Knee Deep Blog

Just Published My First Article On Forbes Women

Woo hoo, I just published my first article on Forbes Women - a fun day!

What Is Your Belief About Cancer Reoccurrence? - 2 Year Update

The other night I had an intense dream about a conversation with a cancer psychologist; who probed my beliefs about cancer potentially reoccurring.

I have to admit that I woke up somewhat disturbed. What did I really believe about cancer and the possibility it would reoccur?

It's been a good two years since I finished 9 months of treatment. Each month brings more life post breast cancer. Yet every three months I go in for my quarterly check up filled with blood tests, my visit to the oncologist is often the same set of questions, review and physical check in. It's also generally filled with an hour plus wait in the oncology department where I see many, although I only really notice the women, in various stages of pretreatment, during treatment and post treatment. This keeps my own cancer memories fresh.

My heart is filled with compassion for those I can tell have been recently diagnosed. You can always tell because there is extra hand holding, nervous glances towards others, especially the bald heads, and sometimes consoling of one women by multiple others. They are just being exposed to the new language, the language of cancer, oncologists, treatment, chemo, radiation, support, education, etc.

Teach a Child to Cook and You Open A Whole New World

As part of a neighbor's 8 year old birthday gift I was asked to teach her how to make my famous (at least in her mind) enchiladas.  Yesterday we met up to begin our cooking adventure and I'm still smiling.

Olivia is a daughter I don't have so I love when the opportunity arrives to give some loving girl style - often for me it is through food.  I really, and I mean really enjoy cooking - the only time I don't is when I feel like I HAVE to do it versus I'm choosing to do it.

Anyway back to teaching kids to cook.  We arranged a meet up time to review the recipe, make our list of ingredients and head off to the store.  She knew she wanted to learn how to make enchiladas but filling them with things she loves. The yummy enchilada recipe is at the bottom of the post.

Get Sparked Cafe and Following Your Dream

This morning my girlfriend Lisa Fox sent an email announcing her first CD release right here in Seattle at Tula's Jazz Club on September 22nd - which by the way if you're around I hope you can make it.  It reminds me that we all have a dream that's deep inside and both how powerful it is to witness a friend follow their dream.

Lisa is the first person I met when I moved to Seattle 15 years ago and is the person that introduced me to Tim, my always adoring husband.  We often call her the songbird because she's always singing in choirs, at events, spontaneously, etc - including at our wedding which made me cry like a baby.  More importantly she's continued to follow her dream to have a professional singing career that's both gone smoothly and had bumps at other times.

I believe...

Following your dream takes knowing what you want, believing it, taking actions (both big and small) and asking for help because we can't do it alone. 

I've also been following my dream to connect women in deep, engaging conversation that makes a difference everyday - hence the birth of Get Sparked Cafe.  The next cafe is September 16th and I hope you can make it.  Join the list to get more details and upcoming cafe dates. The Cafe is free because I want to give back to my community.   Come join some amazing women!

Hope to see you at both events!

Here's Lisa live.

Regards, Michele

The Tooth Fairy Shows Up After Two Missed Attempts

The tooth fairy was no were to be seen the past couple nights and created quite a ruckus at our home.

The first night I simply forgot, after all it had been 24 days since the darn snaggle tooth came out.  It's been sitting in a bowl in the dining room waiting for Eli to decide to put it under the pillow.  He said he wanted to look at it some more, but then took no action and we all forgot about it.

When he told me he was putting in his tooth pillow I thought I hope I have cash and promptly between reading a late night magazine with a glass of wine it slipped out of my mind.  In the morning Eli was quite upset that the tooth fairy didn't come.

TMI But I Have To Share - Dog Butts

Ok, Tim is always saying TMI (too much information) close the sharing window, butt, I mean but I just can't help myself.

My girlfriend told me a story about a conversation she had with Eli and Carly's butt hole and I was going to leave it alone, until I found Eli with a mirror in the bathroom and I could hardly keep a straight face.

Story 1. Lori's Butt Adventure with Eli

My First 50% Off at Groupon.com - Great deals and date night idea

Looking for a great date night idea?  My friend Barbara told me about Groupon.com a while back and I even loaded the free app on my iphone, but until today I was simply a Groupon voyeur.

I thought heck why not try it out and see if we like it - it provides both a location for our date night and is a potential cheap eat.  Perhaps it will get us to try different local neighborhood establishments in addition to our favorite The Bengal Tiger restaurant in the Roosevelt neighborhood.  I've noticed that Tim and I are pretty compulsive when it comes to the Bengal Tiger and always order the Mango Lamb chops nice and spicy.  Plus we love being able to chat with the owner Mohammad. Oh I digress.   And it's time for us to branch out some too.

Thornton Creek Auction dressed Peter Maxx Style

OK I have to admit that I was glad to be tagged on Facebook in this photo rather than the one I posted earlier - It's my Peter Maxx early 70's look.  Unfortunately you can't see my bouffant because it blends in with the background and my silver shoes are under the table!

Tim looked fabulous, with his gold chain and powder blue pants.  We had a hard time deciding big curly hair or slicked down with the geek curl on the end which one out after I spent a bunch of time online looking at hair styles.

I got teary eyed watching the Dog Whisperer

Wasn't clear I wanted to admit this but this morning I cried watching one of the Celebrity Edition Shows of the Dog Whisperer aka Cesar Millan featuring Downtown Julie Brown and her daughter with Tim, Eli and our new dog Carly.

Tim looked over and laughed, are you crying?  You know it was pretty amazing watching her transformation - and he didn't mean the dog although it definitely shifted with the training.  He meant Julie Brown's daughter Gianna.  And yes, that is why I was crying.

How do you feel? You look great!

This year I joined a mastermind based upon Gay Hendricks book, The Big Leap (a great book by the way).  My friend and creator of this group, Kathy and I met up for lunch a couple of weeks ago and I shared this story which she urged me to write about to the group.  I did and wanted to share on my blog too.

How do you feel? or more commonly - how are you? are both stated again and again without much thought, rather a greeting that is quickly not heard as we move into the meat of the conversation that is wanting to be said.

My observation: