- Living in the ghetto
- The Wal-Mart in Windsor Heights (Pretty sure this is where they get all the peopleofwalmart.com photos)
- Meghan :) and Aspen
- Raygun (Formerly known as SMASH)
- Big Tomato Pizza
- Big Country Bash
- Central Iowa Bloggers meetings the first Friday of every month (I know, Nerd Alert!)
- Halo Salon and my stylist, Abby
- Gateway Market
- Being approached by crazy ladies selling shampoo at the Red Box by the 31st Street McDonalds (true story)
- Driving by Drake and remembering how happy I am to be done with school :)
Thursday, February 18, 2010
What I Will Miss about Des Moines...
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Truely Inspiring
First off, Congrats Amy!!!! You'll be great!
For 2 weeks Mike and I were house/dog sitting for his parents while they were on a mission trip to India. We def missed our own house, but we enjoyed the time with Max : ) The in-laws got home just fine and had a good time.
I've been choreographing the musical at a local jr high and have been having a blast. I got to teach the kids the Thriller dance and now we are doing some Grease and Jersey Boys. Middle school kids are quite the bunch lol.
I have a 4th grade boyfriend at my school. He's obsessed with talking about "Mr. Nolan." I performed in my school's variety show in the teacher act lol. Danced to some 80's music and wore some leg warmers...and yes, Mike took a video.
I know this is getting long, but bear with me, I have to share an unbelievable story. Tonight Mike's college bud Gustavo came over for dinner. He is the one who has Hodgkins lymphoma (sp?) and was spoken about at their graduation. After 5 yrs of batteling cancer, Gus was ready for a stem cell transplant and they found more cancer. He went in to have a small mass removed from his stomach with a 2 inch incision and woke up with a 7inch incision due to more and more cancerous masses found. He said afte that his sense of humor was a blessing and a curse cuz it hurt so much to laugh. He has masses in his stomach, chest, and neck. You can actually see the tumor in his neck when he moves. He has been going through chemo treatment, but is about to endure an even more intensive treatment. He is basically back where he started, hoping to become stable enough to qualify for a stem cell transplant, but has not found a good match yet. Many of us who know Gus have applied to become donors, in the small hope of being a match. Yet through all this, Gus says he wakes up everyday and doesn't even think about the cancer. He says he has come to grips with it emotionally and spiritually. He just kept saying, "It is what it is. You just gotta keep living." he described chemo as 5 days feeling like crap while it's in his system, but living it up the days in between his next treatment. He said when ppl invite to things in advance, he can never say yes or no, in fear that it might not be "a good day." Today was a good day for him. He's lost 30lbs in the last few months, has horrible pain in his back due to the tumors sitting on his nerves, and doesn't have any hair anymore, but his spirits are as high as ever. He quit drinking so when he is having a good day and goes out with his friends, he can remember the moments he has and won't be blurred or forgotten with alcohol. Having him over tonight just blew me away. What a strong person and so much to deal with at such a young age. He'll show you his scars and the visible tubes in his arms that are delivering chemo straight to his heart. He even joked about how he was glad the economy sucks so ppl don't assume he's a slacker when he tells them upon meeting that he graduated school and doesn't have a job. I know this is a bit of a downer, but I just wanted to share to remind all of us how we "just gotta keep living." Please keep Gustavo in your thoughts and prayers.
Love to all!
For 2 weeks Mike and I were house/dog sitting for his parents while they were on a mission trip to India. We def missed our own house, but we enjoyed the time with Max : ) The in-laws got home just fine and had a good time.
I've been choreographing the musical at a local jr high and have been having a blast. I got to teach the kids the Thriller dance and now we are doing some Grease and Jersey Boys. Middle school kids are quite the bunch lol.
I have a 4th grade boyfriend at my school. He's obsessed with talking about "Mr. Nolan." I performed in my school's variety show in the teacher act lol. Danced to some 80's music and wore some leg warmers...and yes, Mike took a video.
I know this is getting long, but bear with me, I have to share an unbelievable story. Tonight Mike's college bud Gustavo came over for dinner. He is the one who has Hodgkins lymphoma (sp?) and was spoken about at their graduation. After 5 yrs of batteling cancer, Gus was ready for a stem cell transplant and they found more cancer. He went in to have a small mass removed from his stomach with a 2 inch incision and woke up with a 7inch incision due to more and more cancerous masses found. He said afte that his sense of humor was a blessing and a curse cuz it hurt so much to laugh. He has masses in his stomach, chest, and neck. You can actually see the tumor in his neck when he moves. He has been going through chemo treatment, but is about to endure an even more intensive treatment. He is basically back where he started, hoping to become stable enough to qualify for a stem cell transplant, but has not found a good match yet. Many of us who know Gus have applied to become donors, in the small hope of being a match. Yet through all this, Gus says he wakes up everyday and doesn't even think about the cancer. He says he has come to grips with it emotionally and spiritually. He just kept saying, "It is what it is. You just gotta keep living." he described chemo as 5 days feeling like crap while it's in his system, but living it up the days in between his next treatment. He said when ppl invite to things in advance, he can never say yes or no, in fear that it might not be "a good day." Today was a good day for him. He's lost 30lbs in the last few months, has horrible pain in his back due to the tumors sitting on his nerves, and doesn't have any hair anymore, but his spirits are as high as ever. He quit drinking so when he is having a good day and goes out with his friends, he can remember the moments he has and won't be blurred or forgotten with alcohol. Having him over tonight just blew me away. What a strong person and so much to deal with at such a young age. He'll show you his scars and the visible tubes in his arms that are delivering chemo straight to his heart. He even joked about how he was glad the economy sucks so ppl don't assume he's a slacker when he tells them upon meeting that he graduated school and doesn't have a job. I know this is a bit of a downer, but I just wanted to share to remind all of us how we "just gotta keep living." Please keep Gustavo in your thoughts and prayers.
Love to all!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
New News!
Hi girls! Hope all is well with everyone and hope you all had a fantastic Valentine's Day (or Singles Awareness Day as I prefer to call it!)! Meghan and I road-tripped it up to Minneapolis on Sat to go to IKEA and then came back to DSM on Sunday. A nice little get away!
So the new news I have to share is that I was offered a new job in Bloomington (a suburb of Minneapolis). It's with a PR agency called StoryTeller Media and Communications and they specialize in video production and social media (which means I still get to count facebook and twitter as part of my job!). I start on March 8, so I'll be moving probably the 4 or 5 of March.
It was a pretty tough decision since I really wasn't expecting to leave my job here so soon, but it is a really great opportunity and I feel like I need to take it. For the time being I will be staying wiht my sister and her husband at their house in Mayer, MN. So I will have about a 45 min. commute, which will be a big adjustment from my 15 min commute now! But this is a very temporary living situation and as soon as I get settled in I will be looking for my own place!
I haven't officially quit at Performance Marketing yet, saving it for the end of the day today. Willing to take bets on whether I will cry or not!
So if any of you girls are ever in the Twin Cities area, be sure to look me up :)
So the new news I have to share is that I was offered a new job in Bloomington (a suburb of Minneapolis). It's with a PR agency called StoryTeller Media and Communications and they specialize in video production and social media (which means I still get to count facebook and twitter as part of my job!). I start on March 8, so I'll be moving probably the 4 or 5 of March.
It was a pretty tough decision since I really wasn't expecting to leave my job here so soon, but it is a really great opportunity and I feel like I need to take it. For the time being I will be staying wiht my sister and her husband at their house in Mayer, MN. So I will have about a 45 min. commute, which will be a big adjustment from my 15 min commute now! But this is a very temporary living situation and as soon as I get settled in I will be looking for my own place!
I haven't officially quit at Performance Marketing yet, saving it for the end of the day today. Willing to take bets on whether I will cry or not!
So if any of you girls are ever in the Twin Cities area, be sure to look me up :)
Sunday, February 7, 2010
I think it's Sunday
Hi girls, I really just wanted to say, "hi" since I feel like it's been forever since I talked to any of you! Which is actually true... I haven't seen three of you since Bridge's wedding, Mags, I think I saw you at Halloween? And Bridget... didn't we go out to dinner in January? Eww. That's what my life is right now, I really can't remember when I've seen people and I don't generally know what day of the week it is... but I can tell you my daily specials at work! Anyways, I had a super cool potential job but didn't get the position, so I was kinda bummed about that, but it was 12-weeks and unpaid and considering this past week at work I made $500 in tips, I guess the unpaid thing would've been sucky. So that's my life update. I go to work pretty much everyday either for lunch, dinner or both and then try to sleep when I come home, wake up and do it again. I was working til 3am last night and worked from 10:30am-10:30pm without a break Friday so it was a very restaurant-y weekend. It's not terrible, I actually like it for the most part, but my feet hurt and we just need better scheduling, also last night I felt like I was no longer interested in cocktailing by the bar because I was tired of having my boobs stared at. Other than that I went to Disney on Ice yesterday morning with my sister and Madeline and I think you would've all enjoyed it! :) Anyone seen any good movies or read any good books? Amy - I always think of you during good Alex Korev scenes during Grey's, this week when he was working with Arizona in Peds, I remembered how much I love him lol Miss you guys!!!
<3 Michelle
<3 Michelle
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