Hooray For...

• checking things off my to-do list
• eating brownies with chocolate ice cream
• making new friends
• getting a pedicure
• trusting the Lord
• having a clean house
• being excited about something
• missing my family
• getting older
• getting wiser
• learning new things
• remembering old friends
• feeling content
• being responsible
• having dark pink bed sheets
• dreaming big
• smiling all the way to your ears
• loving where I'm at
• new beginnings
• feeling expecially hopeful
• making good, but difficult choices
• setting goals
• achieving goals
• reading a good book
• cooking a yummy dinner
• knowing who I am
• getting a bigger, better perspective
• dancing in my living room
• prayer
• looking at old pictures
• helping other people
• Disney Scene-It
• working out
• waking up before your alarm
• time to ponder
• warmth when the forecast said cold
• not needing to know everything
• being excited for tomorrow
• making plans
• bubble baths
• going to Disney Land for spring break
• wonderful girls
• belting in the car
• candle-warmers
• lazy days
• a new pair of jeans
• reading the scriptures
• lotion
• feeling proud of yourself

So many things to be happy about!

Let Your Light So Shine

So... one of my students posted this comment on my teacher blog!

"Miss Houghtaling ..... you are just so purrty to me i mean there is just sometyhing abot you that shines and pulls the happiness out of me!!!! I may not be in your class but whenever i am around you i have the best time that i could ever have!!!! :)"

There's a legitimate chance this girl is just sucking up for a good part in the musical... but on the chance that she's being completely sincere... YAY!!!  It means SO much to get little notes like this from the kids in an email or a sticky note or whatever.  So many of these kids are facing some humongous challenges at home and really lack parental support and/or positive role models on top of that.  I really feel a huge responsibility for setting a good example in the lives of my students!  It's nice to know that they can sense that, even if they can't put it into words!!

In fact, this just made me think of Alma 17:11.  "...Be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls."

Some days I think that should read "...Be patient in fourth and fifth periods..."

I've often heard that you can't measure the influence of a mother.  Can you measure the influence of a teacher??

I want, more than anything, to be an instrument in the Lord's hands, to become who He wants me to be, and to help these kids!  Not so that they can all become Theatre majors or Choir teachers one day... but so they can recognize and seek out the light that "shines" in those around them.  So they can surround themselves by uplifting people.  So they can make right choices and help others do the same.  So they can be happy!!

Right now, I'm feeling very hopeful about that possibility!

I Make Children Cry.

I just posted the callback list for High School Musical Jr.

I was SO blown away by the amazing talent I saw at auditions... 81 kids showed up!  It was fantastic!  SUCH a hard choice!  I need to cut at least 20 for the show!  Good thing I have a few days to decide who and how many!

Callbacks will be held Thursday, and I'll post the cast list Saturday morning!

But in the meantime, let's focus on the fact that I had one kid break down in the middle of his audition, and at least four more break into tears when they walked out the door.  Plus however many cried reading the list tonight!

Does that make me a bully?  If I make small children cry??

Thoughts For a New Year...

I have been thinking a lot lately about the love the Lord has for us, and His desire to bless our lives and show us His love.  At times, we all struggle to feel His presence and His peace.  This can happen for many reasons.  Perhaps we may be struggling with temptation, frustration, or even discouragement.  How wonderful it is to know, then, that the Lord can help us overcome all of those obstacles, if we let Him.

I'm reading in Alma right now, and learned an important principle... After having persecuted the Church, Zeezrom has a change of heart and desires to repent.  Alma goes to visit him, and offers him counsel.  "And Alma said: If thou believest in the redemption of Christ, thou canst be healed" (Alma 15:8).  The Lord has power to heal all wounds; those inflicted by other people or circumstances, as well as those brought about as a consequence of our own actions.  I have gained a testimony of that, particularly in this past year.  I know that if we exercise faith in the Atonement of the Lord, we will feel His peace.

As I work to develop my faith in Him, I am able to recognize His love more fully, and am more prepared to heed His invitation.  "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your heart, might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God" (Moroni 10:32).

One of the places I have come to know and love the Lord more fully is in the temple. As I have prepared to worship there, and am diligent in doing so, I really do come to know Him. Through that experience, I have gained a testimony that His grace is sufficient for me. It is enough not only to save us from our sins, but from our discouragements as well. As I am able to recognize His hand in my life in that way, I find it impossible to deny His power! 
 
I love the Lord!  I am grateful for the blessings He extends to me on a daily basis.  The past year has been the most difficult AND most wonderful I've had so far.  And I love the peace that comes from knowing that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me, and who gave His Son for my sake.  As I look to this new year, I do so with an increased desire to come to know Him, and a heart full of peace and hope.
 
In fact, a la my cousin Lindsey, I have selected "hope" as my word of the year for 2010.  It's a word that I will try to focus on throughout the year...  Here's what it means and why I picked it:
 

hope:

1. the feeling that events will turn out for the best.

2. a person or thing in which expectations are centered.

3. To wish for something with confident expectation of its fulfillment.

4. To have confidence; place trust.

5. the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help.

Support!

So... all week in Choir, we've been discussing the importance of supporting our sound, using our diaphram, and sustaining our breath.

Yesterday in 5th Period, I sang a song for my students to illustrate that point.  When I was finished, we had this conversation:

Student #1: "That was good because you held that last note really loud and really long!"

Me: "Thank you!  Now, how was I am able to do that?"

Student #2 (let's call him Albert): "Because you had good breast support!"

Me: "Excuse me?!?"

Albert: "Breast support.  You know... your breasts were supported!"

Me: "Um..."

Student #3: "Dude!  She's our teacher!!  Quit talking about her bra!"

Me: "Albert, did you mean BREATH support?"

Albert: "Breath?  ...Breath?   I THOUGHT YOU SAID BREAST!!!"

Needless to say, it took the 50 of us well over ten minutes to calm down.  Seriously the funniest teaching moment I've had to date!  I laughed so hard I cried...  And then my Principal laughed so hard HE cried when I told him this morning, just in case some mom called in upset because her kid heard the words "bra" and "breast" in class!

I can only imagine what that poor little boy has been thinking all week... 'Man!  I'll NEVER be a good singer!  I've got no chance at all!'

And I'm also a little bit worried about how this kid's gonna live that down within the next 6 years of public education...  There's no way his peers are gonna forget something that good!!

On a side note, half of the faculty have come up to me today to either compliment or thank me for my "support"!!  Funny stories travel fast!

Moral of the story:  Next time you teach twelve-year-olds, make sure that you, too, have good support!  You just never know!