutely amazing friends and people and now parents. I learn so much from your love for one another, from the ministry you do and from getting to spend time with you. I am overjoyed for the blessings God is pouring out on your family! Love- Auntie Mel

Mike and Melissa

Well I suppose I should update you on life! This one will be about Mike. I met an amazing man this summer. A man that I always hoped I would meet and have in my life, but a man that I was beginning to wonder if I would ever have in my life at all. After a rough day in this department I got to this point where I wasn't giving up, but I really was frustrated and had a "whatever"attitude about it all.

Then I met Mike Carr. I mean within hours of feeling like this. We talked all the time, we seemed to really get along but I still wasn't sure. We were at coffee and I think I knew he was the right guy for me but I just kept a slight wall up still. We closed the coffee shop down, we walked through a couple of stores and both had to get on our way. He called me later that night and asked me out for Friday Night. We went out that Friday and we have been inseparable ever since. God just made it very clear to me that the man sitting across the table from me, was a very special man in my life and to really see him for who he had been made to be! It's amazing how God has put us in each others lives. He is doing amazing things!

We have fallen in love with each other and in complete thankfulness and awe of God for putting us together. It's amazing how quickly your life can be changed.

Mom got to meet mike when she came out here for a visit. Well actually she met him in the Denver airport where they were both flying through at the same time on her way out here! Mike is an amazing man who loves God, his family, his friends and is very attentive to what is going on around him. He is funny, adventurous, sweet, genuine, intelligent, trustworthy, protective, strong, handsome, an amazing daddy, honest.... really this list can go on and on.

We are so excited to see what everyday brings! We have had some great adventures, dates, just normal days and laid back days already. We are very excited to see and meet my St. Louis people at the end of September, then the next week Mike and his kids and I and my friends Nicole and Duc and their kids are off for a cruise to Catalina Island and Mexico!

Here are a couple pictures of us! I'll put a state fair blog up soon. we just went this past weekend!

I hope you are all doing well!
Much love,
Mel

Look what I can do ma.

I was at a conference called "thrive" at Bayside Covenant Church up past Sacramento this past week. One of the activities to do was jumping on a bouncer hooked to bungie cords and flipping or jumping whatever you wanted to do. So here I am.

new pic

Here is a new picture of me.

why. why why why?

It's a question I've been asking myself a lot lately. Why do we do the things we do, why do we react the way we react, why do we see things the way we see them? I don't know but what I do know is some of those things have to change in my life, for I know they are not the way that would be pleasing to Christ.

I've been frustrated lately. Frustrated to the way that people view others and view the idea of health and weight loss. I know I already went on a tangent about this, but I have come to realize the way I view it myself and see how my mind needs to change.

As girls, nevermind I am just going to talk from my perspective. I compare. I would go into target and compare myself to every single female I walked by. Oh good she's bigger than me. Oh I'm cuter than here. Oh how the heck did she get him? It was consuming my thoughts. I would compare myself to people in church, at restaurants, on TV... everywhere. I realized this was quite sick and made a huge effort to quit it.

I've lost a lot of weight, I'm doing it for me, for my healthy for my future and for my view on life. But people's comments are so frustrating to me. I am currently trying to battle seeing myself for what I look like and feel like right not but often still see myself at my biggest size. People think that because I am a smaller size that it gives them fill authority to say things such as this:

Please tell me that you have had several dates this past month.
So you've lost a lot of weight, are you going to keep it off this time?
Have you had to get a new phone number now? You know from all the guys calling you.
Good for you, you know my granddaughter lost weight and look at her now... she's engaged.
You must be so much happier
So what size are you now?
how much more weight are you going to loose?
Are you anorexic?


Thos are just some of the comments I get on a very, very regular basis. The thing is, is that I still don't see myself like I'm suppose to. I am suppose to see myself as "fearfully and wonderfully made" Psalm 139. As someone worthy to be bought at a price. I'm suppose to see myself as a daughter of christ who was "knit together in my mother's womb". Instead I continue to see myself as full of faults and those are the only things I see at times. When a call isn't returned or someone isn't into me like I'm into them, I go directly to what did I say or do wrong, did they not like the way I looked, instead of its too bad thats the way the act or think, we both deserve differently.

I'm pretty sure I am just rambling right now. I'm pretty sure it's holy week and satan is trying to get his hold on me this week and distract me from what should actually be happening. Each day is about Christ. I need to focus on looking in the mirror and seeing Jesus, not looking in the mirror and seeing fat, a zit, a bad hair day, arms I don't like or being in a place of life that I'm questioning.

I don't care who you are, what size you wear, what stage in life you are at whether you want to be in that stage or not... YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL! You are so very beautiful in your own unique way, you are beautiful because you are unique and precious, because YOU WERE CREATED ON PURPOSE BY THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU SO MUCH, HE DIED FOR YOU!

May you look in the mirror today and see Christ and who He has MADE YOU to be! May you celebrate the life that we aren't worthy to have but we have because of Christ's death on the cross.

Redwood City Competition

The fire alarm went off at the hotel so my girls and I danced with the bride and groom!
Our boys and cheer coaches.

Girls and coaches

My gorgeous girls.

my new hair

So I promised my girls if they did really well at practice yesterday that I would call my hairdresser and have her put bright red highlights in my hair for the competition this weekend... welll....

It's been a while...

Well hello. How are you today? It's been so long since we've connected I thought I should just try to put a few things out there. I've missed half of January, all of feb and almost half of March. Where is 2009 going? I wrote my Godmother today and told her that I'm great but busy... really I don't know if I know how to live life any other way. I was raised being busy and I will probably die being busy... but I like it and I know when to take a break. Things are going really well. Since I last wrote I've officially moved into my new office, I'd show you pictures but it looks like I just moved in even though its been almost 2 months. I had to get started on some big projects and the whole decorating the office just had to wait. I also moved back to Lodi. After living in a wonderful house in Galt for about 9 months I had to move due to my roommate and her family relocating out of state. I now live in with my best friend Katy and her son Cole. We have a great time and its really a good fit for all.

I've been on a weight loss endeavor for well, my whole life... but its finally been working the past several months. I've lost about 40 pounds since October and plan to loose at least 20 more. It's amazing how you think a certain amount will just do it then you look at your body and see where its been hiding. It's been really great to say and know I am doing this for myself, for my well being, for my health, for my future. This isn't for a guy, this isn't to get a guy, thats not what this is about, it's about my geniune happiness.

I try to not get offended when people ask if this means I'm getting more dates or if I have to change my phone number because of the amount of guys calling me. The answer to this is not really. I am really thankful for the friends and family who have been a rock to lean on and amazing supporters and encouragers during this time. I'm also super thankful for those who have passed along their clothes for without them I'd either be broke or naked and I don't think either of those options are a good idea. ew. Anyway back to the offensive thing. I guess I really want people to know that I'm happy. It doesn't take a guy to make me happy but I'd be happy with the right one.I'm loosing weight because its what I need to do for me. I see myself being more and more the "me" I've always known on the inside because my inside and outside are matching.

I'll post a picture soon. I know my mom wants one bad... I'm just usually always the one behind the camera these days..I'll try to take one tomorrow during cheer practice.

coach mel

So I don't know if I have told you or not, but I am coaching cheerleading. I have 21 amazing cheerleaders. I coach both the Jr. Cheer (k-5th grade) and Varsity (6-8th grade) There are 14 Jr. Cheer girls and 7 Varsity. It's been a little crazy but I have been LOVING it! I have amazing girls.

Here are pictures from our first time cheering this past Tuesday!