To the Bride on Her Wedding Day

To the Bride on her wedding day,

Those that love you have been asked to write to you and give to you, our advice about marriage. I have now typed and deleted the first sentence to this letter over twenty times.  I think that maybe the most helpful thing that I can say to you is that I have now been married seventeen years and I’m still not qualified to give marriage advice. I’m still trying to figure this thing out, myself.

The truth is: Life is hard, marriage is hard, but I’m pretty sure that doing life alone is even harder and I’m starting to see that marriage is worth the fight (and believe me, there are plenty of fights).

So much goes into making a day like today just right, and I think that’s an important part of the process. I hope you look back on today with warmth and fondness but more than that, I pray you look back on today and see all the things that you would do differently. Actually, I pray that for you, for every day of the rest of your life; because that’s what growth looks like. 

For your entire life, you have been surrounded by people who love God and love you. They have taught you good things about God, and about love, and have showed you good ways to live life.  

Since those important basics have been well covered by people that are further along in this journey and wiser than I, I am going to go ahead and tell you the thing that none of us wants to admit to you or even to ourselves: You have not found "the love of your life" and you are not marrying your "soul mate" today. It is a hard truth but an important one. Hear me out because this news does get better but we are doing you a sincere injustice to hide from you, the fact that a person doesn’t just easily happen upon the, "love of their life" or that the romantic notion that a person just accidently "finds" their “soul mate” is an absurd and, frankly, a destructive notion.

The most important part of today is the promise that you’ll make. The promise is so important because, while I don't think you accidentally find a "soul mate", I do think we can spend our lives devoted to one person; laughing, crying, praying, and working really hard together through good and bad times. I think if we do that; when our lives are lived, then, we might find ourselves with, “the love of our life”. Sticking with it long enough to live the life that gets you there, THAT’s what the promise is for. 

So may your marriage be blessed with love and happiness. May it be blessed with enough struggle for you to grow. May you live life together in a way that you one day find yourself with the love of your life.  May you one day find yourself with a legacy of love that causes those that follow behind you to look to you and say, “THAT’S what the promise is for”.

Love,

Dana

Welcoming Ella Grace

I posted the photos that I took of the day that my niece, Ella, was born (April 4, 2012) quite a while back on facebook.  But since I couldn't find it on my timeline.  I thought I would post it here so that I can find it when I need it.

On Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston......

      
I think there's a certain solace that comes with knowing that someone went down while still on top. For me, with situations like that of Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson, there is an additional grief that comes with the knowing that the pressures of the industry took a toll on them and they were cut short of fulfilling their dreams (they both looked like they were about to make a major comeback). I also grieve the fact that their families have to endure some of the horrible things that people have said about them. I am really bothered by the pleasures that it seems that some people take in watching a celebrity fall off the pedestal that they're on, only because they put them there. I think people forget that these are real people that have real people that love them that are grieving their loss. Death is a natural part of life. It stinks but we all know it's going to happen to us all. But, I have to work really hard to not let seeing someone lack humanity when responding to death turn me into a cynic.


And as Jewell put's it... "please be careful with me, I'm sensitive and I'd like to stay that way".  


Blessings,




Dana

Happy Cleo Patricks Day!

Cudo's to Pinterest for the rainbow fruit kabob idea!  

And now caught on camera... Emma and Chloe discover a Leprechaun has used their bathroom...

My children are going to spend their adult life in therapy... 

Blessings,

Dana

What Kind of Shopper are You?

So I made a post yesterday of a photo shoot I did of Emma way back in December.  In that post, I said that I had been consumed with school work, none of which anyone would find interesting blog material.  But, then I got to thinking...  Maybe I'm wrong... A lot of people like to shop and all of us have to (which is the case for myself).  So, perhaps you would be interesting in knowing what kind of shopper you are.

I had to do what is called the VALS survey for one of my marketing classes.  It uses a series of questions to group people into target markets based on personality predisposition for innovation and the resources that are available them.  Once you take the survey, you can click on "VALS types" and see a description of each type.

I found my results to be, as with any other personality test I've taken, to be quite bizarre but probably accurate.  Which would explain why even I can't figure me out.  Anyway, to avoid skewing the results for anyone else that might like to take it, I will give anyone that might possibly see this a chance to take it and report my results at a later point and time.  I'd love to hear your results and whether you thought they were accurate.

VALS SURVEY

Blessings,

Dana

Guitar Photo Shoot

Taken December 6th 2011

Back in September, I started working on a marketing degree.  While I do still write quite frequently,  Consumer Behavior is hardly blogging material and coming here to write for leisure after I've spent my week doing case studies and writing research papers seems equivalent to working out after track practice during my college track days.  There just isn't much of a desire to run five miles because the coach told you to and then leave track practice and go work out for fun.   

I've still managed to capture a lot of daily life by camera.  But all the pictures that I've taken since November are hanging out and twiddling their thumbs in my Photoshop Organizer.  Hopefully I will get a chance to catch up on those some time in the near future.  

For now, I am posting the only pictures I've managed to edit since I started school.  Emma started taking guitar lessons in September and she really seems to have a natural talent for it (from her daddy no doubt).   So, we played around, pretending to be doing a photo shoot for her album cover.  I did manage to get Chloe in a couple but for the most part, she was more interested in playing than taking pictures.  Emma's guitar shoot also ending up lending itself to a personally suited Valentine's Day card which was great since I had vowed not to do anything with any new pictures until I post my Christmas pictures.  

It's a Conspiracy!

Wow, it's been so long since I've been over here.  For record keeping sake, I wanted to get over here and make a short note of our three day Christmas tradition.  Watch the video below to see how it all got started.




To read more about our rethinking of how we approach Christmas, see our first Christmas of Presence in 2008.

I will be back soon with pictures of our activities.

If you're a friend on facebook, you can view our digital Christmas Card there.  There are pictures of other children on there that I don't have permission to share publicly.

Blessings,

Dana

Little Pink Lady

Emma in her get up for 50's Day for Red Ribbon Week at school.  I think I have more fun putting these costumes together than she does wearing them.  Cutos to the costume store downtown for the "Pink Ladies" jacket and scarves.   Kids costumes on sale for $2.00 Score!  The rest came from around the house and the pants, they're Chloe's.. 

Happy Birthday/First Day of School

Surprise a blog post!  One that is over a month late but do you know what that means?  It means that shortly after these events took place, I started back to school myself.. My only goal with the blog these days is to record the major events that will go in "The Ellis Family Yearbook".  And, if I come across a fun idea and find the time to get over here to share it, then yay!  Truly though there are many blogging momma's out there that I'm counting on to keep me up on the kiddy things while I'm a student too and I assure you, they can handle it much better than I can until I figure out a way to install more hours in a day.   But, more on that later..  This post is for my baby so I'll make this about her.. 

My Chloe Anne turned 4 on August the 30th.  And since we decided to go ahead and keep her back in school because of her late birthday,  that meant that she started 3 year old preschool on her 4th Birthday which for our little social butterfly meant that she got her cake and ate it too!  

So we filled her room with balloons for her to wake to and stuck a candle in some heart shaped cinnamon rolls and then got ready for the first day of preschool...  

The backpack that Chloe used last year was just the perfect size and Aunt Jan had personalized it so we weren't ready to retire it.  I jazzed it up a bit by adding a pair of wings and my dollar store addition made the records in Chloe's book.  It also turns out that taking cupcakes the first day of preschool isn't a bad way to introduce yourself and just as suspected Chloe loves preschool, her teachers and loves "keeping the boys in line" (as her teachers say) even more.  

Chloe's birthday falling right at the beginning of the school year makes having a birthday party with school friends difficult.  So while I had the help of Nonna and Aunt Denise for a weekend visit, we had a birthday party with just church friends and gave the water slide a run for it's money to finish the summer off.  We have hopes for a tea party play date with the girls from her class once we get the chance to get to know everyone.  

Thank you to everyone that helped make Chloe's birthday special.  I don't think a smile has left her face since!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar and a Cupcake Holder Lampshade

Emma and I did several projects over the summer that ended up being a little bit too difficult for Chloe to fully participate  like:

                   

 turning this

Into this

This is so simple to do.  All you need is a good deal on a lamp, some cupcake holders, and some earring posts and backs (pack of 30 pieces at hobby lobby for $1.99), and spray paint.  We spray painted our thrift store lamp ($1.49) and then turned the cupcake holders inside out and pinned them on the shade..  Easy Peesy... But, since it involved spray paint and sharp things, it was a little bit too old for Chloe.

So, I scouted out a few things that I could gear specifically for Chloe to do in the couple weeks we've had between Emma starting school and Chloe starting.  

And, I came across this oh so cute "Very Hungry Caterpillar" on Pinterest and, after reading the story, I got to work on painting hands... When we finished the handprint caterpillar, Chloe commented that she wanted to make the butterfly too.  And what do you know but the next time I went on Pinterest, a friend had posted a picture of a footprint butterfly... So low and behold

A complete metamorphosis!