Personal History/ Timeline

When I think of my personal history, my thoughts go first to my parents and my grandparents, because they have made me who I am. My great grandparents (maternal) raised their family in Santaquin, Utah. When my grandma was married, she lived next door to her parents. My mom was born while living in that house, and was raised in it. My grandparents lived in that home until the day that they died. It is still owned by family, and will most likely be passed on through family. The property has been rezoned as commercial property, so if sold, the house will be knocked down. That property holds so many memories for each person that ever set foot in that house. It was a house full of love and service. Which is exactly the way that I was raised. I was born in Logan Utah, where my dad was attending college at Utah State University. I was born the fourth child in my family. My oldest sister is Stacie, then my brothers, Eric and TyRell. I remember my mom telling me that on the day I was born, Stacie was six, and she was jumping up and down in excitement to find out she now had a little sister! My mom says I was very loved! My siblings loved to play with me, and my brothers would hug me, and roll around on the floor with me, sometimes a little too much. My dad graduated college right after I was born, and got a job in California. They moved to Corona, California, where I was raised my entire life. When I was little, my mom worked at a friends house that ran a day care out of her home. She helped attend to the kids. I remember when I was out of school, I went to the day care with her. I loved the little kids and felt like such a big kid there. Every day they had snack time, and the drink seemed to always be apple juice. To this very day, the smell of apple juice reminds me of Zoeys, the day care home.

I started kindergarten at Lincoln Alternative School. I remember that because it was alternative school, many people wanted their kids to go there. The had to do a lottery to see who would get in the school. Because my older siblings were already there, I got in automatically. I can remember all of my teachers, and many experiences at Lincoln. My kindergarten teacher was Mrs. Royce. She was so nice and I loved kindergarten. I remember a boy on the playground that would chase me around and try to kiss me. He never caught me! My first grade teacher was Mrs. Hestor, another very nice teacher. I had many of the same kids in my class all through elementary because they were on a track system. I was on A track. Third grade was Mrs. Moore. Some of my siblings had her previously, and so she knew me right away. I really liked her. She was a plump lady, and so jovial, and I remember a little bit sassy at times, but a fun teacher. Fourth grade was Mrs. Lagrange. She was a bit strange and eccentric. I remember her singing Im a nut while we were in line walking to class, and she was a bit goofy, but also lost her temper sometimes. Fifth grade I had Mrs. Moore again! I was so excited because I loved her as a teacher. Sixth grade was Mrs. Martin, who was one of my favorites overall. Sixth grade was fun, and I really enjoyed Mrs. Martins class and style of teaching. I was a good student in elementary school and always got good grades. I think I mostly had straight As. At the end of sixth grade, they had an award ceremony and one of the most coveted awards was the Sixth grade girl, and sixth grade boy awards. I was so excited and pleased when I was chosen as the sixth grade girl overall. It was based on grades, attitude, etc. I received a little trophy that my mom kept on top of the piano for many years. Our sixth grade end of the year field trip was to Sea World! I was so excited but it didnt go as well as I had hoped. A friend of mine was upset

that she didnt get picked as the sixth grade girl, and was upset at me. She got all of my friends to ignore me. It made the field trip a sad one. I was very happy to be out of the school after that! For seventh and eighth grade, I attended Corona Fundamental Intermediate School. It was previously (many years before) the original Corona High School before they built a new bigger high school. It was a huge building with lots of windows, and bars across all of the windows. It was multi story, and it seemed so big and exciting to go to a school with an upstairs! I enjoyed that school a lot, and made a lot of good friends at my Jr. High. While I was at Corona Fundamental, a new high school was being built. Most of my friends were going to be attending that school. My siblings had all gone to Centennial, and my brother was still there, so I decided to go to Centennial. I thought it would be hard to lose all my friends, but it ended up being great! I attended high school at Centennial High School all four years. Before the year started, I knew I wanted to be in sports, and in choir. I auditioned for Madrigals, even though they had never had a Freshman in Madrigals before. It was the elite choir group. I was surprised and so happy when I found out that I made Madrigals! One of my best friends in there was a Senior. I was sad to see her graduate, but had made a lot of friends in there. The Madrigal group was able to sing at a competition in Washington D.C. I felt so lucky to be a part of his group! My freshman year I also enjoyed sports. I played basketball, volleyball, and softball. I had a good friend that was in the sports with me, Jamie. We stayed friends all four years. A fun experience I remember from basketball was toward the beginning of the year. It was a new coach, a tall black lady. I had a of experience in basketball, and was on the starting team. A new girl moved to our school, who happened to know the coach and got on the team. Because she knew the coach, the coach put her on the starting team, bumping me. I was so upset and I asked the coach about it. She said, you can challenge a starting player to a one on one for the

position. So I challenged the girl that stole my spot. I kicked her booty 10-1 and got my position back! I was soooo excited and felt such a sense of accomplishment. I was a good player, and loved the most to steal the ball from the other team. That year I received the MVP award. It was a great feeling! My softmore year I played basketball and volleyball. I really loved volleyball, even though I was better at basketball. The Varsity basketball team already had a bunch of girls from my year as freshman on the team. I found out just how political high school sports are. They all knew the coach and were advanced because of it. It seemed unfair, because I had just as much talent as they did. The JV coach was a tyrant, and I decided that I was not going to play high schoolnever basketball. It was supposed to be fun right?! I stuck with volleyball, and enjoyed it a lot. I made it to varsity, but played until my Junior year. I was in Madrigals all four years. Unfortunately, our choir director left my sophomore year, and we never had a stable teacher from then on. Our program was never as good as it was my freshman year. My senior year though I was the president of the Madrigal club. When I was 12 years old, I started piano lessons, along with my little sister Starla, who was 8. We both enjoyed it a lot! Our teacher was Trudy Whittaker. She was a short blonde lady, and was nice but very strict. If Starla or I didnt practice that week, we would beg mom to not make us go to piano. But my mom always held us accountable. Sometimes Trudy noticed, sometimes she didnt. We had a recital about every six month. We worked hard for months each time on the pieces we would be playing. Trudy had a beautiful black grand piano that we played on during recitals. Practices were on the old piano. There was always a recital at Christmas time. We dressed up nicely and our parents came to hear us perform our pieces! It was always so nerve wracking, I remember my legs shaking like crazy! But I still play the piano to this day, and have

since learned the organ. I know my parents didnt have a lot of money, but they sacrificed so that my sister and I could learn to play the piano. My Junior year of high school I also took vocal lessons with Marty Green. He was an amazing vocal coach. My voice strengthened a lot while taking lessons from him. It was a talent that I really enjoyed a lot. A fun memory that I have is when I learned to drive. I first had to learn on a stick shift, a small truck. I laughed histerically as the car jerked back and forth as I tried to use the clutch. My mom had taken me to the church parking lot to practice driving. It was so funny, but after a little while I got so frustrated! I was very happy the next time when I got to practice on a manual. I got my license right when I turned seventeen. I wanted to get it when I was sixteen, but our car had a head light out, and my mom couldnt afford to get it fixed at that time. (I suspected that she was stalling me from getting my license though!) I remember one day all that was available to drive to piano lessons was the truck- stick shift. I really did not want to go because I didnt want to drive the stick shift! My dad made me, and I was so mad at him! But much to my surprise, I did just fine! I was so nervous of stalling at a stop sign, but did just fine driving there and back. My dad had a big smirk on his face when I told him that! My dad was called as a member of the stake presidency when I was maybe 12 years old. I grew up in the stake, and having my dad in the stake presidency made me very well known! I think it was something I enjoyed a lot. I was a good girl, and enjoyed the positive attention that came from being President Aragons daughter. A few days before Christmas in 1999, a few months before I turned 18, a really handsome guy came home from his mission and gave his homecoming talk. His family had moved into the ward while he was gone, so I didnt know him at all. I was mesmerized as this

handsome guy gave his homecoming talk and I leaned over to my sister and said, Im going to marry him! My family teased me because I enjoyed his talk thoroughly!! Fast forward a few months, to March 12. I was a Laurel still, and at that time was the Laurel class president. I sang in church that day, and remember seeing that handsome returned missionary smile so big at me while I was singing! After sacrament he made his way over to me and said, You sing really good! I said thanks, and then we scattered off to classes. I was so excited that he talked to me! I had secretly been watching him at mutual meetings, since he was the priest quorum advisor. My Laurel advisor had told his mom that I had my eye on him. So that Sunday when I sang, his mom leaned over to him and said, Thats Shalece Aragon. She turns eighteen in two days. His mom said from that moment on he didnt take his eyes off of me. At mutual, 2 days later, we got the opportunity to talk and he asked me out on a date. That Friday we went out on a date, and were together pretty much every day from then on until the day we were married! Craig, my husband, proposed to me the day after my graduation! My dad told Craig that he better not propose before I graduate high school! So the day after We got married three months later on September 9, 2000. My dating and engaged months with Craig were so much fun and such a happy time. I wrote in my journal almost every day, and it is so fun to go back and read the things I wrote! Craig and my first date was to The Family Fun Center. We went through this giant human maze, where we raced another couple. He held my hand all night, and afterwards we went to Dennys for dessert. I remember as he was holding my hand, looking at my CTR ring, and saying it stands for Craigs the Right. It was cheesy but cute! I was in love pretty much right away!