A Bit About Michelle

First I want to make it clear - I was more popular in high school than Jim. He was a lot more visibile and audible, but that was because he was weird. He definitely married up. Come to think of it, Jay married up too!

I met Jay in my German class. I didn't know him very well, but he and I were both very quiet. So to Jay I say
       "Ich wette, du hast keine Ahnung, was dieser sagt, aber nicht schwitzen Ich weiß es auch nicht."

I am not sure when I met Patti, but it had to be in high school when I was running around with Jim. They had been friends for a long time and I am sure our paths crossed at times. I do know that she is the reason that Jim and I went on our first date to the junior-senior prom.

I met Bruce and Debbie Gilmore as neighbors in 1990. Their son, Brian, and our son, Shane, participated in a lot of sporting events from a very young age. Jim says the first thing he remembers about Bruce is that he threw a no hitter in coach pitch baseball AND he hit my son with a pitch, but even that couldn't get him on base. Every year was baseball and basketball games for us. If you go to both driveways, you can still find remnants of the SBBL (Shane and Brian Basketball League) where each had their own home courts. Shane even bought an old IBM PS2, wrote software to create a scoreboard, and had a boombox playing stadium music during the games, including introductions of the players before the games. Brian played varsity all the way through high school and went on to walk on tryouts at a Division One university. Shane who wasn't good enough to play varsity ball, became the high school scorekeeper and went on to the NBA to be the head of the Boston Celtic's scoring crew and was still writing scoreboard software on a much bigger platform. In 2008 he received his NBA championship ring.

My daughter Mandy didn't have as much connection to the Gilmore's for 20 years, but now they have turned her into my neighbor. When Bruce and Debbie moved out of the old neighborhood 7 years ago, Jim and I bought their house and rented our house to our karate instructor. It turns out that he didn't want to move the pool table, so he married our daughter and stayed in the house. It is a complete joy to have Mandy and Jack as close as the Gilmore's used to be, however, Mandy and Jack might think we are a bit more intrusive than Debbie and Bruce were.

A bit about me:

• I was born in Casper, Wyoming in 1958.
• I played high school and college basketball.
• I played high school volleyball.
• I was a homecoming queen candidate.
• I used to love to ride mini-bikes.
• I used to ride snowmobiles.
• In my 20's I used to go snow skiing almost every weekend.
• In my 30's and 40's I used to go water skiing almost every weekend.
• I have snorkled in Cozumel, Hawaii, Cayman Islands, and I tried to swim to Tahiti once.
• I have travelled thousands of miles on boats.
• I am not now, nor have I ever been, comfortable in water.
• I went to bible college, but ended up with a business degree from a secular school.
• I worked in title insurance for many years, then left that career for my most important career of raising my two children.
• I now work in the accounting department of a securities firm.
• My hobbies include reading, playing disc golf, digital scrapbooking, crocheting, travelling, listening to live music.
• I love to play Kinect games on the X-Box.
• I have particpated in BikeMS for 8 years, riding 6 of them.
• I have been to 9 countries.
• I have been to 49 states with Jim. (He won't take me to North Dakota)
• I have been to Disneyland, DisneyWorld, NBC Studios, Universal Studios.
• I have been to the Grand Canyon, Grand Tetons, Grand Caymans and will soon be a Grand Mother.
• I once flew to London for a four day weekend.
• I once flew to Rio for a four day weekend.
• I have flown first class a number of times, but never bought a first class ticket.
• I almost had to spend the night at the feet of the Statue of Liberty.
• I have flown in two helicopters, once around the new bank in Gillette and once around the Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro.
• I have ridden in a powered parachute and a hot air balloon.
• I have a black belt in Taekwondo.
• My husband is trying to talk me into going to Antartica with him, but he's psycho and I'm not.
• Jim and I wore jeans to a Broadway play. I was mortified, he was thrilled because he's psycho and I'm not.
• I once rode a zip line 10 stories above the deck of a cruise ship and Jim didn't because I'm psycho and he's not.