I got a dollar! Hey, hey, hey!

Yesterday one of the kids was riding a bike with a trailer on the back loaded with balls. He yelled, "Anyone want to buy a ball?" I asked him how much they were and he said, "A dollar." I thought for a moment, then pulled out a bright green sticky notepad I had in my apron. I pulled one off and gave it to him and he gave me a ball from out of his trailer. As he left, he shouted, "Anybody want a dollar?" Soon, other kids came up to me asking me for a dollar, so I gave each of them a sticky note. Today, the kids somehow remembered what happened yesterday, so they asked me for dollars again. I asked him how many dollars they wanted and one said 60 dollars. I said I didn't have that much money. She then said 9 dollars. Nope. Six dollars. Nope. Three dollars. Okay, I could do that. That same girl took a dollar and wrote on it using her pre-writing skills to make a sign that according to her said that she was selling balls. She wrote on the sticky note and proceeded to stick it to the front of her bike. I love these moments! Sometimes you just have to go with it and laugh, so that is exactly what I do. :D

Living the Dream

I'm living the dream, and this is why:

I graduated from BYU.
I have an amazing family that taught me the gospel and loves me and supports me.
I live with my some of my best friends, Savannah and Lynnae
I have a job as a preschool teacher where I play with, nurture, and teach cute children and where I feel respected, trusted, and supported by my co-workers
I live only 40 minutes from the largest family history center in the world
I live only 5 minutes driving time and 20 minutes walking time from a temple
I have a testimony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ as my Savior and Redeemer, and Heavenly Father loving me.
I am in good health
I participated in the Nauvoo Pageant, which changed my life, and plan to apply again
I love my calling as Relief Society secretary
I have the most amazing ward family
I have many amazing guy friends who care for me and support me and are willing to listen
I have a roof over my head and nice bed to sleep in
I planted a flower and water it everyday
I am anxiously engaged in many good causes including serving others, building up food storage, putting together my Mitchell grandparents histories, scrapbooking highlights of my life, saving money, striving to become self-reliant (to live a happy and productive life), learning how to cook new things and organizing my personal cookbook, etc
I have a working car
I do laundry at my grandma's house and visit with her at the same time
I am more beautiful than my 12-year-old mind imagined I would be
I live in Provo, UT where I have access to many service and educational opportunities
I live close to the mountains where I can go hiking to see beautiful waterfalls and other things of God's creation
I live close to many national and state parks that are just waiting to be camped in and/or explored
I have time to read good books
My apartment has a huge bathroom where all of my roommates and I can get ready at the same time
I'm going to Disneyland with my younger brother when he gets back from his mission in November.
I'm becoming the adopted big sister in the Douglas family that I met through the Nauvoo Pageant.
I have a bright and exciting future ahead of me!

Spontaneous Bridal Veil Falls Hike

A friend came by this afternoon wanting to go on a stress relieving hike. He wanted to go up Slate Canyon, but after sending many texts for this short notice hike, only a few people could come. Slate canyon is a tough hike and we were going to probably end up hiking back in the dark if we left any later. It turned out that my friend decided that he was going to wait for a couple people and wanted me and two other girls to go on ahead. He said he was going to have us hike up to the Y to the start of the trail at the top and he was going to go a different way and meet us there. He wasn't even sure if the trail he was taking went to the top, but he wanted to try it anyway. That was all I needed to hear to tell him that we girls were going to go on our own hike! I don't really like the Y hike trail, so why would I do it if we weren't all going together and he might not even meet us there? That's absurd! So, I had the grand idea of hiking Bridal Veil again. It was a fantastic choice. It was as beautiful as ever. Waterfalls + Fall-colored trees= Michelle's very happy.

It was a beautiful hike: short, but sweet. It felt good to be in God's creations and feel the mist of the waterfall. It's so peaceful and majestic. It isn't one we can climb around and explore, but it was still fun to take pictures and enjoy the moments away from home. It was the perfect end to a week that started off pretty stressful. I am feeling at peace again. It is all thanks to prayer, a priesthood blessing, the temple, amazing and supportive friends, and Heavenly Father's love for me.

Cute Kids

Cute kids discovered the door was magnetic. First they decided they wanted to connect all the "tubes" so they reached the door. Once they got there, they realized they stuck to the door, so they put them all over it, as you can see, then started knocking them all down. It was way too funny to not take a picture of it and share.



Princess dress ups. They really love the Cinderella one.

First Day of School!!

The first two days of school are like the Ground Hog's Day movie. We have an AM and PM class and the first two days of class we divide up which kids come when so we don't have a lot of parents and kids in the classroom at once. This means we teachers have to go through the first day at school FOUR TIMES! I only go through it two times because I am only part time in the afternoon this year. All the same, by the end of tomorrow, we will be ready for a change!

The first day with kids in the classroom went pretty well. We have a couple criers in my class, but they didn't cry the whole time. I forgot how little they are. It's amazing to see where they are developmentally now and know where they can be by the end of the year. For most of these kids, this is their first time in a school setting and being away from their parents for a more extended period of time with strangers. These kids come from various backgrounds, some not as good as others. Our classes are very multicultural and so it is fun to see how they interact. Considering some of these kids only speak Spanish, Japanese or Portuguese, they did very well today. One of the kids really reminds me of my nephew because of how big and chunky he is, so it is fun to interact with him.

I am really grateful that my job isn't stressful anymore and I can go to work and have a good time. Yeah, you would expect that, since I am a preschool teacher, but it wasn't that way at all last year. I love my co-workers and love being with the kids, knowing I am doing so much to help them. I will be taking lots of pictures of the kids and the stuff we do this year and will be sure to post some of them on here for your enjoyment. :)

These past couple weeks have been really crazy and stressful. I am hoping that with my set work schedule now, things will calm down a bit. I've been working long hours for being trained prior to work starting again. Also, I've been trying to get things done for my calling and in my personal life. I think I've still been having problems adjusting to the newness of things in my life. I'm just as bad as a little kid!

Even though I've been pretty busy and stressed, I've had many good times and made many great memories these past couple of weeks. My apartment's quote board is getting full of quotes already. I've definitely contributed some of those quotes, including, "Lynnae's like 'play hard to get,' but I'm like 'PLEASE TAKE ME!!' " It's funny because it's kind of true... I'm not desperate though. My roommates and some friends and I went to the Diamond Fork Hot Springs again. There a guy squeezed my foot with his hand a bunch of times under the water and when I asked him what he was doing he said, "I thought it was a squishy rock."

My roommates really liked the picture below because they said that it is an expression I have on my face a lot and it shows my personality. Is that true??

The first week of school for BYU students, my ward sponsored an activity almost every night of the week. At the end of the week, we had a boating activity that was tons of fun. We just about fell off the raft at least 3 or 4 times. It was scary, but really awesome!

These past couple weeks we've also had people over for movies, games, and dinner. I've felt a little more domestic lately, enough that I've made food and invited people over to try some. I'm super busy, but it's a good busy. Hopefully this week I will get things in order so I can start working on the projects and other things I want to do! I'm pretty excited to get to know the kids in my class this year!