"Busy" is now banished from my vocabulary

I solemnly vow to never say the phrase(s), "I have been busy," "It has just been really busy," and/or "It has been crazy busy," or any such variation of the phrase pendant le rest de ma vie. I don't believe in busy. I don't believe such a state of being exists. And, if by the chance that such state does exist, I do not believe it to be an admirable, desirable, or productive way to live.

Instead, I believe in a full life. A life brimming with love - in whatever shape or form loves takes. Obviously this takes some figuring out: What does matter most to you, and what do you really, deep down, what do you really love?

I am not busy, and I am never too busy, for those things that matter most. Check out one of my favorite speeches of all time - What if love were our only motive?

Listen and hear the voice of a prophet

Teaching, is kind of exhausting sometimes. During my lunch break, I sit back in my chair, and eat some food, of course. But at the same time, I also feed my spirit. I go to lds.org and look up mormon messages usually.

And I just want to take this moment to personally invite all, to watch general conference this weekend. Feel more peace and love in your life, better understand your purpose, get answers to tough questions, it is so worth it.

Instagram with Lives for Hugs: Egyptian Cat Edition

For over half a year, my sista, Annasophia, and I been sending each other a picture of the day. Basically it is like Instagram, revamped. We send each other things we are doing, or random things we saw, or we just hold up our phones and take of shot of whatever and press send. The ultimate compliment is when someone says "artsy" back. That means you took a pretty great shot.

But the other day, my sister sent me this picture:

Okay, what is going on here? I just keep looking at it too. I mean, that is what I do when I am bored, or stressed, or silly, I put a piece of bread over my head and talk like a robot. And it is interesting too because a few days before she sent me a picture of a cat looking in a puddle at its reflection which was a lion. So, is that cat doing that cat-thing, and trying to look like a lion? Because if he is, he has nothing on my cat, Tigress.

And so I just wanted to share this picture with all of you. When you are bored/stressed/don'tknowwhattodo, just remember, You are bread. Whatevs that means.

P.S. Sometimes I call my sister by her Indian name: She lives for hugs.

Oh and just for your enjoyment. We both get up pretty dang early. So one morning, I sent her a picture of me looking tired, and she responded with her tired picture. Featured below for your viewing pleasure.

First Day of School

Aujourd'hui was my first day of school, as a teacher! So I decided to take a picture like my mamma used to when I was in elementary. Basically, it was pretty much a day. I am not going to say that it wasn't hard, but I for sure love my job. Actually I am obsessed with it. Mostly because I just love my students. Here is me awkwardly waiting for the timer to go off on my camera because no one else wakes up at the crack of crazy to go to work. Okay, a lot of people do, but just not my roommates. Cheers for teaching!

Also, junior high is the place to be. I think that is where I want to spend the rest of my teaching days. Eighth grade baby.

: )

Rejoice. 
I am loving this word these days. Speaking of love, I love missionary work, making eggs in a frame for people, and this sister standing next to me here.

L'autre jour, on a run, I realized I was in danger of wishing the hard times in life were easier and the easier times in life were a little harder. Hashtag that; I am just going to rejoice in all things. 2 Nephi 4:18-35.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

This summer I had an amazing opportunity to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I did a six week mini mission in the Houston Texas South Mission. Let me tell you, it was one of the best things I have ever done. Now herez the truth: Heavenly Father seriously loves His children so much. He loves me; He loves you; He loves that girl walking down the street outside my window. I know this, and I have felt this as I have felt His love for me encircle me and guide me. I have also felt it as I have prayed for and strived to serve those around me. It is always such an overwhelming feeling, but on the mission I had the amazing opportunity to really see God's love put into action every single day. The Gospel of Jesus Christ brings such an amazing happiness, a fullness really. And the Gospel is for everyone, every single person on this earth needs the Gospel. To see that blessing come into people's lives, to see them feel and know that Heavenly Father really does know who they are and loves them more than they can imagine, to have the experience of being an instrument in God's hand to help them come to Him, was absolutely amazing. I was nothing more than a body moving around, filling the shoes and wearing the tag. Because as I just tried to give my all, trust in my Father in Heaven, and listen to the promptings of the spirit, I really saw Him change the lives of everyone around me. The truth is, I could go on and on about how seriously amazing missions, but instead I am just going to list a few ways that I am going to change because of the experience that I had.

1. I will repent every single day. I know I am not perfect, and I want to continually be changing my life to become closer to the Savior.

2. I will be a better member missionary. The Lord is really hastening His work right now. There is seriously just too much missionary work to be done for just the full time missionaries alone. And even when it seems like there isn't much work to do, there is still more work to do than we can imagine. I will continue to thrust in my sickle and work in His field. This time as a member missionary.

3. I will trust in Him and His plan forever; and I will have the faith to see miracles in my life every single day. All things are possible with God. And that is not even an exaggeration. He knows the end from the beginning, and I trust in his plan and his way.

4. I will give Him all my time. Just like on a mission, all my time, talents, efforts, and everything belong to the Lord, I will continue to give Him everything because all my time, talents, and efforts are still His. I will give my entire life to Him and serve Him with all my strength.

The truth is, the Gospel is true. It really is true. If you are reading this and are not a member, I encourage you to go to get a Book of Mormon, read it and pray about it. Find the missionaries and learn more about Christ's Gospel. You will get an answer, and it really will change your life.

Mormon Messages

I am obsessed with Mormon Messages.

I could watch these all day. Too bad I have finals to finish.

More about the LDS (Mormon) church??

Map Animals

I am home for Easter weekend in beautiful warm Vegas City. In our study at my parents house, we have a world map wallpaper plastered up on one side of the room. Don't think that means I know geography very well, but I do know where all the hidden animals are. My brothers and I would sit around looking for all the different types of animals we could see. And now that I am sitting here alone typing away, I really miss those two boys. These animals remind me of them.

Norway, Sweden, Finland, and all those other Northern European countries is a beaver jumping off a rock into Europe.

Italy is a slug.

North and Central America is a jumping kangaroo - Northeast Canada is the head.

There is a upside down dog doing a flip over the Hudson Bay.

Africa is a horses head (it is facing south).

The Obsqaya Guba Bay is a running man without a head.

Iceland is a little guppy fish.

Maybe there are more, but these are just the typical agreed upon map animals in my house. Ask my brother about the diving beaver and he would know what I am talking about. This post goes out to them.

More Poetry for Annasophia

Today in English 7, those kidlets were supposed to write poems using literary devices - simile, metaphor, symbolism, personification, alliteration, hyperbole, onomatopoeia - are the ones they learned. So I decided while they were writing, I would model for them and write under the doc cam. Herez it is:

My sister's smile caught me for a moment;
Just at the park on any other nippy November afternoon,
We'd been tossing our wishes and secrets in the air
like bumbling a beach ball around at the park.
That smile could have lit the whole neighborhood,
the whole city, the whole entire Clark County.
That smile was talking to me:
Saying something as beautiful as the sunset that painters try to paint
or as gentle as the movement when light touches a wet pond.
Her smile said: I am Sophie,
your sister and best friend
for as long as the mountains snow
and the sea waves crash
on the beach we always go to in April.

Nicknames

Yonder four years ago I was not a big nickname user. Sure, I called my siblings by their nicknames, but I can not think of anyone else who had that privileged. Okay, sometimes, rarely, I called my friend Makayla a little shortened Makay. But I always called my friend Liz, Elizabeth even though more people called her Liz than anything else.

Things have changed. Sarah Edwards is Sare; Sarah Darby, Darbs; and then there is my roommate Sarah whose initials are S.A.Y: so I call her Say - or Say-Say - or even Say-Say-Felipe - sometimes just Felipe. Faith is Faithy. Candace is sometimes Candy-Candy-Candace. Nikki became Nic. Kathryn: Fafryn. And Carolyn turned into Carolyn-a-lyn, or Carolyn-a-lyn-lyn, which is sometimes Lyn-a-lyn, and sometimes Lynie.

Why was I not a nickname user before??? I love it. Nicknames mean so much more than just referring to that person. When you call someone by a nickname you are saying their name and saying you love and care bout them at the same time.

But you have to earn the right to call someone by a nickname. My name is Michaelanne, but my family almost exclusively calls me Mike. But don't you go calling me Mike unless you mean it. My roommates, teammates, and close friends also call me Mike, but if you only just met me on the street, I would not tell you that was what I go by. You have to earn it; you have to mean it; but when people do start calling me Mike, I really love it.

Here's Lynie and me just hanging out on our backpacking trip Freshy year.

What 100 dollars can do

The first time I ever cried for happiness was when I gave my aunt a hundred dollars to help her pay for a law suit. I was eight years old, and we were parked in one of those overflow dirt parking lots out in the desert, when I slid on out of my grandmother’s big ‘ol SUV to head into the store. Without thinking, I picked up some money tumbling along in the wind, but when I looked at it, my mind didn’t believe my eyes. It was One Hundred buckaroos.

Now some people think it is stealing to take money off the ground; I didn’t think so, but we turned it in anyway being the good people that we like to think we are. The lady at the desk refused to take it. “You found this blowing out in the desert?” She raised those thin eyebrows. “Honey, no one’s gonna come lookin’ for this.”

My parents said they would keep it safe for me, ya know, until I knew what I wanted to do with it. Somehow, I knew it was special, and I wasn’t about to just give it away to the toy store. A few months later, we had this dinner for my aunt because she was dealing with this law suit and all. Being eight, I didn’t know much of what was going on, except that she wanted custody of my cousin or something like that. I’ll admit that when my mom suggested I give the Benjamin to my aunt to help her out, I wasn’t exactly what you might call thrilled. But I knew it was a nice, maybe even the right thing to do.

I had seen people cry because they were happy before, and I knew that was why she was crying when she opened the card. It was anonymous, but she knew. Her Thank-You folded in between our hug, and suddenly I was crying too. The tears felt different though; they were warm, and my insides were exploding with light.

I knew right then and there, no doll or toy or bike could have made me that happy. It wasn’t even happy, it was pure, untainted joy.

Stanley Kunitz

In my poetry of the natural world class we were studying the nature poetry of Stanley Kunitz, and this quote stuck out to me: "to be human is to know yourself to be living and dying at the same time." I am not sure what I think about this quote, but it definitely made me think. One of my American literature professors would always say that each breath that we breathe out is an exhale closer to death, but breathing is also one of the most fundamental things associated with life.

A good friend of mine is a deep thinker and has quite a reflective blog. When he graduated from college, we wrote about his lament of all the things, mostly the people, he left behind. He said that we wishes that he had begun these relationships knowing there was an end to them.

Is there an end to our relationships?

I have a particularly hard time with losing people, but I don't think that I want to start every relationship knowing it will end. Cherish the moments together, yes, but always be anticipating when things will end? Are we always dying? Are relationships going to end? Honestly, I am not sure. So I might as well always live and love as if living and loving are never going to end, and even if they do, I don't think I would change my mind.

When Hamlet said, "To be or not to be?" I like to think this is what he was talking about.

My Brotherz on a mish in B-town

Check out this handsome man:

What I have been reading

In my reading, I came across 44 Aphorisms by Richardson. Here is number seven.

Ah, what can fill the heart? But then, what can't?

So true, this phrase is. One might argue that nothing can fill to fullness but love, which is true. A pure love for another human does fill the heart up so tightly. And for some people, this love may be hard to find, and so they ask, "what can fill the heart?" because they feel the lack. But also, our hearts are our own. I can do whatever I want with my heart. I can love whatever I want, worship whatever I want, serve whoever I want. And I think it is who I decide to love and worship that enters my heart and fills it. I want to give my whole heart to God, and in my experience, when I do that, He gives me back so much of His love so then I can better serve and love those around me. But I also must be careful not to let things of a lessor value enter into my heart. Because it is what we spend our time doing and our minds thinking about that enters into our heart and becomes a part of who we are. I just really enjoyed this aphorism; there is so much found in these eleven words.

For more about the LDS church go to www.mormon.org or www.lds.org.

Poem a Day: Haiku

I am here, always,
and if you should disappear,
I will stay for you.

By Tyler Knott Gregson

This post is two-fold.

1. Have you ever played the whipped cream game? Perfect for silly freshman who should be studying or sleepovers or late night holidays. You spray a bit of whipped cream on your wrist then move one arm up toward the sky and use your other hand to stop the motion by hitting it. Whipped cream goes flying. While it is in the air, you try to catch it with your mouth. so fun.

2. This is one of my best friends, Carolyn Brown. She is currently serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS church or Mormon church) in Dallas, Texas. Just want to say, she is an amazing missionary! I have been seriously impressed with her success and dedication to the work. I know it is because she is an instrument in God's hand helping bring truth and happiness to the people of Texas. So why do mormons go on missions? and why do I keep posting about the church? Basically, because it is true! The Gospel is true. Not only that, but it brings so much happiness and growth to my life. It is the answer to every life problem. What a wonderful secret that shouldn't be a secret. Everyone should know about it.

Whenever I check the stats for this blog, it tells me what posts are most popular and who sees them. The most popular post are always the posts about the church, especially this post here. It is consistently seen by people from all over the world. Do you know what this means? People really want to hear about the Gospel. I am so grateful for people like Carolyn and all other sorts of missionaries who are sharing the truth and helping people feel God's love.

Also, missionaries can leave at 18 now! (19 for girls.) What a wonderful blessing to everyone really.

The Truth of the Truth

Just feeling very grateful for Christ's atonement.

I am continually amazed by how perfect and healing God's love is for each individual person. I am so grateful to both my Father in Heaven and my Savior for the atonement. Not only does it make it possible for me to live with God again, but its grace also strengthens me every day. I can feel His love and comfort surrounding me. I trust in Him completely, and what I want most is to love Him and His children and to serve Him by building up His kingdom. I know He lives. He is always there for me. I am so grateful that He has shared His love with me. Check it out: mormon.org.

Sports Camps

What did I do with my summer? Sports Camps! Here is a picture of a bunch of wonderful soccer counselors. This year, I am a dorm counselor, so I don't have a group of girls, but I am over a group of counselors. I miss being a regular counselor and having a group of girls, but I have learned so much as a DC, and I am so grateful I had this opportunity.

The biggest thing I learned:

A good leader loves those she/he serves. Love is the only way to have an good influence on others and inspire change for the better. This love comes from Christ's atonement in which we must rely on for every thing. The counselor who loves her girls, makes a difference in their lives. I was so lucky to work with so many great counselors who did exactly that.

Here is the fam. Well, most of them. For Independence day we made T-shirts. Taylor's wins the most patriotic award.

Ready for a 9:30 meeting in David John Lobby? Yes, this is an awkward couch picture. We girl DC's stick together like glue (or something like that). But, in all reality, I have loved working with each of these girls. They all have very unique gifts that bring so much to the table, but the one thing they all have in common is how freely they love those around them. I am lucky to rub shoulders with them.

Now, it wouldn't be sports camps without a little bit of personality. AKA: ostriching contest. And this isn't the least of it.

And finally, a small little greeting from the Head Counselors. I was often impressed by how well they handled situations and made everything run smoothly. A huge thanks to them and all their hard work. 

I may have made it sound like sports camps are over for the summer. Surprise, they're not. Two more weeks for me! 

The millennium

The Gold List

So every so often there are these people who make a huge difference in my life and have no idea. Of course there any many people making a difference in my life every day, but there are some people who seriously don't even know me or realize that they impacted my life. From now on, these people are going on The Gold List. Starting Now.

• The girl who passed me pushing my bike up the hill behind the SFH. She gave me the most genuine smile and told me I was almost there. Pushing my bike up that hill wasn't that hard, but other things in life are, and I am so grateful for the little bit of life that she gave me.
• Maura in my SCED 353 class. Anytime that I come up to sit at her table she makes eye contact with me, smiles, and pushes out the chair for me. She does this for everyone, and it makes you feel loved and part of the group. She doesn't realize how much I needed that some days.
• Last year this boy named Mark, a freshman, struck up a conversation with me as I was walking to class. Even after he found out I was a junior, he was still very genuine and fun to talk to. He even walked me all the way to class and got the door for me before leaving to go to work. He had no ulterior motives except to be nice to me and make my day. He did.

I am sure there are more, and I plan to keep adding to the list. It reminds me to smile more at strangers and talk to people I don't know. You never know how much they might need it. And if you still haven't read this talk, What If Love Were Our Only Motive?, do it. It doesn't matter who you are, or what you believe about life, you will at least enjoy this talk if it doesn't change your life.