(CNN) – It’s not just President Obama who has the occasional issue with the ever-present teleprompter. On Monday night the First Lady had her own hassle.

Addressing the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in San Francisco, Mrs. Obama noted she was having difficulty reading off of the device.

“I’d really be happy to use the teleprompters if they were higher," she said to laughter. "But they’re very low, so I’m going to read from my notes."

The White House said Thursday the first lady had selected a new chief of staff.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — First lady Michelle Obama has brought in an old Chicago friend, Susan Sher, to replace chief of staff Jackie Norris.

The White House announced the switch late Thursday.

Norris was part of the team that led the Obama campaign to victory in the Iowa caucuses. She will now serve as a senior adviser to the Corporation for National and Community Service.

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The Obamas will spend the weekend together as a family in Paris before the president returns to Washington.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – President Obama will be joined by the first lady and the couple's two daughters in Paris Friday as he winds down his latest overseas trip.

While the president will return to Washington Sunday, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha will stay in France with their mother for a few days next week, CNN has confirmed.

The first lady will have a public event in Normandy, France on Saturday.

The rest of the first family's itinerary while sightseeing in France will be private, according to the first lady's office.

Former first lady Nancy Reagan will be attending an event at the White House on Tuesday afternoon.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former first lady Nancy Reagan will personally attend a White House ceremony Tuesday afternoon when President Obama signs legislation authorizing the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission, CNN has learned.

Mrs. Reagan will also attend the unveiling of a new statute of President Reagan Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. in the Capitol Rotunda. After the unveiling, the former first lady will share a private White House lunch with Michelle Obama.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Obama may hold the title of commander-in-chief, but on Saturday he donned another cap: Soccer dad.

The president, dressed in jeans and a navy polo shirt, and first lady Michelle Obama ventured from the White House to watch daughter Malia's soccer team — the Tsunamis — take to the field, according to pool reports. For the record: Malia's team won.

The first couple, known for having weekend date nights, later made a visit Saturday night to New York City for what the White House is calling a personal visit. The New York Times reports that the Obamas are seeing the Broadway show, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”

According to a White House spokesperson, Obama said he was taking his wife to the Big Apple "because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished."

Instead of taking the larger Air Force One plane for their trip north, the Obamas took a smaller plane, a G-3, which became Air Force One once he boarded.

The press traveled in a separate aircraft, a G-5, and a G-3 carried White House support staff, according to the pool report.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest cites “efficiency” — as in fuel efficiency — as the reason the big plane is staying in the hanger and the smaller planes are being utilized, the pool report said.

But not everyone is excited about the NYC trip.

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(CNN) — Dream big and give back, Michelle Obama told the first graduating class of University of California-Merced on Saturday in her first commencement speech as the first lady.

"Remember that you are blessed — remember that in exchange for those blessings you must give something back," Obama told the sprawling, cheering crowd at the university. "You must reach back and pull someone up. You must bend down and let someone else stand on your shoulders so that they can see a brighter future."

The trip to the state university system's newest and smallest campus was her first trip to California since her husband, President Barack Obama, took office.

The fledgling school, which opened in 2005 and has a 2,700-member student body, worked hard to get the first lady's attention, writing letters to Michelle Obama, her office, her friends and family, according to the White House. They even started a "Dear Michelle" Facebook campaign that sent out some 900 Valentine's Day cards to her.

The first lady accepted the invitation in March, tapping University of California-Merced as her only stop on this year's collegiate-commencement circuit.

Obama has also agreed to speak at the Washington Math and Science Technical High School on June 3.

"A few people may be wondering why did I choose the University of California-Merced to deliver my first commencement speech as first lady," said
Obama, in full academic dress. "Let me tell you something, the answer is simple: You inspired me."
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WASHINGTON (CNN) — Saying public service is near and dear to her heart, first lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday encouraged Americans to lend each other a hand.

Speaking to nearly 200 employees of the Corporation for National and Community Service, she told the story of how she left a job at a high-powered Chicago law firm to found the volunteer group Public Allies in 1993.

"I could have been some rich lawyer somewhere," she joked, "… writing a check here and there to the Obama campaign."

Public Allies was among first recipients of AmeriCorps grants, one of many programs overseen by the Corporation for National and Community Service. The acting CEO of the corporation, Nicola Goren, who introduced the first lady, praised the Obama administration for what she called "skyrocketing" volunteerism and the passage in April of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.

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(CNN) - What's the highlight of Mrs. Obama's time in the White House? Hanging out with Elmo, of course.

The first lady stopped by Sesame Street Tuesday, chatting with the furry red monster and making a public service announcement along the way.

"If you want your child to have healthy habits, practice healthy habits too because you're your child's best role model," Michelle Obama advocated in her appearance for Sesame Workshop's Healthy Habits for Life Initiative.

The First Lady told employees at the United Nations in New York Tuesday that it's probably the best thing she's done so far since she and her husband moved into the executive mansion. Mrs. Obama appears to be emerging as a champion of healthy exercise and eating habits, taking up her platform by planting an organic kitchen garden on the White House grounds.

Former first ladies Barbara and Laura Bush also dropped by Sesame Street set during their husbands' terms in office, advocating children's literacy by reading kids' books to Big Bird.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — First lady Michelle Obama turned her eyes to health and education during a trip Monday to a District of Columbia school.

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo one day early, she spoke about education and told the crowd to send "good thoughts" to those in Mexico who have been sickened with swine flu in recent weeks.

"At the time that we're celebrating Mexican culture and heritage, it is so important for us to think about some of the challenges that the folks in Mexico are facing right now," she told the crowd of about 200 students, faculty and guests from two public charter schools, Latin American Montessori Bilingual and Next Step.

She also highlighted the D.C. Scholars program, which grants White House internships to students from Washington-area public schools and encourages them to take advantage of their proximity to the nation's politics by engaging in public service.

Obama took several questions from the students, joking, "Make them very easy questions, because it's very nerve-wracking up here."

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(CNN) – Kids say the darndest things.

Michelle Obama hosted a group of children at the White House for 'Take your child to work day' Thursday, and a student asked Michelle Obama what she would personally do if "something bad happened to a country."

"Well first of all, I'd wake my husband up if it were at night. And I'd tell him, hey buddy, you're the president, get down to the Oval Office and call some leaders," Obama told the group. "I'm married to the president and he has to worry about all that."

(CNN) – Michelle Obama stopped at the Department of Homeland Security Tuesday, thanking employees for working on the "president's greatest concerns and priorities."

"If you do your jobs well, few people will ever know about anything that you do," she said. "For others, the hope is that you never have to execute much of what you work so hard to prepare for."

The first lady also gave a special mention to the "excellence" of the Secret Service, who operate under the DHS, for the safety of her family.

"Every day I see how much time they spend away from their own families to keep mine safe," she said. "And it has been an honor to get to know each and every one of them throughout the course of the campaign, and our day-to-day interactions."

(CNN) – CNN's Erica Hill looks at the special relationship between Michelle Obama and her mother, Marian Robinson.

Michelle and Barack Obama become the third U.S. presidential spouse with a lifelike wax figure on display at Madame Tussauds.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — First lady Michelle Obama joins an elite group Tuesday.

She is to become the third U.S. presidential spouse with a lifelike wax figure on display at Madame Tussauds, a museum and tourist attraction.

Figures of Jacqueline Kennedy and Hillary Clinton stand in the museum alongside lookalikes of Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, George Washington and Martin Luther King Jr. as well as Angelina Jolie and Will Smith.

Madame Tussauds touts its new addition as an "incredibly lifelike" figure in a sleeveless red dress based on the purple dress she wore when her husband claimed the Democratic nomination for president.

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Americans gave first lady Michelle Obama high marks following the first couples' debut overseas.

(CNN) — Americans gave first lady Michelle Obama high marks following the first couples' debut overseas, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Tuesday.

Eighty percent of those questioned think the first lady strengthened the U.S. image abroad by the way she handled herself on this trip — virtually identical to the 79 percent who feel the same way about her husband's performance overseas.

The poll, which surveyed 1,023 adult Americans, was conducted between April 3-5 and carries a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

First Lady Michelle Obama arrives at Rohan Palace on April 4 in Strasbourg, France.

STRASBOURG, France (CNN) – Protesters in Strasbourg, France, forced a last-minute detour for First Lady Michelle Obama Saturday.

She and spouses of other leaders attending the NATO summit there had planned to tour a hospital. But protests blocked the way to the event, the first lady’s office said, prompting the visit to be scrapped.

Instead, France’s first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, met Mrs. Obama and the other spouses for a tour of the Palais Rohan. They then resumed their planned schedule with a visit to Strasbourg’s Cathedral of Notre-Dame.

Oscar de la Renta thinks Michelle Obama should not have worn a sweater to Buckingham Palace.

(CNN) – Michelle Obama's fashion choices at the G20 summit have drawn widespread praise, but at least one famous designer thinks the fist lady made a major faux pas in her wardrobe choice for a private audience with Queen Elizabeth II.

"You don't…go to Buckingham Palace in a sweater," Oscar de la Renta told Woman's Wear Daily regarding Mrs. Obama's decision to wear a cardigan over an Isabel Toledo-designed dress for the private meeting.

De la Renta also said the first lady — who often sports relatively affordable American brands — should broaden her wardrobe and seize an opportunity to spur the flailing fashion industry.

“American fashion right now is struggling,” he said. “I think I understand what [Obama and her advisers] are doing, but I don’t think that is the right message at this particular point."

"I don’t object to the fact that Mrs. Obama is wearing J. Crew to whatever because the diversity of America is what makes this country great. But there are a lot of great designers out there. I think it’s wrong to go in one direction only," he added.

But J. Crew is likely hoping the first lady doesn't change her style any time soon. When Mrs. Obama was photographed wearing a $300 J. Crew "crystal constellation" cardigan from the mid-market retailer Tuesday, the item sold out on the company's Web site only hours later.

A spokesman for J. Crew said the item has also  sold out in nearly all the company’s stores as well.

Michelle Obama got the rock star treatment at an all-girls school in London.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Greeted by shrieking students and sobs of joy, first lady Michelle Obama got the rock star treatment during a visit to an all-girls high school in London.

Mrs. Obama's visit to the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Language School, which is located in an impoverished part of London but has become one of the top schools in the area, was a surprise for the students. Many of the girls — who had been told to expect a special guest, but not that guest's identity — wiped away tears while the first lady spoke.

Mrs. Obama also got emotional during her visit, choking up in the middle of her speech to the girls. She spoke after watching a number of performances by the students, including a song by a choir, a modern dance performance and a drama.

"All of you are jewels, you are precious and you touch my heart," she said, as she appeared to be trying to hold back tears. "And it is important for the world to know that there are wonderful girls like you all over the world."

Mrs. Obama stressed the importance of getting a good education and called the students the "women that will build the world as it should be."

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(CNN) – First lady Michelle Obama did not breach protocol by touching Queen Elizabeth II at a reception for world leaders attending the G-20 summit, Buckingham Palace told CNN Thursday.

"It was a mutual and spontaneous display of affection and appreciation between the Queen and Michelle Obama," the Royal Press Office said in a statement Thursday. "The London Summit reception at Buckingham Palace was an informal occasion," the statement also said.

No breach of protocol occurred, according to the Royal Press Office, because Buckingham Palace does not issue instructions about how to address the Queen.

(CNN) – It's ladies' night in London. While her husband is dining with presidents and prime ministers at a Group of 20 pre-summit dinner, Michelle Obama has plans of her own Wednesday evening.

The first lady is set to attend a rival banquet for summit spouses hosted by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's wife, Sarah. Mrs. Brown is expected to seat Mrs. Obama between Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and Olympic champion runner Kelly Holmes at the reception at the historic 10 Downing Street in central London. Other attendees will include supermodel Naomi Campbell, British sitcom actress Ruth Jones, and Web site mogul Martha Lane Fox.

After the meal, prepared by celebrity television chef Jamie Oliver, Mrs. Brown is expected to take the women to the opera.

Mrs. Obama and Sarah Brown met for tea Wednesday morning and toured a cancer center in London. The first lady will join President Obama in the afternoon at Buckingham Palace to meet with Queen Elizabeth.