Our Story
Michelle
Michelle is the twin sister of Brian and daughter to Marion and Rick. Michelle was born and raised in Ottawa, ON. She went to school at the University of Waterloo for her undergrad in Kinesiology, then came back home to complete her Bachelor of Education degree at Ottawa U. This is where she met Chris.
Michelle works at her old high school teaching French and Math right now. She enjoys a short walk to work at the moment. She's not looking forward to having to purchase a car and commute to work every morning when she's married, but fortunately for Chris, it's not a deal breaker.
Michelle is big time into staying active by skating, cycling and rowing. She also enjoys baking all kinds of yummy treats. Michelle is a faith filled Christian and enjoys leading the Christian club at her school. She plays in a volleyball league on Tuesday nights, coaches the school ski team in the mornings and on weekends, and coaches the school curling team as well.
Chris believes that Michelle is the most awesomest "wifey to be" ever.
Chris
Chris is the brother of Tara and son to Bob and Rosemarie. He was born and raised in Scarborough, ON affectionately known as Scarberia. You can take the boy out of Toronto, but you can't take the Toronto out of the boy. Although Chris is a bandwagon hockey fan at playoff time, he claims to be a Leaf fan which is a dangerous claim at times in O-Town.
Chris did his undergrad at home at the University of Toronto St. Michael's College. He moved to Ottawa and away from all the comforts of home to pursue his bachelor of Education at Ottawa U after a short career in web development.
Chris spent a year teaching grade 7 Math and Science before moving to the Board office where he currently works as a Curriculum Consultant.
Chris also enjoys staying active. He loves to swim, cycle, ski, play volleyball and skate. Chris helps Michelle coach her school curling team.
Michelle believed it would be character building for Chris to live with a housemate, so Chris has been living with Ainslie for about a year now.
Dating
Date: Thursday June 22, 2006
Subject: First Date
I had the most unbelievable day yesterday and I thought you might like to hear about it. Here goes...
I spent a long time working near Buttonville airport in Toronto watching the planes come in and take off. I always wanted to fly. So I drove up to Rockcliffe Flying Club here yesterday and took an introductory flight. They take you up, show you how it all works, then say ... ok the wheel is yours. So I flew a Cesna 172 singe prop airplane yesterday afternoon. It was amazing! Until the instructor had me bank 30 degrees left then 30 degrees right then climb, then descend...then the instructor had to fly us home cause my stomach was not in the mood to continue. :) So needless to say, I'm not signing up for ground school anytime soon. I highly recommend it though. It was awesome!
Michelle had to work at the hospital research lab yesterday and I cooked up some grub for dinner. She came over and as she was saying grace, she thanked God for a boyfriend that made good food for her. Yep, she did say boyfriend! This leads me to our first date...
Then last night we went to see the circus. Cirque du Soleil was in town. What a great show. Just as I'm sitting there enjoying this clown's routine, he starts pulling folks from the audience. Michelle tells me that they have people planted in the crowd. Just as she says that this clown comes over and points directly at ME!!! So here I go up on stage at Cirque du Soleil. I'm picked as the macho guy who struts his stuff and gets the girl. So here I am on stage strutting my stuff, dipping this girl in a passionate embrace...well trying to look that way anyways. Then I'm supposed to be found by the jealous boyfriend and shot. From there I go through a dramatic demise where the guts spew, I'm supposed to grab one leg, put an arm behind my head and dance around like some character on Fresh Prince of Bel Air then fall to the floor where the girl drinks some poison and falls next to me. I did every single thing I was told. The crowd went nuts.
SO...after making a complete fool of myself performing at the circus, I get home to find an email in my inbox from a girl I went to school with.
My friend Irene writes.....did you take up acting? was that you on stage at the circus tonight? Yep, if it wasn't bad enough that I actually went and did all that, it was witnessed.
So that was my unbelievable day and our first date. Hope you got a good laugh.
Chris
The Engagement
February 2007
Here is a fun little story for you about an adventure Chris and I had last weekend trying to find a little toy pig of mine lost in downtown Ottawa.
Chris picked me up on Sunday afternoon and told me that we were going on a mission to find Piggy (Chris often hides this little stuffed pig in my bedroom when he is at my house).
Piggy was looking out the window one day and decided to go on a mission.
He handed me a binder with plastic page covers, and the first page filled – a picture of piggy staring out his front window, driving his car, etc, and little captions telling the story of piggy’s adventure. I had to figure out from the pictures where I needed to go to get the next clue.
He packed his bags, got in the car and off he went!
Piggy parked the car, had his snack and began his Adventure!
Piggy was loudly chanting "Go Leafs Go" in this area of the canal in an attempt to get a game going. He was chased away by a bunch of Sens fans who said that hockey wasn't allowed on the canal. Too bad really, this seemed like a perfect place for a game!
Piggy decided to check out the menu at Canal Ritz...
... but was disappointed by their service as they were closed on Sundays.
There's nothing like a warm fire on the canal!
The University of Ottawa reported seeing Smoke Signals
from Piggy this afternoon.
Piggy decided to Party like it was 1999 ...
but all he could find were 2007 sculptures.
Bunny called ... apparently Piggy was warming up in the Chalet.
Piggy was spotted strutting his stuff at the ice cafe at Winterlude
Piggy Enters an Ice Carving Competition ...
... and does exceptionally well!!!
NCC Officials report seeing Piggy enjoying some Maple treats ...
... and Beavertails!
Piggy has a secret mission that can only be shared by a whisper.
This adventure to find Piggy took us up and down the Rideau Canal on our skates, through the ice sculptures beautifully lit up, and to the Whispering Wall – a unique statue by the Parliament buildings that amplifies a whisper so that you can here on the other side of the curved wall about 20 feet away. (I had taken Chris to the Whispering Wall last winter on a similarly cold crisp winter night.) He whispered into the wall “I love you”, with me listening at the other end. Then, instead of handing me another page with picture clues to fill my book, he took a large poster tube out of his bag and opened the lid, and out came Piggy and some red roses (now frozen, but a nice touch none the less). Piggy’s feet were securely fastened with red ribbon suspending a little red jewellery box. Unzipping his coat to reveal a nice shirt and tie that he was wearing, he got down on one knee and asked me if I would marry him!... I said “Yes, absolutely”! Then he proceeded to place a beautiful platinum solitaire ring on my finger, which was hard to get on since it was so cold, but once on fit perfectly. What an adventure! Personal and perfect!
... And they all lived happily ever after.
The End.
We are very thankful for all that God has done in our lives to shape us and bring us together, and for what He will continue to do through us as we venture into this new season of life together.
God Bless,
Michelle and Chris