Noah The Wonder Dog-R.I.P.

It’s a very, very sad day for me and my family today as we had to say goodbye to our sweet little furry family member, Noah The Wonder Dog.
I’m a little shakey trying to write this right now but I wanted to talk a little bit about Noah and not just post a picture on FB. Bear with me if I’m not making sense.
We rescued Noah when he was just a teenie, tiny puppy 14 years ago from the dog pound. The obvious truth is, is that he rescued us. He has been such a gentle, loving, sweet friend, nothing but pure happiness. In fact, during one of my 3 c-sections they tell you to focus on something calming, yep, Noah was my focus. How could you not be calm and happy thinking about his sweet little face.
When I was bringing Noah home from the pound I passed up Noah’s Bagels and thought “Noah, that’s a nice name”. And so it was.
Noah has been getting sicker & sicker and weaker and weaker as he’s gotten older. Noah was one of those dogs that actually smiled at us all the time. He totally showed his full teeth when he smiled! It was so dang cute! Noah hasn’t smiled in a very long time. His quality of life has been rapidly declining.
Noah has had a hard time keeping his body functions in control so we made a decision a while ago to keep him in the garage. That was a crummy thing to do. I felt like it was our only choice but it totally sucked!!! He didn’t deserve to be out in the yucky garage. He was our friend, our family. I think he was depressed at that and I wouldn’t blame him.
A few days ago Noah caught phumonia, horrible! He stopped eating and couldn’t breathe. I gave him a bath today and Chris and I took him to his vet. When the doctor felt him he said “ooooohhhhhhh” out loud with an awful grimmace on his face. He said that Noah was just skin and bones and wouldn’t be going home. Noah weighed 16 pounds 4 months ago, today he weighed 11.
My sweet, amazing husband was willing to do anything and spend anything to save Noah. We actually got into our car to leave and we were going to leave Noah there, hooked up to IV’s, whatever it took! I couldn’t let that happen. I stopped Chris and asked him to think about what we were doing and why we were doing it. It was our own selfishness and our love for Noah that wanted to keep him here. So we pulled ourselves together and made the gutt wrenching decision to put Noah to sleep, for Noah’s sake.
When we put Simba to sleep, Noah’s brother, 2 years ago, neigher one of us were with him. That has always made me feel guilty. This time, as horrible as it was, I stayed with my sweet little boy while they put him to sleep.
I brushed his sweet fur the whole time, kissed his little teenie, tiny head several times and told him how much he meant to me. I thanked him for being Noah the Wonder Dog! I asked God to take care of him now and to re-unite him with Simba. I told my sweet boy thank you for bringing our family such joy. And, I told him that I’m sorry for putting him in the shitty garage and that he no longer has to go out there!
We will miss Noah more than words can express. We were so lucky to be his family.
God Bless you sweet little Noah. Thank you for being the perfect little sweet kind dog in the world! You made our lives so happy for 14 amazing years. We love you with all of our hearts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Video Music Awards!

This weekend I took my friend Lorraine to The 2010 VMA’s for her birthday and to Jimmy Kimmel the next day. Although we had, as we always do, an amazing time, the show itself was a complete nightmare!!! Oh my God, where to start? I swear my head is still spinning and my skin is still crawling!!!
Ok, well you know I went mostly to support and see TRAIN, they were up for 2 awards. The first one they got beat by Black Eyed Peas! Ok, I like BEP’s myself but what the hell are they even in a category with TRAIN? Totally different genres! So that was just freakin weird but ok, whatever!
Then….breathe Michelle…the next award they were up against Michael Buble and Lady Antebellum. Michael Buble freakin won!!! I literally fell over in my seat!! I asked my friend if I heard that right. What has Michael Buble even done lately??????? NOTHING!!!!!!!! It made me sick to my stomache!
So I thought the night couldn’t get any worse but oh heck it did, so much worse!!! Here goes: Christina Agulera, put down the Big Mac’s please! I mean if you’re gonna wear lingerie & shake it on stage at least make sure you’re in top shape like your dancers! She looked HUGE! MC Hammer, I mean PINK!!! What was that? From the beautiful Glitter perfomance to Hammer Time! Katy Perry, oh just shut up please!!! Why???? I don’t get it? P Diddy, Puff Daddy, WHATEVER!!! I can’t stand him! Kesha, who is the fool for discovering this joke? I think they discovered her just to piss off the singers that actually do have talent! Please stop torturing us with her! But, here’s the best part of the whole untalented night….JUSTIN BIEBER “Artist” of the Year!!! WTF!!!!!!!! What a total joke!!!! There clearly needs to be some kind of a LAW that states that if you’re under 18 you are not allowed to vote! It’s not The Teen Choice awards, it’s the VMA’s for God sake!!!!!!! Oh my headddddd!!!
There were a few decent performances though, it wasn’t a complete loss. TRAIN of course! Whoo Hooo! Hottest performance of the night! And Jimmy….ohhhhh Jimmy! So easy on the eyes!!! And for the record, I LOVED Pat’s Limited Too sparkeley pants!!! He’s so dang cute I don’t care what he wears!!! He’s adorable & beautiful & so talented!!!
Bon-Melt my heart-Jovi!!! Hot baby hot!!! I can’t remember what they sang….LOL…but boy did they (jon) look great!! Hey…can you blame me?
To my surprise, cuz I’m not a fan, Enrique Iglesias (?) was great!!! I loved Baby I Like It! So I got some great pictures of that performance then messed with my camera and guess what? I deleted every single picture in my camera!!!!!! I had ZERO pictures!!! I couldn’t believe it! I have no idea what I did!!!!
Taylor Swift was also so great! Ya, she’s a bit bubble gum but you can’t argue that at least she has talent! And she looked sooo beautiful!!!!
My friend Greg got us into a private after party, blah, blah, blah! I could care less really. It was fun though. Lorraine and I always crack up!!! People watching was more fun than the VMA’s! Ok, enough about the VMA’s be done with that already!!!!
Then….the next day was a total save! We had tickets to Kimmel where…I wonder who….TRAIN was performing! Did I ever mention that I really love the band TRAIN? Anyway, they took a few of us into a private room where the guys perfomed the new dance mix of Marry Me and Hey Soul Sister. They did Marry Me twice. I think that’s all they did, I can’t quite remember all the details about that either cuz once again I was very distracted by that one guy Jimmy!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!
Kesha was performing as well at Kimmel. Go head, ask me if I stayed to see her performance!!! Oh hellllll no!!!!!! As soon as TRAIN performed we got the heck out of there & didn’t watch any of Kimmel!
All in all it was another great weekend with my crazy, fun friend Lorraine! I am a very lucky woman to have such a great friend as her. I can’t imagine my life without her friendship.
Happy Birthday Lorraine! Thanks for a great weekend! Oh and….how smokin hot did Scott look?????? Inside joke!!!!

This & That!

Wow! It’s been so long since I’ve been on here that I actually forgot my login! Sometimes when I’ve got too much goin on I just get overwhelmed and shutdown. That’s where I’ve been. Back to back to back fun and just no desire to want to sit and write it all down.
Where to start? See…I don’t even know where to begin. I’ll try! Summer was amazing! Completely goofed up all of my training and gained about 7 pounds! Eeekkk! Trust me, I felt every ounce of it and it was gross!!! I just lost focus cuz I was having so much fun doing other things. By the way, for those of you care I’ve got it all back off of me now and I feel great!
Chris and I and the kids went all over the place, no major vacations this summer but lots of fun places that we went to. We made the most out of every place that we went and had fun with everyone we shared it with.
Another fun thing that we did this summer was going all over the place to see our, ok…MY, favorite band TRAIN! 15 shows total! So much fun! We got to meet the guys several times and hang out with them. I guess that what happens when you see them so many times! It could be worse, they could have called security!!!
On the last day of Train’s US Summer Tour I also competed in another Sprint Triathlon in Mission Bay, San Diego. Lorraine and I both did it again and it was awesome! Like I said, I really blew my training so I thought for sure I would suck at my Tri. I actually did great, I finished 1 minute longer than last year’s MB Tri and that was with a ton of training!
When I got home from the very long, very fun weekend Chris surprised me and had a brand new road bike sitting in our house waiting for me. It had a sign on it that said “Let’s Ride! Love Chris!” So next year I’m definately going to beat both of my times!
All 3 of our kids are doing awesome! I am so proud of each of them. Chris is in his 1st year of college and really likes it. Taylor started junior high and she too is doing great. Her grades just blow my mind, she’s such a studious kid! Hailey is in 5th grade and her teacher loves her. Thank God I still have one of my babies still in elementary school and still somewhat little!
Chris is kicking butt in his business. I’ve always known how smart he is but he really truely impresses me at how smart he is on a daily basis. He really is such a great guy and I am very, very lucky to be married to him. Not sure how I got so lucky!
As for me, sheesh! Still crazy as can be! Never knowing what the heck I’m doing, just living life to the fullest each and every day. It’s a blessing and a curse! Sometimes I can’t even keep up with myself! I am actively looking for a fun, creative job. I know myself enough to know that I need something to keep myself busy. With all of the kids gone all day I get a little stir crazy. I mean come on, there’s only so much shopping and working out I can do! No way, I need more!
So if anyone knows of a great job, fun, pays extreamely well, totally flexible hours, part time, will allow tons of time off for ALL Train concerts, please let me know!
We’ve got 2 more concerts in the next few weeks, a Vegas trip for Chris and I and we’re planning our first Mammoth trip in the snow! We fell in love with Mammoth this summer and can’t wait to check it out in the snow!
Oh shoot! I almost forgot, I’m signed up for another 1/2 Marathon and can’t wait for it! It’s not until January but I’m signed up and my training has begun! I’m totally excited for it! It’s in Carlsbad along the beach, one of the prettiest courses. Wish me luck!
Last but not least, I did my first ever Susan G Koman Breast Cancer 5k in honor of my friend Marilyn who passed away last year. There was a group of 25 of us that represented Team Keepin The Faith in Marilyns honor. It was such an honor to walk in her memory and raise money for all women! Looking forward to doing it again next year!
Come back this weekend and I will post some new pictures! Hmmmmm….I wonder what they will be of? You’ll have to come back to find out!
Michelle

Ladies and gentlemen….The Trainettes!!!!

Ok, this video should give you an idea of how much fun we have been having this summer!! We’ve done a bunch of fun things as a family and as a couple, but this tops them all! A bunch of us took a long weekend trip up to Mammoth to see our favorite band, Train. Mammoth was amazing and Train was over the top awesome!
You all know I’m already a HUGE Train fan, Chris is a huge Train fan too but now our daughter’s are even bigger Train fans than us! This was their 2nd Train concert and of course I got them front row seats!
We came prepared with, as Julie calls it, our arsinal of goodies! We had neon glittered signs, 4 packages of 15 glow in the dark bracelets, blinking rings with crowns on them, spinning lighted wands with crowns on them, crown rhinestones in our hair, glitter hairspray in the girls hair and a huge banner that rolled out that said “CAUTION WILD GIRLS” on it!! What? We wanted to make sure that the guys would see us!!!!! Well, they did!
We also had custom made t-shirts with various names of songs on them for all of us. Mine said “Jimmy Rocks” of course but on the back it said “Calling All Angels”. Taylor’s said “American Girl”. Hailey’s said “Drops of Jupiter”. Julie’s said “She’s on Fire”. Lorraine’s said “Get to Me”. Sydney’s said “Hey Soul Sister” and Larissa’s shirt said “I Got You”. We were definately TRAINETTES!
During “She’s On Fire” Pat asked Taylor, Hailey and Shannon’s daughter, Larissa to come up on stage and sing with them! Pat handpicked our girls! Without hesitation our girls went out there and sang and danced with Train!!! Oh my God they were soooooo cute!!!
Unfortunately, Chris was video taping it but couldn’t help himself and was dancing while recording!!!! You’ll see when he’s dancing and of course he is yelling at the girls with total excitement!!! It’s so funny!
I got to meet a few of my other Trainette friends finally in person. A bunch of us travel all over to see Train. Trust me, it’s not just a Train weakness that I have, it’s a music in general weakness. Chris and I went to see Goo Goo Dolls last night and we’ve got more Train coming up, Nickelback and Five for Fighting! He’s gonna kill me if I keep buying concert tickets!
The day after the Train concert and wine tasting festival, we went on a great 5 mile hike at 8000 feet with Mike & Shannon and their awesome kids, Trevor and Larissa. Boy, hiking at 8000 feet is insane! It was so hard! I can run that on the beach like nothing but I was so out of breath up there! It sure was beautiful though. Oh and I went tinkle out in the woods! So adventurous of me!
We also stopped in Bishop on the way home & took in a few sights there, not too much to see there but I did manage to buy a super cute trucker hat! I searched all over Mammoth for one and coulnd’t find any!
Enjoy these pictures and our fun video! I’ve said it many times, I’m so blessed to live the fun, exciting, crazy life that I live. I’m blessed to have fun, crazy friends that live it with me. I’m beyond blessed to have a fun, crazy, silly husband and kids that fly by the seat of their pants with me on a daily basis! Life is good!

Sweet Summertime!!!!!!!

Summer Fun!

First, Happy Birthday to our son, Christopher! He turned 19 today! Oh my gosh, how can that be? Where the heck did the time go? Freaks me out!
It’s been a quiet summer, such cool temps here in So Cal, I hate it! I need hot summer nights! I took the summer off to be home with the kids, that’s been great. I only worked part time last year while the kids were in school. It was a nice change to be out & interacting with people but as soon as summer hit I was glad to be back home.
We started off the summer by taking the kids & 8 of Christopher’s friends to the river! That was crazy fun! Can’t wait to go back! Everyone had such a memorable time.
Went to the OC Fair a few times and caught TRAIN in concert there and another time we saw Adam Lambert & Orianthi. The kids & I loved Adam but Chris wasn’t into it, didn’t hate it but probably wouldn’t see him again. Too out there for him! I’d see him again. Of course, Train was the best! Train had the biggest selling night ever at the OC Fair!
We’re heading out to Mammoth next weekend to go see, yep, you guessed it, TRAIN! Can’t wait to go hiking & playing in Mammoth then catching my favorite band!
We’ve got a Vegas trip schduled in a few weeks and we’re hoping to fly up to San Francisco in a few weeks. All of our trips seem to be at the end of summer, just worked out that way.
Christopher starts collegs in less than 2 weeks. He’s not quite sure what he wants to do so that’s been tough for him. He’ll figure it out, he’s a smart kid.
Taylor & Hailey start soccer again when school starts. Chris is the head coach! He loves it and this year the girls are on the same team so that’s great!
Taylor starts Jr High in the fall. It’s weird for me to have the girls seperated for the first time. They’ve always been together. I hate it. I’m super excited for Taylor though. She is so dang smart and I know she is going to do great!
Chris’s work is going great. He just amazes me. He is so incredibly smart and determined. He can do anything that he puts his mind to. Ok…his Chevelle is almost done! All he needs is the interior! I never thought we’d even get this far with that damn car! It’s taken him FOREVER!!!!
As for me, I’m training again for another Traithlon coming up the first week of October. I can’t wait! October can not get here quick enough! I need a bike though! My bike is not gonna cut it! So, I’m looking for one.
Also, Bob Greene, Oprah’s nutritionist, is featuring me again in his upcoming book. His people keep in tough with me all the time and see how I’m doing with my health. Most of you know that in Jan 04 I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I was on meds for 1 month but changed my diet and really stepped up my exercise. Bob’s books, The Best Life Diet, have been super helpful to me. His books are the reason why I am so healthy. I’ll post a msg as soon as I find out when his next book comes out.
Here’s a few pics of some of the fun things that we’ve done this lazy summer. Definately more fun to come, the summer’s not over yet. We haven’t even done a bon fire yet, what’s up with that?
I hope you all are having a fun summer!
Michelle

Congratulations Class of 2010! You Did it!!

I’ve struggled to find the words to sum of the experience of our son, Christopher and our daughter Taylor graduating from school. There are so many great memories running through my head that it’s just hard to pinpoint it.
Taylor’s graduation from 6th great was pretty awesome for sure, that little girl works harder in school then any other kid I have seen. She is so dedicated and focused and takes such pride in her work. I swear she definately does not get that from me!!!!! Seriously! We could not be more proud of her. She is such a beautiful, smart, amazing little girl. I wish I were half as great as she is!
The big day however, belonged to Christopher. For those of you who’ve known me since Christopher was a baby know that I overdid the baby thing with him. A lot! I could barely stop myself from talking baby talk to him. Oh my God, just admitting that now sounds so bad but it’s true! Because of my complete stupidity back then Christopher was a little behind in school compared to most kids! Most parents were reading to their kids and I was just playing with him and having so much fun! Again, I can’t believe it now!
The fact that he graduated and did fairley well in school is amazing to me! Phew!!! I mean seriously, he had a lot of catch up early on!
So instead of recaping the entire graduation day, I’d just like to share one of my favorite childhood memories of Christopher.
When Christopher was a baby I thought everything that he said was adorable. I never wanted to correct him because his mind was so sweet, pure and innocent. It was his life and I wanted him to enjoy it and not constantly correct him.
So, Christopher used to call his toe nails and his finger nails “toe nails”. I thought it was so cute and didn’t want to tell him otherwise, what could it hurt? Right?
So when Kindergarten started and he set out to learn new things and meet new friends, it hadn’t dawned on me that maybe I should have corrected him on just a few small details of life! Um….again, I’m sitting here shaking my head at myself at how dumb that sounds now!
On his first day of Kindergarten Christopher came home and held up his hands at me and said “MOM!” “These are not toe nails, these are fingernails!” I about peed my pants but instead looked at him and asked “how do you know that Christopher?” He said “because ALL of my friends told me!”
It was then that I realized that I had a lot of work to do! However, I wouldn’t have traded that for anything. I look back on the time with him as a baby and it was one of the best times of my life. It was so peaceful and happy and beautiful. I had the sweetest little boy in the world and I loved him more than anything in the world.
Fast forward to now, and I mean FAST! The time has just absolutely flown by! We’re just so thankful for everyone that came out to support Chris at his lunch and again to be there with him as he received his diploma. We’re so glad to share this exciting experience with all of you. Christopher was beyond thankful!
At the graduation, walking out of the bleachers was our very own Pastor Rick Warren. I immediately said hello to him and without hesitation he gave me a great big hug. He gave my mom a hug too! She almost tackled him when she saw him! He told us that he was there to watch his nephew graduate. Just seeing him at our school and getting a hug from him let me know once again that our life is so amazing and so blessed all the way around. Chris and I have both worked hard to be the best parents to our kids without having much guidence to go from. We could have really blown it but instead we faught harder to make a difference in our kids lives. I know that our hard work and love have paid off. It’s a great thing to see that even though we have a long way to go, but we’ve done pretty good so far. We are so blessed to be the parents of Christopher, Taylor and Hailey.
P.S.
yes Christopher is wearing shorts and yes I about fell over when I saw him walk out! Oh well, it was soooo hot out! We were all in the sun since 10:30 in the morning for Taylor’s graduation the same day! It was a long, hot day for everyone! We are all sunburnt from our “toe nails” to our toe nails!

Christopher’s Graduation Lunch

I can’t believe that my son, Christopher is almost done with high school! It’s freaking me out! Friday was his last official day. Wednesday is the big graduation ceremony.
Last year I got to see my friends son Jeremy graduate and I had a bit of a meltdown then so I think I’ve got it out of my system. I’m not really too emotional, I’m actually pretty excited for Chris. He’s the one that’s emotional! He said it was real hard saying goodbye to all of his teachers. What kind of kid says that? I sure as heck didn’t!
He’s made such great friends in high school, they’re like brothers. He’s also got a ton of sweet, girl friends that he’s grown up with. We’re a pretty close knit school and we all watch out for eachothers kids so it’s so wierd that they are all going to be leaving.
This weekend we gave Chris a graduation lunch at our house for family and close friends. I was so touched by everyone that showed up. Everyone just made it happen despite their busy lives. It meant so much to Chris and I to see everyone walk through our door for Christopher. Thank you all so much for being there!
Of course all of the kids had a blast! Of course they all went swimming and ate and swam and ate some more! All day, into the night! Great Italian lunch, great drinks and great friends and family. The day couldn’t have been more perfect!
I kept looking at Christopher and was so proud of the young man that he has become. He’s has such a great life. He has never given us a hard time, he’s never let us down and he’s never let himself down. I know that his future will be great!
There’s a lot to be said for being able to be a stay at home mom for all of these years and being able to be there and witness all of the exciting things in your kids lives. When they say time flies by so fast, they’re not kidding! It’s gone by way too fast!
Wish me luck for Wednesday that I don’t have a complete emotional meltdown as my first child graduates high school! No, I’m not going to cry because he’s all grown up, I’m going to cry because I’m OLD!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!
Stay tuned for more pics of the big day!

Go BLACKHAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BLACKHAWKS WIN THE STANLEY CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoooooooooooooooooooo Hoooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Camp Pendelton Mud Run 2010!!!!!!!!

8:00am, January 1st I set my alarm, got up early (after New Year’s Eve) and signed up for Camp Pendelton’s Mud Run. This event sold out by 11am that morning! Today, I finally got my chance to do it and it was a blast!!! I’m so proud of my husband, Chris, because this was his first ever mud run! He did so great!
So, here’s the dirty details, get it, “dirty”? We left the house at 6am and I could tell Chris wasn’t in a good mood. As soon as we got inside the base, which is so freakin cool, I started getting so excited! I was stoaked to be there! I just started taking tons of pics of everything inside the base. It’s it’s own world in there. They have everything in there. It’s like a little city. It’s awesome!
When we parked I looked at Chris and I said “you’re not excited are you?” He said “not at all”. Oh no! He was just totally freaked out & wasn’t sure that he could do it. I knew he could totally do it!
When we were in the starting area the marines brought out a group of “blind” runners and everyone went nuts, including Chris! He said “now I’m excited!” Whoooo Hoooo!
It was a 10K race and what surprised me the most is that there wasn’t really a lot of obstacles. Not compared to some of the other mud runs that I’ve done. This was a lot of running. The hard thing about this was that we ran up a ton of hills, I mean very big hills. I was also surprised to see that when we got to the hills about 95% of the people didn’t run them. They were so high that everyone just walked up them. That kinda bumbed me out. I don’t stop when I do a race. But, I didn’t want to look like a show off and to be honest I thought maybe they knew something that I didn’t, so I finally gave in & walked up the hills too. I wouldn’t do it again though. I totally know that I could run the whole thing and I’m bumbed at myself that I didn’t. They were so fun to FLY down! I kept thinking if someone falls we are all going down like bowling pins because we were running so fast & there were so many of us, 5,500 to be exact!
The best part of the race was crossing the lake. Yep, a full on, dirty, fish filled, algae infested lake! It was pretty big too. It came up to my neck. I actually tried to swim it (a lot of people did) but I swear you just can’t swim in shoes! It’s impossible!
It was a lot of fun, great exercise and as soon as Chris crossed the finish line he looked at me and said “when are we gonna do another one?” Yesssssss!!!!!!! That’s what I was waiting for!
Thank you Chris for not giving up. I’m so proud of you! You killed it today! Now I’ve just gotta get you to do a Triathlon with me!!!!!!!!!