We're Oakies!!!!

Hola Family and Friends!

Yes, we're alive and well in Edmond, Oklahoma, a northern suburb of Oklahoma City. So far, this city ROCKS! We all really love it here and are settling in as well as we can. It's been a VERY stressful month with the move and then rushing to get the kids registered for school, which started on the 17th - way too UBER early! But some exciting news about school - we have another one in the Marangi clan in college!! Anthony is officially working on college credit through BYU Independent Study. Anthony could be on his mission in year so he wouldn't be able to start college until he returned from his mission. We thought that concurrent enrollment would be a great idea. He has a sweet Senior schedule from 7:50am to 10:35am. However, he does have early morning seminary at 5:30am! He's been a great trouper about that. Anthony is also working on getting his Eagle project approved this week. He has about 3 and a half weeks to complete it...ALL!

Kyra and Nina love their new school and their teachers! I have recently signed up to volunteer so I'm anxiously awaiting my new assignment (no more 1st grade copy mom for me :-)). Nina is quite the reader in her first week of school - I'm so proud of her! Kyra has a gift for being friendly and loving to learn anything that's put in front of her. She's always so excited when she does a great job on her assignments. She's really come a far way from not being able to speak at 3 years old...

I have so much to update about Greg and myself, but I'm exhausted! Good news though...I'll be starting a new Zumba class next and am SUPER excited about that!
But the best news about living here...the OKC Temple is only 20 minutes away!!! Oh, another thing...y'all better watch out because I'm fixin' to end up with an Okie accent, really soon :-)

The pictures from above are the girls on their first day of school, but Anthony was EXTREMELY camera shy that morning, so here's one 2 days before school started. Is he not adorable?

Be back soon with more updates and a new Zumba playlist!

Keep on dancin'!

New Songs :-)

Hola!

Just adding a couple of more songs to the playlist...

Objection Tango - Shakira
California Gurls - Katy Perry & Snoop Dogg
WAKA WAKA - Shakira!

I'm totally loving the Katy Perry song since I'm totally representing CA and the West Coast here (born in Oakland - sealed in the LDS Oakland Temple). Can't get enough of that song, it's HOT!

Also, if you haven't visited my new Zumba page, Zumba with Myra on Facebook, it's a fun place to chat about my classes, music and choreograhy. Hope you'll "LIKE" it!

The picture above is taken at Perrysburg High School during Kyra and Nina's dance recital with the YMCA. It was my debut as a Hip Hop Instructor for the girls' class co-teaching with Megan Peiffer, she's so adorable!

See ya at the party!
Myra :-)

Better Late than Never!

Wow! I've had such a busy Spring so far! Even though Spring semester ended for me last week, I'm busier now that I was going to school! The Ft. Meigs YMCA Zumbathon was so fun on April 30th...I want to thank everyone for coming and sharing your Friday night with us :-)

I just started my ZumbAtomic classes on Friday and they're a HIT! Love the Tween ages...so sweet :-) Be on the lookout for my Wednesday ZumbAtomic at 4pm, starting May 19th. And NO, I do not use the some of my more "adult" songs for the Tween classes.

Here's a quick update on my songs for Spring 2 session (some I use now, some later):

Break Your Heart - Taio Cruz
Lose Control - Timbaland and JoJo
Check On It - Beyonce
Not Myself Tonight - Christina Aguilera
Tu Boquita - ZIN 26
Push Push - Kat DeLuna & AKON
Grata Brasileira - ZIN 26
Oye Mi Canto - Nina Skyy, Big Mato, Daddy Yankee, Gem Star
So Fine - Sean Paul
Follow the Leader - Soca Boys
Baby - Justin Beiber & Ludacris
Shake Remix - Pitbull, Elephant Man, Ying Yang Twins
I Made It! - Kevin Rudolf
Whoomp, There It Is - Tag Team
Hot Hot Hot - Buster Pointdexter
Shake Your Bon Bon - Ricky Martin
Alejandro - Lady GaGa
Wait Your Turn - Rihanna
Rude Boy - Rihanna
Carry Out - Justin Timberlake & Timbaland
Hey Soul Sister - Train
You and Me - Lifehouse
Impossible - Shontelle
Gypsy - Shakira

Whew, there's so much Zumba love all over that list! Too many great new songs out there - hope I can get to them all.

Hope you all have a great session with me - and don't forget to request songs at the beginning of class, or if you have an idea for a song, let me know.

Thanks for dancing with me :-)
See ya at the party!
Myra :-)

I'm a B-Girl!!!

My little sister by faith, Crystal McNutt and I participated in an AWESOME dance workshop called Hip Hop Explosion here in Toledo on April 2 & 3. We have our battle scars to prove it! Some of the best Hip Hop Choreographers in the country taught our classes. Here's a few pictures from my FaceBook of the event:

Happy Spring!!

Here's a quick update on life and my Zumba playlist:

- I went to ZumbAtomic (kids Zumba) training this past weekend up in Southfield, MI. It was the most fun I've had dancing in a LONG time! Marcie Gill, Zumba Education Specialist, was really amazing - best technical dancer I've seen in a LONG time. I learned so much about teaching to younger participants. I never knew how much was involved until I took the certification. I have a lot of new game ideas and so many new moves - I'll try some out this week on my adults! I look forward to teaching ZumbAtomic when Spring 2 session starts in May.

- I'm now co-teaching Hip Hop for kids ages 4-12 at the YMCA on Mondays at 4:00 to 4:45pm. It's been a lot of fun helping Miss Megan with her class. Kyra and Nina are in class too and that's been so nurturing for them :-) We're preparing our dance for the Spring Recital in May. It's been a few years since I've worked with little ones - since I used to teach Kids Yoga back in 2007. So, it's been testing my patience and tolerance, which is exactly what I need to focus on. But all the kids are very sweet and are wonderful little dancers!

- Perrysburg YMCA (Fort Meigs) will be hosting a Zumbathon!!! Proceeds will go to the YMCA's Scholarship Fund. The tentative details are: Friday, April 30, 6:30-8:30pm. I will update you with further information next time. This will be my 4th one I've danced at this year! What a night of fun they truly are :-)

- Here are some updates for my playlist:

Pusha Pusha - Axe Bahia (not the ZIN version)
Iko Iko - The Belle Stars
Lady Marmalade - Christina Aguilera, et. all...
One, Two Step - Ciara
Right Now - Akon
I Need to Know - Marc Anthony (not the ZIN version)
Telephone - Lady GaGA & Beyonce
Dance da Maozinha - Axe Bahia
La Camisa Negra - Juanes
Make It Real - Jets
Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Only Hope - Mandy Moore
Henna - Cheb Khaled ft. Cameron Cartio
Bust A Move - Young MC
Now That We Found Love - Heavy D and the Boys

I hope you guys have a lot of fun with this mix - I'll be adding more ZIN songs throughout the next month - and I'll post those in a few weeks.

Also, I changed my major in school (again). I decided that I'm just not cut out for social work. I need something more...concrete. The abstract thinking part is just not me. I'm glad I found that out during my very first class in social work. I'm pretty sure I'm going to follow through my very original plan (years ago) and continue my studies towards a Bachelors's in Dance Education. I'm tinkering around with getting another Associate's in Physical Therapy Assistant, but I detest having to catch up in all my math and science classes that I didn't get during high school/early college years. Who knows, maybe I could become a master trainer with Zumba someday...

See ya at the party!
Myra :-)

Dancing aWay with the Stars!

The show is over! What a great time and a fabulous event! The Perrysburg YMCA dancers were awesome! Special thanks to Alison, Crystal, Danielle, Karyn and Tanya for ROCKIN' it! It was a great event and all the amateur/professional teams did a SUPER job. The band, Hepcat Revival was too cool. My personal favorite was Becky Beebe (go Becky!). My thanks to the library and all the volunteers who made it all happen! You'd have never guessed we were boogey-ing down in a normally quiet library..."I could have danced all night"...

Here are a few songs that I mixed in with our show songs in February:

Beso un la Boca - Axe Bahia (macarena)
Solo Se Vive Una Vez - ZIN Megamix 13 - (Rumba Flamenco)
Take Ya Mama Out - Scissor Sisters (warm-up)

I will have a new playlist this week and happily it will NOT include any of our show songs, YEA! Stay tuned and I hope everyone has a time during Winter 2 session at the YMCA. Also, thanks for a sold-out session once again - y'all are da BOMB :-)

See ya at the party!
Myra :-)

P.S...I'm planning on teaching the kids Zumba program Zumbatomic this coming summer - more info soon!

New Videos!

Hola!

I felt inspired last week to make a few videos of the songs that my dance troupe, the Perrysburg YMCA Dancers, will be performing at the Way Library's Perrysburg Fundraiser, Dancing aWAY with the Stars. But since we're all busy ladies, it's hard to rehearse together. So, I thought I'd coax Greg into spending a date night at the YMCA to catch me on video with my iPod. It's hard to see me in the front, but the idea was to catch me from behind so my friends could follow me easier. These songs are also going to be the songs on my playlist for February:

Wanna Be Starting Something - Michael Jackson
La Cadena de Oro - Cabas
Tengo Un Amor - ZIN 17
Love Like This - Natasha Bedingfield and Sean Kingston
Evacuate the Dancefloor - Cascada
Mariana Mambo - ZIN 23
Parsarela - ZIN 20
TIK TOK - Ke$ha

Hope you enjoy them :-)
See ya at the party!
Myra :-)

***NOTE: Loading these videos are taking forever...but I'll get it done. You can see them on my FaceBook too. Friend me: Myra Marangi