Jumping back into the blogosphere.

Turns out student teaching, graduating, moving from a little college town to the Salt Lake greater metropolitan area and finishing your first quarter as a real-life teacher keeps you busier than expected.

Good news minute: Grandma Angie is in remission (yay!) after a successful transplant and chemo regimen and now has an adorable pixie-cut-esque hairstyle. Taylor found work less than a month after moving to SoJo (after searching for 10 months in Logan to no avail) and within the first month of him working got "promoted" to full time status, which is pretty much a big deal at Walmart. Little Sister Shayshay has been on her mission for 8 months and is serving the Lord in Albuquerque (I cannot ever spell that right...). Taylor got his certificate in media design, specializing in 3D design and gaming, and I got a really expensive piece of paper that says I'm a big girl and can do stuff. We gained a new sister-in-law (hey Amy!), a new nephew (hey Colton!) and a bunch of new family via my dad's wedding (hey everybody!). I have waded through the muddy waters of starting a new special ed program at a new school... and have so far seen kids who had anxiety meltdowns about coming to school 3 months earlier begging their parents to come to my class even when sick. :) And finally, we bought a new car together and are in the final stages of getting an apartment (can't wait for December 6th!). What a good time it's been. :)

I want to get back into the blogging scene because it is a good chance to share my thoughts without the annoyance that would come from blogging on a status update on the facebook. Hashtag overshare. Now only those who want to click through are subjected to my ramblings. :) So ramble I will.

As of today Taylor and I have been married for 18 months and that just seems crazy to me. It has gone by so fast. And I really have loved every minute that I get to spend with him. We were so spoiled up in Logan because we were more or less on a similar schedule all the time and so we had a lot of free time (or study time...) that we could spend together. Now, he's working graves at Walmart. While he kicks butt at his job and has become a huge asset to the night team, it is hard on the wife. I am so proud of the hard work he's doing to provide for our family... but sometimes I just wish he could work hard during the day instead. ;) I'm a cuddler and I miss my cuddle-buddy named Taylor. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving break because he miraculously got Wednesday, Thursday and "Black Friday" off (basically unheard of in retail) and so we will get to spend time with the Ellises in Kemmerer, and just with each other. :)

Now while Taylor has been kicking butt, I've kind of been getting my butt kicked at my job. Occasionally literally. ;) I have got the sweetest set-up in the world. Brand new school, fantastic administration, job that I LOVE. But I will tell you one thing about teaching life skills in high school - it is HARD. I'm pretty much teaching 13 different classes every period of every day, for a total of 104 "classes,"  because my kiddos are all on such different levels. I've also had to write 8 comprehensive IEPs in the span of 5 weeks, which in case you didn't know is an intense experience. :) The 9th one is scheduled for this next week. But hey, can't complain when you get to work with the sweethearts that I do every day. They are the funniest, cutest kids in that school and they make my day with their smiles, quirks, and even sometimes their farts. A favorite quote of one of my students is "I stink like skunk!" Comedy gold right there. :D

Taylor and I have both been called as teachers in our ward - Taylor teaches EQ on the 3rd Sunday and I teach 10-11 year olds in Primary. I think my students are cuter than Taylor's personally. ;) It's been fun being in a ward with my siblings and cousins, especially when half the boys passing the sacrament are related to you. It's such a cool sight to see to know you have so many worthy priesthood holders in your family. :) We are excited to start a new adventure with a new ward as soon as we move next month - but it has been a great time so far.

Well now that I've rambled away on catch-up of important events, I should be able to start posting regularly with actual items of meaning. :) May all of you have a blessed Sunday with the ones you love the most!

Blessings.

It's been a long long time since I've written a blog post! My life has been a little hectic as of late, so I apologize for that. But overall, even with all the craziness happening, I have felt so incredibly blessed. It seems no matter what trial comes our way, Heavenly Father finds a way to give us a lift up. :)

For those of you who don't know, my sweet Grandma Angie was diagnosed with a form of cancer known as multiple myeloma earlier in the summer. She has been battling it and its complications ever since. Despite the pain she has been in, she has kept a smiling face on throughout it all. I feel blessed to be a part of her family and feel the love she has for each of her children and grandchildren. In the meantime, my sweet Momma has been helping her by taking her to treatment sessions and helping with my cute Uncle Bud who has a rough time without his mom. I'm so lucky to have such a sweet, compassionate, caring person for my mother. She has taught me so much about Christlike love and service, and I can only hope to live up to that one day.

June and July were a little insane as well, as our car registration was about to expire and it didn't pass safety inspections. Back in March, my dad did a bunch of labor-intensive repairs on the car after it had some issues, and this time around, one of the hardest things to fix was wrong again, just on the other side. Dad fixed it again, no questions asked. I was afraid that we were going to have serious issues and pay a lot of money, but my dad is awesome and fixed it for free. My mom lent us her car to use while we were in between repairs, so we could get back to Logan safe and sound and have some transportation. I just have some pretty great parents.

Speaking of parents, Taylor's are pretty amazing as well. I've read a billion articles about people who don't get along with their in-laws, and I don't understand them at all. Mom & Dad Ellis are two of the sweetest people to ever live. I've been so grateful that they've welcomed me into their family. They were so helpful to us during our wedding planning and over the summer, and I just love them to death.

As school starts in two days, I've been thinking a lot about the blessings of education. I am so grateful that I live in a time where it is both acceptable and encouraged for a woman to gain as much education as possible. Studying to become a teacher of students with special needs has helped me gain compassion and understanding that I think will help me be a better mother. I'm looking forward to this next year where I will learn even more, but I still can't wait to graduate. ;) I can't believe I'm starting my last year of college already. I'm also very grateful that Taylor and I live in a place where such a variety of educational opportunities exist. For those of you that know Taylor, you'll know that school is not his "thing," but he still wanted to get an education. When we were talking about what he would do, I suggested he not torture himself with two more years of harder high school before he got to do the things he wanted to do with a traditional 4-year degree. So instead, he's working on getting into the media design program at Bridgerland. He has been working so hard on all the requirements and I am so thankful that I have a husband willing to do anything to support his family.

That attitude extends to what he does for work as well. My sweet Taylor had a job working for housing facilities on a remodel of one of the residence halls at USU for the spring and summer, but now that school's in session, they were finished with the work, so he was not going to have that job anymore. After a day of searching, he got a job at a golf course very close to campus and very early in the morning. He has to wake up at 5 Monday through Saturday to get ready, which is difficult for non-morning people. :) But he does it with a smile!

The fact that it only took a day to find another job for Taylor is another blessing in and of itself. My situation was similar, where yesterday was my last day working for summer housing, and I needed another job for the school year. I had interviewed for two others, but on Tuesday I got hired as a tutor for 3 children. The wonderful thing is that both our jobs fit with our school schedules so we can do both without any conflicts, and still have a few hours at the end of the day to spend with each other.

Heavenly Father really does listen to our prayers! No matter what challenge or fear we have, if we face it with faith, we'll always come out ahead. I didn't write this post to discount anyone's difficulties, because my life is not perfect - I still have trials that haven't come with an immediate answer. But I have faith that the blessings I have received are testifying to the fact that those answers will come. I'm so blessed to have the life I do.

Looking back, looking up, and moving forward.

Yesterday evening, my visiting teachers came over. We chatted for a little while, then they shared their message with me. Since we had just moved in last month, one of the sisters decided to share a little bit from a conference talk as well for a "make-up" May visiting teaching message. :) I have no doubt that she was inspired, because this message was something I needed to hear, and something I wanted to share with all of you. She talked about Henry B. Eyring's talk on trials. The other sister visiting me mentioned something along the lines of that message. She talked about how sometimes it's easy to be pessimistic: to look at life and say, "Well, every time something goes right, something else just goes wrong again." We get a little high point, then it seems like everything takes a turn for the worse. I'm sure we've all had moments where we've felt that way.

She then shared that there's a better, happier way to look at life, though, even if what was said above is true. What if we looked at life saying, "Every time something goes bad, something good is just around the corner!" I can definitely vouch for the truthfulness of that. We are faced with numerous trials and challenges in our lives. Sometimes they feel like mountains to climb. Sometimes they feel like the weight of the world on our shoulders. Sometimes they overwhelm us and break our hearts, so all we can do is cry. But once the tears have stopped, we can look back at other trials we've faced, and thank our loving Heavenly Father for strengthening us enough to bear this one. We can look up, and know that He has blessings for us waiting just around the corner. Then we can move forward with a greater resolve and more faith that we can do it. The Lord promised us, "Blessed are they who are faithful and endure, whether in life or in death, for they shall inherit eternal life." (D&C 50:5).

If you're going through a hard time right now, I hope this will help you to look back, look up, and move forward. I'm rooting for you. :)

5.10.2012 - How Our Happily Ever After Started.

One month and three days ago, I got married to the sweetest man who ever lived. We had the most perfect day. 

Just the beginning of a beautiful eternity.

We were sealed in the Draper Temple and came out of the temple that day surrounded by friends and family and the bluest sky you've ever seen.

This guy really knows how to sweep a girl off her feet!

It was seriously picture-perfect. The sun was shining and the wind was blowing like crazy, which made for some pretty epic shots. It took my veil away from me a time or two, though Taylor insists it was his excellent kissing abilities that did so.

Goodbye, veil. Be free.

When I say we were surrounded by friends and family here, I really mean it. We had Taylor's parents, his grandparents, his sisters, his brother, their kids, his aunt and uncle, his best friend Anthony, my mom and stepdad, my dad and his girlfriend, my six siblets, my grandparents, my aunt and uncle and their six kids, another uncle, and my friend Emily. It was a lot of people. And it was wonderful. It's amazing how loved and supported you feel when all these people gather together to celebrate the eternal union of two best friends, madly in love with one another.

Told ya there were a lot of people. And I couldn't have been happier. :)

We of course got some amazing pictures of just the two of us thrown in there between the ceremony and the luncheon, so I'll share some of my personal favorites. :)

His face is just a little creeper-ish here. ;)

Gotta love the detail shots of bouquets and rings. :)

I also happen to have one of the most beautiful rings ever. No big.

This would be a couple in love, folks.

He's so handsome!

Our noses squish easily.

Pretty great, right? We also had a video done which I can't upload but you can see here:
Awesome Wedding Video!

After we were done at the temple, we went to my wonderful Grandma & Grandpa Rasmussen's house for our bruncheon. I call it that because it was at 2 pm, but we had breakfast food. And it was GOOD! I'd never even heard of the place that catered it, but it was called the Corner Bakery Café. They had fresh fruit and all sorts of breakfast pastries like you wouldn't believe! I loaded up on a tasty chocolate chip muffin (who says a bride doesn't eat on her wedding day?) and talked to all the amazing people that came to eat with us. :) After our bruncheon, Taylor and I got changed, grabbed our suitcases and checked in at the Anniversary Inn! We stayed in the Swiss Family Robinson room and it was awesome!!! The shower was a legit waterfall and the bed was in a treehouse. I've never seen anything cooler. We dropped our stuff off then headed up to This is the Place for our reception. Here's just a couple of pictures that show how absolutely GORGEOUS this place was.

The view of the Salt Lake Valley from our reception site.

One of the 'farmhouses' and the mountains on the east bench. Beautiful!

We had an awesome reception. The people at This is the Place took care of just about everything we needed. It was so awesome and low-stress. The most stressful thing about it was that the pinwheels we DIY'd for our centerpieces actually worked... and with the wind that day... they blew over a lot. It's hardly a big thing to pick up a couple of pinwheels though. ;)

These guys wanted to be free, too. 

We had all the classics - our first dance to "All About Us" by He is We, the daddy-daughter and mother-son dance, the garter and bouquet toss, the cake-cutting... it all worked out splendidly. Here are a few of our favorite pictures from the reception. :)

Dad & I dancing. 

My beautiful momma and Jeff!

Seesters and Taylor - disco-dancin' fiends! 

Shay & Nikki - my beautiful sisters and maid of honor/bridesmaid!

This was a "sweet" kiss... right after we smashed cake in each other's faces.

Tasty ice cream - another sweet treat we had that day!

The sun was setting so we just had to get some pictures in! 

Possibly the coolest picture of all time?

The wonderful Samantha! She caught my  bouquet and should now get married. ;)

My cute 8-year-old brother caught the garter and wore it around his  neck the rest of the night. Haha!

After all the festivities were over, we had this awesomely decorated car to drive off to our hotel with!

Not shown: the billion pounds of candy inside the car. 

All in all, this was seriously the perfect day. We couldn't have asked for more, and we love being Mr. and Mrs. Ellis. Thank you to all of you who were a part of this day, and for those of you just reading about it now, I hope you enjoyed it!

We love you!

Temple Photos: Erin W. Anderson Photography
Videography: Pointe Digital Photography & Videography
Reception Pictures: Bob Taylor/April Smith

Little Things.

This past week, Taylor and I had two opportunities to do little acts of service for other people in our apartment complex. On Friday while checking the mail, we ran into a couple moving in to the upper floor of their building. They had lots of boxes and a brand new baby, and we had spare time. So, feeling all neighborly, we helped them bring their things upstairs. It didn't take long, maybe 10 minutes at the most, but I could tell it meant a lot to the couple. Then, yesterday, we made dinner for another couple in our ward who just came home from having their brand new baby girl. It was a simple meal; really, it was the "traditional" Sunday evening meal Taylor and I have had for the past four months after getting home from church. It definitely wasn't anything special or fancy. But again, when we delivered it to their home, I could see the relief on the husband's tired face. It was one less thing to worry about for them.

Now, I don't tell these stories to brag about how great we are. Quite the opposite, really. As we helped our neighbors, I was reminded of all the little things that people have done for me that have meant so much to me, when I'm sure the other people thought nothing of them. I think of the time that my visiting teachers dropped off a plate of cookies and let me vent about wedding planning for a little while. I think about the time that my residents left me little cards and notes when I was struggling with serious issues on my floor. I think about all the hugs I've gotten when I'm stressed or worried about something. Those little moments... I think of them all the time, yet I'm sure those who do the service don't give them a second thought. It's amazing how Heavenly Father blesses us with truly angelic friends and family in our times of need. I hope sometimes that I am doing enough to serve my friends when they need it, because I am so grateful for the service they've provided me through the years. So for those of you who have given me a smile or a hug on a bad day, or liked my status once to give me some validation ;), or took the time to read this blog, or who have done so much more that I could never list it all, thank you. My life is truly blessed.

Why I picked the title I did.

Taylor and I are possibly the cheesiest couple in the universe. I personally adore that part of our relationship. But other people would probably gag a little if they heard half the conversations we have. One of those goes like this.
"I love you."
"I love you more."
"I love you most."
"I love you most plus one to whatever you say!"
Yes, we are like little kids battling it out for playground equipment when it comes to expressions of our love for each other. We've since shortened that common exchange to "Love you," and "Love you most plus one!"
This catchphrase has become a big part of our relationship, so, I picked it as a title because I thought it represented the newest Ellis family well. :)

Bandwagons. Also, the Ellises' little love story.

As I've spent 3 years in college as a single gal, it seemed that I watched every female member (some males, too) of my high school graduating class grow up, get married, and, for a few, have a baby. Without fail, those wonderful ladies started a blog about their married lives. They blogged about creative things they were doing with their majors or awesome crafts they did - I was a little left out. My life didn't seem all that interesting... after all, I was spending most of my time writing lesson plans and essays and filling out practice IEP forms. The time I had left was spent sorting out roommate conflicts and convincing freshmen to come to programs my wonderful staff of fellow RAs had planned. The only people that would "get" me would probably be either fellow SPED majors or fellow university housing employees - both categories that lacked close friends that would actually want to read my blog. Blogging, it seemed, was a bandwagon that I didn't really have the chance to jump on. Then something awesome happened. Last October, I met my best friend. His name is Taylor Ellis. As of two weeks ago, he's my husband, too! So here's our story. (warning: long post.)

Freshman year, I was roommates with a crazy but amazing girl named Chelsey Ellis (now the happily married Chelsey Smith (: ). She and I became best buds, and she convinced me to write her missionary brother, currently serving in Charlotte, North Carolina. "You'll love him," she said. "Okay," I said. At this point, I had already met most of the rest of her family, and I did like all of them a lot. So I wrote him a letter, and challenged him to a game of Super Smash Bros. once he got home from the mish. He wrote me back, and that one simple challenge carried over the next 18 months and a few more letters until he returned with honor. Taylor sent me a friend request on Facebook, and as missionary-letter etiquette would dictate, I accepted. We traded phone numbers, had a conversation here and there as busy people do, and kept hinting at that video game challenge from "so long ago." ;) Then, in early October my family took our annual summer vacation in the fall to Disneyland. I finally had a chance to breathe, and as luck would have it, Taylor chose the first day we were in California to strike up another conversation with me and ask me on a date. We were to enjoy dinner somewhere, then finally see who was the true Super Smash master (it's him, by the way...). 

This date invitation turned into a week's worth of more in-depth conversations, which turned into flirting, which turned into a lucky first face-to-face meeting before our date, which turned into phone calls, which turned into more dates, which turned into a first kiss, which was a sure sign of true love. There were many almost-cheesy exchanges of songs to express feelings, many slightly awkward Skype calls as we got to know each other better, many shared laughs at our shared goofiness, many prayers to make sure we were doing the right thing with our lives, and many sweet reassurances that it was okay to fall in love with this other person. It was crazy for me to think that I was actually thinking about marriage. After all, I was "that girl" in high school that talked about starting a Mormon convent. I didn't date much, I didn't really have much of a social life, and here I was, barely 20 years old, head over heels for this amazing, sweet, creative boy who brought me more happiness than I could have imagined. Taylor helped me through a lot of tough stuff in my life brought on by my parents' divorce that summer. He helped me have a lot more faith in relationships. 

We survived our first holiday season together (Thanksgiving and Christmas can be rough), we survived only getting to see each other on weekends for 3 months, and we survived it all with the strength and support that we could only get by relying on the Lord and on each other. Once he proposed (on the 6th floor of Valley View Tower, after surprising me with a dozen roses in each elevator), we decided on the Draper Temple to be sealed for time and all eternity. I would say I was the happiest girl alive when he finally got an apartment in Logan, but I've been the happiest girl alive for the past six months to be honest with you. Planning a wedding brought us closer together, but the thing that brought us the closest was planning our marriage. 

It's funny how you sometimes feel your heart can't get any bigger, then the next day you fall even more in love with your special someone. I've been blessed enough to have that happen every day since we said "I love you" to each other for the first time. I am looking forward to an eternity of that happening. So, with this post I'm taking a big leap onto the blogging bandwagon to share with our friends and loved ones the Ellises' happily ever after. :)