Ashley (McKell) Christiansen

It is hard for me to believe that 10 years have passed since high school. I know that everyone says that, but for me, I really have a hard time believing that I will be 28 in a few days and that I graduated 10 years ago.
I will give you the play by play of what I have been up to since I graduated. After graduation, Carmell and I went to SUU where we were roommates during our freshman year of college. We loved it and had some great times. She then decided to move to Provo, so that left me in Cedar City attending SUU. I went to SUU my freshman and sophomore year, I then got in a serious relationship so my parents decided it would be a good idea for me to head over to BYU-Hawaii for 6 months. I actually had always wanted to go to Utah State, but they didn’t think that would be far enough away. I attended BYU-Hawaii on a piano pedagogy scholarship and loved it. I planned on staying there to complete my degree, but it was going to take me 3 more years and at SUU I could finish in 2. I also had decided after being a piano pedagogy major that it wasn’t for me. I had to practice 5 hours a day in my tiny little practice room and decided that this didn’t really fit my personality and lifestyle. I headed back to SUU and completed my degree in Elementary Education with a minor in social sciences and an emphasis in music. I loved my experience at SUU and will always be grateful that I went there. I made some great friends and memories that will last a lifetime. There were a lot of people from Emery County down there so it was fun to bump into people from time to time.
I started my student teaching in Draper, Utah. After completing my degree, I wasn’t sure if teaching was really what I wanted to do, but after student teaching with an incredible teacher, I knew that I wanted to stay in the teaching profession at least for a few years. I had a good friend who was living in Provo at the time looking for a roommate so I moved in with her. We had an awesome summer. I planned on going to Taiwan to teach English, but 2 days before my flight was ready to depart, I knew that this was not the right thing for me at this time. I hadn’t been applying for jobs, so I wasn’t really sure what would I was going to do. I then heard about a job at Alpine Elementary, school had been in session for 1 week and they needed a teacher because enrollment was up. I interviewed on a Saturday morning and started Monday morning teaching 4th grade. This was the best decision that I ever made to be a teacher. I absolutely loved teaching at Alpine Elementary, the kids there are amazing and the teachers are incredible. I still have a lot of good friends there that I visit when I am in town.
I met my husband February of 2003 and my life has never been the same. I wouldn’t say that it was love at first sight or anything, but once we started dating, I thought that eventually we would get married. He went to New York that summer and I went to Europe. After he got back, we decided to get married and he proposed on September 13th at Central Park in NYC and we were married on November 28th, 2003. We lived in Alpine for a year and then house sat for a year in Provo. During this time, I completed my Master’s degree in education through SUU and then we moved to Des Moines , Iowa. While in Iowa, I taught as a music specialist in a small farming community, I loved it. I felt like I was a celebrity because I had 900 students coming through my class. This was a great experience. Also, at night I taught as an adjunct professor at William Penn University. This had always been a goal that I had had and I was grateful for the opportunities that I had while living in Iowa. During this year, we experienced some trials, it was January of that year that I found out that my mom had cancer. Now she is doing great, but we weren’t sure how things were going to go at that time. I am sure that many of you have had similar trials and know how scary this can be. Luckily she had some incredible doctors and they were able to treat it. We decided at this time to move back to Utah. We lived in Salem, Utah and I taught at Cedar Ridge Elementary in Cedar Hills. The commute was long, but I love teaching in the Alpine School District so I decided it was worth it to me. I loved my classes there and loved this elementary school. The parents were awesome and threw 2 baby showers for Alli after I found out I was pregnant. John worked that year as a web designer and manager over advertising at an internet business in Orem. He had decided to go to law school, so we were waiting a year for him to start. I loved living in Salem.
We moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in August of 2007. My husband John just finished his first year of law school at the University of Tulsa and is working at the U.S. Attorney’s office here. He will work next year at the district attorney’s office in Tulsa and hopefully after graduation, we will move back west. I started teaching as a music specialist at Jones Elementary when I was almost 8 months pregnant. I teach pre-kindergarten-5th grade music right now. I love the people here in Oklahoma. They have been so good to us. We have made some great friends. Allison joined our family on October 17th, 2007 and our lives will never be the same. She has been a huge blessing in our life and we love having her around.
I still enjoy playing the piano, running, reading, and travelling. I would say that my best memories in high school were with my BFF Carmell. We had a lot of fun. I love Emery County and am grateful that I was able to attend EHS, it is a great school and I made some great memories. The thing I miss the most about Emery County is driving up to Millsite, golfing at Millsite golf course, my family all living in the same place, the Castle Valley Pageant, Peach Days.....I guess I could really go on and on. That’s all folks!!!
Feel free to check out our family blog from time to time: http://ashandjohnchristiansen.blogspot.com/