Alright already, the guilt has finally gotten to me. I have to admit I have been an addict reading this blog so I guess its time I shared as well. It will be my first blogging attempt ever.
I can’t believe how time has gone by. I remember we couldn’t wait for each school year to end. Each year seemed to take so long at the time but the last 20 years out of school went by in the blink of an eye. Here’s a recap of the last 20 years:
After our Chami days, I attended CSUN. The first semester I had every class with Lisa Gosselin. Working together we could come up with plenty of excuses to not go to class. All it took was a nod across the room and we were off to get something to eat instead. Once she decided to move up north, I actually got a lot more school work done over the next few years. I never really got into the college scene as I worked almost full time all through school. I did eventually graduate with an accounting degree and went off to the world of public accounting. I worked for Kenneth Leventhal & Co (eventually bought out by Ernst and Young) as an auditor. I also did a little tax work. I got to travel quite a bit…audits in Hawaii and Las Vegas aren’t too bad to do, especially on the corporate credit card. I stayed there for a few years, long enough to get my CPA license. I was living in Simi Valley at the time and the drive to Century City was really getting to me. It was time for a change to somewhere closer. I ended up working at Blue Cross of California in Woodland Hills starting in 1995 and have been there ever since in various finance, IT and project management roles.
I met my husband Dan a couple of months before we graduated…thanks to Melissa Chappell and Lisa Gosselin for the introductions. We have been together for 20 years now and married for 12 of them. My bridesmaids were all Chaminade alums…Tracy Tuso, Lisa Gosselin, Jessica Zada and Heather Chase. Not too long ago, I was going through a box of high school mementos. I found the back cover of our 11th grade religion book. On it Jessica had written “Michele will love a man named Dan”. It was dated 8/6/86, about 7 months before I met my future husband. Jess, how did you come up with that one?
Dan and I have two bright, energetic and happy kids who are the biggest joys in my life. Amanda is 8 and Anthony is 4 ½. They keep us constantly busy with school, soccer, baseball and dance. Amanda is a little clone of me (especially if you compare pictures of me at the same age).
After our Chami days, I attended CSUN. The first semester I had every class with Lisa Gosselin. Working together we could come up with plenty of excuses to not go to class. All it took was a nod across the room and we were off to get something to eat instead. Once she decided to move up north, I actually got a lot more school work done over the next few years. I never really got into the college scene as I worked almost full time all through school. I did eventually graduate with an accounting degree and went off to the world of public accounting. I worked for Kenneth Leventhal & Co (eventually bought out by Ernst and Young) as an auditor. I also did a little tax work. I got to travel quite a bit…audits in Hawaii and Las Vegas aren’t too bad to do, especially on the corporate credit card. I stayed there for a few years, long enough to get my CPA license. I was living in Simi Valley at the time and the drive to Century City was really getting to me. It was time for a change to somewhere closer. I ended up working at Blue Cross of California in Woodland Hills starting in 1995 and have been there ever since in various finance, IT and project management roles.
I met my husband Dan a couple of months before we graduated…thanks to Melissa Chappell and Lisa Gosselin for the introductions. We have been together for 20 years now and married for 12 of them. My bridesmaids were all Chaminade alums…Tracy Tuso, Lisa Gosselin, Jessica Zada and Heather Chase. Not too long ago, I was going through a box of high school mementos. I found the back cover of our 11th grade religion book. On it Jessica had written “Michele will love a man named Dan”. It was dated 8/6/86, about 7 months before I met my future husband. Jess, how did you come up with that one?
Dan and I have two bright, energetic and happy kids who are the biggest joys in my life. Amanda is 8 and Anthony is 4 ½. They keep us constantly busy with school, soccer, baseball and dance. Amanda is a little clone of me (especially if you compare pictures of me at the same age).
We live in Simi Valley and own a glass company in Simi called Community Glass & Mirror (anyone needing showers, mirrors, windows, etc give us a call). Dan runs all of the day to day operations and I handle all the behind the scenes finances in the evenings.
We have a boat, motor home and quads and are truly weekend warriors. We spend summers at the Colorado River or in Lake Havasu on our boat and the winters in the desert riding quads. The kids love all our activities and I really enjoy all of our family time. I never did much family stuff with my parents at a young age, so I guess I'm trying to make up for all of that with my kids. Luckily with Dan working for himself and my 5+ weeks off a year at work we can spend a lot of time away from work. We have also been playing co-ed softball weekly for about 10 years. This always makes me laugh as I wasn’t on a single sports team in school. In my “free” time I am an avid scrap booker and try to keep up on albums filled with all the pictures I take from of our activities.
We have a boat, motor home and quads and are truly weekend warriors. We spend summers at the Colorado River or in Lake Havasu on our boat and the winters in the desert riding quads. The kids love all our activities and I really enjoy all of our family time. I never did much family stuff with my parents at a young age, so I guess I'm trying to make up for all of that with my kids. Luckily with Dan working for himself and my 5+ weeks off a year at work we can spend a lot of time away from work. We have also been playing co-ed softball weekly for about 10 years. This always makes me laugh as I wasn’t on a single sports team in school. In my “free” time I am an avid scrap booker and try to keep up on albums filled with all the pictures I take from of our activities.
Some favorite memories…breakfast at McDonalds on Platt instead of first period class; letters from all our friends and family from Kairos retreat; homecoming and vice-versa dances (Matt Wiltshire…how many did we go to together???); graduation trip to Hawaii; being in love with anyone from Duran Duran; the song Save a Prayer from Duran Duran; ice blocking; and of course the endless parties.
I can’t wait to catch up with everyone at the reunion or feel free to send me an email ahead of time. Hope to see you in October.
Michele
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