I can remember giving birth to Michele because she weighed ten pounds and three ounces but she was only 18 inches long. She came with light brown hair and beautiful light blue eyes. She was whisked away from me to an incubator that would keep her under lights as she had yellow jaundice. I remember being upset that I couldn't be with her those precious hours. That was her beginning and my second daughter was here on Earth to learn and grow. Marie was just barely two when Michele was a baby, so I had my hands busy with a toddler and Michele both in diapers.
Michele grew fast and I can remember when she got potty-trained, we were on a train trip. Michele was fasinated by the train's unique potties. She went once on the train potty and that was it for her, no more dirty diapers. Smart Girl.
We lived in Sacramento for a short time before moving to San Diego. Michele loved going to the beach as a young girl. She would build sandcastles with her two sisters, Marie and Marlene. Mom would pack them a lunch and they would run to the waves and play for hours. Michele was afraid of swimming in the ocean but her Dad, David helped her overcome that fear. She also was afraid of dogs, and we never knew why but she eventually outgrew that fear too.
She had lots of fun when her Mom became a Girl Scout Leader and Michele became a Brownie in the troop. She loved having so many girls over to play with and sing songs with. One of her favorites was Wataleeacha, Wataleeacha, Doodleeedo....She had friends from many different cultures and enjoyed them all. She also learned to speak some Spanish while living in San Diego.
She loved doing art work in school and making friends came easy to her. When she was in 2nd grade in school, her class had a field trip to the Helicopter Training Center and Michele got chosen to go up in the helicopter, she was hooked on flying ever since that time.
Michele was seven years old when we moved from San Diego to Murray, Utah. We rented a U-haul and David (Dad) drove it along with Marie (Michele's older sister). Michele, Marlene (youngest sister) and Jacob (youngest brother) rode with Mom (me) in the orange Volkswagen. It was the month of June and driving through the desert near Las Vegas the U-Haul truck broke down. All of us in the orange Volkswagen were 50 miles ahead of the truck. Michele would remember when another car came along side of us and yelled that David (Dad) was 50 miles behind us and broke down. Michele was such a great helper with Jacob, who was a baby at that time. She would hold him and comfort him as much as she could. We didn't have air conditioning in the car, so we used spray bottles of water to cool each other down. We would sing songs to comfort each other too. Michele had the greatest memory for songs and loved singing to us.
Michele loved living near her cousins, The Brennan's, my older sister Linda, her husband Pete and their five boys and one daughter. Michele had the most fun with her boy cousins. Michele was as much a leader as the next one and could tell lots of jokes. She laughed a lot. Later, my younger sister Gail and her husband Mike had three more boy cousins for Michele to pal around with. Her and her sisters and their cousins were great friends. I am sure she remembers going to Bear Lake camping and the skunk that raided our camp. The mud bath was surely one her cousin Paul and she had much fun at. Later when she is older she would go out singing karoake with her cousin Justin, and they would sing at the weddings in Gail & Mike's yard, what fun they had !
Becoming a teen she made lots of friends at Jordan High School. She was a cute, sexy girl whom the boys loved to tease and despite them she did well in school. She worked during her senior year at a nursing home for the elderly. She would come home with funny stories to tell about some of her patients'. We all loved to listen to her tell us stories as she was a comedian. She could even do impressions of Eddy Murphy and we would laugh hysterically. Michele had a strong muscular body and she enjoyed marching. She also developed her love of art while in High School. Later she would draw cute, whimsical characters and make really fun crafts using that talent. She especially enjoyed decorative writing and she could make the sweetest cards and funny cards too. We all looked forward to getting one of her homemade cards.
When Michele had problems in life, she would confide in her Mother, and sometimes we would cry together, hold each other, then we would find humor in it all and laugh together. We would shop and Michele was a great, thrifty shopper. She gave the most wonderful gifts to others, always something to touch your heart strings.
When Michele started her family, she was the happiest person, she wanted a family so much.
First she had Michael, he brought so much happiness to Michele with his sweet smile. She would tell lots of stories of Michael's antic's all through her life. She loved to make her children laugh and smile. When Andrew was born he brought her much joy. She protected her boys like no other.
When Asia, her little, sweet girl came a long, she made Michele's family complete. Michele was so excited to have a little girl, one to dress up and have as a beautiful friend too. Asia will always be her little, sweet darling forever.