Cool temple experience

So, yesterday was probably my worst teaching day ever! I totally lost my patience and yelled at the kids. They were being so bad! And i was not feeling well at all. So, after yesterday I needed something to calm me down, and recharge my batteries. Beck and I decided to go to the temple when we woke up. We were nervous considering it was Saturday. We thought for sure it was going to be super busy. Luckily enough it was not hardly busy at all. We were in and out in less than an hour.

Any way, I get my turn in the font, the guy baptizes me for five names, just like always, and I am going to get out and one of the witnesses says to me, "The names you just did are from the Ukraine." And I thought "Oh ok.... cool. Random, but cool." but then he finished by saying "They are preparing these names for the Ukraine temple that will be dedicated on the 24th" I thought that was pretty cool that I got to have part in that! Kinda cool that those names will be sent the Ukraine temple and be finished there! Maybe its not so cool as I think it is....but it made me feel a little special! :)

And, on a random side note.... I just want to say how wonderfully awesome and fabulous the temple is. This morning I felt like life was pretty drab and I didn't want to go back to school on Monday, and that i wasn't cut out to be a teacher....and now after the temple I just feel so calm and peaceful and like I could go back to school. I know Heavenly Father loves me so much. I can tell I am doing what I am supposed to because of the way he blesses me. I am so grateful that he has a plan for me, and helps me see I'm on the right track, EVEN THOUGH that track isn't always rainbows and butterflies! :) I love the gospel and the temple!

exhausted....

Holy cow! Who would have thought that this job would be so tiring!! I come home about 6:30 every day and feel like I could go straight to bed. I am not used to going all day long any more. My kids so far are pretty good. I have a bunch of good good kids and just a couple that about drive me crazy! For the most part school is good though. I love my principal and the people I work with are really great too! I am not sick of the drive yet.... so for now I am still planning on living where I am for a while. I have been so incredibly blessed! I feel stressed and worn out...but for the most part I know that is just temporary. Life is good!!! Heavenly Father blesses me so much!

My classroom!

I finally got into my classroom on Friday! I was SO so excited! It seems so unreal! When I got in there the first day, the teacher that was there before me was a MESS! and left it all for ME to deal with! What a nice guy huh? So basically all I did on Friday was go through his stuff and decide what I wanted and then throw away everything else. Thankfully the teacher that is right next door to me came and helped. She is SSOO wonderful! I am still definitely feeling overwhelmed. Maybe even more so now... I almost feel like i dont know where to start but still have SSSOO much to do that i need to get on it! Hopefully i get a lot done in the next week! WOO!!!

Job!!!!

So...in case you haven't heard yet... I GOT A JOB! I will be teaching 4th grade at Bacchus Elementary in Kearns! It is a year round school so I start REALLY soon! It is pretty intense and intimidating! I do pretty well at not panicking until i start thinking about it. I drove out to my school today and saw the class list that was posted. It was SSSOOO weird to see "Miss Hokanson's Fourth Grade Class A-Track" It really makes me think HOLY COW who really trusts me to do this?? I am very excited don't get me wrong...but it is very intimidating! I am a TEACHER!!! WHOA! I spent all this time just wishing I was a teacher already and now that I am it's kind of scary!!! Thankfully I met wonderful teachers at Redwood that have helped me SO SO SO much! Thank goodness! I'm sure you will get plenty of updates about my class and how things are going! Who knows maybe I will start a blog just for my class!

Arizona!!

Well....Here's a big hooray for being LAZY! because I still havent posted about Arizona... And I am feeling kinda like a bum. So I am going to give just a brief synopsis of my trip and then post a link to the pictures on facebook. It takes to long to upload pictures on here! HA :)

Arizona was VERY fun! and also VERY hot! I am a big fan of Road trips so of course it was fun for me! :) My mom and I left Utah mid day and decided we wanted to try to make it to the Grand Canyon and see it on our way down.... BUT we decided to go to the Southern Rim...which meant we had to drive all the way around it to get there.... needless to say we didnt make it. So we kept on going to Flagstaff and stayed the night there. From there Tuscon was just a few short hours further the next day. Our time in Arizona basically consisted of playing with my three favorite kiddos and helping my sister get her house situated. Which was still fun! I love ANY time i get to spend with her and her family. While I was there my sister also got me hooked on glee!!!! I LOVE it!!! I stayed up til three one night watching it while i was there!!

We made lots of trips to Lowes for things like blinds, paint, odds and ends to fix up minor things in the house. We also found a rug that my sister fell in love with. While she was debating on getting it my niece ran back and forth under the hanging rugs letting them woosh over her head. When we left she suddenly started saying her head was burning.... She had gotten a rug burn on her head from running under all the rugs! HAHAHA I laughed forever!

We also spent a lot of time painting. We painted her family room and living room and Kitchen. All in all nothing TOO super exciting but WELL worth it! My niece and nephews are SO funny and i love each one of them for their own personalities!!

Grace--She is SSOO smart!! I kept being so surprised because she can read as good as if not better then many of my fourth graders. AND she could do math quickly in her head that my fourth graders couldn't do with paper. My fourth graders are pretty low...BUT Grace is only six years old! She is also a ham. She LOVES getting attention. Which also means she is QUITE the drama queen! I remember one night laughing me head off because she got sent to her room and was screaming things like "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ME!" "YOU DONT LISTEN TO ME" "I never get what I want!" "I'm never talking or coming out of my room again" I feel bad for my sister and brother-in-law when she is a teenager! Hopefully she calms down a lot by then for their sake!

Scott--another genius child!! He always has this way of making me laugh! He is definitely his own kid! He loves anything transformers and can play with them for hours! Just like me, he can be bribed to do just about anything for fruit snacks and cheez-its! He is cuddly but only when HE wants to be. Whenever we were watching TV or watching a movie he would find some way to snuggle up to me. When i was laying on ground on my stomach he came and laid on my back for the whole movie! He is so adorable! When he gets excited he will just sit in pure amazement. We went to see Toy Story three he was like hopping into the theater and then didnt move at all the WHOLE movie... just like stared wide eyed at the screen the whole time! So funny!

Spencer--He is probably the most chill and happy baby you will ever meet. He LOVES attention and is already a people person! As long as he is where everyone else is (and fed) he is happy! He is so easy to make smile. Some of the faces he pulls and his chubby cheeks always remind us of my dad! I actually looked a lot like him when i was a baby as well. He is a chunk! I LOVE chubby babies!! But my arms would get SO sore after holding him for a while.

Any way.... I have the best niece and nephews ever! They are so adorable and can always make me smile!! When we left Tuscon we were determined to go see the Grand Canyon and actually made it! Woo hoo! It was SO gorgeous! we drove along it for a while and got some awesome views! My camera only lasted for two pictures though.... Bummer!!!

Well.... needless to say My trip to Arizona was awesome!!! and a much needed vacation!

Here is the link to a few pics

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2169325&id=193303103&l=3738481e3d

It's not a DREAM any more!

I had a job interview today for a first grade position in West Valley. I was SUPER nervous! Thankfully the teachers at Redwood and friend have been prepping me and really helping me out. At the same time they were making me REALLY nervous! So I got to the school and said a little prayer as I walked in. I started telling them about myself and said I grew up in Freedom, Wyoming the principal's jaw dropped and said NO WAY!!!!!!!!!! FREEDOM!?!?!?! I grew up there!!!! It was SSOO random and crazy! We sat and talked for a while! and She knows my grandpa! Hopefully that gets me an in!!!

Any way... the real point of this post is to say how crazy life is!! Having an interview and thinking about being an actual teacher has made me kind of reflect on life over the last fourish years. When I first started college (it seems like two weeks ago...) I thought my dream of being a teacher would never actually happen. I figured I would get married before I actually taught, or I would end up hating it and never actually teach. I don't even know...but for some reason I felt like I would never make it to where I am now! But here I am! I finished student teaching and I'm looking for a job!!! My new favorite song by Paramore says I'd never trade it in cuz I've always wanted this! It's not a dream any more! Its worth fighting for! and thats totally how i feel!! And You know...even if I dont get the job I feel really good about it! I feel like I did my best in the interview and I know that Heavenly Father is taking care of me! If I don't make it in there, He needs me somewhere else! If I do make in there, HOORAY for the blessings he gives me!

PS Watch for my next update! I have pics and stories from Arizona I just havent taken the time to upload the pictures and write it... So it's on the way!

Summer

My summer has officially started! But the strange thing is that I am already bored.... Student teaching and working at Redwood kept me SO busy... I never had much time to myself. I have gotten used to being that way. And actually enjoyed it. I really like staying busy! I would plan every second of my day until bed time. And now..... I have ALL day to do whatever I want. There's no one even in my apt!! It's really weird. It actually making me really anxious because I am so used to being busy. I just feel like i should be doing something all the time! It's weird for me to just sit. Not to mention my other halves are gone. Weird.... Its funny/sad how you just get used to things and kind of end up taking them for granted.

BUT I am headed to Arizona TOMORROW!!! and I am so excited! :) I get about a week and a half to hang out with some of my favorite people in the whole world! I think it will be good for me to spend a little time away from Salt Lake and get out of my apt. I love Salt Lake...but I need a vacation! I am excited to get out of town but I'm sure i will be excited to get back as well! Yay!

What's New in My Life?

I don't even really know what this post is going to be about... But I am in a blogging mood.

What's new in my life? Not a whole lot.... Still no job for next Fall... I have applied to Alpine, Canyons, Salt Lake, Granite, Davis, Jordan, and still planning on applying for Ogden and Murray... That is a TON of jobs that I have applied for... No calls for interviews yet, but many said they haven't started interviewing yet.

I have decided I am not going to work this summer... Which could be good or bad... I haven't decided yet. I have enough money hopefully... I am going to go to see my sister in Arizona for almost two weeks! that should give me more to blog about! I have also decided to stay in my apt for the summer. All by myself!!! But my Landlord was VERY nice and let me stay in my apt for JUST what i am paying! Thank goodness!!! I won't have to move all my stuff just yet. Well.... that is all I can think of.... in other words my life is kinda lame right now.... HA :)

Oh the memories!

I had a really funny memory of my dad today!! It's kinda a long story that may not be funny to any one but my family....but it definitely made me laugh and remember how wonderful my papa was.

So, we have the joke in our family....I dont know if i have it quite right...but something along the lines of there was a button in the truck that said "cargo light" and someone asked what the button did...and my dad said "OH! when you push it the car go light and when you push it again the car go heavy" HAHA ok....maybe its not that funny....BUT today I was helping with the CRT's at my school and one of the questions said something like "What does cargo mean?" Which reminded me of the story...but then they best part was one of the answers was tires! HA and thats the one the student chose! I bet my dad was whispering in their ear! HAHAHA I had a really hard time not laughing!! haha funny....at least to me.... My dad was a funny guy like that!

On my mind....

I feel like this life is full of turning points, points in that you have to make a choice to either turn TO Heavenly Father or turn away from him. Really, I guess what is what life is all about. It's something I have been thinking a lot about since my dad died. I very easily could have chosen to turn away from Heavenly Father, used this as an excuse to blame Him and say it's all His fault. Had I done that, I would still be absolutely miserable. And would be for a long time to come. Thankfully, I knew where to turn. I knew who to trust. Not to say dealing with death is not hard, but knowing what I know, and having the gospel background made it so much easier. Even though I feel some of the deepest pain and sorrow (even a month later), I am also able to feel some of the deepest joys and happiness. Whenever I get sad and miss my dad I think about where he is and what he is doing now! It's amazing to think about. He is healthy now, and happy! He is doing the Lords work! My te stimony of the atonement has grown to new heights. Our Savior died not just to allow us to repent, but to heal us. And to help us in ways that I am sure I probably don't even realize yet. Before all of this I thought I knew that Heavenly Father loved us. During this turning point in my life I have never felt his love SSSOOOO strong. It is probably the most humbling thing to realize someone loves you that much. Even (maybe especially) when you feel like you don't deserve it. And to think that is just a tiny glimpse of his love for us. It is also humbling to have hundreds of people care so much about you and pray for you. I have really grown through this experience. It's funny to me how, if you let it, one trial can teach you MANY MANY things. Almost as many things as you let it! If you don't let it teach you, it can ruin you.