To Teach is To....

....touch a life forever. At least, that's how the saying goes. But one might also finish this statement with any of the following: "To teach is to...."

- go to assemblies. All day, err day.

- make copies upon copies. Sometimes I think all I do is make copies.

- dream about all the things that could go wrong in your classroom. I just had a dream that my headphones at the Listening Center were getting used by student after student, and they just got grosser and waxier and gummier until I awoke with a jolt and a conviction that I needed new headphones.

- observe budding romances.
"Okay, I'm going outside now."
"Okay, um....meet me at....the slide."
"Okay. I'll meet you at the monkey bars."
"Actually, okay. Meet me at that one place for four-square?"
"I'll just be at the swings? Maybe?"
"Well, I'm just coming out now. We can walk together."
"Oh! Okay!"

- observe budding friendships.
"Miss Connor, K is pushing his chair into my desk."
"Miss Connor, M isn't minding her business."
"Miss Connor! I asked him not to and he's still doing it!"
You know these two are going to be BFF one day.

- despair over the rising generation.
"You need to be focusing on your work, I just keep seeing you sharpen your pencil over and over again - "
*flabbergasted* "But Miss Connor, I don't like work! It's not fun, I just don't like it, it's boring!"
"...........I'm sorry, you still need to do it. If I see you sharpening your pencil again, I'm going to take your sharpener away."

- rejoice over the rising generation.
I don't have a quote for this. I just have the world's cutest kids in my class.

- drive. I drive 45 minutes each way. As if this isn't enough, I've also been having dreams that I am driving. Just driving. And getting pulled over. And merging, and accelerating, and braking, and driving.

- file. I never filed before. Now I file anything and everything.

- live my dream. Fo real. In all honesty, I wake up in the morning with a smile on my face. I can't wait to go and see my class. Teaching is everything I ever hoped it would be, and more. So, so much more.

:)

In the House of the Mouse

There is a place in this world where dreams come true. 

I know the Utah state song says that Utah is the place where dreams come true (3:01), but I am not referring to Utah. I am referring to......

DISNEY LAND!

Specifically, the pineapple dole whip stand outside of the Tiki Room at Disney Land. That is the place where my dreams come true. 

This little girl's dreams also come true at Disney Land: 

  

The day started off with us not being able to find Disney Land. Does that make us sound dumb? If you just said yes, I would like you to change your attitude and blame the GPS. That's what we did :) 

"Oh, sorry. We were just trying to find Disney Land." -Christine

"I feel like Disney Land is just....invisible. Well, maybe not. Maybe it's visible, to everyone but us." -Steve

Ch: I was about to suggest that Heather get out and push the button, but then I was worried she would get kidnapped. 

S: I wasn't even worried about that, I was thinking she would get shot!

Ch: Oh, wow, that's way worse!

W: I mean, they both sound pretty bad, I'm not sure which is worse....

"Disney looks a lot more boring than it did in the pictures...." *When our GPS told us that we had arrived and we were next to some law building*

S: I'm just gonna pull over and ask that guy how to get to Disney Land.

W: Does he speak English?

S: *catching a glimpse* Oh, nope!

H: Wait. Didn't you serve a Spanish-speaking mission? 

S: I'm not that good....

H: How hard is it to say, donde esta Disney Land?

H: You're like, the real mom. And I'm like the rich stepmom who awkwardly decided to come on the family vacation and I'm trying to buy everyone's love. 

W: It's working for me!

Eventually, we noticed some roller coasters on the horizon and drove towards them. We parked. We got our own personal bus ride to the park. We collected our free tickets. We collected our badges. Christine got a Birthday one, Winnie and Steve got "I'm celebrating!" pins, and I got "Happily Ever After." ......?? 

"I ain't got a lick of sense, I'll tell you that right now." 

Her: This the party bus! 

Us: You like your job?

Her: F no. 

Her: I'm jealous y'all are goin into the park. Well, have fun without me. Have a fun day. I'll just be out here, driving your people around. 

Ch: Come with us!

Her: Oh! Okay. Okay, yeah! I'll just drive my bus in, how about that?

Us: *Encouraging*

Her: *grabbing the bus walky-talky thing and pretending to talk into it* What are you doing in the park? - Uh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry sir. - Again? Really? - Yes sir, I'm sorry. This is the last time, I promise. These nice people just invited me to go with them. - But we've told you before - Yes sir, I know. .... - we've told you before, that driving your bus in the parks is frowned on. 

-our bus driver

Christine used this cool program called Ride Max to figure out when we should get in line for specific rides, when we should get our Fast Passes, etc. It was awesome! We never waited more than 15 minutes for a ride.

For whatever reason, Steve decided that he was Iron Man. He also had a bad few minutes where he decided that Iron Man needed to speak in third person.....just as a side note.

S: *zipping up his jacket to cover his "I'm Celebrating!" pin* I'll just be like, hey Christine. Pull down my zipper. I have a surprise for you. 
H: ......are you really gonna say that?


"These lockers are pretty big, who would ever need a jumbo one? Are they trying to park their car here? Leave a child?" 


H: Winnie! It's Winnie the Pooh! You need a picture!
W: *observing the long line* How about a stalker picture?

Ch: There are a couple of lookout points on Tom Sawyer Island....

S: You would know about those!

Do you see my face in this picture? That is exactly how I felt to be on that ride. 

H: I don't really like mandarin oranges. 

W: Why not? They're kind of like lil cuties, and you love those.

H: I know, but.....

-30 seconds later-

H: Okay these are the best things ever! I was just thinking how they are different than lil cuties, and they're only different in ways that make them better! You don't have to peel them, and they don't go bad as fast....how have I never realized that these are the most amazing things ever!?

If you've never been to Disney Land, there is a fun little thing called "Turtle Talk with Crush." Crush, from Finding Nemo, interacts with the people in the audience and asks them questions and answers their questions, and it's really cool and I don't know how they do it. Anyway, the picture above is of us getting ready for Turtle Talk :)

Crush to Little Girl: What do humans like to do for fun?
Little Girl: Well.....I......um.....my......my mommy paid over $1000 just to bring me here. 

Not to be rude, but the family sitting behind us on Tower of Terror was so funny. None of them spoke English except the oldest daughter, who was probably 12 or 13, and I'm pretty sure none of them had any idea that they were getting on a ride that was going to dead-drop them several stories. Their reactions were priceless. 

All of us loved the ride, but apparently we were in the minority. When we went to the bathroom after the ride, we overheard another little girl, who was probably 11 or 12, crying to her mom about her experience.

Girl: That was awful. I'm never going on that ride again. I've never been so scared for my life!

Mom: Well, I won't go on it again either, honey. 

Girl: It was like, they opened the windows, and I knew where that ride got its name. I'm still shaking! I'm still crying!

W: Did you hear that?

Ch: Uh, the longest pee EVER?

H: No.....the girl crying

"I almost want to buy that picture, just so I can have a picture of you sitting by yourself on the roller coaster." -Steve is a wonderful brother

If you haven't been to Disney Land sometime in the last few years, you haven't seen World of Colors. All I can say about that is, I am so sorry for you. This show was amazing and I think my mouth was open for at least half of it. They used lasers and water and projectors and lights and fire and music and it was just so awesome. 

And after it was over, we may or may not have stormed off to our car yelling about how great Disney is. 

"DISNEY. That's the only thing that matters in this life!"

"I have to quit school. I don't need to be a lawyer! I just need to spend all my money on coming here again and again to watch World of Colors."

Ch: Can we just listen to Disney music the whole way to the beach?

H: YES!~

W: Can we just listen to Disney music for the rest of our lives?

"Now I understand why churros cost $5. They have to pay for that awesome show! I understand now. And I fully support those $5 churros."

W: I think that show alone made this day worthwhile.

H: It was so worth that free ticket!

I just wanted to end on this picture because, well, look at it. Look at how hilarious it is. Look at how awkward our poses are. None of us knows what happened with this picture.....the guy taking our picture just told us to strike a pose and we were on the spot and we were tired and Christine tried to do Mickey ears and....yeah. 

Dreams Come True

It's hard to pinpoint when exactly I decided I wanted to be a teacher. I can remember being excited to start school, after hearing about all of Kelly's adventures. I can remember coming home on the last day of school with worksheets that my teacher had left over from the year, determined to save those worksheets for the day that I had a class of my own. I can remember coming up with elaborate lessons for FHE. I can remember telling my teachers that I wanted to be a teacher when I was older.

So it started early - sometimes, I even think it started before I was born. It's the one career I've ever wanted to do. It's been a dream of mine ever since I can remember.

When I was accepted to come here, to BYU, I took a few minutes and browsed casually through the catalog of classes required for an Elementary Education major. The classes all sounded amazing! Teaching math? Teaching science? Instruction and Assessment? These were skills I had always known I would have to develop. I was thrilled to get started.

And then, all of a sudden, I was in a classroom. First-graders were calling me Miss Connor. I wasn't just majoring in Elementary Education anymore; I was teaching.

My classmates talked about doing an internship, where they would have their own classroom, for a whole year. They would get half-salary. They would teach all day, every day. I thought about doing an internship, then thought about not doing an internship. I reasoned that I wasn't ready for that much responsibility. I needed more time to learn how to teach.

I made my decision. I was going to do student-teaching, not an internship.

Sherri, my facilitator, had different plans. She urged me to reconsider. She said she would strongly recommend me for an internship. She gave me the forms.

So I thought about it, thought about my dream, and wondered if maybe I was ready. I had wanted this my whole life. Shouldn't I at least try?

I filled out the forms. I called Joy. I went to an interest meeting. I signed up for an interview. I picked out an outfit. Two days after I made my decision, I found myself sitting in a room in the District Office with Charlotte, Raylee, and Jessica sitting on my left. Eighteen principals and facilitators shuffled through papers and sipped water as they mulled over a decision that would change my life. A bald man with great teeth and bright blue eyes directed the interviews.

I had spent the morning fretting and putting on lotion and lip gloss and going over practice questions again and again. Now, sitting in that room, I noticed that my foot, which hadn't stopped jiggling since the internship meeting, dipped casually up and down as if I was sitting in a hammock.

Our interviews ended and we went back to school. The secretaries asked us how it went. We smiled and acted confident, and went to lunch. The day progressed just like a normal day.

I left the elementary school and went to the Writing Center. I left the Writing Center. I started walking home. I got to my door and reached for my key. My phone started buzzing; Joy was calling.

I took a breath and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Heather? This is Joy, how are you doing?"

She's asking how I'm doing, I thought. That has to be good, right? She would just cut to the chase if I didn't get an internship.

"I'm good, how are you?" I asked.

"Fine, thank you," she said.

I waited.

"Heather, I'm calling you with some good news."

My knees felt weak.

Do you remember how you felt, the morning after your first kiss? Do you remember that feeling when you woke up, and all your memories came flooding back, and you wondered if you were lying to yourself, but you weren't, because it really was real, and that wonderful thing really actually did happen....

That's how I felt the next day. I woke up smiling. I spent the whole day smiling. I wanted to tell random strangers that I was a teacher. I wanted to scream.

Because Jordan School District picked me, and Sherri and Kathy want me to come back and teach at their school, as a second-grade teacher, next year.

"I'm calling to tell you," Joy had said, "that Jordan Ridge - " my school! " - has offered you an internship for next year teaching 2nd grade."

I couldn't even go inside my apartment when Joy was talking to me. I pressed the phone up super-close to my face, so my ear could slurp up every word she said. I thanked her over and over. I pulled out my key, went inside, and collapsed on my bed. My roommate thought I was crying. (I wasn't. Just hyperventilating a little bit.) I called my mom. I fell on the couch. I fell on the floor.

I guess that's just what I do when my dreams are coming true :)

Ode to an Omelet

This morning, I woke up feeling a little miffed. Mostly just because it is Wednesday and yesterday was Tuesday but everyone pretended like it was Monday, so I knew today was going to be annoying.


Then I listened to a little Glee, and consciously took my time getting ready instead of worrying about being on time to class, and it was warm enough outside to wear just a hoodie, so then it seemed like the day was looking up. But even with all of these positives, I was not prepared for what happened next.


At the end of my literacy class, one of the girls stood up. "For those of you who weren't here at the beginning of class," she said, "our science teacher has food poisoning, so class is cancelled today."


Is it my fault that heavenly hosts started singing in my head right then?


It's not just the textured bra and the bare feet that triggered the chorus. It's not just the fact that I feel like my life is slowing draining away when I am sitting there in class. It's also the timing.


Every Monday and Wedneday, I have class from 8:00 am until 2:20 with just a short break from 12:30 - 1:00 (provided Eula can finish up in time), and you know I don't wake up early enough to eat breakfast and get to class on time at 8.

This wouldn't really be a huge problem if I hadn't tried an omelet from Scoreboard Grill with Kelly one random day over the summer. But I did. And my life has never been the same.

And I'm not saying that I have dreams about this omelet. Or that I had two in the past week, two very detailed dreams where I watched that omelet being made, watched it sizzling on the grill, watched it being folded neatly, and then watched it be handed to me over the glass. I'm not saying I had those dreams, or that when I woke up I was craving that omelet like a pregnant woman. But I'm not saying I didn't either. (Okay, I did.)

All I am saying is that today, I actually did go to Scoreboard Grill, in real life. And I actually watched them make my omelet, and fold it, and hand it to me. And then I ate it. And that is how I know that dreams come true, because my teacher got food poisoning, and I got my omelet.

Dear Katherine Heigl,

Your favorite love song was not written about a sandwich. It was written about an omelet. And that is nothing to be sad about.

Love,
Heather

A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes

Yesterday morning, Disney held princess lookalike auditions for the female cast members. I was sure I wouldn't be chosen, but had decided to go, just for the experience. So, I woke up at 6:45. I put on a white skirt with black and red flowers, leggings, a black headband, and a black turtleneck tee. I ate some breakfast and went to the bus stop, where about 40 other girls were waiting for the J bus as well. The J bus came and we piled on.

There were blondes, brunettes and redheads, girls in yoga pants and girls in dresses. Any other morning, we would have put in our headphones and closed our eyes to catch a quick nap, or pulled out a book for the bus ride. This morning, however, we all paid a little extra attention to each other. We looked in one another's faces, smiled awkwardly, and turned to look at someone else. We struck up nervous little conversations with each other. We introduced ourselves and promptly forgot one another's names. It was 7:35 when the bus left Chatham, but the air felt alive with energy. Hope was coursing through all of us, and it was electrifying.

The bus emptied when we got to the Animal Kingdom casting center. Forty something girls fell into the line that was already out the door, an hour before the auditions were supposed to start. We didn't mind the waiting. We shared everything with each other as we slowly made our way through the halls of the casting center.

Adrenaline is like super-glue for friendships, and we quickly felt comfortable with the girls standing with us. We lavished praise on one another, certain that we would all make it through to the final round, when we would be told that all of us were going to be princesses. We were giddy with optimism.

At last we made it to a large ballroom, where a table was set up at one end of the room with a next to it. When we got to the table, we were measured and received a number (268 in my case). We were then told to wait until our number was called.

They took us in groups of 50, and this was when girls started to get cut. This part of the audition was nerve wracking, but didn't require us to do anything but smile. I don't think I have ever smiled so hard in my whole life!

There were two casting directors, Kelly and Kent, who explained the process a little bit and then turned on some music so we could feel more comfortable with being stared at. I smiled right at them. Kelly said something to Kent. They both looked at me again. I smiled and smiled. My cheeks felt quivery with nerves and the effort to appear natural. They finally moved on down the line and I relaxed a little.

After they had looked over all 50 of us, Kelly called out 2 numbers and asked the rest of the girls to go home. The two numbers called were 268 and 291. I felt disappointed until I remembered that that was my number! The girls I had made friends with in line all gave me hugs and wished me luck. I missed them immediately as I watched them leave.

291 was named Renee, and she grabbed my arm as we walked back to the giant ballroom. "This is so crazy!" she squealed. "I can't wait to tell my mom!" More bonding as she called her mom and I txtd mine. We couldn't believe we had made it through the first round. Making it through that first step was intoxicating.

463 girls later, there were 50 girls left in the ballroom. They called us all back into the room where Kelly and Kent stared us down once again. I didn't have as much trouble smiling this time :) This time when Kelly turned off the music, she and Kent only called out 6 numbers. The rest of the girls were thanked for their time and sent home.

I felt shaky as I lined up with the last of all the potential princesses and watched Renee leave. Even as I introduced myself and stated where I was from, I couldn't believe that the casting directors cared about my name at all. I kept thinking, "Is this real life?" And it was.

The next part of the audition was one of my favorite parts. Kelly and Kent left, and some trainers came in to help us learn how to dance like princesses. We twirled, curtsied, and waved. We were told that it was an exercise in grace and poise, and that we should be very conscious of making all of our movements very fluid and regal. We were to smile the entire time.

We also learned how to move like a fur character. We exaggerated every movement. We looked ridiculous, and we didn't even care. No one looked at anyone else. We were very much concentrated on our own movements.

Kelly and Kent came back in at this point and we showed them everything we had learned. Apparently they had no complaints, because they decided to keep all of us and let us all get fitted to be princesses!

I listened as they went down the line, assigning each girl to a princess. "Tiana, Aurora, Snow White, Ariel, Aurora....and Cinderella."

I couldn't believe it. Cinderella? I was flabbergasted and thrilled, and immensely flattered. I felt a little numb as I followed the other girls into yet another hallway. We suddenly found ourselves just outside of the closet with all the princess costumes. I felt star-struck and woozy as I got my picture taken and was then directed behind a curtain, where I was to change into Cinderella's dress.

Ahhhh.

I pulled up the skirt, which weighed about a million pounds, and a costuming assistant helped me zipper it. She then helped me into the top half of the dress and snapped it onto the skirt, twisting and tugging until it looked just right. They gave me some character shoes and sent me into the makeup room.

Working at the Boutique, I always try to talk to the girls whose makeover I am doing. I feel like I'm doing a bad job if we aren't having a nice, steady conversation. But today, as a nice Asian lady covered my eyelids with blue eyeshadow and spread a layer of pink on my lips, I began to appreciate how hard it is to have a conversation while you are having your hair and makeup done. It was all I could do to keep up with the whirlwind of thoughts going on inside my head. I was relieved that I wasn't supposed to form complete sentences, too.

All of the characters are wigged, so we also got to wear the wigs. Once I was all made up and the wig had been securely fastened to my head, I was able to look in the mirror. It was the most surreal experience, because I could see my face, and I knew that it was me, but Cinderella looked back at me. I vaguely wondered if the girls who came into the Boutique felt this way when I turned them around to see themselves for the first time. I hardly felt like I was looking at myself....I felt like I was looking at a princess who just happened to raise her eyebrows when I raised mine.

The wig was a little big, and so was the top of the dress, since I basically have no boobs, but my friend Brittany told me that if I get approval to be a princess, they will give me a wig that is custom-made for my head. Also, the dresses in the casting center are not the only sizes they have, and the sizes go pretty small, so they have a dress that fits me somewhere. Aside from these concerns, I really felt like Cinderella.

Once I was all dressed, I was given a laminated sheet of paper that told a little bit about Cinderella's character, how she was supposed to stand, etc. At the top of the paper was a short monologue, but I was told not to worry about memorizing it. I stood in front of a blue sheet and got about 5 pictures taken from different angles. I wondered whether they looked like me, or like Cinderella, or like me dressed up as Cinderella. I wondered if it mattered if it looked like me dressed up as Cinderella.

After that, I had a few minutes to practice my monologue before I was shown back into the room where we had learned how to princess dance only about an hour earlier. I again said hello to Kelly and Kent, who asked me to look at the camera, state my true name, and then perform the monologue.

I cleared my throat, stood like Cinderella, and smiled right at the camera. Kent pointed at me; I said my name, paused, and then went into my monologue.

"Oh, what a wonderful ball," I said. In my head, I thought: "Oh, what a wonderful audition."

"To wear this beautiful gown, and glass slippers, and dance with the prince all night...." I said. In my head, I thought: "To wear this beautiful gown, and character shoes, and dress up like a real live princess....."

"I wonder what Anastasia and Drusilla would think, if they knew it was me?" I said. In my head, I thought, "I have to tell EVERYONE!"

Smilingly, Kelly and Kent thanked me and asked me where I went to school. They asked about my major and a couple of other things. Then they told me that they would contact me if I was approved to be a princess. If I didn't hear from them, it wasn't a match, but they were still happy that I had come in and auditioned. As I listened to their spiel, I didn't even care what happened next.

If I get to be a princess, I will stay until August. I will dress up every day, with the help of my fairy godmother costuming assistant. I will dance with a prince. I will tell little girls that their dreams will come true. I will pose for pictures and smile until my face falls off. And then, a makeup artist will come along and put it back on for me, and I will go out and do it all over again.

If I don't get approved to be a princess, I will stay until April, just like I had planned before. I will continue to work at the Boutique, which is a magical place on its own. I will get to go home for a month to see my family before going back to Utah in June for some summer classes. I will miss the muggy Florida heat and will spend my summer, instead, in the dry heat of Provo in the summertime. I will work at Coldstone and the Writing Center, and when I'm not working or taking summer classes on campus, I will set up camp by the Raintree pool, eating free hamburgers and otter pops.

Have I mentioned that I absolutely 100% love my life? With all my heart and soul?

After auditions, one of the girls who was fitted for Aurora offered me a ride home. We decided that if we don't get to be princesses, we will go out for ice cream to console ourselves. But I don't think I will need too much consolation....just getting to try on Cinderella's dress, and gloves, and choker, and headband, was more wonderful an opportunity than I ever dreamed I would get.

But I did get it, and if Djuana Barnes is right, and "dreams have only the pigmentation of fact," then the large majority of this story would not be true. Friends, it is all true, which is why I now have a renewed faith that dreams and reality are not always so far apart as past disappointments would have us believe. In fact, there will be times in our lives that the chasm between dreams and reality is little more than a paper-thin line. And those times are the very best.

:)

Booties and Dreams

Today I had nannying (like usual) and during naptime I had the funniesttt dream. In my dream, I was nannying for Malan and Owen, except I was in Jake's house. Either that or his whole family had moved into the house I was in. It was so stressful because I wasn't allowed to have naptime anymore and then Lilly (Jake's 7-yr-old sister) peed her pants (she is actually way too sophisticated to do that) and I wasn't sure if I was expected to do anything about it, especially because her mom was right there and she just wasn't doing anything about it. Then Malan peed her pants too, and she just kept peeing and peeing everywhere, on everything. And in my dream there was a pool in the kitchen, and I ended up sitting with my feet in the pool discussing with Jake's dad the pros and cons of us drowning ourselves in it. He was all depressed because Jake is on his mission now and I just didn't want to deal with the peeing anymore. Before we could decide if we should drown ourselves, there were two huge car accidents outside the house. They weren't related but they happened one right after the other. So I went to look at them and the General Manager for the DC Metro System was there, only in my dream, that was Brother McGhie. He saw Jake's dad and I coming outside and he told us that if we did drown ourselves, then he would marry Jake's mom. I guess Jake's dad still wasn't sure if he should go ahead and drown himself or not, because he started telling Brother McGhie all about Halli's favorite Henna tatoo that she ever got, and her favorite gas station, and stuff like that. As they were talking, I started crying because I couldn't bear the idea that Brother McGhie might be my father-in-law. Anyway, then I woke up. I thought it was a pretty hilarious dream, even though it ended with me in tears and Jake's dad contemplating suicide.

Also, today, I brought Bikini Body, my favorite workout video, and Malan and I worked out together. She started coming up with her own exercises towards the end but she did a pretty good job working on her belly and booty. Speaking of Malan's booty, the other day, I was sitting across from her at the table and we were coloring, just like normal, when she stood up, turned around, grabbed the back of her chair, and starting shaking her butt at me. I said, "Malan, whattt are you doingg?" She started giggling and just kept shaking her butt at me. I said, "Malan, why are you doing that?" She said, "Because I like you! That's what you do when you like people!" I hope she changes her mind when she gets older. Otherwise she will have some problems. Not problems with getting people to like her, necessarily, just the right people.

Anyway this week Patty (Malan and Owen's mom) is at Girl's Camp, so I have really weird times for nannying, which means I have more time to work at my telemarketing job. I have to go in tomorrow at 9. I didn't work at allllll last week because Winnie and Helen were in town, and I guess I really should actually go once in a while. I will probably have to blog about telemarketing because it is kinddd of like The Office on NBC, just on a smaller scale. There aren't as many employees. But seriously. Sometimes it is just so surreal working there.