michelle4wellness's Blog

It's really hard for me to believe that I blogged for the first time one year ago tomorrow.  It all started with a dare.....and I took that dare.....now here I am!

Sooooo much has changed in my life since then.  I have formed the most unbelievably close  friendships with some of you, and have enjoyed just being blogging buddies with others.  It has been much laughter and some tears too...but change is part of life and I am realizing (finally) what a true friend looks likes. 

Fox2 has changed my life in so many ways.  Thank you to all who I have called "friend".

~michelle

P.S. I am sitting at kk_mom's house right now, where she and Nightpanther just spent the last 3 hours wiping out my computer and making it new again...no more virus!!  Thanks, you two!  Jana, I know you would be hanging out with us tonight if it didn't take $20 in gas money just to get here!!

HOW SMART IS YOUR RIGHT FOOT?

You have to try this. It takes 2 seconds. I could not believe this!!!
 
This will boggle your mind and you will keep you trying over and over again to see if you can outsmart your foot, but, you can't.
 
It's pre-programmed in your brain!

1. Without anyone watching you (they will think you are GOOFY......) and while sitting at your desk in front of your computer, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction.

I told you so!!! And there's nothing you can do about it! You and I both know how stupid it is, but before the day is done you are going to try it again, if you've not already done so.
 

....So Jana asks me a few weeks ago:


"Michelle, what do you want for your birthday?"

Well, usually this would be a question that I would be uncomfortable to answer to any of my friends.  Something about that question makes me feel guilty, because what if I say "I want this" and that "this" is out of their price range, you know?  It just would usually make me feel strange to request a specific thing.

In this case, I had NO PROBLEM coming up with an immediate answer!

If you had a good friend who was a massage therapist, what would YOU ask for as a birthday gift???

Well,  today is Massage Day and in about one hour, Jana will be here with her massage table and oils. 

YEAH!!!!!!

I will comment later and let you know how it went.  We had an excruciatingly hard boxing class with Monica today, so it is going to be awesome for me (probably tiring for poor Jana!).  Someone asked me earlier if I was going to have to get NAKED!!  So now I am worrying a little about that.....LOL!!

Alright, I better go put on some relaxing music and get mentally prepared.  Talk to you later!!

~m

By now, you have probably read about Harp's pizza party last weekend.....we all love Harp, and now we know when she plans a party it is going to ROCK!!  Blogger Stephan (pronounced "Stef-FAUN") knew that Harp loves Spongebob, and that Spongebob lives in a pineapple.....so Stephan had this fresh pineapple shipped to him all the way from Hawaii, intending to take it to the party.  Well, it didn't work out for him to go, so he gave it to me yesterday and asked if I could help get this pineapple to Farmington!!

Thus began the saga of The Pineapple.....

I knew that kk_mom was going to Desloge tonight, which is near Farmington.  Jeanette agreed to meet kk_mom there, get the pineapple, and take it to Harp.  Then kk_mom called  me today and one of her children had a fever....so she wasn't  going anywhere tonight.  I called Jeanette and she said her husband Truman worked at the prison in Pacific and I could take it out there. 

Out I drive, pineapple in tow, to the prison.  I walked in with this huge pineapple box (it says on the side "Fresh Pineapple from Hawaii" and has a big picture on it).  As I'm walking in, I felt like everyone was looking at me....even the sharpshooter who stood up in that high tower, waiting for a prisoner to try to escape.  It occurred to me that the pineapple box probably looked like some clever disguise that was really hiding something bad, like a bomb!  OMG, I was freaking myself out and feeling so nervous!!  I went inside and up to the desk....three police officers with big guns were  looking at me suspiciously and I'M STANDING THERE WITH A PINEAPPLE BOX!!  I felt ridiculous, but finally asked for Truman and before I could say why, one of them asked me "Is that a pineapple in that box?"  And I say "well yes, it IS a pineapple".  Because isn't that what you're supposed to take when you visit a prison?  Doesn't everyone take pineapples to prison??  :)

Harp, I hope you LOVE this pineapple!  Stephan was so sweet to put this kind of thought into a gift for you.  And I realized today that most of the bloggers here would do just about anything for you!!  You are SO LOVED!  Post a picture of yourself with your pineapple later, okay?

It's true!  I drove to Kalamazoo, Michigan yesterday for what was supposed to be a short trip; the plan was to be driving back right now (4pm-ish) and get home sometime in the middle of the night.  But I have heard that there is a little bit of ice in St. Louis!! 

Are you sure???  What if all my friends have suddenly decided to conspire against me and keep me up in Michigan and just TELL me that there is bad weather there?  Because the roads are perfectly clear here.....!

When you were little, what did you dream of "being" when you grew up?  At age 6, I announced to anyone who would listen that I wanted to be a MAID and clean houses all day.  I used to love to clean...still have  obsessive-compulsive moments at times...but ultimately, at age 16 I worked at McDonald's, at age 26 was working as a social worker, and now at 36 I am self-employed and work from home. 

One thing that really impresses me is when someone is CHEERFUL about their job, no matter how mundane it may be.  I just love to be around happy, positive people who are passionate about life and strive  to make it even better.  Remember, you are writing your story...you can't change it after the book is written, but you can change the ending!

If you live in the St. Louis area, you are probably familiar with this question!  This seems to be the standard ice-breaker to conversation in all circles here.  Okay, you don't have to say WHERE you went to high school (unless you want to!) but do tell me the craziest thing you did during that time in your life.  A friend was just telling me today about getting banned for life from Steak and Shake for driving off without paying his bill!  Oh, the silly things we did at that age!!

Go ahead....tell me your high school dirt!

Do you have friends who aren't bloggers, but like to read your blogs?  We have a friend like that....good family friend....and he gets to his  office every day at Charter and likes to see if I wrote any new blogs.  He knows most of you by blog name just from doing this.  We nicknamed him "The Stallion" years ago, and that has stuck.  If I could convince him to just sign up and blog, that would be a perfect blog name for him!!  This is the email I received from The Stallion this morning....

So….I haven’t checked your blog in a week or so and decided to “peek in” to see what’s going on in your  lives.  (Remember, your blog is the only way I can keep in touch with you popular peeps these days! J)  It has been an hour away from TWO WEEKS since your last blog!!!! What’s up with that?  Are you still alive?  Has a crazed blogger kidnapped you?  Are you all tied up in your basement?  If you have access to your computer downstairs and your hands are tied behind your back,  wait for your kidnapper to go take a leak or something, put a pencil in your mouth, hit reply to this email and type the secret word “stallion”.  If I get an email with that one word in the subject line, I will alert the local authorities and send help!  Stay strong!  Help is only  a few mouth-induced #2 pencil keystrokes away!   

Orrrrrrrrr…..have you seen all there is to see in the world, embarrassed everyone on your list in life, hit all of your desired vacation spots,  seen every concert you ever wanted to see, etc….and just don’t have anything to “blog” about?  Surely one of these has to be the reason you’ve been MIA for dern near two weeks now!

 

  Help me to convince this smart- alec friend of mine to blog with us!! 

 

 

 

 

That is my daughter, Faith, on the right.  She knew I was trying to get her attention for the picture, and she was IGNORING me!  Last night, she was in a hoops competition with some other kids from her school....of course, I was there with my camera, wanting to capture every moment.  Right before this photo was taken, I was saying "Faith" a few times to get her to look up.  When I got no response, I took the pic anyway....but then we were walking out and this is what she said:

"Mom, that was soooo embarrassing!"

Wow, I think I am officially OLD.  I can't believe I am embarrassing to my kids.  I thought I was still cool!!

 

Well you know I am a little kiss-obsessed!  I am wondering what you think about the etiquette rules that apply for kissing your friends at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve.....!

I have been the "touchy-feely" type for as long as I can remember, but I know some of you aren't. 

Soooooo........do you kiss?  Do you hug?  Do you just stand there and sing Auld Lang Syne??

 

Santa's Tree

When four of Santa's elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not
produce the toys as fast as the regular ones, Santa was beginning to
feel the pressure of being behind schedule.

Then Mrs. Claus told Santa that her Mum was coming to visit.
This stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were
about to give birth and two had jumped the fence and were out, heaven
knows where.

More stress.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the boards cracked and
the toy bag fell to the ground and scattered the toys.

So, frustrated, Santa went into the house for a cup of apple cider and
a shot of rum.

When he went to the cupboard, he discovered that the elves had hidden
the liquor, and there was nothing to drink.

In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider pot, and it
broke into hundreds of little pieces all over the kitchen floor.

He went to get the broom and found that mice had eaten the straw end
of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang, and irritable Santa trudged to the door.
He opened the door, and there was a little angel with a great big
Christmas tree.

The angel said, very cheerfully, "Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't it a
lovely day?
I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?"


And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas
tree ..



Merry Christmas!
Michelle

 

Yes, it is true!  We are no longer living in the Dark Ages, at least as far as our television-watching goes!

If you know us well, then you know we only get two channels that come in on our tv set.  Yes, just two, and actually channel 2 is the worst reception.  I have to guess at what the ugly tie that Glenn is wearing every Monday  really looks like....I have to wonder about which road is jammed up when Monica is pointing it out....if John or Randi announce that there are  school closings, I cannot read them on the bottom of my screen!

BUT THAT HAS ALL CHANGED, THANKS TO ELLEN AT OUR FRIENDLY AT&T STORE IN FENTON!

I have stood my ground on refusing to get cable or dish tv, citing the reason that if we had it, my husband and kids would lie around on the couch all the time and fry their brains!  When Faith and Luke are bored, I tell them to go play outside, or read a book, or make something crafty.

So we're in the AT&T store yesterday, buying Paul a new cell phone (Faith is getting his old one for Christmas.....shhhhh!)   Anyway, we make our choice and I revise some things on my cell plan, and then  our sweet salesperson, Ellen, mentions something about dish tv.  Paul's eyes light up (of course) and I start with my usual defense of not having it.....the people in the store could not believe we still have an antenna on our roof! 

I gave up the fight fairly easily...mainly because I have been worn down with my whole family begging for this FOREVER!  And then Paul goes for my weak spot...."you'll be able to see Fox2 news so much better....it won't  be fuzzy anymore!"  Okay, that's all it took.....where do I sign, Ellen???

This was the first blog I ever created, from June 12 of this year.  I went back and read comments on some of my early blogs and thought about how little I knew you....and how, almost 6 months later, blogging for Fox2 has been such a positive change in my life.

If you didn't answer this blog originally~or even if you did~let's revisit what you would put on your list.....

A good friend issued me a challenge this week: to write down 100 things I would like to do in this life. I thought it would be such a simple task, and immediately three things popped up in my brain....."I've wanted to meet Dolly Parton absolutely all my life, even begging my mom when we were in Nashville once as a child to drop me off at her house and ring the doorbell....and I desperately want to catch up on scrapbooking my photo albums that are now years behind.....and of course I've dreamed for years now of choosing a rigorous mountain to hike, then drinking champagne and having a passionate kiss when we summited".......beyond that, I am at a loss. It's not that I'm shallow and yes, it would be wonderful to travel like Angelina Jolie to some underdeveloped country and help poor children or volunteer my time with various charities. But what makes it on the list?

I think as young people we had so many urgent priorities and dreams that somehow got pushed to the backburner by this thing called life....you know, getting married, starting careers, and raising our families....and those are such worthy things that I'm not meaning to sound disrespectful of. It's just that in every one of us, there are old desires that have become covered up by years of "stuff".

It will be interesting to me to hear from others, only after they work on their list....I am guaranteeing you it will be harder than you think.

Mr. Wild Made Me 30 Days Younger!!

Wow!  Anyone who hangs around me regularly knows I have been so computer-frustrated lately.  Ever since I got back from Mexico, I have been unable to use my laptop wireless....I've been forced to sit in my basement, hooked up to this modem down there.  I have hated this!!  Once you get used to blogging with the freedom of wireless, you never want to go back to a "desktop"!!  And I often take my laptop to BreadCo. to work and do presentations for my company...and yes, blog!!

So Wild calls me and I express my frustration at my computer like I have been doing for 3 weeks.....he says "let me come by and try something" and I am seriously thinking "well he can attempt it, but it's NOT going to work".  He came by and RESTORED my computer to the way it was 30 days ago.  Within 2 minutes, I was up and running.....WIRELESS!!!!

What would I do without my blogging friends?  Seriously?

Thank you Mr. Wildflower!!

Wasn't that blog party last weekend fun?  Okay, imagine the fun NOT ending there, but continuing on through the rest of the weekend!  That was exactly what happened to me...I hopped on Jana and Drew's Peace Train and, with their daughters, we headed to Camp Ondessonk....which I soon found to be a little bit of heaven, right here on Earth!  We were just giddy, crazy, and chatty almost the entire ride there....until we realized Jana had left her purse ON THE GROUND at the Rest Area 45 minutes back!!  Would you believe someone had found it and turned it in?  Of course, I captured the Getting-The-Purse-Back moment on my camera....we went through the Camp's haunted house 3 times, each more scarier than the last!!  Jana videotaped it and we decided it was the makings of a really bad horror flick.  I'll let you watch it and decide!  Then we went on a night hike, with the moon in it's full glory....WOW!  We ended up lying under the stars right next to a waterfall and just....looking......amazed.....the sky looked like a big lake with little bright fish!  Sunday morning we got right up and started hiking.  The forest was just amazing with all the fall colors....and then it happened....we won't admit to "getting lost".  We chose to call it Temporarily Unsure of Where We Were At (TUOWWWA).  This state of TUOWWWA lasted for hours and I am not kidding!  Of course, nobody thought to take along water on our hike!!

It was a group effort, but we did make it out of that forest.  My goodness, Jana and I were sore as we hobbled back onto the Peace Train and watched beautiful Camp Ondessonk grow smaller in the window behind us.

Heepwah!!!