BPFF (Best Princess Friends Forever... DUH!)

So my roommate Emily is very good to me. She helps clean my room when I am lazy, does my laundry, even comes to the salon to help me clean and do laundry there.. why does she do it? Well because she loves me and is a nice person. I am grateful for her! But anywho... one night I got home and I had promised her I would clean the toilet for once so she didn't have to. Clean checks were the next day and I knew she was going to wake up early to finish it. So I got home late from work and she was fast asleep. So I cleaned the toilet and then randomly wrote her this story...

‎"Once upon a time there were two princesses. These princesses were stuck in a far away land called Idaho. It was cold and bare! Princess Emily was so beautiful and smart and had plans to make the kingdom the bestest kingdom ever! She was always so nice and kind to her best friend Princess Michelle, who like Princess Emily was also very beautiful, only not as smart. Princess Michelle's quest in life was to make the kingdom wealthy and full of

happiness. She planned on making everyone in the kingdom happy by making them as beautiful as her and Princess Emily. So naturally, Princess Michelle had her hands full and was always so busy. Since princess Emily was so nice and kind, she always helped Princess Michelle out and would clean her room and stuff. Well one day, Princess Michelle promised Princess Emily she would help her clean for clean checks and she said she would clean their ROYAL THRONE. Princess Emily waited and waited for Princess Michelle to uphold her promise. Devastated and alone, Princess Emily retired to her tower to embark on some much needed beauty sleep. Princess Michelle wasn't expected to come home that night, but she missed Princess Emily and even though she knew Princess Emily would be busy dreaming of her Prince Charming and didn't want to be disturbed, Princess Michelle knew she MUST keep her promise to Princess Emily. So at 3am, Princess Michelle cleaned the ROYAL THRONE and appreciated ALL the other cleaning Princess Emily did throughout the WHOLE CASTLE that day. The next morning when Princess Emily awoke, her heart was filled with joy that Princess Michelle had returned home to be with her and that she had kept her promise! She was so excited she decided to awake Princess Michelle. When Princess Emily awoke Princess Michelle, they laughed and giggled while they got ready. They remembered why they were Best Princess Friends Forever (BPFF...DUH!) and they set out to tackle the kingdom once again together! And they all lived happily ever after! AMEN!"

I am such a nerd. And yes. I decorated her door too...

God bless modern medicine

The owners come tomorrow. TOMORROW! We have been working so hard the last month for the next 48 hours! Holy cow! We just have to get through the next 48 hours. The owners of Rexburg Housing only come every once and a while. My boss does such a fantastic job they just don't worry about our properties I guess. But they have missed Rexburg (if that is possible...) and wanted to stop in and do a little check up. So in preparing for their arrival its been very busy. I try to do my part where I can to help. I can't do a lot, but I did sacrifice something most imporant to me today, my sleep. I went up to my boss's house this morning at 5:45 am! to go sit up at her house while she went to work. So I got the munchkins off to school and then got myself off to school. So, I went to school and headed to work. My first client no showed. So I figured I better start cleaning... I needed to deep clean my salon and knew I had about 2 hours worth of cleaning. So I realized I hadn't taken my meds for the day and took them at 2 pm. Adderall at 2 pm on a full stomach= Michelle on super speed and super focused! I was crazy. I kept working and working and working and working and working. I had another no show and worked my little butt off. I cleaned the entire salon on top of doing my normal clientèle. It was crazy. My girls Allie and Emily showed up for moral support (literally they sat and painted their nails and told me to keep up the good work!) Anyways, so now my salon is nice and clean. And I only have 29 more days until we close the salon for the remodel! YAY!!!! Go team Retreat! Now to start the buying of goods and hiring!

Ummm hiiiiiiiii

Wow. I suck at blogging. I always say I am going to do better, but I never do. Shocking! So I will not make any more promises. I don't even know if people still read my blog. But just in case there is someone that does read my blog let me try to enlighten you on what I have been up to... My work sponsored a straw maze on Monday night and so all the employees got in for free. Well that would be a fun activity right? Wrong. I got off work and my boss, Jeanne (who is also a big sister/ best friend/ mentor to me) called and tricked me into going with her and her 3 girls (who I used to nanny). Anywho, I was already freezing and didn't want to go, but she is very tricky and I ended up going. Her, her man-friend, his friend, her (Jeanne's) friend, and our two other co-workers all went together. Between the 6 adults (that includes me) there were 9 kids. 9 kids!!! Their age range was from 1- 9. Lucky us! So it's like 7:30pm by the time we get there and therefore it's already dark. We start on the maze and luckily I have my smartphone so I have the flashlight app and that is our light source. After about a half hour, the 1 year old is screaming his head off, he wants to get down and walk, he's cold.... it was awesome! So after a few more minutes we realize this is HELL and we need to get out of there! So we ask for the man on top of the maze to get us to the end... or in our case we were closer to the beginning. At this point I was beyond annoyed. The kids were all screaming, and running off from their parents. Awesome! Best. Birth control. EVER! I had had it with the kids screaming and yelling while the adults were trying to talk. I finally used my assertive voice and told those youngins to zip it. The adults all talked and found our way out. Well Jeanne's man-friend, his friend and his two kids got lost some how on the way out. So after a few minutes of them not coming out, and realizing that our cell phone coverage out there was crap, Jeanne and I ventured in the exit and found and rescued them. It was so much fun! NOT! Just kidding, it was an adventure to say the least. This

picture is a picture of me with my co-workers after the insanity had happened...

This is me with my boss.... obviously I am showing her who is boss :)

This was last week, my co-worker/ apartment manager, Gwendolyn invited me over for their FHE and we carved pumpkins! This is her cute girl, Ella. We carved a witch with her cauldron and her name... I free hand carved that! YES! Be IMPRESSED!

Anyways, fall is in the air, next the snow will come. And the circle of life will go on. I am almost done with school... 38 school days left! But who's counting? Duh! ME!!!!

Life's Tough then you die...

It's the second day of school and I went to bed at 4:30am... do you think this is the way I wanted to start my semester? No. Not. At. ALL! I had a work meeting at 9 am... then I had to go straight to class at 11 am... then I have class until 2 pm. And then... I have work immediately after class until 9 pm. Notice no where in there is a breakfast, lunch or dinner. Oh my... gotta love my overbooked schedule. Why do I think I can do everything? Oh... because I will get it all done. But then at 9pm. I will eat and then crash... Honestly, today is not a great day. It's not bad. But it's definitely not what I want my every day life to be... I am grateful for my true friends and family. I am grateful for a boss that loves me and understands that I am doing everything I can. I am grateful that my mom sent me this text this morning after saying today is going to be long "Good luck and say your prayers". How simple is that. I do need to say my prayers, so I can have the strength of my Heavenly Father and Savior. Because without them.. I will not survive today...

First Day of the Rest of my Life!!

I can not believe summer is over :( SAD DAY! Except for today is actually a very exciting day! Today my salon, MY SALON opens! I am so excited for this! I have mentioned this on my blog before, but I guess the news didn't spread like wild fire. So here is the deal. I have been working for Rexburg Housing for over a year now. I have been doing office work for them, then at the beginning of summer our salon manager quit. So they asked me for help finding a new salon manager... and then it occurred to them that I should probably just do it. So I used my business knowledge and realized that their "business plan" was stupid and they were losing money. (side note: Their business plan was the salon is a complete amenity for the over 1600 residents. They offer free haircuts, manicures and pedicures for the residents. And they just dump money into it every month. So dumb right?) So I came along and said, well why don't you first and foremost sell product, DUH!!! And they agreed, that would be smarter. Second, why don't you do a full service salon for the residence and allow them a discount, but be open to the general public as well? So this summer when the owners came to visit I gave them my business proposal and budget and all that shinanagins and they loved it. They ate it up! Sadly we didn't have enough time to do it during the 7 week break, but we will be able to do it in December. So we are knocking walls down, adding two other salon chairs, another pedicure chair, having a full time nail tech and everything! So for the next 4 months I will be doing the haircuts, manicures and pedicures all by myself, but then in January I will have other staff to help assist and we will be doing color and everything else by then! I am so excited. So my goal in the next 18 months is to not only remodel the salon, but have the salon be a profitable part of this company! YAY! So here are some pictures of my current salon, its called The Retreat....

And so far I am loving it! So yes, I am excited. I am kicking this off for this company, who has several other salons over their properties throughout the US and if this is successful, we will do the same everywhere! Wish me luck!

Kids these days...

So I never realized how big of an influence I was on the family I am nannying. The girls are absolutely amazing and I love spending time with them but by the weekend let's be real its time for a break. I feel like the girls need a break from me and vice versa. So last weekend I went in a mini road trip to Utah with my girl Kelsy... We had a blast! But when I got home late Sunday night the girls were in bed. So I didnt get to see the girls until after school on Monday. The middle child git home and I asked her for a hug just like any other day and she avoided the question like crazy. I kept asking throughout the day and she kept ignoring me. So finally her mom stepped in and asked why she wouldnt hug me. She the 7 year old said she was mad at me for leaving for the whole weekend and not giving her a big goodbye. Talk about breaking your heart. I felt terrible. Later that night as I was tucking her in I apologized and told her next time if I leave and she misses me all she has to do is call me and I will drop whatever I am doing to talk to her. She then said she just loves me and wants to spend time with me... It just melts my soul to hear these beautifullittle ladies talk and think so highly of me...

Summer Lovin' had me a blast!

Summer has been AWESOME! I have seriously had so much fun. Don't get me wrong there has been some lows in it, but I mean I look back and the good parts have DEFINITELY outweighed the bad! I feel like Michelle again. I think after the winter semester when I was so busy with school and what not and fell for a boy that ended up making me so mad it made me realize why I don't date boys. I date men and sadly good ole Rexburg is lacking in the MEN department. Anyways I had a really hard winter and it got me into this weird funk. I was faking it until I made it. And I finally feel happy again. I have met some amazing new friends that make me so happy and love spending time with and they have gotten to know the real me, not the one who hid behind others, because let’s be honest here, my personality couldn’t shouldn’t be hidden behind anyone/thing. And I was really struggling on why anyone would want to hang out with me. I felt like I had to hang out with my old friends because they already loved me, and new ones wouldn’t. WOW. I felt ridiculous saying that, maybe I should have said it long ago. My boss/ friend/ current roommate, Jeanne gave me some pretty good advice the other day… it relates to the men department so my mom will be happy about this.. She told me that when a guy texts me to hang out/ calls or whatever his form of communication and asks to do something, he means me… not my posse! Haha I loved hearing that. And if you know Jeanne you can just hear her saying the words. She is very type A personality and I love her to death! She is right though. I guess even though I pretend to have the world’s biggest ego/ self esteem, let’s be real people, I don’t. And there have been males in the past that have taken away from my lower than average self esteem, which doesn’t help and I know that someday they will be held accountable for those invisible tears that I shed. The moral of this story is that I have had a huge self esteem boost this summer, because someone told me the other night that I was a 6 ½ looks wise, but my personality made me a 9. I will take that! Thank you to that man, who was feeling under the weather, but that means to me, even if you aren’t the prettiest girl in the room, you can still have an amazing personality and let’s be honest, the personality is what really counts! I have really learned a lot about myself and I love it. BEST. SUMMER. EVERRRRRRRR

Loving life like Blah Blah Blah

So I pretty much am way excited for life to begin. And by life I mean out of college... with a real job. REAL JOBS are bomb. I will tell you why. You get paid more. You get to do what you love. AND you get paid for doing it. I love that I changed my major to business. I love talking business and running a business. I love preparing for presentations, giving said presentation, and getting the approval from some rich guy... who trusts me and wants to invest in me. IT IS AMAZING! I also love summer time - especially being a nanny because I get paid to go outside and play with the kids in the lake. ROUGH LIFE! Love it. I am just so happy right now and I love it!

Business 101

Sometimes I have thought to myself, how dumb I am for wanting to take business classes. But today, I am grateful for those business classes. I am currently working on a business proposal/ plan/ budget for our salon that I will be managing. Here is our floor plan... it looks crazy, and has a lot of writing on it... just ignore all the chicken scratch... Anyways I am so excited to get this up and moving. I created a budget and I think our goals that were set are very reasonable. I feel like we can make back all the money we are asking for in one semester... but we shall see!

What a Blessed Day!!!!

Today, some years ago, my older sister was born. She is by far way more amazing than me... and if you know me... you know I am amazing.. so Nicole... She is just outstandingly amazing!!! I could not wish for, think of or be a better sister than she is to me! Why do I love her? Great question... here is why...

She is the only person in the world that can call me a stupid nickname and I don't get mad... and I actually respond....

She makes me strive to do the right...

She will be a pirate any chance she gets... even on Christmas!

She always gives/ makes the best presents. EVER. She is so creative!!

She doesn't get mad at me when I am dumb/ annoying. She just laughs at me.

Ummm... she is GORGEOUS!!!!!

She is a good listener!

She can do anything craft related... she made me this quilt. And it is beautiful!

She is always there for me... whenever I need her!

Happy Birthday Nicole!!!! I love you with every fiber of my being! I am so glad you are my sister and for everything you do for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember MEEEEEEE??????

Ok, so I haven’t blogged in a while… like a LONG while and maybe it’s because I don’t know what to say or how to say it, but I honestly have had a lot on my mind. So I guess I am going to be changing up my blog. I am a single 24 year old Latter-day Saint and I have issues on my mind and I need someone/ thing to vent to… bounce ideas off of. So on here it will still be my blog, but I probably won’t be holding topics back. Before I felt like I had to censor what to say, so I wouldn’t embarrass my family… or so people wouldn’t judge me. But I have realized that my family is stuck with me no matter what and they already know I speak my mind, so if they get embarrassed, I apologize in advance (MOM!). However, if I offend you, I am sorry. But I have things on my mind and I would like to discuss them.

So let me just update people on my life. Because I am sure no someone cares! So I am finishing my LAST semester at BYU-Idaho. YES. MY LAST! I will be done and have a BA degree in Business. I did the whole graduating ceremony in July and my Family came and celebrated with me then YAY! It was fun having them here. So until fall semester starts I am currently nannying for 3 girls. I have talked about them before and am still going strong with these girls. I am now living with them full time so I am here 24/7. Which is a lot sometimes, but it has worked out. I love my boss (their mom) I feel like she is my big sister that won’t let me get away with ANYTHING! Ha I love her! In the meantime while I am super nanny, I am also working on my future job I will officially start in the fall. I will be a manager of a salon that is owned by Rexburg Housing. Right now it is just offering free haircuts to the residents all 1600 of them. HOWEVER, in the next few weeks we will be completely redoing the salon. Knocking walls down, adding chairs, getting different chairs. Yum! I love it! So basically I am doing all that shinanagins. I am writing the budget/ business proposal and having that to my boss tomorrow and then meeting with the big head honcho corporate man on Friday. If everything gets approved I will get to decide everything. Color scheme, color line… list goes on. So I will be basically opening my own salon, with somebody else’s money! YAY!!!!!! I love it! I am so freaking excited. This is like a dream come true! I just hope that all goes well. ß Wiiiiissshhhfulll thinking!!!!

Other than that, I am just loving life. I am tan, I just got my hair done and I am single. Oh side note on this whole single business. I sometimes wish I was in love, but then I look at my friends that are married/ seriously dating someone and I am kinda lovin the single life. And maybe the boys that are in Idaho and I keep thinking I am interested in, but end up being complete jerks, help the situation a little, but still. I am glad one of these jerks helped me finally realize that I deserve to be treated with respect and I should not cater to a man’s every need/wish/ demand. I am a beautiful daughter of God and deserve some respect. So thank you, jerk face, for making me realize that I do not need a guy like you. PS. You are officially deleted!

Anyways. I will try to get up pictures soon. Sorry for the long rant! Hope you enjoyed my blog! If you don’t enjoy it.. sorry! I will try to be more creative next time!

I'm doing this... starting NOW!

My good friend Amanda Peck always introduces me to the best ideas/ things. She is doing a 30 day blog challenge see it here! And so am I! I am going to try really hard to do it for 30 days! Wish me luck!!!

Day 1: Self Portrait. I am on muscle relaxers so don't judge!

Just Do IT!

The Church is true. Some of the members are mean, rude and not very nice. Don't be one of those. Also, Jesus Christ died for you, me and that person you are angry at. So just remember that. The scriptures are true, so read them. Heavenly Father loves you, and me. So why don't we talk to Him more? Sometimes it's hard to remember the little things. But seriously, the Church is true. There is a plan. We just need to do what we need to do. So just get up and go do it already. I know I am!

New Semester = New Life... NOT

3 days into the semester and I am already skipping homework. FAIL. How? Why?? I have no clue but let me tell you things I do know...

1. I was called a drama queen by 2 people today. One was by an 8 year old.

2. I fell in love with Taco Bell's Pomegranate Berry Frutistas tonight. Go get one. They are divine!

3. I heart youtube. Especially these kid history clips. Here's my fav.

4. I can't sleep in anymore without waking up at 6:30am... DANG IBC.

5. I might have an ulcer... nbd

6. I am sick of homework and today was the first day of doing it.

7. I have exactly one class left for the week after 4:45 pm on Wednesday.

8. I miss my family.

9. I am sick of working and never having money

10. I have spent way too many hours watching The O.C. lately.. but I am almost done.

Yes. My life is not fun. I know. I am sorry. If I was clever or funny I would blog more. But I am not. So maybe someday I will take a picture or two and put them up here, not that I think anyone would care, but it might make me feel special. That is all.

Turns out, I am NOT superwoman...

So pretty much I have stressed myself out to the max yet again. I am awesome at doing this! YAY! Go me! Sometimes I think I am superwoman. Turns out, I am NOT superwoman! I can not do it all! So tomorrow I have 2 presentations and one final. All before noon. Awesome. And is it 11:30pm right now? Yes. Did I just start my homework an hour ago? Yes. Am I going off of hardly any sleep? Yes. And the icing on the cake is that one of my presentations tomorrow, there is just a little pressure because whatever grade I get on the presentation my WHOLE company gets that grade. No pressure... No pressure at all. Great. When is this semester over? Oh yes. One week. Just one more week. Just one more week. Just one more week. Just one more week... I am going to hind under a rock for just one more week... oh! I mean. I can do this! Back to the homework. Someday maybe I won't be so stressed. Until then... just one more week....

Priceless Quotes

While driving to run some errands with The Little One we usually play I spy...

Little One: Michelle, can I tell you something instead of spying something?

Me: Of course! What's up?

Little One:....

Me: (Adjusting my mirror to see her)

Little One: Your love is my drug...

Seriously, so hard not to bust up laughing!! I love her!

Nannying vs Babysitting

I am not really sure the big difference between nannying and babysitting... you do the same job right? Anyways... I am a nanny now. I have always been "the babysitter" now I am more?? I am not sure how it is different, it just is I guess. Anyways... I am nannying for my boss and my friend, Tia and I trade off. It works out really nicely! So there are 3 little girls... 8(Miss Smarty Pants),6(Middle Child) and 4(Little one). They are a HANDFUL! But I love these girls with all of my heart! Tonight we went and saw Gnomeo and Juliet! It was my first 3D movie ever! It was so cute! I actually really enjoyed the movie! So did the girls, until it was past bedtime... and THENNNNN the crying started. The little one was so upset she kept saying she was going to throw up.... OH NO! All was well and we got home, brushed our teeth, went potty, got our pj's and sang our bedtime songs and then said our prayers. I said goodnight and that I loved each of the girls. I said good night to the Little One last and she opened one eye and said "Good night Michelle... I love you TOO! Thanks for taking me to see Juliet and Gnomeo... it was good.. I liked it. Sorry I thought I was going to throw up..." And then she closed her other eye and snuggled with her blankey.

Ok so here are why their nicknames are what they are....

Miss Smarty Pants: She is 8 but thinks like a 18 year old! She was concerned about the world ending next year. Seriously. She is designing clothes. She is so freaking smart. Not witty and sarcastic... but smart and wise!

Middle Child: She is definitely the middle child... and that about wraps her up.

The Little One: She is the youngest and the most dramatic by far. But yet she is so precious and cute!

Super-Dad

Today marks the 51st year that my Dad has been alive! That is pretty much 18,627 days that this Earth has been completely entertained! My Dad is one of my heroes! He can do anything. Sometimes I make him do stupid things like pretend to catch water....

And sometimes he LOVES when I make him take multiple pictures with me, so I can make sure that I look good...

And sometimes he likes to be a thug with his oldest, coolest daughter...

But most importantly he loves spending time with the WOMEN in his life and making sure we are all happy...

Dad, We love you! Thank you for being so amazing!!! You are the glue that holds our family together and without you we would be lost! Thank you for everything you do!!! You really are my hero, and you are a SUPER HERO in my eyes! Happy Birthday Daddy!

Future? What Future?

So the day has come and I have run out of classes to take... I honestly thought this day would NEVER come. So now what? Graduate? Then what? No one ever told me I had to have a plan for my life. I thought I was supposed to stay at home and cook and clean up after some small people. Guess that idea was WAY off. Hmmm so now what? Move home? And do what there? Let's be honest. I am a licensed cosmetologist. HAIR. IS. EVERYWHERE! I can go where ever my little heart desires. I can do hair, nails, extensions.... what should I do and WHERE should I go??? After waking up to 2 inches of freshly fallen snow I am thinking somewhere warm... possibly tropical? I don't know.. can't someone just make up my mind for me???? I will take any suggestions!!!

The Big 2-4

Yes, yes it is very true. I am 24... so weird!!! So on my birthday people came up and wished me happy birthday they would ask me how old I was and I felt like now... since I am an "old lady" they shouldn't be asking me how old I am... it's rude! So I just told people 21. And then one guy as he was leaving said "Happy 24th Birthday Michelle" and a bunch of people looked at me confused. Ha... oops! Anyways it was a really good birthday. Chyla came up from Utah and helped me celebrate. We went to dinner where Bonnie and Lucy came and met up with us. All in all, it was a great birth-WEEKEND! :) So since I am 24 I figured I would put 24 things that I am grateful for... I know this is almost 2 weeks late, but I've been super busy...so here they are:

I AM GRATEFUL FOR....

1. The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ
2. The Atonement
3. My Testimony of the Atonement and the Gospel
4. My Dad- Always has a solution for every problem followed by a joke to make me laugh.
5. My Mom- She is always there for me and always keeps me down to earth.
6. My Sister- She is amazing and loves me and is always there for me whenever I need her.
7. My Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles and those who have helped me and supported me over my 24 years to reach my dreams!
8. Friends-They know who they are. My life would not be complete without any of them. From my first best friend to the many I have now :)
9. Knowledge- Not only from my schooling, but life experiences that have taught me many, many life lessons.
10. The Temple- for the Spirit that is there, and for the opportunity to have an Eternal Family
11. Roommates that help me when I need it the most and the many fun times we have together.
12. Drew- My car that takes me everywhere that I need to go!
13. Technology- That I can be able to have a somewhat easier time doing homework and other things.
14. Warm clothing- To allow me to stay warm during these cold times in Rexburg
15. SLEEP-I tend to fall asleep if seated for too long. I can pretty much fall asleep anytime, anywhere these days...
16. Medication- After hurting my knee I have been taking my fair share..
17. Jamba Juice- Pretty much my favorite place as of lately...
18. My Cell Phone- Without this lil guy I would be lost. LOST I tell you... maybe I have sent over 2500 texts in 2 weeks... ya........
19. My Job- I love that my work is so good to me and they don't expect hardly anything out of me this semester. But they still love me just the same!
20. Soda- I know this is a bad thing to be grateful for, but after a long day a nice Dr. Pepper or Diet Coke is just what I need!
21. Roommate Dinners- Especially when they cook and I just eat it!!!
22. Movies- Going to them or watching them at home!
23. Doctors- for their wisdom and knowledge to help us to get better.
24. My Birthday- to be able to feel so loved and special!

Well there you have it... This might have taken me 2 weeks to post, but these thoughts of appreciation and gratitude swirl in my mind constantly!

Winter and Camping DO NOT MIX!!!!

Sorry this is a LONG post, but has a good story and good moral of the story at the end! So if you are bored.. read away!

Wow. I can not believe that my birthday is in 8 days and I just realized that TODAY! I am usually start counting down my birthday at 100 days. I don't know if I am maturing and my birthday is just not a big deal anymore... but I am guess that is NOT it. I am pretty sure it is because I have been so busy lately I didn't even realize that January is almost over. WHERE HAS JANUARY GONE???? Well... let's see here. I came back to Rexburg. Got started with school. Got overwhelmed with school. Am still overwhelmed with school and preparing to start our business in about 2 weeks. Let me break this down even more now... I am in a class called "IBC" it stands for Integrated Business Core (honestly, I just had to look that up....) It is 12 credits with 4 different classes and a 3 hour block every day. Starting at 7:45am. The classes switch just depending on the day. We are divided into Companies and each company needs to create, start and operate a business on campus for 8 weeks. I am in Company A and there are 22 people in our company. 3 girls. Our classes are Organizational Effectiveness, Finances, Operations and Procedures and Marketing. The class is very ambiguous. VERY AMBIGUOUS! We started out being divided the first day into "Companies" and then inside our companies we were divided into "Teams" my team has 6 members. Me being the only girl. I knew of one of the guys before the class started and one of the other guys in my team, I met him on New Years Eve. Small world. Anyways, we all get along really well, which is good considering how much time we spend together. 3 out of the 6 are married... 3 are obviously not. We all know which of the 3 I fall into. We have a lot of group work and a LOT of reading. A LOT OF READING!!!!! 2 weeks ago we had the opportunity to be able to "bond" better with our team and company. We went to Badger Creek which is about an hour north of Rexburg. We were supposed to stay in tents, but by some miracle the tent broke and we couldn't (Prayer WORKS!). I knew before we went that there would be a ropes course and a lot of "awkward" things that would have to happen. I kept teasing with my roommates and said I was going to get "hurt" before I went so I couldn't go. Well the day before we were heading up to Badger Creek my roommates and I went

snowmobiling. Kandice is crazy and went over this

jump and I fell off of the back, and landed on my wrist. Now, in no way is or was my wrist broken. But it was sore. Luckily my other roommate, Madi had a brace and let me borrow it to milk this "owie" for all it's worth. Now my wrist really was sore, I wasn't lying at all! And my wrist is still sore.. sometimes. Anyways so I met up with my team after snowmobiling for a quick pre Badger Creek meeting and told them that I hurt my wrist. They still told me to come.. just be careful. Perfect. I can go. Just not do anything... so I thought. We woke up early the next day and had to be to Badger by 8 am. It was FREEZING!!!!!!!!!! I luckily got a brand new Omni-Shield Columbia winter Jacket for Christmas that kept me warm! We had some getting to know you lame games for a while with a short orientation and then headed to the ropes course. I of course couldn't do much with my hurt wrist. The first "obstacle" we had to overcome was the Giant Swing. It's where the rest of your company has to hoist you up to the top of the ropes course. Which is probably 10 stories up and then you let go of the rope and you free fall half way until your harness catches you. And then you proceed to swing back and forth. There were 12 people that were at this Giant Swing at one time. Every single one of them went, including the other girl in our company, except for me. We had time for one more. Who's a sucker for peer pressure? Oh that's right... ME! So I decided I was going to be brave! I could do this... so here it is... I did it...

Was it fun? NOPE! Did I enjoy any second of it? NOPE! I hated EVERY SINGE SECOND! It was so scary. Am I proud of myself for doing it? HECK YES I AM!!!!!! It was pretty much the craziest thing I have ever done. I have done slack lines before... not as scary as free falling. I felt like the free fall was 18 minutes long. So after finally stopping and near tears I had to get out of the harness, and to do so you have to stand on this ladder. As I was getting off of the ladder I was shaking... horribly. I was shaking so bad that the rest of the group that was 100 feet away could see me shaking. So as I was trying to step down (please remember there is about 3 feet of snow on the ground and incredibly icey) I took a step down and my right knee buckled. It hurt. REAL BAD. One of the guys in my team, Cody was right behind me and caught me as I fell back. He saw my knee go and I immediately felt the pain. He got me off of the ladder and helped me safely to the ground. He helped me out to the main road. Now, everyone was very proud of me that I went, so I wanted people to still think I was pretty cool. The guys on my team were the one right there and knew I hurt my knee. I just didn't really tell them how bad, however Cody somehow knew. So I just "was a man... and walked it off" as my dad would have said and pretended nothing was wrong. Was that a good idea? No. So that was our first event of the day. We had 4 more. I decided to sit the rest out and the rest of the company thought it was because I was too scared... I was not. I was in pain. When we got back to the lodge that night I took off all of my snow gear to discover that it looked and felt like I did not have a knee cap any longer. My knee was so swollen it looked more like my thigh... I however could not deal with it as I had 40 guys to feed. I made them all dinner and "manned up". That night at we sat around playing games Cody asked how my knee was. I laughed and showed him my knee. He felt bad but reminded me how accomplished I should feel. The rest of Badger Creek only got worse... The next morning I woke up and fed 60 people breakfast. With the help of my team... that are really good listeners! :) Everyone said how good breakfast was and I am proud that I can cook for that many people and know how much food to buy and fill so many hungry guys! So after breakfast we walked down and did some more "obstacle" of course I sat and watched the guys do it. That night we were cooking outside and decided to do tin foil dinners. However, we thought there would be a fire... and there was not... so we had to use the propane grills to heat up our dinners. Since I had been basically sitting in the snow all day I was freezing. My knee hurt. I was tired. I was cold, and practically lost in the woods. Not a good mix. So I was heating our dinners up. Standing in my coat... I NEVER leaned up against the grill. Nor did I even lean up against the table it was on. I was a good couple inches away the entire time. But somehow I managed to melt 3 giant holes in my BRAND NEW (from Christmas) Omni-Shield Columbia Jacket (that wasn't cheap, might I add). When Kevin pointed out the holes in my coat I had to walked away into the dark and I just started crying. I had wanted this coat so bad, my parents were so kind and spent a pretty penny on this beloved coat and now after this stupid camp that I didn't even want to go to it was ruined. My knee hurt, my coat was ruined, I am tired, I am freezing and I wanted to go home! One of the guys tried to comfort me, but I was done. When my dinner was finally ready I had one bite and then tried to stab a carrot when my fork broke and MELTED. And that is when I laughed. Seriously? How could one week go so wrong? I tried to eat but was in so much pain I ate what was necissary to take some pain medication. After the drugs kicked in I was ready to hike up back to the lodge. We weren't supposed to go back for another hour, but my team decided to make an exception for me. When we got back up there I went to the bathroom and just mourned over the loss of my coat. I was so upset. After realizing it was just a temporal thing and it could be replaced, I don't know how and I don't know when, but it will be, I decided to try and make the most out of this horrible week. I went to the kitchen made myself a real dinner and ate that and then went and played phase 10 into the night. The next day we met as a company and finalized our decision on what our business should be (that announcement to come later) and divided up our projects. We finally got to leave. As I left I realized that I am a baby and that my knee probably was only hurting because of the cold. I finally got home and took a nap... for 6 hours... I woke up worked a little then went back to sleep. I woke up the next day and decided I should probably go to the doctor just to see. I went and he said he thinks I tore my meniscus (which usually doesn't heal on it's own and will most likely require surgery... awesome... ) He also referred me to a specialist. So on Monday I went and saw the specialist and discovered that I actually tore my MCL and sprained my meniscus. He is hoping this will heal on it's own but I am not supposed to really walk on it much. He told me to ice it and not to do anything real physical for 6 weeks. I am supposed to go back to him in 2 weeks to make sure it is healing properly. If he discovers it is not healing like it should, surgery will be neccissary. Awesome. So I went to school the next day and as I walked in I had a limp. The guys on my team all asked me if my knee was still bothering me, I laughed and responded with..

Me: Ya.. turns out I tore my MCL

Chase: Wait, Michelle you REALLY hurt your knee? I thought you were just faking so you didn't have to do anymore obstacles.

Me: Nope. I really hurt my knee.

Kevin: Oh man. I feel bad. Were you in pain?

Me: Yep. That's why I kept that bottle of extra strength tylenol with me... and polished off that bottle...

Chase: Man. I feel so bad now.

Ha. I look back at my whole experience at Badger and know that it was horrible. My knee is still hurting today. I still limp everywhere I go and in Rexburg, on the ice is NOT easy. I can't bend my knee all the way yet either. But I did realize that in life, sometimes you have obstacles that you have to overcome, and they can be scary and you can even get hurt, but in the end when you look back on life if you decide to overcome it you will be pleased with yourself.

Sorry this post was sooo long, but I just needed to tell everyone my story. I will be posting about the business we will be starting very soon. As soon as it gets approved, which should be Tuesday. So be ready for another post!