Part 2

Please see part 1 of my personal history below this post  :)

College Years
Did you attend college or a trade school?
Yes, I went to Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg.

How did you choose what you wanted to be when you grew up?
I knew I liked kids and wanted to do preschool first. Then I decided that majoring in El Ed would give me a few more opportunities. Once I got into the classes I realized how much I liked it.

What did you think was the hardest thing about your chosen profession at the time?
The management of the classroom.
What dumb things did you do during those years?
Nothing really...maybe stay up too late and eat like crap

What good things did you do?

I learned a lot about myself, grew up, made some long lasting friendships, learned a lot about my profession, 

Did you live on your own? Were you prepared for that?

I lived with 5 other girls the whole time I was there. I have always gotten along pretty well with other people. I had really good roommates as well so I think I was fairly well prepared

What life lessons did you learn?
Never take out student loans, be careful with money, value friendship and the gospel.

What choices did you make that affect where you are now?

Doing my student teaching in Salt Lake is probably the biggest one... 

Work
What jobs have you had?
Housekeeper, Mortgage file sorter, day care teacher, and teacher... I had very brief experience as a phone surveyor... and I hated it. 

What did you like/dislike about each job?
um... In general, I loved the people I worked with in all those jobs. If I didn't I would quit. Both teacher jobs I loved working with the students as well. The mortgage file job I like because I could listen to music all day and no one really bugged me. 

Have you used any of that knowledge in later years?
Oh yeah, having a job teaches you all kind of responsibility

Who were your bosses?  Did you like them/get along?
I liked my boss at the first and last place I did Housekeeping. I hated the one in Teton Village... I dont even remember her name. She was always so rude to me and I'm pretty sure she hated me too. I didnt mind my boss at the mortgage place and my day care boss it would just depend on the day. Now that I am a teacher, I liked one of my principals, and not the other.

How did you get along with your coworkers?

good!! I never had problems with the people I worked with. I got along well with other people.

Which was your favorite job?

Probably either the day care, or my job now. 

How many years until you retire?
Who knows....  

Do you have any big plans for your retirement?

um... travel?

Marriage
How did you meet your spouse? Was it love at first sight or did it take some time?
N/A

How long did you date before you were engaged? How long was your engagement?
N/A

How did you get engaged?

N/A

Who did most of the wedding plans? Who helped?

N/A

Who were your bridesmaids?  Bestmen?
N/A

Describe the details of your wedding: the colours, the cake, the decorations, etc.

N/A

Where did your wedding take place?  Who performed the ceremony? Do you remember any of the words of advice given?

N/A

Who attended your wedding?

N/A 

Where did you go on your honeymoon?  What adventures did you have?
N/A


Children
N/A


Grandchildren
N/A

Personal History of Sorts...Part 1

WARNING --- Novel length post!!! My good friend Emme did this on her blog and I thought it was a really good idea! I kind of use my blog as a journal, so having this history and information written down will be fun to go back and look at, or even for future generations to read. If you don't want to read, I won't be offended... :) Also, Its long so I split it into the same sections she did... Pretty much  I'm an Emme copy cat... Thanks Em, I always looked up to you! :)

Your birth and family
What is your full name and how did you get that name?

Kelsey Colleen Hokanson
I guess my parents just liked the name Kelsey. They never really gave me a particular reason why... just that they liked it. My middle name, Colleen, was my maternal grandmothers name. She always kind of spoiled me because I was her namesake. :)

What are you parents full names and birth dates and places?

Lin Dee Hokanson - Born in Afton, Wyoming on August 30, 1954

Annette Asplund Hokanson - Born in Logan, UT on May 9, 1953

What is your date of birth?  Where were you born?  What are some of the circumstances of your birth?
June 15, 1987 in Afton, Wyoming. I was born on my due date because my mom had to have a C-section with all 4 kids.   

What are your siblings full names and dates of birth?

Whitney Lynn Hokanson Whiting (sheesh) - July 20, 1981

Mark Shane Hokanson - December 29, 1982

Lon Dee Hokanson - January 15, 1985

How was your relationship with your siblings and parents?

I remember being happy as a kid. I was the youngest. My siblings always said I was spoiled, and I always felt picked on, but even still I remember admiring all 3 of them so much and wanting them to think I was cool. I loved it when they took the time to play with me... Even when my brothers version of playing with me was making me be the GI Joe with no arms or legs and then blowing me up in the first 5 mins... Or singing "stick her in the foliage" while marching around the back yard in California. My sister was always too cool for me when she lived at home. The only time we really got to spend time together is when she let me paint her toe nails. I got to be quite good because I would ask her if I could redo them all the time. I even did them for her wedding. I remember wanting to redo them because they looked really bad but she was sick of sitting there forever. HA 

I also remember playing alone a lot. We had a lot of land behind our house in California and I would just go wander back there. Probably into other peoples yards, but I remember it being a really cool kind of forest-y place and I would just wander back there for hours. There was a little stream I would play in. There was also 2 mean dogs that lived across the street and would chase me. Sometimes I would sneak back behind the house to get home to avoid them. Other times I sat on the curb til my dad got home and could walk me past the dogs. and still other times I would just stand at the end of the road and yell until someone in my family would come rescue me. 

I always got along pretty well with my parents. I always wanted to please them and make them happy.  I rarely did anything I knew they wouldn't like because I was so worried about disappointing them. I was a Daddy's girl and a Momma's girl. My siblings say I was spoiled -- I say I just learned from their mistakes and knew how to word things right to get my way.... 

What are some lessons you've learned from your parents?

I dont know if I could name them all!! The first thing that comes to my mind is that they taught me to rely on my Heavenly Father. My parents had a lot of struggles in their lives, at least from my point of view, but I never once saw them lose faith. If anything they turned to Heavenly Father and because stronger. They were very strongly led by him and trusted in him. I saw my parents as very faithful  people. 

How did you help in your home?

the thing I remember doing the most is setting the table. HAHA kind of strange i suppose... We would also do household projects as a family. I was usually designated hammer holder or something to that effect. When we still lived in Star Valley I remember my mom writing all the chores on a small piece of paper and we had to pick our chores that way. Every Saturday morning, if I remember correctly

Growing up, early years
Where did you grow up? Describe it.

I was born in Star Valley and lived there til I was 9. I honestly remember very little. We had a small farm house, with lots of stray cats. We had a big back yard/field that had old barns and stuff like that. We would play in them sometimes. The only thing that separated my house and my grandparents house was a field full of horses. My family torn down the old garage and built a giant new one.  Soon after that we moved to California. I have already retold my main California memories... and strangely still remember the address there... 44293 Copper Creek way Coarsegold, California 93614

What's your earliest memory?
A family vacation to Portland Oregon. We went to the beach and all I really remember was that there was quick sand or sink holes or something and I wanted to put my shoes by the sign so I wouldnt forget where they were, but Whitney wouldnt let me because she said my shoes would disappear in the sink hole. and I remember being really sad. HAHA

What games did you play as a child?
All the girly things. barbies, dolls, house, teacher, etc. I also played a lot of boy games because all the kids my age in Star Valley were boys. Not to mention I had 2 older brothers. 

Where did you go to school?

Metcalf Elementary, Rivergold Elementary, and Coarsegold Elementary

Who were your friends?
Rhoda Sevingy, Stefanie Pantuso, Olivia Pogue, Katie Peck, Lizzie -- I cant remember her last name.

Who were your favourite teachers and why?

Mrs. Rowley in 3rd grade. She was young, and new to the school and really nice. I LOVED 3rd grade. I also really liked Mrs. Coulomb. She taught 4th grade and took me under her wing when I was new to the school.

What were your chores?
I never had set chores... I did what ever I picked, or whatever I was told I had to do before going to a friends house.

Growing up, teenage years
What activities did you participate in?
I did church volleyball... our team never was good, but it was fun. My Sophomore and Junior years of high school I was a techy for the drama department and found costumes and props for all the plays. 

How did you learn to drive?  What kind of car did you have?

I feel like my parents kind of took turns teaching me. And Lon even taught me some. At first,  I drove an old buick until it died... then i drove my moms bright yellow suzuki Aerio. My first car was my dads old White Chevy malibu

Who were your friends?
Stefanie Pantuso, Mindi Roberts, Lena Rice, Sarah Schrubb, Jenny Gaither, Jenny Trevino

Did you have a boyfriend?
Ha! No. I had several crushes, but I was always to shy do to anything about it.

What did you like/dislike about school?
Friends!! That was my favorite part. I hated math. I was never very good at it. I had to retake Geometry. 

What was your first paid job?
I was a breakfast attendant for the comfort inn and suites. I just kept all the food stocked up during breakfast and cleaned up when it was done. When I was done cleaning, I vacuumed the hall ways, washed the windows to the pool area, cleaned the public bathroom, etc etc. Sometimes I helped clean rooms. I got paid $7.00 an hour

What were your chores at home?
Same as above.

Finished Project!!

Well, I finally finished my project! I have been so busy the last few weeks with a trip to Arizona, spending time with my sister, and a trip to Star Valley. I have just been working on this when I have a few extra minutes.

As you know, I got Annie Sloan's chalk paint for my birthday! I was so excited to use it! It is so great because you don't have to prime, or sand anything and the paint goes on just about anything. It was quite easy to use. The trickiest part was applying the wax afterwords. I had watched several tutorials found here and here and googled even more information. I painted, clear waxed, dark waxed, sanded, then clear waxed again. So... here is the big reveal!!!

Before:

 

 In the process: 

 Finished (kind of):

I kinda feel like the drawer pulls are too modern for the finish I did. I am trying to find other handles that will fit, and look a little better. What do you think?? Not bad for my first try right?

Wait.... 25!?!?!

I just have to post about my  wonderful 25th birthday, BUT I would first like to say 25!?!?!?! Holy crap! When did that happen? 25 year olds are mature, responsible, established, etc.... and I am none of those things... random tangent--- I think age should be given according to those type of things. It may be a more useful tool....

ANY WAY, My wonderful birthday got off to a bit of a rocky start. I woke up, showered, packed up all my stuff, and hopped in the car to go get Brennan only to find that my battery was dead and my car wouldnt start. We think one of the doors didn't get closed all the way. So, I called Brennan, he brought his roommates car and jumped mine, then we ran back to his house to get his stuff and drop off his roommates car.

Once we get to his house, we packed up my car, grabbed breakfast, and he gave my my birthday present!!!! It was the best thing I could ever ask for! As you may know from my previous post, i want to get into redoing furniture and i found this super cool paint that gives an antique look and you dont have to sand or prime or anything like that!! I was SO excited! I love how much he is encouraging me. I don't think I would do it otherwise. Next, we drove down to American Fork Canyon. The ranger at the mouth of the canyon tells us all the spots are already reserved, but there was a spot towards the back we could go. We drove straight there and found a perfect spot! We set up camp, and just hung out  for a minute. From there, we took a quick hike, where Brennan decided to carve a tree with my initial and my age.. HA! He said Now this tree will remember your age forever! To which I replied "does that mean I'm going to be 25 forever??" if only... HAHA

From there we went fishing and Brennan taught me how to fish from the shore. (I had only fished from a boat before) We both just sat and enjoyed each others company and enjoyed nature. We saw the cutest momma duck and baby ducks! One poor little guy had a hook stuck in his beak! :( We were NOT catching a thing, though, and we were getting hungry, so we drove back to our campsite to fix some DELISH food. I am telling you, he and I made these tinfoil dinners in hopes of putting a fish in, but instead we stuck a burger patty in  with the veggies. They turned out PERFECT and it was SO yummy!!! By this time, our friend John showed  up and enjoyed dinner and dessert with us. For dessert, we made cakes in orange peels! I saw on pinterest, and was nervous to try it, but it was SO good! We just hollowed out the oranges and dumped the cake mix in, wrapped it in tinfoil and stuck it in the coals. It was like the PERFECT birthday dinner! From there, we went back to the lake. I read while the boys fished. Brennan still caught nothing, but John was catching like crazy.

After fishing, we went back to the campsite and met out friend Katie, and her two friends. We just made a fire and talked til late. It was one of the best birthdays I have ever had. Very simple, very relaxed. We invited a BUNCH of people, but a lot had things come up, so it was just a small group of us. I LOVE LOVE LOVED spending that much time with Brennan just hanging out. He really made my birthday perfect! I am so lucky! Yay for birthdays! (maybe not so much of a yay for being 25....)

NEW HOBBY! Well, maybe....

So I suddenly, and kind of randomly decided that I wanted to get into repainting old furniture and selling it! I just thought it would be something to do to do entertain myself, AND to maybe make a little extra money (cuz who doesn't like that!?!). Probably the best part of this all is how supportive Brennan is of me doing it. I mentioned it to him kind of as a joke when he told me he found his old power tools. I said, "Really?? that means you could build something cool and I can make it look nice and then we can sell it!" and he wasn't really too thrilled about that part, but the conversation led to me looking for already built furniture and redoing it. So, I started my adventure by spending like HALF of a day yesterday looking at KSL in the free section. Cheap is nice -- free is better!

This is not something for the faint of heart, let me tell you. I just checked every few hours for the heck of it and saw a whole lot of retro couches, free moving boxes, dirt, rocks, and yes even the occasional "tires filled with cement".  Thank goodness! I have been looking for those! BUT all of the sudden I noticed and add for free paint! I thought, well paint could get me started. I need the paint to paint the furniture, right?? So I picked up a 5 gallon bucket of grey paint. Keep in mind here people that my house is SMALL. Emphasis on every letter. I just have a 5 gallon bucket of paint sitting in my room now.

I figured it would be a slow process, but at about 9 last night I looked one last time, after Bachelorette of course....and what do you know, there is a BEAUTIFUL roll top desk for FREE!! It had no information whatsoever though. I text Brennan and told him to go look at it and how cool it was. and then to my surprise he said, "Let's go pick it up!" Luckily, he had his parents suburban. I called the lady and got the information and off we went! I called my friend Cody on the way because she said it was heavy. That was an understatement. I felt terrible because Cody (only has one leg) and Brennan (has 2 herniated disks in his back) had to carry this MASSIVE desk down 2 flights of stairs... I thought for sure they were both going to hate me after that. Amazingly they were both still mostly smiling when they finished.

Oh yeah-- remember how I said my apt is SMALL??? and I was the proud new owner of a GIANT desk?? Well my amazing, handsome, supportive boyfriend willingly volunteered to store it at his house. His house is not huge either. the desk is currently monopolizing his dining room. The desk is in REALLY good condition and has lots of nooks and crannies and is  LARGE so Brennan convinced me just to clean this one and resell it. Both Brennan and I wished that we had room for it cuz it is a REALLY cool desk! We spent about 2 hours today cleaning and shining it up to take pictures and re-post it on KSL to sell! Most the desks similar to it are going for like $200-$400 so hopefully we can make some money off it! yahoo! :)

My next project -- once the desk is gone-- is to redo a little wood file cabinet that used to be my dads. :)

Solar Annular

So, I'm sure many of you heard about the Eclipse that happened on Sunday... Well Brennan and I had talked about getting the special glasses and watching it, but both of us had forgotten until yesterday (sunday) I told him earlier in the day that a burger sounded really good. We had some friends BBQing so we decided to maybe go there. But then last minute we decided to hurry and cook some burgers at his house, wrap them in tin foil and then drive up to our spot on Wasatch Dr. to watch it. It was quite the adventure because we had to hurry. By the time we decided what we were gonna do, it had already started. At the last minute we decided on a different spot higher up on the mountains on the east side of Salt Lake. It was SO incredible! We had an amazing view of the valley, and a great view of the eclipse. We laid out a blanket in the tall weeds and sat and ate our burgers and talked and watched it. It was so perfect! I loved it! The best part.... the sun is bright, you can't just look at it with your bare eyes, right?? This is what we used to look at it... :)

Please note that he has 3 pair of sunglasses AND a CD. Everything the news said NOT to use in order to look... HA! but take that news, it worked perfect!!  We took this picture right before we were getting ready to leave. I just LOVE this picture because usually Brennan is SSSOOOO photogenic and I look like an idiot... but FINALLY I look mostly normal and he has a goofy look on his face. 

What a fabulous Sunday with my Honey! He's so great!

Things I love...

In no particular order... 

• June July and August....
• The thought of moving to 3rd grade.
• BRENNAN! :) He's real cute!
• Sunshine!! 
• when I make a meal that's actually edible
• chocolate especially with peanut butter
• Dr. Pepper
• staying in my PJs til noon
• naps
• a clean house
• reorganizing
• summer
• vacations
• my family
• mountains
• draw something
• 
  

Nothing Important...

I haven't been too good at blogging lately. I just feel like I don't have anything too exciting going on. I wake up, go to school, get so frustrated I could die, come home, eat dinner and go to bed. I never really considered myself a yeller. I would get strict with my students before, but never yell. This year I fell like I yell every single day. I have lost any and all patience for my class. I have really been trying to focus on the positive lately because I have just been so miserable. Today was the first day in a long time I didnt come home super stressed out. School is out in 17 days and I can't wait!! In better news, I am switching to 3rd grade next year. I am SO excited to go back to 3rd.  This summer I am just hanging out. I have a few trainings and and a trip to Arizona. I'm excited for the summer to come so I can relax!!!!!!

Couponing???

So, I think I have decided that this summer I want to get into couponing. I have read a few blogs that have a lot of tips and tricks for beginners. I think I am gonna start gathering coupons and keep my eye out for sales. I dont want to be the kind of crazy coupon lady that has 83 cans of corn just cuz.... but I wanna try it out to save money. I would use it for stuff I would actually use. Any advice from my blog readers out there? Do any of you do couponer stuff? What tips do you have? I think it will be good for summer so I have something to do! We'll see how it goes...

Summer, How I've Missed You!!!

Something about the thought of summer makes me ssssssooo happy and excited!! I just feel like I am constantly in a better mood in the summer! I'm not sure if it's the SUN and warmth, or being outside, or the fact that I don't HAVE to work... but I just LOVE it!! Lately it has been sssoo warm here! I have taken my students outside to work sometimes. I am just loving the weather!

Speaking of being outside, Salt Lake has opened the brand new City Creek Shopping Center. Brennan has been just about obsessed with it, so of course we had to go. It is SSSOOO pretty and fancy! It doesnt even look like Salt Lake! I wish I had more money to go shopping there all the time! Here we are enjoying the beauty of the buildings and sunset. I just love this picture of us! He is so handsome, right?? He is rockin his Miami Vice look... HA! He cracks me up.

And to top off our weekend, we woke up early and booked it down to Spanish Fork for the Festival of Colors. It was really fun!! . I hate the way it smells... but man it's fun! Here we are all covered in colors! My hair seemed impenetrable to the colors, but I think it just soaked right in. I had to wash my hair a few times before the water ran clear. 

I have just loved being outside, being with Brennan, and enjoying the warm weather! I am a lucky girl!! Life is good!!