If You Could Hie to Kolob

This weekend I went to Zion, Kolob Canyon to be exact. My family and I were able to talk with rangers who were on the search and rescue team that found my brother's body. We were also able to visit the exact spot of where my brother's body was found. Some of you may think that I was crazy or insane to do this. During my drive down there, there were some times that I thought I was too. I knew it was going to be hard and challenging, but it was just something that I needed to do. It was somewhere where I needed to go. I needed to be there and that is all that I can say. This experienced allowed me to see and experiences some of the conditions that my brother faced as he was hiking, but it allowed me to spend time with my parents and to allow some of the healing that needed to take place. All I can say now is that Zion will always be a special place.

As I reflect upon this experience, the hymn, "If You Could Hie to Kolob" comes to my mind. The lyrics state my feelings and thoughts better than I can. 

1. If you could hie to Kolob
In the twinkling of an eye,
And then continue onward
With that same speed to fly,
Do you think that you could ever,
Through all eternity,
Find out the generation
Where Gods began to be?

2. Or see the grand beginning,
Where space did not extend?
Or view the last creation,
Where Gods and matter end?
Methinks the Spirit whispers,
"No man has found 'pure space,'
Nor seen the outside curtains,
Where nothing has a place."

3. The works of God continue,
And worlds and lives abound;
Improvement and progression
Have one eternal round.
There is no end to matter;
There is no end to space;
There is no end to spirit;
There is no end to race.

4. There is no end to virtue;
There is no end to might;
There is no end to wisdom;
There is no end to light.
There is no end to union;
There is no end to youth;
There is no end to priesthood;
There is no end to truth.

5. There is no end to glory;
There is no end to love;
There is no end to being;
There is no death above.
There is no end to glory;
There is no end to love;
There is no end to being;
There is no death above.

Text: William W. Phelps, 1792-1872

A Day in the Life of Me According to my Roommates

Last night my roommates and I had to introduce ourselves at ward prayer, so we all wrote the "Dail in the Life of......" They are hilarious! Here it goes:

Michelle wakes up really early, and no one knows why. She is usually gone before everyone else wakes up. Then she goes and teaches 5th grade students at Westmore Elementary in a far away land called Orem, Utah. She loves teaching and her students so much that she'll even wear black and orange pumpkin pajama pants to school. After school, she usually comes home and takes a nap or reads an LDS historical fiction novel. She waits for Heidi (one of my roommates) to get home from school so they can talk about blogging or cool history Youtube videos. Then bugs Heidi for about 3 hours, and gets her to procrastinate her homework. After she bothers Heidi, she eats a rewarding piece of toast with nutella and checks the mail-She usually gets really sad when someone else does it. She usually tells her roommates that she has no friends, but her phone goes off almost a million times a day. She plans lessons like Bill Nye the Science Guy and talks about things that are "tender to her heart." After all this is done, she packs her lunch, complains how cold Utah is, and goes to bed really early.

The End

I Finally Got It!!!

I finally got a picture with Cosmo!! After 4 years at BYU, I got a picture with Cosmo! He came to the school that I am student teaching at. It is not the best picture, but I got one! 

 

Make a New List

So let's be honest, my life hasn't gone the way that I planned it would. I wanted a sister, did I get one, nope but now I am so happy to have the brothers that I do. I thought finding a job would be easy once I graduated, wrong again. I thought my brother would be found this summer, but nope that didn't turn out either. Things according to me haven't worked out how I wanted them to. Yesterday in one of my classes we had a guest presenter who has a son, Reed, who has down syndrome. She talked to us about his life and all of the things and then she told us this story: 

"She told us about Reed when he was serving his mission. Ever since Reed was 16, he has loved going on dates, and always has a list of girls he wants to date. He served his mission at the Orem institute. The first day he came home, he showed his mom a list of all the girls he wanted to date. She chuckled and said, "you need to focus on your mission. Your mission is two years, and these girls will probably graduate or get married and won't be around after your mission."
"That's ok," Reed replied. "I'll make a new list then"

Life doesn't always go the way you plan it. And that is ok. It's ok to make a new list.

It made me think, all I need to do is make a new list, set some new goals, and continue to move on with life. That is what I have been trying to do and so far it has helped. My new goal in life is to continually make a new list then if things do not turn out how I expected. 

One last quote, "If things aren't working out then they haven't finished working out, yet." Dr. Tuttle

Inspiration

"If life gets to hard to stand, kneel."

-Gordon B. Hinckley

Another Funny Story

My dad sent this to me.........I was laughing so hard I almost fell off my chair! Enjoy!

 

Seasme Street Still Rules!

Week of Quotes

This week has been a Week of Quotes. It started with the Relief Society Broadcast and has stemmed into my classes, work, and my roommates. Here are some of them that I have gathered this week so far:

"You know you are in love when you can't fall asleep because your reality is finally better that your dreams." 

 -Dr. Seuss

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."

-Mother Teresa

"There are two kinds of people in this world. Those you love and those you don't know yet."

-This came from a girl in one of my classes, she heard it from one of her teachers at EFY

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."

-C.S. Lewis from Mere Christianity 

I love collecting quotes because they are just like scriptures. You read them once and they apply at a certain level and then you read them later and there is a whole other application that can be seen in the same exact quote/scripture! I love it!

Amazing Friday Night

It was Friday night. My roommates and I were all sitting around not wanting to do our homework. All we wanted to do was that we celebrate that we survived another week of school. One of my roommates had a brilliant idea to go to this FREE concert on a rooftop of a parking garage in Provo. The setting and atmosphere was amazing, there were paper lanterns everywhere, way cool lights strung everywhere. Apparently, this is a series of concerts that Provo is putting on every month. It is called Provo's Rooftop Concert Series and occurs the first Friday of every month. One of the neatest artists featured was Benton Paul. I highly recommend checking out his stuff. The best part about this artist is he now lives in LAS VEGAS!!!!! (Which makes him super cool because anyone from Las Vegas is super cool!) We are planning to go the concert in October if anyone wants to join us. Just call one of us along and we will take you with us, just make sure you dress warm because it will be cold!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1GAGxIV9OI&feature=related Follow the link to one of Benton Paul's songs.

My roommate Sarah and I at the concert

Sarah, Heidi,and I

Heidi and I

Oh Sammy's. How I love thee so much!!! Your pie and cupcake shakes are to die for!

I did it

So I did it. Yup, I was a little scared to do it, but I did it. You are probably asking what I did. Well I applied for GRADUATION!!!!!  That means that I have been at BYU for 4 years and I need to grow up and get a real job. Only 8 more months until graduation!!!

My Buddy

My youngest brother, Corey passed away suddenly on July 22, 2010. What a shock it was to experience it, but what a bonding moment it has been. I have seen my immediate as well as extended family draw closer, but also I have seen ward members and friends become even more closer to my family. 

The funny thing about this whole situation is that I didn't want to come home for summer. I wanted to stay in Provo. But I prayed about staying in Provo for the rest of the summer and the Lord told me that there are things in life that you want to do and things that you need to do and you need to go home. So I dragged my feet home, sent my brother Jeff on his mission and then it was just Corey and I for the rest of the summer. I went to work each day and when I got home Corey and I would play with each other. This has been the most remarkable summer yet and I will never forget it. I just wanted to thank everyone for all of their support and constant love during this trying
time because I couldn't do it without all of you.


Where I work for the summer, is a place that takes senior portraits. I had my brother Corey come in in early July to take his pictures. Now that we have those pictures, they are priceless to us and I so glad that I had him come in. My family has seen so many tender mercies right now and I challenge you to look for some in your life because they are there.

Keeps Me Going

So my brother Jeff left for his mission yesterday. Can I tell you how odd it is?? We took him to the airport in Las Vegas and walked him to security and then said goodbye to him. He is going to the Scotland Edinburgh mission so he had to report to the Preston, England MTC. I feel like he is going to be home in a couple days or something. I am so proud of him and I can't wait to see what his mission awaits him. He was ready to go and that is what keeps me going everyday.

Memorial Weekend Fun!

This past weekend was amazing! My aunt and uncle invited my older brother, Matt and I down to their house in Gunnison, Utah. We went four-wheeling and I almost killed myself, but don't worry, I'm still alive. We helped my grandparents clean out their broken deep-freezer. Let's just say that rotting turkey and whatever else was in there does not smell good! We took their deep-freezer to the dump and all that was in the freezer. On Monday, Matt and I went to Provo City Cemetery to visit our aunt's grave. It took us awhile to find the grave, but never fail, we finally did! There were tons of people at the cemetery placing flowers on their loved ones grave. It was such an amazing sight and I don't think I have ever seen anything like that before. 
The best part of my weekend I would have to say was going to my friend Travis' Homecoming. He served his mission in the Geneva Switzerland mission and got home this past week. I know Travis from my freshman year of college so it was an amazing experience to see him and other friends from freshman year. I can't wait for Fall Semester when the rest of my friends get off of their missions! Let the Good Times Roll! 

I Have a Love for Comics

So I open up my email today and I see that my brother Jeff has sent me this comic:





And yes there is a really funny story behind it, because there always is.
My brother Jeff, our friend Michael, and myself were at I-HOP in Cedar City on a Saturday morning. We had just had an incredible week at EFY (Especially for Youth) at SUU in Cedar. We were having breakfast at I-HOP because the program does not feed you breakfast on Saturday morning so we decided to go to I-HOP. Myself and Michael order fine and then it comes to Jeff........ he orders a meal that contains eggs. The waiter asks Jeff how he wants his eggs. She was referring to scrambled, sunny side up, etc. Jeff answers: COOKED! Everyone at the table busts up laughing except for my brother because he thought his answer was valid and completely normal. Well the waiter was taken back a little bit and then clarifies that she means scrambled, sunny side up, etc. Well that is why my brother sent me this comic, because I constantly remind him about the story and it is just a joke that we have with each other. This was one of the sunny parts of my day when it was raining and gloomy outside.

I Love Spring Term!!

So instead of packing up all of my things and heading home to Las Vegas, I decided to stay in Provo for Spring Term. Yes, there has been some days that have been super cold and I wished I was at home where it is currently 85 degrees, but I would not have had all of the experiences that have been amazing if I had gone home. 

Currently, 

I am on my ward's Kickball team! It is a blast!!

Every week we have some sort of party at my apartment.

So far we have had a Cereal Party

Pazookie party where we made HUGE cookies and watched Sherlock Holmes afterwards

Game Night

I also ran around in one of these:

Went to the midnight showing of this movie:

And have done tons more. I LOVE THE SUMMER TIME!!!

The best part so far is I was able to go SWIMMING OUTSIDE!!! That was the best day ever!!!

Tight Like Unto A Dish

I love this Kid! Some of you may  know him, others don't. This is my youngest brother Corey and we are "tight like unto a dish." Here are some reasons why we are:

• We love going swimming together
• We love talking with each other all the time!
• We can talk about anything with each other
• We love each other unconditionally
• We love going on adventures together! He even sometimes likes going shopping with me and gives me his opinion about what I am trying on.
• We both love playing volleyball!
• He gives me great ideas for pranks! Thanks bud!

I love this kid so much and I can't wait to see him whenever it will be! So when I move home for summer I will be hanging out with this kid a whole ton because we will be the only children at home! I am so grateful that we are pals!

The Road Not Taken

So I am sitting at my computer and thinking, I don't have anymore 15 page papers to write, lesson plans to come up with, or projects (that I thought was a paper, it's a long story, I'll tell you later if you ask me) to do. What am I going to do. Then it got me thinking about the many things that have changed in my life this semester as well as the changes that have gone inside of me. This semester I have learned so much about how to teach children, especially literacy as well as how to manage them in a classroom. But besides all of the pedagogy, I have learned what it means to be a true friend, how to love others after only knowing them for 2 days, and best of I have learned to have patience with myself and the Lord. 

Some of you may know that after last semester was over I was done with my ward and my apartment complex. I wanted to move and live somewhere else, but something told me to stay, so I did. I am so glad that I did, it may have been easier to leave and start all over, but I continued with something that I started. This part of my life reminds me of the poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost ( I had to memorize the poem in the 5th grade).

I am so glad that I took the road not taken, it may have been harder, and tiring, but I have learned so many things that it is absolutely incredible and I would never take any of it back. I just wanted to thank everyone (roommates, friends, girls in my classes because there are no boys, and my family) for making these past four months incredible and amazing!

I really want to post a picture of my class that I was in for four weeks on here, but I cannot because of the FERPA laws. Sorry. But those kids taught me so much and I will forever be in debt to them. Well I hope you all had a wonderful semester and learned so much!! Love you all!

I love my Dad!

So my Dad sent me this in an email and it totally made my day! He always seems to send me stuff when he knows that I have had a hard week or just whenever and usually it is hilarious! This one made my day because I would totally do something similar to this story!!!

I can't wait to be old and cute!!

Day in the Life of a BYU Elementary Education Practicum Student

6:00 am Alarm goes off
6:05 am Decide to get out of bed otherwise I know I am going to be late
6:45 am Meet up with carpool
7:15 am Arrive at Shelley Elementary in American Fork, Ut
7:30 am Help mentor teacher set up room and get ready for the day
8:00 am First half of the students arrive, literacy instruction
9:15 am Second half of the students arrive
10:00 am Art and Music teacher comes so prep time for practicum students and mentor teacher
11:00 am LUNCH TIME! I get to eat lunch with all of the teachers in the faculty lunch room
11:45 am Students come in from recess, read aloud to students

1:00 pm Leave to go back to campus for the rest of my classes and work
Go to Class and Prepare for the next day. 
6:30 pm Eat dinner
10:30 pm Get ready for bed
11:00 pm Lights out!


I absolutely love being in the classroom!!! I never want to leave to come back to BYU for my classes. Life is crazy, but it is so much fun and I really feel like I want to be a teacher! I also never realized that I could love so many kids in a short time.


That is all.

What I want to do when I grow up!

Friday, O' What a Day!

Every Friday I have a class from 8-11 so I usually wake up at 7, shower, and run (key word, run) off to class. Well this past Friday my alarm went off at 7, I looked at and decided that I could sleep until 7:30 and throw clothes on, go to class, come home and shower. So that is exactly what I did. After class was over, my friend asked me to study with her for our literacy midterm that we had to take, so I decided I would. We studied until 2:30 and walked to the testing center to take the test and then I was going to run home and shower and get ready for the murder mystery date that I was going to go on. Anyways, we get to the testing center and they only have one copy of the test left, HUGE PROBLEM!! Because the test was not scantron, it was handwritten on the test. So the test checker people went to the back and they were gone for a long time and my friend and I were getting worried. They come to us and ask us to step aside and start helping other people. The head person comes and speaks to us and tells us that she is trying to contact our teacher to get more copies or to have permission to make more copies. Well with our luck they could not get in contact with our teacher so, she decides to go make copies herself. It takes her 20 minutes to go make 4 copies!!! We finally get to take our test at 3:00 pm. So I take my time and finish my test and then I run home because finally I get to take a shower! WRONG!! As soon as I got home, the management decided to shut off our water to do some maintenance work and I need to start getting ready for my date and wash my clothes because I was going to wear some of them for the date. Well I decide to wait to see how long it will before the water is turned on because they told us it would be 1 1/2 hours. Well I grew impatient and called my friend and asked her to use her shower so I ran over there and showered and it felt amazing!! I was able to get ready for my murder mystery date with just enough time and the rest of the night turned out perfectly! I ended up being the murderer, which was hilarious because my character was the princess in disguise and we had amazing food as well.

Life has challenges, it is just the way that we take and run with them that matters!


This is my date, "The Duke" and I was "Princess Idelle"



The whole group, with all the characters and our lovely host (in the purple dress)

The best part of the whole evening was that at the end of the night I was so tired that I could not say words, I could only spell them!